Transcription
One of the biggest reasons why people have such convictions about certain religions or religious figures, such as Jesus or Allah, is due to the emotional attachment that they have developed, uh, to these characters or these ideas throughout their lives. Often, people who were not raised in religion or haven't really gone to church as a young child, uh, in their adult years, what happens is when they come into some of these down and out times in their lives, they look for some type of guidance, some type of assistance, some type of explanation or empower in order to get through these times. And so, what happens is a lot of times they find religion, right? They come along and these things are helpful tools for them to help them through those hard times, right? Which is understandable. So they may come into the ideas of Jesus or Allah, which allows them to get some type of sense of security, um, understanding, some peace, and to some extent, some empowerment in their lives.
So, for example, I'll never forget when I was, uh, in my early 20s, and this is right before going into the Marine Corps. It was a group, group of us who were going into the Marine Corps, and we're going into boot camp. And this is probably like a week prior to going. We're all together in this group, and somehow the conversation about God came out. And everyone in that group, with the exception of one person, believed in the idea of God. And obviously, everyone who believed in in the idea were looking at the person who didn't believe, you know, as something was wrong with them, and that they were crazy. But this person, you know, he held firm onto this belief, right? He wasn't budging. And there's pretty much nothing you can do to convince him to believe in a God, right?
And so, when we got there at to boot camp, and we arrived, uh, it got real, and it got real real quick, right? And so, when you go into the training depot, you're greeted by drill instructors, and you know, they're they're spitting and yelling all in your face, and it's pretty intense, right? And because these drill instructors, they're world-class at creating a, um, stressful environment, and basically create an environment that pushes your psychological abilities to the limit. And they're better at doing this than anybody else that I know in the world, right? And so, for 13 weeks, they keep this up at a very high, intense pace, right?
And so, church is one of the escape routes that you get when you're in boot camp, right? Sunday is a day, or at least for a few hours on Sunday, where you get to go to church. And that's the only time you get away from these drill instructors, right? These these, um, what you would call some things running around like demons haunting you, right? If you want to be want it to be explained in that way, right? And so, you get your break there, and you get to go over to church service, and you don't have to deal with these guys, right? For for these few hours. And so, everyone is looking forward to Sunday. Everyone's going in there. This is your break, right?
And so, I remember about four or five weeks into boot camp, one day I went in there to the church service. And then, as I go into the church service, lo and behold, the the guy who we're talking about in the beginning, who didn't believe in God, you see him him there with Bible open, singing hymns. Oh snaps, I said, what's going on here, right? What do we got going on here, right? The only thing he can do is just look and just laugh, right? And so, I don't know what happened to him after we finished boot camp, but I know during boot camp, he became a believer, right? He was a believer. All that stress that was weighing him down, and to him, he didn't feel like there was any way out of it, right? So he had to go to something and resort to something that he felt like could help him through this time. Because people don't care about when you're in boot camp, Marine Corps boot camp, people don't care about you crying, feeling like, you know, the world is against you, you can't handle this. Nobody wants to hear any of that stuff. Like, you're there and you better deal with it, right? So he learned to deal with it in this fashion.
And so, as it was with him, many people also find refuge in the characters of Jesus or Allah to help them get through some of these hard times that they have throughout their life. And I think it's understandable, right? Looking at it, and it's reasonable for someone to do. But what I want to demonstrate in this video is that how neither Jesus nor Allah is a one-size-fits-all solution for any and everybody, right? And that how neither of them have a monopoly on changing someone's life or saving someone's life. And how there's people from different backgrounds who have used these characters and ideas as a means in order to change their lives, right?
So, for example, we have an example of this first video here, how the idea of Jesus helped save somebody from hurting themselves and hurting others. "People in the church I was smoking with, it was the people in the church I was drinking with, and we're all lukewarm together because we never saw the power of God. We never understood what Jesus actually did. But as a preacher's preaching in Ukraine, I could barely understand it, but the spirit of God began to fill me, and I began to weep. And as a call was made, I didn't even walk up to that altar, but I ran up to that altar and I said, God, if this is true, that you came, that you lived, lived, that you died, that you rose from the dead, if that this is true, then come and take over. I said, God, I didn't even know how to pray. I said, God, I'm tired of being in control because when I'm in control, I hurt myself and I hurt people. Take control. And oh my goodness, the power of the Holy Spirit fell in that church. I remember beginning to just tear, just tears roll down my eyes, tears of joy. And for some reason, I just understood that God forgave me, that God redeemed me. And I remember just weeping, snot all over the place. And I just, that I was born again. Somebody say Hallelujah."
And so, we can see in this video here that he's had a great emotional feeling that came upon him. And these are real experiences. These are things that people are actually experiencing. And that shows how powerful many of these ideas are to the point where it can get people to have these strong emotional, uh, reactions. And then many times, many other people go off to go and change their lives, right? Because that's what emotional reactions tend to cause. They tend to cause physical responses in response to emotional reactions. And so, in this case, we see him attributing this change in his life to the idea of Jesus. But Jesus is not the only idea or character that has this type of power.
In this video coming up, we're going to see how the idea of Allah is one that was used to help someone change their old ways. "Watch brothers turn to Allah, man, because guess what? Allah gave me the opportunity. Allah gave me the opportunity to at least come back to him. You may not fall into that situation where you're like me, bro. Allah may not give you the opportunity to repent back to him, bro. Some people are dying upon committing Zina. Some people are dying upon driving and doing balloons in the car. A, they're dying and they're killing the people with them in the car. But I'm grateful 'cause Allah gave me the opportunity. He gave me the opportunity to turn back to him, to ask him for forgiveness. Because, wow, now that I've tasted the sweetness of repenting to Allah, I can never go back on my old ways."
Powerful. You see how powerful this stuff is, right? And when you see some of his other, um, testimonials where he said that there was four people in the car that got stabbed, and he was the only one that survived. When you attribute these type of circumstances to the character of Allah, then it creates these emotional attachments to where it's a real thing in someone's life. And that's regardless if that's the actual case or truth of the situation or not, right? These things are powerful. These ideas are powerful.
And so, we can see in this next instance where someone's attributing the Holy Spirit to preventing them from committing suicide. Watch this. "Man was about to commit suicide, but the Holy Spirit saved his life. Watch this. I walked into my room and I ended up putting my gun to my head. And in the moment of having that gun to my head, man, sitting on my bed, man, the Holy Spirit straight, you know, fell on me. And I felt like this overwhelming sense of love and peace and and, uh, uh, acceptance. You cannot deny that feeling, you know what I'm saying? And and it literally reached through my body, man. And it touched my heart and it changed me. The the God of the Bible that I always thought was this impersonal fake entity, that either he wasn't real or he just didn't care about us. That God, man, he he came off them pages. He came off them pictures, them fake pictures on the wall. And all of this stuff that we have misrepresenting him, man. And he jumped into my real life."
You see how serious this stuff is? The idea of the Holy Spirit, uh, and a personal God, that is what prevented him from doing that to himself, right? Preventing him from pulling the trigger. That's because these ideas are very powerful, right? And these are real feelings that people are having. And so, he's attributing this instance of him not taking his life to, obviously, to what he knows. And I'm assuming that this is probably pretty much he knows is the biblical God, those concepts that come from that, which most people in America are familiar with. And so, what else would he have to attribute to that, right? If that's all he knows. So it's very understandable for that. And in this instance, that idea and that concept is what saved his life, right? And it probably prevented a lot of other people from having to deal with a lot of trauma behind that, right? And so, these ideas can be very, very, very powerful, right? And this is regardless if these ideas are true or not, right? I'm going to continue to stress that.
And so, in this next instance, we're going to find another person who had the thoughts of taking their life, but the biblical God or the personal God or the Holy Spirit wasn't attributed to saving them. They have attributed themselves being saved to another concept. So, let's watch this right now. "If, if you're going through something, don't, don't kill yourself, man. It's not worth it, bro. I, I wake up in the park every day with a knife to my throat, man. Like, if I, if I don't, if I don't kill myself, bro, you don't have to kill yourself, bro. You don't have to do drugs. You don't have to do alcohol. No, nothing brings happiness except, except the higher power, man. I'm, I'm a year Muslim. I go to Juma when I can. I pray five times a day."
"Good. That's good. That's good, man. That's good. If, if it wasn't for Allah, man, I'd be dead right now. Abdullah. Abdullah. That's your name."
Abdullah. Much respect to both of the gentlemen who have expressed their testimonial of of not continuing with taking their life, right? These are powerful statements that they're making and powerful testimonies that they have. And so, we see in this instance, he's attributing his life not being taken to Allah. And so, Allah is real to him, right? And it has real effects in his life. You can see it here. He's still having some trouble, obviously. We can see there's still some trouble happening with him. But it's that idea and that concept has prevented him from harming himself, right? And maybe from here, he can have a complete different change of life, right? And go off and go live a phenomenal life, you know, and get his stuff together. But the point is that it is working in his life, right? And that's how these ideas work, right?
And so, it's important for us to understand this because when we understand how belief works, it gives us insight into the people who created many of these ideas and concepts, right? These religious concepts and these God concepts. And it gives us understanding on how they understood, and how people still understand today, how belief works and the impact it has on people, right? And that's a key to getting people to do what people want them to do, whether it's to help someone or whether it's to control people. When you unlock, unlock that understanding of belief, then it all that stuff unravels. And there's people who absolutely understand how this works, right? So we have to keep that in mind.
Now, going into this next video, we're going to see how the idea of Jesus is everything to this person, and he's going to tell how this, um, Jesus has saved him. Let's watch it. "Johnny, who is Jesus to you?" "Jesus to me is the way. Meaning, only way, the truth, and the light. He is the only way to God. And Jesus to me is everything because without him, I'm nothing. You know, honestly, if you strip away Jesus from Johnny Chang, if you strip away God from Johnny Chang, would I be able to even boldly go and preach this gospel? This gospel is not my gospel, it's the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the good news, right? So Jesus to me is the light, the truth, the way. Meaning, without him, I have no way. He, he is my way. Without him, I have no truth. And without him, there is no light in my life. That's who Jesus is to me. You know, he is my savior. Saved me from what?" "Addictions, gang banging?" "Yes, that's all fine and dandy, but what he really saved me from was sin. He washed me, he cleansed me, and he went into heaven, Hebrews 9:12, and obtained eternal redemption for us, for me."
Wow. So, this is powerful stuff. And so, these beliefs can produce radical changes in people's lives, right? If it's used in a proper way. And so, for instance, for the person we just saw, it removed him from the gang banging life, the street life, addiction, and, um, it's created these type of changes in his life. And he's attributing that to Jesus, right? Which is what he sees as the factor for changing his life, right? If that idea is what works for him, then that's what works for him. And so, likewise, we can get other examples for people who have changed their lives and who've been saved as well, and who attribute it to other things, right? This is just the point that's being made, right? It's just not one source.
So, let's go on to this next video and see someone else's life being changed from a different concept. "Islam saved me, bro. Islam saved me, you know, like, um, no doubt in my mind, um, and it's a gift. Islam. I found peace when I first went into Sujood. And it was before I was Muslim. It was like about a week before I became Muslim, you know what I mean? Yeah. I went and done Wudu with someone and then I stood in congregation. I didn't, I didn't know any Muslims. I came into Islam blind, bro. But I just knew it was for me, you know what I mean? You know, like, it's changed my whole life. Changed my whole life, you know, like, and obviously we have trials, tribulations, man. But yeah, Subhan Allah, you know, like, um, I'm Muslim, and that's that's it, you know, like, simple as that, really. Yeah. Alhamdulillah."
This is very powerful stuff. This stuff is real in the minds of the believers, and I understand that 100%. But like I said, in the in the beginning of the video, that these radical changes are not just monopolies of Jesus or Allah. You can go throughout the world and find different religions from people from different backgrounds who also have these testimonies. All you have to do is look, right? Many people have different concepts that work for them. And many people outside of religion, right? Some people, it's therapy that works, just going and talking to a counselor. Some people is finding a hobby that works. That may be their their, um, vehicle in order to get them out of a lot of stress and change their lives, right? There's a whole bunch of different vehicles that and avenues that people can use to change their lives, right? But it's the, the belief in these, in these ideas, and the belief in many of these concepts that can produce these types of changes, right?
And so, I want to go into a bonus example right now that's outside of the Islam or the Christian example, so we can just get another example on how, um, changes can be, um, found in other people's lives outside of these two main religions, right? So, let's go on to one right now. It's a West African religion, the Yoruba, and it deals with the Orisha spirits. Watch. "Knowing what you went through, whether it was Orisha, whether it was the Yah, you know, would you do it again?" "In a heartbeat. In a heartbeat." "That's awesome. It changed my life. It literally changed my life mentally and physically. Arisha saved my life." "That's beautiful. I mean, what, um, what do you think the biggest lesson you learned throughout the year?" "Faith. Yeah. And patience, right?"
And so, she genuinely feels that the Orishas have changed and saved her life. Now, looking at this back when I had an immature biblical perspective on life, I would have looked at this and would have thought immediately, this is not true. You know, this whole thing that she is, is just demonic, and she's being possessed by demons. Demons have her and if over her, and that's what she's experiencing. She doesn't have the one true God. We have the one true God, right? This is the type of thinking that I would have had back in the day. Oh, you're working with those African spirits, devilish, demonic. You guys are going to wait for the Lord to come back and destroy all this stuff. This is the type of thinking I would have had back then with the, with, with, um, my religious tolerance back then. But after growing, after coming out of that box and being able to see a broader world, you, I can easily look at this and see it as it genuinely working for her. And someone who's genuinely content with her experience and where she's at in life. And if she's happy with where she's at in life, I'm happy for her and where she's at in life, right? It's just that simple, right? But that comes with a lot of growth and a lot of understanding and just a lot of observation, right? And just seeing things how they are for what they are, and not thinking that one way is just the absolute yes, and the other way is not right. All others that fall outside of that should be condemned and demonic. This is how a lot of people have approached these two mainstream religions, the Christianity and Islam, right? And that's why a lot of, um, destruction has come out of those two religions, right? There's some good that has come out of those religions as well, but there's a lot of death and destruction that come behind that, and a lot of colonizing of people's minds, right? Which we'll get into in other videos. But for this video, I just wanted to show that you can go any of these routes, and there's people from these different backgrounds who have stories on where they've been saved, their life has been changed, it's taken them out of gang banging, um, some of them attribute, uh, their cancer being cured to Jesus, Allah, Buddha. Like, you can go all throughout the across the board, right? And where people have these different experiences. And it's not unique. That's one thing that I found and allowed me to really look at religion for what it is, is that it's not unique to any one religion, right? And when I started to notice that, it became very obvious, right? Whereas if it were just unique to just one religion, one religion is just the one that has is just prosperous, one religion is the one that has great lives, one religion is the one that has, you know, um, success. If I would have seen that, then I could have been like, okay, maybe they're on to something. But you don't see that widespread anywhere, right? Everyone has their ups, everyone's having their downs, everyone's prosperous, you know, everyone has their, um, uh, impoverishment, you know, this is across the board, right? And it just comes with a little bit of observation. You, it'll be clear to see it.
Okay, so hopefully this video has given us some understanding. Um, I want to thank you for watching to the end. My name is Brooklyn St. Michael, and I'll see you on the next one.