Confronting Islam: Divine Insights into God’s Truth for Today’s Biggest Challenge

By Dr. Ted Baehr, Publisher, and Dr. Tom Snyder, Editor

The news announcement Wednesday, July 7, 2010 that eight Christians were killed in Nigerian Muslim attacks is another example of fundamentalist Muslims under Sharia law doing what comes naturally – viciously murdering innocent people, especially Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists.

It has been said by the uneducated that all religions are the same – that there is no difference between Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, etc. . . . That doesn’t make any sense! That’s like saying all ice cream flavors taste the same. Or, better yet, all political opinions are the same. If that were true, what is everybody fighting about? And, why do ice cream companies make so many different flavors?

Mohammed, the alleged founder of the Muslim faith, was

an opportunist who married well and used his wealthy wife’s money to follow his bizarre dreams and power trips. His writings command Muslim zealots who adhere to them to believe that, every time you murder an infidel (non-Muslim), even a woman or child, you go to Heaven and get dozens of virgins to satisfy your hedonistic lusts. Mohammed’s writings and the “Sharia” laws based on them also say that women on earth are nothing but chattel and that every man is allowed up to four wives or more and has the legal right to abuse his wives and daughters. Thus, the Muslim faith is a religion based not on love, forgiveness, trust, peace, or even giving, but on adhering to uncompromising and cruel laws often focused on warfare and virtual slavery.

There is little historical evidence, however, of Mohammed’s life and times, much less concerning the historical background and reliability of his own writings, also known as the Quran. In fact, the Quran only has one doctored manuscript collected by one man, a collection that was ordered by one Arab caliph or leader and that the man who collected it admitted was an impossible task.

In contrast to all this, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, did live on this Earth. He did die and rise again and appeared to many rational individuals before he ascended into Heaven. Because of Him and His teachings (based on God’s love for mankind, men and women, rich and poor, of good standing and of bad standing, children, elderly, etc.) all people everywhere were, and are, welcomed by Him and His teachings. In fact, women are given equal status in Christianity – the only major religion in the world where women are treated with this kind of love and respect. Many people in ages past who called themselves Christians behaved in unchristian ways, but these ways were not the teachings of Christ. These acts were committed by sinful man. The world’s calendar and the very foundation of the free societies in this world stem from the life of this man – the Son of Man and the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

There is abundant historical evidence of Jesus Christ’s life and times. Jesus is descended from the Royal House of David and David’s son, Solomon, and yet He was born in a stable! Despite this, kings brought him gifts from afar and bowed to this babe in a manger (a wooden or stone trough used for feeding animals) (see Luke 2:7).

Furthermore, in contrast to the Quran, the New Testament documents outlining the teachings of Jesus Christ were not all written by one man. Nor are they based on a collection gathered by only one man in one time and place in history. Not only that, but the New Testament documents are solidly connected to a link of historical believers connected directly to Jesus and His apostles, who knew Jesus personally and gave their approval to the 27 books and writings contained in the New Testament.

In contrast to all this, Buddha was a Prince who realized that chasing material wealth and fame and power came to naught. He led a life that focused on peace and brought many people to find some sort of peace, but the peace he offered was not eternal or divine. Only some of Buddha’s life and times can be linked to history, but none of the alleged writings or sayings that bear his name can be historically confirmed, because they were written down mostly anonymously, long after Buddha’s death. Finally, although some of Buddha’s alleged sayings appear to be proverbs with practical moral application, such as ones where Buddha appears to reject sexual immorality and greed, none of the sayings (including those with metaphysical, spiritual, mental, emotional, or psychological content) can be linked to a direct special revelation from God or a divine messenger like Jesus Christ.

Shintoism, Buddhism, Hinduism and the minor cults of the Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Christian Science, and many more may be considered as examples of mankind’s endless quest or search for truth and peace, or as attempts to fill the void, the God-shaped vacuum in each of our hearts. If that search, however, is not filled by spiritual pursuits, it will be and is filled by earthly pursuits – money, sex, pleasure, work, philosophies, politics. . . you name it!!

Call these things what you will – religions or personal pursuits – but there is no rational way that you can equate Christ and His teachings to Sharia Law and the teachings of Mohammed, Buddha or any of the others. There is a gigantic, enormous difference between Christianity and the rest of these belief systems and idolatries of mankind.

Christianity is a special historical, spiritual, moral revelation from God to man. It is God the Father reaching down to man, in the form of His only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to save us from all our sins (John 1:1-18, the New Testament). Every other belief system, however, no matter how well meaning, is man striving to find God – to reach Him – to explain God as Father/Mother, as Tree, as Sun or Moon, as Gold, as Stocks or Stock Options, as Success, as Heritage, as National Pride, and so on. . . .

There is a HUGE difference, then, between Jesus Christ, or New Testament Christianity, and these other characters and beliefs.

You don’t have to put your brain on hold, however, to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, our Divine Lord God and Savior. Nor do you have to completely desert (or, worse, murder) your fellow human beings to obtain the forgiveness, salvation, love, peace, hope, self-control, trust, and beauty that come from God through salvation in Christ Jesus.

Such salvation is the only way to really perpetuate a truly civilized and thoughtful human society free from the tyranny of Islam and the current secular statists who seem to be encouraging Islam’s dangerous growth.

This danger is perhaps the biggest, most urgent challenge facing today’s world. The time to support Christianity, therefore, is NOW, because it is later than we think!!!

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Note:  For even more info, there are some other great Christian apologetics websites with other valuable resource materials, including William Lane Craig’s  HYPERLINK “http://www.reasonablefaith.org” www.reasonablefaith.org,  HYPERLINK “http://www.equip.org” www.equip.org,  HYPERLINK “http://www.apologeticsinfo.org” www.apologeticsinfo.org, and  HYPERLINK “http://www.answers.org” www.answers.org.

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