What About Islam?

The world-wide-web, as we used to call it, offers some amazing opportunities to share the gospel around the world. This blog has had over 28,000 views in the years since I began posting; many of them are in the United States, but about half of them are in other nations across the globe. Through the wonder of cyberspace connections, I have been privileged to witness for Christ in countries like Russia, China, and India where on-the-ground ministry would be difficult if not impossible. I recently had contact with a Muslim in Pakistan who said he had no knowledge of Christianity. I am sharing what I told him on the chance that another Muslim might read it, or that you might find it helpful in your witness to a Muslim in your life. Here is what I wrote:

The Christian faith teaches that Yahweh God created the earth and everything in it. Yahweh had a special purpose in creation to fill the earth with people who could be His family and develop a paradise on earth. Yahweh’s first human creation, Adam, rebelled against Yahweh’s rules and went astray. Because Yahweh loved His creation, He devised a plan to bring them back into His family. First, Yahweh called upon one man, Abraham, to put His plan in motion. Then Yahweh brought into being a nation, Israel, from the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The ultimate descendant of Abraham was Jesus Christ.

The god Muslims worship, known as Allah, is similar to the God revealed in the Old Testament Bible. Allah is also said to have a relationship with the descendants of Abraham. The two stories part ways concerning the special nature of Abraham’s sons. Islam believes the special blessing went to Abraham’s illegitimate son, Ishmael. According to the Bible, the son of Yahweh’s promise was Isaac, not Ishmael.

Because Islam teaches that the line of Abraham’s son Ishmael obtained God’s promised blessing, the entire message of the Bible is lost. The prophet Mohammed was responsible for creating a parallel story where Allah used Ishmael’s descendants to carry on his plan. This parallel story is recorded in the Koran. This explains why Muslims are often at war with Christians and Jews; throughout the Old Testament of the Bible, the descendants of Ismael were fighting with the Jews. They still are to this day.

The god of Islam does bear a resemblance to Yahweh God as He is revealed in the Old Testament of the Bible. The vengeful, warlike image of Allah is somewhat like Yahweh as revealed in the Old Testament. Yahweh God did instruct His people, the nation of Israel, to conquer the territory of the Canaanites, now known as Palestine, and to drive out or kill all the inhabitants. Many of these displaced people were descendants of Ishmael. Yahweh’s justification for the slaughter of the Canaanites was the sinful, idolatrous nature of their worship of Baal. Because of Yahweh’s loving grace, the Canaanites were given many generations to turn from their idols and worship Yahweh, but few of them took advantage of the gracious offer.

The religion that grew from the prophet Mohammed’s teachings denies the central theme of the Bible. Yahweh God loves His people and desires a relationship with them. He made provision for their sinfulness by sending His own Son to pay the penalty for the sin of every person who would ever live. By discounting Jesus’ essential role in Yahweh’s plan, Mohammed lost the beauty of the biblical narrative. John 3:16 in the New Testament of the Bible says this: “In this way, God loved the world, so that He gave His one and only Son, in order that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life.” To have eternal life means to be at peace with our Creator, the sovereign king of the universe now and forever in the future.

The Koran has many true sayings, but Mohammed missed the importance of the blessing which came through Abraham’s son Isaac and was fulfilled in Yahweh’s Son Jesus. Although Jesus was a descendant of Abraham in the flesh, He was truly a Son of God because of His miraculous birth. Mohammed denied Jesus’ divine nature and His resurrection after death on the cross. It is the resurrection that proves Jesus’ claim to be the Savior of the world. If you deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you deny yourself the possibility of a life of peace with your Creator that lasts for all eternity.

Today, many Muslims around the world are coming to believe the Bible is the inspired word of Yahweh God. This is hard for them in some ways because they have to discard many of the teachings of the prophet Mohammed. But it is easy in the sense that they need only to profess a belief in the saving life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and then devote themselves to the teachings of the Bible instead of the Koran. This can be difficult because they must often separate themselves from friends and family, sometimes with threat of death, but once they do, they find new friends and fellowship in the body of Christ known as the church. Ultimately, the peace found in Christ Jesus is worth whatever price one must pay to receive it. The Christian faith says that what you choose to believe about Jesus will determine where you spend eternity. Make your choice carefully.

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