Inviting Muslims to Christ

A Clear Path to Salvation Including Quotations/Commentary from the Bible and Quran

Randall L Ireland, Randall L Ireland, Kelly D Belmonte, Kelly D Belmonte

• Verlag: Middle East Religious Studies Foundation
• Jahr: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780692816509
• Auflage: 1
• Thema: Theology & Religion
• Thema: Comparative Religion

The prupose and intent for this resouce book's focus is to extend the hand of peace, fellowship and mutual respect toward all humanity and especially all Muslims throughout the world. We commit to respect each other's sacred texts, the Holy Bible and the Holy Quran. Confirming that while we share some similar narratives and events in each of our holy scriptures, they do in fact present two mutually exclusive paths to salvation. We respect the priviledge of each faith to present itself freely without obstruction to the world. The scriptures and beliefs of these two radically different faiths present a choice to the faithful believer as being either a believing Christian or a believing Muslim. We seek to answer our questions of theses two faiths aspresented in their holy books statements of faith, commentaries and other theological sources.

Chapter 1 SEEKING TRUTH

Purpose Statement

The purpose and desired intent for this resource book focuses on eight points:

1. Present Jesus Christ as the savior for all mankind past, present, and future.

2. Share the love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, and salvation offered from the Lord God through the death and resurrection of His only Son, Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of our sins.

3. Extend the hand of peace, fellowship, and mutual respect toward all mankind and especially to all Muslims throughout the world.

4. That the reader will decide to receive the Gift of Salvation through Christ alone and have the Hope and Promise of spending eternity in Heaven.

5. That we remind ourselves that both of these faiths have had low points in their history such as the Crusades for Christians and the expansion of Islam by military conquest for which we forgive each other and dwell now and in the future in a relationship of mutual respect for each of our separate faiths.

6. That we commit to respect each other’s sacred texts, the Holy Bible and the Holy Quran. Confirming that while we share some similar narratives and events in each of our Holy Scriptures, they do in fact present two mutually exclusive different paths to salvation and we respect the privilege of each faith to present itself to the world.

7. Commit to defining Christianity and Islam by reviewing key passages of scripture that uniquely define them as two separate religious faiths, even though they share many characters and events.

The essence of what we find in our review of these two religions is:

• Two Different Gods: The Lord God of Christianity and Allah of Islam
• Two Different Messages: The Bible of Christianity and The Quran of Islam
• Two Different Faiths: The scriptures and beliefs of these two radically different faiths are so completely different that they present a choice to the believer between being either a believing Christian or a believing Muslim.

8. Call believers of each faith to respect the God-given right in both faiths to choose which faith they will or will not follow.

• Respect the God-given value of all humanity having been made in the image of the Lord God.
• Respect the right of each faith to exist without any prejudice, enmity, or coercion between the respective faiths.

A Clear Path to Salvation

The central goal of our study is to review those basic beliefs within both Monotheistic Islam and Monotheistic Christianity that direct the believer to salvation. The reader will see the significant differences between Islam and Christianity and is invited to become a believing Christian.

As a believing Christian, you are invited into a saving and personal fellowship with the Lord God of the Bible. You are encouraged to pray to the Lord God of the Bible as you begin to read this plan of salvation and especially as you come to the section on accepting Jesus Christ as personal savior.

An Important Search for Truth

The truth that we seek to find is indeed a question for all mankind and for all time (time being defined as, eternity past, present, and future of the two faiths we are exploring). We seek the truth as presented from within the beliefs presented by the theological and doctrinal statements of each faith. Both of these faiths present a set of foundational beliefs that are central to our understanding of what they present to potential believers. We seek to answer our questions as presented in the statements from these two faiths, as presented in their Holy Books, statements of faith, commentaries, and other theological sources.

To define each faith, we must define their theology. Theology is the study of the nature of God and our relationship to God. We also seek to understand the importance and the necessity of a personal faith. Each faith speaks to humanity of the eternal importance of a personal faith in either the Lord God of the Bible or Allah of the Quran. This personal faith gives the believer a faith relationship with their God, a code of conduct for life, a new world view, and a place in eternity or an afterlife.

Each faith or religion defines God and what is necessary to profess a personal faith in God. First, we want to look at four terms that are often used interchangeably when in fact they can be very different and in some cases mutually exclusive:

1. Religion is the personal belief in a given set of teachings or doctrine usually about a defined god but can be a defined spirit or inanimate object which seeks to give the believer an acceptable way to have a relationship with the object of their faith.
2. Faith is the personal belief in what has been presented to the individual by the specific religion that guides the believer in the specific teaching of that religion. Some of the major worldwide religions are Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Shinto, Ethnic Traditional, and individual sects or groups.
3. Spirituality is, “sensitivity or attachment to religious values of the personal faith the believer has chosen to follow.”¹
4. Cultism is when an individual or group identifies themselves in terms or belief in individuals that appear to be the same as the doctrinal beliefs of another religion.

In our current review Christianity, would identify Islam as an individual religion separate from the basic beliefs of Christianity, since it uses many terms defined in Christianity or the Holy Bible in a way that is inconsistent with Biblical teachings.

An example is the very definition or revelation of the Christian Lord God. In Biblical Christianity, the Lord God is seen as part of a Trinity. This Trinity in the Christian faith is defined as God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit. Whereas in Islam, God or Allah is defined as One, or by the term Tawhid, often described in Islamic theology as Islamic Monotheism. In fact, the greatest sin in Islam is “Shirk,” which means to worship others or anything along with Allah. Shirk means “association” or to worship or to associate someone or something in place of or with God/Allah. In Islam, Christians are Polytheist or believers in three separate gods.

In chapter two we will see a presentation of this Holy Trinity in two creeds from the early Christian Church. These are The Chalcedonian definition of the Christian Faith issued on 451 AD\CE and the Apostles Creed completed in the eighth century AD\CE. This Trinity relationship appears more than sixty times in the Bible. Four primary passages in the Bible in which we find God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit interacting are: Matthew 28:19, Matthew 3:16-17, 2 Corinthians 13:14, and Ephesians 4:4-6.

Let’s look at these teachings in a summary of their basic confessional statement of faith. Each faith gives their definition of the nature of the Lord God of Christianity or Allah of Islam and how a faithful person expresses their response to the Lord God of Christianity or Allah of Islam. Both faiths are presented through a series of events and leaders which are foundational for the believer’s faith. This process includes:

1. A leader that has been sent from the Lord God or Allah to present the Lord God’s or Allah’s message of salvation. Salvation in this context means that a person confesses their belief in the Lord God or Allah and lives their lives within the message presented by their leaders and in their scriptures.

2. A revelation from the Lord God or Allah is preserved in each text, either the Bible in Christianity or the Quran in Islam. Each is a revelation from the Lord God or Allah. There is a time of development of the foundational beliefs of the faith. In Christianity, this development is given in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. In the Old Testament, the Lord God reveals himself in his relationship with a people chosen by the Lord God to bring his message of salvation to the world, past present, and future. This message is revealed through the lives of the Israelites and major Biblical characters such as Moses, Abraham, King David, and many other leaders and prophets, as well as the lives of individual Israelites as preserved and presented in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, this message of salvation was extended to both Jews and Gentiles, all humanity which are not Jewish. In the New Testament, the primary Biblical characters are Jesus Christ, the Son of the Lord God who is also the sent Messiah. Other New Testament characters are the twelve disciples of Jesus, Paul the Apostle, as well as many individuals whose lives are changed as they accept the gift of salvation from the Lord God, freely given by his loving mercy, grace and forgiveness.

In terms of time, Christianity views the Lord God as the Creator who existed in the preexistent past, the present, and an eternal future or heaven where believers are eternally with the Lord God.

In Islam, God or Allah is the preexistent Creator who also reveals himself in the present as well as a future eternal Paradise. Prior to Allah revealing himself to the Prophet Mohammed, exclusively in the Arabic language, Arabic peoples lived primarily in what is now called Western Saudi Arabia, or in Arabic, the Hejaz. The cities of Mecca and Medina were both located in this area.

The Ka’bah or “House of God” is in Mecca where 360 gods were worshiped by the Pagan Arabs prior to the revelations of Islam.² In the Ka’bah, all of the 360 gods were represented by an idol, except Allah. Allah was worshiped as the “high god” over all other gods that were worshiped in the Ka’bah. This was during the Age of Ignorance or jahiliyya. During the time of Abrahams building of the Ka’bah the city dwellers and those on religious pilgrimage traveled to Mecca to worship at the Ka’bah. This age existed for several centuries prior to Muhammad’s coming as the final prophet of Islam. As noted in the Encyclopedia of The Quran, the jahiliyya was “a period characterized by ignorance of the divine truth.”³

Allah’s revelation of the Quran to Mohammed, beginning in 610 AD\CE became the beginning of the revelations that would later become the Quran. The word Quran means “to recite or recitation.” The Quran is believed by Muslims to be the word of Allah as given to the Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad’s mission was “to recite” this message to the Arabic people. At Surah 85:22 we find that the Quran was “(inscribed) in A Tablet Preserved that is eternal and preserved from corruption.

3. The revealed message is offered through sermons. In Christianity, these are evangelistic sermons from the Bible. In Islam, this “call” to faith is expressed in the term “Dawah,” with the sermon coming from the Quran.

4. There is a development of a place of worship. For Christianity, this is a church, where people meet to worship the Lord God. In Islam, it is a mosque or one of the Holy Sites designated by Islam where people meet to worship Allah.

5. The ministries of each faith is developed, led by priest, pastors, rabbi or an imam, each of which presenting the beliefs of their faith. This may include a wide variety of ministries that seek to reach out with assistance to those in need of spiritual, medical or other humanitarian needs. This may include food, clothing, medical assistance, camps, etc. These ministries seek to meet people’s basic needs for living as well as an opportunity for the believers to share their faith with others.

In the developmental history of each of these faiths they have experienced periods of heresies against their teachings. In each case these heresies have been addressed by their leadership. The foundation and the complete structure of our inquiry into each of these faiths is their theology. What is their teaching about the Lord God’s or Allah’s nature and purposes for mankind and the world? These are the questions which encompass all areas of our inquiry. In studying the text of either the Quran or the Bible we know that the history of the passage and the context in which it is found are always important. Our goal is to properly exegete or understand the passage and apply its teaching and application to our individual lives and the community in which we worship. Our goal is also to exercise our faith and grow in the beliefs of our faith.

We must always remember that we are seeking to understand and apply the teachings of these faiths to the current lives of individuals. Much of what we see however in Islamic Studies is historical or cultural background, which of course has value. But when we are seeking to understand and apply a teaching of either of these religions the final focus is on the theology of their faith that is expressed in their scriptures and teaching.

Another way to view this focus on understanding the scriptural text is to be clear that each of these faiths are seeking to guide the individual to establish a relationship between either the Lord God of the Bible or with Allah of the Quran. This faith is the central guiding element of their lives and the means by which they seek salvation in this life and ultimately in eternity (heaven or paradise). We are seeking to understand two different faiths that guide the lives of Christians and Muslims throughout the world.

There are many excellent reviews of the histories of various empires, for instance the Arabic and Semitic peoples, or the chronology of people groups, but very few focus on the spiritual or worship practices of the peoples involved. Whatever the focus of a writing, discussion, news report, or historical presentation, we must always be aware that we are talking, writing, or presenting about a real living breathing faith that seeks to guide the lives of billions of people in living their lives. The focus of this book is to appreciate the teachings and revelations of each faith and its unique history and theology.

 

Chapter 2 THE EARLY CHURCH

Foundational Teachings Of Christianity

The foundational teachings of Christianity are first revealed in the Old Testament where the Lord God reveals his creation, establishes a covenant with the prophet Abraham for the Jewish people, who were given the spiritual task of sharing and revealing the Lord God to the nations that surrounded Israel. Israel had an on and off relationship with the Lord God. Even though The Lord God revealed himself in many different ways to Israel, they ultimately found themselves in captivity in Babylon due to their disobeying the Lord God, but later, through the power of the Lord God of the Old Testament, they were able to return to their promised land and begin to live out the plan that the Lord God had given them.

The next major event in the Lord God’s continual plan to bring all humanity into a relationship that brings salvation was the entering this world of Jesus Christ the Son of God. The Lord God’s message to Mary is given in the New Testament in the Book of Luke (Luke 1:34-35) where it is written:

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the...

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• Preface
• Forward
• Chapter 1 SEEKING TRUTH
• Chapter 2 THE EARLY CHURCH
• Chapter 3 BELIEFS THAT LEAD TO LIFE
• Chapter 4 THE HOLY SPIRIT
• Chapter 5 JESUS IN THE BIBLE
• Chapter 6 SALVATION THROUGH JESUS CHRIST
• Chapter 7 THE LORD GOD AND ISRAEL
• Chapter 8 PILLARS OF ISLAM
• Biblical Review of Surah 112 and Surah 3
• Conclusion
• Chapter 10 POWER IN A NAME
• Appendix
• NOTES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY