Reaching Muslims for Christ

Rating:
Summary: Great Resource: For Information or for Ministry
Review: As a person who has a "special" heart toward those of the Muslim faith, I found this book to be an excellent resource. Rather than spending a lot of time explaining the basics of Islam, the book dives right into the more in-depth issues such as understanding the Muslim worldview and how terminology/thoughts/concepts have totally different meanings to Christians and Muslims.

This book is best understood by someone has already spent some time in dialoguing with Muslims. It helps the Christian to understand the problems in communication between us both. Unlike many other books, at no time do the authors go into a "bashing" session of Islam, but present it as fairly and accurately as possible. They DO NOT hide the fact that they do not believe Islam to be "the true religion", but they do not disparage Muslims as a whole or their prophet.

Questions for reflection & meditation are at the end of each chapter which are very useful in preparation for ministry to Muslims and an extensive list of sources is given in the book, as well, for further study.

Overall well-written and very informative.

Rating:
Summary: Great Resource: For Information or for Ministry
Review: As a person who has a "special" heart toward those of the Muslim faith, I found this book to be an excellent resource. Rather than spending a lot of time explaining the basics of Islam, the book dives right into the more in-depth issues such as understanding the Muslim worldview and how terminology/thoughts/concepts have totally different meanings to Christians and Muslims.

This book is best understood by someone has already spent some time in dialoguing with Muslims. It helps the Christian to understand the problems in communication between us both. Unlike many other books, at no time do the authors go into a "bashing" session of Islam, but present it as fairly and accurately as possible. They DO NOT hide the fact that they do not believe Islam to be "the true religion", but they do not disparage Muslims as a whole or their prophet.

Questions for reflection & meditation are at the end of each chapter which are very useful in preparation for ministry to Muslims and an extensive list of sources is given in the book, as well, for further study.

Overall well-written and very informative.

Rating:
Summary: Christ for Christians
Review: I think a more accurate title may be "Muslims reaching Christians".

Haven't we been this direction before? After 1400 years of the Islamic doctrine, we should all be a little more informed that Christ (Messiah) is ALREADY known and revered by Muslims thru-out the world. In fact, Jesus has been around for Islam long before the evangelical right discovered him.

The author does little to enhance Christian intellect. May he also be reminded that Jesus had "other sheep" which "are not of (their) the fold".

Rating:
Summary: How They See the Qur'an Compared to the Faiths of Abraham
Review: Muslim Belief: How the Qur'an Fits Into Abrahamic History

Muslims believe that the Qur'an is the Word of Allah (God). They believe that it was dictated to the Prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel over a 20+ year period 1400 years ago. They believe that it has Allah's personal mark of protection over it, so unlike any other religious book, it is supposed to be exactly in the same pure state it was in when it was first revealed a millennia and a half ago (the Arabic Text part anyway). And they believe that it is the "Last Testament;" that it marks the end of the Revealed Scripture from Allah and that there will be no more additions to The Book. It is now complete.

For its part, the Qur'an itself claims (written in first-person narration as the Voice of God Himself talking directly to the Prophet and sometimes to us) that it is the last part of a larger Book that came to many peoples before. It claims that this last part is the universal message for all of mankind, whereas the previous major Books, the Torah of Moses and the Gospel of Christ Jesus were only specialized, specific messages for a local population.

Now because Muslims believe that every dot, squiggle, fathah, kasra and dumma in the Qur'an is the actual Word of Allah on Earth, when they read the Old and New Testaments, the parts that back up what the Qur'an claims tend to really stand out to them in a very obvious manner; to the point where they sometimes just can't believe that Christians and Hebrews don't see it too. For example, in Sura XXVI verses 192-199 Allah says:

"Verily this is a revelation from the Lord of the Worlds:
With it came down the Spirit of Faith and Truth-
To thy heart and mind that thou mayest admonish
In the perspicuous Arabic tongue.
Without doubt it is announced in the mystic books of former peoples.
Is it not a sign to them that the learned of the Children of Israel knew it as true?
Had we revealed it to any of the non-Arabs, and had he recited it to them, they would not have believed in it."

That last part is in reference to the fact that when the high ranking Rabbis in the Hebrew tribes of Makkah and Medina heard the Qur'an recited for the first time they immediately believed in it. In Deuteronomy 18:18/34:10 they had the old prophecy of a Prophet with a book coming from their brother nation of Arabs, so they were expecting him. The Qur'an mentions elsewhere that Muhammad's coming was foretold in the previous messages, so when Muslims come across passages like that they are not surprised at all.

The Qur'an also claims that the religion of Islam that it propagates is the same religion and message that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob practiced. Hebrews and Christians dismiss this statement for seemingly obvious reasons, but in recent studies of the contents of the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls, the scholars have discovered that the message taught by James the Just from the first Christian Church as given to him by his brother Christ Jesus is the same as that taught in the Qur'an and is not the same as that taught by the Torah or even by Pauline Christianity (see The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered and James the Brother of Jesus). Muslims simply accept these findings because the Qur'an already said so, but in actually reading the Old and New Testaments the reasons for these statements again stand out obvious to them.

The Religion/Faith of God as practiced by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was called "Torath Yahve" or instruction/moral law of God. It was also practiced by Jacob's kids (especially Joseph) and his great grandson Moses. At that time the Torath Yahve had never been written down; it was always an oral message and everyone was apparently A-Okay with that.

And then came the Exodus. Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt towards the land that Allah had promised to give to the offspring of His friend Abraham. But it was not easy. They gave Moses and Aaron hell the whole step of the way. And it was by no means simply the bone-weary complaints of the traveler, no. Despite the many, many, many (and MANY) signs and wonders Allah showed them almost daily, the Children of Israel would drop God's teaching and worship idols, doubt and disobey God's word and everything. God was (literally!) always getting fed up and about to wipe them out and start over when Moses had to jump in and remind Him of the promise to Abraham, and then God would calm down. This would happen almost every week during the entire journey. And every time it happened, as punishment Allah would give the Children of Israel new strict and ever more complicated laws to follow to make up for what they were putting Him and His Apostles through. These laws not only grew longer and longer but they also got a long list of Curses that would happen to them if they didn't follow all the laws to the letter. This was the punishment for the Children of Israel for their continuous rebellion.

When they reached the edge of the Promised Land across the river Jordan, Allah told Moses to write down the Law. Thus the complex, super-strict burden of the Laws called the written Torah was born. God said it had to be written where they all could come and see it. And He prophesized through both Moses and Joshua that the Children of Israel would rebel again and annul the Abrahambric Covenant and be destroyed. Of course it did happen. The only child of Israel left is Judah who has the burden of caring for the written Torah of Moses and the oral message of the Torath Yahve which is only taught to the higher ranking Rabbi or the "...learned of the Children of Israel" as the Qur'an called them.

The Torath Yahve was not for the Children of Israel to follow, their only job was to carry it and safeguard it; they had to follow the super-strict Torah until their Messiah, the last of the Hebrew Prophets came to release them from its heavy burden and allow them to practice the far easier Torath Yahve again. Unfortunately for the Children of Israel, the spirit of rebellion was still upon them. Despite the fact that they had fulfilled the prophesy of their destruction and had been smashed down to only one remaining tribe, and the fact that they had abused the written Torah in their safekeeping and taken on all kinds of wicked, selfish practices they still suffered under the illusion that they were Allah's chosen people. So it was no surprise at all that when their Messiah did come to release them from their centuries old burden, they rejected him because he didn't aid and abet the foul practices they had grown into. They tried to kill him and cursed themselves further.

The Messiah of the Children of Israel was none other than Jesus, son of Mary. He told them that he alone held the key to their salvation; that if they didn't go through him and receive the guidance of the Torath Yahve then they had to remain under every tot and tittle the Torah demanded of them. Jesus said that the secret to getting to heaven is to keep the commandments. Muslims recognize that the concept of the Divine, Son-of-God Jesus came completely out of the imagination of Paul and is not to be taken seriously. Because the gentiles of 2000 years ago were already worshipping beings similar to Paul's Divine Jesus, plus the fact that some of the Hebrews still had that idol-worshipping rebellious spirit upon them, it really comes as no surprise to Muslims that they took Paul's ideas and ran with them with enthusiasm.

Jesus told his twelve companions that he could not stay and spread the Gospel amongst the world-wide community; that wasn't his job. His message was only for the lost sheep of the Children of Israel. If he stayed then the Spirit of Truth couldn't come to give all of mankind the universal message.

Now three points stand out about that last part when Muslims read it. First, the Qur'an said that previous messages (including Jesus') were local, so that is confirmation to them. Second, Muslims know that the reason Islam spread so rapidly in the very beginning of its message among those who knew Muhammad best, was because his nicknames were "Spirit of Truth," "Truthful One" from when he was a very small boy. His wife Khadijah proposed to him because of his upright morality and uncompromising honesty. Third, Muslims remember that there were two Christians in Muhammad's history who told him that they were expecting another prophet because of Jesus' prophesy. It's only been very recently that Christians have been interpreting "Spirit of Truth" and "Comforter" as the Holy Spirit, an aspect of Allah's manifestation in human lives that even the Old Testament gives ample evidence of having already been here.

When the Dead Sea Scroll scholars discovered that the Torath Yahve of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was the same message that the Children of Israel were safeguarding as their sacred oral tradition, which was the same message that Jesus was trying to exchange for the Torah with God's mercy, which was the same message the Christ gave to his younger brother James the Just who taught it in the first Church of Jerusalem, which is an identical message to the Holy Qur'an, Muslims merely see what they knew all along.

So with this information and a more detailed insight into how Muslims see Islam fitting into the Abrahamic Religious History perhaps you can be even more effective in your ministry approaches. You're welcome.




Rating:
Summary: Christ for Christians
Review: Recently two Australian Christian missionaries travelled to the middle east,in the hope of converting as many Muslims as possible to the Christian faith,they were both arrested,thrown in jail and to the best of my knowledge are sitting in death row right now.What an astonishing display of human stupidity,but one shouldnt be surprised,this type of behaviour is inevitable in the face of close minded religious dogma,it is no different than Christian preachers handling venomous snakes to demonstrate their unquestioning faith in God,a large number of these morons end up being bitten and die as a result.
It truly sickens me ,particularly with the recent tragedies of September 11 still fresh in everyones memory,that world leaders have all denounced these events in the name of their very cause,Religion.Will people ever learn?Will humanity ever wake up and realise that both of these dispicable religions have spilled oceans of blood,all based on the same "morally superior"mindset?This "God is on our side" mentality,espoused by George W.Bush following Sept 11 does nothing more than perpetuate the problem ,and provide further justification for war.A seemingly endless cycle repeated in the name of religion.You can be sure that if any of the suicide pilots had survived they would have had Mosques packed to the rafters describing how they had been attempting to "reach the world trade centre for Allah",while people like William J.Sall waste their energies and time writing books like "Reaching Muslims for Christ",or "How to talk to Muslims".
This book does nothing more than pile more wood on the fire,and if it can teach us anything,then surley it should be the total lack of religious toloernce that BOTH of these monotheistic cults continue to display,and the more people that realise this,the more chance we can live together peacefully without wanting to slaughter each other,based on "Divine inspiration"from the bible or koran.

Rating:
Summary: good book for beginning to understand Muslims
Review: This book is very good at detailing some of the misconceptions Muslims have about the Christian faith, and then showing the fallacies in their concepts. One of the major concepts that Muslims have is that many of them think that the Trinity, when used by Christians, refers to the father Joseph, the mother Mary, and the child Jesus. That is one of the reasons they consider the Christian faith to be heretical. They do not understand that when orthodox Christians talk about the Trinity, Mary and Joseph aren't even in the picture, and that Mary was only a vehicle that God used to become incarnate, the second person of the one God clothed in human form. There are many other misconceptions also, but you need to read the book.
This book does try to refute some of these misconceptions, and it is very helpful in educating others as to the common misplaced notions about the Christian faith by Muslims. However, as a witnessing tool, another book is much better, "Reasoning from the Scriptures with Muslims" by Ron Rhodes, where there are some actual witnessing questions a person can ask, that cuts "right to the quick" of the matter, instead of getting bogged down.
To be fair, this book was very helpful in educating me as to some of the misconceptions of Muslims, and I would recommend it more as an educational tool for private reading by non-Muslims (and Muslims, too, although it is written for a Christian audience). There are questions in the appendix of the book for study, but the questions are meant more for study for Christians for educating them about the differences between Islam and Christianity, unlike "Reasoning". Buy this book as for your own education on Muslims, as I did.
Another book that I would recommend for private Christian study is "Answering Islam", if you want a deep, thorough theological read.