The Sunday Next Before Advent, 2004

Jesus or Muhammad?

Last summer our kids took swimming lessons for the first time. Every day parents took their children to the pool and watched them learn basic swimming skills. The parents sat on the grass while the kids splashed in the water. This is how Beth and I became acquainted with Karima, a Muslim lady with a head-scarf. While our children swam we chatted. Karima was an exceptionally nice lady with a winsome personality. She told me she had been raised in an atheistic home. Atheism was so empty and depressing she converted to Islam in college. She then married a Muslim man and they had three children. Karima seemed completely different from the terrorists threatening the world: Al-Zarqawi, Osama Bin Laden, and the suicide bombers. Why are some Muslims violent and others peaceful? How does Islamic teaching differ from the Bible? How do Jesus and Muhammad differ? With what arguments can the Church evangelize Muslims today? Current events indicate that it is no longer possible for Western Christians to ignore the Islamic world. On this Sunday Next before Advent we want to cover some of the major features of Islam, so we may present the claims of Christ to them in a persuasive and loving way.

The prophet Mohammed is the natural starting point. The founder of Islam was born in 570 AD in Mecca, a city in Arabia. His uncle raised him as an orphan and he became a camel-driver. Merchants paid him to transport their goods across the desert in camel caravans. In the course of time a rich woman-merchant named Khadijah hired Mohammed to transport her wares. One thing led to another and the two got married. Mohammed began to visit a cave to think and meditate. The angel Gabriel appeared to him and told him to start a new religion called Islam. At first, Mohammed thought it was a demon deceiving him, but his wife assured him that it was Gabriel. For the remainder of his life the angel continued to come to Mohammed. Everything that Mohammed heard he taught to his followers. After the prophet died in 632 A.D. his visions were compiled in a book called the Koran. The Koran is the Bible of the Muslims.

The Koran is about the size of the New Testament and gives place to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus and most of the biblical characters we know of. An Egyptian student I taught in my high school classroom once tried to convert me to Islam. “Did you know that the Koran speaks very highly of Mary? Mary is honored in the Koran.” Somebody in his mosque must have told him that speaking to Christians about Mary would make a compelling argument. According to the Koran, Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, but Allah only assigned Him as a prophet to the Jews. Mohammed is far superior, we are told. Whereas Allah appointed Jesus to the Jews alone, God named Mohammed as a prophet to all peoples. Mohammed is thus the last prophet. His message is universal and final. Nonetheless, Mohammed is not divine. Allah alone is god. The messages Mohammed received from the angel Gabriel and that were written down in the Koran supersede the revelations of all previous prophets and apostles.

Consequently, the Koran borrows a few Bible stories and Bible figures, yet it rejects everything else. Seeing that the Bible was written centuries before the Koran, how can they get away with this? Islam created a doctrine of corruption to help set aside the Bible. The doctrine of corruption says that the text of the Bible has been changed. Originally the Old and New Testaments harmonized beautifully with the Koran, but the Jews tampered with the Old Testament and the Christians forged vast parts of the New Testament. Thus, the Bible is hopelessly corrupted. Only the Koran is the pure original. The Koran drops the forgeries of the Bible, completes what is lacking of God’s revelation to mankind, and therefore is the last word. What’s more, it is claimed that the Koran is the most eloquent book in the world, it is a miracle, indeed it is God incarnate. Christianity believes in the incarnation of the Son of God, that Jesus Christ, the Word came down from Heaven and became flesh; in Islam god didn’t become Mohammed, god became a Book.

It is plain that these pronouncements by Islam are false when we examine the creation and contents of the Koran. Consider its compilation. The companions of Mohammed scribbled chapters and verses of his cave visions on palm stalks and white stones. For two decades several different versions of Mohammed’s revelations floated around. Eventually, the third Caliph, Caliph Uthman, ordered the palm stalks and white stones organized in a book. That was a good idea, but instead of arranging the visions of Muhammed in chronological order, the caliph placed the longest chapters first and the shortest chapters last. That is one reason the Koran is such a muddle. Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish historian, read it and commented, “It is as toilsome reading as I ever undertook, a wearisome, confused jumble…” Moreover, an entire segment of Muslims reject the arrangement of the third Caliph. Today the Sunni Muslims use Uthman’s version of the Koran and the Shiite Muslims use another. The two sides can’t agree.

Islamists also claim that the prophesies in the Koran prove its supernatural nature. What are these amazing prophesies? They are nothing more than predictions that the Muslim armies will vanquish the infidels. The prophesies of Christian Scripture are much more impressive. Dozens of predictions in the Old Testament written centuries before Christ are fulfilled in Christ. Basically, the Koran is a chaotic collection of sayings from a flawed man who either pulled his words out of thin air or received them from a demon.

This brings us to the moral example of the prophet Mohammed. On the one hand he had his strong points. He was a passionate and charismatic leader who maintained disciplined religious exercises. On the other hand, he could be touchy, vengeful, and merciless. He established sharia, Islamic law, for all mankind. Yet, he himself sometimes violated those very precepts. For instance, he decreed that a man may marry up to four wives, but a woman cannot marry several husbands. After his first wife Khadijah died Mohammed married fifteen wives. “How can someone be a perfect moral example for the whole human race and not even live by one of the basic laws he laid down as from God?” Furthermore the Koran stipulates that a husband is to observe a fixed rotation among his wives. Mohammed, however had his favorites and it became obvious. Hence, the less desirable wives began plotting against their prophet-husband. He thought about divorcing them, and changed his mind. He convinced a married woman named Zainab to divorce her husband and marry him. His love life was a medieval soap opera. When Muslims are confronted with Mohammed’s violations of the Koran they usually respond that Allah made a special exception for Muhammed. [See Answering Islam by Norman L. Geisler and Abdul Saleeb. pp. 174 ff. See also Unveiling Islam by Ergun Mehmet Caner and Emir Fethi Caner. These two books are superb introductions to Islam.]

The harsh treatment of women is common in Islam. It is held that women are inherently inferior to men. This was Mohammed’s doing. Apparently, he improved the plight of women in pagan Arabia, but not very much. Men can divorce their wives but women can’t divorce their husbands. Men are permitted to beat their wives. The Koran says: “Men are in charge of women because Allah hath made the one to excel the other… As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them” (4:34). A recent book called Inside the Kingdom [By Carmen bin Ladin.] describes the daily life of a woman named Carmen. While living in Switzerland she met and married Osama bin Ladin’s older brother, a Saudi Arabian businessman. They had a baby girl. After a few years the family moved to Saudi Arabia. Once the car pulled up to the desert compound in the city of Jeddah, Carmen was no longer free. Each day, her husband vanished to work. Carmen and her young daughter passed the hours in the company of her mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Rarely could she leave the house. She rarely saw sunlight. Music was forbidden. Courtyards had to be cleared of male servants before she could poke her head outside; she was not even permitted to cross the street alone to visit a relative. When she did venture out, she had to wear a choking abaya and thick socks to hide her ankles. “It was like carrying a jail on your back,” she writes. This treatment of women is more oppressive than most Muslim societies but this is the system preferred by the new wave of Muslim fundamentalists. Most ghastly of all, Islamic custom allows fathers to kill their daughters. If a daughter brings dishonor to the family, the father can snuff out her life without fear of prosecution from the law. These are called honor killings.

Of course, men claiming to be Christian have also enslaved women and beaten them. The difference is this: abusive acts by a Christian are clearly and unmistakably contrary to what the Bible instructs. That is not the case in Islam. A Muslim man can abuse and beat his wife and remain perfectly obedient and faithful to the Koran.

Mohammed also promoted Jihad, holy war. “Fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them” and “when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight) Smite at their necks” (9:5; 47:4). The Muslim habit of beheading hostages that takes place today finds warrant in the Koran. Mohammed himself led raids on camel caravans in order to gain plunder. He inspired his followers to assassinate his enemies. When a prominent Jew named Kab had composed a satirical poem about him, the prophet asked, “Who will deliver me from Kab?” Immediately four persons volunteered and shortly returned to Muhammad with Kab’s head in their hands. Many such assassinations occurred. The prophet led the attack against the last Jewish tribe in Medina on the suspicion that they were plotting against him. The women and children were sold into slavery while every last man was slaughtered. Muslim sources put the number of the Jewish men who were beheaded in one day anywhere between 600 to 900. [Geisler. p. 324.] Again, Christians too have been cruel and waged many unjust wars. However, the difference is this: Jesus was merciful. He didn’t teach people to kill their enemies; He told them to love their enemies.

You have possibly heard of the 70 virgins. That hope inspires Arab radicals to strap bombs to their bodies and blow up innocents. Why? The martyr who dies in the cause of Jihad is assured that his sins will be forgiven and he will go straight to heaven. But there is more. He is given a special dwelling in heaven where he will be treated to a daily feast, and sexual relations with seventy virgins. Mohammed learned this piece of information when he went to Jerusalem. The angel Gabriel gave him a tour of the seven heavens. Since this vision took place in the city of Jerusalem the Muslim world forever strives to control it.

Let’s consider the Muslim view of Jesus. While doing religious interviews at the Farmer’s Market in Fullerton, my son and I met a Muslim man. “Who is Jesus Christ?” we asked him. He didn’t quite know. He asked his brother, “What do we think about Jesus?” His brother looked our way, “Tell them we think He’s just a prophet.” That is the fatal mistake of Islam. They reject the deity of Jesus. Yes, Jesus was a wonderful prophet to the Jews; he ascended into heaven and will return again at the second coming. They’ll concede those points. But then they twist these doctrines into something totally foreign to what the Bible teaches. For example, they deny that Jesus ever died. According to the Koran, Jesus avoided death on the cross. What happened at Calvary? The soldiers got mixed up (we’re told) and crucified Judas instead. God secretly raised Jesus up to heaven without dying. This is pure rubbish. It contradicts hundreds of eyewitnesses, and every piece of historical evidence that exists. Once you oppose the death of Christ you have no grace. It is on the cross that Jesus bore our sins and guilt. It is the cross that reconciles us to a just and holy God. It is the cross that saves us. Without the cross we are lost in our sins. Without the cross, salvation becomes a hopeless effort to satisfy a just God with good works. There is no way that has a chance! We would remain lost in our sins! Thank God that the Koran is a lie!

Mohammed taught in the Koran that Jesus’ claim to be God was the greatest of all sins. The belief that Jesus is divine violates the sin of shirk, assigning partners to God. Nevertheless, if the Bible is God’s Word, there is nothing so clear and central as the deity of Christ. We see the miraculous life of Jesus operating in our Gospel passage for this Sunday Next before Advent. 5,000 hungry men were gathered with Jesus and the disciples, which means that there probably were 20,000 growling stomachs once you count the women and children. Jesus took the five loaves and two fishes and multiplied them, as His disciples distributed them. Everybody got joyfully satisfied.

Miracles like this one confirmed that Jesus was the Messiah. Mohammed didn’t perform miracles. Look at John 6:14: “Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” They meant, “This is truly the Messiah.” The miracles of Jesus verified that Jesus was true deity. He was God in human flesh. Later on Jesus would say, “I am the bread of life” (6:35) “I am the door.” “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He claimed that He was the only way that mankind could be made right with God. The claims declared by Jesus arrest our attention. He said he was the Creator of the world. He said that He would be the Judge of Mankind. He said that He was alive in Abraham’s day. He said that He was completely without sins and nobody could accuse Him. Did Mohammed ever make claims like that? No. He never made such an assertion. Nobody would have believed him. The same goes for today. If a person were to arrive in Santa Ana and make the claims that Jesus did he would be dismissed as a crackpot. We could quickly find out if he were sinless. We could interview people who had grown up with him to see if he were telling the truth. He would be exposed as a fraud. Any man today or at any other time in history that made the claims Jesus made would be declared a lunatic. Yet when Jesus made those claims, the people closest to Him, the people who knew Him the best bowed down and worshiped Him.

A couple more theological differences should be brought out. Many Muslims misconstrue the Christian view of God as tri-theism rather than as monotheism. They are wrong. Christianity is monotheistic! God is one in essence. Yet, the Bible teaches that God has three Persons. His one essence has multiple personalities. The problem with an absolute unity like that of Islam is that it denies the greatest love that exists, the love among the three Persons of the Trinity. Islamic monotheism is rigid and inflexible. Its view of God’s unity is so strong that it allows for no plurality in God at all. Hence, it is impossible to conceive of the Persons of the Trinity living in perfect love and fellowship with each other from all eternity. The love between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit serves as the basis for love in the Church, in the family, and in society at large. Christianity upholds a stronger ethic of love on the basis of the Trinity.

In spite of the shortcomings of Islam there are many Muslims of good morality and character. The lady Karima at our swimming lessons is such an example. It is a shame nobody warned Karima before she got married about the systematic abuse suffered by women in Islam for over fourteen hundred years. It is a shame no one told her of the freedom and grace of Christ. It is a shame nobody told her about the claims of Jesus Christ to be very God. We should try to live at peace with the Muslims who want to live in peace. Christians must always seek peace. Evidently, the Sufi branch of Islam tends to avoid violence. Nevertheless, our Anglican brothers and sisters in Nigeria would tell us how difficult it is to attain peace these days as Muslim thugs lurk in the shadows, looking for ways to slaughter Christians and burn down churches. That is the reality in many parts of the globe today. Persecution against the Church is fierce.

We face an enormous looming danger. This is no time for pacifism. Innocent people must be defended against hate-filled, death-loving aggressors. During World War II it was appropriate that Christians fight hard against Nazism until it was beaten. Then we needed to fight radical secularism, the Soviet Marxist variety; we fought that until it was beaten. Now radical Arabs must be confronted. These terrorists are astonishingly evil, and they will stop at nothing in their quest to impose an Islamic totalitarian society.

Islam may be successful for a time, perhaps for a few centuries, but not in the end. Let’s remember who is in control. Christ sits on the throne, and He is King. He is the Lord of all, the Judge of all, and the Redeemer of those who believe in His atoning death on the Cross. History is moving toward a day when at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10-11).

Let us pray.

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