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Instruction, inspiration, and resources to help you understand and apply the Bible in your life.

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Islam and Christianity are VERY different and it is not loving to think otherwise

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If a child is balanced on a cliff and about to fall off, it is not loving to allow them to play there because you don’t want to be a disagreeable parent. You don’t have to yell and smack the child to get her to turn away, in love you can gently take her by the hand and lead her to safety.

In the same way, as we consider the Muslim religion and pray for our friends during month of Ramadan and always, we must in love and kindness clarify that the Christian faith and the Muslim faith are very different.

The primary difference is on both religion’s view of Jesus. To understand this, our lesson this last week in the Live Life by the Book class clarified the Muslim and the Christian beliefs of both Abraham and Jesus. Below are the handouts from the class both in note form and the full-size slides.

Lesson on the “Great Apostasy” history of and response to the Mormon claim that all other churches are corrupt

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Lesson from Life Life by the Book Class 1-29-2012

Though we’ve done some preliminary teaching about the Mormon church, with the new year we are starting the series, What is the Mormon Church……really? There is a tremendous amount of media about the church, most of it incomplete and misleading.

Our goal is to present, in a respectful way, the history of the church and what its true beliefs are.  There is NO political agenda with this teaching, but a recognition that the topic gives us many opportunities to engage with our OIKOS (the people we interact with and influence, a very important concept at our church) in conversations. Particularly for those who do not go to church or know Jesus, this can give us an opportunity to present the real Jesus.

To understand anything you need to know its history.

To begin our study, we need to look at how the Mormon Church started and the assumptions upon which it is based. One of the most important of these is the concept of the Great Apostasy. In brief, this is the foundational idea in the Mormon Church that true Christianity ceased to be practiced on earth from the days of the last apostle until it was restored by Joseph Smith. The Christian Church (in all its denominations and branches, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant) categorically disagrees with that statement. This lesson shows you why, both historically and from a Biblical basis. Below the video are PDFs (just click on the image and it will download to your computer) of both the notes and a full-size version of the PowerPoint slides used in the class (this makes the quotes easier to see).

Following is a pre-recorded video presentation of the PowerPoint lesson(not during the class, too many side comments, etc.).

Great Apostasy handouts

Who is Jesus Really????

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Is He simply a sentimental Reason for the Season? Is he a good prophet who showed us how to live, but who had Judas die in his place? Is he the spirit brother of Satan? Or is He the eternal, Son of God, who died on the cross and rose again for our redemption?

Each of these views are held by various groups: Mormon, Islam, Christianity and the world in general today. In our Live Life by the Book Class, we are going to take the next three weeks to look at Jesus. Ultimately He is the one who makes the difference between all the religions and as we look forward to His birth, we’ll study in detail His uniqueness and the Biblical and Historical foundation for it.

Last week we set the foundation for our study by looking at “What is Truth?” and this week we’ll begin looking in more detail at the acronym “DOCTRINE,” which covers the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. In this, the first letter, “D” stands for the deity of Christ. This is foundational to everything else and does work out well as a study for the weeks before Christmas.

Join us, Sunday, Dec. 4th as we start this exciting series.

Resources to help you understand and witness to Muslims

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Islam website links
Click on the image to downlad a PDF of the links. You can email the PDF to friends. If you click on the links on the PDF they will take you directly to the sources.

Following are resources for you to use to explore the Muslim faith. We must love our Muslim brothers and sisters, but we must never assume that they know Jesus as Savior and we need to study to be sure we can answer their questions with gentleness and respect. These resources will help you.

If you click on the image to the left, you can download a PDF of the links below.

EXCELLENT, easy-to-read overview of Islam and Christianity, witnessing to Muslims and links to lots of excellent resources

http://www.christiananswers.net/evangelism/beliefs/islam.html

This website has a series of articles, links and resources all written in a way that does not assume you have any prior understanding or background. A good starting point for understanding. Really essential reading for a Christian overview of one of the fastest growing faiths in our world. We must love our Muslim brothers and sisters, but we must never assume that they know Jesus as Savior. Continue Reading

Islam and Christianity are VERY different and it is not loving to think otherwise

by

If a child is balanced on a cliff and about to fall off, it is not loving to allow them to play there because you don’t want to be a disagreeable parent. You don’t have to yell and smack the child to get her to turn away, in love you can gently take her by the hand and lead her to safety.

In the same way, as we consider the Muslim religion and pray for our friends during month of Ramadan and always, we must in love and kindness clarify that the Christian faith and the Muslim faith are very different.

The primary difference is on both religion’s view of Jesus. To understand this, our lesson this last week in the Live Life by the Book class clarified the Muslim and the Christian beliefs of both Abraham and Jesus. Below are the handouts from the class both in note form and the full-size slides.

Not everyone gets to heaven, a gentle explanation of why

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We are told and often falsely believe that it isn’t kind or loving to think that God will send some people to hell. In the brief video below Rick McKinley, lead pastor of Imago Dei Community in Portland, Oregon, offers a biblical perspective on the flaws of universalism.

Universalism from :redux on Vimeo.

“The disciples saw a Jesus that was radically untamed, very offensive and they gave their lives for him. And today we’re afraid of that Jesus. We’re trying to polish off the sharp edges and make him cuddly and cute and the big teddy bear for the world. I think at that point you’ve lost the gospel.” Rick McKinley