I was recently asked to video the video below, and to give my thoughts on it. While ideally this could be a multi-part article, I don’t really have the time to do that at the moment, and I see this video at different times. Muslims tend to share it to show how Christians will convert to Islam if they hear the truth.
So, what you will see below is the video, and then my running commentary on it. It’s very free-flowing, so I apologize for the misspellings and/or half thoughts. i will try to go back and clean it up in the future. I just wanted to put it up so I could link to it for the person who asked me about it. I put some “timemarkers” as I went, so you can see where in the video I’m making the comments, or what I’m responding to.
I want to be clear on a few things from the top:
1 – I am not a follower of Islam. I am a follower of Jesus Christ, and I find the best way to submit to Allah/God is through his teachings.
2 – I am not trying to mislead people about what Islam teaches. I am not an expert in Islam, and my comments here are not intended to say “why Islam is bad,” but more “why I think Muslims sometimes misunderstand what Christians believe.”
3 – I do have some reservations about sharing a Muslim video on this site, for obvious reasons, but i also feel that we as Christians are told to go into all the world and share the truth of Jesus, and I think to do that, we have to open to hearing from other points of view as well.
4 – My hope is that this will clear up some confusion between Christians and Muslims, and I believe that most of us are looking for the truth as we pursue God/Allah. I hope this is helpful for those of you who are seeking.
GENERAL NOTES:
This will be become more obvious as the video goes along, but i believe that Brother Evans here was raised in a very fundamentalist Christian home. I want to be clear that this is not the universal Christian approach. His talk of “don’t ask questions,” or “I didn’t hear about this in Church” tells me that he was not taught the full teaching of the Scripture, and did not come across it until later in life.
This is the big motivation for me as a Bible Teacher, and why I do this site and other projects. I understand that people will/can reject the message of Jesus. But i want to make sure they have a clear understanding of what the Bible actually teaches, rather than some version that I feel misrepresents some key teachings, or a version that gets presented to the media.
Fundamentalism is one of these poor versions of Christianity, in my opinion. And I don’t blame Brother Evans for pushing back against it. I wonder what his life would have been like with a more balance and accurate view of Jesus.
ok. Off we go.
First 10 minutes:
Grew up United Methodist – Very conservative
Raised by grandparents
hated growing up in church
liked Sunday school, but not church
Youth minister – basketball/volleyball/pizza
Saying he was “nerdy”, never read bible, wasn’t allowed to do much
(sounds very much like a fundamentalist upbringing, and he’s reacting to that)
I think he’s confusing Conservatism and Christianity – they are not the same thing
I agree with him that people in Junior High/high school start to make their own faith decisions
Friend went to Bob Jones – definitely a “problem spot” for many Christians – does not represent what I believe – serious gender and racial discrimination issues
Friend studied textual criticism – also my master’s work
I think he’s misunderstanding variant texts – he’s right, there may be a lot of variants, but they look like this:
God so Loved the world
God so lved the world
God s loved the world
Those are all different, but If you looked at all three, you would know what the text is.
He’s illustrating a problem with study – a little bit of study might lead people away from truth, but depth brings them back to God.
I agree with him that people in church don’t read the Bible enough. If he hasn’t read the Bible (or know anyone who has), then he has a fairly shallow teaching. I absolutely agree people show read it more.
11:15 – The idea that God can talk to me as well as the preacher is true, but I think we need to keep in mind that God also gave us wise leaders and older believers to learn from, and we would be wise to check our “new knowledge” to see if anyone has also “discovered” it in the past, and how Christians have dealt with those issues.
12:46 (I will also say I agree with him that churches too often “skip” parts of the Bible and just do the famous stories, and often leave out the “rest” of the story in the Bible. I don’t approve of that practice. I believe we should study the entire Bible. So I agree with him here.)
I do disagree with him that you won’t hear that from any pulpit. I myself taught on the “bad” parts of the old testament, including Noah getting drunk. I taught it to middle school and high school students regularly. Again, I think he has experience with one part of Christianity (a part that many Christians disagree with) and assumes that’s what Christians believe/teach. He is wrong in this area.
14:12 – I don’t know that I’d say that Noah was a drunkard, as much as the Bible says he got drunk on one occasion. And the drinking comes “after” the flood, so it wouldn’t have happened while he was building the Ark (or at least, the Bible doesn’t say that.) again – that is a reaction to the fundamentalist idea.
15:00 – I also taught on Lot and his daughters. Again, I think he’s misunderstanding some of the text here. Lot is not shown to be that Godly of a person, nor are Christians told that we should eumulate him.
KevNote – One of the biggest problems I see him illustrating is kids growing up in church and not actually hearing the Bible or knowing what the bible says. This is a personal issue of mine, and I have worked most of my life to alleviate it. I think people, and obviously Christians in particular, should read the WHOLE bible, not just the familiar parts.
I don’t think Lot saved his family, obviously. It says the angels basically had to drag him out.
I agree that there are a lot of non-PG parts of the Bible. 100%
17:00 again, this indicates to me that he did not have a very good Christian upbringing, if he had never heard of David and Bathsheba. It’s a very important part of the biblical narrative, with a lot of cascading effects. I’m not sure what church he would go to that wouldn’t address this in some way, but wherever it was, it was not teaching the whole bible.
18:00 – I absolutely think something’s got to give, but I think what he is missing is that the Bible never presents its heroes as perfect. That is a shallow Sunday-school type understanding. I think he is putting his expectations of what the Bible “should” say rather than what it does say – which is that God works through flawed people, just as he does today.
The prophets are there for us to learn from, but not necessarily to be like. We are called to be followers of Jesus, not followers of David or Isaiah or Adam.
18:22 – I think he’s actually touching on something important here. We are all capable of very good things (goliath) and very bad things (uriah). This is the consistent teaching of the Bible.
18:30 – Asking questions is not a sin in Christianity – it’s kind of a sin in fundamentalism. Even the Bible commends people who question, where it says the Bereans did not believe everything they were taught, but went back to the Scriptures to verify everything. The bible calls them “noble” for checking. I think this is an important concept that some non-Christians get wrong. The Bible absolutely encourages people to ask questions and learn more.
I also encouraged my students to ask questions. Ask, ask, and ask again. Ask the tough questions.
whoever told him not to ask questions and just have faith was not following the teaching of the bible or the historical teachings of the Church.
20:00 – he is correct, the Old Testament emphasizes over and over that God is One.
(kevnote – he seems to suggesting that he studied the old Testament, and saw that God is one, so the Trinity doesn’t make sense. He seems to be assuming that the people in the 200-300 years after Jesus didn’t know that. Of course they did. That’s why they fought over the idea of Jesus’ nature. )
22: I think he’s a little off on saying Judaism was so strict. That’s true in a sense, but also not true when compared to other ancient law codes. For example, in many ancient codes, if you stole, your hand was cut off. In Judaic law, you had to pay it back. I think this is both stricter and less strict.
I think he’s off a little on his understanding of how ancient authors wrote as well here. It was not uncommon for people to write without identifying the author by name. John identifies himself at the end of his book, and Luke identifies who he’s writing to. For the most part, the others are identified by their authors (Paul, writing to Timothy, or Titus, or whatever).
I see this as another example of how he learned a “little” about the bible and authorship, but not enough. He should have kept going.
24: – yes, jesus confirmed much of the Old Testament
Again, he seems to be assuming that Christians are not familiar with this.
25: he is right again that Jesus did not explicity say “there is a three in one God.” However, he did accept worship, he did use the phrase “I AM” to identify himself, and so forth. So the question is, If Jesus confirms that God is one, and yet also claims to be God, how does that work? This is a question that Christians have wrestled with. It’s not that they are unaware that it’s difficult.
However, if I may throw this out, is it reasonable to think that a God that is so far beyond our understanding, that we could not truly grasp his nature? That he may be something new, something that does not “make sense” to us? I would argue that both Muslims and Christians believe this.
His conclusion that Explicit overrise Implicit is I think in accurate. Why cannot both the explicit and implicit be true?
26:00 – this is kind of true. Jesus did teach to obey commandments, love neighbor, etc. but he also said he must “know” him, as evidence by his statement “Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
It’s not just about obeying and doing things.
27:00 – I’m a little confused here – he says that the “only begotten son” line wasn’t in red letters and he only listens to what Jesus said, but Jesus IS the one who said “only begotten son.” That’s the words of Jesus to Nicodemus. So I’m confused what he means here.
30:00 – I think he’s a little bit off here. I think they did want to kill Jesus to disprove who he was, but I think we get more of a glimpse into why from the Jewish court. They say “it’s better for one man to die than for the whole country to go into exile.” They were afraid of another exile, like the one in the Old testament, and they felt like Jesus was drawing people away from true faith, so it was better for him to die than to lead people astray.
I think they wanted him crucified so that the people and romans would see that they were not rebelling against Rome.
I do think he’s right about it being important that Jesus took our curse for us. That’s a pretty basic Christian teaching – Jesus took the curse that Adam brought on all of us
I think what he’s seeing as a contradiction is what Christians believe is the heart of Jesus – he fulfilled the Law by taking the punishment for our transgressions. So I agree with what he’s saying here (that the Messiah was cursed and killed), but I don’t see it as a problem. That is the whole point of the message of the New Testament, not something that Christians aren’t aware of.
30:00 – I understand that Paul is not popular with Muslims 😊 however, I think it’s important to note that the Christian understanding is that Paul and Jesus both said “following the Law is not enough.” This is the point of the sermon on the Mount in matthew 5-7 (where Jesus says “you have heard it said (taught in the law)…but I tell you…” Is jesus telling people not to follow the law? No, he is saying, just the law is not enough.
Paul has the same message – following the Law without the heart is not enough.
31:00 – if his pastor thought he was possessed for asking questions, he does not have a very good pastor
32:00 – professors at Bob Jones University have wreaked a lot of people’s faith in Christianity. Like I said, many (most?) Christians do not agree with their interpretation and teaching.
33:00 – I agree that God wants us to use our minds. However, I think his idea that God will “remove the mind and give me more faith” is not consistent with the Old Testament. This is more of a Muslim understanding of God’s absolute control over things than what the Bible actually teaches.
As for being a book of errors, I used to go through all the “contradictions” in the Bible with my students. There are some that are difficult (in my opinion, the one’s that deal with God’s nature), but for the most part, I have not found any that are not easily reconcilable. Now some people see that as “making excuses,” and I get that.
I think one important thing to keep in mind is that Christians and Muslims have a very different idea of how God inspires people to write. Christians do not believe that God told all the authors of the Bible exactly, word-for-word, what to say or write. He inspired them, and they used their own words and culture to express what God wanted to say. Hence each book represents the author’s voice, as well as God’s message.
My understanding is this is different that the Muslim understanding, wherein prophets are more like conduits or channels that God gives exact word-for-word things to write down. More like dictation. You can correct me if I’m wrong on that.
So his conclusion here that God’s book must be perfect because he is perfect is a decision that he is making, not an objective fact. That’s what he “wants” the Bible to be, not what the Bible actually claims to be.
37:00 – I’m a little concerned with his timeline here – he says he started questioning when his friend to college, and if I understoodhim, he was a sophomore in highschool. That’s about 16 years old. He says that when he was 17, he had looked into all these other religions and studied Christianity and had decided to leave God.
That’s only a year or maybe two that he was questioning, at an age that a lot of people think they can rationally explore things, but their brains are not fully developed yet. I am concerned that he is presenting himself as someone who explored and studied, but only very superficially.
40:00 – I agree with the trooper 🙂
45:00 – I agree with the grandmother too
45:00 – I have concerns again that he talks about studying all these other religions, but had never heard of Islam. I don’t think you could study religion seriously without at least knowing a little about Islam. I believe there are almost 2 billion muslims in the world, almost a third of the whole world. So to not have studied at least a little tells me that his teaching in church was not very good, and his exploration of other religions was not very in-depth.
46:00 – it doesn’t sound like a very good book on Islam either, to use the word “moslem,” however I will say that in English, we don’t have a very good way to write the word “muslim” because we don’t have that sound, so you will see it as muslim, musslem, mooslem, and moslem. It’s a way to try to write a word with a language that doesn’t have that sound.
46:30 – I think he makes a good point that people talk about Islam that don’t actually know what it teaches, but I will also say that he is kind of doing the same thing with Christianity here. He is presenting a side of it that most Christians would not agree with.
47:00 – he makes a great point here – people talk about Islam without talking to Muslims. People talk about Christianity without actually talking to Christians (or to more than one).
57:00 – I agree that he wrote off Islam too easily. I think a lot of Christians do that, and I think a lot of muslims write off Christianity too easily
59:00 – I agree with him here – I think the Bible and the Qur’an present prophets very differently. This is one of the reasons I believe the Bible. I believe it more accurately reflects the reality of people and how God uses them despite their weakness. I believe the Qur’an (and I need to read more so take this with a grain of salt) presents prophets as near-perfect.
1:00:1 – this is an important note : the bible does not tell us to be like the prophets, or at least that they are not perfect.
1:02:01 – I agree with him that the Qur’an is more reasonable and rational than the bible. To me, this more indicates that the Bible was not inspired by a man, because it is beyond what we would rationally think. Yet it is true.
So, for example, I agree that the Trinity does not make “rational” sense. 1+1+1 does not equal 1. However, it is “reasonable” that an infinite, transcendent God is perhaps more than we can understand with our human minds? I think so. Again, I think Christians and Muslims agree that God is not subject to our rational minds.
1:03:00 – again, I think he is hasty here. He learned about Islam for a week and was ready to convert? I don’t know. I think we need more time to decide.
1:04:00 – I agree that millions of people are looking for truth.
1:05:00 – I see this was in 2009. I wonder what he would say today (regarding finances).
I would also just say that Christianity also has all the answer – but people don’t actually do what it says. (Give to the poor, serve others, lead with integrity, be pure, be honest, etc)
1:10:00 I think that idea of forgiveness is indeed beautiful. This is also reflected in the stories of how Jesus and Stephen died in the Bible. They forgave those who killed them, and asked God to forgive them.
1:15:00 – This is again a beautiful idea, but is similar in Christianity. Jesus’ command was “Go [aherefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
So I’m not sure what he means that other teachings reserve that for prophets. It is for all Christians to do this.
Overall, I understand where he’s coming from, and I think most Christians would agree with a lot of his points. I think my basic disagreement with him are:
1 – I do not agree Christians are taught not to think or ask questions, and if they are, I have stood and continue to stand against it.
2 – I disagree that prophets have to be perfect in order for us to learn from them. The very fact that God uses broken people is one of the strongest arguments for belief in the Bible, and a source of hope for me personally.
3 – I disagree that God needs to “make sense” for it to be true. I agree with him that some Christian teachings are not rational. But i think they are reasonable and true nonetheless.
4 – If he continues to purse Allah/God, I believe God will meet him. I pray that all Muslims who are earnestly seeking to submit to God will meet Him in truth, and will know Him better every day.