Joshua Evans and his conversion from Christianity to Islam
I’ve featured the conversion stories of Muslims to Christianity. I thought it might be interesting to look at the conversion story of a Christian to Islam. Here the the conversion story of Joshua Evans. I’ve chosen this particular conversion story because the website Muslimmatters.org says this is one of the Ten Best Islamic Video Lectures published across the net to date.
Here is the conversion story of Joshua Evans followed by a few comments:
10:28-14:48
Joshua Evans discusses his reading of the Bible and his shock by its mention of immorality. He talks about Noah’s drunkenness and misinterprets the Bible as teaching Noah was an alcoholic (addicted to alcohol) implying he was mentally ill. This is simply untrue. Noah got drunk once, but he was not enslaved to alcohol.
Joshua Evans says the story of Noah’s drunkenness will not be preached from any pulpit anywhere. To be sure, Joshua Evans’ story of Noah won’t because he has badly misinterpreted the Bible. However, I have preached and taught about Noah’s drunkenness on more than one occasion.
Christians have struggled with biblical stories of immorality for centuries. 1Some Pakistani clerics are trying to ban the Bible or have Pakistan’s top court declare parts of it blasphemous because it depicts prophets as sinners (Pakistani Muslim Clerics: Ban the Bible). But these stories end up highliging a major difference between Christianity and Islam. It is the difference between moralism and grace.
The Bible is brutally honest about our sin, including great saints like Noah, because the Bible is about our need for God’s grace. We’re not saved by our works but by God’s grace alone (Luke 5:32; Romans 4:5; 1 Timothy 1:15; Titus 3:3-7).
I’ve included a link to a Bible study I did on this topic of God’s grace and the immorality found in the lives of even the best of saints in Scripture. It’s entitled “An X-Rated Bible?“. The outline concludes with this question:
How should we respond to the immorality that is found in Holy Scripture? (Romans 4:4-7; 5:20; 1 Timothy 1:13-16; cf. Luke 19:10)
Joshua Evans came to the conclusion that the stories of immorality in the Bible is evidence the Bible was corrupt. I’ve come to the conclusion that these stories remind us how humanity, even the best of us, is in need of God’s grace found through faith in Jesus Christ.2see An X-Rated Bible? An outline the immorality in the Bible and its purpose
Articles you may be interested in:
Do you believe in the Bible Jesus believed?
You and I need a Savior. The Quran is wrong about the covenant.
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