A very interesting and well balanced article. I have spent considerable time studying Islam over the past three years, and am leaning toward the view that Muhammad‘s initial reaction to his visitations, that they were evil in nature, was correct, and that it was only after his wife convinced him otherwise that he began to see himself as a prophet of God. I know that I would raise the ire of many in saying so, but it does seem to me that the religion of Islam is Satan’s second biggest triumph, after the Fall. By cleverly blending truth and fiction, he has created a religion of deception to lead people away from Christ. The parallels between Islamic and Christian eschatology are stunning, as are the parallels between Mahdi and the Anti-Christ (I recommend Joel Richardson’s book, The Islamic Anti-Christ). At its heart, Islam denies Christ, His deity, death, and resurrection, the very essence of Christianity. To look for commonalities between the faiths is to be deceived, and to legitimize Islam as a way to salvation; apart from a belief in God, there is more common ground between secular humanism and Christianity. I would not want to create animosity against the people of Islam, we are to love them as much as anyone else, but we should not lose sight of Paul’s warning in Ephesians 6:12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places”. Just how we should engage with Moslems I am unsure, but I am suspicious of inter-faith dialogues, I see no evidence of such processes in Scripture. If I understand it correctly, God sought to protect the people of Israel from the subversion of other religions, even to the point of war. I am not suggesting for a moment that we do likewise, Christ clearly taught the opposite, but perhaps we should be taking more notice of the lessons in the OT to guide us in these dark hours. Jesus did not compromise in his teachings, and while we must live in love and peace with all peoples, irrespective of their belief or unbelief, we have not been granted licence to compromise on the Gospel. Spiritually, Islam is wrong, we should never allow ourselves, or encourage others, to believe otherwise.
A very interesting and well balanced article. I have spent considerable time studying Islam over the past three years, and am leaning toward the view that Muhammad‘s initial reaction to his visitations, that they were evil in nature, was correct, and that it was only after his wife convinced him otherwise that he began to see himself as a prophet of God. I know that I would raise the ire of many in saying so, but it does seem to me that the religion of Islam is Satan’s second biggest triumph, after the Fall. By cleverly blending truth and fiction, he has created a religion of deception to lead people away from Christ. The parallels between Islamic and Christian eschatology are stunning, as are the parallels between Mahdi and the Anti-Christ (I recommend Joel Richardson’s book, The Islamic Anti-Christ). At its heart, Islam denies Christ, His deity, death, and resurrection, the very essence of Christianity. To look for commonalities between the faiths is to be deceived, and to legitimize Islam as a way to salvation; apart from a belief in God, there is more common ground between secular humanism and Christianity. I would not want to create animosity against the people of Islam, we are to love them as much as anyone else, but we should not lose sight of Paul’s warning in Ephesians 6:12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places”. Just how we should engage with Moslems I am unsure, but I am suspicious of inter-faith dialogues, I see no evidence of such processes in Scripture. If I understand it correctly, God sought to protect the people of Israel from the subversion of other religions, even to the point of war. I am not suggesting for a moment that we do likewise, Christ clearly taught the opposite, but perhaps we should be taking more notice of the lessons in the OT to guide us in these dark hours. Jesus did not compromise in his teachings, and while we must live in love and peace with all peoples, irrespective of their belief or unbelief, we have not been granted licence to compromise on the Gospel. Spiritually, Islam is wrong, we should never allow ourselves, or encourage others, to believe otherwise.
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