Jesus VS Muhammad: Which one is The Way to Eternal Life?
I was going to put this video at the end of this article, but I decided to put it here. I did not make this video. I found this video on YouTube. The video “Christianity VS. Islam: The Ultimate Showdown!” was made by Allen Parr. I do not receive any commisons or payments for promoting Allen Parr. I only tell you about him because I think Mr. Parr is a good teacher, and I like how he explains the Word of God, “The Holy Bible.” Please feel free to watch his YouTube channel or check out his website, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Please click here to watch Mr. Parr’s video, “Christianity VS. Islam: The Ultimate Showdown!”When I was in college around the year 2012-2014, I had a small conversation with a Muslim individual. We were talking about Jesus, and that person said to me that there is no big difference between Jesus and Muhammad and that Christianity isn’t that big of a difference from Muslim beliefs. But, she was wrong. There is a huge difference. Islam teaches a works-based salvation whereas Christianity teaches a grace-based salvation. Jesus was about love and peace, and HE never killed anyone, and HE did not force HIS belief on anyone, whereas Muhammad would kill anyone who did not accept his belief, his message was more about hate than love, and he never sought peace. Topic: Islam teaches a works-based salvation, but Christianity teaches a grace-based salvation.
Islam teaches a works-based salvation and in this way is similar to other man-made religions. A Muslim must keep the five pillars of Islam. Christianity teaches a grace-based salvation. A person is saved by the grace (the undeserved blessing) of God, through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8–9; Romans 10:9–10).A Muslim’s entrance into paradise or heaven hinges on obedience to these Five Pillars. Still, Allah may reject them. Even Muhammad was not sure whether Allah would admit him to paradise. You can read that in their Qu’ra. (Surah 46:9; Hadith 5.266). These five tenets or five pillars compose the framework of obedience for Muslims:1. First, you have to confess that there is no God, but Allah and that Muhammad was his prophet. The testimony of faith (shahada): “la ilaha illa allah. Muhammad rasul Allah.” This means, “There is no deity but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” A person can convert to Islam by stating this creed. The shahada shows that a Muslim believes in Allah alone as deity and that there is no Son of God, and no Holy Spirit and believes that Muhammad reveals Allah.2. Prayer (salat): Five ritual prayers must be performed every day.3. Giving (zakat): This almsgiving is a certain percentage given once a year.4. Fasting (sawm): Muslims fast during Ramadan in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. They must not eat or drink from dawn until sunset.5. Pilgrimage (hajj): If physically and financially possible, a Muslim must make the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia at least once. The hajj is performed in the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar.If I had to choose something to believe in, then I personally wouldn’t choose the Muslim way. The first reason why I said that is because you have to deny the Holy Trinity (God, the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit). The next reason is that you have to pray five times every day. What if I miss a day? What if I only prayed 2 times that day? Would that mean I would not make it to heaven? The third reason is that I am not about to travel all the way to Mecca to visit the city where Muhammad was born. If I am poor and I do not have the money, then I could not visit the birthplace of Muhammad. So, God would not allow me to enter heaven because I fulfilled 4 parts of the pillar, but did not visit Mecca in Saudi Arabia at least once in my life. The Muslim God sounds too harsh. Where is the forgiveness? If you think that is bad, wait until you read about what Muhammad did to people who rejected his teachings. But for now, let us look at how a person can receive salvation from a Christian point of view. The Holy Bible teaches us that we all have sinned, and fall short of God’s standards. The New Living Translation Bible says in Romans 3:23 that, “ For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard”. There is no amount of human goodness and human work that we can do to earn our way into heaven. No one can stand before God and say to HIM, “You have to let me into heaven because I earn it.” That will not work. So, how can a person enter heaven? The answer is to have faith in Jesus Christ and believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is that we all fall short of God’s standards, and we deserve to be punished because all sin is punishable by death, but because God loves us so much, HE sent Jesus Christ into this world to take our punishment. Jesus died for our sins. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, then you will be saved. The short answer is “Have faith in Jesus Christ.”Do you see the difference between Islam and Christianity so far? Please click here to read “Can keeping the Five Pillars of Islam get me to heaven?” The answer is “NO” but please read it because it has some very good information that explains why the “Five Pillars of Islam” will not get you into heaven. Topic: Who was Muhammad? And Who was Jesus Christ?
First, let us talk about Who was Muhammad?Muhammad, or Mohammed, is the founder of Islam and is considered a prophet by Muslims and Baha’is. In fact, in order to convert to Islam, one only has to say, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet [or messenger].”Muhammad (c. AD 570—632) was from Mecca, a city near the Red Sea in what is now Saudi Arabia. An orphan from childhood, Muhammad was raised by an uncle, a man named Abu Talib, and became a merchant. Muhammad was a religious man, often going on retreats to the mountains where he would pray. During one of these retreats, he reported being visited by the angel Gabriel, who supposedly gave Muhammad a revelation from Allah, the Muslim name for God. Muhammad reported having several other revelations from Allah as well, and Muslims regard him as Allah’s last and greatest prophet to mankind.Muhammad proclaimed that “God is One,” that is, there is no Trinity and Jesus was simply another prophet, along with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and, of course, Muhammad himself. He also taught that complete surrender (the word islam means “surrender” or “total submission”) is the only way to please Allah. Muslims credit Muhammad with restoring the “true” religion of Islam to a world that had corrupted it.Early on in his endeavors, Muhammad did not win many followers; many of the Meccan tribes were hostile to him and opposed his message. Muhammad moved north to the city of Medina for protection. After eight years of conflict with the Meccan tribes, Muhammad gathered 10,000 converts, took up arms, and marched against Mecca. He and his followers took over Mecca and destroyed all the pagan idols there. There was very little bloodshed or resistance from Mecca, and the city fell to Muhammad relatively easily.From Mecca, Muhammad and his followers set out to destroy all the other pagan temples in western Arabia, and they succeeded. The rest of Muhammad’s life was given to the promotion and growth of Islam throughout the Arabic world. Sometimes Muhammad used his great wealth (from plundering) to bribe people into Islam. Other times, he used terrorism and conquest. Muslims swept through the Arabian Peninsula, conquering tribe after tribe. When approaching a city, Muhammad would offer terms of peace: accept Islam, the only true religion, and submit to Muhammad, and all would be well. If a city rejected these terms, Muhammad’s forces would proceed to sack the city. According to Abdullah ibn Umar, a companion of Muhammad, “Allah’s Apostle [Muhammad] said: ‘I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshiped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah’s Apostle, and offer the prayers perfectly and give the obligatory charity, so if they perform all that, then they save their lives and property from me’” (Bukhari: vol. 1, bk. 2, no. 24).Muhammad claimed to have continued to receive revelations from Allah until his death, and Muhammad’s revelations were compiled after his death and canonized into what is now called the Qur’an, the Muslim holy book. Other respected writings in Islam include the Hadith, which is a collection of teachings, deeds, and sayings of Muhammad; and the Tafsir, which is a commentary of sorts on the Qur’an.Because of the content of Muhammad’s revelations, in particular the denial of God’s triune nature, the teaching that salvation must be earned by works, and the denial of the deity of Jesus Christ, Christians regard Muhammad’s revelations as false, coming from a source other than the One True God. Indeed, the differences between the God of the Bible and the Allah of Islam are too great to consider them the same deity, despite Muhammad’s proclamations that his revelations came from the God of Adam, Abraham, Jesus, et al. Allah’s “mercy” is dependent upon the right actions of his followers. The God of the Bible, in contrast, has always given His followers the promise of forgiveness dependent on His grace through faith, rather than on the ability of men (Genesis 15:6; Exodus 34:6–9; Psalm 130:3).A small list of things about Muhammad. I think these things are bad. What do you think? Muhammad initially feared his revelation had come from Satan, Muhammed later claimed to be the last and greatest of all of God’s prophets. (I think that God would have made HIMSELF known so that no human-being would have confused HIM to be Satan)Muhammed had fifteen wives (although he limited other men to four wives apiece) and sanctioned the beating of wives (Sura 4:34). (wow, so the Qu’ra sanctioned the beating of wives. It’s very different from the Christian Bible. The Christian Bible teaches in Ephesians 5:25 “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her”Muhammed was well known for spreading his new religion by force. He commanded, “Fight and slay the Pagans wherever you find them” (Sura 9:5), and he specified the proper way to execute an unbeliever was to cut his throat (Sura 47:4). (wow, compare that with the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not force anybody to follow HIM. I don’t understand why Islam accepted Jesus as a prophet, yet they don’t listen to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Muhammed was clearly a false prophet.)Muhammed led raids against caravans to plunder their goods, broke oaths, ordered the murder of those who mocked him, and wiped out the last Jewish tribe in Medina—he killed all the men and enslaved the women and children. Interestingly, Muhammed acknowledged his own need to seek God’s forgiveness on occasion (Sura 40:55).
In stark contrast to the moral depravity of Muhammed, Jesus Christ was above reproach in every way (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus never married, He defended and honored women (John 8:1–11), and His law was “love one another” (John 13:34). Accordingly, Jesus never assassinated anyone, never beat a woman, never enslaved a child, never broke a promise, and never plundered a caravan. On the cross, when Jesus was mocked by those nearby, His response was, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34).Who was Jesus Christ?
Unlike the question “Does God exist?” the question of whether Jesus Christ existed is asked by relatively few people. Most accept that Jesus was truly a man who lived in Israel 2,000 years ago. The debate begins with the discussion of Jesus’ full identity. Almost every major religion teaches that Jesus was a prophet or a good teacher or a godly man. But the Bible tells us that Jesus was infinitely more than a prophet, a good teacher, or a godly man.C. S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity writes the following: “I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [Jesus Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that option open to us. He did not intend to” (Macmillan, 1952, p. 55–56).So, who did Jesus claim to be? Who does the Bible say He is? First, He is God in the flesh. Jesus said in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.” At first glance, this might not seem to be a claim to be God. However, look at the Jews’ reaction to His statement. They tried to stone Him “for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God” (John 10:33). The Jews understood Jesus’ statement as a claim to be God. In the following verses, Jesus never corrects the Jews or attempts to clarify His statement. He never says, “I did not claim to be God.” When Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), He truly was claiming equality with God.In John 8:58 Jesus claims pre-existence, an attribute of God: “‘Very truly I tell you,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’” In response to this statement, the Jews again took up stones to stone Jesus (John 8:59). In claiming pre-existence, Jesus applied a name for God to Himself—I AM (see Exodus 3:14). The Jews rejected Jesus’ identity as God Incarnate, but they understood exactly what He was saying.Other biblical clues that Jesus is God in the flesh include John 1:1, which says, “The Word was God,” coupled with John 1:14, which says, “The Word became flesh.” Thomas the disciple declared to Jesus, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28), Jesus does not correct him. The apostle Paul describes Jesus as “our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). The apostle Peter says the same, calling Jesus “our God and Savior” (2 Peter 1:1).God the Father bears witness of Jesus’ identity as well: “But about the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.’” (Hebrews 1:8; cf. Psalm 45:6). Old Testament prophecies such as Isaiah 9:6 announce the deity of Christ: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (emphasis added).Why is the question of Jesus’ identity so important? Why does it matter whether Jesus is God? Several reasons:• As C. S. Lewis pointed out, if Jesus is not God, then Jesus is the worst of liars and untrustworthy in every way.• If Jesus is not God, then the apostles would likewise have been liars.• Jesus had to be God because the Messiah was promised to be the “Holy One” (Isaiah 49:7). Since no one on earth is righteous before God (Psalm 53:1; 143:2), God Himself had to enter the world as a human.• If Jesus is not God, His death would have been insufficient to pay the penalty for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). Only God Himself could provide an infinite, eternally valuable sacrifice (Romans 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:21).• God is the only Savior (Hosea 13:4; cf. 1 Timothy 2:3). If Jesus is to be the Savior, then He must be God.Jesus had to be both God and man. As God, Jesus could satisfy God’s wrath. As a man, Jesus had the capability of dying. As the God-man, Jesus is the perfect Mediator between heaven and earth (1 Timothy 2:5). Salvation is available only through faith in Jesus Christ. As He proclaimed, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).The question is “Jesus vs Muhammad: Which one is The Way to Eternal Life? The answer is “Jesus Christ”. Having faith in Jesus changes us on the inside. We are changed by faith. The Holy Spirit begins to work inside of us, changing us into the image of Jesus Christ. This can only happen if you simply have faith in Jesus, who HE was, and is, and God’s plan of salvation. Jesus took our punishment. Jesus died for our sins, and God raised Jesus from the dead. Salvation is deliverance. All the world religions teach that we need to be delivered, but each has a different understanding of what we need to be delivered from, why we need to be delivered, and how that deliverance can be received or achieved. The Bible makes it abundantly clear, however, that there is only one plan of salvation.The most important thing to understand about the plan of salvation is that it is God’s plan, not humanity’s plan. Humanity’s plan of salvation would be observing religious rituals or obeying certain commands or achieving certain levels of spiritual enlightenment. But none of these things are part of God’s plan of salvation.God’s plan of salvation – The Why
In God’s plan of salvation, first we must understand why we need to be saved. Simply put, we need to be saved because we have sinned. The Bible declares that everyone has sinned (Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8). Sin is rebellion against God. We all choose to actively do things that are wrong. Sin harms others, damages us, and, most importantly, dishonors God. The Bible also teaches that, because God is holy and just, He cannot allow sin to go unpunished. The punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23) and eternal separation from God (Revelation 20:11–15). Without God’s plan of salvation, eternal death is the destiny of every human being.God’s plan of salvation – The What
In God’s plan of salvation, God Himself is the only one who can provide for our salvation. We are utterly unable to save ourselves because of our sin and its consequences. God became a human being in the Person of Jesus Christ (John 1:1, 14). Jesus lived a sinless life (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 1 John 3:5) and offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice on our behalf (1 Corinthians 15:3; Colossians 1:22; Hebrews 10:10). Since Jesus is God, His death was of infinite and eternal value. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross fully paid for the sins of the entire world (1 John 2:2). His resurrection from the dead demonstrated that His sacrifice was indeed sufficient and that salvation is now available.God’s plan of salvation – The How
In Acts 16:31, a man asked the apostle Paul how to be saved. Paul’s response was, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” The way to follow God’s plan of salvation is to believe. That is the only requirement (John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8–9). God has provided for our salvation through Jesus Christ. All we must do is receive it, by faith, fully trusting in Jesus alone as Savior (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). That is God’s plan of salvation.God’s plan of salvation – Will you receive it?
If you are ready to follow God’s plan of salvation, place your faith in Jesus as your Savior. Change your mind from embracing sin and rejecting God to rejecting sin and embracing God through Jesus Christ. Fully trust in the sacrifice of Jesus as the perfect and complete payment for your sins. If you do this, God’s Word promises that you will be saved, your sins will be forgiven, and you will spend eternity in heaven. There is no more important decision. Place your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior today!GotQuestions.org. (2003, March 1). Who Was Jesus Christ? https://www.gotquestions.org/who-is-Jesus.html
GotQuestions.org. (2010, July 1). What is Islam, and what do Muslims believe? https://www.gotquestions.org/Islam.html
GotQuestions.org. (2015, January 13). Who was Muhammad? https://www.gotquestions.org/who-was-Muhammad.html
GotQuestions.org. (2016, July 20). What is the difference between Christianity and Islam? https://www.gotquestions.org/difference-Christianity-Islam.html
GotQuestions.org. (2018, June 27). What is the plan of salvation? https://www.gotquestions.org/plan-of-salvation.html