Answering Islam's Common Objections to Christianity by Sam Shamoun

[Music] hello my name is Mohammad Farida from destination ministry today I have with me Sam Shamoon from answering Islam and we are going to discuss about very important topics in regard of Islam and answering Muslim objection to Christianity I hope you enjoy Sam would you tell us why is it important to be prepared to give an answer to everybody that has an objection yeah it'd be my pleasure because as Christians who love the Lord Jesus Christ we seek to honor him and the way we honor is to obey his commands so one of the commands

our Lord gave to the Apostles and not only to them but to everyone who follows the example of the Apostles is to make disciples of all nations that's found in Matthew chapter 28 verse 19 and he then says to teach them everything that I've commanded you now we live in a world in which most people do not believe the Christian faith and have objections against the truth of Christianity and so because of that we need to be prepared to answer those objections in order to take them captive for the glory of Jesus Christ in fact

there's a verse in the Bible that's written by the Apostle Peter under inspiration of the Holy Spirit in first Peter chapter 3 verse 15 the Blessed Apostle exhorts every Christian not just the elders or the Deacons or the Evangelist every Christian was born in the Spirit who belongs to Jesus and loves the Lord he commands them to sanctify Jesus Christ as Lord in their hearts and then he says always be prepared it doesn't say when you feel like it always be prepared to give a defense for the hope that's within you that word defense is

where we get the word apologetics because if you go back to the Greek you'll see it's apologia so there peter is commanding all Christians to be an apologist defending the truth of Christianity and answering the objections that people have against submitting to Jesus's lordship so this is why we need to do that because we're commanded by the spirit thank you the question is now if a Muslim walks to you yes and you want to share the faith with them what kind of a questions or objections would they have yes that's an excellent question because as

Christians we need to reach this group there's about 1.8 billion Muslims and they need the gospel of Jesus Christ even though they think they worship the same God revealed in Jesus Christ we know they don't now unfortunately because the Quran presents objections against the Christian faith Muslims will have some issues with believing in Christianity so they have some objections that every Christian must know how to answer for example Muslims are offended by the belief in the Trinity that you have one God in three persons to them that's three gods so they'll tell you how do

you believe in one God when you have three gods father's only spirit or how do you believe that Jesus is God who became flesh are you saying that God came out of a woman's womb to them that's highly offensive and they also have issues with the authority of Scripture how can we trust your Bible how do we know the Bible's been preserved and how can we trust it as a sure source of guidance that comes from the true God so these are the objections some of many that Christians need to be ready to answer because

these are the questions that will come up thank you whenever I quote the scripture the Bible to the Muslims they always say your Bible is corrupt how can we refute that I follow the example of the Apostle Paul in acts 17:28 Paul would actually quote the very sources that the particular group he was reaching believed in to prove his point therefore since Muslims mean the Chron I will appeal to the Quran to prove that as Muslims who follow the crown they must accept the authority of Scripture now you need to qualify your use of the

crown because a Muslim can tell you well you don't believe the crown why are you quoting it and my response is I'm quoting it because you believe it and I'm showing you what your book tells you about my book the simple fact of the matter is that in the Quran Muslims are told to confirm the scriptures in the possession of the Jews and Christians at the time of Muhammad there are plenty of passages in the Quran and I'll just give one as an example chapter 2 verses 40 to 43 and then chapter 5 verses 43

to 48 there we are told that the scriptures of the Jews and Christians are the revelations of God and that the Cronk confirms that these scriptures are authoritative and have never been changed so for Muslims faithful to the cross he has except the Bible but if he accepts the Bible he has accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior thank you one of the objections Muslim have for Christianity how can God have a son yes well my response would be why can't he have a son what are you assuming about sonship that makes it impossible for

God to have a sudden so I would ask that question now depending on the response that would influence how I would address the objection now if they tell me well he can't have a son because he has no concert in other words the only way that God can have a son as if he has intercourse with a female that objection actually comes with a crime it comes from chapter 6 verse 101 of the crime where it says wonderful originated the heavens and the earth how can he have a son seeing he has no concert so

the Assumption there is that Allah or with God can only have a son through sexual intercourse now I would say well if that's the case you affirm the virginal conception of birth of our Lord Jesus Christ because no Muslim can be a Muslim unless he believes that Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit of God that's actually in the Quran my question is how could Mary have a son when she had no consort now the response of the Muslim OB well that's easy for God so wait a minute

it's easy for God to cause a virgin to have a son without having sex but God can't have a son of a unless he s sex you see the problem with that logic yes so why can't God have a son that is correct do Christians worship three God or one God which one is it yeah the Muslims assume because we believe that God is Father Son Holy Spirit they say do the math one plus one plus one that's three well in one sense they are three there are three persons but they are not three gods

there are three persons who exist as one God now if we're going to play the game of math I would say well what's 1 times 1 times 1 1 what's 1 divided by 1 divided by 1 it is 1 and 1 to the 3rd power is still 1 so I don't want to reduce God to a mathematical equation because both the Bible and the Quran say that God is greater than all creation unlike anything in creation so why can't God still be one God but exists as three persons why can't he be the Father the

Son and the Holy Spirit and still be one God if you say well look at you you're one being in one person but you're not God and God is not you to say that God can only be one God if he's one person it's to like him to his creation which both in the Bible and in the Quran is blasphemy the way I would describe the Trinity through the Muslim is I would adopt the model of the Blessed Apostle Paul because he became all things to all men that he might win some to Christ that's

1st Corinthians chapter 9 verses 19 to 23 and what he means in that passage is think as a Muslim things and try to communicate the truth of the gospel that makes sense to them so to say father's only spirit that's foreign language to them so how do I communicate the Trinity I say God his Eternal Word and his Eternal Spirit see now a Muslim can object because even in the Chron the Chron presents a trinity of sorts it's not the Trinity the Bible because I don't believe the god of the Quran is a God of

the Bible but the Chron does affirm a Trinity of sorts in that you have Allah his eternal Word and his rule his spirit well that's what I'm saying I'm saying God exists with his word eternally and a spirit that word became flesh the person of Jesus Christ and now Islamic teaching the Word of God became a book the Quran so what they say about the crown is what we say about Jesus they say the Eternal Word became a book we say the eternal wood became flesh so now if your God can still be one even

though he exists with his eternal word that you believe became a book and his spirit yet he's still one God then why would you say that Trinitarians as a Christian my God can't be one God if he is God his eternal word become flesh and a spirit why the inconsistency so we have the same view even though our view is not identical it's still similar enough to teach that the Trinity is not a violation of monotheism that there's one God thank you in the Bible did Jesus ever say I'm God worship me that's a common

objection that Muslims will bring up to try to convince us that Jesus never claimed to be God because he's not now the simple answer is no Jesus never came out and said in those exact words I'm God or worship me however if that's the reason to reject the deity of Christ that Christ has gotten the flesh then this argument proves too much because I like to ask the Muslim do you believe Jesus is the Christ they'll say yes the virgin born son of Mary of course is he the Word of God sent down to Mary

and a spirit from him they have to say yes to all that because in the Quran in chapter 4 verse 171 it says that Jesus is the Christ the Son of Mary the Word of God and a spirit from him my challenge to them is show me where Jesus said that show me in your Quran where Jesus says I am the Christ can't find it he never said it show me where he says he's the Word of God sent down to Mary can't find it he never said it show me where he says he's a

spirit from God you can't find it he never said it so if I use your logic you cannot believe Jesus is the Christ the Word of God has spread from him because he never said it now which Muslim would accept that logic they'll say well he doesn't have to say it God said in the crime well thank you and my scripture God the Father himself bears witness that Jesus is God Almighty and the Lord of Heaven and Earth so if you will still accept that Jesus is all these things even though Jesus didn't say it

then why do you insist that I have to show you Jesus saying those things for you to accept it isn't the testament of God the Father good enough that Jesus is God Almighty the creator of heaven earth the sovereign Lord of all creation and that's found in Hebrews chapter 1 verses 8 to 12 so let's be consistent thank you my question is why God has to kill someone else in behalf of my sins yes see even the way you frame the question is wrong no one said God had to kill someone in order for him

to forgive your sins because that's not what we teach we teach that in the person of Jesus Christ God himself out of his infinite love came down to pay the debt of sin see now the way you frame the question can impact your reaction or your spots to the truth of gospel see that response right there is an emotional response in other words you're you're trying to evoke an image of the Cross that's horrendous who in their right mind would kill their son for some stranger but that's not the moment of the message of the

gospel the message of the gospel is that the creator himself in a infinite love came down to the ER to pay the debt of sin now what is the debt of sin the Bible clearly says the soul that sins shall die Ezekiel 18 verse 4 now God knows that mankind cannot do enough good to merit salvation nor can they pay the debt of sin because every time you try to pay for one sin you commit another so that means now you're in a situation in which you'll never be able to be good enough and you

can never pay the debt of sin the only one who can pay your debt of sin is God so God chosen the person of Christ to come down and pay the debt of sin and since the debt of sin is death he voluntarily chose to become man to die for you in order to save you from his wrath and then to give you the gift of salvation now would we consider that something horrendous or would we see that as an amazing display of love that I and my love for you will do something for you

that you cannot do in order to be saved from wrath I think that's good news yes when I was a Muslim I always thought Christians they have created a very immoral societies in the West what should I follow Christ because we make a distinction between people claim to be Christian Christians and what the Bible actually teaches so not I've been everyone in the West is a Christian you may have people claim to be Christian but could care less about the Bible could care less about what Jesus Christ teaches so I don't judge Christianity by its

followers I judge Christianity on the basis of the Scriptures so does the Scriptures teach that because Jesus died for you now you have a license to be immoral that is blasphemy because the Bible quite clearly teaches from beginning 10 that God demands that you repent turn away from your sin turn towards Christ and faith and then seek to live a life that honors the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord Himself says if you vote a man sorry if you go to John 14:23 24 he says he who loves me will obey my word he who loves

me will keep my Commandments and the commandments of scriptures be holy as the Lord God is holy 1st Peter 1:15 2:16 says that you must be holy for the Lord your God is holy in Romans 6:16 223 the Blessed Apostle Paul says that one time you you gave your members of your body to sin you send no more because now you offer your mom your the members of your body in righteousness because now you are slaves of righteousness slaves of God no longer slaves of sin so the Bible is quite clear if you're a true

Christian you will do all you can in the power of Holy Spirit not to live immorally but godly in Christ Jesus our Lord thank you Sam there's a tough question they say that Mohammed was prophesied in the Bible and Jesus claimed that there is a prophet coming after him is that the truth the reason why Muslims believe that is because the Chron does say that there's a prophecy of an illiterate prophet found in the Torah in the gospel that's chapter 7 verse 157 of the crime and then in chapter 61 verse 6 of the Quran

it has Jesus and we need to be careful when we say Jesus says in the cron because we don't believe the Kron contains the actual words of Jesus or anyone else that's mentioned the Bible but again according to the cron Jesus went around telling the chill of Israel that a messenger would come after him whose name is Offit so because Muslims believe the Quran is true and it records the actual statements of the prophets of the Bible including Jesus they expect to find prophecies of Muhammad in the Bible and they think they found at least

two such prophecies one in tirana me 18 a prophet like Moses and then when Jesus announced the coming of the comforter in John chapter 14 chapter 15 chapter 16 a careful reading of the context of those passages will clearly show that these cannot be prophecies of Muhammad because first and foremost let's go to the to the prophecy of the comforter and those very chapters Jesus claims to be the unique son of God claims to be to be the one that the father has given authority over all flesh the one who'll give eternal life to everyone

and that God is his father all of which Muhammad contradicts Muhammad says his God as a father to no one Muhammad says Jesus is not the Son of God how then could that be a prophecy of Muhammad who contradicts the very message of Jesus in those very passages the simple answer to the question is Muhammad is not prophesied as a true prophet in the Bible but the bible does say he is an antichrist because he denies that god is the father and jesus as the son and according to 1st John 2:22 2:23 that makes him

the Antichrist thank you Sam when I was in Middle East I never heard that Muslims and Christians worshipping the same God but when I came to the West to America I have I have heard a lot of Christians and Muslim claim that they are worshiping the same God are we doing that well as far as the crown is concerned the Quran does make the claim that allah the arabic term for God the God of Muhammad is a God of Abraham Isaac Jacob and Jesus now I can make that claim just because you claim it doesn't

make it true so is all of the cron Yahweh God of the Bible mhm absolutely not and the reason why is because according to our scriptures if you read from Genesis to Revelation the one true God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob is triune he is father son Holy Spirit the eternal father is eternal word who became flesh Jesus Christ and his Eternal Spirit now if you ask a Muslim is your allah father so my spirit that's blasphemy so even a muslim once once confronted with what christians actually believe that their God is child a Muslim

himself will tell you that's not my God because my God is not the father of Jesus Jesus is not Allah in the flesh and they'll tell you the Holy Spirit is not Allah but angel Gabriel even though that's not taught in the crown that's what they're taught by their scholars so the simple answer is how can all of the Quran be Yahweh God of the Bible if Yahweh is triune father's only spirit and Allah is not so no they cannot be the same God thank you Sam the question is how Allah introduced himself in the

Quran well there are many descriptions of all of the krons some of which are similar to what the Bible says about God who says about Jesus Christ now I want to emphasize just because there may be similar things said about Allah and the God of the Bible that doesn't mean they're the same similarities would not prove they're the same God because you have to look at the major differences there are things said about all of the Chron that clearly prove he cannot be the God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ I'll just give one

example now again the audience would have to have some familiarity with the Arabic now glory to God there are resources to help them in that area one of the things that Allah says about himself in the Kron and he says this more than one time in Chapter three of the crown it was 54 it says that he is the best of all deceivers the best of all schemers the best of all connivers the Arabic phrases hey don't mock 18 that word Makkah if you look at any Arabic lexical source means someone who is a shyster

a conniver my trickster a deceiver there is no way that a Christian could ever say of his God that his God is the best of all deceivers because according to the Bible that's a description of Satan not to God revealed that the person of Jesus Christ therefore for Allah to say that he's the best of all deceivers that means that the Allah of Muhammad is actually Satan in disguise because the Bible says Satan is the one who deceives the whole world not that God revealed in Jesus Christ thank you Sam would you tell us what

Quran teaches about Jesus let's start with the similarities but emphasizing that just because the Quran says things similar to what the Bible says about Jesus doesn't mean that the Islamic Jesus is the true Jesus of history the Jesus revealed the New Testament because Paul warns us in 2nd Corinthians 11 that people will come with another Jesus do not put up with it because that's a satanic deception so for the record that Jesus of the Kron is a counter for Jesus to deceive people from the real Jesus with that said Muslims do think that they have

the same Jesus that we we believe in so let's talk about some of those similarities things that the Kron says about Jesus that are similar to what we believe both Muslims and Christians must believe that Jesus was conceived to and born from the Virgin Mary in fact Mary's the only woman mentioned by name the entire Quran the Quran even says she's the greatest woman that Allah created that's in chapter 3 verse 42 the crime Allah preferred her above all woman of all time she is the greatest woman and we know why because of her son

her son makes her great so Mary is the greatest woman that I look or God created she gave birth to Jesus while a virgin Jesus is the Messiah he's also called the Word of God or the word of allah the arabic term for god and a spirit from him he was a miracle worker he raised the dead could Satan his sight to the blind and the Quran says that Allah took Jesus physically bodily to himself so that Jesus ascended to be with God which in Arabic again is called the law and according to Psalm a

tradition Jesus will return as a just judge to kill the Antichrist and rule the world for at least 40 years now these are some of the similar things but let's talk about the differences Jesus has not gone in the flesh that's blasphemy in Islam he is not the Son of God that's blasphemy Islam he wasn't killed nor crucified chapter 4 verse 157 says Jesus wasn't crucified so there's the denial of Christ's death on the cross for our sins right there in the Quran even though he's coming back he's not coming back as king of kings

and Lord of lords an Islamic tradition he's coming back as a Muslim who will rule the world according to Islamic law which we call Sharia and we'll eventually die and be buried and then be raised with Muhammad to face all on judgment so these are the similarities and differences but the difference is outweigh the similarities they're not the same Jesus thank you Sam would you tell us today that why Islam is so confusing when I read some part of the Quran is - it is telling there's no compulsion in religion but other parts it says

no you have to kill the non-believers why do you have certain places in the crown in which it seems to teach tolerance said peaceful coexistence but then there are other parts in which Muslims are commanded to attack unbelievers until they became Muslim or in the case of Jews and Christians pay a sum of money as a sign of them being humiliated and debased by the Muslims like a protection tax yes the term in the using the Crone is jizya and that is the money that a Jew and Christian must pay if he wants to retain

his religious identity but that payment is a sign that Muslims have debased him humiliated him subjugated subjugated him and that's found in chapter nine verse 29 of the crime so why the contradiction because the Quran has two parts a part that's called the Meccan period and the medinan period and I don't want to confuse her audience but these are things they need to learn to more effectively witness the Muslims hmm for the first 13 years of Muhammad's life he was living in Mecca in Saudi Arabia and he was outnumbered by them believers in that period

he knew he couldn't attack them because they were too numerous and they wouldn't vanquish him they're pretty much destroy him in his movement so now those verses were composed in that period where he's talking about to you your religion to me my religion no compulsion you know you know God will settle down the day of judgment you know to each his own but then he migrated to Medina and he becomes a head of a state now he has an army now he has warriors are willing to kill and be killed for Allah and His Messenger

so now the tone changes it goes from to you your religion to now listen you either become Muslim if you're an idolatry or we kill you or in the case of Jews and Christians if you don't to become a Muslim pay the sum of money as a sign that Islam has conquered you subjugated you and humiliated you that's why you have these contradictions of the crown some would you tell us what we have four Gospels according to the scriptures at the mouth of two or three witnesses a matter settled so God and His wisdom and

province made sure that he didn't give us one account that the life of Jesus but for accounts inspired by the Holy Spirit because now we have four witnesses to the life of Jesus so that's first and foremost because God is meeting the demands of his very law where he says you cannot accept the testimony of a single individual two or three at least so he gave you four to solidify the case of who Jesus is that's that's the first reason the second reason is because you have these different writers approaching the story of Jesus from

four different perspectives to give us a more complete picture of who Jesus is if you have one testimony you have one perspective but when you have four now you have four different perspectives inspired by the same spirit so that you can see Jesus from four different angles so we get a more complete picture of who Jesus is so that one writer will emphasize one aspect another writer will emphasize another aspect so these are four pieces of the same puzzle that when we bring it together you see the masterpiece that Jesus is God Almighty in the

flesh to save her the world that's right thank you Sam did Jesus abolish the law of Moses no he didn't abolish it because our Lord says in Matthew 5:17 18 he didn't come to abolish but fulfil but what does it mean to fulfill that's the real question fulfillment doesn't simply mean that Jesus came to obey the commands as given by Moses I'm not saying he broke those commands what I'm saying is fulfillment has a much deeper richer meaning in the context of scriptures by fulfilling Jesus meant he came to do all that the law and

the prophets said Messiah would do and he also came to perfect and complete the very spirit and essence of the law the prophets that's why if you read Matthew 5 where he says think not I've come to abolish the law I did not come to abolish before Phil he explains what he means he brings out the true essence this true spirit of the law for example it says you have been told that you shouldn't murder someone but I tell you that if someone has hated in his heart towards his brother he has murdered him so

notice what he's doing here he's bringing out the very essence in the heart of what the law and the prophets truly mean and so it's his fulfillment of the law in the sense of his interpretation of the law and the prophets mean and his fulfilling all the promises that point to him so he didn't abolish he fulfilled but fulfilling means more than just obeying fulfilling means that he completes it because it all points to him he fulfills all the promises because all the promises are yes and amen in him and he brings out the true

meaning of the law of the prophets thanks him Sam why was the crucifixion necessary the crucifixion was necessary in order for God to be perfectly just and righteous and well as well as loving and compassionate and what do I mean by that if God simply forgives you for breaking the law that means God is more loving than just but if he punishes you for every infraction against his holy commands then that means he's more just and holy than loving so how can God be loving and just at the same time without compromising either one of

those characteristics because if he simply forgives you for violating the law without demanding that the justice of the lobby met that means he's much more loving than holy but if he punishes you for the slightest infraction against the law that means he's much more just than loving so how can God be both perfectly loving and just the answer is found in the cross of Jesus Christ because at the cross God's justice is satisfied and his love is perfectly displayed then what do I mean now when you turn to God and ask him to forgive you

for your sins God can forgive you without compromising the just demands of the law for punishment because Christ took your punishment let me give you a very crude analogy because it's not what Jesus did but it's analogy to help you understand my point you go before a judge and you have a fine of $500 now the judge in His mercy can pardon you so he pardons your fine but then what he does he steps off his judgement seat takes off his robe and then he pays the fine for you because it turns out the judge

was your father so as a judge he passed sentence right you owe this fine but I pardon you but as your father he pays the debt of that fine in order to maintain the just demands of the law that's what God did in the person of Jesus Christ as judge you are guilty of sin and therefore deserving of death but as a father I forgive you and I and the person of Jesus Christ my son will pay the debt for you so that the demands of the law have not been compromised that's why the cross

that's why the crucifixion Sam thank you very much this was very enlightening and I want to thank you for watching you can contact us for more information or invite us you'll be blessed you