Christianity? Islam? which one...?

[owenlikesknowing]

Hi everyone - I recently joined Islamic forums. I am going to ask here what I posted there

<Staff Edit>

My questions are these:

1. Say i began to believe in a God. Why should I chose [Christianity over Islam]?

2. Are the two Gods the same or not (never fully got that)

Thanks,
Owen.

 

[sb81]

From what little I've read, the Qu'ran was written 600 years after the events they talk about took place. The claim Jesus was a prophet and that the reason he was no longer in the tomb was because their god Allah raised him to heaven. Islam also supposedly spread through territorial take over where you were forcefully converted. Christianity initially spread during a time where believing in it could get you killed.

In contrast, much of the NT was written about 30 years after the fact by eyewitnesses. The writers doubted Jesus before the resurrection, but afterwards they were willing to die to get the word out and spreading their beliefs and what they had witnessed.

There is a good write up of this in numerous chapters in the book "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist"

So to answer your questions specifically...

1.) You should choose Christianity due to the eye witness accounts, that spawned the religion of Christianity, that were about 30 years after the events. In contrast, the Qu'ran was written over 600 years after the fact and the spread of Islam rode on the back of hostile territorial take over.

2.) No, the two gods are not the same. To believe in the God of Christianity, you have to believe that he sent his only begotten son Jesus Christ to die for our sins. You can't have Christianity without Jesus. Islam claims Jesus was merely a prophet and was not God.

 

[ebia]

Hi everyone - I recently joined Islamic forums. I am going to ask here what I posted there

1. Say i began to believe in a God. Why should I chose [Christianity over Islam]?

There are a number of approaches you could take:

• You could listen to what each has to say and decide which makes the most sense.
• You could listen to what each has to say and decide which is the most hopeful.
• You could listen to what each has to say and decide which is the most consistent - both within itself and with the world around.
• You could look at the two holy books and decide which could be what it claims to be (not comparing them against the same standard because they don't claim to be the same sort of thing, but comparing each against its own standard).
• You could look for an historical event they both comment on and use historical methods to investigate that event. Most obviously the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
• You could look for communities that live by the beliefs they claim to hold and see which is the most attractive.
• You could look to see which of the two traditions is more historically explicable if it's distinctive claims are false.

IMO, Christianity wins on all of those but you'll have to make that judgement yourself.

2. Are the two Gods the same or not (never fully got that)

The both claim to be talking about the one creator God, and they both have their roots in the Jewish stories about that creator God, so I would say "yes, but the pictures they paint of that God are radically different in many important respects".

 

[andreha]

1. You can't go wrong with Christianity. According to the Quran, Allah changes constantly, and can turn on his followers at the drop of a hat. Our God never changes - His love never dies.

2. Allah and God are completely different. If you study the Quran, you'll see what I mean. The only way to the living God is through Jesus Christ.

that's my take...

Hi everyone - I recently joined Islamic forums. I am going to ask here what I posted there

IB Islamic Forum



Thanks,
Owen.

 

[Joveia]

1. Say i began to believe in a God. Why should I chose [Christianity over Islam]?

I think the biggest difference between Christianity and Islam is that in Islam, it's up to us to 'step up' and do the right thing, and repent, and earn our way into paradise. Whereas in Christianity no one can do that in any adequate way. Even the most holy and righteous people are still very flawed, too flawed to go to heaven because of their own efforts. So God has to do 100% of the work in Christianity. This is grace = a gift of God. So in Christianity, we're saved by grace, protected in our faith by grace, produce good works through grace - where all glory is due to God because it's by grace every step of the way.

Personally I like the Christian approach a lot more (of course). If someone prefers it then that's a reason.

2. Are the two Gods the same or not (never fully got that)

I've never been able to figure this out either. On the one hand, the Christian God is a trinity which Islam is really against. And they're different faiths. On the other hand, how many monotheistic gods can there be?

 

[drich0150]

1. Say i began to believe in a God. Why should I chose [Christianity over Islam]?

It all depends on what or why you choose to worship God. if your end Goal is paradise or a reward for your deeds at the end of this life then Islam is your religion. If you want a relationship with God no matter what that looks like then choose Christianity.

2. Are the two Gods the same or not (never fully got that)

The god described in Islam parallels The Father in some ways, but they are not the same.

 

[Adoniram]

My questions are these:

1. Say i began to believe in a God. Why should I chose [Christianity over Islam]?

2. Are the two Gods the same or not (never fully got that)

1) Christianity offers the assurance of salvation. The Bible says "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you WILL be saved" in many places. The Bible teaches that Jesus is the Son of God and because of his resurrection, we can believe his promises...mainly that he has power over death and will exercise that power in our salvation.

The Arab people do have close historical ties to Judaism and Christianity though. Abraham, the Father of the Jewish nation, had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Arabs descended from Ishmael, Jews from Isaac. And before Muhammad came on the scene around 600AD, their religions had many parallels. Because of this, Islam does revere many of the Old Testament Hebrew prophets, including Abraham and Moses. They even revere Jesus as a great prophet...but they do not believe he is the Son of God. Matter of fact, they don't believe in his death and resurrection, instead claiming that another anonymous person was crucified in his place, and that he lived to a ripe old age. Muslims worship a god, Allah, but have no personal relationship with him. They also have no guarantee of salvation...of entrance into paradise. Instead, they believe in living a "good" life, and after that, it's a crap shoot. They hope their god finds them worthy, but their god makes no promises. There is one exception though...martyrs are guaranteed entrance into paradise and seventy virgins to attend them once they arrive there. It is no wonder so many young Muslims are willing to give their lives in suicide bombings and the like.

2) Allah is not the same as the God of the Bible. Allah is a pagan Arabic moon god. The crescent moon found on many Muslim nation flags is symbolic of this god. More on that at: ALLAH, the Moon God

Owen, you would do well to follow Jesus, the Son of God, who came to earth to show men the way to have personal fellowship with God, and offered himself as a sacrifice, the way to salvation. He performed many miracles that prove his message was from God. His death and resurrection are the final proof, without which Christianity is meaningless.

 

[andreha]

1) Christianity offers the assurance of salvation. The Bible says "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you WILL be saved" in many places. The Bible teaches that Jesus is the Son of God and because of his resurrection, we can believe his promises...mainly that he has power over death and will exercise that power in our salvation.

The Arab people do have close historical ties to Judaism and Christianity though. Abraham, the Father of the Jewish nation, had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Arabs descended from Ishmael, Jews from Isaac. And before Muhammad came on the scene around 600AD, their religions had many parallels. Because of this, Islam does revere many of the Old Testament Hebrew prophets, including Abraham and Moses. They even revere Jesus as a great prophet...but they do not believe he is the Son of God. Matter of fact, they don't believe in his death and resurrection, instead claiming that another anonymous person was crucified in his place, and that he lived to a ripe old age. Muslims worship a god, Allah, but have no personal relationship with him. They also have no guarantee of salvation...of entrance into paradise. Instead, they believe in living a "good" life, and after that, it's a crap shoot. They hope their god finds them worthy, but their god makes no promises. There is one exception though...martyrs are guaranteed entrance into paradise and seventy virgins to attend them once they arrive there. It is no wonder so many young Muslims are willing to give their lives in suicide bombings and the like.

2) Allah is not the same as the God of the Bible. Allah is a pagan Arabic moon god. The crescent moon found on many Muslim nation flags is symbolic of this god. More on that at: ALLAH, the Moon God

Owen, you would do well to follow Jesus, the Son of God, who came to earth to show men the way to have personal fellowship with God, and offered himself as a sacrifice, the way to salvation. He performed many miracles that prove his message was from God. His death and resurrection are the final proof, without which Christianity is meaningless.

Well said.

Why gamble with eternity? Jesus is the way.

 

[Jpark]

2. Are the two Gods the same or not (never fully got that)

Allah is a different God. Isa is a different Jesus.

The both claim to be talking about the one creator God, and they both have their roots in the Jewish stories about that creator God, so I would say "yes, but the pictures they paint of that God are radically different in many important respects".

My father told me two things.

Islam is not rooted in Judaism and the Qur'an says Jesus is God.

 

[Gospel Trafficker]

Having spent 5 years studying Islam in 2 Masjids (masjid Ahlu Sunnah, and Masjid Omar Ibn Sayyid), I have been asked to prove why I believe that Islam is false and Christianity is Truth. Here is my reply.

First, the Qur'an and Hadith state that Allah is self sustaining. He needs nothing, and is dependent upon no-one. If this statement, which is made via various Islamic scholars, found in the authorative books of Islam (Qur'an / Sūrah Āl `Imrān: 2 , Sūrah TāHā: 111 etc., and Hadith Muslim: On the authority of Abu Dharr al-Ghifaari ) can be proven false, then one can conclude that Islam itself is false.

To be fair, we will dictate this same statement upon Christianity. The Christian God is self sustaining. He needs nothing, and is dependent upon no-one (Isaiah 40:12-17, 27-31, etc.).

We will propose a hypothetical statement on both Christianity and Islam. By using human logic, we will see which one of these statements holds true.

Hypothetically, if all of Allah's creation was to be removed from existence (Jinn, angels, prophets, mankind, animals, all types of beings, etc.) and it was Allah alone that was left, COULD ALLAH HAVE RELATIONSHIP? Answer; NO! A relationship is to have relations. More than one is required to have relations. Therefore, the most fundamental and important teaching of Islam known as TAWHID (the Oneness of Allah) dictates that Allah would be absolutely DEPENDENT upon His creation to have relationship or community. This is a direct proof of the fallacy of Islam. It's own teachings implode within when they are viewed in light of logic.

Now, from a Christian standpoint;

Hypothetically, if all of God's creation was to be removed from existence (angels, demons, prophets, mankind, animals, and all other types of beings, etc) and God alone was left, COULD GOD HAVE RELATIONSHIP? Answer; YES! A relationship is to have relations. More than one is required to have relations. Therefore, one of the most fundamental and important teaching of Christianity known as the Trinity, or more accurately, the Godhead; Colossians 2:9, (GOD the Father, GOD the Son, and GOD the Holy Spirit) demonstrate direct proof that that God would not need anyone or anything to have a relationship. In fact, He IS relationship. He IS community!

This simple test of logic can easily demonstrate the fallacy of Islam (or any other oneness religion), and the Truth of Christianity on a basic level.

*NOTE* To those Muslims (or others) who will say you can state that Jesus is not God because in the Bible He never said He was (and I beg to differ, but I digress), you to must also them apply the same standard to your Prophet Mohammad as Mohammad NEVER said in the Qur'an that he was a Prophet. So therefore, by your own standards and logic, You are denying the prophet-hood of Mohammad. He cant be one as he never said in the Qur'an that he was one.**

 

[Mediaeval]

"The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever." John 8:35
In Islam, man is primarily a slave before God. In Christianity, we learn that we are the children of God in Jesus Christ.

 

[Kristin E]

My questions are these:

1. Say i began to believe in a God. Why should I chose [Christianity over Islam]? 1 reason, Christ died for you, you never have to die for Him. islam teaches their followers that they must convert others, and if they don't convert they must die.

2. Are the two Gods the same or not (never fully got that)? Short answer is NO. allah is the devil simple as that.

 

[ebia]

Zombie thread alert

 

[Kristin E]

Zombie thread alert

That's odd considering the two last posters were from today... not into necroing, done tried that but thanks...

 

[hedrick]

I don’t see how you can separate this question from a personal judgement about Jesus. Other posters are right that Christianity and Islam have somewhat different ideas about God. But that’s because Christians think Jesus shows us God. The Trinity resulted from Christians reflecting on what they learned about God from Jesus, not from abstract speculation about God. While Islam nominally considers Jesus a prophet, they reject even the minimal amount about Jesus that skeptical scholars like Ehrman think is true.

I’m not sure quite how to convince people about Jesus. There is certain reason to be skeptical about 1st Cent documents. We know that people at that time tended to be credulous about miracles. Yet I don’t know of any precedent for that variety of witnesses to simply make up a religious genius of his caliber. Particularly when you contrast what he says and does in the Synoptics with the rest of early Christian writing. Early Christianity tends to be, quite frankly, moralistic. If you remove the echoes of Jesus, it’s not very different from Judaism, Islam or even the better late Greek religion. But in the Synoptics, and to a lesser extent John, we see people with rather different interests and priorities, all showing us a figure that I just don’t think it’s plausible that they invented.

I’m not using a double standard here. While I doubt that the Quran is as perfect as some Muslims claim, there’s no doubt that Mohammed existed and that the Quran represents something fairly close to his views. Unlike some Christians, I don’t anything terrible about them. He was trying to reform a polytheistic society without very attractive ideals. What he came up with doesn’t seem to me to differ except in details from several other religions. Some of his political activities wouldn't meet Jesus' standards, but they're not out of keeping with the OT or actual Christian practice. The rather hostile form of Islam we see in the news today doesn’t represent the best of Islam.

But Jesus offers us something more than a God who wants us to live a good way of life. It offers us a God who wants fellowship with us, and who will help us live that life. There are hints of this in some other religions, e.g. the mystery cults. But I don’t think Jesus’ full message is anywhere else.

Of course if Jesus didn’t exist, or wasn’t resurrected, then we may like his religion, but there’s still no reason to think it’s true. But I think it’s inconceivable that Christianity doesn’t go back to him. The resurrection requires more analysis, but N T Wright has some excellent arguments for why Christianity could never have gotten started if it hadn’t happened.

 

[Matthew Twentyfour]

Christianity? Islam? which one...?

ISIS Leader: Islam Is A Religion Of War, Not A Religion Of Peace

http://www.westernjournalism.com/isis-leader-islam-is-a-religion-of-war-not-a-religion-of-peace/

'It is the war of all Muslims, but the Islamic State is spearheading it,' he said. 'It is the war of Muslims against infidels.

'O Muslims go to war everywhere. It is the duty of every Muslim.'​

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ghters-reach-gates-ancient-Palmyra-Syria.html

"They are following Islam's Prophet Muhammad's in every detail. They imitate him by growing their beards, shaving their mustaches and in the way they dress," Brother Rachid, a former Muslim who grew up in Morocco, said.

Rachid, who hosts the television show "Daring Questions," gave the following response to Obama's claim.

"I can speak with confidence that ISIL speaks for Islam," he said. "Allow me to correct you Mr. President. ISIL is a Muslim organization. Its name stands for Islamic State so even the name suggests that it is an Islamic movement."

"Their leader, Abu Bakr Al Bagdadi, holds a Ph.D. in Islamic studies," he noted. "I doubt you know Islam better than he does."

"You think that ISIL does not speak for Islam because they beheaded an American and they killed whom those they consider infidels," Rachid continued. "In the same way Islam's Prophet Mohammad beheaded in one day between 600 and 900 adult males in a Jewish tribe."

"In fact, beheading is commanded in the Koran in Sura 47, the 4th verse. It says when you meet the unbelievers and fight; smite at their necks," he quoted the Koran.​

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideis...er-Muslims-ISIS-Not-Islamic-We-Beg-to-Differ/


If Islam is not a religion of war, why do Sunni and Shiite Muslims outside of ISIS continue to hate and fight each other?


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...-shias-are-fighting-explained-in-two-minutes/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBN1Z1KUEQc

 

[hedrick]

I don't think we want to accept ISIS' definition of what Islam is.

 

[CGL1023]

One striking difference between Christianity and Islam(for that matter any other religion) is that we believers are created in the image and likeness of God. This allows individuals to perform acts similar to God but on a smaller scale. We can 'call things that are not as though they are,' (Rom 4:17), watch a mountain move in response to our personal command (Mark 11:22-24); these suggest that God can elevate our status, as in the case of Enoch. Enoch walked with God then was removed for an early promotion to God's heaven. That kind of relationship with God should assure Enoch of ability to display the power of God at a level exceeding Noah, Moses and any else one could name.

My limited understanding of Allah is that of an unapproachable, cold, unfeeling God, uninterested in people on any level.

 

[South Bound]

Hi everyone - I recently joined Islamic forums. I am going to ask here what I posted there

<Staff Edit>



Thanks,
Owen.

1. If it's a competition, then Christianity is not for you. Christianity isn't for people who are merely choosing the better of two options, but for people who are horrified by their sin and cry out to God.

2. Of course not.

 

[samkadya]

Something interesting and provocative for some Christians on Islam an Christianity by Pastor Dwight Nelson.