from an apologist to a theologian!

Submitted by Lactantius Jr. (United Kingdom), Dec 27, 2006 at 20:21

To Truth Lives

Lactantius Jr. responding to the theologian "Truth Lives," has a nice touch about it, (Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius, being a Christian apologist of the 4th.century AD), so let's try and shine the bright light of the Scriptures on the narrow way of truth, continuing to use Islam's "Title-Deeds," it's most authoritative documents, to demonstrate what it teaches.

You say:- "Not so. The Qu'ran states that any man of any religion may attain salvation, if his heart is pure."

Where does the Qur'an or Sahi Hadith of Bukhari or Muslim say:- "any man of any religion may attain salvation if his heart is pure?"

The Qur'an says:-

"If anyone desires a religion other than Islam, never will he be accepted of Allah; and in the next life, he will be in the ranks of those who have lost themselves and will burn in hell." Surah 3:85

With the Qur'an stating unequivocally, the superiority and triumph of Islam over all religions, in Surah's 61:9, 48:28, and 9:33. These ayat (‘verses') are found in the historical context of warfare and violence, so how can they fail to inspire violent jihadis

To head-off criticism that I have used "biased" translations of the Qur'anic Arabic by Western translators/secularists, I quote translations made by Hilali and Khan, translations approved and funded by the Saudi Royal family; the parenthetical explanations being original:

Hilali and Khan, The Noble Qur'an, Riyadh: Darussalam, 1996

"He it is Who has sent His Messenger (Muhammad) with guidance and the religion of truth (Islamic monotheism) to make it victorious over all (other) religions even though the Mushrikûn (polytheists, pagans, idolaters, and disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah and His Messenger Muhammad) hate (it)." Surah 61:9

"He it is Who has sent His Messenger (Muhammad) with guidance and the religion of truth (Islam), that He may make it (Islam) superior to all religions. And All-Sufficient is Allah as a Witness." Surah 48:28

"It is He Who has sent His Messenger (Muhammad) with guidance and the religion of truth, to make it superior over all religions, though the Mushrikûn (polytheists, pagans, idolaters, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah) hate (it)." Surah 9:33

The verses around 9:33—the literary context—demonstrate an outlook, with which Islamic terrorists readily identify.

"Fight [q-t-l] against those who (1) believe not in Allah, (2) nor in the Last Day, (3) nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad), (4) and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." Surah 9:29 (Hilali and Khan, parenthetical notes are theirs)

This infamous verse uses the verb qatala in its imperative form. The basic meaning of the root q-t-l signifies fighting, killing, warring and slaughtering, so Muhammad endorses violence. This verse also outlines four conditions for fighting, but carefully note the fourth one. Muslims are commanded to fight against the Jews and Christians who do not acknowledge "the religion of truth," Islam. The Christians and Jews must submit after battle, or avoid battle by paying a special "protection" tax for the "privilege" of living under Islam,

In a nutshell, the teaching of the Qur'an is this: if you are a Jew or a Christian you are allowed to remain in your religion, but you must submit to the rule of Islam and you must pay with humiliation an exorbitant tax called Jizya to Muslims. This limited allowance to practice a religion besides Islam does not apply to everyone--only Jews and Christians. All others must become Muslims or be killed.

You say "The Qu'ran states that any man of any religion may attain salvation, if his heart is pure" which sounds just fine and dandy, but the only assurance or guarantee a Muslim can have of being admitted to al-Jannah (Islamic ‘heaven'), is by killing and being killed in Allah's service, that is by becoming a shahid ("martyr"),

with Surahs 61:10-12, 4:74, and 9:111 guaranteeing shahids entry to al-janna in an economic bargain. Indeed, these three references explicitly use words that connote buying and selling and signing a contract of sale, and the currency behind the deals is death by "martyrdom." Horrid isn't it?

Here are English renderings of the 3 Surah and ayat, taken from The Qur'an, M.A.S. Abdel Haleem Oxford University Press, 2004

"You who believe, shall I show you a bargain that will save you from painful punishment? Have faith in Allah and His Messenger and struggle [j-h-d] for His cause with your possessions and your persons—that is better for you, if only you knew—and He will forgive your sins, admit you into Gardens graced with flowing streams, into pleasant dwellings in the Gardens of Eternity. That is the supreme triumph." Surah 61:10-12

"Let those of you who are willing to trade the life of this world for the life to come, fight [q-t-l] in Allah's way. To anyone who fights [q-t-l] in Allah's way, whether killed [q-t-l] or victorious, We shall give a great reward." Surah 4:74

Allah has purchased the persons and possessions of the believers for the Garden—they fight [q-t-l] in Allah's way: they kill [q-t-l] and are killed [q-t-l]—this is a true promise given by Him in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur'an. Who could be more faithful to his promise than Allah? So be happy with the bargain you have made: that is the supreme triumph. Surah 9:111

Suffice it to say, this lie of the "true promise" is just that, a downright lie. Neither Old nor New Testaments have the Islamic death-cult of "martyrdom" in any context. The Lord Jesus Christ does not require anyone to kill and be killed in jihad to spread His good news, and at the time of 911 John Ashworth, the then Attorney General of the USA, showed he understood Islam much better than his President by saying, "The difference between Christianity and Islam is that the Christian God sent His Son to die for us, whilst Allah requires our sons to die for him."

Saajid Badat from Gloucester, England, the ‘wannabe' passenger airline bomber, until he got cold-feet and chickened-out, was arrested in 2003 for plotting to bomb a transatlantic airliner, and he showed how well he understood Allah's "bargain," by writing to his parents from a training camp for Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan, "I have a sincere desire to sell my soul to Allah in return for paradise."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/4305161.stm

You say:- "Islam actually claims that Allah viewed His Prophets as equal."

What's your source for this? and whilst I don't accept Muhammad's claim to prophethood in the line of the Biblical prophets of the true God, that's a question you didn't pose, so can be left for another time.

The Qur'an claims that Muhammad is God's seal of prophethood, and therefore the last and final messenger to mankind:-

"Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but (he is) the Messenger of Allah, and the Seal of the Prophets: and Allah has full knowledge of all things." Surah 33:40

You say:- "‘Do not lie' is a tenet of Qu'ranic guidelines"

The morality of lying is one of the most confusing aspects of Islamic thought and, as a result, creates the impression that whether a person is truthful, or deceitful, depends entirely on the ethics of the situation, and Muhammad treated truth and deception according to his own style of situational ethics, condoning and permitting lying to further his goals, condoning lying and murder when it suited his purposes. It should come as no surprise therefore, that the Qur'anic Allah (whoever he is), is good at lying, and according to the Qu'ran, Allah schemes, "and is the best of schemers" Surah's 3:54 and 8:30 with the term for scheme in Arabic being makara which denotes one who is a deceiver, one who is conniving, a schemer. It is always used in a negative sense. Allah is thus seen as the best of deceivers, the premiere schemer and conniving one. The God revealed in the printed Word of the Bible, and supremely revealed in the living, loving Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ cannot lie however, that's right, He can't lie, or do anything else which as "the way, the truth and the life" John 14:6 is contrary to His Character:-

"God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so He does not change His mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has He ever promised and not carried it through?"

Numbers 23:19

"I have sworn an oath to David, and in My holiness I cannot lie."

Psalm 89:35

"Make them holy by Your truth; teach them Your word, which is truth."

John 17:17

"a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,"

Titus 1:2

"............so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul............"

Hebrews 6:18-19

Deceit and Lying by Allah

In fact, Islam makes the Biblical God a liar since it denies the testimony given by God on behalf of His beloved Son:

"We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." 1 John 5:9-12

Writing:- "I don't quite follow what you mean by making this point," requires me to stress the centrality of the Lord Jesus Christ's crucifixion and resurrection from the dead, it being necessary to be truly dead, in order for resurrection from the dead to occur, as it undoubtedly uniquely did in Jesus' case. I say again, that deception lies at the heart of Islam, in seeking to deny the Lord Jesus Christ's glorious resurrection from the dead, by denying that He was even crucified, claiming that Allah deceptively put a "lookalike" on the Cross. Christianity absolutely stakes its claim to validity on Jesus' resurrection from the dead, well may the Apostle Paul, inspired of the Holy Spirit, say, "And if Jesus wasn't raised from the dead, my preaching's useless, and so is your trust in God."

1 Corinthians 15:14

The Lord Jesus Christ referred to His coming crucifixion 18 times, and on 8 of these occasions, He recurred to His glorious resurrection from the dead.

In saying:- "I don't quite follow what you mean by making this point," you overlook that if the Lord Jesus Christ wasn't truly crucified, He wasn't truly dead, and He wasn't truly raised from the dead, He wasn't a true prophet of the true and living God, neither was the Apostle Paul inspired of the Holy Spirit and writing truthfully, when he wrote:- "And if Christ has not been raised from the dead, my preaching is useless, and so is your trust in God."

1 Corinthians 15:14

You say:-"The lookalike that was cruxified (sic) shall attain the ultimate salvation, according to Islamic theology." Please explain this, and source your explanation.

Truth matters doesn't it? and it matters absolutely. The following quotations from Bible and Qur'an being mutually exclusive.

"And they crucified Him, and parted His garments, casting lots; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet"

Matthew 27:35

"They killed him not, nor crucified him"

Surah 4:157

"This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased"

Matthew 3:17, 17:5

"No son did Allah beget"

Surah 23:91

And what is the devil good at doing but lying? that's right, lying, and assessing the Islamic claim that the Qur'an was revealed to Muhammad by a spirit-being over a period of 23 years, in a cave on Mount Hira, during Muhammad's meditations, let's see what the Word of the Living God says about such claims:-

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we OR AN ANGEL FROM HEAVEN should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!"

Galatians 1:6-9

The spirit-being that spoke to Muhammad, brought a message contrary to the gospel of Christ, meaning that this spirit-being falls under the Biblical God's eternal condemnation, implying that this spirit-being could not have been the Archangel Gabriel, but a satanic counterfeit. This shouldn't be a surprise, the Bible clearly teaching that Satan is able to masquerade as an angel of light, in order to deceive and prevent people from embracing the true message of salvation:-

"For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve."

2 Corinthians 11:13-15

This is exactly why the Bible gives us a test to distinguish between false prophets and true ones, or lying spirits from the Holy Spirit of God:-

"Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, 'Jesus be cursed,' and no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit."

1 Corinthians 12:3

In answering your comment "I don't quite follow what you mean by making this point," I have belaboured the point, a point I believe to be of central importance to the questions Tiffany originally posed:-

"Does Islam consider the Bible the inspired word of Allah? Why did the one true Creator God rename Himself? There are a number of names for God in the Old Testament. Do any of them match up with ‘Allah'?"

And I draw to a close here, by posing a question that needs asking, and which can be answered by reading what the Bible says about the nature and character of the God Who cannot lie, and comparing/contrasting that with what the Qur'an say about the nature and character of Allah the premiere schemer and deceiver Surah 3:54

Is Islam's denial of the Lord Jesus Christ's identity, Satan's stronghold on more than a billion people? Are Muslims following one of the false prophets Jesus foretold?

You say:- "Islam nowhere states that the Bible is unalterable--quite the opposite, in fact. Muslims believe it was corrupted by man. In truth, it was written hundreds of years after Jesus' death, and this is the basis of their claims for its possible alterations. Let me state, before I'm hounded, that I am not a Muslim, but rather a theologian"

Islam gives massive and eloquent testimony to the whole Bible, Old and New Testaments, as the unaltered, unalterable word of Allah, saying it is his unchanged, unchangeable word, the Qur'an saying the words of Allah are unalterable:-

"there is none that can alter the words and decrees of Allah" Surah 6:34

and:-

"----------none can change his words-----------" Surah 18:27

see also:- Surah's 6:115, 10:64 and 50:29

The Qur'an repeatedly says that it confirms the previous Scriptures, for example Surah 3:3 says that Allah:-

"-----------sent down to thee (step by step), in truth, the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Torah and the Gospels."

Typical of every mention of the Torah and Gospels Sameer, there is no word about textual corruption. Surah's 2:97, 2:285; 3:3,7,23,48,65,84,93,184,199; 4:44,47,51,136,162-164 5:15,46,68-69; 6:91&92,154; 10:37; 11:17; 16:43; 17:2; 20:133; 21:7; 23:49; 26:196; 32:23; 35:31; 41:45; 46:10-12; 54:43; 57:25&27; and 87:18-19 all confirm, rather than repudiate or "complete" the Torah and Gospels, with the texts often being referred to as "inspired."

The Qur'an uses, for example, the following words:-

"musadiqalima mahum" (confirming what is with them)

"musadiqalima baina yadih" (confirming what is between their hands)

"musadiqalima makum" (confirming that which is with them)

Surah's 2:41,89; 3:3; 4:47; 5:48; 35:31 and so on.

With Surah 5:47 saying to "the people of the book" :-

"Let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah hath revealed therein. If any do fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) those who rebel."

But Muslims would have me believe that Allah is telling ‘the people of the book' to judge by a corrupted book would they? is that what you are saying?

You write:- "In truth, it (the Bible) was written hundreds of years after Jesus' death,"

What a low view of Scripture you take, even for a liberal theologian!!

The Apostle Paul's letters are the documents written nearest the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and with Paul being killed in Rome, around AD 64 in Nero's persecution of Christians, that means all Paul's letters were written no more than ~35 years after the resurrection.

Of the Synoptics, the majority of New Testament scholars date Mark the earliest, at between AD60-70, Luke sometime after AD70, Matthew between AD80 -100, and John's Gospel between AD85 -100.

These datings are quoted by John Drane, in his "Introducing The New Testament," (Lion Publishing plc 1999, Oxford, England), and therefore put the writing of the 4 Gospels and Paul's letters at between 20 and 70 years after the Lord Jesus Christ's resurrection, not the "hundreds of years after Jesus' death" you confidently assert.

At the time his book was published, John Drane was Professor of Practical Theology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom, and a well-respected New Testament theologian, so I'll defer to his figures rather than yours, and in addition, will look up the dates favoured by Bruce Metzger, the premier NT theologian, and Professor Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary.

So, there's my response to your response to my response to Tiffany's questions! and if you're reading this Tiffany, please put your trust completely in Jesus, and be assured that He is THE TRUTH, the real McCoy, the genuine article, not a way, a truth, a life, but THE way, THE truth, THE life, with the principal source of reliable information about Him being the New Testament documents, and my prayer for you is that as you read the printed word of the New Testament, you will meet Him, the living, loving Word of God. I wish I could describe Him to you, but in the words of Dr S.M.Lockridge, He's indescribable!!!!!! and If you have a sound card and speakers with your PC, have a listen to SM preaching it to ‘em, at:-

http://lukeplant.me.uk/articles.php?id=7

With kind regards and best wishes

Lactantius Jr.

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