Would Chrislam Replace Christianity and Islam?

            Chrislam is a religion that seeks to merge Christianity and Islam. Chrislam, established in 1970, is of Nigerian origin. Proponents of Chrislam believe that both Bible and Quran are Holy Scriptures, and that Allah and the God of the Bible are one and the same.

            Chrislam is also a missionary strategy for Muslims by the missionaries from the West [1]. They encourage Muslims to follow Jesus by being a Muslim. These missionaries share Christ from Quran. Since Muslims are encouraged to be Muslims and follow Christ, Chrislam’s alias is “Insider Movement.”

            Muslims and Christians are those who are submitted to God. Hence Insider Movement claims that a Muslim can remain a Muslim, go to Mosque, but secretly follow Christ. (This premise presupposes that the God of the Bible and Quran are the same. Conservative Christians and Muslims will passionately deny that God of Bible and Quran are same.)

            Insider Movement re-translates portions of the Bible offensive to Muslims. Hence, the Lord Jesus Christ will not be mentioned as the Son of God, which is the literal interpretation of the Greek texts.

            Instead, Jesus would be referred to as the Prince, King, Messiah, Representative etc. The first person of the blessed trinity, the Father God, is referred to as Lord, Guardian, Most High and God. (This is a stark mistranslation of the Greek texts.)

            While Christ’s deity is denied by Chrislam, it affirms Mohammed as a prophet. Very minimally, Chrislam affirms Mohammed to be a prophetlike figure. 

            Apparently, quite a few Bible translation projects from Chrislam’s context are active. These translation projects dilute the Bible so to conform more to the Chrislamic perspective than remain true to the Christian faith.   

            Chrislam or Insider Movement lends credibility to the Quran by using it as an evangelistic tool. When credibility is ascribed to the Quran, the fact of Quran’s denial of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection is concealed.  

            Christian missionaries belonging to the Insider Movement in certain Islamic countries function as Imam’s of local Masjids. They preach the Islamic khutbah (traditional sermon) in the mosques.

            Members belonging to a certain flavor of Chrislam call themselves as Muslims and believe that Mohammad is a prophet of God but deny the trinity. Obviously they are more a Muslim than a Christian. 

            Insider Movement does not require Muslims to convert to Christianity if they believe in Christ and Dr. William Lane Craig exposes this fallacy, “So I'm very worried about this syncretistic movement, and not at all persuaded that this is wise to encourage Muslim background believers in effect to masquerade as practicing Muslims rather than to affirm their faith in Jesus Christ” [2]. 

            Those belonging to the Insider Movement are encouraged to not have any contact with the local Christian churches. This exposes Chrislam’s leaning towards Islam than Christianity.

            Missionaries belonging to the Insider Movement falsely emphasize that trinity is mentioned in the Quran (Sura 4:171). Any Muslim worth his salt will deny this teaching. In fact, Sura 4:171 denies trinity.  

            Proponents of Chrislam argue for its legitimacy from within the Bible by quoting Melchizedek, who was not a Jew but had a personal relationship with God. Hence they argue that one could worship Christ from within Islam.

            The error in this argument is that Melchizedek was not a pagan priest as the proponents of Chrislam claim. Melchizedek was a priest of the The Most High God (Genesis 14:18 & Hebrews 7:1) – the first person of the blessed trinity. Hence it is illogical and improper to argue that Christ could be worshipped from the precincts of Islam.

            The other character quoted by Chrislamists to defend their worldview is Naaman the Syrian from the Bible (cf. 2 Kings 5). They cite the following biblical narrative as an affirmation to worship Christ from Islam, “Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel….for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the Lord. But may the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I have to bow there also—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this.” “Go in peace,” Elisha said” (2 Kings 5:15-19, NIV).

            While reading this text, we should be aware of two aspects. First, Naaman acknowledged a sin i.e. bowing to a pagan god Rimmon. Second, Naaman asked God to forgive him for his sin of bowing to a pagan god.

            Naaman cannot justify Chrislam. Chrislamists do not agree that they are sinning against God while worshipping Christ as a Muslim. Instead they argue that it is perfectly legitimate to worship Christ as a Muslim. They falsify the biblical narrative of Naaman to defend Chrislam by fabricating a lie that Naaman justifies Chrislam. To reiterate, Naaman does not justify Chrislam.

            Therefore, Chrislam cannot be a legitimate denomination of Historic Christianity. Chrislam or Insider Movement is a cult or another religion.  

            There seems to be another facet to Chrislam. Could Chrislam be the holy face of an unholy agenda?

            The unholy agenda is to cleanse the Bible of its Jewishness, “Of all the anti-Israel discourses that exist today, Chrislam is perhaps one of the most disturbing. Disturbing because it wants to de-Judaize both Jesus and the Bible, and because it wants to neutralise Jewish identity and history. Moreover, the remarkable post-Holocaust reconciliation of Jews and Christians is being undermined by the emerging cooperation between left-wing evangelicals and jihadi Muslims, both of whom hold unsavoury attitudes towards Jews and Israel” [3].

            If Chrislam seeks to cleanse the Bible of its Jewishness, it’s quite plausible that Chrislam seeks to satisfy the anti-semitic Islamic agenda. 

            Finally, Chrislam is touted as an offshoot of interfaith dialogues between Islam and Christianity. Quite a few movements are building bridges between Islam and Christianity.

            While such bridge building efforts could be appreciated, we should ask, “At what cost is an interfaith dialogue occurring?” In many instances, Christian pastors praying at these interfaith dialogues would intentionally not pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They choose not to pray in Christ’s name, which is effectively denying Christ so not to offend the sensitivities of their Muslim counterparts.

            Christ is usually denied in interfaith forums because Muslims refuse to acknowledge Christ as God. Diluting Christianity for the sake of making peace with the Muslim neighbor could in essence ruin his peace with God while discarding the foundations of Historic Christianity. 

            Think about this, would a Muslim Imam acknowledge Christ as God while being a part of an interfaith dialogue with Christians to satisfy his Christian counterpart? No.

            These peace efforts and Chrislam are quite similar since both underplay Christ. While Chrislam denies Christ as Son of God, those in peace efforts deny Christ as and when possible. 

            Will Chrislam replace Christianity and Islam? No! Not by any stretch of imagination. Chrislam offends both Islam and Christianity, for it neither satisfies the core tenets of Christianity nor Islam.  At most, Chrislam will remain a cult and will not replace Christianity or Islam.

Endnotes:

If you are interested in digging deep into Chrislam, please read the following articles:

[1] http://www.equip.org/article/chrislam-insider-movemenets-moving-wrong-direction/

[2] http://www.reasonablefaith.org/what-about-chrislam

[3] http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2015/March09/094.html#zD4BtxLwURgWvslz.99