The decisive factor in regard to Mohammedanism, as with all other religions, is this: "What do Mohammedans think of Jesus Christ? Whom do they say He is ?" On the surface, Mohammedans and Christians have many things in common. These form a favorable meeting ground from which to proceed to points of difference. I have put down seven things which a/I Mohammedans and all Christians hold together:
Disagreements and Contrasts
You say, "Why, they are almost Christians ! They believe so much the way we do !" Yes, they do. But I have not told you the contrast —how much they do not believe that we believe. There is a vast difference. So let us now note ten points wherein Mohammedans and Christians disagree.
1. Mohammedans deny the Trinity. They deny it openly and frankly in their books.
They say God is one, not three in one. Christians believe there is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but Mohammedans deny it.
2. They deny the ethical character of God; that is, His holiness. I spent one whole afternoon trying to convince a Mohammedan that God cannot lie. I said, "We will begin at a point on which we both agree: God cannot lie."
He said, "Not so fast. Would you say that God cannot steal?"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Why," he replied, "He does it every day. He took your two children. He destroys a whole country in an earthquake. He can destroy the whole world if He likes. He can do anything He wants to. It is the same way about truth. You say two and two make four. If God says two and two make five, it would be five. He can say what He likes, and truth is what He says it is, regardless of what we say it is."
He has many clever arguments, but we can see the fallacy of them. When the Christian says God is holy and cannot cheat or deceive anybody, the Mohammedan says on the contrary that God is the biggest cheater and deceiver of all. Thus they deny the holiness of God and deprive Him of His ethical character.
3. Mohammedans say, "There is no mediator between God and man."
4. They have the Koran instead of the Bible.
5. They claim there is no Christ, no death on the cross, and no atonement for sin.
6. They recognize a brotherhood of man, but no Fatherhood of God. They believe all
Mohammedans are brothers because they all believe the same thing, but they would never call God Father.
7. They recognize no true moral freedom, and no religious freedom. They are tied fast to their creed and law.
8. They acknowledge no true place of womanhood and no sanctity of marriage. This is one of the great contrasts between Christianity and Mohammedanism
9. They have no real place for childhood.
The Koran has no place for children. The Bible has. Jesus said, "Let them come unto Me, . . . for of such is the kingdom of God." Mohammed's second wife, whom he actually married and with whom he lived, was only eight years old.
10. There is no purity of life and no real sincerity in the Mohammedan system.
These differences were impressed upon me during my life among the Mohammedans as a missionary, but I would like to pass by them now and turn to the question of what the followers of Mohammed think of Jesus. What does the Koran say about Him, and who is Jesus Christ according to them?
Hindu books and Buddhist books contain nothing about Jesus at all, but the Koran mentions Jesus. There are 130 references to Jesus or to Christianity. What are the names assigned to Him? There are many names, the most important being Isa, which is a corruption of the name Jesus. They call Him "Son of Mary," "Word of God," and they also call Him, "Spirit of God" and "Word of Truth"—all beautiful names. But when you ask, "Is Jesus a prophet?" they reply, "Yes, like any other prophet. There are six great prophets. Jesus is one of them." The six prophets they list are: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed, and to each of these six prophets they give a special dispensation. The six great prophets go in an ascending scale, and the last, the greatest of them all, is Mohammed.
You are familiar with the word "dispensation"—the dispensation under Noah, the dispensation under Adam. And so they have six dispensations. They follow a strange doctrine, though it is not strange from their point of view, that every great prophet abrogates the previous legislation. The Mohammedan says, for example, that Adam could marry his own sister. Cain and Abel could marry their own sisters. Under the Adamic law, a man could marry his own sister ; but when Noah came, he did away with the Adarnic law. They assert that this law was also changed under Moses. By Jesus it was changed again, and the last change was the change made by Mohammed, who adjusted all the mistakes made by Moses and Jesus. In the day of Moses, marriage was perhaps too free, and in the day of Jesus, it became too ascetic, according to Mohammedan logic; so Mohammed settled it by saying that a man could have four wives.
Their answer to "Whom do men say that I am?" is: "One of the pronhets in the same rank with Abraham and Moses." And what does the Koran tell us about Jesus as a historic character ? What can be gathered from the Koran concerning the life of Jesus? You will find ten or twelve passages that deal with the life of Jesus. They present Him as being born of the virgin Mary, giving the names of her mother and father in the chapter called "Al Amaran." They tell in detail how that an angel came to Mary and announced the birth of Jesus, and that she gave birth to Him standing under a palm tree. The child was thought to be an illegitimate child, and when they asked her, "Why have you committed this crime?" she answered, "Ask the child." And Jesus spoke, saying, "I am the son of Mary and the Word of God."
Thus, according to their writings, Jesus worked a great miracle by speaking from the cradle as a babe; and when He was a boy, He worked another miracle. He fashioned some pigeons of clay, and when His work was finished, the birds started to fly away. When you go outside the Koran, you find many stories told about Jesus' boyhood. The story is told that He worked for a dyer, who told Him to take garments and dye one of them green, another blue, and another yellow, in different vats. When the dyer left, Jesus, the apprentice, sat down and did not dye the garments. When the dyer came back, he exclaimed, "Why did you not dye them ?" Jesus answered, "There is time enough." He then put all the clothes in one vat and pulled them out in different colors. That is one of the foolish miracles which they tell about Him. Then they tell stories of how He opened the eyes of the blind, healed the lepers, raised the dead, and cured the incurables.
In regard to Christ's teaching, there is not a single verse in the whole Koran which is taken from the New Testament. The only verse in the Koran which is taken from the Bible is the verse which says that the righteous shall inherit the earth.
_________ To be concluded in February
