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One major concern has to do with Christians using the name Allah for God. There are those who seem to think IMB missionaries who refer to God as “Allah” are affirming Muslim theology and endorsing the Muslim concept of Allah.

In response to those who hold to that view, Rankin stated, “Such a view is preposterous. In a cross-cultural witness you use the language of the people and you use whatever terminology they have for God. In reality Muslims cannot exclusively claim ‘Allah’ as their name for God. Although [Allah] has been adopted by the Qur’an and by Muslims, it actually pre-dates Muhammad and the religion he established.

“The Arab Christians used ‘Allah’ as their name for God in pre-Islamic days. Today ‘Allah’ is still the name used for God in many translations of the Bible where the Muslim religion predominates. For example, in the Indonesian Bible, ‘Allah’ is the name for God.”

Rankin continued, “What our missionaries are doing with The Camel is much like what Paul did when he went to Athens. He saw an altar ‘To The Unknown God’ and stated, ‘him declare I unto you.’ In seeking to reach the Muslims, you start with where they are and with their worldview and bring them to the bridge, to the passage in the Qur’an that speaks of Isa (Jesus) and then take them to the gospels. Of course, the Bible is the inspired Word of God and you pray and trust the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth about Christ to them.”

Ed Jump, director of missions for the Corpus Christi Baptist Association in Texas, had Greeson share his insights on reaching Muslims with some people in his association.

“I believe Christians sharing the gospel with Muslims is the most critical issue of our time,” Jump commented. “I was uncomfortable with the idea of referring to God as Allah, but Kevin gave the historical context for a Muslim background Christian referring to God as Allah. He told us that Arab Christians referred to God as Allah long before Islam was a religion.”

Greeson reminds us that no one should dare get his/her understanding of God from the Qur’an and that in the Camel Method of witnessing to Muslims it is just a bridge. “If our doctrines and understanding of God come from the Qur’an, then we will certainly not end up with a Christian view of God,” he adds. “If, on the other hand, our authoritative source about God is the Bible, then our doctrine of God will remain true, regardless of which language we use to call His name.”

http://www.christianindex.org/3313.article