Christianity and Islam

This essay examines the differences between Christianity through Jesus Christ and Islam. The paper is written through protestant reformed theology perspective where the bible is everything. The paper brings into light the characteristics of Islam and Muslims in general and shows how the Christians can defend their faith which is based in the bible to the Muslims.  The paper will generally use literature to review the topic of discussion and get the information in answering the thesis statement: Differences between Christianity through Jesus Christ and Islam and how that knowledge can be used to enable Christians to defend their faith in the bible against the attacks of the bible.

The essay starts by highlighting on the background of the Islam as a religion. Knowledge on the background of the religion is very significant as it to show the root cause of their arguments. Generally the Islam religion came up after the Christian religion and is generally based on discrediting the bible though it also claims that the bible contains some portions which predict the forthcoming of the Islam religion. Basically this paper will carefully show that the claims as put forward by the Islamic religion against the bible are false and do not hold any truth. Portions of the bible verses are used throughout this paper to credential its stand. This paper approaches the thesis statement by showing that the Islamic religion can not relied on because its arguments are not based on any solid foundation.

As a matter of fact the Islam religion has constantly being in the news and more often than not the news has been bad news. It has been a common issue for the Islamic religion and politics to feature in the news across the world in a negative way. It has been noted with a lot concern that at the present time there are a lot of dialogue between the religion and other religions. Islam religion has been given a lot of attention from the politicians as well as the churches. Pratt (2005) believes that in order to understand and better handle the Muslims then a better clear view is needed on the Islamic religion:

How does Islam relate to the modern world? What issues are raised when what issues are raised when we contemplate the prospect of a dialogical relationship with Islam and Muslims? In order to begin to answer, we need to under where this religion comes from and how it sees itself (Pratt 1).         

The opinions of Pratt are very significant if the Christians are to be any effective in defending themselves against the Muslims. It should always be noted that the Islamic religion is always based on arguments which are bent on discrediting the bible.

According to Pratt (2005), the Islamic religion is relatively recent religion in the light of the Christian religion. There are several versions about the origin of the religion with some of them claiming it started with Adam. From the historical perspective the religion is reported to have started in the 7^th century of the Common Era. It was started by the Arabian prophet Muhammad. Islamic thoughts and ideologies however present a different version by claiming that the religion started early about 25 centuries early with the semitic patriarch Abraham. To the Muslims, Islam is viewed as a religion of peace and its followers are very passionate about their religion. Ganeri (2008) reports that Muslims believe in the Quran and they consider it as a holy book: they believe that the Quran is a direct word from God which directs the way they live.

Then above highlight forms the basis of the argument of this paper. The Islamic religion which claims to engross in biblical facts makes the argument a little bit technical. The Muslims claim that God sent so many prophets including Jesus who was then followed by Muhammad who they claim to be the last prophet (BBC 1). Muhammad is claimed to have escaped from Mecca and started his teachings successfully in Medina. He is said to have mainly taught about peace and coexistence among the people (BBC 1).

It should be noted that the Muslims believe that all people are born innately Muslims and as they consider it their duty to convert every person who is not a Muslim into being one. They believe that the society should have a unified religion which should be Islam and that the society should be guided by the sharia law which they consider as God’s law (Pratt 5).  

According to Andrew (2010), in what he refers to as questions for Muslims, the Islamic religion is shown to have its roots deep in the fertility gods of the dim past. Muhammad was not born to a Christian or a Jew family meaning he was a pagan as a matter of fact. During the pre-Islamic times the Arabs worshipped 360 gods. It is reported that then the pagan engaged in activities which seem to be extension of the modern Islamic to an extent:

The pagans practice the Pilgrimage, the Fast of Ramadan, running around the Kabah seven times, kissing the black stone, shaving the head, animal sacrifices, running up and down two hills, throwing stones at the devil, snorting water in and out the nose, praying several times a day toward Mecca, giving alms, Friday prayers, etc.(Andres par. 60)

Andrew (2010) claims that the Islamic religion adopted many pagan symbols. A good example is the crescent moon which was also the: “ancient pagan symbol of the Moon-god throughout the ancient world; the religious symbol of the Moon-god in Arabia;” (Andrew par. 60). These are important facts to note if a Christians need to convert the Muslims. Most of these facts are not known by the Muslims and they need to be shown the truth behind the Islamic religion.

From the above examination, a very significant issue is brought to light: Islam claims to have its foundation in the bible and that the bible gives it support. This paper is actually about discrediting this claim by showing that in the actual sense the bible knows no other religion other than the Christian religion. This can only be accomplished by countering the main arguments which have been presented to shown that the bible is supporting the Islamic religion. By showing that the religion is not supported by the Bible then it will be enough show that it is a creation of a man and does not descend from the prophets who are mentioned in the bible. The next section therefore which forms the main apart of the essay is going to dwell on using the bible to discredit what the Muslims have fervently claimed to be true.