Muhammad Versus Jesus

Muhammad was only a 25-year-old camel driver when he married a rich woman 15 yrs. his senior and went on to marry other women afterward.   Muhammad was a man of many flaws, and by no means the ideal guide for mankind to emulate or worship.   Muslims emulate Muhammad as the superlative man, even though he had many flaws:  he had a "vision" to plunder the passing caravans, and latter amassed an army of 10,000 to conquer with the sword (therefore the faith is known as the religion of the sword).  Thus he was a thief and a murderer, but he justified himself by claiming divine revelation and visions.

Jesus remained celibate and faithful to His calling.  Jesus even challenged His accusers to find fault with Him and to point out some sin--they were speechless and at a loss for words.  While Jesus performed some 40 recorded miracles, Muhammad did none, and, when asked why, said that Allah could if he willed it. Jesus conquered hearts with love and laying down His life of His own initiative, while Muhammad used the sword to force conversion.  Muhammad was known as an apostle and prophet, but Jesus was known as a King, and Messiah, Christ, or Anointed One.

You could remove Muhammad from Islam and the religion would remain intact; however, removing Christ totally disembowels Christianity, because Christianity is Christ, all else is the circumference.  Jesus was a miracle worker and teacher as well, but Muhammad wasn't neither.  A point in fact:  Blaise Pascal said that any man can do what Muhammad did; while no man can do what Christ did!  People who compare the two don't realize that there is no comparison at all--no contest, Muhammad is out of his league!

We don't even say "Jesus the Great" because that's a huge understatement and is really insulting to His glory; Muhammad used armies and conquered people, but he was not on the scale of Napoleon, Julius Caesar, nor Alexander the Great; today the legacy of Jesus surpasses that of any mortal or founder of other religions.  With all due respect, Muhammad never claimed to be God, but only His final prophet for all mankind; Jesus claimed deity and proved it with many infallible proofs for anyone with an open, objective, and a willing mind. The most important fact of all:  Muhammad remains in his grave while they never could find Jesus' body (the grave remained empty), and He had witnesses to His resurrection from the dead.

In the final analysis, Jesus stands alone, not to be compared, but contrasted.  He's not merely Jesus the Great, that's an insult, but God in the flesh, as He claimed to be.  Anyone can claim to be God, but do they have the credentials?  If someone lived His life, he would not belie his claim;  however, Jesus has never bee, and never will be, surpassed--He's unlike and superior to all his precursors and predecessors, likewise no follower nor disciple has ever, but worshiped Him, much less equaled Him.  He laid down the highest ethics, no one can dispute, and is also the highest motivation to do it!

Even His enemies were unable to charge Him with sin (cf. John 8:46), and He basically died because of the truth:  He said He was the Son of God. the only hypothesis that fits the facts and claims without contradiction--if someone lived like Him, he should be believed on and worshiped, not crucified!   Soli Deo Gloria! 

Exposition On Islam

First of all, did you know that the name Islam means "submission" and a Muslim is one who submits because they adhere to the doctrine that we are just God's slaves who cannot know an unknowable and impersonal God, who also is not a loving God as Christians believe? We believe that he that loves not, knows not God, for God is love--as 1 John 4:8 says. Muslims believe in a "religion of the sword", as it has been called, and their usual methodology is not to persuade people but to force them to convert with the threat of death or impose their faith on them; for they are entitled to kill an infidel in their so-called holy war or jihad against the infidel or non-Muslim.  They adhere to the doctrine that "tomorrow belongs to Islam."

I realize some more moderate ones interpret jihad spiritually and simply believe they have to be actively involved in spreading their message. They call it proselytizing when a Christian tries to convert a Muslim and this is forbidden by Fundamental Islamic law or Shari'ah law, that is practiced in some nations where you are not even allowed to make mention of Christianity or legally hold a prayer meeting or Bible study.

To understand Islam you must go back to the seventh century when Muhammad made his flight to Medina to flee those in Mecca who disapproved of his alleged revelations, starting their calendar in AD 622.  He claimed to have these revelations and they are depicted as epileptic fits and convulsions. Tradition, and not the Koran or Qur'an, says these revelations were from the angel Gabriel, but the Koran gives contradictory and conflicting reports.  In the seventh century, Sabianism was the predominant religion of the Arab tribes headed by shieks with absolute sovereignty, and they worshiped the sun god or female god and the moon god or male god.  Allah was the name of the male moon god and was preexistent to Islam--it is not another name for God as we know Him.

The five pillars of Islam, or requirements to be a Muslim, are as follows: Saying the affirmation, "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet," who is superior or superlative to all previous ones and is the last one for all mankind); the praying of the salat five times a day on a mat facing Mecca (and this is more a recitation than prayer, because they are not conversing with God--this was another custom incorporated into their faith from Sabianism); the giving of 2.5 percent or 1/40th of the income as almsgiving to the poor; fasting during the month of Ramadan (also a carryover from Sabianism); the required once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca for every able-bodied convert (to appease the local merchants); and the optional sixth one is jihad or dying and going beyond the call of duty in the name of Allah. Ironically, the only way they can be assured of their some seventy virgins in a paradise of "wine, women, and song," is to die a jihad, but they must refrain from indulgence in this life (i.e., wine, women, and song).

Catholics believe tradition is of equal authority to the Scripture since the Council of Trent (1545-46), but Christianity has not incorporated pagan religion into their faith, which would be syncretism. Admittedly they celebrate Christmas on Mithra's birthday, but this is not a requirement for salvation, but only tradition.  One could arguably equate saying of the Rosary with the salat because they are both recitations, not prayers.  There is no legitimate comparison between the five pillars of Islam with the ordinances of Christ or of our way of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Islam does not believe in women's rights (they are property and are mentally inferior to men), nor in any other traditional Western rights such as freedom of the press, assembly, or speech.  They see geopolitical advantages to their faith and believe "tomorrow belongs to Islam," in which the end justifies the means (it is now the fastest growing religion).  They will settle for nothing less than world hegemony or domination (except the most moderate followers).  Their values are still in the seventh century, including dress, and punishment by the old "eye-for-an-eye, tooth for a tooth" philosophy--for instance, they still stone adulterers and cut off hands and refuse to let girls get an education. The most dangerous philosophy is that they believe America is the Great Satan and it is their mission to obliterate Western Civilization, which is founded upon democratic principles and human rights--their nations are mainly run by despots, though they may theoretically be democracies by design. There are over six million of them in the States and most of them are not radical, though some metro areas have become hotbeds for terrorist recruiting, and most Muslim organizations are taken over by radicals.

The worst sin to them is shirk, or believing in more than one God--of which they accuse Christians of or being polytheistic.  That sin is unforgivable and there is no space for tolerance, a virtue unknown. Basically, their religion is fatalistic and God whimsically and capriciously decides their final outcome as to going to heaven or hell (this fate is called Kismet and they resign themselves to anything that happens and anything they perpetrate as being the will of Allah). It is a works-based faith (your good deeds must outweigh your bad ones) that never gives one assurance of the mercy of God--that is why they never stop praying for it--they don't understand and deny the concept of grace (a Christian concept and teaching).

The thing that makes them ignorant is that they believe the Bible is corrupt but the Koran or the Qur' an (message) is without error in Arabic.  Actually, it is allegedly filled with plagiarism, being the "best and most beautiful book on earth" (they insist that a man couldn't write this)--but there is no evidence of corruption in the Christian text with over 5,000 Greek ones to examine!  God has shown that He preserves His Word.

The odd thing is that they believe Christ was born of a virgin, sinless, performed miracles, and ascended into heaven, and is coming again to establish worldwide Islam while asserting that He is only a prophet and not divine and didn't die on the cross--some believe Judas died in His place. They believe the man Jesus died but His Spirit lived on and went to heaven. The reason for not accepting the crucifixion is that it is ignominious and repugnant to them and they cannot see how God could be defeated by men. Islam's empire is founded upon force and politics, but Christ's on compassion, love, and freedom--not ignorance.

There is no comparison between the sinless Christ and Muhammad who had many flaws, including killing tens of thousands and raiding caravans--Blaise Pascal has said that what Muhammad has done, any man can do; what Christ has done, no man can do.  Yes, their traditions in the Hadith and Sunna (both regarded as authoritative and inspired) report miracles, but these are written much later after the fact and are not worthy to be compared to the work of Christ--he actually was asked to do one and said, "God hath certainly power to send down a sign."

What makes them all the more dangerous is that their religion is not about faith or salvation, but has geopolitical considerations, incentives, and promises to people who have a grudge against society and want their piece of the pie, no matter how they get it. They don't care how they achieve their ends (the ends justify the means), and will clearly use any means necessary to achieve them (the radical fringe movement influencing today's concerns), but Jesus clearly said that His kingdom is "not of this world" and is invisible--you must be born again to see the kingdom of God--a kingdom reigning in hearts. Many of the moderate Muslims are in sympathy with radicals, if not supportive indirectly--they lack a clear anti-terrorist voice or anti-hegemony teaching.  The Muslim world is slow and hesitant in uniting (though there is some recent progress) to condemn ISIS, for example, and even terrorism.

In the final analysis, they claim Islam fulfills Christianity, the way Christianity does Judaism; au contraire, it replaces it and repudiates our faith (they hold no respect for these faiths) and it holds no reverence for our Bible because they think it's corrupt, even without any evidence. They don't evangelize but impose their religion on the vulnerable by force, or by any means necessary. To them, Christ only pointed the way to Muhammad, the last and final word of Allah (not another name for the God Christians believe in, but a tribal name from the days of Sabianism in the Arab world.

Most teens today actually believe that Christians, Jews, and Muslims all pray to the same God under different names!  In summation:  There is a vast difference between the ethics of Islam that portray murder, pillage, and rape in the Koran, and the power of love conquering evil in Jesus--viva la difference!  They see Muhammad as the exemplar and superlative guide to mankind, despite his flaws.

The biggest delusion that radical Muslims are under is that if they die as a suicide bomber that they are martyrs for Allah.  The way they wage an aggressive war is not jihad, but murder.  They are the opposite of martyrs--they are murderers and will be judged accordingly on Judgment Day.  They have rejected the way of love that is found in Christ and engage in a terror of hate and hate mongering.  A martyr dies because he believes and is persecuted for his faith, not someone who murders others for not believing, by definition, not opinion.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Learning a Christian Worldview

"No nation has survived the loss of its gods" (George Bernard Shaw).

A worldview is a way of interpreting your world, such as purpose in living, where you came from, and where you are going--our role in the world-system--questions such as:  Is there right and wrong? Is there a God?  What is the meaning of life? How do you interpret reality?  There is a current war of ideas in the world:  Marxism (basically an economic understanding, but also totalitarian, aiming to establish a domination of the proletariat or working class and abolishing the bourgeoisie in class warfare), secular-humanism (basically that man is the measure of all things, up with man down with God, or deifying man and dethroning God, and reality starts from man), New Age (the idea of cosmic consciousness or supra-consciousness, being in touch with the inner god), postmodernism (founded by Nietzsche as the patron saint,  saying that "God is dead" or irrelevant and we can live without Him), Islam (believing the future belongs to Islam and being bent on world hegemony), and  Christianity (Christ's kingdom is in the hearts of man and not of this world and the church is a power to transform and preserve society) itself--the first five have one thing in common in that they oppose Christianity.  Any viewpoint that doesn't start with God is evil!

We are to discern good and evil to be able to handle the meat of the Word (Heb. 5:14).  Once we get saved, the battle has just begun and we enter Satan's turf as the god of this age.  But the battle is the Lord's  and as John said in 1 John 4:4, "Greater is he who is in you, than he who is in the world."  Paul says in Rom. 8:31, "If God be for us, who can be against us?"  We have to know our enemy according to Sun Tzu in The Art of War because he believes in dividing and conquering, and playing mind games, and waging psychological warfare.

"For we are not ignorant of his schemes" (cf. 2 Cor. 2:11).   Don't give him a beachhead, but arm yourself with a divine viewpoint to understand what he is doing.  Do not fight among yourselves as Lord Nelson noticed his troops doing when he said, "Gentlemen, remember, the enemy is over there!"  In Walt Kelly's cartoon Pogo, he says, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."   We can be our own worst enemy because the three enemies are the world-system itself, the devil and his minions, and our own flesh or sin nature (cf. 1 John 2:15 -16).  The government is not the enemy, for all the powers that be are established of God (Rom. 13:1).

We are exhorted to "hate that which is evil and cling to that which is good" in Rom. 12:9 and in 1 Thess. 5:21-22 it says, "...hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil."  [which means that when evil appears, resist it.]  Only those who have their senses trained to "discern good and evil" can digest the meat of the word and the infants in Christ can only live on the milk of the Word according to Hebrews 5:14.  We need to love God with our whole minds and not be indolent or anti-intellectual--we are to use the minds God has given us (Mark 12:30).

 We are in the world, but not of it according to Scripture (John 15:19 says, "You are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world").  If we love the world-system or cosmos of Satan, the love of the Father is not in us--indeed he entices us with many delicacies of the world to compete with our spiritual appetites.  Beware of the pseudo-philosophies of this age as the admonishment in Col. 2:8 says, "Let no man spoil you through philosophy or vain deceit..."  We need to "contend for the faith" like Jude said in Jude 3 and that means taking stands for Jesus and sticking up for what is right in an evil world.  We are the salt and light as the children of God.

Paul's swan song was:  "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4:7).  We all have a conscience and can tell right from wrong (Rom. 2:15), and we are all responsible and don't have any excuses for knowing God (Rom. 1:18-20).  In 1 Chron. 12:32 it says that only a few people were able to interpret the times and knew what to do.  Daniel 11:32 says that the "people who knew their God "shall be strong and do exploits."  At the time of the end, the wise will understand and the wicked will not (Dan. 12:10).  When Nebuchadnezzar realized that God was sovereign he came to his senses (Dan. 4:35).

 Today we seem to be doing what's right in our own eyes (similar to the Israelites in Judges 21:25--"They did what was right in their own eyes").  The culture says that there is no standard of right and wrong--it is all relative and you can't force your morality on another person.  It isn't that we can't legislate morality, it's whose morality we legislate.

In Allan Bloom's book, The Closing of the American Mind, he says that people now believe "all truth is relative"--if that is true then that statement has no value because it is also relative. They say nothing is always wrong and nothing is always right; what matters is sincerity.  This goes back to Satan's lie:  "Hath God said?" xd. Gen. 3:1).  They seem to believe that the only truths that are relative are those that defend the Christian worldview!  One prof was reported as saying, "You can know nothing for certain." One astute student asked, "Are you sure?"  "Yes, I am!"  Jesus was the Truth itself, the incarnation of Truth with a capital T and came to bear witness of the truth--the Romans, including Pilate, doubted the existence of absolute truth (true no matter who believes it and whether anyone believes it).  They thought that "might made right."  This was the epitome of cynicism and an insult to Christ's veracity--he didn't even wait for an answer! The secret is to stay away from extremes:  "Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil" (cf. Prov. 4:27; Isa. 30:21; Josh. 23:6; 1 Kgs. 22:2)).

As Christians we are to "submit [ourselves] to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors..." (1 Pet. 2:12-13)  Paul says something similar:  "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God" (Rom. 13:1).  We are to "render unto Caesar" according to Matthew 22:21 and even be light and salt in the world, trying to make people see the light to get saved according to our gift.

With privilege there is the flip side of responsibility; they go hand in hand.  There is such a thing as "social justice" and a social commission, but not a social gospel, though.  Our social commission has not been rescinded.  One only need refer to the prophets, Amos and Micah.  We assert that  God is the only legitimate legislator (legal positivism says that man can make any law he desires) and His character is the law of the universe. Isaiah said, "Woe unto them who decree unjust laws..." (Isa. 10:1-2).  It has been said, "If we have contempt for government, we get contemptible government."

God's providence works all things according to His divine decrees and He has no Plan B; He has no other plan, but to use us as His vessels of honor and to bring glory to him (cf. Isa. 43:7).  Everything is going according to plan as Isaiah says in Isa 37:26 and He is in control according to Isa. 14:24, 27 and 46:8-11. "Behold, the nations are as a drop of the bucket..." (Isa. 40:15).    "He's got the whole world in His hands."  Psalm 22:28 says that God is sovereign over the nations and we can be sure even over every molecule in the universe.  Eph. 1:11 says that God works out everything according to His will.  John Wesley used to read the paper to "see what God is doing in His world."  God is even in control of the toss of the die (Prov. 16:33) and in control of the whims of the king (Prov. 21:1).  He leaves nothing to chance:  Einstein said, "God doesn't play dice with the universe."

Christian worldview sees social injustice: "What do you mean by crushing My people And grinding the face of the poor...?" (Is. 3:15).  "Rescue the weak and the needy..." (Ps. 82:4).  The believer who knows the Lord is concerned about the plight of the poor (Ps. 41:1) and the evil in the world:  he doesn't just see evil and say, "Why?" He also sees good and says, "Why not?"  This is what it means to know the Lord according to Jeremiah 22:16--to be concerned about those less fortunate and defending those who can't defend themselves, the weak ("He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy; Then it was well. Is not that what it means to know Me?" declares the LORD [in Jer. 22:16]).  Amos and Micah are champions of the underdog and the underprivileged and deplore how "they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals--those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted (cf. Amos 2:6-7).  "...Who oppress the poor, who crush the needy..." (Amos 4:1).  Malachi is appalled at those  "who oppress the hired worker in his wages..." (Mal. 3:5).  We are not to be partial to the poor nor to the rich but show justice to all (Deut. 19:15).  Charity and welfare were mandated in Israel according to Lev. 19:4, Deut. 15:4, and other passages--they were allowed to "glean the fields" of the landowners.  There was to be "no poor in Israel."

Now, what kind of values are Christians supposed to espouse? They should subscribe to the sanctity of the family unit as having preference over the government's authority, because it was established before it; it should believe in the inherent worth of the individual  (you have rights, but they end where mine begin--you can swing your fist but not hit my nose!) as being in the image and likeness of God (the imago Dei), and that means having a mind to know and communicate with God, a heart to love Him, and a will to obey Him.  These are called unalienable rights and our culture is based on it in the constitutional Bill of Rights.  We are merely stewards of God's riches ("The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof" says Ps. 24:10) and are responsible to Him to give account at the judgment.  (There is a Protestant work ethic mentioned in 2 Thess. 3:10 that declares that those who are not willing to work shall not eat.  


All authority ultimately comes from God and we get our rights and dignity form Him; "unless you assume a God, the question  of man's purpose is meaningless," and without God, man is a "useless passion." (Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre).  We believe the government has limited power derived from God--it is not a necessary evil, as Augustine said, but necessary because of evil.  We have a duty to this government since we owe them our security and protection of our property and our person from crime--justice and law and order are the primary functions.  Marriage is to be held in honor and a "man shall leave his mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh" and "God made them male and female and said that it was good."  No rights are absolute, such as you say it's your religion to be a cannibal or that you can yell fire in an auditorium!  Sometimes it may be our duty to disobey, which is termed civil disobedience--God's laws trump the government; shall we obey God or man? ("We must obey God rather than man," according to Acts 5:29).

I believe firmly that the Bible sanctions no certain type of government, as long as human rights are respected.  Government was first documented to be divided into three parts in Isa. 33:22 into the legislative, judicial, and executive branches (king, judge, lawgiver).  I refer to Lord Acton's adage  that is a cliche now:  "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely."  We do not believe that our rights (note that the obverse of rights is responsibilities necessitated) are derived from the government, but directly from God, who gives us dignity and worth as man in His image or the ikons of God, as it were.

In the final analysis, it is vital to know Scripture to combat the prevalent secular humanistic viewpoint (deifying man and denying God) in the world and not to fall into the devil's trap.  Sir Francis Bacon said, "Knowledge is power."  And the Bible backs this up in Proverbs 10:14 saying, "The wise lay up knowledge..." And Proverbs 24:5 says, "And a man of knowledge enhances his might."  We must not remain silent and concede everything away.  They are trying to eradicate Christianity from the marketplace of ideas and the public square.

"If there is no God, everything is permissible" (Dostoevsky).   But we believe in transcendent or natural law that everyone is able to know by nature apart from the government.  Law is designed for wrongdoers but God confers rights on us.  People are in a state of rebellion against our so-called bourgeois values (which really is the Judeo-Christian heritage of Western civilization).  As the psalmist says, "What can the righteous do when the foundations are destroyed?" (Ps. 11:3).  For one thing, we should pray for our leaders, not condemn them [It is our God who put them there, as Paul said (cf. Acts 23:5), "It  is unlawful to speak evil of a ruler of your people"]

Christians are not "utopians" but are waiting for Christ to usher in His Millennial Kingdom at His second coming.  A word to the wise is sufficient: Christians have no geopolitical aspirations like the Muslim world bent on dominating the world with their hegemony, and they should not sound the alarm, but "occupy till He comes" (business as usual).  As Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world."

In conclusion, we have read the last page of the Bible and know how it all will turn out and are assured that we are on the winning side and victory is inevitable in the end.  N.B. Keep the faith!  "The LORD frustrates the counsel of the nations; He thwarts the plans of the peoples...Happy is the nation whose God is Yahweh!" (Ps. 33:10-12).  A word of encouragement--all is not lost:   God is able to heal our land if we confess our corporate sins and humble ourselves in repentance as His people (2 Chron. 7:14).  Soli Deo Gloria!