Difference in ideology and people

Submitted by Jessica (United States), Jul 20, 2007 at 18:20

I am a Christian. I do not hate Muslims, but I absolutely detest Islam. There is a big difference. Unlike what I have been reading about Islam, Christianity holds that Christ and Christ alone is the way to salvation for all people. It is absolute Truth and applies to everyone whether people believe it or not. Of course, this doesn't mean that unevangelized persons or all non Christians go to hell; God and God alone is our final judge and it is not our place to pass judgements on people, but we know The Way to Salvation and can never teach another way to eternal life. Since we know the way to salvation, we naturally hate any ideology contrary to what we know as truth because it leads people away from Christ. Christians believe that a relationship with God through the person of Jesus Christ is what is best for all people. If someone you loved was a drug addict, you'd hate the drugs because of the harm it was doing to the person you loved. The more a Christian loves God and loves their fellow man (Muslims, Jews, Buddists, Hindus, Scientologists, Atheists, Agnostics ect...), the more they will hate the things that separate God from His people. I love Muslims as people created in the image of God, but I hate the ideology that keeps them from the attainment of a right relationship with Him.

Christianity and Islam do NOT have that much in common. We have some shared history- that is true. But we believe in a Triune God; a God that is one in three. We believe one of those personalities, the Son, came and died for the sins of mankind to redeem the world from sin. That is the main thrust of Christianity and the rejection of that idea negates any other commonalities. Monotheism is close, but close only works in horse shoes and hand grenades. We believe that people are sinners and cannot earn their way into heaven. Only the mercy of God, tied in inimately with the cruxifixion, will allow us to stand clean and blameless before the throne of God.

I am sick of the blame game. Lets face it; there are hypocrites on both sides here; both Muslims and Christians. All people, as sinners, tend towards hypocrisy. There is a history of wrong that has been done on both sides. We do best to just own up to it and move on.

I admire Muslims' commitment to their faith. I admire them praying five times a day. I also admire the submissive attitudes of the people. Living a life of prayer and of submission to God are things taught by Jesus and Christians were doing long before Muslims came on the scene. If you don't believe me, read the Bible.

I have two questions that have been burning in me for quite some time, and I hope that someone out there can answer them.

1.) If Allah is the God of Love, how was he the God of Love before the creation of beings to love? Since we are Triune, we have an easy answer for this in the loving relationship between the parts of the Trinity, which is the source of all love and existed before we did.

2.)How does Allah balance mercy and justice? How does he forgive? Christians believe that God, in His abundant mercy, sent Christ to paid the price we should have.

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