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A Holy Conversation: Should Christians Seek to Bless Their Muslim Neighbors?

A Holy Conversation: Should Christians Seek to Bless Their Muslim Neighbors?

How Christian-Muslim dialogue in Richmond is bearing fruit amid rancorous national debates.

On a Friday night in January, we lingered in the home of Sheikh Khaled. The sheikh is a professor in Muscat, Oman, where for two weeks I was studying Christian-Muslim relations. In the sheikh's majlis ("sitting room"), we were treated to a sublime meal—including ...

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Brent Vermillion

May 09, 2012  1:57am

First, the sons of ishmael would only include a percentage of today's Muslims in a small portion of the middle east. Many middle eastern peoples are not blood descendants of Ishmael. Certain, Indonesian and Pakistani Muslims have no blood relation to Ishmael. Second, we should win friends but we also need to dialogue to win. I mean, win people's minds and hearts to Christ through dialogue and Gospel proclamation. We cannot accept the Coran as equal to the Bible for example nor can we lightly gloss over very strong differences. Further, this will not always be peaceful especially when dealing with many less- moderate muslims who literally hate Christians and Jews. Christians homes and churches are being burned daily by Muslims in Nigeria, Pakistan, etc... We cannot pretend this is not happening. We cannot pretend that biblical principles teach that Mohamad a false prophet and that the Bible does not teach that the coran is false. The coran teaches the bible is erroneous... Real problems

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Steve Skeete

May 08, 2012  10:47pm

I firmly believe that the gospel calls us to win friends and not arguments. Therefore, respectful,knowledgeable dialogue is always helpful. Someone said that,'a friend is someone who knows the worst of you and loves you anyhow'. Believers in Christ must put aside all that is negative about Islam and love its adherents if the Muslim world is to impacted by the gospel. People deeply immersed in their faith are always hard to reach with the gospel. Love is the only way to bring them to the surface. This, and being able to disagree without being disagreeable. Christian presented with the opportunity should befriend Muslims, with the intention of bringing them to Christ, yes! But also with the desire to learn about them while at the same time graciously exposing them to what it means to be a follower of Christ.

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Duane D Watts

May 08, 2012  10:31pm

So the author never did talk about "Trinitarian Theology" with her friend. It was too close to sounding like "global jihad" eh? (The author did address them in the same tone) "So, for instance, in our series on personhood and marriage, Ephesians—containing the central Christian inspiration for self-giving marital love: the cross of Jesus—could not be avoided. The text itself placed the gospel conversation on the table." So when cultivating a relationship with people of another faith, we should only talk about the Christ, about a Triune eternally relational God who became one of us (incarnate) to establish a relationship with us, if we are backed into a corner?

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