The Christ in Prophecy Journal

Witnessing to Muslims in Light of Islamic Eschatology (Part 7 of 7)

Islamic Eschatology

In Part 1, we began to get a handle on the history of Islam and its founder. Now we’ll list six methods on how to reach a Muslim for Jesus Christ. Let’s conclude this academic presentation by evangelist Nathan Jones!

Video Presentation

Islam’s Salvation

Some Christians struggle over whether it is “Christian” to hate Islam, not its adherents naturally, but the system. After all, look at what the system of Islam does to its people. It enslaves over a billion people to a religion that tells them that they must kill themselves to be assured of going to Paradise. Satan rules Islam, and so far, he has gotten away with countless murders and atrocities committed in vilifying the name of God. Islam has been a driving force in the murder of Christians and Jews all in the name of Allah. God’s magnificent and holy name has been tarnished by the teachings of a demonically-possessed false prophet who has inspired fourteen centuries of blood and violence. Islam even subjugates its own people. And should Islam gain true dominance in the world, it would plunge society back into the Dark Ages. Islam has sent people to Hell by the billions.

As terrible as Islam is, it also presents the Church with some of the greatest opportunities for evangelism in all of world history, if the Christian knows how to evangelize the Muslim. After all, as a missionary to Muslims John Wiertzema points out, “Let’s understand that God’s desire is for all men to be saved, including all of the Muslims of the world.”52

Many Muslims are truly seeking to understand God, but greatly fear that in searching outside of Islam they will be accused of apostasy, which is the equivalent of treason, and risk being ostracized from their family and community, disinherited, unable to find work, written off as dead, pressure placed on their families, risk torture, and even face a grueling death.53 When Muslims approach Christians in the hopes of converting them to Islam, the door of opportunity opens to the Christian evangelist for sharing the real Jesus and the Gospel. The following are six different ways a Christian can reach a Muslim for Christ.

#1 The Bible Is Okay to Read

Mohammad permitted Muslims to read the Bible, and the Christian evangelist can tell them that (Sura 5:46-47, 68). Give anyone the Word of God, and they read it, and the Holy Spirit will speak through the Scriptures. In the experience of a former missionary to Muslims in southeast Asia, J.D. Greear, Muslims most frequently cite exposure to a Bible as instrumental in their conversion.54

Another church planter in Muslim lands, Greg Livingstone, also champions the establishment of the allowing the reading of the Bible as the basis before any Gospel message is shared; adding that in doing so the evangelist must also present no threat, be respectful, open, sincere, frank, with freedom, and in trust.55 Give a Muslim a Bible in their own language and let the Holy Spirit lead them to a life in Christ.

#2. The Life of Christ

When the life of Mohammed is exposed — a killer, a murderer, a wife stealer, a child molester, a liar who was exhorted to seek forgiveness for his faults (Sura 16:61; 40:55; 42:5,30; 47:19; 48:1-2) — when put up against Jesus Christ who is sinless, loving, holy, and died for humanity (Sura 3:45,49; 4:158; also 2 Corinthians 5:19-21) — the Muslim is shocked. They cannot believe the differences. The Isa of the Koran is not at all the Jesus of the Bible. Of course, anyone is attracted to someone who lays down their life for them. Tell what Jesus did for them by dying for their sins. As a missionary to Muslims Carl Medearis concludes, “The person of Jesus, knowing him and understanding the Father, is the most positive force for change in the world.”56

#3. The Love of God

God is love. But for Muslims, they never know love from Allah whatsoever. They see these mullahs on TV who are angry and yelling all the time. It is a religion of hate. As Palestinian Christian scholar Anis Shorrosh points out, there are “99 excellent names of God in the Koran, but not one is Love or Father.”57

Brothers Ergun and Emir Caner, both converts from Islam to Christianity, note that the only use of “intimacy” in the Koran refers to the threat of judgment and so quote the Koran as saying, “Allah is as close as your jugular vein” (Sura 50:16).58

A Muslim, like any person, wants to know love, and Christians can reach them by telling them about the love of God. As Shorrosh adds:

“In the Bible, you are not introduced to a God who is a dictator, who demands that you become His slave. God, instead, is presented as a loving Father who wants you and me and the whole world to become His Sons.”59

#4. The Assurance of Salvation

Muslims have no assurance of salvation except for one thing, and that is to die a martyr. To kill infidels by one’s death is the only assurance they have of salvation. Why wonder why certain Muslims are willing to blow themselves up in the name of Allah? Martyrdom is the only way they can be assured of entering into Paradise.60 Christians can instead assure them that through Jesus Christ, who died once and for all for their sins, that they can have the assurance of living in Heaven forever with their loving Father (John 5:24; 6:47; 10:27-28; 17:3; Romans 6:23; 1 John 5:9-13).

#5. The Grace of God

Islam is like wearing shackles to a Muslim. They feel it. They know it. The reason for this, as one Muslim who converted to Christianity, explained:

“Islam, however, is fundamentally a theology of deeds and not redemption [than Christianity]. There is no Jesus Who atones for the sins of man to free them from the bondage of their old nature. Their salvation depends on their deeds and the Mercy of God. Actually, Islamic theology advocates a reward-based eschatology where man’s eternal life is determined by his human effort.”61

But, when Christians teach them about the grace of God — “a magnificent doctrine” — that there is nothing anyone can do to save themselves, that God did it all, and that Jesus Christ paid for mankind’s sins on the cross, then they feel relieved.” As the Caner brothers know first-hand, “For most converts from Islam, the finished and atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross speaks powerfully [to Muslims].”62 Christians can look back at the time when they had become saved and remember how it felt to have the weight of their sins and works lifted. A Muslim is looking for that weight to be lifted off of them as well.

#6. A Relationship With God

Learning one can have a personal relationship with God is one of the best ways to reach a Muslim for Christ.63 The Islamic doctrine of tawhid declares that there is an impassable gap between Creator and creation, so that man can neither know God nor describe him by human language.64 But Christians enjoy a relationship with God and not some distant unknowable being who could care less about them and wants their death to prove their faith, but a Heavenly Father who loves them and cares for them. As Abd Al-Masih reveals, “The redemptive act of Christ on the cross that reconciled man and creation with God and recovered the lost relationship, restored also the eschatological hope of all the redeemed.”65

In Conclusion

Christians often fear sharing the Gospel with Muslims. But, believers in Christ can find courage and confidence when knowing what Islam believes and how to properly evangelize the Muslim. As Bible prophecy reveals, the false Islamic system will inevitably be destroyed, Muslims will put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ by the multitudes, and the entire world will finally meet the real Jesus of the Bible upon His return. Until then, Christians will continue to be a witness, sharing the Good News of the Almighty God and Savior and His great salvation.

End Notes

52. John Wiertzema, The Coming Judgment of Islam (Xulon Press, 2007), 165.

53. Ernest Hahn, How to Respond: Muslims (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1995), 58.

54. J.D. Greear, Breaking the Islam Code (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2010), 28-30.

55. Greg Livingstone, Planting Churches in Muslim Cities (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1993), 235-236.

56. Carl Medearis, Muslims, Christians, and Jesus (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2008), 160.

57. Anis A. Shorrosh, Islam Revealed: A Christian Arab’s View of Islam (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1988), 270.

58. Ergun M. Caner and Emir F. Caner, Unveiling Islam (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2002), 229.

59. Ibid.

60. Ankerberg, 114-116.

61. Abd Al-Masih. The Gospel Questions the Qur’an (Villach, Austria: Light of Life, 1998), 21.

62. Caner and Caner, 228.

63. Rhodes.

64. Greear, 132.

65. Al-Masih, 21.

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Dr. Nathan E. Jones

As the Internet Evangelist at Lamb & Lion Ministries, Nathan reaches out to the over 4.5 billion people accessible over the Internet with the Good News of Jesus Christ. He also co-hosts the ministry's television program Christ in Prophecy and podcast The Truth Will Set You Free.

1 CommentLeave a Comment

  • I met quite a few missionaries to Muslims who belonged to an outreach called Christar. As Islamic militance began to expand (again!) they left the Islamic countries where they were residing and reaching out, and returned to the USA. Here, in our special land, they have been doing outreach to Muslim communities. Although I’m born again, they remind me a little of St. Francis of Assisi who literally went before the Caliph of the Muslims and preached the gospel to him. The Caliph laughed in his face, but was sufficiently impressed by his boldness that he did not have him executed. As far as I know, Christian missionaries in the U.S. are not being beheaded or brutalized. I told one Arab who co-owned a local grocery store here in Brooklyn that it would make me very happy if he would follow Christ and become a Baptist. He looked at me with a perfectly straight face and said, “If I did that I would be dead.” “Even here in Brooklyn?” I exclaimed. “Yes,” he said, “the people I know have brains of stone.”

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