By Rudy Barnes, Jr.
Throughout the Bible, light is a symbol of God’s presence and darkness a symbol of the absence of God or the presence of Satan. In Gnosticism, light and darkness represent the opposing forces of good and evil in a great and unending cosmic battle. For Christians and Muslims, evangelism is about promoting their religion as a light shining in a world of darkness; but it is a light visible only to believers, with unbelievers condemned to eternal darkness.
Jesus taught his disciples to follow him and spread the good news of the Gospel, like a lamp spreading light into the darkness: “Do you bring in a lamp and put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on a stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out in the open. If anyone has ears, let him hear.” The good news was that the light of God’s transforming love and mercy could dispel the darkness of sin and give people new spiritual life, reconciling and redeeming them into the universal family of God (Mark 4:21-23; see Matthew 5:14-16; 10:26-28; Luke 8:16-17; 11:33-36; 12:2-5; John 3:19-21; 8:12).
Jesus was a Jew who never promoted any religion, not even his own; and he never taught any belief that provided only one way of salvation and condemned all others to hell. That came later with Church doctrine and dogma that limited salvation to those who believed in Jesus Christ as God’s one and only Son, and that believers were saved from the ravages of hell through the crucifixion of Jesus as a blood sacrifice for the atonement of their sins. (Romans 3:21-26; Hebrews 2:14-18) It was only natural for Paul and other Jews in the early Church to understand the crucifixion that way since Mosaic Law provided for the atonement of sin through blood sacrifice. But Jesus was critical of blood sacrifice, and like prophets before him Jesus taught that God wanted mercy, not sacrifice.
Jesus taught his disciples to follow him as the word of God, not to worship him as God’s only Son, and the word of God—the good news of the Gospel—was that sinners could repent of their sin and be reconciled and redeemed as children of God based on the transforming power of God’s forgiveness, love and mercy. God’s blessings were not limited to Jews and were not dependent on obedience to Mosaic Law as taught by the Pharisees. The good news that had been hidden and that was meant to be disclosed was that God’s love fulfilled Mosaic Law. It was now love over law.
The Qur’an, like the Hebrew Bible, emphasizes holy law as a standard of righteousness, and like Christian church doctrine it limits salvation to believers. In Islam it is belief in the Qur’an as the immutable word of God, while in Christian doctrine it is belief in Jesus as God’s one and only Son. Both the Qur’an and church doctrine assure believers that they will have eternal life in heaven and condemn all unbelievers to eternal damnation in hell. The Qur’an states that Jews and Christians are People of the Book, but it also condemns as blasphemers and unbelievers all those who believe that God had a son.
The Qur’an gives Muslims the evangelical mission to promote Islam by word and sword, and the violent evangelism of radical Islam today seems to be to expedite divine judgment and dispatch all unbelievers, including Jews, Christians and non-conforming Muslims, to hell.
Christianity and Islam are competing religions that measure their success by the number of their believers, who now represent over half of the world’s population. While Christians now outnumber Muslims, Muslims are growing faster than Christians. But even as globalization has brought Christians and Muslims closer together than ever before, their evangelical competition for converts with exclusivist claims for salvation has prevented better interfaith relations.
The exclusivist claims of Christianity and Islam are based on fundamentalist religious beliefs that defy knowledge and reason and generate more darkness than light. If it is God’s will to reconcile and redeem all people into a universal family of God, and Satan’s will to divide and conquer God’s people, history has shown that Satan has done a superb imitation of God using fundamentalist religious beliefs to divide and conquer people of faith by encouraging believers to condemn unbelievers, and Satan has done some of his best work in the church and mosque.
Both Islam and Christianity claim to embrace the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors, including our unbelieving neighbors. With Jews, Christians and Muslims now living closer together than ever before, evangelism needs to shift its priorities from condemning and converting those of other religions to reconciling with them. If Christian and Islamic evangelism can promote religious reconciliation rather than exclusivism, then it can bring the light of God’s reconciling love into a world of darkness and be a force for good rather than evil.
Notes and References to Resources:
This topic is related to Lesson #7, Lamp on a Stand, at pages 43 and 44 of the J&M Book.
Related blogs are those on Religion and reason, posted on December 8, 2014; Salvation and reconciliation into the family of God, posted on January 4, 2015; The greatest commandment posted on January 11, 2015; and Love over law posted on January 18, 2015.
Jesus echoed the prophets Hosea and Amos when he said: But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. (see Matthew 9:10-13; 12:7; Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21, cited in Jesus came to save sinners, not the righteous at page 17 of the J&M Book) On blood sacrifice as a Jewish ritual for atonement of sin, see Leviticus 17:11, and those Jewish sacrificial rituals at pages 603-651 in the Appendices of the J&M Book.
On Christian beliefs that distort the teachings of Jesus, see Robin R. Meyers, Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus, Harper One, 2009.
On the lack of Biblical evidence that God condemns unbelievers to eternal damnation in hell, see Robert H. Bell, Jr., Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Has Ever Lived, Harper One, 2011.
You know that I'm also skeptical toward those who emphasize visible witness over quiet acts of mercy (because the visible witness can be a means of self-promotion at least as much as gospel-promotion). But you may want to rethink some of what you say in the third paragraph. Jesus may not have wanted to convince people to become Jews (though James seems to have wanted to), but he does commission his followers to baptize. As for one way of salvation, there's "No one comes to the Father except through me" and other pretty clear exclusivist teachings.
ReplyDeleteWhy would it be "only natural" for Paul to think of the crucifixion in blood-sacrifice terms, but not Jesus? They're both Jews of the same era. Matt. 26:28 sounds like an acknowledgement of blood sacrifice, doesn't it? John the Baptist (Jn 1:29) also seems to be thinking of Jesus in terms of blood sacrifice.