Word of Salvation – Vol.52 No.3 - January 2007

 

Christianity vs Islam - what's the difference?

 

A Sermon by Rev Bill Bosker

Scripture Reading: Gen 15:1-7; Rom 4:1-8, 13-25; Rom 3:21-26

 

Dear Congregation.

Introduction:

I think we all agree the world is a different place after September 11, 2001. If we hadn't thought about Islam and the Muslim faith before then, we do now. Islam is attractive to millions of people because it has a world-view where all of life is religion. Does that ring any bells for you?

Rev Victor Attallah of Middle East Reformed Fellowship (MERF), says that when Muslims hear a true biblical and Reformed world and life view, it makes some sense to them, because all of life is lived under God and we exist for God's glory.

The general Muslim view of the West is that it's a very corrupt and liberal form of Christianity, where sex, drugs, materialism and lawlessness are tolerated. That's why the USA is described as the Great Satan, especially when it interferes in Muslim countries in what looks like self-interest.

If Christianity is just a veneer over a corrupt culture it deserves to be thrown out.

Christianity is supposed to be a God-oriented, Christ-centred, grace-motivated, Bible-directed faith relationship with a whole-of-life world-view focussed on God's glory.

An authentic Christianity has some points in common with Islam. Does that surprise you?

I think we should know about these common points before we explore the differences between these two whole-of-life faiths.

1. Points in Common

Both Islam and Christianity have a whole-of-life world-view (where religion is life and life is religion; there is no secular/sacred distinction).

 

Christians and Muslims are both known as "People of the Book": both religions teach that God has revealed Himself and has communicated His revelation to human beings through appointed prophets who wrote down these revelations.

Listen to this quote from an official Muslim publication (Many Faiths, One People): "Muslims believe in One, Unique, Incomparable God; in Angels created by Him; in the prophets through whom His revelations were brought to mankind; in the Day of Judgment and individual accountability for actions; in God's complete authority over human destiny and in life after death. Muslims believe in a chain of prophets starting with Adam and including Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Joseph, Job, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, Elias, Jonah, John the Baptist, and Jesus, peace be upon them."

Christianity and Islam are both international and missionary religions. Race and ethnicity are no obstacle, and there's a strong desire to have others join the faith and dedicate their lives in serving God.

Christianity and Islam both trace their origins back to the patriarch Abraham. Jews and Christians trace their origin through Abraham's son Isaac, while Muslims trace their origin through Abraham's son Ishmael.

2. Major Contrast

Perhaps the biggest contrast between Christianity and Islam is in their teaching about how you can have a true, living relationship with God, and belong to Him with the assurance of everlasting life. To understand this difference, let's examine the Bible's teaching, using God's dealings with Abraham, because he is a common patriarch to Christians and Muslims.

Genesis 15:1-7

 

In Genesis 12, we can read how God sovereignly calls Abram and promises to make a great nation from him, a nation that will be a blessing to all people. In Genesis 15 Abram still has no children and God calls him to look at the heavens and count millions of stars, indicating Abram's offspring:

verse 7 - "Abram believed the LORD (Yahweh), and He credited it to him as righteousness."

 

God promises Abram a land, and in faith (a simple trust that God will do what He says) Abram asks "O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it" (vs 8).

Then the LORD, using an ancient Near Eastern form of covenant making, passes alone between the halves of sacrificial animals to seriously confirm that He will keep His promise to Abram. Usually in this form of covenant making, the two parties to the covenant together passed through between the halves of the animals to indicate together that they would be willing to be torn in two like these animals if they broke the covenant. But God goes through by himself - he takes the initiative and he will keep the covenant and ensure that it is fulfilled!

Romans 4:1-8,13-25; Romans 3:21-26

Paul takes up this matter of faith as the channel by which God gives His verdict or judgment of a right standing between sinful human beings and a holy God. In Romans Chapter 3 Paul has argued that every human being, Jew or Gentile, is born in sin and is a sinner. "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who does good, not even one. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (3:10,12,23).

The good news is that now a righteousness from God (right standing and relationship with God) has been made known. Sinners are justified (declared not guilty but righteous) freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus who was the sacrifice of atonement (3:21,24,25).

3:22 - "This righteousness from God (right standing and relationship with God) comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe."

 

Then in Romans Chapter 4 Paul shows that this gift of God in declaring someone righteous, through the channel of faith, was already laid down with Abraham (even before the Law was given to Israel). It's not a matter of working for wages and earning a right standing and relationship with God. It's a matter of Faith - trusting in God, "being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised, being strengthened in his faith" (4:20,21).

It's a free gift, passing from God's account to ours, because God has paid the price in full through Jesus' life and sacrificial death on the cross. The only way it becomes yours is simply by trusting God, being persuaded and believing Him. Amazingly, this faith is also a gift of God's grace!

 

So the biblical view of having a relationship with God is through faith in Jesus Christ. It is precisely in this area of how you have a relationship with God that Christianity and Islam show their greatest contrast.

3. Some Differences Contrasted

 

How does someone become a Muslim or a Christian?

Muslim: Simply by saying, "There is no god apart from God, and Muhammad, peace be upon him, is the messenger of God." By this declaration the believer announces his or her faith in all God's messengers, and the scriptures they brought.

Christian: By believing in a holy God who calls us to confess our sins, repent and seek forgiveness through relying on God's provision of Jesus Christ. Jesus is our Substitute through His death on the cross and His resurrection. Through faith in Jesus we are adopted into God's family, know the rebirth through the Holy Spirit and cross over to eternal life.

How you are saved to eternal life?

 

Muslim: The Quran rejects the idea of redemption. Salvation depends on a person's attitudes and actions. Judgment Day is a day of reckoning when every person is judged for what they have done. If they have done well they enter heaven. Salvation in Islam depends on what you DO.

Muhammad taught that "three things can continue to help a person even after death: charity (acts of kindness) which he had given, knowledge which he had taught, and prayers on their behalf by a righteous child" (Many Faiths, One People p 26).

Christian: A true Christian is given the gift of faith and by the sovereign and free grace of God, simply receives the gift of eternal life. It's all done for us by Christ, unearned and totally free! (Ephesians 2:8,9) Salvation in Christianity depends on what Christ has DONE.

The view of Jesus

 

Muslim: Muslims respect and revere Jesus, await His Second Coming, and consider Him one of the greatest of God's messengers to mankind. The Quran confirms His virgin birth but does not believe that Jesus is part of the triune Godhead or that Jesus died on the cross. Classic Islam says, "There is one God and He does not have a son".

Muslims believe that Muhammad (b. 570 AD; d. 632 AD) is a greater prophet than Jesus because he brings a later revelation from God dictated by the angel Gabriel.

Christian: Jesus is fully God and co-Creator of the universe, who humbled Himself by also becoming fully human, being born of the virgin Mary, sinless, so that He as the God-Man could be the atonement for our sins.

He rose again from the dead and as God's appointed Messiah-King, He will return to judge the world. He is our Representative in heaven, interceding on our behalf. Jesus is the full and perfect revelation of God and the only way by which people can be reconciled to God.

Religious Duties:

 

Muslim: The Five Pillars

The recital of the creed: "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is His prophet".

The recital of prayer five times daily, facing Mecca.

The giving of tithes for the support of the poor and the extension of the faith.

The observation of Ramadan (Ramadan commemorates God giving the Koran to Mohammed in 610 AD; it requires a month of fasting during daylight hours).

The pilgrimage to Mecca when financially able; ideally at least once in a lifetime.

There is what some call a 6th Pillar in Islam - Jihad, which has a basic meaning of "struggling for the faith". Different aspects of this struggle include the struggle against our flesh, but it can also include fighting for the faith against unbelievers.

Christian:

A life of thankfulness for God's salvation in Christ Jesus, seeking to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The Ten Commandments and their New Testament application is our framework for living.

Insight from J H Bavinck: (The Church Between Temple and Mosque, 1981)

"When a missionary or some other person comes into contact with a non-Christian and speaks to him about the gospel, he can be sure that God has concerned Himself with this person long before" (p 126)

Every human being is made in the image of God and has a moral warehouse in his mind called a conscience, knowing right from wrong. The apostle Paul describes this knowledge in Romans 1 as leaving every human being without excuse when it comes to knowing God.

Because God cares about His creation, and especially the crown of His creation - human beings - He is a seeking God. Seeking to restore in Jesus Christ, what was broken in our human rebellion and self-centredness.

The Bible is clear: "He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Pet 3:9b), "God our Saviour ... wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men" (1 Tim 3:3-6a).

So knowing this about God and His Father-heart, if we under His sovereignty are talking to someone about Jesus, then God is concerning Himself with that person!

 

Dr Butros Dief (an Egyptian Christian and theologian, from Endeavour Hills, Vic) writes this in a booklet called "Sitting at the Table with a Muslim Friend":

"It is estimated that there are over 1 billion Muslims around the world, which makes Islam the second biggest religion on earth [approx 1.5 to 2 billion Christians]. There are about 800 million Muslims in a band of 40 nations between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and about 200 million Muslims living in Europe, the Americas and in Australia.

Growing numbers of Christian people are seeing this as very good news. Why is this influx of Muslim people into areas of the world where they historically have been largely unknown, cause for thanksgiving to Almighty God? The answer is simple, for while once the tack of reaching Islamic people for Christ used to be seen as solely a matter of overseas mission work involving danger, sacrifice and expense, it has suddenly become, literally, in many places neighbourhood evangelism!" (p 6)

Christianity vs Islam: What's the difference?

The bottom line in Islam is that people hope to be saved by the good works they DO.

The bottom line in Christianity is that a person is saved to eternal life by God's grace alone through what Christ has DONE.

That is good news worth sharing!

Amen.

A Prayer for Muslims:

(which you could use in the service)

"O God, grant that the people of Islam, who always proclaim your greatness, may know the greatness of your love revealed in Jesus Christ. Forgive our shortcomings and take away from us our pride and our coldness. Teach us to love our Muslim neighbours as ourselves. Help us to understand them and to help them understand your Gospel. O Almighty loving God, if any of us should suffer at the hands of Muslims, teach us to overcome evil with good, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen." (p 72)