2 responses to “Islam: A Peaceful Religion?”

1. 

   Dennis Owen

   10/07/2010

   It is also important to note that from an Islamic point of view Judaism and Christianity were saving religions up until the rise of Islam. Since then, Islam has been, and will always be the only valid religion (3:19) because their doctrines no longer reflect God’s revelation to Moses and Jesus. Islam, they argue, is the only religion that has preserved God’s revelation in its truthfulness. Christian doctrine about Jesus’ atoning death is unwarranted, they say, because God is sovereign and does not need a sacrifice to forgive sins of those who repent and do good (4:48). Moreover, Muslims say that Christian teaching undermine personal responsibility (6:164) since, the Qur’an categorically declares that each human being is responsible for his or her own deeds for “no one can bear the burden of another” (35:19). This belief denies the fact that Jesus was fully aware that his distinctive mission would not be fulfilled without his death on the cross (John 12:27-28). He himself presented his death as an atoning sacrifice for the redemption of the world (Mark 10:45). Since God is just and “does not leave the guilty unpunished” (Exodus 34:7), Jesus offered his life as a sin sacrifice so that God could forgive our sins without compromising his justice. This means that the message of the cross is irresistible to Muslims. It is irresistible because it brings forth a missing dimension in the religion of Allah, the merciful and forgiving God. How can God be merciful and forgiving without acting in holy judgment against sin? God’s love is holy or else it is not true love, outgoing and all-embracing. It is a holy God who is capable of being all-merciful and forgiving. Therefore, God’s love is love in forgiveness and in redemption. In the face of sin, God’s holiness makes sin damnable as sin and love active as grace. It is in and through the cross that sin is judged and sinners are forgiven. At the cross, God provides and accepts the sacrifice of Christ as God’s judgment upon sin and the basis for its forgiveness. Only a holy God who judges sin can be loving and forgiving. This is the irresistible attraction that the message of the cross has for Muslims, despite the rejection of the cross by Islam.

   While the Qur’an leaves the door open for the possibility of the Resurrection, many Muslims have interpreted the Qur’an as denying both the need of the cross and the fact of Jesus’ death. The Qur’an states that the Jews claimed to have killed: ” The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah; whereas they slew him not, nor did they compass his death upon the cross, but he was made to appear to them like one crucified to death…. Indeed, Allah exalted him to Himself…. There is none among the People of the Book but will continue to believe till his death that Jesus died on the cross, and on the Day of Judgment Jesus shall bear witness against them” (4:158-160).

   In this passage the Qur’an denies the death of Jesus was ultimately caused by the Jews. They spread the “grievous calumny” of his death, and they thought they had killed him, but actually had not, “for Allah exalted him to Himself.” Is this not congruent with the saying Jesus? I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father” (John 10:17-18). Whatever else others may claim, the fact of the matter is that no one actually determined the death of Jesus; he alone, by the power invested in him by the Father, decided to give up his life and “take it again.” Like John’s Gospel, the Qur’an makes an indirect reference to Christ’s resurrection. Similarly Paul states that while Jesus “humbled himself…unto death…God highly exalted him (Phil 2:8-9). The death of Jesus is according to Paul and Jesus, not the last word about him, for he has been exalted “above any name.” Therefore, says the Qur’an, whatever Jews may claim regarding the death of Jesus is not true. What is true is that Allah has “exalted him to Himself.”

   It is striking, nevertheless, that this text has been traditionally interpreted by Muslims as denying the very reality of Jesus’ death. They assume that just as the Qur’an does not attach an atoning significance to Jesus’’ death, so it also denies his death as such, when the fact of the matter is that all the Qur’an disputes is Jesus’ death was caused by human hands. Indeed, if anything the aforementioned text points to the fact of the Resurrection, which makes Islam’s rejection of the saving significance of the cross all the more tragic. By defending the exalted role of Jesus, it denies his redemptive death.

   While some Christians might feel the need to relate the gospel to the message of the Qur’an and Christianize its meaning by reading Christian truth into it, I don’t think such an approach would be effective or honest. For instance, when Christians use the root metaphor, “the Way,” to describe Jesus, yet Muslims assume we are talking about “a slave-like submission to the power and will of God.” A metaphor like this invites similarities but ignores differences. The Qur’an discredits grace, and elevates the necessity of utter obedience on the part of human beings. It speaks of Jesus reverently, but presents a small part of the true Christ. Perhaps that is why Jesus gave us an important warning when he suggested that the light within one may become darkness: “But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matt 6:23). Just a little twisting of the gospel into the Qur’an may make the good become bad.

   We also need to keep in mind the counsel of E. Stanley Jones who said that “the gospel reaches down to the soil of each nation and picks out elements akin to its own nature. But here again the end is not a syncretism, for the law of life in Jesus Christ is the determining factor in the disposition of these assimilated elements.” Jones said, “Syncretism combines, eclecticisms pick and choose, but only life assimilates. The gospel repudiates syncretism, it refuses eclecticism, but it does assimilate, for it is life” clothed in the local garb. Because the presence and activities of the Holy Spirit is everywhere, I believe the most effective method of evangelization is dialogue. By dialogue I mean sharing of joys and sorrows; collaboration in furthering human development; deeper understanding of the religious heritages of others and better appreciation of Muslims’ spiritual values, such as their need to measure up to Islamic law. Since “I hear and obey” provides a complete blueprint for Islamic society, not only for belief and behavior but for society and government as well, the only way Muslims have any hope of submitting to the will of God is through the power of the Holy Spirit. This means that they must become a Christian if they want to become a good Muslim.

   While dialogue is a fundamental part of evangelism, it is only a part. There is a further step that needs to be taken when approaching persons of other religions. We must become friends. Since love is our primary motivation for evangelism, we should seek to understand other religions as carefully and objectively as possible. In a world where one’s neighbors are likely to include Muslims as well as Christians, it is important to know them well in order to love them well. This means understanding their doctrines, practices, and values of the religion. For example, if one uses the triad Father-Son-Holy Spirit to explain the doctrine of the Trinity to a Muslim, the message will not get through because it seems to represent a threat to God’s oneness. Yet Christians believe as firmly as Muslims that there is one and only one God. For nothing in the way the Bible reveals God to us does not undermine what they know about him (e.g. his oneness, mercy, justice, transcendence, sovereignty). The opposite is true: by revealing God as the Savior, the Word of God fully disclosed the glory of our Creator. That is why the Bible and the Qur’an present Jesus as the Word of God (1 John 1:1, 14; Qur’an 3:39, 45). Both refer to the Holy Spirit, in connection with Jesus’ mission (John 14:26; Qur’an 5:110). Therefore, an alternative way of explaining the Trinitarian God to a Muslim would be to use the triad God-Word of God-Spirit of God. Such an understanding can allow for genuine dialogue and pave the way to fruitful evangelism.

   Over and over the Bible says that Jesus offers forgiveness and eternal life as a free gift that cannot be earned (see Rom 6:23; Eph 2:8-9; Titus 3:5). It is called grace. Grace is not only what God has done for us in the person and work of Jesus Christ, grace is also what God does in us through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. So it isn’t that God just looks upon us in a new way but that God acts in our lives and redefines our expectations and empowers us to measure up to the goals that promise freedom and peace. For example, Muslims are expected to submit to will of God even though they do not understand it. Indeed the phrase “I hear and obey” provides a complete blueprint for Islamic society, not only for belief and behavior but for society and government as well. You would think, with all their striving to overcome, Muslims would be on top of things by now but they have misdiagnosed the disease. The problem is not in our behavior; the problem is the condition of our hearts. Jesus said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Mat 15:19). Thus anyone who is serious about knowing God eventually becomes frustrated with his or her own ability to ‘measure up’ to whatever ‘law’ and is ripe for the good news that grace (the power of the Holy Spirit to obey such law) is available through the Holy Spirit. Muslims don’t need to strive to “measure up” to sharia law. They need transformation. They need a miracle. For law without grace is the law of sin and death, but the law empowered by grace is the law of the Spirit of life. This means that Muslims must repent and believe the Gospel if they want to live by the Five Pillars.

   Friendship evangelism opens the door to what has been called the “contextualization model,” which is the process whereby the gospel message encounters a particular culture, calling forth faith and leading to the formation of a faith community, which is culturally authentic and authentically Christian. For instance, the mystic Ibn ‘Arabi presented Jesus as the very embodiment of God-for-us. There is thus an authentically Islamic (albeit mystical) view that looks at Qur’anic ideas in ways that are recognizably more Christian than Islamic. Hence control of the process resides within the context of the Islamic culture rather than with an outsider. In this model, culture is understood to be dynamic and evolving system of values, patterns of shared basic assumptions that shape the life of the members of that society. These basic assumptions include behavioral regularities, group norms, espoused values, formal philosophy, rules, climate, embedded skills, and habits of thinking, mental models, linguistic paradigms, shared meanings, and root metaphors.

   The aim of effective communication of the gospel is to proclaim the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as Lord. The way he revealed God to us does not undermine what Muslims know about him (e.g. his oneness, mercy, justice, transcendence, sovereignty). The opposite is true: by revealing God as the Savior he fully disclosed the glory of our Creator who loved us so much that he redeemed us before he created us.

   Finally, Christians (particularly in the West) need to understand that the crusades had a long-term impact on Christian-Muslim relationships and to recognize the potential dangers of global conflict, as religious identification begins to take precedence over national secularism as Christianity grows in the same regions where Islam is also expected to increase. This “crusade” and “jihad” mentality has not entirely disappeared. Many Christians today see Muslims as the enemy; they prefer to take on Islam in a ‘war of words’ rather than explain the concept of covenant and the gospel peacefully to them. This offensive approach is irreconcilable with “the gospel of peace” (Eph 6:15) and does not honor the Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6). Muslims will respond to God’s love in Jesus Christ only when we see them as our neighbors and love them as such.

   Here are some additional resources:

   Websites:
   http://www.frontiers.org – Has book recommendations
   http://isa4all.blogspot.com – Mainly on C5 Insider
   http://www.carlmedearis.com –
   http://www.adeadlymisunderstanding.com
   http://www.whydoyoufearme.com
   http://www.jesusinthequran.org/ – Class to get at your church on using the Qur’an to build bridges and share
   http://www.encounteringislam.org/ – Class to get at your church on Islam
   http://www.answering-christianity.com/quran_search.htm – Best online Qur’an search engine.

   Books:
   Muslims, Christians, and Jesus by Carl Medearis
   A Muslim’s Heart: What Every Christian Needs to Know to Share Christ with Muslims by Ed Hoskins
   A Deadly Misunderstanding by Mark Siljander

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2. 

   angelcasiano

   06/13/2016

   Reblogged this on angelcasiano.com.

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