Witnessing to Muslims, Part 3 - The Attributes of God

Welcome back to Witnessing to Muslims, Part 3, where in this lesson we are going to address the issue of the attributes of God.

This is probably the core issue, the most important issue that I focus on when

I speak to a Muslim. I will try to make sure that if any point is understood, it's this point.

This is the one thing I want to make clear to them, the attributes of God and the difference between Christianity and Islam on this issue.

What we are going to show is that there are two attributes of God in Islam that cannot be reconciled within Islam, but can be very nicely reconciled within Christianity.

The two attributes are God's justice and His mercy. Now if you ever speak to a

Muslim and he refers to Allah, you'll hear him say, Allah the most merciful. If you were to ask a

Muslim, what is he trusting in to get to paradise or heaven, he'll say that he is hoping that he's clinging to the fact that he's hoping that his good work will weigh heavy on the scales of justice with Allah.

This becomes an essential thing, his mercy and his justice. We want to take a look at those two.

Those two issues are going to be the central point. Now before I get into a discussion with a

Muslim on the issue of these attributes,

I first want to get some ground work laid. The way

I do that is with an illustration. This illustration becomes important. It becomes important because later in the discussion

I'm going to use the conclusion of the illustration, but I want to get some commitment from them up front.

So before I get into it, I usually use this illustration, and you can use this or any other that works well for you, but I want an illustration that shows justice and mercy against each other in a human sense, so that I can get a commitment from them.

This is how a conversation would typically go. I would start a conversation with a Muslim before I get into discussing the attributes of God.

I'll say, let me illustrate something to you, and I want to get your opinion on it. Let it say,

God forbid, that somebody broke into your home, murdered your family, stole all your property, and he did this not only to you, but to many others, and he did it so that he can pay his way through medical school, because he wants to provide free health care to the poor.

Now he feels very bad about what he's done to your family and many others, but he saw no other way to pay his way through medical school, so that he could do this good work of this good thing of providing free health care to the poor.

How would you feel about that? Now the most Muslims will tell me that they think it's wrong. I would agree.

But let me ask you this, if you were to stand in the courtroom and there was a judge who this man was caught 20 years later, and he has given free health care to thousands and thousands of people, and he stands before the judge and says, your honor,

I really meant it for good. I had good intentions in my heart. I felt very, very bad about what

I did, and look at all of the people that I helped. I really had some good intention, and good intent, and good works that came from it.

Would you feel the judge would be just if he was to let that man off?

I really have never seen a response other than someone saying, the judge must punish that man.

He wouldn't be just otherwise, and I'll ask, but should he be merciful?

Would it be okay for him to have mercy and let that man off? And I'll often have a response, the judge wouldn't be just if he did that.

That's the commitment I'm looking for. That's what I want to get. I want to get them to see that the judge, if he's going to be just, cannot mercifully let the criminal go.

Now I will take that either immediately or later in the conversation, I'll take that commitment and use it, and say, in Islam, we see that God is most merciful, and that you'll trust in your good outweighing your bad.

In Islam, the teaching is that one good work counts for ten evil works.

And so they believe if they do enough good, it'll outweigh. There is no forgiveness within Islam, and this is important to understand, because this is what causes a spiral for Muslims.

They do something wrong, they feel guilty about it, they throw themselves further into good works, into their religion, to make up for the bad they did, but there's no way to do that.

And so they end up having more guilt, which causes them to throw themselves more into their religion, causing more guilt, and it becomes a spiral.

Where we see a difference in Christianity, see in Islam you have he's merciful, but he's not just.

They do not have a just God, they have a merciful God. Christianity is different.

In Christianity, it is because of God's mercy that he himself came to earth, died on a cross, and made the payment for our sin.

That's why when Jesus Christ paid for our sin on that cross, we can have eternal life.

His mercy in coming to earth satisfies his justice for a payment of sin.

By paying for that sin, on that cross, the penalty was paid.

It's just that we didn't pay it. God paid it for us. That's how merciful he is.

He's so merciful that he paid the fine for us so that his justice would be appeased.

And it could properly be said in Psalm 711 that God is a just judge and is angry with the wicked every day.

His justice is appeased by his own act of righteousness, of dying on that cross in our place, making a way for us to have eternal life.

That reconciles God's justice and his mercy together. Islam doesn't have that.

They have no way of reconciling those two attributes of God. They have a merciful

God at the sake of his justice. That becomes important because when they look at the two attributes, his justice and his mercy, if God is going to allow rapists and murderers and blasphemers in heaven, then he's not just, he's merciful at the sake of his justice.

So, it becomes an essential point to focus on with a Muslim because that's where that reconciliation needs to be if they're going to understand forgiveness of sin.

They do not comprehend how, first off, how God could become a man.

That's fine. I don't comprehend that either. But they do not understand how a God, or even a prophet of God, can die, which

I don't quite understand because the Old Testament is filled with prophets who were murdered. But they don't understand

Jesus Christ dying on a cross. The reconciliation of that helps them to comprehend that in Christianity there's a reconciling of justice and mercy.

Islam doesn't offer it. So let's review. Use an illustration that shows a human sense of justice and mercy pitted against each other.

Get the commitment that a just judge must punish criminals. Once you have that, use that to show how

Allah, or God, cannot be merciful at the sake of His justice, but that Christianity offers the reconciliation of those two attributes.

Now go out and strive to make today an eternal day for the glory of God.