DO MUSLIMS
REALLY BELIEVE IN JESUS?
The churches of Christ Greet
You (Romans 16:16)
Imagine for a
moment a person who believes George Armstrong Custer won the Battle of
Little
Bighorn. Somehow this person has come to believe all kinds of
wrong
information about Custer. He says Custer fought for the
Confederacy, had
red hair, and defeated Crazy Horse at Little Bighorn. Despite all these
factual
gaps he then announces “I believe in Custer.” What do we make of
this?
It would be true
that this individual shares some things in common with those who
believe in the
real George Custer. However, this person does not believe in the
real
Custer. If he were to talk with a historian his announcement of
“I
believe in Custer too” would be absurd, if not almost offensive.
It has become
quite common since 9-11 for Muslims to stress points of similarity and
contact
between Islam and Christianity. Many Muslims want to confuse
Allah with
the God of the Bible, Jehovah. Muslims want to say they believe
in the
Bible, just like Christians. We’ll leave those points for future
consideration, choosing here instead to discuss what it means when a
Muslim
says “We believe in Jesus too.” Do Muslims really believe in the
Christ
of the Bible?
In an article in
the Dallas Morning News titled “Among Muslims Jesus is a Prophet with
Honor,”
Musammil H. Siddiqi wants to say “Yes.” He is clear that Muslims
do not
believe all the same things about Jesus, but he still wants Christians
to know
that Muslims believe in Jesus. Is this true? Absolutely
not. The
person Muslims respect and honor is the Qur’an’s Jesus, a Jesus that is
only a
shadow of the Christ of the New Testament. In the Qur’an Jesus
does miracles
and is a prophet. However (and significantly) He is not deity, He
is not
God’s Son, and He does not die for the sins of the world. The
Qur’an
teaches Jesus was not even actually crucified.
With these
disparities how then can Muslims say they believe in Jesus? To
say such
is to terribly misunderstand what Christians believe Jesus taught and
whom
Christians believe Jesus is. Siddiqi’s article even goes so far
as to say
that Jesus’ message “was basically the same as the message of other
prophets.”
Again, this is simply wrong. Jesus’ message was that He was the
divine
Son of God, and that if people did not accept Him as such they would be
lost
(John 8:24; cf. 14:6). Jesus was not content to be labeled just
another
prophet but demanded recognition as deity (Matthew 16:13ff), and even
accepted
worship (Luke 24:52; John 9:38). Jesus saw His death as an
atoning
sacrifice for the sins of all humanity (Matthew 26:28) and predicted
His
resurrection from the dead as the ultimate sign that He is God’s Son
(John 2:18-21;
Matt. 12:39-40). This is the Jesus of the New Testament and this
is the
Jesus of Christianity. He is so different from Islam’s Jesus that
about
all the two figures have in common is the name “Jesus.” Muslims
simply do
not believe in Jesus the Christ.
There are two sad
ramifications of Muslim’s attempt to pretend they believe in the same
Jesus of
true Christianity. First, it results in a complete
misunderstanding of
Islamic-Christian relations. Siddiqi’s article says, “As we both
love
Jesus, let us love and care for one another.” Siddiqi, like many
today,
seem to think that Muslims and Christians can only treat each other
with
decency and respect if we see how similar our beliefs are. Yet
the truth
is there is an unbridgeable chasm between Christianity and Islam, a
gulf that
centers on the identity of Jesus. It is crucial, however, to
realize that
such does not mean Christians cannot treat Muslims kindly. The
basis of
Christian ethics is NOT “Your beliefs are kind of like mine so I’ll be
nice to
you.” The basis of Christianity is the commands of the Christ to
love
even our enemies (Matt. 5:44), and to treat all men as we wish to be
treated (Matthew
7:12). Thus, even if a Christian encounters someone with a belief
system
radically different from theirs, one that they find even offensive and
blasphemous, he must treat that person with dignity and respect because
the Son
of God commands him to do so. If we teach people that we only have to
be nice
to those who believe like we do then we are all headed for trouble when
Christians and Muslims (correctly) realize their respective faiths are
not
anything alike!
The other
terrible result of this “mash all religions together into one pot” kind
of
thinking is that it quashes discussions of faith and differences in
faith.
Several years ago a Christian and a Muslim teacher met in a formal
debate on
the subject of Jesus’ deity. The Christian was thankful that the
Muslim
did not buy into this “let’s all pretend that we mostly agree on Jesus”
line. Instead, he boldly, kindly and forcefully advanced the
evidences
for Islam’s conclusions about Jesus. The Christian did the same
in the
name of Christianity and the New Testament. The evening was not
caustic
or abusive, but thought-provoking and challenging. After the
debate many Muslims
thanked the Christian for having the courage of his convictions, asked
him good
questions and talked of how they would have to think further about what
they
had been taught. It was a delightful experience that showed
people can
disagree without being disagreeable. Instead of pretending they
agreed
about Jesus they focused on the differences and presented their cases,
leaving
the audience to consider and think further about what is surely a
crucial
issue: Who is Jesus? Pretending Muslims believe in Jesus may be
politically correct and it certainly pays homage to the god of
toleration, but
it destroys the imperative for real religious discussion. Instead
of
watering down our convictions let us have the courage to kindly and in
an
appropriate way and time speak of what we really believe. True
faith
demands no less.
George Armstrong
Custer lost the Battle of the Little Bighorn. To pretend
otherwise is
foolish. Likewise, I could say that I believe in Mohammed, for I
do believe
he is a historical person. Yet my statement about Mohammed is not
anything akin
to what Muslims mean when they say they believe in Mohammed, is
it?
Similarly Muslims can say they believe in Jesus, but they do not
believe in the
Christ of the New Testament. There’s no cross for Islam’s
Jesus.
Simply put, that means Muslims do not believe in Jesus Christ.