On April 12, 2022, the Global Center for Adventist-Muslim Relations (GCAMR), a ministry of the General Conference, is urging Seventh-day Adventists to “pray for Muslims around the world for 30 days during the fasting month of Ramadan.” [1] According to Adventist Press Service, a news service of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Germany, “Ramadan, which began on April 2 and ends on May 2 this year, is a special time when Muslims devote their lives to religious causes, according to the Ramadan prayer calendar published by GCAMR.” [1] Adventist Press Service reported the following:
“The Global Center for Adventist-Muslim Relations (GCAMR) of the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference (World Church leadership) calls on church members and leaders to pray for Muslims around the world for 30 days during the fasting month of Ramadan … GCAMR Director Petras Bahadur urged Adventists around the world to pray for Muslims especially during Ramadan. “We encourage praying for them and the Muslim areas that God will reveal Himself in a special way.” Using the prayer calendar as a guide, Adventist congregations could focus on a different Muslim city each day of Ramadan.” [1]
The General Conference says that it is acceptable to pray for 30 days during Ramadan. This would be a way of showing Muslims support and solidarity. When Muslims see us praying during Ramadan, they will think of us as people who want to obey Allah. But is it appropriate to use the religious holy month of Ramadan, which is a sacred observance for Muslims, to build solidarity with them? No, because we’re exploiting their faith for the purpose of forming nonreligious social bonds.
During Ramadan, Muslims pray in the name of Allah. Given that this month belongs to Allah, in whose name are we going to pray? If we are doing this for solidarity, then we should learn Arabic, attend the mosque, kneel down with Muslims, pray to Allah, and repeat, “Allah is the greatest.” If we are doing this for their salvation, we should pray in Jesus’ name and seek their conversion and repentance all year long, not just during Ramadan. Otherwise, it will appear to be a phony ecumenical exercise.
Ramadan is a month of pure Islamic worship that lasts for 30 days. This celebration is inextricably linked to its Muslim origins. One cannot separate them. Muslims observe Ramadan in order to worship a false deity. To attempt to merge Christian aspects by praying during Ramadan is a compromise. We cannot embrace the aspects of a false God or a false gospel. With error, we can’t be in ecumenical solidarity.
The change from Saturday to Sunday was brought about by this constant mixing of truth and error. The church is doing today what Constantine did to bring Christianity and paganism together:
“The day of the sun was reverenced by his pagan subjects, and was honored by Christians; it was the emperor’s policy to unite the conflicting interests of heathenism and Christianity. He was urged to do this by the bishops of the church, who, inspired by ambition, and thirst for power, perceived that if the same day was observed by both Christians and the heathen, it would promote the nominal acceptance of Christianity by pagans, and thus advance the power and glory of the church … Through half-converted pagans, ambitious prelates, and world-loving churchmen, he accomplished his purpose. Vast councils were held, from time to time, in which the dignitaries of the church were convened from all the world. In nearly every council the Sabbath which God had instituted was pressed down a little lower, while the Sunday was correspondingly exalted. Thus the pagan festival came finally to be honored as a divine institution, while the Bible Sabbath was pronounced a relic of Judaism, and its observers were declared to be accursed” (Great Controversy, p. 53).
Celebrating Ramadan only serves the ambitions of the ecumenical movement. When Christians observe the feast of Ramadan, they are obeying a commandment that is given in the Quran. This act gives credence and legitimacy to the writings of the Prophet Mohammad. The General Conference is placing the Quran on the same level of divine revelation as found in the Bible.
These interfaith religious festivals are not designed to help us accomplish our work, but instead to stop it. The stage is being set for the world religions to unite. The ecumenical movement is being used by Rome to bring about a resurgence of the worship of the first beast of Revelation 13. Make no mistake – the goal is to unite all the religions into one body and then bring them together to work with Rome. This is happening before our very eyes. We should be sounding the warning messages loudly to the multitudes who are being blindly led into the final apostasy.
Sources
[1] https://www.apd.info/2022/04/12/adventisten-beten-waehrend-des-ramadan-fuer-muslime-in-aller-welt/
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I am daily in contact with many Muslims. At first I tried to witness but it seemed I had nothing to offer because they thought we worship the same God. After prayer and study, I changed my approach. I show them the God of the Bible is totally different from Allah using their own books Quran and Hadiths, They don’t know their own sources. They just hear the wash off Islamic version from their teachers.
I start with questions about their religion and then “compare” it with the Bible. This way I don’t confront them but have a chance to show them the God of the Bible. When you compare the Bible with the Quran, the difference is very obvious, at the end they all want to have a better God and are surprised how little Allah and Muhammad are. I leave the Holy Spirit to bring conviction, my job is to plant the seeds.
In short, if you want to bring salvation to Muslims, ecumenism does not work.
You have to offer the truth of the Bible, It is a slow process to break all the barriers and needs to be done kindly and firmly. They are many hungry for truth.
What is wrong with “Praying for our Muslim people.”?
Very well said, I totally agree with you that if we do this it will be a compromise!
Brothers and sisters,muslims dont know God of the christian bible.Praying for them to know true GOD,is better than participating with their pagan festivals.Muslims dont know Jesus of the christian bible.They have another Jesus in quran.Alah has no son while GOD has.Muslims twists biblical texts to those who are not linguists but to the one who studies bible and knows the meaning of words,is safe from the attacks of muslims.Fact is they are trained from DAWAH UNIVERSITY on how they can witness a christian using the very same bible
Then our General conference is running mad
Ofcourse
Appreciating the hard work you put into your blog and detailed
information you provide. Thank you
Yep they want us to please all religions, let’s please Christ
Should we also keep Sunday to stand in solidarity with Christians?
Hhhhhh!
Our church leaders are very fany
There is a difference between praying “for” and praying “with” in solidarity and support. Which is being promoted?
Since the earth will be ruled by one King of Kings won’t ever human being have a right to salvation afterall we are trying to eliminate sin so we can have total ❤ peace when Satan is removed. Therefore we should pray that ‘Thy Will Be Done’ in one love ❤
God is real he has done so much.for me i was in a accident car a gal hit me and i was PARALIZED for four years yes four years than God said to me ‘ “Debbie Get up and go walk. Today ! Yes!! Today you need to get up and walk ok!!!! I said ok Father I wll than yes I will ok!!! So I Begain to get my clothes on and he the Lord Almighty was talking to me about the Mustard seed and said ” Do you remember what your parents taught you about the Mustard seed. Debbie ?I told him yes i sure do know. Dear Father!! He said ”What?”” I said ” well first off it means that you have Faith in God just like the seed of a mustard seed yes when you plant it.. Faith of it.. Trust of it when you plant it.. Yes.. Trust of it..
I asked brother Petras how does he explain us talking to Muslims and saying that we worship the same God in light of Daniel 11:40-45 where king of the north pushes back against king of the south just before Michael stands up. He didn’t have much to say. Eschatologically, when Satan personates Christ he will say that it is only Christianity that is the right religion, nobody else. We know he will point to the RCC and Apostate protestantism, but that is another issue. GCAMR have good intention, but the way to go about it is misplaced in my opinion. They are lovely people though. Thank you for the article.
There is no doubt that Muslims misunderstand the true nature of Jesus. Adventists obviously believe many things quite differently from them. They know it; and we know it! The call to pray for them during their month of “high spirituality” makes sense to me. GCAMR has not in anyway suggested that we “observe” Ramadan; but that we pray for these people whom Christ died. Any thought that is “compromise” makes no sense to me! Let’s pray!