Abraham and Islam

Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. Through him there would come a blessing to all of the world.

And will that come true? Yes, we're told in the latter part of the New Testament that one day people representing every tribe, tongue and people group, every nation, they will stand as it were and give glory to this lamb who sits upon the throne and will dedicate to him all glory and honor and power and blessing. Jesus Christ, God, descending in the flesh.

Welcome to this broadcast of Wisdom for the Hearts with our daily Bible teacher, Steven Davie. Everyone who has ever been saved was saved by faith in Jesus Christ. We're currently in a series looking at a man of great faith, a man named Abraham. We call him Father Abraham because in many ways he is the father of the Christian faith. His faith was in the coming Messiah. Now, there's another group that also considers Abraham as the father of their faith, the followers of Islam. We're looking at that connection today in a lesson called Abraham and Islam.

Here's Steven with this important lesson from God's Word. In the sixth century, 570 AD, to be exact, a little boy was born in Mecca. Even though he was distantly related to the royal family at Hashim, the particular branch of his family was fairly impoverished. The newborn boy was named Muhammad.

After both of his parents died in his early years, he was shuttled around from family member to family member until finally a poor uncle took him in and raised him. According to Muhammad's biographers, he was a normal Arab boy that enjoyed talking with the travelers who came by in the caravans and exploring desert caves. The only thing that was slightly unusual about his childhood was that he claimed to have angelic visitations. At the age of 40, Muhammad claimed to once again be visited, this time by the angel Gabriel. He would claim from that experience that he had been chosen by Allah as the next prophet and apostle. Those choice of words, by the way, were very unique, prophet and apostle.

One author pointed out that there wasn't any tradition of prophets or apostles in Arabian religion in the Middle East where he was raised. The term prophet was more likely used within his clans in hopes of courting the Jewish people that he was in fact their next prophet, and the term apostle was more than likely used in hopes of persuading Christians to follow him as well. Muhammad claimed that Gabriel had visited him and placed upon him the prophetic mantle, inspiring him with God's newest form of revelation, which is summarized and recorded in the two holy books they refer to as the Quran and the Hadith. At first, Muhammad in his ministry preached to the Jewish people that he was God's newest prophet in the line of Abraham and Jesus. It's interesting to note that when Muhammad began his rise as a tribal leader and a self-proclaimed prophet that he adopted many Jewish customs. He adopted the Jewish dietary laws and the Jewish Saturday Sabbath. He prayed toward Jerusalem.

In addition to this and most interesting is that he praised the Old Testament scriptures and the New Testament scriptures, which by then had been canonized for several centuries, and he referred to the Jews in the Quran as, quote, the people of the book, end quote. According to historians, Muslim and otherwise, and the actions that happened next, it became obvious that the Jewish merchants were not going to become as disciples and follow him. He would not gain the power he wanted in Mecca and Medina. He decided to drop all observances of Jewish rituals. He changed the direction of prayer from Jerusalem to Mecca. He dropped the dietary laws, many of them. He dropped the Saturday Sabbath in favor of a Friday Sabbath, and he adopted many of the religious rites and ceremonies within Arabian paganism with which he had been raised. Ultimately, he began to war against the Jews.

He began to fight them, pillaging their villages and plundering their homes. There are secular texts that you could read like the Encyclopedia Britannic, if you care to. I actually use it after spending all that money.

It's good to use it for something. I read along with Western historians and even Muslim scholars themselves attest to the fact that Muhammad gained his power and his wealth and his prestige by plundering and killing Jews. As Muhammad's power and his leadership grew in Mecca and Medina, so did his religious views. They began to expand further, views that were nothing more than a combination of Jewish tradition and the Bible stories in the Bible, along with the well-known worship of the Arabian moon god, Shin, who was considered by the Arabs to be the chief deity among all of the deities.

Some 360 were worshiped during Muhammad's day. Well, according to numerous inscriptions discovered in North and South Arabia dating back to the time of Muhammad and centuries earlier, the Arab name for the moon god, Shin, had a title and his title was Al-Ilah, which simply meant he was the greatest deity of all. Before Muhammad was even born, the name or title of this moon god who had come to be known by his title was given to little boys, Ilah, shortened to Allah. Arabs, years before Muhammad's birth, named their children Allah in honor of their most powerful deity, the moon god.

Allah worship was in ancient Middle Eastern days right along with other astral worships like Baal, condemned in the Old Testament because it involved the worshiping of some heavenly being that they personified or gave or attributed, I should say, divine quality and worshiped it as if it were a god. What Muhammad did that is very interesting in the seventh century during his lifetime was that he began a unique kind of teaching. With his fellow Arabs, what he began to teach was that Allah was not one of many gods but that Allah was the only god. This unique form of monotheism, especially within his own people, was unique and to the unbelieving Arab they could still hold to Allah, the moon god, and their ceremonies and rites.

To the Jews and to the Christians, he would teach them that he was a monotheist, that he was the worshiper of the one true god and they could follow him as well. It's interesting that the symbol of this worship was in his day the crescent moon, the sliver of the moon that is barely visible to the human eye during this particular phase of the moon. And it isn't any surprise then the symbol of Islam is the crescent moon. The crescent moon sits on top of their mosques.

The crescent moon is on the flags of Islamic nations. I say all of that to say at the outset of our study today you need to know that Allah is not Elohim. It is a different god entirely. Just as the angel came to Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, and supposedly gave him new revelation and placed upon him the mantle of the newest prophet in the line of Abraham and Jesus. So also an angel came to Mohammed and delivered to him new revelation and the honor of being again the latest prophet of God.

I want you to know personally I don't doubt that angelic beings visited these men. These men who would create religions that would lead millions of people away from belief in the deity of Jesus Christ. All I can do is give to you the same warning that Paul gave the Galatians. He wrote to them, but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed. As we have said before, Paul writes, so I say again now, if any man is delivering to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed. Galatians 1, 8-9. Well how attractive in our world is Islam today?

How compelling is it? Islam is the second largest religion today in the world. In England, there are more practicing Muslims than there are evangelical Christians. Funded by their vast resources, the Muslims are buying abandoned Anglican churches and converting them into mosques at such a rate that there are those outside of the Muslim belief system that believe England will be the first European Islamic or Muslim country.

And I don't doubt it. I read recently that the legal situation has reached the point where the English Parliament was recently forced to rule that Muslims do not have to follow English common law when it comes to divorce. They can follow Islamic law instead.

What about in America in our own culture? A mosque or a worship center is completed at the rate of one every seven days. There are more Muslims in America now than Episcopalians, that entire denomination.

Already there are five hundred Islamic centers in the United States like the one in Washington D.C. where it opens its doors daily to curious people who come in and who are graciously and kindly taught the art and philosophy and culture of Islam. What exactly is Islam? You need to understand that the word Islam originally denoted heroism, the willingness to die in battle.

And over the centuries that word slowly developed into meaning surrender or simply submission. And by the way, technically speaking, Islam does not claim to be a new religion formulated by Muhammad, but rather a continuation of all the decrees that God gave in his revelation through his prophets. Among those prophets of course are Muhammad and Jesus. Now perhaps you're thinking at this point, what does this have to do with the Romans?

You're probably thinking that, aren't you? Well, one reason. Islam believes that the very first Muslim was none other than Abraham. And Islam looks to Abraham as their spiritual father.

Why? Because Abraham surrendered to God. That is Islam. He submitted to the will of God.

In fact, the Arabic noun form of the verb to surrender is Islam. And Abraham surrendered to the will of God thus becoming, as it were, the first Muslim. In addition to that, given the fact that Muslims impact and intersect with the Western world every day, it is impossible, I believe, to teach the book of Romans and especially chapter four, which delivers to us the life of Abraham without exposing the other religions and delivering to you what they teach about Abraham, for they believe he is their man of faith as well. Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus, who were young pastors developing their churches. He said to them to reprove them severely that they, your audience, may not pay attention to myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth, men who profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed, Titus 1, 13 to 16. Several times Paul wrote to warn the believers of false teachers and false teaching.

In fact, entire letters of the New Testament were given to simply expose and challenge the common false teaching of their day, those who would ultimately deny the grace of God and ultimately deny the deity of Jesus Christ. Just how important is Abraham today? You need to know that Jews and Muslims and Christians all claim that Abraham is in a way their founder, so to speak, that Abraham is their spiritual father. The Muslims believe they are related to Abraham by virtue of Ishmael.

They believe that Ishmael was offered by Abraham on the altar instead of Isaac and that God rescued Ishmael. Yasser Arafat's own liaison for religious dialogue has emphatically stated that Abraham belongs only to the Muslim. The Jews, on the other hand, believe that Abraham belongs to them, exclusively to them as the keeper of the covenant. Christians are taught in the New Testament that we are sons and daughters of Abraham. Paul declared it in Romans 4-11, Abraham is the father of those who believe, who's right.

All three could be wrong, but all three cannot be right. Today I want to deal with the issue from the Islamic claim to Abraham. I found it interesting that Muhammad, dozens of times in the Quran, told his followers to check out his teaching against the Old and New Testament scriptures, which had been canonized for centuries by the time he arrived, to check out his teaching with a word that the Jews held and compare it to see if he was, in fact, contradicting it. If they had done so, if they had evaluated the two inspired works of Islam, the Hadith and the Quran, which he claimed they should, Islam would have never gotten off the dime.

But instead it today is the second largest religion in the world. Muhammad had a mixed sense of the stories of the Bible. He would often retell them, putting them in the mouths of other people. For instance, he taught the flood occurred during the days of Moses.

The Bible clearly teaches it was during the days of Noah. He taught that Nimrod threw Abraham into the fiery furnace instead of the three friends of Daniel and that Abraham survived unharmed by the flames, even though we know Nimrod lived centuries before Abraham lived. He taught that Moses' sister Miriam was the mother of Jesus instead of Mary. He taught that Jesus was not crucified, but that God placed upon Judas the likeness of Jesus and he mistakenly crucified Judas and he rescued Jesus by taking his good prophet up to heaven. Obviously that last part is not only a distortion of scripture, but it in effect or effectively eradicates the gospel. It erases the gospel and the redemption of faith in the sacrificial atoning death and crosswork of Jesus Christ so that he didn't die, he wasn't buried and he didn't literally rise from the dead.

Ladies and gentlemen, you need to understand that Islam is not just another word for worship of God, it is a different God. I think it's ironic as Paul begins teaching in Romans 4 and verse 3, he says, what do the scriptures teach? He's about to lay out the truth of Abraham and he says, what does the Bible say? What do the scriptures teach? The Jews hold to the scriptures. The Muslims supposedly hold to the scriptures. And so do the Christians.

Well, what do they teach? Well, let's go back and see, first of all, let me point out the revelation of God to Abraham. With your Bibles, look at Romans chapter 4, verse 19, without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about 100 years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb. This is related, of course, to the promise of God that Sarah would conceive by him. Verse 20, yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief.

Now, wait a second. What exactly was the promise? We need to understand that. Paul clarifies for us what the promise was. If you turn right for a couple of books, you'll get the Galatians and look at Galatians chapter 3, verse 16. Galatians 3, 16 delivers this stunning announcement to the Jewish people of Paul's day and to the Muslim people of our day as he writes these interesting words, rather startling words. Now, he writes, the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say and to seeds, referring to many people, but rather to one and to your seed. Well, who is the seed? Without looking further, is it Isaac?

Is that the promise? The Jews would say yes. Is it Ishmael?

And those that would come from him, the Arabs, the Islamic faith would say yes. He says very clearly in the scriptures and to your seed, that is Christ. Here is the promise to Abraham. From you Abraham will come a descendant.

This is the seed. It is Jesus Christ. In other words, the Messiah Abraham will descend, will be a part of your lineage. If you look earlier in chapter 3 and verse 7, he clarifies it even more. Therefore be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, all the nations will be blessed in you. So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. Did the promise come true? The seed came, didn't it? The Redeemer was born. Through him, there would come a blessing to all of the world. And will that come true?

Yes. We're told in the latter part of the New Testament that one day people representing every tribe, tongue and people group, every nation, they will stand as it were and give glory to this land who sits upon the throne and will dedicate to him all glory and honor and power and blessing. This one who came, this promised seed, Jesus Christ, God, the Son, descending deity in the flesh. That's the promise of God to Abraham. Now I want you to notice back in Romans, the response of Abraham to God.

It says in the latter part of verse 20 that he responded two ways. He grew strong in faith and giving glory to God. He grew strong in faith.

What does that mean? Well, let me give you quickly, there are three kinds of biblical faith. There's decisive faith. That is saving faith.

We could call it that. That's the faith you exercise in this gospel plan, this redeemer, Jesus Christ. That is a once for all act, that transaction where you say, yes, I want that. Please, Lord, give that gift of eternal life to me and forgiveness and all the rest. You become at that moment a child of God. Second of all, there's doctrinal faith. This is our body of truth.

This is systematic truth we call doctrine. Then thirdly, there's daily faith. This has to do with the daily reliance upon the Lord for the events of the day.

Faith in the promise of God and that you grow in. Paul also tells us in this text that Abraham not only grew in his faith, but he gave glory to God. He was giving glory.

The Greek word is doxa. He was, as it were, singing his praise to the glory and honor of God. But you need to understand as well that he is actually praising God in advance because the promise hadn't come true. It wouldn't come true for generations. But he was thanking God in advance for what God promised to do.

He thanked God in advance for the promise. Well, let me try to wrap it up here. What is the response of the Christian or the believer to Islam? Let me give you three words. Number one is the word respect. Like any religion we encounter, there should be respect for the person involved.

There should be care given, compassion, patience to listen. Muslims are not our enemy. They may view us as their enemy, but the word of God does not tell us they are our enemy. They are our mission. So if you happen to live near a Muslim, a practicing Muslim, maybe you work next to one, God has placed you there as part of the mission and reaching them with the gospel. But it's time for you to start reading up, right? So that you can answer their questions. But treat them with respect as Jesus Christ would.

The next key word is recognition. While you respect them as individuals, even though you disagree with them, at the same time you have to recognize and you need to help them recognize that Allah is not Jehovah. Allah is not Elohim.

Even though the religion of Islam worships only one God and for that they are to be commended. That God is not the one true living God who introduced himself to us in this book in the first chapter with the name Elohim. The Jesus of the Quran is not the Jesus of the Bible. According to the Quran as taught by Mohammed, Jesus was not the son of God. Jesus did not die on the cross. Jesus did not rise from the dead. Jesus was not divine, but only a man.

He was just a prophet and Jesus Christ did not then come from heaven to save the lost. Respect, but recognition. And finally, and most importantly, here's the word that I think is most important.

It is the word rededication. When you discover the passion and zeal of a Muslim for his religion and his God, it ought to so challenge your own faith and commitment to the God of Abraham that we know by the name Jesus Christ, living Lord. Examine your own commitment to your walk with Christ. For instance, no matter where they are five times a day, they'll stop and pray. How many times a day do you pray? How often do you throughout your day give glory, verbalized glory to your God? Missionaries to Muslims in Africa have given me a prayer mat, a Muslim prayer mat, and there have been times when I've rolled it out on my study floor and knelt on it to pray to Yahweh, conscious of the fact that this would be used by millions of people to pray to Allah and so convicted that I do not pray, as I ought to to the one true and living God.

How about you? Fasting is also a part of their religious observance. When have you ever skipped a meal in order to pray and to focus and to meditate upon the demands and commands and grace of God? Another aspect that came to my mind was dress guidelines. Compare the women in our Christian world with Muslim women who don't dare show their flesh. And I wonder if the Christians of the 21st century have progressed or digressed.

I fear we have digressed. And I am embarrassed often by the way the women in the family of God dress. Muslims have a great passion for the reputation of Allah. Everywhere they go, they greet each other publicly by saying Allah is great or God is great.

Would you ever dare in your community, at your school, in the hallway, in the classroom, meet another believer in the first word, say Jesus Christ is great. But they are so passionate about their God that they begin conversation with saying hey, isn't our God great? With passion they chant their songs to Allah. How did we just sing to our God? Was it passionate? Was it filled with energy and love?

Or did we mouth the words to our God apathetically? In closing let me say in spite of their zeal and passion here is a worldwide religion that gives its followers no assurance of heaven. None. None.

Read their writings. Only the martyr, the one who dies in some holy jihad. Only that one is guaranteed paradise.

And then what are they guaranteed? And what is paradise? Paradise is a never emptied bottle of wine and a room full of women. How tragic. Surely the great prophet Muhammad was certain of paradise.

No. You can read it in the Quran where he said although I am an apostle of Allah, I do not know what Allah will do to me. What did it do to Abraham? What did the promise do to him?

Let's look back quickly and just look at verse 21. And being fully assured that what he had promised he was able to perform. Assurance.

Confidence. I don't lie my head on a pillow at night and wonder oh God let me into heaven. Dear friends, Abraham does not belong to the Muslim. He does not belong to the Jew. He does not belong to some Protestant denomination either. He belongs to those as the Scriptures teach us who have placed their faith in the promise seed. This one we know as Jesus Christ. Lady handed this to me.

I want to end with it. It's a quote from John Ashcroft who is a believer. It was written by Cal Thomas, another believer who is in the world of journalism. He wrote this, Islam is a religion in which you send your son to die for God. Christianity is a faith in which God sent his son to die for you. I think that says it all.

You've been listening to Stephen Davey here on Wisdom for the Heart. And today's message is called Abraham and Islam. We believe that the truth of this lesson is very important. We've taken the text of this sermon and put it into a booklet that can be easily read and shared. The book is called Abraham and Islam. All you'll pay is the shipping on this resource if you call us or go online today. You can call us at 866-48-Bible. That's 866-482-4253. You can also get this offer on our website. Go to wisdomonline.org and in our online store type Abraham and Islam in the search bar and you'll find this booklet there. It'll be available online for free until midnight tonight.

You'll just pay shipping. We hope this is a blessing to you. In addition to being the pastor of the Shepherd's Church, Stephen is also the president of Shepherd's Theological Seminary. STS is a fully accredited graduate school that trains pastors and church leaders for a lifetime of service. There's even a one-year master's program in biblical studies.

Many college graduates have done that program before entering into the workforce or pursuing other advanced degrees. If any of this interests you or someone you know, we have a link to the school at the bottom of our homepage. On Monday, Stephen will conclude this series, so join us for that here on Wisdom for the Heart. Thank you.