I read with considerable alarm that some Christian leaders are trying to find "common ground" with Muslim leaders about the differences between the two faiths. While the religions certainly have many things in common, there are crucial differences which make a reconciliation (especially a theological one) impossible without compromising the integrity of one or the other or both.
I am a Christian, and I shudder when anyone compromises faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour for any reason. To believers in Christ, the theological doctrines of Muhammad are blasphemous and hit at the very core of the teachings of the Christian faith. But the Muslims would say the same thing about the doctrines of Christianity in relation to Islam. In honest discussion between them, accusations of blasphemy are unavoidable.
I am sure this blog will be considered blasphemous by any Muslim reading it, but I cannot and will not apologise for writing the truth. The following will be discussed in this blog:
- The Bible, not the Quran, is the Word of God. Muhammad was no prophet of God, but an enemy of the truth.
- Jesus Christ is God, the Second Person of the Trinity, three Persons in one Essence. Their "god," Allah, is just another idol, an impostor, a demon from Hell who deceived Muhammad into believing he was God.
- Jesus was crucified and died and was buried, and rose from the dead. Jesus died for your sins and mine that we might be saved.
First, the Bible, not the Quran, is the true Word of God. The turgid style of writing in the Quran reminds many of Adolf Hitler's book, Mein Kampf. I pity a "god" who can't write any better than what I read in that book. The writing is amateurish.
The Muslims claim the early Church distorted the revelation of God's Word. This claim is ridiculous, but Islam has no other way to bolster their claim the Quran is God's Word. You cannot have it both ways: If the Bible is the Word of God, that means the Quran is not. The books contradict each other on basic doctrine, especially on the nature of God and Jesus Christ. Furthermore, Muhammad in the Quran, distorts the stories and teachings of the Bible, which was written hundreds of years before he or it was ever thought of.
Therefore, it is obvious that Muhammad was not the prophet of God he claimed to be. His opposition to the truth of the Bible logically makes him an enemy of the truth, a pawn of Satan. Unfortunately for those looking for "common ground," contradictory thoughts cannot both be right at the same time. Only one may be right or both may be wrong. In this case I believe the Bible. In the rest of this blog, some of the theological disparities between the Holy Bible and the Quran will be demonstrated.
One of Muhammad's claims regarding the relation of the Quran to the Bible is that the Quran abrogates all other revelation including the Bible. In Surah 2:106, the Quran says, "Whatever message We abrogate, or cause to be forgotten, We bring one better than it or one like it. Knowest thou not that Allah is Possessor of power over all things?"
If someone is to believe this, he must first reject the claim of the Bible that it is the Word of God. It claims to be God's eternal Word. In Matthew 24:5, the Lord Jesus tells His disciples, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." In Matthew 5:18, He says, "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, until all be fulfilled." King David also gives testimony in Psalm 119:89' "For ever, O Lord thy word is settled in heaven." This is the Bible speaking. It claims that it is forever, and cannot be abrogated. Therefore, the Quran is a counterfeit "revelation."
From this we see that Muhammad was no prophet of God. Allah was but a figment of his imagination based on something he ate, epilepsy, or distortions of the true Scripture, or any combination of all three. We know he was a liar, thief, murderer, sexual predator and hypocrite. This is clearly not a life that a true prophet of God would live. The Bible sets the bar very high for a prophet or preacher. The man who holds the offices must be a godly man. It directly condemns those who, like Muhammad, are lying "prophets" with a false message.
Secondly, Jesus Christ is God, the second person of the Trinity. Here is one area in which I can to some degree sympathize with Muhammad. Of all the basic Christian doctrines, the Trinity is by far the most difficult to understand. With our finite minds, we can only begin to grasp it. But it is to be believed whether it is understandable or not.
Unfortunately Muhammad, like Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses, had a distorted view of the Trinity. Whereas Russell thought the Trinity a three-headed monster, Muhammad believed in the oneness of God, and could not conceive of a unity of three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) in one essence. He thought the Trinity consisted of the Father, Son, and Mary, the Father's "consort," and rejected the idea of the Trinity.
In the Quran are two passages bearing on this subject:
4:171-"O People of the Book, exceed not the limits in your religion nor speak anything about Allah but the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, is only a messenger of Allah and his word which he communicated to Mary and a mercy from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers. And say not, Three. Desist, it is better for you. Allah is only one God. Far be it from His glory to have a son."
5:73-77-"Certainly they disbelieve who say: Allah is the third of three. And there is no God but One God. And if they desist not from what they say, a painful chastisement will surely befall such of them that disbelieve. Will they not turn to Allah and ask His forgiveness? And Allah is forgiving. Merciful. The Messiah, the son of Mary, was only a messenger; messengers before him had indeed passed away. And his mother was a truthful woman. They both used to eat food. See how we make the messages clear to them! then, behold, how they are turned away! Say: Do you serve besides Allah that which controls for you neither harm nor good? And Allah -- He is the Hearing, the Knowing. Say: O people of the Book, exaggerate not in the matter of your religion unjustly, and follow not the low desires of people who went astray before and led many astray, and went astray from the right path."
According to the Christian faith, this is blasphemy. I am not going to tell anything but the truth about Allah. He is a demon from Hell. I am not "exceeding the limits of my religion" at all in saying that. Jesus the Messiah, is a whole lot more than just a messenger. He was and is the Message. John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Verse 14 say, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."
Christians are not the least bit intimidated by the threat of chastisement in the Quran, for the simple reason that they don't believe Muhammad or his book. Jesus said in John 14:6, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father but by me." If Muhammad thought he was an exception to the rule, he knows better now. He is in Hell, having been deceived by the demon Allah. So the Christian has no regard for his blasphemous threats, which the true God will not enforce, coming as they do from a false "god."
We Christians do not "exaggerate in the matter of our religion unjustly." The importance of the Trinity and the Deity of Jesus Christ cannot be exaggerated. The desire of Christians to bring people to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ are the highest desires one can have, not low, as the Quran alleges. In Matthew 28:18-20, we read, "And Jesus came and spake into them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Jesus commanded His followers spread His Word, and this is not a low desire. Part of the true gospel of Christ is the "blasphemous" concept of the Trinity. The Bible teaches Jesus is God, and that is not a distortion of His Word. The purpose for the gospel of John as stated in John 20:30 and 31 makes this clear: "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name."
Low desires are what Islam encourages. The idea one needs four (or in Muhammad's case, nine) wives to satiate his sexual lust is a low desire. Another low desire is in Islam's idea of heaven, that men will be waited on by the houri, beautiful women. More appeal to lust and low desire. The Christian conception of heaven is so much greater than this, Islam's view pales beside it. In Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians 2:9 we read, "As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, he things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Job 19:25-27 says, "For I know that my Reddeemer liveth, and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself,and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me." I look forward to seeing my Redeemer, not a bunch of women whose sole purpose is to fulfill my lusts.
One more low desire in Islam is the desire for earthly power, manifested in jihad. They don't just try to make converts, but they murder anyone they can who converts from Islam to another faith. They hate Biblical Christianity more than most. The words of Matthew 23:13 apply to them equally as to the original hearers, "But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in." Jesus did not covet earthly power, and when He came to sacrifice Himself for our sins, He said, "My kingdom is not of this world." His desire to give Himself was far greater than Muhammad's to take, as in jihad.
Lastly, Jesus was crucified, he died, was buried, and rose from the dead. Jesus died for our sins so that we might be saved from them. To deny Jesus died on the cross is one of the most outrageous blasphemies there is! There can never be "common ground" here!
In the Gospel of John 19:16-18, we read, "The delivered he (Pontius Pilate) him (Jesus) therefore unto them (the Roman soldiers) to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst." That he was dead is clear from verses 32-37: "Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. for these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced." The prophecies referenced are found in Exodus 12:46 and Zechariah 12:10.
Two things are to be noted here about the Bible's teaching: (1) The scripture says it was Jesus who was crucified, and (2) The scripture teaches that he died on the cross.
Turning to the Quran, we read in 4:157-159, "And for their saying: We have killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of Allah, and they killed him not, nor did they cause his death on the cross, but he was made to appear to them as such. And certainly those who differ therein are in doubt about. They have no knowledge about it, but only follow a conjecture, and they killed him not for certain: Nay, Allah exalted him in his presence. And Allah is ever Mighty, Wise. And there is none of the People of the Book but will believe in this before his death; and on the day of Resurrection he will be a witness against him."
There is no substantiation for anything in this "revelation." Here we have some one writing of events about 600 years after they took place, claiming to refute an eyewitness account by saying Jesus appeared to be dead. This is a ridiculous insult to any one's intelligence. It is Muhammad who is talking beyond his knowledge here.
Muhammad is the only messenger of the demon called Allah. Jehovah, God the Father is the true God. It is He who, as Jesus in John 3:16 puts it, "So loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
On the Day of Resurrection, Muhammad is not going to have anything to say about anything, and he won't be making any more empty threats like those found in the Quran. Allah will not be worshipped by anyone that day, but all glory will be ascribed to "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). It is not going to matter in that day whether or not Muslims regard the Deity of Jesus Christ as blasphemy. They will know that they were the ones who blasphemed the true God, and it will be too late. Unless they come to believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, they will spend eternity in Hell. There they will forever have plenty of common ground with those unbelievers in Christ who compromised the Christian faith.
30
