Yesterday, on Sept. 25, 2009,fourteen days after the anniversary of 9/11 tens of thousands of Muslims planned to pray for the “soul of America” in mosques and outside the U.S. Capitol. I didn’t watch the news so don’t know what if any coverage the event received from that media – but really didn’t find much coverage of the event on the internet this morning either. So, I don’t know anything at this point regarding the turnout.
But many of the responses I have read prior to the event were comments along the lines of; a group of people praying to a demon god or praying to a non-existent god. I have been taught since I was a child that the god Muslim’s pray to is not the god of Abraham, even though they believe that he is. Now, these type of statements make me truly shiver and I’m not always sure exactly why.
Why is it that as Christians we can recognize the God of the Jews as God and that they just have it wrong in regards to Jesus and we can’t recognize the god of the Muslims along these same lines? Is it just because of the Koran? Then what of the Jewish Talmud? Is it because we believe Islam has rewritten the books of the Old Testament in such a way that they don’t match up to the Torah (if my understanding is correct, Isaac is replaced by Ishmael in the story of Mt. Moriah as one case in point)?
Why do I shiver? I think I shiver, not because I am appalled of what is being said, or that it isn’t truth, or that I believe it was Ishmael and not Isaac. I think I shiver because I hear fear in the words; fear of satan and of satan’s dominions. We are afraid of the capacity of this group of people to do evil and to harm us. We are afraid of their holy jihad. I don’t believe that it is unreasonable that we fear – 9/11 taught us that.
But is that fear controlling our thoughts, reactions, words? If we are soaked in fear how do we take up the “Great Commission” and approach these lost souls? How well they ever hear our witness when we stay locked in our fear and while never speaking directly to them continue to call their god a demon or non-existent in our writing? I believe that God’s heart is that they come to Him through Jesus and that Jesus is the bridge of understanding between the two of us.
As with a good majority of Christians, Muslims believe what they are taught and are not reading the books of their faith anymore than many of us read our Bibles. They are taught that Jesus was a prophet; that it is He who will usher in the end of the world (that He will return) as a prophet – just not as the Son of God. The book of John for the Muslim is the Injel. The same book of John where we can find what Jesus said of Himself. That He alone is “the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
I’m not saying that the bridge is going to be easy to walk across. I’m just saying that I don’t think I have chance of being heard by my Muslim brothers and sisters, of presenting to them what one of their books (the Injel) has to say on the topic of Christ if my fear is turning my heart to use words that are going to push them harder away from me, to want them either gone entirely or to turn them into what I see as a good American, instead of having a heart that desires they come into the family of God and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. He is the only way to the Father.
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Hey there. If I remember correctly, Muhammad claimed to have a "spiritual" experience in alone in a cave with "angels" who gave him the "revelation" to write new Scriptures, because everything else was corrupt, including the Jewish Old Testament.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could quote to you where I read that.
Actually he had an experience (spiritual) while alone in a cave - it was so frightening for him that he ran home and wrapped himself up in a rug hiding, when his wife found him in that condition (this was his first wife, much older than him) he told her what happened and that a demon was after him. It was his wife (she was originally from Jeruselum and some believe was a gnostic) who convinced him to go back to the cave that he had been given a "revelation" from God.
ReplyDeleteYou can find most of the story from any good historical account. It's a very interesting story.
And you are absolutely correct from what I understand they believe that all our books are corrupt (they use the 5 books of Moses, but have rewritten them to some extent as well as the book of John which I referenced in my article - it's their Injel).
Wow. Thanks for the info!
ReplyDeleteI think that's what Joseph Smith did with the book of Mormon—that is, rewrite some of the N.T.