The Gospel for Muslims.

The gospel has universal appeal, Muslims need the gospel as much as any other person, and the ultimate strategy remains the same: preach all men as great sinners, but Christ as a great savior. There are definitely different ways to be mindful of who you are speaking to, their background, their assumptions, but mainly so that we can explain it in such a way that helps them better grasp the meaning of the gospel.

Thabiti's new book The Gospel for Muslims reflects this basic mindset and is split into two sections--"The Gospel" and "As You Witness". The first part basically walks the reader through the main truths of the good news, but also explains the beliefs of Muslims on specific truths, their assumptions about Christianity, and how to discern misconceptions when both Christianity and Islam share similar vocabulary. Two fundamental and chewing-worthy thoughts were...

1. Sin: "The Muslim account of man's creation does not include any significant emphasis on Adam's fall or the fall of all humankind into sin with Adam. Adam is not said to have sinned against God but t ohave made an ethical mistake. Muslims consider unjust the idea that one person's sin shoudl be accounted to another person in any way...So Muslims deny original sin. Most define sin as simply disobeying Allah's will. This disobedience comes from man's weakness and ignorance, but not from a corruption in his nature" (44).
2. Trinity: Christians should cling to the Trinity because: first, we are bound in humility to accept what God reveals about Himself; second, because to deny the Trinity is to commit idolatry because we would be worshiping someone other than the God of the Bible; third, we must cling to the Trinity because apart from the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there is no possibility of eternal salvation (37).
3. Conversion: It is helpful to press the idea of conversion as being "born again" or being given "new life." Because the Muslim has such a different understanding of conversion, coming largely from an orthopraxic mindset, explaining repentance and faith in such radical terms helps distinguish between Muslim and Christian understandings of conversion.

Part II, "As You Witness," can be understood by a quick glance at the chapter titles: be filled with the Spirit, trust the bible, be hospitable, use your local church, suffer for the name, and the good news for African-American Muslims. "Trust the Bible" was the most striking chapter in this section (if one had to choose) because Thabiti challenges us to trust the Bible to defend itself and to use the Bible in evangelism. Interestingly, he brings up the point that Muslims may actually respect what you have to say more if you point out Scripture to them because they also share a respect for their holy book and by referencing the Bible, you are implicitly telling them that you are trusting the Word of God and not simply using your own reasoning and ideas.

This book was a pleasure to read, it was short and manageable. I thought the most helpful thing was, having studied Islam for a while, to ground it in evangelism and see how the truths of Christianity shine so brightly against the background of Islamic theology. It reminded me about Mack's answer to the question: "Why do you think that God has ordained Islam to exist in the world?" His reply (paraphrase): I don't know, but I think what Islam does do is create a mirror image for Christianity for the Church to see what it could become if it allows legalism to undercut the truths of the gospel.