Is Islam A Cosmic Challenge to the Kingdom of God?

I preached the keynote sermon yesterday at a very small global outreach conference here in my city. The title of my talk was “Is Islam a Cosmic Challenge to the Kingdom of God?”. I argued that it is more appropriate to think of Islam as an opportunity, perhaps the greatest of all since the first coming to Christ, to display the glories of God in Christ. I argued three points:

1. One of the most powerful commands of Jesus is one of the most needed today, namely, “love your enemy” (Luke 6:32-36).

2. Heightened persecution of Christians in the Muslim world yields heightened opportunities to bear witness (martus) to the Gospel (Luke 21:10-13).

3. Present day demographic changes present unbounded opportunity for the Kingdom of God (Acts 17:26-27).

I might post the rest of my talk later, after revising it for publication. If you’re interested in my arguments, let me know.

One of the most impressive things about this weekend was actually this church and how they, though small, saw themselves as a part of the global advance of the Kingdom of God and how they seemed to understand and value their role in that global advance.