"No God But One" - Session 1 Recap and Video of Nabeel's Skype Talk

On Tuesday March 28th, 2017 we met for our first session to study Nabeel's book No God But One. The evening went really well; we had about 20 people in attendance and most everyone participated in discussions. We started off with a brief introduction to gage everyone's interests and then worked through Part 1, Sharia or the Gospel?.

We are using Nabeel's student workbook to guide our study. You can download the workbook here. I will eventually be posting my 'filled out' workbook that we are using for the meetings. But I'll let you know when that will be available.

The class was recorded and the video is available here. A written recap summary of the session is provided below. Oh, and we now have the video recording of the Skype call we did with Nabeel ready for viewing! Check below for that link...

Introduction

Students were asked what interests them about this study and what they're hoping to get out of it. Some wanted to know more about their own faith as a Christian and be better equipped to defend it, some wanted to find out how to better share the gospel with Muslims, and some just wanted to learn more about Islam. Most everyone agreed that their current level of understanding of Islam was generally from the media. So, if nothing else, this study will provide better information about Islam than is presented in the media.

Part 1: Sharia or the Gospel? (Two Different Solutions)

As we moved to the questions in the student workbook we first addressed the need to understand the differences between Islam and Christianity, we started by looking at Sharia and the Gospel.

Interestingly, Islam and Christianity both offer a "way" to solve the human problem. In Islam, sharia literally means "the way". In Christianity, Jesus is the way. Islam says that the human problem is ignorance and the solution is sharia, a law to follow. Christianity diagnoses the world with brokenness and offers God himself (Jesus) as the solution.

Sharia prescribes every aspect of life, from how to enter a room to what to eat. It comes from the Quran and the hadith. The hadith are a collection of accounts of the life of Muhammad. The Muslim story is that mankind has ignored Allah and Muhammad was the last and final prophet to show mankind how to live according to Allah. Muhammad is the perfect exemplar of sharia. Therefore, understanding who Muhammad was and how he lived is tantamount to Islam's solution, sharia.

In Christianity the human problem is sin. Sin isn't just breaking a rule, it is rebelling from God who is the Source of Life. People are broken in a deep sense, rules are not enough to address the problem, and mankind cannot fix its brokenness. There is a deadly consequence to our sin that needs to be justified. But Christianity teaches about a God who is a perfect Father, who loves his children no matter what. And so out of loving mercy Jesus, the second person of the godhead, comes to take mankind's sin. On the cross God's mercy and justice meet. The gospel is the radical solution that teaches us that God gives otherworldly grace, all we have to do is repent of our rebellion, have faith in what he has done, and follow him.

These two solutions are starkly different: individual law-keeping effort to merit Allah's favor or grace-based forgiveness initiated by a loving God.

Conclusion and Next Time

Much more was discussed so check out the video (or at least audio) of the entire session. But we will pick up with "Part 2: Tawhid or Trinity" and more next time.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday April 4, 2017, 6:30-8pm in the Fellowship Hall (basement) of Mt. Zion UMC. Hope to see you there!

Video of the Skype Call with Nabeel

Finally, here is the video of the Skype call with Nabeel from March 17, 2017. It is also listed here. Enjoy!