Open Letter to Our Muslim Friends:

I know many, if not most of you share the shock and horror at the actions of
the few in the atrocity of September 11th. and I strongly suspect that many
of you are as deeply embarrassed-as Muslims-over the actions of these
Islamic extremists, as I am-as a Christian-over the atrocities done in
history "in the name of Christ" in the Spanish Inquisition, or other
insanities.

I know many of you to be peace-loving people, who struggle daily with the
uneasy tension between the demands of your human heart for peace and trust ,
and the demands of your faith for victory and "no compromise"-at whatever
cost to you and others. Where the "comfortable" Christian or "official"
Christian is often weak and superficial in his commitment to his Lord Jesus,
many of you are strong in your zeal for your Prophet and his Book.

We Christians are embarrassed over our acts of violence, as you are often
embarrassed over Islamic violence such as this week's.

There is a very fundamental difference between these two, though, and it
reveals the heart of the deep differences of our faith and our founders.

Faith and Acceptance
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As your conscience has been quickened by the Holy Spirit, you have seen
something of the evil of sin, of its power, its guilt, its woe; and you look
upon it with abhorrence. You feel that sin has separated you from God, that
you are in bondage to the power of evil. The more you struggle to escape,
the more you realize your helplessness. Your motives are impure; your heart
is unclean. You see that your life has been filled with selfishness and sin.
You long to be forgiven, to be cleansed, to be set free. Harmony with God,
likeness to Him--what can you do to obtain it?

God's promise is, "Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for
Me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13.

The whole heart must be yielded to God, or the change can never be wrought
in us by which we are to be restored to His likeness. By nature we are
alienated from God. The Holy Spirit describes our condition in such words as
these: "Dead in trespasses and sins;" "the whole head is sick, and the whole
heart faint;" "no soundness in it." We are held fast in the snare of Satan,
"taken captive by him at his will." Ephesians 2:1; Isaiah 1:5, 6; 2 Timothy
2:26. God desires to heal us, to set us free. But since this requires an
entire transformation, a renewing of our whole nature, we must yield
ourselves wholly to Him.

The warfare against self is the greatest battle that was ever fought. The
yielding of self, surrendering all to the will of God, requires a struggle;
but the soul must submit to God before it can be renewed in holiness.

He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and
forsaketh them shall have mercy." Proverbs 28:13.
The conditions of obtaining mercy of God are simple and just and reasonable.
The Lord does not require us to do some grievous thing in order that we may
have the forgiveness of sin. We need not make long and wearisome
pilgrimages, or perform painful penances, to commend our souls to the God of
heaven or to expiate our transgression; but he that confesseth and forsaketh
his sin shall have mercy.

The apostle says, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for
another, that ye may be healed." James 5:16. Confess your sins to God, who
only can forgive them, and your faults to one another. If you have given
offense to your friend or neighbor, you are to acknowledge your wrong, and
it is his duty freely to forgive you. Then you are to seek the forgiveness
of God, because the brother you have wounded is the property of God, and in
injuring him you sinned against his Creator and Redeemer. The case is
brought before the only true Mediator, our great High Priest, who "was in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin," and who is "touched
with the feeling of our infirmities," and is able to cleanse from every
stain of iniquity. Hebrews 4:15.

How shall a man be just with God? How shall the sinner be made righteous? It
is only through Christ that we can be brought into harmony with God, with
holiness; but how are we to come to Christ? Many are asking the same
question as did the multitude on the Day of Pentecost, when, convicted of
sin, they cried out, "What shall we do?" The first word of Peter's answer
was, "Repent." Acts 2:37, 38. At another time, shortly after, he said,
"Repent, . . . and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out." Acts
3:19.

Repentance includes sorrow for sin and a turning away from it. We shall not
renounce sin unless we see its sinfulness; until we turn away from it in
heart, there will be no real change in the life.