I Thought This Was a Christian Blog? Why All the Muslim Stuff?
Looking back at my postings during the past week I noticed an interesting trend. They all involved the Muslim faith.
There are many other things to write about, of course, including Air America, Judge Roberts, the tragedies at this year's Boy Scout Jamboree, follow-ups on the London bombings, etc. But, because I am, heart and soul, a person of "faith," it is the issue of Faith, more than any other, that interests and intrigues me.
The intricacies and subtleties of Islam have long captivated me. For many years, the historic oppression of non-Muslims in the Arab world has challenged me to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in those dark and dismally depressed countries. Long before 9/11 I felt that the 21st century would be marked by great spiritual upheavals in India and the Arab/Muslim world. (Upheavals in China will spring from more of a political/social/economic foundation than a spiritual one.....at least in this century).
One thing I have never liked is "not knowing" something that is influencing my daily life. Islam, with all its glories, strengths, history, divisions, sects, inner conflicts, unity, disunity, cultural distinctions, weaknessess and failings, is influencing the Western world today more than at any other time since the late Middle Ages.
As a spiritual leader of a Christian congregation, I believe I must always be able to speak the truth in love about other faiths and religions as I teach and comment in classes, sermons and conversations. To do so, I must be informed. Indeed, my goal, as I have studied Christian sects and cults, Mormonism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Islam, is to understand them so completely that I can see them through the eye of a believer.
Many Christian foreign missionaries have commented that they were not able to gain the respect of other faith groups until they could demonstrate that they not only understood that faith but could demonstrate respect and tolerance of it in their words and actions. Only then, they say, are the people they came to share the Gospel with willing to listen to what they have to say.
After living in Utah for over 6 years of ministry, I came to understand the Mormon faith far better than most Mormons. I still enjoy a visit to my home by Mormon missionaries so I can ask them questions they cannot answer and tell them things about their history and doctrines that they had never heard before! I may annoy them, but I certainly do gain their respect! And, yes, sometimes they even give me a chance to share the Christian Gospel with them...along with a glass of iced tea on a hot day.
I yearn to understand Islam in the same way. But the subject is far too vast for me to grasp with any measure of authority. Yet I continue to try. And I want my congregation and others who may read my postings, to grow in their understanding of Islam as well.
As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you." The Christian Gospel is never "passed on" to someone in a vacuum; there is always a non-Christian context. Sometimes the context is that of another faith. It is always best to understand the context so that the contrast with the Gospel can be clearly made.
In the present time, I believe that God has allowed the Muslim faith to "rise up," with all of its contradictions and confusions, to challenge the world with a clear alternative to the Christian faith.
The present conflict, which will continue long beyond my children's generation, will, in the end, provide a wonderful opportunity for the Christian Gospel of Jesus Christ to spread to places previously closed to it. Any informed Christian would happily engage an informed Muslim in debating the merits of their respective faiths. The verbal exchanges that result may or may not change anyone's mind, but the result will be a sharing of the Gospel.
The West has freedom and access to everything the Islamic world has to offer. In the Arab world, the Christian Gospel is suppressed. Current world unrest has allowed movies like, "The Passion of the Christ," to be shown in Arab Muslim countries. The more the Christian faith is shared, and the more it is allowed to be compared side-by-side with the faith of Islam, the better it will be for the Christian faith.....and for the world.
My interest in the Muslim faith have also been helpful insofar as more than 15 of my church members have, so far, been deployed to the "radical Islamic" wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Although it is not politically correct to say so, these are, without any doubt, at their core, religious conflicts. Conflicts between secularists, radical Muslims, moderate, liberal and conservative Muslims, Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and the Western, Christian culture of democracy and freedom of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," unalienably given to all people by Almighty God.
My only concern is that the Western world will become so separated from its Christian roots that it will descend into a moral and ethical malaise that will mark it as indistinguishible from the forces arrayed against it.
Regardless, God is sovereign. Nothing will come to pass unless God wills it or permits it. And God will not allow the Gospel to be crushed or oppressed forever. For we have his revealed word and promise that, in the end, Christ will rule victorious, and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess him Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
There are many other things to write about, of course, including Air America, Judge Roberts, the tragedies at this year's Boy Scout Jamboree, follow-ups on the London bombings, etc. But, because I am, heart and soul, a person of "faith," it is the issue of Faith, more than any other, that interests and intrigues me.
The intricacies and subtleties of Islam have long captivated me. For many years, the historic oppression of non-Muslims in the Arab world has challenged me to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in those dark and dismally depressed countries. Long before 9/11 I felt that the 21st century would be marked by great spiritual upheavals in India and the Arab/Muslim world. (Upheavals in China will spring from more of a political/social/economic foundation than a spiritual one.....at least in this century).
One thing I have never liked is "not knowing" something that is influencing my daily life. Islam, with all its glories, strengths, history, divisions, sects, inner conflicts, unity, disunity, cultural distinctions, weaknessess and failings, is influencing the Western world today more than at any other time since the late Middle Ages.
As a spiritual leader of a Christian congregation, I believe I must always be able to speak the truth in love about other faiths and religions as I teach and comment in classes, sermons and conversations. To do so, I must be informed. Indeed, my goal, as I have studied Christian sects and cults, Mormonism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Islam, is to understand them so completely that I can see them through the eye of a believer.
Many Christian foreign missionaries have commented that they were not able to gain the respect of other faith groups until they could demonstrate that they not only understood that faith but could demonstrate respect and tolerance of it in their words and actions. Only then, they say, are the people they came to share the Gospel with willing to listen to what they have to say.
After living in Utah for over 6 years of ministry, I came to understand the Mormon faith far better than most Mormons. I still enjoy a visit to my home by Mormon missionaries so I can ask them questions they cannot answer and tell them things about their history and doctrines that they had never heard before! I may annoy them, but I certainly do gain their respect! And, yes, sometimes they even give me a chance to share the Christian Gospel with them...along with a glass of iced tea on a hot day.
I yearn to understand Islam in the same way. But the subject is far too vast for me to grasp with any measure of authority. Yet I continue to try. And I want my congregation and others who may read my postings, to grow in their understanding of Islam as well.
As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you." The Christian Gospel is never "passed on" to someone in a vacuum; there is always a non-Christian context. Sometimes the context is that of another faith. It is always best to understand the context so that the contrast with the Gospel can be clearly made.
In the present time, I believe that God has allowed the Muslim faith to "rise up," with all of its contradictions and confusions, to challenge the world with a clear alternative to the Christian faith.
The present conflict, which will continue long beyond my children's generation, will, in the end, provide a wonderful opportunity for the Christian Gospel of Jesus Christ to spread to places previously closed to it. Any informed Christian would happily engage an informed Muslim in debating the merits of their respective faiths. The verbal exchanges that result may or may not change anyone's mind, but the result will be a sharing of the Gospel.
The West has freedom and access to everything the Islamic world has to offer. In the Arab world, the Christian Gospel is suppressed. Current world unrest has allowed movies like, "The Passion of the Christ," to be shown in Arab Muslim countries. The more the Christian faith is shared, and the more it is allowed to be compared side-by-side with the faith of Islam, the better it will be for the Christian faith.....and for the world.
My interest in the Muslim faith have also been helpful insofar as more than 15 of my church members have, so far, been deployed to the "radical Islamic" wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Although it is not politically correct to say so, these are, without any doubt, at their core, religious conflicts. Conflicts between secularists, radical Muslims, moderate, liberal and conservative Muslims, Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and the Western, Christian culture of democracy and freedom of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," unalienably given to all people by Almighty God.
My only concern is that the Western world will become so separated from its Christian roots that it will descend into a moral and ethical malaise that will mark it as indistinguishible from the forces arrayed against it.
Regardless, God is sovereign. Nothing will come to pass unless God wills it or permits it. And God will not allow the Gospel to be crushed or oppressed forever. For we have his revealed word and promise that, in the end, Christ will rule victorious, and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess him Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
posted by Bird of Paradise at 7:56 PM
<< Home