Transcript How Is The Lord`s House?

Exploring Islam
and Christianity
How Is The Lord’s House?
How Is The Lord’s House?
• Haggai 1:2-4, "Thus speaks the LORD of
hosts, saying: 'This people says, "The
time has not come, the time that the
LORD's house should be built."'" Then the
word of the LORD came by Haggai the
prophet, saying, "Is it time for you
yourselves to dwell in your paneled
houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?"
The Lord’s House is His Church
Eph 2:19-20, “Now, therefore, you are no longer
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with
the saints and members of the household of God,
20 having been built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being
the chief cornerstone”
• 1 Tim 3:15, “but if I am delayed, I write so that you
may know how you ought to conduct yourself in
the house of God, which is the church of the living
God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”
The Lord’s House is His Church
• 1 Peter 2:4-5, “Coming to Him as to a living
stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen
by God and precious, 5 you also, as living
stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a
holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
• Acts 2:47, “And the Lord added to the church
daily those who were being saved.”
Mission Field: ISLAM
• “Islam” means Submission
• “Muslim” means one who submits
• 32 nations around the globe with >80%
Muslim population
• Islam 2nd largest world religion
• Islam is fastest growing religion
• 1 Billion Muslims in the world
• Approx. 5 Million Muslims in U.S.A.
Our Course of Study
Our Course of Study
“These are the verses of the immaculate
Book. We have sent it down as a clear
discourse that you may understand. Through
the revelation of this Qur’an We narrate the
best of histories of which you were unaware
before.” – Surah 12:1-3
Our Course of Study
Eph 3:3-4, “how that by revelation He made
known to me the mystery (as I have briefly
written already, by which, when you read, you
may understand my knowledge in the mystery
of Christ)”
Eph 5:17, “Therefore do not be unwise, but
understand what the will of the Lord is.”
How Is The Lord’s House?
Have Christians Become…
uiet
Is There A Standard?
Islam
Absolutes
Surah
2:119-121
“Christendom”
N.T.
Surah 2:119-121
And We have sent you with the truth to give glad
tidings and to warn. You will not be questioned about
those who are inmates of Hell. The Jews and
Christians will never be pleased with you until you
follow their way. Say: “God’s guidance alone is true
guidance;” for if you give in to their wishes after
having received the (Book of) knowledge from God,
then none will you have as friend or helper to save
you. Those to whom We have sent down the Book,
and who read it as it should be read, believe in it
truly; but those who deny it will be losers
Is There A Standard?
Islam
Absolutes
Surah
2:119-121
Hell
Surah
5:86; 5:72
“Christendom”
N.T.
Revisions
John 8:32;
14:6
Surah 5:86
But those who disbelieve and deny Our
revelations are residents of Hell.
Surah 5:72
…Whosoever associates a compeer with God, will
have Paradise denied to Him by God, and his
abode shall be Hell; and the sinners will have none
to help them.
Is There A Standard?
“Christendom”
N.T.
Absolutes
Surah
2:119-121
Revisions
John 8:32;
14:6
Hell
Surah
5:86; 5:72
Revisions
Matt. 10:28;
Mk. 9:42-48
Commitment
Surah
2:120
Islam
Surah 2:120
The Jews and Christians will never be pleased
with you until you follow their way. Say: “God’s
guidance alone is true guidance;” for if you
give in to their wishes after having received
the (Book of) knowledge from God, then none
will you have as friend or helper to save you.
Is There A Standard?
“Christendom”
N.T.
Absolutes
Surah
2:119-121
Revisions
John 8:32;
14:6
Hell
Surah
5:86; 5:72
Revisions
Matt. 10:28;
Mk. 9:42-48
Commitment
Surah
2:119-121
Very Loose
Luke 9:61-62;
14:26-28
Sacrifice
Surah
2:216; 47:4
Islam
Surah 2:216
Enjoined on you is fighting, and this you
abhor. You may dislike a thing yet it may
be good for you; or a thing may haply
please you but may be bad for you. Only
God has knowledge and you do not know.
Surah 47:4
So, when you clash with the unbelievers, smite their
necks until you overpower them, then hold them in
bondage. Then either free them graciously or after
taking a ransom, until war shall have come to end…
Is There A Standard?
“Christendom”
N.T.
Absolutes
Surah
2:119-121
Revisions
John 8:32;
14:6
Hell
Surah
5:86; 5:72
Revisions
Matt. 10:28;
Mk. 9:42-48
Commitment
Surah
2:119-121
Very Loose
Luke 9:61-62;
14:26-28
Sacrifice
Surah
2:216; 47:4
Standing for
What?
Islam
Heb. 11:36-40
1Pet. 4:16-19
The Case of
John Walker Lindh
• U.S. citizen Captured in 2001 in
Afghanistan
• Raised in Marin County, CA
• Father is Catholic, Mother is
Buddhist & Kids should make
their own choice on religion
• U.S. to Yemen to Taliban to Jail
How Is The Lord’s House?
Have Christians Become…
uiet
nidentifiable
All are “Christian”
Andrew Roberts
Beyonce (InMother
Teresa Eyes),
Billy Graham
Muslim
But Do
All
Believe and Practice Alike?
Jerry Falwell
Benny Hinn
Pope Benedict XVI
Queen Rania AlSalman Rushdie
All are “Muslim”
Abdullah
(In Christian Eyes), But Do All
Believe and Practice Alike?
Yusuf Islam/
Cat Stevens
Ayatollah
Khomeini
Malcolm X
Muhammad Ali
Osama Bin
Laden
Christ - not the Catholic Church
• Surah 5:116, “And when God will ask: “O
Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to
mankind: “Worship me and my mother as
two deities apart from God?’” (Jesus) will
answer: “Halleluja. Could I say what I
knew I had no right (to say)? Had I said it
You would surely have known, for You
know what is in my heart though I know
not what you have…”
Christ - not the Catholic Church
• Surah 9:31, “They consider their rabbis
and monks and the Christ, son of Mary, to
be gods apart from God, even though they
had been enjoined to worship only one
God, for there is no God but He. Too holy
is He for what they ascribe to Him!”
Christ - not the Catholic Church
• Veneration of Mary
and “Saints”
• The Crusades
(vs. John 18:36;
Matt. 26:51-52)
• I’m not a Catholic
Christ - not Denominationalism
• Bible is Untrustworthy
• Surah 3:3, “He has verily revealed to
you this Book, in truth and confirmation
of the Books revealed before, as indeed
He had revealed the Torah and Gospel”
Christ - not Denominationalism
• Bible is Untrustworthy
• Surah 22:52-53, “We have sent no
messenger or apostle before you with whose
recitations Satan did not tamper. Yet God
abrogates what Satan interpolates; then He
confirms His revelations, for God is allknowing and all-wise. This is in order to make
the interpolations of Satan a test for thos
whose hearts are diseased and hardened:
surely the sinners have gone far in dissent.”
Christ - not Denominationalism
• Bible is Untrustworthy
• Surah 3:78, “Among them is a section
which distorts in reading the Scripture in
a way that though it sounds like the
Scripture, in fact it is not; yet they say it
is from God, when they know it is not;
and they lie about God, and knowingly.”
The Lord’s House
• Jesus is the ONLY head of the church
(Eph. 1:22-23)
• The New Testament is the ONLY doctrine
(2 John 9)
• There is ONLY one body (Eph. 4:4)
• The church of Christ is NOT a Denomination
How Is The Lord’s House?
Have Christians Become…
uiet
nidentifiable
ndifferent
Islam in the U.S.A.
• Approx. 5 million Muslims in
U.S. Islam 2nd largest World
Religion
• Average 1 new mosque opens
each week in U.S.
• 165 Islamic schools, 426 Islamic
associations & 90 Islamic
publications in U.S.
• There are more Muslims than
Methodists in U.S.
• Likely to be More Muslims than
Jews and Protestants combined
by mid-century
Islamic Center of America
Detroit, Michigan
How Is The Lord’s House?
Have Christians Become…
uiet
nidentifiable
ndifferent
ired
Surah 2:143
We have made you a temperate
people that you act as witness over
man, and the Prophet as witness
over you.
Da’wah – “Invitation”
• Da’wah means the active business of propagating
Islam to make conversions
• Da’wah involves the effort to bring those who’ve
fallen away from Islam back
• Da’wah means the responsibility to simply live
quiet lives of Muslim piety and charity – set
example
- Jane I. Smith, professor Islamic Studies, Hartford Seminary
Muslims target the Academic World
• “Islam has taken advantage of
American openness and has
made great progress in
Da’wah in our schools that are
closed to Christianity. The
educational institutions of the
West will be a major
battleground for Islam in the
future” – William Wagner
• Acts 26:25
Muslims target Prisons
• “It is estimated that more
than 300,000 prisoners are
converts to Islam, and that
the rate of conversion may
be more than 30,000 each
year” – William Wagner
• Hebrews 13:3
Muslims target Minorities
• “Islam is focusing on people groups in
America and the West and is creating
strategies to meet the needs of these
target peoples. As of now the numbers
are not large, but as Christians have
learned, people who feel displaced or
alienated are more open to conversion
than those who have deep roots. The
minorities in America fit into this
category” – William Wagner
• Colossians 3:11; James 2:1-4, 8-9
How Is The Lord’s House?
Have Christians Become…
uiet
nidentifiable
ndifferent
ired
How Is The Lord’s House?
Have Christians
Building the Lord’s House?
How Is The Lord’s House?
Let Christians…
• Be Loud and Clear not Quiet
(2 Tim. 1:7; 4:2)
• Be Distinct and Consistent not Unidentifiable
(Matt. 5:14-15; Phil. 2:15)
• Be Bold and Zealous not Indifferent
(Rev. 3:14-19)
• Be Revived and Active not Tired
(Gal. 6:9-10; 1 Cor. 15:58)