Diffusing Arguments for a Better Witness to Muslims

This post was recently published in Esperence, a Theological Review by African Christians in MALI, May 2015.  The rest of the article will be in the next post.

 

What Manner of Witness to Muslims is Possible?

When telling Bible stories or when doing short witnesses people oft pose hard questions, i.e. Jesus Christ as Son of God, the Bible, good works, the doctrine of the Trinity, Christian marriage, prayer practices, Jesus' death, drink and meat, destiny, demons, etc.  How do we respond?  How should we respond?

As I chat with my Muslim friends in Mali I often hear similar objections to the gospel narrative that we represent.  Islamic theology is indeed opposed to Christian theology even though there are similar themes and historical links.  God’s eternal plan that in grace God chose to love sinful man through the cross of the Savior is quite different from obedience to Allah and emulation of the prophet of Islam.  My friends will ask many questions based on the differences they observe, usually in a form of wanting to know our answers, not in the form of livid objection.  It is possible to answer all these questions and objections from the Bible and also to turn the conversation into a witness showing the grace of our loving and wise Lord. 
The South African Islamics student, John Gilchrist, writing in Facing the Muslim Challenge, testifies that: “After speaking with thousands of Muslims “I can, with genuine conviction, say that I have never heard a Muslim argument that cannot be legitimately and adequately answered.”  (Gilchrist, p2)

Gilchrist requires our answers to be biblical:

Often nothing needs to be proved – the Bible only needs to be quoted properly and it will make its own impact on the objector.  …  You cannot reason people into the kingdom of God – they need to respond to a message of God‛s grace and forgiveness from their hearts and that requires not just an assent to the truth but a repentance and conviction deep within. And the Bible is the best tool for achieving this end. Do what you can to get Muslims to read it!  (Gilchrist, p10)

He suggests that we can turn the objection, debate, and argument into something positive:

What started as a Muslim offensive against the Gospel ended as a more purposeful witness than I could possibly have given had he never raised his arguments. Use Muslim arguments to strengthen your witness. Take the Muslim away from objections and disputes as far as you can and bring the discussion back to where it should be – evangelistic witness.  (Gilchrist, p12)

 

The balance image read by Muslims and Christians

What is the Islamic view?

The Islamic view of judgment is set out in the image of the balance weighing the good and bad deeds of a person during their life.  A heavy scale equals success, but a light scale means they lose their souls.  Many of my Muslim friends in Mali will tell me that even an angel is perched on my right shoulder recording in a notebook all my good deeds, thoughts, and words.  But also a second angle is perched on my left shoulder recording all my bad deeds, thoughts, and words.  On judgment day these notebooks will be opened before God in heaven and the deeds will then be adjudged.  This image has roots in the Mt 24 judgment day parables and Revelation ___ images of heaven.  It was sadly also used in some medieval artwork in Europe and is part of some wrong Christian theology, too.  Islam has seized on the wrong theology and made it a major tenant of their system of thinking.

     A few of the many ayas of the Qur'an teaching this follow.  Islamic references are found in Wickwire, 100 Questions about the Bible & Qur’an, question #73, referring to balances, sin, and judgment.

Araf (Heights) 7:7-9         “We will surely call those to an account, unto whom a prophet hath been sent; and we will also call those to account who have been sent unto them.  And we will declare their actions unto them with knowledge; for we are not absent from them.  The weighing of men's actions on that day shall be just; and they whose balances laden with their good works shall be heavy, are those who shall be happy; but they whose balances shall be light, are those who have lost their souls, because they injured our signs.”

Isra (Night Journey) 17: 35-36 promises that Allah will use a just balance and solid evidence to make it easy and clear:      “And give full measure, when you measure aught; and weigh with a just balance.  This will be better, and more easy for determining every man's due.  And follow not that whereof thou hast no knowledge; for the hearing, and the sight, and the heart, every of these shall be examined at the last day.”

Al-Anbiya (The Prophets) 21:47   “We will appoint just balances for the day of resurrection; neither shall any soul be injured at all: although the merit or guilt of an action be of the weight of a grain of mustard-seed only, we will produce it publicly; and there will be sufficient accountants with us.”

Al-Mu'minun (The Believers) 23:102-103 “They whose balances shall be heavy shall be blest.  But they whose balances shall be light, they shall lose their soul, abiding in hell forever.”

cf 29:6-9, 18:105-106, 101:6-9.

Apologist Josh McDowell says, ”Islam teaches a salvation by works.  Thus if the scales tip in favor of good works, the Moslem will reach paradise.”  (McDowell, p 117).  To hear a Muslim writer saying the same thing I quote from a Qur'an published by Project Gutenberg: pg 7440,

To show the exact justice which will be observed on this great day of trial, the next thing they describe is the balance, wherein all things shall be weighted.  They say it will be held by Gabriel, and that it is of so vast a size, that its two scales, one of which hangs over paradise, and the other over hell, are capacious enough to contain both heaven and earth.  Though some are willing to understand what is said in the Koran concerning this balance, allegorically, and only as a figurative representation of GOD'S equity, yet the more ancient and orthodox opinion is that it is to be taken literally; and since words and actions, being mere accidents, are not capable of being themselves weighed, they say that the books wherein they are written will be thrown into the scales, and according as those wherein the good or the evil actions are recorded shall preponderate, sentence will be given; those whose balance laden with their good works shall be heavy, will be saved, but those whose balances are light will be condemned.  Nor will anyone have cause to complain that God suffers any good action to pass unrewarded, because the wicked for the good they do have their reward in this life, and therefore can expect no favour in the next.
(Qur'an, translator: George Sale, p99-100)

What is the Christian view of the balance image?

What in fact is being judged?  The balance referred to in the Bible is similar to those found in the markets of Mali where one plate has the standard weights and the other plate has the object to be sold or bought.  There were no balances with springs in biblical days.  What is placed on each plate according to the Bible?  Many verses use terms of measuring and weighing, balances and measures, testing and proving, and this study looks at several:

*Job 6:2-3  "If only my grief could be weighed; or my calamity piled together on a balance scale!  It would weigh more than the sand on the seashore!”  Job’s troubles weigh on him.

*Job 31:6  “Let me be weighed in a just balance, and let God know my integrity!” (ESV)  This possibly could be construed as a weighing of good vs. bad, but that is not clear and doesn’t gee with rest of Bible doctrine.

*Ps 17:3  “When you probe my heart, and examine me at night; when you refine me, you will find nothing wrong, for I have determined that I will not transgress with my mouth.”  When & if God probes, tests, and weighs us, he’ll know that I’m innocent. 

*Ps 38:4  Sins are too much for us; “My sins are over me, like a heavy burden, they’re too heavy for me.”  Cf Isa 24:20.

*Ps 62:9  Vanity & no weight:  “Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.”  Men are of no value compared to God.  We are weighed in comparison w/ God; there is no comparison of good or bad works in the Bible.

tools for leveling foundation of the new Kayes school

*Ps 139:23-24  Weigh me, know me intimately, and test me in my thoughts, O Lord, see if I’m on your right path.”  I’ve declared I’m yours, prove it to me and correct me where I need it.  He gives large openness to God; He accepts God’s testing knowing that it is done anyway as God knows our inner thots always.  We need this, daily, so God can help us to match our thots and our words. 
*Pro 16:2  “The one weighing the spirits & hearts is God,” cf Pro 15:11, 17:3, 21:2, Lc 16.15; men don’t know the hearts of others.  No angels are involved, either.

Pro 16:11  Equity is very important to God:  ESV: “A just balance and scales are the LORD's; all the weights in the bag are his work.”  Cf Pro 11:1, 20:23, & Mic 6:11

*Pro 24.12       “Man might not see sins, but doesn’t the one weighing hearts (God) not see?  (ESV)  Won’t He judge correctly?

*Is 40:12-15   Starting in v12 five (5) questions are posed using weighing and measuring terms to bring out the comparison of God and the nations.  The nations are nothing to God:  “the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales.”  (ISV)  Even if a nation is compared to God, it is nothing.  Man is nothing; family and riches are nothing; nations are nothing.

*Is 64:6        Our sins cause us to be light weight, wilted, dried up, and nothing when compared to God’s weighty righteousness; “we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”  (ASV)

*Dan 5:27    “mene, mene, tekel, upharsin” – tekel = weighed - “you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting,” (ESV) and thus judged.  The king and the kingdom were evaluated by a just God and then judged.  

the NT has few verses usung this image:

Rev 6:5   (ISV) “When the lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Go!" I looked, and there was a black horse! Its rider held a scale in his hand.”   Here a balance is the symbol of scarcity of provisions, the bread being doled out by weight.

Summarizing, there are several ways of using and understanding the balance in the Bible:

Other than the simple demand for just scales and marketing i.e. Pro 16:11, Hos 12:8, there’s also:
a/  Man’s sinfulness against God’s righteousness.  This way God’s side is much heavier.  Ps 38:4, Ps 62.9, Pro 16.2, Isa 24:20, Isa 64:6, Dan 5:27, Heb 12:1 - “lay aside the weight of sin,” etc.
b/ Man’s guilt against his innocence, Ps 17:3; David was willing that God test him, and he knew he would prove innocent, cf Job 31:6, maybe Dan 5:27, etc.
c/ The nations & world are compared to God: they are nothing but dust; God is almighty!  Isa 40:15, cf Job 28.24-25, etc.
d/ Calamities against peace, cf Job 6:2-3, his troubles weigh him down, cf Ps 58.2 (violence by man), Rev 6:5.

We can be sure the Muslim thot is not Christian idea concerning scales and weighing.  Help our friends see this graciously.

jpb