Muslims, Jews, Christians: What's The Difference?
As a younger man I looked at Muslims, Jews and Christians (M/J/C) and thought: Hey, it's all the same! Same Abraham, Same God, and Jesus was a Jew who is mentioned in the Koran!
Let's all hold hands and sing Kumbuyah. Yet these guys persist in blowing up themselves against Jews and Christians! What's the deal?
While I am not a Biblical scholar, I have done some research and can put this in perspective from a very down to earth kind of understanding. My primary focus here is on the Muslim point against that of the history of the Jews and Christians and how they tie together. I'll focus on Muslim theology in the following article.
There are three parts here:
1) To clarify the convoluted politics that went on in Abraham's family, I'll water it down in laymans terms: Everybody (M/J/C) agrees up to Abraham and his sons. The split comes in the youngest sons of Abraham: Ishmael and Isaac. Isaac was the lineage to Jesus. Ishmael and his mother Hagga (the maid, NOT of Sarah Abraham's wife) were cast out. Ishmael's children became powerful in the middle east (Gen 21:9-21).
We lose the Muslims here. They believe that Ishmael is the chosen one, although a clear reading of history shows that to be false.
2) The Jews believe that a savior is coming. They still honor the laws of Abraham. The problem is that of the 126 or so (I forget the exact number) of prophecies regarding the savior, Jesus fufills each and every one of them. The Jews have a perception of a different kind of salvation not invovling the relationship of self to God.
We lose the Jews here. However the New Testament is very clear that God still loves the Jews and favors them even though they are following under what we Christians call the "old" Law.
3) Then there is Jesus. Jesus was a man who did live and did many great things according to M/J/C. The problem is the logical quesion: Jesus is either who he said he was
Matthew 16:15-20: The Christ, with the keys of the church
John 5: 16-30: Son empowered and sent by the Father to act and be the Judge
...or he is insane. Prophets inspired by God do not occasionally make false proclamations! Either what they say is true or false. If false, they aren't prophets. Especially when it comes to something as extraordinary as calling oneself GOD!
Muslim thinkers say that Jesus was a great prophet who avoided the crucifixion. This is a logical impossibility as men who are truly prophets do not make assertions of diety. It would also contradict the mission of Jesus to sacrifice his sinless life to cover the sins of the rest of us and act as our redeemer. To show the inconsistencies of the Koran fully I'm going to make a separate article on what the Koran says of Jesus.
Let's all hold hands and sing Kumbuyah. Yet these guys persist in blowing up themselves against Jews and Christians! What's the deal?
While I am not a Biblical scholar, I have done some research and can put this in perspective from a very down to earth kind of understanding. My primary focus here is on the Muslim point against that of the history of the Jews and Christians and how they tie together. I'll focus on Muslim theology in the following article.
There are three parts here:
1) To clarify the convoluted politics that went on in Abraham's family, I'll water it down in laymans terms: Everybody (M/J/C) agrees up to Abraham and his sons. The split comes in the youngest sons of Abraham: Ishmael and Isaac. Isaac was the lineage to Jesus. Ishmael and his mother Hagga (the maid, NOT of Sarah Abraham's wife) were cast out. Ishmael's children became powerful in the middle east (Gen 21:9-21).
We lose the Muslims here. They believe that Ishmael is the chosen one, although a clear reading of history shows that to be false.
2) The Jews believe that a savior is coming. They still honor the laws of Abraham. The problem is that of the 126 or so (I forget the exact number) of prophecies regarding the savior, Jesus fufills each and every one of them. The Jews have a perception of a different kind of salvation not invovling the relationship of self to God.
We lose the Jews here. However the New Testament is very clear that God still loves the Jews and favors them even though they are following under what we Christians call the "old" Law.
3) Then there is Jesus. Jesus was a man who did live and did many great things according to M/J/C. The problem is the logical quesion: Jesus is either who he said he was
Matthew 16:15-20: The Christ, with the keys of the church
John 5: 16-30: Son empowered and sent by the Father to act and be the Judge
...or he is insane. Prophets inspired by God do not occasionally make false proclamations! Either what they say is true or false. If false, they aren't prophets. Especially when it comes to something as extraordinary as calling oneself GOD!
Muslim thinkers say that Jesus was a great prophet who avoided the crucifixion. This is a logical impossibility as men who are truly prophets do not make assertions of diety. It would also contradict the mission of Jesus to sacrifice his sinless life to cover the sins of the rest of us and act as our redeemer. To show the inconsistencies of the Koran fully I'm going to make a separate article on what the Koran says of Jesus.
posted by Possum at 07:44
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