In his excellent book, A READY DEFENSE, Josh McDowell writes his chapter 29 on “Islam.” His explanation of what Islam believes is something every one of us can read with profit. We must remember that in the Arabic language, the word for “God” is Allah. Josh rightly recognizes that much of the Quran has been derived from the Bible.
But Islam denies who Jesus Christ really is. Thus Muslims have closed the door of their hearts to that gospel that Paul said is “the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16). Among other tragedies, “Baghdad” must suffer.
But have we as Christians who have tried to win Muslms to the gospel correctly understood the gospel ourselves? Could it be that we have unconsciously erected barriers that have barricaded Muslim hearts against the pure, true gospel which does have the power to break through many centuries of unnecessary prejudice?
What we know for sure is that the God of heaven and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who manifests Himself through the Holy Spirit, loves Muslims just as He loves everybody else. When John 4:42 describes Jesus as “the Savior of the world,” it means “the Savior of Muslms” just as surely as it means the Savior of you and me. But they must believe!
And they can’t “believe” unless they hear the pure truth! Josh ends his chapter 29 with these words: “The Islamic God of strict judgment, Allah, cannot offer the mercy, love, or intimate sacrifice on mankind’s behalf that the Christian God, incarnate in Jesus Christ, offers to each individual even today.” Note: the two uses of “offer.”
And of course we use the word “offer” in respect of what Christ accomplished on His cross; but the word is not found in the Bible presentations of what Christ accomplished for the human race. It’s not a bad word, of course not; but misunderstood in a limited way, it can close human hearts against an appreciation of the love of Christ. The reason we use the word “offer” when the Bible plainly uses the word “gift” or “give” (and repeatedly!), is that we don’t want to give the impression that the “verdict of acquittal” that Christ accomplished in behalf of the human race, and for each of us, is forced upon us to receive.
Let us renew our love for the pure biblical gospel, getting back to what the apostles taught, so we can give Islam a clearer, more powerful version of what Christ commanded us to “proclaim to all the world”—“the everlasting gospel” in purity (Rev. 14:6, 7).
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