The Alex McFarland Show-21-Islam: A Christian's Response to Islam and the Muslim Message

The spiritual condition of America, politics, culture, and current events, analyzed through the lens of scripture. Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show.

There's an old saying that says, before one's head is in a noose, one's head is in the sand. Hi, Alex McFarland here, and I welcome you to this program. We're continuing our series about false religions and cults, and we're going to look at the subject of Islam, a Christian response to Islam and the Muslim message. And, you know, I do believe that Christianity is the only faith system that can promise salvation. Only Christianity has a risen Savior and an empty tomb, and I believe that only Christianity can give someone assurance to be in right relationship with God. And Christianity is unique, and in these series where we've talked about non-Christian faith systems, we've pointed out the fallacies and the shortcomings of non-Christian religions, and we've pointed out what I believe to be are the unique strengths of the Christian faith.

Of course, the preeminent reality of the Christian faith being that our Savior rose from the dead. But Islam, now 9-11, 21 years ago, it brought Islam to the front page news. And after 9-11, I was asked to speak in dozens of churches around the country about a Christian response to Islam. I spoke for several law enforcement groups that wanted to know about the beliefs of Islam, and it was a joy to share the gospel before law enforcement officers not only talking about the beliefs of Islam and a refutation of Islam, but a positive defense we were able to set forth for Christianity.

So 9-11, the memories of 9-11, as painful as they may be, it really did in some quarters give us an opportunity to talk about the importance of defending the Judeo-Christian worldview here in the United States of America. Now many of us remember how in the aftermath of 9-11, and this goes on now, though we're two decades removed from 9-11, but how so many of our elected officials and academics and celebrities, they falsely would say that Islam is a religion of peace, the God of Islam is the same as the God of Christianity. In fact, this year, in fact for the last nine years, Teen Vogue, which is a magazine read by teenage girls, Teen Vogue has had an issue where they celebrate this annual day, Muslim Women's Day, around the world. And every year in Teen Vogue, they'll have an article basically trying to proselytize teenage girls toward Islam, and they'll say misconceptions about Islam. Well one of the misconceptions, says Teen Vogue, is that Muslims worship a different god.

And very brazenly, they'll just say that the God of Islam is the same as the God of Christianity, which is completely false. We'll talk more about that in a few moments. But 9-11 brings back so many memories because for a couple of weeks in the immediate aftermath of 9-11, I was in New York City with the staff of Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Ministry. They set up a prayer center and we were doing evangelism all around New York City, literally there in the rubble of Ground Zero and the surrounding area, and I've talked about that many times. But what was so sad about 9-11 was that there was the shedding of American blood on American soil. Now in the two decades that have elapsed since 9-11, the Islamic population in America has basically doubled, not the least of which the reasons for this would include the immigration policies of the left, but also just the affirmation of Islam in the media and by liberal elected officials. And of course, this is a country where you can believe whatever you want to believe, but without a doubt, America was founded on biblical Christian principles and many scholars have documented how that was part of our genius and our strength. Although as President Barack Obama said falsely, again this was not at all accurate to the historical record, Barack Obama said that Islam was a part of American fabric from the very beginning, and that's not true of course.

While people are welcome to migrate here legally and through the channels of immigration and naturalization, they can assimilate to American life, but Christianity had been the predominant faith of America, at least it was up until about 50 years ago when the left and the secularists and the globalists decided to declare war on Christianity and try to purge it from America. But we need to understand Islam because I do want to say this, that God loves all people. God loves Muslims, but God so loved the world that he calls the world to salvation, and salvation comes only through a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is no way to go to heaven, biblically speaking, this is not merely the opinion of Alex McFarland, but this is what the Word of God says, there is no way to go to heaven except through a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want to talk about some of the different beliefs of Islam and some of the contrasts between Christianity and Islam because they are different. Think about this, who God is, Jesus, Jesus' crucifixion, Jesus' resurrection, the nature of God, the Trinity, what is sin and salvation, what is scripture, the Bible versus the Quran, who was Muhammad, what do we believe about Muhammad, and then supernatural realities, things like the nature of angels, and even the nature of evil.

And then finally the future, what does the future hold? Well the beliefs of Christianity and the beliefs of Islam are different, and in fact not just different but I would say incompatible. Now as many people would know, Islam prides itself on its monotheism, belief that there is one God in Islam, that God is called Allah. Now Christianity also we believe in one God, we are monotheistic, but Christians recognize that God has revealed himself as a triune being, and the name of God is Yahweh, also known as Jehovah, Yahweh God, one God, one nature or essence of God, but eternally existent in three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, all co-equal, co-eternal. We are not believing in three gods, as sometimes is mistakenly asserted, we're not polytheistic, but Christians are monotheistic.

And while that might sound similar, it's not the same. Triune monotheism is not the same as the rigid strict monotheism of Islam. But we'll point out in a few moments that Islam is not as monotheistic as they pride themselves in being. They're in many ways dualistic, believing in two co-eternal entities. For one thing, scripture, we know that scripture is the Bible, the Word of God, but for the Muslim the Quran is eternal, uncreated, and not numerically the same as Allah.

So when you've got two co-existent eternalities, that's not monotheism, that's really dualism. We'll come back, we'll talk more about this later. This is Alex McFarland, a contrast, comparison, critique, Islam versus Christianity. Stay tuned, we're back after this. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert.

Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. In recent years, our nation has suffered greatly and we seem to be on a rapid moral decline. We've rejected God, morality, and we've almost completely lost our sense of patriotism. It's no wonder that many are asking the question, is this the end of America? Hi, Alex McFarland here and I want to make you aware of my book, The Assault on America, How to Defend Our Nation Before It's Too Late. You know, our nation has seen politicians that are corrupted by greed and they've got a vested interest in power and many of our elected officials seem to care little about the country that they've been appointed to serve. Read my book, The Assault on America, We Can Stand Up for Our Great Nation and Defend America Before It's Too Late.

It's available everywhere. You can learn more on my own website, which is alexmcfarland.com. Read the book, The Assault on America, How to Defend Our Nation Before It's Too Late. He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to The Alex McFarland Show.

Alex McFarland here. We're talking about Christianity versus Islam and I want to compare some of the basic beliefs. You know, I didn't intend it this way, but as we record this and syndicate this across America, it is the time that much of America is remembering 9-11. And you know, at the time of 9-11, there were maybe about 1.8 million Muslims in the USA. That number has really doubled since then.

It's 3.7 or 8 million nearing 4 million. Right now, there are about 7.5 million Jewish people in the USA and it won't be too many years at present rates of growth that Islam surpasses Jews in America. Also, let me just say this, if present numerical trends continue, Islam will equal or surpass Christianity within the next 25 years. Right now, there are almost 2 billion Muslims in the world.

I remember at the time of 9-11, you know, the number thrown around was around 1 billion, 1.1 billion, and then about 1.6 to 1.8 billion. Well here's the thing, of the seven major world religions, Islamic women have more children than females in any of the other major world religions. So as Yasser Arafat said 30 years ago, Yasser Arafat said that Islam would take over the world by the womb of the Islamic mothers. In other words, just by procreation, Islam would grow.

And it is growing, in fact. But as every Christian will know, you're not just a Christian because you're born into a Christian family. You're not just a Christian because you might have been raised in a predominantly Christian culture.

A Christian is someone who has a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Very different than merely genetically culturally being procreated. And yet there is the Islamic faith that many people practice, then there is the Islamic culture.

And you know, I began the broadcast with that famous old quote about having one's head in the sand and then eventually having one's head in a noose. The two 800 pound gorillas in the room that are really fighting arm wrestling for the future of America and the West, one would be secularism and Marxism and the other would be Islam. Now it's interesting how these two forces that are incompatible, theistic Islam is absolutely incompatible with the militantly secular Marxism that the left is trying to impose on America right now.

So it will be interesting and probably tragic to see where this impasse leads. But honestly folks, one of the reasons that you should care about a Judeo-Christian America with civil rights for all people is that the one force that can hold at bay the two juggernauts of globalism, secularism, socialism, Marxism, atheism, that amalgam which like the Greek philosopher Protagoras says, man is the measure will build utopia on earth. The one force that can hold at bay these two tsunamis, secularism versus the iron sword of Islam, the one entity sufficient to hold these things at bay would be Christianity. That's why people should care about the spread of Christianity.

But let's talk about some of these beliefs. In Islam there's one God, Allah. In Christianity a triune God, Yahweh, having revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What about Jesus? Well in Islam Jesus was a prophet. They acknowledged that Jesus was a prophet and was born of a virgin. But they do not believe he is God the Son, the Son of God. Now of course in classical Orthodox Christianity, true biblical Christianity, and when I say Christianity I don't mean the liberalism of modern American Protestantism.

I'm talking about classical, true biblical Christianity. Jesus is the eternal second member of the Trinity, God the Son, fully divine, fully human, virgin born, lived a sinless life, the logos, the word of God manifested and the one who fully God was able to pay for our sins on the cross and he rose from the dead. Now we know Jesus was crucified. This is a matter of historical record that was an absolute necessity for the atonement, that means the turning away of wrath, the payment for our sin debt.

Jesus died on the cross. But Islam denies that. Islam denies that Jesus was crucified and that someone else died on the cross, maybe Barabbas, and Jesus didn't rise from the dead but hid somewhere and regathered his disciples. It makes Jesus out to be a deceiver, obviously with their desire, you know, because one of the things that Islam wants to do rigidly to guard the monotheism of Allah, Jesus being God incarnate, they reject that and so his supernatural resurrection from the dead, Islam wants to deny even though it is a matter of historical record.

Now, they don't believe that Jesus rose from the dead because they really don't believe that he was crucified on the cross but of course to all Christians, you know, we know that this is absolutely part of the salvation message that's non-negotiable. Okay, sin is what separates us from God in Christianity. We know that sin is a rebellion against God but sin to the Islamic mind is disobedience to the law of Allah.

Now let me ask a question. This is a key, this might seem like minutia but this is a key to the difference between biblical Christianity and Islam and I often ask students this when I'm teaching, I'll say, God, the biblical God, is something right because God does it or does God do it because it's right? Now very often students will say something is right because God does it and that is not Christianity.

In Christianity, God has a fully righteous nature. God is righteous and holy and God does something because it is right. It is righteous and comports with his holy righteous eternal nature but in Islam, it's not that God does something because it's right. In Islam, whatever Allah does is right because Allah did it.

Now the philosophical word for that is called voluntarism. See, Allah can do that which is evil and that's okay because to the Islamic mind, the key attribute about God is his will. That whatever Allah wills, it must be good because he willed it. In Christianity it's different.

It is willed by God because it is good. Do you see that distinction? Very key. Now we're going to talk more about this. We're going to have to pull away for a brief break. Stay tuned. The Alex McFarland Show, our analysis of Christianity versus Islam. We're back after this.

Stay tuned. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Christian author and speaker Alex McFarland is an advocate for Christian apologetics. Teaching in more than 2,200 churches around the world, schools and college campuses, Alex is driven by a desire to help people grow in relationship with God. He arms his audiences with the tools they need to defend their faith while also empowering the unchurched to find out the truth for themselves. In the midst of a culture obsessed with relativism, Alex is a sound voice who speaks timeless truths of Christianity in a timely way. With 18 published books to his name, it's no surprise that CNN, Fox, the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets have described Alex as a religion and culture expert. To learn more about Alex and to book him as a speaker at your next event, visit alexmcfarland.com or you can contact us directly by emailing booking at alexmcfarland.com.

He's been called trusted, truthful and timely. Welcome back to The Alex McFarland Show. Welcome back to the program.

Alex McFarland here, by the way. We'll continue our analysis of Islam in just a moment, but I want to say that we've got a newsletter about to be mailed out. It's been a great year, by the way, with our camps, with our events we've done around the country, social media numbers are growing, broadcast events, publishing. I just want to say a couple of things. For one thing, thanks to all the thousands of people that pray for this ministry. They enable us to be in front of literally thousands of young people a year to share the gospel. Our book, our little booklet that we give away, What Does God Say About My Relationship With Him? Little gospel book which is now both in Spanish and French and of course English.

I don't know how many quarter million plus copies given away in English and the number of Hispanic copies we've given, oh, I don't know, thirty thousand away. I want to say a big thank you to all of those that pray and that support and you may give securely online. People are being saved. The ministry is growing in terms of equipping Christians, evangelizing non-Christians, and in so many ways I could just talk about what God is doing and I want to say as this year begins to wind up, thanks. And please go on my website which is alexmcfarland.com. Also, we have got a Zoom call coming up about our viral truth campus clubs. We've got campus clubs where we're equipping young people to stand up for God and country. If you want to be on the viral truth Zoom call that is coming up soon, just email me simply alex at alexmcfarland.com.

Alex at alexmcfarland.com will send you info. Space is limited so we'll send you the Zoom link and we would love for you to be on that as we talk about mobilizing young people to have clubs across this country. Not only to stand up for the gospel, of course, but to stand up for America, to learn patriotism and why we should care about the future of this country. Well, thank you one and all for your prayers and your support and please let's continue to link arms together to rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ, to live truth, to stand up for truth, and to make an impact for our country. Well, we're talking about Islam and before the break we were talking about some of the contrast between Christianity and Islam and obviously it's well beyond the scope of a half hour program to fully exhaust this topic. But I want to talk about the Bible and salvation and the Quran and then some facts and quotes that are very relevant to this. The Bible, it is simply a miracle. Oh my goodness, how God gave his word, how God preserved his word, how in terms of fulfilled prophecy and life-changing power, not to mention the affirmation of Jesus, by so many benchmarks, historically, prophetically, by a number of compelling lines of evidence. The Bible has been shown to be the inspired word of the living God, eternal, complete, and life-changing. But Muslims reject the Bible. You know, what's interesting is there is lip service given to the Bible, if you will, in Islam. In fact, the Quran says you stand on nothing if you do not have the Torah and the Gospels or the Injil, they'll call it, the Gospels. But yet at the very same time they will say that the New Testament has been changed. The New Testament is not trustworthy. And so they accept the Bible only to the degree that it, as they would interpret it, agrees with the Quran. Now what about the Quran?

Even though you've got to understand that really Muhammad was born in 570 AD, he began to get his visions about 610 AD, and it was really in the 620s that he made his trips to flee from Mecca, and then he returned in 630, went to Medina, came back, had a battle really on Mecca, and that's been an Islamic stronghold ever since. But do you notice that this is, you know, a full, you know, five centuries plus after the resurrection of Jesus and the completion of the New Testament? Well, what's amazing to me, and please listen carefully, I've asked this of a number of Muslims and even a couple of Imams, when they'll say that the New Testament has been corrupted and changed, I'll often ask the question, okay, what are the changes and when were they introduced? In other words, what verses, Matthew through Revelation, were changed and when did those changes get introduced into the manuscript attestation or the textual lineage?

And they won't have an answer for that because it hasn't been changed. But suffice it to say, the big areas of contention would be the nature of God, the person of Jesus, and the reality of Scripture. Now, let's pull this down. What do we do? How do we begin to respond? You've got to understand that even more so than when a person becomes a Christian, when a Muslim embraces Christianity and therefore is rejecting some of the tenets of Islam, it's a huge, huge cultural change. And not only are things like relationships and family and community basically put on the chopping block for that person, it's a huge step in much of the world and not only in the Middle East, but in the West, a person's life could be jeopardized. So it is a step when a Muslim becomes a follower of Christ. It is a step that we in comfortable, socially acceptable Christian America, we just really don't grasp what a huge step this is. That's why I've got such a respect for those, I'm not just going to say that become Christians, but really those that choose to become a follower of Jesus, because it is a huge step.

So what do we do as we try to witness? Well, for one thing, we have to acknowledge that Christianity and Islam are different. They are not the same. And I've interviewed even non-Christian scholars that will, they've asked me with puzzlement, why do American preachers say Muslims and Christians worship the same God? Even non-believing academics will often acknowledge that Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, these things are very, very different.

And as we've often said, they might all be false, but they can't all be true. I want to talk about a response, but one thing I want to point out is that Muslims, and this is so basic and so elementary, but the way that John 3.16 is rendered in the King James says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And the words only begotten, many Muslims in the West have been coached to believe that this must mean that God and Mary procreated. And we know that only begotten does not mean that God the Father slept with the Virgin Mary. We know that the incarnation Jesus coming into this world, that Mary was found to be with child, but she was a virgin, and Jesus did not inherit the sin nature of Adam and Eve. And so in John 3.16, only begotten in the original language, it's monogenesis. And what it literally means is that Jesus is of the same nature or essence or substance as God the Father.

So what it's saying is what Jesus said in John 8 and John 10, that I and the Father are one, that Jesus and the Father are of the same nature. So how do we respond? Well number one, pray.

Pray, pray, pray. It's been said that Muslims seem to be inoculated against the Gospel and therefore immune to the Gospel. Sound reasoning is important, of course, but blinded eyes can only be opened through prayer. I want to say this too, be very, very friendly. Muslims can be incredibly, incredibly nice, cordial people. And we need to show genuine compassion and personal interest opens the doors when dealing with Muslims.

Care about these people. My goodness, we need to love these people because while I disagree with their belief system, they're lost and they're in darkness. So we need to be friendly, we need to be humble, we need to avoid cockiness or spiritual superiority at all costs.

To our Western minds it may seem like Islam is completely flawed, and it is, but be careful to avoid statements that demean or attack Islam. And finally focus on Jesus. Keep it about Jesus. Focus on Jesus who rose from the dead. And may the Holy Spirit use you.

Well we're going to have to pick this up again in the future. I want to say God bless you, thank you for listening, and let's live so that whether it's Muslims or secularists or whomever, let's invest our lives so that we would be a part of realizing those words from Habakkuk that one day the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. May God bless you as you stand for truth and represent Jesus. Alex McFarland Ministries are made possible through the prayers and financial support of partners like you. For over 20 years this ministry has been bringing individuals into a personal relationship with Christ and has been equipping people to stand strong for truth. Learn more and donate securely online at AlexMcFarland.com. You may also reach us at Alex McFarland P.O. Box 10231 Greensboro, North Carolina 27404 or by calling 1-877-Yes-God-1. That's 1-877-Yes-God-1. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of The Alex McFarland Show.