A Christian Apologetic to the Muslim

by

Scott Burnell

Liberty University

Philosophy 104

Kenneth Hood

April 15, 2009

Scott Burnell

Kenneth Hood

Philosophy 104
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Burnell

April 15, 2009

A Christian Apologetic to the Muslim

For this paper, I would like to try to persuade a Muslim, someone of the Islamic faith,

using Christian Apologetics. “Apologetics” is a sometimes misunderstood word. Many people

mistook it to mean to apologize. “The word is not derived from the English word “apology”, but

from the Greek word “apologia”, which is a word referring to “making a defense”[Cherian,

1985]. Therefore that is what I will try to do. Defend Christianity.

Islam is perhaps one of the youngest of the religions in comparison to the other major

religions. The term “islam” means “submission” to the will of God, and the person who submits

is called a “Muslim”[Halverson, 2004]. The Islamic faith is the second largest next to

Christianity. To put this in perspective, there are roughly 5.7 billion people in the world. Of

those, 1.7 billion is Muslim, one-fifth of humankind. Spread over 44 countries and growing at a

rate faster than the total world population[Lunde, 2002]. There are two major sects of Islam,

Sunni and Shi’ite. A major difference

Between the two sects is the Sunnis believe there should be a separation between

civil and religious authorities, whereas the Shi’ites maintain that the religious

authorities should also exercise political power[Halverson, 2004].

There are several misconceptions that Westerners have about the Islamic religion. When you ask

most Westerners about Muslims they will probably say, they are mostly from the Middle East.

They own gas stations, and produce most of the world’s oil. They may also use a few choice

ethnically racial slurs. This may be because of the events that happened on September 11, 2001.

The fact is, no more than 20% of Muslims fit this category[Halverson, 2004].

The Islamic religion started in 610 AD when a prophet named Muhammad ibn ‘Abd

Allah. Born around 570 AD and died in 632 AD, Received the first of many revelations from the
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archangel Gabriel. These revelations were than transcribed into what is known as the

Qur’an[Lunde, 2002]. I would like to note the Islamic religion recognizes four high ranking

prophets.

Four of the high-ranking prophets were given books of divine revelation. Those

four are Moses, who was given Tawrat (Torah), David, who was given the Zabur

(Psalms), Jesus, who was given the Injil (Gospel), and Muhammad, who was

given the Qur’an . . . [Halverson, 2004].

I would like to also note that Muslims don’t recognize Jesus as the son of God, born of the

Virgin Mary. They just recognize him as one of the prophets. They also do not believe in the

Triune. To the Muslims the Trinity is God the Father, God the Mother (Mary) and God the Son

(Jesus). Not the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as Christianity believe[Halverson, 2004]. In Islam,

there are five basic principles of faith called Pillars. Those Pillars are, The Profession of faith

called [Shahada] this is where you announce your faith to Allah, Prayer [Salat] this is done daily

five times, Alms [Zakat] this is similar to tidings, Fasting [Sawm] this is done during the lunar

month of Ramadan. This is also similar to the fasting practiced in Catholicism, and the last Pillar

is the Pilgrimage [Hajj] to Mecca, usually done once in a lifetime[Lunde, 2002]. One last thing I

would like to mention was Muhammed was not unlike the Mormon leaders Joseph Smith and

Brigham Young, who took the parts of the Bible they wanted and discarded or changed parts of it

to suit their needs. A type of “medieval Mormonism”[Caner, 2005].

Next I would like to address the different beliefs of Islam in comparison to that of

Christianity and try to state an apologetic, with scripture from the Bible to support the

Christianity belief. The first issue I would like to address is the Islam’s concept of salvation and

sin. According to Islam, man has no original sin and salvation is only in Allah’s hands. Muslims

believe that to achieve salvation, good deeds must outweigh the bad[Caner, 2005]. This right
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here scares me. My response to this would be that Man was originally created perfect but, the

sins of Adam meant that everyone after Adam was born into sin, or inherited sin. This is the

reason God allowed his son Jesus to be crucified on the cross. To wipe away mans sin. I would

reassure my Muslim friend that God wants a loving relationship with all of his children. You

might also assure him that as long as you are willing to accept Jesus Christ as your savior you

will be saved. Some scripture that I would show my Muslim friend would be. For proving mans’

sin (The King James Study Bible, Rom. 5.12), for salvation (Rom. 10.13), to assure salvation

(John.10.28). I would also point out the fact that according to the Bible, and I will quote this

verse because it is a very powerful verse. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only

begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”

(John. 3.16). This verse proves that Jesus was the Son of God but, our Muslim friend may still

have doubts. Here you could point out that Jesus Christ died for all of our sins on the cross, and

was then resurrected according to the Bible. There is also an apologetic in the Bible by Paul the

Apostle to defend this, see (1 Corinthians 15. 12-20). I would like to elaborate a little further on

the resurrection of Jesus Christ. One, it was prophesied in (Psalm. 16.10 and 1 Cor. 15.4).

I would like to tell a story about Stephen. He was one of the first seven Christian

deacons, chosen to aid “The Twelve”. He was falsely accused of blasphemy.

Tried by the court and then stoned to death outside the city. The men, who took part in his

stoning, laid their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. This was done to keep their

robes from being splattered with Stephens’s blood. As Stephen was being stoned he prayed to

God to forgive the men doing the acts. Including Saul the Pharisee, who, after his later

conversion, became known as the apostle Paul, and went on to become one the greatest

Christians that ever lived, a man who wrote a large part of the New Testament - until he too was

martyred for preaching the very same Truth for which he had Stephen martyred. The reason I tell
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this story is to show that if you are willing to accept Jesus Christ as your savior, as Saul did, God

forgives, unlike Allah. God loves all. The other reason is to point out the irony. Saul later to

become Paul who martyred Stephen, also later became martyred himself for the same thing as

Stephen, for preaching the word of God. The reason I mention this is because this still goes on to

this day. This is done more by the extremist groups than any other. The fact that it still happens

is reason enough to mention it. In Islam Allah is feared in a different way than our God is in

Christianity. To put it simply, it means having a healthy respect for God and what He is to us.

The same way a son would fear displeasing his father but not being scared of him because he

knows that his father loves him. One verse that comes to mind would be (1 John. 4.8). In Islam,

it is more of a fear of what Allah will do to you when your day of judgment comes.

Another belief in Islam that I believe has several holes is in the fact that according to Islam

Jesus was just a man. Well, according to (John. 10.36). “Say ye of him, whom the Father hath

sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God”?

For more scripture to support this, I would refer to (John 1. 1-4). I would also like to quote a

Verse that I think would be the showstopper to our Muslim friend. “Jesus saith unto him, I am

the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14.6).

By now our Muslim friend should be ready to accept Jesus Christ as his savior. To sum it

all up. Yes Jesus did die on the cross. There is something that I would like to share directly from

a good book I came across titled (500 Questions and Answers from the Bible) the book states.

If Jesus were merely human, a good man would have died-and that would be the

end of His story, and ours. If Jesus were only divine, we would not have seen and

heard Him or known firsthand about God’s love. But, fully human and fully

divine, Jesus told us about God and then satisfied God’s own requirement. He was
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the sinless Son standing in the place of sinful people satisfying the perfect justice

of a holy God . . . [Mark Fackler, 2006].

One last thing I would like to note. Through the Holy Spirit, God revealed His plan to certain

people whom then put his message into the texts which we call the Old and New Testaments.

They are “God Breathed” and meant for all. The Bible is completely trustworthy because God is

the author[Mark Fackler, 2006].

See fig 1 for final thoughts.

Fig. 1. [Unkown, Unkown]

Works Cited

Caner, Ergun Mehmet. When Worldviews Collide. Nashville: LifeWay Press, 2005.
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