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I have finally gotten around to reading Mark Siljander’s book and on almost every page I find my mind is blown, I get goose bumps, or tears come to my eyes. Part of it is because my worldview and religious views are shaken up, but mostly because I am so sorry for how I and a majority of the Christian world/Western world has viewed the East and Muslims specifically.
Especially after 9/11 we view most Muslims as terrorists whether we admit it or not, even though that’s obviously not the case. In actuality it is just a bunch of extremist groups who say they are doing a work for Allah and ethnic cleansing. We are outraged by that but as Christians how many times have we claimed to do something in the name of God that could be labeled (and rightfully so) as terrorism? The Crusades is a huge example of that! But when we do it, we say they are off the deep end and can justify it in our brains somehow but when a man of Islam is involved we say he is from Satan and write the whole population off. We cannot have it both ways.
There are times when I’ve read news articles of people in the West dying from attacks and my heart breaks, but when something happens to another group in the East, I do not even flinch. I think, “There must have been a good reason for it. Things happen and it had to be done.” I am so sorry for that, for not caring about all of God’s people and being prejudiced for thinking that a white life, a Western life, a Christian life somehow mattered and was worth more. Lord, I have sinned. Forgive me. Forgive me for not loving your people like you do, for writing them off and not giving them a second thought. They are your people. You lived among them, you were them. Forgive me Jesus.
I am reading this book and am wondering more and more if we have had it wrong all along. That somehow the God of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims are all the same. Yes there are some differences that do carry a lot of weight but maybe there is more common ground than opposing. Maybe we are more similar than we think. It is not all black or white, yes or no, good or bad, from God or from the Devil, but maybe it’s all on a continuum or spectrum of sorts. And somehow this is all a part of God’s plan to bring His people together. That the two most popular religions in the world have a common thread, His Son, and as long as Jesus’ name is proclaimed as the way to God, the one true God, that is all that matters. There were just some confusion, some communication lost in translation, some rifts along the way. Maybe converting everyone to Christians is not the answer but being Messianic Christians, Messianic Jews, Messianic Muslims, Messianic Buddhists, is enough.
I am still not sure what I believe about that and I do not understand these different beliefs or how it could work together. Maybe I do not have to because God is bigger but it sure makes for an interesting thought. Maybe it’s not either or; maybe it’s both and. If this is true, it is no longer us and them; it’s just us. Leave it up to God to make that be so.