Is the Qur’an Compatible with the Bible?

Coming up next on Renewing Your Mind. There is no doubt that Islam is very much a religion of glory. The religion of power and religion. That's although it has many elements of peacefulness in its I don't want to misunderstand that condones violence and justifies violence in the name of God and the spreading of Islam was almost 20 years ago that Islamic extremists the deadliest terror attack ever carried out on American soil. If you were alive then you probably remember it like it was yesterday.

Remember where you were doing in quickly realize the world would never be the same people wanted to know what motivated the church they wanted to know what Muslims believe is why Dr. Darcy's role invited a special guest studio to discuss his world has changed since religion is not likely to hear that interview will find the insights we gain to help us navigate our relationships with Muslim neighbors. I've invited person to be with us today who has inside knowledge about Islam and so I'm welcoming today to our program. Abdul some leave Abdul thank you for getting with us today. Thank you RC for inviting me. It's been a privilege to be with you today. I have lots of questions and I'm sure that Christians all over the country have questions that they would like to have answered and I'm going to try to be the point man to throw those questions that you if you can help give us some clarity and insight into understanding the historic nature of Islam.

I'm sure you are interested in how the news media in America interprets Islamic religion. Holy war Geon all that sort of thing that one of the things I noticed Abdul's think constantly refer to the followers of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden as fundamentalist Muslims form sometimes use language like fundamentalist extremists or fundamentalist radicals and the reason I cringe a little bit is because I am aware. As an American Christian that the American media often uses the term fundamentalist to refer to what we would call Orthodox Christians, even though it's a derisive term that's correct. And when you hear the term fundamentalist Muslim. What does it mean will actually RC basically means the same thing to me that the fundamentalist Muslim is a Muslim who is taking his Koran very seriously. Just like the Christian world is struggling with secularism. The Islamic world is also filled with millions of nominal Muslims were just Muslims names but in fact when I also give fundamentalist Muslims. I am not just hearing some radical fringe groups within Islam, but in fact is not that devout Muslims who want to take their faith very seriously and spread Islam and also combats secularism and unbelief, will, historically, the term fundamentalist with respect to Christianity course grew up out of the so-called modernist liberal controversy at the beginning the 20th century and the fundamentalist movement was led by very serious Orthodox scholars, theologians, for example from the faculty of Princeton theological seminary responding against 19th-century liberal who had all but destroyed the very basic tenets of Christianity, such as most of the elements of the apostles Creed, the resurrection of Christ atonement. The virgin birth, and so on and still wanted to call themselves Christians instead of these scholarly people said no, you're negotiating the foundational truths of classical biblical Christianity, and in the course. Today, the term fundamentalist means anti-intellectual, moralistic, and so on, but it has that pejorative connotation.

And yet, in its origins, it referred to classical orthodoxy. Now that's my question. When you talk about bin Laden and the Taliban and these people would you say that they represent the lunatic fringe of Islam, or that they represent classic Orthodox real fundamental Muslims. I would say somewhere in between RC, the Taliban actually are doing things that are in fact a little bit on the extreme side that even as we know the records of the origin of Mohammed himself and the history of Islam that even some of the extreme ways that the interpreting Islam was not even done at the time of Prophet Mohammed.

So that's that important issue that we need to acknowledge at the same time they are not just some radical weird fringes of Islam. They are very much devout Muslims.

And let's also say that, of course, not all Muslims are put Taliban, but there are many other movements within fundamentalist Islam that have as much hatred toward the West. The Christian faith democracy as the Taliban do, but right now they're not taking arms to show that anger and hatred towards the Christian church so my point is, the Taliban are not the only representatives of Orthodox Islam. However, what they are doing is very much within mainstream Islam item a five answered a question you have to know the present United States as argued and stated over and over again that American this declaration of war against terrorism is not at war with any particular nation, and is certainly not at war with the religion but only against the criminal element of terrorists and those who harbor these terrorists now the press is falling on that is been making a point over and over again that true Islam is a religion of peace and love agree with you know I seek it I don't.

In fact the other day I was listening to NBC today and they had Karen Armstrong and an imam of the mosque in New York, and the reporter said is actually the Koran also doesn't the Koran also have passages that basically sake turn the other cheek and imam actually got choked on that question because there is no such thing and Islam. The media is trying to portray Islam is a religion of peace and love, lets them set the record straight RC for you and all the listeners. There is no separation of church and state, and Islam politics is very much part of the very fabric of the origin of Islam and the goal of Islam from day one, that it came on the Arabian Peninsula seventh century was to dominate the world.

The Koran is filled with passages and the traditions that go back to Mohammed that say that every Muslim should be involved in this struggle to spread Islam around the world. Islam theology divides the world into two categories.

The house of Islam and the house of war. Islam does not accept pluralism. Islam did not come on the scene to just say we are one way and one many ways to God. Islam claims an exclusive path to the one true God, and Islam declares that basically all the other religions have been corrupted the religion of Moses has been corrupted the religion of Jesus has been corrupted and is the task of Muslims to spread the true faith to the whole world. Abdul occurs very shortly after the terrorist attack on our nation.

There were some major prayer service held in the national cathedral and their representatives there from the Roman Catholic world from the Protestant world from evangelical world representatives from Judaism and also from Islam in this joint prayer service and of course in the opening prayer of invocation was offered by the Dean of the national cathedral prayed to God in word something like this that we pray to the one who is the God of Abraham, of Mohammed and of Jesus same God. Ryan, I was in the Middle East actually RC when I saw that program and I believe the wording was pray in the name of the God of Abraham, the God of Mohammed and the father of Jesus Christ. I almost fell from my chair because that's an important point here that the God of Mohammed the unlock that is portrayed in the Koran has some radical differences with the father of our Lord Jesus Christ as portrayed in the Bible. Can you tell us a little bit about it because in a part of the popular what I call civil religion in America has this I think naïve view that we all worship the same God. This, by different names, and even though there may be some points of difference in our rites and rituals and all that.

At the bottom and its core. There's no real difference between Judaism and Islam and Christianity and Buddhism and Hinduism will and out cost but that's also but Allah yeah I wish I had time to read you scores of Koranic verses that disprove this idea that we basically all worship one God are the same God, Allah has very different characteristics limit mentioned some the word holiness as ascribed to God has only been used twice in the entire Karen we meet a God in the Koranic pages that changes its minds changes its promises does not guarantee any assurance of salvation to the believers and a God that basically there is no emphasis on the Koran on the holiness of God. The Koran opposes very very explicitly that anybody who claims a doctrine the Trinity, and even Christians basically is that doctrine that will actually condemn you to go to hell if you believe such a thing could sign on his interrupters just sent one clear difference between the Christian view of God and the Muslim view of God is that the Christian view of God is that God is trying that's correct and you and him and his horse affirms the deity of Christ. That's correct word is Christ fit in with the Koran and Islam. Jesus is just a prophet.

Although he was one of Virgin Mary and he did many miracles and he's called the word from God the Spirit of God. He is just another human being is just a prophet and anybody who ascribes deity to Christ is a blasphemer commits the unpardonable sin of shirt which is attributing partners to God and is doing to help. I have resigned it all right in front of me. I could before you does the Koran deny the Christ died on the graph that's correct in sura four, verse 157 the Koran explicitly denies that Jesus ever was killed on the cross are crucified, and therefore also denies the resurrection is correct. So be really hard to have a compatible ecumenical relationship between an Orthodox view of the Koran and classical Christianity, that's correct. You give me just one verse, RC sora nine.

The ninth chapter of the Koran verse 30. This is basically what I called the bottom line verse year.

Sura nine verse 30 says, and the Christians call Christ the son of God. That's the same from their mouth in this state but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say, God's curse be on them how they are diluted away from the truth. Sewer nine verse 30 says Christians who claim that Jesus is the son of God are under the curse of God. Now the Bible in first John chapter 5 verses 11 to 12 says. In fact, those who believe in Jesus as the son of God, are the ones who have eternal life. So the two books cannot be compatible in who Jesus is and what is the one way to God or Abdul you have co-authored a book with Dr. Norman Geisler. This entitled answering Islam and the subtitle interest me in this much is it's called the crescent in the light of the cross.

Now you see two symbols when you see the universal symbol of the Christian faith. It is the symbol of the cross which is not a very glorious symbol at all, is the sign of suffering and death.

And yet the sign of Islam is the crescent. What's the significance of its actually RC hi a good question, but very controversial question. We do not know really the origin. The historical origin of that symbol. Some say it's the moon God that it shows that pagan roots of Islam. Some say this is the miracle that Mohammed did the splitting of the moon. Some say it was a cultural symbol that Islam adopted so there's not one unanimous view, but there is no doubt that Islam is very much a religion of glory.

The religion of power and religion that, although it has many elements of peacefulness in its I don't want to misunderstand that condones violence and justifies violence in the name of God and the spreading of Islam so often when we picture Jesus. We think of him is so gentle and make the Prince of peace in the most widely image that you see of Mohammed is as he is brandishing a scimitar or sword as an RN it is correct and let me just say this RC. There are many beautiful passages in the Koran. There are many traditions about Mohammed about what a fair person. What a just person and a humble person he was.

I don't want to say this disregard all these things, but once again what I want to emphasize is that we also have a dark side to Islam. There are many passages in the Koran and there are many traditions that go back to prophet Mohammed and the history of Mohammed's life that portrayed the dark side of Islam. The site that Mohammed sponsored many of his opponents to be assassinated in his own lifetime cotton going as the more generic when for our listeners benefit Abdul. I think the average American Christian really knows very, very little about Mohammed. If you would say when the live I think the gases would be all over the calendar so can you give us a nutshell, capsule summary of who was Mohammed wonder they live in is a letter of Mohammed appeared in the seventh century in the Arabian Peninsula. He was a merchant appeared publicly. That's 11 on the invoice, but I was witnessing the year 610 at the age of 40, he proclaimed his prophet hooked to the Arabian penny was actually born exactly 500 years after the fall of Jerusalem that's correct Prof. 570 A.D. he was born in 610.

He claimed that he had received revelations from God and that was the beginning of the Koran and his ministry lasted 23 years. So for 40 years.

What was he doing before God. We don't know much sonic history. Of course feels that gap, but he was supposed to be a very fair merchant said he was involved in business for his wife who was 15 years older than him and he had a reputation for being an honest person okay as I start this religious movement in the year 610. That's correct. What were the basic elements of this religion is a basic element in the beginning in the first 10 years of his time in Mecca. He was actually just a proclaimer.

He was a preacher.

He was a Warner is a divorce that the Koran uses of him.

He invited that pagans were worshiping idols in Mecca to turn to the one true God.

He was talking about the day of judgment. Vivid portrayals of hell awaiting those who disobeyed God and worship idols so basically he had a rule as a Warner as a preacher inviting people to abandon idolatry to live justly and graciously to help the poor, the orphans and he actually faced a great deal of rejection and persecution in the first 13 years of his ministry in Mecca and then what happens… I called her driver yeah and and what happened was he was invited by another city. The city of death ripped, which then later became Medina. He was invited by the folks living in that city to come and join them. And that's when many people see a tremendous shift in the character of Mohammed and infecting the style of the Koran. So Mohammed in the last 10 years of his life.

He became also the political ruler of the city and he and his father started organizing raids and attacks to their pagan caravans that were passing by, and the justification was that for all these years Muslims were oppressed Muslims were persecuted and now it's our turn to show you guys. You know who has the power, so he was in the last 10 years that the Islamic religion endorsed the idea of picking up the sword and fighting the cause of God and spreading the faith and what is the Koran coming all these 23 years various revelation supposedly from God through angel Gabriel came to prophet Mohammed and his 23 years of various revelations were all pieced together shortly after his death so he did not actually write the Koran but nevertheless the content of it that's correct I was and I said as Western in him. That's correct. He was supposedly an illiterate person. In fact that's what Muslims claim is the great miracle of the Koran that an illiterate person produce such a beautiful book of poetry and his secretaries would write down his revelations and then they were collected after his death. Now is the Koran, the only holy book or Scripture, for this is the Koran is the only holy book in Islam and is the only book that is viewed to be the word of God. However, both Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims. The two main sects within Islam have traditions have had beats and these are people who collected the sayings of Mohammed and that they are viewed also as having a great deal of authority in the average everyday life of a Muslim okay will the word that we keep hearing now coming out of Afghanistan and the mediator course in the press is the word GR this is not a normal part of English vocabulary either. Can you tell our people. What a geologist. Yes, jihad and struggle. And as that we have heard many times in the media in the last few weeks that it is not just a holy war that it is true that there is not a tradition say that the greater struggle is to kill the elements of our sinful nature. However, it also carries within it the very strong connotation that is struggle is not just the spiritual struggle without in their sinful desires, but also the physical outdoor struggle which can be an intellectual struggle biting all writing books promoting Islamic ideas and it can also be a struggle of sword and violence to again spread Islam and fight unbelief is a true Abdul that classical Islam, not just some sector that deviates from sees the killing of an infidel is a virtue is correct. Darcy it is really true and I have tons of passages in front of me, both from the Koran and from the traditions of prophet Mohammed that condone such violence. Now let me say this again is very important because the vast majority of Muslims are not the kind of people who would go out and kill people.

This is not the issue.

The vast majority of Muslims ignore a good part of the darker side of the traditions that's not an issue plaguing the point that we need to emphasize in this country is that those who do engage in violence have perfect justification for doing what they do based on the Koran and the life of Mohammed Muslims pride themselves that they are the final religion there. The most perfect and elevated religion of all humanity.

In fact, you hear many times people use this illustration that Judaism is like elementary school Christianity is like high school and Islam is like the University kind of graduate into the spiritual maturity. When you become a Muslim and then the question is will how come if Islam claims to be a higher form than even the teachings of Christ. How come then you see Islam actually going back to many issues that begin counting the Old Testament, so there doesn't seem to be any progress from Christ to Islam. When you compare it in those terms well enough at the beginning of all of this. There was a statement from him indicating an attack against American imperialism and so on and little or nothing said about the state of Israel, then more recently, his rhetoric has shifted somewhat to talk about one of the main reasons for the target. America was because of our support for the Jewish state in Israel. How does this fit in with contemporary Islamic religion.

The RC truly deceits of hatred towards the Jews and the Jewish religion are all over the Koran and Islamic traditions. There is a very very well-established tradition of prophet Mohammed written in the oldest biography of Mohammed, written by a Muslim historian that says kill the Jews wherever you find there passages in the Koran that tell Muslims that whoever befriends Jews and Christians becomes one of them, and God will not guide that person.

So the idea of NT Jewish sentiments are very strong that go back to the very roots of Islamic religion and history. That's interesting when some people today tend to think at least in this country that all of this hostility between the Arabs and the Jews was fueled by the creation of the Jewish state in 1948 that is not true at all. Other words this far antedate that particular historical events of attrition absolutely. When Mohammed moved to Medina RC there were three Jewish tribes living in the suburbs of that city, and Mohammed expelled the first group looted the second try, and he killed 700 men, all the men of the third Jewish tribe. This goes back to the time of prophet Mohammed himself and his anti-Jewish feelings again are very much part of the Islamic fabric. While we see then that this hostility has its roots, not just at the time of Mohammed in the seventh century, but even back into antiquity desk that's correct them and as a Christian when I look at the Genesis accounts and God's covenants being extended through Isaac and not Ishmael. I see that the roots are really, I find them in the book of Genesis and then again between Jacob and Esau.

That's correct English things have far far far reaching consequences. That's correct.

I've been told how accurate this is.

Maybe can help me that there are today, approximately 250 million Muslims surrounding 5 million Jews in the Middle East is at a basically accurate… That's correct. This no wonder the Jews in Israel have a hard time sleeping at night. That's right. And of course I am not here to condone everything that is really government or army has done. But yes, there's definitely not a very balanced situation during the middle and there are those who are absolutely committed to the total destruction of the Jewish state is thus very right RC Muslims I think is part of human nature, but I think I see more in the Muslim world. That's because they view themselves as the final religion and is the greatest of all peoples, so the fact that in the last few centuries the Western world has far surpassed the Islamic world in terms of technology and science and wealth and prosperity. This has created deep levels of frustration in the Muslim world. They ask themselves why has God abandoned us into why are we not the great nations that we are supposed to be.

If we are following the one true God, and the final most perfect religion all these deep feelings of frustration and hatred are surfacing themselves in many ways, whether it's being anti-is really being anti-US anti-Christianity in a they go back to that deep issue that Muslims must either moving people in the world and they will find this is in the situation. So this is an attempt to get back to the position of power and world domination that is helpful information is in it. We've heard a portion of an interview that Dr. RC Sproul did with Abdul. So leave a former Muslim and now a Christian missionary to Muslims. Here in the US. Perhaps you have Muslim neighbors were coworkers in your wondering how to interact with them and perhaps share the gospel with them so I hope you'll join us. The rest of this week here on Renewing Your Mind as we share more of this interview ever offering the entire interview to you in a two CD set.

It's titled the dark side of Islam insurers for your donation of any amount to look in her ministries to find us online@renewingyourmind.org or you can call us with your gifted 800-435-4343.

Many of us understand Islam from a geopolitical perspective, the Islamic terrorist to make the headlines determined most of our opinions of Muslim people, but as Christians we must understand the religion itself simply calling it another of the world's great monotheistic religions hides the fact that Muslims deny the deity of Christ and deny salvation by faith alone. These facts should cause us to pray for those trapped in this false religion. So again, we invite you to request this two CD set the dark side of Islam are number again is 800-435-4343 and or web address is Renewing Your Mind.org and on behalf of all my colleagues here at licking her ministries. Thank you for your gift of any amount. By the way, you can find more helpful resources.

When you go to table talk magazine.com, for example, there are more than 100 articles on the topic of Islam each month. Table talk provides a Christian perspective on a current topic also provides daily guided Bible studies. Dr. Strohl said that table talk magazine exist to help establish us in the word to deepen our understanding of God. So we invite you to learn more.

When you go to table talk magazine.com. Thank you for being with us today and we hope you'll make plans to join us again tomorrow for more of Dr. Strohl's interview with Abdul sleep as they address a common misconception that Christians and Muslims serve the same God wasn't too much as a very emphatic that we cannot know God only know his commands only know his will is commands have been given to us in the Koran, but we don't know what God is like. So these are some fundamental issues that differentiate the portrait of God that we encounter in the Bible as opposed to the one that we encounter in the program that's tomorrow on Renewing Your Mind