The ultimate goals of Christianity and Islam couldn't be more different. The goal of Islam is fundamentally submission to Allah: Islam means submission to God, and a Muslim is one who submits. While Christianity teaches that Christians should submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the ultimate aim of Christianity is the knowledge of God: "This is eternal life, that they may know you the one true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17:3) Redemption, reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ, is the necessary stepping stone to attaining the knowledge of God. In fact, "mere forgiveness" without the knowledge of God corresponds to the stage of "a little child" (1 John 2:12-14) Sins are forgiven, but new converts are expected to grow into fathers, "who know Him who has been from the beginning." This intimate knowledge of God, grounded in the Truth, which is Christ Himself, leads to "sincere worship." (John 4:23-24) Christ presumed that true worship is based on genuine knowledge, for "we worship what we know." (John 4:22) False worship, by contrast, is adherence to beliefs and traditions not grounded in the Truth. In the case of Islam, "worship" is submission to an unknowable god called Allah. Indeed, the demand to submit to a god who cannot be known should alert Muslims to the nefarious presence informing Islam. Interestingly, Mohammed himself thought he was demon-possessed after his violent encounter with an "angel of light"-- Gabriel.
Worshipping in the Shadow of Allah’s Absolute Will
Given the philosophical agnosticism of Islam, how does the average Muslim approach Allah, who is unknowable? Really, the only thing that Muslims know for certain about Allah is that His will is absolute. He may or may not act according to the names that describe Him in the Quran, but everything that happens comes about because He wills it, hence the fatalistic outlook that colors much of Islam. Allah's will is absolute, and nothing, not even the "free choices" of men can alter it. Allah wills both good and evil, and every "choice" of man is willed and fated by Allah. According to one hadith (tradition of the Prophet), Adam tells Moses that his rebellion was God's will, and the "fall" wasn't his fault. A common interjection in everyday speech today in Saudi Arabia is "enshallah," meaning "if Allah wills." These examples underscore the fatalistic outlook of many Muslims who approach the unknowable Allah through the only sure thing to describe Him, His absolute will. So, what would be the Muslim take on Parmenides' assertion, "whatever is..is?" Probably something like, "Whatever Allah wills..will be."
Allah and Yahweh Don’t Will the Same
If none of Allah's attributes/actions point to His essence, what, if anything, describes Who He is? God's absolute will, one that wills everything in the universe, seems to be the unifying principle of this unknowable god. Both good and evil are directly willed by Allah. Surah 32:13 states that Allah could have willed salvation, but chose damnation for many. He wills belief and unbelief and creates the sin of the latter. The creeds of Islam portray the will of Allah as absolute--nothing in the universe can will contrary to his will. The Biblical description of Yahweh and Jesus Christ requires a distinction between God's perfect will and His permissive will. "God is not willing that any should perish but that all come into repentance" (2 Peter 3:9) communicates God's PERFECT will. While He only wills the good, He nevertheless PERMITS men and angels to will contrary to His own. Yahweh's will is not absolute in the above sense, for it allows choices contrary to His will. This permissive will underscores the essential goodness of the Christian God, One who would draw His creatures to freely choose Him out of genuine love for Him. He is not so insecure that He is threatened by any being in the universe that wills contrary to His will. The self-limiting permissive will of God, grounded in His loving essence (1 John 4:8) "risks" the rebellion of other wills, while He woos them with His essential goodness. Allah and Jesus Christ couldn't be more different. The episode also addresses common questions regarding God's sovereignty and God's "hardening of Pharaoh's heart."
Christianity and Islam: Starting Points and Goals
This episode contrasts Christianity with Islam in the themes of sin, salvation and ultimate goals. Muslims believe that all people are born without a propensity to sin (original sin) but are corrupted by the world when they engage in idolatry. Salvation then is renouncing idolatry by embracing Islam, the goal of which is submission to Allah. Christianity by contrast insists all mankind is born predisposed against God and the knowledge of God, and pursues a life of idolatry as a result of his rejection of the knowledge of God. (Romans 1:18-25) In salvation, the Christian repents of self-idolatry, putting his faith in Christ as the sin substitute who bore his sin and gave him His righteousness. He receives a new heart in regeneration, one that delights in the knowledge of God, as the Holy Spirit progressively conforms him into the image [knowledge] of Christ. Both Christianity and Islam renounce idolatry and promote total submission to God, but the starting points and end goals are very different, largely based on acceptance/rejection of original sin and the knowability of God Himself.
The Unknowable God of Islam
This episode unpacks the implications of Islamic agnosticism. Since Allah is wholly other, and even descriptions of His attributes in the Quran don't point to His essence (notwithstanding Sunni repackaging of Tahwid), Muslims are called to worship an unknowable god. Consequently the Quran is a guide for Muslims containing descriptions of what God does divorced from what He is. The 99 names of Allah, for instance, reveals sometimes contradictory attributes of God based on what He does, but this is not a problem since Allah's "wholly other" essence is not informed by His attributes. The episode also cites the Sufi mystical alternative, which seeks to get around the agnostic problem in Islam.
Islam on a Collision Course with Itself: the Quran
The God of Islam is so radically transcendent that nothing in the created order points to His essence. In the words of Surah 112, "there is none like unto Him," and this core doctrine of Tahwid insists on one eternal indivisible God who has no partners. This fundamental doctrine of Islam nevertheless contradicts the orthodox belief of Sunni Muslims, that the Quran itself is also eternal. If the speech of God in the Quran is also eternal and not created, then Tahwid is compromised and contradicted, the singular eternal indivisible God has a partner (shirk), His own eternal speech recorded in the Quran. Tawhid impales itself on an eternal Quran based on Allah's inflexible "oneness." Ironically, the answer to this intractable problem in Islam is the Christian God: God the Father and God the Son are both eternal. The Son is the eternal Word of God, the Logos who is one in essence with God the Father, yet a distinct person in the godhead. Orthodox Sunni Islam is self-contradictory: 1) The Quran is eternal, 2) Tahwid is true, and 3) Allah's attributes in the Quran describe His essence, contradicting Tahwid.
An Opening Primer on Allah
This and the next 10 episodes contrast the god of Islam with that of Christianity. The program begins with an excerpt from the popular biography of Mohammed by Ibn Ishaq, describing his initial encounter with the angel Gabriel. Mohammed purportedly received divine revelation that was later written in the Quran. Divided into 114 surahs, or chapters, the Quran presents a description of Allah (god) that differs significantly from the Christian God. Surah 112 captures the differences, affirming that Allah "begetteth not" and there is "none like unto him." The former description posits that no distinct persons exist in the "godhead," and even the word "godhead" is inappropriate. Christianity of course affirms the Trinity, and that Christ is a distinct person in the godhead. The second description, that there is "none like unto him" contends that Allah is so radically transcendent that nothing in the created order describes his essence. Christianity also affirms a transcendent God, but nevertheless insists that creation points to His essence, Romans 1:20 noting "for since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made.."
The Spirit Makes Fellowship Possible
This episode addresses some of the "positive" attributes of the Holy Spirit, all of which presume the personhood of the Spirit. As stated in previous episodes, Jews and Christians disagree over the Spirit as a distinct person in the godhead. The last program emphasized that salvation depends on the personal attributes of the Spirit. Fellowship of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:14) is the natural bond that develops among all believers who are born of the Spirit and placed into the body of Christ by that very same Spirit. They connect based on the Spirit's work of conforming them into the image of Christ, and consequently genuine fellowship of the Spirit is possible: "one body and one Spirit..one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." (Ephesians 4:4-5) This mutual partaking of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) and the "fellowship of the Spirit" makes possible the "mind of Christ" that eagerly and unselfishly gives based on this overflowing Spirit. (Philippians 2:1-2) The fellowship of the Spirit connects the millions of Holy Spirit-dwelt temples as they aim for the mind of Christ. John similarly concludes in 1 John 1:7: "as we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another.." The "fellowship of the Spirit' then is clearly a manifestation of the personality of the Holy Spirit.
The Personhood of the Triune God Really Matters
This episode spells out the superior age of the Spirit inaugurated by Christ, and it is all predicated on the personality of the Holy Spirit which Jews deny. Christ contrasted the best of the prior age in the person of John the Baptist with "the least in the kingdom of God." The least among partakers of the New Covenant in Christ are greater than the best of the Old covenant. (Matthew 11:11) Christ inaugurated the New Covenant in His blood, and the Holy Spirit applies the Covenant to the world, convicting people of sin, righteousness and judgment leading to repentance and faith in Christ. (John 16:8-11)(1 Corinthians 12:3) When one is subsequently born again, he partakes of the divine nature, becoming a temple of the very personal Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:4) Conviction, repentance, faith and regeneration all involve the PERSONAL role of the Holy Spirit. It naturally follows that rejection of the PERSON and role of the Holy Spirit, who applies the New Covenant of Christ to the unregenerate, results in condemnation. No one comes to the Father except through Christ (John 14:6), and no one calls Jesus Lord except through the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:3 Salvation then presumes the personal involvement of each member of the Trinity aimed at reconciling the world back to that Triune God. Isaiah 48:16 says "the Lord God has sent Me [the Messiah}, and His Spirit." The singular essence and salvific purpose of the godhead consequently requires that rejection of either the Son or the Spirit MEANS rejection of the Father who sent them. For this reason, Christians and Jews (who reject Christ and the Holy Spirit) do not believe in the same God.
The Holy Spirit is Clearly a Person
This episode expounds on the testimony of the personhood of the Holy Spirit from the New Testament. While Jews affirm the deity of the Holy Spirit, they deny that the Spirit is a distinct person of the godhead, mostly claiming that references to the Holy Spirit are simply manifestations of God. But this "manifestation" rubric doesn't adequately do justice to the clear personal qualities attributed to the Holy Spirit, who can be lied to (Acts 5:3), tested (Acts 5:9), resisted (Acts 7:51), insulted (Hebrews 10:29), grieved (Ephesians 4:30), and blasphemed (Matthew 12:32). Rejection of the distinct personhood of the Holy Spirit therefore means that Jews do not believe in the same God as Christians.