Islam Challenges Church (continued from previous page)
Muslims must Islamicize non-Muslims by persuasion and conversion. Sometimes force has been a method. If non-Muslims do not accept Islam, they must submit to Islamic authority and rule. Islam is over against the non-Muslim world. Early Jewish tribes refused to submit to the prophet Muhammad, and hundreds were slaughtered. Jews have been tolerated with limited freedoms in dominant Muslim territories. Rejects Trinity, Resurrection      From its very beginning, Islam viewed Christianity as a religion of idolatry and contamination. One of the greatest sins—shirk in Arabic—is to believe that God could share His nature with humanity. Therefore, Islam denies the Christian beliefs of the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus Christ, the crucifixion and death of Jesus for the sins of the world, and the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb.       Through the centuries, Muslims have waged warfare against Christians, both physical and verbal, and Christians have fought Muslims, notably in the Crusades. Where there has been Muslim dominance, Christians have been treated as minorities, dhimmis, and given limited freedoms.      Suspicion, distrust, and hostility characterize the history of Christian-Muslim relations. Stereotypes have prevailed. Islam has attacked Christianity for its polytheism and corruption of the Scriptures. Christianity has considered Islam a heretical and impenetrable religion.      The Islamic world has fought the West’s impositions of its values, cultural forms, and politics upon Muslim peoples. Accusations of colonialism and imperialism have been heralded, especially against Europe and the United States. The Iranian Islamic revolution castigated the United States as the “Great Satan” and cast out Christian missionaries. Saudi Arabia has primarily relied upon the United States for the modernization and technology of its society, but prohibits any church or Christian missionary presence on its soil. Huge Challenge to Church      Christians, with few exceptions, have maintained their distance from Muslims.	They have done little to understand Muslims, to prepare to send missionaries to Muslim people, and to develop a Christian apologetic for Muslims. Christians have continued to be unfamiliar with Muslims and their religion. Mass media has associated the words ayatollah, jihad, and terrorist with Islam. Muslims are stereotyped as warlike, savage, and uncivilized.      Some scholars have written of the coming clash of civilizations between the Islamic world and the Western or Christian world. Christian churches and mission agencies are awakening to the presence and strength of Islam, to its missions worldwide, and to its agenda to become the dominant religious and cultural expression. Christian mission agencies are restructuring their strategies to include the unreached Muslim people groups.       Christians are discovering that they have Muslim neighbors, that mosques are being built next to churches, that their medical doctors are Muslims, and that their children attend school with Muslims. In the United States a Muslim leader has opened a session of Congress with prayer in the name of Allah. There are Muslim chaplains in the armed services.      The Muslims are coming.... No! The Muslims are already here. They are worldwide. They are growing in numbers and influence. They offer religious help to millions. They have a religious, social, and political agenda. They present one of the greatest challenges to Christianity and to Christians. Adapted with permission from What You Need to Know About Islam & Muslims, by George W. Braswell, Jr., a former missionary to Iran (© 2000 by George W. Braswell, Jr.). You may request this helpful resource by calling 1-888-633-1728.

Islam: Jesus Not God

He is a prophet, a good man, but not God, according to the Quran, which, surprisingly, has much to say about Jesus. The Quran confirms Christ’s virgin birth, His miracles, and His holy life. Isa, the Quran’s name for Jesus, is mentioned in 93 verses in the Quran. And, as George Braswell points out in What You Need to Know About Islam & Muslims, Jesus has more honorific titles in the Quran than even Muhammad. One of those titles is “messiah.”       But not Messiah as the New Testament teaches. Islam rejects the Trinity and dispenses with the New Testament claim that Christ was God, that He died for sin, and that He rose again. According to the Quran, the Messiah was only a messenger. It is blasphemous to Muslims, writes Braswell, to link Allah’s divine nature with human nature. Popular in Folk Islam      Even so, Jesus is a popular figure in folk Islam. Shrines and saints’ tombs named after Jesus dot the Muslim world, according to Braswell. He is prayed to for healing, prosperity, and children. While the Quran sees Him a prophet, folk Islam regards Him as a mediator between God and man, healer, deliverer from evil, and miracle worker.      And while orthodox Islam rejects Jesus as God, some Muslims report dreams or visions in which Jesus reveals Himself to them. After repeated nightmares in which he saw himself entering Hell, a Saudi Arabian man said on the website, www.answering-islam.org, that he was fearful and confused. “Suddenly, one day Jesus appeared to me and said, “Son, I am the way, the truth and the life. And if you would give your life to Me, and follow Me, I would save you from the Hell that you have seen.”       He soon trusted Christ as His Savior, and has since, according to his testimony, suffered imprisonment and torture for his faith in Jesus.            <<Back  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8  Next >>