Answers
There are times when you will be asked to give a reason for your faith. And most likely you will answer the way you learned to answer to other Christians. The problem is that the person before you may not have the same theological assumptions that you have and will miss your answer. So, we want to show you why understanding the question is key for offering a contextualized response. I am sharing a real request from an Adventist who has a Muslim friend…
“Today my Muslim friend M had tears in her eyes as she told me how much I mean to her and m that she has to warn me that the Quran says that Allah cannot pardon the sin of shirk, of saying that He has partners with Him as God.
She is sad to imagine me on the day of judgment crying to her from the other side, "Why didn't you show me the truth?" Please pray for us as we share our understanding with each other and seek God and His Truth. Any suggestions?”
So yes, I have a few suggestions but before I share them, let me explain the concern of this Muslim person in the context of the Islamic theology of hell and divine retribution.
For Muslims the greatest sin is the sin called shirk, which is to ascribe partners to God and to pray or worship anyone besides the one God, and they have been told that the Bible teaches shirk. A reassuring verse to them, one that overcomes their fear of the Bible, is Mark 12:29–30. There Jesus gives highest priority to the oneness of God and our duty to give God our sole attention. So it shocks them to read elsewhere in the Bible that God has enthroned the Messiah at his right hand and has given him all authority in heaven as well as on earth and that God calls us to respect Jesus as we respect God (John 5:22–23).
They even read that Jesus accepted worship from his followers (Matt. 28: 9, 17). This is shocking. On the one hand Muslims agree that God can give authority to whomever he wants, but on the other they deny that God would delegate any part of his rule to any supposed offspring or partner. Although they call Jesus “the Messiah” and “God’s Word,” they do not know the meanings of these terms, and of course they are unfamiliar with the self-designation ‘Son of Man’. But a careful study of the relevant Scriptures can demonstrate the meanings of these titles. Our friends can learn that the word ‘Messiah’ describes the holy descendant of David whom God promised to send to rule and save his people forever.
They can discover that the ‘Son of Man’ term is based on the heavenly figure described by Daniel, who looked like a human but moved on the clouds and was enthroned by God as king over all peoples forever (Dan 7:13–14; cf. Matt 26:64; Mark 14:62; Matt 24:30; Mark 13:26; Luke 21: 27; Acts 1:9–11; Rev 1:13; 14:14–16). And they can discover that ‘God’s Word’ refers to God’s own wisdom and power expressed to mankind.
The resolution of the partnership dilemma then comes when they realize that if Jesus is God’s right arm, the incarnation of his Word and Wisdom, then he is part of the one God and not a separate god or partner. Since Jesus is the Word of God incarnate, sent as the Messiah to rule and save mankind, then there is no partnership of distinct gods and hence no sin of shirk.
We were at a church with a group of Afghan men. It was Sunday and the idea was to give them a tour and explain what we do. Well, at some point the leader of the group, a very educated Afghan with impeccable English asked, “Do Adventists worship Jesus?” It was a loaded question and I needed to respond addressing their assumptions of shirk to clarify the matter.
This is what happened:
Bechari: Do Adventists worship Jesus?
Me: Allow me to ask you a question. In Al Baqara 2: 34 Allah commands the angels to bow down to Adam. Was that shirk or not?
After Bechari translated to the group, there was a buzz for over three minutes before the men agreed that “No, if Allah commands it, then it is not shirk.”
Me: Amen brothers. We live in submission to the command of Allah, so if he tells us to worship Jesus, shall we disobey? And even more, let me tell you what the Bible says about who gets the glory.
“At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ” 2 Philippians 2:10
This is important to us who follow Jesus because he taught us this in Mark 12:29-30: “The most important one [of the commandments of God],” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
Bechari: I see now, that you are not in sin.
Bibliography: http://www.ijfm.org/PDFs_IJFM/19_1_PDFs/Explaining%20Diety%20Brown%20Fixed