IBA

Greetings in the name of our Lord! We trust things are going well for you and that this past year the Lord has given you opportunity to reach out to those in need of the Gospel!
We had a very busy 2001 here at IBA. Besides the usual correspondence (some from around the world!) we have had many opportunities to meet with Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and New Agers and circulate IBA materials in the community in effort to reach them for Christ. We also had the opportunity to meet with a former Jehovah's Witness who was disfellowshiped and seeking answers and encouragement! Please pray for her and her family! Also continue to pray for Carl, an 86-year-old JW, who spends many hours outside a local Safeway store handing out Watchtower materials as people go in and out. We meet with him weekly and are praying that the Lord will sovereignly use us in bringing him to Christ!
Because of the Harry Potter books, film, and other media, We have had numerous opportunities to dialogue with local witches (neo-pagans) and skeptics and have responded to their attacks on Christianity via radio and newspaper submissions! We were also interviewed by a local newspaper regarding Harry Potter and able to publish a good portion of our 5-page assessment of the Harry Potter books (available through IBA) in the newspaper! Needless to say, has been quite interesting and exhaustive, to say the least!
We continue to reach out to our immediate community and many other places in our continued Community Outreach Meetings. Last year we presented several public lectures on the necessity for doctrinal discernment, and then a series on reaching Jew's for Christ. We also conducted a number of Tabletalk meetings at which we lead discussions on Gwen Shamblin's Weigh-Down Workshops and the Doctrine of the Trinity (11-page position paper available through IBA); The Extent of the Atonement: for Whom did Christ Die?; Abortion & the Rights of the Unborn; A Biblical View of Church Discipline; and, The Postribulationist View: Will Believer's Undergo the Wrath of God?
We continue to broadcast our radio program, SearchLight, on the first and third Sunday's of each month where we are able to present the Gospel and cover a number of topics that are examined in light of God's Word, the Bible! In view of recent events, we've just completed a lengthy study contrasting Islam with Christianity and the Bible!
Aside from our ministry projects and outreach, I continue to teach part-time as adjunct faculty member with San Jose Christian College (Rocklin extension) where! teach courses in theology, New Testament, evangelism, Bible interpretation, and Christian perspectives (worldviews). I also continue teaching a course on Comparative Religions at Trinity Life Bible College (in Sacramento) each year and, this Summer! am scheduled to teach a course on the Cults at Trinity as well. I have been invited to teach a course entitled Bible Interpretation (Hermeneutics) for Shasta Bible College (Redding, CA) at their host site on the campus of Forest Lake Christian School sometime this year- if you are interested or know anyone wanting course credit for the class, let us know! I'm thrilled about these teaching opportunities and would ask that you continue to pray that the Lord open more doors!
This past year IBA became a member with Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR), a coalition of evangelical countercult ministries & cult researchers. We look forward to our relationship with them! We also continue to have an on-going relationship with the Nevada County Christian Ministerial Fellowship (a fellowship of local pastors, ministries, and Christian organizations) where we have been active in providing information regarding the cults and new age activity as well as questionable doctrine or practice within the Body of Christ.
Finally, we are looking forward to several areas of ministry unfolding as we move ahead in ministry. We are getting our web page fully functional this year, making the fruit of this ministry available on a much broader scale! We are also praying about IBA's participation in an upcoming missions outreach in the Philippine- we need to raise $1500 in order to go and help train pastors and educators in apologetics. Should the Lord lead you, we would welcome your support in this and many other areas! We have also been invited to participate in the Countercult Grace Conference in Pinecrest, CA in June this year where we will speak and share IBA's perspective on Islam as well as other areas of interest with ex-cultists and others involved in countercult ministry's. Further, we have also been asked to help train the staff at both Christian Entercounter Ranch and Diamond Arrow Christian Conference Center on how to deal with cults and the New Age influence among our young people. Needless to say, we are excited about what the Lord is doing through IBA!
Pray also for wisdom and guidance in my choice of enrollment in a Ph.D program (distance education) as I am getting responses from several schools now. I have prayed long and hard and looked into what is offered for several years now. Obviously our decision will effect our lives and this ministry in a number of ways!
We want to say thanks to those of you who value this ministry and continue to support us as you can! Without your giving we cannot continue to do the things that we do and make an impact in so many lives! Thanks for enabling us to be your hands and for allowing the Lord to use us through your generosity!
Be sure to take a look at our Schedule for 2002. We'd love to see you at our meetings as well as other events! Don't hesitate to call for further information or about becoming personally involved in our evangelistic outreaches or the many other activities of IBA! May God continue to use IBA as a missionary outreach and educational arm of the church to bless the lives of others and to reach out to the cults and new agers who so desperately need Christ!

Always in the Service of Christ
Dan & Marsha Schlesinger

Religions in Contrast: an IBA Fact Sheet

Islam and Christianity

The religion of Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in the world. While it affirms monotheism (belief in only one God), claims its roots in the Old Testament (as descendants of Ishmael, as on of Abraham), and teach doctrines similar to the teachings of the Bible, Islam differs with Christianity on a number of points. Moreover, because it continues to grow at its present rate, the religion of Islam poses a real threat to the missionary outreach of the Christian church.
As many Christians have experienced, Muslim's can be some of the most difficult people in the world to convert to Christianity simply because they are so devoted to their faith, believe that they worship the one true and living God (Allah) and that Mohammed is God's prophet. The good news is, Muslim's do come to Christ! It may take day's or even years of sharing the Gospel with them but the Holy Spirit is quite capable of penetrating their hearts and minds causing them to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Below we have contrasted the basic views of Islam and Christianity and provided a brief bibliography so that you may reach out to them with the true Gospel.

Islam teaches Christianity teaches

The Torah (first five books of the Bible); the Psalms (the Zabur) ; the Gospel (the Injil) and the Qur'an are holy books given by divine revelation. However, only the Qur'an has been preserved in an uncorrupted state. The Bible (which has been corrupted by the Jews and Christians- called the doctrine of tahrif, or alteration), has been abrogated by the Qur'an (Sura 2:75,78-79). The Bible is the unique, divinely inspired, final, and infallible Word of God and the final authority in matters of faith and practice (2 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 1:1,2; 1 Pet. 1:21). Moreover, all revelation or scripture purporting to be from God is to be tested by what God has already revealed in the Bible and through Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5:21; 1 Cor. 15:1-4; Heb. 1:l ,2).

Jesus is one of the major prophets equal to Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses (Sura 4:169-71; 19:34-35; 19:2 l), was the son of Mary, and no more than an Apostle (Sura 5:78). Moreover, Jesus is not the divine Son of God (Sum 19:35; 10:68) and to associate him with God is blasphemy (Sura 4:116). Jesus did not die on the cross for sin but was taken up bodily into heaven (Sura 2:87; 3:55; 4:157-58; 19:33). Jesus Christ, not Mohammed, is the culmination of all the prophets (Heb. 2:1,2; Gal. 4:4,5; Luke 24:27; Acts 26:22,23); that Jesus physically suffered and died on the cross as the substitutionary atonement for our sins and that it was for this very purpose God sent his Son (Matt. 20:28; John 3:16; Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 1:19,20; John 6:51); and that Jesus is God the Son, Second Person of the divine Trinity (John 1 :1, 18; Rom. 5:9; Jobn 8:58; John 10:30; Titus 2:13; John 20:28).

There is only one God (Allah). He is absolute and indivisible unity (The Qur'an, Sura 112); No partner is to be assigned or associated with God (The Qur'an, Sura 4:116). There is no Trinity of Persons. There is only one God (Deu. 4:3 5; Isa. 37:20; 43:10; 1 Cor. 8:4; 1 Tim. 1:17; James 2:19); The God of the Bible is a compound, or complex unity: one essence, three Persons, a Trinity existing eternally as Father, Son & Holy Spirit (John 17:3; 1 Cor. 8:6; John 1:1, 18; John 20:28; Rom.9:5; Heb. 1:10; Acts 5:3-4; 2 Cor. 3:17-18).

While human beings were created innocent and free (born in a natural state of purity or fitrah) and chose to sin against God, sin is not apart of human nature (Sura 30:30). Sin is failure to do Allah's will and failure to do one's religious duties as outlined in the Five Pillars of Islam will result in punishment; to those who do deeds of righteousness, forgiveness and future reward in Paradise is promised (Sura 2:111-12; 5:10). No atonement plays part Islamic theology. The death and condemnation of all human beings find their cause in the sin and rebellion of Adam against God (Rom. 5:12-19); That sin caused spiritual death (Rom. 6:23); and that sin is only forgiven by the person, nature, and work of Jesus Christ, our atonement for sin (1 Cor. 15:3,4; Eph. 2:1-9; Hebrews 9:12-14; 10:12-18).

There will be a resurrection of all humankind where all will be assembled before the throne of God (Sura 46:33; 36:78-79). There each individual will be given an opportunity to contemplate on the faults of the past (Sura 37:18-21; 21:103; 80:33-42). There will be a final judgment where a persons deeds will be weighed by means of a divine scale (Sura; 17:13- 14; 18:49) and depending on the weight of their good or bad deeds, one will either attain salvation (bliss) or be consigned to hell (Sum 23:102-l03; 69:18-31). There will be a resurrection of the just and the unjust and those who have rejected Jesus Christ as Savior will suffer conscious eternal punishment and separation from the presence of God (Matt. 25:41,46; Rev. 14:10,11; 20:10,15), those who place their faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ will experience an eternity in heaven (Matt. 25:41,46; Rom. 10:9,10; 1 Cor. 15; 1 Thess. 4:14-18; 5:9,10; Rev. 21).

For more in-depth study's on understanding Islam and sharing the Gospel with them IBA recommends the following books:
Answering Islam: The Crescent in the Light of the Cross (Baker Book House, 1993) by Norman L. Gisler & Abdul Saleeb
Islam: A Survey of the Muslim Faith (Baker Book House, 1982) by C. George Fry & James R. King
The Call of the Minaret (Oxford University Press, 1964) by Kenneth Cragg
Sharing Your Faith with a Muslim (Bethany House Fellowship, 1980) by Abdul-Haqq, Abdiyah Akbar
Islam and Christianity: A Muslim and a Christian in Dialogue, (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.; Reprint edition (April 1982) ) by Badru D. Kateregga
The Islam Debate (Here's Life Publishers, 1983) by Josh McDowell & John Gilchrist
Bridges to Islam (Baker Book House, 1983) by Phil Parshall
Muslim's and Christians on the Emmaus Road (MARC Publishers, 1989) by Dudley J. Woodberry
An Analysis of the Hadith (Research Education Foundation, 1992) by Robert Morey