Adam,

I am curious why your goal of reaching the lost leads you to look for ways to convince people of other religions that they are wrong?  I have found that the best way to reach people of other religions is by trying to prove those other religions contain the same absolute truth that Jesus delivered.  You might try that approach instead. 

The fact that Islam or Hindu traditions contain wonderful truths about God will help to prove that God exists. It will also give weight to the message of Jesus in their eyes if they realize he was speaking these same truths.   Wouldn’t it be easier to speak to them if you first got them to see the value of Jesus’ message by relating the truth in his message to the truth in their tradition?  Then you have a starting point for discussion.

Why is there such a need to prove that our particular image of God is so much more accurate than everyone else’s?  I think the important things to address are the underlying truths and not the particular cultural wrappings of the truths (sacred texts and practices).

I think this highlights Andrew’s points here and elsewhere that our particular background and context will mold your views on scripture.  You view scripture as the poof text for your faith because your goal is to "fix" or convert people of other religions by proving their texts to be wrong.   That is the exact frame of mind that created all the dogmatic Christian doctrines (trinity, virgin birth, atonement, 6-day creation, literal judgment day prophecies, etc).  The people that created that dogma were trying to put together formula to prove their view of God was correct.

The same points can be made about my comments.  I have my own ulterior motives that revolve around the need to "fix" or convert Christians away from the false religious views of Christianity.  So I admit that my views are often skewed by my own background and motive.

To answer you question “without having the scripture to tell you, ‘God is love,’ how would you know that God is in fact love”: I wouldn’t.   That is why I love the Bible and place value in it.  It is the primary means of preserving the message of Jesus.  That is why I call myself a Christian and live and work within the Christian church even though I value truth in other religions, in the many Christian denominations, and also in science.

Danutz