Although I do plan to vary the subject matter of my posts, I thought I'd discuss one more subject dealing with witnessing the Gospel to Islam. While talking with my 91 year old grandfather yesterday about his service in WWII in post conquest Okinawa from 1943 to 1945, he mentioned the destructive capabilities wrought by the 'kamikaze' pilots towards the end of the war. While the kamikaze pilots were motivated primarily for 'honorable' death in service for the emperor of Japan, etc., I couldn't help but think about the parallel of the Muslim 'suicide bombers' so ubiquitous in the news these days.
Most news reports on the subject describe the horrible tactic as 'irrational' behavior designed primarily to destroy as many 'infidels' (Americans, Jews, and in Iraq, fellow Iraqis and Muslims who are deemed 'enemies' or 'traitors' etc.) and all in the employ of 'Jihad' or holy war. However, such a military objective may not always be the primary motive. According to the Koran, death by martyrdom in Jihad automatically guarantees entrance to paradise or heaven, although whether the actual act of suicide bombing qualifies as such is of course debated by Muslim scholars. I've read that the Koran does not provide to the Muslim believer, any such assurance of 'salvation' (entrance to heaven as opposed to hell) due to obedience to Allah, good works, etc.., in such a way that the individual person can have total and absolute assurance on his deathbed, for example.
However, if one believes that dying as a martyr in a suicide bombing in a 'righteous' cause against an 'infidel' ensures an entrance to heaven, then however despicable and dreadful such an act is, it is not only not irrational behavior, but eminently rational. As the 17th century theologian Jonathan Edwards or some of the earlier Puritan theologians would have said, the desire to truly avoid hell and to gain heaven is the most rational business any human can undertake, and it is actually the height of insanity to do otherwise or to ignore such a matter. This seems to me, to be, a very useful and wonderful apologetic to the Muslim: namely, that while their desire to gain paradise is rational and normal, it is dreadfully sinful, and that obedience to the true God by believing upon the name of His Son, Christ for their redemption and as propritation for satisfaction from the wrath of God to come, is the only way to heaven, the enjoyment of which begins in this life as we trust in God who richly provides for us.
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1 comment:
I can certainly see your point. To follow a belief to the point of death involves believing the doctrine true. I know a woman who was a teenager in Germany during WWII. She told me she was a Hitler Youth because they were taught that Hitler's doctrine was true. As misguided as she was regarding the doctrine of the Nazi party, she never questioned it. She did not know anything else.
People who never here about the saving power of Jesus don't know anything else if they are sold a doctrine of contradiction and lies. The substitute for Jesus is not a substitute but a perversion. The perversion of truth is nothing new under the sun. It goes back to the Garden of Eden. It is alive in well today. Although the suicide-bomber is a terrifying thought today, I believe the problem we have within the church is the perversion of the doctrine of Christ. The unlimited television broadcasts of "prosperity" theology and feel-good preaching are misleading many, many people in the United States and around the world. Jesus talked about that in Matthew 7:15, to watch for the false prophets in sheep's clothing. In John 21:16-17 Jesus told Peter to the response of Jesus' question, "Do you love me?" to shepherd and feed His (Jesus) sheep. Is that not our charge of today? Are we not called to protect the sheep just as the 1st century shepherd was called to protect the sheep he was entrusted? As Christians we have been called to love people. How can we love people by not telling them the truth? I pray that through apologetics (defending the truth), we can share God's truth of His Son.
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