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Friday, December 30, 2016

A Wind in the House of Islam

I am presently reading a book called A Wind in the House of Islam. The book describes something new in the world: after 13 centuries without any large groups of Muslims turning to Christ (aside from two towards the very end), in recent years dozens such movements have sprung up, in all parts of the Muslim world.
One important fact I have learned from this book, is that the Fulfillment Model of how Christianity relates to world traditions, which I developed for my doctorate and in some of my books, also applies to Islam and even the Quran. I resisted that conclusion until this morning. How Jesus Passes the Outsider Test: the Inside Story, for instance, focused on Hebrew, Greek, Norse, Indian, and Chinese traditions. I ignored Islam because: (a) Mohammed was, in my view (still) an unusually bad man; (b) he wrote the Quran, whatever Muslims claim; (c) it's not a very good book, sorry again Muslims; (d) if the Quran can lead people to Christ, why hasn't it?
But it turns out that it is doing just that, right now:
"First we show them from the Quran that only Isa al-Masih is the Savior, and then we baptize them. Then we give them the Bible and we disciple them. Over time, they move away from the Quran and into the Bible, though they continue to use the Quran to bring other Muslims to faith in Isa."
That's from a "Muslim" leader in Bangladesh, who himself became a Christian when someone asked him why he was reading the Koran in Arabic without understanding it, and he began to read what it really said -- more than he dreamed about Jesus.
So I'm going to have to disagree with my friend Don Richardson on this. I still think Mohammed was a bum, and the Quran isn't much of a book, as holy scriptures go. But apparently God is (if I can put it this way) more clever than I gave Him credit! It seems He has booby-trapped even a book of heresy to point true seekers to His Son.
Anyway, interesting book, you might like it. Probably better not let too many ISIS terrorists get ahold of the book, though.

2 comments:

Jason Pratt said...

I've been meaning to read this, Trousdale's Miraculous Movements (also about Muslim conversions to Christianity), and Qureshi's Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus for a while. Glad to see you like Garrison's book so far!

JRP

David B Marshall said...

The book is only getting more interesting as I read further. The author is smart and nuanced as well as well-informed.