Not knowing with religion is true

[redleghunter]

If they say you are going to hell, ask them how THEY are getting to heaven...

Good question but I'm afraid of the answer. By getting fit for a IED belt?

 

[redleghunter]

There are others who rose from the dead.....some even in the bible...... Not sure this is the best goalpost....

But only One seated at the Right Hand of Power.

 

[RaymondG]

But only One seated at the Right Hand of Power.

And besides Him there is no other.....

 

[redleghunter]

My wife just shared this testimony with me yesterday:

Also, see this video, as well. An ex Muslim turned Christian makes a good case how the Quran is based heavily on violence and hate.

Thanks for the references.

This one was a very good read too:


Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004QOAQ7I/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

 

[Kota]

I still have that little doubt in me about Islam being true. I’m trying to find the truth. Nothing is happening yet. I’m not losing faith, I’m just trying to sort it out

 

[redleghunter]

I still have that little doubt in me about Islam being true. I’m trying to find the truth. Nothing is happening yet. I’m not losing faith, I’m just trying to sort it out

I believe you have been given many solid reasons why Isalm is false and satanic.

You also were given many resources on the reliability of the OT and NT manuscripts. How over 25,000 extant manuscripts from different geographical locations can be corrupted without modern telecommunications means puts such a claim by Muslims into the conspiracy theory category.

Plus you have two former Muslims in @Hazelelponi and @Al Masihi to directly answer your questions.

Hope this helps but it seems you have to do your own research too. I offered quite a lot on this thread or the other one you started.

Have you joined a church yet? If so lay your doubts befoe your pastor. Most have PhDs or ThDs in the field of theology, philosophy and Biblical studies.

 

[Hazelelponi]

I still have that little doubt in me about Islam being true. I’m trying to find the truth. Nothing is happening yet. I’m not losing faith, I’m just trying to sort it out

A lot of that comes from things like a correct understanding of Jesus from the Bible etc.

The Bible says we should study the word of God... do you have a good church you go to or a Pastor whom you can talk to?

You keep saying you have doubts about Christianity but I can't figure out what you need help with specifically as your not forthcoming with any questions..

Is the divinity of Jesus something your not quite grasping?

Is salvation itself something your unclear about?

Did you need some information on the history of the Bible itself and maybe talk to someone proficient in that subject?

If you help us with some areas you have concerns about we can perhaps better address those concerns..

What about Islam is making you doubt Christianity? What specifically are you doubting?

 

[Ing Bee]

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.

Hi Kota-
I'd like to ask a few clarifying questions if I may. When you say you've "been a strong Christian for a while", what do you mean? What made you strong before and why has reading about Islam "weakened" you?

A second question would be, in your understanding, what are the primary differences between the good news (i.e. in Christ, sinners are completely cleansed and adopted into God's family –read Ephesians 1) and the teachings of the Qur'an?

 

[Ing Bee]

Hi Kota-

Reading through some of this thread I'll toss in one observation, even without a response to my question above:

Phrases like " I want the correct church / the "the correct religion / the correct translation" etcetera, indicate the speaker has a concept of religion that is transactional. These are anti-relational solutions to our human need because if we have the right religious technique or the right formulation of teaching or the correct translation, we are able to have a degree of personal control. In the gospel (Genesis to Revelation) that is not the picture of what God is like. Instead, Yahweh, the God of Israel who reveals himself in history is personal and invites his human creations into interpersonal relationship with him. This can only happen in one way, the same way all relationships must begin and continue: self-disclosure (by person #1) and trusting response (by person #2). This is the picture given in Hebrews 11:6.

When Christians call the Bible God's "revelation" we mean it his self-revealing: who he is and what he is like. He does this for us so that we can enter into a relationship with him. This is what the author of Hebrews says in chapter 1 verse 1. Then, in verse two, Jesus is called the best and complete self-revelation of the Father since the Son is Emanuel, "God with us".

Since God has perfectly revealed himself in Jesus's life, death, resurrection and reign through the Holy Spirit, personal, cooperating trust is how everyone who wants to be in relationship to God must respond.

The false god of Islam is not worth knowing:

• Unlike Yahweh, the god of Islam provides no guarantee of rescue.
• Unlike Yahweh, the god of Islam is not–in his own nature– love (see 1 John 4:7-8) which means he had to "learn" how to love.
• Unlike Yahweh, the god of Islam did not personally enter history to die in your place. (John 10:14-18)
• Unlike Yahweh, the god of Islam is not capable of preserving his own word (the Torah and the Gospel) against corruption.(Matthew 24:35)
• Unlike Yahweh, the god of Islam has not provided a way for anyone to be adopted into his family and share in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:1-3, Romans 8:15, John 1:12).

 

[Kota]

A lot of that comes from things like a correct understanding of Jesus from the Bible etc.

The Bible says we should study the word of God... do you have a good church you go to or a Pastor whom you can talk to?

You keep saying you have doubts about Christianity but I can't figure out what you need help with specifically as your not forthcoming with any questions..

Is the divinity of Jesus something your not quite grasping?

Is salvation itself something your unclear about?

Did you need some information on the history of the Bible itself and maybe talk to someone proficient in that subject?

If you help us with some areas you have concerns about we can perhaps better address those concerns..

What about Islam is making you doubt Christianity? What specifically are you doubting?

No I understand those things. What’s making me doubt is Islam claims the same things Christianity claims. They say the Quran is the word of God and that they are the only way. Christianity says the same thing. I still have faith, I just need to grow

 

[NBB]

If you do not have proof of God of the bible Jesus yet you shuould ask him for the Holy spirit, or to feel his presence or something, that should set you up.

 

[Sabertooth]

What’s making me doubt is Islam claims the same things Christianity claims.

It doesn't claim that Jesus is God [the Son] and that He died for your sins.

 

[Hazelelponi]

No I understand those things. What’s making me doubt is Islam claims the same things Christianity claims. They say the Quran is the word of God and that they are the only way. Christianity says the same thing. I still have faith, I just need to grow

But Islam doesnt make the same claims as Christianity does. Far from it, it's sole purpose is to usurp the place the Bible gives to the Messiah Jesus and sit in that seat.

That's a false religion, not the truth.

First, Judaism came first and predicted a Messiah would come at some point. The texts of Judaism are all exactly the same today, letter for letter, as they were found when the dead sea scrolls were discovered...

That in and of itself is miraculous. So we have zero doubt as to the authenticity of the Jewish texts.

All of the Gospel texts were written within one generation of Christ, and by His disciples or their helpers, some by transcription (if I recall correctly).Those texts and letters to the various early churches were all gathered by the Catholic church, who preserved them.

The Catholic church was likely the only people group of that era that could have preserved those texts, so that alone was a miracle.

Nothing in our New Testament contradicts the original books of the Jews, as a matter of fact those texts that were written LONG before Christ do nothing but stand in support of Christ being the Messiah. Plus rhere are texts from sources of that day that confirm both Jesus life and death at the hands of the Romans as well as military texts that confirm the persecution of the early church.

So we are sure of the Bible in total. Then, 600 years later someone comes along from the Arabs and claims to be a prophet of God, claims everything the Bible teaches about the person of Jesus is wrong, says that He wasn't God in the flesh, and that He wasnt crucified either.

Well, if Jesus isn't God in the flesh or the Son of the Living God, crucified and rose again on the third day, then there is no salvation. Period.

Let me explain why, and why Jesus is so important to understand.

In the Old Testament, which is the oldest Books we have in the Abrahamic tradition, it is written:

"He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD."

The problem here is that we are all wicked.

A just judge cannot just let murders and rapists and evil people free. If someone killed your whole family you would demand justice for those deaths, and if the time came for the guilty person to go to jail and the judge said go home, your free, that would be an evil judge because that is not justice.

So a Just Judge must punish the guilty, and reward the righteous, otherwise it's not justice.

But God desires mercy too, but to do that God needs to provide a path for that mercy that doesn't contradict his nature of being absolutely Just.

Not only that, but that path needs to be provided without sinning, something fallen man cannot do as our very nature is fallen and sin. ONLY God can do this. Only God can forgive man.

The Jews knew that any man who forgave sins was claiming to be God in the flesh because no man can forgive sin.

The first time Jesus forgave sin was in Mark, the earliest Biblical manuscript if memory serves me correctly. This passage beginning in Mark 2:5 is written :

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

So right here, in the earliest of writing, we see by Jesus's very actions that He was claiming to be God come down from Heaven...

Now the teachers of law who were sitting there witnessing this, had thought Jesus to be blasphemous in so claiming to be God, and so the Word goes on as it is written:

Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." So he said to the man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

So we see Jesus prove His authority on earth by performing a miracle. He continued on this manner and gave all his disciples this power as well, to prove their authority as being from God.

Now on the other hand, we have Mohammed who couldn't prove he had any authority from God. As a matter of fact, Muslims pray for Mohammed in every prayer for Allah to bless him.

That's not someone who seems to have any authority short of his word, no miracles as Jesus did to prove who He was, and then Mohammad proceeds to call the Biblical claims of Jesus himself, related to us in the earliest manuscripts as false, yet, tells you that you will see them to be false if you read and study them.. another falsehood.

Who is more believable then, an usurper or the original faith backed up with evidence..?

please read 1 Corinthians 15:14-17 and then research the teaching on salvation, Jesus really is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and the ONLY way for mankind to be saved.

There is a Book you can read its called No God but One: Allah or Jesus? by Nabeel Qureshi

No God but One: Allah or Jesus? | Zondervan Academic

He is also a convert to Christianity from Islam. He had an earlier book as well that you might find helpful.

 

[Rawtheran]

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.

Ok so when we talk about the Bible what we really are talking about is the Tanach or word of God that was revealed to the Jews and the New Covenant which were testimonies and letters written by authors under the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit. Both the Old and New Testaments have undergone intense scrutiny and continue to be the most historically preserved and accurate books of antiquity. In fact we have over 48,000 copies of the New Testament which were circulated throughout the Greek/Roman world 100 years after Jesus's death and the discrepancies between those and the modern Bibles that we have today are minor to none. The Old Testament when it was preserved by the Jews was literally copied by hand word for word in order to make sure there wasn't hardly any mistakes made. Also the writings of Josephis, Joseph Flavius confirm the existence of a man named Jesus and people claiming to have witnessed his Resurrection. The letter of Polycarp who was a 1st century Bishop personally taught by the Apostle John confirms that the 12 Apostles were real people who taught a literal message of repenting of your sins and becoming saved by Jesus.

The Quran:
. Was formed by Mohammed from his own writings and fabricated books of the Bible which both the Jews and the Christian community had intensely looked at and proved were not true.
. Christianity is a fullfillment and rather a continuation of Judaism there is a flow to it whereas Islam is a complete contradiction to it. This in of itself is evidence that it is not the true religion when it has stories that completely contradict scriptures that were written before the Quran.
. Muhammed forcefully converted the majority of his people and ruled by fear. The rule of fear only comes from one place, and that is Satan's kingdom.
. Islam is a salvation by works type of religion where you get to Heaven by doing a bunch of good deeds and following a law. Jesus, Paul, Peter, etc. made clear that no one on this planet could get to heaven by doing good deeds because we are all broken people who can never get to heaven because of sin and it is only through the Blood of Jesus wiping us free from sin that we are saved. In other words its not what you do but what God has done.
. In the Quran it actually has several historical inaccuracies and even indirectly that the Torah and New Covenant are true in several passages.
. The Quran denies the death of Jesus claiming he never died but historically we have 11 outside biblical sources which prove there was a man named Jesus who was died and buried.
. The Bible states that there are demons who can appear as an angel of light and claim to come from God when they are not. Paul said to the churches that anyone who preaches a gospel that was contradictory to the one taught by the Apostles and Jesus was a false prophet. Muhammed preached a message completely contradictory based on a visitation from the angel "Gabriel" who spoke a message completely contradictory to Christian and Jewish teachings.
. People during Muhammed's time and even many of his own followers believed he was demon posessed
. In the Quran the false God Allah commands all of the animals to worship Adam and Eve. In the Bible Satan lies to Eve saying she will be like God if she were to eat of the Forbidden fruit. Also only God who makes and sustains all things is worthy of worship not mankind.

I hope all of these points helped you. Remember though that Christianity is not a religion. It is simply worshiping the true God who is Jesus Christ, Father, and Holy Spirit and it is only Jesus that can save.

 

[Kota]

Thanks everyone! I think I finally found the truth. God bless everyone! I’m going to pray for God to get me back on the right path.

 

[fhansen]

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.

1) No one's personal theology or understanding is 100% perfect, even though we all certainty prefer to think ours is.
2) There's still faith, in God, to be found in other religions, even if imperfectly informed.
3) Pray, fast, ask, seek, and knock-for truth-wherever that takes you. God is all about truth. Augustine put it that way, in fact, "All truth, is God's truth."
4) Consider that the Christian God is a Being who would demonstrate a love-and humility, even- that no other religion's God would accomplish on that level-or anywhere near it. Opposing the concept of a God aloof in His superiority, distant, angry, vengeful, unapproachable, is the God who placed Himself on a cross in human flesh to suffer an excruciatingly humiliating and painful death, at the hands of His own creation, in spite of our sin, if that's what it takes to prove a love for that very creation so wide and vast and deep that it cannot be expressed in words for those to whom it's been revealed, even if only barely comprehended. Very unlike the gods or superheroes of this world, including those of other religions. We must decide just what kind of God is truly worth worshipping in the end.

 

[NeedyFollower]

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.

My dear person seeking truth ...I want you to know that I believe that I will give an account for my every idle word ..God knows everything I say and do and if I mislead you , I believe I will be held accountable . I take my answer very seriously since you are a very dear fellow creature . If you can believe actual verifiable archaeological facts ...I was just reading in the Qu'ran . The story of jesus making clay birds come to life was actually written some time in the second century by a group called Gnostics ...it was discovered in the gospel of thomas in the Nag Hammadi which was uncovered in Egypt in 1945 . If you know Jesus our Lord ...you must be aware that Jesus never did anything to prove who He was ..He did what he did ..his true miracles to demonstrate His/our Father who dwelt in Him . So this is an error that Mohammad picked up on when living among gnostic believers .....Also the Qu'ran says that Mary is a virgin but that God does not have a Son ....so who is the father of Jesus ? If Mary is a virgin , then it can not be Joseph..... Of course God has children ...with Jesus being the firstborn ...begotten ...the first "Son of Man" ... what Father does Not have children ..so not only is Jesus God's son ...we are children of God through faith in God's Word . Believe God ...His word became flesh and dwelt among men ...lastly , a true prophet often demonstrates his prophecies such as Ezekiel laying on one side for a number of days to represent Israel , etc. ..Prophets lived their prophecies ...Jesus was not only the prophesied Christ , the Messiah ... he was a prophet ...and he lived out exactly the history of the earth . He was born ( the creation ) He entered into his mission of salvation after baptism ( Noah's flood and the ark ..Christ ) He was tortured and suffered ( The tribulation ) He died ( The end of the world ) And he rose from the dead ( The new heaven and earth and the Resurrection of the just . ) The Bible points to Jesus in other ways as well ...Moses took the children of Israel up to the promised land but Joshua brought the children into the promised land ...Joshua and Jesus are the same name ...Ye'shua . It means God is salvation ..there was no J in hebrew and Jesus is greek for Yeshua . I hope by God's grace this helps ..ask God who demonstrated His great LOVE ...It is not a question of belief in God or who is the most zealous or religious ...It is " WHO IS GOD " ..a God who gave everything dear to save us and wants to be our Father or the God of Mohammad ? Our God is great !

 

[Blade]

Wow....I feel for you.. really do.. to ask that here and then get so many DIFFERENT views..

A Muslim man said he say Christ.. he said Christ said "I am the way the truth and the life"...if one called on EVERY so called gods out there..only one will answer.. its that easy.. He is that real..

You ask HIM not me not anyone else.. ask Him.. they say you are the messiah.. that you came died for the world.. if you are so real.. prove it..

Its THAT easy.. the KEY here is.. one MUST HAS TO ask from your heart.. mean it.. and hold on! Yeshua is real

 

[Barney2.0]

Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.

Mahomet's body rots in his grave in Medina (I think it is there) as an image of what's happening to his soul in hell, if he died without repentance.

I doubt Mohammed existed, the tomb in Medina has never been opened or examined, if it were to be opened we'd find a surprising find of nothing.

 

[Barney2.0]

No I understand those things. What’s making me doubt is Islam claims the same things Christianity claims. They say the Quran is the word of God and that they are the only way. Christianity says the same thing. I still have faith, I just need to grow

Why don’t you ask your Muslim friends which Quran they’re talking about, the original one no longer exists, the copies of the original one also no longer exist, that’s the courtesy of the Sahaba for you:

To say that the Quran contains the truth of God would be simply be far-fetched, there is no one Quran as Muslims claim, further more textual criticism is virtually non existent in Islam. Today's Quran is pretty much a revision of a revision of a variant of a variant of a version of a version of the original Quran such a thing can be viewed in the following picture detailing the evolution of the Quran:

Although the New Testament has been copied and translated many times, it has gone nowhere near the butchering the Quran has went through throughout history. We can still reconstruct the original text of the New Testament, can Muslims say the same about the Quran, according to the last 1400 of history I’d say no.