Kreeft on Islam

  • Thread starter Thread starter Maranatha
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Maranatha

Guest
This is an outtake from Kreeft’s Comparison of Christianity and Islam.

The three crucial Christian doctrines Islam denies are the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Resurrection. Like Judaism, Islam denies Christ’s claim to divinity. Allah is one; so how could He be three? Jesus is human; so how could He be divine? “It is unfitting for Allah to have a son,” wrote Mohammed, apparently interpreting sonship biologically.

The Koran believes in Christ’s virgin birth, but not His resurrection; in His prophetic function (teaching) but not His priestly function (salvation) or His kingly function (ruling); in His moral authority but not His supernatural authority. To Moslems, as with Jews, Christ is the stumbling block. The theology of God the Father and the ethics of human living are essentially the same for Jews, Christians and Moslems. What then is missing? Aren’t these the two essentials?

No. What’s missing is the link between the two, the “missing link,” Christ the Mediator between God and man. Mohammed and the Koran are essentially another Moses (lawgiver) and another law. What’s missing is grace, salvation, redemption. What’s missing is precisely the essential thing.
 
40.png
Maranatha:
Do you have an opinion on the article?
Click to expand...
I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be a pain–I guess it just seems so obvious to me that Kreeft has said all that I wouldn’t know what to add or how to critique his article except to say that I completely agree with it. 😃
 
40.png
Maranatha:
This is an outtake from Kreeft’s Comparison of Christianity and Islam.

The three crucial Christian doctrines Islam denies are the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Resurrection. Like Judaism, Islam denies Christ’s claim to divinity. Allah is one; so how could He be three? Jesus is human; so how could He be divine? “It is unfitting for Allah to have a son,” wrote Mohammed, apparently interpreting sonship biologically.
Click to expand...
  • Islam doesn’t deny Resurrection, unless you’re talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then yes of course we deny his resurrection because we believe he didn’t die in the first place to be resurrected. He was raised alive to Heaven. We believe that Jesus’ role on earth is not done yet, Allah (swt) will send him again to earth to spread peace and to kill the anti-Christ (Al-Dajjal) with Allah’s permission. After that he’ll die. and will be resurrected with the rest of us on the day of Judgment.
  • Muhammad pbuh, didn’t write the Qur’an, the companions did, in his lifetime.
  • He says “apparently interpreting sonship biologically”. 1- You claim the trinity is a mystery, howcome suddenly you know it is not biologically, but in essence. 2- This is what the Bible claims, it’s not Muhammad’s claim.
(Genesis 5:4) “And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years…”.

(Judges 8:30) “And Gideon had threescore and ten sons of his body begotten: for he had many wives”

(John 3:16) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son…”

Open any dictionary and tell me what the word begotten means.

"be·get [bi gét]
(past be·got [bi gót], past participle be·got·ten [bi gótt’n] or be·got [bi gót], present participle be·get·ting, 3rd person present singular be·gets)
transitive verb
  1. father: to be the father of a child (archaic)
  2. cause: to be the cause of something
Beget: cause, bring about, produce, lead to, result in, end in, make happen, create."

Whether you like it or not, that is the meaning of the word Begotten. You don’t accept this meaning then replace it with another word that fits your belief. I know christians who replace the word “Begotten” with “Unique”. And some versions of the Bible even remove the whole Word.

Revised Standard Version (RSV) "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

New Internation Version (NIV)** “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”**

This is not the only place where “only begotten son” is changed to “only son”. The modern versions do the same thing in the following verses: (John 1:14), (John 1:18), (John 3:18), (1John 4:9)

Here is what The Qur’an Says, This is surah (chapter) 112

**"Say (O Muhammad): "He is Allâh, (the) One, “Allâhu Samad (The Self-Sufficient Master)”, “He begets not, nor was He begotten; “And there is none co-equal or comparable unto Him”” ** (Qur’an surah 112)
40.png
Maranatha:
The Koran believes in Christ’s virgin birth, but not His resurrection; in His prophetic function (teaching) but not His priestly function (salvation) or His kingly function (ruling); in His moral authority but not His supernatural authority. To Moslems, as with Jews, Christ is the stumbling block. The theology of God the Father and the ethics of human living are essentially the same for Jews, Christians and Moslems. What then is missing? Aren’t these the two essentials?

No. What’s missing is the link between the two, the “missing link,” Christ the Mediator between God and man. Mohammed and the Koran are essentially another Moses (lawgiver) and another law. What’s missing is grace, salvation, redemption. What’s missing is precisely the essential thing.
Click to expand...
The laws given by God are the grace, the salvation and the mercy for every human soul. Infact, thats how atheists argue, that we arrived to the laws that we have today by trial and error.

If one claims that the Qur’an contains a bunch of laws and that’s it, then he knows nothing about the Qur’an.

**“Verily, We did send down the Taurât (Torah) [to Mûsa (Moses)], therein was guidance and light…” ** (Qur’an 5:44)

**“And in their footsteps, We sent 'Iesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary), confirming the Taurât (Torah) that had come before him, and We gave him the Injeel (Gospel), in which was guidance and light and confirmation of the Taurât (Torah) that had come before it, a guidance and an admonition for Al-Muttaqûn (the pious)” ** (Qur’an 5:46)

"Certainly, We have brought to them a Book (the Qur’ân) which We have explained in detail with knowledge, - a guidance and a mercy to a people who believe" (Qur’an 7:52)

Peace
 
The words in the original Greek are monogenes huios. There are no direct equivalent words in English with the exact same meaning. While the translation of the words can be “only son”, it loses the underlying meaning of uniqueness that monogenes actually means. Earlier English translations used begotten to try to signify the uniqueness. It’s interesting to note that the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament uses this word monogenes when God tells Abraham to sacrifice his “only begotten son” or “only son” Isaac. We know Abraham was also father to Ishmael, so obviously the “only son” meaning of the word monogenes has a different significance. God’s “Only Son” also has a very different significance.

You surely understand this problem as Muslims say the Koran is only the Koran in its original Arabic and that English translations are not equivalent. The Catholic Church says the inerrancy of scripture applies only to the originals as well. That’s why English language versions can differ in their attempts to accurately reflect the original language copies that are available. The language translation problem is certainly not a valid reason to claim that scripture has been changed. It is also one reason why private interpretation of the scriptures can be a very dangerous thing.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top