These are the ramblings of Pastor Jim Barringer, youth pastor at Friendship Church in Minnesota.
Friday, June 24, 2011
How should I reach out to my friend of another faith?
This is the 2nd question from one of our students at Youth Alpha 2011.
Question #2 How should I reach out to my friend of another faith?
2
comments:
Matt Sindelar
said...
The following is something that I wrote concerning reaching out to specifically a Muslim friend but also how to reach out to other people of other faiths. There are two part to this answer due to spacing.
(Part 1) When reaching out to anyone for Christ, it is really important to know two things; the fundamentals of the Gospel and also where the person is coming from in life. The best thing you could do for a person is to point them to Christ. Therefore it is essential for you to know what God wants and can do in their life through Jesus according to what the Bible actually says. During Jesus’ ministry on Earth, He always met people where they were at in life. To follow Jesus’ example in our ministering to people, we must also meet people where they are at in life. When reaching out to a Muslim, you show that you care about them if you know a little bit about Islam. However, you might not know much about being a Muslim. That’s okay. God uses people who know very little in powerful ways. Use your ignorance about Islam to start a conversation of “What do you believe as a Muslim?” Nevertheless, having a little background knowledge will be incredibly helpful. Islam stands as the second largest world religion, after Christianity. Islam is one of the three major Abrahamic religions, meaning that they claim Abraham as a spiritual ancestor. Like the other two Abrahamic religion, Judaism and Christianity, Islam is monotheistic, meaning that they believe in only one God. Muhammad, whom Muslims honor as the most recent and therefore greatest prophet of God, founded Islam in the seventh century AD. Muhammad was born in the city of Mecca which is in the modern country of Saudi Arabia, but lived much of his life in another city, Medina. Later in his life, Muhammad began to meet with and receive messages an archangel from God, as Muslims believe. Meeting with the angel was not a one-time event. Muhammad supposedly met with this angel regularly over the course of many years. During these visits, Muhammad wrote down what he was told by the angel. The Koran, which is the holy book of Islam, contains the messages that Muhammad received from the angel. Islam reveres many of the same prophets as Christians and Jews, however, for a Muslim, Muhammad trumps them all. Muslims honor Jesus as a prophet, but the Koran condemns those who believe Jesus to be God incarnate. Jesus, to Muslims, was a great teacher, but that is all. He is not the Son of God. Islam has five pillars by which Muslims are supposed to act. These pillars are the “must do’s” for most Muslims. The first pillar is the Islamic declaration of faith which states, “I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, the One, without any partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger.” The second pillar is Salat. Salat requires all Muslims to pray five time a day with virtually no exceptions. These prayers are meant to cleanse a person spiritually and show devotion to Allah. These prayers are done by facing Mecca and touching the forehead to the ground in respect to Allah. The next pillar is Saum. Saum is fasting, meaning not eating or drinking during Ramadan. This practice is supposed to instill virtue in those who practice it. Zakat is the fourth pillar. Zakat is giving 2.5 percent of all your wealth to the poor. Hajj, the fifth pillar, requires all Muslims to make a journey to Mecca once in a lifetime, if they can peacefully afford the journey. Some, not all, see Jihad as the sixth pillar. Jihad is holy war. Some Muslims see holy war as violence against non-Muslims. Others see it as a holy war in oneself against worldly desires.
(Part 2) When reaching out to anyone, including a Muslim, you need to point them to Jesus and what the Bible says about Him. Many have stated that Muslims and Christians believe in the same God. This is not true! James 2:19 says, “You believe that there is on God. Good! Even demons believe that – and shutter (NIV).” Coming to God takes infinitely more than simply believing that He exists as one being. Our only hope is to put our faith upon Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. We must first understand our sin problem. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All means all! All includes you, me, Americans, Europeans, Black, White, Muslim, or Christian. Romans 6:23 goes on to say that the wages of our sin is death. Our situation seems entirely hopeless. All humans are naturally sinners and have embraced sin. Each person has a debt that could only be paid with an eternity in Hell, because we have all sinned against a holy God. Jesus has provided the only answer to this problem. The best we on our own can offer God does not even begin to overcome our sin. (Isaiah 64:6) No amount of refining ourselves will ever make us good in the eyes of God. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is what no other religion has. A Muslim’s only hope of being with God is through their good works. Romans 3:21-26 says this, read it carefully, But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came through Jesus Christ. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith is in Jesus. Islam has nothing even remotely like the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins. Nor does it have a risen person who died and rose again. In Islam, like most other religions, one must work hard and hope that Allah forgives him. A Muslim has no assurance that they will get to heaven. A Christian, however, puts their hope in the blood of Christ to release them from their sin problem, and therefore puts their faith on Christ and not their own good works. We can know that this salvation is real because Jesus has risen from the dead. If Jesus has risen from the dead that would validate Him as whom He said that He was. The reason we have hope is because Jesus died for our sin and rose again, however, if He has not risen, we have no hope. Jesus has risen, therefore we can place all of our hope in Him. We have the amazing privilege to share this with Muslims and everyone in the world. Anyone who believes upon Jesus will be saved. I would like to give you a few other miscellaneous words of advice. Make sure you pray a lot for this person. Ultimately it will be God who saves them. You are just the messenger. Also, be sharp spiritually. Be reading and studying your Bible regularly. Finally, rely on God to help you in doing this.
2 comments:
The following is something that I wrote concerning reaching out to specifically a Muslim friend but also how to reach out to other people of other faiths. There are two part to this answer due to spacing.
(Part 1) When reaching out to anyone for Christ, it is really important to know two things; the fundamentals of the Gospel and also where the person is coming from in life. The best thing you could do for a person is to point them to Christ. Therefore it is essential for you to know what God wants and can do in their life through Jesus according to what the Bible actually says. During Jesus’ ministry on Earth, He always met people where they were at in life. To follow Jesus’ example in our ministering to people, we must also meet people where they are at in life. When reaching out to a Muslim, you show that you care about them if you know a little bit about Islam. However, you might not know much about being a Muslim. That’s okay. God uses people who know very little in powerful ways. Use your ignorance about Islam to start a conversation of “What do you believe as a Muslim?” Nevertheless, having a little background knowledge will be incredibly helpful.
Islam stands as the second largest world religion, after Christianity. Islam is one of the three major Abrahamic religions, meaning that they claim Abraham as a spiritual ancestor. Like the other two Abrahamic religion, Judaism and Christianity, Islam is monotheistic, meaning that they believe in only one God. Muhammad, whom Muslims honor as the most recent and therefore greatest prophet of God, founded Islam in the seventh century AD. Muhammad was born in the city of Mecca which is in the modern country of Saudi Arabia, but lived much of his life in another city, Medina. Later in his life, Muhammad began to meet with and receive messages an archangel from God, as Muslims believe. Meeting with the angel was not a one-time event. Muhammad supposedly met with this angel regularly over the course of many years. During these visits, Muhammad wrote down what he was told by the angel. The Koran, which is the holy book of Islam, contains the messages that Muhammad received from the angel. Islam reveres many of the same prophets as Christians and Jews, however, for a Muslim, Muhammad trumps them all. Muslims honor Jesus as a prophet, but the Koran condemns those who believe Jesus to be God incarnate. Jesus, to Muslims, was a great teacher, but that is all. He is not the Son of God.
Islam has five pillars by which Muslims are supposed to act. These pillars are the “must do’s” for most Muslims. The first pillar is the Islamic declaration of faith which states, “I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, the One, without any partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger.” The second pillar is Salat. Salat requires all Muslims to pray five time a day with virtually no exceptions. These prayers are meant to cleanse a person spiritually and show devotion to Allah. These prayers are done by facing Mecca and touching the forehead to the ground in respect to Allah. The next pillar is Saum. Saum is fasting, meaning not eating or drinking during Ramadan. This practice is supposed to instill virtue in those who practice it. Zakat is the fourth pillar. Zakat is giving 2.5 percent of all your wealth to the poor. Hajj, the fifth pillar, requires all Muslims to make a journey to Mecca once in a lifetime, if they can peacefully afford the journey. Some, not all, see Jihad as the sixth pillar. Jihad is holy war. Some Muslims see holy war as violence against non-Muslims. Others see it as a holy war in oneself against worldly desires.
(Part 2) When reaching out to anyone, including a Muslim, you need to point them to Jesus and what the Bible says about Him. Many have stated that Muslims and Christians believe in the same God. This is not true! James 2:19 says, “You believe that there is on God. Good! Even demons believe that – and shutter (NIV).” Coming to God takes infinitely more than simply believing that He exists as one being. Our only hope is to put our faith upon Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. We must first understand our sin problem. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All means all! All includes you, me, Americans, Europeans, Black, White, Muslim, or Christian. Romans 6:23 goes on to say that the wages of our sin is death. Our situation seems entirely hopeless. All humans are naturally sinners and have embraced sin. Each person has a debt that could only be paid with an eternity in Hell, because we have all sinned against a holy God.
Jesus has provided the only answer to this problem. The best we on our own can offer God does not even begin to overcome our sin. (Isaiah 64:6) No amount of refining ourselves will ever make us good in the eyes of God. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is what no other religion has. A Muslim’s only hope of being with God is through their good works. Romans 3:21-26 says this, read it carefully,
But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came through Jesus Christ. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith is in Jesus.
Islam has nothing even remotely like the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins. Nor does it have a risen person who died and rose again. In Islam, like most other religions, one must work hard and hope that Allah forgives him. A Muslim has no assurance that they will get to heaven. A Christian, however, puts their hope in the blood of Christ to release them from their sin problem, and therefore puts their faith on Christ and not their own good works. We can know that this salvation is real because Jesus has risen from the dead. If Jesus has risen from the dead that would validate Him as whom He said that He was. The reason we have hope is because Jesus died for our sin and rose again, however, if He has not risen, we have no hope. Jesus has risen, therefore we can place all of our hope in Him. We have the amazing privilege to share this with Muslims and everyone in the world. Anyone who believes upon Jesus will be saved.
I would like to give you a few other miscellaneous words of advice. Make sure you pray a lot for this person. Ultimately it will be God who saves them. You are just the messenger. Also, be sharp spiritually. Be reading and studying your Bible regularly. Finally, rely on God to help you in doing this.
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