Issue 12, Sep 2008
The Islam Faith differs greatly from the Christian Faith. Christians need to be informed and fortified in their faith to meet the challenge of Islam. In some respects Islam resembles the Jehovah Witnesses. It is as zealous, if not more zealous than the Jehovah Witnesses in propagating their Faith. In this issue we continue to contrast Islam and Christianity on the basic questions of life.

 

This month we consider:

 

 

The relationship of a Muslim to Allah is one of submission as a slave. Mohammad spoke of himself as a “slave” of Allah. The devout Muslim likewise delights in being a “slave” of Allah. The Muslim lives under the compassionate Allah, subject to the determinate will of Allah. There are daily prescribed ablutions and the prescribed prayers that must be done. There is the repeated reminder from the Qur’an that one must live so as to face the final judgment where the scales of justice must be tipped in one’s favor. While there is the relationship of a slave toward Allah, there is not the intimate relationship of a child with his father, since Allah is far above and transcendent of his creation. (To say that Allah is father would also imply that he has a wife and could bear a son.) Meaning in life for the Muslim is found in being a “slave” of Allah and belonging to Umma, or the Islamic community.

 

By God’s grace through faith in Jesus, I become a child of God and intimately know God as Father. I belong to the Father’s family. I am no longer alone. I belong. As a child of the Father, I pray with other members of the family, “Our Father…” In Jesus, the Messiah, God has revealed his heart of love. As a child of God I need not fear for I know God as my Father. I know the Father’s heart by knowing Jesus. In this is eternal certainty and eternal comfort in the midst of trial and temptation, trouble and tragedy, crisis and distress.

 

Because of Christ my life is not without meaning and significance. God, my Father, has a purpose for me. My life is not empty. I am created for God. I am redeemed from the past “futile ways” of this world by the precious blood of the Lamb (1 Pt 1:18). I find meaning in my life by living for him, who for my sake died and rose again (2 Cor 5:15). Even the smallest act of love, such as giving a cup of cold water to someone, has significance and is recognized as an act of worth by the Lord (Mt 10:42). My life of love and service is not coerced, or forced. It is freely offered in thanksgiving as a “living sacrifice” acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pt 2:5).

 

Now I walk through this life not in fear or uncertainty, not in apprehension of the final judgment, not in passive surrender, but in a living, dynamic faith – “The life I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).

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Rev. Rick Richter is the author of “The Qur’an and the Bible – A Comparison.” www.Churchpress.com.