Islam has corrected nothing...

Submitted by Rajesh (India), Sep 19, 2006 at 02:29

In response to A. Nizami

Islam never corrected anything. It simply distorted everything!

You don't seem to understand the original sin business and how we become affected by it. You know that Adam and Eve sinned, so I'll skip that part. But let me add a small para from the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.

But how did Adam's sin become the sin of all his descendants ?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches in para 404: The whole human race is in Adam "as one body of one man." By this "unity of the human race" all men are implicated in Adam's sin, as all are implicated in Christ's justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that we cannot fully understand. But we do know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all human nature. By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state. It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is by transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice. And that is why original sin is called sin only in the analogical sense: it is a sin contracted and not committed – a state and not an act.

405: Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin – an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence. Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back toward God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle.

You could think of original sin as the AIDS of the soul. If a mother is affected by AIDS, she transmits the disease to the child in the womb. Even though the child has not done anything, it still gets affected due to the mother's condition; and when born, has a weakened immune system susceptible to every disease. Adam and Eve by sinning transmitted to us a fallen nature susceptible to every kind of evil and the all temptations of the devil.

I have begun to believe that the source of Islam is diametrically opposite to the source of the Jewish and Christian faith because of the opposition to the cross and the death of Jesus. It was at the cross that the power of the devil over human nature was broken and mankind was set free from the power of sin. The devil is always opposed to the cross. That is why during the earthly life of the Son of God, he offered him all kinds of shortcuts from the cross. He even used Peter to try and persuade Jesus to avoid the cross (Mathew 16:22). Anything but the cross. You said that only God can forgive sins. That's true. Centuries before the Koran, this concept was there in the Bible. And the reason why the sufferings and death of Jesus set us free from our sins and the power of the devil is simply this: Because Jesus is God ! Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it ! Yes that is the beauty of the Christian faith, that God Himself has become our savior. As the Church proclaims during the Liturgy: "Dying You destroyed our death, rising You restored our life..." The work of redeeming man was a greater work than even creating man and it was fitting that no one else except God Himself do it.

"My God, my God why have you abandoned me...": Isaiah prophesied centuries before Christ (Is 53: 4-5) "Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing, ours the sorrows he was carrying." He took upon himself all our misery, our darkness, our sadness, and all the condition of our fallen nature upon his blessed humanity. In other words, he took all our sins and became sin for us. When he took upon himself the full burden of the sins of the world, he felt what every sinner experiences, separation(in his human nature) from God. Thus, he uttered the mysterious cry:" My God, my God..." But in the end, He triumphed over sin and death, giving the great cry of victory before His death.

"Never a death like this,

and I've lost count...

His struggle wasn't with death.

Death was his servant,

not his master.

That wasn't a defeated man...

On the cross,

his conflict was with something far greater

than bitter-tongued pharisees.

No, he fought a different battle...

Later he gave a great cry of victory.

They were puzzled,

But I know battles and fighters.

I'd recognize a victor's shout anywhere. (F. Topping, An impossible God)

All the sacrifices of the Old Testament were a shadow and copy of the true sacrifice to be offered by the Lamb of God. That is why, when the Lamb of God offered his sacrifice ( Jesus was both the priest and victim), all the sacrifices of the Old Testament ceased (You could read St Paul's letter to the Hebrews in the Bible, he goes in great detail over all this).

As far as the Trinity is concerned, you can read my post (titled Hmmm...) by going to the article "Is Allah God?"

Islam has corrected nothing. It's again one of those futile attempts of humanity trying to put itself right with God through its own efforts at best; or as I have come to believe, it is a smart strategic move and a last ditch attempt by the Enemy after the triumph of the cross to take away from humanity the salvation won for it by its Redeemer and Savior. After all as Jesus said (John 10:10): "The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full."

As you rightly said, "God has given us brains to think." I do hope you use it and come to the truth.

Rajesh

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