Who Is God? Part 4

Good Morning Regular Joes and Janes;

Today it is cold and breezy but the sun is poking through the clouds.  We only got a ¼ inch of snow which melted shortly after it fell.  Today we are continuing with the study, “Who is God?  Yesterday I had some excerpts from a newspaper article and today I will finish up with in and make a few points.

Image via Wikipedia

Toward the end of the article are the following paragraphs:

Gwynne Guibord, an ordained Episcopal priest and co-founder of a Los Angeles outreach group that fosters relationships between churches and mosques nationwide, said Saddleback’s effort is unprecedented. “I’m not aware of any other evangelical church reaching out to the Muslim community,” she said. 

I wonder if there is a connection there.  Maybe the other evangelical churches see a Biblical problem with doing this.

Guibord said that when she and Jihad Turk co-founded the Christian-Muslim Consultative Group in 2006, they sent invitations to mosques, the Catholic archdiocese and a variety of mainline Protestant denominations throughout Southern California, but not to evangelical churches.

“I think that many evangelicals feel a mandate to convert people to Christianity,” Guibord said. Because the Consultative Group was founded to respond to increasing antagonism between the two faiths, “we would not have made headway” if one side was trying to convert the other, she said. Now, she said, it might be possible to include evangelicals in her group’s work.

Gwynne thinks that “many Christians feel a mandate to convert people to Christianity”!  I wonder where they got that idea?  Let’s see…. ummm…  Mark chapter 16:14-16 does come to mind:

14 Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.  15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.  16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.  

Actually I am not sure that she understands the salvation message.  As Christians we shouldn’t want to convert people to Christianity but rather to followers of Christ.  To me, Christianity is more of a religion with all sorts of different denominations, doctrines and beliefs.

The central tenant of Christianity is that Jesus Christ came and died for our sins and has risen from the grave to sit at the right hand of the Father.

Mark 12:36 NIV

David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: ” ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”

Christ did not say that he came as a prophet.  The Jews did not crucify him on a cross and persecute him because he claimed to be a great prophet, (as Islam teaches).  They did it because he claimed to be equal with God.  (Actually they could not grasp the nature of the Trinity even though there are many verses in the Old Testament pointing to it.)

John 5:16-20

16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him.  17 Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”  18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.  19 Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.  20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.

To enter into agreements and organizations with Islamic organizations falls under the area of being unequally yoked.  As Christians we should be witnessing to the world, (as individuals) not making alliances with other religions to “better understand each other” especially when one of the rules of that alliance is that you cannot share the good news of Christ.  Many in the world, including Muslims are willing to accept Jesus as “a great teacher”, or “a prophet” or even “a great prophet” but they will not accept him as Lord and Savior, equal to God.

Until tomorrow;

Regular Joe

Related articles

• Who Is God? Part 3 (5gsandacupofjoe.net)
• March 1 – If He Can Change Me, He Can Change Anyone (lelandfleming.wordpress.com)