What Muslims Believe About Jesus
I have been with many Muslims the past several days. One in particular that I’ve enjoyed a lot is Sheik Omar Rahmon. The previous day before I met him he had been with Baptists in his country trying to build bridges. He went to one of their prayer meetings and they had a very open discussion. I’m very grateful that he went out of the way to affirm Jesus. He listed all the things he and Muslims believe about Jesus:
1. He was born of a virgin.
2. He was the only perfect man to ever live.
3. His second coming.
4. He worked miracles.
5. He is physically in heaven with God.
6. He died on the cross.
So what’s missing for us as Christians? His resurrection and divinity. I would like to say these two things don’t matter – but for a Christian they are central to what puts us in a right relationship to God. To be divine – is the incarnation – God among us identifying with us. To be resurrected completes redemption by him being the sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. So, if we don’t believe those two core things – we as Jesus followers can’t have a relationship with God.
This is why the Trinity matters – or the Tri-Unity of God. It isn’t a “nice” Christian doctrine but one that defines the ones of God yet the 3 distinct persons. God must be beyond us to be God-the Father. He must be with us and incarnate to redeem us. He must be present giving us strength to live the Christian live as the Holy – yet still be one or we become pantheist.
I want to thank you Sheik Omar for your kindness and graciousness – you are a great man who loves God – I have no doubt about that. I look forward to us working together and learning from each other. I want to thank you for respect my Jesus so much – he is your Jesus too – we just view what he did for us different. Sheik Omar, you make me love Muslims even more. May we all be “Muslims” – or people “submitted to God.”
It’s Easter – and this is something near my mind and heart.
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Comments
Apr 11, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Thanks for this post Bob.
gaj
Apr 12, 2009 at 10:48 AM
Páscoa is Easter in portuguese, it's more like Pesach in hebrew. It's more like "pass" in english, like "passport. That was what Jesus makes to us: He redeem us from our sin and give us a passport from the death to life.
I think Easter comes from East, and that remind me another word in portuguese: Oriente that means East. In english there is a similar word: orientation. Easter is the best day for "orientations". This one about muslims was amazing. It can break down preconceptions; especially our West preconceptions about The East.
May Jesus orient us, ever, how to pass through from our insignificance to His light.
Feliz PÁSCOA à todos, Good Easter to all,
from your brother in Jesus, the messiah,
Samuel.
Apr 13, 2009 at 03:29 PM
Bob,
Thanks for having the courage to post these words. I imagine you'll be named amongst the heretics for saying these things, but the heresy hunters misunderstand so much anyway, why bother with them? May God continue to guide and direct your steps, brother.
Shalom,
Steve K.
Apr 14, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Quick question Bob, Do you understand the God of Christians and the Allah of Muslims to be the same person just understood differently?
Thanks,
Phil
Apr 14, 2009 at 01:12 PM
Two different issues.
Grammatically Allah is the Aramaic word for God. So if you had an Aramaic New Testament everytime the word God appeared, it would be Allah.
Theologically, we are both monotheistic. We both hold to the Old Testament and New Testament though they would say parts of both are wrong. I would say Jesus and God are the same, they would not - so our understanding at that point would be different.
You are probably aware by your question this is a big debate and discussion and people on both sides differ - even among conservative evangelicals. You can read great books that go into more detail that take different positions on all of this.
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