Islam

The emptiness of Islam

POST OVERVIEW. A few years ago, a friend and I visited a mosque and had a cordial conversation with the imam there and a few adherents. Here are my impressions of that meeting (from my journal entry of that day).

We arrived at the mosque a little before the time for prayer ended and so were able to simply spectate for a few minutes. I had never been in a mosque and so was ignorant of how the “services” were conducted. It seemed to mostly consist of individual, silent prayer and reflection, which makes me hesitate to call it a worship service. Each person seemed to go through their prayers independent of others. At some point, the prayer time was concluded and the Muslims spread out a long tablecloth on the floor near the window, set plates on the tablecloth and ladled out generous portions of Middle Eastern food. Then they gestured to my friend and me to sit down on the carpeted floor so that we could join them in the meal.

My friend had been to the mosque before and had engaged the Muslims in dialog about Islam and Christianity. Although I was surprised at their willingness to dialog, it seemed that they expected our discussion to again be about matters of our respective religions. So, after some preliminary pleasantries, our discussion turned to various features of Islam and Christianity, picking up where the conversation had ended last time. And even though we came from very different points of view, our dialog never became heated or hostile. In fact, the Muslims seemed genuinely curious about the things that they heard from us.

In the course of our discussion, I was struck by the poverty of the theology in Islam. When we asked about forgiveness of sins, we received the reply, “Allah is merciful.” How does a Muslim get to heaven? “Allah is merciful.” If a person has been a good Muslim, can they be assured they will go to heaven? “Allah is merciful.” If a person has definitely not been a good Muslim, will Allah punish them? “Allah is merciful.” As I thought about that response, it occurred to me that Allah must be arbitrary and unpredictable if he gives the same response to the good and the bad alike.

In fact, based on this experience, Islam and the instructions of the Koran seemed shallow, inconsistent and illogical. The teaching was clumsy and scattered and would only be accepted by someone who was willingly self-deceived or by a person who had never read the Bible or heard any biblical preaching and so was ignorant of what truth was. There was no beauty, no elegance, no glory. There were no answers to the most basic of challenges. Ask a basic question about some aspect of Islam and your question will usually be met with a blank stare. To question or to think about any word from the imam or the Koran was not encouraged.

And thus it is with all man-made, Satan-designed religions. The beliefs and practices of these systems are crafted to ensnare the unsuspecting and the gullible and to trap them in a religion that requires them to constantly work and perform while promising them nothing. Their “holy books” are clumsy and, in many places, simply ridiculous. There is no cohesive doctrine. There is no definition of sin; in fact, in most religions there is rarely a mention of sin. There is no hero. There is no fall of man. There is no salvation. There is no warning to repent. There is no hell, so there is no salvation. There is no urgency, no eternal rest, no truth, no justice. There are no miracles; there is no resurrection; there is no worship. There is no forgiveness. There is no sacrifice. There is no conclusion, no hope, no peace, no grace. There is no Law. There is no righteousness. There is no glory. There is no point!

Ah, but in God’s holy Word and in the beauty and power of the Lord Jesus Christ there are all of these things and so many more. “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him (Christ) they are yes” (2 Cor. 1:20).

Since we have all the glorious promises of God to proclaim (1 Peter 2:9) and since we have been commissioned by the Lord Jesus Himself to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8), let’s be bold to tell those who are still in darkness of the joy and the forgiveness and the peace that is available to all those who will repent and believe in the Lord Jesus.

Soli Deo gloria            rmb                 12/23/2024                 #714

Reaching those in religion

INTRODUCTION. Encouragement for ambassadors for Christ who encounter people devoted to a religion. Thoughts on how to evangelize unbelievers in religions. Also, the power of the gospel.

Martin was a Vietnamese man who also worked at SGI. I had recently made his acquaintance and had invited him to lunch. As we were returning to work, I had asked Martin, “What would you say is the most important experience is your life?” He shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don’t know. What’s yours?” Eager for the opportunity, I told Martin how I had met Jesus Christ and had become a follower of Jesus when I was thirty-one years old.

“So, Martin, what do you think about that?”

He paused for a second and then pointed to the jade green statue of the Buddha that hung from his rearview mirror. “Roy, I’m a Buddhist. My grandfather was a Buddhist, my father is a Buddhist. I’m a Buddhist.” Thus I encountered the immovable object of “religion.”

RELIGION ENCOUNTERED AND DEFINED

It can be frustrating to the witness, the ambassador for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20) who has stepped out in obedience and begun to tell the gospel to someone only to encounter the stone wall of religion. Religion comes in many guises, but these various religious guises have a common trait.

A religion is a formal spiritual system which is given to the adherent at birth, and which becomes part of a person’s self-identity.

Let’s consider this definition for a second.

That a religion is “formal” means that it has a structure and is recognized as a system of thought or behavior by the adherents. So, poker players do not make up a religion because poker playing does not constitute a formal system, but Islam is structured as a formal religion.

Another distinguishing aspect of a religion is a “spiritual” component. Broadly speaking, the “spiritual” component of a religion is that part that provides a counterfeit or substitute for the one true and living God. Buddhism is “spiritual,” but atheistic. Hinduism offers millions of false gods. Islam presents the false god of Allah.

A religion is given to the follower at physical birth. Strictly speaking, of course, the newborn infant is not a Catholic or a Hindu, but the newborn infant raised in a Catholic or Hindu family will certainly take on that family’s religion. If asked, a Catholic or a Hindu will tell you they have been in their religion since birth. That a person has been in this “formal spiritual system” since birth is a distinguishing mark of someone in a religion.

Finally, this “formal spiritual system” is an integral part of the person’s self-identity. Now, by itself, the characteristic of “self-identity” could be religious or not religious. Those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ certainly self-identify as believers, as Christians. But the self-identity of those in a religion is of a different flavor.

RELIGIOUS SELF-IDENTITY

The adherent of a religion certainly identifies strongly as a member of that religion, but that identification is not by choice, but is by obligation. The person identifies with that religion because they must. Their religion is believed to be unchangeable, and so it is unchallengeable. The person entrenched in a religion has probably never thought deeply about their religion and has never considered any alternative to their religion. In fact, many of those who follow a religion are not aware that an alternative even exists. It has never occurred to them to question their religion. Their religion is “right” because it is the only thing they have ever known.

When one follows a religion, the religion is simply a fact of their existence, like the color of their eyes and like the color of their skin. And, like the color of eyes and skin, it cannot change. What the religion believes or does in its practice is irrelevant to the adherent. By that I mean that the beliefs or practices do not need to “make sense” with experience or with logic or even with any religious book. As the falcon flies because that is part of its essential “falcon-ness,” so the religionist does what he does without question simply because he is of that religion, and that’s what those in that religion do.

So, my friend Martin was born a Buddhist, and he will live as a Buddhist as long as he lives, and then he will die as a Buddhist. That’s just how it is with religion.

Unless . . .

That’s just how it is, unless there is a message that is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16). The situation is hopeless for those trapped in the grip of religion unless there is some means available to set these people free (John 8:36; Galatians 5:1).

ONE GOSPEL CONVERSATION AWAY

And the good news is that the person who is trapped in his religion, even the one who is zealous for his religion may be one gospel conversation away from true freedom and salvation. The Bible declares that if someone will preach the gospel, then anyone may hear and believe and then call upon the name of the Lord (Romans 10:14-15) and be saved.

Before he was converted to Christ, the apostle Paul was as zealous a Jew as ever lived (Galatians 1:13-14), who persecuted the church and threw believers in prison (1 Tim. 1:13-15; Acts 8:1-3). He was born a Hebrew of Hebrew parents and had every pedigree of a religious Jew (Philippians 3:5-6). I suspect no one was praying for unsaved Paul, except perhaps that he would drop dead or go away. Then this zealous Jew was converted by the Lord Jesus Himself (Acts 9:4-6) and was sent out as an apostle to proclaim the gospel of salvation.

Thus, the Bible makes clear that the gospel is more powerful than the stone wall of any religion. Religion is one of Satan’s tools for creating confusion and for generating zeal in the wrong direction, but the gospel is “mighty before God for the destruction of fortresses” (2 Cor. 10:4) and we can be confident that the gospel will do its work.

A POSSIBLE STRATEGY FOR REACHING THOSE IN RELIGION

Like you, I do not have a “silver bullet” for winning anyone to Christ, let alone a perfect strategy for reaching those in religions, but I have thought about it some and suggest this as a possible approach. Since evangelism is the proclamation of the gospel to the unsaved, any strategy should lead to a gospel presentation as quickly as possible. The challenge is that the one who is trapped in a religion is predisposed against Christ and the gospel. But the evangelist and the religionist do have something vital in common. They both face death. So, once the witness has discovered that the other person is in a religion, he might say, “That is very interesting. I am a follower of Jesus, so obviously I do not share your religion. But there is something we both have in common, and that is that, as human beings, we both face death. What is your religion’s answer for death? How does your religion help you deal with death?” From here you would bring up Jesus Christ and how He has conquered death, which would hopefully lead to a discussion about the gospel.

SDG                 rmb                 5/5/2022                     #526