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CHRISTIAN Rally in Pakistan by RABBI Simon Altaf http://www.abrahamic-faith.com
Report from Pakistan: The Family of Jesus Christ Ministry, Sangla Hill and Universal Gospel Church, Shaanti Nagar arranged a Pastors Seminar in Pakistan with the collaboration of WWW.ABRAHAMIC-FAITH.COM . 24/7 Christian Radio YesuMasih.com's Rabbi Simon Altaf visited Pakistan twice in as many months in continuing season of Historic Harvest. http://www.yesumasih.com/sounds%20of%20Pakistan.html |
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What a journey this trip has been, it felt like a year rather than a week, what was planned got cancelled last minute leaving the trip in a little disarray but praise Yahshua that we humans have one thing in mind but He has another. The people in Pakistan who were hosting me ran into difficulties hosting a two days seminar but praise Master Yahshua that I made one call to a ministry that I work with and I had a seminar on my hand somewhere entirely different where I never thought I would end up with the rest left to our Master Yahshua to arrange. I do believe our Saviour has a sense of humour, He keeps sending me to places where hostile Muslims have been very active burning churches and this was one such place.
This place where the seminar was established was Shanti Nagar, a place predominantly occupied by Christians and in this place not so long ago in 1997 a Muslim mob burnt down almost the entire village firing bullets into Christian homes and ransacking, openly looting their homes. Last time I was in Pakistan I was in a place called Sangla Hill, again another place where very recently a Muslim mob burnt down Christian homes and a church alongside a Catholic convent. There is the good and there is the bad, one such good Muslim family protected a Pastor’s mother when the mob came to burn their home the local Muslim neighbours told them to go away. As soon as I landed at 4.30am in Lahore, upon my arrival my dad was there promptly to pick me up. I was ready to rock n’ roll with the true meat of the kingdom avoiding the shallow gospel being preached in most Western churches leaving the sheep high and dry.
Before my departure I received a call from a Christian sister here to make a call to a doctor I had never met to sort out some meetings for them in their big only Christian hospital. Upon my arrival I made a call to the good doctor who I referred to for meetings they requested and he gave me a date for the following week Friday to attend the meeting with several nurses and doctors. As soon I put the phone down preparing arrangements with my other friends to go to Shanti Nagar I received a call from a local nurse saying I must come to a meeting that very evening, she did not want to miss the opportunity for the people to have solid teaching that very night, her call came at around 4pm and I was to attend a meeting at 8pm in this hospital to which I said Amen.
Truly only in Pakistan can you arrange such things at such a short notice, you could never dream of such things in Europe. We had a family wedding that evening and I told my dad that I had to attend a meeting thus I avoided the family wedding to do more important kingdom business. I left for the meeting at 7.15pm and sat in a Rickshaw (three wheeler cab) and went to this hospital. A wonderful thing happened during my short journey with this driver, we got talking and before you know it I was witnessing to him the offering of Salvation through our master Yahshua and explaining to the young man my background of being an ex-Muslim and why I accepted our Master and Saviour. I felt like Shimon Kefa at this time telling him why Yahshua came and died and this had been prophesied by the prophets how through His resurrection He defeated the sting of death and the need for this young man to save his soul from this perverse generation. He was very responsive, I knew this was not just another cab ride but truly divine intervention for this young man’s should, I knew this was truly Yahshua’ love for this young man to allow me to plant the seeds.
I explained to him in quite detail the plan for Israel and the Elohim of Israel being Yahweh not Allah, talking of Israel in Pakistan is taboo and dangerous even but who can stop Simon when he gets going. I left him with my card and the true message of the hope for his eternity. He thanked me because he had not seen the love from his fellow countrymen, he found a stranger offering him advice and love where as most people treat these guys like 2nd class citizens. He left me with the comments I have never met such a good guy, I said it is not me that is good but our Saviour and that we are all created in His image and He wants to save us all from the lake of sulphur.
I entered the hospital compound with the receptionist already waiting for my arrival; he directed a student nurse to take me to the chapel. Upon arriving I saw several nurses walking around waiting in a little disarray about the meeting as they were told the meeting is at 7pm but the meeting was at 8pm, they were wondering where is the speaker, I assured them the meeting is at 8pm, the administrator had merely given them an earlier time so to make sure they all turn up even if slightly late.
The meeting started with at least seventy people present I greeted them with my standard greeting of Shalom opposed to salam explaining why I prefer to refer this greeting to my brethren opposed to salam as the word salam is derived from Shalom but it actually only means absence of conflict around you but the word shalom not only is a term that involves and invokes the blessings of our Master Yahshua and that it incorporates, blessings, salvation, peace with in war around you and protection to name a few things. Why use the corrupted form of salam turned into Islam meaning submission to the false god Allah, why not use the real meaty term and go and restore what was lost.
I explained my terms of reference and my rules of engagement before the discussion, you would think I was at war but my style of teaching is very different from most teachers of the Bible where I use different aids and questions to the audience to help them see what superb knowledge exists in scripture. My lecture was going to be on Abraham our father his short journey from Ur of the Chaldees to Canaan present day Israel touching upon the Passover and Israel’s freedom. I asked many questions and gave many answers because they had never heard the journey of Abraham explained in light of the scriptures with many details being obscure I revealed how that journey actually is almost similar to mine when I got the call of Master Yahshua to walk with Him. You could hear a pin drop the whole audience was in silence when I started putting the meat around Abraham and his household his lifestyle of FAITH and OBEDIENCE showing how we face obstacles and distractions similarly.
I explained how similar faith and obedience had brought me tremendous blessings in my own Muslim household in Pakistan where I could freely obey and observe the Pesach festival and Shavuot. They could not believe that I could as an ex-Muslim get away with so much in a complete Islamic setting in my family.
I encouraged them to look again at the story of our father Abraham and learn a great lesson that his walk (Halacha) was about real faith and real obedience not just merely church attendance and to do what was revealed to him and that since we have the written records in the Bible then why do we fall foul to traditions. I related the story of Israel the twelve tribes initial deliverance from Egypt relating it to my deliverance of sin, the joys and the frustrations, the failings of my fathers in the wilderness and my own struggles in life. I explained why the Islamic god with a little g cannot deliver and Yahweh is a deliverer repeating what he did with Israel in my life also. I asked some tough questions that no one could answer and showed minute details of the first exodus, the Passover and its application and practice in our life.
I asked the question that is it not shameful that an ex-Muslim like myself can come to Pakistan with my wife as we did the last time during Pesach and celebrate the Passover with complete freedom in a Muslim household yet the Christians refrain from this wonderful blessing in their lives. I challenged them to re-examine their lifestyles and to obey our Master Yahshua just as Rabbi Shaul of Tarsus said “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:8). I asked how many are obeying this commandment. I said this is not allegorical but literal, our Master even asked us to do certain things in remembrance of Him during every Passover yet we fail to grasp his meaning and run after church traditions.
After the lecture finished they enjoyed the lecture so much that I got a standing ovation, I think the speech was 70% inspiration and 30% perspiration in such hot weather however after the speech many people especially the young nurses stood to ask many questions. They said now we have seen that our Saviour does indeed give revelation to people the same way today as He did to the prophets long ago. I reminded them Yahweh does not change contrary to popular belief in the church that He mutated and destroyed his own Torah crowd (Malachi 3:6).
I thanked them, they invited me to a separate room where we had some pertinent hard talk with some more questions and answers and then later they kindly dropped me home in the hospital mini bus. I promised to return in a week’s time with an even better lecture next time. I had phoned my uncle earlier to come and see me, he was home as I expected and I delegated some tasks to him such as buying some gifts for a Muslim lady my wife has befriended in England whose husband ran away and her life is very tough living on low income with her daughter who is mentally retarded and one young son, poor soul. In the back of my mind I was thinking to take something for them so that they can have some joy in their life. Without compassion and the love of our Saviour for others we would be nothing more than religious nincompoops, this is why Yochannan said My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:18). My uncle alongside my dad went and got the things I asked for in my absence. The next day we prepared to go to Shanti Nagar village which is a four and a half hour journey, I met our ministerial friends at the station and we boarded the train to head to Shanti Nagar.
We arrived in Khanewal station from where we needed to catch a cab to the local village which was about fifteen minutes drive. When we arrived in the village I was so happy when we entered the village I heard Psalms on a loud speaker, I thought what a refreshing change from the drag of hearing the Muezzin call five times a day (Clerics calling for Muslim prayer) to this singing of the Psalms, truly a picture of the forthcoming millennium Temple in Jerusalem when we will worship and praise our master Yahshua on earth. We were welcomed by the hosts and we settled in for the evening ready to conduct the seminar the next day.
The next day the church worship started promptly and we could hear it on the loudspeakers while in the home before going to church. We conducted the two day seminars in gruelling heat of 49 degrees Celsius, three to four sessions each day with a total of 360 people attending out of which there were at least 10 pastors. Some of the local high school teachers came alongside the head master. Even some nurses turned up from a hospital near by and people came as far away as two hours drive this is how much thirst they had for the words of Yahweh. The seminar was a huge success. We covered such topics as comparative studies Islam verses Christianity, historicity of the person of Yahshua of Nazareth, two sessions on Pentecost, meaning and application and how to observe the feast. I taught on who are the two houses, what is Israel and difference between Jacob’s house and the House of Judah with the House of Israel explaining that House of Israel is not Judah and Israel is not Judah as most people understand that the term itself defines all twelve tribes not yet present in the land.
I believe I rightly divided the words of master Yahshua to explain to them their connection with Ephraim both spiritual and physically. The seminar was extremely successful with us getting many questions the next day and after I was told by many of the people that I had solved many of their questions and problems and it was like a big burden had lifted off their shoulders as their complain was that local pastors do not answer our questions.
We left Shanti Nagar thanking the organisers, they also showed us land that a family had donated to build a church for the congregation as they were in a hired building.
We headed back to Lahore and got back to Lahore very late. I got a call the next morning to go and meet a pastor in Lahore who has about 2000 people in his congregation. He started asking me who am I and upon me telling him he started asking me theological questions on the triune doctrine and other questions. I had heard a few things about this pastor before that many people had said he is one of the better knowledgeable one. It turned out most of his knowledge was actually flawed. He made statements such as Father dealt with Israel in the Old Testament and Son in the New Testament with the man made church. I challenged this statement as fundamentally flawed and he said the Father was the one who became flesh to walk with Adam, I said who was with Abraham and he said that was the Father also who walked with him. I showed him how his statement contradicted scripture because our Master said no one has ever seen the Father or His form. "And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. (John 5:37). The biggest problem in Pakistan is un-ordained clergy who are pretty clueless on fundamental Bible doctrines.
He got very upset that I did not agree with him and showed him he is wrong, he kept insisting the Father did become flesh. He started talking about end times and calling the US a harlot, I showed him how his hermeneutic was flawed and had gaping holes in his theory that could not be backed up by scripture. He got more angry. Then I said to him Israel is not one nation but of the twelve and he realised I took him apart theologically bit by bit like peeling a banana. I showed him how Yahweh cast out Northern Israel that were to mingle with the goy nations and become a multitude of nations just as Jacob prophesied in Geneses 48:19. He had never read this or realised so he could not see how the church was not only spiritual Ephraim but many people had biological blood of Ephraim, he had no understanding of Genesis 35:11.
He started arguing that I was introducing a new doctrine and that this was dangerous and that I was thinking like a Jew and I said I am a Hebrew so I take the insult with pleasure, I said I assure you that you simply do not have the eyes to see what I was showing him, I said if you study scripture and pray to our Master Yahshua than you will see what I see else it is pointless me arguing. I showed him how the New Covenant understanding fundamentally required the Old Covenant to be present without which you could not make sense of Biblical prophesies. Things hidden in New Covenant writings through years of mistranslations had to be observed carefully.
He made a blanket statement that ALL Muslims are terrorists and I took offence at his ignorance that not all Muslims are suicide bombers. His poor arguments and false theology did not deter me to tell him my meeting with him was not pleasant in anyway at all. I advised him to go and study the scriptures and work with correct hermeneutics rather then trying to apply Drash (Allegory) to things he wanted to justify. I thanked him for his time and left him to do some other important things.
The next day I was invited by a desperate housewife to come to a big Muslim hospital to witness to her Muslim husband which I accepted and going there to do our Master Yahshua’ bidding. I entered the hospital and the lady sent someone to collect me. A lady came and took me upstairs and sat me in a quite room. A few minutes later the couple came and sat down. I started talking with her husband about faith issues and atonement. I knew that this was not a good place to discuss these things and that if he objected it could be a very dangerous call for all of us as the hospital authorities would not take kindly to this type of evangelism. I gave him a short speech about salvation through our master Yahshua and why Islam did not offer any salvation. I gave him a leaflet to take away and read. He thanked me and since he was in a hurry he had to leave as he was on hospital duty. After this several Christian nurses came and we sat and prayed for the entire situation in Pakistan and the Christian community. There I also met an evangelist who invited me to his church, I had to politely decline as I only had one day left. I thanked them and went on my way home to get ready for the big finale. That evening I had a meeting with another evangelist in the very place I was born in Lahore, he invited me to dinner. I headed to his place later that day and we sat and discussed ways of reaching and educating our own communities who were falling into syncretism, mixed marriages that were bringing new issues and problems, and also many people into Papal doctrines and ways to combat these, we discussed how we could get our radio in UK out to these guys in Pakistan. I promised him that I would send him articles that I write to put into his magazine and we discussed ways of introducing the Hebrew language amongst the Christian community of Pakistan so they could see the beauty of Yahweh’s language.
The next day I went to the Christian hospital where I had several nurses waiting for me to ask me questions from last time and they also asked for my contact details. I conducted a lecture with at least 150 people present and gave them a speech on Pentecost and its applications and what our master Yahshua was trying to show us, touching on the two houses, the prophesies given to our father Abraham, Isaac and especially Jacob. I took them through the Bible of a beautiful story of Yahweh’s marriage with Israel on Mount Sinai and how this love story started, the problems in the marriage, allegory of Israel being a disobedient wife and how master Yahshua came to pay the penalty and he is going to return to take His Hebrew bride back.
I gave a passionate one and a half hour lecture and everyone was silent though some asked questions, there were doctors, pastors and teachers present in the audience and they were quite stunned as none of them had ever heard the story of Israel quite like I put it and they had never thought Abraham’s part was a so crucial. I explained why we should use Abraham for our witness to even Muslims since they revere him, and that Allah has the attributes of Ha Satan and showed them the proof for this, I talked about the Passover festival of the lamb is the scene of our redemption that played out in the exodus and that the story is relevant to every generation and should be a memorial just like Yahweh commanded us yet many Christians do not even know about this beautiful feast. I related how our master Yahshua was resurrecting the fallen tabernacle of King David (Amos 9:11, Acts 15:16), which means the church is not something new but something very old the bride is not Greek but Hebrew. I explained there is only one side, either you are IN Israel the twelve tribes with the Elohim of Israel as your bridegroom or you are not that there is no such thing as a covenant with a church but only with the two houses namely Israel and Judah (Jeremiah 31:31).
I ended the session and the administrator gave me sincere thanks and the people were really thrilled when they realised their identity as spiritual or physical Ephraim. Obviously these things were not something they had ever an inkling of but praise our master I was able to beautifully weave the Bible and show the redemptive plan of Yahweh fulfilled in His Son. After a flurry of questions and the excitement that had generated from this we had a small sitting to discuss any issues and questions, I had a pastor from the oldest theological seminary in Pakistan come and ask me some tough questions which were a walk in the park for me and he came to know of the inconsistencies that exist in many translations of the Bible. I showed him my Hebrew Bible and the meaning of some pertinent words that are not translated accurately, he was very keen to get this Bible, I told him to get the RSTNE edition from Bnai’ Yahshua or if he wanted the Hebrew/English then I would connect him with a friend in Israel who could send the Bible.
I left the meeting feeling I had done justice to the Elohim of Israel and my master Yahshua feeling elated that I had the honour to relate these truths that no one even knew about in Pakistan or had perhaps every taught. I can tell you that we are going to turn over a new leaf in Pakistan, I am going to send my articles to at least two magazines and I encourage my Hebrew brethren to do so as well and let’s teach our people the true redemptive plan of our master Yahshua for Israel that has been hijacked by the church since 1600 years. The people in the meeting told me that they had never heard these truths before.
However I thank my Lord, Elohim of Israel Yahshua and the finances made available by some brothers in the US who made this trip possible to get these truths out to these beloved people of Yahweh in Pakistan.
I have come with some requests and if you feel that you can help then please contact me directly by mail or phone to whatever support you can give. I cannot promise you that you will become rich as a result of this but I do promise you that you are investing like myself in the kingdom shares building your treasure in heaven where no thief can break in or no interest rate hike can deplete your stock value.
v A church rebuilding program in Shanti Nagar needs £2500 that is about $4400, these guys have no church and you can imagine in the extreme heat how difficult it is to conduct services.
v Sangla Hill cable TV license fee for the local community require £1000 or $1700 to buy a license to run this station to supply four Christian channels to all the local Christian households.
v Lahore – Magazine requires funding to reach the people. £300 or $500.
v Lahore - 2nd Magazine requires financing £100 or about $200.
If you think you can help please send me an e-mail to simalt@gmail.com or phone me on +44 1296-486 089. Remember our master’s advice:
John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.''
Even if you send $1 please do so and we need to fulfil these projects as these are the only ones I deem necessary and critical, remember Pakistan is plagued with Catholicism and false teaching and these publications will play a major role in eliminating false teaching, if anyone wishes to write articles in these two magazines related to Hebraism, Bible and two house theology then please let me know and I will put you in touch with the Editors.
For pictures of Pakistan please click the link here;
http://www.yesumasih.com/sounds%20of%20Pakistan.html
My sincere thanks to the Family of Jesus Christ Ministries of Sangla Hill to make the arrangements for the Shanti Nagar tour.
May Yahshua our Master bless you all.
Rabbi Simon Altaf (A servant of Master Yahshua). _____________________________ WE
are ONE!!! |