you that Christianity sprouted from roots sunk deep in the Middle Eastern soil of community. This provides us with powerful opportunities. When a mosque opens near our neighbourhoods or churches, we may be tempted to withdraw and be suspicious. But that’s precisely the opposite of what we should do. Why not, instead, make a tray of sweets, made specially without any animal shortening, and take it to the doors of that mosque and invite them to visit our churches? It was this kind of hospitality that led a friend of mine, just one Christian man following Jesus’ example, to befriend a Muslim at a large local mosque. That friendship birthed opportunities the church and the mosque to hold formal dialogues on the nature of God, the authority of Scripture, and the like. I was blessed to participate in two of those dialogues in which hundreds of Muslims heard the gospel in clear and challenging ways. But with the smiles and smells comes the “shame and honour” dynamic that is often strange to Westerners. For Muslims, the search for truth can give way to the fear of shame and the pursuit of honour. To even consider a different worldview— like Christianity—is to flirt with a shameful betrayal that affects the community as a whole, the family in particular, and the individual Muslim most devastatingly. That means that family honour must be upheld even at the expense of truth. Sam Solomon, himself a former Muslim, asks us to picture a circle with a dot in the middle. In the West, the circle is life and the dot is religion. In Muslim cultures, the dot is life and the circle is religious expression. Religious identity permeates and saturates everything. That’s why nominal Muslims who don’t regularly practice Islamic rituals will still enthusiastically defend
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Islam in debates. In essence, they are defending their very existence. And so the objections to Christianity and the defenses of Islam will come fast and, sometimes, furious.
ANSWER THE PERSON, NOT THE QUESTION In light of this obstacle, how can we offer the credibility to our Muslim friends? The Apostle Paul gives us some insight: “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Col. 4:5-6) Notice that Paul doesn’t say that we ought to know how to answer each question. He specifically teaches us to answer each person. Questions don’t need answers; people need answers. And offering answers in a way that touches people can get us past the seemingly immovable obstacles. Allow me to give you two short examples of how we can offer the gospel in a way that appeals to Muslims. You may notice that effectively sharing the gospel with Muslims requires us to address our deep differences, but also draw from an important commonality. “Allahu Akbar!” we hear Muslims all over the world say with religious fervor. It literally means “God is Greater.” In the West, we associate this phrase with terrorism because radicals shout it when committing their atrocities. But peace-loving Muslims (the vast majority) also use this phrase routinely in formal prayer and daily living. For Muslims, God’s greatness is the cornerstone of belief. That’s something common to Christianity as well (Ps. 145:3). From this commonality we
can address some of the deepest differences between Islam and Christianity. For example, Muslims believe that parts of the Christian Scriptures were once revealed by God, but became corrupted over time, necessitating the final revelation of the Qur’an. Muslims also reject the idea that God would take on human nature, live among us, and die on a cross. Let’s consider the validity of the Scriptures through the shared lens of God’s greatness. Two divine attributes flow from God’s greatness: omnipotence and trustworthiness. If God lacked either quality, He’d no longer be great. But this presents a profound dilemma. If the Bible was once God’s revealed word, but became corrupted, only two possibilities emerge: either God couldn’t protect the Bible or He wouldn’t protect it. If God couldn’t preserve the Bible, then he’s not all-powerful. But, no Muslim would entertain such a blasphemy. But the second option isn’t any better. If God were just unwilling to prevent the Bible’s corruption, He’d be untrustworthy. He would have allowed horrible blasphemies to lead millions to hell. And if He were willing to allow the Bible’s corruption, what gives a Muslim any confidence that God wouldn’t allow the Qur’an to become corrupted as well? No Muslim can believe that God was too impotent to preserve the Bible nor that was He so callous and untrustworthy that He chose not to. And so only one option remains for a Muslim who wants to worship a God who is truly great: the Bible could not have been corrupted. If God is great—and both the Muslim and the Christian believe He is—then He can protect the Bible, He would protect the Bible, and history tells us that He did protect the Bible. This brings us to addressing the cross of Christ. The God who is great