I don’t know what religion is true anymore. I’ve been a strong Christian for a while and start reading things about Islam. They claim they are the only way. They say the Bible is corrupted. I just don’t know what to do. Is Christianity the true religion or Islam? Can you help me. I’m still believing and praying to God, I’m just not knowing whether the Bible or the Quran is true, just religion in general. I don’t want to follow the wrong religion.
I came from a strong Christian background , Christian family and school and was then surprised by a world that was massively different from my upbringing. So I really understand why someone would ask the question , how do I know that my religion is true. It took me a long time to work through all the questions doing a PhD on an atheist thinker, running university discussion groups and Alpha course, as a religious education teacher teaching all 6 major religions. So I get where you are coming from.
First thing to say is that Christianity and Islam cannot both be true. The claims made by each are too fundamentally opposed. So you really have to make a choice between the two. So for example the angel Gabriel in Islam brings the message to Mohammed. It is a message that expressly denies that Jesus is the Son of God. But in the Christian gospels he is the angel that comes to Mary and tells her
"So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God". Both claims cannot be true
Muslims also deny that Christ died on the cross - so they can offer no assurance of forgiveness of sins.
Reasons why Christianity is the superior choice:
1) SALVATION: The Muslims have no clear way in which a person can gain assurance of heaven. Christians can say Jesus died for them and they are forgiven. So on the basis of what God has done clearly in history we are saved. In practice Muslims try and earn their salvation and most that I know have no assurance that they have done enough to get redeemed. They live in fear of hell and there is a violence and restlessness in their souls because they lack the peace that God gives. They will tell you Allah is merciful and forgiving but they cannot offer proof of that in the way Christians do when they point to the cross.
2) FRUIT: The Christian church is larger, more geographically spread and has been more positively transformative of societies around the world. The quality of life of people in Europe compared to people in the Middle East being an example. In most ways that are humanly measurable Islam has failed and that is why people are trying to get out of Muslim countries and why very few want to emigrate to them.
3) WARS: Ever since its birth Muslim societies have been characterised by violence. They work by intimidation to secure believers and to make sure that people do not stray. As a result Muslims societies are amongst the most oppressive on earth and are continually engaged in warfare. Between Shia and Sunni, between Sunni and Sunni and with others also.
4) TESTING: ON examination the Quran and Haddith are very much bound to the Arab culture. For example Mohammed married a 10 year old Aisha which by anyone elses standards is child abuse. The Qurans view on the Trinity is a false one that relates to a heresy in the Arab region. The Quran implies that the Christian Trinity is Father, Son and Mary which is just false or a local Arab reaction to a local Arab heresy. Either way it is hard to view the Quran as Gods word when it gets this wrong or is merely contextual to Arab culture.
5) CONTRADICTS SCRIPTURE:
The Quran contradicts scripture and borrows and distorts stories from it. Its best bits are actually borrowed from Christian literature already in circulation. The Muslims say the bible got corrupted but we have a variety of texts going back to within a generation of writing which contradict this view. We also have evidence e.g. the manuscript at Sana that the Quran itself has been extensively changed since the days of Mohammed.
Anyway I hope that will do for starters. Go look on the religious debate section, filter by Islam to get more information on this.