Dave Andrews

‘The essence of Closed Set Religion is all about defining and defending our religion. The essence of Open Set Religion is all about becoming more open to God and encouraging everyone to become more open to God. Conversion for Christians and Muslims from a Closed Set Perspective may mean confessing the creed or the kalimah. Conversion for Christians and Muslims from an Open Set Perspective means constantly turning and moving towards the compassionate spirit of God, exemplified in Isa and the Bismillah, whether we use that language or not, judging our lives, for ourselves, in the light of God’s love, and beginning to trust His love, to sustain us, on the journey of the greater jihad of personal growth and the lesser jihad of social change that He is calling us to be involved with.

There are some obvious disadvantages associated with the ‘Open Set Perspective’. What you see depends on where you stand. So different groups tend to see different disadvantages. On the one hand some of my Muslim friends might say, ‘Oh no. Not Isa again. It sounds too much like Christianity to me. Won’t you Christians ever give up trying to take over the world, one way or another!’ On the other hand some of my Christians friends might say, ‘Oh no. It’s not really very Christian. Sure there are Christian words. But there are Muslim words too. What’s all this about the Bismillah?I thought you were a Christian. Have you decided to become a Muslim?’

I must admit, it can get quite confusing. Which brings us to the major disadvantage of the Open Set, as compared to the Closed Set. With a Closed Perspective it’s easy to judge where people stand in relation to the set, who’s ‘in’, and who’s ‘out’, etcetera. Whereas with an Open Set Perspective it is difficult, if not impossible, for anyone, to judge…’

Dave Andrews p74-75 The Jihad Of Jesus http://bit.ly/1CedNDX