Christianity VS Islam
Does Christianity invalidate Islam?
By Sami Zaatari
Christian apologist David Wood has written an article where he tries to invalidate Islam and tries to prove that Islam is in fact from the cursed and outcast satan.
I have decided to reply to David's article to show who in fact is being deceived by satan, is it the Muslims, or is it the Christians and Christianity itself? Well to find out we must simply see what David says, because quite frankly the statements of Wood and his beliefs and logic actually show that there is only one group who is being led by satan!
Wood writes:
With these statements in mind, let's see if we can figure out a little something about Satan. Now, if Satan wants to keep people from God, and if the way to God is through Jesus Christ, what would Satan's highest priority be? His main goal wouldn't be to get people to lead immoral lives (though he would prefer that we do, since this corrupts God's created order); instead, his primary aim would be to incite people to reject Christ, for this rejection is what keeps them separated from God.
RESPONSE
Here is the problem for David as a Christian, David believes that Jesus is God! Hence he has clearly gone on the wrong path! David himself said getting to God is through Jesus, this obviously means Jesus is not God, in fact this is what Jesus himself taught, when he taught people how to pray he taught them to pray to God, not to himself:
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. (Matthew 5-8)
So Jesus taught the people to pray to God, as David said, Jesus is the way to God; he is a prophet and leads people to God on the straight path.
So therefore David has gone off the straight path, , David has now committed the biggest mistake in that he has taken a prophet to be God!
David goes on to write that satan's duty would be to make people reject Jesus, well that obviously doesn't apply to the Muslims since we believe that Jesus is the Christ:
003.045
YUSUFALI: Behold! the angels said: "O Mary! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, held in honour in this world and the Hereafter and of (the company of) those nearest to Allah;
So Muslims do not reject Jesus at all, rather the ones who do reject Jesus are the Jewish people.
David continues saying:
The message of Islam is something like this: "Believe in God. Do good deeds. If you do enough of them, you'll get to heaven. You can even accept Jesus as a prophet if you want to, and you can believe that he was born of a virgin. But whatever you do, don't believe that he died on the cross for your sins. And don't believe that he rose from the dead.
RESPONSE
Islam does NOT SAY we can choose to believe in Jesus as a prophet or not, rather is it is COMPULSARY, a Muslim who does not believe in Jesus as a prophet is not even a Muslim and will be doomed to the fire. As the Quran says:
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YUSUFALI: Say: "We believe in Allah, and in what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in (the Books) given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophets, from their Lord: We make no distinction between one and another among them, and to Allah do we bow our will (in Islam)."
004.163
YUSUFALI: We have sent thee inspiration, as We sent it to Noah and the Messengers after him: we sent inspiration to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, to Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, and solomon, and to David We gave the Psalms.
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YUSUFALI: And in their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Law that had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him: a guidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah.
004.136
YUSUFALI: O ye who believe! Believe in Allah and His Messenger, and the scripture which He hath sent to His Messenger and the scripture which He sent to those before (him). Any who denieth Allah, His angels, His Books, His Messengers, and the Day of Judgment, hath gone far, far astray.
So no, a Muslim doesn't get to decide if he can believe in Jesus as a prophet or not, Anyone who studies Islam knows that it is COMPULSARY to believe in ALL prophets and that we have no choice in this matter, in fact this is the basics!
David goes on to twist what Islam teaches on salvation as well, David claims that Islam teaches we must believe in God and do good deeds and we will get to heaven if we have enough good deeds, this is another twist by David. In fact this claim by David is similar to that of a heretical group known as the khawarij who claimed that salvation was mainly based on the amount of good deeds you did.
The correct belief of a Muslim is that he should have a sincere belief in God, that God is the sole creator and the only one God not being pluralistic, and that God is the only one whom we should single out for worship, and that we should also affirm and believe in the names and attributes of God. Secondly a Muslim must show his faith in actions and obedience to God, such as praying, fasting, and performing the pilgrimage, all of which are actions and obedience to God because he has commanded us to do so, these actions and deeds are a sign of our belief and love for God.
It is not as David tries to make it out that we Muslims simply do good things and religious duties for the sake of being good and going to heaven, not at all, although we do these good deeds in the hope of going to heaven, however so it is not the sole purpose as David tried to portray. As I said before a reason we also commit good deeds and religious duties is to show our faith and obedience to God, and our love for him.
It is also seems that David is very ignorant of the fact that faith can increase and decrease, and it is a fact that an increase of faith does come about through carrying out religious duties and good deeds, the one who doesn't commit good deeds and religious deeds will not be as strong in faith as the one who does pray, fast, and does good things. And this is exactly how satan will destroy a believer, through David's method, which is to attack good religious actions and make them seem like nothing, which leads to the destruction of the believer since he will feel that actions mean nothing and that all that matters is faith, yet the one who goes down this path will become an atheist in 2 years max! Because he will be doing so many things that he will simply forget about God, soon his old ways of saying but I believe in God will no longer exist since he wont care or even remember who God is since he is too busy doing other things instead of devoting some of his time and actions for God.
David then becomes desperate when he writes:
There is, of course, an easier way for us to see that Christianity predicts the rise of Islam. We could simply look at some of the prophecies in the Bible. For example, Jesus said that "many false prophets will appear and deceive many people" (Matthew 24:11).[i][3] Paul added that some people would "follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons" (1 Timothy 4:1). The Bible warns over and over again that false teachers and false prophets would come in order to distort the Gospel. Apparently, few people in Muhammad's time heeded this warning.
RESPONSE
Notice he says that ?Christianity' makes a prophecy of false prophets, he then quotes Matthew 24:11, yet the person who makes the prophecy in Matthew 11 is as David says is Jesus, NOT Christianity. People may be a bit confused here, but you see folks Jesus and Christianity are two completely different things!
For instance Jesus never preached he was God, or that his duty was to die for people's sins, this is all invented by Christianity, which has nothing to do with Jesus! Jesus never even heard the word Christianity! Nor did he ever utter it!
Secondly, why don't we quote the rest of Matthew chapter 11 concerning false prophets, because when we do we shall see the prophecy cannot be about the prophet Muhammad or Islam, quoting the passage in context we now read:
"Jesus answered them, ?Watch out that no one misleads you. For many will come in my name, saying, "I am the Christ," and they will mislead many ... Then if anyone says to you, "Look, here is the Christ!" or "There he is!" do not believe him. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Remember, I have told you ahead of time.'" Matthew 24:4-5, 23-25
The prophet Muhammad certainly does not fit the description given by Jesus.
To start off, Jesus says that many will come IN MY NAME claiming I AM THE CHRIST. The prophet Muhammad never claimed he was the Christ, that title was never given to him in the Quran, the term Christ is only given to Jesus in the Quran. Secondly, Muhammad never came in Jesus' name; Muhammad came for Allah's cause, not Jesus'. So therefore as we already see, the prophet Muhammad does not match the description given by Jesus.
The next description Jesus gives is that the false prophet will perform several great signs and wonders. The prophet Muhammad does not fit this description neither. In fact one of the main arguments Christians bring up against Muhammad, is that he did not perform great miracles and signs like the former prophets. In fact the unbelievers also accused Muhammad of this:
But (now), when the Truth has come to them from Ourselves, they say, "Why are not (Signs) sent to him, like those which were sent to Moses?" Do they not then reject (the Signs) which were formerly sent to Moses? They say: "Two kinds of sorcery, each assisting the other!" And they say: "For us, we reject all (such things)!" S. 28:48
Nay; rather it is signs, clear signs in the breasts of those who have been given knowledge; and none denies Our signs but the evildoers. They say, 'Why have signs not been sent down upon him from his Lord?' Say: 'The signs are only with God, and I am only a plain warner. What, is it not SUFFICIENT FOR THEM that We have sent down upon thee the Book that is recited to them? Surely in that is a mercy, and a reminder to a people who believe. S. 29:49-51 A.J. Arberry
So as you can see, the pagans accused the prophet Muhammad of not performing great miracles and signs. As I also mentioned, Christians themselves always bring this argument up, so hence a Christian cannot honestly take both sides of the arguments, Christian's must make their mind up. Did Muhammad perform great signs and wonders or did he not? If he did not, then he does not fit the description of a false prophet. This just shows the double standards Christians use in their arguments.
However so, I am not saying the Blessed prophet Muhammad did not perform miracles and so on. He most certainly did, go read the hadiths to read them for yourself. The Quran is also a miracle and a sign. However so what I am saying is that the prophet Muhammad did not go around everyday performing miracles, and doing great wonders, this is what the Dajjal (anti-Christ) will do. So either way, the prophet Muhammad does not match that description. The context of Jesus' statement also means that the false prophet will perform mighty miracles and signs to deceive the people into believing he is a prophet, and as I said the prophet Muhammad did not do this, his way of doing things was to preach the Quran, not go around and make a miracle to make people believe. He would sometimes perform miracles for the non-believers but only AFTER they asked him to do one to prove he was a prophet, and he would sometimes perform miracles in front of the Muslims but not for the intention to prove his prophet hood.
The type of deceiver Jesus is talking about is about a man going around similar to that of the dajjal, which is that he will go around performing miracle after miracle to try and trick the people into believing into him, and the prophet Muhammad certainly did not go about his ministry in this fashion, and the Quran proves it, and so does the arguments of Christians who write alongside David!
So as we see, these verses which Christians often bring up do not refer to Muhammad, the prophet Muhammad does not fit the description.
David then also quotes 1 Timothy 4:1, again he doesn't quote the prophecy in its specific context, since the prophecy has a SPECIFIC description of the false prophet, I shall quote it in context:
"Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the later times some will desert the faith and occupy themselves with deceiving spirits and demonic teachings, influenced by the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared. They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth." 1 Timothy 4:1-3
Notice the false prophet will BAN MARRIAGE, the prophet Muhammad never banned marriage, Islam is all for marriage, it is pro-marriage all the way even allowing polygamy! Secondly the prophet Muhammad did not ban foods that were not already banned by the Law of Moses! The prophet continued the law of banning pork, and unclean animals which were already dead etc, as well as donkey meet. So again the prophet Muhammad does not fit the description!
So once again we see who is doing satan's handiwork, David cannot even quote his own Bible properly! How can we trust a man who cannot quote his own book in context? (I am not calling David a liar, just that he is ignorantly saying things which are blatantly false and wrong giving a distorted picture)
David then uses the desperate argument that many other Christians use, which is if Jesus preached Islam, why was there no Muslims in his time, as in people who believed he was a prophet only and not God, as he says:
So what happened to all the proto-Muslims?
RESPONSE
There will be no need for me to bring up the historical evidence that there were in fact believers of Jesus who did NOT believe he was God, I don't need to do this since the evidence is all out for everyone to go and find easily. And since I usually don't prefer to go into history books during a debate, I like to stick to the actual texts of the religious faiths, and I will do this here, rather then go looking for these Muslims in historical documents, I will use the Holy Bible to find them!
The Bible shows us there were believers who didn't believe that Jesus was God:
Matthew
Chapter 16
13-14
13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? 14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets
So Jesus basically asked his disciples a question, the question was what do men say about him, who do they say he is. Not one of the things the people said about Jesus was that he was God; the men were saying Jesus was a prophet, John the Baptist or Elias or some others, none of them said he was God! Now these men are believers, because note if they were not they would have said Jesus is just a blasphemer or a devil, the fact that these men believe Jesus was a prophet or some other holy man means they did believe he is sent from God.
In fact a Christian colleague of David even wrote this about me concerning this point I brought up in a debate:
Second, Zaatari argued from e.g. Mark 8:27-28 that none of the speculations of the masses as to who Jesus was (e.g. Elijah, John the Baptist, Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets) included an implication of his divinity. Shamoun responded that this cannot help Zaatari's case as a Muslim since accepting their testimony on it (i.e. that Jesus was one of the OT prophets or John the Baptist) means to also accept testimony that is contradictory to the Islamic understanding of Jesus. Zaatari responded back by noting that this was beside the point, and that the key point to be taken here is that they did not view Jesus as divine, not that they had to be correct about who he truly was. This counts as testimony by some that Jesus was not divine, according to Zaatari. Zaatari also claims that since they did not accuse Jesus of being a false prophet or a blasphemer, they were followers of Jesus, which would serve to add weight to their testimony. So, while the testimony of the masses (if correct) would be deleterious to Islamic theology regarding the identity of Jesus, it must be remembered that Zaatari is utilizing this argument merely to demonstrate that many were speculating about who Jesus was, and none of the speculations appeared to carry with it a belief in his divinity. This, along with the fact that Shamoun did not try to cast doubt upon the validity of the masses' testimony (other than to point out that it does not comport with Islamic theology), is why I found it only fair to extend Zaatari some points within a debate that is about the divinity of Jesus, even if it is not consistent with Zaatari's own worldview. (http://answering-islam.org/Authors/Wildcat/shamoun_zaatari_debate.htm)
So note here you have a Christian who writes on the same site as David admitting that my point was valid and he even gave me a point for it! So as you can see there were believers who believed in Jesus, as a prophet, and not as God. Now note these men believed Jesus was a prophet and a holy man from God, this means they believe in God, and his messenger, hence this would make them Muslims of that day and period! The only thing these men lacked was that some of them were not completely sure about who Jesus was, and they can be excused for this since this was back in a time where there was no internet, newspapers, or the television and radio hence it wouldn't be surprising to see people a bit confused about a certain figure as information back then was not easy and simple as today.
Now what about Jesus' mother Mary, did she believe he was God? The answer is no, visit this article to see the proof:
http://muslim-responses.com/Was_Jesus_God_according_to_Mary/Was_Jesus_God_according_to_Mary_
David then writes:
Who started Christianity, then? According to Islam, God did. If it was unintentional, then we must conclude that God didn't realize that he was about to start the largest religion in the world.
RESPONSE
No, God did not start Christianity, Paul did, Paul was the one who invented the myths that when Jesus died he died for the people's sins; Paul was the one who made the myth that Jesus even rose from the dead.
Secondly, David proves Christianity is false! Notice David says that Christianity is the largest religion, then this certainly is not the faith preached by Jesus since he said only a few would accept it! The fact that Christianity is the largest faith contradicts his statement because it is the largest religion in the world, obviously it isn't the minority religion as Jesus predicted! Hence either Jesus lied, was wrong, or he was actually correct which proves that since Christianity is the largest faith it is not the faith Jesus was talking about since his faith would be in the minority, not majority, which proves modern-day Christianity has nothing to do with Jesus!
And I will end this rebuttal at this point since there is no need to respond to the rest of David's points since he really has refuted himself already that there is no need to take the rest of the article seriously!
And Allah Knows Best!
http://www.muslim-responses.com/
