It’s a common thing: When a Christian and a Muslim interact, they tend to talk past one another. We think we’re speaking the same language, but our worldviews are just different enough that we can say words like “God,” “sin,” “prayer,” and “Jesus” to our cousins, but they will understand something completely different. I’m going to cover several key parallels between Islam and Christianity, pointing out which aspects of our faith can be used to bridge the gap between us, and which aspects of our faith might cause our Muslim friends to reject our message entirely.

The first aspect to cover is the all-important basics of the Gospel. For Western Christians, this is very simple; probably something that we’ve understood for quite a long time. But most of our basic Gospel presentation goes right past a Muslim.

Our basic Gospel presentation has two key points: (1) We are separated from God because of our sin, but (2) Jesus provides us a way to restore unity with God by offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

Point 1: Every person on this earth is born spiritually separated from God because of our sin. This is a problem, yes? It needs to be fixed.

This is where you will find the first big difference between the Christian and the Muslim. To a Muslim, Allah is utterly transcendent, meaning that he is neither active in the world nor does he care what we do. He is completely unknowable by humans. He is also unaffected by our sins.

In addition, we talk past Muslims when we use the word “sin.” To us, “sin” is falling short of God’s plan for us by choosing our own way over His.

To a Muslim, the classes of sin include inadvertent slips (zallât), lapses (hafwât), offenses (dhunûb), and transgressions (’âthâm/ ‘ithm). All people (except Jesus and perhaps some prophets) commit offenses (dhunûb), but if they repent they are forgiven. They are punished for unforgiven offenses by spending time in hell. Not all people, however, commit transgressions (’ithm), and it is only this (’ithm) that permanently disqualifies a person from paradise, and then only if God chooses not to forgive it. You see, our actions on Earth do not necessarily affect our final destiny.

You may have heard the term “felt need” floating around in missiological circles. This refers to the idea of approaching someone with the Gospel by addressing their most pressing need. To us in Western culture, we are generally seeking communion with God. We feel that we need to be closer to God, so presenting the idea of repairing our relationship with God is a good way to start out a Gospel presentation to a Western person. To a Muslim, this need is a completely moot point. If you are trying to present the Gospel to a Muslim, you can’t start trying to meet a need they don’t feel.

Do you see the brilliance of this? Satan knew what he was doing. The way we know to present the Gospel is rendered impotent by this basic set of views. To a Muslim, not only do our actions not affect God, but there is nothing wrong with the fact that we are separated from God. That is normal and does not need to be fixed.

That renders the first half of our Gospel presentation rather pointless to a Muslim.

The second part of our Gospel presentation usually is as follows:

• Since we are unable to restore our relationship with God by ourselves, God the Son (Jesus)
• came to earth,
• lived a perfect life,
• and died as a sacrifice for our sins.
• If we
• repent of our former way of life,
• ask Him to forgive our sins,
• and accept His lordship over our life,
• We are guaranteed life eternal in perfect communion with God and fellow saints.

So far, we’ve found that much of that definition is unimportant to a Muslim. Muslims believe that our relationship with Allah is supposed to be distant, so it doesn’t matter that we’re unable to restore that relationship. There’s nothing that needs to be fixed. The last clause of that sentence is also useless; our sins don’t necessarily prevent us from getting into Heaven. And those bits about repenting and needing forgiveness for sin in the next sentence? Again, Muslims don’t believe that we need forgiveness.

That leaves three parts of this half of the Gospel message that could possibly be used to bridge the Gospel message: Jesus came to earth, died for us, and we will spend eternity in perfect communion with God.

Briefly, none of these points are relevant to a Muslim. They do believe that Jesus, or Isa, was a prophet. He and he alone was called the Messiah, but Muslims believe that the meaning of this title is uncertain. One huge barrier between Islam and Christianity is that Muslims believe Jesus was in no way divine.

Muslims also feel that, since Jesus was a prophet sent from Allah, Allah would not have allowed him to be treated so shamefully as to be sent to die on a cross. They believe that Jesus neither died, nor was he resurrected from the dead.

Finally, to complete the weakening of the Gospel message, Muslims believe that man is not capable of communion with God, nor is that even desirable. The appeal of paradise is the pleasures of food and sex. Muslims also believe that there is no moral perfection in paradise; there is no transformation of their natural being to become perfected.

Wow. We have just seen how our traditional Gospel presentation has all the wind taken out of its sails by the Muslim worldview. At this point, nothing in our Gospel presentation meets a need that Muslims feel.

So where do we go from here? How can we express the Gospel to our Muslim friends without alienating them from the message?

• Guide them into the larger Word of the Bible, and be prepared to make the case for the inspiration and undefiled authority of the Old and New Testaments. Do not, however, disrespect the Quran as the historical expression of the experience and faith of Muhammad. It itself points to the fact that Jesus is the revelation of God. Guide your friends into the Word: the Word incarnate.
• Confess the oneness of God, but realize that this does not mean God is simple or singular; rather, He is complex and infinite.
• Begin with the Old Testament descriptions of God and the prophecies of a Messiah, working your way from what a Muslim already believes (the OT) to what he does not yet understand
• Define the Messiah to your friend; the Quran uses the term without defining it. Show them the promise of a Messiah in the OT and what he was to do.
• Finally, introduce them to the Christian idea of humans. Instead of being created as weak and imperfect, show that in God’s eyes, we were created higher and fell further than the Muslim believes. Use the Torah to show this; how humans initially had close contact with God, but when they sinned, it was only through an elaborate series of rituals that they could come back to Him – and that only once every year. This is the starting place to realizing that our current state is not right and that it needs a solution. Only once the problem has been established can the solution of Jesus Christ be applied to our situation. In other words, remember that until people feel the need for salvation, Jesus’ work is completely impotent.

There are two points you should also remember in your witness to a Muslim:

• The five pillars of Islam are: Confession of faith, ritual prayer, almsgiving, fasting, and pilgrimage. Show these in your own life. Muslims will judge you by the way they judge themselves; that is, by your outward actions. Our Lord commanded us to give, fast, and pray, so it shouldn’t be difficult for us to show our Muslim friends that we are good religious people. If we neglect the outward expression of our faith, the Muslims with whom we are sharing the gospel may reject us for being hypocritical.
• Conversion is a process, not an instant reaction. Paul himself said, “Some plant and some water, but God gives the increase.” (1 Corinthians 3:6). It will take time, friendship, love, and prayer to win a Muslim to faith in Jesus Christ.

Some of the resources for this article are the following publications:

Muslim Worldviews and the Bible: Bridges and Barriers Part 1: God and Mankind (PDF)

Muslim Worldviews and the Bible: Bridges and Barriers Part 2: Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the age to come (PDF)

Muslim Worldviews and the Bible: Bridges and Barriers Part 3: Women, purity, worship, and ethics (PDF)

Contextualization Among Muslims: Reusing Common Pillars, J. Dudley Woodberry (PDF)

Christian Witness to our Muslim Friends, Lyle VanderWerff (PDF)