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Letters to a Muslim Friend
From www.understandingthebible.org
June 2009
Dear Ahmed,
Thank you so much for your recent letter: it was good to hear from you again. I am so glad to hear that your exams went well. Now that you have covered the fundamentals I expect you will find your final year much more enjoyable. Your brother and sister in Canada also seem to be having a great time. Your parents must be very proud of what their children are achieving.
Now to your question. Yes, I agree, to say that Jesus Christ is ‘the Son of God’ is difficult to understand. (Incidentally, strictly speaking we should say ’Jesus the Christ’. It is not that the word ‘Christ’ is Jesus’ family name as in John Brown, for example. The word ‘Christ’ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word ‘Messiah’ which means anointed one [see Daniel 9:25,26]. The claim of the New Testament is that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah of the Old Testament [see Mark 8:27-29]. Certainly Jesus taught His disciples to believe in Him as the Messiah.)
Sorry about that long diversion but I thought I ought to make it clear. Back to your question: I do understand that to say Jesus is God’s Son could introduce the idea that somehow God had carnal relations with a woman in order to bring him about. That would certainly be very offensive and blasphemous to all of us, Christians and Muslims alike. But we don’t mean that, I can assure you.
In view of what I said earlier about Jesus claiming to be the Messiah, it is important to recognise that Jesus did not teach that because He was the Messiah, therefore He was the Son of God. It was the other way round: He taught that He was the Son of God in an absolute sense [see Matthew 27:43, 11:27, 24:36, Mark 13:32 and many others] and that because He was Son of God then He was the true Messiah, the Anointed One. It was because He refused to deny that He was the Son of God, that Jesus was convicted and sentenced to death [see Mark 14:61-65]. In several instances Jesus specifically taught that He and ‘my Father’ - by whom He meant God Himself - were (or are) one. In, for example, in John 10:30 He says ‘I and the Father are one.’ There is an astonishing and very portentous passage in John 5:18-23 which I will quote in full ...
| ‘ … They tried all the harder to kill him …he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees the Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and show him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no-one, but has entrusted all judgement to the Son, that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father” ’ |
This is an astonishing statement, making a nonsense of the idea that Jesus was just a good man, merely a moral teacher. Either he is speaking the truth (as he claims.. ‘I tell you the truth …’) and He is the Son of God, or He is a liar and deceiver, and not a good man at all! [On my website, in the ‘The Jewel Box’ page you will find a similar but longer statement to the same effect by C.S. Lewis the famous Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University in his book ‘Mere Christianity’. Click here to go there now.] So there is no doubt that Jesus believed and taught that He was (is) the Son of God, which means of course that He had a divine nature and could exercise divine authority. This was to be seen in His ability to cure disease, cast out evil spirits, raise the dead and control nature. [The Gospel of Mark is especially helpful in understanding this.]
So how are we to conceive of Jesus being the Son of God? I think there are two ways we must consider. First, there is the virgin birth of Jesus. The witness records compiled by Matthew and Luke tell us that Jesus was born of a woman who was a virgin named Mary. Matthew tells us the story from the point of view of Joseph, the man to whom Mary was engaged to be married. Matthew records ‘before they came together, she was found to be with child’. An angel visiting Joseph in a dream re-assured him that Mary had not been unfaithful to him ‘because what is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit’. Luke, the physician, (who particularly claimed that he had looked in to these matters with utmost care) records that Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel and told her she would become pregnant, saying ‘the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.’ The angel also says of the child to be born ‘He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High’. This virgin birth, although unusual, need not be an obstacle to our thinking since, if God is God, He is able to do anything He wishes, and on this occasion intervenes in the normal human reproductive process to bring about the unique result He desires - Jesus of Nazareth, with two natures, true God and true man. (I’ll pick up this definition some other time if you’d like)
But there is another angle on this we need to examine, namely that Jesus claimed to have existed before he was born as a human being! The most startling example of this is recorded in John 8:58, ‘I tell you the truth .. [that assertion again!] … Jesus answered, “before Abraham was, I am!”. His listeners were so scandalised at His use of the forbidden title ‘I am’ (‘Yahweh’) they picked up stones to stone Him, but He slipped away. Of course, if we accept that Jesus Christ was and is God, then by definition He has always existed as God. The most telling passage from the New Testament about this is John 1:1-3 where he refers to Jesus as ‘the Word’. He uses the Greek ‘logos’ which means according to Hercalitus (500 BC)- ‘the source and fundamental order of things’ or perhaps the very essence of things. But ‘Word’ also implies speaking or declaring. The ‘Word of God’ means the self-revelation of God. God has ‘spoken’ into his creation by His Son. John goes right back to the beginning in Genesis..
| ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has made ….. then v.14 … The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.’ |
The Apostle Paul’s Book of Romans similarly begins (1:24)
| ‘… the gospel [God] promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God, by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.’ |
And the Book of Hebrews (1:3)
| ‘In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven.’ |
So you see, my friend, how through the witness of Scripture, Jesus Christ is afforded the highest honour as the pre-existent Son of God through whom the world was made, and through whom the Father has spoken His Word of peace and forgiveness.
This has been very long! Sorry! But the answer to your question took us to the very heart of the Christian message. I hope it has been helpful. Next time I will try to tackle some of your other questions - which I take very seriously.
With every good wish
Your sincere friend
John Coekin
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From www.understandingthebible.org
July 2009
Dear Ahmed,
I trust you are well. I thought I had better hurry up and answer the other question you asked me about in your last letter. I hope you got that vacation job you wanted.
You asked me about ‘forgiveness’ as, you said, you had gathered it had an important place in the Christian faith. You are absolutely right; it is central to Christianity and I will try to explain how that comes about.
It concerns our need for forgiveness for our sin (all our wrong doing). I have no need to convince you about the sinfulness of mankind, because as far as I can gather that is very much part of the teaching of Islam. God is absolutely perfect and Holy. For the Christian, according to the teaching of the Bible, ‘sin’ is our rebellion against the right of God our Creator to rule over us in every aspect of our daily lives. All mankind without exception is guilty of this. (Well! Christianity claims there was one exception to this - Jesus Christ. I’ll pick up this point later.) This entry into rebellion against God is depicted for us in the first book of the Bible, chapter 3, in which Adam and Eve refuse to listen to what God had told them not to do - namely to eat of the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.(Gen.2:17)’ The point is that this tree represented the right to define what is good and what is evil - in other words what is right and what is wrong. But only God has the right to do that, as I am sure you will agree. So when Adam and Eve ate of the tree it was in effect a bid to make themselves God. As a result of this first sin Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden paradise and all mankind has been committing this sin ever since. The casting out represented both physical and spiritual death. ‘The soul that sins shall die’ (Ezekiel 18:4 RSV1) and ‘the wages of sin is death’ (Rom.6:23). We do not want God to rule over us. This fundamental sin gives rise to all the other sins (as defined by God!) we commit as a result of our inborn selfishness and self-centredness. The relationship between God and man has therefore broken down. The Apostle Paul even goes so far as to describe us as God’s enemies (Colossians 1:21).
But Exodus 34:6,7 says (I feel happy to quote from these early books of the Bible because I know that Islam accepts them too) ‘The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.’ The big question is ‘How can God forgive sin when His very essence of holiness and purity is relentlessly opposed to it?’. ‘You love righteousness and hate wickedness. Psalm 45:7.’ It is not that God just feels opposed to sin (feelings can change), but His character cannot by nature tolerate it and implacably rejects it. How can God forgive sin without contradicting His own holiness and perfect justice?
It seems from Scripture that God’s purpose in creation was to bring into being a people of His own. Although the following quotation anticipates something I have yet to explain, it does contain this truth….
| ‘For the grace of God [God’s undeserved kindness to us] that brings salvation has appeared to all men… to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.’ Titus 2:11and 14 [my italics] |
Incidentally, do you see that in achieving that aim (‘to purify for Himself …’), God has reversed the curse on Adam and Eve?
But we must hurry on to the answer for how God can forgive sin. I will not go into all the detail of how God prepared for His great act of salvation, originating with Abraham and revealed in the Old Testament, except to say that it all revolved around the sacrifice of a perfect life. This was pictured at the time of the Exodus from Egypt described in Ex 12. Here we read ‘each man must take a lamb for his family, one for each household …… the animals you choose must be year-old males without defect …. take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of your door frames …. The blood will be a sign for you …. When I see the blood I will pass over you … [I] will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.’ (Exodus 12:3 - 23). This teaching was further developed in the instructions for the Day Of Atonement (Leviticus 16) in which the sins of the people were sacrificed for by the death of a lamb without blemish.
Now the teaching of the New Testament is that Jesus (the) Christ came for the specific purpose to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, so that by putting our trust in it we might be completely forgiven now and be certain that we will go to heaven. This is what is meant in my earlier quotation ‘For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men… to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.’ Jesus is the final fulfilment of the lamb without blemish; the One to whom all the Old Testament events were pointing. He lived a perfect life as a human being (He challenged His hearers 'Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? John 8:46) and died to save us ('For [I] did not come to be served but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many' Mark10:45) We cannot earn our forgiveness because our good deeds are trifling compared with the righteousness (holiness) of God. We could never do enough good things to qualify us for heaven. I know that in Islam you recognise this and just hope that Allah will be merciful. But the Christian good news (’Gospel’) is that Christ has done all that is necessary for our salvation; we need to believe it, trust in it, and live in thankfulness for it. (Ahmed, I know that Islam teaches that Jesus did not actually die on the cross but frankly I do not think that view stands up before the evidence. If I thought for a moment that Jesus did not really die on the cross, I would not believe in Christianity for a moment longer.)
Finally let me quote you a key passage on the issue of forgiveness through Christ. By ‘righteousness’ it means a right standing before God because he treats us as completely forgiven.
| ‘This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified [declared to be right with God] freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice …to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.’ Romans 3:22-26. |
Ahmed, forgive me for being personal, but you do not need to wait in apprehension, just hoping that God will forgive you on the Day of Judgement. You can be completely forgiven now by putting your faith in what Jesus Christ has done for you already. I understand that would be a big step for you but I feel bound to offer you this good news so that you can think about it. You realise, I'm sure, that I am trying to carefully spell out for you what Christians believe2. If you want to ask further questions on this enormously important matter do please email me again. I only want be helpful.
Your sincere friend
John Coekin
Notes: 1. RSV stands for the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. This is one of the translations of the Bible that are available. I will explain that sometime if you like.
2. I just want to explain that not all westerners are Christians, as you have probably realised. Although western countries have been 'Christian' for centuries in the sense that they have had Christian laws derived from the Bible, the vast majority of westerners today reject the Christian message. Those of us who are really committed Christians abhor the atheism and (in particular) the widespread sexual immorality that characterises the western way of life at the moment. Please don't judge Christianity by what you see and read about the West.
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From www.understandingthebible.org
August 25th 2009
Dear Ahmed,
This is just a quick note in reply to yours of a week ago. I’m glad to hear you are well.
You expressed complete surprise that, as I claimed in my last letter, it is possible to know for sure now that we are forgiven for our sins and that God has accepted us. Yes, that is the exactly what the Christian Faith teaches. That is what Jesus Christ taught, and His Apostles after Him taught it as well. You see, the big difference between Christianity and other world religions is that in the latter it is what we do to earn it that determines our salvation, but in Christianity it is what God has done in Christ that determines our salvation. We just have to trust in it. The teaching in the Bible insists that we cannot earn our salvation because it is impossible for us to become perfect enough for God - who is absolutely perfect. The prophet Isaiah says ‘all our righteous acts are like filthy rags’ (64:6).
Have I mentioned before that Jesus was approached one day by some men who asked him ‘What must we do to do the works that God requires?’ (John 6:28)? This is the most important question to ask. We must take particular note of Jesus’ answer.. He replied ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent’ - by whom He meant Himself, of course.
So Jesus Himself said it was not a matter of working to please God, but of faith in Him.
Paul in his letter to the Christians in Ephesus says ..
| ‘Like the rest we were objects of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. ….... For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no-one can boast.’ (Eph.2:3b-5,8,9). |
So our forgiveness is by faith in what Christ has done, not in what we do. So if we put our faith in Him now, we do not have to wait for our forgiveness/acceptance: it happens now.
I hope this helpful
Your friend
John Coekin
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From www.understandingthebible.org
January 13th 2010
Dear Ahmed,
Please forgive me for taking so long to answer your letter of the end of November last year. I am afraid that early in December my
wife suffered an injury to her hip joint. She already had a replacement in position but managed somehow to tear the capsule, resulting in intense pain when she put any weight on it. She had a X-ray and was put on crutches. I'm glad to say she has now recovered. So how are you? You mentioned that some of your studies were proving difficult. I'm sorry to hear that: keep battling away. I am sure it will all become clearer.
Now to your question: you asked, if we know (as Christians) that we are forgiven already, how is there any incentive to live a good life? Good question. That has bothered many people. There are three parts to the answer.
1. How could anyone who has recognised their own need for a Saviour from their sin, submit to Christ as Lord and Saviour (which is what becoming a Christian involves) and then go on to live daily lives that are a disgrace to the Saviour who has rescued them from judgement? Such a person would not be a true Christian because he could not possibly have understood what Christ has done for him. So a Christian tries to live a good life our of sheer gratitude to Christ for the salvation he has received.
2. When someone becomes a Christian, Christ promised that the Holy Spirit would come to dwell in him. Now the work of the Holy Spirit is to keep pointing the Christian to Jesus so that we are constantly reminded (a) of what he has done for us at such cost, and (b) that we are to be more like Christ, who was sinless. We are to obey him: not to earn more salvation: nor to replenish our salvation: but to demonstrate our salvation is true. Jesus said 'By their fruits you shall know them.' In one of Paul's letters (Gal.5:22-25) he writes..
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'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.' |
I think you will agree that that is very powerful.
3. The purpose of our being saved is for us to change so that we do good. Paul says in Eph.2:10 that Christians are ' ..God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, ..'
There is a splendid expression of this in another letter in the New Testament. It is a bit long, but it is so important in view of your question that I am going to quote it in full ..here goes..
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' For the the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope - the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.' (Paul's letter to Titus chapter 2 verses 11 to 14.) |
I think that is just great! What powerful words.
Let me finish with another quotation for the same letter (Titus 3:4-8) because it puts what I have said in a very concise way.
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'But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.' |
I think that should answer your question. Best wishes
Your friend
John Coekin
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From www.understandingthebible.org
June 24th 2010
Dear Ahmed,
Thanks for your letter of late May. By now you will have taken your final exams. Do let me know your results when you get them. What are you going to do now that your studies are completed - further study, or are you looking for a job?
Your comment about the Bible intrigued me. You observed that Christians do not appear to treasure the Bible like you Muslims treasure the Koran. In one way you are right. We do not set out to protect every copy of the Bible in the way you jealously guard the Koran. As I understand it you regard it as an extreme blasphemy for an unbeliever to even touch the Koran. I can only say that despite what you feel about it, Christians do regard the Bible as the Word of God. But it is a very different type of book from the Koran which I believe you regard as the actual words of God spoken to Mohammed without any human intervention.
Christians believe that God took the writings of ordinary men, allowed them to reflect their own experiences in what they wrote, permitted their own personalities to be involved, but over-ruled all of these so that what was written was entirely true, without error, and which spoke what He wanted said. Let me spell this out again so as to be as clear as possible.
The Bible consists of documents written by human beings. Christians believe that God used, but in no way distorted, the real-life characters of the writers in recording what they wrote. But God so guided the writers that what is written is what God has inspired to be written. Hence, for example, there are four eye witness accounts of the life of Jesus Christ in the New Testament which record some of the same events with details that the writer himself saw or was impressed by, but that which others do not record. Some of the writers record events that the others do not. Their personal interests (eg Luke was a doctor) influenced what caught their attention. The words they wrote were approved by the Holy Spirit, but this is not to say that each word was dictated mechanically.
The documents of the whole Bible consist of real-life historical accounts, law books, poetry, wisdom writings, prophecies, eye witness accounts and letters. The whole Bible was written and compiled over a period of about 1,200 years. The authors of the documents were from varied backgrounds including statesmen, historians, leaders, prophets - who were priests, shepherds and farmers; also governors, kings, a tax collector, a physician, a business man, a fisherman, and a theologically trained academic. Most of these people never met and yet there is a fundamental unity about the whole Bible. This is most remarkable and very compelling, and leads to the conclusion that the Bible is much more than just a human document.
Christians do not believe that the Bible contains the Word of God because that would imply that some of it is not the Word of God. No, we insist that the whole Bible is the Word of God. The great Apostle Paul makes this clear in his second letter to Timothy (2 Tim. 3:16); he writes ' All Scripture is God-breathed [inspired] and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.'
Just after Jesus ascended into heaven, the Apostle Peter addressed the assembled disciples and referring to the betrayal of Jesus which led to His death, said 'Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas who served as a guide to those who arrested Jesus...' Note his assertion that the Holy Spirit spoke through the mouth of David. At the time David spoke the words referred to here, he did not understand the portent of what he was saying, but none the less it was God speaking through him. Again, before quoting a passage from the Old Testament, the writer of the Book of Hebrews says (3:7) 'So, as the Holy Spirit says..' Note here not only that it was God speaking in the Scripture quoted, but what is was that God said He is still saying ('says' [present continuous sense] not 'said' [past tense]). Again later in 10:15, before quoting from and Old Testament book, says 'The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this . First he says; ...... ' A final example, in his second letter Peter writes 'For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.'
I am well aware that there are websites in existence in which Muslim scholars try to discredit the Bible by looking for errors or inconsistencies. An example they make much of is in Paul's letter to the Galatians. In chapter 6, v.2, he writes 'Carry each other's burdens' and in v.5 he writes 'For each one should carry his own load.' These scholars then protest that the Bible is inconsistent and therefore cannot be the Word of God. But this is taking literalism too far. Paul means different things in two different contexts. Bible-believing Christians insist there are no inconsistencies in the Bible: it is God's inerrant inspired and trustworthy Word.
If you want to read more about the form of the Bible and its message please go to another place on the website 'What is the Bible?' by clicking here.
Do write again soon as I really enjoy getting your news.
Your friend
John Coekin
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