Inter-Varsity Press

Contents

Foreword

Introduction: Questions, objections and confusion

1. How can we know an incomprehensible God?

Allahu akbar! The God of the Bible is great!

2. Don’t Christians only do Sundays?

Living each day for God

3. What sort of God can be murdered?

The certain victory of Jesus the Messiah

4. What sort of God can be born as a baby?

The Word took on human form

5. But don’t Christians worship three Gods?

The personal and united God

6. Where does Christianity end and Western culture begin?

The multicultural gospel

7. Hasn’t the Bible been corrupted?

The trustworthiness of God’s living and powerful Word

8. How can we be sure about God?

Answers, assurance and hope

Introduction: Questions, objections and confusion

Bad questions?

I was enjoying tucking into my rice and curry with Abdullah. It was a little bland for my liking, but our friends at the mosque were probably thinking of me and the other Christians who were their guests. Abdullah had been in the United Kingdom for most of his life and was feeling a bit frustrated – many of his friends seemed to lack any sense of adventure. Their big-little world consisted of family, neighbourhood, mosque and not much else. He enjoyed getting out of London and hiking and so we shared different stories of getting cold and wet while walking in Wales.

Abdullah was sitting with me because he wanted to follow up something I had said in my talk earlier. Another Muslim friend and I had just shared a platform to explain to a group of Muslim and Christian people what it was like to live out our respective religions in our daily lives. It was part of a series of ‘meetings for better understanding’. My talk had stuck to the Christian perspective, rather than critiquing the Islamic point of view, just as the Muslim speaker had stuck to Islam and didn’t criticize Christianity. This, I suspect, had frustrated Yusuf, Abdullah’s friend.

Just as Abdullah was getting beyond Wales and on to his particular question, Yusuf sat down and without any introduction asked, ‘Do you think Jesus is a prophet? Or do you think he’s the Son of God?’ Before I had time to reply, he followed up with ‘If he’s God’s Son, did God have sex with Mary? If he’s divine, don’t you follow two gods? And if he is divine, then how come Jesus got hungry and thirsty and was tired and was born in the first place?’

I began to answer Yusuf’s questions, but after a minute or so Abdullah interrupted. This time it wasn’t about religion: ‘Would you like some more rice, Robert?’

As we stood in the rice queue, Abdullah had a knowing smile on his face, and so I thanked him for rescuing me from what was probably going to be a fruitless conversation. Yusuf’s questions are not bad questions. They are common questions put to Christian people, and have been asked since the earliest centuries of Islam. They do need to be answered by followers of Jesus the Messiah – who is both Prophet and Son of God, fully human and fully divine. Indeed such questions from my Muslim friends have helped me to grow in my faith as they have taken me back to the holy Scriptures to find answers. However, the tone used by Yusuf and others like him can often leave a lot to be desired. Such a questioner rarely seems interested in the answers.

Therefore, rather than be tied down by these kinds of on-going questions, maybe a different response is in order, such as ‘I’ll reply to you if you can tell me whether the Qur’an is created or eternal’. ( Jesus the Messiah used this sort of approach when the religious people of his day tried to trap him; see for example Matthew 21:23–27.) It isn’t a knock-down irrefutable response and has been discussed by Muslim scholars since at least the eighth century, but the question does allow you to gauge the person’s sincerity: are they are an Abdullah or a Yusuf ?

This book is written for the Abdullahs, the men and women who share our communities, our lectures and halls of residences, our offices and blocks of flats. These are the people of peace whom Jesus the Messiah told his disciples to look for (see Luke 10:5–7 in the New Testament or Injil ) – such as the lawyer in Mark 10:28–34, Nicodemus in John 3:1–15, the Samaritan woman in John 4:1–40 and the man born blind in John 9. These are people who are genuinely interested in understanding who the Christ of this Christian message really is. This book begins to address their real questions, objections and confusion concerning our message. Therefore I hope it can be given to such Muslim friends. However, it’s also written for Christians, so that they can answer these questions in as gentle and honest a way as possible.

Central objections

As most people know, Islam has five ‘pillars’ or basic practices: a Muslim must make the confession of faith that ‘There is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet’, pray five times a day, give alms, fast during Ramadan and go on pilgrimage to Mecca. It also has six or so central beliefs: in the oneness of God, his angels, his messengers/prophets, his revealed books, the Day of Judgment and God’s divine sovereign will. Along with these, there are probably four key theological objections which most Muslim people have to the Christian message:

1. Jesus did not die on a cross.

2. Jesus is neither the Son of God nor divine.

3. The Trinity is wrong.

4. The Bible is corrupted.

I cannot think of a Muslim friend who has not raised at least one of these objections with me at some point in our friendship. These objections seem common to most Muslim people because they can be gleaned from the Qur’an or the teachings of Muhammad or later Islamic scholars. In many ways, these objections go to the heart of the Christian message. Therefore it’s right that we should discuss them, as this book does in chapters 3, 4, 5 and 7.

Wider responses

I am also keen to cover issues that go beyond these four objections. This is because, first, my experience of meetings for better understanding has shown that it can be really helpful to offer simple explanations of other areas of the Christian faith (such as who God is, what Christians do each day and how this fits with Western culture). This can give our Muslim friends a deeper appreciation of what it means to follow Jesus Christ. Talking about these topics has also led them to ask genuine questions rather than repeat the more usual ‘four objections’.

Therefore, chapters 1, 2 and 6 will address these areas specifically. The book properly begins in the next chapter concerning who God is. This is because every religious discussion must start with the Greater Reality from which its religion springs and whom its followers are to know, live for and promote.

Second, even if we were to concentrate on these four objections, any response involves an explanation of other Christian doctrines. Many people in our culture and within some churches hate the term ‘doctrine’. But it isn’t a dirty word and it doesn’t mean forcing people to believe what is right and wrong. Doctrine simply means teaching, and all Christians believe certain teachings about the faith. Just as Richard Dawkins’ doctrine of science affects his understanding of nature, humanity and religion, so everybody’s individual beliefs affect other convictions they have (although these convictions may not always be consistent with one another!).

Therefore any explanation of why Jesus the Messiah died and rose again relates to the biblical doctrine of sin. Or any description of God as three persons touches on our understanding of humans as personal and relational beings. As Christians we want to show these linkages in order to be faithful to the Christian message. These linkages also add weight and coherence to our message.

Third, the five pillars and six beliefs can lead many Muslim people to have a respect for their God but not to think that he is involved in their everyday lives. As a result, everyday life is left as a ‘space’ which needs to be dealt with by individual Muslim people themselves, often by practising what is known as ‘folk Islam’.

This space is where questions of fear, sickness, loneliness, guilt, revenge, shame, powerlessness, longing, meaninglessness and crisis dominate. It is also the space where more mystical beliefs can dominate, where people don’t so much confess the name of God as use it magically for protection, where they venerate angels and prophets, use holy books as charms, think that almsgiving will ward off the ‘evil eye’, and much more. For Muslim friends with these concerns, the issue of getting information and answering objections is not top of their agenda. Rather, these men and women are searching for the power and protection that only Jesus the Messiah can bring. Therefore, in concluding some of the chapters, I try to apply the Bible’s teaching to some of the everyday needs of our Muslim friends.

Each chapter also ends with several key points and a few questions. The key points are an attempt to summarize the argument of that chapter. I say ‘attempt’ because summaries of anything can be difficult, and summaries of religious doctrine even more so. There is always more that can be said and more nuances that can be included. ………..