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Canadian Christian Derek Green blasts
back to a terribly-wrong portrayal of Christianity in a letter to the editor of
a local newspaper. One week after a letter from a Mohammed Rahman
appeared, the Muslim writer died of a sudden heart attack. Unless the writer
turned to Christ before he drew his last breath—and there is no evidence he
did—the Bible says he is forever in Hell, wide-awake and in agony.
By Derek Green
Mohammed Rahman makes comments about Christ
and Christianity which must be addressed.
The Qu'ran depicts Mohammed as God's final
messenger.
However, the Bible states that Jesus is not
only the final messenger, but He is also the message.
The entire Old Testament points ahead to the
coming Messiah, and contains over 100 pointed, specific prophecies that He
would fulfill. Centuries later, Christ fulfilled every prophecy.
The New Testament Gospels describe Christ's
earthly ministry, and all other NT books simultaneously look back at His incarnate
presence, and look ahead to His future return for His church and judgement of
creation.
The entire Gospel of Matthew tells us that
salvation is by God's grace alone, through faith in Christ alone, because
Christ is God incarnate, and He bought us with His blood. To strip Christ of
divinity is to strip the Gospel of meaning.
Islam refuses to acknowledge that Christ is
the incarnate Son of God, even though Islam accepts much of the Old Testament,
admits that Christ led a sinless life, and even admits that He rose from the
dead (Surah 19:30‑35).
However, if Christ is whom He claimed to be,
and the mountain of supporting evidence is absolutely convincing, then His
message cannot be superseded, added to, or altered in any way.
When Christ said, "I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6),"
He made a categorical, exclusive statement. Truth by definition is exclusive,
because a statement that contradicts a true statement must be false.
Accordingly, Mr. Rahman's statement,
"...the God of the Muslims is the God of Christians...", is
impossible.
Firstly, the Biblical God is a Trinity (the
"Godhead"), eternally existing as three equal but distinct
"Persons"—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
(That is why the Hebrew word for God,
"elohiym", used throughout the Old Testament is written in the plural
form. We also see evidence of this in inter-Trinitarian conversation in Genesis
1:26, "And God said, let us make man in our image,
etc." Allah, however, is a singular monad.)
Secondly, the Bible states God the Father sent
the Son to atone for our sins at the cross, which God the Son willingly did.
Because the nature of humanity has eternally
separated God and man, the God of the Bible mercifully and gracefully came down
to us to work out His plan of salvation.
The Muslim's God, Allah, provides nothing. A
Muslim, like most every other religion's follower across the world, is
required to live a lifestyle of good works with the hope of earning Allah's
favor. The Qu'ran offers no guarantees of eternal bliss unless you kill others
as a daft "martyr".
Let's be clear here—the God of the Bible is
not the god of the Qu'ran, and since each claim to be the only God, one system
is dead wrong.
There is solid prophetic and archeological evidence
for the Bible that establishes its authority as the only inspired Word
Of God.
Here's evidence that Jesus was not just
another wandering prophet.
The Old Testament prophet Micah, in Micah 5:2,
wrote 800 years before the birth of Christ that the Messiah would be born in
the insignificant town of Bethlehem.
"O Bethlehem, you are but a
small Judean village, yet you will be the birthplace of my King who is alive
from everlasting ages past!"
Fulfillment of that prophecy is recorded in
The New Testament opening book Matthew 2:1 where it is written,
"Jesus was born in the town
of Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod."
In Old Testament Isaiah 53:12, written 800
years before Christ, it states The Messiah would be crucified between two
thieves, and he would pray for his enemies.
That event is documented as happened in New
Testament Luke 23:33‑34,
"...there, all three were
crucified—Jesus on the center cross, and the two criminals on either side.
'Father, forgive these people,' Jesus said, 'for they don't know what they're
doing'."
For a detailed list of over 300 Old
Testament messianic prophesies that Christ fulfilled, please see http://www.hopeofisrael.net/messiah.htm.
Put your trust in the God of the Bible through
Jesus Christ who became a man and died and arose for us, and the authoritative
Bible guarantees eternal life in Heaven. (See John 17:3.) There is no other
truth.
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