Greetings to readers of David Roseberry's Leaderworks

Greetings in Christ's name!

I really have enjoyed getting to know the Rev. Cannon David Roseberry over the years and working with him to help the larger Anglican community become more aware of a fundamental shift we are going through in the West.

The Muslim population is increasing very quickly.

That is not going to change. The truth is that Islam creates societies in which no one—including Muslims—wants to live.

Many Americans look at this and are alarmed. Now, Christians should voice their opinions on migration and security to their elected leaders in Congress. But, Congress will not and cannot stop the increase of Islam in the USA.

So what should we do? What is a Christ-centered response to this situation?

Serve them in Christ's name. Share your life with them in Christ's name. Pray of them and pray with them. Muslims are coming to Christ. It's not easy. It's not fast. But it's good. God is doing a new thing. I want you and your church to be part of it. That is why this book was published!

Don't hesitate to contact me with any questions via this blog. Just leave a comment on the latest post and I'll get back to you.

Enjoy the blog. Search for terms. There is a huge amount of information on this blog even though I only make new posts every month or so.

And do purchase a copy of Sharing Jesus with Muslims in America and check out my articles at academia.

Peace and grace!

Abu Daoud

Positive Infinity interviews Abu Daoud on Sharing Jesus with Muslims in America

What a pleasure to be interviewed again for one of my favorite blogs, Positive Infinity. Here is one question with the answer:

7. How should Christians accommodate the cultures Muslims come out of to aid them in sharing the gospel?

Ultimately we’re working towards evangelizing and sanctifying entire cultures. What does it look like for Yemeni culture to know Christ? What does it look like for Libyan culture to be baptized and sanctified? The challenge is that these cultures are so inextricably intertwined with Islam that it is hard to know where Islam ends and a given culture begins. All of this to say, it is a lengthy, hard work, and we should not expect to be able to answer the question in the lifespan of a single generation of believers. Use Scripture, draw on your own denominational tradition, and be patient as new believers stumble along by the grace of God figuring out how to construct a new convert identity in Christ and his Church.

Check out the rest of the interview HERE.

Also, there were two previous interviews from 2012 (Part 1 and Part 2)

Praise for 'Sharing Jesus with Muslims in America'

What a pleasure to read the recent review of Sharing Jesus with Muslims in America over at the blog Fresh Start Stories by Beverly Nault.

Here is a portion of the review:

Abu Daoud has written a stunningly well organized, well researched and cited book that walks a Christian through how to befriend and answer their Muslim friend’s questions about Jesus. It comes from experience, which is important because the Qu’ran teaches about Jesus so before we go off spouting what may be either silly or offensive, knowing how a Muslim thinks about Him will help immensely. 

And this book lays it all out there. 

I read it in a couple of days, and feel like I have a good foundation, and yet I also was inspired to learn more.

Thank you Beverly for your great review!

Read the whole review HERE and consider buying the book!

Free Grace Theology?

Someone recently asked me about resources on Free Grace Theology. I don't know much about it. Does anyone have any links for good articles or websites or blogs on the topic?

Please do post your link in the comment section.

--Abu Daoud

A warm welcome to readers of From the Pew

Thank you Steve for your kind and encouraging words, and pointing some of your readers to my blog.

I recommend that new readers start by checking out some of my series on Islam, which you can see all in a row to the right hand side in a menu.

Please do let me know if you have any questions.

Salam!

Abu Daoud

Mission Omission

Tad de Bordenave has started a new blog, Mission Omission. Have known him for years, and he's a great guy and knows his stuff. Do check it out, add it to your blogroll, and your Google Reader, or whatever you use these days.

Mission Omission

Europe: against bloggers but for financing terrorism

There is terrorism and there is Islamophobia. Of these two the latter is apparently the more serious misdemeanor. Europe is introducing draconian measures to monitor the internet for so-called “racism,” but at the same time the European Parliament has decided to deny America access to servers with international banking data that relate to terrorist organizations.

From here.

Dispute on the nature of the Eucharist and Priesthood

Hi All,

Abu Daoud is off to an overnight planning session for a very strategic ministry to the local churches. The goal is to motivate and train them to engage in planting cell churches in homes and thus provide a venue where inquiring non-Christians could attend safely and comfortably. Please say a prayer for us. One important thing to note is that said effort is largely an initiative of local Christians, not foreigners.

Meanwhile, two folks on my blogroll have an interesting debate going on regarding the Eucharist and the nature of Christian priesthood. Please do drop by and share your ideas. The most recent installation of said dialogue is overt at Don's blog, Positive Infinity. Check it out.

--Abu Daoud

New Links

John Stringer, the editor of Saint Francis Magazine (which regularly condescends to publish my unconventional missiological articles), has a blog, which I highly recommend. It has been added as a link over on the right-hand side menu dealy.

Your input needed on the Trinity

Hi All,

A Christian living in the ME has been thinking a lot about the Trinity lately. He has questions, and I am sure you all (with your excellent theological training and grasp of tradition) can make a great contribution to the quality of his witness.

He writes:

Lately I've been spending a lot of time talking about the Trinity (explicitly or implicitly) to close friends around me. Most people try to avoid this conversation by saying, "You just have to believe it. There's no real way to explain it." Unfortunately, I have a hard time accepting that method. I believe that if the Trinity is true, then what makes it true must be comprehensible. I admit that it might not be comprehensible to an unredeemed mind. Yet, to the redeemed He reveals mysteries.

I want to open this posting up to anyone who wants to take a stab at this question: What is the Trinity?

So what do you think? CLick your way over there and give him your input. Rainthinker.

A note from me

Like Pearljam says, I'm still alive. But yeah, very hectic last few days. Back in Scotland for a very short amount of time to get many, many things done. But the point is that things are going well. The leg also is improving--thanks for your prayers! Will get back to normal blogging next week some time, in sha' allah.

Meanwhile, Joey Shaw has a question about Muslims and the Catholic Catechism, share your thoughts THERE.

And Don has a nice summary of Augustine's City of God, which you can read HERE. A selection:

But it’s a given for Augustine that the state will be involved in religion, one way or another, and that the Church and its people must deal with it
effectively one way or another. It’s tempting to think that we’re past such involvement with our modern secular states, but both the rise of militant secularism and Islamicism should caution us not to be so smug about our age. Augustine lived in an age where the Roman state reached into every corner of life, and given the broad (and broadening) role of the state in our own lives, his view of the state deserves another hearing, at least.

min rujuu3: Abu Daoud is back

It's hard to keep a good man down, and sometimes it's moderately difficult to keep a man who tries to be good down too. That having been said, I'm back. I have a rod and screws in my leg and I have more purple on my leg than Barney the dinosaur.

So by all means, continue your prayers, especially for my frame of mind and attitude and sense of vocation bc when stuff like this happens you ask yourself, why have I chosen this way of life? Why not go back to home, get a nice little church or uni job and be more, uh, sedentary? It's also hard to be joyful when going to the fridge for a glass of water has become a great chore. Pls also pray for good sleep, that is perhaps most important of all.

For whatever it's worth this Afghani guy who was there after the car hit me came to visit a few times at the hospital though he did not know me from Adam. He is fluent in Arabic, which is not a language spoken in Afghanistan of course. His wife is a Haafidha, meaning she has memorized the Qur'an, so we had wonderful conversations there in the hospital ward in real Classical Arabic (which most Arabs can't do) to the surprise of the other folks there--me, all hopped up on morphine trying to talk about the meaning of 'redemption' (fida'). Pathetic--but not in a bad way.

But praise the Lord for the staff there, and for the folks at my U who were very understanding and helpful, and for all the people who helped me out while in London (a cty where I know very very few people). And for socialized health care. I'm a believer now.

Blog of Note: Cairo, Part 2

Every now and then it's important to come out of the rarefied clouds of academia and just hear the voice of someone living life in the Middle East. So I commend to you Cairo, Part 2, a blog kept by a student at AUC whom I have never met, incidentally. But she has a nice way of writing and posts pictures every now and then.

Part of a recent post discusses the growing problem of groping:


I was walking down the road and a man was walking toward me. As often happens, I noticed that he was not going to allow much extra space to remain between us as he walked by. I tensed up and used my peripheral vision to moniter his location, and as he passed me he reached out his arm, intending to hit my butt. I have no idea how I managed to move out of the way so quickly--I leaped onto the sidewalk, dodged his hand, and kept walking. He continued as though nothing had happened, as did I. He didn't turn around to try again. He didn't come after me. It all happened so quickly that it took me a second to realize what had just happened. To see him continue on his way through my peripheral vision. To collect my inner self, which was so much at odds with my exterior at that moment, the Bethany that never even paused in her measured walk to the metro station. And at the same time that all this was happening, a car passed us and the young driver looked up at me from the window. I couldn't read his expression, and he didn't say anything to me. But there was a moment of strange connection, a bizarre understanding of sorts that bound the three of us together in this sick game, whose rules we all know too well.

Also, check out pictures of the new AUC campus.

Review this blog...

There is a website here where you can review this blog and let people know how much you like it (or how much you dislike it, I mean, if you really do dislike it...)

Also, Fr Greg has an interesting post on Substitution and Expiation. How soteriological of him!

A Response to a post on Catholic ordination

I wrote about a recent ordination to the priesthood I attended here in Scotland. Fr Greg has posted a rebuttal/response which you are welcome to read HERE.

News Review

Lots of interesting little tidbits of news that all in some way or another indicate how things may turn out in the future.

1) HERE you can find pictures of the Chevy Volt, an electrical car from an American automaker (gasp!). Good for them. This is important because the West's addiction to oil absolutely binds our hands regarding political options. Example: Russia's recent foray into Georgia which has been met by--never mind, they have oil.

2) And HERE, a letter from the Catholic bishops of Denver publicly and clearly outlining Catholic (and catholic) teaching on abortion and telling Joe Biden he's wrong, why he's wrong, and why that's important. Wow, that sounds like prophetic ministry from bishops. Go Denver bishops.

3) And HERE we have a picture of the demographic decline of Hungary, which is now at about 1.35 children per woman, with emigration of young people, and plunging marriage rates. God save them.

Apologetics: Why did the Messiah die?

My good friend From the Middle East has started writing on Islamic apologetics over at SBCImpact! He tackles the question of why did the Messiah die, and what does the Quran have to say about it.

Check it out here. One section:

Inconsistency with the Generous Qur’an: Many beliefs that Muslims hold are not actually consistent with the Book they hold so dear (I have found this to be no different than many “Christian” beliefs and the Bible). While it is my contention that God’s Messiah was not defeated by unbelievers, it is important to note that at least three times in the Generous Qur’an it is written that prophets and messengers of God were not only persecuted but also murdered.

Truth: What really happened? Ultimately Jesus was not murdered or crucified by the Jews or Romans. Rather Jesus laid down His life and took it up again in accordance with the divine will. Did they put him on a cross? Did he die? Yes and yes. But it was his choice to follow the divine will, not theirs. Therefore, he sacrificed himself.

Three Cheers for Taylor Marshall!

Abu Daoud's brain manages to dredge up on a regular basis obscure theological and historical questions. Special thanks to the irrepressible Taylor Marshall (former Anglican, now with Rome, am I the only one not doing this?!) over at Canterbury Tales.

My question: can there be lay cardinals or cardinal deacons in the Catholic Church?

His answer is HERE.

Thanks Taylor. Let me know if you have questions on Islam or Arabic :-)

Genius!?! Must be from the Arabic...

TV Reviews

The stuff I've writtenكل ما كتب ابو داود

Every now and then one of my eight readers asks if I have a place that has all my own writings together in one place. Rather than sending them all over the place, I have started the blog Abu Daoud which only has the relatively few articles I have written myself. You can check it out at:

AbuDaoud.blogspot.com

Abu Daoud

If you only want to read the stuff I write, then use that one for your RSS feed or Reader.google account. If you read THIS blog regularly, then just ignore the other one.