Thoughts On God & God's Forgiveness #1
I wrote the article that started this thread. I am a Christian Pastor in Hawaii. I have Muslim friends. I am part of the Hawaii Multi-Faith Leadership Forum that includes the President of the Hawaii Muslim Association/Mosque President and am friends with the Muslim School Headmaster who I have twice invited to share what Musllims believe with my adult Sunday School class (he as also proofed the Islam portion of my World Religions material and affirmed it as accurate). I correspond on matters related to Islam with a Muslim Professor at a Major American University. I have read the Qur'an twice(yes, I spell it Qur'an...sorry Noanchor...just like I spell Aqaba and Qatar properly) in two English translations and refer to it in study often. I do not believe that I have the integrity to speak about another person's faith unless I personally know it as well or better than most believers.
Having said that, I must express my personal belief that the God of Islam is distant, impersonal and unreachable. The God revealed to us in the Old Testament and more clearly in the Injil is near to us by his Holy Spirit, personal in his desire to love and be loved and reachable through the incarnation, death, resurrection and ascention of his eternal Son, Jesus Christ.
From this I conclude that either the Muslim concept of God is a regressive one (such as is found in American Unitarianism) or is simply a different God altogether from the God of Abraham, David and Jesus.
The Christian God is both perfectly merciful (in forgiving our sins) and perfectly holy and just (in requiring penalty for our sin).
The Muslim God can neither be perfectly merciful mor perfectly holy or just. For at judgment, Allah only forgives the sins of those whose righteousness exceeds their sin (refusing to extend mercy to those whose sins exceed their righteousness) and also fails to impose any penalty for the sins committed by those whose righteousness exceeds their sin.
This is as though a Judge in a court of law told a convicted child molester, "Well, you have done more good things than bad things in your life so I'm going to let you go free. Your sin? Forgetaboutit. No Penalty. Next case."Such a God may be merciful to some but, in so doing, makes a mockery of justice and permits the unchanged sinner into Paradise along with their sin.
For the sake of brevity, one final thought. If Islam is so willing, open and confident in its intellectual, historical and spiritual superiority, why are other faiths banned, restricted or persecuted in Muslim countries? What are they afraid of? If Islam is so "open" and "civilized" why does it impose the death penalty (shirk) on those who, of their own free will, desire to convert to another faith?
I find it ironic that this dialogue on the relative merits of Islam and Christianity are taking place in a forum and a country where the freedom to do so is grounded in the Christian principals of individual live, freedom and the pursuit of happiness and truth.
This dialogue could not even take place in a Muslim nation, especially one governed by Sharia.In this manner the superiority of Islam is demonstrated by its denial of the very rights that we are here enjoying.Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except by me.
He also said, You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
May it be so. Insha Allah. Salaam.
Having said that, I must express my personal belief that the God of Islam is distant, impersonal and unreachable. The God revealed to us in the Old Testament and more clearly in the Injil is near to us by his Holy Spirit, personal in his desire to love and be loved and reachable through the incarnation, death, resurrection and ascention of his eternal Son, Jesus Christ.
From this I conclude that either the Muslim concept of God is a regressive one (such as is found in American Unitarianism) or is simply a different God altogether from the God of Abraham, David and Jesus.
The Christian God is both perfectly merciful (in forgiving our sins) and perfectly holy and just (in requiring penalty for our sin).
The Muslim God can neither be perfectly merciful mor perfectly holy or just. For at judgment, Allah only forgives the sins of those whose righteousness exceeds their sin (refusing to extend mercy to those whose sins exceed their righteousness) and also fails to impose any penalty for the sins committed by those whose righteousness exceeds their sin.
This is as though a Judge in a court of law told a convicted child molester, "Well, you have done more good things than bad things in your life so I'm going to let you go free. Your sin? Forgetaboutit. No Penalty. Next case."Such a God may be merciful to some but, in so doing, makes a mockery of justice and permits the unchanged sinner into Paradise along with their sin.
For the sake of brevity, one final thought. If Islam is so willing, open and confident in its intellectual, historical and spiritual superiority, why are other faiths banned, restricted or persecuted in Muslim countries? What are they afraid of? If Islam is so "open" and "civilized" why does it impose the death penalty (shirk) on those who, of their own free will, desire to convert to another faith?
I find it ironic that this dialogue on the relative merits of Islam and Christianity are taking place in a forum and a country where the freedom to do so is grounded in the Christian principals of individual live, freedom and the pursuit of happiness and truth.
This dialogue could not even take place in a Muslim nation, especially one governed by Sharia.In this manner the superiority of Islam is demonstrated by its denial of the very rights that we are here enjoying.Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except by me.
He also said, You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
May it be so. Insha Allah. Salaam.
posted by Bird of Paradise at 9:04 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home