what are the advantages of church planting movements over against ...

St Francis Magazine Vol 6, No 6 | December 2010
Stringer comments: “Islam is defined by its own holy books, shari’a
and theologians, and does not accept a Muslim who believes in
the Trinity, in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, in the cross and resurrection
of Jesus Christ.” 83 The Bible, however, insists these beliefs
are necessary for salvation. 84
The mosque is no mere social structure; 85 it is, Parshall warns,
“pregnant with Islamic theology. There, Muhammad is affirmed as a
prophet of God and the divinity of Christ is consistently denied.” 86
Moreover, the ritualistic “salat” prayers performed within, which are
“as sacramental to Muslims as is partaking of the Lord’s supper for
Christians,” 87 were originally devised by Muhammad as an explicit
anti-Trinitarian rejection of Christian worship. 88 Clearly, then, Islam
is a false religion.
4.4 What power does Islam have?
Idolatrous religions have spiritual power to provoke the wrath of God
and imprison their adherents under demonic dominion. Islam demonstrates
this spiritual power in several ways.
First, and most obviously, Islam blinds Muslims to gospel. 89 Second,
Islam inhibits Christian discipleship. Parshall reports a survey
of MBBs: 90 after 12 years in an IM, 66% of leaders still believed the
Qur’an to be a superior revelation to the Bible, and 45% did “not af-
83 John Stringer, “Of Straw Men and Stereotypes: Reacting to Rick Wood of Mission
Frontiers,” SFM 6:2 (2010), p. 590.
84 Cf. John 3:16; Romans 10:9.
85 Bill Nikides, ‘A Response to Kevin Higgins’, in SFM 5:4 (2009), p. 94.
86 Phil Parshall, ‘Danger! New Directions in Contextualization’, EMQ 34:4 (1998),
p. 409.
87 Ibid.
88 Warren C. Chastain, ‘Should Christians Pray the Muslim Salat?’, in IJFM 12:3
(1995), pp. 161-164.
89 Jay Smith, ‘An Assessment of the Insider Principle Paradigms’, in SFM 5:4
(2009), pp. 37-38.
90 MBB is shorthand for Muslim Background Believer.
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