Download The Holiness of God App for iPhone and iPad FROM Nathan W. Bingham

R.C. Sproul’s classic video series The Holiness of God is available now in the App Store as a free interactive course from Ligonier Connect for iPhone or iPad.

Thousands of people testify to a transforming encounter with God after watching this series or reading the bestselling book. And now you can study The Holiness of God as you watch videos, take interactive quizzes, and more.

Download The Holiness of God for free from the App Store, create your Ligonier Connect account, and begin today.

Note: We are currently working to make this available for Android. Stay tuned for further news.

Go and Proclaim the Gospel by Witness Lee

Go and Proclaim the Gospel (2) 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bible Verses ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mark 16:15  And He said to them, Go into all the world and 

proclaim the gospel to all the creation.

Matt 28:19  Go therefore and disciple all the nations, 

baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and 

of the Holy Spirit,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Words of Ministry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Part 2 of 2]

It is very strange that most Christians are not balanced 

persons. The Lord calls us to come to Him, but after we come, 

He tells us to go to the nations. However, some Christians 

learn how to come to the Lord all the time, but they forget to 

go. Of course, other Christians today are going Christians, 

but I am afraid that they do not come enough to the Lord. 

Therefore, we must be balanced. The coming and going 

Christians are sound, normal Christians. On the one hand, we 

need to learn how to come to the Lord all the time, day by 

day; then on the other hand, we need to learn how to go. If we 

have the intention and sincere desire to practice the church 

life, we must be brothers and sisters who come to the Lord day 

by day and go to others all the time. 

When I was young, I was helped by a short but interesting 

writing. The writer said that in order to be a sound 

Christian, every day we must spend at least ten minutes to 

speak to the Lord, ten minutes for the Lord to speak to us, 

ten minutes to speak to sinners, and ten minutes to speak with 

the saints [other believers]. Day by day we must have these 

four times of at least ten minutes each. This is not a small 

matter. Try to put it into practice. If we do this, we will be 

healthy in spiritual matters and in the spirit. However, we 

should not do too much; at the outset we should just do a 

little. 

We need to be balanced. We must include gospel preaching as an 

item to balance our Christian life. If we have not preached 

the gospel in several days, we are not balanced. In the four 

Gospels, whoever came to the Lord, the Lord sent him to others 

to preach. Matthew 28:19 tells us to go to the nations, but 

Mark 16:15 says that we must go even to all creation. 

Christians have much to do to preach the gospel not only to 

the nations but also to every creature. We must do it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(c) Living Stream Ministry. Bible verses are taken from the 

Recovery Version of the Bible, and Words of Ministry from 

Witness Lee, Basic Principles for the Service in the Church 

Life, Chapter 5, Section 1. All are published by Living Stream 

Ministry, Anaheim, CA

Please visit us at www.emanna.com 

Comments to: comment@emanna.com. 

God is Out To Destroy Us? by Tullian Tchividjian

The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’  Judges 7:2 (NIV)

All too often, though we admit that God is in the business of destroying our idols, we forget, that that includes our biggest idol—our own self-sufficiency.

Before Gideon faces the Midianites, God takes his army from thirty-two thousand well-armed fighting men to three hundred who lap like dogs, armed with trumpets and jars of fire. He does this for an explicit reason: He doesn’t want any confusion. He wants Gideon and the nation of Israel to know just who it is who has delivered them.

God makes Israel weak so that He might be shown to be strong. God shows Israel their need for a Savior by sending almost the entire army home (v. 3) before answering that need, saying, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands” (v. 7).

God uses His law to show us our need, to strip us down to our bare bones. This hurts. Gideon goes from a well-outfitted army of thirty-two thousand to a group of three hundred dog lappers with trumpets and empty jars. Just when we think we have it all together, the brakes go out on the car, a credit card bounces in public, or your kid pees on your couch.

But our God is the God of resurrections. That’s His second job. His first job, announced with His first word, the law, is to destroy us. Or at least, to destroy our idea of an “us” that is not already destroyed. This is God’s first work, destroying our idol of self-sufficiency.

There is, though, good news. We’re sitting in the middle of the rubble of our lives, wondering how we ended up like this. We’re looking at the walls of the Midianites, and all we’ve got are some trumpets and some jars with a little fire. We’re dead. But our God is a God of resurrection, and He has promised to make all things new, and that includes you and me. Today! Right now! We are made new! Death has been defeated and life eternal has been won, and it’s all been announced before we ever had to do a thing. Jesus did everything so that we need do nothing. It is finished—right now, today, and forever.


from Tullian Tchividjian - It Is Finished: 365 Days of Good News.

It’s a New Day: The Choice is Yours by Max Lucado

It’s quiet. It’s early. My coffee is hot. The sky is still black. The world is still asleep. The day is coming. In a few moments the day will arrive. It will roar down the track with the rising of the sun. The stillness of the dawn will be exchanged for the noise of the day. The calm of solitude will be replaced by the pounding pace of the human race. The refuge of the early morning will be invaded by decisions to be made and deadlines to be met. For the next twelve hours I will be exposed to the day’s demands. It is now that I must make a choice. Because of Calvary, I’m free to choose. And so I choose. I choose love. No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness. I choose love. Today I will love God and what God loves. I choose joy. I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance. I will refuse the temptation to be cynical... the tool of the lazy thinker. I will refuse to see people as anything less than human beings, created by God. I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God. I choose peace. I will live forgiven. I will forgive so that I may live. I choose patience. I will overlook the inconveniences of the world. Instead of cursing the one who takes my place, I’ll invite Him to do so. Rather than complain that the wait is too long, I will thank God for a moment to pray. Instead of clinching my fist at new assignments, I will face them with joy and courage. I choose kindness. I will be kind to the poor, for they are alone. Kind to the rich, for they are afraid. And kind to the unkind, for such is how God has treated me. I choose goodness. I will go without a dollar before I take a dishonest one. I will be overlooked before I will boast. I will confess before I will accuse. I choose goodness. I choose faithfulness. Today I will keep my promises. My debtors will not regret their trust. My associates will not question my word. My wife will not question my love. And my children will never fear that their father will not come home. I choose gentleness. Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice, may it be only in praise. If I clench my fist, may it be only in prayer. If I make a demand, may it be only of myself. I choose self-control. I am a spiritual being. After this body is dead, my spirit will soar. I refuse to let what will rot, rule the eternal. I choose self-control. I will be drunk only by joy. I will be impassioned only by my faith. I will be influenced only by God. I will be taught only by Christ. I choose self-control. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. To these I commit my day. If I succeed, I will give thanks. If I fail, I will seek His grace. And then, when this day is done, I will place my head on my pillow and rest. ~ When God Whispers Your Name Excerpted with permission from the Let the Journey Begin by Max Lucado, copyright Thomas Nelson 2015.

Replacement Church: 3 Reasons Christians Skip Church by Jeff Crawford

This article was originally posted on Dr. Crawford’s personal blog on March 30, 2015, and is used here by permission.

Christianity Today recently reported that nearly half of polled senior pastors believe that in the future some people will experience their faith exclusively via the Internet. The results were culled from a recent Barna Group survey.

The report goes on to dissect whether or not this is problematic. I would say that it is, YES, very problematic. Not seeking faith assistance via the web, but seeking it exclusively. I use the Internet all the time to supplement my religious experience. I listen to podcasts, read articles and blogs, engage in social media, etc. In fact, I believe most Christians do. But the Internet becomes theologically void when it replaces rather than compliments the faith experience of the believer in a local church.

Why?

Because the Internet, social media, podcasts of your favorite preacher, or whatever cannot duplicate an irreplaceable tenant of the faith… “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” – Hebrews 10:25

At this point we see that the problem is not the Internet, but rather the problem is one of the heart. And we also see that the temptation to “neglect” going to church to meet together with other believers is not something new to our American culture but has plagued the heart of believers since the earliest days of the church.

So the question that should be asked is this: Why would a Christian not want to be a part of a local church? And by implication, replace the local church experience with a virtual experience or something else?

The answer to that question could take us in many directions, but here are a few that come to mind.

1.  “I love Jesus, I just don’t like the church.”  I’ve heard this through the years ad nauseam. If you dig on this you will typically find additional comments like “church people are hypocrites,” and “church is boring,” and on and on. While not discounting the hurt many people feel from bad church experiences (I have some stories of my own to tell), the whole “I love Jesus but not church” thing smacks of arrogance to me. Basically, an “I’m too good for you” attitude.  Theologically, such a statement is offensive to God. How can you say you love Jesus but hate His bride? If you said you liked me but not my wife, I’d say, “See ya!”

2.  “We have a game on Sunday.”  Or a gymnastics competition, or swim, or cheer, or whatever. Just pick the sport and insert. Sunday used to be sacred. No group or organization dared tread on Sunday because of a thing called church. That was so long ago, though, that most people outside the church don’t link the two together anymore. And sadly, too many inside the church no longer link them together either. Fall ball, spring ball, summer ball, travel ball. The culture of travel sports is dominating the mindset of parents. Yes, I put this squarely on the shoulders of parents. Most of who don’t have a clue how often they really are out of church. In their mind, church will always be there (next Sunday) but baseball is only for a season. And kids are only kids once, right? Yes, that’s right. And once again, I put this to the parents who, as I said above, don’t have a clue what they are actually modeling and teaching their kids. Do we really think it’s going to becomeeasier for the next generation to say “Yes” to Jesus and “Yes” to church? My great fear is that once ball season is over, and kids grow up, and Mom and Dad come back to church (maybe) and the kids don’t, Mom and Dad will look at each other with puzzled expressions and cry out to their pastor, “I don’t understand why my son isn’t interested in church?! After all, we raised him in church!” And that’s the point…. You didn’t.

3.  “We have church with just us.”  This form of neglecting the gathering together with other believers sort of flows from the above two excuses. I’ve heard folks talk about how they “have church” at the ball field, or how a group of buddies will “have church” on the golf course, or how a family with a spiritual control freak father will “have church” in their house. So there is one major problem in how all these groups “have church”… it’s not CHURCH. Yes, where two or more are gathered, God is in the midst of them. And that is all good and well, and I’m not saying there’s no benefit in this, but just like the Internet, what can be a good supplement makes a poor replacement. A church has a pastor. A church functions to draw people in. A church functions to evangelize the lost. A church brings in the tithe. A church sends missionaries to foreign lands. A church worships as a whole, not in parts. But that group of buddies on the golf course, or that huddle of parents sharing a devotion before the first pitch, or that dad surrounded by his wife and kids (and maybe even another family) in his living room does none of these things. So call it what you will, but it’s not a church.

I could go on and on. But I suppose in the end, it’s all about what you give your life to. Christ calls us to give our lives to him and to live out our faith in a community of believers called the church. The church is God’s instrument to change the world. Travel tournaments, holy huddles, and the Internet just can’t do that.

Dr. Jeff Crawford

Simplicity. When less is more! by Dave Kraft

The word keeps popping up! It comes up in conversations I’ve been having, I see it addressed in movies and in books. It’s something people desire but have given up hope of experiencing. Maybe it’s wishful thinking--as old fashioned and antiquated as Leave it to Beaver or The Brady Bunch. But I long for it--long to live a simple, uncomplicated and focused life.

A life that is not moving too fast, trying to do too much. A life that is not allowing theTyranny of the Urgent to take over and run me ragged physically and emotionally.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about living simply--keeping my life and ministry simple. Recently, the concept of simplicity has quietly and forcefully surfaced in my Bible reading. Here are a few examples from “The Message” by Eugene Peterson.

 “…if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.” Luke 14:11

 “…I didn’t try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple:…” I Corinthians 2:1,2

 “…so don’t complicate your lives unnecessarily. Keep it simple…” I Corinthians 7:20

 “…be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation.” I Timothy 2:2

 “A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God.”

   I Timothy 6:6

 “…so proclaim the Message with intensity; keep on your watch. Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don’t ever quit. Just keep it simple.” II Timothy 4:2

When I think of simply being myself, of operating simply in life and ministry, I’m not thinking of being semi-retired, or of joining Henry David Thoreau on Walden.

My mind runs more toward focusing on a few things in ministry and in life and practicing the advice of Steven Covey: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” It has to do with priorities and concentration.

Leaders I work with, and others I mentor, struggle to consistently keep things simple--to clearly know what they are about, what they are called and gifted to do. They seem to bounce from one thing to the next, filling their schedules with lots of activities, being more reactive than proactive.

Author Fred Smith says that busyness is the new spirituality. Many leaders are not content with who they are, where they are and what they are doing.

They long to be someone else, be somewhere else and do something else. Whatever happened to simple contentment? Life seems to hurl a lot at us. Go there, do this, buy that, help with this, commit to that. I find it so easy to be distracted from the simplicity of who I am and what I’m about.

I’m often tempted to cave in to the expectations and demands of others--especially those whose opinions matter deeply to me.  At times it’s difficult to hear the voice of God in the midst of all the noise of life.

Here are a few things I’m doing to simplify my life and ministry:

1.  Turning down opportunities that might be a good use of who I am but not the best use of who I am. Just last week I said no to two people who offered me a great chance to do something.

2.  Never saying yes to anything over the phone, but buying time to think and pray about it.

 3.  Practicing the theology of enough. I have no list of things that fall into the category of: I would be happy if______.

4.  Asking God to deliver me from an unhealthy appetite for acclaim, approval, position, power and honor that would push me to do more and more for the wrong reasons.

5.  Praying to be released from the restless, gnawing greed for more money and more stuff.

6.  Daily reminding myself of who I am and who I am not and being content to be me.

7.  Carving out sufficient time alone with God for humble contemplation--to give Him opportunity to quiet my anxious heart and keep me focused on my “few themes.”

It’s not easy living “simply” in a culture that demands more, rewards competition and admires power and position. But, by God’s grace, I’m going to live in biblical simplicity. 

How are YOU doing?  Do you need to do some spring-cleaning in your life and ministry?  How about a retreat to think through some things and be reminded of who you are and the “few themes” He wants you to be about?

A Must Watch of the Bible coming to a community for the first time.

If you’ve never seen this old-school video about the moving EE-TAOW story, it is very much worth 25 minutes of your time to fan the flames for frontier missions where Christ is not yet named. Make sure to watch to the end.

EE-TAOW (The Mouk Story) from oliver wong on Vimeo.

Are You Weak Enough for God to Use You? by J.D. Greear

There aren’t many societies that praise weakness. Ours is no different. Whether you’re a pastor or a police officer, an on-the-go salesman or a stay-at-home mother, weakness is seen as a liability. Nobody wants to be weak. Strong is the name of the game.

Sadly, our obsession with strength blinds us to a key biblical truth: God uses the weak. It’s so pervasive that you’d be hard-pressed to find a book of the Bible that can’t be summarized this way. And yet despite being hard-wired into the very DNA of Scripture, we don’t really believe it. We still clamor after strength. But God doesn’t need our strength to deliver us. In fact, our strength is actually more of a liability than an asset.

I’ll go a step further: God is so single-minded in his preference for weakness, that when he wants to use us, he often begins by weakening us. Case in point: the Bible’s mostcourageous coward, Gideon.

Just before heading into battle with the mighty Midianite army, Gideon hears from God:“The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’” (Judges 7:2). So God gives Gideon a couple of tests, designed to trim the ranks.

Test 1 is to send all the fearful people home. It turns out that’s a decent number, and 22,000 of Gideon’s 32,000 leave. (I wonder if Gideon tried to sneak off with them?) Now, that might not have been a foolish decision. Fear is contagious, so 10,000 brave soldiers are better than three times that many if 70% of them are wimps.

But if Test 1 was designed to create a braver army, Test 2 was only designed to create asmaller and weaker one. God tells Gideon to have his men drink from a stream, and all of the men who “lap like dogs” (who does that?) are the ones that should stay. It’s an arbitrary test, but an effective one: only 300 men remain.

God was teaching Gideon what he wants to teach us today: when he wants to use us, he often begins by weakening us. That doesn’t mean God delights in bringing us pain, or that every instance of weakness in our lives is caused directly by God. But periodically, God will step into our lives and reduce the size of our army, because he wants us to trust him—and that’s often the only way we will.

So when we hear a tragic diagnosis from our doctor…or when we suddenly find ourselves out of a job…or when our marriage is on the rocks…we should see those as our “army” being reduced. Those are moments of decision: will we rage against God, or lean into him like never before? We are so obsessed with grasping at strength that pain becomes something to avoid, not an opportunity to learn from. But what if dependence is more important than strength? If dependence is the objective, than weakness is an advantage.

I hate learning that lesson. I’m sure you do, too. But weakness forces us to throw ourselves in desperation before God, and that is the only place—and the only posture—in which we can learn the four words that transform our lives: God is always faithful. You and I may never know that God is all we need until he is literally all we have.

The Apostle Paul said it this way: “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Cor 12:9). You see, if we brag on our strengths, people may look at us and think, “I wish I were more like that … but I can’t be.” But if we brag on our weaknesses, that makes people think, “Wow, I have access to the same power that guy does!” Christians aren’t people who boast about their superior morality; they are beggars telling a bunch of other beggars where to find bread.

Beware your strengths. They are far more dangerous to you than your weaknesses, because your strengths keep you from hoping in God’s mercy. And boast in your weaknesses. Boast when God lets you fail. Boast when God reduces the size of your army. God isn’t withholding good things from you. In fact, he’s offering you something priceless. As Hudson Taylor said, “God wants you to have something far better than riches and gold,and that is helpless dependence on him.”

Shepherding and Social Media By Ted Cunningham

(This article is written to pastors; but the advise is good for everyone).

Bill Rogers is a retired pastor in our congregation who has faithfully served us as an elder for many years. He's a mentor I love and respect deeply. We kid each other often about the differences between ministry today and fifty years ago. Most of his early sermons are lost forever, but mine stick around to haunt me digitally until Jesus returns. Bill's pastorate didn't include the internet or mobile devices. Mine takes into regular account the effects of social media on the mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual well-being of our congregation.  The internet changed everything. I'll admit some of the changes were beneficial, but others have had a negative impact. Social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram do have the potential to hurt your family and damage your reputation. Caution is advisable when posting pictures and thoughts online. Everything you say and do is repeatable, shareable, and re-tweetable. Even a joke can backfire and harm your children and friendships. We all need to guard our online presence and our homes from temptation.  Social media can also keep us connected longer than we need to be. This takes a toll on our health. People don't come home from work anymore and unplug. Instead, we surf the web late into the night. And when we're constantly linked to others, it's virtually impossible to experience true solitude. The constant bombardment of information decreases empathy and drains us emotionally.  Social media can also increase the temptation to sin. Spouses are at risk of connecting with old boyfriends or girlfriends and potentially destroying their marriages. Temptations of this kind show up frequently in our counseling sessions. A spouse posts a comment seeking validation for a feeling, and next thing you know there's a private message from someone who starts flirting. Song of Songs 2:15 says, "Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom." Social media is a little fox that with a little feeding becomes a big predator. Temptation is not sin, so catch it early, and do something about it before you sin.  Proverbs 2:11 tells us, "Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you." The definition of discretion is "behaving or speaking in such a way as to avoid causing offense or revealing private information." You don't have to be online long to see that many people don't use discretion when interacting with others or sharing personal information.  I won't seek validation for my feelings through likes, comments, replies or re-tweets. I will only post that which is encouraging and edifying. I refuse to vent or speak negatively about anyone or anything. I will take personal responsibility by removing any posts that lead to negative comments. If it incites criticism towards friends, spouse, parents, or co-workers, I will delete it. I will avoid passive-aggressive posting. For example, I won't post Bible verses pointing to the actions or words of another. I won't post seductive pictures and "selfies" to "put myself out there." If our marriage is in crisis, as we pray and work towards reconciliation, we will suspend all use of social media for the sake of our children, family, and friends. If I question a post, I will ask a mature friend to review it before I post. I won't stalk the behavior of another via social media. I won't create false accounts to manipulate or deceive someone else. I will share all passwords with my spouse or another family member. Above all else, I will strive to use social media in a way that honors God, others, and my family, regardless of my feelings. If I can't use social media in an honoring way, I commit to deleting my account. Use wisdom when online. You may feel safe and protected in a room with just a computer, but the internet can be a powerful tool for good or evil. Protect yourself and those to whom you minister with every keystroke. As you consider these facts and minister to the fatigue that social media creates for many in your congregation, don't forget about your own use of the internet. When you go home, let your house be the place where you disconnect from the world and the daily grind. Limit your personal social media usage. Surfing Facebook or Twitter keeps you connected physically, relationally, and emotionally to friends, work, and responsibilities. This, in turn, has the potential to wear you down. So guard your online activity, and in the process you will guard your soul.

All the “one another” commands in the NT by Jeffrey Kranz

Never Sorry Enough by Tim Challies

I am not easily offended. People will sometimes apologize to me for something they have said or something they have done, concerned that I was offended at their behavior. But I rarely am. It usually doesn’t even occur to me to be offended. But then there is that one situation with that one friend.

A long time ago a friend really did offend me. He hurt me badly, actually. In the aftermath he did the right thing. I spoke to him and expressed how his behavior had hurt me, and he apologized. And that should have been enough, right?

But this is the one offense in my life I found it difficult to move past. And I mean that—for many years this offense existed in its own category in my life. It was the one wound that was so slow to heal. And I sometimes wondered why. Why was this one so hard to let go? Why did I still bear the weight of it, even much later on?

As I thought about it and as I prayed about it, I came to see that somewhere along the way I had decided that my friend was not sorry enough. My memories of the moment told me that he was not contrite enough. His assessment of his actions never quite seemed to measure up to my own. At least, that was my perception of the matter. What grieved me merely bothered him. That was how I perceived it and that is how it sat heavy on my heart.

It took me a long time to see that I was expecting too much. I was expecting the wrong thing. My friend expressed remorse and asked forgiveness, just like he should have. There were no amends he could make and no further actions he could take to make things right—that was not the nature of this offense. So he moved on. We remained friends.

But sometimes that old hurt would creep up. Sometimes I would find myself hurt all over again by that old offense. And I came to see that I wanted to measure his response by his sorrow. I wanted to see him grovel a little, as if this would prove his remorse. I wanted to see him shed a few tears for his offense against me. I wanted him to look and act sorry enough to satisfy my wounded ego. I had judged his apology sincere but insufficient, well-intentioned but trite.

Until one day I understood that he could never be sorry enough. He could never apologize deeply enough. He could never grovel contritely enough. He had done it all just right: He had apologized and asked my forgiveness and gotten on with life and relationship. The fault was with me, with unfair standards, and with unjust judgment.

I had to see that no one can ever be sorry enough. No one can ever be contrite enough. Not him, and not me. The same freedom I enjoy from the Lord—the freedom to ask forgiveness and then immediately enjoy the promise of that forgiveness—that is the very same freedom I was denying him. God doesn’t make me grovel. God doesn’t make me come back again and again to beg forgiveness for that very same sin. God sees the heart, he sees my remorse over my sin, and he forgives to such a degree that I can have absolute confidence in his forgiveness. If God were to grant me forgiveness only when my sincerity was sufficient, only when I properly understood the depth of the offense, and only when I expressed a fitting degree of remorse, I fear that few of my sins would be forgiven.

As is so often the case in life, I was holding someone else to standard I could not hold myself. I can never be sorry enough. He can never be sorry enough. But I can imitate God in granting free and full forgiveness and in letting the matter rest.

Three Christian Misconceptions About Muslims by J.D. Greear

When the average Westerner hears “Muslim,” a number of images come to mind—mostly negative. But most Muslims would be just as horrified as we are at the assumptions entertained about them. Here are some of the most common misconceptions that Westerners have about Muslims:

Misconception 1: Most Muslims Support Terrorism.

Christians won’t usually come out and say that they think all Muslims are terrorists. But many do assume that the majority of Muslims support terrorism, albeit quietly. Much has been written about how Islam was established “by the sword,” or how Muslims engaging in terrorist activity are simply obeying what the Qur’an tells them to do. It is certainly easy to find Muslims using the Qur’an to justify violence. Even when you give the Qur’an a charitable reading, asking “What would Muhammad do?” will lead to a very different place than “What would Jesus do?”

That said, most of the Muslims you encounter—either in Western or in Islamic countries—are not violent people. They are kind, peaceable people and they are often embarrassed by the actions of Muslims throughout the world. While there is a good chance they see world politics very differently from the average Westerner, you will most likely find them warm, hospitable, and kind.

Yes, sincere Muslims believe that Islam will one day rule the world. And we can certainly chide Muslims for not speaking out more against terrorism. But we won’t get very far with them when we assume things about them that are not true. Just as we hate to be maligned, they hate it also.

Misconception 2: All Muslim women feel oppressed.

Westerners often think of the Islamic woman as severely oppressed. They have a mental picture of a woman, hunched over, walking six feet behind her husband, staring dutifully downward. She can barely read, can’t write at all, and longs for freedom from the oppressive rule of Islam and her dictatorial husband.

This is often very far from the truth. Here are three things to keep in mind about the women of Islam:

A.    Many Muslim men and women are happily married.  The married couples I met when I lived in a Muslim country certainly didn’t do “romance” as Westerners are accustomed to. But neither were the women the demeaned sex-slaves that many Westerners often assume.

There were, of course, some exceptions. I had friends whose wives were rarely allowed out of the back of the house, must less out into the community. And there are certain cultures (Afghanistan, for instance) in which oppression seems more the norm than the exception. But it is an overstatement to say that all Muslim women see themselves as oppressed.

B.   Women are often the most ardent defenders of Islam. Ironic but true: despite Islam’s history of oppression, women will often be Islam’s most ardent supporters. Many Islamic women, especially in the Western world, call for reform in how women are treated in Islamic culture, but rarely for an end to Islam itself.

C. There is no denying, however, that the Qur’an and Hadith speak disparagingly of women. The Hadith says that 80 percent of the people in hell are women. In explaining why the witness of a woman is equal to only half of a man’s in court, it says, “Because of the deficiency in their brains.” The Qur’an says that Muslim wives “are like a field to be plowed,” which has often been used to legitimize patriarchy and male dominance. And none of this takes into account localized practices which often exceed the Qur’an in brutality.

Some Islamic scholars will say that I am reading these texts wrongly. But the fact remains: much of the worst oppression of women happens in Muslim countries. Islam lacks the robust Judeo-Christian teaching asserting the equality of men and women as both made in God’s image. It may not be universal, but many Islamic women do feel imprisoned. In contrast, showing Muslim women their dignity in Christ has, in many places, proven to be an immensely effective evangelism strategy.

Misconception 3: Muslims seek to know a different God than Christians do.

This is controversial, but hear me out. Muslims claim to worship the God of Adam, Abraham, and Moses. Many missionaries find it therefore helpful to start with Muslims using the Arabic term for God, “Allah” (meaning literally, “the Deity”), and from there to explain that the God Muslims seek to worship, the God of the Prophets, was the God present in bodily form in Jesus Christ, revealed most fully by him, and the One worshipped by Christians for the past two millennia. This is not the same as saying that becoming a Muslim is like a “first step to becoming a Christian.” And it certainly doesn’t mean that Islam is an alternate way of getting to heaven. It simply means that we are both referring to the only, One deity when we say “God.”

You might ask, “But isn’t the Islamic God so different from the Christian God that they cannot properly be called by the same name?” Perhaps. The question about whether to say that “Allah” refers to the wrong God (or to wrong ideas about the right God) is a highly nuanced one, and there’s not an easy answer. There is no doubt that Muslims believe blasphemous things about God, and their beliefs about Allah grew out of a distorted view of Christianity. The same could be said, though to a lesser degree, of the view of God of the first-century Sadducees, as well as the Samaritan woman, and (to an even lesser degree) the fifth-century Pelagian heretics—not to mention a lot of the medieval Scholastics.

The question is whether the presence of these heretical beliefs (and whatdegree of heresy in them) demands that we say, “You are worshipping a different God.” Clearly, the Apostles did not say that about the first-century Jews who rejected the Trinity (even though Jesus said their father was the devil!). And Jesus did not tell the Samaritan woman in her ethnic, works-righteousness distorted view of God that she was worshipping a different God, either. Instead, he insisted that she was worshipping him incorrectly and seeking salvation wrongly. And I’ve never heard anyone say that the Pelagian heretics worship a different God, even though they have been regarded (rightly) as heretics.

At the same time, Paul never said, “Zeus’s real name is Jehovah,” as if the Greeks were worshipping the true God wrongly. So, the question is:is the Muslim view of Allah more like that of Zeus or of the Samaritan woman’s heretical conception of God? That’s a tough question, and one that we need to let the context determine. For instance, many Christians find the use of “Allah” more misleading than helpful. For them, “Allah” falls in the “Zeus” category.

On the other side, however, are many faithful Christians working among Muslims who approach the question of Allah much like Jesus corrected the Samaritan woman. “You are seeking to worship the one God, but you are wrong in your view of him, and wrong in how you seek salvation from him. Salvation is from the Jews.” In my time with Muslims over the years, I’ve found that to be a more helpful starting place. This isn’t driven by a desire to be politically correct, but by a desire to start where Muslims are, and to bring them to faith in the one and only Son of God, Jesus.

When talking with Muslims about the gospel, we need to eliminate any unnecessary distractions. The necessary ones, after all, will be tough enough. We must view Muslims with charity, refusing to pigeonhole them. We live in a world of stereotypes, but love can overcome what political correctness can’t. To listen to someone without prejudice is the beginning of loving them. In other words, “Do unto others” applies here as well: let’s see others as they would like to be seen.

Be sure to see Monday’s post as well, “Muslim Misconceptions About Christians.” Both posts are modified from my Breaking the Islam Code.

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