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RenewingMinds
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"Although America has for decades been home to many Muslims who have worshipped peacefully at their local mosque, a radical form of Islam is spreading rapidly throughout much of the world, and in America as well, that regards Christianity and Judaism, as well as Western culture and freedoms, as Satanic, and is intent on destroying them." - WorldNetDaily.com
The following is submitted to our regular readers as well as visitors with the hope that they might gain a better understanding of the essence of the Islamic religion, in contrast to fundamental Christian tenets. While Islam has nearly 1 billion adherents, many of these are superficial followers -- similar to greater Christendom and non-orthodox Judaism. Nevertheless, the ranks of Islamic militants are growing rapidly and their greatest pool of recruits are typically Muslim nominalists.
The American media, being heavily bias in favor of atheistic secularism and relativism, is incapable of understanding or explaining the truth about the two monotheistic religions -- Judaism or Islam, nor can they accurately present the truth about Christianity. These secular fundamentalists, with their negative and broad brush approach to religion, have engineered the public's failure to see or understand the core differences between religions. This widespread religious illiteracy is producing a bitter disaster for America and the Western. Islamic militants have declared a world-wide war on 1) the secular infidels, and 2) devout Christians and Jews. America and Israel are prime targets in the war because they contain the largest percentage of both.
ISLAM
An Analysis
Dr. Francis R. Steele
By literal definition, Islam means "submission" and a Muslim is one who has "submitted" to the dictates of the religion. The main sources for theology are the Qur'an (or Koran), the words which Muhammad (570-632AD) claimed were revealed from God, and the Hadith or traditions concerning statements or practices of the Prophet in situations not covered in the Koran since for the Muslims whatever Muhammad said or did set the norm for belief and life. As long as he lived, Muhammad was the center around which the community grew. He was the religious leader, social arbiter and army commander.
Our interest in Islam, however is practical not theoretical. We wish to preach the [Christian] Gospel to Muslims effectively. In order to do so we must know all we can of Islam generally and locally. We must know the truth about the Gospel so we can deduce from a comparison of the two the weaknesses of Islam, and the excellencies of the Gospel. To this end, let us not three things. First, the apparent parallels; second, the differences of Islam; and third, the significance of these facts.
What are the apparent parallels between Islam and Christianity?
It has long been noted that in cultural background and religious ideas there are closer parallels to Christianity in Islam that in any other religion, with the single exception of Judaism, which is, in its pure form a part of the total Christian revelation. The frequent mention in the Koran of Old Testament characters like Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Joseph, Moses, David, Mary and Jesus Christ demonstrates a close relationship between the Bible and the Koran and therefore between Christianity and Islam. The stories about these people in the Koran however, are quite different that the accounts in the Word of God, often including miraculous incidents and purported sayings quite foreign to the Bible characterization of the individuals concerned.
In fact there are closer parallels between the Qur'anic stories on the one hand and the midrashic tales of the Jews and the stories of Christian tradition on the other hand, that there are with the actual Biblical accounts.
It is clear, therefore, that Muhammad's sources were for the most part not canonical or orthodox and his contact with the Bible was second hand. Nonetheless, the central idea of one supreme God revealing Himself to mankind through prophets for the purpose of declaring His law of righteous behavior is common to Old Testament and Koran alike. In fact three main concepts stand out sharply in both the Bible and the Koran:
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One personal self-revealing God.
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His revelation mediated by prophets contained in a Book.
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Jesus as unique among the prophets before Muhammed.
Indeed, the Koran makes remarkable claims for 'Isa (Jesus). He is said to have been virgin-born, to be the only sinless prophet, to have performed many wonderful miracles (including the raising of the dead), to have ascended to Heaven, and to be coming to earth again. These statements, are of course, considerably tempered by the additional ideas that when He (Jesus) comes again He comes as a human being to die and be buried alongside the body of Muhammad in his tomb in Medina.
Are there any significant differences between Islam and Christianity?
While noting the above striking parallels we must at the same time recognize differences between the Bible and the Koran. These differences appear in explicit statements contradictory to the Bible which are found within the Koran. They may also be seen in the absence from the Koran of certain essential Biblical fact; or, perhaps it would be better to say, the incomplete and inadequate statement of truth about God and man in the Koran as compared to the Bible.
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Two explicit denials: In spite of all the positive statements regarding the Lord Jesus Christ, two basic facts are singled out for repeated denial. They are: His true deity and His death on the Cross.
DENIAL OF THE DEITY OF JESUS
In fact, one whole sura (chapter) in the Koran (112) seems designed deliberately to deny the deity of Jesus by asserting the unique Islamic concept of the "unity" of God. It reads, "Say, He [Allah] is God alone, God the eternal, He begetteth not, and He is not begotten; and there is none like unto Him." (Rodwell's translation) This taken together with other passages purporting to record the words of Jesus which tell us that He forbade His disciples to worship Him saying that He was simply a man like them thus flatly contradict the consistant Biblical witness to the deity of Christ. There is abundant evidence in the Bible that Jesus Christ clearly claimed to be God the Son, pointing to His [miraculous] works as testimony to that fact. And there is the specific instance where He accepted the worship of Thomas as His due (John 20:28,29).
DENIAL OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST
We must also not the frequent Koranic denial of Jesus' death and the fantastic story that God put His likeness on another man so that they ignorantly crucified a substitute while Jesus was taken up to Heaven. Clothing this myth with such pious words as "Allah" would not permit such a wonderful person as the Prophet 'Isa to be so mistreated cannot cancel the fact that a foundational truth has been attacked and set aside.
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Two explicit omissions:
The holiness of God and the sinfulness of men are nowhere recorded in the Koran. These two truths are inseparable and together pose the problem which required as its solution that vicarious sacrifice of the Righteous One in the place of the sinner in order that salvation might be provided. If either the holiness of God or the sinfulness of man is reduced or overlooked, the need for salvation by grace disappears and a religion of human good works becomes plausible. This is precisely the case with Islam.
OMISSION OF THE HOLINESS OF GOD
Although many very impressive titles and descriptions are given to Allah in the Koran, there isn't the slightest suggestion that because of His holiness He is unapproachable by sinful men. The famous official list of 99 divine names for Allah contains many that refer to his wisdom and power in different aspects, and He is referred to as Almighty over and over again. But His name "The Holy One" is referred to only twice in the whole Koran, and any derivatives of the word "holy"--e.g., holiness, holy spirit--are used for a total of nine times. The emphasis is clearly on power rather than purity. In fact one name, "the Master Deceiver", is a startling one for a god and probably derives from the fact that Allah is said to "guide or misguide whom he will."
OMISSION OF THE SINFULNESS OF MAN
At the same time, the true nature of man is obscured in a myriad of phrases relating to iniquities of various kinds. But his basic sin nature and the true nature of sin itself find no place whatsoever in the Koran. It is not enough merely to use the word. Arabic has the same word (hata') for sin which is used in the Hebrew Bible. In fact it is the common word in all Semitic languages and means basically to "miss the mark" or "fall short." The word is good; but the definition in Islam is inaccurate and, therefore, inadequate. But this fault is linked to an inferior concept of God. If you don't know how holy God is you can't know how sinful man is and the result is religion not salvation.
This is the problem of Islam, and the chief distinction between it and Christianity. In Islam man must make himself acceptable to God, but in Christianity, God makes man righteous by the sacrifice of the Savior.
What is the significance of these facts.
What, then is the true relationship between Islam and Christianity? Many suggestions have been made, but three erroneous theories appear to have gained great acceptance:
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Islam is the restored truth of God to replace an invalidated Bible.
This is what the Muslims actually claim, but it is patently false. No Christian would ever accept the Koran in the place of his Bible. At best the Koran appears, on a superficial examination, to bear some distant resemblance to the Old Testament with its polygamy, wars and violent punishment. But even here, the words of the Arabian Seer, though very beautiful in their original Arabic, are not to be compared to the high level of prophetic preaching in the Bible. and the whole moral and ethical tone of the New Testament is from an entirely differenct realm than the clearly earthly, anthropocentric religious concepts of the Koran. However, the real reason that no Christian would ever accept the Koran is the denial of Jesus' death for our sins. If Jesus did not pay for our sin and rise again, then we have no forgiveness and no Intercessor.
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Islam is a step in the right direction away from paganism and toward Christianity.
How can Islam be conceived of as a helpful way-station to Christianity, as the second answer suggests? Why lead the pagan animist from his heathen misery to another religion which is simply a more sophisticated form of misery? How can the substitution of philosophic [and theological] error for superstition mark an advance toward ultimate truth? Moreover, the facts of experience prove the exact opposite--it is actually harder to reach Muslims who were once pagans that to reach the pagans themselves.
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Islam is an unfortunate departure from the main stream occasioned by an inadequate witness on the part of the Church when a sincere man, Muhammad, was seeking the truth.
The third idea involves attributing motivation which is a dangerous thing to do. To suspect Muhammad of deliberate, conscious fraud is difficult and really irrelevant. To attempt to excuse or apologize for him by shifting the responsibility to others, circumstances or people, is likewise foolish and indefensible. What counts is what he did and what he initiated in the community of Islam, not why.
The fact is that Muhammad was the founder of a religious system, seemingly related to Christianity, though basically opposite and opposed to it. It grew in its early years largely at the expense of the Church, has largely thwarted every attempt to regain lost territory and re-establish lost churches and, at the same time, has spread to include one-sixth of the world's population and stands today as the major antagonist of evangelical missions.
Moreover, there are abundant evidences from within the official doctrines and the established practices of Islam to prove unequivocally that Satan is the one who devised and developed the system we call Islam. Satan knows full well that no matter what else is said about Jesus Christ, if He is not God who died on the Cross, there is no Salvation for there is not Savior. Surely, it is no accident that such a cleverly deceptive theology was concocted on the ruins of a decadent Church. No, Islam is a clear, unmistakable, counterfeit of Satan; first to replace a tottering Church, and then to oppose any attempt at resurgence by a renewed Church.
What should be our response to Islam?
God says through His Son Jesus, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel." "All the world" includes Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Tunisia, and Moroco. It includes all Muslims. Therefore, even if Islam denies the central truths of the Gospel, even if they have proven for the most part unmoved so that few conversions have resulted, even if few churches have been established and unrelenting persecution has overtaken almost all converts, we must still act. Our witness ought to be characterized by:
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Firm Faith in God and His purposes
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Full Knowledge of the truth of the Gospel
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Friendly Witness to Muslims whenever and wherever possible
If we do not believe that God is able to save Muslims of course there is no sense in our trying to win them. But if we believe that He intended that they should be included in the outreach of the church we must certainly believe that He is able to effect their salvation. This is the absolutely essential foundation to any effective witness to Muslims.
With Christianity, God redeems lost sinners.
- In Islam, adherents redeem themselves via works,
- with their best hope and assurance of Paradise being
- martyrdom for the cause of Islam and world domination.
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