Sermon
Christianity -- Islam an Eternal Difference
March 16, 2003
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you today to take your notes. If you'd like to take your Bible our subject of scripture reading is found in Matthew's gospel 24. But if you have your notes you can join with us because we've printed out the text. The reason for the subject today is over the last number of weeks I have been asked concerning my comments and information that I may have relative to the religion of Islam. I felt that it would be proper and right for me as your Pastor to set aside our series for the day, which we've been going through the gospel of John, and give you information that I think is exceedingly important and that the would be helpful as we try to understand the days ahead of us.

In the closing days of Christ's ministry, He gave some very specific characteristics of the end times. Notice what it says in Matthew verses 3 through 14: "Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives; the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?" And Jesus answered and said to them; "Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, "I am the Christ, " and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet."

Let's stop there for a moment. You know, oft times when we ministers speak on the subject of prophecy or we talk about the events of the end time, we sometimes make it so dramatic that our attention is drawn to those and we make our application or our understandings concerning our times. I want to concentrate on what Jesus said. He said they're going to be a lot of things that are going to mark and be characteristic of the end days. But there's something that should mark us as Christians, He said, for us not to be troubled because these things must come to pass and the end is not yet.

In other words, something of calmness, something of peace, a tranquility, a knowledge, a courage that the world looks on and says, Christianity does make the difference. We're all faced with the same events, but as Christians we should be marked by a peace and by a calmness knowing that our God is in charge, and that He's our heavenly Father and that we are His children, and He's going to watch over us and He's going to take care of us. So Jesus said these things must come to pass, but don't be troubled.

Then He goes on to say, "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."

If we had time to read the entire 24th chapter you'll note that on three different occasions Jesus warns concerning false prophets and false religions, and they will multiply in the days preceding the end times. Now any careful observer will see the parallel between these words of Jesus two thousand years ago and the present hour in which we now live: Wars and rumors of wars; spiritual deception by false religions; false prophets deceiving multitudes; lawlessness, hatred and killings; the preaching of the gospel to the ends of the earth, and then He says the end will come.

But of recent years, the tensions of the world seem, to be centered in religious overtones. The newscasters identify the source and the reason of much of the tragic events to be caused by religious hatred. On a recent international newscast, the panel openly stated that the world is in a religious, spiritual war. And to this we will agree.

From rock throwing by Palestinian youth to the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, from fighting in Indonesia and the Philippines to Saudi Arabia's wealth for Muslin missions and Iran's ideology to extend aggressive Islam, Islam seems to be daily on the world scene. Words like jihad, ayatollah, martyr, and Allah Akbar have become grist for the mass media to portray Muslims and their religion Islam. Muslims in the United State are rising up to claim more religious recognition and political power. There is Islamic revival and resurgence.

What does this mean for Christians and the Christian church here and around the world? Because the differences between the major beliefs of Christians and Muslims are very real, folks, very real. Muslims are unyielding in their denials of the Christian beliefs and the divinity of Jesus, in His crucifixion upon the cross, and His resurrection from the tomb. They condemn the Trinity.

Christians, on the other hand, are unyielding in their inability to accept Muhammad as the last prophet and of the Quran as the final revelation of God. So as Christians we need to know who our enemy is in this spiritual battle.

Islam is one of the fastest growing religions worldwide, and Muslims number 1.2 billion. By the same survey there are 1.5 billion Christians in the world. There are as many Muslims in Indonesia (160,000,000+) as there are Arab Muslims in the heartland of the Middle East. One hundred million Muslims live in India where most inhabitants are Hindus. Islam is the second largest religion in Europe. Islam has challenged Judaism as the second largest religion in the United States.

The third holiest city for Muslims is Jerusalem (behind Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia), where Muslims believe their prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven from the place of the Dome of the Rock and spoke with Jesus. Every Muslim is required to be on Jihad to please Allah and to spread the true religion of Islam. The majority of Iranians are Shiite Muslims who expect the return of the twelfth Imam to bring a pure reign on earth. Some Muslim groups are so militant that they kill civilians in the name of Allah and claim immediate entry to heaven as martyrs.

Let's pause there. Last night, in our service, I had a couple sitting over here. I know something of his background, but of recent years he has come to a wonderful knowledge of Christ. He's an Iranian. In 1985 he was under the Ayatollah Khomeini's reign. If you remember history Iraq at that time was at war with Iran, and they were forcing all of the young people to join the Army. And as a young Iranian he said I'm not going to. So he disguised himself and he made his way up to northern Iran. And if you know your maps, the republics of Russian lie along the north side. And what he did is he got into Russia and traveled by donkey and by horse and by camel, anyway he could, across the mountains and ravines of Russia and then down into Turkey. From Turkey he caught a ship and he traveled to Spain. From Spain he went to Canada, and then from Canada he crossed the American border.

Now of course, he is a citizen and he's a lovely Christian. And I said after I had completed the presentation last night, would you come and stand with me. I said, you lived under dictatorship of the Islam faith for most of your life; is what I said tonight -- is it true? He said, Pastor, all of it is very, very true. And he said, I do pray that as you deliver your lesson in the services tomorrow that you will tell the people that the enemy is very, very real. And he said what you have in your notes is true. The information before us today is information that has been verified by one who is a part of our congregation who lived under Islamic rule for much of his life.

Back to our notes. Classical Islam divides the world into two areas:
(1) the world of peace, where Islam is practiced and the Quran is observed;
(2) the world of warfare and ignorance, dominated by non-Muslims.
The mission of Islam is to bring this second world under Islam.

Page 3 -- why do we hear so much about Islam? Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have moved to Europe and the United States; Islam has become a religion of dominant expression in Europe and the emerging second-largest religion in America. Many Muslims have become citizens, have married nationals, and are raising their children as Muslim.

Let's take a minute and learn of the origin of Islam. Islam was founded by Muhammad in the year 570 in the Arabian Peninsula. He was a visionary who claimed to receive revelations from the supreme God. Muhammad was a prophet who preached the word that he received from the angel Gabriel which he wrote down in the Quran. He was a theocrat. That is, he spoke in the name of God, acted on behalf of God to establish the godly community, and supervised and judged the community's beliefs and actions in order to keep them correct and pure in accordance to his teachings.

At the time of his death, Muhammad had emerged as a religious and political leader without equal in the Arabian peninsula. He had founded a community, in fact a nation, based on a monotheistic and prophetic religion. The crescent moon was to become the symbol displayed on flags and mosques.

Now there are 6 major beliefs of the Islam faith. (1) Monotheism: There is no other god than the one god Allah.
(2) Angels: Among the angels, Gabriel appeared to Muhammad from heaven with the words of the Quran.
(3) Prophets: There are many prophets, including Jesus, but Muhammad is the last prophet.
(4) Scriptures: The Quran is the infallible, inerrant scripture revealed to Muhammad. The Torah and the Gospel were revealed to Moses and Jesus as inerrant in their times but have since become corrupt. That's what they say.
(5) Judgment: Everyone will be judged by Allah.
(6) Paradise and hell: Distinctly different eternal destinies await the blessed and the damned.

Those of the 6 major things they believe in. Let's enlarge upon these. Their god is Allah. Muhammad grew up surrounded by polytheism (belief in many gods) and animism (belief that everything in creation is god). After his visions at Mt. Hira, he began to preach the one true god, which he said was Allah. This is what he said, "Say that Allah is One, the Eternal God. He begot none, nor was He begotten. None is equal to him."

The great sin, according to Islam, is to associate the nature of God with creation or humanity. He reveals his will to humankind but not his nature. Islam rejects the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus Christ. The Quran accuses Christians of SHIRK, which is sin, in that Christians believe that Jesus is eternal and that God is triune, that is, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Islam teaches that one may have knowledge of God's law, but no one has personal or experiential knowledge of God. Let me explain. Their god is far away; he's not connected nor does he have an interest in -- he talks to us as human beings; he talks to a prophet, and the prophet then gives his word and the responsibility is to follow the words of a prophet. According to Islamic belief there is no personal relationship or personal knowledge of god.

Now contrary to that point of view then, the Bible reveals that God is a highly personal being with whom intimate personal relationships can be established and enjoyed through a personal faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, who was God incarnate in human flesh. Our personal God specially constructed man with a capacity to know and have a relationship with Him. In fact, our purpose, indeed, our highest aim in life, must be to know God. Knowing Jesus Christ--who Himself is God, and is the full revelation of God to man--takes on eternal significance.

Jeremiah says: "This is what the Lord says; "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast this: that he understands and knows Me." And when Jesus prayed in the garden, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." And Paul gives this testimony, "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things."

So when we compare Allah, that god distanced from them who is not related to them, but gives messages to prophets, and we compare him to the God of the Christian faith, He's a God that has loved us and revealed His love to us in the sending of His Son, and who loved us so much that He gave His Son for us, a God who is intimately involved with us -- our God is an entirely different God, the God of the Bible versus the god that the Islamic people believe in.

The god of Islam, I believe, is not the God of the Bible. As God has a social nature, so He has endowed man with a social nature. And because man has been endowed with a social nature, man in his deepest heart seeks companionship with his Creator. He yearns for this relationship so the void in his heart can be filled.

Now there are some similarities between the god of Islam and the God of the Bible: Both are "one," are transcendent, are creators of the universe, sovereign, omnipotent, have communicated through angels and prophets, and will eventually judge all mankind. Those are the similarities. But there are also differences between the two--differences that are so substantive as to make it impossible for a common identity. Let me show you the difference:

(1) Whereas the god of the Quran is a radical unity (distant, far away, unconnected), the God of the Bible is a Trinity (He has revealed Himself in three persons). "Go therefore," Jesus said, "and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." We as Christians believe that God has manifested Himself as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. They reject that point of view.

(2) Whereas the god of the Quran cannot have a "Son," the God of the Bible has an eternal Son named Jesus Christ. "For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."

(3) Whereas the god of the Quran brings about both good and evil, the God of the Bible never engages in evil and is singularly righteous. "This is the message which we have heard," writes John, "from Him and declare to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all."

(4) Whereas Allah desires to afflict people for their sins, the God of the Bible is not wanting anyone to perish. Peter writes, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

(5) Whereas the god of the Quran has no objective basis for forgiving people, the God of the Bible does have an objective basis--the death of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.

Now let's stop there. In Islamic theology there is no such thing as original sin. Man is not born with sin. You say, then how do they explain the event in the garden? They say that when the first parents sinned they did it out of forgetfulness and God just quickly brushed it aside. The Bible teaches us because of one man's sin, sin entered the world. They hold that man's nature is basically not sinful. He does not have original sin. That's why they do not need a Savior, and that's why they have no salvation.

This is what they believe. They believe that up in heaven god keeps a count. He's got to lists: the good things that you do, and the bad. Well how does he differentiate the good from the bad? If you obey the laws of the prophets -- that's the good; if you disobey -- that's the bad. And what god does is he charts this all out and when you arrive in his presence for judgment he'll pull out the list, and if the good list is bigger than the bad list you go to heaven; and if the bad list is bigger than the good list you to go to hell. But you'll never know where you're going until you die. So they are a people who live in tremendous fear because there is no salvation, there is no assurance of salvation, and they live in this fear of dying hoping that they have done enough good works that God will put them into heaven.

Now they have an interesting concept of heaven. It's a heaven that's filled with a lot of shade trees, water, wine, and women. Now we smile, ladies and gentlemen, but that's exactly their heaven. It's a heaven totally different than the heaven in the Bible. And you see, if there is no basis for a Savior and there's no assurance of any salvation, they live in this constant fear of a god who will one day pull out the list and they just hope the good list is longer than the bad list.

Now I stop here to suggest: when we witness to Islamic people remember this -- don't confront them -- don't be argumentative. They are living in a darkness and in a blindness and in a fear, and if we as Christians come to them with the joy of our salvation and knowledge of sins forgiven, that we have a faith in Christ who died on the cross for us, we have a faith in a God who loves us so much, who wants to have fellowship with us, that's the thing their hearts are reaching out for. They don't know, and if we come to them with grace and kindness and witness to the hope that we have as Christians, that's the best way of getting their ear to hear the gospel of Christ.

Back to our notes. The God of the Bible is the God who demonstrates His love for us, that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. I'm done at the bottom of page 5. And Paul writes: "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."

There is an eternal difference, and I put that word in their because those who believe in the Islamic faith do not have a God that loves them, a God that saves them, a God that forgives them, a God who wants to have a personal relationship with them. Our God, the God of the Bible, is a God who loves us deeply, so much so He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin.

Page 6. I have only taken three of their areas of theology, but we've learned what their belief is about God. What do they say that Jesus? Innumerable verses in the Christian Bible deal with the person of Jesus Christ, but only a sparse 74 out of 6200 in the Quran deal with Him; 42 of those are indirect references.

This is what they say, "Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) an apostle of God, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him." Muslims believe this verse is rich in commendation for Jesus. He is called a prophet of Allah, even though He is a much lesser prophet than Muhammad. Muslims say Jesus never claimed to be more than a prophet. Indeed, He is just one of the many thousands. They allege that there were 124,000 prophets of Allah, and Jesus was just one of them. Hence, even though great, He is not unique or different in any way.

Muslims make every effort to argue against the idea that Jesus was the Son of God. In fact, people who believe in Jesus, they say, as the Son of God are viewed as being deluded. In Muslim thinking, the suggestion that Jesus was the Son of God implies that Allah had sexual relations with a female partner (Mary), which resulted in the birth of Jesus. Since Muslims believe it is blasphemy to say Allah could have a partner, the very idea that Jesus is the Son of God is Very highly offensive to them. Muslims are emphatic that Jesus was not God in human flesh.

What do we believe as Christians? We've taken the last almost two years in the gospel of John and we've studied the deity of Jesus Christ. We as Christians hold tenaciously that Jesus Christ was God manifested in human flesh, the divine Son of God. We believe that with all of our heart.

I'm on page 7, and I put a number of those proofs of the deity of Christ, and I'm down about two-thirds. Jesus, when He used the title I AM, was claiming for Himself -- it's the same title which God designates Himself as the central existing One, the God who is the source of His own existence and who always has been and always will be. One more strong claim to deity of Christ is found in Revelation, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

Our faith tells us that God loved us so much He manifested Himself in human flesh in the person of Jesus, His Son. Islamic people totally reject Jesus as anything other than just a human being. He's our Savior, folks.

Down at the bottom of page 7: There is one more eternal difference between Christianity and Islam and it has to do with the Muslim view of the Christian Bible. Muslims claim that the original Bible was the Word of God (apparently still pure during the time of Muhammad), but that it then became corrupted by Jews and Christians. They say, the Bible of today has been mingled with many "untruths."

Folks, just remember this, the Bible we have today and all of its versions, its 5300 versions, were written two to three or 400 years before the Quran; and to say that we've changed the Bible since its original is really a total violation of anything that's truthful, because the Bible has not been changed since its original translation to us. We have the different versions, but we have the same translation. It's not been changed.

I'm at the top of page 8. Muslims say that the Jews inserted many things into the Old Testament that served to personally benefit them. One writer says that the revelation is mingled in all these writings, but all we possess today is what men have seen fit to leave us. These men manipulated the texts to please themselves, according to the circumstances they were in and the necessities they had to meet.

They say that in the New Testament, Muslims say that Christians inserted such doctrines as the Trinity and Jesus being the Son of God. They also argue that there are many, many mistakes in the Old Testament. They say there are over 100,000 errors. Well, if that were true, there would be three errors in every verse. And thus, in order to totally take away the foundations of our Christian faith they totally reject our Scriptures as being untrue.

But we as Christians believe that our Bible is the word of almighty God, the creator of the universe, the sovereign God of the universe. We believe in the authority of the Scriptures. All the words in Scripture are God's words in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God. God cannot lie or speak falsely. The essence of the authority of the Scripture is its ability to compel us to believe and obey, and to make such belief and obedience equivalent to believing and obeying in God Himself.

As Christians, we believe that all the words in Scripture are completely true and without error in any part. The Bible says the words of the Lord are pure. They are like a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. For ever, 0 Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Every word of God proves true, He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him."

And 1 Peter says, All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls away, but the word of God stands forever. There is an eternal difference, folks. This is the foundation of our Christian faith, and in this glorious book is revealed to us a wonderful God, who created this universe, who loves us intensely, who solved the problem of sin by sending us His Son, Jesus Christ as our Savior. A God who provides a promise of life eternal that when we finish our journey here we'll go to be in His presence for ever. That's what this Bible tells us. It's a Bible filled with hope. It's a God filled with love. He's a God filled with mercy and grace. He's a God who loves us intensely.

There is an eternal difference between Christianity and Islam, the Islam faith.

And here is my concluding paragraph: There is an eternal difference. Islam's god is not the Creator God of the Bible, or the universe. Islam has no Savior. Islam has no divine Bible. No God; No Savior; No eternal Word. It is the religion that is anti-Christ, anti-God and anti-Truth. And history will end with the conflict between these two religions. And the final conflict is known as the battle of Armageddon.

What are you saying, Pastor? I believe the newscasters were right. You have the Christian forces in the world, the antichrist forces, and ultimately the battle will rage. And when it's all over Christ will have one. Amen?

Let's pray. Father in heaven we pause in silence. First of all to say thank you that we were not born in a culture and in a nation that has a religion that is a religion of darkness, without hope, and without a loving God. You gave us the privilege of being raised here in America where the gospel is preached and where there's the freedom to worship. And we have the joy of coming to You as mortal men and women, knowing that You love us, dear God, intensely. And to know that love, and to know Your forgiveness, and to know the joy of Your presence dwelling within us. Thank you for being our personal God, our wonderful Lord, our blessed Redeemer.

Father, we pray for those in darkness. More and more they surround us, and I pray that You'll help us to be strong, vibrant, godly, kind, and loving Christian witnesses of our faith. We do have that which they do not have. We do have that assurance that when we see You face-to-face we'll spend eternity in Your presence. They don't have that, so help us in love and in kindness share the joys of our Christian faith with those in darkness.

And Father, my prayer is as Pastor that as we move towards whatever the next events in history will be, and as the battle rages between those who love You and those who do not, may our church be a strong tower, a lighthouse that people can run to to find truth, and find You, Lord Jesus, as Savior and Master. May our church stand strong and tall and true and faithful to Your word in these times.

Now as we go, I pray that Your peace and Your joy will flood our hearts in the knowledge that You are our God, and we are Your children. Thank you dear Jesus. Amen. God bless you folks.