And I know you because?

The Koran says that not only did Solomon understand “the language of the birds” but that “winds also performed his will, and the jinn . . . To him were obedient demons of the most diverse sorts, and the evil spirits were given into his hand.”

The Koran’s male and female “jinns” were spirits to be worshipped and feared and could be found in trees, stones, rivers and mountains.

“In terms of pre-Islamic religious life, the basic orientation of the people was that of superstition—the Arabs believed in the ‘evil eye,’ the casting of curses and spells, magic stones, fatalism, fetishes, and the fabulous stories of the jinns, or what we call in English genies or fairies,” reports author Robert Morey in his 1992 book The Islamic Invasion.

“Most people in their childhood have read some of the fantastic fables found in The Arabian Nights, stories of Aladdin’s lamp, of flying carpets, etc. It is no surprise therefore to find that the Koran also contains references to such things as the evil eye, curses, fatalism, and the fabulous jinns (Sura 55; 72; 113 and 114).

“In many Islamic countries, Muslims still wear an amulet around the neck in which a part of the Koran is recorded to ward off the ‘evil eye.’ ”

 

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According to the Koran (Suras 46:29-35; 72:1-28), Muhammad, on his way back from Mecca, preached to and converted the jinns who, in turn, preached Islam to the masses.

“Thus, the male and female spirits who inhabited the trees, the rocks, and the waters of Arabia were now Muslims and under the control of Muhammad,” writes Morey. “This is a classic form of shamanism in which Muhammad now claimed to be in control of the spirits of the earth.”

Morey reports that Muhammad’s mother Aminah, in fact, often claimed to be visited by jinns: “Muhammad’s mother was involved in what we call today the ‘occult arts,’ and this basic orientation is thought by some scholars to have been inherited by her son.

In fact, it was when Muhammad was in a trancelike state that he’d receive his “divine” visitations and then rise and proclaim what had been “handed down” to him.

“From the description of the bodily movements that were often connected with his trances, many scholars have stated that these were epileptic seizures,” writes Morey. “For example, the Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam, published by Cornell University, points out that the Hadith itself describes ‘the half-abnormal ecstatic condition with which he was overcome.’

“What must be remembered is that in the Arab culture of Muhammad’s day, epileptic seizures were interpreted as a religious sign of either demonic possession or divine visitation.

“Muhammad initially considered both options as possible interpretations of his experience. At first he worried about the possibility that he was demon possessed . . . The bodily characteristics connected with his religious trance seemed even to Muhammad to parallel those of people in his community who would fall down in fits and of whom others would say that they were possessed of devils.

“He became so depressed that he decided to commit suicide. But on his way to the place where he was going to kill himself, he fell once again into a seizure. He experienced another vision in which he felt that he had been told not to kill himself because he was truly called of God.

“Yet even after this religious experience, he still became depressed and filled with doubt.”

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Paul testifies in Acts 26:15, “And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.”

Paul, an orthodox rabbinical scholar, knew who Jehovah was and he knew it was the God of the Bible who opened the heavens, so when he says, "Who art thou, Lord?" that question goes back to the Book of Genesis, explains Richard Jordan.

When Jacob wrestled with the Lord, he said, "Tell me your name!" Then, in Exodus 3, Moses says to God, "Tell me, who am I supposed to say sent me?!" In the Book of Judges, Gideon’s mom and dad say, "Tell us who you are! Who is this guy?"

God wouldn’t tell any of them. Paul said, "I got a question; who are you?" You know good and well he was thinking, "Oh, man!" because he’d been out killing Christ’s followers.

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King Nebuchadnezzar says to Daniel in Daniel 2:47, "Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret."

To me this is one the greatest titles of God in all of the Bible. In verse 29, Daniel had told him, "As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass."

You can’t find God out by searching but you don’t have to because God reveals Himself.

Isaiah 22:14 says, "And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord GOD of hosts."

At camp in California we were discussing some of these guys in the Bible who talk about God talking to them.

You know how He spoke to Isaiah? It was, "HEY, Isaiah!" It was an audible voice and Isaiah heard Him with his ears. Now God isn’t going to talk to you like that today.

I Corinthians 2:9-10 says, [9] But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
[10] But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

You got something better than Jesus Christ appearing to you at the end of the bed and talking to you. You’ve got something that doesn’t disappear; something that doesn’t just rely on your memory of what was said.

You’ve got something written down on a page that doesn’t change and is always there and always reliable.

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When people talk about translating the Bible, the great translation problem was taken care of long before anybody had to worry about English. If you can translate deity thoughts and deity words into human words, that’s the translation product!

People talk about language limitation--there’s the language limitation! If you could take the thoughts of the godhead and put them in Hebrew and Greek, anything else taken from one language to another is a snap.

God revealed it, made it known. He translated His thinking into our thinking. Isaiah 30:8 says, "Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever."

He takes the revelation and commits it to written form, putting words on the page in a book. He writes that revelation down and we call that inspiration.