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September 1 - November 8, 2016
Tolerance meant always accepting people, without always accepting their ideas.
Humans and chimpanzees share 95 percent of their DNA, but the remaining 5 percent is incredibly important! So it is with Islam and Christianity. There is much shared DNA, but the two are phenotypically quite different.
Muslims must live as good a life as they can to approach heaven, and hope for God’s merciful judgment to secure their salvation.
Right practice in Islam is learned through Islamic Law, called sharia, which is understood as “the way to water.” Especially for a desert people, the concept is powerful: Following sharia is the way to life itself.
Sharia is derived from the Quran, exemplified in Muhammad’s life, and explained by imams.
God gave man the choice to love him or reject him. When man disobeys God, it is tantamount to rejecting God. In rejecting the Source of Life, we bring death upon ourselves. This bears repeating: The result of sin is death because it is a rejection of the Source of Life.
Like taking a sledgehammer to a mirror, sin shatters the image in which man is made. When Adam sinned, the image of God in man was irreparably broken.
the good news is this: Even though we cannot get to God, out of his great love, God has come to us and made a way for us. God himself has paid for our sins and will eternally restore our souls. All we have to do is repent of our rebellion, have faith in what he has done, and follow him.
Since mankind inherited the broken image from Adam, all humans are broken and prone to sin. They are not judged for his sin, but because of his sin, we, his progeny, have all been born broken. Because of his sin, we all ultimately sin.
Death is not a punishment for our actions as much as it is a consequence.
Christian obedience, devoid of threat and rooted in love, is what God truly wants.
Islam diagnoses the world with ignorance and offers the remedy of sharia, a law to follow. Christianity diagnoses the world with brokenness and offers the remedy of God himself, a relationship with him that leads to heart transformation.
Mankind seems incapable of saving itself. In our natural selves, we perpetuate cycles of destruction. Our hearts are broken, so we break other hearts. We were abused, so we abuse in return. Our families were fractured, so we leave fractured families in our wake. When loved ones are killed, we kill in revenge. This is the way of humanity, and we need an otherworldly solution—something radical to break these cycles. We need God to save us.
The gospel is not just an answer that works; it is the only answer that will work.
Yes!
Your being is the quality that makes you what you are, but your person is the quality that makes you who you are.
God is greater than we can possibly conceive, more complex than we could ever hope to grasp.
Since God is the greatest being, relational and loving, relationships and love are the most important commandments for mankind.
By definition, we cannot comprehend God. If God created our minds, then he must be greater than their comprehension. Who are we to demand that he be simple enough for us to understand him?
According to this amoral worldview, nothing behooves a person to be kind. Even though someone might wish to be altruistic, in the next moment it would be entirely consistent with their worldview if they chose to be selfish.
When we are self-centered instead of selfless, we act against our very nature.
People ought to be selflessly loving because it is who we are. Humans are made in the image of a selfless God; loving others is what makes us truly human.
Tertullian testified to this indomitable spirit with his famous words: “We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed.”
the term for “Word” in Greek is Logos, and it embodies two concepts: reason and speech. These two meanings are captured in the English derivatives logic and dialogue. When God created the universe, he used his divine reason and his speech.
Christians can follow Jesus and die for their enemies because the gospel promises and enacts salvation, taking away all fear of death.
The Islamic view of the eternality of the Quran affects the place it holds in Muslims’ hearts, something that finds a Christian analogue not in the Bible but in Jesus himself.
people have more time to consider what to say when writing and more time to consider what has been said when reading.
The abrogation of the Quran, its piecemeal nature, and its heavy reliance upon hadith have traditionally been part of the reason why the average Muslim does not engage in Quranic exegesis.
Muslims are confident Islam is true because the Quran is so perfect.
Unlike the Quran, the primary use of the Bible is to serve as the basis of what Christians believe, not why they believe.
although we can be quite confident that Jesus literally walked in Galilee (e.g., John 1:43), it is poor exegesis to read about a dragon sweeping away the stars in the same literal way (Rev. 12:4)!
There is beauty and power in diversity, and the Bible reflects that.
As I looked through its pages, I realized there was not a single verse in it designed to comfort me while I was hurting. Although there were certainly verses that promised Allah would reward me for doing the right thing, there was nothing that said Allah loves me for who I am or that sought to comfort me despite my failures.
The Seljuq army contained warriors called mamluks, slave children who were trained to ultimately become young professional fighters.
killing people for their beliefs is an assault on the sensibilities of Western morality, including the sensibilities of many Muslims in the West. So in adapting their understanding of Islam to fit Western notions of morality, they often argue that Islam could never teach such a thing. Unfortunately, quite the opposite is true: Islam always has. From a historical perspective, denying the punishment of apostasy is a modern phenomenon, as is insistence on a predominantly peaceful Islam.3
in order to follow a peaceful Islam, one has to ignore or reject vast swaths of traditions from Muhammad’s life as well as virtually the entire history of Islamic jurisprudence.
ISIS is interested not in the consensus of Muslim scholars one hundred years ago but in the example of Muhammad in the seventh century.
Those who argue for more peaceful practices of Islam have to do one of three things: deny the example of Muhammad’s life altogether, like the Quran-only Muslims; proclaim Muhammad’s teachings defunct, like the 140 Muslim scholars; or disavow select portions of Muhammad’s life as recorded in history, like the average Muslim.
Fighting in jihad was so good in Muhammad’s eyes that there is nothing equal to it in this world.
Always interpret unclear verses in light of clear ones.
For Christians in particular, the final marching orders are the Great Commission: to spread the good news of God’s love and mercy throughout the world by multiplying disciples of Jesus.
the culmination of Quranic teaching is the most violent chapter of the Quran, the culmination of biblical teaching is grace, love, mercy, and self-sacrifice.
One must divert attention from Jesus to justify violence in Christianity. A strict adherence to Jesus’ teachings simply allows no basis for violence. By contrast, one must divert attention from Muhammad to argue that Islam is a religion of peace, since he says that a Muslim who does not fight in jihad or at least express a desire to fight is a hypocrite.7
Christianity and Islam both make claims about the past that can be tested against the records of history. When it comes to the person of Jesus, their truth claims are contradictory, and both cannot be true.
For all intents and purposes, there is a unanimous opinion within academia that Jesus died by crucifixion.
There are historical facts surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion that virtually all historians agree upon, and by far the best explanation of those facts is that Jesus rose from the dead.
Jesus’ resurrection encompassed the disciples. It was their initial catalyst, their core message, their driving conviction, and their ultimate hope.
For Muslims, the doctrine of a divine Christ is anathema, and the Quran teaches that he who subscribes to it will make his home in the flames of hell (5:72). For the Christian, belief in the lordship of Christ is necessary for salvation (Rom. 10:9). What wider divergence could there be?
Jesus walks to them on the water. For those who know the Old Testament, the allusion is clear: In Job 9:8, when Job is speaking about Yahweh, he says, “He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea” (NIV). What Job says only Yahweh can do, Mark shows Jesus doing.
Mark’s gospel is an exposition of the deity of Jesus. The first biography of Jesus ever written is designed to teach that Jesus is Yahweh.
If Jesus truly taught tawhid, he was an entirely incompetent Messiah, worse than an abject failure.
