So now Bernie Sanders is scandalized because Christians holding office believe that Jesus is the only way, and that Muslims as Muslims, cannot enter heaven. Did he wait 'till now to become scandalized? Or is this new information to him? Think of it: this man was almost president!
You wonder sometimes what planet these people are from: what alternate reality these leftist politicos live in! And it's not only the Democrats: Even George W. Bush is on record as saying that Islam means "peace" and is basically a religion of peace.
It's not the case: it's a religion of war. And it's a credit to most Muslims in America that they are largely moral, decent, law-abiding people who are decent and law-abiding not because of what their religion teaches, but in spite of what it teaches.
Two things every American Christian needs to know about what Islam actually teaches, whether it be the kind that beheads people or the kind that says "let's-all-just-get-along", "Islam-means-peace": Muslims believe in the need to institute Sharia Law world-wide; preferably by peaceful means (if possible). That's the first thing. But the second is that under Sharia Law, the teaching and propagation of "associationism" becomes a crime against the state; it is "shirk" according to Islamic law, and to Muslims the Trinity doctrine is shirk. Shirk, or associationism is associating "partners" to Allah. It's the equivalence of polytheism (i.e. idolatry) to them. And to them, it is the unforgivable sin. In Islam, God (as in Judaism) is an indivisible unity of One. God as Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost comes under the category of shirk.
It's unlikely Islam's founder even HEARD a biblical explanation of the Trinity, or for that matter, the Gospel ITSELF. For example, the Quran's condemnation of both condemns not the orthodox [i.e. "correct"] doctrine found in the early creeds of Christendom, but rather the distorted views of the Christian heresies circulating in Arabia in the 6th Century AD. What the Qur'an condemns, is actually something called "Tri-theism" which the early creeds of Christendom also condemned: it's the view that the three Persons of the Godhead are in fact three distinct Gods, each with an independent center of consciousness and will. Aside from that, many Muslims believe that the what Christians call the "Trinity" includes MARY as part of the Godhead, due in part to her overly-prominent rule in Roman Catholic doctrine, paintings and statuary. Tritheism was an early heresy whose practitioners were banished to Arabia by the bishops of the Christian Roman Empire. What Islamic scholars have tended to do historically was to "read back" into the Qur'an the Christian-Islamic controversies that came later, including that of the Trinity.
For the first six centuries of the Church's existence, the champion of orthodoxy had been the Papacy: the Apostles' Creed in AD 200, the Nicene Creed in 325, the Creed of Ephesis in 431, the Creed of Calcedon in 451 and the Creed of Athanasius in 500, were Roman Catholic church doctrine, a church which until about AD 600, generally maintained a purity and faithfulness to the Scriptures. Because the Western Roman Empire had become Catholic, the popes had authority to banish certain Christian teachers to far-flung corners of the world. One of those "corners" was northern Arabia, where unscriptural views of Jesus and of God were freely circulated. Today we know these views as Nestorianism and Monophysitism. Nestorius, [386-450] failed to understand the two natures of Christ. He and his followers taught that in Jesus there were two persons combined: the human, called "Jesus", and also, God the Son, also called the "Logos" or the Word of God. That made no sense to Muhammad, and it also made no sense to most of the Church, as reflected in the Creed of Calcedon which gleaned from Scripture the fact that Christ is one Person with two natures. But Mohammad would've had no way of knowing that from listening to the Nestorians. Consequently, when students and teachers of Islam critique Christian doctrine, what they're attacking is often a "straw man"; a fabrication of what they think the Bible is actually teaching, and what they think Christians in general believe.
Ironically, the very churches that were recently savaged by the ISIS murders in Iraq, have been Nestorian. Once you understand what "Calcedon" teaches, and can see its scriptural basis, if you ever have a religious dialog with a Muslim friend or neighbor about the unity of God or the incarnation of Christ, try saying this: "I understand what Muhammad was so offended at. You know, as an informed Christian, who wouldn't be? I'd be offended too."
That'll open up your witnessing discussion quite a bit.
You wonder sometimes what planet these people are from: what alternate reality these leftist politicos live in! And it's not only the Democrats: Even George W. Bush is on record as saying that Islam means "peace" and is basically a religion of peace.
It's not the case: it's a religion of war. And it's a credit to most Muslims in America that they are largely moral, decent, law-abiding people who are decent and law-abiding not because of what their religion teaches, but in spite of what it teaches.
Two things every American Christian needs to know about what Islam actually teaches, whether it be the kind that beheads people or the kind that says "let's-all-just-get-along", "Islam-means-peace": Muslims believe in the need to institute Sharia Law world-wide; preferably by peaceful means (if possible). That's the first thing. But the second is that under Sharia Law, the teaching and propagation of "associationism" becomes a crime against the state; it is "shirk" according to Islamic law, and to Muslims the Trinity doctrine is shirk. Shirk, or associationism is associating "partners" to Allah. It's the equivalence of polytheism (i.e. idolatry) to them. And to them, it is the unforgivable sin. In Islam, God (as in Judaism) is an indivisible unity of One. God as Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost comes under the category of shirk.
It's unlikely Islam's founder even HEARD a biblical explanation of the Trinity, or for that matter, the Gospel ITSELF. For example, the Quran's condemnation of both condemns not the orthodox [i.e. "correct"] doctrine found in the early creeds of Christendom, but rather the distorted views of the Christian heresies circulating in Arabia in the 6th Century AD. What the Qur'an condemns, is actually something called "Tri-theism" which the early creeds of Christendom also condemned: it's the view that the three Persons of the Godhead are in fact three distinct Gods, each with an independent center of consciousness and will. Aside from that, many Muslims believe that the what Christians call the "Trinity" includes MARY as part of the Godhead, due in part to her overly-prominent rule in Roman Catholic doctrine, paintings and statuary. Tritheism was an early heresy whose practitioners were banished to Arabia by the bishops of the Christian Roman Empire. What Islamic scholars have tended to do historically was to "read back" into the Qur'an the Christian-Islamic controversies that came later, including that of the Trinity.
For the first six centuries of the Church's existence, the champion of orthodoxy had been the Papacy: the Apostles' Creed in AD 200, the Nicene Creed in 325, the Creed of Ephesis in 431, the Creed of Calcedon in 451 and the Creed of Athanasius in 500, were Roman Catholic church doctrine, a church which until about AD 600, generally maintained a purity and faithfulness to the Scriptures. Because the Western Roman Empire had become Catholic, the popes had authority to banish certain Christian teachers to far-flung corners of the world. One of those "corners" was northern Arabia, where unscriptural views of Jesus and of God were freely circulated. Today we know these views as Nestorianism and Monophysitism. Nestorius, [386-450] failed to understand the two natures of Christ. He and his followers taught that in Jesus there were two persons combined: the human, called "Jesus", and also, God the Son, also called the "Logos" or the Word of God. That made no sense to Muhammad, and it also made no sense to most of the Church, as reflected in the Creed of Calcedon which gleaned from Scripture the fact that Christ is one Person with two natures. But Mohammad would've had no way of knowing that from listening to the Nestorians. Consequently, when students and teachers of Islam critique Christian doctrine, what they're attacking is often a "straw man"; a fabrication of what they think the Bible is actually teaching, and what they think Christians in general believe.
Ironically, the very churches that were recently savaged by the ISIS murders in Iraq, have been Nestorian. Once you understand what "Calcedon" teaches, and can see its scriptural basis, if you ever have a religious dialog with a Muslim friend or neighbor about the unity of God or the incarnation of Christ, try saying this: "I understand what Muhammad was so offended at. You know, as an informed Christian, who wouldn't be? I'd be offended too."
That'll open up your witnessing discussion quite a bit.
