Islam and Christian Worldviews: Conclusion
This is the eighth and final post in a series on a comparison of Christian and Islamic Worldviews.
The Islamic view of salvation is radically opposed to the Christian view of salvation, namely, salvation by grace through faith in the crucified and risen Christ. Why is this so? First of all, this does not cohere with the Muslim understanding of the nature of man. Islam teaches that man is not inherently sinful, and therefore, has no need for salvation as such. Islam also rejects the Christian claim that Jesus was the Son of God who, through his death, reconciled God and man. Most Muslims do not believe Christ died on the cross. They do believe in Christ’s second coming, but its purpose is simply to tell Christians to follow Mohammad. The message of Mohammad is to believe the right things and to perform the correct acts. Islam teaches that man is fundamentally good and that God loves those who obey his will. One must believe that God is absolutely one and that Mohammad is the prophet of God. One must believe that Mohammad is the last prophet. Traditionally, Muslims must also believe in the prophets and their virtues, the angels, the sacred books, the day of resurrection and Qadar, that God decrees everything that happens in the world. This constitutes iman, or faith within Islam.
In conclusion, I have offered a brief overview of the differences in the way Muslims and Christians see the world. Although they both purport to worship the God of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, their conceptions of this God are quite disparate. It should be stated that there is much in Islam that the Christian can affirm, including its belief in one God, its recognition of Jesus as the virgin born, sinless prophet and messiah of God, and its expectation of a future resurrection and judgment.
However, there is much to distinguish the two worldviews. First, the Muslim perception of God is by no means the same as that revealed in the Bible. Islam portrays God as ultimately unknowable. Allah reveals only His will, but He never reveals Himself. He is never portrayed as a God of love or as a Father to His people. All we can know of Allah is his will. Contrasted with this is the Christian view of God as a personal, rational, knowable being who has created man in his own image. The Christian is able to enter into relationship with God.
Second, though Jesus is presented as a miracle working prophet and messiah, and even without sin, Islam denies that He is the Son of God or Savior of the world. Indeed, it is sometimes denied that Jesus ever died at all, least of all for the sins of the world. There was no need for a sacrificial, substitutionary death since, though mankind is depicted as weak and prone to error, Islam denies that man is a sinner by nature and in need of a Savior, as the Bible so clearly teaches. Humans are capable of submitting to God’s laws and meriting his ultimate approval. In Islam, man needs, not so much a savior, but guidance. Acceptance by God is something we must earn by our works, and therefore one cannot possibly feel secure in salvation from this world. In Islam, salvation is completely “other-worldly†and is to be experienced in the life to come. Contrasted with this view is the Christian’s total dependence on Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice for salvation. One can possess the assurance that salvation depends on Christ’s righteousness and not one’s own. While there is a future aspect of Christian salvation, there is also a present aspect as well. Christian belief teaches that a man is radically transformed in this life by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God.
It is important to note that both Islam and Christianity cannot both be true. These worldviews make contradictory claims about creation, the fall, and redemption. They answer the important questions with irreconcilable claims: Who is God and what is he like? Who is man and what are we like? What is wrong with the world and why is there so much suffering? What is the answer to man’s suffering and to what is wrong with the world? Either God is knowable or is not. Either God has certain characteristics which make up his essence or he does not. Either man is inherently sinful or he is not. Either Jesus Christ was the son of God, was crucified and died on our behalf, and was resurrected on the third day or he was not. Either we are saved by grace through faith, or we are not.
Both Islam and Christianity make historical claims which are beyond the scope of this discussion. The claims of each are open to investigation. The truthfulness of Christianity depends ultimately upon one monumental historical event – that of the resurrection of Christ. The evidence for this event is overwhelming to the unbiased observer. Christianity not only fits the facts of history, but our fundamental intuitions about morality and ethics, good and evil.
