Engaging with Muslims: Understanding their world; sharing good news by Klaassen John

Author:Klaassen, John [Klaassen, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781909919129
Publisher: The Good Book Company
Published: 2015-03-22T16:00:00+00:00

Persuasion

Now you are at the top of the pyramid. You are deep in relationship and you have shared your story and God’s story with your friends. They are listening to you and respect you.

Persuasion comes in many forms. It may mean getting deeply into discussions about assurance and forgiveness in Islam. It may involve detailed discussion to unravel some of the false ideas they may have about the Bible and Jesus. It will certainly involve showing how the gospel gives answers to the significant questions of life that we all have.

But at some stage it will come time to push. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5 v 20:

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God.

To “implore” is to ask with passion, to encourage someone to be reconciled to God. Persuasion must always lead to that time in evangelism where you ask your friends to come to faith. You have talked about faith and you have explained to them that they need Jesus to be true believers—now is the time to “implore.” If you have been diligent with the other P’s, then your relationship should be such that you can share anything with your friends—you can disagree with them in a loving way. You love them and you spend time with them—it should be natural to implore them to follow the Christ!

I was with my father in the countryside in North Africa. I brought my dad to share the gospel with my Muslim friend. My friend was my age and I wanted him to hear about Jesus from a man who was older than us. So my dad shared with him and I translated into Arabic. After a while, I got tired of translating and we just started talking about faith. Soon our voices were raised and we were speaking quickly and probably a little too loudly. My dad leaned over and asked what we were saying.

“I am telling him that if he doesn’t submit to and trust in Jesus, then he cannot be saved and he will go to hell when he dies.”

“And what is he saying in return?”

“Well, he’s telling me that I must submit to Allah and the prophet Muhammad or I will burn in hell myself.”

To this my father responded: “Well, you’d better cool it or he might try and send us there himself while we sleep tonight.”

I told my dad that this would never happen because we were guests, and more importantly, he was my friend. He was like a brother to me! I could tell him anything I wanted because he knew it came from my heart.

Persuasion can only happen when you are in a deep relationship that permits you to say what needs to be said. Prior to that deep relationship it is proclamation. Proclamation might be saying there is heaven and hell. It might be a clear presentation of the gospel. It might be sitting and reading the Bible with them, and allowing the stories of the Bible to make their own impact.

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