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Are Islam and Christianity basically the same religion? Dan Gibson shares his personal opinion.

Transcript

Video #22 This is a general transcript of a Dan Gibson video in the series: Archeology and Islam.

Hello, and welcome to another video in the series Archeology and Islam. My name is Dan Gibson and today we want to answer a question that several viewers have asked or have commented on.

Now, I am in a bit of a dilemma because there are two things I want to do.

I want to bring the series called: Archeology and Islam to an end, as I have presented my research in the area of archeology; looking at the actual stones and physical evidence. In this series we have actually wandered away from this topic a bit, and so I would like to bring it to a conclusion with this video as the last video in the series.

In its place I want to start a new series… actually two new series. The first would attempt to answer questions that people have been asking. We will call that Q&A. And that could cover a lot of different topics that people have brought up that are interesting and I will try to deal with those.

The second series would focus solely on the Qibla question. In each episode we will look at a couple of different mosques, and talk about the setting of the Qibla wall and how that mosque came to be. And we will learn about that. We will start in a couple of weeks in that series.

Now for this video: I have people asking me a question. It has come up again and again. And they say: What’s all the fuss? Aren’t all three monotheistic religions the same?

Some years ago, when the crown prince, crown prince Hassan of Jordan was visiting universities around the world, giving talks on how the great three monotheistic religions were all similar, he was arguing that they should be united as one religion.

Now, if you are talking about formal organized religion, maybe there is something to it. I don’t know. But if you are talking about people who are careful to follow the teachings of the prophets, then I do not think it is possible to unite the three monotheistic religions together. So in this video I want to give you my opinion and my understanding of what they are.

In my mind at least, those who truly follow the Qur’an and the teachings of Muhammad follow a totally different path than those who follow only the Old and New Testaments. There are a lot of people around who call themselves followers of Jesus, and they are not some organized religion, they are just people who are trying to follow the teachings of Jesus.

So in this video, I would like to share some of the differences between those who follow Muhammad and those who follow Jesus; at least how I see this. So this is a little bit off of topic, today, but I want to look at this, because people have been asking.

First, there is the topic of Judgment. I put this first, because the prophets put this first. The prophet Moses describes to us a world that God created. And as anyone would expect, when God created something it was good, it was complete. It was perfect. Just like the creator God. Moses introduces us to a perfect world, a perfect man, a perfect woman, and a perfect marriage. Moses clearly tells us that in this state there was perfection, and God would visit them, and he would talk with them. There was a relationship between man and God. That’s all in the first book of Moses, in the Book of Genesis. The first opening couple of pages in the Bible we find a perfect world, a perfect man, a perfect woman, and a perfect marriage and a relationship with God.

This is the first difference I see with Islam. In Islam, Adam and Eve are placed on the world, and they do the best they can, and at the end of their life they are judged on how they did.

This is not what Moses taught us. Moses teaches us that the perfect world was ruined by Satan, who tempted both Adam and Eve, and they both sinned or did wrong, and they allowed sin into the perfect world, and it ruined our perfect world.

God reacted to that, by judging Satan and Adam and Eve. Judgment happened in the Garden of Eden. What was perfect, and complete, and good was ruined. Adam and Eve were to blame. They had disobeyed God and they had dishonored God. And so they brought shame on God and so judgment came and they were cast out of the presence of God. Imagine if you badly dishonored your family.

What would happen? Would you would be cast out. That’s the picture we have in the book of Genesis. Adam and Eve and their children and all mankind since, have been living as “cast out of God’s presence. “This is what followers of Jesus believe. And ever since that time man has wanted to get things right with God.

What is interesting is that Moses teaches us that perfection was lost. That’s what all religions around the world are trying to do. They are trying to restore some sort of relationship with God that was at the beginning.

So Moses tells us that we live in a world under judgment. This world is full of sin its full of evil. Evil people do evil things. People all around us are disobeying God.

I like to think of a picture of a school playground. The children are in the playground and the teacher tells the students, you can go out and play now in the yard, but you must stay within the fence. Maybe half the kids will stay in the fence, but some of them will want to go to the other side of the fence. And they will try to convince the others that it is more fun to play in fields, or to play in the forest, or to go out and play on the road. They have been told not to, but the teacher hasn’t necessarily told them why. Just don’t go beyond the fence. So some kids will ask why, what’s wrong, it’s more fun, and so forth.

That is what is happening in the world today. God has set limits for us, but people are rebelling against God, and going beyond the limits that he has set. And it is not just doing things. Jesus brought a message that … it was quite a shocking message… he told us, if you even look at woman to lust after her, you have committed adultery with her in your heart. You can sin in your mind, not just in your outward actions.

You see humans all over the world struggle with rebellion, rebellion against God, rebellion against authority, rebellion against people and parents. We are not just good people, we are always rebelling. So all these religions have started up to deal with this issue; and all of them fail. None of them will bring you to a relationship with God: even Islam. Islam does not present a solution to this problem of being cast out from God’s presence.

Muhammad told us about Paradise. It was a place filled with food, women, song, wine … all the things that our physical bodies could want, even things that are outside of God’s fence as it were. (Qur’an 40 Sura al-Ghafir)

And I have asked Muslims, all over the world: Will you be the same person in paradise as you are here? Does anything much change, or is it only our surroundings that change? And everyone tells me it is just the surroundings. So that miserable uncle of mine is going to be the same miserable person in Paradise, except he will have all these distractions, and so hopefully he is happy there.

That is very different from what Jesus teaches us. He told us that there will be no sex in heaven. He tells us that we will be like the angels. (Gospel of Matthew 22:30)

That is because there is a huge difference between the Muslim Paradise and the heaven that Jesus described. Heaven, for the followers of Jesus, is where God lives. And God is inviting us into the very presence of God, and into a restored Eden. That is what Christians believe. That is what Christianity teaches.

But how can we go if we are these awful, miserable people? We are always drawn to evil and dark things. Listen, The Bible tells us that the followers of Jesus will be changed. In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, we will be change. (I Corinthians 15:50-52) And what the Bible calls the ‘Old Man’ will be cast off, and the ‘New Man’ will take over, so we will be changed inside, and in our minds; the renewing of our minds. That is what Christianity teaches. That is what it is all about.

But being a follower of Jesus is not enough. It is not enough to just read the gospels and agree with them. There is something deeper.

In the last video we had a look at the concept of blood sacrifice and substitutionary death. Let’s review that for a moment. When Adam and Eve, and all of mankind rebelled against God, we ended up in a position of shame before God.

If you very badly shame your family, it would probably result in you being cast out, or possibly death. This is what the Bible teaches us. It says: “The Wages of Sin is Death.” (Romans 6:23) And so you and I will die without seeing God. We will live our lives in the awful world full of rebellious and evil people, under the judgment of God. That is why there is so much suffering in the world. That is why children are born with disabilities. It is not their fault specifically, they just happened to be born in this awful world, which is under judgment of God.

And because you are in that terrible situation, you cannot rescue yourself. You can’t go to God and state your case, because he has barred the way. All the religions of the world fail here, because they are simply trying to invent ways to deal with the situation. Maybe they say, you are born and then you are reborn and then you are reborn, or something. They all come up with different ways. .. Sometimes people come up with these. Sometimes Satan tricks people into thinking that they have some special knowledge, or they have invented, or they hear something new approach.

New religions are invented all the time. But all religions fail because they are man-made religions, or because Satan has deluded someone into thinking that they are hearing from God, or this is some new truth. That is what makes it so hard to find the truth.

Jesus told us that the way to destruction, the way to hell is wide, but the way to truth is narrow and few find it. But he encouraged us to knock, to seek, to try to find. He said: You will find it if you seek it with all of your heart. (Matthew 7:7)

That means going against the flow. That means being different than just about everyone else. Being scorned at, being and laughed at. It means accepting God’s solution and not some other solution. You see, we cannot help ourselves. There is nothing we can do to remove the shame and bring ourselves back into God’s presence. But God makes a way. It is there for those who seek it and find it. It doesn’t matter what label they have, or what religion they are under. It only matters if they have accepted God’s way over other ways. You see, only God can provide a way for our shame and guilt and our fear to be removed. That is why Jesus is more than a prophet.

When Jesus died, our shame was laid on him. That is why they beat him, and spit on him, that’s why they mocked him. He was taking our shame. That is why he hung naked on a cross. That is why the sky turned dark and why he cried out in agony, Allohi Allohi, lema Sabachtini. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Gospel of Mark 15:34) He was crying out in agony as our guilt and our shame and our fears were all laid on him. And he took them to the grave, and there they were buried and dealt with.

You see, only those people, who accept his death as a substitute for their shame and guilt, only those people can claim the death and shed blood of Jesus as their way to God.

If you have accepted Jesus’ death on the cross for payment for your evil ways, then you are set free. It is something we experience partially here; it is something we experience in full, when we die; and are set free from this awful world… in a moment we are changed, in the twinkling of an eye.

Islam asks you to become a slave of God, and to work, work, work at your religion. Pray more. Give more, Go on pilgrimage, do things. Islam tells you that when you die, the book written by the two angles will be judged on the weigh scale. But in the end God can do whatever he pleases.

This is not in the Bible. God does not have to decide whether to let you into heaven or not. That is already decided. It was decided way back in the Garden of Eden when our ancestors rejected God. Judgment came on them and on all of us.

No amount of praying, no amount of fasting or good works can ever do anything to get you into heaven. (Ephesians 2:9) Judgment has already been past. Every human being on the face of this earth is destined for hell; unless they accept God’s way. The only way out is to find the way of escape, and that comes through Jesus Christ.

So we started with the question. Are not Islam and Christianity the same thing? As I have explained Christianity, I think if you are a Muslim you will say, NO! They are not the same. They are very different from each other. They are as different as far as the east is from the west. They are completely different. Islam tells us, submit and try harder, work harder, pray more, memorize, do things. Jesus calls us to give up; stop trying; and accept his payment. There is redemption, but only through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross so many years ago.

For thousands of years people sacrificed animals shedding blood, and looked forward to Gods solution, and now, for the last two thousand years people have looked back to the blood shed on the cross as provision that was made for them.

Unfortunately, there are so many people who do not want to live within the boundaries that God has made for us. And some of them even call themselves Christians. But they have not accepted the provision of Jesus death, and they live in continued rebellion to him. Please do not reject Jesus because so many people use his name but still live in rebellion against God. How sad.

There are lots of ways we can compare the organized religions of Islam and Christianity. Maybe we might even say, oh, they are all very much the same. But this is not about organized religion. This is about you and your relationship with God.

So to those who have written in, and have stated that the three monotheistic religions are basically all the same, please reconsider your position. They are not the same. Most Muslims believe that Christians are probably going to hell. I discovered that in the Middle East. They said: You are on your way to hell! Did you know that the followers of Jesus believe that anyone who does not trust in the shed blood of Jesus is also going to hell?

So Muslims say: You are going to hell. And followers of Jesus say: Well, you are going to hell unless you accept.

There is no coming judgment to decide if you are good enough for heaven. That was already decided back in the Garden of Eden. You are not. So Islam is totally different from the teaching of Jesus. I hope this answers your questions and explains the difference between the two faiths.

So I have presented the archeological evidence that I have gathered, and we can discuss it more in the Q&A that come up and hopefully your emails keep coming in. Please send me emails with questions. I apologize to those I have not answered yet. I have about 140 emails, and I am working my way down through the list, but people keep writing in, and so some are being answered, and new ones are arriving.

And so please accept my apologies. I do read every email that comes, and I try to figure out, and I try to answer back. And so we will deal with some of those, for now we are getting the same questions. Just like in this video, lots of people saying “What’s the big deal, Aren’t they all the same? And I have tried to answer that here.

And now we are going to take those, and deal with those in Questions and Answers. And deal with that. And we will also look at actual Qiblas and maybe some other videos along the way as I deal with critiques, ah, people who have come along and criticized what I have said and tried to argue against it. There are some good answers that can be given there. So some new videos will be coming up over the next months.

I am Dan Gibson, and this has been another video in the series Archeology and Islam.