Hardly a day goes by at the office without a request from some part of the U.S.A. or Canada, for either our evangelistic Arabic books, tracts, or cassettes, or for some advice on the subject itself—missions to Muslims. The book table ministry is expanding and is in itself a wonderful opportunity for witnessing. Book tables don’t need to be restricted to large university campuses or to foreign student populations. Your local junior college or vocational school is a field also. Perhaps it is a ministry in which you could become involved.
However, as our field is the Arabic–speaking world and that world has moved right around us, we are in the midst of the action. Dedicated young Christians are eager to share their faith with foreign students. Many have observed that the Muslim Student Association is active on their campus with its “resource tables.” They sense that they should be doing something. When they hear about the availability of our books they are glad. But for many of them it opens up a tremendous subject about which they have little knowledge.
This is why, as we have mentioned before, we have prepared a very basic guide for such people. It is a book which anyone would benefit from reading because it demonstrates the basic Christian convictions which we all would like to share with our neighbors. This book, “Sharing God’s Word with a Muslim,” is presently being revised and printed for a second time. Many of the Christian workers on university campuses who ask for help are graduate students with limited spare time for extra studies. They appreciate this material. We would like to share a portion of it which deals with the Islamic and the Christian doctrines of man, and the important bridge which such knowledge provides to the person who would approach a Muslim with the Christian gospel. Rev. Madany writes:
“In other words, the Muslim view of man and the Muslim understanding of the nature of the Fall do not leave any room for a Divine Savior. Such a Savior is not needed, since man needs only to know in order that he may do the will of Allah.
“Islam has never recognized realistically the consequences of man’s rebellion against God. While admitting the fall of Adam as an historical event, Islam does not possess the Biblical realism which makes us acknowledge the seriousness of man’s sinfulness. It readily admits the sins and shortcomings of man, but Islam does not really admit the sinful ness of man. As a Tunisian listener once wrote to me: ‘I can well understand you when you talk about sins in the plural, but I cannot comprehend you when you speak about sin in the singular. What do you mean by sin?’
“Today Islam is tremendously vulnerable in its doctrine of man. For the present mood in world literature, philosophy and the arts does not lend itself to the shallow optimism of the Islamic doctrine of man. The modern secular prophet tells us that man is dead. He sees no hope for mankind. How can he entertain any optimistic views of man after all that happened in Europe during the Second World War? And if the Muslim’s answer is that these terrible things took place within Christendom, can he really maintain that human nature is any different in Africa and Asia? Such questions are not meant to embarrass any Muslim nor are they intended to show that the West is less sinful than the East or the nations of the Third World. The point is that modem history does not support any optimistic view of man or of his so–called native goodness. Much has taken place within Muslim countries to show that man is desperately wicked, and that man’s depravity is general or total. One can point to the 100,000 Indonesians who were killed by their fellow citizens after the abortive communistic coup of the mid–sixties. Certainly, not all those who perished in the blood bath were confirmed or convicted Marxists! The many military coups which took place in the Arab world since 1949 and the terrible massacres which followed the Iraqi coups in 1958 and July 1979 do not point to the expected results of the native goodness of man.
“It is very strange that people can go on chanting about the decency of man when all the events around them shout aloud that man is desperately wicked and capable of surpassing the animals in his evils! Nevertheless, throughout all of these fourteen centuries, Islam has not yet learned the lesson which the Bible teaches so clearly: all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none that does good, no not one!
“Since the Islamic doctrine of man is the most vulnerable one, what are its implications for the Christian mission to Islam today?
“Whether the Christian is explaining the Scriptures to a Muslim audience, or preaching on a certain passage of Scripture, or proclaiming the Word in a topical message, or simply reflecting on the problems and issues of contemporary life, he must always bear in mind the Biblical doctrine of the radical nature of sin and the devastating consequences of the fall. By doing this, he is not imposing a certain non–Biblical scheme on the Christian proclamation of the gospel. He is simply witnessing to one of the main themes of God’s special revelation. Furthermore, he is preparing the ground for the Biblical doctrine of redemption by the vicarious death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“What we must always remember is this: the Muslim not only rejects the historicity of Good Friday’s main event the crucifixion of Christ, but Islamic theology does not believe in the necessity of redemption. According to its teachings, man does not need to be redeemed by a Divine act. In Islam, perfection or salvation is achieved by doing what one learns from God’s revelation! So, it is only after a Muslim has seen the necessity of Divine redemption due to the radical nature of sin, that he is ready to consider the claims of Christ.
“But here we must be very careful in our statement of the case. We must follow Biblical history and Biblical logic, if I may say, and not abstract logic. We cannot appeal to some so-called neutral arbiter to settle the problem in some abstract way in order that our case may become acceptable to the Muslim. The Christian missionary must always begin with the Bible and with Biblical history. The work of Christ on the Cross is a fait accompli. God planned it from all eternity. He executed it in the fullness of time. Our argument is not based on human logic but on Divine action which took place in real history and which is inerrantly recorded and explained in Holy Scripture. We should never give the Muslim the idea or the feeling that our doctrine of salvation has come into being as a result of our own theologizing.
“Certainly God’s way of salvation by the blood of Christ shed on our behalf on Calvary’s cross is exactly what we needed. There was no other way of salvation. Man’s case was desperately hopeless. There was no other way of escape except God’s way. But when we speak in such terms we are not sitting on some neutral ground and arriving at these truths on the basis of a so-called autonomous human logic. When the Christian missionary speaks of the gospel, he speaks as one who has already tasted the salvation of the Lord. We who are called to go to Muslims with the message of the gospel have already experienced the Lord’s redemption. But He does not redeem us in some vaguely mystical way, but by the application of the work of Christ in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. When we go to Muslims we go as those who are commissioned to proclaim the Word of God and as those who have already experienced the saving work of God in their hearts. We go as witnesses not as logicians.
“These lines are not the fruit of some abstract reflection on the Christian mission to Islam. Rather, they have been written as a result of a Christian reflection on the subject carried on during a busy and pioneering ministry of radio and literature mission in Arabic. It has been my privilege to process more than 80,000 letters from Arabs in every part of their vast world, more than half of which were from Muslims. I can testify that the gospel of Jesus Christ is tremendously needed. The approach as outlined in this chapter has been used in the proclamation of the Word of God to the Muslims since 1958. Many of them appreciate the Christian message, and some, by the grace of God, are now true believers in the Biblical Messiah.”
Mrs. Madany assists her husband who is the minister of the Arabic Broodcast ofThe Back to God Hour, 6555 West College Drive, Palos Heights, IL 60463.
Reprinted from 1he June–July 1981 Missionary Monthly.