The apostle Paul, struggling against opponents of his gospel in the city of Corinth, insisted that “the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.” Rather than resorting to violence, he sought to “demolish arguments” and “captivate every thought” through open statement of the truth.
For him, to use coercive or deceptive means would be to succumb to the forces he was opposing. His message could be defended only by clear, peaceful proclamation of the word. As Angel Nuñez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference observed, “The greatest weapon a Christian has is godly love.”
Similarly, the Gospel of Luke tells a story about Jesus’ response to a Samaritan village that rejected him and his followers. His disciples James and John asked, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But Jesus rebuked them and said (according to some ancient manuscripts of Luke’s Gospel), “No, you don’t know what spirit you belong to” (Luke 9:51-56).
I fear that my Christian brothers and sisters in the Dove World Outreach Center, like James and John, do not know what spirit they belong to.
Seems like an inconsequential church in FL…I wonder why this got into news in Berlin?
I was thinking the same #1, and also ask–why would the Dean of Duke Divinity School feel it necessary to write such a response?
The ability of Christians to hurt our witness and therefore hurt others in the church trying to make that witness seems very large at the moment, particularly in the West.
With respect to the author, there is a large difference between a government-organized book burning in Nazi Berlin and a private book-burning in Gainesville, Fla. The first is government censorship backed by the power of the state; the second not only does not violate free speech, it is itself free speech.
That doesn’t mean that burning the Qur’an is the best way to reach Muslims. Probably not.
Oh, I don’t know…
When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. ~ Acts 19:17-20
Perhaps it isn’t so bad to burn a book that has inspired such evil around the world.
He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. ~ Luke 22:36
I think this is an ironic statement, “such actions will exacerbate tensions between Christians and Muslims around the world; if Christians burn the Quran, we may soon see Muslims burning Bibles.”
The truth is that in Islamic countries like Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc. It is not outlandish for Christians themselves to be burned or executed in other ways. I just read a memoir by a Pakistani woman who is in hiding because she became a Christian and her own parents are seeking to kill her. This week I read an article about a Muslim father who killed his own beautiful daughters and fled the USA. Another article was about a man on trial in Pakistan for becoming a Christian. If convicted, he faces execution.
Richard Hays can lament the book burning all he wants, he may be right to do that, but let’s also face the reality of the evil of Islam. At least this church in Florida is publishing that truth. And if we believe the Bible, Islam is leading its adherents straight to hell. Some religion of peace…Hays should be comparing Islam to Nazism instead.
#4, the point in Acts 19 is that new converts brought their own evil and costly books and burned them as a sign of their renunciation of the old life; it wasn’t one religious group burning the scriptures held sacred by another religious group. Will even one soul be brought to Jesus by burning the Koran? It’s much more likely that such actions will drive away any people that might have been inclined to listen to the Gospel.
[blockquote]…it wasn’t one religious group burning the scriptures held sacred by another religious group…[/blockquote]
Well, let’s examine that…as you say, the folks doing this were new converts. That means, they were then Christians, yes? So that would have made them ipso facto part of a different religious group than those that believed in magical incantations written on scrolls. So they were one religious group (Christians) burning the “scriptures” held sacred by another religious group (pagans).
I don’t know if even one soul will be brought to Jesus any more than you can know if even one soul won’t be brought to Jesus by this act. You assert that it is “much more likely that such actions will drive away any people that might have been inclined to listen to the Gospel”. How do you know? Just because [i]you[/i] would be driven away does not mean that someone else would.
The Church has been feminized and sissified until most men hate it. They consider it something strictly for women, old men, children, and sissies. I can document the lack of men participating in Church. Maybe the lack of backbone by so many in the Church is the reason. The Koran is a false prophecy spoken by a false prophet. What is wrong with Christians burning it? Maybe, just maybe, some men might find that Christianity isn’t an all girls’ club.
Maybe I’m wrong. Let’s wait and see. If it is of the Lord, it will prosper no matter what you or I think. If it isn’t, it will fail.
By the way, the author Richard B. Hays is a committed pacifist. He must have missed the Scripture in which God describes Himself (through the prophet) as a “warrior” after having killed the entire Egyptian Army.
Exodus 15:3 “The LORD is a warrior; The LORD is His name.
Deuteronomy 1:30 ‘The LORD your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, …
There aren’t two Gods, one for the OT and one for the NT. There is one God, in three persons, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We are created in His image. He instituted the role of “soldier” in government. They are His ministers, just as suredly as the preacher in the pulpit is. So, pacifism is a very questionable position and for a devoted pacifist to be condemning the burning of a false religion’s writings by Christians seems…well, I’ll leave that uncharacterized.
No. 5 shows an interesting fixation on male/female distinctions. I guess burning sacred religious texts is kind of a guy thing.
#8 — What? I don’t know what you can be referring to in my post. Possbily you meant #6 responding to #5? If not please elucidate.
#6 wrote: [blockquote]How do you know? Just because you would be driven away does not mean that someone else would.[/blockquote]
I’m pretty sure that if you’re trying to convince someone of their error, offering an insult to something they think is sacred, such as burning the book they think is holy, is not going to convince them of the truth of your beliefs. I doubt that it is going to scare them into conversion, either.
As for your opening paragraph: [blockquote]Well, let’s examine that…as you say, the folks doing this were new converts. That means, they were then Christians, yes? So that would have made them ipso facto part of a different religious group than those that believed in magical incantations written on scrolls. So they were one religious group (Christians) burning the “scriptures†held sacred by another religious group (pagans).[/blockquote] Let’s not quibble over words. I’ll re-phrase:[blockquote]The point in Acts 19 is that new converts brought their own evil and costly books and burned them as a sign of their renunciation of the old life; it wasn’t a group of Christians burning the scriptures held sacred by Muslims. Nor was there anything in the original story to indicate that the group of Christians in Florida contained even one convert from Islam.[/blockquote]
“Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly.”
The Scriptures do not say that they “burned them as a sign of their renunciation of the old life”. That is reading something into the Scriptures that isn’t there. It simply states that they confessed their evil deeds and those that had practiced sorcery burned their scrolls. Perhaps they burned their scrolls because what was in them was EVIL. They could have sold their scrolls and renounced their old life. They didn’t do that. They burned them. Why? These were “sacred” texts to all the pagans around them. Why would they burn them PUBLICLY? Why would Christians do that?
As to your first point…maybe they aren’t trying to “convince” muslims of their error. Maybe they are simply making a statement that they find the Koran evil. It isn’t the job of a Christian to “convince” someone to be a Christian. It is the job of a Christian to testify to the Truth…Jesus Christ is the Lord and He is risen from the dead. The Koran denies this truth. That makes it evil…anti-Christ…and maybe burning it is the right thing to do.
Right now, all around the world in Muslim nations, it is a crime for Muslims to convert to Christianity. They can be killed for doing so. It is a crime to bring a Bible into many Muslim nations. It is a crime for any Christian to tell a Muslim about Jesus in many Muslim nations. Here in America, we have the 1st Amendment right to protest what the Muslims are doing around the world. What is wrong with a Christian in America publicly burning a text that denies that Jesus is the Son of God? The Koran lies about who Jesus is. Why not burn it?
When Bible Belt Christians of “inconsequential churches” similarly began burning Beatles records it was news. Likewise the “backwards masking” record burns of not so long ago. This is news worthy.
Ah, yes, No. 5 – my apologies. I meant No. 6. I am sorry.
#12 — funny what kind of news one is getting in Berlin in a news-busy summer.
WWJD? Hard to tell, really. We have record that, when His Father’s house was defiled, in His way of thinking, by commercial trade, sale of sacrifices for exorbitant (?) prices, He made a whip of small cords and cleaned the place out – – and don’t imagine for a moment that whip was intended for the doves and lambs.
So, if someone were to bring a Q’uran into His domain, I wonder. . . .
what would He do?
And as has already been previously asked, “The (Koran) lies about who Jesus is. Why not burn it? Indeed.
I suggest that not everyone ought to burn one of those. Perhaps just those who find it burnable once they’ve really, honestly done with it?
In the standard Orthodox rite for receiving converts, the form for receiving “Mahometans(Saracens)” contains this passage:
“The Mahometan renounces: The Mahometan faith, and it’s sophistries, Mahomet as being a false prophet, the Koran and all false legends, laws and traditions therein contained, the pilgrimage to Mecca for worship as salutary to the soul, the inclusion of polygamy in this life, and the teaching as to sensual pleasures in Paradise; and the blasphemies which Mahometans utter touching Christ our Saviour, his most holy Mother, and Christians.”
The convert accepts the faith of the Nicene Creed, a pretty exclusive thing, and one that to a rare degree puts a person at risk of death from his former co-religionists. If one didn’t think of the combustible possibilities of certain literature after all that I think I’d wonder about them. Of course this is all academic. Every single member of ECUSA is in full communion with people who think they are at once both Muslim and Christian. The book I quote by the way, The Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church was published with the blessing and permission of St. Tikhon, the Patriarch of Moscow, in 1921. The same Tikhon who was a friend of Bishop Grafton of Wisconsin. The same Tikhon Episcopalians (Awkwardly) have on their church calendar.
If you don’t find it necessary to renounce all that a Muslim convert renounces maybe you’re worshiping in the wrong building and can’t make up your mind, like Ann Redding?