Reading the Koran... in church

Among any number of things I never thought I’d ever do in life, one of them is reading the Koran.  In church.  Actually, it was in the cathedral, but that’s neither here nor there.  Let me explain.

Sunday, the cathedral hosted the Provincial Coordinator for Christian-Muslim Relations as the preacher, and rather than just giving him the sermon time, they gave him the majority of the service.  I thought this was absolutely fabulous.  I’ve heard him speak several times previously, and he is a gifted apologist, evangelist, and teacher.

I had been asked to read the lessons for the morning, so I was sitting up front.  When the Coordinator saw me, he asked me to come up front to read various passages from the Koran to show that he wasn’t just making up what he was saying.

Had I known he was coming, I would have brought a pen and paper to take copious notes. Unfortunately, I don’t remember all the finer points of what he said, though he gave an excellent example of when talking with a Muslim we need to discuss Scripture in context, rather than just answering about an isolated verse, as they are trained how to twist Scripture.

For example, Islam teaches that Mohammed is the counselor that Jesus promised in John 14:16 (the Muslim commentary teaches that the Christians accept paraclete to mean the Holy Spirit, when it is really a corrupted form of a Greek word that indicates Mohammed).  Since they are taking this verse out of context, we must read the verses before and after a verse to get it IN context; when we continue reading to John 14:17, it ways that “…he dwells with you and will be in you” (ESV).  Mohammed died of malaria; we know where he is buried.  Clearly, since Mohammed is dead, he cannot dwell with us and IN us, therefore, the passage is referring to the Holy Spirit.

In the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), Jesus told us to go and make disciples of all nations.  Christians aren’t the only ones doing this; Islam is set to conquer the world.  Of the registered Islamic countries, half of them are in Africa.  Uganda is one of them, an ongoing “legacy” from Idi Amin.

From Meriam Ibrahim to Boko Haram to ISIS, I don’t think I need to explain that the threat is real, friends.  The church must be prepared, and the church must be teaching:  teaching how to share the Gospel, and teaching how to defend the Gospel from attacks. 

Barnabas Fund has excellent resources available to assist with this, and I commend them to you.  We use their Unveiled book in our classes, and it is an excellent introduction to what Islam teaches, how it contradicts Scripture, and how to share the Gospel with a Muslim.

Most of all, we must pray. We must pray that the Gospel indeed is preached in all the nations.  We must pray for hearts to love even those who would persecute us.  We must pray for the persecuted church.