World Religions Week 2... 9/21/22

Ben wofford

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ISLAM

Psalm 91

Terms:

Islam - The religion that worships Allah as the one god. It means “Submission to god.”

Muslims - those that practice Islam (those who submit to god.)

Sunni Muslims - After Muhammad’s death, this group followed the teachings of Muhammad’s father in law, Abu Bakr.

Shi’ite muslims - After Muhammad’s death, this group followed the teachings of Muhammad’s son-in-law, Ali (thought of as a hothead and unreliable).

Caliph - successor to Muhammad

Qur’an - the Scriptures of Isalm. A collection of writings based on the teachings of Muhammad. Muhammad was illiterate and could not read or write so the writings were from people who could based off of what Muhammad said.

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THEOLOGY:

One God - reject trinity.

Believe in a final day of judgement when every human will face the weight of his life: his good deeds and bad deeds.

If Good surpass the bad, the person can hope to enter paradise.

5 Pillars:

Confess - There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.

Prayer - Face Mecca and pray five times a day.

Fasting during Ramadan. No food, smoke, or sexual relations during Ramadan. Ramadan is the 9th month in the Islamic calendar.

Giving of Alms. Expected to give 2.5% of their annual income to the poor.

Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina.

Optional Pillar - Jihad - the battle against temptation and sin to gain self-control. And the battle against any and all who oppose Islam.

Who speaks with Authority in Islam?

A Muslim in an Islamic controlled region of the world would tell women that they must wear head coverings to be holy before Allah.

A Muslim talking to American students would say the veil is not mandated.

Who is right?

A Muslim talking to americans may say the Qur’an forbid’s violence, yet a terrorist group might encourage Jihad by bombing a building and killing innocent people inside.

Again, who is right? Who is the authority here?

highest authority is the Qur’an

When in doubt of the Qur’an, do as Muhammad did. Some issues are not defined in the Qur’an; therefore, do as Muhammad did.

Belief:

Islam is primarily a religion of practices, not beliefs.

The central point, what carries most weight, is not what you believe, but what you do.

Chiefly, do you submit to Allah or not?

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MUHAMMAD’s Change toward Violence.

In Saudi Arabia, there are two cities, Mecca and Medina.

In the early days of Islam, Muhammad moved from Mecca to Medina.

In Medina were lots of Jews whom Muhammad expected to convert to Islam.

However, the Jews were not impressed with Muhammad’s teachings and they asked him for a sign to prove he was a true prophet.

Muhammad’s response was that He was just a man, the Qur’an was the only sign people need.

Muhammad continued to debate the Jews for 3 years.

During this time, one Jewish man in particular had been critical of Muhammad and his teachings.

Growing tired of their refusal to convert to Islam, and because he was embarrassed by the Jews asking for a sign, Muhammad seemed to have a change in demeanor at that time towards Jews.

In a meeting with his followers, Muhammad asked them “Who will kill this man for me?”

the one who had been critical of Muhammad.

One night, Muhammad invited the man for a walk, and during the walk he gave a signal to one of his followers and they attacked the Jewish man with swords and daggers and killed him.

Eventually Muhammad gained enough traction with his followers to attack and kill the Jews and force the rest of them either into slavery or out of Saudi Arabia completely.

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Conflicts with Christianity:

1. Muslims deny Trinity. Christians affirm Trinity.

2. Muslim’s deny Jesus was God.

3. Muslims deny the Bible as God’s word and rather accept the Qur’an only.

4. They believe their faith is simple: submit to God and keep his commandments. That’s it and then Allah might let you into heaven.

CONTRAST:

1. Regarding the Trinity, Muslim’s say this theology does not make sense. One God, three persons.

- They would argue Christian’s believe in polytheism, many gods. But this is not true. We could sympathise with a Muslim that it is difficult to understand the trinity.

However, just because it is difficult, does not mean it isn’t true. The trinity is the most accurate term to give to the Bible’s description of God.

ILLUSTRATION:

Take light for example.

Is all light visible? NO!

In fact most light ISN’t visible.

Take a look at the magnetic spectrum.

Longer wave lengths create radio waves. The type of light we pick up on our car antenna and communicate music, words, and other means via the radio. (Hense radio waves.)

The shorter wave lengths are much more dangerous and can get deep inside of us affecting our very DNA.

However these gamma rays can also attack cancer cells and give more life to someone otherwise condemned to death due to cancer.

And then we have those wave lengths right in the middle that give us colors and allow our minds and eyes to communicate and provide vision for our bodies.

All 3 of these examples are different. They are unique with different roles, but at the same time, they are all examples of light!

Much like water, solid, liquid, and gas, are all water…

While both of these examples are incomplete and not a perfect example, they are helpful to note other examples where one entity (Light or water) have different rolls and different forms.

2. Jesus is God! - Jesus is God or he isn’t!

John 1:14 “14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John 14:6 “6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

3. The Bible or the Qur’an?

In the early days of Islam, one of the Caliph’s (successor to Muhammad) destroyed all of the works and writings that Muhammad had taught. He only kept the ones he wanted to keep. The collection he kept became the Qur’an.

In contrast, The Bible has countless copies from the 1st and second centuries. I could go on here much longer.

Show Josh McDowell chart.

4.. Salvation. - There is no certainty of salvation in Islam.

The muslim has no cross or empty tomb. For them everything comes down to submission and blind hope that their actions are enough to justify salvation.

For the Christian, We have Ephesians 2:8-9 “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Hebrews 10:22-23 “22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”

5. Lastly and perhaps is the law of Abrogation.

What this means is that in Islam there are notable contrasting verses in the Qur’an.

Muslim’s themselves differ about violence and whether Islam is a religion of violence or not.

To settle these differences, they have the law of Abrogation.

Whenever needed, Muslim’s simply abrogate or cancel out verses the don’t want in order to apply verse they do want.

Just like Muhammad seemed to change from trying to convert the jews from Judaism to Islam and then he decided to start killing them and driving them out of Arabia, that was because of the law of Abrogation.

Effectively, this law allows the Muslim to change his beliefs to fit the actions he wants to do.

There is no objective truth in that world view.

Chaos quickly ensues and violence follows.

Make no mistake, Islam is a religion of violence, but it is because of abrogation that some Muslims do not practice violence.

Closing:

Matthew 11:28-29 “28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

As Christians, we serve a faithful God.

One who is patient, and kind.

2 Peter 3:9 “9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

His Word has not and will not change.

He is the same.

He offers us salvation and will also give us full assurance of Salvation.

We need to know this as Christians so we are not taken captive by false religions and unbiblical worldviews.

DO you know what you believe?

Do you know the grace that has been offered to you in Ephesians 2:8-9

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.