A Friendly Response to Ibrahim Ali of www.goldenduas.com
This was emailed to Ibrahim earlier today, in response to a letter sent to Calvary Grace Church.
Hello Ibrahim,
Thank you for contacting our church. We also thank you for your kind words and the sentiment that lies behind them, and we pray that God in his mercy will grant a measure of earthly peace between our peoples.
However, we would be unfaithful to God and the Scriptures if we passed by the opportunity to comment upon your words from a Christian perspective. Allow me to respond to a few things you said:
1) You said, “Christianity and Islam are mutual friends as per Quranic verse 5:82.” I understand the desire to find common ground between our faiths for the sake of peace; however, the fact remains that on both Christian and Islamic grounds, our faiths are fundamentally and irreconcilably different.
Islam requires submission to Allah, and defines Allah as Unitarian (that is, Allah has no Son and there is no Trinity). Islam denies that Jesus was God and that he was crucified, which are fundamental tenets of Christian faith.
Christianity worships Jesus Christ as Lord and God (1 John 5:20), being of the same substance as the Father (Philippians 2:6, John 10:30). He is no mere rasul or prophet, though a prophet he certainly is; he is the Creator of all things (Colossians 1:16), God become flesh (John 1:1, 14) who died as a substitute to pay for the sins of men (Isaiah 53), and who was raised (Romans 8:34, 1 Thessalonians 4:14) on the third day. Moreover, this Jesus Christ shall return to judge the living and the dead (2 Corinthians 5:10). This belief in Christ is, in the Islamic perspective, the sin of shirk or idolatry, but it is the very essence of Christianity.
2) You said, “We have sent the following messages to the governments of the world, media centers, churches, synagogues and islamic foundations to spread the message of universal peace,brotherhood, security and prosperity for all mankind in these troubled times.”
We long for peace as well. Christians are to strive to live at peace with everyone (Hebrews 12:14). Christians believe that faith cannot be imposed by force, because the deepest need of man is for a new heart that longs for God and seeks to follow him (Jeremiah 31:31-34). And so we reject any attempt to proselytize by force of arms or anything else. Christianity rejects the idea that the state is to be controlled by the church or to do the church’s work, seeing the church and state as institutions ordained by God for different purposes (Matthew 22:21, Romans 13:1-7). Christian history has shown that the state is a secularizing and compromising influence that needs to be kept separate from the church’s activities. A failure to see the corrupting influence of secular power upon the church and her faith was what resulted in disasters like the Crusades. Sadly, much of Islam has not yet learned this lesson, and the results of the combination of religious fervor with the weapons that properly belong to the state are all too evident in the actions of radical militant Muslims.
Peace is not possible without justice. Universal peace requires universal justice. And universal justice cannot take place until the entire world is in subjection to its Creator. On that point, Muslims and Christians say the same thing, but they mean different things. In Islam, the world is to be united under Sharia and a universal Caliphate. The state and the mosque are to be one, the highest earthly religious authority is to be the highest earthly political authority. This utopian view fails to see that no mere man can wield such power without corruption. Indeed, universal peace by earthly means – military or political – is impossible because all of humanity is deeply and inherently sinful. Read Romans 1:28-32 – this is a description of the depravity of man. This depravity is a result of and a judgment in response to man’s failure to acknowledge God. Which God? The God of the Bible – the Triune God of the Old and New Testaments, the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, the God who became flesh to pay the price that divine justice requires for satisfaction of sin. And how bad is this depravity? It is so total that it blinds men to the truth (1 Corinthians 2:14, Romans 8:7-8) and so makes it impossible for men to be saved unless the Father draws them to Jesus Christ (John 6:35-40).
One day, there will be peace – when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:11).
See, this is the heart of the matter. The Scriptures point not to Mohammed but to Christ. It was Christ whom the Old Testament speaks of and anticipates (Luke 24:27, Acts 13:27; see Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 for chillingly accurate predictions and descriptions of the death of Christ from the Old Testament). It is Christ who is the only path to salvation, who says “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me” (John 14:6), who says that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him will have eternal life (John 6:40).
Mark these words, for they are the only hope for peace – and your only hope of eternal life: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:17)
When you stand before Almighty God, what hope do you have, as Muslims, that you will be counted acceptable to him? Your good deeds and your obedience, the five pillars and the prayers? Even Islam teaches that your good deeds will be weighed against your sins; you can have no assurance or guarantee that God will accept you (unless you die in jihad). I know this is true, for I heard it myself from a Muslim imam – you can have no assurance or certainty of your salvation. And the Scriptures teach that all your “righteous deeds” are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Jesus saves not because of works done in righteousness, but by regeneration (creating a new heart – Jeremiah 31:31-34) and the washing of the Holy Spirit.
A person is not justified by works of the law but by faith in Christ alone (Galatians 2:16).
And so I pray for you. I pray that God will draw you to His Son (John 6:44). I pray that your heart will be changed and renewed by the Spirit (Jeremiah 31:31-34). I pray that you will believe the promise of Romans 10:9, that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
No Muslim could ever write these words to another: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13). But if you repent and trust in Christ, you may know this for certain. You may have the inner peace that comes from knowing you are reconciled to God. Only in Christ is this possible.
Then, and only then, will there be true, lasting peace between us, for we will be brothers in Christ. Until then, we will strive to be at peace with you in an earthly sense, and as “ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Praying that our sovereign and Triune God will draw you and make you our brothers in Christ,
Jeff Jones