By C.T. Russell,
published in February,
1890
Mohammedanism --dates
from the seventh
century A.D., fourteen centuries later
than Buddhism and thirteen later than Confucianism.
It prevails chiefly in Turkey,
Africa, Asia, Persia and parts of India,
and its adherents number from 130,000,000
to 150,000,000 of people. In the fifteenth
century, having penetrated Europe, it became
a formidable foe to Christianity.
Its founder, Mohammed, accepted both
the Old and New Testament Scriptures
and claimed to be the Comforter promised
by Christ. The Koran, however, he
claimed as superior to the Bible, asserting
that it is as old as God himself and that
it was conveyed to the lowest heaven by
Gabriel and thence to himself. The Koran
is, therefore, the sacred and authoritative
book among the followers of Mohammed.
Their religion partakes somewhat of the
nature of both Judaism and Christianity.
It presents one God and various ranks of
angels. Mohammedans believe that Christ
was a great prophet. They deny the idea of
a trinity, believe in the resurrection of the
dead, a final judgment, and a future state
of rewards and punishments in heaven and
hell. They teach that the dead have an
intermediate conscious existence between
death and resurrection, and that they
dwell somewhere near the place where the
dust of the body reposes. They are extreme
believers in predestination. Friday
is their sabbath; they must pray five times
a day, fast and give alms, and must go to
Mecca, their sacred city, once during life,
either personally or by a substitute.
Nothing more praiseworthy can be said
of Mohammed than that he was a great
and successful fanatic and impostor,
having nothing of the high-toned moral
character which history ascribes to
the founders of both Buddhism and Confucianism.
His religion is a miserable
hash of Christianity, Judaism and a former
heathen idolatry and superstition; and
its aggressive character was signalized by
determined efforts to conquer the world
with carnal weapons. In recent years it
has made considerable progress in India
in displacing Brahmanism.
Such is the religious condition of what
is commonly known as the heathen world.
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THE SPREAD OF MOHAMMEDANISM
C.T. Russell, published in September, 1900
If reports are to be believed Mohammedanism is
spreading in Asia and Africa much more rapidly than
is Christianity. This is credited to three reasons.
(1) Its simplicity of doctrine, which makes it commendable
to persons of low intellectual capacity--
R2695 : page 276
Believe in Mohammed and obey his simple law and
have an eternity of sensuous bliss. (2) Its permission
of polygamy, common throughout those countries.
(3) Its uniform requirement of total abstinence
from intoxicants.
Recognizing the fact that Christianity makes few
proselytes from Mohammedanism, and that the latter
is growing rapidly in numbers and influence, the
British Government has of late years been attempting
to gain the confidence and support of her Mohammedan
subjects, whose number is estimated at one hundred
and fifty millions--fifty millions more than all
denominations of Protestant Christians in the whole world.
Doubtless this change of attitude toward the very
religion against which all the Crusades of medieval
times were waged, tho due to political policy, is backed
by the changed religious sentiment of our day;--
which under the lead of the higher critics has
declared,--
"The hope of the race lies in a deeper study of
the great, inspired writers of the past, such as Shakespeare,
Homer, Dante and a few others, whose works
have charmed the minds of people of culture. The
Bible, also, though a little out-of-date, has been recognized,
in the past, as a work of inspiration, and
you may find it helpful to include it in your course of
reading."
General sentiment, therefore, resolves itself into
this,--Since our wise men tell us that the Bible is
unreliable, and that the death of Christ Jesus no more
redeemed the world than did the death of other reformers;
and since they tell us that future happiness
depends upon the cultivation of our mental and
moral qualities, and that Shakespeare's and other
writings are quite as good or better than the Bible for
such culture, how do we know but what the Mohammedan's
Bible--the Koran--is as good or better than
our own, and they as right as we or more so? Therefore
let us not any longer say with the Bible that
there is no other name than that of Jesus given under
heaven or among men whereby we must be saved; but
let us say, Get morality and education in the name
of Mohammed or Jesus or Confucius or whomsoever you
please.
Such would be the logical outcome of such teachings;
and thereby we are reminded of our Lord's
words respecting these times--"When the Son of
Man cometh shall he find the faith on the earth?"--
Luke 18:8.
WHAT GREAT BRITAIN IS DOING FOR MOHAMMEDANISM.
----------
Shortly after the capture of Khartoum by General
Lord Kitchener, and at his instance, a Mohammedan
college was founded, known as Gordon College, and
more recently another Mohammedan school was
founded at Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa.
This latter institution was opened with considerable
ceremony under the auspices of the acting-governor,
Major Nathan, and of it the New York Sun says
editorially:--
"The ceremony began with a prayer in Arabic
offered up by the Imaum of the mosque, Alfa Omaru,
who afterward gave a short account of the efforts to
promote education made by the Sierra Leone Moslems.
He referred to the years 1839 and 1841, when the
Mohammedan religion was considered as a danger to
the colony, when Moslems were persecuted and their
mosques pulled down by excited mobs. Thanks, however,
to an enlightened policy, matters were set right,
and for more than fifty years the Moslems have enjoyed
full toleration and the protection of the British
Government. In 1872 the festival of the Lesser Bairam
had been attended by the governor, Sir John Pope
Henessy, with a military escort, and in 1879 another
governor, Sir Samuel Rowe, had entertained seven
hundred Moslems at Government House on the occasion
of the Bairam Festival of that year. In 1891
Governor Hay handed over a fine property with commodious
buildings to the Moslem community for educational
purposes, accompanied by a grant for the
payment of the teachers. These successive events
were important epochs in the history of Islamism in
West Africa, and the Imaum looked forward to the
day when the present elementary school would become
the stepping-stone to a college."
In his reply Major Nathan cited examples of
Mohammedans occupying official positions in India
and in Egypt, and added that,--
"He wished them to perfect themselves in Arabic
in order that they might know what real Mohammedanism
is. When they understood the Koran, he
said, they would see that their religion was one telling
them how to live, and not a religion of charms and
gewgaws. Knowing English, they would have the
literature and wisdom of the white man open to them:
and with Arabic, they would be able to read not only
the Koran, but the 'Makamat' of El Hariri, known
already to some of them, and the 'Alif Lailat wa
Lailah,' the translation of which English people read
with pleasure. In concluding, Major Nathan urged
them not to rest content until they had in Sierra
Leone a Moslem college whence wisdom and knowledge
might go forth over the whole of West Africa."
The Sun believes that the importance of the
incident can hardly be overestimated. It says:--
"The news of the official encouragement given
to the Mohammedan religion and the culture of its
sacred language, Arabic, will in a very short time
spread from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, and the
wisdom of the policy that dictated it will be justified
by the resulting spread of British influence among the
Moslem populations of North Africa. In all probability
it will lead to a corresponding rivalry on the
part of the French, whose hold on the Arabs of
Algeria is none too strong, owing to mistakes in
policy and the want of character of many of those
appointed to office.
R2695 : page 277
"The next century no doubt has many surprises
in store; but whatever they may be, not the least
strange will be the spectacle of the two Western
nations that led in the crusades promoting, for political
and territorial reasons, the creed they then tried
to crush."
However peculiar all this may appear from the
standpoint of nominal "Christendom," it is perfectly
clear to all of the "royal priesthood." We see the
fallacy of the claim that European kingdoms are
Christ's kingdoms--that the Word of God never did
recognize them as anything but "kingdoms of this
world" ruled by "the prince of this world." We
see that the nominal churches are not the one true
Church of "saints," whose names are written in
heaven. We see that the Crusades, Inquisitions, and
all similar attacks upon human beings and their moral
and religious liberties were never authorized by the
Lord; but were wholly contrary to his Word and
spirit. We see that it is perfectly proper and consistent
for worldly people and governments (English,
French, German or what not) to favor any system
or all systems of education and religion that will in
any degree counteract vice and immorality, and preserve
peace.
True, we who have had the eyes of our understanding
opened to see matters clearly from the Bible
standpoint could do nothing against the truth and in
favor of error--nothing to foster and encourage the
error or even to apparently bid it Godspeed. But we
are not in official positions where such questions could
come to us: because we are "not of this world" even
as our Redeemer was not (John 17:16), therefore the
world disrespects us (John 17:14), and offers us no
places of public influence. Fidelity to our Lord's
principles thus saves his faithful from perplexities:
they have died to worldly politics and its aims and
duties and methods, and have been "translated into the
Kingdom of God's dear Son," and are thus members
of the "holy nation" which has not yet come
into power and ruling authority--waiting for their
King to exalt or set them up in power and great glory
at the time when his Kingdom shall be revealed to the
world as the supplanter of all kingdoms of this world.
Tour of holy sites in "Palestine"
Bible Students experience Arab-Moslem rage
Memorial Observance in the Upper Room
thwarted by Moslem intolerance...
published June 1910
...Of course, we visited "the Jews' wailing-place" and
sympathized with the poor people who there were reading
the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations
and "waiting for the consolation of Israel." We rejoiced
to know from the Divine Word that their expectations
will be more than fully realized shortly now. How glad
we felt for them! We visited the place of Pilate's Judgment
Hall, where our Master was tried and saw some of
the very pavement where the Roman soldiers whiled
away the time in playing games, the marks for the games
being clearly legible in the cement pavement recently
uncovered. We noted the Mohammedan Mosque which
covers the site of the Temple, but we were not permitted
to enter it, because the time was one of special
religious fervor among the Mohammedans, also because of
the fact that not long since a fanatic had done injury
to a visitor.
…
Our experience on the evening of the Memorial Supper
was most peculiar. The "upper room," which tradition
indicates is the one which Jesus and his Apostles used
for the celebration of the Memorial Supper, is under the
control of Mohammedans. When the time came for us
to occupy the room, we were first advised that no chairs
could be brought in and that no table could be had, but
we were promised rugs for the floor that we might recline
after the manner of Jesus and the Apostles, for it
would appear that the majority use no tables, but merely
lie down upon the floor with their heads toward the center
and rest there upon one arm while feeding themselves
with the other from a central dish. Later word
reached us that we must be very quiet and not indulge
in any singing. These restrictions excited our suspicions
that there must be a reason for all of this. Nevertheless,
at the appointed hour we went to the place.
OUR OBSERVANCE OF THE MEMORIAL
Our coming attracted the attention of some of the
Mohammedans, who rushed wildly hither and thither,
gesticulating and objecting, not to us, but to our guide,
who had arranged for the use of the room. Seeing the
excitement that was being caused, we thought best to
indicate the peaceableness of our intentions by quietly
withdrawing. We realized that if the fanatical Mohammedans
had shouted that the holy place of Mohammed
was being desecrated by the Christian dogs, hundreds of
deluded people would rush out upon us from every direction
and without the intervention of a miracle would
injure or kill some or all of us.
We learned later that the room is owned by about
fifty Moslems and only two or three had agreed to rent it
to us, and that the objection to our presence was raised
by others who had an interest in the property and the
right to forbid our use of it. Explanations were made
that the room had been used by various religious denominations
for the commemoration of the Lord's Supper,
but that difficulties had arisen and all had been forbidden
further use of it years ago. To have given us the
use of it now, they claimed, would have opened up afresh
the controversy which had already been settled, forbidding
the use of the room for such purposes.
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