New Life Equipping Class ISLAM & THE GOSPEL

New Life Equipping Class ISLAM & THE GOSPEL

Schedule Introduction Origin & History Muhammad & Jesus Allah & Yahweh The Qur an & the Bible Sharing the Gospel with Muslims

What is Islam? Islam means submission. A Muslim is one who is submitted to the will of God. For the Muslim, submission to Allah supersedes obtaining forgiveness.

What is Islam? The Muslim world is extremely theocentric. Its focus is on God. In Islamic communities the phrases, Lord willing, Praise God, In the name of God, There is no God but God, are heard daily. However, in the Western world, with its materialistic, secular, and humanistic viewpoints, God is left out of almost every area of life. Patrick O. Cate

What is Islam? Both Christians and Muslims believe that God created the world in six days, and that there is a hell and a heaven, angels and devils. They believe in all the prophets of the Old and New Testaments, the virgin birth of Christ, the Second Coming of Christ, the Resurrection, and the Day of Judgment. Samuel Shahid

Caliphal Tree of Islam Muhammad (570-632) Abu Bakr (632-634) Umar (634-644) Uthman (644-656) Ali (656-661)

What is God doing? God is on a mission to reach the nations (Gen. 1, 3, 10, 12)

The Mission of the Triune God The Father, through His promise-plan and by His redemptive acts, is reconciling the nations to himself. Christ has embodied the mission and it will be completed by him. The Spirit calls and equips us to take part in God s mission.

If God is a missionary God, does He have a plan to reach Muslims? Consider the following: 1) God s Unique Promises to Ishmael (Gen 16:10-12; 17:20; 21:13, 18) 2) Ishmael s descendants in the New Jerusalem (Isa 60:7) 3) The magi, the first of the nations to worship Christ (Matt 2:1-12) 4) The Apostle Paul s Journey to Arabia (Gal 1:16-17; 2 Cor 11:32)

You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard the cry of your affliction God s Unique Promises: The Angel of Yahweh Speaks to Hagar (Gen 16) The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?" She said, "I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai." The angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress and submit to her." The angel of the LORD also said to her, "I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude. Gen 16:7-10

You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard the cry of your affliction God s Unique Promises: The Angel of Yahweh Speaks to Hagar (Gen 16) And the angel of the LORD said to her, "Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has listened to your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen." So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, "You are a God of seeing," for she said, "Truly here I have seen him who looks after me." Gen 16:11-13

Oh that Ishmael Might Live Before You! God s Unique Promises: God Will Bless Ishmael and His Descendants (Gen 17) And Abraham said to God, O that Ishmael might live before you! (17:18) Then God said, No, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you shall call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. (17:19) And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. (17:20; cp. with the promise to Abraham in 17:6)

Genesis 17:19-20 in the Light of God s Mission *Isaac receives the blessing of the promised covenant,; whereas Ishmael receives the promise of a blessing. *Isaac and his descendants are destined to be the agents of God s mission: through you all the peoples of the earth will be blessed. Ishmael and his descendants are destined to be the special recipients of God s mission the first of the gentiles to come into the New Jerusalem (Isa 60).

Which son did God ask Abraham to sacrifice? In Genesis 22 it s Isaac. But according to 1.3 billion people on planet earth it was Ishmael. Interestingly, the classic Qur an text (Q. 37:100-113) does not name the son whom Abraham sacrificed!

God s Unique Promises: God Assures Abraham and Hagar that Ishmael will Become a Great Nation (Gen 21) But Sarah saw [Ishmael] laughing. So she said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. Gen 21:9-10 But God said to Abraham Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring. 21:12-13 Cast out the Bondwoman and her son! The tragic Breakup of Abraham s Family And God heard the lad crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar: Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation. 21:17-18 God was with the lad in the wilderness as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. And he lived in the wilderness of Paran. 21:20-21

The Dispersal of Ishmael s Descendants (Gen 25) These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, listed in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. Gen 25:13-15 His descendants settled in the area from Havilah to Shur, near the border of Egypt, as you go toward Asshur. Gen 25:18

For what purpose did God preserve Ishmael and make him a great nation? The answer appears in Isaiah 60. God has a missionary plan to bring salvation to the non-covenant peoples who have sprung forth from Abraham and Ishmael.

The Descendants of Ishmael and the New Jerusalem (Isa 60:7) A day will come when people from all nations and tongues will worship the King in Jerusalem. But which of the nations appears first? Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord. (60:6; cp. with Gen. 25:1-6) All Kedar s flocks will be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth will serve you; they will be accepted as offerings on my altar, and I will adorn my glorious temple. (60:7; cp. with Gen. 25: 12-17)

The Nations who come to Jerusalem fall into three groups: 1) Midian, Ephah and Sheba (the sons of Keturah) and Kedar and Nebayot (the sons of Ishmael) who represent the non-covenant descendants of Shem through Abraham (60:6-7) 2) The ships of Tarshish representing the descendants of Japheth (60:9) 3) The glory of Lebanon representing the descendants of Ham (60:13) But the first to come are the non-covenant descendants of Abraham! God has not forgotten his promises to Abraham and Hagar! What can we expect, then, in the end times? Increasing signs of God s visitation among the descendants of Ishmael. In recent history, reports have come from around the world of Muslim conversions to Christ, often accompanied by dreams and visions.

We have seen that in the Old Testament God revealed a plan to bring salvation to the descendants of Ishmael. But what about the New Testament? Do we find there any additional confirmation that God actually has such a promise-plan for Muslims?

Matthew, the Magi and the Christ-child: An Initial Fulfillment of Isaiah 60:6-7 Magi from the east arrived...and they fell down and worshiped him; and opening their treasures they presented to him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Mt. 2:1, 11; cp. Isa. 60:6) Persians Babylonians Who were the magi? Church tradition identifies them as: Arabs

The Arguments Supporting an Arabian Origin: 1) They came from the east, a designation in the Bible for Arabia (Gen 25:6; 29:1; Jdg 6:3; Jer 49:28). 2) The earliest church fathers Justin Martyr (b. 100 A.D., Tertullian, and Epiphanus assert their Arabian origin. 3) The gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh are products of Arabia. 4) The magi cult was present among some of the ancient tribes of Northern Arabia. 5) It appears that Matthew views 2:11 as a fulfillment of Isaiah 60:6-7. The first Gentiles to worship Christ were probably Arabs!

God Himself led these Arabian magi to worship the Christ Child. This is a sign for us that God still has a plan to reach the descendants of Ishmael! And God gave us one more sign to this end when He sent the Apostle Paul into Arabia.

Why Did Paul Go to Arabia? FROM DAMASCUS TO ARABIA: But when God [who]... called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem,... But I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus (Gal. 1:16-17) Some scholars think that Paul went to Arabia in order to reflect and integrate his experiences on the Damascus road with his Judaism. But Paul s journey to Arabia seems connected to his commission to preach among the Gentiles.

Why Does Aretas, the Nabataen Arab King, wish to seize Paul upon his return to Damascus? In Damascus the ethnarch under King Aretas had the city under guard in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands (2 Cor. 11:32-33). In his comments on 2 Corinthians 11:32, Terence Donaldson says: One does not arouse the anger of a ruler by engaging in a period of silence and seclusion. Instead, these references probably indicate that Paul was engaged in Gentile evangelization from the start (Paul and the Gentiles, p. 271). Conclusion: The Nabataen Arabs were the first Gentiles to whom Paul preached the Gospel!

SUMMARY God s priority in reaching the descendants of Ishmael: 1) Ishmael is the first of the non-covenant peoples to receive a divine blessing (Gen. 17:20). 2) The Arabs/Ishmaelites are the first of the nations to come to the New Jerusalem in Isaiah 60 to present their gifts on the temple altar. 3) The magi, most likely Arabians, are the first among Matthew s Gentiles to worship the Christ-child (Mt. 2:1-12). 4) The Arabs may have been the first Gentiles to whom Paul preached the gospel (Gal. 1:17-18; 2 Cor. 11:32). *This coming first and going to first does not represent human initiative, rather it represents God s providential divine intervention.

How then should we respond?