Witnessing to Muslims

[carolaa]

I don't know if this is the appropriate forum for this topic, but I can't seem to find one that fits.

My boss is a Muslim, and I have been learning a lot about Islam in the last several months that I have worked for him. I'm wondering if anyone has experience relating with Muslims and what ideas you may have for witnessing to them. I know there are many sects of Islam, and my boss belongs to a small, more liberal sect.

I am confounded by a couple things. First of all, they claim to believe in Jesus, but only as a prophet and a good man. They claim to believe in the Bible, too, and yet they basically reject anything that happened after Abraham, as they have their own version of that history. I find it astonishing that they can claim to believe in Jesus and yet not believe He is who He says He is. As I see it, there are only 3 ways to see Jesus: 1) He is crazy, 2) He is a liar, or 3) He is who He says He is. And if He is a prophet, then He is not crazy or a liar. I haven't yet reached the point where I am comfortable stating it to him just like that, but I'm not sure what to say.

Probably the main thing that I struggle with addressing is their belief in one God. They do not believe Jesus can be God because there is only one God, and He does not have children. Because of this, it is blasphemy for them to think that Jesus could be God. How do I explain our view of the Trinity to someone who thinks such an idea is blasphemy? I suppose I could say that not all Christians believe in the Trinity.

Any suggestions or ideas?

[DrWhoCompanion]

Hi! I'm about to go hang out with my kids, but I'll think about your question over the next day or so.

I'm Jewish, and so is my mother. I have Moslem friends. In fact, I have many, many nonChristian friends. I think I can offer so decent insight.

Will get back to you soon!

Happy Sabbath!

[Neil D]

The honest truth is that I have no insights but what the bible has said.....

Jesus said that "if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me."

That is what I would do,...lift up Jesus....

After that, I would ask the Holy Spirit to invade this man's life to the point where the man does his own thinking....

[Nan]

Hi Carolaa,

My husband (Sammy Lee who posts here sometimes) is Indonesian and part of his theological training involved witnessing to Muslims. If you do a search on what he has posted in here on the subject, it was some time ago, you might find some help. If you want to know more, PM me and I will pass the message on. We are away from home at the moment - will be back in about 36 hours - so answers would be a little delayed.

[phkrause]

Hi carolaa, My wife's cousin Denise McGhee, is married to John McGhee who when he lived here in New England used to do Muslin Seminars. I'm not sure if he still works with Muslims. I will give you her email address and you can contact her. She will be able to get you in touch with her husband. I believe he is the head of ADRA in India. He goes there for a few months than comes home for a few months. Something like that.

Her email address is: denisemcghee@yahoo.com

pkrause

[carolaa]

Thank you all for your thoughts. I have followed up on some of the suggestions and am waiting to hear more.

I also had another thought. My boss is really proud of his more progressive sect of Islam, and he likes to email me links about different activities they are doing. So I'm thinking that kind of opens the door for me to, just every now and then, send him a link of interest about what Adventists are doing. I saw one just last night that mentioned both Muslims and Adventists in the same article. I think Adventists, even more than other Christians (because of our emphasis on health, community service, and the 24/7 lifestyle, etc.) can find things in common with Muslims.

[Nan]

I think John McGhee will always be interested in the Muslim work, his roots in Pakistan are very deep. When we get back home I will get Sammy to make some contributions too.

[carolaa]

Cool! My boss is from Pakistan. I have sent them an email requesting info.

[Planey]

...used to do Muslin Seminars...

Getting to the very fabric of our society, eh?

[Dr. Shane]

This week's "Adventures in Missions" program was titled "My 3 Muslim Hats" with John McGhee. I saw it on both LLBN and 3ABN. You may want to get ahold of them and get a copy of the program. It addresses this very issue.

[aldona]

What I find hard to understand is the way many Christians go out of their way to reach out to Jewish people, join together with them as fellow children of Abraham, emphasize all we have in common, support their political causes, "borrow" any aspects of their worship that appeal to us, all the time knowing that they do not "believe in Jesus" at all, regarding Him as a no more than a troublemaker and apostate.

At the same time, Muslims believe that Jesus was a righteous prophet sent by God, that He was born of a virgin by a miraculous act, and that He is coming again to judge the world, but we make every effort to distance ourselves from them, insist that the God they worship is not the same as ours, and generally make them out to be the Ultimate Demonically Inspired Enemy Force. Oh, and by the way, they don't believe that Jesus was God in exactly the same way as we do, so they are obviously a false religion and forever lost.

What's with that?

What happened to emphasising the points we agree on and using them as stepping stone to discussion and mutual friendship?

Quote:

They do not believe Jesus can be God because there is only one God, and He does not have children. Because of this, it is blasphemy for them to think that Jesus could be God.

When you say to a Muslim person that Jesus is the Son of God, the reaction is similar to the one that Mormons get from us when they say that Jesus was conceived by an act of literal physical intercourse between God the Father and Mary.

That's the way they understand God - that He cannot be a physical parent because He does not engage in acts of physical begetting.

I do not see an easy way of getting them to understand/accept our concept of Jesus as "Son of God" in this context. My husband has had many hours of discussion with our Muslim neighbor, to no avail. And yet their reverence and respect for Jesus as a prophet is impressive. They will often complain louder than Christians do if a Bible or other Christian item is desecrated, because of disrespect to the Prophet Jesus.

Is God going to leave them all out of heaven because of their different understanding?

If so, is this really the kind of God I want to worship?

aldona

[Dr. Shane]

First, I will not question God. God is a God of love and His understanding of love is perfect and my understanding is lacking. So whatever God does, I trust it will be just, fair and loving.

I have had some good Muslim friends and those that judge all Muslims the same probably haven't known any on a personal level. I can't honestly say they worship the same God as Christians do since we worship a triune God. They do not believe in the Trinity so I don't know how one can claim they worship the same God.

[aldona]

Quote:

I can't honestly say they worship the same God as Christians do since we worship a triune God. They do not believe in the Trinity so I don't know how one can claim they worship the same God.

If that is the case then we should be consistent and also state the same about Jewish people.

I have never heard any Christian leader or preacher say that Jewish people do not worship the same God as we do, because they do not believe in the trinity (or because they do not accept Jesus as the Son of God).

On the contrary, Christians everywhere fall over themselves in an effort to embrace Jewish religion and culture and emphasise our common heritage.

What I am simply saying is that this is not consistent, as the Muslims' understanding of Jesus, while not agreeing with ours, is a little closer to the truth.

aldona

[Denise]

Carolaa,

We have some good friends, Penny and Bryon Gallant who have a ministry for reaching out to Muslims. He has studied and gone to school on this, and also has been on Safe Tv recently on the topic on Muslims. He has a website, and you can contact him there if you have any questions about Muslims. The Lord has blessed him in reaching out to the Muslims. He'll be happy to help you. God Bless you! Here is his website:

Enoch's Passion

[Dr. Shane]

Many Christians believe the Jews are still God's chosen people. Thus they are willing to believe the God of the Jew's is the same as the Christian God. However the Jews haven't been worshiping the true God since Christ was here. Christ is God and the Scripture clearly reads, "He came unto his own, and His own received Him not." They did not receive Him. They chose their own traditions instead of the Word of God.

One has to be willing to say Muslims and Jews worship the Triune God of the Christians but do not understand him to be a Triune God. So, if they don't believe in the Trinity, do they really believe in the same God? Yes, one can claim, but they don't know it. Jesus wasn't just a great Prophet. Scripture says all things were made by Him and without Him nothing was made. He is the Creator. He walked in the Garden and spoke with Adam & Eve. He called Noah to build an ark. He wrestled with Jacob throughout the night. He led Israel in the pillar of fire and wrote the Ten Commandments with His finger. He walked with the three Hebrew worthies in the fiery furnace. He is the central focus of the entire Bible, both Old and New Testaments. So how can we honestly say someone who doesn't believe Jesus is God, worships the same God as Christians do?

That said, I have found Muslims much easier to get along with than Jews. However I haven't known enough of either to make any generalizations about either group. The Jews I have known have wanted to argue with me more about who Jesus is and how one is saved. The Muslims I have known have seemed much more willing to live with others in peace. But again, that is my limited experience with both groups.

[Gregory Matthews]

If you wish to witness to Islamics, are you willing to read the Koran in order to understand what they believe?

NOTE: Yes, I understand that the Koran only exists in Arabic.

By asking if you are willing to read the Koran, I mean an official three part work that: a) Contains the Arabic? Includes a translation of the Arabic into your native language (English)? c) Has a commentary that explains the translation?

If you are willing to do the above you will begin to understand the issues that you will face as you witness to Islamics.

NOTE: I have begun to do exactly what I have asked if you are willing to do. I am beginning to obtain an understanding of Islam that I never had before. So far I have read a couple hunderd pages of a book that is well over 1,000 pages in length--it is in my office and I am writing from home.

Is this really of value? Let me illustrate:

I attend a Sabbath School class that is somewhat non-traditional. A while back I began to read deeply into one of the sects of Hinduism. After about a year of doing so a committed Hindu woman began to attend our class. Actualy she came with the purpose of converting us to Hinduism. She probably attended for a couple of years before she quit comming.

NOTE: As an interesting point, she believes that SDAs are much closer to Hinduism than are many. One of her approaches to us was to re-frame (Sorry, that is right out of my psychology background.) Hindu concepts and theology into Christian concepts and theology. One of the things that I did was to be able to restate what she had said in Hindu concepts, which I would then invite her to correct me if I was wrong. She always stated that I was correct.

Because of what I was learning from my readings of Hindu writings I was able to participate in the discussions in a manner that added material to her comments that contributed beyond what she had said.

She was really enthused by the SS Quarterly on Ecclesiastes. She would bring her copy of the GITTA and cite from it in an attempt to prove that the Bible and the GITTA complemented each other. So, during that period, I brought my GITTA and I would follow-up her citations with additional material that she had not included.

My point is this: On some levels, if you really want to witness to other religious groups, you may need to read the religious works upon which they base their faith. It is only by doing so that you may be able to effectively witness to them.

You have mentioned that Islamics revere Christ as a Prophet and that it true. They consider Christ to be a messenger of Allah, in his time. Yet you wonder why they, as you put it, reject what Christ says about himself. The answer to that lies in the Koran, and the commentary that I have read that explains the English translation.

Are you aware that Islamics support a number of their beliefs with Biblical texts? They do. In dealing with their use of the Bible, both the NT and the OT, you will come understand Islam in a manner that you have probably never before understood.

* * * * * * * * * *

Getting back to Hinduism, and the woman who attended our class:

One of her most striking contributions to our class was her story of her acceptance of a major Hindu doctrine. She told how she was standing before a statute of Shiva (If I remember accurately.) in a major Hindu temple in the area where I live. Standing alone before Shiva, she vocally called out her issues with accepting that Hindu belief. Immediately, she said a voice answered her. She was asked what it would take to convince her of the correctness of that belief. She verbally responded. Again a voice asked for clairfication on one point. She physically responded again. With that response she was given excatly the so-called proof that she had requested! Shiva had answered her vocalized prayer.

Folks, what do you do to witness to one who has talked with a god/goddess, and been given exactly what has been requested as a sign?

Well enough of Hinduism, and back to Islam.

[DrWhoCompanion]

Excellent points, Gregory.

I can say, with much certainty, respect is wonderful thing. Being respectful and genuine goes a long way. It's simple, but many evangelists don't get it. It's easy for some to laugh and make fun of others' beliefs. It's easy for some Christians to try to scare nonbelievers with Hell. To non-Christians, trying to scare them with Hell is like trying to convince someone the Easter bunny DOES, in fact, exist.

All I can say is, you draw more flies with honey than vinegar. Being a true friend, and a true Christian, goes further than scare tactics. Showing the unbeliever you genuinely care and that you're in there with them for the long haul. Hey, it worked for me. I know she's not going to read this, but, thanks, Lydia New from Jackson. God used you.

[Stan]

ALSO as much as we can add spiritual things to their life, they can do the same for us.

Remember, JOB as an Arab, as was Caleb. and the Three Wise Men from the East. The list goes on..

[Joe_in_RP]

I have learned its not what you say, Its how you behave that will be the best witness.

[Nan]

My name is Sammy Lee, a retired pastor of the SDA Church and husband of Nan. I have been involved with Muslims since I was 18, while studying at the Indonesian Adventist University Academy in Bandung. My Arabic and Moslem Religion teacher was Haji Rifai Burhanuddin. I would be happy to share my experiences, with you or anyone else who is interested, but since this forum has a limitation on pictures and diagrams, I can only do so if you contact my email address below:

thehanifs@gmail.com

[Woody]

Excellent points, Gregory.

I can say, with much certainty, respect is wonderful thing. Being respectful and genuine goes a long way. It's simple, but many evangelists don't get it. It's easy for some to laugh and make fun of others' beliefs. It's easy for some Christians to try to scare nonbelievers with Hell. To non-Christians, trying to scare them with Hell is like trying to convince someone the Easter bunny DOES, in fact, exist.

All I can say is, you draw more flies with honey than vinegar. Being a true friend, and a true Christian, goes further than scare tactics. Showing the unbeliever you genuinely care and that you're in there with them for the long haul. Hey, it worked for me. I know she's not going to read this, but, thanks, Lydia New from Jackson. God used you.

Thank you Who .... This is So true. It is not the "knowledge" that is important ... it is the relationship. The Lord Jesus Christ is in the saving business not the indoctrination business. So, he will save us despite our lack of knowledge of scripture. It is in Heaven that we will really understand.