Who really belongs to Abraham’s family—those with the right ancestry, or those with the right faith? We follow Paul’s lead and ask a simple question that cuts through centuries of argument: what do the Scriptures say? From Romans 4 to Galatians 3, the promise to Abraham narrows to a single point of focus—the Seed—and widens to welcome the nations through faith in Jesus Christ.
We explore the historical rise of Islam, from Muhammad’s early claims and adoption of Jewish forms to the later pivot toward Mecca and distinctive rites. That backdrop sets the stage for a frank, respectful comparison of core doctrines: the identity of God, the person of Jesus, and the cross. When Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection are denied, the gospel itself is removed. When Christ is confessed as the promised Seed, Abraham’s blessing becomes a living reality, not a contested storyline. This is more than religious trivia; it is the hinge of assurance. Abraham believed God was able to perform what he promised, and that same assurance rests on the finished work of Christ.
We also turn the lens on ourselves. Respect for Muslim neighbors must be real—patient listening, clear words, genuine friendship. Recognition must be firm—Allah is not Elohim, and the Jesus of the Quran is not the Jesus of the Bible. And rededication must be practical—recovering habits of prayer, fasting, public witness, and heartfelt worship that match our message. Passion without truth misleads, but truth without passion misrepresents. Abraham’s true heirs are those who trust the Son, and their lives should carry the sound of that promise kept.
If this conversation helps you think more clearly and live more boldly, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review to help others find the show.
Stephen's latest book, The Disciples Prayer, is available now. https://www.wisdomonline.org/store/view/the-disciples-prayer-hardback
Episode Transcript
Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of
faith who are sons of Abraham.
Through him there would come ablessing to all of the world.
And will that come true?
Yes, we're told in the latterpart of the New Testament that
one day people representingevery tribe, tongue, and people
group, every nation, they willstand as it were and give glory
(00:27):
to this Lamb who sits upon thethrone and will dedicate to him
all glory and honor and powerand blessing.
Jesus Christ, God, descending inthe flesh.
SPEAKER_00 (00:52):
Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davy.
We're currently in a serieslooking at a man of faith named
Abraham.
We call him Father Abrahambecause he's the father of the
Christian faith.
There's another group that alsoconsiders Abraham as a father of
their faith, the followers ofIslam.
(01:14):
We're looking at that connectiontoday in a message called
Abraham and Islam.
The booklet of this message isavailable today for a gift of
any amount, and I'll come backand tell you more about that at
the end of Stephen's message.
But now, let's get started withAbraham and Islam.
SPEAKER_01 (01:38):
In the 6th century, 570 AD to be exact, a little boy
was born in Mecca.
Even though he was distantlyrelated to the royal family at
Hishim, the particular branch ofhis family was fairly
impoverished.
The newborn boy was namedMuhammad.
After both of his parents diedin his early years, he was
(01:59):
shuttled around from familymember to family member until
finally a poor uncle took him inand raised him.
According to Muhammad'sbiographers, he was a normal
Arab boy that enjoyed talkingwith the travelers who came by
in the caravans and exploringdesert caves.
The only thing that was slightlyunusual about his childhood was
(02:20):
that he claimed to have angelicvisitations.
At the age of 40, Muhammadclaimed to once again be
visited, this time by the angelGabriel.
He would claim from thatexperience that he had been
chosen by Allah as the nextprophet and apostle.
Those choice of words, by theway, were very unique, prophet
(02:40):
and apostle.
One author pointed out thatthere wasn't any tradition of
prophets or apostles in Arabianreligion in the Middle East
where he was raised.
The term prophet was more likelyused within his clans in hopes
of courting the Jewish people,that he was in fact their next
prophet, and the term apostlewas more than likely used in
hopes of persuading Christiansto follow him as well.
(03:01):
Muhammad claimed that Gabrielhad visited him and placed upon
him the prophetic mantle,inspiring him with God's newest
form of revelation, which issummarized and recorded in the
two holy books they refer to asthe Quran and the Hadith.
At first, Muhammad in hisministry preached to the Jewish
people that he was God's newestprophet in the line of Abraham
(03:24):
and Jesus.
It's interesting to note thatwhen Muhammad began his rise as
a tribal leader and aself-proclaimed prophet, that he
adopted many Jewish customs.
He adopted the Jewish dietarylaws and the Jewish Saturday
Sabbath.
He prayed toward Jerusalem.
In addition to this, and mostinteresting, is that he praised
the Old Testament scriptures andthe New Testament scriptures,
(03:47):
which by then had been canonizedfor several centuries.
And he referred to the Jews inthe Quran as, quote, the people
of the book, end quote.
According to historians, Muslimand otherwise, and the actions
that happened next, it becameobvious that the Jewish
merchants were not going tobecome his disciples and follow
him.
(04:07):
He would not gain the power hewanted in Mecca and Medina.
He decided to drop allobservances of Jewish rituals.
He changed the direction ofprayer from Jerusalem to Mecca.
He dropped the dietary laws,many of them.
He dropped the Saturday Sabbathin favor of a Friday Sabbath,
and he adopted many of thereligious rites and ceremonies
(04:27):
within Arabian paganism withwhich he had been raised.
Ultimately, he began to waragainst the Jews.
He began to fight them,pillaging their villages and
plundering their homes.
There are secular texts that youcould read, like the
Encyclopedia Britannic, if youcare to.
I actually use it.
After spending all that money,it's good to use it for
(04:48):
something.
I read along with Westernhistorians and even Muslim
scholars themselves attest tothe fact that Muhammad gained
his power and his wealth and hisprestige by plundering and
killing Jews.
As Muhammad's power and hisleadership grew in Mecca and
Medina, so did his religiousviews.
(05:10):
They began to expand further.
Views that were nothing morethan a combination of Jewish
tradition and the Bible storiesin the Bible, along with the
well-known worship of theArabian moon god Shinn, who was
considered by the Arabs to bethe chief deity among all of the
deities.
Some 360 were worshipped duringMuhammad's day.
(05:32):
Well, according to numerousinscriptions discovered in North
and South Arabia dating back tothe time of Muhammad and
centuries earlier, the Arab namefor the moon god Shin had a
title, and his title was Al-Ila,which simply meant he was the
greatest deity of all.
Before Muhammad was even born,the name or title of this moon
(05:53):
god who had come to be known byhis title was given to little
boys, Elah, shortened to Allah.
Arabs, years before Muhammad'sbirth, named their children
Allah in honor of their mostpowerful deity, the moon god.
Allah worship was in ancientMiddle Eastern days, right along
(06:13):
with other astral worships likeBaal, condemned in the Old
Testament because it involvedthe worshiping of some heavenly
being that they personified orgave or attributed, I should
say, divine quality, andworshiped it as if it were a
god.
What Muhammad did that is veryinteresting in the seventh
century during his lifetime wasthat he began a unique kind of
(06:37):
teaching.
With his fellow Arabs, what hebegan to teach was that Allah
was not one of many gods, butthat Allah was the only God.
This unique form of monotheism,especially within his own
people, was unique.
And to the unbelieving Arab,they could still hold to Allah,
the moon god, and theirceremonies and rites.
(06:59):
To the Jews and to theChristians, he would teach them
that he was a monotheist, thathe was the worshiper of the one
true God, and they could followhim as well.
It's interesting that the symbolof this worship was in his day
the crescent moon, the sliver ofthe moon that is barely visible
to the human eye during thisparticular phase of the moon.
(07:21):
And it isn't any surprise, thenthe symbol of Islam is the
crescent moon.
The crescent moon sits on top oftheir mosques.
The crescent moon is on theflags of Islamic nations.
I say all of that to say at theoutset of our study today, you
need to know that Allah is notElohim.
It is a different God entirely.
Just as the angel came to JosephSmith, the founder of Mormonism,
(07:44):
and supposedly gave him newrevelation and placed upon him
the mantle of the newest prophetin the line of Abraham and
Jesus, so also an angel came toMuhammad and delivered to him
new revelation and the honor ofbeing, again, the latest prophet
of God.
I want you to know personally, Idon't doubt that angelic beings
(08:04):
visited these men.
These men who would createreligions that would lead
millions of people away frombelief in the deity of Jesus
Christ.
All I can do is give to you thesame warning that Paul gave the
Galatians.
He wrote to them, but even if weor an angel from heaven should
preach to you a gospel contraryto what we have preached to you,
(08:26):
he is to be accursed.
As we have said before, Paulwrites, so I say again now, if
any man is delivering to you agospel contrary to what you
received, he is to be accursed.
Galatians 1, 8 to 9.
Well, how attractive in ourworld is Islam today?
How compelling is it?
Islam is the second largestreligion today in the world.
(08:48):
In England, there are morepracticing Muslims than there
are evangelical Christians.
Funded by their vast resources,the Muslims are buying abandoned
Anglican churches and convertingthem into mosques at such a rate
that there are those outside ofthe Muslim belief system that
believe England will be thefirst European Islamic or Muslim
(09:12):
country.
And I don't doubt it.
I read recently that the legalsituation has reached the point
where the English Parliament wasrecently forced to rule that
Muslims do not have to followEnglish common law when it comes
to divorce.
They can follow Islamic lawinstead.
What about an America in our ownculture?
A mosque or a worship center iscompleted at the rate of one
(09:34):
every seven days.
There are more Muslims inAmerica now than Episcopalians,
that entire denomination.
Already there are 500 Islamiccenters in the United States,
like the one in Washington,D.C., where it opens its doors
daily to curious people who comein and who are graciously and
kindly taught the art andphilosophy and culture of Islam.
(09:57):
What exactly is Islam?
You need to understand that theword Islam originally denoted
heroism, the willingness to diein battle.
And over the centuries that wordslowly developed into meaning
surrender or simply submission.
And by the way, technicallyspeaking, Islam does not claim
(10:18):
to be a new religion formulatedby Muhammad, but rather a
continuation of all the decreesthat God gave in his revelation
through his prophets.
Among those prophets, of course,are Muhammad and Jesus.
Now perhaps you're thinking atthis point, what does this have
to do with Romans?
You're probably thinking that,aren't you?
Well, one reason.
Islam believes that the veryfirst Muslim was none other than
(10:42):
Abraham.
And Islam looks to Abraham astheir spiritual father.
Why?
Because Abraham surrendered toGod.
That is Islam.
He submitted to the will of God.
In fact, the Arabic noun form ofthe verb to surrender is Islam.
And Abraham surrendered to thewill of God, thus becoming, as
(11:04):
it were, the first Muslim.
In addition to that, given thefact that Muslims impact and
intersect with the Western worldevery day, it is impossible, I
believe, to teach the book ofRomans and especially chapter 4,
which delivers to us the life ofAbraham without exposing the
other religions and deliveringto you what they teach about
(11:25):
Abraham, for they believe he istheir man of faith as well.
Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus,who were young pastors,
developing their churches.
He said to them to reprove themseverely, that they, your
audience, may not pay attentionto myths and commandments of men
who turn away from the truth,men who profess to know God, but
(11:47):
by their deeds they deny them,being detestable and disobedient
and worthless for any good deed.
Titus 1, 13 to 16.
Several times Paul wrote to warnthe believers of false teachers
and false teaching.
In fact, entire letters of theNew Testament were given to
simply expose and challenge thecommon false teaching of their
(12:08):
day, those who would ultimatelydeny the grace of God and
ultimately deny the deity ofJesus Christ.
Just how important is Abrahamtoday?
You need to know that Jews andMuslims and Christians all claim
that Abraham is, in a way, theirfounder, so to speak, that
Abraham is their spiritualfather.
(12:29):
The Muslims believe they arerelated to Abraham by virtue of
Ishmael.
They believe that Ishmael wasoffered by Abraham on the altar
instead of Isaac, and that Godrescued Ishmael.
Yasser Arafat's only liaison forreligious dialogue has
emphatically stated that Abrahambelongs only to the Muslim.
(12:50):
The Jews, on the other hand,believe that Abraham belongs to
them, exclusively to them as thekeeper of the covenant.
Christians are taught in the NewTestament that we are sons and
daughters of Abraham.
Paul declared it in Romans 4.11.
Abraham is the father of thosewho believe, who's right.
All three could be wrong, butall three cannot be right.
(13:11):
Today I want to deal with theissue from the Islamic claim to
Abraham.
I found it interesting thatMuhammad, dozens of times in the
Quran, told his followers tocheck out his teaching against
the Old and New Testamentscriptures, which had been
canonized for centuries by thetime he arrived.
To check out his teaching withthe word that the Jews held and
(13:34):
compare it to see if he was infact contradicting it.
If they had done so, if they hadevaluated the two inspired works
of Islam, the hadith and theQuran, which he claimed they
should, Islam would have nevergotten off the dime.
But instead, it today is thesecond largest religion in the
world.
Muhammad had a mixed sense ofthe stories of the Bible.
(13:58):
He would often retell them,putting them in the mouths of
other people.
For instance, he taught theflood occurred during the days
of Moses.
The Bible clearly teaches it wasduring the days of Noah.
He taught that Nimrod threwAbraham into the fiery furnace
instead of the three friends ofDaniel, and that Abraham
survived unharmed by the flames,even though we know Nimrod lived
centuries before Abraham lived.
(14:19):
He taught that Moses, his sisterMiriam, was the mother of Jesus
instead of Mary.
He taught that Jesus was notcrucified, but that God placed
upon Judas the likeness ofJesus, so they mistakenly
crucified Judas, and he rescuedJesus by taking his good prophet
up to heaven.
Obviously, that last part is notonly a distortion of Scripture,
but it in effect or effectivelyeradicates the gospel.
(14:43):
It erases the gospel and theredemption of faith in the
sacrificial atoning, death, andcrosswork of Jesus Christ, so
that he didn't die, he wasn'tburied, and he didn't literally
rise from the dead.
Ladies and gentlemen, you needto understand that Islam is not
just another word for worship ofGod, it is a different God.
(15:04):
I think it's ironic as Paulbegins teaching in Romans 4 and
verse 3.
He says, What do the scripturesteach?
He's about to lay out the truthof Abraham, and he says, What
does the Bible say?
What do the scriptures teach?
The Jews hold to the scriptures,the Muslims supposedly hold to
the scriptures, and so do theChristians.
(15:25):
Well, what do they teach?
Well, let's go back and see.
First of all, let me point outthe revelation of God to
Abraham.
With your Bibles, look at Romanschapter 4, verse 19.
Without becoming weak in faith,he contemplated his own body,
now as good as dead, since hewas about a hundred years old,
and the deadness of Sarah'swomb.
This is related, of course, tothe promise of God that Sarah
(15:47):
would conceive by him.
Verse 20, yet with respect tothe promise of God, he did not
waver in unbelief.
Now wait a second.
What exactly was the promise?
We need to understand that.
Paul clarifies for us what thepromise was.
If you turn right for a coupleof books, you'll get to
Galatians.
And look at Galatians chapter 3,verse 16.
(16:08):
Galatians 3, 16 delivers thisstunning announcement to the
Jewish people of Paul's day andto the Muslim people of our day,
as he writes these interestingwords, rather startling words.
Now he writes, the promises werespoken to Abraham and to his
seed.
(16:29):
He does not say and to seeds,referring to many people, but
rather to one and to your seed.
Well, who is the seed?
Without looking further, is itIsaac?
Is that the promise?
The Jews would say yes.
Is it Ishmael?
And those that would come fromhim, the Arabs, the Islamic
faith, would say yes.
He says very clearly in thescriptures, and to your seed,
(16:52):
that is Christ.
Here is the promise to Abraham.
From you, Abraham, will come adescendant.
This is the seed.
It is Jesus Christ.
In other words, the Messiah,Abraham, will descend, will be a
part of your lineage.
If you look earlier in chapter 3and verse 7, he clarifies it
(17:13):
even more.
Therefore, be sure that it isthose who are of faith who are
sons of Abraham.
The Scripture, foreseeing thatGod would justify the Gentiles
by faith, preached the gospelbeforehand to Abraham, saying,
All the nations will be blessedin you.
So then those who are of faithare blessed with Abraham the
(17:35):
believer.
Did the promise come true?
The seed came, didn't it?
The Redeemer was born.
Through him there would come ablessing to all of the world.
And will that come true?
Yes, we're told in the latterpart of the New Testament that
one day people representingevery tribe, tongue, and people
group, every nation, they willstand as it were and give glory
(17:58):
to this Lamb who sits upon thethrone and will dedicate to him
all glory and honor and powerand blessing.
This one who came, this promisedseed, Jesus Christ, God, the
Son, descending deity in theflesh.
(18:20):
That's the promise of God toAbraham.
Now I want you to notice back inRomans the response of Abraham
to God.
It says in the latter part ofverse 20 that he responded two
ways.
He grew strong in faith andgiving glory to God.
He grew strong in faith.
What does that mean?
Well, let me give you quickly,there are three kinds of
(18:41):
biblical faith.
There's decisive faith, that issaving faith.
We could call it that.
That's the faith you exercise inthis gospel plan, this Redeemer,
Jesus Christ.
That is a once-for-all act, thattransaction where you say, Yes,
I want that.
Please, Lord, give that gift ofeternal life to me and
forgiveness and all the rest.
(19:01):
You become at that moment achild of God.
Second of all, there's doctrinalfaith.
This is our body of truth.
This is this is systematic truthwe call doctrine.
Then thirdly, there's dailyfaith.
This has to do with the dailyreliance upon the Lord for the
events of the day.
Faith in the promise of God, andthat you grow in.
(19:24):
Paul also tells us in this textthat Abraham not only grew in
his faith, but he gave glory toGod.
He was giving glory.
The Greek word is daxah.
He was, as it were, singing hispraise to the glory and honor of
God.
But you need to understand aswell that he is actually
praising God in advance.
Because the promise hadn't cometrue.
(19:45):
It wouldn't come true forgenerations.
But he was thanking God inadvance for what God promised to
do.
He thanked God in advance forthe promise.
Well, let me try to wrap it uphere.
What is the response of theChristian or the believer to
Islam?
Let me give you three words.
Number one is the word respect.
(20:07):
Like any religion that weencounter, there should be
respect for the person involved.
There should be care given,compassion, patience to listen.
Muslims are not our enemy.
They may view us as their enemy,but the word of God does not
tell us they are our enemy.
They are our mission.
(20:28):
So if you happen to live in aMuslim, a practicing Muslim,
maybe you work next to one.
God has placed you there as partof the mission and reaching them
with a gospel.
But it's time for you to startreading up, right?
So that you can answer theirquestions.
But treat them with respect asJesus Christ would.
The next key word isrecognition.
While you respect them asindividuals, even though you
(20:50):
disagree with them, at the sametime you have to recognize and
you need to help them recognizethat Allah is not Jehovah.
Allah is not Elohim.
Even though the religion ofIslam worships only one God, and
for that they are to becommended.
That God is not the one true andliving God who introduced
himself to us in this book, inthe first chapter, with the name
Elohim.
(21:12):
The Jesus of the Quran is notthe Jesus of the Bible.
According to the Quran, astaught by Muhammad, Jesus was
not the Son of God.
Jesus did not die on the cross.
Jesus did not rise from thedead.
Jesus was not divine, but only aman.
He was just a prophet.
And Jesus Christ did not thencome from heaven to save the
lost.
Respect, but recognition.
(21:32):
And finally, and mostimportantly, here's the word
that I think is most important.
It is the word rededication.
When you discover the passionand zeal of a Muslim for his
religion and his God, it oughtto so challenge your own faith
and commitment to the God ofAbraham that we know by the name
Jesus Christ, living Lord.
(21:55):
Examine your own commitment toyour walk with Christ.
For instance, no matter wherethey are, five times a day,
they'll stop and pray.
How many times a day do youpray?
How often do you, throughoutyour day, give glory, verbalize
glory to your God?
Missionaries to Muslims inAfrica have given me a prayer
med, a Muslim prayer med, andthere have been times when I've
(22:17):
rolled it out on my study floorand knelt on it to pray to
Yahweh, conscious of the factthat this would be used by
millions of people to pray toAllah and so convicted that I do
not pray as I ought to to theone true and living God.
How about you?
Fasting is also a part of theirreligious observance.
When have you ever skipped ameal in order to pray and to
(22:38):
focus and to meditate upon thedemands and commands and grace
of God?
Another aspect of Kingdom ofMind was dress guidelines
compared to the women in ourChristian world with Muslim
women who don't dare show theirflesh.
And I wonder if the Christiansof the 21st century have
progressed or digressed.
(22:59):
I fear we have digressed.
And I am embarrassed often bythe way the women in the family
of God dress.
Muslims have a great passion forthe reputation of Allah.
Everywhere they go, they greeteach other publicly by saying,
Allah is great, or God is great.
(23:20):
Would you ever dare in yourcommunity, at your school, in
the hallway, in the classroom,meet another believer in the
first word, say, Jesus Christ isgreat.
But they are so passionate abouttheir God that they begin
conversation with saying, Hey,isn't our God great?
(23:40):
With passion, they chant theirsongs to Allah.
How did we just sing to our God?
Was it passionate?
Was it filled with energy andlove?
Or did we mouth the words to ourGod apathetically?
In closing, let me say, in spiteof their zeal and passion, here
is a worldwide religion thatgives its followers no assurance
(24:02):
of heaven.
None.
None.
Read their writings.
Only the martyr, the one whodies in some holy jihad.
Only that one is guaranteedparadise.
And then what are theyguaranteed?
And what is paradise?
Paradise is a never emptiedbottle of wine and a room full
of women.
Tragic.
(24:23):
Surely the great prophetMuhammad was certain of
paradise.
No?
You can read it in the Quranwhere he said, Although I am an
apostle of Allah, I do not knowwhat Allah will do to me.
What did it do to Abraham?
What did the promise do to him?
Let's flip back quickly and justlook at verse 21.
(24:44):
And being fully assured thatwhat he had promised, he was
able to perform.
Assurance.
Confidence.
I don't lie my head on a pillowat night and wonder, oh, God let
me into heaven.
Dear friends, Abraham does notbelong to the Muslim.
He does not belong to the Jew.
(25:05):
He does not belong to someProtestant denomination either.
He belongs to those, as thescriptures teach us, who've
placed their faith in thepromise seed.
This one we know as JesusChrist.
Lady handed this to me.
I want to end with it.
It's a quote from John Ashcroft,who is a believer.
(25:27):
It was written by Cal Thomas,another believer who's in the
world of journalism.
He wrote this Islam is areligion in which you send your
son to die for God.
Christianity is a faith in whichGod sent his son to die for you.
(25:48):
I think that says it all.
SPEAKER_00 (26:08):
We've taken the text of this sermon and put it
together into a booklet that canbe easily read and shared.
Just for today only, we'reoffering this booklet for a
donation of any amount to ourministry.
The booklet is called Abrahamand Islam.
And again, it's available todayfor a donation of any amount.
(26:33):
You can call us at 866-48 Bible.
That's 866-48 Bible.
Or numerically, it's866-482-4253.
You can also get this offer onour website.
Go to wisdomonline.org in ouronline store, type Abraham and
(26:57):
Islam in the search bar, andyou'll find this booklet there.
It'll be available online for adonation of any amount.
I hope it's a blessing to you.
Let me give you the contactinformation one more time.
You can call us at 866-48 Bibleor 866-482-4253.
(27:22):
Our website is wisdomonline.org.
That's wisdomonline.org.
In addition to being the pastorof the Shepherd's Church,
Stephen is also the president ofShepherd's Theological Seminary.
Shepherd's Seminary is a fullyaccredited graduate school that
trains pastors and churchleaders for a lifetime of
(27:45):
service.
If that interests you or someoneyou know, we have a link to the
school at the bottom of our homepage.
You can follow that link andexplore the programs.
So join us here on Wisdom forthe Heart.
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The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.