Finally, let me give you an easy-to-remember bridge to use as you share the gospel with your Muslim friend. Whenever you meet Muslims, they’ll say, “As-salam alaykum,” meaning “peace be on you.” Ask them about that peace, where it comes from, how it’s attained, whether anyone can have it and why there is such a lack of peace on earth. Then, ask if you can tell them a story.
Share with them the creation story. The Genesis account is rich – not too different from their own account – and will provide a common ground. After God created everything, he said it was good. All of creation was at peace with God; all of creation was at peace with itself. In fact, Moses tells us in Genesis 2:25 that the man and woman were naked and not ashamed. Everything was perfect – there was no fear, and there was no shame in the garden. Then, sin entered through the disobedience of Adam and Eve. The first thing Adam and Eve did after their sin was to make coverings for themselves. For the first time in their lives they knew shame and fear. When God came to walk with them in the cool of the garden, they hid. For the first time in history, peace was broken between God and man, mankind with itself and man and nature.
The curse that God placed on nature, mankind and the serpent was a result of one sin. The curse can be summed up as the elimination of peace on earth. Since Adam, we have lived in enmity with God, others and nature. Because of our sin, there is nothing we can do to restore our relationship with God. Our sin broke the relationship with God and only he can restore it. Jesus came to restore that relationship, to pay the penalty for our sins and to create a path to God by dying and rising from the dead.
Remember, your Muslim friend probably won’t embrace the whole story the first time you tell it. Sharing your faith with a Muslim is about prayer, presence, proclamation and persuasion. There are no shortcuts. It doesn’t typically happen overnight, but as your friend listens to the truth of the gospel, God’s Spirit will work. John writes in Revelation 7:9-10,
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.’”
One day in heaven, there will be a multitude so large that no one can count it. In that number will be men and women from every place on earth. Brothers and sisters from the hardest places on earth will stand before the throne. Your friend, who seems so hard right now, may be one of them.
We see also that salvation is attributed to God, and also “to the lamb.” Your Muslim friend will never get to heaven apart from the lamb. For that matter, no one gets to heaven apart from the lamb. John quotes Jesus as saying, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Paul reminds us in Romans, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Rom 10:14)
No Jesus means no salvation, no hope and no peace with God. Will you be the one to take the gospel to your Muslim neighbor, friend or coworker? If not you, then who will get that privilege? Do not miss out; share your faith with a Muslim.
Read the series of posts below for more on this topic:
Evangelism to Muslims: Presence
Evangelism to Muslims: Proclamation