Me and my muslim friend we’re talking tonight. He’s a practicing muslim but he is open to other things and to the possibility of Christianity being true.
He said that he was interested and wanted to read about Catholicism…however, there was one stipulation, he wanted me to read 2 small books about the basic beliefs of Islam, I have no desire to do this but should I do it anyways so he’ll read the Catholic books I give him??
Also, what would be the best Catholicism books for a muslim to read?
Thanks!
Its only fair that you take his faith seriously if you want him to take your faith seriously, otherwise it will appear as if you are insecure about something. Not only that, it will also appear a bit disrespectful. You can say that you are not interested, but then you are giving him an excuse not to be interested in what you have to say about your beliefs.
Other than that I cannot answer your Questions directly. However I created the following argument after reading your post…
- God alone necessarily exists and thus creation is entirely dependent on the existence of God, for there is no other way for creation to exist by itself.
- An act of creation is an act sharing, and an act of sharing is fundamentally an act of love, for there is no other good reason for God to create anything other than himself. If God were to create for selfish reasons, then this would contradict the idea that God is good and would mean that God is not perfect.
- Since God cannot be imperfect, it therefore follows that God cannot be potentially other than what he fundamentally is. Therefore to love is Gods nature, and never changes. We know this to be true because God cannot be the antithesis of love, since any action that is not love is selfish and therefore an imperfection.
- God does everything that is good and thus everything that is possible in the context of goodness. The good that he does is only divided or delayed by context and content.
- The act of creation (sharing existence) is only one core aspect of love. If God is love, than he does everything that is true of love in respect of his nature.
- Sacrifice is another core aspect of love.
- Therefore in some way shape or form the act of sacrifice will necessarily become actual when the opportunity presents itself.
- For God, a true sacrifice can only become actual if he is giving up something of himself for the greater good of another person or persons.
- In a world full of sin the opportunity for sacrifice arises.
- Perfection in and of itself and by itself has nothing to give up. The greatest sacrifice is giving up your life for the greater good of your friends. But for God, it is metaphysically impossible for him to give up his life because God is a non-physical perfect being. If it were possible, God would cease to exist, which would mean that God is not a perfect being.
- However, human-beings can perform the greatest sacrifice because they can lose the good that is their physical form.
- This would suggest that we have a dilemma insofar as Gods nature is concerned. Nevertheless, if we accept that God is good and therefore loving, it follows logically that we cannot speak of God as being unable to make sacrifices for his friends when such a good is needed and is necessary; since this would imply that God has an imperfection (a contingent limit to how much he can love us); and thus his creative act of love is imperfect and even less perfect than the human ability to love!!!
- It therefore cannot be the case that humans can love more than God, and it cannot be the case that God cannot sacrifice his life for the good of his creation.
- The only way out of this dilemma is to suggest that God can be born a human without contradicting Gods intrinsic nature. While difficulty will arise in trying to understand how such a thing is possible, this nevertheless must be the case; otherwise, insofar as God is love, God would be imperfect and therefore a perfectly good God would not exist. As far as I understand an imperfection in God is unacceptable for both Christian and Muslims.
- New American Standard Bible John 1:14
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Conclusion: The above argument is not direct evidence that Jesus Christ of the apostles is the true word made flesh. However it does seem to prove by reductio ad absurdum that Gods love has or will become flesh through necessity of the fact that God is love when given the context of sin.
Also the fact that it is logically in Gods nature to become incarnate for the sake of a great sacrifice, and the fact that Christians by faith report this to have already happened according to the apostles, is not something to be scoffed at. It is something that a Muslim should take very seriously because it contradicts the belief that God has no Son or that it is not possible for a human-being to be both a physical person and divine at the same time.
Sacrifice in the form of Jesus Christ is greater than any human sacrifice in the sense that the loving holy and divine being we call Jesus allowed himself to be humiliated, beaten, and killed by his enemies so that we could all be saved from sin.
Nuff said.
