Islam

“This is a graphic story of the gradual unveiling of the meaning of the Apocalypse in the light of the events of history. It traces this development through eighteen centuries, from the days of the apostolic and martyr Church to those of the mediaeval Church, the Reformation Church, and the Church of modern times.

“Sweet First Fruits is a… story primarily designed to give scope and opportunity for presenting to the Muslim reader the proofs of the Christian faith, the purity and genuineness of our Bible, its attestation by the Koran, and the consequent obligation on Muslims to obey its precepts.

Edward Bishop Elliott (1793-1875) “graduated from Cambridge in 1816 and he served in various positions as a minister for the Church of England. He ultimately settled at St. Marks Church in Brighton.

“The idea of personal liberty – freedom of conscience – has no place in Moslem law, whether religious or civil. . . The law of apostasy is known to all Moslems from their youth up, if not in its detail of legal penalties, yet in its power of producing an attitude bitterly hostile toward converts to Christianity.

“Kamil’s history is a rebuke to our unbelief in God’s willingness and power to lead Muslims into a hearty acceptance of Christ and his atoning sacrifice. We are apt to be discouraged by the closely riveted and intense intellectual aversion of these millions of Moslems to the doctrines of the Trinity and of the divinity of Jesus Christ.

“The last act in the fearful drama of the extermination of Christianity in the Byzantine Empire was the burning of Smyrna by the troops of Mustapha Khemah. The murder of the Armenian race had been practically consummated during the years 1915-1916, and the prosperous and populous Greek colonies, with the exception of Smyrna itself, had been ferociously destroyed.

William Tisdall was an expert in Islam and the Koran, and fluent in Arabic, Persian, and other languages. One of his most valuable books is Islamic Objections to Christianity, which will be re-released later this year by The Lutheran Library.