By Michelle A. Vu|Christian Post Reporter

|Thu, Mar. 18 2010 05:10 PM EDT

“I don’t think that is a comparison,” said Greear, author of the new book Breaking the Islam Code: Understanding the Soul Questions of Every Muslim, in an interview. “I don’t think you can say that because the covenant of grace was within the writing of Moses and early Judaism. The covenant of grace is not and has never been a part of Islam. So I don’t think you can go that far.”

Greear, who holds a Ph.D. in Christian and Islamic theology, brought up the point while discussing a Muslim outreach tool called the Camel. The Camel seeks to build a bridge for Christians to start a conversation about faith with Muslims. The method had come under criticism recently after a former-Muslim-turned-seminary-president accused it of employing deception.

But proponents of the Camel maintain that it is a simple, deception-free tool that helps open a conversation about faith and invites Muslims to read the Bible.

David Garrison, editor of The Camel: How Muslims are Coming to Faith in Christ, told The Christian Post in a recent interview that the word Camel is an acronym that helps Christians recall what the Quran says about Isa, or Jesus, so that they can start a discussion on Jesus based on common ground.

While Greear embraces finding common ground to begin a conversation with Muslims, he rejects the belief held by some missionaries who use the Camel that the Muslim prophet Muhammad is comparable to the Jewish and Christian prophet Moses.

Some missionaries say that like how Moses brought the Jews half way to Jesus, the Muslim prophet Muhammad brought the Arab people half way to Jesus. Muslims who come to believe in Jesus as their savior, therefore, are “completed Muslims,” they contend.

“Moses was a prophet that spoke the words of God,” Greear asserted. “It was God’s word. Muhammad denied Christ. He was a false prophet.”

For Greear, a former Southern Baptist missionary who served in a predominantly Muslim country, it is appropriate, however, to adopt Islamic terms and ideas to share the Gospel as long as they do not compromise the distinctiveness of Jesus Christ.

For instance, even though the Muslim understanding of God is different than that of Christians, the North Carolina pastor believes it is “fully appropriate” to use the term Allah to refer to God.

His position is based on the conversation recorded in the Bible between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. Jesus did not tell the Samaritan woman that she was worshipping the wrong God, but rather Jesus told her she was worshipping the wrong way.

“What you are doing is saying that the God that you worship, I’m actually going to show you the right way to worship Him,” Greear said.

But contextualization – the process of communicating ideas in terms understandable to the audience – of the Gospel has always been a difficult task for missionaries and missiologists, Greear quickly acknowledged. The question is always how far is too far.

“On one side you create too many barriers between Muslims and the Gospels,” the pastor said, “and the other side you so distort the Gospel that it loses its distinctiveness.”

The up-and-coming pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention believes the important thing to consider when wrestling with contextualization of the Gospel is the uniqueness of God.

“It is when God’s people give God a chance to show His distinctiveness from all the other false gods then that is when the power of God is most revealed,” the former missionary said. “I think the way it applies to this discussion is we want to make sure that while we are putting the Gospel into phrases and terms that Muslims can understand, we want to guard the exclusivity of Jesus and the distinctiveness of Jehovah’s way of salvation so that God can again pour down His power and show that He is the only savior.”

In his new book, Breaking the Islam Code, Greear explains the core beliefs of Islam, what Christianity and Islam have in common, and where the two faiths differ, among other practical knowledge that helps Christians to better understand Muslims.

By Jennifer Riley|Christian Post Reporter

|Tue, Mar. 16 2010 05:53 PM EDT

Amid the uproar over Glenn Beck’s recent comments about the church and social justice, a respected theologian has called for more “careful thinking” and “earnest struggle” with the issue.

But the theologian, who daily tackles hot-button issues on his blog, called on “serious-minded” Christians to take a deeper look at what Beck was trying to say when he warned that the words “social justice” or “economic justice” are “code words” for Communism and Nazism.

During his March 2 radio broadcast, Beck had urged Christians to leave their church if it embraced social and economic justice.

“At first glance, Beck’s statements are hard to defend. How can justice, social or private, be anything other than a biblical mandate,” Mohler wrote on his blog Monday.

“But, there is more going on here,” he contended. “A closer look at his statements reveals a political context.”

Mohler pointed out that Beck had specifically mentioned the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, the church where President Obama had attended while living in Chicago.

The Baptist theologian then said many preachers trade “the Gospel for a platform of political and economic change, most often packaged as a call for social justice.”

He looked back on Christian history and highlighted the “immediate roots” of the so-called “social gospel” to Washington Gladden, a Columbus, Ohio, pastor, from the mid-nineteenth century, and, more famously, to Walter Rauschenbusch, a liberal Christian theologian and Baptist minister in the early twentieth century.

Both Gladden and Rauschenbusch promoted a liberal theological message that redirected the Christian emphasis of salvation through Jesus Christ to one that emphasized using politics to bring the Kingdom of God on earth.

“The urgency for any faithful Christian is this – flee any church that for any reason or in any form has abandoned the Gospel of Christ for any other gospel,” Mohler stated.

While Beck’s statements suggest that his primary concern is politics, Mohler said his concern is about the “primacy of the Gospel of Christ.”

“The church’s main message must be that Gospel,” he stated. “The New Testament is stunningly silent on any plan for governmental or social action. The apostles launched no social reform movement. Instead, they preached the Gospel of Christ and planted Gospel church.”

But in spite of the church not adopting a social reform agenda, Mohler believes that a church that is faithful to the Gospel will naturally reform society through the lives of its congregants.

“The Gospel is not a message of social salvation, but it does have social implications,” maintained Mohler.

Jerry Falwell, Jr., president of Liberty University and the son of the late Christian right leader the Rev. Jerry Falwell, also said Jesus taught that individuals, not governments, should help the poor.

“Jesus taught that we should give to the poor and support widows, but he never said that we should elect a government that would take money from our neighbor’s hand and give it to the poor,” Falwell said in response to the Beck controversy, according to CNN.

But Beck has faced a barrage of criticism from anti-poverty Christian leaders and organizations following his remarks.

The Rev. Jim Wallis, CEO of the social justice ministry Sojourners, called on Christians to stop listening and watching Beck’s shows. Wallis said the Bible is clear that social justice is an “integral part of God’s plan for humanity.”

So far some 30,000 Christians have sent a message to Beck in protest of his social justice comments, according to Wallis.

Mohler, though noting there is some truth to Beck’s statements, criticized the comments for lack of “nuance, fair consideration, and context.”

“It was reckless to use a national media platform to rail against social justice in such a manner,” the theologian said. Becks reckless statements has left him “with little defense against a tidal wave of biblical mandates.”

While the church must make preaching the Gospel central to its mission, Christians must strive to “be on the right side of justice,” Mohler concluded.

By Ethan Cole|Christian Post Reporter

World|Tue, Mar. 16 2010 10:09 AM EDT

In total, seven local staffs working for children and displaced communities in North Western Pakistan have died following Wednesday’s attack on the World Vision office in Mansehra District, north of the capital, Islamabad. The staff members who died from the violent act range in age from 23 to 43 years old.

“Our staffs are motivated by a straightforward interest in providing a better life for children,” said Charles Dokmo, World Vision’s regional vice president, in response to questions about what motivated the militants’ attack.

“Where extremists teach hate, our staff work with mothers and fathers to help needy children; where extremists sow violence, our staff work with farmers to plant the seeds of a more prosperous community, and where extremists encourage intolerance, our staff nurture respect for human life and human dignity,” Dokmo stated.

As many as 15 gunmen arrived in pick-up vehicles last Wednesday and opened fire on the office. World Vision said the attack was unprovoked and there was no prior warning.

One injured World Vision staff member remains hospitalized.

Investigation on the attack is underway, but so far authorities have not been able to identify a specific motive for the violence. In general, local militants carry out random acts of terror to destabilize the region and create fear among residents.

Despite the attack, World Vision will continue to operate its life-saving health activities in the North West region of Pakistan but has temporarily suspended other programs.

A global memorial service will take place Wednesday to remember and honor the Pakistani staff members who have passed away. All World Vision offices will participate.

World Vision has worked in Pakistan since 1992. Initially, the agency focused on relief intervention but expanded its work in 2001. It began collaborating with other aid groups on emergency relief assistance and community development initiatives in the North West Frontier Province and Punjab Province. World Vision further expanded its operations in Pakistan after the country’s devastating earthquake in October 2005.

 

 

By Jeffrey Heller Jeffrey Heller – 26 mins ago

 

By Ethan Cole|Christian Post Reporter

World|Sat, Mar. 13 2010 10:59 AM EDT

 Twenty-three Coptic Christians were injured by Muslim extremists Friday after an attack on a church community center, said an Egyptian Bishop.

The attack occurred after a sermon by a radical sheikh and lasted 10 hours before security forces put a stop to it, said Bishop Bejemy to The Associated Press on Saturday. The group of young Muslim men threw firebombs at the Coptic center and at nearby homes in Marsa Matruh, a seaport city in northern Egypt.

The international humanitarian organization said the attack was unprovoked.

And Boyd, who is currently senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, considers it a “big, big, big” topic that needs to be talked about.

Boyd is now ten weeks into a message series on “The Supernatural.” He has already addressed healing, miracles and the gift of prophecy. “Distinguishing Between Spirits” was his message title for this past Sunday.

“Do demons really exist?” Boyd, who replaced former pastor Ted Haggard in 2007, posed to thousands of attendees.

“I don’t want to assume in this building today that all of you even believe that there are demons. I would guess there are some of you out here that may have never heard anyone talk about this and you may not even believe that there are spiritual forces of evil that wish you harm,” he said.

For Boyd, the existence of demons is very real. He recalled a time when his young son, Abram, had “intense night terrors” (nightmares). They kept Abraham and Boyd up at nights regularly. After recognizing that there was “a spiritual element attacking” his son, Boyd prayed a “short, emphatic, decisive prayer” calling on the name of Jesus. The “night terrors” stopped, he said.

It all started with an awareness of something that wasn’t holy.

“I’m convinced … that all of us, no matter how long we’ve been Christ followers, are open to being deceived and influenced by the enemy,” he stated.

The problem with many believers, however, is that they are deceived or influenced by evil spirits without even knowing it, whether it’s through a T.V. show or a relationship, the senior pastor noted. People are led astray from the truth subtly, in small incremental steps and eventually they wake up and ask themselves “how did I get here?”

“The enemy’s tricky,” the Louisiana native underlined. “He’s good at this.”

“You can be led astray but you don’t have to be,” he assured the mega-congregation.

Calling the congregation to a higher level of discernment, Boyd warned that every temptation begins with a thought. And the most powerful weapon a Christ follower has when confronting demons is repentance (of such thoughts), he stressed.

“A lot of the counseling I do at New Life Church could be settled if we just had a culture where when a thought came to you we had a sensitivity, an awareness that it’s not from God. If we just repent of it … then adulterous affairs would stop, all the things wrecking families would stop,” he said. “It all just starts with a thought.”

The New Life pastor also told Christ followers that they have more authority than they know. Even as a young person of faith, if a believer feels an evil influence, he or she can say the name of Jesus Christ. Body reminded them God already defeated the devil 2,000 years ago. The devil has only gained some stature in people’s lives because they do not realize the authority they have as Christ followers, he noted.

“It should be impossible for us as Christ followers to ever be deceived,” he said.

On a congregational level, some of the warning signs of possible evil spiritual forces at work include: when hype has replaced the Holy Spirit and when the focus is on a person and not Jesus, Boyd listed.

Though passion and excitement can come from God, it doesn’t always mean it’s God at work, he cautioned. And though someone may talk about Jesus, they may not be making Jesus the center point of everything, he said, alluding to false preachers.

In addition to being sensitive to the presence of evil, the spiritual gift of discernment also allows one to have an awareness of when the Holy Spirit is active.

It’s a spiritual gift that Boyd wants more and more in his life and not because he’s fascinated by evil, but because he’s fascinated with God and by the Holy Spirit, he said.

This upcoming Sunday, Boyd will be covering the gift of tongues. He assured the congregation, “It will be completely weird-free.”

“If it is in Scripture I think we should have permission to talk about it and not just ignore the things that seem awkward or weird because tongues is not awkward and weird,” he said.

|Sun, Mar. 07 2010 11:33 PM EDT

The comments to which CBN referred to originated from a blogger at Open Salon, who quoted Robertson as saying “God is even angrier with them (the people of Chile) than he is with the people of Haiti.”

“If I had to guess, I’d say it (the earthquake) must have to do with Chile’s persecution and attempted prosecution of their great former leader, and a personal hero of mine, Augusto Pinochet – who, it should be noted, had never been convicted of a crime when the Lord called him home three years ago,” Robertson was quoted as saying.

Though the charismatic televangelist has a history of making controversial remarks following major disasters and crises, CBN clarified Friday that “Pat Robertson made no such comments about the Chilean people making a pact with demons.”

“Dr. Robertson is very concerned about the people of Chile and his humanitarian organization is currently responding to the disaster by sending a disaster relief team leader and raising money for the relief efforts,” the network reported.

“Anyone wishing to see CBN’s reporting of the earthquake as well as Dr. Robertson’s actual comments, which included a heartfelt call to prayer for the people of Chile, can watch complete, archived episodes of The 700 Club at www.cbn.com,” it added.

Two months earlier, Robertson drew fire for comments he made regarding the 7.0-magnitude quake that struck Haiti, which he said was the consequence of the curse that had befallen the country’s people after its founding fathers made a “pact to the Devil” in exchange for Haiti’s independence from France.

“[E]ver since they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor,” Robertson had said.

Shortly after the remarks, CBN issued a statement to clarify them and specifically noted that he “never stated that the earthquake was God’s wrath.”

“If you watch the entire video segment, Dr. Robertson’s compassion for the people of Haiti is clear. He called for prayer for them,” CBN Spokesman Chris Roslan reported.

Also noted in the statement was the work of Robertson’s humanitarian arm, which has reportedly been working to help thousands of people in Haiti over the last year, and was launching a major relief and recovery effort to help the victims of the quake.

CBN was founded by Robertson in 1961 and manages Operation Blessing, a non-profit humanitarian organization that has provided hunger relief, disaster relief, medical aid and community development to more than 192.8 million people in 96 countries and all 50 states over the past three decades.

Aside from CBN and Operation Blessing, Robertson is also credited for having founded the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), the Christian Coalition, and Regent University, among other organizations.