MarkJ wrote:I finally got him to start reading the Bible
Sometimes, that is all they need. The problem is the christians start them out in the Apostolic Narratives of the Life of the Messiah (commonly called the gospels), and not in the Tanahk. Recommendation: Start at the beginning of the book.
MarkJ wrote:, with the exception of anything Paul wrote (they don't believe him either).
That is the standard muslim method. I'm going to have to agree with them, on that point. Leave Mr. Oftarsus out of the discussion.
MarkJ wrote: And he shows me the following from the Gospel of Luke 10:
Luke wrote:25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
And added that since Yahushua said the above about getting in to Heaven, that's all he would need to do. That he doesn't have to recognize Yahushua as the Son of Yahuweh, or the fact that He died for our sins; as Yahushua didn't say he would have to do that
Busted! Unless he is a really fast reader, you started him out in the "New Testament"! ;-)
Here is the line of reasoning I would take:
That answer was and is still accurate. Pretty simple, really: "Shema Yisrael" + "Golden Rule" + "Observe Torah" = Eternal Life. (Christians always like to ignore the "Observe Torah", mainly because the think that Paul said they didn't have to.)
At the time this conversation took place, the temple was being used for the blood sacrifices to atone for sins. The blood sacrifice is part of keeping Torah. When the curtain was ripped that separated the "Holy of Holies" from the rest of the world at the moment of the death of the Messiah's physical body, the sacrifices performed by the priests were immediately de-legitimized.
Thankfully, Yahushua was the the perfect, prophesied sacrifice, fulfilling the Torah's requirement for atonement by blood. Apparently the curtain/veil was stitched up or replaced and the sacrifices were resumed by the priests for about 40 years, until the destruction of the temple in the 70's. At that point no one could "Keep Torah", because the temple was destroyed and the priests were killed or ran away.
The only way you could follow the formula ("Shema Yisrael" + "Golden Rule" + "Observe Torah") was to ask YHWH to accept Yahushua's sacrifice as payment for the debt of sin that you had racked up. This still fits in perfectly with what is written in the Torah, Prophets and Psalms.
Muslims still conduct animal sacrifices every year during Ramadan at Mecca. They have to continually repeat the ritual because nowhere in Muslim theology is there the idea of a one-time-all-atoning perfect sacrifice like there is with Yahushua/Isa/Jesus.
If the man in Luke 10:25 came up to Yahushua after the resurrection and asked the same question, Yahushua could have given the same answer! I suspect that He might have gone through Isaiah 53 with the guy and asked "
Does the person mentioned by Isaiah sound like anyone you might know...? Like, maybe, someone in this room...?" Once he/you/we realize that He was the perfect blood sacrifice, it all falls into place nicely.
Encourage this guy to read "The Bible", starting on page one, just like any other book you would read. When he gets to Isaiah, he is likely to know enough about "Isa/Jesus" to put it all together. Lots of people who were followers of Muhammad abandon that belief system just by reading the real account of how things happened. (BTW: For the purposes of this discussion with this guy, just about any copy of "The Bible" will do.)
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This is just how I think I would talk to the guy. The answer is not exhaustive, but is a succinct attempt at cross-cultural communication.