Download I. Introduction A. The Occasion of These Talks 1. 9/11 ignites

I. Introduction
A. The Occasion of These Talks
1. 9/11 ignites concern with part or all of Islam as a possible enemy
2. in the U.S., Arab Terror succeeds earlier Red Scare and Yellow Peril
3. simple curiosity about far-away lands and exotic religions?
4. Christians want to know what their faith says to them in this day
While I will have passing comments on all these points, I choose to focus on the last,
our faith. We will know how to act if we know who we are, and Whose we are.
B. What Heresy is For
1. “There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be
made manifest among you.” (Apostle Paul, 1 Cor. 11:19)
2. “The rejection of truth by heretics makes the tenets of Your Church and sound
doctrine stand out more clearly.” (St. Augustine, Conf. 7:19)
3. And we ought to rethink our seeker-friendly approach and instead boldly teach our
doctrines — what C.S. Lewis called “Mere Christianity” — and do it in open and
intentional community. (Charles Colson, “Surprise Converts”, Breakpoint Commentary,
1/31/2002)
4. On the other hand, why sharpen the differences? Answers: a. Truth, b.
Respect:
“It is disrespectful to not take seriously what a person claims to believe is the truth.”
(Timothy George, “Father of Jesus”)
C. Three Key Christian Doctrines: Trinity, Incarnation, Atonement
1. Nature and Character of God (Trinity)
Jesus is Lord, God is Love. (1 Corinthians 12:3, 1 John 4:16)
2. Saving Revelation of God (Incarnation)
Christ is come in the flesh. (1 John 4:2)
3. Victory over Sin and Death (Atonement)
Christ is risen again. (Romans 8:34)
4. We could profitably study other key doctrines — But our time is limited.
a) God’s propositional revelation (Bible)
b) the conditions of salvation (faith, grace)
c) Christ’s presence on earth (the Church)
5. The earliest creeds of the Church, as well as Scripture itself, bear witness to the
central importance of the first three.
D. Procedural Matters
1. Describe a key Christian doctrine.
2. Appreciate the benefits for us of that doctrine.
3. Compare this doctrine with those of Muslims
4. Draw out principles for conversation with our Muslim neighbors.
II. God’s Nature: Ultimate Ruler or Loving Trinity?
A. Natural Theology
1. What can fallen mankind know of God? Ask the Apostle Paul. (Romans 1:20,
Acts 17:27)
a) “That which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto
them, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead...”
(Apostle Paul, Romans 1:20)
b) “...they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though
he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being;
as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.” (Apostle
Paul on Mars Hill, Acts 17:27)
c) (Gilchrist, following F.F. Bruce’s commentary on the Book of Acts, reports that Paul
is using pagan writings, which speak poetically of Zeus as our father, and the ground of
our being.)
d) “In [the Platonists] I read, not indeed in the very words, but with exactly the same
meaning ... that In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God... But I did not read there that ... as many as received him, to them he
gave power to become the sons of God.” (St. Augustine, Confessions 7:9)
2. Four reasonable guesses about God: creator, infinity, unity, finality.
a) creator of all things, sustainer, governor, origin of all good, including personality
(1) first cause, prime mover
(2) orders and governs his creation by an irresistable will
(3) origin of personality
(He is the original to our image, figuratively Father, cf. Mars Hill speech)
b) infinity of mind, of will, of presence and perception, and of justice
(1) of mind (all-knowing)
(2) of will (all-powerful)
(3) all-present, all-seeing
(4) moral: righteous
c) unity of being, of absolute truth, and of absolutely just will
(1) of being (creator of all else)
(2) of mind (single standard of truth)
(3) of will (single standard of justice)
d) end of all things, the final perfector of history and the object of all worship
(1) a meaningful end to history, in complete truth & justice
(2) principal object of worship (personal)
e) These are things that may be reasonably guessed about God without special
revelation.
(There are certainly other sorts of guesses that can be made, but I have chosen these
four.)
3. The Principle of Worship, or, Warning: You Will Resemble What You Worship.
a) Positively: “We shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)
b) Negatively: “They that make [idols] are like unto them; so is every one that
trusteth in them.” (Psalms 115:8)
c) Your opinion of God is therefore of great importance to your future.
d) With care, you might gain insight about others by examining their theology.
4. God’s generic name. So, who is this guy “Allah”?
a) Beware of the slogan “Allah is not God.”
As a slogan, it points up differences between Muslim and Christian theology, but in an
inaccurate, sloppy way.
b) “Allah” is the Arabic term for God; shared by Muslims, Christians and others.
The slogan, translated fully from Arabic, is nonsense: “God is not God.”
c) Muslim apologists differ in their practices. Some say “God.”
Out of respect for Arabic (the supposed language of revelation), others say “Allah.”
d) God shares a name with the fictitious lesser gods of the pagans..
(1) It is Theos in Greek, Deus in Latin, God or Gott in Germanic languages (like
English), El in Hebrew, and Allah in Arabic. Christians refer to and address their
Creator using such generic words, in their respective tongues. All of these words have
pagan usages as well, but this does not matter in the least, because in most discourses,
including Muslim ones, they refer unambiguously to the omnipotent Creator.
e) But God is and must be a unique being. He is the original of the pagan
counterfeits.
“It may seem remarkable that Paul should have no scruples about applying such
statements to the only Supreme Being of the universe and therefore to the God whom
he proclaimed, yet he did. He obviously considered that, to the extent that they
correctly described something of God’s own character, they could be considered as
referring ultimately to him. If Paul could make such allowances, can we not accept that
the Allah of Islam too is, in principle, the same as the God of the Bible, especially when
we consider that the Quran’s description of him is far closer to the character of the one
true God than the attributes of Zeus and that there was a deliberate intention to refer to
the same deity.” (John Gilchrist, “Our Approach to Islam”)
B. Revealed Theology
1. Can we know God better? Only if He does the hard part.
a) One might wonder, given the richness of the above theological guesses about God,
whether anything else of importance remains?
b) Certainty. Guesses can be confirmed. (Wrong ones can be denied too.)
c) And there are revelations that are surprising, precious, and scandalous.
2. God reveals Himself.
a) Jesus is Lord (1 Cor 12:3)
(1) In other words, Jesus Christ is God.
b) God is personal (Yes, as one might hope!)
(1) Jesus Christ is clearly a person, hence God is.
c) God is three persons in one being
(1) Three persons in a unique being.
(2) This is revealed by the Son, the Eternal Word. (John 1)
(3) He in turn promises to send the Spirit.
(4) Jesus Christ speaks of the Spirit
(a) ...who will teach and lead His Church,
(b) ...as yet another person, distinct from the Father and the Son.
d) God is Love (1 John 4:16)
(1) Read the “love chapter.” Not 1 Corinthians 13, but 1 John 4.
“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
(2) God is not a monad: “[God] has a dynamic relationship of love and reciprocity within
his own being,” from eternity. (Timothy George, “Father of Jesus”)
(3) Love is not a passing attitude or affection.
At the unique heart of being is eternal Love.
(4) God loves his creation, but that is not His most important love.
That is the love which the Father, Son, and Spirit eternally exchange.
3. God’s revelation is of great value to us.
a) Recall the Principle of Worship: Do you want your future to be shaped according to
a speculative guess, or by the personal and loving presence of God in His fullness?
Do we not wish to adore God as He is, and not merely as we guess He might be?
b) We are too weak and fallen to save ourselves. It follows that we need access to
God, which must be graciously offered to us by God Himself.
c) God’s salvation plan requires specific responses from us, based on specific
invitations from Him.
(1) Are we eager to hear His invitations, and to respond to them?
(2) Or are we too busy?
4. God’s revelation is surprising, even scandalous!
a) Stop and think a moment: Who would have thought?
Who could have thought that, at the heart of being is a person? Somebody we can
meet?
b) Isn’t it scandalous that we should make God in our own puny image?
Isn’t it monstrously unfitting that we should make God himself, the heart of all being,
look like a little family unit?
c) Be sympathetic to your God-fearing friends who have not had time to think about the
Trinity, to digest its strangeness.
And start by thinking about it yourself.
d) When you come down to it, remember that we do not make God into anything. If
He resembles us in any way, it is not because He is some kind of projection of our
desires.
It is the other way around: We resemble Him, because we are created in His image.
C. Implications of God’s Nature as Self-Revealed
1. “God does not exist alone — ‘the alone with the alone’ as Arius referred to his god
— but a God who exists in community, in love and reciprocity and mutuality.” (Timothy
George, “Father of Jesus”)
2. Human personality is a true image of ultimate reality.
a) Not an illusion, a deception, an accident, an epiphenomenon, a hindrance to cosmic
harmony, a drop to return to the ocean.
b) Immortal souls: Our persons are to retain their integrity.
c) Final judgement: We are judged by God’s just purposes for us.
3. God is knowable, personally, and in a relationship that affirms the best of your
humanity.
You can, at least in principle, know God as you know a friend or loved one.
a) Jesus Christ confirms this hope, and at the same time...
b) Jesus Christ gives us an invitation to know and love God.
c) God is not distant. God is not inscrutable.
The best things in our own human nature — love, fidelity, intelligence, justice, creativity
— are reflections of God’s own nature, both because we are images of Him, and
because we see those virtues in Jesus Christ. Isn’t this cause for hope? Friendship
with God will complete all our best aspirations. Do we realize that this is Good News to
some people?
4. Truth and justice do not transcend love. This has huge effects on character,
morals, and culture.
a) Because God is truth by nature, our esteem for truth is unlimited.
The same observation holds for justice.
Finally, because of who God is, our esteem for love is also unlimited.
b) We will never outgrow or transcend or escape the mandate to love.
We will never put aside love in favor of a higher ideal.
c) Our dealings with others (Church, neighbor, and enemy) must always be loving.
Our aspirations, morals, policies, actions must be consistent with love.
5. It follows immediately that violence of any sort is strictly regulated for the Christian.
a) Compulsion of any sort is almost always incompatible with love.
b) The doctrines of “Just War”, such as those of St. Augustine, reject any grounds for
war that are incompatible with love.
6. It follows that, in the struggles of this life, our weapons are spiritual.
a) For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God ... bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
b) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in
high places. (Ephesians 6:12)
7. God’s love is as infinite, absolute, simple, and all-encompassing as He is.
a) God loves sinners. He says so. And He commands us to do likewise.
b) It is also reasonable that the highest love should be so far-reaching as to embrace
even the enemy.
8. Our personal response to God’s generous invitation.
a) Do we aspire to this ultimate love?
b) Are we thankful that we can participate in it?
c) Do we wish to widen the circle of that love to others?
D. Comparisons regarding God with Muslim teaching
1. Mohammed taught that God created everything. “Man in God’s image” is missing.
2. Islam teaches that God has 99 “Most Beautiful Names.” None of them is “Faithful”
or “Love.”
a) These names describe His actions, not His character.
b) Some names are opposites: Abaser, Exalter, Expediter, Delayer, Avenger,
Forgiver, etc.
c) Most pertain to power, many to mercy, forgiveness, and providence.
d) Only one means love or fellowship: “Al-Waddud” —not the highest Arabic term for
love.
e) None of the names expresses the Jewish and Christian idea of covanental
faithfulness.
3. Mohammed defended God’s unity, by word and deed, with an astonishing
fierceness.
a) An unapproachable God becomes unknowable and unaccountable.
(1) While we certainly concede that God is indeed [One], we contend with the Muslim
in asking for a definition. “One what?” Their reply would be “One God, for God is
unknowable except through His will. We can know nothing about the nature of God
except through the command He has given through His prophet. We can only do His
will, we cannot know Him.” (Farid Mahally “Love in the Quran”)
b) The unaccountable will of God is also known as Fate (“kismet”).
c) Politically, the rulers who serve this Fate are relatively unrestrained.
(1) Fate guides the rulers God installs, especially righteous Moslems.
(2) This Fate can resemble the Leninist ideal of History, as served by the Party.
d) The theme of unity extends in Islam to God’s demands on culture, politics, and
religion.
Culture, politics, and religion are an interlocking whole under the Prophet’s successors.
e) In culture, politics, and religion, the theory is of unity. The practice is often different.
(1) Both Muslim and Christian militant rhetoric speaks of “Islam” as one thing, as we
speak of “the Church”. But Islam is full of schisms and factions, like any other religion,
including (sadly) ours. The politics of many Islamic countries are notably marked by
fierce sectarian and factional wars and oppressions.
f) It is monotheism — the fact the God is One — which makes a religion global.
(1) The One God’s unique truth and commands are binding on every person.
(2) In the Quran, God seems to call for military enforcement of His will.
(3) After Mohammed’s example, some Muslims aspire to wars of religious conquest.
4. The fear of God is not balanced in Islam by a personal relationship.
a) Christians need not fear God, but can approach Him boldly.
b) Muslims are told their salvation depends on a future judgement, not a present grace.
5. The real goal of the believer is the personal knowledge of the nature and person of
God. That Islam rejects this possibility serves only to affirm the distinction between
Islam and Christianity and confirms the riches we enjoy as believers in Jesus Christ.
(Farid Mahally “Love in the Quran”)
E. Addressing Islam regarding God
1. Common ground with Muslims?
a) We have common ground, not in formal theology, but in natural theology.
(1) Muslims are taught to reverence God and obey His moral law, thereby reinforcing
some of the best of their natural tendencies.
(2) Sadly, they are taught to do this by means of works, not personal trust.
(3) If we proceed on the basis both of truth and love, we will sympathize with their
aspirations to please God, and be ready to show them that there is a better way.
(4) We can also praise their moral strengths, when applicable.
(a) Honest dealing, forthright speech, love of family and neighbor are good.
(b) Hallowing God’s name is always right, even in an unbeliever.
(c) Honoring God’s written word is right, even in an unbeliever.
(d) Submitting to spiritual discipline (prayer, fasting) is honorable.
(e) There’s one big reservation: None of these practices has permanent benefit
without the gift of God’s Spirit.
b) Muslims are also carefully kept away from the good news of God’s rescue effort.
They are not told about God’s gifts in Jesus Christ. We are surprised and offended by
the doctrines their defensive teachers have given them, but that the fault of their
teachers, not of our Muslim neighbors.
c) We can find common ground with the hedonistic agnostic next door, perhaps
because he likes the same cultural entertainments as we do.... How much more can
we find common ground with our serious-minded Muslim neighbor two doors down,
who, like us, wants to know and live the truth, and perhaps unlike us, is willing to fast
and pray, on a regular basis, in order (so he hopes) to accomplish such a life?
2. Are they our enemy? Yes and no.
a) Yes, some are, perhaps even a sizeable minority of them.
If some Muslims regard themselves as the enemy of us, the Church, and the Christian
revelation, they have become the enemy of God also. This does not put them out of
reach of God’s love, nor of ours.
b) How much more should we love those Muslims who are simply our peaceable
neighbors?
c) Yes, perhaps they have the potential to be led into war against us someday.
Is our Lord asking for a pre-emptive strike?
Yes, a strike of love: We must not wage war on our neighbors. We must wage peace.
3. Do you know how much God loves you?
a) Our Muslim friends want to please God.
b) We know this is done first by accepting God’s invitation to love.
c) Let’s not keep it a secret. Preach God’s love at all times. Use words if necessary.
F. A Final Word: Who is my neighbor, and is he going to kill me now?
1. The vast majority of Muslims worldwide instinctively know that militancy is wrong.
Not even the ayatollahs and mullahs of Iran were able to inspire the Iranian people with
the spirit of Jihad to the extent that they wanted to — at the end of the war, although the
population of Iran is three times that of Iraq, Hussein was still able to put more men into
the field of battle than Khomeini. Most human beings of whatever persuasion are
moderate in their approach to life. Common sense tells most people that when we kill
each other, we destroy ourselves as well. We all breathe the same air, we all live in
one world, and one God continues to extend his providential grace to all nations alike.
The vast majority of Muslim people are schooled in hospitality, tolerance and the ethics
and morals of Islam. There is no need for a militant approach towards such a people
when the majority of them will warmly respond to love, kindness and compassion.
(John Gilchrist, “Our Approach to Islam”)
I. Reintroduction
A. The Occasion of These Talks: Christians want to know what their faith says to
them in this day.
B. Heresy is best used as a foil for Truth
C. Procedure: describe, appreciate, compare, apply.
1. Describe a key Christian doctrine.
2. Appreciate the benefits for us of that doctrine.
3. Compare this doctrine with those of Muslims
4. Draw out principles for conversation with our Muslim neighbors.
D. I apologize for handling the topics in a surprising order.
1. This ordering differs from what was previously written in the church bulletin.
These talks flow from God’s nature, to Christ’s nature, to the defeat of sin.
E. There is a bibliography available. These are resources I have found helpful.
Always discern and pray.
1. Some I recommend without major reservation. Others may be valuable only as
current events or history. But all must be read with discernment and prayer.
F. There’s a minefield of misinformation and disinformation out there. Stay in the right
fight!
1. We must be very cautious and critical with our sources. Some of the loudest voices
out there, including Christians, humanists, Jews, and Muslims, are looking for “a good
fight”, rather than The Good Fight.
G. Recap.: The Trinity is God’s surprising revelation of His nature.
1. The Lord our God is one. 2. Jesus is Lord. 3. God is love. 4. We are invited into
eternal love.
1. This week we’ll talk about the person making this invitation....
II. The Incarnation of God’s Eternal Word: God’s personal invasion of history, in the
man Jesus Christ.
A. Is There a Natural Theology of Christ?
1. The Incarnation is a Surprise: Romans 16:25, 1 Corinthians 2:7-8, Ephesians,
Colossians 1
a) The incarnation of Christ, and His associated death, resurrection, and ascension
into heaven, are inherently matters of revelation. Paul routinely describes the Good
News of Jesus Christ as a surprise, a “revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret
since the world began” (Romans 16:25). It is “a mystery, even the hidden wisdom,
which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this
world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1
Corinthians 2:7-8). See also the whole first half of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, and
the first chapter of Colossians.
b) St. Augustine notes in his Confessions that, impressive as the insights of the
Platonists are into the nature of God and His eternal creative Word, they (like all other
leaders of this world) were helplessly ignorant of God’s plan to visit us, suffer for us, and
save us.
2. The Logos (Eternal Word) of God is not a complete surprise: Some had guessed it.
a) The first reliable news of God’s Logos is in the prologue of the Apostle John’s
gospel.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. All things through him came to be, and apart from
him came into being not one thing. From him came life; and the life was the light of
men.... He was the True Light, which enlightens every man.”
b) In Bible language, the term “logos” refers just as much to the thought behind words
as it refers to the words themselves. A “logos” is never an empty word, devoid of
meaning. It’s both the “saying” and the thing “said”. We might say that such a word is
always a reliable thought-handle to something true and real. So it was natural to guess
(and it is still natural to think) that God Himself should participate in effectual acts of
thinking and speaking.
c) The Logos is evidence of some kind of divine community: Although “thinking” can
be done by one lonely person, real “saying” only happens when there’s someone to
hear. The statement that God has an eternal “logos” indicates eternal communication.
We touched on the profound implications of this in last week’s talk.
d) Is all this just too painfully self-evident to us? I belabor the point because it is not
necessarily self-evident to our unbelieving neighbors. But it is reasonable.
e) St. Augustine reports finding theologically accurate accounts about God’s Logos, or
Eternal Word, in the non-Christian philosophers of his day. (See Confessions, 7:19.)
According to such accounts, non-Christians were making reasonable guesses about
God’s nature—which turned out to be true.
(1) God communicates His rational character through a Word.
(2) The Word is not a fragment dropped out by God from time to time.
(3) The Word is the full expression of God’s own nature.
(4) God is never “wordless” (alogos): He expresses his Word eternally.
(5) As a full and eternal expression, the Word participates in God’s nature.
(6) It is well said that the Word is born eternally (timelessly) from God.
f) When we speak of God as Son and Father, we speak of a shared nature. When A
is born from B, A and B share the same nature. When A creates C, C does not share
A’s nature.
3. Rationality and intelligibility in Creation comes from God’s Logos.
a) When looking at the world, we are struck by a mystery: The world “makes sense”
to us.
b) This is not just a passing childish impression, to be corrected by deeper insight.
(1) Those who are most concerned with understanding this world find its intelligibility
an absorbing problem. Albert Einstein remarked that “the most incomprehensible thing
about the world is that it is comprehensible.”
c) But, again, reasonable guesses can be made about the connections between the
Logos and the Creation, and history records them.
(1) God spoke this reasonable world into being by his Word.
(2) The world is comprehensible because it is founded on God’s rationality.
(3) We humans can comprehend it because we are created in God’s image.
(4) What “life” or “light” we enjoy comes from a higher source, the Logos.
4. Sidebar: No, not everyone makes these guesses. Many disagree, notably modern
intellectuals.
a) Though such guesses are in the mainstream of the historical record, and though
many people find them reasonable, many also disagree. The fashion among the mass
of educated people of the secularized West is to discount such classic philosophy. The
fashion favors hard-edged, reductive, and materialistic ideas, while distrusting anything
that seems too religious.
b) Thankfully, a person’s adherence to this fashion can be changed, either by a
process of rational reflection, or by a decision of personal faith, or even by a change in
the tides of fashion itself.
5. The elusive and tantalizing Cosmic Logos, for all its intrigue and appeal, is a far-off
shadow.
B. Revealed Theology of the Logos: The solid reality of the man Jesus Christ
1. The Church has always taught, starting with the words of Christ and His apostles as
reliably recorded in the Bible, that Jesus Christ, the Logos who created us, is the Son of
Man who saves.
a) The Eternal God, who created all things, became a man.
b) God fully reveals His personal character in Jesus Christ.
c) In the person of Christ God suffered and died for us on the cross.
d) This suffering was necessary for man’s salvation.
e) God the Father raised Christ from the dead and then into heaven
f) God ardently desires to adopt us as His children.
g) This will bring us into His eternal, reciprocal, intimate exchange of love.
2. This theology can be supported at length and in detail from the Bible, and have been
so supported from the earliest days of the Church. Though we cannot be exhaustive
today, there is time for a few examples to remind us of the Biblical teaching: John 1,
Hebrews 1, 2 Cor. 4:6.
a) The prologue of St. John’s gospel continues: “And the Word became flesh, and
dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father,) full of grace and truth.... No one has seen God at any time: The only begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.”
b) The letter to the Hebrews begins with the Incarnation as God’s radically new
revelation: “God ... has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has
appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds, who [is] the
brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and [upholds] all things by
the word of His power.”
c) St. Paul says the the Corinthians, more succinctly: “For God, who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6)
C. The Incarnation is the foundation of our hope, the proof that all that is best in us can
be saved.
1. Remember the Principle of Worship: “You Will Resemble What You Worship.”
a) Do you long to be a better person? Do you hope that the future will be kind to your
best aspirations and desires? Jesus Christ has gone ahead of you, and promises that
where He is, you will someday be also. Jesus Christ is the most glorious and perfect
human. To follow Him is to be on the way to your share in the perfections He already
possesses. Because Jesus Christ is also God’s Logos He is able to recreate you in
His own image.
2. Jesus Christ reveals God clearly to us, so that we need not guess.
3. Jesus Christ is fully God, so His promises and authority are trustworthy.
4. Jesus Christ is truly human, so his example is fully applicable to us.
5. In fact, we are promised that we will someday be like Jesus Christ, as well as with
him.
a) That means human perfection, and far beyond that given to Adam.
b) Because Jesus is God, we are adopted into God’s heart. (John 17:21, etc.)
c) Jesus Christ’s condescension clearly shows the seriousness of God’s invitation to
us.
6. Jesus Christ now reigns in heaven with the glory, authority, and honor.
7. Jesus Christ also continues to invade history, personally, in the Church, by His
Spirit.
a) The Church is a continuation of the Incarnation — not just “poetically.”
b) We have become part of Jesus Christ’s body, his continuing presence.
c) We celebrate our identity in the mystery of Christ’s Incarnate Body and Blood.
d) Through Christ’s Spirit acting in his Body, the invasion of history continues.
D. The Incarnation is a Scandal — and it is useful to try to understand it anyway
1. Paul writes this to the Corinthians: “For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks
seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and
unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is
wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Corinthians,
1:22-25)
2. St. Athanasius says of the Incarnation that the Jews (the most devout monotheists)
traduce it, the Greeks (the most insightful philosophers) deride it, but we Christians
adore it, as the basis of true salvation.
3. Because the leaders of this age could not predict God’s surprising plan, they find it
scandalous, unfitting, monstrous. The more committed this world’s leaders are to a
fitting, reasonable, and “purified” revelation of God, the more they will oppose what God
has done in Jesus Christ.
4. However, once we know about God’s amazing plan, it is possible to examine it
appreciatively
a) ....and to give an account of the reasonableness of the Incarnation. Throughout the
Christian age, many apologists have done, and in so doing increased our appreciation
for God’s work in Christ.
b) For example, St. Athanasius writes in his treatise On The Incarnation, “You must
understand why it is that the Word of the Father, so great and so high, has been made
manifest in bodily form. He has not assumed a body as proper to His own nature, far
from it, for as the Word He is without body. He has been manifested in a human body
for this reason only, out of the love and goodness of His Father, for the salvation of us
men. We will begin, then, with the creation of the world and with God its Maker, for the
first fact that you must grasp is this: the renewal of creation has been wrought by the
Self-same Word Who made it in the beginning. There is thus no inconsistency
between creation and salvation for the One Father has employed the same Agent for
both works, effecting the salvation of the world through the same Word Who made it in
the beginning.”
E. Further Observations on Christ’s Incarnation
1. Our salvation does not destroy our human nature, but rather fulfills it. “Grace
perfects nature.”
a) This is a direct implication of the full humanity of our Savior, and the means by
which He saves us.
b) St. Gregory Nazianzus says, “For that which He has not assumed He has not
healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved. If only half Adam fell,
then that which Christ assumes and saves may be half also; but if the whole of his
nature fell, it must be united to the whole nature of Him that was begotten, and so be
saved as a whole.”
2. We can be friends with God; we share experiences, concerns, sufferings with Jesus
Christ.
a) Ultimately, friends share themselves; divine self-surrender complements human
surrender.
3. We can be adopted children; God can be our Father. (This is spiritual Fatherhood,
not physical.)
a) Our physical begetting is an image or likeness of the Father’s eternal, spiritual
begetting.
4. We can be part of Christ’s Body, with His indwelling Spirit. We can have a share in
his actions.
a) Christ invades history through his Church, and we are his hands, feet, and voice.
5. We have hope for overcoming our sin, hope of a new heart, because of the Spirit’s
indwelling.
a) “Because if Jesus Christ were not God, then he could not save us. As Gregory of
Nazianzus put it in that unforgettable line, `What has not been assumed cannot be
healed.’ God the Son assumed our human nature. The Word was made flesh, so that
we could be healed, restored, forgiven, and carried back to heaven.” (Timothy George,
“Father of Jesus”)
6. Christ translates from the Hebrew and Greek. No ethnocentrism (“neither Jew nor
Greek”).
a) We are not required to worship in Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic.
b) Our native culture is part of us, not to be destroyed but purified.
c) The Arabic believer (a son of the great Ishmael) worships Christ in Arabic.
d) The Arab-centered chauvinism of some Muslims is not our way.
e) We must not hate what is Arab (i.e., Semitic) simply because it is Arab.
f) There may be more of a temptation to cultural hatred in the future:
g) Consider how the Germans made their language odious to us during WW-II.
F. Comparison of Christ as our example of perfect humanity, with Mohammed.
1. Our paragon of all human virtues is Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace. (Cf. the
beatitudes.)
a) From Jesus Christ we learn that God is gentle, and does not compel the unbeliever.
b) Following Jesus, the Church endured three centuries of persecution before
emancipation.
c) The Apostle Peter explains the Lord’s seeming inaction by explaining He is “not
slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to
us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2
Peter 3:9).
2. Islam’s paragon is the warlike autocrat Mohammed, who personally looted and
conquered.
a) From Mohammed we hear that God loves only the Muslim, who is destined to win.
b) Mohammed also took many wives, with special dispensations from God when
needed.
c) Mohammed (according to the ancient Hadith accounts) frequently, openly used
assassins
d) Muslims who wish to excel in their religion are at risk of becoming as fierce and
willful as their paragon. History shows this is especially a risk when serious-minded
Muslims (such as idealistic students) gain political power: They ask their teachers for
guidance, and they are shown Mohammed and his law.
G. Comparison of Christ as God Incarnate, with Muslim Monotheism
1. The Incarnation is a surprise and a scandal to Muslims, starting with Mohammed
a) Remember that the Incarnation, with all of its historical details and implications, is a
surprise and a scandal to the leaders of this world.
b) Mohammed was one of the most brilliant of all reformers of religion, and yet he
could not or would not accept the news of Jesus Christ. Therefore it was inevitable he
made verbal war on all incarnational claims of the Christians. The Quran is full of
specific rejections of most key incarnational doctrines. To this day, Moslems are
taught, as a matter of faith, to reject these Christian doctrines without hesitation or
examination.
c) It is true that Christ is given a high place in the Quran and in Islamic teaching. He is
called the “Word of God”, is born of the Virgin Mary, was raised to heaven, and is
expected to return at the end of time.
d) However, Christ’s incarnation and atonement are systematically rejected in the
Quran.
e) Incidentally, Muslim teachers explain the many disagreements between Quran and
Bible by saying that the Bible must have been corrupted, although the Quran does not
make this specific claim.
2. To the Muslim, God is so unlike us that He is not knowable, even in principle.
a) The Muslim theologian and mystic Al-Ghazali, perhaps second only to Mohammed,
said: “The end result of the knowledge of the [God-knowers] is their inability to know
Him, and their knowledge is, in truth, that they do not know Him and that it is absolutely
impossible for them to know Him.” (See “Character of God”, Answering Islam web
site.)
b) The contemporary Islamic scholar Isma`il al-Faruqi said in 1976: “He [God] does
not reveal Himself to anyone in any way. God reveals only His will. Remember one of
the prophets asked God to reveal Himself and God told him, “No, it is not possible for
Me to reveal Myself to anyone.” ...This is God’s will and that is all we have, and we
have it in perfection in the Quran. But Islam does not equate the Quran with the nature
or essence of God. It is the Word of God, the Commandment of God, the Will of God.
But God does not reveal Himself to anyone. Christians talk about the revelation of God
Himself — by God of God — but that is the great difference between Christianity and
Islam. God is transcendent, and once you talk about self-revelation you have
hierophancy and immanence, and then the transcendence of God is compromised.
You may not have complete transcendence and self-revelation at the same time.”
(Ibid.)
3. Therefore, the Muslim “on the street” experiences God’s Will as impersonal Fate.
a) Pure will cannot fully “incarnate;” it is not fully personal—it is not rational or
relational.
4. To us, Christ is “Immanuel”, the Immanent God, God-with-us.
H. Comparison of Christ as Eternal Logos with the Quran
1. As a heavenly, eternal entity, the Quran in Islam is comparable to Jesus Christ in
Christianity.
2. Perfect revelation: Is it an eternal written Arabic word or an an eternal living human
Word?
a) The highest perfection of Islamic revelation is the Quran, an eternally fixed Arabic
logos.
(1) The final revelation of all that is needful in faith, morals, culture, politics, etc.
(2) Mohammed, although the greatest of all prophets, is subordinate to the Quran.
b) By contrast, the highest perfection of God’s revelation is in his Son.
(1) Our written revelation, the Bible, is subordinate to Christ, and (like the Spirit and the
Church) serves him by giving witness to Him.
(2) The heart of our faith is a living person, who condescended to become one of us.
3. The Quran is opaque and inscrutable: 1. Untranslatable 2. poetic 3. ambiguous.
a) Because it is held to be a book, written eternally in Arabic, and sent down directly
from heaven, Muslims are skeptical of attempts to translate it into other languages, like
English. There is no question of translating it to capture the thoughts of the original
author, since that author is God. By contrast, a Christian Bible translator wants to
know what was in the minds of the Gospel writers and their audiences, and counts
himself successful if he can convey those same ideas to his new audience in the target
language.
b) The language of the Quran is usually highly poetic. Some Arabic speakers say that
the music of this poetry carries its own impact which is beyond ordinary words. Some
passages are so poetic as to be essentially untranslatable music.
c) The Quran is also ambiguous. The original written form (supposedly in Heaven)
does not include vowel markings; it is consonantal only like ancient Hebrew. This
means that there are sometimes several different readings for the same written verse.
4. Jesus Christ “translates” well as a living presence into all kinds of human languages
and cultures.
a) This is because his humanity is always appealing and applicable.
b) Also, Jesus Christ is present through his Spirit in his emissaries, the Church.
5. Can man aspire to know what is truly important? In Christ, yes; in Islam, no.
a) Al-Ghazali, quoted earlier, taught the ultimate incomprehensibility of God.
b) Important: God’s revelation is to be simply obeyed, not understood.
c) The Quran has a verse which says “don’t ask questions” about revelation.
d) But Jesus shows us the example of a mind where reason and revelation harmonize.
e) Moreover, he promised that his Spirit would later lead his Church into all truth.
f) This made Christians bold to appropriate and use any human means for knowing
truth.
g) The slogan today is “all truth is God’s truth.” It is a risky business!
6. Intellectual decline of Islam — perhaps due to scholastic view of Quran as static
truth?
a) Al-Ghazali decisively defeated other Muslim philosophers who were using classical
techniques to analyze and understand their own religion and philosophy. His
skepticism became the established position, and led (from 1100) to a long decline in
Muslim learning.
b) This unwillingness to use reason to question God made the Quran absolute over
reason.
c) This was the end of a centuries-long struggle in Islam between reason and
revelation.
d) About the same time as the Crusades — which are sometimes blamed for Islam’s
decline
e) A century later, Ibn Rushd (Averroes) maintained a more open view of human
knowledge.
f) Averroes’ powerful updating of classical philosophy had no effect on Muslim learning.
g) Averroes had eager students in the West, including St. Thomas Aquinas, who then
integrated the best of classical thought with Christian theology.
h) Various writers have noted the debt that modern ideals of liberty and systems of
constitutional democracy, including the U.S., owe to the thought of Aquinas.
i) The West took off, culturally, intellectually, scientifically, politically, militarily.
j) Islam began to stagnate in all these fields, under the weight of the all-powerful
Quran.
I. Sidebar on “Abrogation” in the Quran: Does it teach Peace or War?
1. According to ancient and influential schools of Quranic interpretation, earlier verses
of the Quran are canceled, annulled, replaced, by later verses. They are called
“abrogated” (mansukh).
2. Historical Background: A peaceful minority in Mecca, a warlike ruling class in
Medina.
a) Early in Mohammed’s career, in Mecca, he led a monotheistic reform movement in
Mecca, among a small minority of adherents. Verses such as “no compulsion in
religion” date from then.
b) The Muslim calendar starts with his emigration (Hijra) to Medina.
c) After his acceptance of political power in Medina, and with his return in glory to
Mecca, the character of his movement changed.
d) He taught and practiced war against his opponents, enforcing subjugation or
conversion on them.
e) Among the chronologically latest verses is the famous “Sword Verse”
(1) “Once the Sacred Months are past, you may kill the idol worshipers when you
encounter them, punish them, and resist every move they make. If they repent and
observe the Contact Prayers and give the obligatory charity, you shall let them go. GOD
is Forgiver, Most Merciful.” (Quran 9:5)
3. The Quran contains apparently opposing statements which must be reconciled
somehow.
a) (In this it is like the Bible, which also requires careful resolution of some statements.)
4. Most notoriously, the Quran contains verses which mandate the keeping of peace
with unbelievers, and the making of war on them, with a slim, debatable context to help
resolve them .
5. This opposition is usually resolved by the interpretive (exegetical) principle of
abrogation.
6. Later revelations nullify opposing earlier ones. This principle is discernible in the
Quran itself.\
a) According to the influential 15th- century commentator Jalalu’d Din Suyuti,
“everything in the Quran about forgiveness is abrogated by verse 9:5”.
7. It has been influential throughout the history of Islam.
a) Today there are some Muslims who denounce it as a theological
perversion—certainly, all the more vigorously because of its recent use by terrorists in
sharpening the Sword Verse, 9:5.
8. Under the model of abrogation, God’s will is absolute, and Quranic revelations need
not reveal lasting truths about his character or purposes.
9. Thus, the Quran is an expression of (supposed) truth and justice, but primarily of
arbitrary will.
10. Some schools of thought deny the principle of abrogation, and instead treat
opposing verses by refining an understanding of their meaning until the seeming
contradiction disappears.
a) (This is the way many Christian teachers treat seemingly opposing verses in the
Bible.)
J. Addressing Islam regarding Christ: Some suggestions
1. Do not proof-text in the Quran. It’s tricky enough for us in the Bible!
a) It’s next to impossible to do this with a foreign, untranslatable, abrogatable book.
2. Do not equate Islam of the Quran and Mohammed with the culture of Muslims “on
the street.”
a) Islam has a strong sense of community and family values, but it apparently does not
have the spiritual power to indwell cultures without ultimately killing them. The Church,
on the other hand, is salt and light in a culture even when it is persecuted by that
culture.
b) Do not expect, based on Christian history and experience, that Muslims will be a
strongly tied to the Spirit and letter of their faith as we are to ours. Error is weak next to
truth.
c) Not all of the world’s two billion self-identified Christians are strongly patterned after
Christ, and the same holds true, all the more, for the world’s 1 1/3 billion Muslims.
d) They are not all little copies of Mohammed. Many of them are soul-searching now.
3. Realize why religious fascism is unthinkable to you, and not to third-world Muslims.
a) The famous secular Muslim author Salman Rushdie called after 9/11 for “the
restoration of religion to the sphere of the personal, its depoliticization.” His essay,
“Yes, This is About Islam”, paints a lucid picture of Islam as it is practiced “on the
ground”: “Most religious belief isn’t very theological. Most Muslims are not profound
Koranic analysts. For a vast number of “believing” Muslim men, “Islam” stands, in a
jumbled, half-examined way, not only for the fear of God — the fear more than the love,
one suspects — but also for a cluster of customs, opinions and prejudices that include
their dietary practices; the sequestration or near-sequestration of “their” women; the
sermons delivered by their mullahs of choice; a loathing of modern society in general,
riddled as it is with music, godlessness and sex; and a more particularized loathing (and
fear) of the prospect that their own immediate surroundings could be taken over —
“Westoxicated” — by the liberal Western-style way of life.”
b) Rushdie goes on to warn that this heap of cultural practices and norms, if not
tempered by Western ideals of civil society, will breed terrorists. “Highly motivated
organizations of Muslim men (oh, for the voices of Muslim women to be heard!) have
been engaged over the last 30 years or so in growing radical political movements out of
this mulch of “belief.” These Islamists — we must get used to this word, “Islamists,”
meaning those who are engaged upon such political projects, and learn to distinguish it
from the more general and politically neutral “Muslim” — include the Muslim
Brotherhood in Egypt, the blood- soaked combatants of the Islamic Salvation Front and
Armed Islamic Group in Algeria, the Shiite revolutionaries of Iran, and the Taliban.
Poverty is their great helper, and the fruit of their efforts is paranoia. This paranoid
Islam, which blames outsiders, “infidels,” for all the ills of Muslim societies, and whose
proposed remedy is the closing of those societies to the rival project of modernity, is
presently the fastest growing version of Islam in the world.”
c) This is not primarily a sermon on the virtues of Western politics or civil society.
However, they are connected to the Incarnation, to the invasion of Jesus Christ in
history. Bernard Lewis, the eminent historian, writes this in What Went Wrong:
“Secularism in the modern political meaning — the idea that religion and political
authority, church and state are different, and can or should be separated — is, in a
profound sense, Christian.... From the beginning, Christians were taught both by
precept and practice to distinguish between God and Caesar and between the different
duties owed to each of the two. Muslims received no such instruction.... It is only in
comparatively recent times that Muslim religious thinkers of stature have looked at
secularism, understood its threat to what they regard as the highest values of religion,
and responded with a decisive rejection.... A whole series of Islamic radical and
militant movements ... share the objective of undoing the secularizing reforms of the last
century, abolishing the imported codes of law and the social customs that come with
them, and returning to the Holy Law of Islam and an Islamic political order.... The
arch-enemy for most of them is Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic and
the first great secularizing reformer in the Muslim world.”
4. Get to know Christ well enough to start to look like him, and bring him, to your
neighbors.
5. Pray and work for Christ’s Church to be salt and light in the cultures of this world.
6. Pray intelligently for the peace of Jerusalem, and of the children of Abraham.
a) Bernard Lewis concludes in What Went Wrong, “If [Middle Eastern Muslims] can
abandon grievance and victimhood, settle their differences, and join their talents,
energies, and resources in a common creative endeavor, then they can once again
make the Middle East, in modern times as it was in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, a
major center of civilization. For the time being, the choice is their own.”
I. Reintroduction
A. Thanks to the SFC Mission Board for initiating and supporting this wonderful 8-week
lecture series.
B. What exactly do we believe? Heresy spurs us to grasp the Truth more firmly.
C. Procedure: describe, appreciate, compare, apply.
1. Describe a key Christian doctrine.
2. Appreciate the benefits for us of that doctrine.
3. Compare this doctrine with those of Muslims
4. Draw out principles for conversation with our Muslim neighbors.
D. I apologize for handling the topics in a surprising order.
1. This ordering differs from what was previously written in the church bulletin.
These talks flow from God’s nature, to Christ’s nature, to the defeat of sin.
E. There is a bibliography available. These are resources I have found helpful.
Always discern and pray.
1. Some I recommend without major reservation. Others may be valuable only as
current events or history. But all must be read with discernment and prayer.
F. There’s a minefield of misinformation and disinformation out there. Stay in the right
fight!
1. We must be very cautious and critical with our sources. Some of the loudest voices
out there, including Christians, humanists, Jews, and Muslims, are looking for “a good
fight”, rather than The Good Fight.
G. Recap.: The Trinity is God’s surprising revelation of His nature.
1. The Lord our God is one. 2. Jesus is Lord. 3. God is love. 4. We are invited into
eternal love.
1. Recap.: The Incarnation of God’s Eternal Word as a human brings God and man
back into friendship.
1. In the beginning was the Logos, the Word. 2. The Word gives life and reason to
every human.
3. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
4. Salvation fulfills, not destroys,
our human nature.
1. This week we will talk about the nature of this salvation.
1. But first, any questions?
I. Man’s Salvation through the Atonement
1. Natural Theology of Sin: What’s wrong with me?
1. This question prompts a continual flood of evasions, excuses, pretenses, half-truths,
whitewashes, myths, moral equivalences, and sob stories.
But, pretending to be dispassionate for a moment, and with some help from scripture...
1) We can take a quick squint at the human condition, as it would look if we had the
humility to see ourselves as we truly are.
1. Evil: A generic term for corruption or deprivation of some good.
1) Some think evil is an essence, a separate power in the world.
1) It is not. It is the opposite of an essence: it is an absence.
1) Beware of ascribing life-giving or creative powers to the Evil One.
1) Primer for the problem of evil is in St. Augustine’s Confessions, Book 7: “I asked
what wickedness was, and I found that it was no substance, but a perversion of the will
bent aside from thee, O God, the supreme substance.”
1. Death: Whatever is good in me comes to an end. Biology equals destiny.
(Romans 5:12)
1) Since Adam’s fall, biology is truly destiny, for every human being.
1) Although we avoid thinking on it, our physical end is non-being.
1) This is made more acute by the true love of eternity built into us.
1) “As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed
upon all men” (Romans 5:12)
1. Sin: I know I ought to do better, but I miss the mark. My will is defective.
(Romans 3:23)
1) What is sin? At root it is a defective will, whose fruit is evil action.
1) This is made more acute by the true love of good built into us.
1) “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)
1. Shame: I’m not the man I ought to be. Naked before God, I fail, I fall, I sin, I die.
(Genesis 3:10)
1) This is made more acute by a built-in sense of who I ought to be.
1) “I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid
myself.”
1. Pride: I fix my attention and worship on me, not God. (1 John 2:16f)
1) A defective love of God must be replaced by another worship.
1) Pride increases the sting of death, sin, and especially shame.
1) “All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust
thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” (1 John 2:16f)
1. Ungratefulness: I defend myself against God’s generosity. My goods are mine.
(Romans 1:21a)
1) I begin to deny that what goods I have witness to a transcendent Good.
1) “When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful...”
(Romans 1:21a)
1. Unreason: I choose to extinguish the accusing light within me. (Romans 1:21f)
1) This is spiritual euthanasia, yet we all do it, at least sometimes.
1) “...but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” (Romans 1:21f)
1. Anarchy: My passions overrule enfeebled reason, conscience, and will. (Romans
1:24)
1) “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own
hearts.”
1. Rebellion: In bitterness, I join with other enemies of God. (Romans 1:32)
1) “[Reprobates of every kind], knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit
such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that
do them.”
1. Is there a doctor in the house? Yes, two. There are only two kinds of religion in
this world....
1) I believe a reasonable person would admit that this is a fair picture of fallen
humanity. In our most lucid moments, we can diagnose our own deadly disease, with
some accuracy.
1) The problem is that fallen humanity is not fully reasonable; all of us sinners
occasionally lean on unreason to help soothe our delicate self-love. Put another way,
the image of the Logos in us is tarnished, dimmed, broken.
1) But people sometimes make reasonable guesses about the means of salvation.
Here’s where natural theology completely loses its value, because the guesses are all
wrong.
1) There are, when we come down to it, only two kinds of religion, with two different
kinds of salvation, and unaided humanity always comes up with the first:
1. Natural Theology of Personal Salvation: Doctoring my own own heart disease.
1. Salvation by works: It worked on a small scale, when I learned to say “please” and
“thank you.”
1) Why shouldn’t a decisive effort finish the job?
1. Death: Accept my mortality, and hope for heaven.
1. Sin: Ask forgiveness, and try to do better. Take medicine. (That is, get some
discipline.)
1) God can just forget about my past sins. Can’t he?
1) And a spiritual exercise program will surely prevent future sins.
1. Shame: Protect my honor. I’m no worse than the next guy.
1. Pride: I’ll submit to God. (But nobody else.)
1. Ungratefulness: I’ll thank God. (And take my due from you.)
1. Unreason: Give me an anaesthetic preacher, please.
1. Anarchy: I’m still a wreck, but a religious one now.
1. Natural Theology of Corporate Salvation: Doctoring you, too.
1. If it works on me, maybe I can help others too. In fact, why not try it first on others!
1) I try to change your nature (New Soviet Man, or Islamic Man).
1. Moralizing: Why can’t we all just get along? (You’re all nice but misguided
sinners.)
1) You sin because you are misguided, and need some good advice.
1) But moral suasion won’t always work if your will is corrupt.
1. Therapy: The expert knows what’s good for you. (We’ll get you back on your feet
in no time.)
1) You’re basically healthy, but you’ve got a sin infestation.
1) I’m an expert in soul-surgery; you must lie on the table.
1. Coercion: Obedience is freedom. Submit and be happy. (What you need is a
new society.)
1) Your environment causes you to sin, so we’ll remake society for you.
1) The patient doesn’t know what’s good for him. Strap him to the table.
1. Extinction: You didn’t have it in you in the first place. (Every artist must waste a
little.)
1) Every artist wastes some of his raw material.
1) We might get some small profit from you in the labor camps.
1. Natural Theology of Salvation, the Disappointing Conclusion
1. Are the works easy? Cover up your sin with lies, or face shame.
1. Are the works hard? No one will ever find out if they really work.
1. The end of earthly utopias has always been destitution and mass murder.
1. More utopias are lining up, each one saying “with us it’ll be different!”
1) Notable today are the Islamicists, such as those ruling Iran.
1. Athanasius says aptly, “You cannot put straight in others what is warped in you.” (ch.
14)
1) Thus, the question of how to cure all these diseases is complicated by the fact that
the patient is not fully responsible for himself.
1. And Jesus puts it this way: “How will you say to your brother, ‘Let me pull out the
speck from your eye,’ when a log is in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:4)
1. Revealed Theology of Sin and Salvation
1. God’s voice calls us through our fog of self-protective unreason.
1. The sin is worse than we guessed, but the salvation is better.
1. Sin is not just a bad habit, it’s a diseased heart. (John 8:34, Luke 10:27)
1) “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”
1) “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with
all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)
1. Being “good enough” is not enough. (Matthew 5:20,48)
1) “I say to you, unless your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no way enter into the kingdom of heaven.... Be
perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:20,48)
1. God’s love for us includes a holy hatred of all sin. (James 2:10, 1 Peter 1:16,
Ezekiel 33:29)
1) Those who hope for divine forgetfulness will be disappointed.
1) God hates sin, in part because it destroys His image in us, making communion
impossible.
1) And His expectation is perfection: “Whoever keeps the whole law, and yet offends
in one point, is guilty of all.” (James 2:10)
1) “It is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16)
1) “Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when I have laid the land most desolate
because of all their abominations which they have committed.” (Ezekiel 33:29)
1. Salvation is the free gift from God of radical re-creation
1) There are two kinds of religions: Those of works, and that of grace.
1) What God expects and commands, He gives and enables.
1. Salvation comes by belief, trust, faith in Jesus Christ (John 6:29,40)
1) This is the only “work” required of us.
1) God does the rest within our hearts, by his Word (Logos) and Spirit.
1) “This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent.... This is the
will of him who sent me, that every one who sees the Son, and believes on him, shall
have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:29,40)
1. This trust is exercised within the Body of Christ, the Spirit’s home.
1. Repentance and forgiveness is not enough: A new life is required.
1) “Had it been a case of a trespass only, and not of a subsequent corruption,
repentance would have been well enough; but when once transgression had begun
men came under the power of the corruption proper to their nature and were bereft of
the grace which belonged to them as creatures in the Image of God. No, repentance
could not meet the case.” (Athanasius, Incarnation, ch. 2)
1. The innermost mystery of redemption is Christ’s death on the Cross.
Life, mercy, justice, satisfaction, expiation, love, virtue, glory, encouragement, victory.
1) God willed his Son to suffer and die so we can live again.
1) God’s mercy is shown by greatness of his gift.
1) God’s justice is served against the sins of humanity.
1) Christ as God offers infinite satisfaction for sin’s infinite malice.
1) As Son of Man, he offers human expiation for human sin.
1) Christ’s suffering is proof of God’s love for mankind.
1) Christ’s humility, obedience, courage make a perfect example of virtue.
1) The glory Christ won by his deed is shared with his Church.
1) Christ’s sacrifice for us makes us all the more unwilling to sin.
1) His work on the Cross undoes Adam’s at the forbidden tree.
1. Implications regarding Salvation
1. Death: Our hope is in Christ’s resurrection power. (Romans 6:4,5)
1) “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death... For if we have been
planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection.”
1. Sin: Christ’s Spirit lives within us. (Romans 8:2,10)
1) For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and
death. (Romans 8:2)
1. Shame: No more condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1, 10:11)
1) When we are called to bear shame, we imitate Jesus Christ.
1) Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed. (Romans 10:11)
1. Pride: Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart.(Mt 11:29, Phil. 2:3-11)
1) Are we greater than our Master? Since he serves, we serve too.
1) Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each
esteem other better than themselves. (Phil. 2:3)
1. Ungratefulness: Look always to God, with thanksgiving (Phil. 4:6,7)
1) Our sacrament of communion is called “Eucharist”, meaning thanksgiving.
1. Unreason: Every thought to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5)
1) Christ the Logos is the ultimate source of reason itself.
1. Anarchy: Fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, ... (Gal. 5:22)
1) Christ recreates in us a new order, personally and socially.
1. The Apostle Paul’s bargain: Knowing Jesus Christ is worth everything.
1) Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them
but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the
righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know him, and the power of his
resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his
death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I
had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may
apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. (Apostle Paul,
Philippians, 3:8-12)
1. Comparisons regarding Salvation
1. The Moral System of Islam: Outward good works, individual and communal, show
submission.
1) The system of Islam depends on good works, both individual and communal.
1) The good works need only be outward; there is no need to touch the heart.
1) Good works are enough to show submission to God’s commandments.
1) The Prophet Mohammad is the model of all human virtues.
1) But in truth, man needs a truly virtuous teacher and model, Jesus Christ.
1. Death: A faint hope of eternal life, depending on the mercy of an inscrutable Will.
1) There is a mysterious weighing of good deeds against bad.
1) God either forgives or he doesn’t. Muslims fear him.
1) Special deal: Die in battle, be a martyr, go straight to heaven.
1) But The Christian’s hope is based on his living relationship with his Savior.
1. Sin: Just an environmental problem. Let us fix it. (Babies start out as Muslims.)
1) Muslims are taught that every human is born a perfect Muslim.
1) But the Christian sees sin as a deep scandal, requiring a scandalous solution.
1. Pride: In Muslim societies, honor is better than life. (Muslims are destined to win,
to rule.)
1) Mohammed taught that the Muslim is destined to win, to rule on this earth.
1) Our current military and economic supremacy is a very bitter pill.
1) But Jesus said that the greatest among us should be, like him, as one who serves.
1. Ungratefulness: God’s gifts belong only to Muslims. (Where do cell phones come
from?)
1) Odd attitude toward technology:
1) Fighter jets, cell phones become Muslim upon acquisition.
1) Muslims generally do not like to consider where they come from.
1. Unreason: Truth is the first casualty in war. (Words are just another weapon
against infidels.)
1) Words are just a weapon of war. Mohammed lied to enemies and broke treaties.
1) Does the West like to hear of freedom, equality, progress? Use those words.
1) Does history present an unfavorable view of Islam? Rewrite it.
1) The Root of Unreason: The Quran is the only Word; don’t ask questions.
1. Anarchy: Held uneasily at bay by moral code and social pressure.
1) Moral code is good. The catch: It applies in reverse to outlaws.
1) Those who get out of line are persecuted, even to death. Apostates and runaway
women are frequently killed, by relatives, to community applause. (McCurry, p. 269,
292)
1) Strongmen hold power by repression of all rivals. No free press or opposition party.
1) Muslim salvation requires political and military domination by Prophet’s successors.
1) The “House of Islam” must overcome the “House of War.”
1) The taking of land requires the use of war.
1. Shame: The unthinkable calamity in Muslim societies. (Better death than shame.)
1) Perhaps the besetting sin of the Christian and post-Christian cultures of the West is
an indiscriminate reverence for all things human. Some of this attitude stems from the
Church’s reverence for the Incarnation. For example, there would be no constitutional
democracies in the world, apart from the influence of Jesus Christ.
1) Islam does not overestimate the worth of man. Its besetting sin is Shame. This is
perhaps due to such factors as the remoteness of God and his salvation, and the
unresolved effects of sin.
1) Bob Blincoe, a long time Middle East missionary, says: “To you or me [a suicide
bombing] might look like self-destruction, suicide. It is not in their eyes. It is the
means of giving honor or ridding oneself of shame.”
1) A “martyr” is perennially precious to his family and community. There have even
been cases of Palestinian car-wreck victims being turned into martyrs after death, by
mutilating the dead body with fake marks of torture, supposedly by the Israeli army.
1) In “An Open Letter to Evangelical Leaders,” Dr. Blincoe comments on the
overwhelming power of shame and honor to control Muslim actions and attitudes:
What is behind the September 11 attacks? What drives clear-minded Muslims to such
extreme, calculated acts? The answer derives from two all-important values in Muslim
culture: honor and shame.... We had best fix this in our minds if we would understand
what Muslims, even moderate Muslims, know drives some Eastern people to violence.
As David Pryce-Jones says in his classic book, The Closed Circle: “Honor is what
makes life worthwhile, shame a living death, not to be endured, requiring that it be
avenged. What otherwise seems self-destructive in Arab society is explained by the
anxiety to be honored and respected at all costs, and by whatever means.”
[Blincoe counts 600 scriptures mentioning honor, shame or disgrace.]
For Muslims, the main defense against personal shame is, unfortunately, blaming
others. Instead of examining themselves, my Muslim friends have learned to point
outside themselves for the source of their problems. I do not mean that Christians do
any better. Christ calls everyone to take the first step to him by confessing, “Lord, be
merciful to me, a sinner.” This way is particularly difficult for people who fear God’s
wrath for every sin or blemish. Christ’s good news for Muslims and all people is that,
“Everyone who puts their trust in Him will not be ashamed” (Rom. 10:11).
The Bible says that Jesus suffered shame and rejection; however, for this very reason
Muslims reject His crucifixion, because Allah would not cause a prophet to undergo
such humiliation....
No confession of sins is possible in a system where every man and woman work
full-time to avoid taking responsibility for the bad things in their lives... The very way to
salvation, of repentance and pardon, is closed to them. For this reason Ernst Renan,
the father of comparative religious studies, called Islam “the heaviest chains which have
ever shackled humanity.”
1. Christian Shame: Why are we so self-critical? Why wish to give the enemy fair
treatment?
1) Charles Colson, in his 2002 Breakpoint Commentary “Crusading for an Apology”,
says: “The reason that Christianity can own up to its failures lies in the distinctives of
its worldview. When the Pope speaks of departures from the Gospel, he is referring to
the injunction to love, not only our neighbor, but our enemy. There is no equivalent for
this in Islam. In fact, the Quran commands Muslims to wage war on the unbeliever and
to annihilate him. By contrast, Christians are to win them over by acts of compassion
and charity.”
1. Addressing Islam regarding salvation
1. Islam is not contagious to you. Reach out and touch your neighbors.
1) Share your own life with them. You are the only Christ they may see.
1. Love your neighbor as yourself.
1) Love him because of what he has (God’s image) not worrying about his lack (sin).
1) Read McCurry, p. 172 (Good Samaritan, African style)
1. Tips on Evangelism (From McCurry, p. 177-178, principles by Henry Martyn.)
1) Share your own experience of God’s forgiveness and love.
1) Appreciate the best in your Muslim friend as God’s work.
1) Keep your message centered on Christ and his Spirit.
1) Be ready to open the Scriptures, when the time comes.
1) Be a supportive friend, even as your friend ponders.
1) Show Christ’s love by ministering to people’s needs.
1) Trust the Holy Spirit to work in your friend.
Recommended Reading on Christianity and Islam
John R. Rose, 3/2001
(Use this list with discretion. A recommendation here means that I have found the
material is useful or interesting, not necessarily that I agree with everything written in it!)
Books
Healing the Broken Family of Abraham: New Life for Muslims
Don McCurry
Recommended by many in Christian missions as a guide for understanding and
witnessing to our Muslim neighbors. The best backup guide for Doug Johnson’s
primary advice: “Love them, love them, love them.” This book is for everyone.
I Dared to Call Him Father: The True Story of a Woman’s Encounter with God
Bilquis Sheikh, Richard H. Schneider
Lovely and compelling story of a 46-year-old Pakistan mother whom Jesus Christ called
to faith. A study in the cost of discipleship. Recommended by Francisco Velasquez of
Partners International.
Daughters of Islam : Building Bridges With Muslim Women
Miriam Adeny
Recommended by Francisco Velasquez of Partners International. (Forthcoming book;
no details on it at present.)
What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response
Bernard Lewis
A recent book (written just before last September) by the foremost American scholar of
the Middle East. An amazing amount of historic, political, and cultural observation in a
small, fast-paced volume. Discusses the cultural stagnation of Islam in the last 3-4
centuries. This sure-handed historian knows how to avoid partisan blather and political
correctness. His observations can help us predict the course of a resurgent Islam that
is post-colonial, post-Marxist, and materially powerful. Recommended by Francisco
Velasquez of Partners International. If you read history, this is the one to start with.
Waging Peace on Islam
Christine A. Mallouhi
Goes to extremes to encourage the Western reader to see things through the eyes of
Muslims and Arab Christians. This is an excellent exercise even if we don’t agree with
everything our neighbor thinks. Includes a useful account of the anti-crusade of St.
Francis of Assisi. Many challenging insights. Recommended by Dr. Robert Blincoe of
FRONTIERS.
Islam Revealed : A Christian Arab’s View of Islam
Anis A. Shorrosh
Recommended by Doug Johnson as a “debater’s manual”. Read McCurry’s work first,
because we are neighbors and friends first, and debaters later, if ever. Contains a very
interesting transcript of the author’s debate with a leading Muslim apologist, Ahmed
Deedat.
Facing the Muslim Challenge: A Handbook of Christian-Muslim Apologetics
John Gilchrist
A slim little book with no wasted words, by a veteran debater and writer. Excellently
organizes arguments and rebuttals. This is the one I’d actually want in my hand on the
front lines.
Answering Islam : The Crescent in Light of the Cross
Norman L. Geisler, Abdul Saleeb
Masterly Christian apologetic and debater’s manual. The second author is a former
Muslim. Contains careful and logical evaluations of Muslim positions and arguments.
Very complete. R.C. Sproul rightly calls it “a theological masterpiece.”
Selections from the Church Fathers
On the Trinity
St. Augustine
http://www.ccel.org/
fathers2/NPNF1-03/npnf1-03-07.htm
Excerpt: The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit intimate a divine unity of one
and the same substance in an indivisible equality; and therefore that they are not three
Gods, but one God: although the Father hath begotten the Son, and so He who is the
Father is not the Son; and the Son is begotten by the Father, and so He who is the Son
is not the Father; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but only the Spirit
of the Father and of the Son, Himself also co-equal with the Father and the Son, and
pertaining to the unity of the Trinity. Yet not that this Trinity was born of the Virgin Mary,
and crucified under Pontius Pilate, and buried, and rose again the third day, and
ascended into heaven, but only the Son.
On the Incarnation
St. Athanasius (of Egypt)
(modern translation, with an introduction by C.S. Lewis)
http://www.gty.org/~phil/history/ath-inc.htm
Excerpt: You must understand why it is that the Word of the Father, so great and so
high, has been made manifest in bodily form. He has not assumed a body as proper to
His own nature, far from it, for as the Word He is without body. He has been
manifested in a human body for this reason only, out of the love and goodness of His
Father, for the salvation of us men. We will begin, then, with the creation of the world
and with God its Maker, for the first fact that you must grasp is this: the renewal of
creation has been wrought by the Self-same Word Who made it in the beginning.
There is thus no inconsistency between creation and salvation for the One Father has
employed the same Agent for both works, effecting the salvation of the world through
the same Word Who made it in the beginning.
“Letter Against Apollinarius” (on the Incarnation)
St. Gregory Nazianzen
http://www.ccel.org/
fathers2/NPNF2-07/Npnf2-07-59.htm
Excerpt: For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is
united to His Godhead is also saved. If only half Adam fell, then that which Christ
assumes and saves may be half also; but if the whole of his nature fell, it must be united
to the whole nature of Him that was begotten, and so be saved as a whole.
“Letter to the Ephesians” (chapter 7)
Ignatius (of Antioch)
http://www.ccel.org/
fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-16.htm
Excerpt: But our Physician is the only true God, the unbegotten and unapproachable,
the Lord of all, the Father and Begetter of the only- egotten Son. We have also as a
Physician the Lord our God, Jesus the Christ, the only-begotten Son and Word, before
time began, but who afterwards became also man, of Mary the virgin. For `the Word
was made flesh.’ Being incorporeal, He was in the body; being impassible, He was in a
passible body; being immortal, He was in a mortal body; being life, He became subject
to corruption, that He might free our souls from death and corruption, and heal them,
and might restore them to health, when they were diseased with ungodliness and
wicked lusts.
Ignatius, bishop at Antioch, was martyred in Rome around A.D. 100.
Articles and Resources on the Web
The Day That Death Will Die
Yusuf Abdallah (?)
http://injil.org/Kalimatullah/deathsday.html
Clear presentation of the Gospel for devout Muslims, starting from principles and
authorities they recognize, and proceeding (without trickery) to the New Testament. An
example of the sort of Bible study material that is winning converts in the Islamic world.
The whole web site is a remarkable example of transcultural Christianity.
“Is the Father of Jesus the God of Muhammad?”
Timothy George
http://www.christianitytoday.com/
ct/2002/002/1.28.html
Summary of forthcoming book of the same title. Good discussion of the Trinity and
comparison with non-Christian ideas of God.
“The Character of God in Bible and Quran: A Study In Contrasts”
(partial transcript of the Christian side of a debate)
http://answering-islam.org/God/character.html
Five points, supported with excellent evidence: According to Christian theology, God’s
intimacy with us, His suffering, His love to all, the knowability of His character, His
holiness. Contrasted with Muslim theological suppositions about God, of masterful
solitude, aloofness from grief, conditional love to the righteous, transcendantly final
incomprehensibility, arbitrary forgiveness of sin.
“Our Approach to Islam: Charity or Militancy?”
John Gilchrist
http://answering-islam.org/
Gilchrist/charity.html
Makes the case against answering Islam in kind with violent militance. Sets a truthful
foundation for Christian apologetics toward Muslims. “There is no need for a militant
approach towards such a people when the majority of them will warmly respond to love,
kindness and compassion.” Deals carefully with the “God == Allah” problem.
“Study of the Word “Love” in the Quran”
Farid Mahally
http://answering-islam.org/
Quran/Themes/love.htm
Excerpt: While we certainly concede that God is indeed [One], we contend with the
Muslim in asking for a definition. “One what?” Their reply would be “One God, for God is
unknowable except through His will. We can know nothing about the nature of God
except through the command He has given through His prophet. We can only do His
will, we cannot know Him.
Here is where the strongest point of difference is most pronounced between Christianity
and Islam. The Quran is a revelation of God’s will that is to be obeyed by His creation.
The Bible is a revelation of the Person and character of God. It is here where we find
what God is like and what that means in our relation to Him. God is Spirit, God is Light,
God is Love, are all statements of the revelation of God’s person and
character.
Noteworthy Books -- Use Discernment
Among the Believers
V.S. Naipaul
Beautifully written traveler’s account of four modern Muslim cultures, as experienced
“on the street”. This Nobel laureate writes strongly of Islam’s mingled fascination and
rejection of modernity.
The Koran Interpreted : A Translation
A. J. Arberry (Tr.)
Recommended by Don McCurry. An appropriately “poetic” translation. Dr. McCurry
advises reading the Koran not as a way of engaging in debates (probably fruitlessly)
with Muslims, but as a way to love them better by understanding the theological origins
of their world view.
Jihad in the West : Muslim Conquests from the 7th to the 21st Centuries
Paul Fregosi
Reasonably balanced and complete history of military conflicts in the West involving
Muslims. Irreverent and crude at times. Not suitable for theological apologetics, but
excellent for gaining perspective about one of the West’s all time favorite
self-flagellations, the Crusades.
Why I am Not a Muslim
Ibn Warraq
A freethinker’s manifesto in the tradition of Bertrand Russell’s Why I am Not a Christian.
Unlike Russell’s book, encyclopedic in scope and elaborately documented. Contains
plenty of positions repugnant to both Christians and Muslims, but sometimes helpful
with research. The man shows a lonely resolve to do what he can to resist today’s
fascist movements; sadly, he has given up on monotheism altogether.
Noteworthy Items on the Web -- Use Discernment
Your best source for ISLAM (SUBMISSION) on the Internet
http://www.submission.org/home.html
Well-organized, moderate Muslim instruction and apologetic site. Prominently
displayed a clear condemnation of Daniel Pearl’s killers (3/02).
“A Memo to American Muslims”
M. A. Muqtedar Khan
http://www.submission.org/islam/memo.html
A noble exercise in moral sanity.
Excerpt: I am writing this memo to you all with the explicit purpose of inviting you to
lead the American Muslim community in soul searching, reflection and reassessment....
The worst exhibition of Islam happened on our turf. We must take first responsibility to
undo the evil it has manifest. This is our mandate, our burden and also our opportunity.
“Yes, This is About Islam”
Salman Rushdie:
http://www.faithfreedom.org/
this_is_about_islam.htm
A call from a famous Muslim writer for “the restoration of religion to the sphere of the
personal, its depoliticization.” Good description of the non-theological “mulch” of ideas
and practices which nurture the Muslim world-view. Note: His relations to Islam are
fragile; he was put under an Iranian death sentence for disrespect to Islam.
“Is Islam a peace-loving religion?”
http://answering-islam.org/
Terrorism/peace-loving.html
Adequately debunks the now-popular equation “Islam == peace”, using the foundational
Islamic documents (Quran and Hadith). Explains the key interpretive (exegetical)
concept of “abrogation”, which renders inoperative the “peace-making” verses of the
Quran.
“My View of Islam”
Franklin Graham
http://www.covenantnews.com/graham.htm
Excerpt: While as Christians we disagree with Islamic teachings, if we obey the
teachings of Jesus we will love all Muslims.... But I decry the evil that has been done in
the name of Islam, or any other faith--including Christianity. I agree with President Bush
that as a country we are at war with terrorists, not with Islam. But as a minister, not a
politician, I believe it is my responsibility to speak out against the terrible deeds that are
committed as a result of Islamic teaching.
“What We’re Fighting For: A Letter from America”
David Blankenhorn et al., 2/12/2002 (manifesto in Propositions)
http://www.propositionsonline.com/
Latest/Fighting_For/fighting_for.html
Sixty scholars make the moral case for the war on terrorism, using the natural law
tradition and the ideals of “just war” and “civil society”. A careful and hopeful exercise
in moral discrimination and bridge-building.
“The Palestinian Vision of Peace”
Yasser Arafat, 2/2002 (op-ed in Jordan Times)
http://www.middleeastwire.com/
palestine/stories/20020204_meno.shtml
Reaffirms P.A. position of record for Oslo Accords and against terrorism.
“Thoughts about America””
Edward Said, 2/2002 Al-Ahram Weekly (Cairo)
http://www.ahram.org.eg/
weekly/2002/575/op2.htm
Objections to the “sermon” of Blankenhorn at al., and fears of a new McCarthyism
among his fellow intellectuals.
Mr. Said is a distinguished Palestinian man of letters, educated at Harvard and
Princeton. His Christian ethnicity is sometimes mentioned by Muslims who cite him as
an ally. His positions seem to be typical of a secular intellectual of the Left, for whom
the world is most threatened by Western global hegemony, and who excuses all other
aggressors with a rhetoric of moral equivalence. He is famous in some circles for
arguing that Western academics like Bernard Lewis cannot study the East objectively.
“Declaration by The Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights Affirming the Dangers of
Radical Islamism and a Call to Recognize the Historical Oppression of Religious
Minorities Subjected to this Racist-like Practice.”
http://www.dhimmi.com/declaration.htm
The title says it all. Clearly spells out the past and present oppressions of the “Radical
Islamists”, and takes issue with their theology of jihad.
Islam: The True Religion of God
Osama Abdallah
http://answering-islam.com
Small pro-Islam web site placed to attract visitors to answering-islam.org. Contains a
tribute to the “misunderstood hero” Osama bin Laden. Noted here for its similarity to
http://answering-islam.org/ .