He stole a glance at the thug, his hand shivered.
He lowered it because no one followed suit. Nonetheless, he was not disappointed, he got backing.
"I'm with you," said the dark suit man, his voice soft.
The elegant lady nodded.
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved," The priest chimed in.
"That's right," The dark suit man agreed, "In the Bible you will find one church consisting of all true believers. These believers are from all denominations and they form one true Christian church described as the 'Body of Christ'"
The dark suit man's words satisfied many.
"Never put words in my mouth," I began with a distasteful warning, "I didn't say a church can save. I said that it may lead to eternal life or eternal destruction. It plays a key role in one's salvation or damnation. The doctrines and principles our religions teach mould our habits and influence how we live. It is by how we live that determines we get salvation or damnation. In a nutshell, wrong or false doctrines and principles leads to damnation and true or right doctrines and principles leads to salvation. That makes religion very important."
"I'm not gonna lie to you," the bearded kid sounded, "I'm not an active member of any church. I attend any church I want to. I'm attached to a particular church. I don't follow any religious traditions, rituals or principles. I think what matter are our deeds. We must do good deeds."
With that he attracted the priest's attention.
"The Bible says that all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags. Good deeds alone cannot save us. It is rather Christ who redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Whoever believe in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God remains on him."
The bearded kid made a face and opened his mouth, "I believe in the Son. It is the core principle of Christianity. I attend any church not any religion. Believing in Jesus Christ and good deeds are all we needed. The church doesn't matter." The priest gave him a look of approval which in turn made me disapproval of them both.
"What are good deeds and what does believing in Christ means?" Mah asked before I found sensible words to exhibit my disapproval of the priest and his team.
"Let us talk about the good deeds first," Mah continued, "what someone may regard as a good deed may be utterly evil to another. For instance, a suicide bomber believe he is doing a good deed yet it is utterly evil to many."
"Don't talk about Muslims. Their beliefs are awful," the bearded kid interjected with a displeased expression.
"I disagree with both of you," the hijab woman finally spoke.
I liked her voice.
"Those people are terrorists. They misinterpreted Qur'an teachings. You, misunderstand Islamic teachings."
"Well, Qur'an teaches that it is okay for a man to have multiple wives. My friend here," Mah patted on my shoulder and continued, "Can marry you and a couple more other women and it is fine, right?"
My face immediately flushed. I blushed. What fueled my embarrassment was the fact that the hijab woman was much older than me. Seemingly five years older and possibly over a decade older. I feared what would people think especially if they discover-judging from my embarrassment-that I had a crush on her?
Upon hearing Mah's voice, she turned around her head in a jerk to look at pitiful me.
"Right," she said.
I failed to read her expression. Surprised? Curious? Annoyed? Contempt? No certainty. Perhaps a combination of some or all these. Anyway, I liked her reply.
"Well, that is a bad practise to us." Mah told her.
"Us? You mean Christians?" the priest demanded,
"Oh, of course, yes, Father," Mah answered, "But I was wrong. Polygamy is not a bad practise for some Christian churches. That shows more, how one thing can be viewed differently by different religion and denominations. But..." he narrowed his gaze, "What really is a good or right thing?" he rubbed the back of his neck whilst saying, "as far as the creator is concerned, a thing cannot be both right and wrong at once."
The hijab woman would say is whatever the holy Qur'an says is right. The others would say something similar with a small yet significant tweak-the replacement of the holy Qur'an with the holy Bible. I wished Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and members of other religions were here too.
I had no intention of saying anything, I would like to hear Mah's answer and I had a good feeling about it. So far his views had been greatly pleasing to me.
The people's likely answers were obvious, therefore Mah didn't let them waste time.
"Let us discuss about believing in Christ first. I start by a repetition of my question, what does believing in Christ mean?"
The dark suit man provided the answer, he said; "it means having faith in Jesus Christ. Believing he's the only begotten son of God and was sent to die for us, that he suffered atonement and died for us that he might bring us to God."
Everyone seemed satisfied with the answer but of course not everyone. I grumbled at the hijab woman. A hint of amusement plastered her face but seemingly was not up for a fight. Of course Muslims believe in Jesus Christ the son of Maria but apparently not the same way Christians do.
"Good," Mah nodded, "But there is an answer that answers all the questions I have raised. It's on John 17:3. To be saved, in other words to obtain the eternal life we need to get to know Jehovah and His Son Jesus Christ. We have to learn about these two divine beings. In the Bible we witness Jehovah and Jesus dealing and interacting with people. There we can learn and understand Their characteristics, likes and dislikes. We find and understand what They regard as right and as wrong. We learn how They want us-people to live."
When his speech came to a halt, I was already nodding and smiling. The man's words kept pleasing me like hot bath on a freezing cold morning.
The smile on my face weakened slightly as I turned to the hijab woman, "but you see, this is what we Christians believe. We believe in every word of the Bible,"
"Of course," Mah nodded rapidly and sipped coffee.
I glanced down at the table. Plates gone. A white mug with steaming coffee on my side. Once again, I hadn't noticed the activities.
"But I strongly recommend that you should give it a try. Take some time and study the Bible. Learn why we Christians fully believe in the Bible." Mah added.
The woman rolled her eyes. Muslim women are my weakness.