What Every Christian Needs to Know About Islam (Olin Giles)

0:00Well, good morning, church. It's a delight to be here with you. As you heard, my name is Owen Zhao. I'm with Radical Truth Ministries. You can find out more information about us at RadicalTruth.net. RadicalTruth.net. And I'm going to begin this morning with a passage from Matthew chapter 5, if you want to find your way there. My wife and I grew up in Rock Keel, South Carolina. We've been away for quite a while. She graduated from Rock Keel High. We won't hold that against her. But I was an Northwestern graduate in 1983, but had to pick on her. She might be sitting on the back or right back there. Matthew chapter 5, and I'm going to begin reading in verse 13. Jesus is talking to His disciples here.

1:01And the Word of God says to you and me, you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. Matthew is the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. Father, we love you. Thank you so much for this opportunity to be here this morning with this church. I pray as always that you would get me out of the way.

2:02That the words of my mouth would be faithful to your cached and to your spirit. May your church be edified. Father, I pray that you would just give us a sense of urgency this morning to share the gospel, the glorious good news of Jesus Christ with whoever we come in contact with. May you be glorified through us and through each and every individual here today. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. If I had a dollar for every time I've told this story, my ministry would be fully funded, but I'm going to tell it again. I woke up one morning and I smelled the unmistakable odor of blueberry muffins. Some of you guys looked like me and they're like blueberry muffins. I'm laying there in bed. My wife's a school teacher. She got up and she was getting ready to leave to get a work.

3:03I thought she got it up and she fixed blueberry muffins for me for breakfast. That was mighty nice of her. She took off to work and I got up. I could still smell the aroma of blueberry muffins in the air. I got up and went to the kitchen. Guess what? No blueberry muffins. The oven was not even hot. I thought, well, how in the world did she do that? She came home from work that day and I confronted her about making blueberry muffins and taking them to her coworkers. I won't tell you how that went for me, but she said, what are you talking about? I said, honey, I know you got up and made something that smelled like blueberry muffins and you didn't even care to leave me one. She said, I have no clue what you're talking about.

4:04Long story short, she got up and she put on this strawberry daiquiri look. I'm not even sure a pastor's wife should be wearing such lotion, but I sincerely believed that she made blueberry muffins, but I was sincerely wrong. So folks, I'll tell you that story because I want to share with you a little bit this morning about my ministry with radical truth, but I also want to share with you some passages of scripture about how we can be salt and light and how we can reach Muslims right here, basically on the doorsteps of the American church. Paul told Timothy that the church is the pillar and the foundation of the truth. If people in this community are going to know the truth, we are the ones that's going

5:04to have to do it. You know, my wife that day helped me understand what was true and what was false, and I'm so thankful for her, by the way. I couldn't be here without her. I've been trying to do this for the last seven or eight years. I know God's called me to this. For reason, this is my second year full time. I've never in my life had such a sense of purpose is what I have right now. Folks, God is bringing these people to us. If we look at 1 Timothy 2.4, we read where God desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. If that is God's desire, it should be our desire, right? God desires all people, including Muslims, including Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, atheists,

6:09but they must come to the knowledge of the truth. They must leave Islam. Now, one of the most sober and thoughts that I consistently have is the fact that God could have changed the world anyway He wanted to, right? He didn't need us, but He chose to work in and through us His church, His body, to reach these people. One day, we're going to step off into eternity. I just try to imagine what that's going to be like to see people that God allowed me to have some type of influence in their life. Now we know that only God saves. We don't save anybody. The Father draws them to Himself. The Holy Spirit convicts them of sin, judgment, and righteousness, but He entrusted us with the power of the gospel. It is the power of God and the salvation.

7:12And God desires for these people to be saved. Now fear that a lot of people in our churches today are afraid. They're afraid of Muslims. But if there's anything that you get out of my talk this morning, I hope you understand that these are people just like you and me. These are people whom Christ died for. These are people made in the image of God. You may have heard that Islam means peace. It does not. It means submission and a Muslim is simply one who submits. So here's the deal. We have to make this simple distinction between Islam and a Muslim. I've never seen a lot of Christians in our churches as I travel across the United States. They struggle with making this simple distinction. You can love Muslims, but not love Islam.

8:17God desires all men to be saved, but they must come to the knowledge of the truth. And here's the thing. Muslims love to talk. They come from a collectivist oral type culture. By the way, this is also the cultural context of the Bible. It's just been my experience that you are not going to have trouble talking to a Muslim about who is God and who is Jesus. These people love to talk. I have stood in the drizzling rain for over an hour talking to Muslims about these simple questions. Try that with a Baptist, right? By the way, all the pictures that you see are my pictures. The picture you just saw there with me standing with two Muslims is in Dallas, Texas.

9:18Three years ago, I'd never been on a airplane. I wasn't afraid to fly. I just like to stay at home. God has given me the opportunity to travel all over the United States. I've been to California. Dallas, Texas, Florida. Just got back from Patterson, New Jersey. Dearborn Michigan. How many of you know anything at all about Dearborn Michigan? Folks, if you don't, you should. It's like being in the Middle East. The picture that you saw with me on the first slide, that's a mosque in Dearborn. Dear Michigan. I believe God sent these people to us. I believe He's brought them to us. And they love to talk. They love to talk about... Here's how you start a simple conversation with a Muslim.

10:18I'm just curious. What do you think about Jesus? Let me assure you, you will be there for a while talking to this Muslim just starting off with that simple question. But let me warn you, you better know what you believe and why you believe it. Because it's going to be on from there. But please don't be afraid to talk with these people. They love to talk. But while we're having these meaningful gospel conversations with them, there is this great danger of assuming that they are just like us, the danger of assumptions. I like to say that Islam uses Christian vocabulary, but it does not use a Christian dictionary. So if you were to open up an English translation of the Quran, you're going to find words like God, Jesus, sin. Even the word gospel is in there.

11:19I mean, all these words that you and I are familiar with, but you need to understand that these terms take on a radically different meaning within the context of Islam. Same vocabulary, different dictionary. We cannot assume that they are defining these words in the same way that you and I do. So for example, here's something that I hear constantly. We believe in Jesus. Why don't you believe in our prophet? Here's the way that I'll just respond. What do you mean by Jesus? Jesus and Matthew 24 warned us about false Christ, right? Now in the Quran, he's known as Issa, but they refer to him as Jesus, just like you and I. And my fear is that a lot of Americans and a lot of professing Christians think that this

12:23is our Jesus. This is the same person that you and I worship. As you'll see here in a moment, that's not the case. So let's take a look at the Jesus and Islam. Now I like to say this too. Every now and then, the Lord gives me something that's original to me and I'm like, wow, I should say that again. I like to say that the most powerful lie in the world is one that gets as close as possible to the truth while still remaining alive. And this is exactly what Islam does. If you look at the Jesus or the Issa of the Quran, he is born of a virgin. He's the sinless son of Mary. He's a miracle worker, including raising the dead. He's called the Messiah. So come on, preacher, what's your problem?

13:26He's not the divine son of God who took our place on the cross. Live the life that we should have lived. Of course, he did not arise from the dead three days later. So you can see that where it really matters, when it comes to the gospel, when it comes to what actually brings salvation, Islam denies the core teachings of Christianity. Islam denies the gospel. So what is the gospel? I have learned not to assume anything. In my talks with people and churches in different places that profess Christ, I've just found that a lot of people are confused about what the gospel really is. And so I wanted to define it. What is the gospel? The gospel is three things. There's much, much more that could be said.

14:30You can expound on these three things, but I want you to understand, if you take away any one of these three, you don't have the gospel. If you take away any one of these, you don't have Christianity. What is the gospel? It is the deity, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is what Islam denies. Let's start with the deity of Christ. Why is the deity of Christ important? Because you and I have sinned against an infinitely holy and righteous God. That's who we've sinned against, ultimately. We don't just stand in need of some righteousness. We don't just stand in need of good works. We need the infinite and perfect righteousness of God himself. Because that's who we've sinned against. The Bible says that God made him, second Corinthians 521, God made him who knew no sin to be sinned

15:36on our behalf, that we might become good Baptist. If you're a Baptist, please don't be offended. I know this is Calvary Chapel Church. I love Calvary Chapel. I'm just trying to be funny. Key word, trying there. Folks, this is where the cults are attacking us. You look at Islam, you look at the Jehovah Witnesses, the Mormons. This is where they're attacking us. And by the way, this is where we're weakest at. You ask the average Christian to tell you what the Bible says about the doctrine of the Trinity. You have an conversation with a Muslim, they're going to attack the Trinity.

16:38They're going to attack your Bible. They're going to attack the deity of Christ. But this is important. In fact, the second Corinthians 521, God made him who knew no sin to be sinned on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. I don't think y'all heard me. Aren't you glad of that this morning? Aren't you glad that your eternal destination right now doesn't depend on you? There's what's called double imputation. Our sins are imputed to Christ. His righteousness is imputed to us. It's a great exchange. Folks, that's the gospel.

17:41Only Jesus Christ, the God, man can do that. Only God can give us the righteousness of God. Only God can allow us to be partakers in the divine nature, as Peter said. Philippians 2, although he existed in the form of God, he humbled himself by taking on the form of a bond servant, being made in the likeness of man. Jesus is the God, man. He's not just a good messenger. He's not just a good prophet. He's the God, man. We cannot compromise on that. Islam is going to say he didn't die on the cross. The Quran says that Allah made it appear as if he died on the cross, but he did not.

18:44You can see right away that your point number three, the victorious resurrection of Christ, is done away with in Islam just by point number two. They want to reduce him to a prophet. They have to change the narrative. They want to talk about Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, but they have to redefine who these people are so they can add their prophet, Muhammad, to the long line of prophets. But our God is more than a prophet. Our Jesus is more than a prophet. Now I normally, I'm an expository preacher. I preach verse by verse. When I first started doing this, I struggled a little bit with this kind of a topical type sermon.

19:45Folks, I think we need to understand these things. Jesus said, I send you out his sheep among wolves, be wise as serpents and as doves. What is the goal of Islam? I have here on the screen a, it's a surah. A surah is just another name for chapter, surah 4829 says, he that is Allah is the one who has sent his messenger that is Muhammad with right guidance and the religion of truth, making it prevail over all others. This Islam is making headway in our country today because it's masquerading as a religion. It's pretending to be just a simple religion, just like Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism

20:46and all the others. But Islam is much more than that. You'll see here in a moment, it's a political ideology. They want to tell us what to do. They are not here to assimilate. They're here to dominate. Back 1991, there was a document that was discovered called the explanatory memorandum, Holy Land Foundation trial, Google it. We live in the age of technology, Google it. explanatory memorandum, it says it outlined the Muslim Brotherhoods agenda here in America as a type of civilizational jihad. They said that they wanted to use our system, our democracy against us to destroy our miserable house from within. If we're going to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, we have to know these things.

21:49And I admit, it's difficult, right? I mean, it's complex. Loving Muslims, confronting Islam. But folks, that's what God is called us to do as a church. And let me assure you, there's no greater threat to the church today here in America. There's no greater threat to the gospel. Christianity is the largest belief system in the world. Guess what comes in second? Islam. So, how should the church respond? Now, I have this in front of me because we'd be here until six o'clock this evening, if I really expounded on what I want to say about all this. But I assure you, I see the clock back there. My wife is with me. I've told her to start waving if I get carried away. Second Timothy 316, we're told that all scripture is God-berieved.

22:58All scripture is useful for correction, for reproof, for training and righteousness, right? Paul said he was innocent of blood of all men because he did not shrink back from the church. He was declaring the whole council of God. I spent 16 years of my life as an automatic transmission technician. I rebuilt automatic transmissions for Ford Motor Company. I don't do that anymore. I did that one Sunday and I thought there was like a whole line of people lined up and I thought, wow, the Holy Spirit was really moving here today and it was like everybody had a question about their car. I don't do that anymore. Okay? But I am still a fix it kind of guy.

24:01I still believe in the church. I still believe in the power of the gospel. I still believe that God can use ordinary people just like you and I to change what's happening in our country. And if we want to know what's wrong with us or what's wrong with the church or how we should respond to Islam, we be like the Bereans, right? We open up the book and see if it's so. Mark 1615 going to all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Colossians 46, let your speech always be gracious. Someone would salt so that you will know how you ought to answer each person. First Peter 315, one of my favorite, always be prepared to make a defense. The Greek word here is apologuea.

25:02This was a legal term like what was used in a first century court of law. You always be prepared to make your case for why you have hope in Jesus Christ. And then second Corinthians 10.5 is the another one that I like to point out. Second Corinthians 10.335 Paul is talking about spiritual warfare here. He says we destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised up against the knowledge of God. We destroy arguments, logist moss. This is the Greek word is closely connected to logic, but it's human logic, human philosophy, human reasoning that is set up against the knowledge of God. You and I are to destroy those arguments.

26:04We don't destroy people. We destroy their arguments. That's part of spiritual warfare. All right, so let's go back for a moment to the opportunity that we have. Folks, we must seize the opportunity that God has given us. As I travel, I'm just amazed at people that I talk to and where they're from. Mark 1615 said go into all the world and preach to gospel to all creation, but folks, again, these people are now coming to us. Now realize our government is trying to ship them out of here as quickly as they can. I'm not opposed to that. I'm not saying that I'm not getting into any of that. I'm just saying that they are here.

27:09You can go right up here to Winthrop University and I guarantee you you will find the world. Appalachian State University is about 30 minutes or so from our house. There's people from all over the world there. The 1040 window has come to us. We were up in Dearborn Michigan a couple of years ago and had over a two hour conversation with a young man from Senegal. Anybody know where Senegal is at? 99.45% is Lomick. You don't send people into this place to share the gospel. You might send an undercover Christian into there and he or she's in danger of losing their head. This guy is right here in the United States. Two hours. We shared the gospel with him, answered every question that he had and he left there that

28:16day. He heard the truth. I'd like to say he came to Christ but he didn't. I believe God can put somebody else in his path. I believe John 4 teaches that evangelism is a process. There's sores and there's reapers. The two can rejoice together is what Jesus said. I think we put way too much pressure on ourselves sometimes when it comes to evangelism. We're just instruments. We're just a mouthpiece. Share the gospel, defend it the best that you can and lead the results to God. It's perfectly capable of bringing somebody else along. Folks we have to recognize this opportunity. We spent thousands of dollars sending people overseas and rightly so.

29:17I'm not saying we shouldn't be doing that. We know that we should go to the ends of the earth. I'm not saying we shouldn't be doing that. What I am saying is you walk out that door. You're going into the mission field. If you're a follower of Christ Jesus says I will make you fishers of men. We need to see every day of our life as a mission trip. I'm just amazed at the conversations that I have. I found that most people are open to talking. Most people are open to talking about who is Jesus and who is God. What is Christianity teach and is it true? I live for these conversations.

30:24We need to recognize that our Muslim friends are spiritually confused and they need the real Jesus. Two billion Muslims learn about Christianity by reading the Quran. If you open up the Quran, again you're going to find another familiar word that is Christians. If the Quran consistently misrepresent our faith, it misrepresents the Trinity, the divine sonship of God, it misrepresents our scripture, etc. So Muslims are learning these things by default simply because they are Muslim but they're not learning really what you and I believe. For example, the Quran seems to think that the Trinity is God, Mary and Jesus.

31:25Hopefully nobody here believes that. The Quran seems to think that Jesus is the literal son of God. God and Mary got together and produced Jesus. The Quran says, how can Allah have a son? He has no girlfriend. That's not us. That's not the faith that you and I have embraced. So we need to be aware of these things. As you can tell, maybe because of this, sharing the gospel with these people is difficult because we have to remove all of these barriers. We have to remove all of these caricatures of Christianity that Islam has set up. Muslims will tell you you can't be a Muslim unless you believe in Jesus. But again, it's not our Jesus.

32:26Yeah, if we think about Christianity, it's kind of optional, right? This is called a search to go, but it's optional for us to learn about Islam. We might think about Islam if a guest speaker comes or if we meet a Muslim in the neighborhood or if something gets our attention, it's just kind of an optional thing. Folks, we need to understand Islam because some degree Paul quoted the stoic in Epicurean and poets Jesus understood the Sadducees and the Pharisees. He understood what they believed. Now, I'm not saying you should all go out and get a PhD in Islam or anything like that. But I'm just saying we should have an understanding of what they believe so that we can better communicate the gospel to them. I just don't think many people are aware of what's going on right now.

33:34It is an opportunity. It is a threat. I don't want to bore you with a bunch of statistics, but at the current growth rate, Islam is set to surpass Christianity by 2050. Muslims can have up to four wives and they're having children left and right. Meanwhile, we're not even at the replacement rate here in the United States. We're at 1.3 child's children per household. I got two girls. We got ten grandchildren. I'm just saying we're doing our part. My oldest girl had a boy and a girl and she said they were done. Then about a month or so later, she found out she was pregnant. A little while later, she found out she was pregnant with twins.

34:35She went from two to four in a hurry, but we love our grandchildren's kids. Here's another one for you. 87.4% of Muslims have never heard the gospel. They think they know the gospel. This word's in the Quran in Jill. Almost 90% of them have never heard the gospel. Listen to this. There is only one missionary for every 420,000 Muslims. A staggering, folks. These numbers that I'm giving you come from Joshua Lingel's website, I2 Ministries. It's just filled with stuff like this. You read it and you just sit there with your mouth open.

35:36I tell you this stuff because I hope it creates a sense of urgency. This picture that you see, if you can still see that on the screen, you can. This is a downtown Detroit. We go every year and set up this tent. We call it the peace tent there. See Arab, Kaudi and Festival. Hundreds of Muslims walk past us. We purchase like widescreen TVs, a couple of them, some bikes and cookware. We try to get something for everybody. We have this raffle at the end and we give all this stuff away. But you have to answer these questions to get entered into the raffle. Anybody want to guess what those questions are? Basically a gospel presentation.

36:41I don't know how many Muslims we've had come to Christ right here in this tent. This is where we met the guy from Senegal. There will be usually 10 to 12 people working this 10 to 12 Christians working this tent. Somebody comes in, we go set down at these tables. You can see some folks there seated behind us. Somebody's sharing the gospel with them right there. It's not pressured. We're not debating necessarily. Once they ask or answer the four questions, they're free to go. They're entered into the drawing. I just tell you Muslims are not like that. It will sit there and talk to you as long as you want to talk to them.

37:42What an opportunity that we have. If folks, Muslims are coming to Christ. You might have heard that Muslims are coming to Christ after encountering Jesus in a dream. I don't know how many of you have heard that. It's pretty interesting that they are encountering Jesus in a dream. Not Issa, not the Jesus of the Quran, but the Jesus of the Bible is who they are encountering. Now, of course, a dream doesn't save anybody. These people after encountering Jesus in a dream, they're going to find a Christian or they're going to find the Word of God. They open it up. They hear the gospel and they come to Christ. This picture you see here on the screen is also Dearborn Michigan. We do a vacation Bible school and I'll close with this.

38:46We don't call it a vacation Bible school, but that's basically what it is. I'm in the middle there. If you can see me, my wife's like, are you the only guy in this place? Very interesting church right in the middle of Dearborn Michigan, which is predominantly Muslim. To walk into this church, there's like this narrow covering and there's three crosses at the entrance. You have to stoop to enter into the church. You have to stoop underneath this cross to enter. A couple of years ago, I was here with George Saeg. He's over ministry to Muslims network. And George sent me out to pick up some folks for vacation Bible school. I punched the address in my GPS and I took off.

39:47Didn't think much about it. I pulled up to this driveway and there's this young lady who she'd been in the United States for I think two or three weeks. She just got here from Afghanistan. She didn't look very happy. Gagged kids behind her, four or five kids loaded them all up in my toilet of Corolla and I took them to the church. And somebody with me, by the way, I never do this alone. This past year we went back to Dearborn as usual and did another Bible school. And George asked me again if I would go out and pick up somebody for and bring them to the church. I said of course, punched the address in my GPS and I take off and I'm riding around Dearborn Michigan and I realized, hey, I know where I'm at. I've been here before. I think I'm going to the same place.

40:53I pulled up to this driveway and here's the same lady standing at the end of her driveway grinning from ear to ear. She looks like she's so full of joy. She got in the car loaded her kids up, took her to the church. That night she confessed Christ is lower of her life. The next night she brought her middle school son who was evidently already a believer. He even knew what the word apologetics meant. We didn't have to explain that to him. He already knew it. Could you imagine being a middle school Christian and Dearborn Heights middle school?

41:54If you don't understand what I'm trying to tell you right now, you need to go home and Google Dearborn Michigan and look. The next night this lady brought her husband. Well guess what? He confessed Christ is lower of his life. The whole family came to Christ right there in Dearborn. Folks God is still at work. God is still working in and through ordinary people just like you and I. The gospel is not broken. The gospel is not in need of an update. We just need to share it. We just need to share the deity, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I do think we better be prepared to defend that message. I didn't say that. God did. But what a joy. It is to be involved in his work.

42:56So please don't be afraid of you. If you have Muslim friends, if you encounter them in the neighborhood, talk to them. Rub on them. Pray for them. Don't use prayers and excuse. Talk to them if you can. I believe God will use you. I'm going to stop right there and then my time is up and maybe take two or three questions. I just forgot about something. I always forget this. I would encourage some of you ladies to do some research. I won't give you homework. What do you think of that? Islam loves to pretend whatever subject matter it is. If it's women's rights, they are for women.

43:57No. Do your homework ladies. I've always said, if the men in the church are not going to step up, maybe the women will. Man can have four wives. He can beat his wife. She gets half the inheritance that her brother gets, a male person gets. Her testimony is worth half that of a male. That's the rated G version. It gets a lot worse. I've stopped there and probably shouldn't have stopped on that note. My time is up. What questions? Yes, ma'am? I'm from New Jersey. When you said Patterson, I've been to New Jersey. I know they planted a flag there. And as well, they did it in New York too. Their town hall was lying in Palestinian flag.

45:01My question is, how did you get involved with how did you become an expert in Muslim society specifically? A lot of money and a lot of time. Not to finish up a master's in apologetics and polemics to Islam at Veritas University. But God's called me to do this. And I love it. I guess I'm a odd. This is what I do for fun. I love talking to Muslims. I live for this kind of stuff. Often say I'd rather talk to a Muslim than a Baptist. Sorry, one more Baptist joke before I leave. Patterson, New Jersey, the mayor there calls that place now. He said, this is the little Palestine of America. We're walking down the street. We had so many people to show up in Patterson, New Jersey to do evangelism to Muslims.

46:05We had to divide up into three different mosques to do outreach. The group that I had, the ladies, or had some young people with me who were a little bit intimidated about sharing their faith. And we're walking to the mosque. We're just walking down the street. That's all we're doing. I mean, we've got some material and stuff in our hands. This car pulls up and stops in the middle of the road. He says, are you guys Christians? Yeah? In this neighborhood? Yeah, I said, we're going to that mosque right down there. If you want to come down, we'd be glad to talk to you. Peels off. We spent two hours at that mosque. And I was so encouraged by our group who was very intimidated as we're walking through the mosque. One young lady said on the way back, when can we do this again?

47:07If you don't get anything out of what I've said here today, folks, we should not be intimidated. We should love these people, but we should speak the truth and love. Yes, sir.