tagged: Culture, Evangelism, From the Middle East, Muslim

Answering Questions – Part 4

Posted by From the Middle East in Church & Missions

The question we will look at today is:

If you have assurance of paradise, then you can do anything you want. How does that honor God?

Two things should be considered in answering this question. The first is that Muslims who might ask this question have revealed they are looking at God through the lens of one who is under the Law. This is evident in the allusion to the concept of the Law and consequences of the Law being restrictive. That is, they are what restrain people from participating in all forms of sin and ungodliness. This is good. This person is thinking about morality and God’s judgement. It is very possible that this same person, when sitting alone and considering her own heart and soul, feels very shameful before God.

The second thing to consider is that Western evangelism, particularly in the past few decades, tends to focus on where one is going after death. Something like this:

Evangelist: God hates sin. Have you ever sinned?

Hearer: Yes.

Evangelist: God is in Heaven and you are a sinner.

Hearer: Yes.

Evangelist: Then how do you expect to get into Heaven?

Hearer: I guess I won’t. But I don’t want to go to Hell and burn.

Evangelist: If you believe in Jesus and pray to receive him, you won’t have to go to Hell.

Hearer: All I have to do is believe in Jesus and pray a prayer and I won’t go to Hell?

Evangelist: Yes. Repeat after me and you will be assured of Heaven when you die.

While this is not necessarily wrong, it is not complete. My own understanding of this for years was that I could live however I want on Earth and still get into Heaven because I “believe” in Jesus and prayed to “receive” him. So, I lived however I wanted! Obviously something was missing.

What was missing was a genuine desire to “be with God.” This is evidenced by my concept of Heaven at the time as well – a place to fish, eat a lot, visit with friends, fill in your earthly pleasure here. Muslims have the same concept of a Paradise filled with earthly pleasures (albeit a seventh century Arabian version). Thus, when our Muslim friends hear us present the end goal of Christianity as a way to get into Heaven (Paradise), they assume we are promoting exactly what I used to believe, and many of the folks we sit on the pews with each Sunday still believe, about how to do it. Just mentally assent to this doctrine and pray this prayer.

First of all, this is not what Jesus came for! Yes, in the sense that only those reconciled to God may enter His presence and He is in Heaven, that is what he came for. But he did not come so we could go to some earthly fantasy land in the sky. And this must be articulated. Our deep love for and satisfaction in God must be communicated. That our desire is to know Him must be communicated. That God, in the Messiah, was reconciling the world to Him must be communicated. (I would argue that we do Americans a disservice if we do not communicate the same truths to them while proclaiming the Good News.)

One way that I have found helpful in articulating this truth is by stories. There are numerous stories that could be used, but one, in particular, I have found very beneficial:

Long ago there was a great king. He was a good king – just, honorable, righteous, and loved by all his people. Within this king’s service was a servant. Each day the servant would wake up and work hard at whatever task he was given. He knew the king was good and just and was always concerned that if the things he did were not good enough, the king might cast him out from the kingdom. There was another man who lived in the same kingdom. He was one of the king’s sons. Each day the son would wake up and work hard at whatever task he was given. He knew the king was good and just and loved all that the king stood for, so he worked with all his strength to help the king in every way he was asked. He loved to hear the words, “Well done my son.” He also knew that, as the king’s son, he would never be in danger of being cast out of the kingdom. Why did the servant work hard? Why did the son work hard? Which would you rather be?

This story demonstrates our love for God and desire to serve him not out of fear, but out of love for all that He is and stands for. And, it also points out the deeper relationship that exists between a king and his son than the relationship between a king and his servant. Further, it hints at inheritance, authority and other privileges belonging to a son.

Regardless of whether you use this story or make up your own, please avoid cheapening the Incarnation as a means to get into a place filled with earthly pleasures that can never hold a candle to the satisfaction that comes from a deep, abiding relationship with the Creator of the Heavens and Earth.