This book contains a series of lectures given by Samuel Zwemer on the need for missionaries to the Muslim world.
This book contains a series of lectures given by Samuel Zwemer on the need for missionaries to the Muslim world.
This article originally appeared on The Acts 2:11 Project:
As Christians involve themselves – for good and for bad – in the divisive politics and cultural struggles of our nation, it is assumed they do so to preserve and advance a moral ethic consistent with Scripture.
Unfortunately, it can be easy to forget one of the central marks of this morality: ‘Do unto others, as you would have others do unto you.’
This command, and it is necessary to remember it is an active imperative, concerns many issues of the day. I would submit that current Muslim-Christian relations illustrate this selective memory, and the Middle East provides a useful mirror.
The promises given to Abraham and all the prophecies in the OT have to be interpreted in the light of the coming of the kingdom of God in Jesus. The OT must therefore be read through the spectacles, the glasses, of the NT. Because OT promises and prophecies (including those about the land and about biblical Israel) have been fulfilled in the coming of the kingdom in Jesus, the return of Jews to the land and the establishment of the state of Israel have taken place under the sovereignty of God, but have no special theological significance. They are not to be seen as signs pointing forward to the Second Coming. All believers in Jesus inherit all the promises made the Abraham. They are ‘a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation’ (1 Peter 2:9; Gal 3:26-29) and enjoy their spiritual inheritance which is ‘kept in heaven’ (1 Peter 1:4; Heb 4; 12:18-24).
If this is the starting point, let me try to elaborate on this approach in the following ten stages…
It happened during the annual pilgrimage, as tens of thousands milled around the black-robed Ka’aba. Arms had been secretly smuggled underneath the Ka’aba, mostly in coffins (relatives believe in this way deceased loved ones receive a special blessing before burial). It took two weeks to bring things under control. In the blood bath, hundreds were killed, scores wounded and the insurgents (including the fake Mehdi) quickly beheaded. Communications with the outside world had been cut, but somehow the millenarian leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, announced (via radio) that it was the work of Americans and Jews. Muslims believed him…
The answer to this question must be an emphatic NO! There are plenty of situations where Islamists do not resort to violence. But at the same time they face a real dilemma. They want their society to be more consistently Islamic; but how are they to achieve this goal? Are they to work for a gradual and peaceful Islamisation of the country, or are they justified in using force to win power? And what happens when violence is done to them? These dilemmas can be illustrated from the history of one particular Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.