The week before Easter, during an English class in a Muslim country, the teacher walked through the “resurrection eggs” with the class in order to share with them the reason why she celebrated the holiday. One student in particular, “Helen,” had many questions. She was around 20 years-old and studying Islamic theology at university. She was very devoted to Islam and asked things like, “How can Jesus be God if he was born of a woman? Wasn’t the Bible changed? Your faith is so easy; if Jesus already died for your sins, why don’t you just go around doing bad things all of the time?” Due to her interest, the teacher was able to continue talking well past the normal class ending-time, trying to answer her questions and point to answers in the Word itself. She was able to give Helen a New Testament that night.
A few days later, during another English class, the teacher pulled Helen aside and explained that she should read the book of Romans if she had questions or wanted to know the basic theological concepts of the Christian faith. This once again sparked a long conversation. Helen was caught up on how it seemed so easy for Christians and yet Muslims had to “do so much stuff” to get to heaven. Why would Muhammad make it more difficult for them, she wondered aloud. The teacher told her that Islam was very logical; it was the most natural human response to sin. However, she went on to say, “If God is so powerful and above all, doesn’t it make some sense that He would want to save us Himself (i.e., be the hero), as opposed to us saving ourselves?” In addition, Helen wondered if Jesus felt pain on the cross. The teacher told her that the Bible does say that he felt pain; however, EVEN if he didn’t feel physical pain, the biggest pain that he would have felt was the separation from God when He turned from him as he bore all of our sins. This is the worst and deepest pain anyone could feel – separation from God and not being in relationship with Him.
Please pray for Helen as she reads the Word of God and wrestles through these questions on her own.
