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About Jesus Steve Sweetman God
Has No Sons If
your neighbour was a devout Muslim, could you be his friend?
I could. If your
Muslim neighbour invited you to join him in worship to Allah, would you
accept his invitation? I
would not. Chrislam,
a new religious movement to North America began in Africa
during the 1980's. This
movement seeks to find common ground between Islam and Christianity.
Beyond finding common ground, Chrislam seeks to bring Christians
and Muslims together in one common worship service.
Both Muslims and Christians are seen worshipping the Almighty of
their choice in one gathering. The
end goal of Chrislam is to unite these two religions into one, but is
this really possible when the fundamental belief systems of Christianity
and Islam are light years apart? There
are a number of things stated in the Koran that should disturb
Christians. One particular
reoccurring phrase that appears in the Koran is "God has no
sons". God having no
sons is fundamental to Islam. God
having a Son is fundamental to Christianity. John
1:1 and 2 state, "in the beginning was the Word, (Jesus) and the
Word was with God and the Word was God".
John 1:10 states, "He (Jesus) was in the world, and though
the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him".
This passage, along with other passages, states that God came to
earth in human form which the world failed to recognize.
John 3:16 calls this human form "the Son of God".
It's not that people don't recognize the existence of Jesus in
history, because they do. When
people saw Jesus walking the shores of the Beyond
God having one very special Son, the Bible teaches that He has many
adopted sons. John 1:12
states that whoever believes in Jesus has been given the right to become
a child, or, a son of God. Simply
believing that Jesus was a man, or even a prophet, doesn't give anyone
the right to be an adopted son of God.
Giving yourself to Jesus, the Son of God, does give you the right
to become an adopted son of God. The
Bible clearly teaches that God has one very special Son and many adopted
sons, yet Islam says that God has no sons. If
my neighbour was a devout Muslim, I believe I could be his friend.
I would genuinely be interested in hearing how and why he thinks
and believes as he does. I'm
sure we could spend hours on my back deck talking about these things.
That being said, I cannot compromise the truth of the Bible.
I would declare to Him that God does have a Son, and without Him
he has no access to God, no matter what name you call Him.
If he struggles with that and ends the friendship, so be it.
I'd stand firm on the truth of Scripture no matter the cost. If
my Muslim neighbour invited me to an Islam, or even a Chrislam, worship
service, I would definitely decline.
The apostle Paul would have done the same.
If you study 1 Corinthians 8 you'll understand Paul's thinking
concerning such things. Paul
would have no problem eating meat that had been offered to an idol if he
was invited to a pagan's home for lunch.
He would have been heavily criticized for that, but meat was not
the issue for Paul. However,
Paul would not eat that same piece of meat in the context of a pagan
worship service. He would
never participate in any kind of pagan
worship to other gods, even if it provided an opportunity to witness for
Jesus. He knew the Old
Testament command too well to do that. My point is simple.
Be a friend to the pagan if at all possible, but never join in
worship to his gods. Many
people point out that Paul was often found in dialogue with those of
other religions, and that's true. That
being said, his intent was not to find common ground with other
religions. His intent was to
persuade people to forsake their gods, repent, and hand their lives over
to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
He was not interested in compromising the gospel for the sake of
unity, and neither should we. Chrislam
has it wrong. A Christian
cannot unite himself in worship with a Muslim because the Muslim denies
the very existence of the God Christians serve, and we would deny Him
too if we worshipped with Muslims. Christians worship the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ as Paul so often called God (Romans 15:6, 2
Corinthians 1:3 …). If you
take God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, out of the equation, you have
forsaken the God of the Bible. And,
if you know how God felt about |