Folk Muslims comprise a significant part of the Islamic world. This lecture focuses on engaging with Muslims, particularly folk Muslims, through the lens of Christian faith. Warren Larson proposes that understanding and compassion are key to effective evangelism with folk Muslims. He suggests modeling Jesus’ approach with the Samaritan woman, emphasizing humility, identifying felt needs, and addressing sin without condemning Muslims and their folk practices. Dr. Warren Larson’s lecture on how Jesus would respond to a Folk Muslim was given during a CIU course on folk Islam. He presents how Jesus interacted with the Samaritan Women in John 4:1-24 and the implication with Folk Muslims. Additionally, Psalm 23 for sharing the gospel with Muslims.
Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: How Would Jesus Respond to a Folk Muslims?
This is the last lecture. It’s number 40. And it is, you know, what would Jesus say to a folk Muslim? How would he respond to a folk Muslim? I was, thinking over the last few days of writing an article, of what would Jesus say to an angry Muslim, an enraged Muslim.
I got the idea from from, Betty Woodbury, my mentor and friend and colleague from Fuller Seminary. And, in a matter of fact, this comes the idea came from him as well on the folk Muslims, if I remember right. But I thought we would close with this. I have to confess that this is, this has not been this is not a perfect course. Nothing’s perfect, but I I say again that it is my favorite course because it’s it’s just so relevant.
It’s just so real, isn’t it? And, I trust it’s been a blessing, but I was, wanting to talk to you just in the end here what Jesus would say to a folk Muslim. Now, of course, we’ve been talking about, you know, biblical answers all along, but we’re gonna 0 in on a specific passage here, and the passage is John 4:1 through 24. That is the Samaritan woman. And, it, you know, it’s you could make application broader than just a folk Muslim.
I mean, she’s not, you know, demonic, demon possessed and stuff like that, but some of her some of her thinking and traditions and stuff like that are pretty, I think, relevant to popular Islam. Notice that what he does, first of all, is that he he is humble enough to accept hospitality. And he says to her, will you give me a drink? Now Jesus didn’t need to ask that woman, did he, for a for a drink, But he does. I mean, after all, he created the heavens and the earth and, sustains them, maintains them, but he’s humble enough to ask for hospitality and show.
So, in other words, showing the love of Christ and acceptance of Christ and Muslim friends is the most important thing we can do. I think in the back of, Dudley Woodbury and some of the research that he has done written in Christianity some, you know, just a few short years ago, this is really the thing that has been most helpful in winning Muslims to Christ, not, you know, specifically for Muslims, but any Muslims. It’s been the love and acceptance of, that Christians have shown, friend making friends and loving their Muslim their Muslims’ friends, not looking at them as as, enemies. And, secondly, he would look for felt need. What felt need?
He says he would have given you living water. Wow. We’ve been talking about, haven’t we, all along? The felt needs of folk Muslims, all of the felt needs they have because of their fears and, concerns and, you know, desire for protection and help and strength and encouragement and hope, and she he says to her, you know, if you’ve asked him, he would have given you living water. That woman definitely definitely had some great felt needs or she wouldn’t have been there all on her lonesome in the 4th chapter of of John.
Definitely felt some great needs, and Jesus addresses them. We too must think of the felt needs of Muslims in our talking, in our preaching, in our witnessing, trying to figure out, you know, understand their culture. You can’t do this, of course, through a 2 week, visit, but you do it through a lifetime of living with people and, learning their ways. We lived in Pakistan for 23 years in the same town, so we did learn, quite a bit about them. We learned more as time went on, but it wasn’t easy.
Even, you know, some things we missed, and, really, I should have seen that we that we didn’t see. One let’s see. One passage, I think, is is pretty powerful and is Psalm 23 for Muslims. The, woman who helped, you know, give the final copy on these PowerPoints said this this here really spoke to her. It’s Psalm 23 for Muslims.
You know, Psalm 23 is so precious to us, isn’t it? When my father was killed, as I mentioned, you know, a couple of lectures ago, This is a psalm, Psalm 23. It was very comforting for me. All that night when I got the news, this is the psalm that kept going over and over in my head. Even though do I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, no fear nor evil.
I was, you know, 25 years old, and I lost my dad. But just just imagine if I hadn’t had that song. I mean, it’s so precious to us. But here is, Psalm 23 for Muslims. I have no shepherd.
I am in desperate need. I have no one to feed me in green pastures. I find no rest. I have no one to lead me to quiet waters. I have no one to restore my anxious and despairing soul.
I have no one to guide me in right ways. See, there are so many, that are wanting to guide them in wrong ways, deceptive ways, evil ways, manipulative ways. They need the truth, and Jesus is the truth. I don’t know where to turn. See, they, oftentimes oftentimes, they don’t have where anywhere to turn.
They’re like sheep without a shepherd in every sense of the term. Remember Jesus looking at the crowds and saying they were helpless and harassed? When I think of folk Muslims, this is really what I think of, helpless and harassed. And it’s not just a matter of economics, but that’s part of it. 60% of the world’s poor are Muslims.
Most of the refugees in the world are Muslims. When we think of Muslims, oftentimes, we think of angry Muslims, you know, shouting their slogans, burning down this and that and the other thing, or even killing an ambassador, which hasn’t happened for decades. We don’t don’t get the, you know, we don’t realize how desperate they are for a shepherd. As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, evil surrounds me. You see, so terrified of death they are.
I’m terribly afraid, and that’s true. Muslims, when they face death, are terribly afraid for no one is there to comfort me. All that, they can think of is the, the judgment and and whereas for us, yes, the judgment, but we have the the consolation, the hope that we’ll see god and that we’ll be with him forever. I have no feast prepared for me. I’m so I’m overwhelmed by my enemies.
No one anoints my wounds to heal them. My cup is empty. All the days of my life are filled with uncertainty and disappointments, and I have no home for eternity. Will I dwell in the house of evil forever? Sometimes I have shared a poem that was written by a poet poetess in Pakistan who talks about the plight of women and it will it break your heart, but that’s really the situation, isn’t it?
And then he would create spiritual hunger, but he would not major major on theological debate. We have, workers and, some of them do some pretty remarkable things. They’re public debates, but I don’t think that that’s the method really whereby most Muslims come to Christ. No. He would create spiritual hunger, but he would not major on debate.
The water that I give them will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life. He really creates hunger, and his ability to to meet that. You know, it has some value. I’ve learned things from polemicists, but I don’t think it’s an effective way to win wisems to Christ. Everybody knows that.
He would address the sin issue. Yeah. We can, know the bible and we can use it confidently as authoritative, divinely inspired word of God, particularly in dealing with sin. Sin, unpopular subject as it is. Nevertheless, the more you live with Muslims, the more you realize that they struggle with the same issues we do, sexual sin and, you know, not realizing that the thoughts in your mind, according to Jesus, are really, if you harbor them, are as sinful as the actions itself.
So, knowing the culture and dealing with the topic of sin and particular sins of that culture, which oftentimes, as I mentioned, have to do with moral issues. I’m talking men with men, women with women to address these sensitive issues. Deceit is very much done in common, telling lies and selfishness and all of these kind of things, we need to address the sin issue. Of course, sometimes we of course, we don’t know as well as Jesus did, where he pinpointed the the sin in that woman’s life, but we can figure these things out if we are observant and we know the culture. He would use the traditions to communicate truth.
Believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Is it possible that we would also know enough Islam, not only the Quran, but know something of the traditions among Muslims to communicate. Is it possible If we think that, you know, it’s all satanically inspired and, demonic and the whole thing, then we’re going to just write it off and, demonize Muslims and denigrate Muhammad. But if we realize that there are bridges there that can be used for the furtherance of the gospel, then we will use them for for the communication of of of Christ and we can do this. And I think, and and Zramer would Samuel Zramer would back this up.
He felt the Quran could be used as a bridge. I have Christian friends. In fact, I just read something this morning. They every chance they get, would would say that, you know, the God of Allah of Islam is not the same as God of Christianity, God of the Bible. Now that’s true to an extent, but but in the sense that, we’re talking about the same person, it is not true.
And, to to make those kind of declarations, I mean, you know, people who love black and white and and all of those kind of things, would would love to say things like that. But in many ways, we can start with some understanding that they have of Allah, knowing that Christians also use that term. Allah is not the Christian not the, the Muslim God. He’s the name, the name that Muslims use for God, and so, we can use some of these get, you know, talking about Muslims, to with Muslims and use bridges rather than break down every possible bridge possible. So then, also, he would clearly and boldly reveal who he is.
Who is he? He’s the messiah. He’s the savior of the world, and, he he did reveal this, didn’t he? In the Quran, it it talks of Christ as Al Masih, Jesus, the son of Miriam, Al Masih. So that in itself is a bridge.
And Muslims, don’t just need to see him in his prophethood, but they need to see him in all of his glory, all of his majesty, and they need to be drawn to the savior. We pray. We hope and we pray, that this will happen. You know, Muslims can challenge us. They can, they’ll ask tough questions, and not always in a, you know, in a, loving mood.
How are we going to respond? How are we going to respond to them? Well, we need to respond with confidence, and we cannot be afraid. We cannot be afraid. And sometimes, even if we don’t know the answer, we will, need to say, well, look.
I I don’t really know the answer to that, but I’ll come back. May god help us. And, I pray, hope, and pray that this course, will be used in your life for the glory of God and that God will use it to give you a greater understanding of himself, of the need of Muslims, and of the need, their their need for the gospel.