All in One: Christian, Judaism & Islam

SALAM to all, this story is not mine, others may have read it already. Ive seen countless revert stories but this one is one of my top 3:


I am ethnically a Russian Jew. My quest began when I was 19 years old. I was
recovering from my stint with Scientology (yes I was brainwashed into it).

My belief in God was uncertain. My goals in life were to be a rock star. I
was living in my Pasadena apartment and working as a secretary. Funny, I
know.

One night I was walking to the kitchen, and encountered a dark fellow. I
remembered asking him: "Can I keep this vodka in the fridge tonight?" We
shook hands and went to sleep. After that point, my life changed
drastically.

This dark fellow, a Muslim, was the first Muslim I had ever met. Extremely
curious, I conversed with him about his faith. What's this stuff I hear
about praying 5 times a day? And about Holy War? Who is this Mohammed guy?

Our talks were accompanied by our Christian roommate, Wade. Together, we
created "The Jewish, Christian, and Muslim dialogue sessions". In it, we
discovered many differences, and many commonalities.

My interest had then shifted from sex, drugs, and parties, to a massive
search for the truth. A search that I had to complete. A search for God. And
a search for how to follow him.

In my quest for the truth, I asked myself: "Ok let's start simple, how many
God's do I think are out there?" I figured only one; knowing that a divided
God is weaker than One God; figuring that if one God didn't agree with the
other, there might be arguments and feuds. One God was my choice.

Once I opened up my mind to the possibility of the existence of God, I
analyzed both atheist and theist beliefs. The thing that directed me to the
latter was the quote "Every design has a designer". With that in mind,
eventually I woke up with certainty that God exists. I can't explain why, I
just felt it somehow.

This newfound excitement was accompanied by a sense of responsibility to
follow the Creator. The world of religion was my next frontier.

Then I asked myself, "Where do I start?" There are literally thousands of
them. I need a way to narrow them down to a just a few. How do I accomplish
such a task? "Find the ones that are monotheistic" entered my mind. "Hey
that makes sense, since I believe in only One God."

Ok, then. This ruled out Buddhism and Hinduism, both being polytheistic
faiths. The major religions I encountered that fell under the title of
Monotheistic, where Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Well since I'm a Jew,
I started with Judaism. One God, some prophets, 10 commandments, Torah,
Jewish souls.uh, what: "Jewish souls?"

While doing research this idea was brought to my attention. The story goes,
"if a person is born Jewish, then they have a Jewish soul, and they must
follow Judaism." Hold on a sec.that's discrimination, isn't it? That's not
universal.

So God makes Jewish souls, and Christian souls, and Muslim souls, and Hindu
souls? I thought all men are created equal? So, because one is born into a
religion that means by the decree of God he must remain in it. even if the
person believes it to be false? Hmm.I don't agree with that.

Another thing really bothered me.there is no strict concept of hell in
Judaism.then why be good? Why not sin? If I don't have fear of strict
punishment, then why should I be moral?

Moving on, I discovered Christianity. Ok, one God, a father, a son, and a
holy ghost.one more time: one God, a father, a son, and a holy ghost. Uhhh,
please explain. How can all those things be one God? 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 right? So
how can you say you believe in only one God?

Explanation after explanation, equation after equation, comparison after
comparison, analogy after analogy, I couldn't grasp this concept. Ok let's
keep looking here.

Ok, next major doctrine: Jesus died for our sins and he did this because we
all are polluted with "Original Sin". So, Jesus Christ, the "son of God",
had to be murdered to save everyone from Hell and cure us of our sin "given"
to us by Adam.

Ok then, so are you saying that we are all born as sinners? And to sin is to
do something wrong right? Then you're telling me that a one-year old baby is
guilty of sin or doing something wrong? Ok that's strange, so based on the
actions of one man, all of mankind must suffer? What's the moral of that
story? Punish the whole group if one deviates? Why would God create such a
rule? That's just not in agreement with my logic.

So Jesus died because he "loves mankind". Hold on, it says in the Bible that
Jesus said "father, why have you forsaken me?" So, apparently, Jesus didn't
understand why he was being brutally murdered. But you just said he
"volunteered" to be sacrificed. Anyway, I couldn't accept this belief. Ok,
what's the next religion?

Islam. Islam means submission. The main beliefs are as follows: One God,
worship God five times a day, give 2.5% annual charity, fast during Ramadan
(to be closer to God and appreciate life.among other reasons) and finally
journey to Mecca for Hajj if you are able financially. Ok, nothing hard to
understand so far.

There's nothing that conflicts with my logic here. The Qur'an is a book with
all of these interesting miracles and timeless wisdom. Many scientific facts
only discovered recently where proclaimed 1400 years ago in this book.

Ok, Islam had passed my initial religious prerequisites. But I wanted to ask
some deep questions about it. Is this religion universal? Yes, anyone can
understand these basic beliefs.no analogy or equation are needed. Does it
agree with science? Yes, dozens of verses in the Qur'an agree with modern
science and technology.

As I sifted through the countless logical facts that I read through and
researched, one thing took my attention the most. "Islam". The name of this
religion. I noticed it is written many times in this Qur'an.

However, recalling my prior studies, I didn't remember once seeing the word
"Judaism" in the Old Testament or "Christianity" in the New Testament. This
was BIG. Why couldn't I find the very name of the religions in those two
books? Because, there is no name in these books! Thinking.I noticed that
"Judaism" could be broken down to "Juda- ism" and "Christianity" could be
respectively "Christ-ianity".

So who is Juda? Or Judah, rather. He was the tribe leader of the Hebrews
when God revealed his message to mankind. So this religion was named after.a
person. Ok let's look at who Christ is. He was the person who delivered the
message of God to the Jews. So this religion was named after.a person.

So in recollection, we can deduct that the names of these religions are
people's proper names attached to "ism" and "ianity". Regardless of that
fact, the very names of those religions are not mentioned in their
scriptures. I thought that was very odd.

If I went door to door selling a product, and I said "Would you like to buy
this _______"? Wouldn't the logical question be: "What is this _____
called?" I would make no money off of a product without a name.

Naming is the very basis which humans identify with objects, both physical
and non-physical. If religion is supposed to be practiced and spread to
every person on earth, shouldn't there be a NAME for it?

Moreover, shouldn't the name be given to us from God Almighty? YES, my point
exactly. The names "Christianity" and "Judaism" were not written in the Holy
Scriptures. Humans named them, not God. The notion that God would ordain a
religion for mankind to follow without a name is impossible for my mind to
accept.

At that point, both Christianity and Judaism lost their credibility as pure,
logical, and complete religions, at least from my perspective.

Islam is the ONLY of these religions to include the NAME of the religion in
its scriptures. This is so huge for me.

I realized I would follow Islam at that point. I then became a Muslim. I
knew the truth. I was out of the darkness. I came into the light.



From Judaism to Islam By Michael David Shapiro