I Appreciate the Thought....But Is it Too Far?

[cpizzle]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10218098459513880&set=a.10203459381186071&type=3&eid=ARCFL6Y7yMri2sgq1dUenTnJxnvDkTFmiuSRbo1NDBwJmAsNCo6Kj_yY29xXJoy3IQN-rkG96SxUdSbO&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARCOSiti3fyvqTlv_CVxQhVNuBsAhfymiREsoWiXr3588-bzufThMdp5Q9t7sisUhBjF0lYRKxuyOaxmazsQMaGRqlpJTE8rE5reBcNWjxEt9SAHvkK-K61rrFlJishPbJJ8kLGjfac-K2rKmjKvEpVeVdjMCwrTyxEqkz1T6GKdowS6_QxSzvu1LYLqMyeWlF0kLQ7Teb9V7AICoOd-Dg5MqlYMZeYaNGnXUb4Lb2faepqT0yNnilS46v3yjiVq6oN9wQ3w2KXwoSBlYSiyOoURJWIY40AChc6Nuw&__tn__=EHH-R

From a fellow HAC Alumni in Crown Point, IN:
"My heart has been heavy this week hearing about the mosque shootings in New Zealand. Liz and I decided to drive to the nearest mosque to our church and offer our condolences. Imam Mongy El-Quesny warmly welcomed us into his office and we sat down and talked for awhile. Their congregation is devastated about what happened. Not only devastated but scared. Occasionally, they receive death threats on their voicemail. I asked to hear them and the Imam played a few. The callers sounded like old white, racist drunks. They get these calls on rare occasions from time to time. My church has never received a call like that. The Imam gave us a tour of the facility and invited us to a dinner they are having tonight. Unfortunately, we let them know that we had other plans. We exchanged information and took this picture together before we left.
"

I think all Christians should show love and compassion to people of all faiths, but I wouldn't embrace an Islamic Imam in the name of Christ.  I don't know exactly where the balance is between "brotherly love" and "be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers...", but I think this is just too far.

I did tell my church Sunday that I wouldn't give any legitimacy to the Islamic faith, but I will introduce myself as a Baptist Pastor, offer condolences for the recent terrorist attack, and pick up the check for the next Muslim family I see at a restaurant (assuming I can tell their religion through outward dress.)

Your thoughts?

 

[fishinnut]

With over 450 muslim terror attacks so far in 2019, my question to that person who posted that would be, Have you visited local churches affiliated those who were killed for their faith in those attacks on Christians also?

 

[Ransom]

I don't know exactly where the balance is between "brotherly love" and "be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers...", but I think this is just too far.

Well, according to the account he gave, he did the following:

• visited a mosque
• met with the imam
• offered condolences because of the recent murders in New Zealand
• listened to some death threats on the mosque's voicemail
• toured the facility
• politely declined a dinner invitation
• took a photo together

Which one of those amounts to being "unequally yoked"? To me it looks more like somewhere between good neighbourliness and professional courtesy.

He didn't enter into any sort of partnership or political alliance with the imam that could reasonably be termed "yoking," which implies some level of permanence (which is why we typically apply that verse to legally binding agreements such as marriages or business parnerships). I see no evidence, either, of "embracing" the imam (literally or figuratively) or validating Islam.

On the contrary, he offered a certain level of respect that was appropriate under the circumstances, and potentially lowered the hostility or tension between two religious communities. We Christians are, after all, called to be peaceful (Rom. 12:18). I don't see anything in his account that goes beyond that.

 

[cpizzle]

I agree with him being a good neighbor.  I certainly believe in easing tensions and "living peaceably with all men."  I am not so sure about "professional courtesy."  I do not believe it is a good idea to put the Church of Jesus Christ on "equal" ground with a Mosque.  The picture of them standing side by side gives too much credibility to a "false gospel."  You are correct that he didn't enter into any agreement with them nor did he embrace their beliefs.  Still, he gave them "credibility" when scripture says not to even wish them "Godspeed."  (2 John 1:10)

I do not judge his motives.  I believe he is sincere and desiring to reach out to those affected by the New Zealand shooting.  Truthfully, I would rather him do what he did than be one of these folks screaming about Sharia Law and the Muslim takeover conspiracy.  However, I think a phone call or a letter expressing condolences might have been more appropriate as opposed to a tour and a photo opp.

 

[Ransom]

I do not believe it is a good idea to put the Church of Jesus Christ on "equal" ground with a Mosque.  The picture of them standing side by side gives too much credibility to a "false gospel."

I think you are reading too much into a photograph. It's a candid shot of a few people who met together. Side by side is how pictures are taken. There's no symbolism to that.

You are correct that he didn't enter into any agreement with them nor did he embrace their beliefs.  Still, he gave them "credibility" when scripture says not to even wish them "Godspeed."  (2 John 1:10)

It's clear enough that the warnings in 2 John are a continuation of the warnings in his first letter about false Christian teachers. Compare 2 John 7 with 1 John 2:18-19:

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. . . . Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.  (2 John 7, 9)

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. . . . No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. (1 John 18-19, 23)

John is warning about teachers who claim to be teaching the truth about Christ, but have not brought the doctrine of the apostles: those who have gone out "from us" but proven they were not part of us. It's not about practitioners of a completely different religion, who were never even ostensibly part of "us." to begin with. (Of course other religions teach false things--they would hardly need to have been warned against that.)