Everything Satan Does is a Mockery of God - Part 2 - The Poison of Islam

 I introduced this topic in my last post, which you can read here if you want to. I suggest that you do so if you haven't already just so you can follow my full line of thought in this series. I think what this series is going to point out is that, in this world of preached (though seldom actually enacted) tolerance, there is a belief that every religion points and leads to the same God. This is not the case. In this series of articles, I am going to tackle how the two largest world religions, Roman Catholicism and Islam, are both contrary to the beliefs that I hold to as they are presented in the Bible, which I will simplify to merely call Protestantism.

The single largest drawback that I can think of for Protestantism in the world, is that there are a lot of differences in dogma through many different sects of Protestantism. The basic fundamentals are the same; God the Father created everything through Jesus the Son (Genesis 1-2, John 1), God pursued mankind and gave His Law to the people group that He chose to use in order to show Himself to the world (Exodus 20-23, 25, 28-29, etc), God later provided His own propitiatory sacrifice to take the place of the Temple sacrifice (all four New Testament gospels and explained throughout the New Testament), and the Saviour is coming again to claim His dominion over the earth and prepare for the coming of the Father (Revelation). These are the main claims of any legitimate (and many illegitimate) Protestant congregations.

In contrast, under the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) and Islam, there is generally a large, overarching church structure, under which the tenets of the faith are commanded and enforced, giving the illusion of unity under the banner of the church or mosque, as it were. This appears to give an air of authority and veracity to these two religions, but it does not actually verify their validity under the God (or god) that they claim to worship.

In this article, I will be focusing on Islam, it's claims to legitimacy and how the claims and rituals are actually a mimicry and mockery of that which the One True God had already previously instituted. These mimicries are intended to give legitimacy to the "new religion" that is being offered to the people, but as I pointed out in my introduction to this series, Paul points out that any religion that is contrary to that which we received from Jesus, as delivered by the apostles, is worship that is being offered to a demon (1 Corinthians 10:20; "No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons.").

Islam is not an old religion; it is actually fairly young. It is younger than Christianity by about 700 years and it is younger than Judaism by millennia. Apparently, this is not a well known fact. Islam came into existence in the 7th century AD; AD referring to the Latin phrase "Anno Domini", which means "in the year of our Lord". We are currently in the year 2026 Anno Domini, meaning that it has been 2026 years since the year that Jesus our Lord came in His first incarnation on the earth, though it was later determined that this date was miscalculated by about 3-4 years. Since the religious sect of Christianity began shortly after Jesus' death and resurrection at 33 years of age, and since Islam was founded in the 7th century after the birth of our Lord, Islam is notably younger than Christianity; and Christianity is notably younger than Judaism. Judaism is the original religion established by God among the Jews, with the laws, rituals and statutes set by God Himself; though the Jewish scholars have added many rules since.

Islam makes many indirect claims to legitimacy through bloodlines and rituals, but it's claims fall like dominoes under scrutiny. Since Islam sets itself as contrary to Christianity in it's beliefs, we have to assume, under the authority of the Bible, that Islam is a religion designed to worship a demon and draw humanity away from God. So I view these indirect claims as manipulations to try to give legitimacy to this false religion. So let's look at some of the claims and mimicry that we find in Islam.

First, Muhammad claims that Arabian Muslims are descended from Abraham through Abrahams's son Ishmael. There is as much of a possibility of this being accurate as there is of this being inaccurate. It is true that, just like Jacob (Israel), Ishmael also had twelve sons and became a mighty nation; the Bible tells us this much in Genesis 25:12-18. It is also true that Ishmael's sons eventually settled in the the area of Arabia, but many other people groups settled there as well. It is a possibility that Muslim Arabs are descended from Ishmael, but there is quite a bit of push back against that theory, and I do not know of any undeniable proof, through genetic testing or otherwise, that backs this claim. This does not mean that it doesn't exist; it is just outside my realm of knowledge.

This claim of ancestry from Abraham is an attempt to gain legitimacy. But even if the claim turns out to be true, let's examine how Ishmael come into existence and what God says about the descendants of Isaac versus those of Ishmael.

In Genesis 15 God explicitly promises Abraham (at that point still called Abram) that he will have a son and that he will be the father of many nations. At this point, Abram is getting old as is his wife Sarai (later renamed Sarah), and they fret about how God will make His promise come about. As a result, they take matters into their own hands and Sarai gives her maidservant Hagar to Abram to have a child with (Genesis 16). There is tension in the household when Hagar becomes pregnant and she runs away from the mistreatment that she receives from Sarai due to Sarai's jealousy.

When Hagar is in the wilderness, the Angel of the Lord, finds her and speaks to her, saying, "I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.” 11 The angel of the Lord said to her further, “Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man,
His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him; And he will live to the east of all his brothers.” (Genesis 16:10-12). As we look further in the story line, in Genesis 21:12-13, we see God talking to Abraham about Ishmael; "But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named. ¹³ And of the son of the maid I will make a nation also, because he is your descendant."

So we see that Ishmael will also be the father of nations, but that he will be a violent man who will have conflict with those all around him. To me, this seems to align most closely with the Palestinians, who are Muslim and who have a centuries old hatred for the Israelis and who don't seem to get along with most people groups, but I don't know that they descend from the Ishmael. But the point is that, though God promised to make a nation of Ishmael, he will not be blessed in the way that Isaac and his descendants will be. So the Muslim claim to Abrahamic lineage is grasping across time and prophecy in order to grasp a blessing and a legitimacy that I don't think are there to grasp. 

In contrast let's look at the promises made to Jacob (Israel), the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. Jacob's name was later changed to Israel and this name is used to refer to his offspring to this very day, so any reference to promises to the person Israel also apply to the nation of Israel. Very quickly, we see that God promises to make Israel a great nation with many descendants (Genesis 46); God promised Jacob (Israel) to provide a land for him (Deuteronomy 1:8); God repeatedly promises a regathering of Israel when He scatters them due to disobedience (Jeremiah 16, Isaiah 11); God promises to renew the hearts of Israel and draw them to Him (Ezekiel 36); and God promises to protect Israel and to maintain them through calamities (Isaiah 54, Zechariah 2:5). This is just a small collection of the the promises that God made to Israel, but these are far greater than the promises that God made to Hagar about Ishmael. Even if Muslims are descended from Abraham, they are not children of the promise of God as the Israelites are.

Next, the Prophet Muhammad claims to have received the revelation of Islam from the Biblical angel Gabriel while he was in a cave. As I stated in my previous article, "This is the same angel that announced to Daniel, Zechariah and Mary the things that God wanted them to understand." So even though many facets of Muslim Sharia Law are in opposition to the Bible and the very nature of God, Muhammad wants to claim the same authority of the Bible by claiming that the tenets of Islam came from the messenger angel Gabriel, meaning that the message came from God Himself, and by implication, that Allah and Yahweh are one and the same. We are to believe that God has instituted two separate and contrary religions, both in order to worship Him in different ways. This is completely illogical, but the Muslims have an explanation for this too.

It is the Muslim belief that, while the Word of God that was given to the Jews was actually God breathed, it has been corrupted over the years by mankind in order to achieve their own goals, and that the Quran was given to Muhammad in order to "correct the record". Somehow, the Quran has escaped alteration due to the corruption of man when the Bible did not. The Quran does not state specific instances where the Bible has been corrupted, it merely states that the corruption exists, so it would be up to each Muslim to determine what parts of the Bible are still accurate and what parts are not accurate. In this way, while Islam claims to respect "The Book", at the same time they outright reject everything that it says.

 

This is why when a Christian is talking with a Muslim, the Muslim cannot accept the Bible as a proof of theology; by presenting to Muslims that the Bible has been corrupted, Satan has blunted most arguments against Islam, leaving Muslims blinded by their own beliefs. Thankfully, Jesus is not hindered by this intellectual trap, and has been appearing to Muslims in the middle east for decades and proclaiming Himself to them on an individual basis. 

 

As Christians, we have in our very Scriptures the assurance that the message of the Word of God will always persist. The prophet Isaiah says in chapter 40 verse 8 that, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”; and the Psalmist writes in Psalm 119:89, “Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.”. As time has progressed, there have been new discoveries that have actually affirmed that the Bible that we have today is still accurate; the latest huge discovery was when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and compared to the modern Bible. The accuracy of the newer translations held up under scrutiny, confirming the very Word of God.

 

Different legitimate translations of the Bible will slightly alter the impact of the Word, but legitimate translations will not affect the Truth of the Word. I will say here that, more and more, there are some versions of the Bible that outright alter and intentionally corrupt the Word and these versions need to be avoided and preferably destroyed. For example, there are Bibles out there right now that are gender neutral, LGBT+++ affirming and even some that give God female pronouns. These are absolute corruptions, and there are more, but I can't get into that here.

 

For the sake of brevity, I will quickly run through some things that Islam mandates that have also been a part of Judaism for centuries. While imitation is the highest form of flattery, in the matter of religious dogmas that are invented centuries later, it is also a tool of deception to imply legitimacy. 

Islam mandates that Muslims face Mecca when they pray; this is similar to a Jewish practice of facing Israel, Jerusalem or the Temple, depending on proximity, when they pray as well. This was seen in the book of Daniel where he opened his window facing Jerusalem when he prayed to God. Also, in Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the first Temple, he prayed, "When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain, because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin when You afflict them, 36 then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and of Your people Israel" (1 Kings 8:35-36a).

Both religions view Jerusalem as a holy site, however, in Islam it is the third most holy site, while for Judaism it is the holy city; but it appears that Jerusalem was actually the first direction that Muslims were instructed to pray towards, until a supposed later revelation came to Muhammad wherein Mecca was to be the most holy site to pray towards. Why the change? Was it perhaps that Israel was too strong to overcome in order for Muslims to possess Jerusalem, and did it possibly have anything to do with Mecca being the birthplace of Muhammad? That would be a cynical view, wouldn't it? But is it wrong? Yet Jerusalem is still highly esteemed in Islam as it is believed to be the place where an angel transported Muhammad and also where he later claimed to ascend to Heaven, much like Jesus did beforehand. The Dome of the Rock is actually located on this very spot in Jerusalem; right where the Jewish Temple used to be. This sure seems like more assumption of previous miraculous stories and locations from the Bible in order to assert legitimacy.

 

Both Islam and Judaism, and Christianity for that matter, share the belief that there is only one God. Islam claims that there is only one God, period; Judaism recognizes the Spirit of God, but He is not recognized as a separate person of God; Christianity proclaims the Triune Godhead, with God existing in three distinct persons; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, all working under the same spirit with differing roles to fulfill (greatly simplified). For this reason Judaism and Islam both absolutely reject any validity to the Christian faith because neither can grasp that God would have an un-created Son and present Himself in multiple persons.

Both Judaism and Islam believe that God speaks to mankind through prophets. Judaism views the prophet Malachi as the last prophet to have come from God; that was 400 years before Jesus came and over 2400 years ago. Islam views Jesus as a prophet, but they also believe that every prophet that comes supersedes the one before, so since Muhammad came 700 years after Jesus, anything that Muhammad said overrides anything that Jesus said. If there is not conflict between the two, then the words of Jesus stand. While Jews view a prophet as one who speaks for God but does not alter the teachings of God, this is in direct conflict with the role of Muslim prophets, who not only speak for God but who will also alter previous teachings that are supposedly from God. This also appears to give the appearance that the God of Judaism is unchanging, while the god of Islam does change. Another thing to note is that while Jesus is viewed as having been a prophet, Muslims reject Jesus' own claims of deity because Muhammad rejects them. So apparently according to their own doctrine, a prophet can be wrong.

Both religions have dietary restrictions, one of which that is shared is a prohibition on the consumption of pork. Both religions have rules about the handling and preparation of certain foods and also certain food prohibitions during certain festivals and religious celebrations. Islamic approved foods and preparations are referred to as being halal, while Jewish approved foods and preparations are called kosher. Christianity has not such restrictions.

Prayer is an important part of the religious life of both Jews and Muslims. Jews pray three times a day according to their rules and Muslims pray five times a day according to their rules. Muslims are also required to wash their feet prior to praying. I don't know if the additional prayers of Muslims is intended to portray a greater holiness than Jews have, essentially an improvement over what existed earlier, but I wouldn't doubt it that was Satan's rationale behind the idea. It is also possible that Satan just needs the acknowledgement due to a low sense of self esteem.

Peace is claimed to be a central theme of both religions, though Jews and Muslims go about attaining it in different ways. Both religions have a similar greeting that is shared among observers, which wishes peace upon the other, but as one reads through the teachings of Islam, as Muhammad became increasingly more of a war lord, the teachings of peace subsided and the teachings of forced servitude of non-Muslims gained priority. Muslims are taught that it is not only okay, but even desirable to forcibly convert others to Islam, including using the threat of death to accomplish this. Muslims are to offer three choices to those whom they conquer; the infidel may pay a tax to Islam and will be allowed to live and to even practice their own religion, the infidel may convert to Islam, or the Muslim has permission to kill the infidel that refuses both of these two options. Also, Muslims are allowed to lie to non-Muslims for any reason as long as it is seen to advance the cause of Islam, but they are not allowed to lie to each other.

And finally, both religions measure the passage of time in similar manners. They both recognize that the day begins and ends at sunset rather than at dawn or midnight. Also, both religions measure time according to the lunar calendar, rejecting the Gregorian calendar that most of the rest of the world uses.

 

So we see from the above uncomprehensive list that Islam has, as part of it's very fabric, numerous things that are derived from Judaism, in particular. Judaism is not the oldest religion in the world. In fact, it really only came about through the Law given to Moses, which was arguably in the neighbourhood of about 2000+ years after creation. There were many other pagan religions that existed before Judaism and which have been developed since Judaism. So one has to wonder why there are so many similarities between the two, while still bearing distinctions from each other.

It is my belief and my premise in this article that Satan, or one of his demons, is the author and designer of Islam. As God is the only creator, He created the one true religion, which is the very foundation of Christianity; anything else is a forgery. The purpose behind any forgery is to copy an original to such an extent that one cannot distinguish the true creation from the forgery. In the matter of currency or art, this results in monetary gain for the forger. In the matter of religion, this results in not only worship being directed to the forger, but also the ultimately desired affect of drawing mankind away from the Creator God that loves and cherishes His creation.

It is God's strongest desire that mankind will choose to love and follow Him and His handbook for our lives, but He also gave us the free will to choose not to do so. It is not fair for mankind that there are so many religious forgeries out there that confuse and misdirect mankind towards eternal destruction rather than eternal life. God makes Himself known to us in myriad ways and we can come to understand His heart and His ways by reading His Word to us. Satan has figured out that man is easily fooled by offering an alternative that is presented as an offering to the One God while it is anything but. He is leading too many people away from God through the clever use of a forgery, mocking God in the rituals and taking from God that which He desires most.