APL has a perfect point here, be careful how you quote things. From the way you quote it, you make it sound as if we are to study paganism so we will not bring shame to the church in the name of God.

In the perfect sense of the intent of what Mrs White truly said, you should be testing the Spirit on the things I am as a brother claiming God showed me in dreams and visions because they are within the guidelines of our faith. Since most of you have been reluctant to do this, you are guilty of committing the same offence against God as the subject of the SOP quote you misapplied.

Peace.

Hmmmm. It is inaccurate. Sorry about that.

Jamesonofthunder,

I find it interesting that you had Muslims making appointments with you. But that is in Indonesia where they have almost no exposure to Christians. Here in America, there are lots of Muslims and you don't get questions like that much from them. In the county where I live, there are some 80,000 Arabs living here, many of whom are Muslim. I run into them in the stores sometimes. I personally know of one Muslim, and have had very few questions from him.

So, what worked for you there may not work for you here. I have used my knowledge of the Muslim religion to open up some things with the one Muslim I do know locally and it has helped to have that knowledge. He has never asked me for an appointment so that he can ask me questions. And I don't expect it. There are lots of Christians around here so if he wants to, he has lots of people to pick from.

Wendell - jsot ignored what I was saying, and when on to his agenda. What I was saying, is that you made a quote, at least what appears to be a quote, and it is not a quote at all. That was my point.

As far as knowing the other person, I would agree with you, that knowing what the other person believes and why, can be very useful in meeting them where they are.

APL,

I don't recall clearly how I came about what was supposed to be a quote. Perhaps I summarized it and saved it on my computer, but I normally save the original quote itself, so why would I save only a summary? Maybe I did so anyway and forgot that I had done so. Well, whatever. But the thought of it was there, that I know.

Anyway, I do agree with your other point. It is extremely helpful to know something about what the other person's thinking is so that you can relate to him or her. Otherwise, there is no common ground from which to approach them. Most in this world will not be making appointments with a Christian to learn of his beliefs, even if they see that he lives a genuine Christian life. It just does not happen that way except in certain circumstances. I am glad it did for James while he was living in a Muslim country, but unless one is in the right circumstances, it won't happen.

You have to have a way of finding something in the other person's mind that they are thinking so that you can relate to it. That does not mean we should go digging into all aspects of their religion's teachings, for that may influence us in the wrong direction. But we should at least know something about that which they do believe so that we can work with them. I cannot, for example, talk to a Catholic about their belief in Mary unless I at least understand that they have elevated her to divine status. This gives me the knowledge that I should point out the great creative power that God has and that in Isaiah he describes this power that he has as the creator, which he has because he is God, and that he says he will never give his glory, in other words, his authority as God, to another. This is a permanent promise, so either God is a liar and broke that promise with Mary, or else their thurch's teaching is wrong. This can be pointed out and the person can think about that. If they understand who God is, they'll realize, once this is pointed out, that there is no way that she can be who the Catholic Church claims she is - a person to whom you can pray. But without that basic knowledge of their thinking, there is no way on earth that you will know to tell them about this when the opportunity arises.

Therefore, I do not believe that we should delve deeply into the beliefs of other religions, and yet I also do believe that without some basic knowledge of their religious thinking, we cannot relate to them as effectively as we could if we had such knowledge. Such a lack of knowledge can result in fewer people won over to the truth.

I don't know about you, but I would much rather be more effective. Therefore, it is wise to have some basic knowledge of their thinking, but wise also not to dig deeply into it, but rather focus primarily on the truth.

Muslims hate Christians here in America because the majority of what they come across are self indulgent, right wing Sarah Pallen type of heretics that they would not even want to meet, let alone be forced to shake hands with. (Most Americans don't know that Muslims do not shake hands, especially with infidels who wipe their butts with the same hand they eat with)

I did not ignore this. In fact I am as shocked as you that he made the attempt to do this. But I did not belabor the point as you seem to be doing even after he apologized.

I don't think Wendell is easily offended. Nor does he lash out when he is corrected. And one the point he was making, he is correct, it is good to know what how others think.

In many countries of the world, people are taught to shake hands with the hand that is NOT used to wipe their behind with. The Christians of the world may not have caught on to this, but this is the pattern for many other parts of the world. If you travel to those countries, its a good idea to check with their custom so you know which hand of theirs to shake. Apparently not all follow the same usage rules.

Soon everyone will be doing the fist bump.