{"id":56231,"date":"2020-06-23T09:01:22","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T14:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=56231"},"modified":"2020-06-23T09:01:22","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T14:01:22","slug":"56231","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=56231","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Let me explain&#8230;&#8230; No, there is too much. Let me sum up.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/reflectionsbyken.wordpress.com\/2020\/06\/23\/how-does-islam-differ-from-christianity\/\">How Does Islam Differ from Christianity?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewforum.org\/2015\/04\/02\/religious-projections-2010-2050\/\">According to Pew Research<\/a>, if current trends continue then by 2050 there will be nine billion people living on the planet.\u00a0Approximately three billion will be\u00a0Christians, three billion will be\u00a0Muslims, and three billion others will represent\u00a0various beliefs (both religious and secular).<\/p>\n<p>Since Christianity and Islam are the two largest (comprising about 55% of the world\u2019s population<sup>2<\/sup>) religions in the world people often wonder where they disagree and how significant the differences are. A brief look at six doctrinal contrasts will help address\u00a0this question.<\/p>\n<p>First, it is important to note that Islam shares\u00a0common ground with historic Christianity. For example, both religions are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>theistic in philosophical orientation<\/li>\n<li>monotheistic in doctrinal belief<\/li>\n<li>Middle Eastern in origin<\/li>\n<li>biblically oriented Abrahamic faiths (they connect\u00a0to the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, the differences between the two religions are profound. Since Islam emerged about six centuries after Christianity, we\u2019ll outline how Islam reacts to essential Christian truth claims. As you\u2019ll see, traditional Islam denies the essence of historic Christianity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Six Systematic Doctrinal Denials<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Islam denies the Trinity<\/strong>\u00a0(i.e., tri-unity: One God in three persons). Muslims instead affirm a form of unitarianism where Allah is a single, solitary being (<em>tawhid<\/em>) with no partners, equals, rivals, or companions. Allah is not begotten nor does he beget; therefore, he has no son.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Islam denies the incarnation<\/strong>\u00a0(i.e.,\u00a0Jesus Christ was God in human flesh: a single person with both a divine and human nature). In contrast, Muslims assert that Jesus was a mere human being. Yet Islam does concur that Jesus was virgin-born, performed miracles, and lived a sinless life.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Islam denies the crucifixion<\/strong>\u00a0(i.e.,\u00a0Jesus\u2019s atoning death on the cross). Muslims instead declare that Jesus either didn\u2019t actually die on the cross (though he may have been impaled) or that\u00a0someone else took Jesus\u2019s place on the cross. But either way, Islam is not a redemptive religion.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Islam denies the\u00a0<em>imago Dei<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0(i.e.,\u00a0human beings bear God\u2019s image).\u00a0In contrast, Muslims affirm that such an image would put creatures too close to Allah (the heresy known as \u201c<em>shirk<\/em>\u201d). Thus in Islamic theology,\u00a0human beings are not made in Allah\u2019s image.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Islam denies original sin<\/strong>\u00a0(i.e.,\u00a0that human beings are born with a sinful nature and a natural propensity to sin). Instead, Muslims assert that people are born morally good. So Islam rejects the Christian doctrine of the fall.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Islam denies salvation by grace\u00a0<\/strong>(i.e.,\u00a0that human beings are reconciled to God by God\u2019s unmerited favor apart from works). In contrast, Muslims proclaim that personal submission is required to earn paradise. So both paradise (reward)\u00a0and divine wrath (punishment)\u00a0are earned.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Both Can\u2019t Be True<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While we live in a time that prizes religious pluralism, nevertheless the laws of logic are stubborn things. Given these six systematic doctrinal denials it follows logically that if Islam is true, then Christianity is patently false and vice versa, for Islam denies the very essence of Christian doctrinal truth claims&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let me explain&#8230;&#8230; No, there is too much. Let me sum up. How Does Islam Differ from Christianity? According to Pew Research, if current trends continue then by 2050 there will be nine billion people living on the planet.\u00a0Approximately three billion will be\u00a0Christians, three billion will be\u00a0Muslims, and three billion others will represent\u00a0various beliefs (both &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=56231\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moslems-jihadis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56232,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56231\/revisions\/56232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}