Islam is a religion that we can closely identify with.  One of the fallacies that I had come into contact years ago was why is Christianity right and all of these other world religions are false because they all seem to say the same thing.  At quick glances they do seem to be the same, but when you dig down they are not.  As I was doing research I was looking at a wiki page, I know right, don’t trust anything on there, well that is why I was there because I don’t trust anything on it and wanted to get varying information.  Anyway there was a section on the page titled “Abrahamic Religions”.  Within that section there were Christianity, Judaism, Roman Catholicism, some other small ones and Islam.  Islam is listed as Abrahamic.  People think they are the same because they happen to mention some of the same names.  I tell you now, they believe in Jesus, but not the same Jesus.    

As we will see with most of these world religions, is that they start kind of along biblical lines and then spin off.  In Islam they take the Bible as well as the Quran as the Word of God.  As we will talk about later they also believe that the Bible is the Word of God but has been corrupted by man.  They do not discourage the Bible, but say you can no longer trust it.  This is funny because the New Testament had only been written approximately 500 years prior to the writing of the Quran.  That puts the OT starting approximately 2000 years prior.  But it is in the OT that Islam and the Quran have the most similarities.   

The word Islam means to submit, surrender, or to commit oneself.  People who follow Islam are known as Muslims.  The word Muslim means one who submits to God.  Anyone who submits to Islam is known as a Muslim.   

History 

I think most of us are somewhat familiar with Islam.  We know a couple of the basics.  Islam was founded by Muhammad.  HE was born in Mecca which is in modern day Saudi Arabia in 570 AD.  The culture in Mecca at that time was a heavily polytheistic.  Mecca was famous for its temple the Kaaba.  The Kaaba was a sanctuary filled with deities, 360 to be exact.  There was one deity for every day of the lunar year.   

Muhammad was raised in this culture until the age of 40.  It was at that age when he was sitting in a cave pondering religion as this was a custom to do once year back in that society. It was there he was visited by what he called an angel named “Gabriel”.  The angel commanded him to recite.  Muhammad said no, then the angel got angry and attacked. He repeated the command, and again Muhammad said no. The same thing plays out a couple of times and then reluctantly Muhammad does as he is commanded by the angel.   

I didn’t spend much time looking into this, but I believe it is in the Quran we read there are times that Muhammad questioned who the messages he was receiving actually came from.  He questioned if they were really from God or from a demon.  Islam history even tells us that the name of the angel changed as Muhammad got older.  It is said that Muhammad didn’t have any influence from Judaism or Christianity growing up.  This makes sense since he was engulfed in a society that had 360 deities.  It isn’t until later that he changes the name to Gabriel.   

Remember back to Mormonism.  We talked about how I believe an angel really did speak to Joseph Smith.  I really believe that an angel spoke to Muhammad.  It wasn’t Gabriel and it wasn’t sent by God.  We know them as demons.   

2 Corinthians 11:13-15 “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transformed himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.”  

Galatians 1:8 “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”  

For the next 23 years this angel continues to command Muhammad to teach and write the Quran.  The Quran is made up of chapters called Suras.   There are 114 Suras in the Quran.  They are arranged within the Quran from longest to shortest.  Not in order of importance or in chronological order, but purely by length.  Tell me that doesn’t speak of men.  It doesn’t paint a picture in any sort of order, it is pure randomness.  The Bible is compiled to tell you a story.  Whether or not we understand that story in the order it is placed is us, but the order paints a picture.  The Quran does not.  It is an image of chaos, which is the main result of Islam.   

After receiving this revelation from this angel Muhammad then proceeds to teach against the deities in Mecca.  His message is not well received and He only has a small number of followers and only from the lower class of society.  The reason being that Mecca made money from all of the visitors there to see and worship the deities that Muhammad was now calling false deities.   

In 622 AD Muhammad becomes aware of a plot to kill him.  This is supposedly made aware to him by Gabriel, so Muhammad flees Mecca and goes north to Yathrib.  This city has since been renamed Medina or city of the Prophet.  There in Yathrib Muhammad’s teachings catch fire.  And this is the real birth of Islam.  In 630 AD Muhammad leads 10,000 of his men to attack and conquer Mecca.  Upon conquering Mecca, Muhammad goes into the Kaaba and orders all of the deities destroyed and orders that only Allah be worshiped there from then on.  The Kaaba still stands today and it is the home to modern day Islam.   

Two years after conquering Mecca Muhammad dies.  This created a problem that still exists today.  It divided the religion in half creating two groups that are familiar with today: the Sunnis and the Shiites.   

The Sunnis account for the vast majority of Muslims approximately 85-90%. They believe the caliphs, which is a representative or delegate for Islam should be elected by the Islamic leadership from among Muhammad’s closest friends.   

The Shiites believe that Muhammad’s successor should be hereditary.   

After Muhammad’s death Islam is then spread rapidly throughout the world mostly by military conquest.  We still see that today as the Middle East rages in war and the Christians and others are forced to convert or die.   

Islam was spread in to Central Asia and China, North Africa, and into southern France and Spain all by military conquest.  In 732 AD the French defeated the Muslims ending their advancement into Europe.   

300 years later we have the beginnings of the Crusades which were initially intended to help defend Christians in the East.   

Today Islam is the second largest religion in the world. Second only to Christianity.   It is estimated there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. There are 2.1 million Christians.  Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world.   

Quran vs. Bible 

The Quran is the holy book of Islam.  It is taught in Islam that the Quran is eternal meaning that Allah has it written on stone tablets in heaven where it can never be changed and Allah won’t allow it to be changed.  Muslims have extreme reverence for the Quran which means they take impeccable care of the book. You would never ever write in it.  So if you are a note taker or highlighter like me, they will see what you have done to your Bible as irreverent and disrespectful.  Muslims will keep their Bibles above their waists to keep it clean.  They wash their hands before handling it.   

Like we already talked about the Quran is a collection of 114 suras or chapters. They are the writings of Muhammad.  They cover a variety of topics including ethics, history, law, and theology. The Quran is slightly smaller than the New Testament of the Bible.  There is another book called the hadith.  The hadith is a collection of writings about what Muhammad and his companions did and said.  Both books weren’t compiled until after Muhammad’s death.   

I have a funny story that ties into this study! I like to get on the “What’s Hot” feed on Google Plus and just browse.  It populates posts based on what’s trending as well as what you search, you know because it belongs to Google who is Big Brother watching everything you do.  For some reason my feed is always filled with Islamic stuff.  People are always quoting the Quran, and it is always in Arabic first followed by the English translation.  There is a reason for that I have learned.  It was originally written in Arabic and Muslims believe that Arabic is the language of Allah.  Therefore, to obtain the full true meaning you must read it in Arabic.  There are translations into other languages, but the Quran even states that it should be read and quoted in Arabic.  So people always quote it in both Arabic and English.   

The Quran teaches that it is a supplication essentially to the Bible.  That the Bible was from Allah, but has been corrupted by men.  This is funny since if it is from Allah and Allah can protect the Quran why couldn’t he protect the Bible?  When I say Bible here I mean three portions of the Bible.  The Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospels.  But they have been corrupted now and the Quran corrects the errors in them.   

This is a good thing to discuss with a Muslim.  If Allah can protect the Quran from change, how or why is it that he didn’t protect the other three books? 

The Quran acknowledges and even promotes the reading of the Bible, but they are to take it at face value and not put a lot of stock in it.  They believe that the Quran is a confirmation of what came before it.   

According the Quran itself it is perfect, and it has no contradictions.     

Here are a couple of contradictions between the Bible and the Quran.   

• Quran: Noahs ark came to rest on Mt. Judi 
  Bible: on Mt. Ararat 
• Quran: Abraham’s father was Azar 
  Bible: Terah 
• Quran: Pharaoh’s wife adopted Moses 
  Bible: Pharaoh’s daughter 
• Quran: Flood happened in Moses’ day 
  Bible: Noah’s day 
• Quran: Jesus wasn’t crucified or killed 
  Bible: Jesus was crucified and rose on the third day 
• Quran: Jesus was no more than a messenger 
  Bible: Jesus is God and Savior 
• Quran: Salvation attained through good works 
  Bible: Salvation attained through faith alone in Jesus Christ 

The Bible teaches in many places that God does not change and He is not a liar.   

Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29, Malachi 3:6, Matthew 24:35, John 17:17, James 1:15 

Saying that the Bible is wrong is a hard thing to do.  There are so many things they do accept that it really requires a special filter to decide what has been and what hasn’t been.  You get to pick and choose what Scriptures you are going to accept or not, and you certainly wouldn’t dismiss the ones about God not changing and being a liar because then you would worship an omniscient and omnipotent God who changes and lies.  Cause that sounds like fun.  And then on top of that to commend the reading of a book that you call corrupt.  I would never commend the reading of a book of a book like the Quran.  Some might do that to get a better understanding of Muslims, but never do that until you have a very solid basis of who God is and where your faith rests. 

Muslims go as far as to check the Bible against the Quran.  (Suras 5:44; 10;94).  If they are doing that then we can ask them the question “Who was Jesus?”  Their response will be a good man and a prophet, then how did Jesus teach that He was the only way to God (John 14:6), He was equal with God (John 5:18), that He takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29) and salvation is found in other (Acts 4:12)?   

This will get them to say that the Bible has been corrupted.  Now you can build the authenticity and reliability of the Bible.  It’s an apologetic trap!  Generally the burden of proof is on those who deny it.  You can go that direction ask them to prove why it is corrupt.  You can ask: 

• What historical evidence is there to back this claim up? 
• If the Bible was changed before Muhammad was born, why does the Quran commend reading it? 
• If the Bible was changed after Muhammad’s birth , how do you explain the thousands of manuscripts that prove the Bile we have today is the same Bible that was before Muhammad’s time? 

This is where you should get to have a better understanding of where the Bible actually came from.   

Like Ben taught back in June we have approximately 5600 copies of the New Testament.  The earliest one was penned approximately 100 years after it was originally written.  Comparing all of the copies and pieces and everything that we have we find that it is 99.5% exact.   

• By the time Muhammad comes on scene there are hundreds of thousands of copies of the Bible dispersed over a large part of the world.  To successfully corrupt the Bible, all of these copies would have had to be meticulously gathered and then changed.  Otherwise you would be able to sample various copies we have from around the world and find significant variations in them due to geographic locations not intermingling.   
• Another scenario is that hundreds of thousands of Bible owning people from around the world met together and colluded to make the changes.  If they really believed in the Bible and what it said would they tamper with it like that? Would they tamper with the words by which they base their eternal salvation? Would it even be physically possible to get a bunch of people together like that and do it? 
• Hundreds of years before Muhammad was born, the Bible had already been translated into a number of languages. Would you believe that all of these were identically altered all over the world so to have uniform corruption?   
• Again why would the almighty and sovereign God of the universe, the creator of all things, allow His Word to be corrupted like that? 

A couple of the differences we looked at don’t change the meaning of the Bible. Change a few names it is still the same.  But change who Jesus was and what He did and that’s a whole new level.  

Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of God stands forever.” 

Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”   

Get this.  Islam states the Quran is eternal because there is a copy of it in heaven.  Fine the Bible says  

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” – John 1:1-1:5 

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life – the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us – that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His son Jesus Christ.” – 1 John 1:1-3 

Dude dig this. Jesus is the Word.  The Word of God is Jesus.  Jesus is alive.  Even the Muslims say that He never died.  The Bible is living and breathing.  What is better a stone tablet in heaven or being alive?   

 

Muhammad vs. Jesus 

To start with Muhammad isn’t raised to the position of deity by orthodox Islam.  They come really close though.  If it weren’t for this study I would think that they did worship him as a god because of his popularity.  There is a place you can go see his beard.  You can see two of the teeth he lost in some battle.  There are other various relics, but it borders on the line of worshipping him.  There are also many traditions that speak of Muhammad’s preexistence and other traditions that say he was the purpose for God creating the universe.  In some places it is taught that he takes preeminence above all created things and has perfect wisdom.   

The Quran teaches that Muhammad was a prophet.  Tradition holds that there were 124,000 prophets.  Most Muslims believe that the prophets were sinless even though the Quran records the sins of the prophets Adam, Moses, David, Solomon and even Muhammad. The Quran teaches that Muhammad was not just a prophet, but the prophet.  He was the last one, the greatest one.  He was the last and greatest messenger of Allah and his mission was for the whole world and for all times.   

So right away we can tell that they are off base from Christianity.  It is an addition to Christianity.  That Jesus didn’t do anything, but neither did Muhammad.  People try and turn Muhammad into Jesus.  They call Jesus the messiah, but it’s not the word messiah that we use.  Muhammad is their messiah because he brought the “true” religion to us.  Let’s do a little comparison now between Muhammad and Jesus: 

• The Quran (and the Bible) say Jesus is sinless.  But it says that Muhammad had to ask for forgiveness.   
• The Quran says men should have no more than 4 wives, yet Muhammad had 11 including a 9 year old girl.  Jesus never married. 
• Muhammad attacked and conquered peopled that would not submit to his teachings.  Jesus sent out the disciples to preach repentance, cast out demons, anoint and heal the sick in the name of Jesus.  
• Muhammad taught revenge. Jesus taught us the true meaning of love. 
• Muhammad was known as the “Prophet of the sword” and Jesus forbid the use of the sword and taught forgiveness.   
• Muhammad doubted the message he received, whether it was from God or demons.  Jesus was the divine revelation and the Word of God. 
• Muhammad didn’t know is eternal destiny. Jesus knew He was going back to be with the Father.   

Islam rejects that Jesus was God.  They reject the idea of the Trinity entirely.  They believe us to be polytheists in that we worship three separate Gods.   

Is anyone familiar with the Nicene Creed?  You should be as good Bible students. 

Nicene Creed 

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.   

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again  
in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.   

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.  
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. 

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One of the things that makes the Nicene Creed good is the way that it simply breaks down the Trinity while avoiding the heresy of being polytheistic.  Anyone know when it was written?  325 AD.  That is almost 300 years before Muhammad.  So to say that Christianity was polytheistic would be a falsity even at that time.   

Islam doesn’t believe in the Trinity, they also don’t assert to the fact that Jesus was the Son of God.  He is simply a good man to them.  In Islam the term Shirk means “the most serious sin is to associate partners or companions (the Trinity) with the nature of God [Allah].” 

What the Bible tells us. 

• I have over 40 references that either speak to the Trinity or speak to the fact that Jesus is God.   

• John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” 
• John 10:28-30 “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”. 

Not only does the Bible say that Jesus is the Son of God it speaks of Him being God and Savior. 

• Isaiah 43:11 “I, even I, am the Lord, and besides ME there is no savior” 

• Titus 1:4 “To Titus, a true son in our common faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.”  

• Isaiah 44:24 “I am the Lord, who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself”  

• Colossians 1:12 “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, where thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.   

You can even get into the worshipping of Jesus and see that it is the same Greek word used for both worshiping of the Father and of the Son.  The Bible speaks of people and angels rejecting worship because they aren’t God, yet Jesus allows it.   

This is what you can take away from this comparison.  Muslims have a high respect for Jesus. They don’t deny His existence.  Yet they deny His deity.  They deny the salvation that He brings and they deny His death.  Sneak peak at next month.  Islam is a works based religion.  You have to be good and do good to get into heaven.  In the end they have no idea if Allah will be happy with what they have done or not.  There are some things you can do to lean that way, but there is never a guarantee, unless you die in a holy war jihad I believe.  They say that Jesus never died, that He was never crucified.  That eliminates what He did to save us.  They explain away the Bible the people seeing Him on the cross, the people seeing Him being buried by saying it was possibly Judas on the cross instead.  Or they say that He passed out on the cross and wasn’t really dead when they buried Him.  He was scourged, which most of the time kills you.  He had a crown of thrones on His head causing more bleeding.  He carried His own cross, exhausting Him. He had nails pierced through His hands and feet causing even more bleeding.  Finally He had a spear thrust into His side.  There is no possible way for just a man to survive all of that.  Then add on top of it that He was taken down and wrapped in linens. Don’t you think someone would have seen Him breathing?  You have to work really hard to explain away who Jesus is.  When you could just believe that He is the Son of God.