Apologetic Evangelism for Winning Muslims to Christ Steve Morrison www.MuslimHope.com Motivation Approaches to Muslim Evangelism Views and Types of Muslims Inserting apologetics in Gospel presentations The THINK Method of Evangelism 6. A Three-Layer Framework 7. An Agreement-Challenge Framework

1. Motivation Questions a) Why evangelism? b) Why Apologetics? c) How do You tell a good / better approach from a bad or worse one?

2a. Approaches: What precisely are We Sharing? Accept Jesus as their personal Lord & Savior Mohammed’s a false prophet; Qur’an is a lie Accept some Christians and part of Jesus’ words, though maybe not Paul Islam has mistakes, but like Judaism still might have been from God Share some gospel truth: read the Bible, God is our Father, Jesus is Messiah, though not “western” concepts such as Trinity Share all the gospel: authority of the Bible, praising Jesus, atonement, etc.

2b. Reform vs. Rebirth Question: How would a reform evangelism approach differ from a rebirth evangelism approach?

2c. Different Evangelism Approaches Expressing Love Personal Testimony Sharing from God’s Word Breaking Down Strongholds Various Christian Approaches C5 (Contextualization) Challenging Confrontational, Debate, Arguing Insulting, Quarreling

2d. Demolishing Strongholds “Though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God…” 2 Corinthians 10:3-5a.

2e. Confronting Islam “set for the defense of the gospel” (Php 1:17) “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3) “to be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict” (Titus 1:9) Follow the example of Paul and Apollos who “rigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ” (Acts 18:28)

3a. True or False: Views of the Lost __ The lost are merely ill- or uninformed. If they were only informed, then they would see. __ If they do not see, it is only because they have not yet been informed, - in a way they can relate to. __ Sin and depravity are not relevant in evangelism __ Muslim-born believers all come to Christ basically the same way __ The Holy Spirit converts, not us, so debating and arguing have no place in evangelism

3b. A Muslim Spectrum Disillusioned and Disappointed Cultural Commitment: Go Red Sox! Folk Islam They Believe What They Never Read Liberal / Modern Muslims redefine Islam Serious / Conservative Muslims Offshoots (Sufis, Isma’ilis, ‘Alawites, etc.) Radical / Salafi / Wahabi Muslims Supports of Radicals (includes many liberals!)

4. Inserting Apologetics as Needed Apologetics is not sowing the seed of the gospel, only rotatilling the ground Some non-Christians do not need to hear apologetics Share apologetics only where and when needed You wait for the objection before answering it. - They might be unaware of the objection.

5. The THINK Method Trust in the Holy Spirit Hear the discrepancies & contradictions Illuminate discrepancies by asking questions Navigate around barriers Keep the door open for sharing the Gospel

6. A Three-Layer Framework Some Christians just give up if they are not open Parable of the Four Soils Some Muslims might be good soil, just covered by three layers of concrete 1. Faith in Islam 2. Skepticism of Christianity 3. The Last Barrier…

7. An Agreement-Challenge Framework 1. What You Both Agree is Wrong 2. Why is It Wrong? 3. How Could Allah Let That Occur? 4. What Would You Tell someone who was in that Group? 5. If we are going to be objective, how can we (Muslims and Christians) know if we are in the wrong or not?

Conclusions On Apologetic Evangelism There are different approaches Some are bad, but there are multiple good ones Jesus and Paul were not limited to just using one approach; neither are we Choose your approach wisely; be true to Scripture, and based on the need of the hearers