“Christians” themselves are the greatest Stumbling Block to Muslims receiving Christ. What would motivate a Muslim to risk his life to become identified with “Christians” in our disobedience to God?
It is a rebuke to us that most Muslims who are converted are due to direct supernatural encounters with Christ via dreams, visions, or angelic visitation. Christ Himself has set aside our testimony because we are carnal. The Lord Jesus has circumvented the testimony of the “church” to testify directly.
A Muslim submits to his god. Foolish “Christians” command their God through the demonic deception of Positive Confession. What kind of God is that who bows to the decrees and commands of a man? To him, Islam is one. Yet “Christians” are scattered into countless denominational divisions. We are carnal [1 Corinthians 3:3].
A Muslim prays intelligibly five times daily: “Show us the straight way.” The “church” in chaotic uproar babbles unintelligibly in “tongues,” never once asking God to show them the straight way. “If the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, will unbelievers not say that you are mad?” -1 Corinthians 14:23. Of course, they will. Our carnality is a Stumbling Block.
The Muslim asks: What kind of useless religion is it that has women as its teachers? We are carnal, for the Bible forbids for “a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man” -1 Timothy 2:11,12.
Ask yourself, what would motivate a Muslim risk his neck to join our mad pursuit of Prosperity, when the Word of God says that those who imagine that godliness is a means of financial gain are “depraved of mind and deprived of the truth” -1 Timothy 6:5? We are carnal.
Why would he wish to join fierce violent men cursing enemies by “hot prayers” when his religion already would encourage him to practice that? And especially why would he join such a “church” when Jesus commands that we “love your enemies, and bless them that curse you” –Matthew 5:44?
The Muslim is concerned about the modest dressing and covering of his women. The casual immodesty of dress and refusal of church women to cover their heads according to the Scriptures is a Stumbling Block to him [1 Peter 3:1-5; 1 Corinthians 11:1-16]. We are carnal.
The Muslim is determined that his children will know their Qur’an, and they are required to spend hours reading, writing, and memorizing their holy book each week. What would motivate him to leave that devotion to join “Christians” who hold the Word of God in such low esteem that they have not even read their entire Bible even once, much less diligently train their children to do so?
If we are attempting to reach the Muslim world, we cannot impart what we do not practice. The “One Another” passages in the New Testament testify against us that we are carnal. Our gatherings do not allow, much less encourage and promote, the participatory mutual exchange of building one another up in love. In a very practical sense, we have cancelled the priesthood of all believers with man-made systems of “leaders,” “moderators,” and “pastors.” But the “church” is not actually practicing what the Word of God commands. “One Another” is not what we do. Our church “worship” services have set aside the Word of the Lord for the sake of our traditions.
Thus we remain carnal, and because of this, the name of God is blasphemed among the nations, and Christ Himself encounters the Muslim world directly apart from our “testimony.”
To the Muslim, his religion encompasses all of life; it dictates his associations, behavior, family affairs, vocational ethics, and personal interactions. A Muslim is intertwined in a community of like-minded believers, and life outside of that tightknit culture is unthinkable.
What would motivate him to abandon his customs, culture, religion, social acceptance, and security to join the “church”? Why would he risk his neck to abandon all to be ushered into an impersonal religious system that offers little in the way of actual acceptance, fellowship, support, biblical answers, and encouragement? Why? In our present state, there are no compelling reasons for him to do so.
The disobedience of Christians to actually practice the “One Another” passages of the NT is the chief Stumbling Block to the Muslim coming to know Christ. Rather than a refuge of loving acceptance, fellowship, community, zeal for truth, devotion to Christ, and answers to life’s questions, he is Stumbled.