Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?

Do Christians and Muslims basically serve the same God? Muslim theologians are very emphatic that we cannot know God. We only know his commands. We only know his will. His commands have been given to us in the Quran, but we don't know what God is like. So these are some fundamental issues that differentiate the portrait of the God that we encounter in the Bible as opposed to the one that we encounter in the Quran. Welcome to the Tuesday edition of Renewing Your Mind.

I'm Lee Webb, and we return to an interview that Dr. R.C. Sproul conducted several years ago with former Muslim Abdul Salim. Abdul is now a Christian missionary, and while some of the world events they mention will sound dated, the information about the Islamic religion remains valid and useful to us today. It needs to be emphasized that although the vast majority of Muslims want to pursue peace and they do not want wars and trouble, nevertheless the minority who are engaged in violence have justification for what they do based on the Quran and the actions of Muhammad. I understand that. And again, in your homeland, was there any price tag for converting to Christianity?

Yes, yes. We have had pastors killed and assassinated. We have had Christians tortured and killed.

Many people who have left our country and other countries in the Middle East because of their Christian faith, because of the persecution there. Well, you know, in the Old Testament we speak of Israel as being a theocracy where there is no separation of church and state. And yet when Christianity emerges in the first century, there was no Christian government. I mean, Christianity flourished under the tyranny of an oppressive government by the Roman Empire. And so Christianity spread to all different nations where it was a religion, not a political structure. And that's been true for the most part, even though we have seen attempts to create theocracies and we've seen the crusades and so on.

But that's different. In Islamic countries, that is the agenda. That's right. That it is to be an Islamic state, no pluralism. That's correct.

Isn't that the idea? Yes, there is no separation of church and state. There are politics and faith, politics and religion, and the economic system and the educational system and the military system and the family system. They are all part of a comprehensive whole, the Islamic worldview.

And the goal is to dominate the world with this one particular worldview. Well, in the United States, we make so much out of pluralism and about the First Amendment that gives every religion the right of free exercise of that religion and that in the American democratic system or the Republican system, really, that all religions have equal rights under the law. However, in American civil religion, that concept of every religion having equal rights under the law has come to mean all the religions are equally valid. That's right.

You know, what do you think about that? Well, first of all, that is obviously goes against what the Bible says about Jesus being the way, the truth and the life. So that's obviously the American civil religion cannot square itself with the teachings of Christ and the exclusive claims that Christ makes. But nevertheless, the concept that we have freedom in this country, that people of varying faiths can be equal and be safe in the practice of their faith is a concept that is absolutely RC non-existent in Islamic history and in the Muslim world today. Yes, I mean, what I would see the Christian duty in the United States, which is resisted by other religions, is that it is our duty to try to evangelize people from other religions, but never, never, never, never to persecute them. That's right. However, Islam does not make much of a distinction between their version of evangelism and again, using force and violence for promoting Islam.

Do you think there's a difference? I mean, I've told that there's like 6 million Muslims in America. Is that accurate?

That's what I've heard also. I've heard anywhere from five and a half to 7 million. Well, then we'll settle with the approximation. And do you see any great distinction between the Muslims in the United States and American Muslims and Muslims in the Middle East? Oh, yes. Let me say, for example, the nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, just like we say Christian science is neither Christian nor scientific.

The nation of Islam is an absolute blasphemy according to Orthodox Islam, the teachings of the nation of Islam. All right. Now, wait a minute. When we say 6 million Muslims in America, does that include the black Muslim movement? That's correct.

It does. Okay. And now what you're saying, let me see if I understand. You're saying that the black Muslim movement is not recognized by mid-eastern Muslims as being an authentic branch of Islam. Is that correct?

Well, not exactly. There are many blacks who are Muslims, but the nation of Islam is just a small minority in the black community. So there are many blacks who are Muslims, but I'm talking about the nation of Islam specific.

Okay. So that's only one branch of the black Muslim. That's correct.

That's correct. The doctrines of the nation of Islam are an absolute anathema to Orthodox Islam. However, R.C., because Islam is very much a political religion, for example, when Farrakhan several years ago, he went to visit Libya, he went to visit Iraq, he went to visit Iran, he was warmly received.

Why? Not because of his theology, but because the Muslim world wanted to use his political power and the PR that he provided for Islam to promote Islam in America. So Muslims can be very accommodating.

As long as you use the word Islam and you read the Quran, Islam can kind of accommodate you in order to spread its political agenda. Getting back in sort of a wrap-up to the essence of the religion of Islam. Islam has, as my understanding from my limited study, six basic articles of faith. You know, like we have the Apostles' Creed, they have their six articles.

Is that accurate? Well, the six article being jihad is a controversial one, but the five major pillars, the five major articles are, yes, the confession of faith, that there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet. So that's the first pillar. No God but Allah. That's correct. And Mohammed is his prophet. That means he's his supreme prophet and so on, right?

That's correct. And R.C., we never got to the issue of the differences between the Islamic portrait of God and the biblical portrait. May I use this time to kind of comment on that? By all means, please do that.

Yeah, or let me give you a bigger picture. The way I contrast Islam and Christianity, Islam opposes the Christian faith regarding the doctrine of God, regarding the doctrine of man, regarding the doctrine of Christ and the doctrine of the scriptures. Islam denies the Trinity and Islam denies the fatherhood of God.

The only relationship that God has to his people is as master to a servant. Islam denies the original sin. Islam denies that salvation can be gained by grace through faith in the cross. Islam denies the deity of Christ. Islam denies the resurrection of Christ and the death of Christ. Islam denies that the Bible is an authoritative word from God, but that it has been corrupted.

It has been corrupted. All of this to say, going back to your previous questions about all religions basically being the same thing, Islam has set itself up as a system opposing Christianity on every issue. It is self-consciously anti-Christian.

Exactly. I have been told that there are imams going to Christian churches, and basically everybody's embracing everyone saying we all believe the same thing, but Islam denies every fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith. You know, one of the things I've noticed about all the other world religions, apart from Christianity, and one that I say to my friends who are adherents of other religions, I'll say to them, what do you do with your guilt? Because you don't have an atonement. There's no atonement anywhere else, is there?

That's correct. And Islam, in fact, they pride themselves that we don't need atonement. We will just, you know, do enough good works and hope in God's mercy. In the Islamic doctrine of God, you know, some of the major contrasts besides the doctrine of the Trinity, which is the heart of the Christian faith, there is no sense of divine intimacy with his people. God is a very distant and transcendent God, and he cannot have a personal relationship with his slaves, the human beings who are his creatures. There is no sense of divine compassion, the kind of compassion that one sees in the God of, even in the Old Testament, the portrait of a wounded husband, of a father with a broken heart. There is no hint that the God of the Quran, in any sense, feels sorry for the sin of his creatures. There is no sense of the holiness that we see in the Bible that is completely absent from the moral qualities of the God of the Quran. The God of the Quran does not love the wayward children unconditionally. The love of God in the Quran is very much based on your work's performance.

If you obey God and do the things and obey his apostle, then God will love you. And there is no sense that this God can be known, that this God, you can intimately know this God and have a personal relationship with God. God remains very much an unknowable God. The Muslims, in fact, Muslim theologians are very emphatic that we cannot know God. We only know his commands.

We only know his will. His commands have been given to us in the Quran, but we don't know what God is like. So, these are some fundamental issues that differentiate the portrait of the God that we encounter in the Bible as opposed to the one that we encounter in the Quran. Abdul, you know, I know that Islam, just like the Christian churches, all different groups and denominations and sects and everything, and when we have debates among ourselves, we try to settle it by appeals to Scripture. I'd like to hear, I'd like to have you tell us, if you could, some of the most important passages from the Quran that address the question of the identity of Jesus. Okay, R.C., let me first read from Quran chapter 4, verses 157 and 158, passages that explicitly deny that Jesus ever died on the cross, that they said, we killed Christ, this is, I'm reading now from the Quran, that they said, we killed Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, the apostle of God, but they killed him not, nor crucified him. But so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts with no knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not.

Nay, God raised him up unto himself, and God is exalted in power and wise. So, the Quran explicitly denies that Jesus was ever crucified, and if there is no crucifixion, then there is no atonement in the Christian faith. Surah 5, verses 75 and following, they do blaspheme, who say God is Christ the son of Mary. But said Christ, O children of Israel, worship God, my Lord and your Lord. Whoever joins other gods with God, God will forbid him the garden, and the fire will be his abode. They do blaspheme, who say God is one of three in a trinity, for there is no God except one God.

If they desist not from their word of blasphemy, verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them. Christ the son of Mary was no more than an apostle. Many were the apostles that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth.

They had both to eat their daily food. See how God does make his signs clear to them, yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the truth. So basically, R.C., the Quran, although the Quran and Muslims believe that they give complementary titles to Christ. Jesus was the Messiah, Muslims say. Jesus was born of Virgin Mary. Jesus did great miracles, raising people from the dead.

Jesus was a word from God, a spirit from God. These are all complementary things that they believe the Quran says about Jesus. But fundamentally, Islam says that Jesus never died on the cross. And fundamentally, Islam says anybody who says Jesus is the son of God or God incarnate commits the unpardonable sin of attributing a partner to God and that Jesus was no more than a prophet like other prophets, no more than a human being like everyone else. So the Quran denies fundamentally the deity of Christ and the cross of Christ. And so we do not all believe the same things about Jesus as many people think we do.

You know, recently there was a program on national TV, I think was on Larry King Live, I'm not sure, but they had representatives from Islam and from Judaism and from Christianity, including John MacArthur was on that program, and Rabbi Kushner, you know, who wrote, yes, you're familiar with him, who wrote Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? And I did not see the program, but it was quoted to me that he said that as a Jew, he recognizes that Jesus was a prophet, and so do the Muslims. And yet, if you explore the prophecies of Jesus, almost all of them are about Jesus and about his identity and about his mission and all the rest. And how do these people say that he's a prophet without at the same time adding, oh, by the way, he was a false prophet? Because if they credit him as a prophet, you'd think they would think that he was telling the truth. Well, no, how Islam gets around this issue, R.C., is to say, well, Jesus didn't say these things in your Bible. The sayings of Jesus have been corrupted, and Jesus was just a prophet who claimed to, you know, to teach people to worship God. So, all the teaching ascribed to Jesus, like in the Sermon on the Mount and all that, he never really said is what they would say? Yeah, either that, yes, or they would say, yes, that it has been greatly corrupted.

I have passages in the Quran, for example, chapter 5 of the Quran, verses 119 through the end, R.C., it depicts a scene in the final judgment. And God turns to Jesus and says, Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to people that people should worship you? And Jesus says, no, God, I didn't say this. If you want to punish these people, it's up to you.

If you want to forgive them, it's up to you. But I didn't say any such thing to them. I just told them to worship you and obey you. So, supposedly, God is confronting Jesus in the Quran and telling us that what the Christians believed was not things that taught by Jesus, but was a corruption of the true message of Jesus. There's one last question I want to ask about Islam before I go somewhere else, and that is this, Abdul. I have heard, and this seems so bizarre to me that I have to check it with you. I have heard that when people are asking questions about how do they, terrorists, recruit young men in the prime of their life to become human bombs, suicide pilots. And I was told that one of the incentives for that is that they are promised that through their martyrdom, not only will they go to heaven, but in heaven, they will enjoy incredible sexual pleasure with the provision of some 50 or 60 virgins to them. Yes.

Well, no, it is not a bizarre thing. There is, in fact, a promise in Islam that when you enter heaven, whether you are a martyr or not, of course, martyrs have a privileged position, but there are these creatures called huris, and these are these beautiful women, beautiful virgins. They are glorious. And I had a friend from Saudi Arabia many years ago I was witnessing to, I said, are these women going to be great? He said, they're not going to be great. They're going to be fantastic. So, there is this sense that once we go to heaven, there will be these fantastic creatures that will greet the men and their companions forever.

Now, let me also say this. There are many Muslims who try to interpret these passages in a spiritual way, but still, I should say, a good many Muslims also believe that these are literal virgins that will give them pleasures, you know, for eternity in heaven. I've heard that this is taught to children in elementary school. This is a part of the fabric of the Islamic portrait of paradise. The biblical idea that we will be worshipping God and bowing before him is completely absent from the picture of the Qur'an, picture that the Qur'an gives of paradise.

Paradise is a place filled with pleasures that Muslims could not have in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century. I see. All right. Well, let me ask you this as we come near the end of our program. Can you tell our people a little bit about your conversion to Christianity, Abdul? Yes, I left the Middle East, R.C., when I was still a teenager, and I went to a European country, and by divine providence, I enrolled in a Christian school. Again, as I said, my parents were not very, especially like my father, was not very devout, so they didn't mind putting me in a Christian school. And it was in that school that for the first time, I encountered the claims of Christ. I had never seen a Christian. I had never seen a Bible.

I had never set foot in a church in the Middle East while I was growing up. But when I went to this Christian school, I encountered the claims of Christ, and my first two reactions are, see, as a Muslim, one, Christians are crazy to believe such nonsense, and two, how can anybody claim such blasphemous things that Jesus is God incarnate and things of that nature? So, I was absolutely shocked that Christians believed that Jesus is God incarnate and that he had died for our sins and that they didn't believe in Muhammad or the superiority of Islam. I just believed, I thought everybody believed that Muhammad was the greatest prophet and Islam was the final religion. So, that kind of set me on a spiritual journey, R.C. I began to read the Quran very intensely. I began to study the Bible. I started going to church.

And what I wanted to do is to get to the bottom line. Both of these books, R.C., claim to be God's final revelation to humanity, and both of them contradict each other on fundamental points about who God is, who man is, what sin and salvation is, who Christ is. And so, they possibly, you know this better than obviously I do, the law of non-contradiction, that both of them cannot be right at the same time and in the same way, but both claim to be God's final word to humanity. And so, as I read the Quran and as I read the Bible, I was drawn to the beauty of Christ's character, to the emphasis on love and forgiveness that I encountered in the New Testament, and also the Old Testament prophecies and how they were fulfilled in the life of Christ. Whereas in the Quran, I encountered occasions that Muhammad had manipulated his own situation for his own benefit.

I encountered a great deal of violence and anger and hatred towards the enemies of Muslims. And it was the beauty of Christ's character and the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. These were the two factors that God used in my life to draw me to Christ. Well, how did you understand the gospel or how do you know? In the prophecies, R.C., when you encounter prophecy, whether it's in the Psalms or whether it's Isaiah, particularly was an important passage for me, but when it talks about the suffering servant dying for the sins of his people, you know, Isaiah 53, for example, Psalm 22, when I understood that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, when I understood that Jesus was more than just another prophet to tell us what the straight path is, that Jesus didn't come to give us moral teachings like the other prophets. Jesus came to do a surgery to take away this cancer in our hearts, which is sin.

Those were the things that convinced me. I mean, actually, to be honest with you, R.C., one day I woke up and Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 came to me about, you know, verse about the deity of Christ. And I later understood what Paul said when he said that God of this world has blinded the eyes of unbelievers so they can't see. I honestly could tell you I had this experience that my eyes were opened and I could see the truth about who Christ is, that he is more than a prophet. He is God incarnate, having died on the cross for our sins. And I accepted that free gift of salvation through him. We've seen that there is no atonement in Islam.

And that doesn't bother a lot of people in America. You know, when I say to people who say that we all believe the same thing, I said, no, we don't, because there's no atonement in Islam. And people look at me and they say, so what? And I say to them, what do you do with your guilt? If God is righteous and if God is holy and he is going to judge me at the end of my life, how am I going to survive that judgment if I'm a guilty person? This is the essence of the Christian faith, is the gospel that God has sent a substitute for us who takes our guilt and grants forgiveness and not only transfers our guilt to him, but his life of perfect obedience, his righteousness is given to us if we put our trust in him.

Boy, you talk about grace, Abdul. Here it is in an ultimate way that the way I can be reconciled to God, the way I can receive his forgiveness is by submitting to Christ. But again, many Americans think that, well, God's just going to forgive people, never mind the cost of that forgiveness, never mind the cross. People don't need to embrace Christ because God will just forgive them whether they reject his son or not. And that's exactly what Islam teaches, R.C., that you are saved by your good works.

There's a picture that in the final day there will be a scale. If your good works are heavier than your bad works, you're going to paradise. If your bad works are heavier than your good works, you are doomed to hell. And that kind of works-oriented righteousness and salvation. Well, haven't you found that same thing here in the United States?

That's exactly what I'm saying. In fact, that's why, R.C., Islam appeals to a great deal of the American culture in its theological orientation. Islam very much comes and says, you can just pull yourself up by your shoe straps. You know, you can be a moral person. You can clean up your act.

You can clean up your life. And Islam kind of says Christianity treats people as these helpless, hopeless sinners who need this crutch of Jesus' cross. Whereas Islam says, you know, be a man, be all you can be and just, you know, make yourself acceptable to God.

So, Islam very much promotes this attitude that also many Americans believe. And whereas Jesus teaches us that God has the inherent eternal right to impose obligations upon us, we owe God obedience. And every single time we violate him, every time we sin against him, we incur a moral debt.

Yes. And Jesus said, we are debtors who can never pay their debts. We can never do enough good works to outweigh our sins.

Yeah. And Muslims, I read a statement several years ago in a book that Imam of a mosque in Chicago had said to a Christian visitor, an African-American person, my people, my black people, they do not need Christianity because Christianity is a welfare religion. Jesus paid it all. We need to stand on our own strength and our own dignity and our own righteousness. Boy, I tell you, I'd hate to have to face God standing on the basis of my own righteousness. That's what David said. You know, the Lord said, mark inequities. Who could make it?

You know, who would be able to survive? Yes, there is, there is a very low view, R.C., of the holiness of God, his high standards of righteousness. And there is a dismal view of how sinful we are in the depth of our being.

Muslims just have a very inadequate view of the depth of our sinfulness and the height of God's holiness and righteousness. Well, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your giving the time and energy to help us understand so many of these things, Abdul. And as we reach the end of our program now, I've only one last request for you, and that is if you would close this program in prayer for us.

Thank you. Father, we thank you for this time that you're allowing us to have. I thank you, Father, for your word, which is the truth.

In these times that we are hearing a lot of lies, Father, we thank you that your word is the light onto our path. Father, I pray for the church. I pray for courage.

I pray for boldness. I pray for humility and I pray for love. I pray that Christians put away their fear and their prejudices and that they would openly embrace the Muslims who are in this country with the love of Christ.

They would openly and lovingly and with humility proclaim the gospel of grace and forgiveness to the Muslims who are in this country, Father. I pray that instead of anger, we would truly follow the example of Christ in the humility that He has taught His disciples. Father, I pray for the truth of your word and I pray that in these dark times and times of confusion in this country, we would truly confront the fact that all religions are not teaching the same thing, all paths do not lead to you, and that finally we need to be confronted with Christ and His claims that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father but through Him. Father, I pray that you would open minds and open eyes. In Jesus' name, Amen. What a powerful prayer. That is Abdul Salib, author, former Muslim, and now a Christian missionary to Muslims in America.

We're airing his interview with Dr. R.C. Sproul this week here on Renewing Your Mind, and we're glad you joined us today. Understanding the Islamic religion is a responsibility all of us as Christians have, and we should take it seriously. If we are to witness effectively to our Muslim neighbors and co-workers, we must do our part to study what they believe. We'd like to send you the five-part series we're airing this week featuring the full conversation between Dr. Sproul and Mr. Salib.

So request The Dark Side of Islam when you contact us with a donation of any amount to Ligetiir Ministries. Our number is 800-435-4343, or if you prefer, you can go online to give your gift at renewingyourmind.org. And before we go today, let me remind you that there are several ways to listen to Renewing Your Mind. When you go to our website, scroll down just a bit and you'll find a tab that says, Ways to Listen. You could subscribe to the podcast there, learn where to listen on the radio, and even have the program emailed to you on a daily basis. That website, again, is renewingyourmind.org, and we do appreciate you listening. And I hope you'll join us again tomorrow as Dr. Sproul continues his interview with Abdul Salib. Here's a preview.