Honesty is the Best Policy After All

Global Initiative (GI) is committed to making the gospel known among Muslims. God continues to move among Muslims from Morocco to Malaysia. Even in the Western Hemisphere, Muslims are getting saved.

God has given the global Church a tremendous opportunity: the discipleship of the many Muslims turning to Christ. These believers, often called MBBs (Muslim background believers in Christ), are hungry to grow in the Lord Jesus Christ.

At GI, we are pleased to announce the publication of a free discipleship book for MBBs—but which will also be a blessing to all who read it. The title is: Journey to the Truth: A Biblical Study of Honesty from Genesis to Revelation. This booklet contains 30 short Bible stories in chronological order from the beginning until the end of the Word of God.

Why Is This Important?

In over forty years as an MBB myself, I have observed that character formation regarding honesty constitutes a great discipleship need. Dishonesty is a problem that plagues the entire human race, not just Muslims, yet Islam provides no real answer to this problem. Muhammad even endorsed deception, situational ethics, and outright lying. He stated: “He who makes peace between the people by inventing good information or saying good things, is not a liar.” [i] MBBs are saddled with this type of instruction. Meanwhile, most MBBs function within an “Honor and Shame” value system. In such systems, maintaining honor is more important than being honest.

The Collapse of Honesty in the West

The United States of America has a wonderful legacy. The two presidents typically cited as the greatest are: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln, who preserved the Union and freed the slaves, was known simply as “Honest Abe.” George Washington is reported to have said, “I cannot tell a lie.” This incident was a reply to his father asking who had chopped down his cherry tree. While the story may be more legendary than literal, the emphasis on honesty became engraved in the conscious of the nation--even through the “founder of the country.”

Fast forward to the 21^st Century and the Western world is in dire straits. We live in a time of cover ups and scandals. Anyone receive a scam text, email, or spam phone call lately? All of this presumes an attempt at deception. The human problem is only getting worse.

Biblical Answers to the Problem

In Journey to the Truth, we investigate Bible passages and stories related to honesty and dishonesty. We may soon forget about the Ananias and Sapphira scandal in Acts 5, but we will cover it in this book.

The aim of this book is to help MBBs uproot dishonesty residing deep within the heart. Specifically, we address the intention to deceive, when doing so promotes self or injures others. All roads point to the answer in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the source of life. The Holy Spirit transforms believers into the image of Christ.

Though I wrote this short publication, it has been a GI team project. Ken Ferguson and Steve Krstulovich helped with editing. Susan Meamber did the final editing and layout. Without further ado, please click on the link and get your FREE copy!

[i] Sahih Bukhari, Volume 3, Book 49, Number 857. https://sunnah.com/bukhari:2692