Who Is My Brother?

I read an interesting article today. In it the author asks the question "Is the Muslim my Brother?" Regarding Jesus, he says "Is he, as some theologians say, the western face of God, or is he, as others say, truly God incarnate." The author believes the latter.

However, it gets better. The author feels that "Muslims are Christians who simply don't know it yet - in other words, [they are] my brothers, for whom Christ also died." Essentially, he/she believes that all are saved, even without professing/confessing Christ as Lord: "You have been saved, whether you admit it or not - by Christ's precious blood at Calvary."

The obvious question then becomes 'What's the advantage of being a Christian?' His/her response: "[Christians] have an intimacy with God that others may lack. And certainly Christ's spirit in us makes us want to obey him willingly and joyfully - not as drudgery. No one else but Jesus could make me love everybody I meet.."

This is not the first time I have heard this line of argument. But does it stack up? On the positive side, it gets us away from the us and them rhetoric. It makes it easier to love and accept everyone - because we're all brothers and sisters, not only physically as God's creatures, but spiritually too. However, as attractive as it sounds, it does not deal adequately with Jesus' claims of exclusivity, and it definitely does not deal sufficiently with his claims about the reality of judgement, or hell, for that matter.

Either way, articles like these challenge me to love others, because Jesus DID die for all. They challenge me to follow Jesus' footstepts for the right reason, namely, that that he loved his creation - us - enough to give himself up for it, despite our rebellion against him. I follow Jesus because of the amazing example he sets in loving others, and the strength he provides, enabling us to also love others, NOT because of any negative consequences of not following him.

Interestingly, the author's name is only given as "MGB." Apparently he/she is afraid of being called a heretic - not by Muslims, but by Christians. This cracks me up, because usually when Christians write about Islam, they use pseudonyms for fear of persecution from Muslims, not Christians.

Anyways, it's an interesting read. It can be found here.