Wherever I go people are trying to understand Islam and learn how reach out to Muslims.
Send me your questions about anything from Islamic faith, history, current issues, etc., or about Christian ministry to Muslims, and I’ll do my best to answer them here on my blog.
Here are a couple sample questions I’ve recently heard:
“I’ve heard that those claiming Islam is a peaceful religion are those who don’t really read the Koran, while the deeper religious Muslims dig into the Koran, the more radical they become. Is that your experience?”
JIM: I would disagree. Like most Holy Books in most religions, people will read into it what they want to believe. Those who have a desire for violence and hatred will find Koranic verses to support it, and those who desire peace will find equally valid support in the Koran. Some of the best peacemakers alive today are true Muslim scholars who explain the jihad verses as being confined to specific contexts, much as Christians would confine the Old Testament genocide of the Canaanites at the hands of the Jews as a judgment of God in that context which we shouldn’t apply to ethnic tensions between peoples today.
Christians have done much the same thing with the Bible over the years, using it to support the Crusades, slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, and a host of other evil beliefs. That’s why it is essential that we look at Jesus as our most perfect theology, and look to the Holy Spirit to be our teacher of the written Word. Then instead of using the Bible to justify our opinions, we’ll be able to read it and find the heart of God.
“A prominent radio personality is warning of a Muslim takeover of America and the institution of syariah law—do you think this could happen in America?”
JIM: I think this is sensationalism at its worst, stirring up irrational fear of Muslims who move to America resulting in a reluctance to reach out and love them. First of all, there is nothing Americans love more than individual freedom, and Islam is based on submission to God’s law, or giving up personal rights to follow God. Syariah law is highly restrictive on individual freedom—Saudi women can’t drive cars; Afghan Taliban women can’t become doctors or teachers. Americans would fight to the death before giving up such freedoms. Muslim countries such as Indonesia can’t even get syariah law passed because although 80% of the voters are Muslims, they don’t want to give up such freedoms either.
Secondly, this ugly fear-mongering plays right into Satan’s hand to keep the walls high between Christians and Muslims. Instead of mobilizing churches to protest a mosque that wants to move into our neighborhood, Christians should be bringing their new neighbors fruit baskets and welcoming them to our communities! Why do you think God moved these precious people out of Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, northern Sudan, or some other place where they had almost 0% chance to hear the Gospel and planted them in American communities surrounded by Christians? This is a divine setup! While it may be hard to get visas to enter several Muslim nations, God circumnavigates Satan’s walls by bringing Muslims to us! We have far more in common with the average Muslim than we think. It’s time to stop relating to them out of fear, and build bridges based on love.
“Is the Anti-Christ coming from within Islam, building to an Armageddon where all the Arab nations are against Israel?”
JIM: Some see no redemptive plan for the Arab nations, but I do! There is plenty of Scripture to support God’s heart for Israel’s neighbors, and His plan to bring them into their destinies before the final day.
This morning I was reading through Isaiah 21, where in verses 13-15 God shows us Saudi Arabia’s future. Everyone knows the desert Arabs are famous for their hospitality. I believe this is both a spiritual gift and a primary redemptive gift of several nations in that region. God has blessed the region with wealth in order to fulfill their destinies. Isaiah 21:14 says the Arabs will take care of refugees. It will take a major shift in heart (from hoarding their wealth for power and pleasure) which may have to come from a drying up of their natural resources and humbly returning to reliance on God’s supernatural resources, but God is calling them to a higher place and we can join our prayers with His plans and see it come to pass!
Egypt and Assyria (modern day Iraq & Syria region) also have wonderful prophetic words about their destinies. In Isaiah 19: 18-25 we read that in the last days there will be a powerful prayer movement in Egypt that brings entire cities to faith, and this prayer movement will be relationally connected with similar worship from the region of Iraq and Syria. We already see signs of this prayer movement emerging in Egypt, and I believe they will be a shining light in the region spiritually in their prayer and worship of God. God ends this passage with these hopeful blessings: “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”
It’s interesting to me that God ties these three nations together for an end times blessing. Israel, we know, has rejected their true Messiah, Jesus, now for 2000 years, but the day will come when they receive Him. Romans 9-11 talks about this acceptance of the Christ, including a process of Israel being “provoked” by those they despise. Romans 10:19 says, “I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.” (NIV) Here we have two groups that provoke Israel to jealousy: “those who are not a nation” and “by a nation that has no understanding.” I interpret these to be the Christian Palestinians within Israel and Israel’s neighbor nations who turn to God. When a mighty move of God sweeps these peoples who are currently Muslims, causing the end of suicide-bombers and the launching of Arab laid-down lovers willing to give their lives to love Jews into encounter with Jesus, I believe finally the Jews will be so overwhelmed by God’s love demonstrated by the “Good Samaritans” that they will see Jesus as their Redeemer too. This wonderful destiny on Palestinians and I believe, Jordanians, will have a major impact on Israel’s salvation in the last days.
Just those three Bible passages give us plenty to hope and pray for! The Middle East is not a lost cause. These are nations loved by God, gifted with redemptive destinies and a glorious part to play in the last days of causing “the knowledge of the glory of the Lord to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab. 2:14) Like Joseph, God will give those who seek Him in this hour supernatural insights that go beyond saving individual souls–we will transform nations!
“Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God?”
JIM: I would say absolutely, YES! Although we see God through different lenses, when a Muslim talks about “Allah” (by the way, this is also what millions of Christians in the Middle East call God, and the name used for Him in several translations of the Bible), he’s talking about the Creator of Genesis, the God of the prophets Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, even Jesus, the Giver of the Holy Books (the Torah to Moses, the Psalms to David, and the Gospels to Jesus), the Righteous Judge who separates people in the afterlife to heaven and hell–we’re talking about the same Monotheistic Being.
But, some would counter, Muslims don’t honor Jesus’ deity or the concept of Trinity. Would you then say that Jews also worship a false god? I’ve heard no one claim Jews worship a false god because they haven’t yet embraced Jesus’ deity or the Trinity–most Christians would say a Jew’s view of God is incomplete without embracing Jesus. Yet most Muslims have a very comparable God-concept to the Jews’, AND honor Jesus much more highly than a Jew does!
In my opinion, Muhammad did not originally intend to start a new religion–the Qur’an frequently states that he was called by God as a “Warner”, to call the polytheistic Arabs back to the worship of Abraham, to the monotheistic faith of his father (and ours). So when “a Muslim, a Christian and a Jew walk into a bar…” and talk about God, they’re all talking about the God of their common father, Abraham, now seen from different vantage points because of our divergent histories with Him.
The Qur’an teaches Muslims that they worship the same God Jews and Christians do in Sura 29 – Al-Ankaboot (MAKKA) : Verse 46
And dispute ye not with the People of the Book [Jews or Christians with the earlier Holy Books], except with means better (than mere disputation) unless it be with those of them who inflict wrong (and injury): but say “We believe in the Revelation which has come down to us and in that which came down to you; Our God and your God is one; and it is to Him we bow (in Islam).” [Translation : Eng-Yusuf Ali]
I’ve heard some Christians describe “the Muslim Allah” as harsh and unloving. Actually, many Christians see God that way, too! This is a personal experience, not a Muslim teaching. The most common names for Allah repeated several times a day in prayer are “Ar-rahman, ar-rohiim”–the Most Merciful, Most Compassionate. Christians experience God’s love through Jesus’ life and death on the cross. When Muslims embrace Jesus ultimate sacrifice for mankind, I believe they will encounter God’s mercy and compassion at such a deeper level that it will change them forever.
We all see God through our own base of knowledge and experience, through our own cultural lenses. Christians have many different views of God, because He’s much too great for any of us to see all of Him at once. Muslims see Him from a different angle, and there is plenty of common ground for us to approach Him together and get to know Him better.
NEW QUESTION: “But how can we welcome Muslims into our communities when we know they have a hidden agenda?”
JIM: Friends, it’s high time we quit throwing around this phrase, “The Muslim Agenda”! If Christians in Northern Ireland, or Nigeria, or Sudan, or Bosnia, or Armenia, or India, or Indonesia bomb their non-Christian neighbors, does that mean we also are complicit in their “Christian Agenda”? That’s ridiculous! It’s time we quit believing that all homosexuals have a “Gay Agenda” to take over our schools, all movie stars are part of a “Hollywood Agenda” to corrupt our morals, and all Muslims support a “Muslim Agenda” to take over the world and impose syariah law everywhere. This is stereotyping and prejudice at its worst, dehumanizing individuals and judging the majority of the group by a few extreme people on the fringe, causing us to avoid knowing individuals’ beliefs and dreams that are potentially one heart with our own.
The vast majority of homosexuals, Hollywood workers and Muslims (or whatever group you have a hard time loving) are just regular folks who spend most of their lives trying to make a living, raise their kids to have opportunities they didn’t, and many still find extra time and energy to contribute positively to their communities. They have no evil agenda. In fact, many resent those extremists from their group because of the indirect suffering their group has to endure because of the extremists. I know countless Muslims who are fed up with terrorists and wish they’d all move to Antarctica!
But let me remind us all, that God’s love is big enough for everyone, the victims and the victimizers. Instead of punishing the innocent because of “guilt by association”, or even focusing our punishment on the truly guilty, as followers of Jesus we’re called to reach out in love to both.
So whatever group it is hardest for you to love, ask God to allow you to meet someone from that group, swallow your fear and judgments, and see if you can’t make a friend. And you’ll find that God’s agenda (“For God so loved the world…”) still trumps them all!
If YOU would like to express your opinion about any of my answers, please feel free!
Jim Baton 
Jim,
I recently read your article “Donald Trump Jr, Skittles & Syrian Refugees” that left me very troubled.
First and primary:
The article entangles you into political issues and policies of Hillary Clinton. I’m no fan of Donald Trump, however, Hillary is corrupt. I recently retired from the DoD, if I had done what Hillary had done with private servers I would be prison now. It is now apparent that the FBI, IRS, and State Department have been corrupted by the Obama administration and Secretary of State Clinton.
Leaked email exposes the Clinton Campaign targeting Christians (Catholics and Evangelicals), not only ridiculing them, but also setting up front groups to change faith stance on morality – marriage, sexual identity, and abortion.
After I retired I became a board member of the local Rescue Mission. One of the first things I was involved with was rewriting our Statement of Faith to ensure government entities couldn’t mandate who was on staff and what programs we offered to our guests.
I don’t believe Clinton is concerned about the plight of refugees – rather:
“Neither secular progress nor secular progressives have brought the West where they once promised. Nor can they. They are, merely parasites on the Jewish and Christian beliefs and ideals that made the West the West…the post-Christian liberals have often shown themselves to be highly illiberal. Drinking deep of postcolonial guilt and espousing the philosophy of ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend,’ they have cozied up to Islam in attempt to rout the vestiges of Judaism and the Christian faith that still stand in their way. And in the process they are fast abandoning as ‘Illusions’ Jewish and Christian ideals such as human dignity, freedom and personal responsibility that were once considered essential to liberalism and progress.” Os Guinness – Renaissance
The US is changing; I fear in the future it will be illegal for Christians to proselytize and speak about moral issues publicly. You may find it amusing that I also share your belief that God is sending Muslim out of their countries of origin to be exposed to the Gospel. The question is will the Gospel be left in the US public or will the US be totally secular/progressive due to the activities of anti-Christian forces?
In short I recommend you stay away from political issues – especially when they align with anti-faith forces.
Second:
Your spin-analogy on Muslim immigrants with other immigrants such as Italians disregards/white-washes real terror events perpetrated by children of Muslim immigrants and actual immigrants in the US. The spin calls in to question the credibility of the argument and doesn’t address or even give a head nod to the cause of the problem.
Third:
Your article implied that the vetting of refugees was adequate – that is false. The director of the FBI stated he had no way to adequately verify refugees due to the destruction of records and trustworthy sources in Syria and other problematic middle eastern countries.
I volunteer at the local Rescue Mission in the day room. Part of my job is to keep the peace. I have to ask trouble makers to leave and keep folks, who are temporally banned (due to behavior issues), out. This is done so those who want to seek peace may.
It is the primary job of a government to protect it citizens. I doubt the citizens of France or Germany would concur with your article.
Remember, there wouldn’t have been this issue in Syria if Obama had listened to his military advisors and left stabilizing troops in Iraq and had enforced his Red Line threat. Obama apology tours and leading from behind has brought only more death and chaos to the Middle East and the world as a whole.
That said if Syrian refugees came to my neighborhood I would welcome them. As I said before I also share your belief that God is sending Muslim out of their countries of origin to be exposed to the Gospel. However, before they can consider an alternative belief system they must acknowledge there is something wrong with their current one. For many years now I had hoped and assumed all the atrocities perpetuated by the radical Islamic groups would cause most Muslims to consider that there may be something wrong with Islam and there must be another way. I don’t really see much evidence of this – do you?
Mark Rambo
Silverdale, WA
LikeLike
Wow! What a meaty comment!
Thanks for writing in, Mark, and thanks for your service to our nation. As someone who has been to the Middle East you have some insights that are good for us civilians to hear.
I would like to be clear to all my readers that I am neither supporting nor opposing any political party or candidate by posting about Donald Trump Jr’s comments. His posting comparing Syrian refugees to Skittles was definitely not the worst remark highlighted in this campaign, but it did speak directly to something I write about frequently—that we must stop dehumanizing Muslims. The only enemy I’m after in this post is the enemy of fear. The Skittles analogy seems reasonable on the surface, but I believe both the logic and lack of compassion are sadly missing. That’s my reason for writing.
Mark, I loved your comment that if Syrian refugees came to your city, you would welcome them! God bless you! If we close our borders in this severe humanitarian crisis, we risk losing our destiny as a nation that has historically opened its doors to “the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free” (see the inscription on our Statue of Liberty). We should never let fear deter us from doing what is right.
I understand that people are afraid of terrorist attacks. I understand the government has a responsibility to protect its citizens. My argument is that turning away a million suffering Muslims because there are likely 3-4 terrorists hidden in the masses does not fulfill our nation’s compassionate destiny, nor is it even logical. To put this issue in perspective, let’s consider these statistics—
• In the last 10 years, 71 Americans have been killed in terrorist attacks on US soil
• Only 1/3 of those killed were by Muslim extremists; 2/3 of the victims were killed by anti-government radicals or white supremacists
• Meanwhile, in the last 10 years, roughly 83 Americans have been killed every single day by gun violence—that’s over 300,000 American deaths
• Only one city in America (Austin, TX) with a population over 400,000 has NOT been devastated by a mass shooting (4 or more people shot in one event) since 2013
I haven’t heard many voices calling for the arrest of over 5,000 active Ku Klux Klan members, wire-tapping on the nearly 100,000 white supremacists in America, or the confiscation of every privately owned firearm. Though the danger of violence from these sources far outweighs the danger from Muslim terrorists in our nation, we’re willing to let the authorities deal with the criminals as they come so we don’t end up throwing out the good with the bad.
This is how I believe we should see the refugee situation. Yes, a terrorist might sneak in. If he takes action, we pray the authorities will discover it in advance and prevent any tragic loss of life. But my hope is that if that terrorist sees how America compassionately welcomes his parents, siblings, children, friends, and yes, even him, he’ll realize the error of his ways. I hope when he arrives he finds America at her best—not cowering in fear, but boldly loving our neighbor no matter who our neighbor is.
LikeLike
AMEN!!
LikeLike