Zwemer Center

Resurrection: Bible Storying for Muslims

Resurrection: Bible Storying for Muslims: Dr. Cashin Lecture

Dr. David Cashin delivered a series of lectures on chronological Bible Storying for Muslims during a CIU course. Here, Cashin presents the final lesson on chronological bible storying of Matthew 28 or any of the other resurrection passages with Muslims.

Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. David Cashin Lecture:

Welcome to lesson 18 of chronological bible storying for Muslims and, today what we’re gonna do is really do our final lesson and we’re going to be looking at the last two lessons, lessons 9 and 10 in chronological, story for Muslims. Now, you’ll notice that this particular set of lessons is very short and, the reason is that this is your opportunity to be creative. I’ve pretty much given you the passages and the important study questions in the first eight studies that we did. 5 in the old testament and 3 thus far in the new testament. Now, I wanna give you just very briefly some thoughts on the final two lessons, to do with your Muslim friend, but I’m not gonna spell it all out for you.

What I’d like you to do is prepare materials on your own, and begin to think of ways to work with your Muslim friend. I’m assuming at this point that having done 8 studies, you’ve already spent 2 months with your Muslim friend, talking together, reading the Bible together, looking at issues concerning God’s way of salvation and who is the the Lord Jesus Christ. And I also assume that you had times of prayer together and you’ve come to the place perhaps of understanding your Muslim friends culture a lot better. So at this point, I think it’s your opportunity to begin to design your final two lessons yourself on what it is that you think your Muslim friend needs to hear. Lesson number 9, should be on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I would make, the suggestion, that you use Matthew chapter 28, although you can use any of the resurrection narratives if you’d like. And there are just a couple of key questions I think that you should ask, of these passages. One of them is, what does the resurrection indicate? What does it mean that Jesus has been raised from the dead? And I think the important point from the Muslim, perspective is that the resurrection indicates that God has accepted what Jesus has done.

That is the kafara, the atonement that Jesus has made on behalf of humanity has been accepted by the father and the father has raised the Lord Jesus Christ back to, from the dead, has given him victory over death, and has provided through him a word of hope to all of humanity. That now the way is open for you to come to God and you have the hope of eternal life in Jesus Christ. Those who have believed on the Lord Jesus and put their trust in him, they have passed out of death into life and that is what the resurrection indicates. Then, I think the other point that is important to make and that’s one of the reasons why I picked the Matthew 28 passage is the commandment that Jesus gives to his disciples. Matthew 28 verses, 18 through 20 gives this message of Jesus, his final message to his disciples to take this good news concerning him to the ends of the earth.

And I think it’s worthwhile to mention to our Muslim friend, the reason why I’ve been sharing with you from the Bible is because Jesus commanded me to do this. He commanded me to tell the whole world about the story of his life, the story of what he had done, and to give people the good news that they can know God intimately and personally and God has made a way for them to come to him through what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross. Now beyond that, you have the opportunity to be creative and, to look at ways that you wanna express that as you read through the passage. Pray for the holy spirit to lead you. The spirit may lead you to lift other aspects out of that passage to share with your Muslim friend.

But I want you to be creative at this point and, make your own lesson 9 on the resurrection of Jesus. The final lesson you need to cover, lesson 10, is the challenge to receive Jesus. Now, by the time you get to this point, you have actually spent 9 weeks with your Muslim friend, and you have set a foundation upon which to challenge him or her to receive Christ as savior and as Lord. How do you do that? Well, you know, frankly, we have all at different points in our lives learned different challenges about how to receive Christ.

Some people, have used the John 316, one verse method, where, God gives that invitation, to turn in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. For God, you know, sent his only begotten son that whomsoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Very simple invitation can be built on a one verse method of saying God is giving this calling to you. Would you like to receive the Lord Jesus as savior and Lord? A method that I learned as a brand new Christian, when I was in high school, got led to Christ by the campus crusade for Christ, I used the 4 spiritual laws.

Now, many people will say, oh my goodness, 4 spiritual laws. That’s for a Western American cultural context. Well, that’s true, but if you’ve laid these 9 weeks of foundation, this is a good point to reiterate and the 4 spiritual laws does an excellent job of reiterating the 4 basic points. The love of God and plan that he has for your life, that you should know him intimately and personally. Secondly, the fact of sin, how that separates us from God, how that breaks that relationships. resurrection

Thirdly, how God has provided a means through the Lord Jesus Christ, something that he predicted and showed by symbolism in the Old Testament and then it was realized in reality in the New Testament that Jesus died for our sins and then the 4th law, which is really the same as the challenge of John 316 is simply this, that it’s not enough to know these things about what the Lord Jesus has done. We must each individually pray to receive him and make him Lord in our lives. There are other illustrations. Billy Graham Association uses the bridge to God illustration. Navigators also do that kind of thing.

I think it’s important that you be bold at this point. One of the things I notice about Muslims who come to faith in Jesus Christ is they tend to be very bold about their faith. Unfortunately, a lot of westerners are pretty namby pamby and oh my goodness, self depreciating and would never think of challenging someone to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know, Muslims will respect that kind of a challenge even if they don’t accept the fact that you believe enough in the Lord Jesus that you’re ready to invite someone to receive him as savior and Lord. You’ll find that there are Muslims who are not at all bashful about inviting you to say the shahada, that is to make the confession of faith in Islam.

As Christians, we should not be ashamed to challenge people to con- to actually pray to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and receive the salvation, which he offers to everyone freely. Now, what happens if your friend receives Christ? And there are some of you who will have this experience. I’ve had this experience of having a Muslim a Muslim. Pray to receive the Lord Jesus Christ with you.

Just a couple of main points, we need to think about if this happens. First of all, discipleship. You need to continue meeting on a weekly basis and in part of a small group may also be a good thing to do, incorporating your Muslim friend into a small group, you need to be studying the Bible on a weekly basis, basic discipleship studies, because as you do so, you are reorienting his worldview in the light of the gospel. There’s a lot we could say about this which you don’t really have time for, but you will notice as you study the word with your Muslim friend, there are many issues that he or she is working through. What is prayer? resurrection

How is Christian prayer different from Muslim ritual prayer? What is fasting? How do Christians fast as compared to the Muslim way of fasting during the month of Ramadan? What is worship? Is worship ritualistic formulaic prayers that I say?

Or how do I actually worship God? The whole area of fellowship with other believers. What does it mean to trust? What does it mean to love others? What does it mean to give testimony to Jesus, publicly and to lift him up before non believers?

What is my relationship to my family? What kind of family relationship should I have now? How do I deal with potential rejection from my family because I become a Christian? All of these issues, must be worked through. If you receive a Muslim who’s come to faith in Jesus, you have a huge task ahead of you.

And hallelujah, that’s the way it should be. That’s what Jesus did. He took 12, people around him as disciples and he discipled them for 3 years. And, you will have a similar responsibility to your Muslim friend who comes to Christ. And by the way, as I said at the very beginning, remember how I talked about the importance of hospitality? resurrection

Muslim culture is wonderful in the area of hospitality. American culture is not very good at that. So hospitality and opening your home is very important, and community is essential. Remember, your Muslim friend may very well be rejected by his family and her community because they’ve become followers of Jesus. You must supply that new place of community for them.

Now, there’s much more that we can say about this and if you have any questions or want to talk to me, my email is dcashin, that’s dcashinciu.edu. Again, that’s dcashin, dcashin@ciu.edu. Or, you can call me at my, home phone number, actually office phone number, which is 8 038075326. Again, 803807532 6. I’ll be happy to talk with you about how best to reach your Muslim friend and to disciple him or her, for their new faith.

Now, there’s a possibility that your friend does not receive Christ. What do you do then? Well, first of all, ask if they would like to continue to read the Bible with you. Sometimes it takes a while for a Muslim to come through the faith in Christ. Sometimes they come quickly.

Sometimes they come slowly. But we should always be open and willing to continue the Bible study that we begin with them. You might wanna study the book of John. Just go right straight through that whole book and look at who Jesus is in a deeper way. I I deeply believe in the power of the scriptures to touch a Muslim’s heart.

If you wanna do certain passages, there are a number of passages that I could suggest that tend to speak to Muslims. Sermon on the Mount is something very attractive to Muslims, particularly Jesus’ teaching on loving your enemies. Matthew 5, verses 43 to 48. But the entire Sermon on the Mount, which talks about the fact that external religion is not the important thing. It’s the internal attitude of the heart.

Matthew 11, where Jesus talks, come unto me all ye who are heavy laden and burdened and learn of me. Take my yoke upon me for my yoke is easy, my burden is light. It’s a wonderful passage for Muslims. A woman taken in adultery. John chapter 8 verses 1 to 9. resurrection

The reason why this passage is powerful is because the very same thing happened in the life of Muhammad. In the hadith, it describes how a woman was brought to Mohammed guilty of adultery. And the long and the short of Mohammed’s answer was take her out and stone her to death. That’s Islam. The law.

Keep the law. Go to heaven. Break the law. Suffer the punishment. There are other passages the way of sonship versus the way of slavery.

Romans chapter 8 and Galatians 4 that we’ve already spoken of. I do encourage you to continue to faithfully witness to your Muslim friend, and to lift up the scriptures and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And please let me know about how things are going with you. I would love to be praying for you. Remember that prayer is the foundation to all of this, and it’s through prayer that God touches the hearts of Muslims and brings them into relationship with himself. resurrection

We will stop at this point. Blessings on you.

Luke 23: Bible Storying for Muslims

Luke 23: Bible Storying for Muslims: Dr. Cashin Lecture

Dr. David Cashin delivered a series of lectures on chronological Bible Storying for Muslims during a CIU course. Here, Cashin presents the eighth lesson on chronological bible storying of Luke 23 with Muslims.

Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. David Cashin Lecture: 

Welcome to lesson 16 which is our 8th lesson, in chronological bible story for Muslims and we are now coming to the very significant passage of Luke chapter 23 verses 26 to 49. Here, we’re going to talk about the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ and what it means. It means how he gains forgiveness for us for our sins. Let’s read through this passage and then ask some questions and see how this can be related, to your Muslim friend. Jesus is led away to be crucified.

As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene who was on his way in from the country and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.

Then they will say to the mountains, fall on us, and to the hills, cover us. For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? Some questions of the text here. Jesus going to the cross. Who carried the cross for Jesus?

Well, that’s a easy question for your Muslim friend to answer. This fellow from Cyrena, Simon is his name. Now, the reason we ask this is because, in Islam, as you’re probably aware, the Quran itself denies that Jesus was crucified. It says that it only appeared to be so, but there was someone else, crucified in his place. And Simon of Cyrene is one of those suggested by Muslim scholars as being the one who was actually crucified and the idea is something like this that God somehow changed the appearance of the person who was with Jesus and that that person by mistake was crucified in Jesus’ place while God himself took Jesus up to be with himself. Luke 23

Now, a couple of things about this that are really profoundly disturbing. First of all, it implies that God here is a terrible trickster, who has caused an innocent person to be executed in the place of Jesus by making him look like Jesus. He’s pulled Jesus up into heaven with himself, but at the same time, has left the Christians in the dark about what he’s doing. And this isn’t revealed, apparently, until 600 years later when Mohammed reveals in the Quran this rather interesting story. Interestingly enough, Muslims have at least 8 different explanations as to who it was who was crucified in Jesus’ place.

Probably their favorite is, Judas Iscariot, although Simon of Cyrene is suggested. Barabbas is also suggested by some Muslims that it was all a matter of a mistake somehow. Now, the reason why Muslims say this is because, they can’t believe that a prophet of God could be subjected to this kind of, torment, and they considered it a great insult that anyone would say that a prophet could could lose or be put to death in this kind of a horrible way. Of course, they’re misunderstanding entirely the message of the cross, why the cross is so essential. But, from a historical point of view, there are 2 major problems with the Muslim position.

First of all, it gives the view that God is a profoundly evil character who tricks people and then causes Christians to be fooled into worshiping a Christ as crucified who was not crucified. What kind of a God is this? Certainly not a God that I would wanna follow, or or worship or or serve. That God would be more like Satan, frankly, in tricking people to worship, especially if it was Judas who was crucified in Jesus’s place. So, the Christians are worshiping the evil betrayer Judas as the savior of their sins?

Insane. Doesn’t make sense at all. Secondly, from a historical perspective, it’s very interesting even in Islam it stated that when three witnesses give the same testimony, that testimony is true and this is particularly interesting when you realize that the 3 groups of people who testify about what happened to Jesus are opposed to each other. You have the Jews, you have the Romans, and you have the Christians. Jews were opposed to Jesus. Luke 23

Christians were obviously followers of Jesus. Romans were, relatively speaking, neutral on the subject, and yet all three groups who were eyewitnesses to the crucifixion testified that Jesus was crucified, And the fact that they disagree with each other about the interpretation of the event certainly gives great credence to the historicity of the event. The Jews said he was crucified therefore he cannot be Messiah. The Christians said he was crucified and that’s how he is Messiah. And the Romans say he’s crucified.

So what? Well, all of this indicates the historicity of the crucifixion of Jesus, and it also indicates that there’s a major mistake in the Quran. Is the Quran a truly najil kitab or tanzil? Is it really revealed if it contains within its pages historical errors? Now, you may not suggest that directly to your Muslim friend, but some people do and ask their Muslim friend is it possible that this could be a mistake in the Quran?

And what does that say about what the Quran is as a document? Well, and again, the question you can ask your Muslim friend is have you ever heard that Jesus was not crucified? And get their explanation of what actually took place. And ask the question why do some people say that? And then you can often ask the question what have they misunderstood about Jesus?

Because as we’ve been showing all the way from chapter 3 of Genesis, all the way through the sacrifice of Abraham’s son, the story of the suffering servant, all of these things are pointing to the reality that there is going to be a kafada. There is going to be an atonement made for the sins of the world. These people have not understood the reason why Jesus came. It was his purpose to come to be the perfect sacrifice for sins. The perfect kafara to bring atonement for our own evil deeds. Luke 23

Let’s move on to the next part of the passage, which is a very powerful thing for Muslims. It’s where Jesus forgives his executioners. 2 other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him along with the criminals. 1 on his right, the other on his left.

Jesus said, father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. By the way, this is, Jesus living out the very thing that he had taught, in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew where Jesus said love your enemies and do good to those who persecute you. That’s, Matthew chapter 5 verses 43 to 48. That passage is also very powerful passage for Muslims, because they recognize that in a culture where revenge and violence and foundational, coercive violence is foundational to the structure of society, there is no peace.

There is violence, and hatred, and ongoing infighting, and wars, really forever. And so, Jesus gives a teaching and then he lives it out in which he forgives his enemies. He forgives the very people who crucified him. He breaks the cycle of violence and retribution. Friends, if we look across the Muslim world today, this is the message Muslims desperately need.

The message of forgiveness and reconciliation. That’s what the message of the cross is all about. You could spend a lot of time talking with your Muslim friend about the need for forgiveness and reconciliation in the Muslim world and that it’s based on what Christ has done for us on the cross. Here are some questions. Again, what does forgiveness mean? Luke 23

We talked about this. Forgiveness means I take the consequences of your actions on myself when I forgive you. That’s really the message of the cross. God taking the consequences of our actions upon himself. How did Jesus love his enemies?

He loved his enemies by bearing their very sins in his own body. So he forgave them. He had authority to forgive because he was making payment for their sins. Now, another question you can ask is who really crucified Jesus? Well, you could say, oh, well the Jews condemned him to death.

Oh well, the Romans crucified him, but the message of the gospel is we all crucified Jesus. Whoever sins is worthy of death in the eyes of God. The relationship is broken. But Jesus took the sins of everyone in his own body and opened the doorway to forgiveness and to being adopted into God’s family as sons. So we are all guilty of the cross of Christ.

It’s not the Jews who are guilty of it or the Romans who are guilty of it. It is all of humanity that is guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus because every sin every human being ever committed was laid upon Jesus at that time. That’s why he has authority to forgive. Also, this passage of Jesus forgiving the criminal on the cross. Let’s read this together. Luke 23

The people stood watching and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, he saved others. Let him save himself if he’s the Christ of God, the chosen one. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar, and said, if you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.

There was a written notice above him which read, this is the King of the Jews. One of the criminals who hung here hurled insults at him. Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other criminal rebuked him.

Don’t you fear God, he said. Since you are under the same sentence, we are punished justly for we’re getting what our deeds deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, I tell you the truth. Today, you will be with me in paradise.

This is a powerful passage where Jesus shows what forgiveness is really all about, an adoption into the kingdom of God and into his family. The worst sinner in the world is potentially redeemed through the blood of Christ, through his sacrifice on the cross, and the the first one to enter heaven with Jesus is not some great saint of the past, not some great prophet of holiness, but a man who was crucified for his sins. A criminal, a thief, is the first to enter the kingdom of Jesus. It’s a powerful message of forgiveness and reconciliation to our Muslim friends. How does Jesus minister to the thief on the cross? Luke 23

He ministers to him by means of forgiveness and hope. So why is the cross so important to the Christian faith? You can ask this of your Muslim friend. Why is why are churches all adorned with crosses? Why do Christians wear crosses around their necks?

Why is it so important? Well, the cross is so important to us because it’s the means of forgiveness. It’s the way in which God has created an eternal perfect kafada, a perfect atoning sacrifice for our sins. How should believers in Jesus act towards those identified by the culture as evil? Well, this is the amazing thing.

A Christian is called to love every person, even those who are evil, even those who would hurt them. Now, it doesn’t mean that society shouldn’t exist or that there isn’t going to be crime and punishment in society, but it says that the Christian sees every person, no matter how bad, as potentially redeemable through the cross of Christ. Islam seeks to purge the evil. Take the adulterer out and stone him to death. Take the thief out and chop his hand off.

The gospel says these are people who can be saved and transformed through experiencing the forgiveness and adoption into the family of God. Now, we come to the death of Jesus. It was now about the 6th hour and darkness came over the whole land until the 9th hour. For the sun stopped shining, and the curtain of the temple was torn in 2. Jesus called out with a loud voice, father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Luke 23

When he had said this, he breathed his last. The centurion seeing what had happened, praised God and said, surely, this was a righteous man. When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching these things. Couple of quick questions.

Why was the temple veil torn in 2? You can ask your Muslim friend that. There was a veil in the temple and it was ripped in half when Jesus died. What does that mean? And if they probably won’t know, so you can explain it to them.

It means the temple veil prevented human beings from coming close to the actual altar of God, God’s presence in Israel. The ripping of the veil says now anyone can come into the presence of God. What happened in Genesis chapter 3 and the separation from intimate relationship with God, this veil that has prevented us from drawing near to God has been ripped apart, and now, as sinful human beings, we can be purified through the death of Christ and come into intimate relationship with God. What prompted the centurion to make his confession concerning Jesus? Why is it that he said that this was a righteous man?

He was a soldier. He’d seen many people crucified. I’m sure he had never heard words of forgiveness before from a man he had crucified. He had never seen a person die like Jesus died with forgiveness and mercy even for a thief on the cross next to him. He understood this was not a normal human being. Luke 23

Who do you think Jesus is? What do you confess him to be? What do you think of Jesus in this aspect of his suffering? How do you explain it? Here’s a chance to let your Muslim friend talk about Jesus.

What he or she thinks about the Lord Jesus Christ and, it would be good to just take some time to have that kind of a conversation and see what they think about Jesus. Many questions may arise about what they believe about Jesus and who he is, but really the whole message of the New Testament is to explain Christ to people and so that’s our purpose at this point in time to talk about who Jesus is.

John 8: Bible Storying for Muslims

John 8: Bible Storying for Muslims: Dr. Cashin Lecture

Dr. David Cashin delivered a series of lectures on chronological Bible Storying for Muslims during a CIU course. Here, Cashin presents the seventh lesson on chronological bible storying of John 8 with Muslims.

Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. David Cashin Lecture: 

We now come to lesson 15 in chronological Bible storying for Muslims. This is study number 7. That is our 7th study, in, the Bible and this is our second study in the New Testament. And here, we want to discuss the topic of Jesus and Abraham. Now, you may be aware that for Muslims, Abraham is really the seminal figure of history.

He is the source of all the great monotheistic religions of Judaism, of Christianity, and of Islam, and, Muslims look back to Abraham as really being the father of the faith in that sense. So, it’s very important, I believe, in studying with Muslims to see the role of Jesus as he envisioned himself in comparison to Abraham. Helping Muslims to see that Jesus is superior to Abraham and makes some very startling claims about himself. As we move through this study in the New Testament, Testament, over and over again, we’re going to see that Jesus is explaining primarily who he is as the Kalimatullah, as the word of God. So we’ll be looking today at John chapter 8 verses 31 to 59 and, this is a fairly extensive passage.

I have provided the entire passage here, and we’ll read it fairly rapidly. I don’t want to spend a lot of time in the reading, but I think it’s worthwhile to look at that as you think and prepare, for talking with your Muslim friends. And, the story here is really about how Jesus sets us free. Beginning at verse 31. To the Jews who had believed in him, Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. John 8

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. They answered him, we are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be free? Jesus replied, I tell you the truth. Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.

Now, a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Now, these are some pretty remarkable statements by Jesus. What does Jesus refer to when he speaks of the truth? Now keep in mind that to know the truth means to experience it, to live it, to have it within yourself, and really what Jesus is talking about is what we talked about right back in Genesis 12.

We were created for intimate relationship with God. Why is it that sin breaks, is such a problem for us as human beings? Well, simply because it breaks the intimate relationship with God. So, what does the Son do? He sets us free from that breakage of relationship and restores us to being sons of God.

So, that knowing and experiencing the truth is a word that refers to relationship at the deepest possible level. How does the truth set you free to be a son instead of a slave? You see, those who sin are slaves to sin, Jesus says, and they cannot know God. But through what Jesus does, you can be set free to become a son of God and I put this wonderful picture of a dad and his son together because it illustrates for me and this is clip art so it’s okay to use here, this illustrates for me the intimacy and the warmth and the closeness of relationship that humans were designed to have with God. By the way, there’s a passage in the New Testament, Galatians chapter 4 verse 31, which is almost like a prophecy concerning Islam in New Testament, where it talks about the fact that those who follow the law are enslaved and are following in the pathway of Hagar, who signifies from Mount Sinai the slavery of those who think they can come to God through the works of the law. John 8

But we follow the true Jerusalem, which is found in Sarah and Isaac, who were not coming to God through the law, but who are coming to God through the adoption as sons. It’s a powerful passage and it really illustrates the difference between Islam and Christianity. Romans chapter 8 tells you the same story, around verses 10 to 14. That those who, have come to God through Jesus Christ are sons of God not slaves, and are set free from the fear and the bondage to sin. So these are important points as you walk through this particular passage with your Muslim friend.

John 83437 to 47 goes on to say, they answered him we are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free? Jesus replied, I tell you the truth. Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now, a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.

So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Now, you are Abraham’s descendants, yet you are ready to kill me because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the father’s presence, and you do what you have heard from your father. Abraham is our father, they answered. If you were Abraham’s children, said Jesus, then you would do the things Abraham did.

As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the things your own father does. We are not illegitimate children, they protested. The only father we have is God himself. John 8

Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me, for I come from God, and now I am here. I have not come on my own, but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire.

He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?

He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear that it here is that you do not belong to God. Now, before I move to the next passage, there are a couple of things in this last paragraph in particular that are quite powerful. The issue of lying, the issue of being children of the devil, we’re not talking directly about Islam here. We’re talking about the leadership, amongst the Jews at this particular point in time, but there are many things here that will speak to the Muslim’s heart.

You don’t need to point them out yourself, but this aspect of lying in the cause of religion, this is something Mohammed taught. This idea, that you are speaking on behalf of your own father. A very powerful idea within Islam. And Jesus, of course, is challenging the religious hypocrisy of the day and notice over and over again he’s emphasizing who he is. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ? John 8

So, you can ask the question of your Muslim friend, why did Jesus say such harsh words to the Jews? And get their reaction to that. Now, in many ways, Muslims, because they’re taught to dislike the Jews, they’ll have a lot of things to say about this, but what they don’t realize is that underlying that really is a finger pointing at them as well because of the lies that get told. What does it mean to be a slave of sin? And the powerful reality of that and how it separates us from intimate relationship with God.

And then finally, not all of Abraham’s descendants are truly children of Abraham. What does Jesus say it really means to be a child of Abraham? Let them ponder that for a little bit. What Jesus really says is that a true child of Abraham will recognize Jesus for who he is. Powerful.

Powerful reality. The remaining part of the passage versus 48 to 59. I’m not gonna read all of this, but I do wanna point out what he says towards the end beginning at verse 54. Jesus replied, if I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My father whom you claim as your God is the one who glorifies me.

Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day. He saw it and was glad. John 8

You are not yet 50 years old, the Jews said to him, and you have seen Abraham? I tell you the truth, Jesus answered, before Abraham was born, I am. At this they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself slipping away from the temple grounds. Now, the Jews accused Jesus of being demon possessed and you can talk about that from that part of the passage. In what ways does Jesus, however, make himself greater than Abraham?

Well, he says that he existed before Abraham did and that Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ as if he was looking forward to that. So in essence, Jesus is saying he is primary, not Abraham. He is really the father of the faith. And then, that powerful short phrase in verse 58 before Abraham was I am. What does the I am statement of verse 58 mean in Jewish culture?

Well, the word I Am is the name that God gave to Moses concerning who he was in the burning bush. Say that I Am has sent you. Literally, it’s a statement that Jesus is God. How do the Jews respond to this? Well, they pick up stones to kill him because in their thinking he’s blasphemed.

He has made himself to be God. You have the same issue as what was said in Mark chapter 2. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Here Jesus said, I am superior to Abraham. So who is Jesus according to Jesus? John 8

Well, frankly, Jesus is the I am. He is the source of salvation. He is the Kalimatullah. He is the one who can heal but who can also forgive sins. He is the one who enables us to come to God and how does he do that?

Well, that comes in the next lesson. We’ll stop right here.

Mark 2: Bible Storying for Muslims

Mark 2: Bible Storying for Muslims: Dr. Cashin Lecture

Dr. David Cashin delivered a series of lectures on chronological Bible Storying for Muslims during a CIU course. Here, Cashin presents the sixth lesson on chronological bible storying of Mark 2 with Muslims.

Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. David Cashin Lecture: 

Greetings and welcome to our next lesson in chronological Bible storying for Muslims. You’ll notice that we’re calling this lesson Lesson 6. Now, in actual fact, we’re at lesson 13 because we’ve been, covering a number of other things, but this is the 6th study, that you’ll be doing in the Bible as you share with your Muslim friends. And we have, in our first, five lessons, looked at the, 5 areas in the Old Testament. We looked at creation and the purpose of God for creating us, that is for intimacy and relationship with himself.

We looked at the problem of sin, and then we looked, in 3 lessons at God’s way of dealing with sin, ending with Isaiah chapter 53, which talks and predicts about the coming coming suffering servant, who would pay the price for our sin. Today, we want to begin looking at the New Testament and, this is the second half of the 10, lesson series in chronological Bible storying and here at lesson 6 we begin with the New Testament. And our study today will be, in Mark chapter 2 verses 1 to 12. And at the outset, I will mention 2 main points, that you will be trying to communicate to your Muslim friend. We’re really asking the question about who is Jesus and what kind of authority does he have?

And Mark chapter 2, shows the authority of Jesus to forgive sins, which is a very powerful thing. In Islam, no one has authority to forgive sins except God alone. That was also true in Judaism, of course, and still is. And so, really, this particular passage gives us a a fantastic introduction to how Jesus presents himself to the people of his time. Now, the context is that Jesus is in Capernaum and he’s preaching and it’s really at the start of his ministry.

He goes down to this town, and is preaching there and it says in the passage that he is preaching the word. Now, the word, in Arabic is kalam, which is similar to the Greek word logos of God, but it is not a book that he’s preaching. It’s not a tanzil kitab as Muslims would put it. Tanzil literally means to be let down. A let down book brought down from God above or a revealed book.

Muslims see God’s salvific activity in reaching out to humankind in that way. He is quite distant. He’s in heaven. He doesn’t come down himself. He doesn’t bring the message down himself.

He simply gives a book to the angel Gabriel and Gabriel brings that book down to humanity. So kalam, in this case, is a very interesting idea. What what is this kalam that Jesus is preaching? And this is one of the questions we want you to be asking your Muslim friend as he studies that passage. What is, what our conclusion is going to be as we go through the study is that the kalam that Jesus is preaching is primarily himself.

Who he is, and what authority, he is. Now, the reason why this is a very interesting idea is because if you go into the Quran, Surah chapter 4 verse 171, it states there that Isa Masih is the Kalimatullah. He is the word of God. What does that mean? What does it mean that Jesus is a word, of God?

Well, simply that he is the Tanzil kitab. He is the book that was let down and sent down for our salvation. This is one of the ways in which Islam actually unintentionally reaffirms aspects of who Jesus is and he reveals his authority as this sent down word of God in two ways. First, he forgives sins and, I’ve used a picture here that’s a clip art so it’s allowed to be in a presentation like this. First, he forgives sins and, you know, you know the story. Mark 2

The 4 young friends come with a fellow who’s paralytic and they tear the roof off the house because they can’t get at Jesus through the door cause there’s so many people there, and they let the fellow down through the roof in front of Jesus. And, the first thing that Jesus says, seeing the faith of these friends to this paralytic is, My son, your sins are forgiven. And a couple of questions you can ask about this. What is the greatest priority, sin or sickness? Well, it’s clear that although this fellow is sick and unable to walk, from Jesus’ perspective, his greatest problem is his sin problem.

It is sin which binds us in an eternal sense and Jesus begins by setting this fellow free from his sin problem, not his paralysis problem. Well, the immediate question that the Jewish leaders raise is who can forgive sins but God alone? And this of course creates a tremendous debate and it leads to Jesus demonstrating his authority, not only over sin, but over physical sickness by healing, the paralytic. And, Jesus basically says, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, and then he turns to the paralytic and says, I say to you, arise, take up your pallet, and walk. Now, once again, we can bring in the question of what does forgiveness really mean?

What does it mean that Jesus forgives and, his authority to do so? And remember, our question always comes back to what is the nature of forgiveness and we’ve talked about this several times before. Forgiveness always means taking the consequences of the sinner’s actions upon oneself. So, ultimately, when Jesus has authority to forgive sins, it’s an authority that he will, verify and make perfect through the cross as he bears in his own body the reality of people’s sins. As I’ve said many times in the penitentiary when I share the gospel with people, if you take a $100 from me, steal a $100 from me, I have three courses of action: repayment, punishment, or forgiveness.

If I forgive you, that means I neither get repayment nor satisfaction in punishment. So who loses the $100 then? I do. I have taken the consequences on myself. That’s the key nature of forgiveness. Mark 2

So, when Jesus forgives sins, he not not only is appropriating to himself the authority that only God has, but at the same time, he is putting himself in the position of the suffering servant that we talked about in Isaiah 53, that he will bear the sins of the nations in his own body as part of the way he gives forgiveness. So, Jesus’ authority, well, Jesus claims authority to forgive sins, and by the way, this authority was the primary reason why the Jewish leaders rejected him. In John 9:33, they say to him, you being a man, make yourself out to be God. Of course, Jesus then demonstrates his authority by healing the paralytic. Now, let’s just, recoup and look at some, thoughts that we can ponder about this concerning this particular passage in scriptures.

Number 1. Question that you can put to your Muslim friend. Jesus’s authority to forgive sins. What does this show us about him? And, the one thing that Muslims will ultimately have to grapple with is if Jesus forgives sins, then Jesus is God.

He is the Son of God on earth sent to save us. He is the Tanjil Kitab, the Kalimatullah sent to save us from sin. 2nd question, why was Jesus rejected by most of the Jews? This is a way of of pointing out that when Jesus said that he had authority to forgive sins, the Jews understood what that meant, and that wasn’t something that made him popular. Quite the opposite.

It made him someone hated and then eventually someone who was indeed crucified. So, when Jesus says that today to Muslims or anybody else, it’s controversial and people either have to accept or reject and people often do reject. But Jesus was willing to take that, willing to make that kind of a challenge, because he recognized that apart from recognizing him for who he is, you cannot receive salvation. That’s why in the book of Acts, it states so very, very clearly, there is salvation found in no other name, for there is no name given under heaven by which we must be saved. Thirdly, what does forgiveness mean to the one who forgives? Mark 2

We’ve talked about this many times. This a point that needs to be brought home again and again and again. Jesus is the atonement for our sins. He is the kafara as Muslims would say. What does it mean to you that Jesus has the power to heal?

This is another point that Muslims are very aware of because the Quran talks about Jesus as a healer. That he healed the sick, that he gave sight to the blind, that he healed paralytics, that he raised people from the dead. Muslims are very aware of this because the Quran teaches it and sometimes power encounter will touch a Muslim in this particular way. We have seen cases in Bangladesh, as well as in Kazan, Russia where I have worked, where people have experienced healing and through that healing have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So my encouragement to you is whenever you have a Muslim friend who is sick, do not fail to visit that Muslim friend.

Do not fail to pray for that Muslim friend in Jesus’ name for healing, because God in many times, in many cases, will intervene at that point and do a wonderful work in that Muslim’s life that will bring him to himself. And then, the final question, what did Jesus teach us about who he is? If he has authority to forgive sins, then he is not a mere man, but he is God’s Kalimatullah, he is God’s kafara sent to save us from the power of sin. And we’ll stop at this point. Mark 2

Isaiah 53: Bible Storying for Muslims

Isaiah 53: Bible Storying for Muslims: Dr. Cashin Lecture

Dr. David Cashin delivered a series of lectures on chronological Bible Storying for Muslims during a CIU course. Here, Cashin presents the fifth lesson on chronological bible storying of Isaiah 53 with Muslims.

Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. David Cashin Lecture: 

We now come to our 11th lesson in chronological Bible storying for Muslims. And today, we’re going to look at study number 5 concerning the suffering servant. I’m suggesting that your 5th Bible study with your Muslim friend be focused on Isaiah chapter 53 verses 1 to 12. This passage is perhaps one of the most remarkable passages in the old testament because it shows the degree to which the old testament predicts the coming of Messiah and predicts that Messiah would suffer for the sins of the nation, as a perfect kafara, as Muslims would put it, as a perfect atonement for the sins of the nations. And you remember from our first study that forgiveness means that the one who forgives takes the consequences of the other’s action upon himself.

Now, let me just say a couple of things as we get into this study today. First of all, it is, possible for you, if you want, to, give to your Muslim friends some pictures of the Isaiah 53 scroll in Jerusalem. As you know, in 1948, there was a great discovery of the so called Dead Sea Scrolls in Israel. And one of the scrolls, one of the scrolls that was almost complete, missing nothing, was the so called Isaiah Scroll, dating from about 200 BC. And if you want to use this as an apologetic point, you can probably get some pictures of that scroll, the so called Isaiah Scroll right offline and show it to your Muslim friend and say, the passage that we are about to read, we have a copy of it dating from 200 years before the birth of Jesus.

And this is important because Muslims need to see that the scriptures really hold together and that they really are, not only as old, as they claim to be, but we even have copies, very, very old copies that indicate that these prophecies, were given long before the time of Jesus and long before the time, of, the Christians. So that there’s no way that this was something faked or created at a later time. Let me just mention also that I, in this particular section, I’ve had to remove a number of pictures for copyright issues. So I’ve been just using clip art. Now, that’s been true through all the other studies as well.

But in this one, I felt very much hampered because some of the best pictures, for depicting different aspects of the life of Christ are under copyright. So I just used a clip art here, and I apologize. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t, appropriate some of those pictures and put them into your study materials and then, give them to your Muslim friends as representative. And I’ll talk about that as we go along because there’s some great pictures out there, on the Internet that can be easily imported to any, study materials that you produce. Well, first of all, let’s begin reading through this.

Isaiah 53, We begin at verse 1 of chapter 53. Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him. Nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

Remarkable thing about Jesus is that he was a carpenter with no credentials. In fact, he was criticized by the Jewish leaders. How is it that you come to teach having never really studied in the, advanced seminaries of the day? Jesus was a simple carpenter and there was nothing about him in a physical sense that would make people be attracted to him, as something special. And this is one of the first prophecies about who Jesus would be.

He wouldn’t come as a king. He wouldn’t come as someone who was well known or, received and famous, but simply he came as a servant. And then this passage goes on to describe what kind of a servant this messiah would be. This passage really is talking about what is messiah, and what is messiah going to do? Why do we call him Messiah?

Now it’s interesting that Muslims call Jesus Masih, Esa Masih, Jesus the Messiah. What does it mean to be a Messiah? What does the Messiah do? Well, Isaiah 53 explains that. So he wasn’t anyone special to look at.

And, second, passage goes on to explain he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. The amazing thing is that Jesus was betrayed by one of his own into the hands of the Romans. And his own people didn’t stand by him. He was a man of suffering who was abandoned by all of his friends at the time that he was imprisoned and brought before the Romans.

So no one esteemed him enough to, seek to save or to help him. Remarkable that the Messiah of the world should be abandoned and left in the hands of evil men to do with him what they would please. But the scripture predicted it. This is part of what it means to be Messiah, that he would be re rejected and despised by men, and become a man of sorrows familiar with suffering. So the prophet predicts also one who bears our sorrows as he does this. Isaiah 53

Surely, he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane, accepted the plan of God that as, God’s messiah, the prophet has predicted that he would himself, be smitten by God. Now why would God smite Messiah? Well, it’s simple.

The punishment which we deserved is given to Messiah. That’s why he’s Messiah. He’s Messiah because he’s born the punishment that we deserved in himself. And in Gethsemane, Jesus accepted that startling plan of God. The prophet also predicts that this one, this Messiah would bear our iniquities, but he was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Basically, this is reflecting back to the whole sacrificial system of the old testament, the Passover lamb, which was a spotless without blemish lamb was killed on the day of atonement in memory of the fact that God, through the blood of that lamb, passed over his people from the judgment that they deserved. Isaiah 53

And Muslims to this day, sacrifice in remembrance of the sacrifice on behalf of Abraham’s son. All of these are merely shadows or pictures of what was to come. For these sacrifices must be offered year after year. And, indeed, the Jews to this day also offer their Passover lambs. But the blood of lambs and goats and rams cannot take away our sin.

So the prophet predicts that there would be someone who would himself, a human person who is messiah, would be pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. And the punishment that would give us peace, that is to say, our punishment that we deserved borne by someone else gives us peace, and the option then to return to God in repentance and to receive that forgiveness which he gives. We all like sheep have gone astray. The Lord laid our iniquity upon Messiah. Jesus is the Passover lamb.

The whole book of Hebrews, of course, emphasizes this reality. Also, the prophet predicts that this one would be silent before his accusers. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and who can speak of his descendants for he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people. Isaiah 53

He was stricken by the way. One of the greatest testimonies to innocence is oftentimes silence, isn’t it? And when Jesus was brought before Pilate, he said nothing. There was no need to defend. And Pilate understood by his lack of defense that indeed he was truly innocent.

And so Pilate sought to have Jesus released because he recognized that this was a miscarriage of justice. This man had done nothing wrong. So So he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of God’s people. Those who claimed to be followers of God were not truly followers of God. But indeed, God took their iniquity and laid that iniquity and its punishment upon Messiah, Jesus before Pilate.

Prophet also predicts that Jesus would be buried in a rich man’s tomb. He was assigned a grave with the wicked As an executed criminal, he would have no place to be buried. The Romans would throw such people out in the garbage heaps after they died. And yet, in the end, with the rich in his death, he was buried. Though he’d done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

By the way, this picture is not of the tomb of Nicodemus. I had to take in some clip art that was allowable. I had a much better picture here. But you can look up something like that under, Google search, under tomb of Nicodemus if you want and show some renditions of the rich tomb, in which Jesus was laid. And even this detail is predicted in the book of Isaiah for what would happen with Christ. Isaiah 53

Prophet also predicts the victory of the suffering servant. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. My servant will justify many. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.

By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Again, this is a picture of the resurrection. Yes. The Messiah bears the sins of the world and the sins of all who have, rebelled against God. And yet, after his death, after his atonement has been, carried out and his blood has been poured out, he is restored to life.

He will see the light of life and be satisfied. And he will become the one that justifies the many, that justifies the sinner, that justify those who take faith in his finished work on the cross. This was all predicted in the book of Isaiah, and it’s a critical point to show to our Muslim friends. Old and new testaments fit together. Jesus is the resurrected Christ. Isaiah 53

Finally, the prophet predicts the servant who, the servant who forgives this sin. Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Even as he was being crucified, Jesus said, father, for transgressors. Even as he was being crucified, Jesus said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

And in so saying, he fulfilled exactly what Isaiah 53 said the Messiah would do. He would make intercession for the very people who crucified him. Well, this is an exciting study, and I hope you will have a lot of fun walking your Muslim friend through the reality of the atonement that Jesus has accomplished on the cross and the fact that this was predicted 700 years before the coming of Christ. You can show him in Isaiah some of the historical passages where, various Israelite kings are referred to, kings who are also known from the ancient chronicles, of, Assyria, for instance. And, Hezekiah, who is king in Israel and, is during the reign of, Isaiah.

And this helps our Muslim friend to see that these predictions came long before the time of Christ and can only be fulfilled through what we know of the life of Jesus himself. Well, we’ll stop there. And, thank you, and I trust you’ll have some fun with

Genesis 22: Bible Storying for Muslims

Genesis 22: Bible Storying for Muslims: Dr. Cashin Lecture

Dr. David Cashin delivered a series of lectures on chronological Bible Storying for Muslims during a CIU course. Here, Cashin presents the fourth lesson on the chronological bible storying of Genesis 22 with Muslims.

Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. David Cashin Lecture: 

We now come to lesson 9 in chronological Bible storying for Muslims, And we’re looking today in this PowerPoint presentation, at the chapter, 22 of at the chapter 22 of Genesis verses 1 to 19. This is a very well known passage dealing with Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac to, in obedience to the Lord’s command. And we want to look at this particular passage through the lens of Muslims and how Muslims tend to look at this. Now, please keep in mind that this particular sacrifice that is mentioned in Genesis 22 is also mentioned in several places in the Quran, and it is a a ritual of sacrifice that Muslims imitate to this day in the Eid al Adha. In fact, the Eid al Adha is taking place today, the very day that I’m recording this, is the day when Muslims around the world will sacrifice animals in in remembrance and in imitation of the sacrifice which Abraham was about to carry out on his son and for whom, the Lord provided a substitute.

So you might say that the sacrifice of the son is a type of what was to come And, this is the connection that we want to make with our Muslim friends is what does God mean by this command and by this story in the Old Testament? Now, I’m not gonna read the whole story. You should be pretty familiar with this, how Abraham, has waited so many years to receive this son of promise, Isaac, and, he has received the son. Now the boy has grown up and suddenly, on this particular day, God gives him an almost unthinkable command to take his son to a certain place and to sacrifice him there. God, in a sense, puts Abraham to the test.

And so in verse 2, it’s almost as if God wants to emphasize the special love he has for his son. He says, take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love and sacrifice him. It’s an incredible picture, one that has astonished people down through the ages and you can read through this passage. I know the Muslims will have a certain disagreement, particularly that Isaac is the son of sacrifice. They want to say that it’s Ishmael.

We’ll come back to that because we’re gonna deal with some apologetic issues that relate to that, but let’s just for the time being read the story and understand it, as it’s presented here in the scriptures. In many ways, it is reminiscent of John 316, and you might at the end of your study want to bring that in, but, you might start this study by asking your Muslim friend what he thinks about the Eid al Adha and what it means. Now I realize that in modern Islamic thinking, the Ida Laddha is simply imitation of Abraham and obedience to a command that God has given the Muslim community to sacrifice. And there are many Muslims, particularly orthodox, who would not see any concept of atonement in this. This is largely because Islam is constantly reacting to Christianity and, things that were much more obviously in keeping with Christian teaching a 1000 years ago have tended to be dropped out of Islamic thinking to ensure that there’d be as little attraction to the Christian faith as possible.

Now you don’t have to take that up with your Muslim friend, but it’s interesting to hear what they have to say and there are many Muslim groups to this day who will see the Eid al Adza as something relating to atonement and how an animal is provided in place of the son. So ask them. Talk to them about what this means before you go into the passage itself. And then go into the passage reading it, reflecting on what it means for a father to offer his son. What an incredible thing it is that Abraham was trusting God to such a degree that he was ready to carry out this sacrifice.

And when the boy asks, father here’s is the wood and here is the fire, where is the lamb for the sacrifice? And, I, Abraham makes the amazing statement, God will himself provide the lamb. It’s an amazing picture that God is ultimately the one who provides and what is it that he provides? This is a point that you can make as you go through with your Muslim friend. Hebrews 11 verses 40 to 12:2 talk about the fact that the sacrifices in the old covenant were not enough to cleanse us from our sins and of course that’s why, the sacrifices were offered year after year and Muslims imitate that every year. Genesis 22

They offer the Eid al Adha sacrifice and yet they have to offer it the following year as well because it has no power ultimately to cleanse us from sin. It is merely a reminder of the cost of sin, and the need for cleansing and it points also to something else, the reality that God deals with sin by means of sacrifice. One of the points that you might make at this point is to talk a little bit about what forgiveness means because we pray on a regular basis, God forgive my sins. Forgive me for all that I have done wrong in my life. Have you ever asked your Muslim friend, what does forgiveness really mean?

You might take a little illustration. Something like this. You might say, suppose a criminal stole a $100 for me, from me and he was caught and I had the opportunity to deal with this criminal who’d stolen a $100 from me. Now, I could take him to court to have him punished. That would be one way of dealing with it.

I could force him to pay me the $100 back. That would be gaining back what I’ve lost. So I could do the way of law of retribution or I could go by way of getting paid back. But supposing I forgave the criminal, supposing he had no means to pay back and he was desperate for his family and I I took compassion on him and I said, well I forgive you. If I do that, who has lost a $100? Genesis 22

Well clearly, I have. In other words, forgiveness is not the same as retribution and it’s not the same as getting paid back. It means that when I forgive someone, I take the consequences of their evil action upon myself and that’s really what’s happening here in the sacrificial system that when God provides a substitute in the ram or the lamb or the camel or whatever other animal, that animal as it were is providing us for forgiveness because it’s taking the punishment in our place. Now God in Hebrews 11 talks about the fact that there is a better sacrifice, one that does not have to be repeated over and over and over again, and you might want to reflect on that a little bit. Why is it that we have to offer the Eid al Adza sacrifices year after year after year?

They don’t seem to have the ability to ultimately cleanse us from sin because they’re a sign of forgiveness of that sin being paid for, but how is that sin paid for? And generally speaking, our Muslim friends don’t know. They have no idea really, how the transaction is carried out that leads to our forgiveness. And of course many passages in the scripture talk about this. We won’t go into to this, John 12936.

1st Peter 1 verses 18 to 21. You could find other passages on your own, but the reality here is that in place of the son, an animal takes the punishment. So verse 9, it says that Abraham bound his son and laid him on the altar, prepared to sacrifice his only son and here we see the picture then, as God says, I lay your hand, Abraham. Now I know that you love me more than anything else because you’ve not withheld your son from me. And so God provides at that moment a ram, to take the place of the son, to bear as it were the punishment in the son’s place. Genesis 22

Now some Muslims may say, well, this is just an a matter of obedience. Abraham is not taking a sacrifice for sins either for himself or for the son. He’s just doing what Allah has told him to do. At that point, I might point out that the sacrificial system is all throughout the Old Testament. It’s not just concerning Abraham and Isaac, but there are sin there are sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins all throughout the Old Testament.

So whether you see it just as obedience or a sacrifice for sin, clearly the idea of sacrifice does illustrate the punishment that falls because of sin and, therefore, there’s a need for continuing sacrifices. James 221 also talks about this fact that Abraham was justified by his works because he was prepared to be obedient to God, but God spared him the loss of his son by providing another in his place, a substitute in his place. So that substitutionary What is that substitute? Or perhaps more better put, who is that substitute? Let’s take a look at a few key questions for this text.

First of all, what was God’s purpose in testing Abraham? Ask your Muslim friend this question, and in many ways it relates back to this idea of loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength so that you love him more than anything else in the world, but it’s also because God does things as a sign. He doesn’t necessity of sacrifice, of suffering for the sake of sins. And if we are delivered from suffering, it’s because someone else has borne the punishment for us. Secondly, why was the ram a suitable substitute for the sun? Genesis 22

Well, if you look at all the Old Testament passages, it talks about the fact that the ram must be blemish free. It must be free from any kind of spot or infirmity, like a lamb, unblemished and spotless. And this substitute is a picture of the perfection of that which is sacrificed. In other words, if something dirty is offered for something else that’s dirty, well that thing that’s offered dies for its own sins, not for someone else’s. That’s why no normal human being can die for the sins of another, because we’re all sinners.

We all have sinned. Therefore, we all because we’re all sinners. We all have sinned. Therefore, we all have to pay for our own sins. For one to be able to take our sins or to pay for them, that one would need to be just as spotless, as this lamb is without guilt and therefore able to bear the sins of others.

You might ask your Muslim friend at this point the meaning of the word kafara if he knows Arabic. Kafara is actually the Arabic word for atonement and, you might wanna talk more about this area of atonement and what it means. Atonement really means to gain forgiveness by paying the price for another. So what is the meaning of forgiveness? We’ve already discussed that, but this is the key point here. Genesis 22

Forgiveness means I take the consequences of someone else’s actions on myself. Were Abraham and Isaac sinless? This is one of the interesting questions. Muslims will often say that prophets were sinless. They didn’t do any sin, but in fact the Quran only teaches one prophet to be sinless and that’s Jesus.

Every other prophet has sins and when you go through the New Testament and the Old Testament, this is universally affirmed. So Isaac was not dying for Abraham’s sins. Isaac needed a substitute who could bear his sins for him, just as Abraham did and that’s the sign that God provided, in this lamb or in this ram. By the way, this is a good point for us to discuss the controversial point that Muslims will often make that the person sacrificed was Ishmael not Isaac. And I would tend, if this is raised by your Muslim friend, I would have a Quran handy and I would point out that everywhere that this sacrifice is described in the Quran, it’s clear that it’s referring to Isaac and not Ishmael.

Let me give you some examples. If you go to chapter 37 and you go, verses 100 to 113, It describes the, story, first of all, of the sacrifice and how, the how, God, called him to, go through this great sacrifice. And, we ransomed him, it says in verse 107, with a momentous sacrifice. And ransom, that’s also the word kafara there, that that there was a an atonement which took place that ransomed, Abraham himself as well as the son. And it’s interesting having talked about this, trial and this, sacrifice, then you come to verse 113 or actually 112 and it says and we gave him the good news of Isaac, a prophet. Genesis 22

We blessed him and Isaac. Now this is this is an interesting thing. In the very story of the sacrifice of Abraham, the only person mentioned is Isaac. Ishmael isn’t mentioned anywhere here. And if you want further proof, go on then to chapter 51 verses 24 to 30 which talks about the promise of this son who would, you know, be the son of promise that was offered on that altar.

And it’s interesting that as the promise is given, you get to verse 29 and it says, but his wife, and that’s talking about Sarah, came forward laughing aloud. She smote her forehead and said, how barren old woman? This is almost a direct quote from the Genesis Genesis account of the promise of the birth of Isaac and what’s interesting is that her laughing, the word laughter, is the root word for the name Isaac. Isaac means laughter and you might point that out to your Muslim friend that the child of promise, the child that God gave, for this ransom to take place through was Isaac and that’s what the Quran says. Now later Islamic teaching teaches that it’s Ishmael and this is mostly done because, they want to downplay the connection to Jewish and Christian, ideas in the Quran.

But the Quran itself is fairly clear on the subject and I would argue that strenuously because it helps them to realize that a lot of things are in the Quran that are not taught to Muslims today. Many things that the Quran emphasizes that modern Islamic teachers, frankly, avoid, such as the sinlessness of Jesus. He is the only prophet who is sinless. Therefore, he’s the only one who could be the perfect lamb of God. And again, we see verses 13 and 14, and Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and went out and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son. Genesis 22

So Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide. And we believe, from John 12 verses 32 to 34, Jesus says, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself. What does he mean by that? He means that he will be that perfect sacrifice that covers the sins of many. And here again, you could also bring in John 3 16 that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Now you you may find that that will lead to a big discussion about whether Jesus is the son of God and frankly this is gonna be on your Muslim friend’s mind anyway, so I wouldn’t mind taking it up at this point and pointing out that the God of the Bible is a complex god. He’s not 3 gods. He’s one god and if you say, oh that’s illogical. How can 1+1+1 equal 3? Well frankly, this isn’t anything about logic at all.

Whether you say God is 1 or God is 3, these are not logical statements. They’re statements of faith and not one is more logical than the other. They’re simply statements of faith. However, they have consequences. If God is an absolute unity, then you cannot know him, but the God of the Bible has relationship built into his very nature. Genesis 22

He is father, son, and holy spirit and therefore we can know him. We can experience him. Your Muslim friend will have to accept that Jesus is the son of God at some point if there’s going to be any chance for salvation, because there’s salvation in no other name and no one who does not have the son has the father. So, you will need to deal with this and I would not be afraid or abashed about speaking of Jesus as the Son of God because Muslims have to accept this if they want to receive salvation. Well, thanks so much.

I think that’ll be enough for this lesson 9 and you can stop at this point if you like.

Genesis 12: Bible Storying for Muslims

Genesis 12: Bible Storying for Muslims: Dr. Cashin Lecture

Dr. David Cashin delivered a series of lectures on chronological Bible Storying for Muslims during a CIU course. Here, Cashin presents the third lesson on chronological bible storying of Genesis 12 with Muslims.

Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. David Cashin Lecture: 

Welcome to lesson 7 of chronological bible storying for Muslims. We’re going to look today at the 3rd passage from the scriptures that we want to study with our Muslim friends as we seek to, introduce them to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and God’s plan of salvation through the scriptures and through history. Today, we’re going to deal with a subject that is very close to the Muslim’s heart. We’re going to look at the person of Abraham and, particularly, the promise that God makes to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 through 3. Now, today’s lesson is really quite simple, because we’re really only trying to look at one single word and the word is blessing.

What does blessing mean? And, we’ll have a chance to look at that in, the book of Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 to 3, and then we’ll, look at some the ways that Muslims look at that word blessing and then we’ll describe what the biblical view of blessing is. The view that you really want to communicate to your Muslim friend. I’m also gonna give you some teaching beyond the scriptures here that look at why Muslims are not able to experience this kind of blessing as we’re going to describe it in Islam. Now these elements that I’m gonna teach towards the end are not for you to use in your biblical study with your Muslim friend.

It’s merely a way for you to get your own thinking reinforced about the fact that Muslims cannot experience this kind of blessing and I say they cannot not just from a biblical point of view. I’m saying it primarily from an Islamic point of view. The blessing that the bible is describing here is something that Islam says a Muslim cannot experience. Let’s begin then by looking at Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 to 3, and I’m just gonna quote a little bit of this looking at the promise that God makes to Abraham, and you know the story. God takes, Abraham aside, and he makes the following statement to him.

I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Now you can read, actually, in context the full three verses, from Genesis chapter 12. And then there’s basically only one question to be asked in this particular study. What is the nature of blessing?

What kind of blessing is it that God is promising to Abraham? Now, Muslims will have many ideas about this, many explanations of what blessing is. The word in Arabic for this is barakah, which is very related to the Hebrew word barikah, which is translated blessing in the Old Testament. However, there is a very significant difference here, because I don’t think the Arabic word barakah should be translated blessing, because it really means something very different than the biblical view of blessing. Let me show you what I mean.

When you ask your Muslim friend, what what is blessing? What do you think that is? He or she will think of barakah and they’ll think, well, it means power or influence or money or success, of one type or another, that I’m able to do well in my life, that I am influential, that I am, you know, someone that everyone looks up to. Oftentimes, it’s associated with the idea of life force. That is, my ability to have many children, specifically male children.

Is an example of barakah. I can remember this when my third son was born in Bangladesh exultant over this and and they said, wow. You have really been blessed of God because now you have 3 sons. My goodness. And, I know at the time I didn’t fully understand what Muslims meant by blessing, but I was disturbed by this idea.

Would I have been less blessed if I’d had a a daughter? Would I have been less blessed if I had less money than I did? Well, frankly, blessing isn’t really about power, influence, money, or the ability to have lots of children. Is it a cult power? Many amongst folk Muslims would believe that there is magical power that a person can obtain that enables one to be successful and that this is the barakah.

If I can touch certain objects, if I can, make certain location, then I will gain blessing and power from that location or from those occult objects that I get a hold of. Or maybe I need to protect myself from the evil eye so I buy a, tabeej which is an amulet holder that has Koranic verses in it and I’ll hang it around my neck or on my arm or I’ll put it around the the waist of my child and believe that somehow there’s power there. There’s blessing that would protect my child, but that’s that’s not what the Bible is talking about either. It’s not about worldly success. What is the main point of the barakah?

It’s simply this. Blessing in the Old Testament means covenantal relationship. Now here’s the here’s the really wonderful thing about Abraham from a Muslim perspective. Muslims, because they borrowed so much of their faith from Judaism and Christianity, maintains within the structure of their religion certain ideas that were really imported direct from Hebrew thinking, but they don’t understand what this really means. For instance, you notice on the screen here the word calilulah.

This is a title of Abraham. Abraham is the only prophet in the Quran who has the title Khalilullah, which means literally, the friend of God. Khalil is a friend. Allah is God, so the friend of God. And at this point, they actually understand something about what the buddakah, what the blessing is.

The blessing in Genesis chapter 12 is the covenantal love relationship with God and they understand that somehow Abraham had a special relationship with God. But what was the nature of it? They’re not really sure. Now, the reason why this is so important is because in Orthodox Islam, there is no place for experiencing God or for intimate personal relationship with God. Let me explain to you what I mean.

What does it mean to be the friend of God? Well, let me first explain that and then then we’ll talk about what Muslims think about relationship with God. First of all, to be a friend of God, and and this is what you would wanna describe for your Muslim friend from Genesis chapter 12, a friend of God is someone, who is chosen by God. That is to say that, at this point, when God speaks to Abraham, it’s God initiating. God God is the one who chooses Abraham at this point.

Abraham doesn’t choose God. There’s not even any indication that Abraham is searching for God at this point. God reaches out to him. You do not earn the relationship by works. Here’s the interesting thing.

If you ask the same question about Abraham that you asked about, Adam, how many laws did Abraham have? Well, frankly, at this point, Abraham had no law. He had no Sharia as Muslims would put it when the promise was given. So on what basis did he receive this promise? Wasn’t because he was keeping the law. Genesis 12

It was because God chose him to be his special friend. And this is something that Muslims, it’s very attractive to them. All Muslims long somehow to experience God, to have a relationship with God, but Islam denies them that possibility. We’ll look at that in a minute. Abraham was the friend of God chosen by God without the law.

By the way, the book of Romans gets more into this about the fact that Abraham was not saved by works. Also, notice here God speaks directly to Abraham and Abraham speaks directly back to him. He was not required to use a holy language or to pray formulaic prayers. He was able to talk to God face to face as a man would talk with his friend. By the way, the same thing is said about Moses later on in the book of Exodus.

To be able to address God directly as friend without having to go through holy magical, linguistic forms like the Arabic language or to utilize the formulaic prayers. You remember my example from Kazan, Russia where the woman had been praying the Fatiha in Arabic and the demons did not leave her son alone? That reality is that when you use formulaic prayers in a holy language you do not understand, you are manipulating God and that is not relationship. Abraham spoke directly with God from his heart. He required no holy language or formulaic prayers. Genesis 12

And thirdly, Abraham was expected to be a blessing to all the nations that they might know that same covenantal love relationship with God that had been lost at Eden. Basically, as God initiates this relationship with Abraham, he is attempting or beginning the process of recreating that covenantal love relationship through Abraham and it was meant to flow from him to all the nations of the earth. It was meant to be a blessing to all peoples, the blessing of a covenantal love relationship with God. Now, at this point, you’re essentially done with your study with your Muslim friend. All you although you can spend a lot of time talking over these issues.

What it means to know God. What it means to speak to him personally. What it means to have the knowledge that you are accepted in the beloved, not because you kept the law, law, but because of God’s grace shown to you. Alright? But having said this, I wanna take you through some things so that you understand why this is so, important and so attractive to Muslims.

And by the way, we do have an issue of what I would call Christo Muslims here in the West. This is particularly true of Westerners who’ve converted to Islam. You will occasionally run into Western converts to Islam who will say, oh, I have a personal relationship with God through Islam. And I even heard a a woman convert on, National Propaganda Radio, NPR, talking about excuse me. I know that’s National Pub Public Radio, but let’s just say they have a certain bias, don’t they? Genesis 12

Well, this lady was talking about how she had a personal relationship with God through Islam. Friends, this is rubbish. Most Western converts to Islam retain significant elements of their pre Islamic worldview. Why do they think they can have a personal relationship with God? Simple.

Because their older tradition of the Judeo Christian heritage had taught them that and Islam is now a thin veneer over that largely Judeo Christian heritage. If you talk to someone raised in the Muslim world in Saudi Arabia who spent their entire lives within Islam, who come out of the full Islamic tradition, they do not believe that you can have an intimate personal relationship with God. So, key in the idea of Western converts is that you can have a personal relationship with God. And I just wanna mention here, an example of how Muslims are working, that is orthodox Muslims, are working to purge this idea from the minds of Western converts. Ismail Farooqi, who is one of the great Islamic thinkers of the 20th century, in 1997 was speaking at a conference of over 500 western converts to Islam and his main two points in his message to those western converts were, number 1, you cannot have a personal relationship with God in Islam, and number 2, you cannot experience God in Islam.

Now, the reason he felt he needed to say that to 500 Western converts to Islam was exactly what I’ve said above. They were people who had a thin veneer of Islam over a largely Judeo Christian worldview, and so Ismail Farooqi needed to set them straight on what Islam is really, all about. By the way, I just use a little example from Bangladesh here. Bengali Muslims believe that Muhammad taught them the secrets of re reincarnation and yoga. I’ve met Muslims, telling me that this is the secret teaching of prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. Genesis 12

And my reaction is to say, no. That has nothing to do with the teachings of Muhammad. You have simply syncretized your local worldview into Islam, but that’s not the real Islam, frankly. So, you may run into people like this. I wanna go beyond that to, introduce you to a quote on the nature of God in Islam.

Now, this is a very old quote. It’s a quote that comes from 18/63, from a writer by the name of, W. S. Paulgrave. It’s the best rendition of the nature of God in Islam that I have ever seen.

This fellow really helps you to understand the theology of Islam and why it is that you cannot have a personal relationship with God. By the way, if you wonder how I could know about Ismail Farooqi’s teaching, well, one of my friends was at that meeting 1997 in Cairo. And as he heard Ismail Farooqi teach on this, he suddenly had a light go on in his head and he said to himself, that’s why all my prayers are formulaic. They’re formulaic. They’re ritualistic for the very simple reason that I’m not really talking with God.

I’m not in a relationship with God. I’m simply going through the motions of what the input the the the mighty omnipotent Allah who’s out there way beyond any place where I can ever reach, is requiring me to do. It has nothing to do with personal relationship. Now, listen carefully as I read through, this quote on the nature of God in Islam from W. S. Genesis 12

Paulgrave. There is no God but God. Our words simply tantamount in English to the negation of any deity save one alone and thus much they certainly mean in Arabic, but they imply much more also. Their full sense is not only to deny absolutely and unreservedly all plurality, whether of nature or of person in the supreme being, not only to establish the unity of the unbegetting and unbegot in all its simple and uncommunicable oneness. But besides this, the words in Arabic imply that this one supreme being is also the only agent, the only force, the only act existing throughout the universe and leaves us and all beings, matter or spirit, instinct or intelligence, physical or moral, nothing but pure unconditional passiveness, alike in movement or in quiescence, in action or in capacity.

The soul power, the soul motor, movement, energy, and deed is God. The rest is downright inertia and mere instrumentality from the highest archangel down to the simplest atom of creation. Hence, in this one sentence, is summed up a system which I may be permitted to call the pantheism of force or of act, thus exclusively assigned to God who absorbs it all, exercises it all, and to whom alone it can be ascribed whether for preserving or for destroying, for relative evil or for equally relative good. I say relative because it is clear that in such a theology, no place is left for absolute good or evil, reason, or extravagance. All is abridged in the autocratical will of the one great agent as he wills it, inshallah, is a constantly recurring expression of the Quran.

His creatures, whatever they may be, that they are in him, by him, and from him only. All alike are tools of the one solitary force. But he himself, sterile in his inaccessible height, neither loving nor enjoying ought save his own and self measured decree without son, companion, or counselor, is no less barren for himself than for his creatures. His own barrenness and lone egoism in himself is the cause and rule of his indifferent and unregarding despotism. It should be clear to you as you reflect on this particular, description that it would be impossible to have a relationship with this God. Genesis 12

This is why trinity is so important to the Christian faith. Relationship is built into the very nature of who God is. He is father, son, and holy spirit. He is relationship. In Islam, God is a monad.

He is a singularity, a black hole, if you will, which is why as a Muslim, you cannot experience him, you cannot have a relationship with him. I hope that you are unabashedly Trinitarian in your viewpoint because it’s only in Trinity that we have the nature of relationship incorporated in the very nature of who God is, which is why as creatures made in his image, we are able to have relationship with him. We can experience him. We can have intimacy with our God. So what’s the main point of this lesson?

Blessing. The blessing is the covenantal love relationship with God. By the way, if you doubt any of the things I’ve said here, I give you the phone number of, doctor Soleiman bin Salih al Khizi who is the vice president of Medina University. Give him a call sometime and ask him, if it’s possible for a person to have a personal relationship with God to experience God within Islam, and you may get an earful about how that is a Biddah from a Muslim point of view. That is an innovation and utterly untrue. Genesis 12

Blessings on you as you encourage your Muslim friend to receive the blessing which Abraham, the Khalilullah, the friend of God, received.