Scriptural Backing for the Insider Movement lacks weight

In yesterday’s blog we dealt with the favorite passage that Insiders Use to justify their methods, I Cor 9:20-22.

Another passage that is used is I Cor 7:20

1Co 7:20 Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.

If this verse could stand alone and without context it might land a good argument.  However, how does that work with someone shackled in drugs or drunkenness.  Should they still remain a pot head or a drunk?  Should an adulterer remain in his / her adultery?

I Corinthians 7:20 does have a context and it is bad hermeneutics to lift the text out of its context and build a principle upon it.  The context is dealing with remaining married or remaining single.  Paul is addressing persons who are married to unsaved spouses.  The question was raised if they should divorce their unsaved spouse.  Paul said, remain married.  Also, there were some people divorced and were now single, Paul says, remain single.  Vs. 20 is dealing with marriage and singleness, not our former life before we get saved.

To Conclude:

It pains me to criticize other Christian groups who are putting forth and effort to reach Muslims for Christ.  There are so few doing it.  Less than 1% of the missionary force is targeting Muslims.

Taking short cuts never helps God.  Abraham and Sarah thought they would take a short cut and bring a child into the family through Hagar.  It was one of the biggest mistakes in the history of the world.

Build a bridge to Muslims, yes, but don’t stay there in Islam.  Rescue the Muslim out of Islam and bring them safely to the shores of Biblical Christianity.

The C5 and C6 methods which describe the Insider movement are the propagators of the doctrine of Chrislam.  

It encourages missionaries to attend the Mosque, pray as Muslims and some even repeat the Shahada (The Muslim Creed – “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.”)   Either they are pretending to mean it to pass a Muslim or they really do believe that Muhammad is a prophet of God and that Allah is the same as Jehovah.

The C5 and C6 converts do not call themselves Christians and most probably will never be baptized.

I have real problems with C5 and C6 methods and not comfortable with C4.  The category that best fits me would be C3 although I don’t have a problem with C2 and there may be a call for C1 methods if you are reaching ex-patriots in foreign countries and reaching out to Muslims there.

C4 – C6 is blending the tenants of Christianity to the tenants of Islam, which has spawned  the hybrid religion of ‘Chrislam’.  It suggest that there is truth in the Qur’an and truth in the Bible.  The prophet Muhammad is as much a prophet as Moses.

Missionaries should adopt the foreign cultural ways into their approach and communication, but they should not adulterate and change the message of the gospel.  It is one thing to adopt the foreign culture to communicate effectively the Biblical message.  However, it is deceptive to make the Bible message and Christianity look and taste like Islam when it is not.  Many who have converted truly from Islam are horrified with these messages and want nothing to do with them.

Many in America are trying to use this mentality to reach the drug culture, the Gay culture of America.  I have even heard some acting like prostitutes to reach prostitutes.    This is perverted understanding of what Paul said in I Cor 9:22.

1Co 9:20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;    21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.    22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

Paul did not become a Jew to reach Jews.  He said ‘as a Jew’ or ‘like’ a Jew.   The point is, you don’t become a druggie to reach a drub addict.  Likewise, you don’t become a Muslim to reach Muslims.  You should honor their customs and work remove offense in your mannerisms but remain faithful to your Christian identity.

More on this tomorrow .

Insiders mean well but are responsible for developing Chrislam

There is a spectrum that we academics and missionaries use to identify the methods used in establishing churches in Muslim countries.  It is known as the C1 to C6 spectrum.  A C1 church will look and feel like an American Church in say, Indonesia; while a C6 church will look a lot like a Muslim Mosque and the believers would not call themselves Christians but followers is Isa.    The Insider Movement strives for Muslims to accept Jesus as their savior but does wish for them leave their Mosque.

The C1 to C6 spectrum was devised by John Travis (pseudonym) and was published in an article in the Evangelical Missions Quarterly on Oct. 1998.  It was entitled, The Last Great Frontier.

John Travis describes this spectrum as follows:

The C1 – C6 Spectrum compares and contrasts types of “Christ-centered communities” (groups of believers in Christ) found in the Muslim world. The six types in the spectrum are differentiated by language, culture, worship forms, degree of freedom to worship with others, and religious identity. All worship Jesus as Lord and core elements of the gospel are the same from group to group. The spectrum attempts to address the enormous diversity which exists throughout the Muslim world in terms of ethnicity, history, traditions, language, culture, and, in some cases, theology. This diversity means that myriad approaches are needed to successfully share the gospel and plant Christ-centered communities among the world’s one billion followers of Islam. The purpose of the spectrum is to assist church planters and Muslim background believers to ascertain which type of Christ-centered communities may draw the most people from the target group to Christ and best fit in a given context. All of these six types are presently found in some part of the Muslim world.

A brief summary of each Christ-centered community described in the spectrum

 C1  Missionaries establish a church that is basically identical to wherever they are from. Services are conducted in the language of the missionaries. They call themselves “Christians” and have very little cultural connection to the region where they plant the church.

C2  The same as C1, except the services are conducted in the language of the region.

C3  They have incorporated many non-religious cultural forms of the region into their community, such as dress, art, etc. They still reject any purely Islamic religious elements. They may meet in a traditional church building or in a more religiously neutral location. They call themselves “Christians” but try to have a more contextualized presence in the region.

C4  They are similar to C3, but they incorporate some Islamic religious elements into their community – like avoiding pork, praying in a more Islamic style, using Islamic dress and employing Islamic terminology. They call themselves “Followers of Isa” or something similar. Their meetings are usually not held in traditional church buildings. They are not considered to be Muslims by the Muslim community.

C5  They retain their legal and social identity within their Muslim community. They reject or reinterpret any part of Islamic practices and doctrine that contradict the Bible. They may or may not attend the mosque regularly, and they actively are involved in sharing their faith in Jesus with other Muslims. They may call themselves Muslims who follow Isa al-Masih, or just Muslims. They may be viewed by their community as Muslims that are a little unorthodox.

C6  They keep their faith secret because of an extreme threat of persecution, suffering or legal retaliation. They may worship secretly in small groups. They do not normally share their faith openly and have a 100% Muslim identity.

CASE STUDY OF C5

(Source:  Muslim Evangelism – By Phil Parshal – pg 69-70)

Case study of CD began in 1995 with 72 believers of influence from 68 congregations in 66 villages.

Estimates of 100,000 MBB’s  (Muslim Background Believers) reached with C5 methods.

The Up side –

• 76% meet once a week in Christian worship
• 16% meet more than once a week
• 66% read or listened to the gospels daily
• 21% read or listened to the gospels once a week
• 55% say God is father son and Holy Spirit
• 97% say Jesus is their Savior
• 100%  pray to Jesus for the forgiveness of sin
• 97% say they are not saved because of Muhammad’s prayers
• 100%  feel peace and close to God reading the Gospels.

 The Down side -

• 50% go to traditional Mosque on Friday
• 31% go to the Mosque more than once a day
• 96% say there are four heavenly books – Torah – Zabur – Injil –Qur’an
• 66% say the Qur’an is the greatest of the four books
• 45% did not affirm God as the Fahter, Son and Holy Spirit
• 45% feel peace or close to Allah when listening to the reading of the Qur’an.

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A Lesson in Cross Cultural Communication

I am introducing this segment by using a story written by a High School student who is a missionary kid in Manila.  She describes well in this fiction how Muslims see Christianity for the first time.

She points the following issues that Muslim face with Christianity:

• The Cross – A symbol of hate and destruction as seen by Muslims because of the stories of the Crusades.
• Wearing Shoes into Church – The worship house is to be holy – God told Moses to take off his shoes when standing on holy ground.
• Chairs -  Muslims sit on the floor in the Mosque.
• Segregation of women from men.
• A Picture or Image of a prophet – This is considered Idolatry.  There are no pictures of Muhammad in a Muslim home.
• No place to wash before prayers (Ablutions)
• The treatment of the Bible – Seen as sacrilegious to allow a Bible to touched by dirty hands or placed on the floor.
• Pork -  A forbidden, unclean animal.
• Immodesty -  To show bare arms, or cleavage
• Signing Hymns – Muslims will chant their songs but do not sing them.
• Praying with the head uncovered.
• Praying while seated and not prostrated on the floor.
• Offering — Passing the plate is seen as begging.
• Calling Jesus the Son of God – This implies that God had sexual relations with Mary to have a son.

With these cultural hangups, Christian missionaries wish to remove the objects that offends Muslims so that they can communicate the Gospel.

These issues need to be wrestled with by missionaries and evangelist to Muslims but it has led to a sinister movement that is called the insider movement which I believe is responsible for the development of Chrislam.

More on this on Tuesday.