Justinroy

Witnessing to a Muslim is intimidating. Not only do worldview’s clash, Muslim’s  derive their truth from a different sacred source, of which, I’m unfamiliar. How can I persuade someone who has a sacred text, just like me, that my truth is true and there’s isn’t.  I don’t know all the answers about the Bible, much less the Quran, so where do i start?

Thabiti Anyabwile in, The Gospel for Muslims, addresses the Christian who feels ill-equipped to effectively witness to a Muslim. First, He reminds us that the Gospel doesn’t change for muslims; the same gospel that saved you, saves your muslim friend. Throughout the book, Anyabwile recounts his own conversion from Islam and testifies to the power of the gospel.

In a popular colloquialism “sometimes our best defense is a good offense.”

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16 ESV)?

The book is sectioned off into two main parts; The Gospel and As You Witness. He starts by reminding the reader that both Christianity and Islam are revealed religions and ultimate truth comes from a higher being; therefore, our main “focus should be on helping our muslim friends understand why they should humbly accept the bible” and believe its message. In fact,  your Muslim friend has every reason to believe that the Bible is trustworthy because the Quran teaches that the Gospels, the Psalms and the Pentateuch are truth, and Allah even preserved the Quran’s transmission so that it is without errors so we have every reason to suggest the Bible to our Muslim friend.

Once the discussion comes to the Bible, we should make a be-line to Jesus. This is where the Quran and the Bible are mutually exclusive and Jesus claims to be God. Jesus’ divine proclamation and the unfolding revelation of the trinity call the Quran to terms.

The triune God is the only God who can redeem.  Anywabwile works out the implications of the Gospel according to the Truine God as opposed to Islam’s Allah. One crucial aspect I noticed with Anywabwile’s tactic  was the importance he placed on the trinity because many Muslim’s want to suggest that Christian’s and Muslim’s worship the same God, but this is not the case. Apart from God the Father designing salvation, the Son working out salvation, and the Spirit applying salvation, there is no reconciliation.

After Anywabwile applies the gospel to Muslims, he briefs the reader what on what remember while witnessing.

Here are a few:

Use the Local Church. Allow our muslim friend to experience Christian love and community.

Trust the Bible. A common accusation against christianity is that the Bible is full of contradictions, however, this is usually a vague accusation and when the supposed “contradictions” are read in context, an easy answer is usually available.

Be Hospitable. Use hospitality to witness to your muslim friend.

I’m really glad I read The Gospel for Muslims because most of the “world religion” classes that I have taken offer overviews of Islam, but never highlight the implications of the truth of the Gospel.  This  short little book reassures our confidence in the  gospel’s power to save Muslims. We don’t need to be a “super-saint” in order to witness to Muslims, we just need to know our own gospel.

I just finished reading Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris

Something about the Author

Joshua Harris is senior pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He is also the brains behind the New Attitude Conference, now known as NEXT. He’s written multiple books and his most popular book by far has been I Kissed Dating Goodbye, however, he’s written other tremendous titles such as Stop Dating the Church and Fall in Love with The People of God.

Most people either love or hate Joshua Harris for I Kissed Dating Goodbye. In fact, most Christian guys probably dislike Harris because he caused an earthquake premature puppy-love break-ups after the girl read it then decided to kiss dating goodbye. Now,  my de-facto-first-date question is “Have you kissed dating goodbye?”

So, Joshua Harris is no freshmen when it comes to books and notoriety. But  in Dug Down Deep Harris meets the reader face to face, almost in a coffee-house like ora of humility and conversation to engage and inspire the reader to dig down deep into what he or she believes. From the doctrine of God, to the prescepuity of scripture, incarnation, and the Church, he brings long needed, humility invoking and eye-widening doctrines into perspective with the tightest aperture pinpointing the work of Jesus Christ.

Dug Down Deep

Dug Down Deep is an important book for the current state of evangelicism and is meant for everyone.

First, He inspires the church at large to reconsider what theology is. Theology is not only for the seminarian, it’s  a vital aspect of everyone’s life – especially the Christian, “We’re all theologians. The question is whether what we know about God is True or not.”  Harris relates the story of  King Josiah to the modern day because “those who wore the label of ” God’s people” actually had no communication with him” and this has an erie familiarity with modern Christianity.  Israel had lost the scriptures. You know, the ones that the Creator, God of the Universe, gave Moses in order that they might know what He is like. The Church at large seems a little nonchalant about what God has said, and Harris calls us to repentance –to take God’s Word seriously because,”we’re either building our lives on the reality of what God is truly like and what he’s about or we’re basing our lives on our own imaginations and misconceptions.” Harris offers spiritual formation through theological foundation for the Christian.

For the Non-Christian, I think Dug Down Deep calls into question their presuppositions about reality and what this whole “christian thing” is about. The outside world does not understand Christianity. Harris cites A. J. Jacobs, a columnist  and  self-proclaimed “human guinea pig, ”  for attempting to live out  the bible as the ultimate rulebook and follow every rule literally. Jacobs has a book called  The Year of  Living Biblically which is his “quest to live the ultimate biblical life. To follow every single rule in the Bible – as literally as possible.” This is a colossal misunderstanding  of what the bible is, and Dug Down Deep  displays the scriptures’ coherence and continuity around the person of Jesus Christ, giving them a framework in which to understand difficult passages.

For the seasoned theologian Dug Down Deep reminds him(or her) that theology is not abstract. It’s practical, and along with the benifits of theology, there’s a temptation to become a cold-hearted and arrogant. Harris wants to rekindle the theologian’s love of scripture and God to and remind him that he doesn’t “dissect” God like a frog on an examination table, but he should study God like a husband might study his wife. There’s a tendency among seminarians and those who “study God” to lose sight of the fact that all their theology and doctrine point to Jesus. The last chapter is called “Humble Orthodoxy” and reminds the theologian or the beginner  that genuine orthodoxy always produces Humble Orthodoxy – you realize how much God has done in order to redeem his people.

Overall, Harris wants us to re-examine our thoughts about God because our thoughts about God determine how we live and even though theology can seem to be a perilous task, the danger of ignorance is far greater.

Final Thoughts

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.(1 Timothy 4:16 ESV)