CHRISLAM SPREADS THROUGHOUT AMERICA
QURAN IN THE PEWS
JESUS IN THE QURAN
By
Paul L. Williams, Ph.D.
This weekend, the Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston
along with Christian communities in Atlanta, Seattle, and Detroit will
initiate a series of sermons that have been designed to produce an
ecumenical reconciliation between Christianity and Islam.
In addition to the sermons, the Sunday school lessons will center on
the inspired teachings of the Prophet Mohammad.
Qurans will be placed in the pews next to the Bibles.
The concept of Chrislam, now embraced by such preachers as Rick
Warren and Robert Schuller, appears to have emerged from a program on
the meaning of “love your neighbor” at Grace Fellowship Church in
Atlanta, Georgia.
“In 2001, like most Americans, we were pretty awakened to the true
Islamic presence in the world and in the United States,” says Jon
Stallsmith, the outreach minister at Grace Fellowship. “Jesus says we
should love our neighbors. We can’t do that without having a
relationship with them.”
Stallsmith maintains that a rapprochement between Muslims and
Christians can be achieved by the fact that Jesus is mentioned
twenty-five times in the Quran.
The Chrislam movement has gained impetus by statements from President
George W. Bush and that Christians, Jews, and Muslims all worship the
same God and by Rick Warren’s reference to Isa (the Muslim name for
Jesus) in his prayer at the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
Only 30 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Muslims,
according to a Pew Forum poll. At the same time, more than half the
country says they know “not very much” or “nothing at all” about the
Islamic faith.
“The recent political developments and the fact that we’re fighting
two wars in Muslim countries should sharpen that need to know how to
talk to these guys,” Stallsmith insists “We want to find peace,
reconciliation around a scriptural understanding of Jesus.”
Jesus in the Quran is neither the only-begotten Son of God nor the
Messiah who was divinely appointed to restore the House of David. He is
rather viewed as a prophet who was appointed by Allah to prepare mankind
for the coming of Mohammad.
In the Quran, Jesus neither suffers nor dies on the cross but is
rather raised alive into heaven:
“That they said (in boast), “We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of God”;- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:- Nay, God raised him up unto the himself; and God is Exalted in Power, Wise” (4: 157-158)
“That they said (in boast), “We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of God”;- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:- Nay, God raised him up unto the himself; and God is Exalted in Power, Wise” (4: 157-158)
The victim at Calvary, Islam teaches, was either Simon of Cyrene or
Judas Iscariot.
The Quran mentions that Jesus was born of the virgin Maryam – - not
by an immaculate conception but rather the will of Allah and that He
performed miracles to show the Jewish people that He was a maseh in the
manner of Moses and Ibrahim (Abraham):
“In blasphemy indeed are those that say that God is Christ the son of
Mary. Say: “Who then hath the least power against God, if His will were
to destroy Christ the son of Mary, his mother, and all every – one that
is on the earth? For to God belongeth the dominion of the heavens and
the earth, and all that is between. He createth what He pleaseth. For
God hath power over all things” (5:17).
Belief in the divinity of Jesus is condemned in Islam as shirk (filth).
Belief in the divinity of Jesus is condemned in Islam as shirk (filth).
Royal Heir
Posts
