Missions to Pakistani Messianic Believers
We have just received an excellent report back on the HMI
Funded Pakistan Missions
trip!
A week in a Rabbi’s life
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 that you are investing like myself in the stock market
(kingdom) of heaven building your treasure 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 fulfill 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
Rabbi
Simon Altaf (A servant of Master Yahshua).