What is the difference between Christianity and Islam?
Pete Jackson
21st July 2004

From the Tough Question series "What About Other Religions?"
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Have your sayThe relationship between Islam and Christianity is definitely a 'live' issue, an issue of contemporary concern. It is an issue of concern in our world, given the ongoing problems in Iraq and Palestine and the controversial role played by our own government and the government of the USA in those parts. It is an issue of concern in this country, given the explosion of asylum seekers and refugees who are of Islamic faith coming into this country. Also, in the last 20 years some 20,000 people born here in the UK have converted to Islam. It is an issue of concern for many of us on a personal level, the Muslim people we work with, live near, that our children perhaps go to school with.

As with all religions, but perhaps more acutely with Islam because of the national and international political issues, the pressure is on to downplay the differences between Islam and Christianity and emphasise the similarities, even to the point of saying along with President Bush, that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. But before I start to show just some of why that is a false assumption I want to make a couple of things very clear. These differences between Christianity and Islam are never an excuse for political hatred. They are never a valid justification for war. Neither do they justify more stringent immigration control. None of those things are a valid way to apply these differences.

I'm going to answer this question under two headings, similarities and differences.

Similarities
There are many similarities between Christianity and Islam, here are some of the main ones as far as I can tell.

Both say that there is One God.

And that God is sovereign, he rules history.

The existence of Angels is another similarity.

Islam and Christianity both have Prophets and prophecy (Including many of the same characters Adam, Noah, Abraham, David, Jesus).

Both believe in a Heaven and Hell and God's future judgment.

So, what's the difference, given all these things in common? After all, isn't 'Allah' just the Arabic word for 'High God'?

The main differences centre around Jesus.

Differences
Islam and Christianity disagree over Jesus' identity
Although Muslims believe in one God, as do Christians, they reject as heresy that this one God is three persons. For more detail on what Christians believe on this, see the slot we did on this a few weeks ago which is posted on our website. For now, let's suffice to say that Muslims reject the idea of God being three in one. Especially, the Qu'ran (main holy book of Islam) is strong on saying that Jesus isn't God;

'Isa (Jesus) was simply a created human being, and a slave of Allah'

An-Nisa' 4:172

Jesus is given great honour in the Qu-ran, his status as a prophet and as a miracle-worker, even as God's Christ is strongly affirmed. But he's not God. In contrast the Bible is adamant that far from being just a created being, that Jesus is God himself become a human being.

'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God...The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.'

John 1:1 and 14

Islam and Christianity disagree over Jesus' death
Because Jesus is just a prophet, (albeit a great one) it is unthinkable to the teachings of Islam that a prophet of Allah could die a horrible shameful death like a crucifixion. So the Qu'ran actually goes so far as to claim that Jesus didn't die on the cross, Judas died in his place, God made him to look like Jesus as payback for his wicked betrayal of Jesus and the two were switched at the crucial time.

'...in reality he was not killed or crucified, and those who said he was crucified lied.'

An-Nisa' 4:157

In contrast, the early Christians were willing to stake their honour, face ridicule and shame, by declaring that Jesus was the messiah who was crucified, that he did die a shameful painful public humiliating death. So Paul can even boast that

'...we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to Gentiles.'

1 Corinthians 1:23

Because they disagree over these two things there is a third fundamental disagreement between Islam and Christianity.

Islam and Christianity disagree over the way to escape judgment
In Islam, the way someone gains God's approval and escapes his wrath on the final day of judgment is by 'falah', that is a word that means self-effort or positive achievement. Submit to God and follow all of his directives as found in the Qu'ran. Judgment day will involve some kind of weighing up of what we've done wrong and what we've done right. And even then entry into heaven is down to whether or not Allah decides to grant you mercy on the last day. This is diametrically opposed to Christianity. According to the Bible, no-one can ever be good enough to deserve God's favour, to win God's heaven, because from birth we are all pre-disposed to rejecting God and living our lives our own way. That's why it was necessary for God himself to shrink into a human body and die on a cross, dying the death we deserve.

The only way to escape judgment and rejection from God according to the Bible is for God himself to have taken the full force of that judgment for us, which is what Jesus' humiliating death on a cross was all about. What we need according to the Bible is not 'falah' but faith. To have faith in, to trust, to rely on Jesus and his death as our escape route. Those with faith in Jesus now can be sure that in the future God will welcome them into his heaven with wide open arms as if they deserved to be there as much as Jesus himself.

Ultimately then Islam and Christianity present two very different gods who may share some similarities but who have different identities and ultimately different standards. To pretend they are the same is patronising to both Muslims and Christians. Such smoothing over the cracks is also dangerous as it might well prevent people from engaging with the real issues, who is the God who is really there and how can I be in relationship with him?

Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are all based on the same original Middle Eastern mythological seeds.

They are all fragments of the same regional folklore that spit up and took different paths.

Of course the pictures of their gods are going to differ as they spit up.

Keep in mind that this does not represent different Gods, but rather just different pictures of the same original myth.

To focus on similarities is not to deny differences. At a time when war mongers, hate mongers on both sides (well, multiple sides) seek to create hostility & fear/mistrust to further their own political agendas, I think that focusing on similarities is a sensible thing to do.

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A bear! It looks like it's going to eat me. I won't focus on that, instead I'll focus on our similarities. Bears have two eyes, I have two eyes. Bears have four limbs, I have four limbs. Bears have hair, I have hair. Bears have a mouth, I have a mouth. Bears have teeth, I have teeth. Bears have...aggghghghrhfhfhahkfsah;jfkajfasfmafjafj;
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Islamo-facists want to kill you or convert you, there is no middle ground for them. We can find middle ground with any relgion from Islam to Hinduism, but nobody will ever find middle ground with Islamo-Facism. They will kill civilians, women, children, their wives and their own children, they are dangerous to everyone else in the world.

Please don't forget the split up between the muslims short after the dead of Mohammed (632) after Christy. Three Kaliefs (successors) were designated to succeed Mohammed. All three died shortly after their designation. After their dead, Ali (son in law of Mohammed) was schoosen by a part of the Muslim Community to succeed, but the other part of muslims did not agree.
The muslims split up in Sjiits (the most fundamental-orthodox ones) and the Sunniets (the traditionals) who would give a broader interpretation of the Koran.
Sjiits are predominant living in Iran, Iraq and a part of Afghanistan.
Sunniets are living all over the world. They are a majority in the Muslim Community.

Spider,

Please read the opening post. The differences cited here are mostly between Christians in general and Muslims in general, not extremists.

Did you respond to my words out of context?

massagetrade,

I suppose so, I kind of zoned out, because the OP was huge. Sorry about that.

A-hem, MASS!!!!!

Ummmmm........Day and Night?

Does that mean goodnight or you need to be screamed at Adj?????

The Bible says that Heaven is so wonderful that mankind cannot comprehend what God has planned for the saved.

The Quran has some very detailed descriptions of what Allah's heaven is like.

Here is my favorite part...

http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?cid=1123996016580&pagename=IslamOnline-English-AAbout_Islam%2FAskAboutIslamE%2FAskAboutIslamE
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*{They shall have what they will of their Lord's bounty. That is the reward of the good-doers.}* (Az-Zumar 39:34)
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So if I were to go into Allah's heaven, the first thing I would ask for is to sleep with all of Muhammad's wives. Per the scripture above, Allah has promised me that I can have whatever I will. Muhammad better hope that no homosexual men make it to Allah's heaven, because Muhammad might have a hard time sitting down after they show him how much they love their prophet.

Oh...sorry ladies. This promise is only for the men. Women in Allah's heaven are sex slaves and servants for all eternity. So while the guys are louging in the shade on the nice couch that Allah promised them, you will be wearing a burka in the hot sun, except for when some random man will to have sex with you.

God promises us whatever is good for us, but Allah promises nice cloths, shade, a couch, wine, trees that walk to bring us fruit and anything that we wish for. In other words, material things. Who was it in the Bible who tried to tempt Jesus with material things...?

Sorry, I forgot...

Every man is promised at least 72 female servants and 300 male servants in Allah's heaven. What is the purpose of those servants, when Az-Zumar 39:34 says that you can have anything you will. Couldn't you just will to have another drink? What are the 372 minimum slaves for? And why are there slaves in Allah's heaven? Is slavery something good, that God should give it to you? And distrubingly, the servant boys are described as being eternally young and very pretty...why do they have to be pretty? Wouldn't this be hell for those 372 poor people? Being eternally young and healthy, but a servant, who must bend to the will of their master for all eternity. So is Allah's heaven really hell for the majority of those who are condemned there?

Muslims speak all languages of the world from french,spanish,english,german,italian,potugeuse.. son we learnt so many things of western culture.we had good hospitalties for many who had chance to visit anyone who vistited a muslim ccountry he/she may know wht i m talking about,the problem where is, to those who never know anything, they just watch the box of tv wht players put on it as a meal for any morning or evening . yes thy can make you be happy , thy can make you sing, also thy can make you cry or or run of fear this is a big game of 21 century we huamn created to know by each other to buil up friendship muslim can marry from christian woman, and from jews too, the problem the ignorants from both side thy try creat the hate , and racism in Islam say : no defernce between no body you all were created equal, difernec in how much yu are good, love is a mercy for any person noone can win against humanity humanity always first any dectatorship no matter wht it is it will never stay sharp it s like a sharp knife soon be dull. we have One God,one life,one chance, one way ,one kind over smae earth, under same sky, same air, stupid who may think he/she is better than other.

Sweetlover wrote:
“we have One God, one life, one chance, one way ,one kind over same earth, under same sky, same air, stupid who may think he/she is better than other.”

This is so true. And it is a shame when religions are the basis of arrogance (self-importance) to the point of believing that because of a person’s religious beliefs this elevates them to a closer position to God.

However, I would like to point out that the entire world is not based on the religious doctrines that came out of the Middle East like Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are.

There are many religions that view god in an entirely different way. They only believe in the idea of just one life, one chance, one way. They don’t believe in heaven or hell (other than how those concepts can be experienced in this life). Instead they believe in reincarnation, and possible concepts of karma. Therefore, for them, there can be many lives, many ‘chances’, and many ways.

I pure ‘chances’ in quotes because there is no chance of going to hell. Everyone’s final destiny is to return from wench they came. Any ‘hells’ that are suffered are suffered in this life via their many reincarnations.

So it’s not just a matter of Islam versus Christianity (or vice versa). Although, in our current world political climate it has certainly come to that from a social point of view. There can be no doubt about that.

It’s a shame that everyone can’t be of one religious belief. But isn’t likely to happen any time soon. It certainly isn’t going to happen via one religion attempting to convert the rest of the world to their way of thinking (like Christianity insists is their duty). That kind of attitude right there can cause WWIII.

Religions like Christianity and Islam, or Christianity and Anything, cannot coexist peacefully. Nothing can coexist peacefully with a religion that proclaims that their God is going to come back and rule the world, and that ever man on Earth will bow to him and call him Lord.

That’s a religion that’s looking for another world war, and ironically their prophecy actually predicts it! So when they see it coming they just think that means they are on the right track.

Sweetlover,

I don't think you'll ever see a strongly Christian nation accepting anything other than their own bigoted beliefs. It’s the very nature of their religion to reject all other religious philosophies.

I should qualify that with the FACT that most Americans are not strong Christians in the truest sense of the religion. Most of them are “Designer Christians”, they simply accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and then shrug off all the other details. They are more open to accepting people of other faiths. Most Americans are NOT religious fanatics. THANK GOD!

Unfortunately our current president is a very strongly bigoted person and uses religion to justify his views, but most Americans actually disagree with him and many have even said that he is un-Christian-like. Again THANK GOD that his term will finally be over in just one more lousy YEAR! Hopefully he won’t do too much more damage during that time. Only time will tell.

here are two type of people: 1/Believers,2/no belivers/3/hypocritist. the most dangerous the hypocritist those who can play both side one time with belivers one timme with no belivers, they also love to creat conflift between the two oposit to make so high crise so as to become bloody and full of misery or a victory so to watch and let it be so bad in defernt scens and so many can see and when they try to build an opinion then try to confuse them in order not to be to the poor side but with guilty side it s very complicated not only for no educated but also for the educated because how can you understand the history from R and the Origine is A To Z even if Z is not yet we can not understand now without to know yestrday , or before yestrday and specility of work it difers the scientist or, artist, journmalist, academic,teacher,police,nurse,soldier is the last one who can understand if he understand he will never accepted to be soldier for killing because any killing is in itself unjust never turn to be just.

In muslims country for instance Egypt,jordan,Syria,Lebanon,Yemen,MORoCCO,TUNISIA, many Jewsh and Europiens they live there ,they have their business, their churches if you touch any forighner in those countries they will punish u badly because they give premeray to foriengers. Muslims protected Jews since long centuries , you will never find in historu muslims kiked out jews or killed them up to now they are still there living they have good frienship with other muslims , the problem is those who came frome Russia or East Europe they have no knowleg about arabs, you can find an arab christian, or arab jew .For the example of usa, is open for the world because it s looking for others experiences, knowlege, and power, imagine if we send all immigrants out who will be there, because any immigrant he transfers his wealth with him, also he /she try all his best to work hard . here is nothing free. Yes , i can agree here is some good advantages but also some bad disavtanges like health care, or work law and morgages beacause here so many poor people but invesible even if law is not in right way because it diferns from state to sate and always the poor who pays , many projects isolated whc=ich let peope feel like ignored rich in clean area and large area but poor living in small cells. but I truly love it the food, the road, but i hate the rights to pocess weapons. because no need.

Absolutely bugger all ...

They both seek to control by fear
They both seek to depict man as a frail being with no choices

They both are dangerous to the questioning mind.