May
3
The Qur’an’s challenge to the Bible
Filed Under Apologetics, Bible, Evangelism, Islam, Missions
My most recent conversation with a Muslim took place a couple of months ago in Trujillo, Peru. My companions and I were in a cab at the Plaza de Armas on a Saturday afternoon and noticed two bearded Middle Eastern men in turbans rolling out their prayer rugs amidst the crowds. This stood out in Trujillo like it would in Kosciusko. After getting something to eat, we walked over to where the men were sitting after they had finished their prayers. We engaged in some discussion in English with these men, who said they were from Pakistan. They were soft-spoken, charitable and most eager to talk about their faith. They emphasized Islam’s regard for Jesus as a prophet, implying that Muhammed reformed and revived and reoriented the path of true religion that Abraham, Moses and Jesus had advocated. By then a small crowd was gathering, along with a few nervous-looking police officers. As I was about to ask them if the Qur’an teaches that Jesus was crucified and resurrected (it denies this, by the way), a young Peruvian man asked them in English why Muslims crashed the planes into the World Trade Center–and you can guess that the conversation steered way off course from that point, and we decided to leave the crowd to their wrangling and the police to break it up.
Adam S. Francisco, assistant professor of history at Concordia College in Bronxville, New York, has written a short introduction to some of the striking differences between Christianity and Islam that may help you learn the lay of the land a bit. The piece originally appeared in the March/April 2007 issue of Modern Reformation.
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