SID: Hello, Sid Roth here with Reza Safa. Reza comes from a Shiite Muslim background. I come from an orthodox Jewish background, but we’re brothers in the Messiah. Now when your television program, and we happen to be on your network, It’s Supernatural, appears in the Middle East, you talk about God’s love for Israel. When it goes into Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, what response do you get from the people watching there? Because they’ve been taught their whole life what the Koran says about the Jew.
REZA: Last year, Sid, the Lord told me “Reza, teach about Israel.” I said “Lord, I’ve already got enough threat on my life, You’re adding to that fire.” So I started teaching about Abraham, God’s covenant with Abraham and the Jewish people, and we receive thousands of calls from Iranians who said “Pastor, we didn’t know Jews are God’s people, and we’re praying now for the peace of Jerusalem.” And of course, I received a call from the Iranian government. They said “We’ll give you any amount of money if you stop teaching about Israel.” I knew I’m touching a nerve when that happened, and God has been blessing us tremendously as a result of that.
SID: You told me that God showed you that there is an idol in the White House that is causing a curse under President Bush’s administration. Tell me about that. Or it would be any President that goes into the White House.
REZA: Sid, for the past few years President Bush has been breaking Ramadan fast with a Muslim in the White House. Last year, he added a Koran to the library of the White House. When he did that, the Lord spoke to me and said “Because of what he has done, he has opened the gates for the spirit of Islam to invade this land.” After that, we had a congressman who became a Muslim congressman from Minnesota who became elected. And many other Islamic movements are growing faster than ever before in this land. The church must realize that this enemy is rising up, and there is no standard, politically, against it. The church and our prayer is the only way. As a matter of fact, the Islamic community of Tulsa are bringing one of the top scholars of the Islamic community in Canada to debate me, because “this man puts the Bible on TV.” Jamal Bedawi, on the 25th of January, we’re having a debate about this matter.
SID: Now why is it that there are so many universities in the United States that are having schools of Islam? That are building big buildings on their universities to teach Islam?
REZA: Actually, the Bush administration, they allowed the wahabi movement in Saudi Arabia, to appease the Islamic community around the world, our President has allowed the wahabi movement, which is one of the most radical movements on this planet, to establish their theological school all over the United States Of America. And you’ll be shocked how much Islam is growing in our campuses all around this land.
SID: Now I must ask you one question. Our President says that Islam is a peace-loving religion. If someone says his prayers every day, reads the Koran and understands what it says, could this be a peace-loving religion?
REZA: It’s far from the truth, Sid. If you study the Koran, the history of Mohammed, the history of Islam, you’ll see that Islam has blood on every page of it’s history and it’s teaching. I am well versed in the teaching of Islam. Islam carries the spirit of violence; it’s the very initiative that spread Islam. Mohammed preached peace for twelve years in Mecca, he had 300 converts. But when the sword came, when the revelation of sword came in Medina, that changed the entire history of that religion. The entire of Saudi Arabia became Islamic, the Arabian Peninsula, and there was not a single Jew or Christian by the time Mohammed died, in the Arabian Peninsula.
SID: So we might say a nominal Muslim would be peace-loving, but a normal Muslim that follows the Koran, could not. Is that fair?
REZA: Exactly.
SID: Ok. I want you to see the contrast between the Messiah and Islam. I would like for you to look in the camera and pray for people to be physically healed. And I hear bones just cracking into place right now!
REZA: You know, Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If you are a Christian, every time you ask someone else to pray for your healing, you’re repudiating your righteousness. In other words, you’re denying your right of getting it yourself, because Jesus has already provided for you. But those of you who are not a believer, this prayer is for you. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth. All you have to do is put a simple trust in that which Jesus has provided for you. Father, in Jesus’ wonderful and holy and precious name, Lord, I pray that, by the power of Your mighty name, that same name that opened blind eyes in India and made the lame walk again, Lord, I speak Your healing strength to everyone who watches this program, in Jesus’ wonderful and holy and precious name. And Lord, we give You all the glory and all the praise and all the honor, for all that You have done for us. In Jesus’ holy and precious name we pray, amen.
SID: Reza, tell me the prayer that you prayed to come to know the Messiah. What was it exactly?
REZA: I just said “Lord, if You’re real, show Yourself to me.”
SID: He said “Lord, if You’re real, show me. Show me.” Is that fair? Is that honest? Is that sincere? You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. You know what I did? I had a real encounter with the Devil, and I prayed, Reza, I prayed a two word prayer: “Jesus, help!” That was my prayer. You see, the prophet Jeremiah says “In the day that you seek God with all of your heart, in that day He’ll be found.” Now it’s not an issue of “what will the religion I’ve been taught my whole life, what will people think?”, it’s an issue of “what does God think?” It’s an issue of truth. It’s an issue of forever. And forever, as the song goes, is a long, long time. If you know God in this life, you will have shalom, you will have peace that flows like a river. And some of you are experiencing, the best way I can describe it is God’s presence coming upon you right now, flowing like a river. Pray an honest prayer, just kind of repeat it after me, and do it out loud, and believe it to the best of your ability. Say “Dear God, show me the truth, and I promise to follow this truth, wherever it takes me.” If you’ll just take that baby step, that’s all God is saying.
He’s done it all. He sent His Son who died for you, and every bad thing you ever did was put upon Him. Just like the Talmud says “Without the shedding of blood, there’s no forgiveness of sin”, just like the torah says “I’ve given the blood upon the alter as atonement for sin”, it is the blood that makes the covering for your sin. Believe that the blood of Jesus washed away every sin you’ve committed, and that you’re open to the presence of God, and become a tabernacle of the presence of the living God. There is nothing, nothing this world has to offer to compare. Jesus, help. That’s the prayer.
