Characteristics in Christianity and Islam - Report Example

Religion and Theology, Research Proposal Characteristics in Christianity and Islam (Compare and Contrast) Introduction Currently, Christianity and Islam are the two largest religions in the world and have a few common points of contact i.e. they are both an inheritance from Judaism, a belief in one God who created the world for the sake of human beings and watching over their behavior. According to Muslims, Prophet Muhammad was aware of the existence of Christians and Jews, who he respected and considered as ‘People of the Book’; this was manly because of their monotheism and roots in the revealed Jewish Bible (Discovering Islam, 1). In the past 1,300 years since the life of Prophet Muhammad, the relationship between Christians and Muslims has infrequently been pleasant-sounding; as it spread, the Muslim Empire hastily overtook much of the Judeo-Christian Holy Land along with the Christian Byzantine Empire. Through the 11th to 13th centuries, crusades by Christians were mostly against Islam, which in result widened the gap between the two faiths with the ‘New Rome’ and the centre of Eastern Orthodox Christianity falling to the Turks in the 13th century and since then they have been under the Islamic rule. Concurrently, this made a grave contribution to the growing mutual distrust between Christians and Muslims today; however, some people think that the disagreement lies more on the sides of political tensions and the diverse cultural worldviews than it does on religion (Slick 1). Significantly, over the years, the issue has attracted a lot of attention with both Christians and Muslims making a lot of effort in trying to find a common ground and engage in respectful dialogue after putting aside their dire history. Nonetheless, there are also similarities between the two largest religions of the world comparing significant factors such as the origins, beliefs and practices of both Christianity and Islam. Beliefs (Christianity and Islam) Both Christians and Muslims believe in life after death; Christians follow the Bible that claims they will be with the Lord in heaven with their resurrected bodies while non – Christians will be burn in hell for eternity. In the case of Muslims, they believe that the faithful will have an ideal life of paradise after death and those that are not will spend the rest of their life in hell. Christians believe that angels are part of God’s creation, very powerful and carry out God’s will though some of them (Satan) fell into sin and became evil; as for the Muslims, they believe that they were created without free will and from light to serve God (Christian Answers 1). Additionally, Christians clearly recognize the sacrifice of Christ on the cross to save them from the wrath of God for being sinners; on the contrary, there is no atonement work in Islam other than confessing of sin and the sinner repenting. Significantly, Christians perceive the Bible as the inspired and inerrant word of God while to the Muslims the Koran is the respected word of the prophets; however, according to them, there has been corruption of the Bible through the centuries and it is only acceptable as far as it is in agreement with their Koran. The Islam community does not believe in the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross instead, they claim that God allowed Judas to look like Jesus and they crucified him instead. According to Christians, the devil is a fallen Angel who opposes God in all ways possible seeking to destroy humanity; nonetheless, according to the Muslims, Iblis (the devil) is a fallen jinn – created being from fire with a free will (Christian Answers 1). The Muslims know their God as Allah, who is one person (strict unity) with no other God in existence, created the universe and sovereign over all but the Christians believe that God is a trinity of persons (Father, Son and Holy spirit) and there is no other God in existence. Heaven is a place where God dwells, more of an eventual home for Christians saved by God’s grace and in the end, they will all enjoy eternal fellowship there; Muslims call it paradise and believe it is a place of imaginable bliss with a garden with trees and food, and where the desires of the faithful are met. Both religions believe in hell, as a place of eternal torment in fire and out of the presence of God/ Allah, and only for the people whose works and faith were not sufficient. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the trinity to Christians and is fully God in nature, but to Muslims, the Holy Spirit is the archangel who delivered the words of the Koran to Muhammad. Jesus is before the Holy Spirit in the trinity, being both God and man, and the is considered to be the word who became flesh; the Muslims also believe in Jesus but in a different way- as great prophet second to Muhammad but He was not the son of God and neither was He divine (Religion of Peace 1). Christianity and Islam believe in judgment day that is to occur on the day of resurrection, everyone will be judged and people of both religion(s) going to heaven/ paradise and the rest going to hell. Muslims do not agree with Christians on the notion that God made man in His own image; however, they both agree that God/ Allah made man from dust after which he breathed life into him. Significantly, both religions believe in bodily resurrection of people, after which some will go to heaven and others to hell. Christians believe that salvation is a gift of God to those people that trust in Christ, and His sacrifice on the cross, and he is their mediator; however, Muslims argue that forgiveness of sins is obtained by Allah’s grace without any mediator. Views (Muslims’ View of Christianity and Christians’ View of Islam) Muslims regard the ‘real’ Bible as a holy scripture though they believe that today the Bible has been corrupted in many ways; however, they do not necessarily mean that it is completely false because it still has some traces of truth and hence still accept it but only to the extent that it does not contradict with their Koran. Additionally, the Muslims believe that Christianity was not founded by Jesus but rather by Paul and the Romans in the Council of Nicea, who were inspired by Satan; church leaders from around the world are said to have debated and decided on what to be included in the Bible. Christians view Muhammad as non-inspired man born in 570 in Mecca claimed to have started the Islamic religion; however, they do not believe that Jesus was second to Muhammad because according to the Bible Jesus was second to God (Brantley 1). Moreover, Christians view the Koran as the work of Muhammad that was not inspired and so it is not a scripture; additionally, there is no verification for its accurate transmission (Christian Answers 1). Most Christians persist on the idea that Muslims do not worship God of Christianity since the Islam requires Muslims to worship only God (the God of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammad) who created the world. Muslims, on the other hand, are against Christians who believe that Trinity is the basis of Christianity arguing that if it were so important Jesus would have clearly spoken about it. Christians do not consider Islam to be a true religion in a number of aspects; hence Muslims justify their religion through the Koran that states it as a religion of ‘Fitra’ –meaning “the inborn nature of everything created by God” (Brantley 1). This is actually very sensible since it is accepted for a person to reverence their maker, who typically created the whole universe and does everything He can to sustain the balance and life in the universe. Extensively, Muslims proceed to state that God sent prophets such as Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, to act as mediators which would result to a good relationship between human beings and God; where they would adhere to God’s religion which is basically about the beliefs and practices that are good for the life on Earth and after death, create a sense of peace between humans etc. Christians consider the barrier that prevents Muslim from knowing Christ to be 10 percent theological and 90 percent cultural; where the Muslims believe that they have to fit into a larger group in order to feel secure and that they are ‘home’. A community where there is incredible security and safety in the sense that even if they loose their job, the ‘community will give assistance until a new job is found (Compare Anything 1). Considerably, when Muslims are confronted with the claims of Christ, they are definitely aware that the greater part of it is true but the thing that worries them most is leaving their community; so they prefer running away from the truth. The best solution is for the Muslims to start with finding a ‘community’ of Christians that they can belong to; in the sense that this community has a significant number of characteristics that the Muslims appreciate (Discovering Islam, 1). Once they have identified the ‘community’ of Christians the next step would be joining it; however, the biggest challenge is that in most Muslim areas, there are no acceptable Christian communities hence making this harder. Today, Muslims view Christianity as a product of corruption by man, which is mostly motivated by personal and political reasons inspired by Satan whose primary objective is to persuade people to go against God and stray away from his religion (Kreeft 1). In fact, Satan is aware that most human beings deviate when it comes to following him and so all he aims for, is making people follow him indirectly by inspiring people to corrupt the Bible and create today’s Christianity. Conclusion Currently, the situation that Christianity and Islam is in has been greatly determined and dominated by two unsettling factors; one being that dialogue is almost nonexistent where Islam resist ecumenical dialogue more than any other religion- trying to entice them into any other religion in any of their Moslem countries is just like buying a ticket to prison. The other factor is that Islam in the early Middle Ages nearly conquered the world when they started to settle in Spain then to Indonesia, and there is a slight possibility that it could attempt to do also again since there a high numbers of Muslims in the continent, Africa and surprising in America too. Basically, Islam has the world’s lowest rate of being converted but one of the world’s highest rates of converting; while Christianity on the other hand is on a mission of convincing Muslims that their religion is not true and they should shift to Christianity. Works Cited Discovering Islam. Islam Vs Christianity: Quick Overview of Similarities and Differences between Islam and Christianity. August 30, 2013. Web, September 28, 2013. < http://www.discoveringislam.org/islam_vs_christianity.htm > Religion of Peace. A Side by Side Comparison of Jesus and Muhammad: Christianity and Islam. 2013. Web, September 28, 2013. < http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Pages/Jesus-Muhammad.htm > Christian Answers. What is Islam; An Overview for Christians. 2013. Web, September 28, 2013. < http://christiananswers.net/islam.html > Brantley, Garry. A Christian Approach to Islam: Apologetics Press. 1996. Web, September 28, 2013. < http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=8&article=254 > Slick, Matt. Comparison Grid between Christianity and Islam Doctrine: Christian Apologetic and Research Ministry. 2013. Web, September 28, 2013. < http://carm.org/religious-movements/islam/comparison-grid-between-christianity-and-islamic-doctrine > Kreeft, Peter. Comparing Christianity and Islam: Fundamentals of Faith/ Ignatius Press. 2013. Web, September 28, 2013. < http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics-more/religions_islam.htm > Religion Facts. Comparison Chart: Christianity and Islam. 2013. Web, September 28, 2013. < http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/charts/christianity_islam.htm > Compare Anything. Difference and Comparison: Christianity and Islam/ Religion. 2011. Web, September 28, 2013. < http://www.diffen.com/difference/Christianity_vs_Islam > Read More