Download Satan`s Lie: Islam

Lesson 7
PA R E N T M E M O
Satan’s Lie: Islam
MAIN IDEAS
In this lesson, we focus on a particular false religion: Islam. Islam is a lie of Satan that blinds
people to the truth of the Bible. As with other false religions, Islam deceives its followers in three
main ways: it denies the validity of the Bible, it denies the Person and work of Jesus, and it
denies God’s means of salvation—by grace, through faith in Jesus. Like all false religions, Islam
will lead people to God’s condemnation and wrath.
The Lies of Islam
The Truth
•Their God, Allah, is one (not Trinitarian).
•God is Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
•The Qur’an is the final authority, but the
Bible has been changed and corrupted.
•Every word of the Bible proves true.
•Jesus is only a prophet.
•Jesus is God’s Son and is fully God.
(See John 1:1, 14.)
•Man is able to please Allah by his right
behavior without atonement.
•Man is not able to please God, and there
must be atonement for sin. (See Romans
8:7 and Hebrews 9:22b.)
•Salvation can be earned through good
deeds.
•Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus
alone. (See Ephesians 2:8-9.)
Key Scripture
John 3:35-36—The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.
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Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
ARTICLE
With your student, read and discuss the articles, “The Challenge of Islam—A Christian
Perspective” and “What Does God Care What We Call Him?” by Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
INTERACTING WITH YOUR STUDENT
Your student has been asked to apply one truth learned from this lesson to his/her life this week. Ask about
this, and pray with your student to encourage him/her in this application. Ask God to work in your student’s
heart, and encourage your student to grow in God’s truth.
Encourage your student to complete the “At Home” section of the Student Journal and discuss it with you.
Your student will need your permission to do an internet research on an Islamic country for one of the journal
exercises.
Your Word is Truth © 2010 by Jill Nelson, Published by Children Desiring God
Permission Granted to Copy for Parents.
Take-Home Articles
LESSON 7
What Does God Care What We Call Him?
by Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
A retiring Roman Catholic bishop in the Netherlands
has been making headlines around the world in recent days with his suggestion that Dutch Christians
should pray to Allah.
Bishop Tiny Muskens of Breda, a former missionary to Indonesia, suggested that conflict between
Christians and Muslims could be lessened if Dutch
Catholics followed the lead of some Christians in
Muslim-dominated lands and adopted Allah as the
preferred name for God..
Speaking on the Dutch TV programme Network on
Monday evening, Bishop Muskens says it could take
another 100 years but eventually the name Allah will
be used by Dutch churches. And that will promote
rapprochement between the two religions. Muskens
doesn’t expect his idea to be greeted with much
enthusiasm. The 71-year-old bishop, who will soon
be retiring due to ill health, says God doesn’t mind
what he is called. God is above such “discussion and
bickering”. Human beings invented this discussion
themselves, he believes, in order to argue about it.
Is there a valid linguistic basis for his argument? It is
certainly true that the word Allah is the Arabic word
for deity. Those supporting an argument like that of
Bishop Muskens suggest that the Arabic word can
be used as a generic term for deity.
In common English we use the word God as both a
proper name and a noun. We differentiate between
the two usages by capitalizing the word when we
mean to refer to the specific personal God of the Bible, and by not capitalizing generic uses of the word.
Thus, we might paraphrase the First Commandment
like this: “God commanded His people to have no
other gods before Him.” The correct interpretation of
this sentence requires the use and understanding of
the habits of capitalization.
Those making the case for a Christian appropriation of Allah must take their argument in one of two
trajectories. The first trajectory is to argue that Allah
can be used in a generic way to refer to any (presumably monotheistic) deity. This case will be very
Your Word is Truth © 2010 Jill Nelson, Published by Children Desiring God
difficult to make. Language, theology, and worship
are so closely intertwined that it is difficult, if not
impossible, to argue for a generic use of Allah. Further evidence against this trajectory is the fact that
non-Arabic speaking Muslims also use Allah when
referring to their god.
The second trajectory presents even more of a
problem. Those following this line of argument must
make the case that Allah and God refer to the same
deity. This represents a huge problem for both Muslims and Christians. Allah is not a personal deity in
the sense that the God of the Bible is. Furthermore,
the Qur’an explicitly denies that Allah has a son,
and Islam considers the notion of a triune God to be
blasphemy.
Thus, from its very starting point Islam denies what
Christianity takes as its central truth claim—the fact
that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of the
Father. If Allah has no Son by definition, Allah is not
the God who revealed himself in the Son. How then
can the use of Allah by Christians lead to anything
but confusion… and worse?
The most dangerous (and theologically dishonest)
part of Bishop Muskens’ argument is found in these
words:
The 71-year-old bishop, who will soon be retiring
due to ill health, says God doesn’t mind what he is
called. God is above such “discussion and bickering”. Human beings invented this discussion themselves, he believes, in order to argue about it.
According to The Herald Sun [Melbourne, Australia],
Bishop Muskens commented: “Allah is a very beautiful word for God . . . . What does God care what we
call him?” What does God care what we call him?
Has the bishop read the Bible? God takes his name
with great seriousness indeed. Moses discovered
this when heard God speak from the burning bush
[Exodus 3:13-22]. God did not leave himself nameless, nor did He invite Moses to devise a name for
him. Jesus used this name [I AM] to refer to himself.
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The Christian faith is essentially and irreducibly Trinitarian. The Bible reveals that the Father is God, the
Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. Jesus is not
merely a prophet; He is God in human flesh. This is
precisely what Islam rejects. If Allah has no Son, he
is not the Father.
This is the most significant theological obstacle
in the way of the Christian use of Allah as a name
for God. Jesus taught his disciples to pray to “our
Father, who is in heaven” [Matthew 6:9] — thus
disallowing any confusion concerning God’s name.
The most important names for God for Christians are
“Father,” “Son,” and “Holy Spirit.” In the four New
Testament gospels, Jesus uses the word ”Father”
more than sixty times. No Muslim would refer to
Allah in this same way. This is not what will come to
mind when a Muslim hears a Christian pray to Allah.
So Bishop Muskens is disingenuous at best when
he suggests that God does not care about His
name. This is not a matter of mere “discussion and
bickering.” If the Bible is the Word of God, we can
be assured that human beings did not invent this
discussion.
There is one final and insurmountable problem with
Bishop Muskens’ proposal. Jesus commanded his
disciples to baptize believers “in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” [Matthew 28:19]. When this command is taken seriously
and obeyed, the whole issue is greatly clarified — a
Christian cannot baptize in the name of Allah.
If Allah has no son, Allah is not the father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Even if the case is made that Allah
could be used in a generic sense to refer to God (
and I am not persuaded that it can), the word cannot
be used to mean the Father in a Trinitarian affirmation. This is not mere “discussion and bickering.”
This is where the Gospel stands or falls.
ADDENDUM: The particular question raised by
Bishop Muskens was the use of the word “Allah” by
Christians in the West as a means of lessening Christian-Muslim tensions. The question of using “Allah”
to refer to god in a clearly missiological setting will
raise other issues. If the word is understood as a
generic term for God (and not exclusively as a proper
name), the question would then be how a Christian
must make clear that the God of the Bible–revealed
as the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ–is not the deity as described in the Qur’an (who explicitly has no
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son). The linguisitic root of Allah may well be connected to Elohim (a name for God found in the Old
Testament). This fact may help to clarify the possible
use of the word in a missiological setting. The clarity
comes in understanding that, even in the Old Testament, the name Elohim is, in itself, quickly accompanied by other names and words to make clear that
the God of the Bible is the personal, monotheistic,
covenant-making God of Abraham, Moses, and the
prophets. The New Testament makes clear that this
God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — indeed
the God who in these latter days has spoken definitively through the Son [Hebrews 1].
In other words, it would seem best to think of Allah
in this setting as a place to begin a conversation
about God in a Muslim setting. The challenge from
that point onward will be to make certain that there
is no misunderstanding about the fact that the only
true and living God is the Father of Jesus Christ the
Savior.
The crucial questions here are these: First, can we
assume that the deity central to Islam and known
as Allah is, in fact, the same God worshipped by
Christians and revealed in the Bible? The answer to
that question must be negative. In that sense, Allah
is certainly not the God of the Bible.
The second question is whether the word “Allah”
can be understood, in Arabic and Muslim settings,
as both a generic noun and a proper noun. Some
credible Christian scholars and missionaries are certain that it can. The issue then becomes how contemporary Christians remain faithful to the Gospel in
this setting even as the Apostle Paul remained faithful in Acts 17 when he visited Athens. Paul, we must
remember, had to tell the religious Athenians that
they had misunderstood the very nature and character of the true God. “Therefore what you worship in
ignorance, this I proclaim to you” [Acts 17:23].
—Mohler, Dr. R. Albert, Jr.. “What Does God Care What
We Call Him?” August 22, 2007. http://www.albertmohler.
com/2007/08/22/what-does-god-care-what-we-call-him/
(accessed June 25, 2010).
Permission granted to copy for students and parents.
Your Word is Truth © 2010 Jill Nelson, Published by Children Desiring God
Take-Home Articles
LESSON 7
The Challenge of Islam
—A Christian Perspective
by Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
President Barack Obama has put the issue of Islam
front and center on the international stage. His visit
to Turkey, and his very public statements to the Muslim world, have raised a host of questions at home
and abroad.
In his speech to the Turkish parliament on Monday,
President Obama declared: “The United States is
not, and never will be, at war with Islam.” He went
on to say that “our partnership with the Muslim
world is critical not just in rolling back the violent
ideologies that people of all faiths reject, but also to
strengthen opportunity for all its people.”
But the President also spoke of his “deep appreciation for the Islamic faith.” Here is the statement in
context:
I also want to be clear that America’s relationship
with the Muslim community, the Muslim world, cannot, and will not, just be based upon opposition to
terrorism. We seek broader engagement based on
mutual interest and mutual respect. We will listen
carefully, we will bridge misunderstandings, and
we will seek common ground. We will be respectful, even when we do not agree. We will convey our
deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has
done so much over the centuries to shape the world
— including in my own country. The United States
has been enriched by Muslim Americans. Many
other Americans have Muslims in their families or
have lived in a Muslim-majority country — I know,
because I am one of them.
At a press conference in Turkey, the President made
yet another statement:
“One of the great strengths of the United States is …
we have a very large Christian population — we do
not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish
nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a
nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set
of values.”
On CNN with host Roland Martin on Monday night, I
said this:
Your Word is Truth © 2010 Jill Nelson, Published by Children Desiring God
“I think President Obama rightly said that the United
States is not at war with Islam. I think that’s a very
helpful clarification. But you can’t take Islam out of
the whole civilizational struggle we are in, not only in
the war on terror, but, frankly, going back for centuries, coming up with a definition of what a good
civilization would look like and how a society ought
to be arranged.”
I do think that President Obama was correct in stating that the United States is not at war with Islam.
This is not only important in terms of international
diplomacy, but also in terms of constitutional authority. The government of United States has no right or
authority to declare war on any religion.
We can understand the political context, especially
as the President was in Turkey. Given the confusions
rampant in the Muslim world, that is a crucial clarification. Of course, a quick review of the statements
of President George W. Bush will reveal that he said
much the same thing, over and over again.
The fact that President Obama made these comments in Turkey is very important. Throughout the
Muslim world, most Muslims do see the United
States as, in effect, at war with Islam. Classical Islam
understands no real distinction between religion and
the state, but instead establishes a unitary society.
Thus, when a foreign power like the United States
invades a Muslim nation like Iraq, most Muslims see
this as a war against Islam.
While specific forms of government vary in the
Islamic world, this general understanding holds true.
Unlike New Testament Christianity, Islam is essentially a territorial religion including all lands under
submission to the rule of the Qur’an. The President
was in Turkey when he made these statements, and
Turkey is usually defined in the media as having a
secular government. Indeed, the Turkish constitution
even requires a secular government. But, as anyone
who has visited Turkey knows, this requires a very
unusual definition of what it means to be secular.
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Being Muslim is part of what the Turkish people and
government call “Turkishness,” a unifying concept
that goes all the way back to Mustafa Kemal Attaturk, the founder of modern Turkey. Offending
“Turkishness” is a criminal act in Turkey. The Turkish government is the steward of every one of the
seemingly countless mosques within the nation and
it pays the imams. Thus, Turkey is a Muslim nation
with a secular government, but its secular character
would not be seen as anything close to secular on an
American model.
In this light, President Obama’s statement that
America is not a Christian country is also both accurate and helpful, though he is being criticized by
many conservative Christians for making the claim.
His clarification, offered in Muslim Turkey, establishes as a matter of public fact the reality that our
American constitutional system is very different from
what is found in the Muslim world—and even in
Turkey itself.
Furthermore, if the United States is to be understood
as a Christian nation in the same sense that most
nations in the Islamic world consider themselves
to be Muslim nations, then America is at war with
Islam.
The controversy over the President’s remarks in this
context are misplaced. There is indeed a controversy over whether it is appropriate to call America a
Christian nation in the sense that Americans would
even make such a claim—but the context in Turkey
and the Muslim world is very different. Do American
Christians really believe that Christianity benefits by
being associated with all that America represents in
the Muslim world? To many Muslims, America appears as the great fountain of pornography, debased
entertainments, abortion, and sexual revolution.
Does it help our witness to Christ that all this would
be associated in the Muslim mind with “Christian”
America?
Beyond any historical doubt, the United States
was established by founders whose worldview was
shaped, in most cases quite self-consciously, by the
Christian faith. The founding principles of this nation
flow from a biblical logic and have been sustained
by the fact that most Americans have considered
themselves to be Christians and have operated out
of a basically Christian frame of moral reference.
America is a nation whose citizens are overwhelm2
ingly identified as Christians and the American
experiment is inconceivable without the foundation
established by Christian moral assumptions.
But America is not, by definition, a Christian nation
in any helpful sense. The secularists and enemies
of the faith make this argument for any number of
hostile and antagonistic reasons, and they offer
many false arguments as well. But this should not
prompt American Christians to make bad arguments
of our own.
I criticize President Obama, not for stating that
America is not at war with Islam, but for failing
to be honest in clarifying that we do face a great
civilizational challenge in Islam. Islam is, in effect,
the single most vital competitor to Western ideals
of civilization on the world scene. The logic of Islam
is to bring every square inch of this planet under
submission to the rule of the Qur’an. Classical Islam
divides the world into the “World of Islam” and the
“World of War.” In this latter world the struggle to
bring the society under submission to the Qur’an is
still ongoing.
President Obama also created his own confusion
over these issues, subverting his own main point.
If America is not at war with Islam, it would seem
unhelpful for the Obama administration to now refer,
against previous American practice, to Iran as “The
Islamic Republic of Iran.” Similarly, some of his
words and gestures during his trip seemed overly
indulgent toward Islam — especially as these words
and gestures would have been interpreted in the
larger Islamic world.
This ambition drives the Muslim world—and each
faithful Muslim—to hope, pray, and work for the
submission of the whole world to the Qur’an. Clearly,
most Muslims are not willing to employ terrorism in
order to achieve this goal. Nevertheless, it remains
the goal.
Islam and the West offer two very different and fundamentally irreconcilable visions of society. While we
are certainly not a nation at war with Islam, we are a
nation that faces a huge challenge from the Islamic
world — a challenge that includes terrorism, but also
a much larger civilizational ambition that remains
central. Anyone standing in Istanbul, the historic
seat of Ottoman power, should certainly recognize
that fact.
Permission granted to copy for students and parents.
Your Word is Truth © 2010 Jill Nelson, Published by Children Desiring God
Take-Home Articles
As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and a minister of the Gospel, my primary concern about Islam
is not civilizational or geopolitical, but theological.
I believe that Jesus Christ is indeed, “the Way, the
Truth, and the Life,” and that no one comes to the
Father but by Him [John 14:6]. Salvation is found
only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the
Gospel of Christ is the only message that saves.
I can agree with President Obama that Islam has
produced cultural wonders, but I have to see it
more fundamentally as a belief system that is taking
millions upon millions of persons spiritually captive
— leaving them under the curse of sin and without
hope of salvation.
For Christians, regardless of nationality, this is the
great challenge that should be our urgent concern.
Our concern is not mainly political, but theological and spiritual. And, all things considered, Islam
almost surely represents the greatest challenge to
Christian evangelism of our times.
—Mohler, Dr. R. Albert, Jr. “The Challenge of Islam—
A Christian Perspective.” http://www.albertmohler.
com/2009/04/08/the-challenge-of-islam-a-christianperspective/ (accessed June 25, 2010).
Your Word is Truth © 2010 Jill Nelson, Published by Children Desiring God
Permission granted to copy for students and parents.
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