Can evangelical Christians claim to be followers of Isa? : investigating the purpose, death and return of Isa and Jesus?

Abstract

This research project deals with a simple question which drives the whole project. Can an Evangelical Christian claim to be a follower of Isa? The reason for asking this question is that there are two different groups of scholars who each answer the question differently. Both groups of scholars do not engage deeply with Islamic Christology to see what is the Isa of the Qur’an and hadith to be. There after a comparison is done with Jesus from the Gospels highlighting differences and similarities between the two figures. Thereafter, observing the missiolgical and anthropological aspects of claiming to follow Isa. The research is an exclusive literary study. The researcher attempts to argue that followers of Isa should be careful in adopting Isa as a self-identity and social religious identity. There are two dangers in that followers of Isa maybe perceived as Muslims by the Muslim community since most of the followers of Isa are converts from Islam. The second danger is that followers of Isa maybe syncretic in their approach and not contextual since they are merging two religions