Christianity or Islam?

Many people think that Islam and Christianity are just two ways of worshiping the same God.  Yahweh is Allah and Allah is Yahweh.  Is that true?

It is true that Arabic speaking Christians use the word "Allah" for God.  Simply because Allah just means "God".  If we have a man called John Smith, and I tell you that he is married with children you learn something about him.  If someone else tells you John Smith is single with no children, what would you conclude?

We see the same thing when we compare the Bible with the Qur'an.  

[Jesus asked] "why do you call it blasphemy when I say, ‘I am the Son of God’?" (John 10:36)

The Bible says, “but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:31).

O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: Nor say of Allah aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) an apostle of Allah, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in Allah and His apostles. Say not “Trinity” :desist: it will be better for you: for Allah is one Allah. Glory be to Him: (far exalted is He) above having a son. To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth. And enough is Allah as a Disposer of affairs. (Surah 4:171)

And behold! Allah will say: “O Jesus the son of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, “Worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of Allah”? He will say: “Glory to thee! Never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thou knowest what is in my heart, though I have not known what is in thine. For thou knowest in full all that is hidden.” (Surah 5:119) 

Jesus clearly says he is the Son of God, the Qur'an denies this.  Both cannot be true.  Notice also, that the claim is that Jesus asked us to worship his mother, which is not Biblical anyway.

So clearly Allah and Jesus are very different - they cannot be the same God.

Furthermore, a cursory reading of the New Testament shows Jesus was crucified, died and was raised from the dead.  The Qur'an denies this:

And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, Allah's messenger - they slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain". (Surah 4:157)

Ancient Jewish and Roman records also record the crucifixion of Jesus, which means the Qur'an stands in opposition to both the Bible and secular history.

Furthermore the Qur'an goes so far as to claim to confirm the Bible.

He sent down to you this scripture, truthfully, confirming all previous scriptures, and He sent down the Torah and the Gospel. (Surah 3:3)

So for the Qur'an to be true, the Bible must be true.  But if the Bible is true, the Qur'an cannot be true. Therefore, whichever way we look at it, Islam is a false religion.  

Image: Google Images

What does the Bible say about Hell?

Hell is a topic many are uncomfortable with.  I want to take a quick look at what the Bible says about hell and where many of our ideas come from.

Many of our ideas about hell come from the imagination of writers and artists from the middle ages, and look more like Dante's Inferno than the Bible itself.  Then the King James Bible used the one word, "hell" to translate several different Hebrew and Greek words.  Modern translations have corrected that problem, but the KJV's influence is still strong in the popular mindset.

"Sheol" and "Hades"
The Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek word Hades are roughly equivalent.  They simply mean "the grave", or place of rest following death.  It had two areas, which we see in Jesus parable in Luke 16:22-23 ESV.  Abraham's side and Hades were the same place, but separated.  It is not permanent since we know from Revelation 20:13 that death and Hades give up their dead for judgement.

"Gehenna"
Gehenna is the Greek word that should be translated as hell.  Historically it was a place, in fact it was the rubbish dump outside Jerusalem, and it was always burning.

Is hell a place of literal fire?  I don't think so because lots of images are used for hell - including gloomy pits of darkness (Jude 1:13; 2 Peter 2:4), which would not make sense if it's literal fire.  We see the same thing in Jesus' teachings.  He uses "fire" and "darkness" interchangeably in Matthew 8:12; Matthew 13:42, 50; Matthew 32:15.  The other interesting notion some people have is that people in hell are tortured, however the Bible uses the word "torment" instead (Revelation 14:11).  I think what Jesus and the Bible writers were trying to do was portray an image of a place you do not want to end up.

Revelation 20:14 describes death and Hades being thrown into the second death.  Remember that in the Bible death just means "separation".  The first death is physical, when your soul and body are separated.  The second death is separation from God.

So what is hell?  It's being separated from God for eternity.  It is not a good place to end up, which is why Jesus and the Apostles warned us against it.  Is is also why Jesus died to take our punishment, so that we could spend eternity with God instead.

Image: Google Images