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105 - OMISSION EXAMPLE 1: Application of these findings in ministry
a) In answering Muslim missionaries, who try to win you over to Islam, you can ask them: “Why should I believe the Koran, if the most characteristic and frequent Name of God, 'Yahweh', is missing in this respected book of Muslims?”
b) In sharing the Bible with Muslim seekers, you can highlight the meaning of God's true name “Yahweh” as describing his truthfulness and faithfulness and then invite the Muslim seeker to trust this truthful and faithful God, by accepting Christ as savior.
c) In follow-up among new believers from a Muslim background you can encourage them to note promises of God in the Bible and to trust these promises, because the One, who promised, is truthful in his promise and faithful to keep it. For example, if the new believer has doubts about his or her salvation, then you can take this promise of Christ “whoever believes in him (the only Son of God) shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16) and expound it on the background of the truthfulness and faithfulness of Yahweh.
d) In discipling committed Christians, you can collect promises of God in the Bible and help the disciple of Christ to claim them and see how this works out. For example, this promise: “Whoever abides in me and I in him, is the one who bears much fruit.” (John 15:5) Help the growing disciple to practically find out, how he can remain in Christ and Christ in him (by reading the Bible and prayer) and then find out, how the fruits of the Spirit start growing in him (love, joy, peace, patience, etc. Galatians 5:22).
e) In the task of preaching and teaching the Bible in a church of new believers coming from Islam, you can trace the truthfulness of God and his faithfulness in the lives of individuals such as Abraham (God had promised him a son from his wife Sarah and after a long time of waiting fulfilled his promise miraculously), or in the history of God's dealings with his people (God through his prophets promised the Sons of Jacob that they will be attacked and conquered, because they worshiped idols; and this actually came to pass both for the northern kingdom and for the southern kingdom).
f) And finally, in warning Christians, who have little exposure to Islam, you can show them the differences noted above between "Yahweh" and "Allah" to help them not to open up to Islam, if Muslim missionaries try to win them over to Islam. Also, you should help them not to succumb to the Western dream of uniting Christianity and Islam in a kind of Chrislam, because there are different spirits at work in the Bible and the Koran.