‘Dialogue’ with Muslims should be about the risen Jesus … period

OneNewsNow
By Steve Jordahl
November 1, 2019

A Christian apologist and author says a weekend conference designed to promote dialogue between followers of Muhammad and followers of Jesus Christ should have a single focus: the life, death, resurrection, and saving grace of Christ.

Hundreds of students are meeting on the campus of Wheaton College near Chicago this weekend to advance an evangelical dialogue with Muslims. Organizers of the Neighborly Faith Conference expect about 350 students and staff to attend the interfaith event taking place today (Friday) and Saturday. The goal is to address why more than 60 percent of evangelicals, according to the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, report anti-Muslim sentiments in their own communities.

Dr. Alex McFarland of Truth for a New Generation says while followers of Christ should always be loving and gracious to people of other faiths, any conversation needs to be very specific.

“The only dialogue the Church needs to be having with the Muslim world, really, is how they can understand that Jesus Christ is the risen Savior who shed his blood on the cross to wipe away the sins of the world,” he tells OneNewsNow.

And as far as an anti-Muslim bias within the Church, he contends “when it comes to worldview, the Church most certainly should have an anti-Muslim bias – because Islam blasphemes and denigrates the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

But some very pointed conversations need to happen with the Muslim community, says McFarland.
“Besides enslaving the souls of more than a billion people, Islam has history’s most deplorable human rights record,” he maintains. “The second-worst thing that ever happened to the human race – second only to the fall of Genesis 3 – is the birth of Islam.”

McFarland also admits being disappointed that the college that brought the world evangelist Billy Graham would make room for this event. “The spiritual state of Wheaton has long been a concern for many people. This often-great institution has, in recent years, had a number of theological missteps,” he concludes.

For example, earlier this year a group of student leaders at Wheaton distributed a campus-wide email criticizing on-campus comments by a black pro-life speaker. And in late 2015, a professor at the school created a firestorm by stating on a social media page that Christians and Muslims worship the same god.

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