Image

These are three bridges to faith in Christ that we have found to be helpful in dialoguing with our Muslim neighbors:

Torah, Psalms, Gospel.  The Qur’an commands Muslims to believe in ALL of God’s holy Books. Those mentioned in the Qur’an are the Torah given to Moses, the Psalms given to David, the Gospel given to Jesus, and the Qur’an given to Muhammad.  The Qur’an does not say “Old Testament,” “New Testament,” or “Bible;” however, those words do not have authority even though they refer to the same books.  Someone who proclaims the message of Torah, Pslams, and Gospel will be heard with respect.  Along with this, a true Muslim believes in “ALL” of God’s prophets. They do NOT discriminate any of them. If you do not listen to what the prophets say, believe it and obey it, then you are in danger of hell fire according to the Qur’an.  Most, if not all, of the prophets they believe besides Muhammad, are in the Old & New Testaments of the Christian Bible.  

Jesus is the Messiah.  It does not have to be argued that Jesus fulfills or confirms the Torah; this is already said in the Qur’an; he is called “Jesus the Messiah.”  It needs to be communicated what exactly it means that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of David. A major contention of Muslims is that Jesus was only a prophet to the people of Israel, not the true prophet for the entire world.  To a Muslim, their prophet is given last of all for the whole world.   A witness to Christ must make a case for why Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, is also the savior of the world.  Jesus as Messiah is an idea taught in the Qur’an but only filled out in the Christian & Jewish Scriptures.  Thus by preaching Jesus as Messiah one is actually preaching Islam.  Why then would he not be heard?

The Old Testament. Eventually the Bible has to be brought into the conversation. In our region here the Old Testament is consistently praised while the New Testament is condemned and doubted. This is a difficultly but not insurmountable because the first Christians communicated faith in Christ using the Old Testament prophets. Paul asked Agrippa, “Do you believe in the Prophets?” I think it wise when communicating Christ to Islam to approach the Old Testament by studying the covenants of mainly Abraham and David.  Through these two covenants we learn God’s plan to save and redeem the whole world through the Messiah, the son of David.  Are these two eternal covenants fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth? If Jesus is this Messiah, and according to the Qur’an he is, then by his own words he established another eternal covenant in his blood. Referring to the Christian communion cup, Christ said, “This is the eternal covenant in my blood, drink it until I return.”  Since Christ has not returned, his covenant is still active, and another prophet cannot rule in his stead.

–Ross Kellis

Advertisement