A Christian View of Islam - Part 1

This will be part of a series, looking at Islam from various points of view - the entire series will be on this blog, with other portions on other blogs or at www.thepriceofliberty.org, since the idea of the series originated with the publisher of The Price of Liberty.

FROM THE CHRISTIAN POINT OF VIEW

In many ways, the establishment of the religion of Islam (which means “Submission”) was intentionally to create a challenger, a replacement, for “Christianity.” This should come as no surprise, given the degraded state of what was called “Christian” in the 7^th Century. The religious hierarchy so foreign to the New Testament was completely developed, the apostasy from the First Century nearly complete. The “church” was characterized and best known for an era in which rival bishops and archbishops used gangs of ravenous monks to attack their theological opponents, where rivals in the church assassinated each other, where the secular ruler used his troops to support one interpretation of scripture over another, and barricaded dissenting congregations in their burning buildings.

As a result, Mohammed and his Companions (as Joe Smith Jr. was to do 1200 years later) created a religion that drew on both Old and New Testament and even pagan traditions, coupled it with a “new revelation” (the Qu’ran) and created a unique religion. In many ways, what developed over the next century could be described as “Judaism on steroids” for it took much from the Old Law and created a legalistic system that put anything First-Century Pharisees attempted in a distant second place.

Much of the new religion bore the unmistakable stamp of its origin in the Arab peoples of their vast and often inhospitable peninsula, just as 19^th Century Mormonism wears the unquestionable dress of its American origins. Not only were old and favored shrines incorporated into the religion (geo-oriented as much as Judaism and completely unlike pure Christianity), but many of the customs and rituals of the previously pagan or mixed-faith tribes were embedded deeply in the new faith. It should come as no surprise that Islam proved such a perfect tool for Arab, Mongol, Turkic, and Persian imperialism for the next millennium.

In contrast to the messianic hope of the Old Testament faith of Moses and the Prophets, in contrast to the fulfilled promise of the Messiah’s incarnation and His promised return in glory, Islam offers a warped view of salvation by works and a “God-given” society designed for 7^th Century Arabia, created by a man with obvious hatred for both Jews and Christians.

What is wrong with Islam, from a Biblical point of view? (A Baker’s Dozen ™: What is wrong with Islam according to the Bible):

1. Islam portrays God as vindictive, cruel, and hateful, and not loving and merciful (even though they are careful to call Him that).

2. Islam denies that Jesus is the Son of God, and demotes him from Savior to a mere “Prophet” on a par with Abraham, David, Isaiah, and Moses, and less important than “The Messenger” (Mohammed).

3. Islam denies the sufficiency of the Bible, adding not just the Qu’ran but many other writings, and claims that the Bible is corrupt and evil as it presently exists.

4. Islam, while claiming to revere the Old and New Testaments, constantly contradicts both portions of the Bible – claiming, for example, that Ishmael (not Isaac) was the son of promise.

5. Islam teaches salvation by works, and not by faith: that Judgment is a weighing of good and bad deeds, and that men can atone for their own sins.

6. Islam demands perfect adherence to the same sort of rituals and ceremonial, physical actions as found in the Old Law and put away forever by Christ’s sacrifice “once and for all.” Thus, it negates His life, death, burial, and resurrection.

7. Islam preaches violence, conquest, tyranny, slavery, degradation of women, and many other moral and social evils.

8. Islam promotes looting, killing, mutilation, conflict inside and outside families, spouse and child abuse, incest, polygamy, and pedophilia.

9. Islam promotes discrimination and segregation based on ancestry and such cultural features as language (promoting Arabic as the only acceptable language for religion, for example).

10. Islam seeks to unite church and state, elevating what should be “servants” (ministers) of God into masters, and making God into the patron of tyrants.

11. Islam’s followers take into their own hands things that are reserved alone to God, in matters of judgment and punishment.

12. Islam results in civil strife, bloodletting, racial prejudice, personal vengeance, invasions, poverty, slavery, mutilation, and general destruction.

13. Islam claims to result in unity in one single religious-political-cultural system (the “Ummah” or “dar al-Islam”) but the result has been more factions and religions and religious strife, not only outside Islam but within the religion.

Although many of these things have been practiced by some claiming to be christian over the centuries, they are unable to justify their actions by the New Testament (regardless of translation) whereas the Qu’ran can be cited in support of these things readily (even though some “moderate” or “liberal” Muslim “clerics” claim to interpret these things into mere symbolism or “spiritual” understandings. Today and always this has been viewed as an aberration, and condemned as the hypocrisy it is, by virtually all of “Christendom” – but it has been common and accepted in Islam, and for the most part still is today.

What should we do?

1. Remember that we are to hate the sin, not the sinner.
2. Be ready to preach, not just in word, but in deed, to those followers of Islam we encounter.
3. Support mission work in areas under Islamic control and threatened by that religion, including areas here in the US. Prayer and giving are both needed.
4. Teach the truth about Islam to other christians and non-christians, countering ideas that it is “peaceful” or “just another way to God.”
5. Resist the slow creep of Islamic concepts into our society and even into religion in general – an all too common process going on in Europe and elsewhere.
6. Understand and act on the urgency to preach to those who might be attracted by this “new” thing or rejecting the evils of “mainstream Christianity”

© Nathan A. Barton, April 2006