In the slightly terrified new world after September 11, many of us have found that the time is ripe for Islamic evangelism—but not so much with Muslims as with our secular neighbours. The new prominence (and infamy) of Islam has brought the topic of religion and truth once again into everyday conversation with our friends and neighbours. Once again people are asking the big questions: Are all religions really the same? What do Muslims really believe? Are Islamic beliefs really consistent with our vision of a tolerant multicultural society? Is religion the real cause of war and conflict? And so on.
This atmosphere of religious discussion provides us with an excellent opportunity for commending Christ, and pointing people to the cross. Let me give some background, and then show how we can move from the topic of Islam to the cross of Jesus.
The background
September 11 has been proclaimed as the death of many things, such as the idea of multiculturalism, or the illusion of Western security, and so on. One more to add to the list is that September 11 can be seen as a setback for modern relativism.
In times of prosperity and security, we Westerners dabble with the idea that truth and error, good and evil, are entirely malleable concepts which we may mould and shape at our whim. Who are we to tell other people what is right or wrong? Surely we shouldn’t impose our values.
Deep down, however, we still believe in the concepts, and that belief comes shooting to the surface when something like September 11 happens. It is simply not adequate or possible in that context to say, “Well even though we disagree with the terrorists, what they did was ‘true’ for them. And who are we to pass judgement?”
September 11 got many people back in touch with good and evil, with absolutes, with reality. It dispelled, at least for a time, the modern fairytale illusion of relativism.
This is precisely where the opportunity lies in pointing people to Christianity, and to the cross in particular. The cross is a perfect place at which simultaneously to critique Islam, to show how Christianity is absolutely different from it, and to commend the gospel of Jesus.
This is because Islam denies that the cross actually took place. The Qur’an says:
They said, “We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Apostle of God”, but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts with no certain knowledge, but only conjecture to follow. For a surety they killed him not; Nay, God raised him up unto Himself, and God is Exalted in Power, Wise. (surah 4:157-8)
A clearer or more emphatic denial is hard to imagine. Muhammed asserts, of a surety, that Jesus was not crucified on the cross. According to Islamic tradition, the usual explanation is that someone else—perhaps Judas—replaced Jesus at the last minute. Christianity, of course, has as its most foundational claim the exact opposite: that Jesus was crucified on the cross, for our sins, and was raised on third day.
Here is an absolute contradiction between the two religions at a basic and fundamental level. Both may be wrong—Jesus may never have existed. But both cannot be right.
The facts, of course, are overwhelmingly on the side of Christianity at this point. Islam claims, without a shred of evidence, that Muhammed, speaking some 600 years later, knew the true version of events regarding Christ’s death, and that the Christian Scriptures are distorted and corrupt to claim otherwise. It really is an insupportable argument. There is mountain of historical evidence in favour of the Christian claim that Jesus was really crucified.
Thus, there is a basic contradiction between the two religions, at the point of the cross of Jesus.
The conversation
This basic contradiction suggests a way that a conversation might proceed which starts with Islam and moves to the gospel. It could go something like this:
- Start with a general conversation about Islam. Acknowledge the breadth and diversity of Islam, and that the Taliban (and other militant Islamic groups) are but one stream. Point out, however, that they are not the lunatic fringe, or a tiny splinter group—that is, they do represent a sizable trend of thought in orthodox Islam, even if they are not the whole story. The Qur’an and the traditions do support the idea of violent, military action to advance the cause of Islam against the unbelievers. However, Islam is a huge and enormously diverse movement; we must be careful not to be simplistic.
- Move on to point out that, although there is diversity of belief and practice amongst Muslims, there are some beliefs that virtually all Muslims share. One is the assertion of the Qur’an that Jesus did not die on the cross.
- Then show how this is an absolute contradiction to Christianity, which has as its most central and basic teaching that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Islam says not only that he did not die for sins, but that he did not even die!
- This presents us with the opportunity of moving on to explain how and why the cross is so central to Christianity, for it is the point at which ours sins are paid for. The cross brings peace with God, and provides the means whereby God can forgive the guilty, and restore them to personal relationship with himself–something which is quite lacking in Islam.
Conversations rarely go as smoothly as this, but the framework is a useful one. Move from Islam in general to the contradiction of the cross, and thus to the gospel.
Give it a try, and send your success stories (and failures) to The Briefing.
Tony Payne is currently writing a book on Islam and secularism.
