Sermon on Islam by Thomas C. Hanson

Good morning everyone.

Today I will be talking about Islam.

The teachings of Muhammad are making their way into Western society.  

So this is something we really need to be aware of.

It is the world's fastest growing religion with an estimated 1.2 billion adherents, or one quarter of the world's population.

It is likely that we will encounter it.

I am interested in this because I do some freelance editing for Dr. Robert Morey in the City of Orange.

Four part series in the Journal of Biblical Apologetics on Islam.

Author of Islamic Invasion and Winning the War Against Radical Islam.

I'd like to give you a little road map as to where we are going.

The format will be somewhat like a Bible study, or in this case, a Koran study.

History of Islam

Allah Compared to the Christian God

Muhammad

The Koran

Black Muslims

Some claim: "All religions worship the same God."

How could this be true?

The Hindu who worships millions of gods and goddesses is not worshiping the Allah of the Muslims.

The Christian who worships one God in three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is not worshiping the Allah of the Muslims either.

To say that we all worship the same God contradicts the descriptions of God given by Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Hinduism.

In fact, many people today seem to be saying that all religions are true--except for ours.

We live in an anti-Christian age.

This should not surprise us, because Jesus said: "If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you" (John 15:18).

The Truth is never afraid of having the light of research shined on it.

We should not be afraid to allow our beliefs to be put to the test.

We cannot argue anyone into Christianity, but we should not be afraid of their arguments would argue us out of Christianity either.

Still we must be prepared to give an answer as we read in 2 Peter 3:15:

"Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you."

And we read of salvation in Christ in Acts 4:12

There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.

This is not politically correct.

Origins of Islam

Islam is the name of the religion founded by Muhammad in Arabia in the early 600s A.D.

Islam comes from the verb SLM, which means to resign, surrender, submit oneself, so Islam means the act of submission and of resignation of oneself.

So, one who professes Islam is a muSLiM, one who has submitted.

Muhammad was born in AD 571 in Mecca.

His father Abdullah, died before his birth. Note that his name contains a variation off the name Allah, showing that they worshipped a god named allah before Muhammad was born.

In AD 610, at age 40, Muhammad became a prophet. He claimed to have heard the voice of Allah or the Archangel Gabriel, who gave him messages to preach to mankind.

Even before Muhammad was born, Mecca was famous for its shrine, the Kaba.

This is a cube-like building that was the center of a cult of sacred stones including the Black Stone, a meteor that is said to have come from heaven.

Muhammad was from the Quraysh tribe, who were custodians of the Kaba. He later would say that Abraham and Ishmael had built the Kaba.

The rites performed at the Kaba today were performed in pre-Islamic Arabia.

They were polytheistic and worshipped 360 gods at the Kaba, including Allah, whom Muhammad said was the greatest.  

The religion of Islam has adopted the name, the rituals, and the crescent moon symbol of the pagan Arab moon-god.

We see this in the flags of some Arab countries. The Red Cross in Arab areas of Israel is the Red Crescent.

Muhammad died in AD 632, three years after being poisoned by a Jewish woman.

Let's look into the setting into which Muhammad was born.

Jewish and Christian communities had settled in Arabia.

From the Jews, the Arabs gained a superficial knowledge of the Old Testament and Jewish folklore, which is seen in the pages of the Koran.

Many sections of the Koran are not original.

The Christianity that Muhammad encountered was brought to Arabia chiefly by Christians who had fled from the Byzantine Empire.

They had been condemned as heretics for Christological controversies of that day, so Muhammad received an imperfect understanding of Christianity.

The earliest accounts of Muhammad's life were written at least 150 years after his death, and all are from Muslim sources.

Most inhabitants of Mecca rejected his teachings and considered him a soothsayer or demon-possessed.

In 622 he fled to city now called Medina, where he was more accepted. Medina means the prophet's own city.

This is chosen to mark the beginning of the Muslim era and calendar.

Years are numbered A.H. The H stands for hijrah or flight.

In 624 Muhammad's forces gained a decisive victory at the Battle of Badr.

After this, war on religious grounds was sanctioned and the jihad [holy war] became not only acceptable but a religious duty for Muslims when Islam is under threat.

At first Muhammad recognized the validity of the Jewish and Christian faiths, being content to preach as the prophet to his own people.

Jerusalem was chosen as the direction to which Muslims prayed and Muhammad accepted some Jewish practices.

However the Jews rejected him as a prophet and refused to practice Islamic customs, so Muhammad began to assert the absolute character of the revelation given to him, and claimed it was a renewal of the religion that Abraham professed.

He gave up any attempt to reconcile Islam with Judaism.

Muslims were now commanded to face the Kaba when praying, not Jerusalem.

Muhammad said the Koran was the final and superior revelation. (In fact a copy of it was on a table in heaven).

Friday was set aside as the corporate day of worship at the mosque, and a month of fasting was established.

Both of these were holdovers from pre-Islamic Arabia.

Let's compare Allah to the Christian God

Allah Compared to the Christian God

The main question here is:

Do Muslims worship the same God as Christians and Jews?

I heard a Voice of the Martyrs radio commercial the other day that said:

Muslims claim to worship the same God as Christians do.

Christians in Muslim countries know better.

Muslims persecute Christians on a daily basis.

Muslims who come to our country are free to practice their religion here.

We would not be given the same freedom in their countries.

Muslims say that worship the same God

However, they contradict the Bible and state that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God, that Jesus was never crucified and that Jesus cannot save anybody.

Muhammad taught that Christians believe in three gods named the Father, the Mother (Mary) and the Son (Jesus) (Sura V.116).

And behold! God will say: "O Jesus the son of Mary!

Didst thou say unto men,

Worship me and my mother

As gods in derogation of God'?"

This shows the imperfect view he received of the Christian God.

Christians do not teach this doctrine. Christians believe in one God eternally existing in three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

  Christians are called unbelievers for considering Jesus equal to God.

The Koran says that Christians will go to hell directly because they make Jesus equal to God!

They surely disbelieve who say: Lo! Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary. The Messiah (himself) said: O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. Lo! whoso ascribeth partners unto Allah, for him Allah hath forbidden Paradise. His abode is the Fire. For evil-doers there will be no helpers. (5:72, Pickthall's translation).

Muhammad*******************************

Muhammad taught that Jesus was only one of many prophets of which he, Muhammad, was the greatest.

Yet, how could he be greater than Jesus Christ? Jesus was born of a virgin and was sinless in nature and the doer of mighty miracles such as raising the dead.

But there was nothing superior about Muhammad's birth or life. He never made the lame to walk, the blind to see or the dead to live. Allah even commanded him to repent of his many sins.    

Muhammad commanded his followers in the Qu'ran (Sura IX.5) to force people to accept Islam by war, plunder, slavery or the threat of death!

But when the forbidden months

Are past, then fight and slay

The Pagans wherever ye find them,

And seize them, beleaguer them,

And lie in wait for them

In every stratagem (of war);

But if they repent,

And establish regular prayers

And practise regular charity,

Then open the way for them:

For God is Oft-forgiving,

Most Merciful.

Muhammad sent his followers into battle 65 times giving them permission to kill and rape.

This is in contrast to our Savior:

Jesus said: My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.

The Hadith, a respected Islamic commentary, shows that Muhammad at about age 54 consummated a marriage with the nine-year-old daughter of a friend. The girl became known as the "mother of believers."

Muhammad married 13 women, including taking another man's wife under "divine" command (Sura 33.37-38).

As to taking another man's wife, one Muslim writer wrote: "The Holy Prophet never married another man's wife except that of Zayd" ( Islam and the West, p. 17).

Muhammad thought that most of those in hell were women.

The Prophet said, "I was shown the Hell-fire and that the majority of its dwellers were women who were ungrateful." Burkari vol 1, no. 28

[why on earth would a Muslim woman be ungrateful??]

Muhammad was a white man, contrary to what some are being told today.

While we were sitting with the Prophet in the mosque, a man came riding on a camel. He made his camel kneel down in the mosque, tied its foreleg and then said, "Who among you is Mohammed?" At that time the Prophet was sitting among us leaning on his arm. We replied, "The white man reclining on his arm." From the Hadith, Burkhari vol. 1, no. 63.

"He was white and his beard was black with some white hair in it." Burkhari vol IV, no. 744

Koran*************************

The Koran is said to have existed eternally in heaven engraved on a stone tablet.

The Koran says that the Bible and the Koran agree with each other.

"We believe in God and that which has been sent down to us [Koran], and sent down on Abraham and Ishmael, Isaac and Jacob, and the [Israelitish] tribes, and in that which was given to Moses [the law] and Jesus [the Gospel], and the prophets of their Lord; we make no division between any of them." Suras 2:130; 3:78.

Muhammad did not claim to be introducing a new religion but to bring his people back to the original religion preached by the prophets from Adam onward.

However, we do see where the Quran contradicts the Bible.

The Koran speaks of the virgin birth of Christ in III:47

She [Mary] said: "Oh my Lord!

How shall I have a son

When no man hath touched me?"

He said: "Even so:

God createth

What He willeth:

When He hath decreed

A Plan, He but saith

To it, 'Be,' and it is!

However, Yusuf Ali comments. He is the author of this 1934 translation of the Koran and the commentary included in it:

Mary the mother of Jesus was unique, in that she gave birth to a son by a special miracle.... This of course does not mean that she was more than human, any more than that her son was more than human...

Then he goes on to say "before Muhammad was born to sweep away the corruption of the Church of Christ."

3:59 says that Jesus was a created being:

The similitude of Jesus

Before God is as that of Adam;

He created him from dut,

Then said to him: "Be":

And he was.

Black Muslims******************

Colin P Akridge is black and an ordained clergyman.

Dr. Akridge says: Becoming a Black Muslim is, in many cases, nothing more than a "religious fad" in the name of Blackness. Very few Blacks have really examined the history and doctrines of the Black Nationalist cult. If they did, they would never become a Muslim.

Malcolm X, after dedicating twelve years of his life to build up the Nation of Islam in America, came to the conclusion that the whole thing was a "sham."

He came face-to-face with the realization that Elijah Muhammad, a forerunner of his, was living a lie and practicing gross immorality. The startling revelations of what really went on cost Malcolm his life, when he was assassinated in the 1960s.

This brand of Islam is a bad counterfeit of Islam--not that true Islam is any good either.

The Black Muslim Movement had its beginning in 1930 in the Black ghettos of Detroit.

"The Prophet," Wallace Dodd Fard, lived in Detroit from 1930 until 1934.

Little is known about him. All we know for sure is that he was a White man who claimed to be of Turkish origin.

Fard's self-proclaimed mission was to wake up the Black Nation in the West, to teach them the truth about the White man, and to prepare them for Armageddon.

To accomplish this goal, Fard at first used the Bible as his textbook. He claimed that he alone could rightly understand and interpret the Scriptures.

As his prestige grew in the Black community, he denounced the Bible and its teachings. Some of his followers were shocked to hear the Bible under­mined and it caused an emotional crisis for many people.

Conditions were ripe for a new religious movement that promised to give the Black man dignity. The bright promise of the North had failed.

There was no hope. Racial discrimination was ev­erywhere. Police brutality, crime, unemployment, under­employment, and violence were reigning in the Ghetto.

The Black masses cried out, "Who will deliver us?"

After Fard's disappearance in 1934, Elijah Muhammad became the leader of the cult and assumed the title "Mes­senger of Allah" until his death in 1975.

Elijah ruled the Nation of Islam with tyrannical power and sucked millions of dollars from the poor Blacks who blindly followed him. As a classic cult leader, he ended up with the money and the women.

Fard Muhammad taught Elijah Muhammad and many others in the 1930s that he was the Messiah and alluded to the idea that he was God.

Louis Farakhan is now leader of one of several groups that calls itself the Nation of Islam.

The problem of sin

Regardless of our religion, we must all admit that we have failed to live up to our religious convictions.

We need a way to be forgiven or cleansed of our sins.

We have a this through a mediator, and he had to be sinless and without blame.

He paid the penalty for our sins by taking upon himself the punishment due to us.

He is the bridge between God and man. If he were not quite God or not quite man, he would be a bridge broken at either end.

While a Muslim must work his way to paradise by repeating the Muslim prayer five times a day, fasting, giving money and going on a pilgrimage to Mecca, the Christian believes he is saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Even Muhammad was not sure of his salvation:

The Prophet said, "By Allah, even though I am the Apostle of Allah, yet I do not know what Allah will do with me." Burkhari vol V, no. 266

Islam has no mediator and no atonement, so it does not have a gospel or good news.

The highest level of Muslim heaven - which has 70 perpetual virgins on couches - is reserved for Muslims who "shed their blood" (Hadith 135).  

Contrast Between Mohammed and Christ

Mohammed was the prophet of war; Christ is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6-7).

Mohammed's disciples killed for the faith; Christ's disciples were killed for their faith (Acts 12:2; 2 Tim. 4:7).

Mohammed promoted persecution against the "infidels"; Christ forgave and converted the chief persecutor (1 Tim. 1:13-15).

Mohammed was the taker of life; Christ was the giver of life (John 10:27-28).

Mohammed and his fellow warriors murdered thousands; Christ murdered none but saved many (compare John 12:48).

Mohammed's method was COMPULSION; Christ's aim was voluntary CONVERSION (Acts 3:19).

Mohammed practiced FORCE; Christ preached FAITH (John 6:29,35).

Mohammed was a WARRIOR; Christ is a DELIVERER (Col. 1:13; 1 Thess.1:10).

Mohammed conquered his enemies with the sword; Christ conquered his enemies with another kind of sword, the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God (Heb. 4:12; Acts 2:37).

Mohammed said to the masses, "Convert or die!"; Christ said, "Believe and live!" (John 6:47; 11:25-26).

Mohammed was swift to shed blood (Rom. 3:15-17); Christ shed His own blood for the salvation of many (Eph. 1:7).

Mohammed preached "Death to the infidels!"; Christ prayed "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).

Mohammed declared a holy war (Jihad) against infidels; Christ achieved a holy victory on Calvary's cross (Col. 2:14-15) and His followers share in that victory (John 16:33).

Mohammed constrained people by conquest; Christ constrained people by love (2 Cor. 5:14).

Modern terrorists derive their inspiration from Mohammed and carry out their despicable atrocities in the name of his god Allah; Christians derive their inspiration from the One who said, "Blessed are the peacemakers" (Matthew 5:9).

Some modern day disciples of Mohammed responded to the terrorist attacks by cheering in the streets; modern day disciples of Christ are deeply grieved at past atrocities carried out by those who were "Christians" in name only (the Spanish Inquisition, etc.).

Many Muslims are peaceful and peace-loving because they do not strictly follow the teachings of their founder; many Christians are peaceful and peace-loving because they do strictly follow the teachings of their Founder (Rom. 12:17-21).

Mohammed called upon his servants to fight; Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight...but now is My kingdom not from here" (John 18:36)

Mohammed ordered death to the Jews (see A.Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad, Oxford University Press [1975], p. 369); Christ ordered that the gospel be preached "to the Jew first" (Rom. 1:16).

The Koran says, "Fight in the cause of Allah" (Qu'ran 2.244); the Bible says, "we wrestle not against flesh and blood" and "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal" (Eph. 6:12; 2 Cor. 10:4).

The Koran says, "Fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them" (Qu'ran 9.5); Christ said, "Preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15).

The Koran says, "I will inspire terror into the hearts of unbelievers" (Qu'ran 8.12); God inspires His terror (fear, reverential awe) into the hearts of believers (Isaiah 8:13).

The Koran (Qu'ran) is a terrorist manual which condones fighting, conflict, terror, slaughter, and genocide against those who do not accept Islam; the Bible is a missionary manual to spread the gospel of peace to all the world (Rom. 10:15).

Mohammed's Mission was to conquer the world for Allah; Christ's mission was to conquer sin's penalty and power by substitutionary atonement (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 3:18).

Mohammed considered Christ a good prophet; Christ pronounced Mohammed to be a false prophet (John 10:10; Matt. 24:11).

Mohammed claimed that there was but one God, Allah; Christ claimed that He Himself was God (John 10:30-31; John 8:58-59; John 5:18; John 14:9).

Mohammed's Tomb: OCCUPIED! Christ's tomb: EMPTY!