Anonymous asked:

My friend is converting to islam, and the say’s the koran says it was written because the bible changed so much that it wasn’t the word of God anymore. What do I tell her?

I answered:

There is a belief in Islam that the Torah, Psalms and Gospels were given by God, but were corrupted and changed by Jews and Christians and that is why the Koran was given. As such, they believe the Koran is the only inerrant scripture. While that is an aspect of Islam, I seriously doubt that is the reason that your friend is converting. In my experience, most people who leave Christianity do so because they have been treated poorly by Christians. 

That informs how you should react. There is a perfectly understandable impulse to really pour it on: to talk about Hell, to tell her of every negative thing you have ever heard about Islam, to remind her that this might kill her poor grannie, etc. That is not a good strategy. The decision she made was not one of cold logic, so you can’t just argue her out of it. And doubling down in a way that might come off as judgmental will only severe your friendship and leave a further bad taste about Christians in your friend’s mind.

You want to be the person that your friend comes to if she starts to reconsider a relationship with Jesus. You probably also want to stay in her life. Blowing up now will not achieve either of those ideas. You want to play the long game here. I would say something like “You know how I feel about my faith, but I want you to also know that I love you and that hasn’t changed.” 

The hardest part is what comes after that: trusting God to call your friend back to Himself. It is very difficult to watch people make their own mistakes and find their way, but the only lessons we retain are often the ones we retain the most. The decision to come to Christ can be made by the individual alone, you can’t do it for someone. It is tough, but you have to let people make their own mistakes and behave and love in way that makes you the person they will come to if they feel the pull of God in their heart again.

-Matt from The Bridge

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