Continued Dialogue
With the Engaging with Islam mission week passed, we don’t want you to think that the issue of Islam and Christianity over. So we wanted to encourage you all to keep thinking through issues that were raised last week and to continue to engage with Muslim students in a loving manner. Such a task can be quite daunting but I hope and pray that some of this material and the links to the websites below would prove to be a useful platform for you to start having conversations with your friends about Christianity and ultimately enable you to share the gospel with them. Remember to pray and encourage each other as well as asking how these conversations have been going.
GOD
The God of the Qur’an appears to be ‘transcendent’ that is he is everywhere. The God of the Qur’an has been described as:
“… near as the jugular vein as the Qur'an states, but this is a "technical" nearness, since just as we are not "aware" of our jugular vein most of the time and don't have a personal relationship with it this only conveys that God is "everywhere".”1
While the God of the Qur’an seems to be both near to us and far from us, this God is not close to us emotionally. God reveals his will and it is up to us as humans to obey his will.
The God of the Bible is different. In the Bible God is ultimately the one who seeks out people. Throughout the Bible it is God who seeks out humans. God who promises a ‘serpent crusher’ in Genesis 3:15, God who calls Abram in Genesis 12, God who brings Israel out of Egypt in Exodus and into the promised land in Joshua. God, who in 2 Samuel 7, promises a king who will rule forever. And God who sends his son to die on the Cross, taking the punishment that we as humans deserved.
In examining Islam, it appears that people are to follow God’s rule as he has revealed through his prophet and this is how they please God. However The Bible reveals God as doing all the work to bring us into relationship with him.
JESUS
What happened to Jesus? The statement that the Qur’an makes is as follows:
“We (the Jews) slew the messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, the messenger of God” – yet they did not slay him, neither crucified him, only a likeness of that was shown to them. … and they slew him not of certainty – no indeed; God raised him up to him; God is All-mighty, All wise."(Qur’an 4:156 – 157, Arberry).2
While the Qur’an claims that while the Jews claimed to have killed Jesus, they were in fact mistaken. God took him up to heaven and they only thought that they had killed him. The picture that the Bible paints is quite different:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the twelve.1 Corinthians 15:3 – 5
The Bible is very explicit that Jesus died, was buried and was raised to life again. These views can not exist side by side and both be true.
When we compare who Christianity and Islam claim that Jesus was, even more discrepancies can be seen. According to Islam:
“God doesn’t have a son, Jesus isn’t divine"(Qur’an 9:30). 3
To claim that Jesus is Gods son or God at any level is in direct opposition to what the Qur’an claims. Lets compare this to what the Bible has to say:
… to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.1 Thessalonians 1:9b – 10
And again:
… Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. ...Philippians 2: 5 – 6.
The way that Jesus is portrayed by The Bible and the Qur’an is again in direct opposition to each other. The Qur’an claims that Jesus was simply a human who served God whereas the Bible claims that Jesus was Gods son as well as the same substance as God.
Even with this brief comparison of Islam and Christianity, it should be clear that there are major differences between Islam and Christianity. They cannot both be right. The next two questions to be asking yourself are: What if Islam is correct? What if Christianity is correct?
1 http://answeringislam.org/lovesus.html
2 Ibid
3 Engaging with Islam Course Notes
[Lachlan Orr]
<< Who Is Samuel Green? | Return to the Index | Singleness and the Eschaton >>