Themelios 3:3

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“If Paul could use the same word for ‘God’ as the Greeks used, however inadequate and misleading it might be, there is no reason why the Christian should hesitate to use the same word for ‘God’ that the Muslim uses, whether it is in Arabic, Persian, Urdu or any other language.” (Page 72)

“quite another thing to live as a Christian in an Islamic society.” (Page 66)

“‘Because of you, the name of God is dishonoured among the Gentiles’ (Rom. 2:24, neb). If Paul could adapt some words from Isaiah 52:5 and apply them to the Jews of his day, we may perhaps be justified in adapting the words again and applying them to the history of the Christian church in the world of Islam: ‘Because of you Christians, the name of Christ is dishonoured among Muslims.’ The problem goes back long before the Crusades, since Muhammad and the Arabs of his day formed their ideas of Christianity largely from the Byzantine Empire.” (Page 69)

“It is hard to resist the feeling that while God’s will is revealed to the Muslim in the Qur’an, God himself is hardly knowable in any personal sense. Man is called upon to obey God and to submit to him; he can also know something about the character of God in the many different ‘names’ of God. But he is not invited to know the God whom he worships. It was no doubt this missing element in man’s relationship with God which contributed to the movement of Islamic mysticism (Sufism).” (Page 72)

“The parallel we have drawn between Islam and New Testament Judaism would suggest that where there has to be a parting of the ways between the Christian and the Muslim, it is because we are faced ultimately with a choice between two ways of thinking which cannot be reconciled. Jesus’ rebuke to Peter over the question of his suffering and death may therefore be relevant in all the other areas as well: ‘You think as men think, not as God thinks’ (Mk. 8:33, neb).” (Page 77)