Interacting with Muslim Americans

Interacting with Muslim Americans

Can a true Muslim be a good American? How should we interact with Muslims since they are called to convert us or kill us?

The Quran (Islam’s holy book, their “Bible”) contains verses which promote jihad, a holy war which requires Muslims to act violently toward unrepentant non-Muslims.  One of many passages which does so is this one:  “Now when ye MEET IN BATTLE those who disbelieve, then it is SMITING OF THE NECKS until, when ye have routed them, then making fast of bonds; and afterward either grace or ransom till the WAR lay down its burdens.  That (is the ordinance).  And if Allah willed He could have punished them (without you) but (thus it is ordained) that He may try some of you by means of others.  And THOSE WHO ARE SLAIN in the way of Allah, He rendereth not their actions vain.”  (Surah 47:4, emphasis mine).  Muslim scholar Abdulla Yusuf Ali wrote a commentary on this passage in which he stated, “When once the fight (Jihad) is entered upon, carry it out with the utmost vigour, and strike home your blows at the most vital points (smite at their necks), both literally and figuratively.  You cannot wage war with kid gloves.”

muslim americans

A Christian’s response to Islam should not be through violent means.

The religion of Islam is similar to Christianity in that its followers each exhibit varying degrees of faithfulness to its commandments.  Just as there are “liberal” Christians who hold to a relaxed view of biblical teaching, there are “liberal” Muslims, those who hold a relaxed view of the many teachings of the Quran concerning violence towards non-Muslims and thus are peaceful and kind.  Just as there are “conservative” Christians who simply take the Bible for what it says and try to obey all of it, there are also “conservative” Muslims who take the Quran for what it says and try to obey it all, including the passages about violence towards non-Muslims.  The “conservative” Muslims are currently represented by ISIS, the 9/11 hijackers, etc.  The “liberal” Muslims, generally speaking, are far more likely to be “good Americans” (i.e., abiding by the laws of this country; living peacefully with their fellow Americans.)

Scripture gives several guidelines on how Christians are to interact with Muslims:

  1. Remember that their souls are precious in the sight of God, so reach out to them with the gospel (John 3:16; Luke 19:10; Mark 16:15).
  2. Help them see us and our Christ as a loving people who represent a loving God by loving our neighbors and our enemies (1 Cor. 13:4-7; 1 John 4:8; Matt. 22:39; 5:44).
  3. Our love is primarily shown by sharing the truth with them in love (Eph. 4:15).
  4. Rather than writing off all Muslims you know as among the “conservative,” violent type, judge each individual Muslim righteously (John 7:24).
  5. Upon evidence that you’re dealing with a Muslim who is very “conservative” in doctrine (i.e., a violent jihadist), act wisely to protect yourself (Matt. 10:14); cf. Acts 23:12-35).
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The Duty of the Prophet

The Duty of the Prophet

As we read from the prophet Ezekiel, we should be aware that while God is preparing Ezekiel to prophesy to the rebellious people of Israel, he is also given a profound and dire warning. If the man of God (Ezekiel particularly in this case) fails to warn the sinner of God’s judgment then the sinner will be lost and the man of God (Ezekiel) will also be held accountable. However, if the man of God faithfully proclaims God’s warning, and the sinner refuses to repent, then the sinner will be lost but the man of God will be justified (Ezekiel 3:18-21).

Ezekiel prophet

Are you warning or condemning?

Let us not however think that this warning is only for the inspired prophets of old. The apostle Paul said “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences” (2 Corinthians 5:11) While we don’t have the right or the authority to condemn sinners, we do have a responsibility to warn sinners from their evil ways and declare unto them the judgments of God. Love the sinner and hate the sin, enough to share the truth of God. This, too, is part of being faithful.

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Outnumbered? Overwhelmed?

Outnumbered? Overwhelmed?

Life is never easy, but there are those times when we become so overwhelmed that we are filled with despair, feeling like we can never succeed. God, who supplies all our needs, has given us His words of truth to let us know just how wrong we are. Remember this. With the exception of two times (one was in the Garden of Eden; see if you can think of the other) the number of the ungodly has always far surpassed those who are godly. Look at the following words of encouragement He has given us about how we will triumph because He is here with us. Pay special attention to the word “thousand.”

overwhelmed outnumbered

Do not forget who has your back.

There were millions of Jews who left Egypt and headed for the Promised Land, but before them lay the task of conquering that land. Some readily gave up saying, “The people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large…there we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak) and we were like grasshoppers in our sight” (Num. 13:28, 33). They gave up.

Forty years later, their children entered that land under the leadership of Joshua. His view was always different from the view of the former generation. “Hold fast to the Lord your God as you have done this day. For the Lord has driven out from before you the great and strong nations; but as for you, now one has been able to stand against you to this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who fights for you, as He promised you” (Josh. 23:8-10).  One chase a thousand? If there were six million Jews who entered the Promised Land, they could have defeated 6,000,000,000 pagans. How do you like those odds! When you feel outnumbered, remember this story. It is God who fights our battles.

Do not overlook that time when Shamgar killed 600 Philistines with an ox goad (Judg. 3:31); Gideon’s small army killed over 100,000 Midianites (Judg. 8:10); Samson killed a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey (Judg. 15:15); and the Jews’ victory over 185,000 Assyrians without lifting a single weapon (2 Kgs. 19:35).

When you are discouraged because those living ungodly lives seem to be winning, read Psa. 38:17. “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of thousands.” He is among His people, and He and His heavenly army stand beside you. How many angels does He have? John said, “Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne…and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands” (Rev. 5:11). And the work of every one of them is to minister to us who are troubled (Heb. 1:14). Remember, you are not outnumbered!

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The Salvation of the Gospel

The Salvation of the Gospel

Jesus Christ offers salvation. He says plainly in Mark 16:16, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” He says in John 10:9, “I am the door. He who goes in and out by me will be saved.” Thus, the apostle Peter boldly declared that there is no other name, but the name of Jesus Christ, given under heaven by which men “must be saved (Acts 4:12).”

Salvation is an important part of the Gospel message. Cornelius was told by God to send to Joppa for Peter, who would give him “words” by which he and all his household would “be saved.” (Acts 11:14) Peter preached the Gospel to that house, the words of Christ. Concerning the word of God, Paul reminded Timothy that it was able to make one wise unto salvation (cf. 2 Timothy 3:15), and elsewhere he declared to the church at Rome that the Gospel of Christ was the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16).

Salvation how

Salvation? How? From where? By whom?

With all that in mind, a question comes… when exactly is one saved through the Gospel of Christ? There is a great deal of confusion about this in the minds of some, and there are those who will tell you they have been saved, but who, when they begin reading and studying the scriptures have to wonder if such is actually the case.

One of the things that we should probably note first is that there are at least two senses in which Jesus provides salvation. This is because there are at least two things that Jesus saves us from.

In the first place, Jesus saves us from sin. Sin is a blot on our soul and separates us from a right relationship with God (cf. Isaiah 59:1-2). Through the blood of Christ there is the forgiveness of sins (cf. Ephesians 1:7). Thus it was prophesied that Jesus would save His people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21). Whenever we read about forgiveness in the Gospels, we are reading about a very important aspect of salvation.

In the second place, Jesus saves us from death. Not from physical death, but from an eternal and spiritual death. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God in Christ Jesus is eternal life (Romans 6:23). By removing sin, Jesus also removes the penalty from sin. For this reason, the Bible says, “he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” (James 5:20) This salvation from death and judgment is at the heart of the resurrection message. Jesus took on flesh, died on the cross and then rose from the dead so that we might know that He had destroyed the power of death. (cf. Hebrews 2:14) In Jesus, those who are saved from sin are subsequently saved from death and have the promise of a home in heaven (cf. John 14:1-3)

Noting then that there are two different kinds of salvation offered by Jesus, though they are very closely related to one another, when we ask the question, when does Jesus save you, we might recognize that there are two possible ways to answer the question.

Concerning the salvation from sins – Jesus saves us from our sins when He forgives us of our sins. So long as a man is still under the burden of sin, that man cannot have said to be saved from sin. Once the man is forgiven, he has found the promised salvation.

Jesus said concerning this, that the man who believes and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16). Peter, preaching the first gospel sermon, told his listeners they needed to be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins(Acts 2:38). Ananias, another inspired man, told Saul that Saul needed to, “Arise, and be baptized, and wash away [his] sins, calling on the name of the Lord(Acts 22:16).”  If we understand that it is in baptism that a man has his sins washed away, and that this forgiveness is salvation, we can then understand why the Bible says that baptism saves us (cf. 1 Peter 3:21).

But what about the second salvation – the salvation from death? When does that happen. Jesus said once to His disciples, “But he who endures to the end will be saved(Matthew 10:22b; NKJV).” This is in harmony with what Jesus says elsewhere, “He who is faithful unto death will receive a crown of life(Revelation 2:10).” That crown of life is the promise of eternal life.

So the Bible teaches that Jesus saves us from our sins and brings us into a right relationship with God when we obey the Gospel and have those sins washed away. Then, as we remain faithful to the Gospel, we later, sharing in the resurrection, have a part in an eternal salvation from condemnation.

Which is why Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you… (1 Corinthians 15:1-2a; NKJV).”

 

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One Thing You Lack

One Thing You Lack

He was apparently raised in a very religious home, and was still a highly religious man. Not only did he know the commandments, but had kept them all since his youth – up to and including to this very day. Now we see him asking Jesus to help him with his desire to inherit eternal life (Mk. 10:17-20). The next fifteen words in this text are some of the most vital, critical, and essential to our understanding of the Lord, the lost, and the truth about what real, sincere, and Christ-like godly love looks like in the entire New Testament. “Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘One thing you lack…’”(vs. 21a). And there you have it!

lack correction

They correct you in love so you will not be lacking.

Amongst the many vitally essential lessons to be learned from that one, fifteen-word phrase alone, is that despite what the walking-in-darkness-world (Ephesians 4:17-27) all around us says, thinks, or does, disagreeing with or correcting someone who needs correcting in order to get them either onto, or back onto the straight and narrow pathway to heaven, does NOT mean that the one teaching and/or working to correct them doesn’t love them (2 Tim. 2:24-26) – “Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘One thing you lack…’”. In fact, it means just exactly the opposite – see: Proverbs 3:11-12, 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 13:6; 2 Corinthians 12:15; and Hebrews 12:5-17.

When this seemingly devout and religiously-knowledgeable young man came to ask Jesus for His help with his desire to inherit eternal life, Jesus loved both His own heavenly Father, as well as this young man, way too much to tell him anything other than the absolute truth as to what it was going to take in order to legitimately accomplish that desire. Jesus’ all-consuming love for the young man would not allow Him to stretch, water down,edit or avoid the absolute truth which he so desperately needed to hear – whether he knew it or not,and/or whether he really wanted to hear it or not – in order to make it to heaven. Jesus’ pure and unadulterated love for this young man (whom He would later die to provide forgiveness of sins and eternal life to) demanded that He tell him exactly what the correction was which he needed to make, in order to eventually make it to heaven (“Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘One thing you lack…’”).

The young man’s response to Jesus’ honestly, truthfully, and lovingly answering his inquiry? Exactly what Jesus knew it would be long before He ever gave him the answer to his question…he wasn’t interested; and that in his youthful selfishness and shortsightedness, he would walk away (never to come to his senses and return as far as we know):“But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (Vs. 22).

Jesus’ very loving, very honest, and very much-needed response, would require far more from this young man than he was willing to give. It would require the complete surrendering up of his own personal, prideful, and self-serving agenda, pursuits, and possessions. It would demand that he truly put others ahead of himself; and to do so in a most humble, selfless, and Christlike way (Philippians 2:1-8); something which he was just not willing to do – even if it meant losing his long-anticipated and worked for eternal reward.And so, he walked away. And Jesus …just let him go.

Now, make no mistake, Jesus didn’t stop loving the young man – even after His departure. You never see such in Scripture anywhere. He would still die for him. He still loved him. And it surely must have broken Jesus’ heart to see him depart. But He still just let him go. Why? Because that’s exactly what real, godly, Biblical and Christ-like love, by its very nature has to do,with those who prefer their own, self-centered and self-serving pursuits – whether those pursuits pertain to money, power, pleasure, popularity, or a simple and sinful lack of willingness to humble ones’ self and fully submit to the truth of God’s word.Godly love means… letting those who are like that, go. That’s what Jesus did with His disciples who wanted to leave in John 6 – He just let them go… because that’s what godly love does. That’s what the Father of the so-called prodigal son did when His son decided to leave in Luke 15 – He just let him go… because that’s what godly love always does. That’s what godly love always does because that’s what godly love has to do!

The reason why godly love just lets those go who wish to do so is not at all hard to understand. In fact, it makes perfect sense. The reason why, is because we have all lovingly been given the gift of total free will by God; a free will to come, and go, and do as we please – answering for it all in the end of course (John 12:48; Rom. 2:4-10). God, in His all-knowing wisdom, also knows you can’t force a being with complete free will to choose to love you, or to always choose to do the right and godly thing (no matter how much you might love, labor, teach, invest in,or try to get them to). For to do so, would be to rob them of that very same gift of free will which they were given in the first place.

Therefore, if they choose to buy the lie and leave the love, wisdom, training, and correction of the Lord and/or those who love and are sincerely seeking to help correct and get them to heaven(and are hence serving in their best interest), then there is nothing else that true and godly love can do, other than to simply let them go… And then hope and pray that those who have left will somehow, some day, some way,be brought to their knees and hence back to their senses out there in the world like the prodigal son was;all the while turning still-loving and ever-hopeful eyes toward the horizon, for their much anticipated and prayed for, much more humbled and ready-to-do-the-right-thing, return…

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