Islam and the Bible
2016-12-03
Islam is a fast-growing world religion that receives a lot of attention by the media in recent years. Much about Islam is misconstrued and criticized, and there is a lot of fear concerning this religion. But what does the religion really teach? Let us look at some of the tenets of the Islamic faith.
Basics
The Islamic faith is a theistic religion (God created all things) whose prophet is Mohammad, a seventh century prophet from Mecca. He was illiterate, and had a vision of the angel Gabriel who choked him, commanding him to “recite.” He was anointed as a prophet, but was persecuted in his native Mecca and fled to Medina where his message was better received. He was the author of the Quran, which is the main religious text of Islam. Many of the tenets of this religion oppose the teachings of the Bible.
Regular practices of Islam include the five pillars of Islam. These pillars include a profession of faith, specific prayers five times per day, fasting, paying alms, and a pilgrimage to Mecca if one is able.
Jesus as Both God and Man
There are several major tenets of Islam that completely undermine Biblical Christianity. First, the Islamic faith denies the deity of Christ (Sura 3:59). The Bible teaches clearly that Jesus is both God and man, at the same time. I have devoted other articles to this topic, but I would like to make this clear from one prominent Scripture:
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. (John 8:58-59)
These two verses from the Bible clearly define Jesus as God for the following reasons:
- Jesus called Himself by the name of God. The phrase in John 8:58, “Before Abraham was, I am,” is a rather curious wording in and of itself. In Exodus 3:14, God tells Moses, “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” Jesus claimed the name that God used to refer to Himself. Jesus Himself clearly declared Himself to be God here.
- Jesus declared Himself to be eternal. Related to the previous point, the phrase “Before Abraham was, I am” also refers to the eternality of Christ. Jesus always was; He was not a created being, therefore He is God.
- The audience understood what Jesus was saying. The Jewish leaders understood that Jesus claimed to be both God and eternal, and therefore tried to stone him to death for blasphemy (John 8:59). There was no mistake that Jesus clearly declared Himself to be God.
Likewise, Jesus is called the Son of God (compare with Sura 4:171). This is not because of He was the offspring of marital relations. Rather, this is an indication of both His virgin birth and of His divinity. The Islamic concept of tawhid, or unity, is too rigid in the Islamic religion to allow for distinct persons within the Godhead as the Bible teaches. However, think of it this way: The God of Islam is considered eternal, and the Quran is considered eternal, and they are distinct one from the other. Likewise, one can see God the Father and God the Son in this way: They are distinct from one another, yet both are the eternal God.
Resurrection Vs. Translation
According to the Muslim religion, Jesus Christ was not crucified and risen from the dead, but rather someone else died, and Jesus was translated straight into heaven (Sura 4:157-158). The Bible teaches us that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the good news and crux of Christianity:
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. (1 Corinthians 15:3-6)
Let us see the importance of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection:
- Jesus, being sinless, died for our sins. Jesus is the Savior who saves us from our sins. He paid for our sins. About 700 years before Christ came, it was prophesied that He would make “intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12). As a Christian, it is a wonderful feeling to know that God has forgiven my sins because Jesus died on my behalf. In Islam, no such vicarious death is permitted (Sura 2:123). For the Muslim, his sins are on him, and God’s wrath will never be satisfied.
- Jesus was buried and rose from the dead. Jesus was buried, which means He truly was dead. He rose from the dead, proving Himself that He was God and He was sinless. His sacrifice for the sins of humanity was acceptable to God.
- Hundreds of people saw Him alive after He rose from the dead. Because Jesus’ resurrection was not a secret event, this caused Christianity to spread quickly across the world in a very short period of time. Poor, persecuted people were willing to die for what they had seen. No violence was used, yet Christianity multiplied quickly.
- Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection is central to our salvation. To deny this is to deny Christianity. Any teaching to the contrary is a targeted attack on the Christian faith to render it powerless.
Salvation By Works or By Grace
All of world religion could be summarized as doing good works to become acceptable to God, and Islam is no exception (Sura 7:8-9). If one has more good works then bad works, then the same is acceptable to God. In reality, however, our plight before God is bleak, as we read that we are “by nature the children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3) and are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Unless God does something to save us, we must despair and perish.
Praise God that He made a way for us to be saved:
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
If we believe God’s promise that eternal life is based on Christ’s payment for our sins, we have eternal life, and only then are we commissioned to good works. Good works are the fruit of salvation rather than the basis of our salvation.
Unbelief
According to Islam, there are three unforgiveable sins: shirk, which is assigning partners to God (Sura 3:151), not fighting against unbelieving aggressors (Sura 8:16-17), and unbelief (Sura 4:38-39). The Bible also teaches that unbelief is an unforgiveable sin:
And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. (Matthew 12:32)
The context here was religious leaders who plainly saw Jesus perform miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit, and attributed it to Satan. When people clearly understand that Jesus is from God, but then say He is from Satan, there is no forgiveness for this person.
Shirk
Committing shirk (assigning partners to God) is another unforgiveable sin. However, every single person has committed it in some way. Anyone who has committed idolatry in any way, venerating people, and trusting in anything other than God would qualify. Trusting in your own ability to be saved from God’s wrath by good works should be considered shirk, because you claim to do what only God can do. Only God can absolve you of sins and save you from His condemnation, and you cannot partner with Him on this. If shirk really is an unforgiveable sin, no one would be left standing at the end of time!
Retaliation
Regarding retaliating against aggressors, the Bible teaches something rather very different:
Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. (Matthew 5:38-40)
This is something that we do not see in many people at all, Christian or otherwise, but it is New Testament truth. The standard of righteousness required by God is far greater than we think.
In Sura 2:190-192, we see that Islam teaches to destroy aggressors anywhere you can find them. From a human standpoint, we all desire to carry out justice and retaliate against those who have harmed us. We naturally want to make sure that our enemies pay for the intentional evil they did against us. It is so important in Islam that fighting against aggressing enemies assures salvation for oneself (Sura 3:195).
God, however, tells us that this is wrong: “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19). God is the ultimate standard of justice, and we must trust that He will make it right rather than trying to right any wrongs ourselves.
Regarding apostates, the Quran teaches that apostates should be put to death (Sura 4:89). According to the Bible, we see that apostates should be removed from the church (1 Timothy 1:20; cf. 1 Corinthians 5:5), but the goal is both purity of the church and the restoration of the one who abandoned the faith. It is not the place of a Christian to hurt or to kill, but to restore.
God is Knowable
There is little information in the Quran about specifically concerning the attributes of God, as He is an unknowable. This is like many religions throughout the world: The Creator God is not knowable, but rather a remote being. On the contrary, God is knowable, and He promises to make Himself known to those who seek Him:
And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: (Acts 17:26-27)
Moreover, the Bible promises that all who are born again and saved will know God and have peace with Him: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God” (1 John 4:7).
Marriage
According to the Quran, wives can remarry husbands from whom they were divorced if they remarry someone else in the interim (Sura 2:230). On the contrary, we read this in the Bible:
When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. (Deuteronomy 24:1-4)
The Bible tells us that marriage is forever, with the only case of divorce being a newly married man finding uncleanness in his wife. If she remarries after such a divorce, there is no chance of reconciliation. What is permissible in the Quran is considered an abomination in the Bible.
The Quran also teaches that one can marry up to four wives (Sura 4:3). However, the Lord Jesus Christ commanded marriage to be between one man and one woman, saying, “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?” (Matthew 19:4-5). Polygamy and divorce other than what we saw before are things that God never intended.
Miriam and Mary
The name Miriam and Mary are the same name in different languages. Because the Old and New Testaments were originally written in two different languages, we see the name is transliterated differently. That being said, Miriam, who was the daughter of Amram and sister of Moses, has the same name as Mary the mother of Jesus and the husband of Joseph.
The author of Quran made these two women, Miriam and Mary, one and the same, even though they were separated by over 1,400 years. The Quran’s Mary (or Marium) was born to Imran (or Amram, Numbers 26:59), and the same Mary in turn gave birth to Jesus (or Isa) in Sura 3:34-46. This same Mary was brother to Aaron (Sura 19:27-28). How could there ever be confusion between two women that lived a millennium and a half apart? Just because two people in the Bible have the same name does not mean they are the same person.
Tahrif
The Islamic doctrine of tahrif teaches that errors and corruptions were introduced into the Biblical texts over time. This doctrine is not unique to Islam, as it is a convenient way to use the Bible when it supports your position, but reject it when it does not support your position. However, there is no support that the Bible teaches anything different than it did two thousand years ago. See Twoedged Sword for a very detailed explanation.
Miscellaneous Teachings
Thieves are to have their hands severed from their body according to Sura 5:38. However, contrarily, the Bible teaches punishments should fit the crime: “If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep” (Exodus 22:1).
Friends with non-Muslims is forbidden in the Quran (Sura 5:51; 5:80). However, as Christians we must have this attitude: “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22).
Satan’s (Iblis) sin according to the Quran is that he did not prostrate before Adam (Sura 2:34). According to the Bible, his sin was that he wanted to be God (Isaiah 14:14). There is quite the difference here.
Final Thoughts
The Quran is not a book of prophecy, with the exception of a nearsighted prediction of the defeat of the Byzantines (Sura 30:2-4). There is no prediction, such as Genesis 3:15, which predicts the virgin-born Savior that would save us from our sins millennia in advance. The Quran is not a book of miracles, with the exception of the Quran itself (Sura 6:37; 13:7). There is nothing so grand as a crucified Savior that raised Himself from the dead (John 10:17-18; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
Islam leaves the believer without hope, because no one can be saved from God’s wrath. It is not within us to become acceptable to God, and we are doomed to commit the unforgiveable sin, shirk, if we were to try. Jesus Christ died in our place once and for all, so that we can have eternal life. There is hope and justice in Jesus Christ alone.