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With John Ghanim
43 Plays1 hour ago
Today's PEP Talk comes from a former Muslim who encountered Jesus in a powerful way. He gives us important reminders of the cost that can come from following Jesus - losing family, job and country. Whilst his journey to faith is full of passion and joy, it is also a great reminder to appreciate our freedoms and blessings in the West. How can we then use these freedoms to reach Muslims and support those who convert, often at great personal cost?
John Ghanim is a passionate Christian influencer, evangelist, and full-time missionary. After leaving Islam in 2014 and spending three years as an agnostic, his life was transformed at the end of 2017 when he encountered Jesus. Called to be an evangelist, John now dedicates his life to sharing Christ with all nations. With a background in business administration from his time in Yemen, he uses his experience and unwavering faith to inspire and equip believers worldwide. Follow him on social media here.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:00:09
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to another edition of Pep Talk, the persuasive evangelism podcast from Solus. I'm Gavin Matthews from Solus, I am flying alone today. Neither of my co-hosts are available today, unusually, and I am on my own, but I have good company today.
Meeting Solus Members in Belfast
00:00:24
Speaker
I am joined by John Ganim. John, are you there?
00:00:28
Speaker
Yes, I am here. Thank you. So good to meet you and in the last few minutes. Now, you connected with Solus because you bumped into... Andy Bannister, our director, and probably the chairman of our board, Derek, somewhere southern Northern Ireland, isn't that right? Belfast. We met in Belfast and it was a great meeting.
00:00:47
Speaker
Now, your accent is clearly not a Belfast
Yemeni Background and UK Security Concerns
00:00:50
Speaker
accent. The Belfast accent, marvellous as it is, is not the accent that you're bringing to us today. Tell us, where where are you from? what what's What's your background and where do you get that beautiful accent from?
00:01:00
Speaker
ah Well, i i am I am from Yemen. I am a Yemeni Arabic. I was born Yemen into a Muslim family. So ah Arabic and I learned, of course, English. So I am based in the UK at this moment.
00:01:14
Speaker
Okay, wonderful. Are you down in England? ah is that the part of the UK you're in? ah Well, I am in the UK. I can share my location for security reasons because as Muslim, I receive death rates every day.
00:01:29
Speaker
So I guess I'm in the UK.
Faith Journey: From Islam to Christianity
00:01:32
Speaker
The UK will do that. That's marvelous. Wonderful. Now, you mentioned that you grew up in an Islamic context, that you were brought up as a Muslim and you you believed the the the Muslim faith, but now you're speaking to us as a Christian.
00:01:45
Speaker
How did that happen? And we need the short version because this program only lasts 20 minutes. Give us the short version. Tell us something about your journey to a Christian faith. yeah I was born and raised into a Muslim devoted family in Yemen. Back in Yemen, my family taught me how to read Quran, how to pray, how to fast.
00:02:05
Speaker
um and I was very devoted to Islam. I was married 2012. My main family, um you know, choose a wife, my cousin to marry me. It was a ranked marriage.
00:02:16
Speaker
I studied business administration. During the uni, I started to ask the questions about the the creator, about God, because I felt the disconnection from him. I felt that the, yeah I can't feel him. I guessed ritual.
00:02:29
Speaker
So I went to Mecca in Mecca. Saudi the Arabia, where I was with a Muslim, there in front of Kaaba I said, this is man-made, this is not from God, if there is God. So I give up Islam in front of Kaaba.
00:02:43
Speaker
So that's how I give up.
Role of Bible and Persecution Faced
00:02:45
Speaker
And now that I gather from reading the little bio you sent us earlier on, moved you to initially agnosticism for quite a long time.
00:02:55
Speaker
Why didn't you remain an agnostic? Why didn't you just say, you know, whatever, you've you've rejected the faith you were brought up with, Why did you move on from agnosticism to faith in Jesus? Why why wasn't agnosticism your destination?
00:03:09
Speaker
Yeah, when I gave up Islam, um and I felt there is a God. It must be a God over there, but I couldn't find way to him. When I was approached by Christians in in Europe, and they told me about Jesus Christ. I started to read about Jesus Christ. They told me, Jesus died for yourself and he rose again. He's alive. He's the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. I started to read about him. Wow. He died for me. I went to that church for the first time in my life because in Yemen, the ah church is not allowed. It's forbidden. Christianity forbidden actually in Yemen.
00:03:42
Speaker
And when I start to read about Jesus Christ, um I especially, I was reading from Matthew chapter 1, 2, 3, chapter 3, the baptism of Jesus Christ where a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son whom I am pleased well.
00:03:58
Speaker
And in Islam, they actually deny that Jesus Christ is the son of God. They deny the resurrection. the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And when I understood that God speaks from heaven, I said, wow, God speaks from heaven.
00:04:12
Speaker
And God planted the seed of faith in my heart. I continued to read and the sermon in the moment, man, it changed my life upside down. ah i was reading the blessing, blessed are the poor in the spirit for there is the kingdom of heaven.
00:04:25
Speaker
All the blessings. i felt the God, I felt disconnected for for from him most of my life. I felt that he speaks to me through the Bible. And I said, this is the God I'm looking for. This is the God want
Challenges for Western Christians
00:04:37
Speaker
to follow. So I become follower of Jesus Christ.
00:04:39
Speaker
that's ah that That's how i the story began. and And you mentioned the Beatitudes in Matthew's Gospel. And now, of course, blessed are those who are persecuted, who are reviled for my name. And that that's now your experience you mentioned a minute ago.
00:04:52
Speaker
Yes. i I mean, when I become Christian, God give me a passion to, because Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10, 32, if you deny me before people, I will deny before my Father in heaven. If you acknowledge me before people, I will acknowledge you before my Father in heaven.
00:05:08
Speaker
And Jesus said, if you love your mother and your father more than me, you don't deserve me. If you love your ah a daughter or son more than me, you are not worthy of me. and So this is why I said, I i have a duty to share my faith because Jesus Christ died publicly in radical way. He loved me in radical way.
00:05:26
Speaker
and he rose again, I must share him publicly. So this is why I i felt in my heart I need to share with my people because shame on me if I don't share with my people. And I know the cost. I lost my family, I lost my daughters because I have two daughters because I told you i was married.
00:05:42
Speaker
The Imam in the mosque divorced my wife according to Islamic Sharia law. Till today, i don't have connection connection with them because they disowned me. I receive death three death rates every day.
00:05:54
Speaker
and my life at risk even in Europe. Even in Europe, my le my life at risk. So if you can type on ah YouTube, John Ghanim, you will see lots of videos against me. Even ah even women with burqa, they are taken against me.
00:06:09
Speaker
did Because I said Jesus Christ is God. I love them. I love everybody. I love my family. I pray for them. I pray for Muslims. I pray for everyone. Because Jesus Christ the only way to heaven. There is no other way.
00:06:21
Speaker
Well, that's a great a great challenge and a rebuke to us too, because very often those of us who've grown up in ah in a kind of a Western context here are struggling with just putting up with inconveniences for Jesus.
Theological Differences: Islam vs Christianity
00:06:34
Speaker
And what you've just told us is a stinging rebuke and a challenge to us to be much more so willing to stand up for Jesus in the context that we are, when we are never going to face the kind of thing that you are facing. So thank you so much for for sharing that with us. Now, obviously, many of us are very aware of the the differences there are between Islam and Christianity. um you know Andy Bannister wrote a book called did Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God? And in in that book, he compares the biblical view of God with the the Quranic view of God and highlights some similarities, but a lot of differences.
00:07:09
Speaker
ah So we're aware of some of the theological differences ah between the two faiths, but you have lived in both of those faiths. How does it feel to be How's it different? How's it lived experience different?
00:07:22
Speaker
How does it feel that's different to be a Muslim and a Christian? What's different when you're experiencing those faiths from the inside?
Freedom and Risks for Yemeni Christians
00:07:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's a really good question. When I was a Muslim, I used to, you know, to follow rules, to follow rituals, to follow what, how the family and the society, the community and the government, how they taught me.
00:07:44
Speaker
Even in the school, France, everywhere, you will see Muslims around you. This is how ah they taught me to just pray, pray, pray, fast, fast, fast, um ah earn your salvation ah to heaven.
00:07:58
Speaker
And that by praying, by by fasting, by giving charity, by hate the West as well, Jewish people, ah ah Christians, infidels.
00:08:11
Speaker
um So yeah, we thought, i mean, Muslims, they still tell today, they thought they are the best nations in the world, which they are not, of course, because, um i mean, we are human beings and we are sinners and we need a savior.
00:08:25
Speaker
So it's absolutely it's different. It's a different mentality, different... So I am i am really proud to that i am not I don't belong to that religion anymore because this just set me free.
00:08:39
Speaker
Set me free. So now when I say I'm Christian, this is why I tell i say publicly, Yemen for Christ and Yemenis, they should accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. They must, because if they give their life to Jesus Christ, it will be the most beautiful country in the world because the hate they carry against the West.
00:09:01
Speaker
the Because of Islam, because they are victim, victim of the ah this Islamic teaching, the religion of Islam. They are victim of that.
00:09:12
Speaker
So I am i amm really proud to say I'm free from that because Jesus ah set me free completely. So yeah. And are there many Christians hidden in in the Yemen? are Are there Christians there or do you not know? Or is it completely hidden um from public view because of the persecution and the difficulties that you described?
00:09:32
Speaker
Yeah, there is a Yemeni Christians, they came from Islamic background to Christ inside of Yemen. It's absolutely, it's underground. It's um it's very dangerous to be a Christian inside of Yemen.
00:09:45
Speaker
ah There is death penalty. ah There is two or three categories for persecution in Yemen. First, from the family. Second, from the society. Third, from the government. And yeah, there is a secret churches, they call them house churches, but it's so hard. It's it's so hard for them. Most of them, they've been in the in the two prison, and they they arrested them.
00:10:07
Speaker
So it's it's so hard to be a Christian inside of Yemen and to ah to hold the Bible. This is why I carry the like a giant Bible because I am free here in the West and I can i have i have i have access to the Bible, to freedom, to speak.
00:10:24
Speaker
So this is why i use my life, my everything to the Lord Jesus Christ, because in Yemen, I can't.
Misconceptions Muslims Have About Christianity
00:10:31
Speaker
And again, this is a freedom that we just take for granted, you know, in the West, we've, we've not known anything else. And we just assume this is, this is normal. And we, I think, forget to be grateful to God for this kind of freedom.
00:10:41
Speaker
that you could take your giant Bible and walk down the street without fear. It's ah it's a blessing that we we take for granted. and In terms of um Muslim people, how hard is it for them to look honestly and openly at at Christianity?
00:10:55
Speaker
um And how hard is it for Muslim people eventually to put their faith in Christ as you have done? And what kind of barriers do Muslims face to to get a clear view of who Jesus is?
00:11:05
Speaker
Yeah, basically, um as I mentioned before, ah the first thing Quran mentioned that if you believe that Jesus Christ is God or the son of God, ah you will go to hell.
00:11:17
Speaker
That's their belief, that's in Quran. If you believe that Jesus Christ is God, you will go to hell. And that because when they read this, when they are children, with I mean, this is how the family taught us.
00:11:30
Speaker
And they will tell us as well upon of that, that the West is corrupted, you know, about the freedom. They misinterpret, you know, the freedom and about Christianity. They link everything, the West with Christianity.
00:11:45
Speaker
But when you read the Bible, actually, you see how the teaching on Jesus Christ to live for him, to give even even your body, your life. to be committed in every way to him. Because Paul said, whatever you do, and when you eat, when you pray, when you of eat, do it for the glory of God. So they there is a misunderstanding about Christianity. It's only from TV, from movies, but actually if they read the Bible, and because the Bible is forbidden, so they they are not allowed to own a Bible.
00:12:17
Speaker
So this is the problem. This is the problem. They don't have the resources to read the Bible because they have the corrupted view about Christianity. I've heard that. And i've all I've heard from several people that ah lots of people in the Muslim world think that the West is Christian, whereas we regard the West as thoroughly secular and pretty pagan and and very lost. but The perception around the world is that the West represents Christianity. and And I've heard this many, many times as being a significant barrier for Muslims to cross to to see that what they see on the TV or Hollywood movies yes it does not represent Christianity. Is that a common thing?
How to Share Faith with Muslims
00:12:53
Speaker
That's a common thing. They think yeah what's on TV, it's Christianity. That's that's absolutely wrong. This is why i am in social media and I try to read the Bible for them in Arabic to them.
00:13:05
Speaker
And I told them this is what the Lord said. This is what the Jesus, how they taught us to live, how to... um it's it's ah Most of the teaching of Paul, it's black and white, by the way. Because I, you know...
00:13:16
Speaker
From a conservative um you know society, we think black and white, and this is how most of Arabics and Muslims, they think black and white. And actually the Bible is black and white.
00:13:28
Speaker
So if someone is listening because they're a Muslim and they've they've Googled your name and they've landed on this podcast, where would you recommend they go to get good information about who Jesus is and how they can relate to him?
00:13:40
Speaker
Yeah, i mean, you can ah Brother Rashid, Nabil Al-Qurashi. Of course, you can find me, John Ganim. I always speak about Jesus Christ in Arabic. If you are big speaker, if you are a Muslim, I love you in the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:13:55
Speaker
It doesn't matter. I don't have to agree with you about Islam, but I love you as a human being. And I i pray that, you know, Jesus set me free. And i I pray and I have hope that he will set you free as well.
00:14:07
Speaker
So you can find the Bible, you can read for yourself from the Bible, you know, yeah because the Bible is not forbidden. The Bible is the word of God. It's ah very accurate, very true. When I read the Bible from cover to cover, from Genesis to Revelation, I understood understood i understood God's love for for a human being because God is love.
00:14:28
Speaker
And this is in Islam. it's not not In Islam, it's God is not love. You know, God has a 99 name without love. God has a, you know, he's merciful in Allah, merciful. But in um in Islam, there is no the the the the the the name of love.
00:14:46
Speaker
God is not love. Allah is not love. But the God of the Bible is the God of love and the God of salvation, the God of glory. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Thank you. um I mean, obviously, we we have many Muslims in the UK here. and most of the people who listen to this podcast are Christians, they they they tune into this every fortnight, because they want to get involved in sharing their faith in Jesus Christ with all sorts of people.
00:15:07
Speaker
But many of us will have Muslim colleagues at work, you know, you might have somebody sitting in the next desk to the office who's a Muslim, or like if you go to local cricket club, our local cricket club, lots lots of folk from Pakistan, one or two from Afghanistan who are Muslims.
00:15:21
Speaker
And we have these friends. One of my best friends at school was a Muslim and we both loved cricket. We talked about cricket all day long. But how do we serve our Muslim friends and colleagues and neighbors better? How do we have helpful, useful conversations with them in which we can talk about our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?
00:15:38
Speaker
What kind of things do Western Christians get wrong? when we try to talk to our Muslim friends and and neighbors about our faith. What advice can you give us? I would say from my experience, my little experience in the West, um we need to live for the Lord. We need to ah live as a living testimony. We need to lead by example.
00:15:59
Speaker
And in the West, what I understand, they will have the knowledge, they will have the they will think a lot. But sometimes we need to show them how we live, like we need to show them by action.
00:16:13
Speaker
We need to be radical for the Lord because you know, if you bring a Muslim, he will wait ah you wake up every day, pray to Allah, fast, read Quran.
00:16:24
Speaker
They are dedicated for that. We need to be more than that. We need to be more radicals. We need to read the Bible. We need to show them by example. We need to show them by example. It's not by words.
00:16:34
Speaker
And we need to just mention Jesus Christ all the time. We are proud to be Christians. We are proud to be followers of the way. We are proud to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just keep mentioning Jesus Christ. keep i work I love Jesus Christ because he loved me first.
00:16:50
Speaker
Make them jealous. This is what I do on social media. I make them jealous of all of most of my followers, not Christians, by the way, on social media. They are Muslims because they see something in me that they don't have.
Community Support for Converts
00:17:04
Speaker
Because i am I lost everything for Christ. um I'm sure maybe i I'll lose my life. um They're going to maybe attack me sometime, but I don't care. I you know where I'm going. i know because I belong to the kingdom of heaven.
00:17:17
Speaker
i belong to the king of kings and the king of glory. So I'm not scared because Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10, 28, ah matthew ten ah twenty eight Don't fear the one who killed the body, but fear the one who destroyed the soul and the body them in the hellfire.
00:17:33
Speaker
So I'm not scared. And they are human beings, Muslims. They are human beings and they need to know about Jesus Christ and how we show them Jesus Christ. We show them by example. And there are increasing numbers of people coming to faith in Christ from a Muslim background. here We find them in all our churches across the UK. We're aware of many churches growing, for example, in Iran, particularly, of young people turning to Christ. We're aware this is going on.
00:17:57
Speaker
But as the church, what do we need to do to support Muslim background believers? When someone comes to Christ, what what are they going to need from us as as the church? What are we getting right? What are we getting wrong? And how can we step up to help folks like yourself who who come to faith in Christ from Islam?
00:18:15
Speaker
Accept them as a family. I know there is a culture barriers, you know, when they came, especially from Arabic background, I came from Islamic background, ground a Yemeni background, ground family background.
00:18:26
Speaker
So when I give up everything for Christ, of course, I need the family. I need the family to look after me, to welcome me, to treat me as a as a son, as a brother.
00:18:39
Speaker
as a follower of Christ. So, um yes, we most of ex-Muslims, they will come with a lot of problems, but they need to someone to to walk alongside with them, to teach them the Bible, to show them how to think from the darkness to the light. So it's a journey. Sometimes it takes years, sometimes like this. Like for me, it didn't take a long time.
00:19:03
Speaker
I think... quickly. So they need to support. Just invite them to your house, love them, adopt them maybe because they will lose everything for the for Christ.
00:19:15
Speaker
Everything.
Where to Find John's Story Online
00:19:16
Speaker
that's That's in Islam basically. Yeah, I understood that. Thank you. Have you ever written your story anywhere? Have you ever written up what happened to you so that people can read your story?
00:19:26
Speaker
Yes, you can type John Ganim on Google and you will see a lot of articles about me. and And you can find me on um YouTube, John Ganim.
00:19:39
Speaker
ah You will watch my testimony as well. John Ganim. Yeah, you will find it anywhere. So we can find you on YouTube. We can find you on Instagram, you said as well. TikTok and Instagram, Facebook, yes.
Episode Conclusion and Future Guests
00:19:52
Speaker
What we'll do is we'll find some links and we'll put them in the show notes for this show so that anybody listening to this can click through and find out more about you. Our time is gone. 20 minutes has gone. Thank you so much for sharing ah so much of yourself, your life, your testimony, and so much good advice for other people.
00:20:08
Speaker
It's really heartening and challenging to to hear stories um from people that the world persecuted church, but also folks like yourselves who you know face persecution here in the UK as well, because following Christ can can be costly. So thank you for sharing your faith, your heart with us. That's been really, really wonderful.
00:20:26
Speaker
That's the end of Pep Talk for this episode. We will back in a fortnight with another exciting guest who will be talking about sharing their faith in Jesus Christ, which we pray will stimulate you and encouraging you encourage you to go forth with the gospel into the world. Thank you so much for listening and see you next time. Goodbye.