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For those who've just joined up, we've been reviewing a lecture by Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo on the Challenge of Islam to the Church, Missions, and Society. I've posted the previous installments on the homepage at www.citizensoldier.org. We're now ready to answer how the Church should confront the challenge of Islam. The answer, of course, must come from Scripture. Scripture recognizes that besides creating individuals, God has established 3 institutions that perform essential functions within society: the family, the church, and government. God has given us specific commandments for how we are to conduct ourselves within each institution. These commandments are complementary - not identical - and, like all of God's commandments, work together for the good of men, both saved and lost. For example, God commands Christians as individuals to love their enemies and forgive those who persecute us. Mt.5:44, 6:14. But God commands all individuals - Christian or not - who wield the power of government to bear the sword against those same trangressors whom Christian victims are commanded to forgive. Rom. 13:4. The principle at work temporally here is the same principal that applies to us spiritually as forgiven believers: Forgiveness does not mean the absence of consequences for sin. As Christians, we cannot lose our salvation but we can lose our reward in heaven by our disobedience. 1Cor.3:14-15. A Christian must forgive the criminal who wrongs him but that forgiveness does not mean the criminal can escape the punishment God has commanded through government. Just as God has given different commandments to individuals acting as individuals and to individuals acting within the institutions He has established, our response to Islam must be governed by the context in which we act. When we respond as the church, we must not compromise the duties God has given the church. The foremost of these is to safeguard and give out the Gospel of Christ without compromise. The Gospel that Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God is the rock on which the church is built. Mt. 16:16-18. To safeguard the Gospel, Dr. Sookhdeo says the way the church should confront Islam is by using its power as an institution to critique Islam's ideology with Scripture. This makes sense when we think about the way ideas are transmitted. Ideas flow in three ways, very similar to the three types of heat transfer studied in thermodynamics. First there is one-to-one transfer, similar to conduction. Next there is broadcast transfer - one speaker, many listeners - that corresponds to heat transfer by radiation. Last there is convection, the undirected absorption of ideas simply because one lives in a society where these ideas are carried in the language and culture. As an institution, the church has the resources to prepare a detailed response to Islam and propagate it through directed media and educational programs. The directed media campaign would be a type of radiation or broadcast idea transfer. The educational campaign would help establish an environment where Christians present a united front of ideas to Muslims. To date we have not seen much of this - Dr. Sookhdeo's lecture consituted the very first attempt, in my mind. As individuals, we are commanded to show Muslims love by sharing the Gospel with them. Clearly, it would be helpful if we had a written document and educational programs produced by the church to help us with this task. Dr. Sookhdeo said the church can cooperate with Islam to meet humanitarian needs, but this carries three dangers. First, as an institution the church's primary duty is to support believers 2Cor.8-9, 1Tim.5:1-16, James 1:27. The duty to assist non-believers is secondary. Gal.6:10. Second, there is a very great danger that meeting humanitarian needs can become more important than sharing the Gospel. Last and most important is the danger the church will compromise the Gospel by being unequally yoked with non-believers, light having fellowship with darkness. 2Cor. 6:14. This last danger is exactly the reason Dr. Sookhdeo told the pastor in our last email it would be wrong to share his church with Muslims. It would amount to bringing the priests of Baal into the temple. To see what God has to say about this, take a look at 2 Kings 10:18-30 and 2 Kings 22 & 23. John gave specific limits on our fellowship with those who deny Christ - as Muslims do - in 2Jn.1:7-11. Next email we'll hear what Dr. Sookhdeo said about missions. Did you know there was a time when almost every Christian missionary deserted the field and became a champion for Islam? |
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