“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?”

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

Matthew 5:13 (NIV)

“You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor?”
– Matthew 5:13 (New Living Translation)

Thoughts of Jesus on Belief and Faith (from Matthew)

Thoughts of Jesus on belief and faith (from Matthew)

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to whom who knocks it will be opened.”

– Matthew 7:7,8

“…if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’, and it will move;  and nothing will be impossible for you.”

– Matthew 17:20

“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

19:26

“And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” *

21:22

* New King James version

 

Can Muslims Follow the Biblical Christ and Still Be Muslim?

Can Muslims Follow the Biblical Christ and Still Be Muslim?

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Can
Muslims Follow the Biblical Christ and Still Be Muslim? by Aaron
Taylor 08-10-2010

Sourced from:
http://blog.sojo.net/2010/08/10/can-muslims-follow-the-biblical-christ-and-still-be-muslim/

Categories: Theology
Tags: biblical, biblical faith, blood of jesus, Christ, Christianity,
Christians, evangelist, followers of jesus, forgiveness of sins,
Gospel, heretics, holy war, Islam, Jesus, koran, Matthew, Messiah,
Ministry, missionary, Movement, Muslim, muslim followers, muslims,
New Testament, old testament, Peter, prophet, prophets, reform,
reformation, Religion, religions, Sojourners, Stories, synoptic
gospels, Theology, tradition, what it means to be a christian, what
it means to be a muslim, word of god

Lately, I’ve been
hearing a lot about the “Insider Movement” which is what
missionary experts refer to as Muslims
who love and follow Jesus while remaining within the cultural fold of
Islam.
I can remember before moving to Senegal as a missionary, a thought
flashed through my mind, “I wonder if God might use me to
initiate a movement of Muslims coming to biblical faith in Christ as
part of a Reformation movement within Islam?” It turned out to
be a fleeting thought. Instead I opted for the traditional
apologetics approach, pointing out to Muslims why the New Testament
is superior to the Quran and why they’re wrong about denying the
divinity of Jesus and the atonement. I never seriously questioned
this approach until I read Carl Medearis’s excellent book Muslims,
Christians, and Jesus.
In his book, Carl shares
stories of his interactions with Muslims who deeply love Jesus and
strive to follow his teachings — yet remain committed Muslims.
I nearly wept thinking about how things could have been different, if
I had trusted my original instincts. But now I have new questions,
and they’re a bit unnerving, because they strike
at the heart of what it means to be a “Muslim” and what it
means to be a “Christian.”
I’ve heard that there are Muslim followers of Jesus who revere and
strive to follow after the Jesus they see revealed in the synoptic
gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), but I’m
wondering if these same Muslims can find a place in their theology to
accept the rest of the New Testament as well? And if they can, I’m
wondering if Christians can find a place in their theology to make
room for Muhammad as a pre-messianic figure, pointing people to faith
in Jesus the Messiah (a
term the Quran affirms, by the way), maybe not as authoritative as an
Old Testament prophet, but perhaps on par with the status of local
prophets in the New Testament? Let’s break this down. Because
most Muslims can’t bring themselves to say, “Jesus is God,”
Christians write them off as heretics. The problem with this is that
there’s nowhere in the New Testament that says, “Jesus is God”;
so what we’re doing is insisting on non-biblical language as a litmus
test for biblical faith. The doctrine may be true, and I believe it
is, but should we really think of someone as outside the fold if they
can’t bring themselves to say something that isn’t directly stated in
the New Testament? I wonder if a Muslim who respects the New
Testament could find it in his or her theology to accept the
statement, “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God
and the Word was God . . . and the Word became flesh and dwelt among
us” (John 1:1-14). If
a Muslim can accept this statement as the inspired Word of God, could
we not call them brothers and sisters, even if our understanding of
what these verses mean may be slightly different?

*

Let’s talk about the
cross. Mark Siljander has done an excellent job in his book, A Deadly
Misunderstanding, showing that the case can be made in the Quran that
Jesus died and rose again. If this is true, might it be possible for
a Muslim to accept that the Messiah’s death has saving significance
even if — to my knowledge — the Quran doesn’t explicitly say so?
After all, the Quran does confirm the authenticity of the gospels,
and the case can be made from the gospels that the blood of Jesus was
shed for the remission of sins (Matthew 26:28). If we look at the
sermons of Peter and Paul in the book of Acts, we see neither a very
high Christology, nor do we see the doctrine of penal substitution —
a doctrine highly offensive to Muslims — and yet we’re told
explicitly that those who heard and believed their message received
eternal life (Acts 13:48). The Apostles’ message in the book of Acts
was essentially “Jesus was crucified, but God raised Him from
the dead and through this man is preached to you forgiveness of sins
and the hope of eternal life” (see Acts 10:39-43, 13:37-49,
17:31-32). Notice the apostles’ emphasis on the humanity of Jesus in
his saving work. I daresay if an evangelist preached like that today,
he or she would likely be labeled a heretic! Lest I be misunderstood,
I’m not denying the deity of Christ, and neither am I saying that the
doctrine of penal substitution is wrong, per se. I’m simply raising
the issue that if a Muslim can believe and practice the bare
essentials of what biblical faith in Jesus requires and still be true
to their own faith, then not only have we figured out a way to build
a bridge of peace between the historic religions of Islam and
Christianity, we’ve also figured out a way for Christians to be
faithful to the command of Jesus to “Go and make disciples of
all nations,” without using our faith as a battering ram to
demonize people of another faith. Discuss! ?Aaron D. Taylor is the
author of Alone with A Jihadist: A Biblical Response to Holy War?. To
learn more about Aaron’s ministry, go to http://www.aarondtaylor.com. To
follow Aaron on Twitter, go to http://www.twitter.com/aarondtaylor. Aaron
can be contacted at fromdeathtolife@gmail.com.

Sourced from:
http://blog.sojo.net/2010/08/10/can-muslims-follow-the-biblical-christ-and-still-be-muslim/%5D

“What we
believe is not nearly as important as how we relate, interact with
each other… and how we live. Only when we can say, ‘I am first and
foremost a human being, and second a Jew, Muslim, Shi’ite, a Sunni,
Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, or a Sikh …’ will we progress and break
down barriers between peoples, nations and cultures, east and west.
Let not our beliefs , but our shared humanity (ALL of us) define who
we really are. ” – craig

In his life mission
Craig hopes to encourage, motivate and inspire people to be their
best through realising their full potentials and live their very best
lives. Craig believes in the great potential of every human being in
the journey of life and loves to encourage people to share their
individual (and guiding) spirits, so that they become all that they
are CAPABLE of being.