ISLAM

ISLAM

THE BEGINNING OF A SERIES OF ESSAYS EXPOUNDING ON ISLAM

What will God do to those who turn back from following Him, and His true doctrine? He will destroy them [Zephaniah 1:1-6,14-18, Romans 1:18, 9:22, Hebrews 3:11-19, Revelation 1:10, Zephaniah 2:3].

1. IS ISLAM COMPARABLE WITH CHRISTIANITY Part One.

2. IS ISLAM COMPARABLE WITH CHRISTIANITY Part Two.

                                 IS ISLAM COMPARABLE WITH CHRISTIANITY?
                                                                Part II

     Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world-I John 4:1-3

                    Is Islam Comparable With Christianity?

     Islam's unity was broken for the first time in 657 A.D., resulting from the battle of Siffin, and the religion is still divided yet today. This schism was between 'Ali and Mu'awiya, issuing from a political conflict over who was to succeed to the caliphate. The major divisions of Islam are the Sunnites, Shiites and Khawarij (as of 1959: Encyclopedia Britannica. Volume 12. Page 709. © ...1959 by Encyclopedia Britannica). Compared to Christianity, the Muslims are quite united, as there are thousands of divisions in Christianity in the organized church. However, in regard to modern ecumenical movements, some division is not only inevitable but desirable to a unity which forsakes doctrine.

      The Sunnites have added ijma' to their beliefs, which is a universal approval within the Sunnite faction that allows them, at least in their own mindset, to justify beliefs or practices which the Koran and standard Muslim tradition does not vouch for. Those beliefs and practices are deeply rooted customs or habits from before Islam became "official". Due to those deep roots being unable to be "plucked up", the Sunnites basically created additional tenets with which to either supercede some of the long-standing, traditional and accepted doctrines, or else cancel certain ones out.

      Christians read that we are forbidden from taking away from or adding to any scripture [Deuteronomy 12:32, Revelation 22:18,19]. Anyone who does so does, has or will receive the plagues listed in the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, which probably covers every disease, illness and affliction imaginable.

     What the Sunnites have done is to form private interpretations of their religious leader's writings, in order to justify not conforming to their own stated beliefs. We Christians are shown by Saint Peter that the mind of God sent through His appointed ones is not subject to what humans think, but is defined by God and perceived by the Holy Spirit showing us what things mean [John 7:17, I John 2:27, John 16:13, 14:26, Jeremiah 31:34, Psalm 25:5, Luke 1:79].

      There are six books of tradition: the Kitab al-jami' as-Sahih of Bukhari; the Sahih of Moslem; the Katib as-Sunan of Abu Da'ud; the Jami' Sahih of Tirmidhi; the Katib as-Sunan of Nasa'i; and the Katib as-Sunan of Ibn Maja. These books are considered by Muslims as not only authoritative, but are also used to justify the concept of Mohammed being superhuman, which is a very outlandish thought in Christianity, as no precept, concept or doctrine in the Bible promotes any patriarch, nor Jesus Christ Himself, as being superhuman. Jesus tells us that what He did on earth, we who believe can also do [John 14:12, Matthew 17:14-21].

      The best way that I can explain the relationship between God and Jesus, is as thus: There is a television show on which a company owner or president, who holds all power over his business, poses as a regular employee in order to see what his employees think about working there. The guy is THE authority over the entire company, but instead of going into the place as president or owner, he subjects himself to the same rules and conditions that employees are subject to. By the same token, if need be, he could still use the authority and power available to him, provided he has permission of his company's owner or prsident, which he is.

      Jesus, though possessing all of the attributes of God, came to earth not as a superhuman, but as a servant of God and to mankind, to all who would accept Him [Matthew 9:6, 28:18, Luke 10:19, John 19:11, Mark 4:39, John 11:43, Matthew 10:1, 11:5, Philippians 2:7]. Miracles can only be done by God, either directly or through His appointed believers, but are not against nature. Miracles are simply reversals of nature, though something only God can do, rather than being something that pagans attribute to superhuman gods like Zeus and Apollo.

      By 1959 there were well established schools of law by the Sunnites, operating since before the ninth century, and cadis (judges) were chosen from these students, who were not only put into positions of trust by their government and appointed to officials positions, but acquired wealth and power by those protocols. What that amounts to is a merging of "church" and state, which has always corrupted true doctrine. This is different than, say, a Christian who becomes employed by the government, due to their secular abilities.

      There were those during the time of ancient Rome, who were employed by government and became Christians [Philippians 4:22, Acts 10:1,2, Matthew 8:5-10], as well as those in government who at least tolerated the faith personally [Luke 23:13,14, Acts 26:28], and the faith of Jesus Christ remained untainted until the time of Constantine the Emperor. Though Constantine may have meant well, he laid the foundation for the merging of church and state, which corrupted the organized part of the church, from which the church has never entirely recovered. Concerning things earthly, including secular power, we are to simply use those things and not worship them [I Corinthians 7:31, Acts 12:20-23]. And we are most definitely not to use the things of God in order to procure personal gain [Acts 8:9-24]. Again, that is different than being promoted due to skills, attributes and characteristics that we may possess due to being believers [Deuteronomy 27:15, Exodus 31:1-6, Daniel 1:4-5,17-20, 2:14-49, 3:12-18,28, 5:17].

      Note also that even though God allowed Israel to be taken captive, it was He who orchestrated the elevation of Daniel and his fellows, in order to accomplish His purpose. Yet, those who took Israel captive were heathen or pagan, and not in God's will or favor. He simply uses the heathen as He will, referring to them as His servants. It was not God's will for His people to be subjugated, but they were because they were disobedient.

     Before the tenth century, the use of reasoning was not given any space. During the tenth century, a Mu'tazilite named Abu'l-Hasan al-Ash'ari started utilizing methods of rationalizing, or reasoning, to interpret, thus reinforce, the orthodox faith. It was at this point in time that Islam became a systematic doctrine. That is similar to what the Pharisees turned Judaism into, corrupting the true faith, and, what much of the modern day Christian church has done as well.

      There are many matters pertaining to God and Christ that no amount of reasoning can clearly or thoroughly understand [I Corinthians 13:12, Ephesians 3:1-5, 5:21-32, Colossians 4:3, II Thessalonians 2:7, I Timothy 3:9,16, Revelation 10:7, 17:5,7, John 3:3-8, I Corinthians 2:1-16], especially miracles, but other things as well. At the same time many things are understood by reasoning within the scriptures, discerned and supported by certain events written in secular history [Daniel 9:2, Numbers 21:14, Joshua 10:13, I Kings 11:41, I Chronicles 29:29, II Chronicles 9:29, 20:34, Acts 18:4,19, 24:25, 17:2, Job 13:3, Isaiah 41:21]. There are also faulty reasonings, which are faulty when we use human reasoning instead of letting the Holy Ghost reveal meanings to us, either directly or by pointing out certain verses to read [Matthew 16:5-12, 21:23-27, Luke 20:19-26, 9:46-48].

      But the main point here is, if the doctrine of Islam is true and sure, then why would the doctrine reign with the Muslims for around one thousand years, not allowing reasoning to any appreciable degree, and then an amendment to the doctrine is created, at least with a certain, major sect of the Muslims, to allow reasoning? The doctrine of Christ has not only remain unchanged since Jesus instituted it, we Christian believers are not allowed to alter God's word at all, or else we will be plagued [Revelation 22:18,19, Deuteronomy 12:32]. The Christian God, Jah, I AM, the Everlasting God, the God of Israel, does not change [James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8, Psalm 68:4, Genesis 21:33, Exodus 3:14, Malachi 3:6]. Sadly, many Christian congregations have also changed from true doctrine to their own man made doctrine [Proverbs 24:21].

      The Shiites, the second most important group of Muslims, have a self-contradictory belief. While they consider Ali and his descendants as the only rightful caliphs, or spiritual leaders, of Islam, they believe that "the caliphate is a God-given office and is not to be given by human appointment". How can it always be both? We know of all kinds of people whose parents are Christian, while they themselves live ungodly lives. We are told in the Bible that we must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God [John 3:3], and that we must repent of our sins and profess Jesus Christ in order to be saved [Romans 10:9, Acts 2:21,38]. Not only that, but we are also told that salvation is not inherited [Ezekiel 14:14-20].

      The true priesthood itself, that is, the "office" of THE High Priest had nothing to do with descent [Hebrews 6:20-7:4,6], as the Lord came from the tribe of Judah [Hebrews 7:11-17]. The Old Testament priesthood was composed of the sons of Levi [Hebrews 7:5], but we see instances of righteous priests having sons who did wicked things [I Samuel 1:3,9, 2:12-17,22-25, 3:13,14, 4:17, Leviticus 10:1,2], even being priests themselves. Caiaphas, a high priest of Israel, though he did prophesy, was of those who had Jesus crucified {Matthew 26:3,57, John 11:47-53, Acts 4:5,6,15-18], and may have committed blasphemy against the Holy Ghost [Matthew 26:65, I John 5:16, Luke 12:10, Mark 3:28,29, I Timothy 1:20, James 2:7, Leviticus 24:16, I Timothy 1:1,13]. So since holiness or righteousness obviously does not exist from inheritance or genealogy [Romans 3:23], how can a doctrine or belief be true which says that a God-given position is passed down from father to son [Hebrews 7:27, 9:7]? Since a parent's righteousness is not passed down to the children, we easily see that a fallacy exists in that doctrine [Ezekiel 14:4,14-21, Romans 3:23, John 3:3].

      The Shiite sect has beliefs that were founded amongst the old Arabian, Aramaean and Persian nations, which were pagan and held Gnostic beliefs derived from the old world religions of ancient Babylonia, as well as the Persian idea of a monarchial reign. A monarchy is much deeper than political. Beginning in the 2nd and third centuries A.D., it is an anti-Trinitarian sect which teaches that God is only one person and one being, which is anti-christ [I John 4:1-3, 5:1,2,5-13,20, II John 7,9-11].

      A monarchy is absolute sovereignty by a single person, which is what some of the old world kingdoms were including Egypt, Assyria and Persia. And most of those rulers were worshipped as though they were God Almighty. Their religions taught that those rulers were sent by God and did God's will, and that obesiance to them was the way to a good afterlife, which amounts to false Christs even before the clear concept of a Christ was taught. There were false Christs not long before the time of Jesus, and Jesus tells us that many more false Christs will arise after Him [Acts 5:34-40, Mark 13:20-23, Deuteronomy 30:11-16, Luke 17:20,21]. It's ironic that the Muslims revere Moses, yet refuse to accept the Messiah that Moses laid the foundations for, Jesus Christ [I Kings 6:37, II Chronicles 8:16, Isaiah 28:16, John 17:24, Hebrews 3:1-6, Haggai 2:9, Matthew 17:1-3, Acts 26:22,23].

      Because of these beliefs in Islam, politics and theology are merged, which is what happened in England, driving many of it's people to migrate to America. The kings had assumed sovereign power over both church and state, and became very oppressive. Neither capitalism nor freedom to worship and express oneself existed to any extent, and the entire system became something like the old Roman empire, where the state, or government, and it's chief rulers were worshipped by most people except the Christians [Acts 12:21-24]. God's people are strictly forbidden from worshipping anything except Him [Exodus 34:14, Matthew 4:1-11, 15:9, John 4:19-24].

      Muslims believe that Mohammed had superhuman power and that this power is inherited by Ali and his offspring, enabling them to interpret the will of God and foretell future events. Saint Peter tells us that prophecy of the scripture is not privately interpreted [II Peter 1:20]. We who believe in Christ also know for ourselves, by the Holy Ghost, what is of God and what scripture means [John 7:17, I John 2:27, John 14:26, Jeremiah 31:33,34].

      A sect of the Shiites, called the Twelvers (the Ithna'ashariyya), accept twelve of the descendants of Ali as Imams, an Imam being a messiah or type of messiah. Shiites and most or all Muslims believe that the twelfth imam, Mohammed, is still alive and will return in the last days to establish the Shiite faith in the world, though he disappeared about 874 A.D. The Bible tells us that man is appointed a day of death [Hebrews 9:27], that all of the prophets are dead [John 8:52], and that the only people who will not die are those whom the Lord takes back to heaven, where He is, when He returns [I Thessalonians 4:13-17].

      Muslims have a creed which says: "There is no God but God; Mohammed is the apostle of God", and they have added "and Ali is the vice-regent of God". As Christians, we know that there is one Father, God, who is a Spirit [Matthew 23:9, 4:24, I Corinthians 8:6, Romans 15:6, I Thessalonians 3:11]. The word God comes from the Greek theos, meaning a god or a deity, deity meaning a supreme being. Apollos and Zeus were, to the Greeks, a deity. Mohammed is, to the Muslims, a deity, at least in essence and by definition, as well as a prophet and a messiah, replacing Jesus Christ. Because of that, and because antichrist means not only against Christ, but also instead of, Islam is antichrist [I John 2:22,23, 4:1-3, II John 7,9].

      Jesus Christ could be called a deity, though He is not God the Father, yet possessing all of the attributes of the Father [Hebrews 1:3]. Jesus came to earth as a form of servant to God, as well as a Messiah and a Savior, being subserviant to Him, the Father [Philippians 2:7, Hebrews 1:8]. Form here is from the Greek morphe: 'morphe is therefore properly the nature or essence, not in the abstract, but as actually subsisting in the individual, and retained as long as the individual exists...the Divine nature actually and inseparably subsisting in the person of Christ...For the interpretation of the form of God it is sufficient to say that (1) it includes the whole nature and essence of Deity, and is inseparable from them, since they could have no actual existence without it; and (2) that it does not include in itself anything accidental or separable, such as particular modes of manifestation, or conditions of glory and majesty, which may at one time be attached to the "form", at another separated from it...[Vine, W.E., Unger, Merrill F., White Jr., William. Pg. 251. Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words with Topical Index. © 1984, 1996.]

     Christ has always been in existence [Hebrews 1:2, 7:1-3, Genesis 1:26, 3:8, Exodus 24:9-11 > Revelation 1:13-15], as has the Holy Ghost [Genesis 1:2], and though all three possessing divine power, are three separate, yet inseparable, entities. We cannot have one without the other two. The way I can best explain it is as such: we have the owner and creator (God) of a company (the world). He created the company by His Son, who is equal with Him but obedient to Him [Philippians 2:6]. They created the company with it's force (protocols), which is the Holy Ghost, which enables the workers (believers) to more perfectly abide by the rules and regulations (moral laws). When Christ came to earth, as Jesus, who inherited all things [Hebrews 1:4, Matthew 9:6, 28:18], though He had the same attributes and power of God the Father, He came in humility and did as the Holy Spirit and Father bid Him do [John 5:19,20]. Jesus performed supernatural acts, not magical acts. There were many who He would have liked to heal and minister to in other ways, but due to their unbelief did not do so [Matthew 13:54-58].

      There are four duties of the Shiite Muslim, which are very contradictory to the Christian faith, thereby further substantiating that a merging between Islam and Christianity is not only impossible, but revealing that Muslims and Christians do not worship the same God, because the Christian's God, the God of Israel, the Father of Jesus Christ, does not vary, He is always the same, as is the Messiah and Savior [James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8].

      The four main religious duties of a Muslim are: a pilgrimage to Mecca; worshipping the saints; celebrating religious feasts, and; the most important of the four, abiding by the prescribed ritual purities. It should be noted that taking part in public worship is not obligatory, which could be a way for terrorist Muslims to remain undetected, incidentally.

      There was a time when it was thought by God's people, and others, that they had to go to a certain place in order to worship Him, and at first God did cause His people to go to a certain place to worship Him, although originally it was to be away from the enemies, and in a more peaceful place [Genesis 22:2, Exodus 3:12,18, 5:1,3], and to prepare His people (all believers in Christ) [Romans 2:9,10,28,29, Ezekiel 47:22, Isaiah 11:10, 14:1, 42:1,6, 49:6,22, 60:1-3,5, 62:2 > Luke 2:25-32, 66:12,19, Lamentations 2:8,9, Hosea 8:8, Acts 10:45, 13:47] to worship God wherever they may be [John 4:21-24], which example was set by Jacob [Genesis 28:10-22].

      We are told to worship God only [Exodus 20:3-5, 34:14, Deuteronomy 6:13, Psalm 8:4, 14:1-3 > Romans 3:23, Acts 12:21-23, 14:11-15,18], which includes Jesus Christ, obeying the Holy Ghost [Hebrews 1:2, 2:6-13, 3:1,2, 4:14, 7:14-17,24-26, 8:1, 9:28, 10:23, 13:8, Matthew 17:5, I Thessalonians 5:19, Exodus 23:20,21], not considering ANY human being of being worthy of worship. We are not to worship even the angels [Revelation 18:1,2 > 19:10 > 22:8,9]. Moses got into trouble with the Lord for presumptuously assuming the power of God [Numbers 20:10,12, Deuteronomy 32:51,52], so there is no person that was or is a human who we should ever worship [Matthew 28:19, 24:24], or put into the place of Christ. Though the Apostle Paul admonished us to be followers of him [I Corinthians 4:16, 11:1], he was in no way even implying that he was to be thought of as Christ Himself [I Timothy 1:15, Ephesians 3:8], but rather he was saying to use him as an example. We are to worship and serve God and Christ only [Luke 4:8, I Corinthians 7:22], obeying the Holy Ghost, also Divine, which is the representative of Jesus Christ on earth [John 14:16,18,26, 16:7,13,14].

      There are certain, Jewish religious feasts that Christian believers should celebrate, which is out of the scope of this article, but Pastor Perry Stone has some excellent discourse on the subject, and I'm sure a few other preachers do as well.

      Concerning ritual purities, none are necessary for righteousness in Christ, although personal cleanliness ought to be practiced whenever possible, for health's sake. But as far as ritual purities, Jesus and Paul have shown us that they mean absolutely nothing when it comes to being accepted of God [Matthew 15:1,2,20], and all of the disciples and apostles were taught this. Jesus didn't teach that we shouldn't be cleanly, but what he cast down was the ritualistic washings prescribed by the Pharisees, which is similar to the Muslim's ritual washings, in that it has to be done in a certain way and a set number of times [Mark 7:1-23]. The physical uncleanness is from the original law, and are common sense health issues [Leviticus 5:3, others], but Jesus was teaching that we can be physically clean and still be defiled heart and thought-wise. So rather than saying that we ought to forsake washing, He is teaching us that we need to have clean hearts and thoughts, which is the root of being righteous in God [Psalm 19:9, 24:3-5, Job 17:9, Isaiah 1:16, Ezekiel 36:25-27, John 15:3,4].

      In Islam, with the Shiites, temporary marriages are permitted, for a specified period of time. This in in direct contrast to Christianity, in which no such precept exists. According to scripture, divorce and I believe remarriage is allowed only in the case of fornication [Matthew 5:32, 19:9]. Once married, the man and woman become as one [Mark 10:2-12], so divorce is equivalent to one body being severed, except, presumably, in the case of fornication.

      Another doctrine of Islam, at least amongst the Shiites, which is both hypocritical in itself and expressly forbidden in Christianity is taqiyya (caution), which means that in the event of danger or persecution, it is okay for a Muslim to deny his faith and pass his or her self off as a Sunnite. Jesus plainly tells us who believe in Him as Savior and Messiah, that if we deny Him, meaning either expressly or by action, then he will deny us [Matthew 10:32,33, Revelation 2:13, 3:8, 14:12 > Deuteronomy 6:5, 27:10, Jeremiah 31:33, Romans 2:15, Philippians 1:10, Matthew 5:17-20, Ezekiel 11:19-21, I Timothy 5:8].

      The Khawarij sect of Islam regards any Muslim who commits one of the "greater" sins as no longer being a believer, and also rejects the justification by faith without works. In Christianity, it is for sure that there is only one unforgivable sin, that being blasphemy of the Holy Ghost, taught by Jesus and by the beloved disciple, John the Apostle [Matthew 12:31-37, I John 5:16,17]. The first time I ever attended a "holy roller" church service, being far astray from the Lord, I remember thinking to myself, that some of that must be of the devil, and I got strongly rebuked by the Holy Ghost, and repented [Mark 9:39, Luke 12:10, I Timothy 1:1,12-15]. And some things in church are of the devil, or antichrist spirit [I John 4:1-3], as the devil has imitations of God's things [Revelation 13:14, 16:14, 19:20], just as the magicians of Egypt could imitate God's workings, up to a certain point, but not beyond that [Exodus 7:8-13,17-22,24,25, 8:1-19,28, 9:6,8-11,18-21-28,34,35]. [Note:the gifts of the Holy Spirit and their workings are still available now, all of them. Nowhere does scripture say that the devil can raise the dead or heal the sick, though there are natural "gifts" of healing, which is not necessarily of God or the devil: John 10:10, Psalm 68:20 > Job 1:7-12, 2:1-6, Ecclesiastes 8:8].

      As pertaining to works, we are not saved by works but by grace [Romans 3:24, 11:6, Ephesians 2:8,9, I Peter 3:21, Amos 2:12-16]. Works are a product of faith, but do not in any way give to us salvation, as though we earn it, or could earn it [James 2:14-26, Romans 3:23, Psalm 147:10,11]

      Perhaps the best explanation of blasphemy of the Holy Ghost is from 'Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words with Topical Index' [Vine, W.E., Unger, Merrill F., White, William Jr. © 1984, 1996. Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, TN]: "As to Christ's teachings concerning "blasphemy" against the Holy Spirit, e.g., Matt. 12:32, that anyone, with the evidence of the Lord's power before His eyes, should declare it to be satanic, exhibited a condition of heart beyond divine illumination and therefore hopeless. Divine forgiveness would be [in that case] inconsistent with the moral nature of God. As to the Son of man, in his state of humiliation, there might be misunderstanding, but not so with the Holy Spirit's power demonstrated".

      The preceding doctrines of Islam discussed are from the Sunnites, Shiites and Khawarij. Two other notable sects are the Murjiites and the Kadarites.

      The Murjiites were called "postponers", believing that human actions are not judged until the great judgment day. While it's true that some actions are not, as in the case of the wicked who put themselves above God, in their own hearts and minds [Psalm 73:1-28, Job 24:1-24, Jeremiah 48:11-13, Isaiah 14:12-20, Ezekiel 28:2-19, Jeremiah 2:31, James 5:1-6, Amos 5:11-23, Isaiah 28:14,15, Micah 2:1-3, Psalm 10:2-18, Ezekiel 18:5-32, Acts 13:23,26-33,38-41], many actions result in judgment, condemnation and chastisement from God in this life [I Timothy 5:24,25, John 16:7-11, Hebrews 12:5-11, Romans 10:9-13].

      The Murjiites also believed that religion means believing in God's unity and in his apostle, Mohammed, and only that, which is contradictory in itself, since Muslims deny that there are three persons of the Godhead [Matthew 28:19, John 10:30, 5:22, Hebrews 1:2-8, 2:6-10, 3:1,6, Haggai 2:9, 5:5-10], believing in only one "person". So that being the case, how can a single person or entity, be united? United with what? Because of that belief, they also hold that no one who holds that doctrine will perish eternally, even having lived a sinful life. That is similar to the false Christian doctrine of once saved always saved. The Kharijites, on the other hand, believe that a professing Muslim will perish eternally, if having unrepented sin.

      Most Muslims believe in the idea of absolute predestination, or a fixed destiny, and that God had ordered their lives as though they could not change anything in it, including their manner of death, which is a belief in fate. The Kadarites believed that man has power over his own actions, but the doctrine of predestination overwhelmed the Kadarite's doctrine, and Ma'bad al-Juhani, one of the Kadarites, was put to death in 699 A.D. for heresy.

      Though mentioned in the New Testament [Romans 8:29,30, Ephesians 1:5,11], predestination does not mean that our salvation is fixed, because we must maintain the faith and teachings of Jesus Christ in order to remain in a state of salvation [Philippians 1:27, 3:11-14,16, I Corinthians 9:27, I Timothy 1:19, John 8:31, Hosea 6:3, John 15:9,10, Revelation 14:12]. A person who walks away from God or turns their back on Him will perish eternally.

      Mohammed is reported to have said that Islam would be divided into 73 sects, and that 72 would die out, leaving one. Because of that, Arabic writers have tried to restrict the number of sects to 72, but due to a multitude of classifications the number of actual sects totals several hundred, making Mohammed's prediction a false prophecy, at least of sorts.

      Later movements of Islam began more recently, consisting of the Wahhabis, the Babis and the Ahmadiyya. The Ahmadiyya began in or around 1879 and was started by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who claimed to be both the promised Mahdi and the promised Messiah. He introduced an antichrist doctrine which is contradictory to the commonly accepted belief amongst Muslims concerning Jesus, which is also against Christian doctrine. The commonly held belief is that Jesus was taken alive into heaven, while a similar person, or "phantom", was crucified in His place. Ahmad taught that Jesus was crucified, but was taken down from the cross by His disciples while still alive, was healed from His wounds and later went to Kashmir, finally dying at a later date, being buried in Srinagar where, as of 1959, his tomb was still in existence.

      The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the very basis for Christianity. The concreteness of the law kept God's people bound to it, because before Jesus, the Mosetical law was a set of rules that man was unable to fully and always keep [Hebrews 2:15, Romans 5:14, 3:23, 7:5-25, 8:3]. But once Christ came and taught, and was crucified, buried and resurrected, those events enabled us to be born anew, be possessed with the Holy Spirit, and walk in God and Christ's ways. Jesus had to taste death for us, and then ascend back to heaven in order to send the Promise, the Holy Ghost [Romans 5:19, 6:3-5, John 12:23,24, I Corinthians 15:12-22, 35-50, Isaiah 26:19, John 16:7, Hebrews 2:9,10,14-18, Acts 1:4-11].

      Jesus foretold that false prophets and Christs would arise [Matthew 7:15, 24:23-26, Mark 13:21-23, Deuteronomy 30:10-20, Jeremiah 7:4, John 3:13-21], deceiving many. We are told by the Apostle John that whoever does not abide in the doctrine of Christ, does not have God and is a deceiver and an antichrist [II John 6-11]. Antichrist is from the Greek word antichristos, meaning against Christ, instead of Christ or a combination of the two. A definition from Vine's Complete Expositiry Dictionary explains it as thus: "...one who, assuming the guise of Christ, opposes Christ" (Westcott). There is not simply one powerful antichrist figure during the end times, but rather there are many antichrists, which are people who do not accept the doctrine of Christ, or doctrines which do not [I John 2:18,19]. Walid Shoebat, a former Muslim terrorist who converted to Christ, has many videos, articles and books which explain how Mohammed and his followers went out from the Christians and started Islam, an antichrist religion, being against Christ as the Messiah by their own statement of beliefs [I John 2:22,23].

      Anything which is instead of Christ, is at least ultimately against Christ [Luke 9:49,50, Mark 9:38-40, Matthew 12:22-32, I John 4:1-3]. One may say that they prefer a GM product over a Ford or Chrysler, but if they buy and drive a Ford or Chrysler instead, then how can they say that they truly prefer a GM [Matthew 13:44-46]? Anything that we put in front of, that is between us and God and Christ, or instead of, starts out as idolatry, which is instigated by the antichrist spirit, the spirit of satan, and eventually, either sooner or later, results in blasphemy of the Holy Ghost, the one unforgivable sin [Exodus 20:3-5, I Thessalonians 5:19, Exodus 23:20-25, I John 5:16, Matthew 6:19-34, Luke 16:13-15, Jeremiah 3:10, John 10:31-39, Psalm 82:5-7, Mark 3:22-30, Luke 12:4-12].

      By deceiving people into believing that Christ was not murdered on the cross, Ahmad's doctrine also rejected any hope of Christ's second coming, which Christ Himself mentioned that He would do [John 14:1-3, Daniel 7:13,14, I Thessalonians 4:13-17, 5:1-3, II Thessalonians 2:1-12, Genesis 5:24, II Kings 2:1,11], which is what is commonly called the rapture. When Christ comes back, the whole world will know that it is Christ. He will not appear in the form of an earthly king, president or other ruler, but as he was when He was taken up into heaven, but glorified, and at some point in time, probably later than the "rapture", which is the Second Coming, the "rapture" likely being a preceding event, He will set His feet upon the Mount of Olives and it will split in two [Acts 1:11, Revelation 1:7, I Corinthians 15:52, Matthew 24:29-31, 26:64, Jeremiah 10:2, Joel 2:1-14,28-32, Mark 14:62, Zechariah 14:4].

      There will be some kind of a 1,000 year reign of Christ, likely upon earth [Revelation 20:1-15], just before the very end, when I believe that scripture says the present earth and heavens (Excepting the third heaven, where God dwells) will be destroyed, at which time the Lord will create everything anew [Zechariah 14:12, Isaiah 34:4, 51:6, II Peter 3:7,10-12, Isaiah 24:18-23, II Corinthians 12:1-4].

      The key here, is to be well rooted and grounded in Christ, because depending upon the timing, I believe that scriptures are showing us a time will come, not too far off, to where a powerful antichrist ruler will attempt to cause people to accept him as the Messiah, by, creating what will appear to be an earthly utopia, sort of an earthly paradise, where everyone has all that they need and desire, and where they can do anything they want to do without fear of reprisal by God. That will be false miracles [Revelation 13:13,14, 16:13-15, 19:20], and will likely have to be after the "rapture", at which point the Holy Spirit will be withdrawn from the earth [II Thessalonians 2:6-9]. And there will come a time, once all religions are merged into one, which will likely be Islam, and all genuine Christians are gone, when it will appear that "peace and safety" has been achieved [similar to the people in Genesis 11:1-9]. It will only seem that way because nothing will reprimand wrongs, and there will be no righteous for the wicked to provoke, because God will, by then, have given up on the remainder of mankind. But suddenly, it will be destroyed [I Thessalonians 5:3, Habakkuk 2:7, Jeremiah 14:13-16].

      Again, as discussed previously, I've never seen any scripture which indicates that the devil can or would raise the dead or heal the sick [John 10:10, Luke 9:56]. Some teach that during certain of the end times, the devil is given special power to do so, but again, no scripture I've read has any such indications, and such teaching is man's imagination and undermines the faith of some, if not many [Colossians 2:8,18,19, Titus 1:9-16].

      Many books and movies are in grave error, which portray a powerful man being killed, and then revived again by the devil's power. In Revelation 13:3, head (Greek kephale), if not explicitly meaning a human, is used figuratively, being a symbol of authority (as does horn), especially meaning the authority of the imperial rulers of the Roman power (for a deep discourse, yet understandable, on exactly what this likely is, see 666truth.org). Beast (Greek zoon and therion) represents a nation, entity or power, rather than a person. Thirdly, verse three does not say that the beast is killed, only that it receives a deadly wound, a wound to death, or towards death, meaning that it appeared to be an unsurvivable wound. There is a power, which did, and still does, hold much power over world affairs, which received a deadly wound under Napolean, and which wound was healed (discussed at 666truth.org). This I agree with but it is out of the scope of this article, and I've already delved out of this article's scope.

      But by causing people to reject the hope of Christ's second coming, it will set the stage for a false messiah, which Ahmad attempted to do. He preached that he was the Messiah, not another personage of Jesus, but rather being a likeness of Jesus, being gentle in spirit, teaching peaceful doctrines, purportedly performing miracles, and conducting teaching that was appropriate to the need of that age. I have yet to read of any miracles performed by Ahmad, though there could be records of it. However, since Ahmad couldn't have had the Holy Spirit in him, any miracles he performed would have been false ones. Concerning expounding on teachings appropriate to the needs of the age, much of Jesus' teachings conflicted with what many thought were the needs of that age. In reality, however, Jesus' teachings are appropriate for any age, culture, nation or peoples. God does not alter His ways to suit people [Hebrews 13:8, James 1:17, Malachi 3:6, Ezra 6:7-12, Revelation 22:18,19, Deuteronomy 12:32].

      Ahmad also expounded the doctrine of jihad, which usually means war against unbelievers, which is a striving after righteousness. To the Christian believer, on the other hand, our real enemy is not people in themselves, but rather the evil spirits and the devil who influence and sometimes possess unbelievers [Ephesians 6:12]. As far as that goes, the evil spirits can also influence us who believe in Christ, to a certain degree [Ephesians 2:2], and we have the flesh to deal with [Romans 7:5-25], but we have the Holy Ghost to correct us.

      How widespread is Islam now? The latest news tells us that, but as far back as 1959, adherents of Islam were conducting extensive missionary activity in India, West Africa, Mauritius, Java, Berlin, Chicago and London. Islam started during the sixth century A.D., and has had a profound, devastating effect on the world during World War Two. According to Walid Shoebat, his grandfather, a Muslim, entertained a then well known Muslim who was cohort with Adolph Hitler, who wanted to institute Islam in Germany. Note that even though Islam often turns violent, the greatest threat is in the peaceful doctrine of Islam, which is against both Jesus Christ and God.

                                                                                           Reference

     Encyclopedia Britannica. Volume 12. © 1959 by Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. Pgs. 708-712.

1.              IS ISLAM COMPARABLE WITH CHRISTIANITY

     THE GOD OF ISRAEL, THE CHRISTIANS' GOD, THE FATHER OF JESUS CHRIST, SAYS: "I AM THE LORD, THAT IS MY NAME; I WILL NOT GIVE MY GLORY TO ANOTHER, NOR MY PRAISE TO GRAVEN IMAGES"-ISAIAH 42:8.
     GOD WILL NOT SHARE HIS GLORY WITH ALLAH, NOR HIS PRAISE WITH A BLACK STONE!

Islam, in Arabic, means submission to the will of God. Christians are also to submit to the will of God [James 4:7, Romans 10:3,4, I Peter 5:6]. But are both faiths serving the same God?

The Muslim creed is, “There is no God but God (Allah): Mohammed is the apostle of God”. The Bible, which Muslims partly believe in, says that Jesus Christ is the Apostle of God [Hebrews 3:1], the word apostle meaning someone divinely commissioned to represent God, in this context, as apostle otherwise means someone divinely commissioned to represent Christ.

It is also believed that the word apostle means, more specifically, an eyewitness of either God or Christ, Christ being the only face to face eyewitness of God the Father.

The Bible does not mention Mohammed at all, and says that the foundation of the faith is Jesus Christ [I Peter 2:4-8, Isaiah 28:16]. Muslims profess that Jesus was a great teacher, maybe even a prophet, but deny that He is the Christ, the Messiah [I John 4:1-3], not believing that He was even crucified, much less risen and ascended to heaven.

The Muslims believe that Mohammed was the last of a series of prophets, the first prophet being Adam. I've not read in the Bible that Adam was a prophet, though he is mentioned many times. The first prophet I read about is Enoch, the seventh from Adam. Mohammed started Islam in 610 A.D., long after the writings of the Bible were complete, and he never upheld the doctrine of Christ, he disputed it. In II John 1:9,10, we are told to reject those who do not bring us the doctrine of Jesus Christ.

The doctrine of Islam is based upon the Koran, the Word of God according to the Muslims, or Moslems, and the traditions (Hadith), or sayings and manner of life (Sunna) of Mohammed.

The Muslims hold Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar, the maid of Sarah Abraham's wife, as the progenitor of the Arab Muslims, as was Esau, who was a son of Abraham and Sarah, and a twin of Jacob, father of the 12 tribes of Israel [see http://christianthinktank.com/ishmael.html]. The Arab Muslims consider Abraham to be their physical ancestor, which he was, being Ishmael's father.

The true God did bless Ishmael and his descendants, but did not make them the inheritors of the promise. The promise was to Abraham and Sarah's descendants [Genesis 17:2-9, 15,16,18-21, 15:13,14, 18:10,17-19, 21:1-4,9-13,17,18, 16:10-12, Galatians 4:22-31,]. God simply promised to Ishmael that his descendants would become a mighty nation. We also believe that scripture is being fulfilled from Genesis 16:12, that “he will be a wild man; his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren”.

There are multitudes of Arabs, and they are against everybody else in the world, and everybody in the world is against them. They even kill one another over differences in doctrine and for slighting them.

The acceptance of Islam is to believe in God (Allah), the angels, the inspired books (Koran and parts of the Old Testament), the day of judgement and God's predestination of good and evil. The Christian faith believes in God (the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost), in angels both good and bad, the Bible (both Old and New Testaments), and a free will to choose between good and evil.

Christians believe in God, the God of Israel, also known as Jehovah [Isaiah 26:4], I AM [Exodus 3:14], God Almighty [Exodus 6:3], the Everlasting Father [Isaiah 9:6] and others. Allah is not in the Bible at all, and God says that He will not share His glory with another [Isaiah 42:8].

Since the God of the Bible blessed Ishmael and his descendants with multitudes of people, could it be right to assume that Allah is just another name for the God of the Bible? Isaiah 9:6 refers to Jesus Christ, naming Him Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. Even though Christ was born a human, and humbled Himself to make it possible for our souls to be saved, He is still God, being the second person of the Godhead. Since the Muslims have rejected Jesus Christ as the Messiah, they have rejected the Almighty and True God as well.

Christians hold the Bible as the inspired Word of God, evident by Exodus 17:14, 34:27, Jeremiah 30:2, John 20:31, I Corinthians 10:11 and others. We also believe that anything that does not align with scripture is not inspired by the Lord [Deuteronomy 4:2, 12:32, Revelation 22:18].

Angels are mentioned all throughout the Bible, and we believe that satan and his fallen angels cause a lot of problems as well.

Christians believe that there will be a day of judgement, when the believers will be judged by Jesus Christ, for us to receive the extent of our reward [Romans 2:16, II Timothy 4:1, Hebrews 13:4, Romans 14:10, Psalm 122:5,Matthew 19:28, Revelation 7:9-11,13-15, 20:11,12,15, Ezekiel 3:20,21]. The unbelieving will be judged by God Himself, to receive the severity of their punishment [I Corinthians 5:12,13].

Concerning predestination, Muslims believe in fate, that is, that their future is ascertained beforehand and they can do nothing to change it. That is false doctrine. God does not force anyone to go either the bad way or the good way. We are born with a free will, able to choose either the good or the bad [Deuteronomy 1:39, I Kings 3:9, Hebrews 5:14, II Chronicles 36:9, Joshua 24:15, Genesis 2:17, Deuteronomy 11:26,27].

The verses where the Bible speaks of predestination is often misinterpreted to mean that we are fated for whatever our life is. This is incorrect. We always have liberty to choose. Let's look in depth at these verses and what they mean.

Romans 8:28 means that God foreknows each and every one of us, and selects a calling for us. Verse 29 discounts that we are automatically put into that slot, because it says not only did he predestinate us, He also called us. He calls us, but does not make us obey the call either to become a believer in Christ nor to heed His call for His purpose.

The Greek word does mean to 'foreordain', to 'mark out beforehand'. However, again, we have the freedom to choose, made plainly evident by many verses in the bible. You could liken it to an employer going through applications. He marks out certain ones beforehand for employment. During the interview, only certain ones meet the mark in the interviewer's eyes, and so only those who meet the mark perform the work. A person can either fail the tests, or just refuse to do the work [Exodus 19:5,6, Joshua 24:15, Romans 6:16,17, John 14:15].

Fate, as the Muslims believe in, denotes once saved always saved. The verses in Philippians 3:11-16 refute the doctrine of once saved always saved. It is possible for a believer to walk away from the Lord, casting out the concept of fate [Ezekiel 33:2-19].

Fate and the once saved always saved doctrine implies that once a person becomes a Christian, then no matter what they do, they are still right with the Lord. That doctrine is totally false [I Peter 1:16, Romans 6:1-4, 6-15, Hebrews 10:16, Ezekiel 11:19-21, 8:3-18, Ezra 9:13,14, II Corinthians 6:17, Matthew 12:43-45, and many others].

Ephesians 1:4-13 talks of being chosen before the world was even made, just as He chose Israel to be His people. But there are conditions, which Israel, as a nation, has not measured up to. Some of those conditions to obtain the inheritance, which is the Holy Ghost and the kingdom of God, and later heaven [II Corinthians 1:22, 5:5, Ephesians 1:13,14, John 18:36, Luke 17:20,21] are being to the praise of His glory, and having our sins cleansed by believing in Christ [Romans 10:9-13] after confessing our sins.

Both Muslims and Christians believe that God created the world in six days, and that Adam was in the garden of paradise, but then fell after being tempted by satan [Christians believe that Eve was first tempted, and then Adam] [Genesis chapters 1,2,3].

Muslims believe that satan was expelled from heaven because he refused to prostate himself to Adam at God's command. Christians believe that satan was expelled from heaven far before Adam was around, and fell because he aspired to be as God Himself [Isaiah 14:12-15].

Both Christians and Muslims believe that there are both good, and bad, angels [Jude 6, Hebrews 1:13,14].

Both faiths believe that God has revealed Himself to man through prophets. However, Muslims believe that Mohammed is the “seal of the prophets”, and last in a series of prophets. This is very contradictory to truth and scripture. Mohammed is nowhere mentioned in the Bible, did not start his sayings until 610 A.D., and Christians believe that John the Baptist was the last old testament prophet, aside from Christ. Jesus Christ was the last major prophet born under the old testament and the initiator of the New Covenant [Hebrews 10:20, 8:6, 12:23,24, 13:20, Luke 22:20].

Jesus Christ is our one and only path to heaven and mediator between man and God [I Timothy 2:5, John 14:6]. He came to show us the way to salvation, and every Christian preacher, teacher, prophet, testifier, all Christians, are to show others the same, Jesus Christ, by word and deed [Romans 10:14,15, Mark 16:15, I Peter 3:15], glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. Mohammed, thus Islam, does not glorify Christ, nor acknowledge Him as Saviour, though they acknowledge Him as a great teacher or even a prophet.

There are certain religious practices which Muslims are obligated to do: recite the creed; perform divine worship five times per day; fast in the month of Ramadan; pay the legal alms; and make a pilgrimage to Mecca.

The creed is to be recited out loud, at least once during a lifetime, fully understanding it's meaning and believing it from the heart. Christians are true believers when they are born again, confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord once believing it in the heart. This happens when we are convicted of our sins and repent of them [Proverbs 1:23-33, Romans 10:9-11, John 3:3,5-8, Deuteronomy 10:16, II Corinthians 3:3, Jeremiah 31:33, Mark 1:15, Luke 13:3].

Though Jesus teaches one prayer [Luke 11:1-4], He also discounted the value of useless repetitions and praying just to be heard [Matthew 6:7]. We Christians do not have to fully understand everything about the Bible, simply believe and do our best [John 6:29,8:31, Hosea 6:3].

Just as the Muslims bow down to Allah [John 4:22], Christians are to bow down to our God [Psalm 95:6]. However, we do not have to worship the Lord five times every day, performing unBiblical traditions [Colossians 2:23, Matthew 15:7-9]. We can praise and worship Him continually [Acts 6:4, Hebrews 13:15,16].

Concerning fasting, we ought to fast whenever we need to, prayerfully, being guided by the Holy Ghost [II Samuel 12:21-23, II Chronicles 20:3, Zechariah 7:4,5, Isaiah 58:3,4, Matthew 9:14,15, Luke 18:10-14, II Corinthians 6:5, 11:27].

Muslims have to pay alms, which is almost like appeasing Allah, or similar to buying their way into a god's good graces. We, as Christians, are to be obedient over sacrifice. We ought to pay tithes [Deuteronomy 14:22,28, Matthew 23:23] and God does bless you for it, but it is in no way a requirement for being in the grace of Christ. It's just that, as Christian believers, we should have it in our hearts to help those in need, in one way or another, and support the ministry [Luke 21:1-4, Ephesians 2:8, Hosea 6:6, Amos 5:21-24, Isaiah 1:10-20].

Part of the divine service includes a systematic and ritualistic washing of the face, hands and feet before prayer, and completely washing the body after being legally polluted. Jesus spoke about both the uselessness and hypocrisy of these types of things, as far as being needful to be in a right relationship with the Lord, and Him [Mark 7:1-23, Acts 22:16, Hebrews 10:22, Revelation 1:5].

Christ was not, by condemning the ritualistic washings, negating personal hygene, when it is possible to be physically clean, but rather was trying to get it ingrained in people's minds that righteousness with God consists of a clean heart, cleansed by repentance of sins through belief in Jesus Christ [Romans 2:25-27 > 3:23, 9:16, Hebrews 9:9-28, II Chronicles 30:19, Hebrews 10:1-12, 16-22, 13:9,Joel 2:13].

When Muslims pray, there are predetermined, detailed positions that they assume, as well as sudden, vehement utterances. This is not tongues [I Corinthians 14:1-32,39,40, Isaiah 28:11], but is more like the prophets of Baal, when contesting with Elijah about who is the true God [I Kings 18:24-29].

Though Muslims are to fast during the month of Ramadan, if one of them is on a trip, he can fast during a different set of days. If a Muslim is able to fast and doesn't, he can be redeemed by feeding someone who is poor. As Christians, we are told that we answer for our own sins, and that we cannot be redeemed by anyone else [Ezekiel 14:14,16,18,20, Hebrews 2:3, 3:12, Philippians 2:11,12, I Corinthians 9:17,26,27, Hebrews 3:15-19, 4:3, 6:11,12, 9:7-9, 10:1-3,23,29,35,38,39, 12:1,5-17,25, 13:9,16,21].

At one time, the Hebrews were commanded by God to go worship Him at a certain place, originally Mount Horeb [Sinai], and then at the tabernacle, which was eventually built in Jerusalem. But since the initiation of the New Covenant [New Testament era, from Christ to the rapture], we are told to worship God in spirit and in truth, and not at any certain place [John 4:7-24]. Even in the old testament, both Jacob and Elijah, and many others, prayed to God wherever they were.

The pilgrimage to Mecca is to be done once by every Muslim, if he is physically able to and can support himself and his family while he is gone. Once arriving within 5 or 6 miles of the holy city, the Muslim puts on different clothes, nothing on the head or feet and does not shave, trim the nails or anoint the head during the ceremonial time.

At the sacred mosque, the Muslim kisses the black stone, which is idolatry according to the Bible [Exodus 20:3-5, Isaiah 66:3, I John 5:21, Deuteronomy 28:15,28,36]. They also have to go around the Kaaba seven times, running three times and going slowly four times; run from Mt. Safa to Mt. Marwa seven times; visit Mt. Arafat and the Makam Ibrahim; stay all night at Musdalifa; listen to a sermon; throw stones at the three pillars, during the feast feast day, in Mina; and offer a sacrifice. They usually visit Mohammed as well. Again, these things are equivalent to the 450 prophets of Baal jumping up and down, shouting and cutting themselves, hoping that their god would hear.

                                    ----------------------------------------------End of Part One-------------------------------------------------