About RT
About RT
I (Joe) have been interested in Christian Apologetics since high school. Apologetics is a branch of theology focused on providing evidence for the Christian faith. I studied different world religions in order to understand their arguments against Christianity. Islam was just one of many religious world views I was familiar with. Several years ago I enrolled in a graduate program at Biola University to complete my formal education in Christian Apologetics. After three years of study, I received my MA in Christian Apologetics.
I had always thought I was going to retire from my career and become a missionary to Mormons. I would frequently engage Mormons in chat rooms and online forums, and as I did I was overwhelmed with a sense of joy that this is what God wanted me to do full time some day. But during my studies at Biola, I began to study Islam in depth. I read the Quran from cover to cover. I read the earliest biographies of Muhammad. I read many major early Islamic scholars and other source material. And the more I studies Islam, the more I came to realize that Islam was the greatest lie that has ever been perpetrated upon mankind, and today is responsible for misleading 1.8 Billion people worldwide. We began to seek the Lord if this is what He would have us focus on, rather than Mormonism.
In 2005 I began to realize the magnitude of deception in Islam and the lack of response of the church to this deception. That year I taught my first class on Islam to a church group.
In fall 2006 we began praying about our full time involvement in Muslim ministry to train the church in reaching out to Muslims and reaching out to Muslims ourselves. I woke up one morning and told Christine I had an overwhelming urge to turn in my resignation that day at work. It was Wednesday, September 13, 2006. Her response was that she agreed, but that we would first have to get our financial house in order. We had a mortgage, car payments, insurance, and all the stuff of the world hanging over our heads. She said God had not confirmed it with her yet, and until He did, she could not agree for me to quit my job. I agreed with her and began praying for God to confirm it with her.
That night we were to attend a prayer meeting for another ministry, but by the grace of God could not find out where to go, so we ended up at our home church. Our pastor was out of town and a guest speaker was teaching. Gayle Irwin taught on Luke 9:59-62, where Jesus calls some people to follow him. One man said "Let me first go and bury my father." Gayle commented that the man did not say "My father is dead", rather what he was saying was in effect, "Let me get my financial affairs in order (wait until my father dies and secure my inheritance), then I will follow you." This was the exact comment Christine had used that morning. When she heard Gayle, she quickly grabbed a piece of paper, scribbled a few words on it, and handed it to me. It said, "Quit your job!" God had answered my prayer that same day through scripture and another person!
Over the next several weeks He also confirmed our mission. People walked up to us at church with a word of knowledge about trusting in the Lord wherever He leads and whatever He calls us to do, even they knew nothing of our prayers or desire for confirmation of our calling. Others shared dreams that they had about us taking a leap of faith and trusting God's hand to be there to support us.
January 5, 2007 was my last day of work at Southern California Edison. I left behind a six figure salary and excellent benefits, sold our home and most of our possessions, used the proceeds of our home to pay off our debt, and now live on less than one fourth of our prior income. I say this for no other reason than to give thanks and praise to God who has promised to sustain us, and He has been faithful to do so.
If you had told me ten years ago that I would be quitting my job to go into full time ministry to Muslims, I would have called you a nut! Nothing was further from my mind, but God had other plans.
It took my wife years to convince me that my spiritual gift was teaching. I remember vividly standing in front of my coworkers at SCE to give a short presentation and I was overcome with fright. I locked up! Being able to stand in front of a group of people and teach for two hours at a time is not my natural gift. It is purely supernatural! It is the Holy Spirit enabling me to do what He has called me to. It is only by His power and grace that I can do what I do for ministry.
I thank the Lord for what He has enabled us to do. I claim no ability of my own. I also thank Him for clearly confirming our calling. It has not been easy; we have had our times of trials, wondering how we were going to survive the month with not enough money for food, sustaining attacks from the enemy on us and our children, and even enduring attacks from other believers who have come against our ministry and tried to shut us down! But God is faithful! He has provided every need, and we lack nothing.
Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desire of your heart. Psalm 37:4
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6
And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve ... But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15
Soli Deo Gloria!
Joe Carey has been studying Islam since 1999. He holds a Master's Degree in Christian Apologetics from Biola University and had a special focus on Islamic studies while at Biola. Joe is an ordained minister and has been teaching classes on Apologetics to Islam and Muslim evangelism at his home church since 2005. He has spoken and taught on Islam both domestically at a number of churches and internationally in nations as diverse as Kenya, Brazil, and Nigeria. He has been featured on the American Family Association's OneNewsNow news portal. He has been a guest on Janet Parshall's radio program on the Moody Radio Network. He is also an adjunct instructor for the Calvary Chapel Bible College.
Joe had a 20+ year career with Southern California Edison Company before the Lord called him into full-time Muslim ministry in January 2007. Since then he has been involved in various aspects of Muslim ministry: leading teams on various outreach events to Muslims in the U.S., as a key member of another ministry that focused on training international missionaires to Muslims, and now with Radical Truth as we seek to equip the body of Christ in the U.S. to engage in dlalog with Muslims on issues of eternal importance.
As a faith supported ministry, God has graciously supplied our needs since 2007 through those whom He has called to partner with us in bringing the gospel to Muslims. We welcome your support also if God is leading you to help get the gospel message to Muslims.
We are available to provide the training your church, bible study, bible college, or other group may need to confidently engage in evangelism to the Muslim world. We offer a 2-day condensed seminar suitable for a weekend: Friday night and all day Saturday. If you are interested in having us speak free of charge, please complete our teaching request form and we will put you on the schedule to speak when we are next in your area.
Our full 20 hours of training is also available for individual study. You can watch online our classes in the video section of this website, or at the YouTube link.
You can download a pdf brochure of our 2-day course description here.
Comments From Former Attendees:
Question: Would you recommend this course to others and why or why not?
"Absolutely, because I believe all Christians have Muslims in their lives in some way or another. With the great population of Muslims in California alone, learning is a must for every Christian. We need tools to take all fear away." - Angie
"Yes, the course imparts a lot of valuable information and equips learners with the beginning of tools that they can use to reach Muslims." - Bob
"Absolutely. This course was very enlightening. I learned far more than I expected. I have enjoyed it thoroughly." - Mike
"I wanted to share with you great news! Today I was able to witness to a Muslim woman, and she accepted Christ! Thanks for supplying me with knowledge I would not have known had I not taken your class. Hopefully it's stories like mine that make you go." - Bethany
"Definitely. It was so informative and it is awesome how God has changed my heart and helped me to feel compassion for these people who are being misled." - Linda
"Your class made it possible for us to know how to witness to Muslims. Several are close to converting!" - Cheryl
"I believe Islam is emerging as one of the major factors in World events today and we as Christians need to know how to defend our faith and bring the saving knowledge of Jesus to a lost world." - Lisa
"Last week I invited several Muslim ladies for the Women's Tea ... I have a totally different perspective on how to share with my neighbors since I took your class last summer." - Ana
"I have been praying since 2009 for the Lord to let me see a Muslim come to Christ. Tonight God answered my prayer! I met a young Muslim woman. I talked to her about the scales and about Isa. She had been longing for Him. She prayed to receive Jesus and will be getting water baptized. Thank you Jesus." - Angie
"Thank you so much for this class! It has really changed my view and given me a love for these people that I didn't have before." - Carmen
You arrived at ths page because you are curious about how you can know God. Good! Understand that God loves you with a love that is beyond compare to anything we can experience as humans. God is crazy about you and wants to spend eternity with you. But there is a problem.
God is infinitely holy and good and just. Sin keeps us separated from God. Just as Adam's sin caused him to be expelled from the garden, so too our sin keeps us from the presence of God. Nevertheless, God still loves us and wants us to be with Him forever. But we could never enter into His holy presence as sinful creatures. Our sins must be dealt with.
Could not God just forgive our sins if we ask? No! God loves us, but his justice requires that sin be punished. God cannot simply forgive our sins as if they are insignificant; His justice does not allow this. To dismiss our sins out of hand without punishment is contrary to God's nature as an infinitely just God. Justice demands punishment.
God can certainly punish me for my sin. But that would not solve the problem, because I would still be a sinful creature. The moment God punished my sin, I would start sinning all over again. So I would still be kept from God's presence, even if God chose to punish me for the sins I commit. So what can God do to satisfy His justice?
God himself can take the punishment for my sin; past, present, and future! He loves me so much that He is willing to take the punishment in my place, so that His requirement for justice can be met. This is why God became a man through Jesus. By one imperfect man, Adam, the penalty for sin came upon the world. And by one perfect man, Jesus, the penalty for sin was paid. Let me illustrate with a story.
Imagine for a moment that you have a favorite lamb. You were present at the birth of this lamb. You watched it grow. You cared for it, gave it food when it was hungry, provided warmth when it was cold, protected it from predators that threatened its life. You came to be very close with this lamb. Even though you know it cannot understand what you say, you share your most personal thoughts with it. This lamb has become your best friend.
Now imagine that one day you learn this lamb has become gravely ill. It is close to death. You weep at the thought of losing your best friend. You want to do whatever you can to prevent this lamb from dying. You ask the veterinarian, "What can I do to help?" He tells you, "Your lamb needs a new liver; the one she has is not functioning properly, and she is being slowly poisoned by the toxins in her blood." To further complicate things, the veterinarian tells you that a suitable replacement liver cannot come from just any other lamb; it requires a very special liver - one that has never been polluted with any toxins of any kind. You soon discover the hopelessness of the situation. In desperation, you ask the doctor, "Where would we find such a liver?" The doctor tells you the only solution is for you yourself to become a lamb, to be born into this world perfectly pure, and then to sacrifice your liver for the lamb, in order to save its life.
This was the choice God faced. Man has become wicked and polluted, unholy in the sight of God. Mankind is slowly dying of this pollution, and with no solution, we would die apart from God, eternally separated from Him. Yet, because He loves us so much, and because He desires an eternal relationship with us, He himself became a man, a pure man, Jesus Christ, to free us from the pollution of sin. The Bible says "He [God] made him who knew no sin [Jesus] to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). In fact, when John the Baptist, known in the Qur'an as Prophet Yahya, baptized Jesus he said, "Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world." (John 1:29) God had to become a man in order to become the sacrifice of a just God who requires that all unrighteousness be punished. There was no other alternative; nobody else lived an unpolluted, righteous life except Jesus alone. For this reason He was able to take our punishment for our unrighteousness, and He did so willingly because He loves us.
How can you experience this cleansing of your sin and get the assurance that you will spend eternity in heaven with God?
- Confess your sin to God. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)
- Repent of your sin. Repent means to turn away or turn around; to go in a different direction than what you were going. "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." (Acts 3:19) Confessiig and repenting does not give us a license to continue willfully sinning against God. Quite the contrary. "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" (Romans 6:1-2)
- Give Jesus authority over your life by asking Him to be your Lord and Savior. "Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:9-11)
- We believe in One Eternal God (Deut. 6:4) who has manifest Himself throughout history in three different persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). Each of the three persons of the triune Godhead possesses all the attributes of divinity, but each has a unique role in the creative order (Gen. 1:1-2). This triune God is infinitely powerful, loving, knowing, just, present, and intimate with His creation.
- We believe the Bible is God's Word to mankind and is inerrant in the original manuscripts, written by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21). An abundant supply of early copies of the original manuscripts provides unquestionable authority that today's Bible is the same as that penned by the original authors.
- We believe in the deity of Christ (John 10:33); His virgin birth (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23, Luke 1:34-35); His sinless life (Hebrews 4:15, 7:26); His miracles (John 2:11); His vicarious and atoning death (I Corinthians 15:3, Ephesians 1:7, Hebrews 2:9); His resurrection (John 11:25, I Corinthians 15:4); His ascension to the right hand of the Father (Mark 16:19); His personal return to earth in power and glory (Acts 1:11, Revelation 19:11-13, Revelation 19:14-16)
- We believe in the absolute sinfulness of man (Romans 3:23) and the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit for salvation, which is made available by God's grace as a free gift (Rom. 6:23) through faith alone in the atoning blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Is. 53:5) and not by anything we can achieve of our own merit (Eph. 2:8-9, Titus 3:5).