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Thursday, May 11, 2006

Islam the Challenge to the Church

This is a new publication by Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund. The author was brought up as a Muslim, but is now a Christian believer. In this book, Sookhdeo helps Christians to understand Islamic teaching. He makes clear that there are fundamental differences between Islam and Christianity. Islam explicitly denies the deity of Christ with its claim "There is no god but God". Christ's death and resurrection are also rejected. Islam emphasizes the love of power, while Christianity glories in the power of love.
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If "love is the meaning of reality" for Christians, then power is the meaning of reality for Muslims. Power and its accompanying prestige must be gained at all costs. There is no place in Islam for a suffering God, and human vulnerability is likewise spurned. But the glory of Christianity is the vulnerability of human suffering borne out of our understanding of the suffering of God in Christ Jesus. To the Muslim mind this is an appalling thought. (p. 101)
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Sookhdeo details the political objectives of Islam and exposes the persecution of Christians and other minority groups in many Islamic regimes. He warns Western Christians not to be naive when it comes to Christian-Muslim relations. The author urges us to engage in open, critical evangelistic dialogue with Muslim people, "it is vital that we week scholarly accuracy, that our hearts are filled with compassionate concern for Muslims as human beings, and that we remain utterly faithful to Christ and to his revelation." (p. 102)
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This most helpful book will assist the Church to face the challenge of Islam. Click here to order.

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