Why the Virgin Birth Matters

https://apologeticsandagape.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/why-the-virgin-birth-matters/

Witnessing to some Muslims online (Part 1)

I have been witnessing and interacting with some Muslims on line recently, at Paul Bilal Williams blog.
Interesting that Paul Williams then grabbed a few "choice quotes" and says that they "go to the heart of the matter".  Indeed, the heart of the matter is the human heart, which is full of sin(Genesis 6:5), in bondage to sin(John 8:34), and causes us to be unclean and defiled, and is the root of sin and causes us to be guilty enough to be sent to hell.  Jesus said this in Matthew 5:21-26 (the roots of murder are anger and hatred); Matthew 5:27-30 (the roots of adultery are sexual lust) and Mark 7:20-23 (the roots of all sins are the evil thoughts within the heart.)

Here is some of it reproduced below, with 3 (or 4) Muslims, Muhammad Al-Hakeem, Abbas, and Erik, and also some one who goes by "Semsav12"   - with some editorial changes for space reasons.  There are some things I took out and some things I added, but the ideas were from other sections of our exchange, in order to make it understandable.  Feel free to visit the link above and see other details and more interaction in the com-boxes.  I am not reproducing everything here.

.    Muhammad Al- Hakeem wrote:


.     

.    Not to mention that God’s true love, justice and mercy is about simply forgiving those who sincerely repented;


Ken writes: 

You assume that humans can sincerely repent. (without the grace of God in regeneration) Romans 3:9-23 – there is no one who is sincere and no one seeks for God and no one has perfect repentance. Not committing physical adultery is not enough; for you have selfish lusts in your heart. (Matthew 5:27-30) And that lust sends you to hell. Isa Al Masih said this. Not committing actual murder is not enough, for you have hatred and anger in your heart, and that anger and hatred sends you to hell. (Matthew 5:21-26) That anger and hatred sends you to hell. The roots of sin are in the thoughts, and motives in the heart. (Mark 7:20-23) External washings cannot cleanse your heart of your jealousy, pride, selfishness, lust, anger, self-pity, foolishness, rancor, bitterness. God does not wink at sin. You denigrate the holiness of God. Forgiveness was based on the sacrifice/atonement in the Torah and Old Testament. Why do you think God set up the sacrificial system in the book of Exodus and Leviticus? Why did God substitute an innocent ram in the place of Abraham’s son? (Genesis 22) Yahya [the Arabic Qur'anic form for John the Baptist]  said and about Jesus (Isa Al Masih), “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) 



Muhammad Al-Hakeem:  not by making the [cross/atonement/Christ's sacrifice] only way to wipe out sin –


The Scriptures are clear – Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. Hebrews 9:22  [see also 1 John 2:2; Revelation 5:9] The whole book of Hebrews, especially chapters 8, 9, and 10 explain how Christ’s death was the final sacrifice and final atonement for sin, and fulfillment of the sacrificial system in the Torah and Old Testament.

and not by punishing an innocent man (only the human nature died, as you claim) for the sins of billions of other sinners.

.     


This sentence is understandable and an objection to the Christian message from an Islamic viewpoint, ok. Since we believe that the Son voluntarily came and became flesh and voluntarily gave His life out of love for mankind, it is wrong for you to keep communicating what we believe without the aspect of voluntary love for sinners. Jesus said, “no one takes My life from Me, I lay it down voluntarily on my own authority and initiative. I have authority to lay it down and take it up again. (John 10:18)

 
I used to be quite curious about and respecting of the famous Christian “God is Love” statement, until I knew what it really is about. I now don’t know how much “love” can really be attributed to the Christian God. Please stop deceiving people.


Do you even know where the phrase “God is love” is located? I would encourage you to actually read and study it and think about it. It actually explains all the details. 

1 John 4:7-21 is the full paragraph that answers many of the questions and objections you have. 

Then read the entire book of 1 John (5 short chapters) slowly with aql (عقل = mind, reason, thinking) and ta'amoq (تعمق = deep thought)  and tafakkor. ( تفکر  = meditation ) 


7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only unique Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation [satisfaction of justice/ turning away of wrath] for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. 



.    Ken Temple 
May 17, 2013 at 12:42 pm 


Abbas wrote:

Your people saw the crucifixing from afar. That is what the Quran is saying that is a conjecture. Why didn’t they go close to witness it first hand?


         John(an apostle/disciple and eye-witness), Mary, Jesus’ Mother, and other women were close and witnessed the crucifixion. You left out that part that I gave you – John chapter 19. Since Mark wrote for Peter, we can conclude that Peter was further back, but close enough to witness it; same with Matthew, who was an eyewitness. Luke interviewed Mary and the rest of the apostles/disciples/ eyewitnesses. There are so many details of the trials, arrest, crucifixion, resurrection in all four gospels that you cannot just dismiss them. At first, when they arrested Jesus, the disciples fled out of fear that they would be arrested also. But the text says that Peter came back and followed at a distance. I already gave you all the references. There are so many details of the crucifixion in all four gospels, and in other historical writings, that it is the Qur’an that has been proven to be false in 4:157. 



.     

.    Ken Temple 
May 17, 2013 at 12:48 pm 


Erik wrote that the crucifixion and the Father punishing the Son was "child abuse" - "stop cosmic child abuse"


It is not child abuse if the Son voluntarily out of love for human sinners gave His life because He wanted to (John 10:18; Mark 10:45); and the victory of the resurrection over death and sin and Satan shows that God won the victory by humility and love and power – the power of allowing someone to defeat you – by not fighting back or taking vengeance/revenge. When you leave out the love and voluntarily aspect and when you leave out the victory and power of the resurrection, you distort the Christian message. 


So, Paul, your selective choosing of a few statements was not a good Da’awah.



Lord willing, more to come. 

Some Thoughts on Thanksgiving

Phil Johnson reminds us that Truly giving thanks to God will kill a lot of sins and wasting of time.

" Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving." Ephesians 5:4

Thankfulness is evidence of the new self

A truly grateful heart and attitude and expressing it are part of the new self, which we are to keep "putting on". See Colossians 3:10-17

The real reason . . . for thanksgiving

Dr. White on the Dividing Line on Tuesday, November 22, reminded us of the real reason to be thankful.

By working diligently through Philippians 2:1-11, we see the greatness of the incarnation and the humility of the eternal Son, the equality He had with God the Father, and the equality believers have with each other and so are called to humble ourselves and serve one another in love.

Four main points that stuck out to me:

1. The context of church unity (Phil. 2:1-4) and love and the equality of the believers and the exhortation to be humble and serve one another in verses 1-4 is key to interpreting verses 5-11 properly. Since the believers are equal, then the Son and the Father are equal, otherwise the passage would not make sense in the command to humility in verses 1-4 by illustrating it by the humility of the Son, since He was equal with the Father.

2. The parallel between the humility of the believers to one another in verses 1-4 and the humility of Jesus to the Father, in verses 5-8. (in humility consider one another more important than yourselves” (vs. 3) and “He did not consider equality with God the Father a thing to be held on to” (v. 6).

If Jesus is not equal with the Father, then the passage has no meaning, because if Jesus is just a creature, an exalted being, as the Unitarians say, then it is not humility for Him to “not regard equality with God a thing to be held on to at all costs”. “If Jesus was something else, if he comes into existence in a point in time; a creature, not eternal; then how could it be humility? . . . It’s not humility, its simple obedience, to not seek to be equal with God. For any created thing to even consider to be equal with God is blasphemy, it’s pure sin; its foolishness; it’s idiocy. It would be like the lump trying to say, “I am going to become the Potter. “

“that is not humility, that is just not committing blasphemy”.

“It is not humility for even the greatest creature”

“This is not Nicea, this is not some post-biblical development; It is this very stuff [biblical material and exegesis] that forced Nicea and Constantinople and Chalcedon.” James White

3. The Greek word, ‘εαυτου, "himself”, a reflexive pronoun, that is used twice – verses 7-8 – “He emptied Himself”; “He humbled Himself” – that the eternal Son who existed in the form of God, humbled Himself and emptied Himself, becoming a man – this is amazing love and an amazing message and truth. The incarnation; the crucifixion; - I stand in awe and amazement!

The Unitarians, since they don’t believe in the Deity of Christ or the eternality of the Son, they are stuck with “he was emptied” – “he is still a creature”, “and God gave something that He created”. “They are stuck with a God who does less than Abraham”; “thank God for the epsilon”. (ε) James White

Dr. White’s reminder to believers to be thankful for the ‘εαυτου (he-autou) was a good exhortation for the celebration of the thanksgiving holidays. Be thankful for the true God, the eternal Son, the eternal Word, who humbled Himself and became a man, and who humbled Himself and allowed Himself to be killed on a cross. “Not just any death, but a humiliating death, the lowest of the low kind of execution.” Wow!

The emptying is a positive act of adding a human nature. He existed in the form (morphe- μορφη ) of God and took the form (μορφη – morphe) of a slave.

4. The quote from Isaiah 45:23 and the equation of Jesus with "Yahweh" (Lord) - “that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” – Philippians 2:10-11. This is also an amazing thought, and the quote from Isaiah 45:23 shows that Jesus is Yahweh, The Lord, יהוה

"The problem the Unitarians have is a parallel to the same problem the Muslims have, because the angels are commanded to bow down before Adam. Iblis ( ابلیس - the Devil, from diabolos) does not bow down to Adam. But Islam cannot really explain why the angels are commanded to bow down to Adam. It seems like worship, as kissing the black stone in the Kaaba also seems like some kind of idolatrous act, even though Muslims claim it is not." (summary of Dr. White's thoughts, not exact quote)

"Why do you worship Jesus? The only answer the Unitarian can give is because God just tells them to."

There is a direct parallel of the worship of Yahweh, the Lord, in Isaiah 45:21-23, with Jesus as Lord in Philippians 2:10-11."

21 “Declare and set forth your case; 
Indeed, let them consult together. 
Who has announced this from of old? 
Who has long since declared it? 
Is it not I, the LORD (Yahweh – יהוה ) ? 
And there is no other God besides Me, 
A righteous God and a Savior; 
There is none except Me. 


22 “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; 
For I am God, and there is no other. 


23 “I have sworn by Myself, 
The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness 
And will not turn back, 
That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. 


24 “They will say of Me, ‘Only in the LORD (יהוה ) are righteousness and strength.’

Isaiah 45:21-24a

In Isaiah chapters 40-48 especially, the oneness of God is affirmed; monotheism. But also . . .

In Philippians 2, the Trinity is affirmed, because the Deity of Christ is affirmed. (Philippians 2:5-11)

The Incarnation is affirmed. Philippians 2:5-8

The Crucifixion and atonement is affirmed. (Phil 2:8)

The God of the Bible humbled Himself! Wow!

Therefore, we should strive to live in humility and love and serve one another. (Philippians 2:1-4)

God made Himself nothing in the incarnation and crucifixion – the real reason for thanksgiving is His condescension, His humility, His coming and giving Himself for us to save us.

Lord, teach us to be grateful for these great blessings! And start with me!

The Gospel for Muslims

Here is an excellent gospel presentation by David Wood, for Muslims, answering the question that Muslims often ask, "How can God die?"

David uses the Bible, and verses from the Qur'an to make his point and to present the truths of the incarnation and the atonement to Muslims. David shows from the Qur'an that Allah is able to do things like to actually be in the fire ("Blessed is He who is in the fire") and speak from the fire to Moses (Qur'an 27:7-9), and so this shows that Allah can do things like, enter into His own creation, become flesh (John 1:1-5; 1:14; see also Luke 1:34-35). He shows that the Qur'an limits Allah, because "Allah does not love sinners" (Qur'an 2:190; 2:276; 3:32; 3:57; 7:31; 4:36; 8:58; 28:77; 57:23); yet the Bible says, "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8

And Romans 5:10 teaches that Christ died for His enemies, which even the Grandverbalizer19, a Muslim, confessed is "greater love".

A Muslim admits that one dying for His enemies is greater love

Let's learn to share the gospel with Muslims, read and use parts of the Qur'an (NOT burn it) to help them understand the difference between Islam, and truth, Al Haqq الحق the Bible. Speak the truth in love to Muslims and respect them as people and seek evangelistic opportunities in the context of hospitality, which is a great cultural value in Muslim cultures.