"I
am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through
Me."
In the year 570 AD in the Arabian city of Mecca the prophet Muhammad was
born. Muhammad was a merchant and a Shepherd and often went into the mountains
and spent days in seclusion. In one of his times of seclusion at the age of
forty Muhammad received a revelation form Allah. Three years after this
Muhammad started preaching this revelation that Allah is One and all must surrender
to him. Islam means surrender. Muhammad also proclaimed the he was Allah’s messenger
and prophet. In the beginning of is ministry Muhammad gained few followers and
was met by hostile tribesman from the Meccan communities. Muhammad then sent
some of his followers to Abyssinia and he himself migrated to Medina in 629 AD.
Muhammad united the tribes in the area and after eight years of fighting
claimed Mecca and destroyed the pagan idols of the city. Muhammad then sent his
followers out to destroy all the pagan temples in Easterain Arabia. In 632 AD
Muhammad returned to Medina where he died that year of a high fever. By the
time of his death most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam.
From the revelations from Allah, which Muhammad claimed to receive until
his death, he recorded in the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the Word of God. Besides
the Quran, Muhammad’s life (sira) and traditions (sunnah) are also upheld by
Muslims as the sources of sharia law.
Christian knowledge of Muhammad comes for the Doctrina Jacobi nuper
baptizti where in 634 AD both the Christians and the Jews believed Muhammad to
be a false prophet. Muhammad means Praiseworthy and Allah means one God.
According to the Muslims there is but one God, there is no other, there
is no partner to God, and no equal. In the Quran it is stated, “And cry not
unto any other god along with Allah. There is no god save Him.” (Sura 18:18)
Allah created and maintains the world alone. Allah has no son, no father, no
relatives, and no associates. Allah is all powerful, all wise, all knowing, and
Allah is eternal without beginning or end.
Christians and Muslims worship the God of Abraham. They both see God as transcendent
and the creator of the universe. The key verse in the Torah of the Jewish faith
is in Deuteronomy 6:4-5. "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is
one! "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your might." There is one God and we are to love
Him only. Jesus repeats this in the following passages in Mark 12:28-30 and
Matt.22:37. Both the Jewish faith and the Christian faith agree that there is
only one God. Any other God is a creation of man. Man the created is not to
worship that which is created but the creator. (Hosea 13:2-4) “And now they sin
more and more, And make for themselves molten images, Idols skillfully made
from their silver, All of them the work of craftsmen. They say of them,
"Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves!" Therefore they will be
like the morning cloud And like dew which soon disappears, Like chaff which is
blown away from the threshing floor And like smoke from a chimney. Yet I have
been the LORD your God Since the land of Egypt; And you were not to know any
god except Me, For there is no savior besides Me.”
The greatest fault Muslims find with the Christian faith is there plurality
of God, God the Father, Mary the Mother, and Jesus the Son. This is not the
Christian view and it comes from a sect, the Choloridians who had contact with
Muhammad during his time in Mecca. We must say here that Christians agree to
the doctrine of the Divine unity of God in there persons: God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures speak of God the Father who
blesses, Ephesians 1:3-4, initiates, John 17:2-9, and sends, John 17:3,18. God
the Son who speaks out creation, John 1:1, who enters into history physically
both in the Old and New Testament, in the time of the prophets, Gen.32:25-30;
Ex.3:2-5; 13:21; 33:9-11; Judge 2:1, and as the Savior Jesus Christ, John 1:14.
God the Holy Spirit who resides within the believer, guides, and instructs, and
empowers him, John 14:16-17, and mediates Jesus Christ and his atoning
work (Jn.15:26). Jesus referred to the Trinity when He commanded His disciples
to go and baptize believers. John 15:26.
In regards to prophets the Muslim
faith has two distinctions for Prophets. A messenger is one who comes with
Devine scripture to guide and reform mankind. The prophet carries the news of
Allah to his people. Messengers are prophets but not all prophets are messengers.
There are said to be 124,000 prophets of Allah. The more notable ones are,
Adam, Abraham, Jacob, Ishmael, Isaac, David, Solomon, John the Baptist, Jesus,
and also Muhammad, who was the final and greatest prophet. Allah has risen up
prophets in every nation, (Sura 16:36) to provide guidance to all of mankind. The
witness of Allah’s prophets was not always well received. (Sura 17:94) Allah
promised to protect his prophets from sickness and death, which is why Jesus is
denied as a messenger because He died on the cross.
Prophets of God in Christian
belief is they are appointed to speak to mankind God’s Word, the story of His
redemptive plan in history. God also revealed the interpretation of His acts to
His prophets. Many of God’s prophets are well known to the Muslims such as, Miriam
(Moses’ sister), Nathan, Isaiah, Jonah, Joel, and Daniel; all of whom came
before Christ. The writers in the New Testament, those who are considered being
prophets are not recognized by the Muslims, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter
and Paul. All of these prophets were descendants of Abraham over a period of
2000 years. The most important message of God’s prophets was the message that
God would take it upon Himself the guilt of all sin, by incarnating Himself and
dying on the cross, thus taking upon Himself that penalty, and so freeing Him
to forgive them from those sins, which then brought them back into a personal
relationship with Him.
Allah sent his message to reform
mankind because of his imperfections. There are five holy books accepted by
Muslims today. The Suhuf, revealed to the prophet Ibrahim, which has become
lost and no longer is in existence today. The Taurut, (Torah) revealed to the
prophet Moses; the Zabur (Psalms), revealed to the prophet David; the Injil
(gospels), revealed to the prophet Jesus; and the Quran, the holy book, the
final message to mankind, revealed to the prophet Muhammad. According to
Muslims the first three, Taurut, Zabur, Injil, are teachings assigned to a
specific tribe or nation. They also believe that further human imperfections
have been introduced. Also they believe that the Bible is a mixture of history
and revelation and is not precise in its message. Therefore it is much too
difficult to separate the revelation from the history.
This is why Allah sent the Quran
to Muhammad to clarify the imperfections of the Bible and is the perfection and
culmination of all the truth contained in the earlier Scriptures. It guards the
previous revelations by restoring the eternal truth of Allah (Sura 3:3-4a), and
clears up all uncertainties.
Christians believe that the
Bible, both the Old and New Testaments are the inspired Word of God. 2 Timothy
3:16-17, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God
may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” A point to make here is that
the Bible is the inspired Word of God, not the dictated Word of God. The sixty
six books of the Bible were written by many authors over a two thousand year
period and coveys God’s Word in a unified and complete message with the unique
testimony of each author. All Old Testament prophecy points to the coming Messiah.
The New Testament is the revelation of the Messiah in Jesus Christ. Christians accept
only the Old and New Testaments of the Bible as God’s Word.
Allah has created a host of
Angels who are sinless, are not determined by sex, have no need of food or
drink, and like man will die and be resurrected. There are four mighty angels
of Allah, Gabriel who is Allah’s chief messenger, Michael, Izrail the angel of
death, Israfil who will blow the trumpet on the last day to awake the dead. When
Adam was created Allah commanded all the angles to bow down before him. All did
except Iblis (Satan) who refused saying, “He was made of clay, but I was made
of fire, so I am better than he.” (Sura 15:28-33) For this act of rebellion
Iblis was thrown out of paradise and forever has been the enemy of man. Iblis
is the leader of all the demons who harass mankind. (Sura 15:34-46)
The chief responsibility of the
angels of Allah is to praise Allah, and do His will. They do His will by
watching over mankind and aiding them in their battles. Muslims believe that there
are two angels for each man. One angel will record the righteous deeds of the
man and one angel will record the evil deeds of the man. At the death of each man two black angels
visit the corpse and ask, “Who is thy Lord? What is thy religion? And who is
thy Prophet?” The answer to those questions will determine the fate of the man,
paradise or the fiery pit.
God has created many beings other
than man and are usually referred to as angels. They are messengers form God
sent to His prophets and believers. Angels have appeared in human form to Abraham,
Moses and others. There are only two named angels in the Bible, Gabriel and
Michael. There are also other created spiritual beings that are disobedient to
God. A Fallen Angel named Satan who through self pride wanted to be as the Most
High God. He and a third of the angels were cast out of heaven and down to
earth. Now they are active in destroying all of God’s work on earth. Satan has
great power but not as great as God, also his power is limited and he must obey
the Word of God. Because of this men need not fear him if they have the Spirit
of God dwelling within. The Spirit gives man the power to resist Satan and his
demons.
For the Muslim sin is a privet
matter. Satan is the cause of all sin and Allah is a merciful God who will
forgive if asked. There is one unforgiveable sin and that is shirk. Shirk is
the practice of associating someone or anything with Allah. Man is neither born
with a sin nature. Adam fell into sin in the garden as a result of trickery by
Satan. Because Adam asked for Allah’s forgiveness he was forgiven. Adam as
Allah’s first prophet could not be accounted as a sinner because Allah would
not have entrusted that position to an evil doer.
Muslims do not attain salvation
by faith but by works. They must observe the five pillars of Islamic practice
as well as avoiding any major sin. Judgment for the Muslim is on that day when
he is buried the two recording angels appear. The dead sit up and undergo an
examination. If the dead say “Shahada” (There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad
is the apostle of Allah) he lies down peacefully and awaits judgment. If he
refuses Shahada he is severely beaten for as long as it pleases Allah. Then the
dead is placed on a scale where his good deeds are weighed against his evil
deeds. It does not matter how the weight works out Allah will chose according
to his own will. If Allah places the book of destiny in His right hand the dead
is saved.
If the dead receives paradise,
then he crosses the razor sharp bridge and receives his reward. Paradise is a
perfumed garden of sensual delights filled with rivers and flowing fountains. It
is populated with black eyed virgins who are there to serve them with all their
fruits. (Sura 47 & 56)
If the dead receives hell, it is
a place of boiling water, gore and fire. It is a place of extreme physical
pain. (Sura 4, 38 & 50)
According to Biblical scripture
sin is an abomination to the Holy God. Sin is a total rejection of God’s character.
Christians believe as the Muslims that Satan does tempt us but Christians are
responsible for falling into the temptation and committing the sin against God.
Christians and mankind have the choice to choose righteous living or
wickedness. The Word of God clearly states that the wages of sin is death and
sense we all are sinners we are deserving of death. God through His grace and
mercy has offered forgiveness through the blood of His only Son, Jesus Christ. Those
who believe in His redeeming death on the cross, repent from their sinful ways,
are saved from eternal separation from God. (John 3:16-17) Those who reject Him
will be eternally condemned.
Before Christ’s assent into
Heaven He warned against false prophets and promised to return a second time to
judge the world. When Christ returns He will raise all the dead back to life.
He then will separate the righteous from the unrighteous. Those who rejected
the free gift of salvation through Jesus will face eternal punishment. By rejecting
God’s Son they have also rejected God the Father and God the Holy Spirit and no
sin is greater than that. (1 John 2:22-23)
Those who have trusted Jesus as
their redeemer will have no fear of Christ the judge, they will receive eternal
life. (John 5:22-24 Acts 17:30-31) The saved will not go into a garden full of
carnal pleasures as the Muslims believe, but will be in the Glory and presence
of God Almighty. They shall live forever in love and joy as it says in
Revelations 21:1-7, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first
heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I
saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made
ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the
throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will
dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among
them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no
longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain;
the first things have passed away." And He who sits on the throne said,
"Behold, I am making all things new." And He *said, "Write, for
these words are faithful and true." Then He said to me, "It is done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one
who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. "He who
overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My
son.”
The word Islam means submission to
the will of Allah. The reason for this submission is the belief that everything
is predestined, including faith and unbelief, good and evil, are preordained. As
a religion, Islam is a code of political, ceremonial, civil, and criminal law,
as well as moral and religious precepts, all promulgated in Allah's name, while
leaving nothing to the believer's initiative.
Muslims believe that Allah is in
control of all of history. Allah is a sovereign God and anything that happens
is the will of Allah. It is the belief of a Muslim that all good and evil is
according to the will of Allah. This is the bases of their fanatically in war
and destructive behavior for what may happen is in the control and will of
Allah. Therefore Allah is not hindered
by any moral code as this would limit His sovereignty.
God is bound by His holiness and
love. (1 John 4:16) Where Allah only loves those who obey His will God loves
the believer as well as the sinner. This is proven in that He sacrificed His
only Son for the salvation of the lost. (Romans 5:1-10)
In the Quran Allah is a God that
is distant to His followers, as they are not to associate themselves with Him
as this is the greatest sin. God desires a personal relationship with His
followers. (John1:11-14;15:9-15)
Where Allah is also the author of
evil God can not be in the presence of evil. God is a holy God. (Psalms
77:13;99:9) God’s eyes are too pure to look upon evil. (Habakkuk 1:13)
Man was created in the image of
God (Genesis 2:27) is in direct contrast to the Muslim idea that man is a slave
to Allah. Man was not created to be a slave to God but to have a personal
relationship with Him. Man has a free will and can choose to be in a
relationship with his creator or reject Him.
I find it hard to accept that any
man could be so blind to fall into the deceit of the Islamic religion. How could
one place his eternal spiritual life on a man of Abraham’s seed through Ishmael
who was filled with the very basic sin of man that the apostle John wrote about
in 1 John 2:16, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the
lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is
from the world.” Islam is a false religion that seeks the desires of the flesh
as the reward for a life not of goodness and righteousness but that of the
selfish desires of a man who is dead and awaits the fires of hell. Muhammad
took the Word of God and rewrote it to suit his own sinful behavior and
believes that no matter what one does in life his fate will be at the mercy of
the whims of a false God. Any belief that does not confess Jesus Christ as Lord
and Savior is as lie of the devil.
I hear that the Muslim faith is a
faith of peace and tolerance. I say it is a faith born of greed and a lust for
power and is violent and murderous towards anyone who opposes it. I say that its
goal is domination over all in the world and demand that all submit or face execution.
But no one has to take my word for it but do have to take their word for it,
don’t you?
The Quran contains at least 109
verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic
rule. Some are quite graphic, with
commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be
hiding. Muslims who do not join the
fight are called 'hypocrites' and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if
they do not join the slaughter.
Here are a few of them from their
own holy book written by their false prophet Muhammad.
Quran (2:191-193) - "And
slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they
drove you out, for persecution [of Muslims] is worse than slaughter [of
non-believers]... but if they desist, then lo! Allah is forgiving and
merciful. And fight them until
persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah." The historical context of this passage is not
defensive warfare, since Muhammad and his Muslims had just relocated to Medina
and were not under attack by their Meccan adversaries. In fact, the verses urge offensive warfare,
in that Muslims are to drive Meccan’s out of their own city (which they later
did). The use of the word
"persecution" by some Muslim translators is thus disingenuous (the
actual Muslim words for persecution - "idtihad" - and oppression - a
variation of "z-l-m" - do not appear in the verse). The actual Arabic comes from
"fitna" which can mean disbelief or the disorder that results from
unbelief or temptation. Taken as a
whole, the context makes clear that violence is being authorized until
"religion is for Allah" - ie. Unbelievers desist in their unbelief.
Quran (2:216) - “Fighting is
prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a
thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But
Allah knoweth, and ye know not."
Not only does this verse establish that violence can be virtuous, but it
also contradicts the myth that fighting is intended only in self-defense, since
the audience was obviously not under attack at the time. From the Hadith, we know that this verse was
narrated at a time that Muhammad was actually trying to motivate his people
into raiding merchant caravans for loot.
Quran (4:95) - "Not equal
are those believers who sit (at home) and receive no hurt, and those who strive
and fight in the cause of Allah with their goods and their persons. Allah hath
granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and
persons than to those who sit (at home). Unto all (in Faith) Hath Allah
promised good: But those who strive and fight Hath He distinguished above those
who sit (at home) by a special reward,-"
This passage criticizes "peaceful" Muslims who do not join in
the violence, letting them know that they are less worthy in Allah's eyes. It also demolishes the modern myth that
"Jihad" doesn't mean holy war in the Quran, but rather a spiritual
struggle. Not only is the Arabic word
used in this passage, but it is clearly not referring to anything spiritual,
since the physically disabled are given exemption. (The Hadith reveals the context of the
passage to be in response to a blind man's protest that he is unable to engage
in Jihad and this is reflected in other translations of the verse).
Quran (5:33) - "The
punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to
make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or
crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or
they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world,
and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement"
Quran (8:12) - "I will cast
terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their
heads and strike off every fingertip of them” No reasonable person would
interpret this to mean a spiritual struggle.
Be careful of a President who
desired a Muslim Prayer service before his party’s convention. Beware of a
President who refuses to acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Vote
your Heart and pray for the church to once again stand of the rock and preach
God’s Word. Beware of inter faith meetings as it is the devils snare to draw
men away from the true God, if they do not follow Jesus in the faith their path
leads to destruction.
Teach your children and train
them up right so that they will not suffer the wrath from God to come. What
more can I say, “REPENT.”
