Study: Islam (10/4/26)
Introduction
Islam is a different category from the previous three...
The starting place of the gospel is different.
When speaking with Roman Catholics, we start with the question...
What is grace?
When speaking with Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons, we start with the question...
Who is Jesus?
When speaking with Muslims, we start with the more fundamental question...
Who is God?
The reason this matters is that what we believe about God determines what we believe about Jesus, and what we believe about Jesus determines what we believe about salvation.
Much of the Christian literature on Islam veers into one of two ditches...
Ditch #1: Condemning all Muslims.
Assuming all Muslims support violence, or that greater knowledge of and commitment to Islam will inevitably make them violent.
Ditch #2: Assuming equivalence.
Reasoning that because both Muslims and Christians have committed violence, there is no significant difference in the prevalence, religious justification, or acceptance of that violence within the mainstream of their communities.
Tonight's Plan...
Cover the history and beliefs of Islam in about 20 minutes.
We will be brief and move quickly.
The truth is, if you want to do a deep dive into Islam, there are better resources than me.
Nabeel Qureshi, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus and No God but One.
James White, What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qur'an.
But I can give you a good 20-minute overview.
Then I want to answer six questions about Islam where I think I have something to more offer.
These are issues where I think you should hear from your pastor.
The History and Doctrines of Islam
A note on sources: Quran quotations are from the Sahih International translation, a Muslim translation widely used in English. "Quran 4.157" means chapter (surah) 4, verse 157.
Hadith quotations are from Sahih al-Bukhari, the collection Sunni Muslims regard as the most reliable book after the Quran.
Abraham: The Claimed Connection (3 minutes)
Two words first.
Islam means "submission."
A Muslim is "one who submits."
A Muslim will tell you Islam did not begin in the 600s. They say it is the original religion of Abraham, which Jews and Christians corrupted and Muhammad restored.
Islam claims Abraham as its own.
Quran 3.67: "Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was one inclining toward truth, a Muslim [submitting to Allah]."
The Quran says Abraham and his son Ishmael built the Kaaba, the cube-shaped shrine in Mecca that Muslims face in prayer (Quran 2.127).
The Bible never places Abraham in Arabia.
Genesis moves him from Mesopotamia to Canaan to Egypt and back.
Outside the Quran and later Muslim tradition, there is no record that Abraham ever went to Mecca.
The Quran's account of the sacrifice (Quran 37.100-113) does not name the son.
The dominant Muslim view today is that it was Ishmael, though early Muslim scholars were divided, and al-Tabari, the greatest of the early commentators, argued it was Isaac.
Eid al-Adha, the biggest holiday of the Muslim year, commemorates the event.
The claim, in short: the religion of Abraham was simple submission to one God, with no covenant people, no cross, and no Son, and the line of blessing runs through Ishmael.
What the Bible says about Abraham...
God blessed Ishmael. He made his covenant with Isaac.
Genesis 17.19 | But God said, "No. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. I will confirm my covenant with him as a permanent covenant for his future offspring. (CSB)
Genesis 17.20 | As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will certainly bless him; I will make him fruitful and will multiply him greatly. He will father twelve tribal leaders, and I will make him into a great nation. (CSB)
Genesis 17.21 | But I will confirm my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year." (CSB)
Abraham's children are identified by faith, not by bloodline.
Genesis 15.6 | Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.(CSB)
Galatians 3.7 | You know, then, that those who have faith, these are Abraham's sons.(CSB)
And Abraham's faith was looking forward to Christ.
John 8.56 | Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad." (CSB)
So when a Muslim says, "We are children of Abraham too," the Bible's answer is that Abraham's true children are those who share Abraham's faith, and Abraham's faith was in the promise God kept in Jesus.
Muhammad: The Founding Figure (6 minutes)
Mecca before Muhammad...
A trading town in western Arabia with a shrine, the Kaaba, that housed many idols. Muslim tradition says 360.
The Arabs already knew the name "Allah." It is simply the Arabic word for "God," and pre-Islamic Arabs used it for the high creator god above the other gods. Muhammad's own father was named Abdullah, "servant of Allah."
Muhammad's early life...
Born about AD 570 in Mecca, into the Quraysh tribe, the keepers of the Kaaba.
His father died before he was born.
His mother died when he was about six.
He was raised by his grandfather, then by his uncle Abu Talib.
He worked in the caravan trade.
At about 25 he married Khadija, a wealthy widow (tradition says she was about 40).
The marriage was monogamous for roughly 25 years, until her death.
The first "revelation" (about 610)...
At about age 40, during a retreat in a cave on Mount Hira outside Mecca, he said a being he later identified as the angel Gabriel seized him and commanded him to "Recite."
The words became Quran 96.1-5.
Muslim sources are candid about his first reaction: terror.
According to Sahih al-Bukhari, he feared something was wrong with him and ran home to Khadija.
She comforted him and took him to her cousin Waraqa, a Christian who knew the Scriptures, who told him this was the same angel who had come to Moses (Sahih al-Bukhari 3).
Mecca (610-622), a preacher...
For about twelve years he preached in Mecca: one God, a coming judgment, resurrection, care for the poor, and an end to idols.
He won a small following and real persecution.
The Quraysh made their living from the pilgrims who came to the idols.
619 is called "the year of sorrow."
Khadija and Abu Talib both died. He lost his wife and his protector in the same year.
Medina (622-632), a ruler...
In 622 he and his followers migrated to Yathrib, later renamed Medina, "the city of the Prophet."
The migration (the Hijra) is year one of the Muslim calendar.
In Mecca he was a preacher with no power.
In Medina he became the political ruler, lawgiver, judge, and military commander of a city.
This matters. There is no "Medina period" in the life of Jesus. The second half of Muhammad's career is governing, legislating, and leading armies.
He raided Meccan caravans and fought a series of battles with Mecca: Badr (624, a victory), Uhud (625, a defeat), and the Trench (627, a siege survived).
Medina's three Jewish tribes refused to accept him as a prophet.
Two were expelled. After the Battle of the Trench, the men of the third, the Banu Qurayza, were executed (several hundred, according to Muslim sources), and the women and children were enslaved.
This is recorded in Islam's own earliest biography of Muhammad, by Ibn Ishaq, not in Christian polemic.
In 630 Mecca surrendered with little bloodshed. He cleared the Kaaba of its idols. By his death, most of Arabia had submitted, by conversion or by treaty.
His household...
After Khadija's death he married multiple wives, eleven to thirteen by traditional count.
One was Aisha, the daughter of his closest friend, Abu Bakr.
Islam's most authoritative hadith collection records that he married her when she was six and consummated the marriage when she was nine (Sahih al-Bukhari 5133).
Some modern Muslims argue she was older. But this is the traditional account, from their most trusted source, and classical Islamic law cited it.
His death and his status...
He died in Medina on June 8, 632, about 62 years old, after a short illness. His tomb is inside the Prophet's Mosque in Medina.
Muslims do not worship Muhammad.
They insist he was only a man. But...
He is "the seal of the prophets" (Quran 33.40), the last prophet, whose message is final and for all people.
He is "an excellent pattern" (Quran 33.21).
His recorded words and habits (the Sunna) are the second source of Islamic law after the Quran.
How to pray, how to wash, how to dress, how to eat: all of it is patterned on him.
The contrast to notice: Muhammad's message rests entirely on his own report of a private encounter with an angel.
Jesus made his claims in public, and they were confirmed by public events, above all an empty tomb.
Galatians 1.8 | But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! (CSB)
Expansion: The Spread and Division (5 minutes)
The succession crisis...
Muhammad died without a surviving son and, according to the Sunni account, without naming a successor.
His companions chose Abu Bakr as caliph ("successor").
The caliph was not a prophet. He was the political and military head of the Muslim community.
The first four caliphs (632-661) are called "the rightly guided": Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali.
Three of the four were assassinated.
The conquests...
Within twenty years of Muhammad's death, Muslim armies had taken Damascus (636), Jerusalem (637), and Egypt (642), and had conquered the Persian Empire.
Within one century (by 732), the Islamic empire stretched from Spain to the border of India. The advance into France was stopped at Tours in 732. The old heartland of Christianity (Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Carthage) was all under Muslim rule.
How to say this precisely...
The empire spread by the sword. That is simply history.
Conversion was slower. Christians and Jews were classed as "People of the Book" and allowed to keep their religion as dhimmis, a protected but second-class status: a special tax (the jizya, Quran 9.29) and, typically, no evangelism, no new churches, and legal and social restrictions. Under that pressure, Christian populations eroded over centuries. Egypt and Syria remained majority Christian for centuries after the conquest.
So "Islam spread by the sword" is both true and incomplete. The rule was imposed by conquest. The religion followed by pressure, incentive, and time.
Islam also spread without conquest, to Indonesia and much of sub-Saharan Africa, through traders and preachers. Indonesia is the largest Muslim country on earth, and no Arab army ever went there.
The caliphate passed from Damascus to Baghdad to the Ottomans in Istanbul, and was abolished in 1924. There has been no caliph since. (ISIS declared one in 2014. No major Muslim body recognized it.)
The division: Sunni vs. Shia...
The split is about authority after Muhammad, not primarily about doctrine.
Sunni ("people of the tradition and the community"): leadership passed to whomever the community chose, and Abu Bakr was the legitimate first caliph. About 85 to 90 percent of Muslims.
Shia ("the party of Ali"): leadership should have stayed in the Prophet's family, beginning with Ali, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, the husband of his daughter Fatima. About 10 to 13 percent of Muslims. Majorities in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and Azerbaijan.
The defining wound: in 680 at Karbala, in Iraq, Ali's son Husayn, Muhammad's grandson, was killed with his family and followers by the army of the Umayyad caliph. Shia Muslims mourn it every year on Ashura.
Shia Islam developed a doctrine of Imams: divinely appointed, infallible descendants of Ali. The largest group, the "Twelvers," holds that the twelfth Imam vanished in 874 and will return as the Mahdi at the end of time. Iran's government is built on Twelver theology.
The two share the Quran, the five pillars, and the core beliefs. They differ on leadership, some law, and some practices. The relationship has often been bitter and sometimes violent (Iraq, Syria, and the Saudi-Iranian rivalry today).
One other name you will hear: Salafism / Wahhabism, an eighteenth-century purist reform movement from Arabia that seeks to strip Islam back to its first generations. It shaped Saudi Arabia. The violent jihadist groups of the last forty years (al-Qaeda, ISIS) came mostly out of this stream, though most Salafis are not violent.
Islam today...
About 2 billion Muslims, a quarter of the world's population, and the fastest-growing major religion, mainly by birth rate rather than conversion. Christians are about 2.3 billion. We are still the largest, but the gap is narrowing (Pew Research Center, 2025).
Most Muslims are not Arab. The four largest Muslim countries are Indonesia, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. Only about one in five Muslims lives in the Middle East and North Africa.
In the United States, Muslims are about 1 percent of adults, and about six in ten were born abroad (Pew Research Center, 2025). Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth have two of the largest Muslim communities in the country. We have Muslim neighbors, physicians, and classmates at SFA.
Scripture: The Question of Authority (4 minutes)
The Quran...
"Quran" means "recitation." It has 114 chapters (surahs) and about 6,200 verses, roughly the length of the New Testament. The chapters are arranged roughly from longest to shortest, not in the order they were given, and not as a story.
Muslims believe the Quran is the literal speech of God, dictated word for word to Muhammad by Gabriel over 23 years; that it is eternal and uncreated, copied from a "Preserved Tablet" in heaven (Quran 85.21-22); that it is the Quran only in Arabic; and that it has been perfectly preserved, unchanged since Muhammad.
A fact from their own sources: Muhammad left no book. According to Sahih al-Bukhari, the first caliph, Abu Bakr, had the scattered pieces collected after many reciters died in battle, and the third caliph, Uthman, about twenty years after Muhammad's death, issued a standard text and "ordered that all the other Quranic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies, be burnt" (Sahih al-Bukhari 4987). Rival collections kept by Muhammad's closest companions existed and were destroyed.
The Quran was standardized early and copied carefully. "Perfectly preserved without any human process" is a claim of faith. The Muslim records themselves describe the human process.
Two Qurans in one...
The Meccan chapters (the early years, preaching without power) are short and poetic, focused on God's oneness and judgment, and relatively mild toward Jews and Christians.
The Medinan chapters (ruling a city and fighting wars) are long and legal: marriage, inheritance, punishment, warfare, and sharp words for Jews and Christians.
The Quran teaches that later verses can cancel earlier ones. Quran 2.106: "We do not abrogate a verse or cause it to be forgotten except that We bring forth [one] better than it or similar to it." This is the doctrine of abrogation. It is why a peaceful Muslim can quote a peaceful verse and a jihadist can quote a warlike one, and both are quoting the Quran. Which verse governs is a question Muslims answer differently, and we will come back to it.
The Hadith and the Sunna...
The Quran does not tell you how to pray five times a day. The details of Muslim life come from the hadith: reports of what Muhammad said and did, passed down through chains of narrators and collected roughly 200 years after his death. The two most trusted Sunni collections are by al-Bukhari (d. 870) and Muslim (d. 875).
Sharia ("the path") is the law scholars draw from the Quran and the Sunna. Sunni Islam has four main schools of law, so "sharia" is not one book.
What the Quran says about the Bible...
The Quran affirms that God gave the Torah to Moses, the Psalms to David, and the Gospel (the Injil) to Jesus, and it tells Christians to judge by the Gospel. Quran 5.47: "And let the People of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed therein."
The Quran accuses some Jews of twisting words and hiding parts of their Scripture (Quran 2.75, 2.79, 4.46). It never says the books were lost or replaced. But where the Quran contradicts the Bible, something has to give, and the standard Muslim position became: the Bible's text was corrupted.
The problem with that claim: we have complete Bibles from the 300s (Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus), about 250 years before Muhammad. The Gospel that existed in Muhammad's day is the Gospel you hold. When the Quran tells Christians to judge by the Gospel, it is pointing to the book that says Jesus died and rose.
That is the question of authority in one sentence: Does the Bible test the Quran, or does the Quran test the Bible? The Bible came first, and it says God's final word has already been spoken.
Hebrews 1.1 | Long ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways. (CSB)
Hebrews 1.2 | In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him. (CSB)
God: The Question of the Trinity (4 minutes)
Where we agree...
There is one God, the creator of all, who will judge every person. Muslims are serious monotheists, not pagans or polytheists.
Start conversations here, not with the Trinity. Most Muslims have been taught that Christians worship three gods. Say early, "I believe there is one God."
Deuteronomy 6.4 | "Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. (CSB)
Tawhid, God's absolute oneness, and shirk, the sin of joining partners to God...
The heart of Islam is tawhid, God's absolute, undivided oneness. The shortest statement of it is chapter 112, which Muslims say is worth a third of the Quran.
Quran 112.1-4: "Say, 'He is Allah, [who is] One, Allah, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor is born, nor is there to Him any equivalent.'"
The opposite of tawhid is shirk, "association," giving God a partner. It is the one sin God will not forgive.
Quran 4.48: "Indeed, Allah does not forgive association with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills."
Calling Jesus the Son of God is, to a Muslim, shirk. Not a theological error. The unforgivable sin. Keep that in mind when you wonder why the conversation gets tense.
The Quran on the Trinity...
Quran 4.171: "...And do not say, 'Three'; desist, it is better for you. Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son."
But notice what the Quran thinks the "three" are. Quran 5.116: "And [beware the Day] when Allah will say, 'O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, Take me and my mother as deities besides Allah?'"
And notice how it hears "Son of God." Quran 6.101: "How could He have a son when He does not have a companion [i.e., wife]?"
The Quran never describes the Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It rejects God, Jesus, and Mary. It rejects a son produced by a wife. The church has never believed either of those things. The Quran rejects a Trinity no Christian holds.
Muslims will say Quran 5.116 was addressing a heretical sect, not mainstream Christianity. Fine. Then the Quran has never actually addressed what we believe.
What Islam's God is not...
Not a Father. The Quran never calls God "Father," and it explicitly refuses the idea. God has servants, not children.
Not knowable in himself. God reveals his will (law) and his names (tradition counts 99), but his essence is beyond knowing. Islam has no incarnation and wants none.
Not love in his essence. The Quran says God loves the righteous and those who do good, and says over and over that he does not love the unbelievers, the unjust, and the transgressors (Quran 2.190, 3.32, 3.57). In the Quran, God's love is a response to obedience. It never says "God is love," and it never says God loved sinners first.
What the Bible says...
One God, three persons, one being. Not three gods. Not one God wearing three masks. At Jesus' baptism the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all present, distinct, and one God (Matthew 3.16-17).
Matthew 28.19 | Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (CSB)
The Son is eternal and uncreated. Not born of a wife. Not a God who began. Eternally the Son, sharing the Father's nature and revealing the Father.
John 1.1 | In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (CSB)
God is love in himself, from eternity, because the Father has always loved the Son.
John 17.24 | "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world's foundation. (CSB)
1 John 4.8 | The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (CSB)
The question to ask a Muslim friend: "Before God created anything, whom did he love?" In Islam, God was alone, and love is something he began to do once there was someone to obey him. In Christianity, love is who God has always been. That is the difference the Trinity makes. It is the difference between a God who gives law and a God who gives himself.
Jesus: The Question of His Identity and Work (4 minutes)
Muslims honor Jesus.
Jesus (Isa) is named 25 times in the Quran. Muhammad is named four times. Mary is the only woman named in the Quran, and chapter 19 bears her name.
A Muslim who heard you mock Jesus would be offended. This is a bridge. Use it.
What the Quran affirms about Jesus...
Born of a virgin (Quran 3.47, 19.20-21) and called "the Messiah," though the Quran never explains what the title means.
Worked miracles by God's permission: healed the blind and the leper, raised the dead, spoke from the cradle, and made a bird out of clay (Quran 3.49, 5.110, 19.29-30). The cradle and the clay bird come from second-century apocryphal gospels, not from the four Gospels.
Sinless. A sound hadith says Satan touches every child at birth except Mary and her son (Sahih al-Bukhari 3431). The Quran tells Muhammad to ask forgiveness for his sin (Quran 47.19, 48.2). It never says that of Jesus.
Alive now in heaven, taken up by God (Quran 4.158), and coming back. In the hadith, Jesus returns as a just ruler, breaks the cross, kills the swine, and abolishes the jizya (Sahih al-Bukhari 2222). Other traditions add that he then dies and is buried.
What the Quran denies about Jesus...
He is not the Son of God. Quran 9.30: "...the Christians say, 'The Messiah is the son of Allah.' That is their statement from their mouths... May Allah destroy them; how are they deluded?"
He is not God. Quran 5.72: "They have certainly disbelieved who say, 'Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary.'"
He did not die on the cross. Quran 4.157: "And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them... And they did not kill him, for certain."
The usual Muslim explanation: God made someone else look like Jesus (often Judas or Simon of Cyrene), the Romans crucified the double, and God took Jesus to heaven.
Weigh that claim. The Quran was composed six hundred years after the event and about a thousand miles away. Every ancient source that mentions Jesus' death, including the Roman historian Tacitus and the Jewish historian Josephus, says he was executed. Even skeptical historians treat the crucifixion as one of the most certain facts about Jesus. The Quran is the only ancient document that denies it.
He was a prophet who preached Islam and foretold Muhammad. Quran 61.6: "...bringing good tidings of a messenger to come after me, whose name is Ahmad." Muslims read John 14.16, the promise of the Helper, as this prophecy.
The heart of it...
Islam's Jesus is a great prophet whom God rescued from the cross. The Bible's Jesus is God the Son who walked to the cross on purpose.
Mark 10.45 | For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (CSB)
John 10.18 | No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father." (CSB)
If the Quran is right about the cross, Christianity is finished. Paul said so first.
1 Corinthians 15.17 | And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. (CSB)
Nabeel Qureshi, who grew up Muslim, argued that the whole case comes down to three historical questions: Did Jesus die on the cross? Did he rise from the dead? Did he claim to be God? Islam answers no, no, and no. The historical evidence answers yes, yes, and yes.
Salvation: The Question of Our Greatest Need (4 minutes)
What is wrong with us? Islam's answer...
No original sin. Adam sinned, repented, and was forgiven on the spot (Quran 2.37). Nothing was passed down. Every child is born in a state of natural submission to God.
People are weak and forgetful, not fallen and guilty. The human problem is ignorance, not corruption.
So the human need is guidance, not rescue. The Quran calls itself "a guidance" on its first page (Quran 2.2). A prophet with a book is exactly what a forgetful people needs. A Savior is what a dead people needs. Islam does not believe we are dead.
How is a person saved? Islam's answer...
Confess and obey. The five pillars (Sahih al-Bukhari 8):
Shahada, the confession: "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God." Say it sincerely, and you are a Muslim.
Salat: five daily prayers facing Mecca.
Zakat: giving 2.5 percent of accumulated wealth each year.
Sawm: fasting from dawn to sunset during the month of Ramadan.
Hajj: the pilgrimage to Mecca once in a lifetime, if able.
Then the scales. On the Last Day every deed is weighed. Quran 23.102-103: "And those whose scales are heavy [with good deeds], it is they who are the successful. But those whose scales are light, those are the ones who have lost their souls, [being] in Hell, abiding eternally."
No substitute. Quran 6.164: "...no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another." No one can carry your sin. Not a lamb. Not a prophet. Not the Messiah. God forgives whom he wills (Quran 4.48), but nothing is paid and nothing is satisfied. Mercy is God choosing to overlook.
No assurance. Because the scales are not read until the Last Day, no Muslim can know he is saved. Muhammad himself: "By Allah, I do not know what Allah will do with me though I am Allah's Messenger" (Sahih al-Bukhari 1243).
The one exception. The Quran promises paradise, without the scales, to those who die fighting in God's cause.
Quran 9.111: "Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah, so they kill and are killed." (See also Quran 3.169.)
I am not saying every Muslim reads this as a call to arms. Most do not. I am saying the one certain road to paradise in the Quran is death in battle, and that fact explains some things we will talk about later tonight.
What the Bible says...
Our problem is not ignorance but death. We do not need a better map. We need a resurrection.
Ephesians 2.1 | And you were dead in your trespasses and sins (CSB)
Therefore salvation cannot be earned.
Ephesians 2.8 | For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift— (CSB)
Ephesians 2.9 | not from works, so that no one can boast. (CSB)
God does not forgive by overlooking. He forgives by paying. Someone did bear another's burden, and the cross is where mercy and justice meet.
Isaiah 53.6 | We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all. (CSB)
Romans 3.26 | God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus. (CSB)
The Quran's God forgives whom he wills and never explains how a just judge can simply set guilt aside. The Bible's God is "just and the justifier." That is the whole difference.
And so, assurance.
1 John 5.13 | I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (CSB)
Romans 8.15 | For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father!" (CSB)
No Muslim can say "Abba, Father." No Muslim can know. The Christian can know, not because he is confident in himself, but because the scales were settled at Calvary.
Put the two side by side...
Islam: God is one person, unknowable in himself, who sent a book through a prophet to guide forgetful people to obey, so that on the Last Day their good might outweigh their bad, and then he may forgive them if he wills.
Christianity: God is Father, Son, and Spirit, who came himself in the Son to rescue dead sinners by dying in their place and rising again, so that everyone who trusts him is forgiven now, adopted now, and sure now.
That is why we started tonight with "Who is God?" Get God wrong, and you will get Jesus wrong. Get Jesus wrong, and you will get salvation wrong. The Muslim and the Christian are not two travelers on the same road. They start from different places, carry different maps, and are headed for different destinations.
Pastoral Perspectives on Islam
How do we respond if someone says that Muslims are no more violent than Christians and Muslim extremists are no more real than Christian extremists?
Other ways to ask the same kind of question...
Is there an equivalency between the Crusades and modern Islamic terrorism?
How should we understand passages about warfare in the Quran alongside warfare passages in the Old Testament?
Answer
A. Extremist Violence
Christian (in the last 100 years)
Three terrorist actions focused on abortion providers...
Multiple Ku Klux Klan (and adjacent groups) terrorist actions...
Muslim (in the last 100 years)
9/11 (2001)
Bali Nightclub Bombings (2002)
London 7/7 Bombings (2005)
Mumbai Attacks (2008)
Boston Marathon Bombings (2013)
Paris Al-Qaeda Gunman Charlie Hebdo (2015)
Paris ISIS Bombings (2015)
San Bernardino Attack (2015)
Pulse Nightclub Massacre (2016)
Manchester Arena Bombing (2017)
And hundreds and hundreds more...
B. Scripture
Difficult Old Testament Verses about Previous Violence
1 Samuel 15.2 | This is what the Lord of Armies says: ‘I witnessed what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they opposed them along the way as they were coming out of Egypt. (CSB)
1 Samuel 15.3 | Now go and attack the Amalekites and completely destroy everything they have. Do not spare them. Kill men and women, infants and nursing babies, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ” (CSB)
Old Testament Verses Advocating Ongoing Violence
None that are not strictly about defending the innocent.
Numbers 10.9 | When you enter into battle in your land against an adversary who is attacking you, sound short blasts on the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the Lord your God and be saved from your enemies. (CSB)
New Testament Verses About Violence
Matthew 5.44 | But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (CSB)
Romans 12.19 | Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.(CSB)
Romans 12.20 | But If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head. (CSB)
Romans 12.21 | Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.(CSB)
Quran Verses About Violence
(from Ali, Abdullah Yusuf, trans. The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an. 2004.)
Surah 9.5
But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.
Surah 9.29
Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Apostle, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
Surah 2.190–193
Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loveth not transgressors. And slay them wherever ye catch them, and turn them out from where they have Turned you out; for tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter; but fight them not at the Sacred Mosque, unless they (first) fight you there; but if they fight you, slay them. Such is the reward of those who suppress faith. But if they cease, Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. And fight them on until there is no more Tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah; but if they cease, Let there be no hostility except to those who practise oppression.
Surah 4.89–91
They but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing (as they): But take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of Allah (From what is forbidden). But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them; and (in any case) take no friends or helpers from their ranks—Except those who join a group between whom and you there is a treaty (of peace), or those who approach you with hearts restraining them from fighting you as well as fighting their own people. If Allah had pleased, He could have given them power over you, and they would have fought you: Therefore if they withdraw from you but fight you not, and (instead) send you (Guarantees of) peace, then Allah Hath opened no way for you (to war against them). Others you will find that wish to gain your confidence as well as that of their people: Every time they are sent back to temptation, they succumb thereto: if they withdraw not from you nor give you (guarantees) of peace besides restraining their hands, seize them and slay them wherever ye get them: In their case We have provided you with a clear argument against them.
Surah 8.12
Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): “I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them.”
Surah 8.39
And fight them on until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah altogether and everywhere; but if they cease, verily Allah doth see all that they do.
Surah 47.4
Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks; At length, when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly (on them): thereafter (is the time for) either generosity or ransom: Until the war lays down its burdens. Thus (are ye commanded): but if it had been Allah’s Will, He could certainly have exacted retribution from them (Himself); but (He lets you fight) in order to test you, some with others. But those who are slain in the Way of Allah—He will never let their deeds be lost.
Quran Verses About Rewards for Terrorists
Jamiʿ at-Tirmidhi 1663
That the Messenger of Allah said: "There are six things with Allah for the martyr. He is forgiven with the first flow of blood (he suffers), he is shown his place in Paradise, he is protected from punishment in the grave, secured from the greatest terror, the crown of dignity is placed upon his head - and its gems are better than the world and what is in it - he is married to seventy two wives along Al-Huril-'Ayn of Paradise, and he may intercede for seventy of his close relatives."
C. Crusades
Ok. The Crusades were BAD!
But some qualifications...
Crusades were Catholic (Ordered first by Pope Urban II).
While they included atrocities against civilians, they were a series of wars not terrorism against civilians.
The Crusades were never supported by a fair reading of Scripture.
Many Catholic Bible scholars at the time protested the Crusades on a New Testament basis.
Why we should work to oppose the spread of Islam in ways we would not work to oppose the spread of Mormonism or Scientology....
We should oppose movements that seek to replace equal citizenship with coercive religious rule.
We should oppose movements that have a significant history of fomenting violence against outsiders.
We should oppose movements that commonly threaten, exercise violence, or kill people who leave the movement.
We should oppose movements that commonly endorse unfair treatment of women.
We should oppose movements that commonly promote forced marriage or child marriage even if that is not typical.
What are the dangers of ecumenical worship services or ecumenical prayer meetings in the community?
What should we make of reports that Muslims are coming to Christ through dreams and visions?
Thousands of former Muslim, now Christian men and women are reporting strange dreams that led them to hear and respond to the gospel.
The most credible evidence suggests that the dreams are primarily directing Muslims to someone who can share the gospel.
Cautions...
What should we recognize about the family and social cost of a Muslim converting to Christianity? Would we be prepared to become someone’s church family if following Christ cost them their existing support system?
We should recognize that conversion may threaten someone’s entire sense of belonging.
For many Muslims, faith is deeply intertwined with family, culture, friendships, and community. Becoming a Christian may be understood by relatives as rejecting the people who raised and loved them.
Responses vary. Some families remain loving despite deep disagreement; others withdraw acceptance or support. We should neither assume rejection nor underestimate its cost.
The cost may be emotional, relational, and practical.
A convert may face pressure to return to Islam, exclusion from family gatherings, loss of housing or employment, or serious strain on a marriage.
In some settings, threats and physical violence are real possibilities. Open Doors documents converts who have needed help finding a new home and job after family rejection. These experiences are not universal, but they are real.
Someone can be convinced that Jesus is Lord and still be frightened of what following him will cost. We should respond with patient discipleship and practical love.
Jesus prepared us for this and described a family that would receive those who suffer loss.
Matthew 10.34–39: Following Jesus can divide even close family relationships, and loyalty to him must come first.
Mark 10.29–30: Jesus speaks of people losing homes and family relationships for his sake and the gospel’s, while receiving a much larger family among his followers, even amid persecution.
1 John 3.16–18: Christian love involves meeting material needs, not merely expressing concern.
We must teach the cost of discipleship while accepting the responsibilities of Christian fellowship.
Would we be prepared to become that person’s church family?
Who would invite them into their home regularly?
Who would make room at the table on holidays and ordinary Tuesday evenings?
Who would help if they lost housing, financial support, or employment?
Who would patiently answer questions, read Scripture with them, and stay close after the excitement of their baptism had passed?
Who would listen when they grieved the family relationships they still loved?
“You’re part of our family” must describe something they can experience throughout the week.
We should help them follow Christ with wisdom and dignity.
Encourage them to honor and love their relatives wherever possible. Following Jesus does not require despising their family or abandoning every aspect of their culture.
Discuss the consequences of public disclosure with them. Obtain permission before posting their name, photograph, baptism, or testimony online.
How can we explain the gospel without Christian shorthand?
Why is this important?
Conclusion
How to Share the Gospel with Muslims for 90% of us 90% of the time?
Show kindness, love, and respect.
Treat people as individuals not as a part of a group with suspect allegiances.
Parable of the Good Samaritan
What to say...
"I'm not an expert on Islam, but I know there are some very good and fair resources that lay out where our beliefs differ. If you ever want to work through those, I'm a safe and confidential person. I would be glad to sit down and go through them with you."
Gospel
Explain the gospel more than trying to disprove or challenge their views.
Rely on the Holy Spirit and later conversations for that task.
Be clear about...
God
Jesus
Grace
Assurance
Bonus Material
Can a true Arabic-speaking Christian properly substitute the word "Allah" for "God?"