Let us now look at a few individuals from different religious cultures whose misdirected faith was made evident at times of poignant Spiritual need.

It is a matter of no small importance that Bilquis grew up in Pakistan where ninety-six percent of the population is Muslim. Her family boasted of an Islamic heritage going back several hundred years. It was mortally dangerous for any citizen in her country to convert from Islam to Christianity. In the vicinity where she grew up, it was common knowledge that those who converted to Christianity were often murdered without any questions asked, a condition the western world would view as unthinkable. Acclimated to this kind of religious bloodletting, most Islamics seldom show alarm that the killers of Christian converts are never brought to justice. Bilquis indicates that everyone usually knows who the murderers are. Normally, they are from the victim's own family. Things are this way in Islam because Muslim law requires that the faithful slay those who fall away from the teachings of Muhammad.

At the age of forty-six, Mrs. Sheikh entered a time of Spiritual trial and found her Muslim religion deficient in the area of her most pressing Spiritual need. Disenchanted with the high social life she had lived for a generation and distraught over her husband divorcing her for a younger woman, she turned to the Koran for Spiritual comfort. To her disappointment, no solace was found in the Islamic Holy Book. The Koran, written only in the Arabic language -- never to be translated into any other -- is the only Spiritual resource allowed Muslim people. Bilquis continued to turn to the Koran even though no sustenance was being derived from it. She yearned deeply for Spiritual assurance, insight, and guidance.

Interestingly, the search in the Koran was not altogether a waste, for one day Belquis came upon the name Jesus in the curved Arabic script and a sense of direction was felt for the first time. An inquisitiveness (a stirring of Faith) sprang up in her mind as she read what the Koran said about Jesus. Muhammad, the sole author of the Muslim Holy Book, had said that Jesus was merely a man, nothing more than a Jewish prophet. The early Christians, insisted the Islamic founder, had made Jesus out to be more than he really was. This was an assessment he had derived from the Jews who were his first Scriptural tutors. However, the idea of reading the Bible (an inclination prompted by Faith) would not leave the mind of Mrs. Sheikh. Instead the idea became stronger and stronger. Bilquis started reflecting upon the fact that Jesus was a Jew and both the Jewish Scriptures and the Christian Scriptures preceded the Islamic Holy Book by as much as six hundred years. Finally, admitting to herself that the Koran lacked the Spiritual help she needed, the resolve was made to locate a Bible and continue her Spiritual search in it.

The misdirected Faith of Bilquis Sheikh was illuminated in her sorrow and corrected once she became acquainted with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Great gratitude comes to my heart as I reflect upon this lady of Islam coming to know God as her Loving Heavenly Father, a wondrous Truth that millions of precious Muslim people have never experienced to this day about their Creator. The good hearted and charming Islamic citizens are falsely taught that it is sacrilege to regard the transcendent God as immanent. Of course, an immanent God means that the Sovereign Creator of the entire universe has immediate proximity with human beings and is directly accessible to them. Wonderfully, the Gospel exclaims that it was God's idea to be immanent. God was fully incarnate in Jesus Christ and wishes to become substantially immanent in every human life by way of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which incidentally enters as Faith bonds with Jesus Christ. Indisputably, God is transcendent! No question about that! All the same, through Faith in Jesus, He is also immanent.

Thankfully, more and more of the Muslim people are being led by their Faith into the Truth of Jesus Christ. In Jakarta, Indonesia, a Muslim man visited the church of Alan Morris and told him "Christianity is the one true faith." (Pastor's Update , August, 1995, published by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Richmond, VA). Monthir Abdullatif says that he "could not find any solution to the problem of sin in (his) life" in the Islamic religion. Only when he put his faith in Jesus Christ did he find freedom from his sin. As a result of becoming a Christian, he was publicly humiliated with an arrest and divested of his job. He fled his native Iraq to avoid further persecution. Monthir is now a missionary to the Muslim people living in America. ("The Need to Reach Muslims for Christ," by Monthir Abdullatif, The Sword of the Lord , September 24, 1993, p.5.) Anis Shorrosh, born an Arab in Nazareth, became a Christian at age eighteen. Anis is now traveling throughout the Muslim world as a Southern Baptist evangelist. He is seeing many Muslims come to Jesus. "In one Nigerian university, thirty Muslim students and four Muslim professors were converted to Christianity when they listened to the tapes..." on which Anis and the Muslim Sheik, Ahmed Deedat, debated the teachings of their respective religions. ("Shorrosh Weathers Danger from Challenging Islam," by Bruce Sims, The Baptist Record , Journal of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, Feb. 15, 1996, p. 1.) Yes, Faith recognizes Truth, quality, and superiority in all things, and most certainly in the things of the Spirit.   

Second, and equally wondrous to the many Muslims placing their faith in Jesus Christ today, are the Jews who are doing the same in numbers not seen before in modern times. (One may write Jews For Jesus, 60 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94102-5895.)For example, Ben David Lew , a holocaust survivor, has been a Christian minister in the United States for the past 50 years. Ben David was born into a staunch Jewish family whose linage in Judaism goes back into the generations as far as one might care to trace. Combine his genealogy with the fact that he is a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, and one would be inclined to think that Ben David Lew could never seriously entertain the thought of becoming a Christian. Nazi Germany, well known on the historical registry as a Christian nation, was responsible for atrocities against Jewish people that the human mind can scarcely take in. Ben David Lew was a survivor of the inhumane brutality that tortured, starved or gassed six million of his race. Over a period of six years Ben David was subjected to the dehumanization and trauma that transpired inside the death camps. He saw Germans, nominally spoken of as Christians, savagely rape Jewish mothers and their daughters out in the open in full view of other family members. And once finished with their heinous pleasure, they often murdered their victims on the spot. Jews For Jesus, an organization based in San Francisco, indicates there are thousands of Jews who have put their faith in Jesus Christ as their Messiah and Savior over the past fifty years. (Leslie K. Lew, From Hitler's Hell to God's Peace; The Life Story of Dr. Ben David Lew , (Oak Park, Michigan), p. 12. Yet, five years after the war, the name Jesus; the name that reminded Ben David of genocidal Nazis; the name that brought scoffing and derision from his family members and his compatriots; came to be the sweetest name he would ever see written or hear pronounced. In fact, Ben David says, "With Jesus in my heart, I was actually able to forgive the Germans for what they did. Now all I feel is compassion for them. One of my greatest desires is to go back to Germany and give the Gospel to the German people." (Ibid, p. 51.)    

The conversion of Ben David Lew came to pass on this wise. In 1950 in New York City, he heard a converted rabbi preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a result, he admitted to himself that he could not find what he was looking for in Judaism alone. The Truth he heard preached, of which he afterward read for himself, opened his mind to the Living Spirit of God. Shortly thereafter, prompted by his faith, Ben David bonded with Jesus Christ as his personal Messiah.

As Ben David embarked on his personal venture to examine the entire Bible for himself, he found couched here and there in the Old Testament, as well as boldly featured on virtually every page of the New Testament, the answers for which he had been searching much of his life. Interestingly, during Mr. Lew's search for Spiritual Truth, he thought it was rather odd that Jewish rabbis forbade the study of various texts of their own Scriptures . In time he came to see that the taboo texts were the very ones, which Christians say point to Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah of Israel. For example, Isaiah 53 is dismissed in concert by Jewish rabbis as being too controversial to be profitable.

Already I have noted that Muslim religious leaders, to put it mildly, repudiate anything that smacks of Christianity. But they have an equal, if not worse, repudiation for Judaism. Although Islamic caliphs and Jewish rabbis have been at opposite theological poles for centuries, the two are in agreement at this point: Both forbid their followers to read the New Testament. The Jewish Rabbis, however, go a step further than their Muslim opponents by impugning the freedom of their constituents to study all of their own canonized writings. Just think of it. There are scattered texts throughout the Old Testament that are unanimously avoided. Could some fiendish conspiracy be adrift here? How does one go about explaining to synagogue attenders that many of their own Scriptures are off limits?

Once Ben David's faith had prompted an intellectual interest in Jesus Christ, he soon found out why Isaiah 53 has been prohibited by Jewish rabbis. This prophetic text is a description of the suffering Messiah, which clearly points to the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth in the early first century. After Ben David's faith had been awakened to the Truth of Jesus Christ, his thirst for God could not be quenched by studying only the permitted texts of the rabbis. So he delved into the forbidden Scriptures. Excitedly, Mr. Lew found that all the texts that the rabbis declare as off limits to Jews point perfectly to the Jesus of the New Testament. As Mr. Lew's faith propelled him ever closer to the Jesus of the New Testament, the moment finally came when he consciously and intellectually bonded with the undisputed first century Messiah of Israel. Then, for the first time in his religious experience, completeness came into his life. Up to that point he knew only portions of Spiritual Truth. He knew only the incomplete revelation of God as given in the Old Testament. Following his conversion, however, the intimations of incompleteness (signals from the negative pole of his Faith) abruptly ceased. The fear of death, which had plagued him much of his life went away. (Ibid, p. 34.) Peace, true inner peace, (Ibid, p. 7.) something he had never known before was inside him now. His life became full of untold joy as he experienced the living presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Ibid, p. 37.) His young wife, who had been in Spiritual step with her husband for most of their marriage, also bonded her faith to Jesus Christ. Their conversion to Christianity brought about the typical persecution from their Jewish constituency. They were dismissed from the Synagogue. The members of Ben David's family, who had survived the Nazi Death Camps, held a funeral for the two as if they had actually died. The ceremony was to establish that all ties were being permanently severed with the converted Lews. Nevertheless, Ben David was marvelously compensated for this ostracism by the comfort God gave to his heart and by the warm support he received from the Christian Church. In fact, the support from the Church was more helpful than any family ties he had known in all his experience.  (Ibid, p. 37, 38.)    

Although soul-salvation is the paramount Spiritual need of the human being, it is not the only need that may direct one to Jesus Christ -- at least not initially. It will be remembered that a previous section introduced Jesus as being the Plaroma of God.( Colossians 2:9.) As the Fullness of the Godhead incarnate, Jesus is the plenty of all Spiritual poverty. People of today may seek Jesus for any number of reasons just as they did in the first century. Indeed, it is possible that various types of religio-cultural deficiencies may serve to bring a person to the Christ of the New Testament. I might add that if an individual is directed by Faith to the One who is the Plaroma of God for the purpose of being supplied with a non-eternal need, it is only a matter of time until faith leads on to the obtainment of the eternal need as well. (Mark 9:38-39.)  

Perhaps the mention of a few great lights, past and present, along this line would be apropos. Clement of Alexandria, for example, embarked upon his Spiritual search without any conviction of sin or guilt, although he would later be made aware of both. To begin with, the Alexandrian sage sensed, by Faith, striking deficiencies in the teachers he had been studying; hence, he began looking for a teacher who was superior in wisdom and knowledge above all whom he had known. His search led him to Jesus Christ where he found the wisdom for which he had been seeking. In time Jesus came to supply the succor to his many other Spiritual needs, the supreme one being of course, soul salvation.

Tertullian is another ancient Christian of significant stature, who aligned his faith with Jesus Christ by a motive very similar to that of Clement. Like Clemet, Tertullian was a lover of Truth. And like the Alexandrian pedagogue, by faith he too sensed a definite incompleteness in the Truth he was studying. As a philosopher of much repute, Tertullian continuously sought illumination wherever it could be found. His quest, itself an affect of Faith, led him to examine the life and Truth of the Jewish Messiah. Once he began perusing the sacred texts of the early Church, his meandrous excursions for academic pundits stopped. He came to realize that the greatest philosophical Truths known to mankind were contained in the teachings of Jesus. Thus, one could say that the Faith of Tertullian, together with that of Clement of Alexandria, bonded with Jesus Christ at least in the beginning, simply because the Galilean Teacher was the Sage of sages. From there the two progressed onward into a closer relationship with the All-Sufficient Savior who by His power supplied all their Spiritual needs.

Centuries later, on the same type of search was M. Scott Peck, one of America's most celebrated Christian psychiatrist. Dr. Peck would come to know, by Faith, the All-Sufficient-Savior of the world as a result of his persistent search for psychological Truth. When he launched his quest, he was looking for Truth that would help his counseling practice and hopefully the practice of other psychiatrists. Well, he found it. It was Truth that people could rely on and build their lives on -- the Truth presented in his best selling book, The Road Less Traveled. To repeat, Peck's original objective was not to build a solid case for Christianity; nevertheless, that is precisely what he did, himself becoming a Christian in the process as told in his second book, People of the Lie. .

Would anyone gainsay that the initial motivation drawing one to Jesus Christ may vary according to interest, age, and circumstance? The captivating fact of the matter, however, is that the Plaroma of God will exert a continuous attraction upon individual faith, to the extent that it will ultimately lead one to the eternal need of soul-salvation in Jesus Christ.

Now I admit that what I have just said about Clement, Tertullian, and Scott Peck may be unsettling to a couple of extremely conservative evangelical groups.

First, there is an evangelical mind-set which stresses that Faith relates only to the need of one's soul-salvation and to nothing else. To be quite transparent, I, in no way, dispute that the greatest need of the human being is to have a saving relationship with the Savior of the world. Nevertheless, to restrict the operations of Faith to soul-salvation exclusively would tend to imply that the power of Jesus is applicable only to this one need. Further, to maintain that Faith relates exclusively to soul-salvation raises the question of the Lord's compassionate interest in people's physical needs and life's struggles as a whole. Let me at once discount this extreme position by simply saying, it cannot be supported by the Scriptures. Even a tenuous reading of the Gospel manuscripts, indicate that Jesus approached human need by attending to what was most pressing in a person's life. Since Jesus Christ is the Plaroma, he can address all the needs of the human being, which is something that cannot be said of other religious founders however commendable they may be in other respects. When the first century woman with the chronic bleeding condition reached out in Faith and touched the hem of Jesus' garment, it is said that power went out from Him to her and she was healed instantly. (Mark 5:30-34.) Power was consistently going out from Jesus in the first century as he supplied people with their varying needs, both physical and Spiritual.    

Second, there is the evangelical mind-set that holds the position that Faith embraces a much wider range of needs other than that of soul-salvation, but prefaces it with the disclaimer: Jesus answers no prayer, performs no miracle, grants no guiding assistance to anyone who has not first come to Him for soul-salvation. Once again, this position can be set aside for the same reason; namely, the Scriptures teach otherwise. I recall the story of Jesus healing the man born blind, as told in the Gospel of John. (See John 9.) This sightless one did not have a soul-salvation relationship with Jesus at the moment he was healed. In fact the text spells out quite unmistakably that the blind man was not sure who Jesus was at first, other than the fact he knew by Faith that He was from God. However, as a result of the miracle performed upon his eyes, he began reflecting rather deeply upon the identity of his Physician. Eventually he arrived at an acceptable theological understanding of who had healed him. To recapitulate, he had no such understanding at first. Initially, his Faith responded spontaneously to the Divine qualities and powers that were within Jesus. Then in time his Faith led him on to a fuller and more conceptual appreciation of his Benefactor. The New Testament elucidates, unequivocally, that Jesus Christ is not indifferent to any form of human need. To be quite clear, the Gospel shows that Jesus is interested in all the needs of all the people for all time.    

These two extremely conservative mind-sets of the evangelical Church, just noted, lack a solid Scriptural foundation for their positions. The unabridged record of the New Testament gives clear indication that Jesus honors Faith no matter from what root the signals may spring. Although soul salvation may have been paramount with the Son of God, He passed off no human need as unworthy simply because it was not eschatological, or because the one making the request lacked an adequate conceptualization of who He was. Although it is surely unwitting, these two extreme mind-sets of evangelical Christianity call in question the authority, power and all sufficiency of Jesus Christ as the Plaramo of God.

Yes, Jesus frequently supplied physical needs, before he supplied Spiritual needs. Just think about it for a moment. The needs of a human being are many and will vary to some extent across a lifetime. Age and circumstance conspire to produce a wide range of exigencies. Gratefully, the Gospel reveals that the multiple necessities of a human being are important to Jesus Christ regardless of the nature of the relationship one may have established with the Savior of mankind. Indeed, the historical Jesus responded to all kinds of needs. What may be perceived as small to one (as a result of personal experiences and circumstances) may be viewed as large to another. And what may be inconsequential to some people may be of great importance to God.

In this age of pluralism, we must not hesitate to say that many people the world over have oriented themselves, by Faith, to an incorrect Spiritual direction and have bonded to that which is incompatible to their nature and needs. Moreover, such people will never be able to do any better until that which is fully compatible to their nature and needs is discovered and confirmed by their Faith. Without question there have been enlightened ones who were not of the Judeo-Christian tradition who have known something about God and the Spiritual nature of mankind. However, these religious figures of the past, and apparently a few in the existing generation, do not embrace the full range of the human predicament, leaving their followers lost and undone. Even more disturbing, it appears that some of these so called cult leaders have actually been premeditated deceivers, in that they knowingly and viciously misdirected the Faith of their gullible followers, many of which suffer from a heightened disposition of adolescent gregariousness, a condition that is covered in a later chapter. In spite of all of this, however, when the uncorrupted and untampered with Gospel of Jesus Christ is heard by those who have misaligned their Faith, an attraction to Truth results. Amazingly and encouragingly, the Faith of all the misdirected begins bonding with the central figure of the New Testament, Jesus Christ the Lord.