The most loving thing you can tell a Muslim is that God loves them, and that his son Jesus Christ died on a cross for them and then rose again that their sins might be forgiven and they might have a restored love relationship with father God.
Of course almost every element of that statement is violently opposed by Muslims, but it is truth which they desperately need to hear nonetheless. They regard Jesus only as another prophet; do not believe God has a son; vigorously deny that Jesus died on the cross and rose again; and do not look upon Allah as a loving father.
So the gulf between Islam and Christianity is great, but it is our job to preach the gospel to Muslims anyway. And as I often have said, we must hold simultaneously onto two responses to Islam here. In terms of creeping sharia and stealth jihad, we have every right and reason as Christians to resist this, and defend the blessings of freedom, democracy and genuine tolerance.
These goods are primarily the result of the Judeo-Christian worldview, and are well worth fighting for. But when it comes to our Muslim neighbours, we are called to love them, befriend them, pray for them, and preach the good news to them.
Thus the mass immigration of Muslims into Western lands is a mixed blessing. In terms of them not fitting in, and seeking to subvert our culture, our values, and our way of life, it is bad news indeed. But in terms of God bringing them to us so that we might share the gospel with them, it is a very good thing indeed.
After all, we are not free to share the gospel openly with them in Muslim-majority countries, so God is allowing them to come here so that they might be exposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. But tragically most Christians in the West are not taking advantage of these opportunities.
And worse yet, many have fallen for the deception of the interfaith dialogue movement, where everyone is told we all basically believe the same thing, and we just need to get along. Sorry, that is not what we are called to do – we are called to tell them that ‘Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man comes to the father but by him’ (John 14:6). But I discuss this elsewhere: https://billmuehlenberg.com/category/interfaith-dialogue/
Here I want to finish with more good news. As many of you would know, more Muslims are coming to Christ today than at any other time in their 1400-year history. And many of these conversions are due to dreams and visions. God is working in the Muslim world, and many are finding new life in Christ.
One recent article details this, and is worth sharing portions thereof: “Testimonies of dreams and other encounters with Jesus can’t always be verified because by definition spiritual experiences are personal. Further, in countries where owning a Bible is illegal, Muslim converts are subject to persecution and even death, so their stories are not always documented. But believers who work among Muslims tell of life-changing conversions resulting from dreams. Like martyrs from antiquity until today, believers who have had profound, unexplainable encounters often develop profound, unshakeable faith.”
Here are some of the stories: “Karima, a Muslim, dreamed she was in a car when it crashed. She was knocked out, but when she opened her eyes (in her dream), she saw that Jesus was the driver. ‘Come to me,’ He told her, ‘I am with you. I love you.’ That experience led her to seek out a Christian church, where she responded to the gospel.
“Omar had been locked up and tortured for years in a jail cell in a nation ruled by a dictator. One night a messenger visited him in a dream, telling him he would be set free. Within days he was released from prison and traveled to America where newfound friends reached out to him. When he was given a book with a picture of Jesus on the cover, his eyes lit up. ‘I know him,’ he said. ‘He came to me in a dream.’
“Yasmin was fearful and anxious. She cried out to Allah, asking him to help her, but she remained unchanged. One night while visiting friends in the U.S., she was awakened from her darkness with an epiphany. ‘Walking around the house of my friend,’ she now explains in broken English, ‘suddenly I felt that I was blind, [but] now I can see.’ That terminology, though cliché to most believers, was foreign to Yasmin, who was born in an Islamic nation and was never exposed to ‘Christianese.’
“‘It was very obvious,’ she recalls, describing it as a feeling as if something literally changed inside her head. ‘I felt that it was Jesus who did something to me.’ She later learned her sister—a Christian still living in her home country—was praying for her. Yasmin received a Bible, was baptized and began to grow with her new church family. (Her sister, now in ministry, has also had supernatural encounters, saying that she’s heard the voice of God seven times, ‘like a man beside me, talking to me. Whatever He says to me, it happens to me,’ she describes.”
And another story: “One man in a nation hostile to Christianity says he heard a voice telling him, ‘Find Jesus, find the gospel.’ He didn’t know what Jesus was—a chair, a tree, an animal? But the voice told him exactly what city and house to go to, so he traveled for two weeks, arriving directly at the door of one of only three believers in the city.”
The article finishes with these amazing stats:
“Iran: At the time of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 there were only about 500 known Muslim converts in the country, according to missions almanac Operation World. By 2000, there were a reported 220,000 believers, including Muslim converts. Even children of government ministers and mullahs have been converting to Christ, missions agency Open Doors reports. Iraq: It’s estimated that before 2003 there were only about 600 known born-again followers of Jesus Christ in the country. By the end of 2008, Iraqi Christian leaders believed the number had risen to more than 70,000. Meanwhile, millions of Arabic New Testaments and Christian books have been shipped into Iraq since the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Egypt: Revival is reportedly widespread among nominal Christians within the nation’s historic Coptic Church, whose members number about 10 million. Yet Coptics are under severe attack, according to Voice of the Martyrs. Also, the USCIRF’s list of ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ now includes Egypt, where since January 400 Christians have been murdered, hundreds more injured and multiple churches burned.”
Please keep praying for our Muslim friends. And please keep sharing with them. The interfaith hacks will try to tell you it is “offensive” and “un-Christlike” for us to do so. But just forget them – they are wolves in sheep’s clothing. As I said, there is nothing more loving than sharing the truth about Jesus with our Muslim neighbours. Many will be eternally grateful if we do.
We prayed today against the wolves in sheep’s clothing, Bill, as well as for the persecuted church.
Timely stuff.
John Angelico
What wonderful news ! Thanks Bill.
Anna Cook
Thanks Bill.
I heard some of this from Open Doors recently but it is good to hear it again.
You may be interested in Nik Ripken’s book “The Insanity of God – A True Story of Faith Resurrected”. In it he tells his own journey to faith, his work in Africa, especially Somaliland as a missionary. Though God looked after him he had a difficult time and saw little fruit from his labour and arrived back in America discouraged. Later he began to visit the persecuted and formerly persecuted church visiting places such as Russia, China and other countries.
The story of the man who was led to the home of one of only three believers in a city he had never been to before is told with more detail.
There are many other stories of faith in this book that are well worth reading. It is hard to pick favourites but Dmitri and his HeartSong (that word is trademarked apparently) and some Chinese believers being moved to get up one hour earlier to pray for their brothers in a few Muslim countries on learning how much more severe the persecution was there are two.
Fifty years ago in Communist Russia, three Christian leaders arranged a gathering in Moscow of 700 young people from house-churches. These young people who had never owned a Bible were able collectively to write down the four gospels with just half a dozen mistakes. The Holy Spirit came down and though the three leaders were imprisoned afterwards they knew it had all been worth it.
There are many more great accounts of faith found in this book. However perhaps the most telling of the stories was when Nik asked “I just don’t understand why you haven’t collected these stories in a book? Believers around the world ought to hear what you have been telling me here today. Your stories are amazing! These are inspiring testimonies! I have never heard anything like them!”
In reply an older pastor asked him, “Son, when did you stop reading your Bible? All of our stories are in the Bible. God has already written them down. Why would we bother writing books to tell our stories when God has already told His story. If you would just read the Bible, you would see that our stories are there.”
While it is encouraging to read about recent stories of faith, they should point us back to the Bible. The study of God’s word, the faith of those who have gone before, and the developing of a personal relationship with Jesus prepared these believers for facing persecution and to be a witness to their communities around them.
Matt Vinay
Dear Bill, your call to obedience to tell Muslims of his saving grace is timely.
Abdul is Carer for meals in my retirement village. He challenges me: If God is our heavenly Father, how can He give His Son (He hasn’t children) to die for my sin. Horrors.
I show him my bible with the precise response. He has his book – Koran – on his ipod, Mine is written on my heart.
Harrold Steward
Bill, I was in Indonesia late last year and met with a Christian leader who had just been in a part of Java where he met with a group of Muslim leaders who have become Christians. They told him that there are approx. 7000 muslims who have converted to Christianity in their area. He was truly excited about what is going on there.
Warwick Murphy
I believe that deep in the heart of most Muslims there is a longing to believe and know that there is a loving God.
It is not a natural soul belief to hate those that already desire or know this but more so to join them away from the unmitigated absolutes of hate.
Let us remember that it was the Samaritan who stopped to help whilst hypocrites passed by. How can we possess the seed of good unless it lives within us?
How can we live without knowing that our father is a benevolent but righteous Father who guides us when we have chosen to listen to his ways? In essence when we follow his ways this we reclaim our default position against the evils and the indoctrinations of this world God says I am here knock and the door will open. That is the truth and the forever open door to the heart of God through his son Jesus.
You know man has been playing around with Genetics for a long time now with Cloning in its primitive form yet it still hasn’t replaced the natural ability of all things to replicate and yes even in-vitro fertilisation it has to use the same ingredients.
Those who worship their deity without assuming that it has the power to make us or just one of us, actually place their position above that of their God. This I see as the fundamental failing and falseness of non Christian belief.
If we deny that God has the power to place his Son in a perfect Human form right here on earth then we deny our God
Jesus said do as the rabbis say but do not do as they do. Why would you tie a rope round your ankle when entering the Holy of Holies if you truly believed you were going to speak with your loving father? Therein lays their hypocrisy.
Christians accept that we are created by God; we accept that God created a Son, We love his son and his son loves us. And as Jesus said “I know my people and my people know me”. This is why the gospel has to be brought to the entire world to awaken his people and prepare them for the harvest. For the harvest is ripe but the labourers are few.
As our flame becomes a fire and we see beyond the veil, then as Christians in the arena the consequences of man become absurd.
Dennis Newland
Dennis you wrote: “If we deny that God has the power to place his Son in a perfect Human form right here on earth then we deny our God”. I would say that if Christ did not take on sinful flesh (see Romans 8) then he did not truly become one of us, was not tempted in every way as we have been, and could not set an example that we can follow. He is fully God and yet fully man. Whilst Jesus lived a sinless life and a glimpse of his glorified form was seen in the transfiguration it was not until he was raised from the dead that he took on perfect human form.
It is amazing that our God created man in his likeness and then Jesus was born on this earth in the likeness of man. Jesus became man so that we might be reborn into God’s likeness once more. The end result will be better than if the fall had never taken place.
This a very wonderful news! Indeed there are great opportunities for us Christians to preach the gospel to our Muslim friends. I found books as effective tools to share the love of Christ for them. For anyone who is interested in witnessing using books, perhaps you can check http://booksforevangelism.org/category/resources/muslims/ . God bless everyone.
Net Del Mundo
We prayed today against the wolves in sheep’s clothing, Bill, as well as for the persecuted church.
Timely stuff.
John Angelico
What wonderful news ! Thanks Bill.
Anna Cook
Thanks Bill.
I heard some of this from Open Doors recently but it is good to hear it again.
You may be interested in Nik Ripken’s book “The Insanity of God – A True Story of Faith Resurrected”. In it he tells his own journey to faith, his work in Africa, especially Somaliland as a missionary. Though God looked after him he had a difficult time and saw little fruit from his labour and arrived back in America discouraged. Later he began to visit the persecuted and formerly persecuted church visiting places such as Russia, China and other countries.
The story of the man who was led to the home of one of only three believers in a city he had never been to before is told with more detail.
There are many other stories of faith in this book that are well worth reading. It is hard to pick favourites but Dmitri and his HeartSong (that word is trademarked apparently) and some Chinese believers being moved to get up one hour earlier to pray for their brothers in a few Muslim countries on learning how much more severe the persecution was there are two.
Fifty years ago in Communist Russia, three Christian leaders arranged a gathering in Moscow of 700 young people from house-churches. These young people who had never owned a Bible were able collectively to write down the four gospels with just half a dozen mistakes. The Holy Spirit came down and though the three leaders were imprisoned afterwards they knew it had all been worth it.
There are many more great accounts of faith found in this book. However perhaps the most telling of the stories was when Nik asked “I just don’t understand why you haven’t collected these stories in a book? Believers around the world ought to hear what you have been telling me here today. Your stories are amazing! These are inspiring testimonies! I have never heard anything like them!”
In reply an older pastor asked him, “Son, when did you stop reading your Bible? All of our stories are in the Bible. God has already written them down. Why would we bother writing books to tell our stories when God has already told His story. If you would just read the Bible, you would see that our stories are there.”
While it is encouraging to read about recent stories of faith, they should point us back to the Bible. The study of God’s word, the faith of those who have gone before, and the developing of a personal relationship with Jesus prepared these believers for facing persecution and to be a witness to their communities around them.
Matt Vinay
Dear Bill, your call to obedience to tell Muslims of his saving grace is timely.
Abdul is Carer for meals in my retirement village. He challenges me: If God is our heavenly Father, how can He give His Son (He hasn’t children) to die for my sin. Horrors.
I show him my bible with the precise response. He has his book – Koran – on his ipod, Mine is written on my heart.
Harrold Steward
Bill, I was in Indonesia late last year and met with a Christian leader who had just been in a part of Java where he met with a group of Muslim leaders who have become Christians. They told him that there are approx. 7000 muslims who have converted to Christianity in their area. He was truly excited about what is going on there.
Warwick Murphy
I believe that deep in the heart of most Muslims there is a longing to believe and know that there is a loving God.
It is not a natural soul belief to hate those that already desire or know this but more so to join them away from the unmitigated absolutes of hate.
Let us remember that it was the Samaritan who stopped to help whilst hypocrites passed by. How can we possess the seed of good unless it lives within us?
How can we live without knowing that our father is a benevolent but righteous Father who guides us when we have chosen to listen to his ways? In essence when we follow his ways this we reclaim our default position against the evils and the indoctrinations of this world God says I am here knock and the door will open. That is the truth and the forever open door to the heart of God through his son Jesus.
You know man has been playing around with Genetics for a long time now with Cloning in its primitive form yet it still hasn’t replaced the natural ability of all things to replicate and yes even in-vitro fertilisation it has to use the same ingredients.
Those who worship their deity without assuming that it has the power to make us or just one of us, actually place their position above that of their God. This I see as the fundamental failing and falseness of non Christian belief.
If we deny that God has the power to place his Son in a perfect Human form right here on earth then we deny our God
Jesus said do as the rabbis say but do not do as they do. Why would you tie a rope round your ankle when entering the Holy of Holies if you truly believed you were going to speak with your loving father? Therein lays their hypocrisy.
Christians accept that we are created by God; we accept that God created a Son, We love his son and his son loves us. And as Jesus said “I know my people and my people know me”. This is why the gospel has to be brought to the entire world to awaken his people and prepare them for the harvest. For the harvest is ripe but the labourers are few.
As our flame becomes a fire and we see beyond the veil, then as Christians in the arena the consequences of man become absurd.
Dennis Newland
Dennis you wrote: “If we deny that God has the power to place his Son in a perfect Human form right here on earth then we deny our God”. I would say that if Christ did not take on sinful flesh (see Romans 8) then he did not truly become one of us, was not tempted in every way as we have been, and could not set an example that we can follow. He is fully God and yet fully man. Whilst Jesus lived a sinless life and a glimpse of his glorified form was seen in the transfiguration it was not until he was raised from the dead that he took on perfect human form.
It is amazing that our God created man in his likeness and then Jesus was born on this earth in the likeness of man. Jesus became man so that we might be reborn into God’s likeness once more. The end result will be better than if the fall had never taken place.
Matt Vinay
This lady sure has great news for Muslims:
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/04/legalize_polygamy_marriage_equality_for_all.html
Claude Boisson, France
This a very wonderful news! Indeed there are great opportunities for us Christians to preach the gospel to our Muslim friends. I found books as effective tools to share the love of Christ for them. For anyone who is interested in witnessing using books, perhaps you can check http://booksforevangelism.org/category/resources/muslims/ . God bless everyone.
Net Del Mundo