Comments on: Churches in Saudi Arabia

By: aim

aim — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:29:32 +0000

There are many christian who say they are but when you hear their hatred against other religion you
will not feel that really they are.
Jesus christ taught us to love our enemy and pray to these who cursed us. Many will persecute you because of my name and these who believe in me shall not perish and will have eternal life this wonderful gift is remain hidden to these who dont believe and distort the teaching of jesus. Brother & sister refrain from any religious debate for no one will win instead believe in jesus as the christ of the living God for our time is short. amen.

By: Tarotcard lessons

Tarotcard lessons — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:10:25 +0000

What a frankly fun post

By: renjith

renjith — Tue, 31 May 2011 15:15:54 +0000

praise the lord.
My self Renjith working in jeddah .here iam searching any pentecostal church un furtunatly i can’t find any one. can u help me if ur know some where have any pentecostal churches.

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 16:39:41 +0000

Well.. well.. keep it going… As a person living in Saudi Arabia for almost a decade…

Don’t issue threats against each other but get knowledge and reach the light. Not everyone is perfect and there wont be peace on Earth soon.

There is a mosque near Vatican in Rome, will there be a Church in Saudi Arabia 100 miles south of Mecca?

By: Yusuf

Yusuf — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 22:32:21 +0000

For those Who ask why we Can’t Build Churches on Mecca and Madina …why None can Build also Churches on Vatican ?

christian are free To Build on other Countery islamic Countery ( egypte , Morocco , Jordan ……….. ) But Mecca and Medina are Holy place as the vatican is a Holy Place
That is all

why Christians use Double Strandard when it comes to this Matter

By: khalid

khalid — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:32:09 +0000

i think ur right imean look at us we are muslims and we love islam we dont even like to hear any one say any doubtful stuff about islam .
where christians are always cursing their own god drinking commiting adultry

By: khalid

khalid — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:23:38 +0000

ive always had a feeling that the old building in jeddah near al balad was a church

By: Chiara

Chiara — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:22:58 +0000

I am very glad to have discovered this post and these comments, thank you.

The ruins of these 2 churches form part of the cultural patrimony of Arabia and may reveal in their architecture, artistry and inscriptions more about the people and culture of the time. In that sense they are historic monuments from which all may benefit . I hope their potential is being fully realised by the Saudi Arabian archeological community.

The Prophet learned about Christianity and Judaism not only from their adherents locally among Arabian tribes, but in his travels for trade. His followers were protected by Al-Najashi of Abyssinia (1st hijrah). Christians are addressed in the Qur’an, especially 5:14-19; 64-65; 69 and 82.

St Paul travelled to Arabia in the 1st century CE, writing about it in Galatians (1:15-17) and many Arab tribes (including Nabateans, and Ghassanids) converted to Christianity (from paganism) from the 1st century on.
Najran apparently had the first major Christian community in Arabia, and Christianity spread further from there during the 4th and 5th centuries. Jewish communities especially in Najran opposed the new religion, and Najranite Christians were massacred in 524 by the Jewish Yemenite King.

14 Najran Bishops travelled to Medina in 10 hijrah and were allowed by the Prophet Mohamed to conduct their prayers in the mosque. Both the Prophet and Abu Bakr had treaties with the Najran Christians to exempt them from the usual payment of the jizya owed by non-Muslims. Though later there was an expulsion of Jews and Christians from Najran itself (to Iraq and Syria), Christians remained in the vicinity through the 9th and 10th centuries. Old Christian Najran is now called Al-Ukhdood.

For all these reasons I think it is wonderful to find ruins of the places of worship in Arabia of one of the Peoples of the Book, and to preserve them for all.

By: Jordan

Jordan — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:34:15 +0000

It isn’t a secret that there were Christians in Arabia at the time of Muhammad. There is a good deal of writing about it. One very good book by Hugh Goddard is “A History of Muslim-Christian Relations”. It goes all the way through at least the Middle Ages but it has some good stuff on early Christians in Arabia. There were several Christian communities in Arabia at the time of the Prophet. The largest and best documented in Najran, you can find information on it in encyclopedias and scholarly journals. Arabia had some contact with Christianity because it was on the border of the Byzantine Empire and had interactions with that empire (which was largely, maybe even officially, Christian). There are also stories of Muhammad meeting and being blessed by a Christian monk in Arabia. Most Christianity in Arabia was Monophysite Christianity, which was considered heretical by the main/Chalcedon Christian community. I believe Muhammad also had some relation, I think maybe a brother-in-law, that was Christian as well. He obviously had a good bit of knowledge of both Christianity and Judaism because he believed himself to be in the line of the Judaic prophets. He also mentions both Jews and Christians in the Qur’an. I think his ideas of some of their theology may have been skewed though because he probably learned of those religions through oral reports about them, since the Bible was not translated into Arabic until about 80 years after Muhammad (who, it is said, was illiterate anyways). Hope this information is interesting to some of you. There is a good bit about most of this written in books and scholarly journals online.

By: a.

a. — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:35:49 +0000

magicrealism you’re a complete idiot