Nabeel Qureshi: Through investigations, dreams, and visions, Jesus asked me to forsake my Muslim family

1. Are you as quick to challenge the conversion stories of non-Muslims as you are Muslims?

2. “Faith cometh by hearing” refers only to regeneration. There is nothing that precludes God sending a person to a preacher, or God sending a preacher to a person. Consider the Ethiopian eunuch. Consider Cornelius. Before you say that salvation cannot happen this way, you need a scriptural reason that precludes it. Consider the call to Abraham, for example. There is absolutely no evidence that Abraham was following God before then. Claims otherwise are based on extra-Biblical sources, i.e. Jewish literature.

3. “I don’t see anywhere in Acts or the rest of God’s word where anyone found Christ through a dream or a vision…I see plenty of places where those that already believe have had visions, but no precedent for anyone coming to Christ because of a vision.”

Now granted, it was not a vision, but it was revelation, but what about the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus? Do you deny that this account was in Acts? Do you claim that Paul was a believer when Christ appeared to him while he was on his way to murder Christians? Now this goes back to 2. What theological problem or issue that you have with having a vision that leads a Muslim an evangelist that does not preclude Jesus Christ Himself from appearing to a Christian-killer?

4. This is not the testimony of a man who had no prior knowledge of Christianity and the gospel, had a dream about Jesus Christ one day and proclaimed himself to be saved. Instead, he says that he knew of Christianity since middle school. He said that he conversed with Christians often. And you know what else? He stated that his vision, his dreams happened after he met David!
”

As a freshman at Old Dominion University in Virginia, I was befriended by a sophomore, David Wood. Soon after he extended a helping hand, I found him reading a Bible. Incredulous that someone as clearly intelligent as he would actually read Christians’ sacred text, I launched a barrage of apologetic attacks, from questioning the reliability of Scripture to denying Jesus’ crucifixion to, of course, challenging the Trinity and the deity of Christ.

David didn’t react like other Christians I had challenged. He did not waver in his witness, nor did he waver in his friendship with me. Far from it—he became even more engaged, answering the questions he could respond to, investigating the questions he couldn’t respond to, and spending time with me through it all.

Even though he was a Christian, his zeal for God was something I understood and respected. We quickly became best friends, signing up for events together, going to classes together, and studying for exams together. All the while we argued about the historical foundations of Christianity. Some classes we signed up for just to argue some more.

After three years of investigating the origins of Christianity, I concluded that the case for Christianity was strong—that the Bible could be trusted and that Jesus died on the cross, rose from the dead, and claimed to be God.”
So not only was he exposed to Christianity in middle school, not only did he talk about Christianity for years with Christians, but he interacted with a legitimate believer who evangelized him over the course of YEARS, and then he spent 3 years studying Christianity HIMSELF!

5. “”Tell me who you are! If you are Allah, show me how to believe in you. If you are Jesus, tell me! Whoever you are, I will follow you, no matter the cost.”

That sounds EXACTLY like what Kirk Cameron said in HIS salvation testimony. Do you challenge that also? (Except that Cameron didn’t say “I will follow you no matter the cost.” Cameron merely asked God if He was real, and if God answered he would follow.)

6. “I thought it interesting that he would see this ( and in this way ), and not the parable of the wedding garment found in Luke 14:16-24, as well as the parallel account in Matthew 22:1-14.”
So you doubt his conversion testimony because he chose a Biblical text that you didn’t personally agree with? Never mind the fact that his interpretation and application of the text is 100% accurate and applicable to the kingdom of God? And it wasn’t even his interpretation! He enquired about the interpretation from someone else!

I am sorry, but please let me know if it is EVERYONE that you need to see fruit from before believing their conversion story or just this guy? And if it is just this guy, what separates him from all the people whose conversion stories that you DO believe? What separates his conversion story from yours?

Instead, Dave was fishing for anything and everything to discredit the legitimacy of this man’s testimony, including preferring Luke 14:16-24 to Luke 13:22–30! Why? Because he says so!

“because “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. ” ( Proverbs 16:7 ).”
So Stephen’s ways didn’t please the Lord? Stephen from the same book of Acts that he cites?

“Did any of these Muslims who have seen these visions, happen to believe as a result of preaching ( Romans 10:14-15 )? I wonder…”

This man was exposed to Christianity HIS ENTIRE LIFE. He was evangelized by a Christian missionary and personal friend FOR YEARS. He spent years studying Christianity himself! What is the purpose of wondering about something that has already been obviously stated except not wanting to believe it?

“I’ve been hearing stories about Muslims seeing visions of someone they think is Jesus, and many have “accepted Christ” because of them.”
While that is a legitimate objection IN GENERAL, the truth is that this has nothing to do with this specific case. This is the case of a person who had the gospel shared with him countless times, and had his dreams and visions long after first having heard the gospel!

“This is not to say that there aren’t many believing former Muslims out there …”

You can state that all you want, but his determination to be a skeptic on this story, to the point of Luke 14 versus Luke 13 and falsely claiming that this fellow’s testimony contradicts “faith cometh by hearing” (when his testimony actually confirms it … the evangelist who oft witnessed to this fellow was named Mark for crying out loud … the gospel according to Mark anyone!?!?) can’t help but make one wonder.

Since this thread is about Muslim Evangelism I am posting this link to my blog article titled Repentance. It is my take on the phenomenon of Muslims experiencing dreams and visions and is based on reading Tom Doyle’s book.

Here are the first 2 paragraphs of that article:

I began reading Tom Doyle’s Dreams and Visions a few weeks ago. and am writing this article after reading the first chapter. I assume that a writer (any writer) is going to establish in his first chapter the direction he intends to go in the rest of the book. Upon completion of this article, I intend to finish reading the book and read a similar book, Which None Can Shut, by Reema Goode.
The question at the heart of the book is whether or not God is presenting Himself to Muslims in dreams that ultimately lead to their being evangelized and becoming disciples of Christ. The first chapter does not encourage me to believe that God is doing such.