What would you do if a
young Muslim man came to you and told you he was not finding truth in
Islam and wanted to learn about Christianity? I was shocked
yesterday when an executive at a Christian University told us the
story of how a young man came to her this way and she told him to go
back to Islam to find truth. She beamed proudly as she talked about
how he eventually came to peace with Islam. She identified herself
as a Christian, but she worshipped the false god of interfaith
dialogue and sacrificed this young man on the altar of her idolatry.
Superficial dialogue is
not the path to peace or reconciliation. Sheikh Abdullah and I have
been friends for a year and a half now. It would be fair to describe
both of us as deeply committed to our religious beliefs. We've
talked about spiritual issues before as friends, but never with great
spiritual depth. There has been a fear that going beyond superficial
dialogue would destroy our friendship. We had gone as deep as one
could without addressing the real issues of faith that divide Muslims
and Christians.
I decided this week to
go beyond superficial dialogue and talk about important things, so I
paid a visit to Abdullah at his home. After some chitchat I told him
that I wanted to talk about serious things. I asked him “If I died
today, where would I go?” He didn't want to answer at first, but I
kept prodding him with “Truly, truly.” He got that embarrassed
smile on his face that he gets when he is caught with his hand in the
cookie jar and said “You're going to hell.” He immediately asked
me that same thing and I told him “You're going to hell, Abdullah.”
We laughed and hugged
and it was like a weight lifted from our shoulders. He loves me and
wants me to become a Muslim so that I won't burn in hell. He
understands exactly why I love him and want him to follow Jesus. We
started talking about all the things we had both wanted to talk about
for a year. He wanted to ask me “What do you think of the Quran?
What about Prophet Mohammad? Why are there four Gospels? Wasn't
your Bible just written by men?”
We enjoyed it so much
that he invited over Sheikh Zechariah, a mutual friend of us both.
After I told Zecharaih that he was going to hell and I was praying
for him to be saved, he jumped right into the conversation. He told
me how the Quran was a mircale of God because the message was so
beautiful. I told him the beautiful parts were lifted right out of
the Bible and that there were some parts I found really ugly.
That brought us to
Surat 9:5, one of the “verses of the sword”. It commands Muslims
to go out and kill infidels unless they become Muslims or agree to
pay the jizya tax. I asked him to read it aloud. As he chanted it
in a beautiful voice I could tell he was realizing the implications.
“The sound is beautiful but the message is ugly,” I said when he
finished. “It tells you to kill me.”
 |
| No contextualization can make these words beautiful to an infidel. |
“That is only for
those who refuse to become Muslim or pay Jizya,” he offered weakly.
“I don't want to say
Shihada and become Muslim,” I replied, “so that just leaves me
paying Jizya tax. I'm a man. Do you think I want to pay a tax to
you Muslims because I am a Christian? That is an ugly idea. Do you
want to pay a tax to me because you are Muslim?” He was really
left speechless, unable to defend the ugliness of what he had read .
Folks, that's real
dialogue, and it's the sort of topics we must confront if we want to
live in peace with one another.
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