By C.S. Caleb Kim, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor of Inter-religious Studies, Africa International University. Dr. Kim is Adviser to SfK Ministries on Islam Strategy.
This essay was
originally published in the special edition of Occasional Bulletin by EMS
(Evangelical Missiological Society) in 2016. It is republished with the author's permission.
Ever since
the rise of Islam in the seventh century, Christians have been challenged by the
question: Do Muslims and Christians
worship the same God? Muslim polemicists also use this same question when
they dispute with Christians. In fact, as a monotheistic religion borrowing a
lot from Judeo-Christian traditions, Islam has many similarities with
Christianity in its theological discourses regarding God and Jesus. The Qur’an
declares, “Our God [in Islam] and your God [in Judaism and Christianity] is
one” (Sura 29:46). Ontologically speaking, both Christianity and Islam seem to refer
to the same God since neither of them allows of the idea of the existence of
more than one God. In the ontological sense, the question of “whose (or which) god
is the true God” is not valid because it presupposes more than one god in existence
so as to choose one; both the religions admit that this is not the case.[1]
Then, the real problem is epistemological rather than ontological.
When we
take a very close look at the presentation of God and Jesus in Islam, we can
discover that the Islamic view of God is significantly different from the
Christian understanding. Despite many resemblances between the two traditions, the
overall description of God and Jesus in the Qur’an conflicts seriously with the
Biblical (both OT and NT) presentation of the same. In Islam, God cannot be a
father of anyone, and Jesus was a mere human being (though perceived to be the
most excellent prophet of all) and did not die on the cross, hence no
resurrection. (This also relates to the Islamic denial of the need of
redemption based on its view of human nature.) Reading the Qur’an very
carefully from a Muslim viewpoint, one cannot help getting an impression that
the Islamic monotheism (called tawhid)
must have been designed to refute specifically the Christian Trinity. This has
been creating a serious obstacle to the Christian witness of the gospel among
Muslims.
Evangelistic
efforts to correct the Muslim’s misunderstanding of God and Jesus do not seem
to have been so successful as often expected. Innumerable apologists and
polemicists in history tended to focus mostly on theological differences in the
attempt to present the gospel to Muslims, but challenges were exacerbated. Ironically,
Christian apologetic or polemicist approaches aroused many Muslim counterparts
against the Christian doctrine of Trinity. To make the situation worse,
political relationships between Christendom and the Muslim world in history
made the doctrine-based evangelism perceived as part of the Christian
imperialistic invasion of the Muslim world. So many Christian missionaries,
especially in the past many decades, felt led to leaning more on similarities
between Christianity and Islam than disparities. Those deeply sympathetic with
Muslims for an evangelistic purpose or for a relational reason began to underscore
a number of common elements between Islamic and Christian understandings of
God. In this line, many gospel communicators made incessant efforts to
“contextualize” the gospel for Muslims. Along with these contextualization
efforts also arose controversial issues. For instance, the so-called C5 contextualization
(or “Insider Movements”) approach has emerged recently, and quite a number of missionaries
have turned to it from conventional methods. As many are aware, it has become a
new controversy heatedly debated among missiologists today. In the C5 approach,
the issue goes even beyond doctrinal differences; a more inflamed debate has arisen
as to how one should interpret the whole entity of “Islam” itself. Is Islam just
a religion of tawhid that denies all
that Christianity holds or a culture that is capable of being freed from its religious
tenets embedded in it? It seems to me that the recent controversy around the
statement made by a tenured professor at Wheaton College is similar to the
controversy around some radical forms of C5 approach these days. I don’t intend
to discuss this hot issue here, but at least I am suggesting that issues
relating to the Christian approach to the Muslim world need to be examined from
a broader missional perspective.
How can we
prevent any polarization of the seemingly antithetical responses to this hard
question but reconcile them instead? Do
Christians and Muslims worship the same God? As pointed out above,
epistemologically the answer is clearly “No.” Then, whom do Muslims worship? I
hear some radical Christians say extremely that, since the Quranic Allah is
incompatible with the Biblical God, they worship Satan as pagans in the OT
worshipped idols like Baal. But, as I pointed out, an ontological problem may
come up to complicate the issue. The actual problem is quite epistemological;
it is more with the problem of human ignorance that has resulted from sin (cf.
Eph. 4:18). Then, we may need to learn an attitude and strategy from Paul. He preached
the gospel to his Athenian audience, who ignorantly worshipped an unknown God, without
having to tell them that they worshipped a wrong god (Acts 17:22-23). Can we also
share the gospel in a way that helps Muslims to come to a better understanding
of who the true God is in Jesus without necessarily focusing on their wrong
understanding of God? I am positive that a good chance of this correction will
come eventually when the time is ripe through the establishment of a trustful
relationship.
In fact, while
Muslim intellectuals and religious leaders seek to educate their people (that
is, internal jihad) in terms of the
Islamic law (shariah), ordinary
Muslims do not always measure up to its requirements. Having researched Muslim
cultural phenomena in East Africa for years, I have encountered many Muslims
whose idea of God seems similar to a monotheistic concept of God in African
Traditional Religions rather than the strict concept of tawhid. This may suggest some missiological practicalities
(perhaps, particularly in sub-Saharan contexts). Our primary concern should be
directed more toward helping Muslims to open their hearts to listen to the
gospel via our personal engagement with them in life context. This requires us to patiently begin our
engagement at where they are rather than what Islam stipulates. In light of my
own personal experiences, it usually takes much time for even an open-minded
Muslim person to give their ears to what we’d love to communicate. In some
contexts, I have seen it quite effective in communicating when I share my Christian
faith in the Triune God, which is certainly opposite to what Muslims believe,
with candidness and sincerity of my own conviction yet politely in a way that
respects their religiosity and does not disgrace their cultural values.
[1] And this logic may
be applicable even to other monotheistic ideas in other cultures or religions
besides the three monotheistic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).
This can also be explained in terms of “general revelation” or “common grace”
(cf. Romans 1:19-20).
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