Christianity and Islam: Jesus – Prophet, Messiah, and Lord (1)

This is the sixth blog in my series which began with  One Christian Looks at Islam Looking at Christianity; next was the two part  Christianity and Islam: Of Prophecy and the Prophet; then the two part  Christianity and Islam:  Conflict over True Christianity.     These blogs are my reaction to the claims of some Muslim missionary literature aimed at converting Christians to Islam.

According to the literature, Islam accepts Jesus as a major prophet on the authority of the Qur’an alone – not on the authority of the Torah or the Gospel.   This means that the information in the Qur’an cannot be measured by the Scriptures of Christians and Jews.   Therefore, ideas about Jesus or Moses or any of the Biblical prophets found in the Qur’an are said not to be reliant on or influenced by the teachings of Jews and Christians.   Islam claims the Qur’an is “a-historical” meaning it is a divine document without any human explanations added to it, unlike the Bible which Muslims claim contains errors since it shows signs of human intention in it – historical information, recording human events, offering human exegesis and explanations.  Such claims by Muslims free Islam from having to subject their teachings to historical, literary, archeological or scientific examination.   Personally I see this as a weakness.  For any religion which claims it upholds Truth, should have nothing to fear from such external examination.   Truth is truth.    God’s truth is true in this world, and should be able to be examined by human reason and investigation.   Science is not going to overthrow the Truth of God, but it might challenge overly rigid or literally readings of Scripture.  But the believer has nothing to fear from studies in history, linguistics, literature or science, unless some of the claims of religion are not literally true.

One convert to Islam from Christianity accused Christians  of seeing the Bible as an end in itself, whereas  he says it points to something else beyond the text.    He of course claimed it points to Muhammad.   Bibliolotry is not Christian for in Christianity we have God’s Word incarnate – Jesus.    God’s Word is living and personal and not just a book of printed pages and rules and regulations.    God’s Word is not a book but a person.   Christians certainly would agree that the Bible points to something beyond itself.   In the Gospels which the Qur’an does say contains the message of God,  Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”

I do not know how Muslims understand the Qur’an in heaven.   They see the Qur’an on earth as being an exact replica of that which exists in heaven (and thus they see the Qur’an as having been authored by God and not written by men inspired by God).   My question is:  what form does the Qur’an take in heaven?  Does it have some kind of existence, material or spiritual?  Can it be seen or read?    Did God actually write it down on something?   What does it mean that it exists in heaven?   This seems to me a point to be discussed for Christians certainly understand Jesus to be God’s eternal Word (see John 1).

Islam claims that it offers the correct understanding of Jesus.   “It is Muslims who are best adhering to the teachings of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him), and hence they rightly deserve to be called the ‘true followers of Jesus Christ.'”    According to the literature, Muslims believe in Jesus and believe in God’s revelation to Him, the Gospel.   Muslims believe in his supernatural conception without a human father, that he performed miracles like giving life to the dead.  Muslims believe in his 2nd coming.  Mary is greatly respected in Islam.   These are some ways that Islam shares with Christianity ideas about Jesus and why he should be honored by all people in the world.   Both religions claim it is important to know Jesus and to know who Jesus is.   This is the point upon which Christians and Muslims can debate, agree and disagree since they share some common ideas.   The issue of who best follows Jesus and understands Him is where more disagreement will be found, and yet it is something concrete that can be discussed.

The literature says that Jesus never claimed “I am God you must worship me”  or “I am co-equal and co-eternal with God”  or “you will enter heaven if you believe in my blood sacrifice.”   Here Islam follows a line of thinking that one can find in the early years of Christianity in Arianism, which Christianity considered for many years but then rejected as a false idea about Jesus and not consistent with the revelation recorded in the Scriptures.  (Unlike Islam, the Arians did accept the same Scriptures as the rest of Christianity and debated the received text.  Islam simply denies the validity of the received text and offers a different text as Scripture, which makes it acutely difficult for Christians and Muslims to discuss who Jesus is).   But there are a plenty of examples in the Christian Scriptures which uphold the claims of the Christians regarding the relationship of Jesus to God the Father.   A major difference however between Christianity and Islam is that Islam tends to read Scriptures with an absolute literalism, while the Christians have been willing to reflect beyond the literal words in gaining an insight into the meaning of the Bible.  Islam says Jesus never commanded His followers to worship Him, but Christianity would insist if you remain faithful to what the Scriptures witness to about Jesus, it becomes clear that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, imbued with the powers of God, which leads one to the conclusion that Jesus Himself expressed that He shares a unique oneness with God the Father.   In this way Christianity calls humanity to greater reflection on what God wills for humans, while Islam relies much more on simply submitting to God’s commandments.

Next:   Christianity and Islam:  Jesus – Prophet, Messiah, and Lord (2)