Reasoning from the Scriptures With Muslims

Rating:
Summary: Good Answers
Review: In this book, Ron Rhodes does an excellant job of outling the Muslim world view and the Muslim perspective on Christianity. He also poses questions that a Muslim apololgist might pose to a Christian and then proceeds to give historical, scriptural, and/or logical answers in support of Christianity.

The questions leveled at Christianity by Muslim apologists are often the same questions posed by other Non-Christian critics and since this book answers these questions with sound research and logic, the usefulness of this book goes beyond the dialogue between Christians and Muslims with respect to Christian theology, historical validity, and interpretive integrity.

Rating:
Summary: Good Answers
Review: In this book, Ron Rhodes does an excellant job of outling the Muslim world view and the Muslim perspective on Christianity. He also poses questions that a Muslim apololgist might pose to a Christian and then proceeds to give historical, scriptural, and/or logical answers in support of Christianity.

The questions leveled at Christianity by Muslim apologists are often the same questions posed by other Non-Christian critics and since this book answers these questions with sound research and logic, the usefulness of this book goes beyond the dialogue between Christians and Muslims with respect to Christian theology, historical validity, and interpretive integrity.

Rating:
Summary: How Muslims See Their Beliefs Inside Abrahamic Faiths
Review: Muslims believe that the Qur'an is the Word of Allah (God). They believe that it was dictated to the Prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel over a 20+ year period 1400 years ago. They believe that it has Allah's personal mark of protection over it, so unlike any other religious book, it is supposed to be exactly in the same pure state it was in when it was first revealed a millennia and a half ago (the Arabic Text part anyway). And they believe that it is the "Last Testament;" that it marks the end of the Revealed Scripture from Allah and that there will be no more additions to The Book. It is now complete.

For its part, the Qur'an itself claims (written in first-person narration as the Voice of God Himself talking directly to the Prophet and sometimes to us) that it is the last part of a larger Book that came to many peoples before. It claims that this last part is the universal message for all of mankind, whereas the previous major Books, the Torah of Moses and the Gospel of Christ Jesus were only specialized, specific messages for a local population.

Now because Muslims believe that every dot, squiggle, fathah, kasra and dumma in the Qur'an is the actual Word of Allah on Earth, when they read the Old and New Testaments, the parts that back up what the Qur'an claims tend to really stand out to them in a very obvious manner; to the point where they sometimes just can't believe that Christians and Hebrews don't see it too. For example, in Sura XXVI verses 192-199 Allah says:

"Verily this is a revelation from the Lord of the Worlds:
With it came down the Spirit of Faith and Truth-
To thy heart and mind that thou mayest admonish
In the perspicuous Arabic tongue.
Without doubt it is announced in the mystic books of former peoples.
Is it not a sign to them that the learned of the Children of Israel knew it as true?
Had we revealed it to any of the non-Arabs, and had he recited it to them, they would not have believed in it."

That last part is in reference to the fact that when the high ranking Rabbis in the Hebrew tribes of Makkah and Medina heard the Qur'an recited for the first time they immediately believed in it. In Deuteronomy 18:18/34:10 they had the old prophecy of a Prophet with a book coming from their brother nation of Arabs, so they were expecting him. The Qur'an mentions elsewhere that Muhammad's coming was foretold in the previous messages, so when Muslims come across passages like that they are not surprised at all.

The Qur'an also claims that the religion of Islam that it propagates is the same religion and message that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob practiced. Hebrews and Christians dismiss this statement for seemingly obvious reasons, but in recent studies of the contents of the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls, the scholars have discovered that the message taught by James the Just from the first Christian Church as given to him by his brother Christ Jesus is the same as that taught in the Qur'an and is not the same as that taught by the Torah or even by Pauline Christianity (see The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered and James the Brother of Jesus). Muslims simply accept these findings because the Qur'an already said so, but in actually reading the Old and New Testaments the reasons for these statements again stand out obvious to them.

The Religion/Faith of God as practiced by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was called "Torath Yahve" or instruction/moral law of God. It was also practiced by Jacob's kids (especially Joseph) and his great grandson Moses. At that time the Torath Yahve had never been written down; it was always an oral message and everyone was apparently A-Okay with that.

And then came the Exodus. Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt towards the land that Allah had promised to give to the offspring of His friend Abraham. But it was not easy. They gave Moses and Aaron hell the whole step of the way. And it was by no means simply the bone-weary complaints of the traveler, no. Despite the many, many, many (and MANY) signs and wonders Allah showed them almost daily, the Children of Israel would drop God's teaching and worship idols, doubt and disobey God's word and everything. God was (literally!) always getting fed up and about to wipe them out and start over when Moses had to jump in and remind Him of the promise to Abraham, and then God would calm down. This would happen almost every week during the entire journey. And every time it happened, as punishment Allah would give the Children of Israel new strict and ever more complicated laws to follow to make up for what they were putting Him and His Apostles through. These laws not only grew longer and longer but they also got a long list of Curses that would happen to them if they didn't follow all the laws to the letter. This was the punishment for the Children of Israel for their continuous rebellion.

When they reached the edge of the Promised Land across the river Jordan, Allah told Moses to write down the Law. Thus the complex, super-strict burden of the Laws called the written Torah was born. God said it had to be written where they all could come and see it. And He prophesized through both Moses and Joshua that the Children of Israel would rebel again and annul the Abrahambric Covenant and be destroyed. Of course it did happen. The only child of Israel left is Judah who has the burden of caring for the written Torah of Moses and the oral message of the Torath Yahve which is only taught to the higher ranking Rabbi or the "...learned of the Children of Israel" as the Qur'an called them.

The Torath Yahve was not for the Children of Israel to follow, their only job was to carry it and safeguard it; they had to follow the super-strict Torah until their Messiah, the last of the Hebrew Prophets came to release them from its heavy burden and allow them to practice the far easier Torath Yahve again. Unfortunately for the Children of Israel, the spirit of rebellion was still upon them. Despite the fact that they had fulfilled the prophesy of their destruction and had been smashed down to only one remaining tribe, and the fact that they had abused the written Torah in their safekeeping and taken on all kinds of wicked, selfish practices they still suffered under the illusion that they were Allah's chosen people. So it was no surprise at all that when their Messiah did come to release them from their centuries old burden, they rejected him because he didn't aid and abet the foul practices they had grown into. They tried to kill him and cursed themselves further.

The Messiah of the Children of Israel was none other than Jesus, son of Mary. He told them that he alone held the key to their salvation; that if they didn't go through him and receive the guidance of the Torath Yahve then they had to remain under every tot and tittle the Torah demanded of them. Jesus said that the secret to getting to heaven is to keep the commandments. Muslims recognize that the concept of the Divine, Son-of-God Jesus came completely out of the imagination of Paul and is not to be taken seriously. Because the gentiles of 2000 years ago were already worshipping beings similar to Paul's Divine Jesus, plus the fact that some of the Hebrews still had that idol-worshipping rebellious spirit upon them, it really comes as no surprise to Muslims that they took Paul's ideas and ran with them with enthusiasm.

Jesus told his twelve companions that he could not stay and spread the Gospel amongst the world-wide community; that wasn't his job. His message was only for the lost sheep of the Children of Israel. If he stayed then the Spirit of Truth couldn't come to give all of mankind the universal message.

Now three points stand out about that last part when Muslims read it. First, the Qur'an said that previous messages (including Jesus') were local, so that is confirmation to them. Second, Muslims know that the reason Islam spread so rapidly in the very beginning of its message among those who knew Muhammad best, was because his nicknames were "Spirit of Truth," "Truthful One" from when he was a very small boy. His wife Khadijah proposed to him because of his upright morality and uncompromising honesty. Third, Muslims remember that there were two Christians in Muhammad's history who told him that they were expecting another prophet because of Jesus' prophesy. It's only been very recently that Christians have been interpreting "Spirit of Truth" and "Comforter" as the Holy Spirit, an aspect of Allah's manifestation in human lives that even the Old Testament gives ample evidence of having already been here.

When the Dead Sea Scroll scholars discovered that the Torath Yahve of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was the same message that the Children of Israel were safeguarding as their sacred oral tradition, which was the same message that Jesus was trying to exchange for the Torah with God's mercy, which was the same message the Christ gave to his younger brother James the Just who taught it in the first Church of Jerusalem, which is an identical message to the Holy Qur'an, Muslims merely see what they knew all along.

So with this information and a more detailed insight into how Muslims see Islam fitting into the Abrahamic Religious History perhaps you can be even more effective in your ministry approaches. You're welcome.




Rating:
Summary: Very enlightening book!
Review: This book helped me in understanding Islam from both a historical and theological viewpoint. The author not only gives a thorough background of the subject but also answers questions that Evangelical Christians would be confronted with in their personal witness to Muslims. Although the book is written for a lay person, the author makes very sound, easy to understand intellectual arguments. Not only did I enjoy reading this book, but I plan to use it as a future resource.

Rating:
Summary: Very enlightening book!
Review: This book helped me in understanding Islam from both a historical and theological viewpoint. The author not only gives a thorough background of the subject but also answers questions that Evangelical Christians would be confronted with in their personal witness to Muslims. Although the book is written for a lay person, the author makes very sound, easy to understand intellectual arguments. Not only did I enjoy reading this book, but I plan to use it as a future resource.

Rating:
Summary: very good for questions that will make even Christians think
Review: This book is a "godsend", if I can put it "punfully". It details a history of Mohammed and the influences of his culture at the time and his personal life I didn't know. More than that, the book is very fair in stating how much more the Muslims in general venerate their Koran, while relegating the Bible to a secondary category, as they consider the Bible to be error-prone. The author takes all this into consideration, even though the title would suggest that one is only going to use the Bible for "reasoning" with a Muslim. Ron Rhodes is a fine Biblical scholar, and is known for many other books and articles.
From there, the author delves into the differences between the Koran and the Bible. With each chapter, there are questions in a rectangular box to ask a Muslim to make him or her start questioning some of the "truths" in the Koran. This is extremely helpful, and I really like this feature of the book. Even though other books are helpful, a witnessing tool like this really lays the groundwork for real communication, instead of merely "arguing past a Muslim", with no penetration whatsoever. I did do a review of another book, "Islam Revealed", by Shorrosh, and while it is a really good book for a perspective from a Arab Christian's point of view, "Reasoning" is really a more helpful book for actual witnessing. Even if a person of the Muslim persuasion won't accept some of the arguments, the questions will make even a stubborn one stop and think.
I understand Dr. Shorrosh's point that he tried to make in his book "Islam Revealed", because he became frustrated when he heard a debate between an uninformed Christian and Muslim, where the Christian lost the argument, in Dr. Shorrosh's mind. That was the reason for his writing the book "Islam Revealed", and it relates the debate that he partook in with the same well-educated Muslim, a Dr. Deedat, who had trounced the former well-intentioned, but misinformed Christian. It is a very good book, and I'm sure that any Christian interesting in witnessing would want "Islam Revealed", as it is a very well-known book now, but it comes up short with actual questions for witnessing helps.
This book, "Reasoning", not only shores up this shortcoming, it roars past it. Buy this book, it is worth your while.