In God We Trust

Trust is a very important issue in anyone's life. It is inevitable for us to have trust in someone in this life. Relationships often break down because of the lack of trust. I believe we wouldn't want to be friends with whom we can not trust or to be married with someone that is not trust worthy. It's always wise to get to know someone first before we can put our trust in that person, so that we won't be let down after.

What about God? Shouldn't God be the one in whom we put our ultimate trust? After all isn't that what it means with having faith in God? That we trust God whom we can't see nor touch. What if your god can not be trusted?

(8:43-44) Remember in thy dream Allah showed them to thee as few: if He had shown them to thee as many, ye would surely have been discouraged, and ye would surely have disputed in (your) decision; but Allah saved (you): for He knoweth well the (secrets) of (all) hearts. And remember when ye met, He showed them to you as few in your eyes, and He made you appear as contemptible in their eyes: that Allah might accomplish a matter already enacted. For to Allah do all questions go back (for decision).

Allah knew that Muhammad would be scared if he is to face a great number of opponents in Badr. In order to anticipate that, Allah made appear to Muhammad that the number of the opponents was few. In other words, Allah tricked Muhammad into having false confidence. Now, there are 2 odd things in this story. First of all, this shows the lack of trust of Muhammad in Allah. If Muhammad believed that Allah is the true omnipotent god, why would he still be afraid? Second, apparently Allah has no problem in deceiving his own prophet. This is even more obvious if we read the following prayer by Muhammad:

(Tirmizi 3551) Ibn Abbas said: "The Prophet used to supplicate, saying: ‘My Lord, aid me and do not aid against me, and grant me victory and do not grant victory over me, plot deceit for me and do not plot deceit against me, guide me and facilitate guidance for me, grant me victory over those who transgress against me. My Lord, make me ever-grateful to You, ever-remembering of You, ever-fearful of You, ever-obedient to You, ever-humble to You, oft-turning and returning to You. My Lord, accept my repentance, wash my sin, answer my call, make firm my proof, make firm my tongue, guide my heart, and remove the treachery of my chest.

Muhammad recognized Allah's treachery attribute and in all desperation, he prayed to the one that he, himself, knew can not be trusted. He asked Allah not to deceive him. So, if Muhammad was still not sure of Allah's power and honesty, why should any other Muslim?

Now let's compare Muhammad to King David. Just like Muhammad, David was a great ruler and fought many fights, although David personally fought while Muhammad just send his people to fight for him. The most famous one would be David's fight against Goliath.

But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” (1 Samuel 17:34-37)

When David fought Goliath, he was just a young man. Despite Goliath's gigantic size that scared even Saul, David was not afraid at all because he believed in God. Mind you, God did not trick David into seeing Goliath small(er) in size. So, David saw the reality and yet he had full confidence in God. One of the reasons why David had so much faith in God was because God has already given him evidence with his victory over the lion.

So, we see a bit of problem here. Unlike David and the true God who are in solid relationship, Muhammad and Allah seemed to have a rather leery relationship. Instead of giving Muhammad evidence so that he can have faith in Allah, Allah tricked Muhammad into false confidence that the enemy is few. And by this, we can see that no one is truly safe from Allah's deception, not even his own prophet.

7:99 Did they then feel secure against Allah's scheme.- but no one can feel secure from Allah's scheme, except those (doomed) to ruin!

The verse above affirms that Muslims are always in constant fear of Allah's scheme. That is why Muhammad prayed to Allah not to deceive him. The question to Muslims, can you trust a god who likes to deceive anyone he wishes, including his own people and prophet? Is it truly God?

The Plan

The true living God has a plan. He has a plan since the beginning of time. His plan is always to give us prosperity and hope and His plan will never fail. If we choose to abide in His plan, we will be surely prosperous and saved spiritually. The problem is we have an enemy that wants to steer us away from God's plan, Satan. The enemy has plans as well to make sure that we do not receive the Kingdom of Heaven that is meant for us. He wants to drag us to hell that was created originally for him and his angels. So, we need to know exactly which one is God's plan and which one is Satan's plan and make sure we are in God's plan.

1. Old Testament (OT) vs New Testament (NT)

Most Muslims think that God revealed the Torah and then the Jews rebelled and then He revealed the Gospel and then the Christians went astray. So finally, He revealed the Quran to correct the Jews and Christians. Now, if you would just think about it, apparently the god of the Quran does not have any plan concerning his revelations or no knowledge at all of the future. He kept failing to keep his own revelation, two times and tried to correct it the third time. Surely, I can't help not to question, "What makes you so sure he has not failed the third time?" This alone shows that Allah has failed to meet his own claim that he guard his word.

The real reason why there is the Old and New Testament is not because God changed His mind or personality nor He failed to keep His word. God has 2 distinct plans for these 2 testaments. The OT actually served as an usher for the NT. The OT contains prophecies that later were fulfilled in the NT. What's the importance of these prophecies? It is a guide for us to discern which one is from God and which one is from the enemy, Satan. If there were no prophecies, then anyone can just make fraudulent claims, like Muhammad, and we could be easily deceived by the enemy. Also, these prophecies were made hundred of years ago and only God can keep such careful planning in span of hundred of years.

What about the differences between the 2 testaments? Yes, there is a differences between the OT and the NT and the reason is because the 2 testaments serve different purposes. For starter, the OT was given ONLY to the Jewish people as an usher where as the NT is meant for ALL people and the final covenant. God didn't change His mind nor His personality, He just has different ways for different purposes according to His plan. But despite the differences, the OT and NT speaks about the same thing: the bloody sacrifice for the atonement of our sins. This is the Good News! This is the Injil! That Jesus has taken our place in the punishment of sin and all we have to do is repent and accept Him as Savior and King in our life. The Injil is not a book. Jesus Christ IS the Injil. He was the One prophesied by the prophets.

2. Salvation

Islam teaches that in hope to get saved, you must believe in Allah and his messenger and keep the 5 pillars of faith. But even if you do all this, it's not guaranteed that you are saved. So, if you think about it, what kind of plan is this? Why can't Allah make a better plan? A plan that actually saves his people, a plan that actually works. It gets even worse than that, not only Allah's salvation plan may not work but Allah's plan is to send all Muslims to hell first (19:71) and then the good ones will be taken from hell but of course how long you must stay in hell or how good you have performed, no one knows, only Allah knows, supposedly. This concept resembles the Catholic purgatory where one must endure the fire of hell until they are allowed to go to heaven.

But if God really loves us, then He would not send us to hell, not even for a second. If God really loves us, He would prepare a plan or a way straight to heaven. And since God is omnipotent, His plan must be fulfilled. God does not fail. So, His plan must be a plan of assurance. And this is the plan of salvation. Jesus died on the cross bearing all of sins of the world of all time. What we need to do is repent and submit ourselves to Jesus and He will deliver us from the fire of hell and bring us the Kingdom of Heaven. This is why Jesus is called CHRIST. Muslims know Jesus as the Christ or Isa Al-Masih. This title is given only to Jesus, not even Muhammad had this title. But Muslims don't understand what Christ or Al-Masih means. They don't understand the importance of this title. It means the anointed One, the deliverer. So, under the Islamic theology, what exactly was Jesus' title for? And why was the title only given to Jesus if He was just like any other messenger?

3. End Time

We believe that the world will come to an end. After all this physical realm is not eternal. It has a beginning and surely it will has an ending. What's God plan for the End Time?

According to Islam, in the Qiyamah (End Time) Jesus will descend and will judge and rule mankind justly. He will also break the cross, kill the pigs, and abolish the Jizya tax. Apparently, Muslims will have countless money that they don't need Jizya tax anymore. (Hadith Shahih Muslim Volume 4, Book 55, Number 657, Sahih Bukhari Volume 3, Book 43, Number 656)

Let's think about this plan? The world is ending and Allah sends one of his major prophets, Jesus,... to break crosses and kill pigs? What kind of plan is this? Doesn't Allah has anything else better to do but to break crosses and kill pigs? The world is going to end! Surely there will be no more crosses or pigs anyway! And then Jesus will also abolish Jiyza. It's judgment day! Of course there will be no Jizya, all the infidels will be hell. Do they still have to pay tax in hell for the tax to be abolished? This plan just doesn't make sense at all. Not only that, this also contradicts the Quran. The Quran clearly says that Allah will judge mankind and Allah will never share his (sovereign) kingdom. So, which one is right? Is Allah actually Jesus? Or is Allah associating Jesus with himself?

As for the real plan, the hadiths get 2 things correct: Jesus will descend and rule as King. But He will NOT break any cross nor pig. God is too great to trouble Himself with such petty things. He has greater concerns than that. This is what's going to take place on the Last Day.

Matthew 25:31-34,41
When the Son of Man (Jesus) comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.’ Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’

Which side will you be on? The sheep or the goat?

What's Your Evidence?

Unlike most religions, where they simply present their own set of belief without addressing other believes, Islam makes its stand by correcting other believes, namely Judaism and Christianity. This case is very obvious in the Quran where you can find many claims that attempt to 'correct' the Bible, such as the following:

(3:52) When Jesus found unbelief on their part he said: "Who will be my helpers to Allah?" Said the Disciples: "We are Allah's helpers we believe in Allah and do thou bear witness that we are Muslims."

According to the Quran, Jesus was a Muslim and so were His disciples. Surely we can argue on and on about this from the Bible. But let's learn what the non-biblical and non-quranic sources say. Let's learn what historians wrote:

Flavius Josephus (37-97 AD), court historian for Emperor Vespasian:
"At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive; accordingly, he was perhaps the messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders." (McDowell, Josh 'He Walked Among Us' Here's Life, San Bernardino, CA 1988 p.45)

Cornelius Tacitus (55-120 AD), "the greatest historian" of ancient Rome:
"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man's cruelty, that they were being destroyed." (Shelly, Rubel, 'Prepare to Answer', Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI 1990, pp. 174-175)

The Jewish Talmud, compiled between 70 and 200 AD:
"On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, 'He is going forth to be stoned because he has practised sorcery and enticed Israel to apostacy. Anyone who can say anything in his favour, let him come forward and plead on his behalf.' But since nothing was brought forward in his favour he was hanged on the eve of the Passover." (McDowell, Josh 'He Walked Among Us' Here's Life, San Bernardino, CA 1988 p.64)

[Another early reference in the Talmud speaks of five of Jesus' disciples and recounts their standing before judges who make individual decisions about each one, deciding that they should be executed. However, no actual deaths are recorded.]

There are more neutral sources for reference and just like the ones above, none says that Jesus and His disciples were Muslims. In fact, His disciples were called Christians in the first place because they worshiped Christ, Jesus. Unlike the name 'Muslim', the name 'Christian' came from unbelievers as a mockery to people who believes in Jesus as the Messiah. Keep in mind, these secular sources were written before the New Testament was officially compiled (397 A.D).

Expectantly, the records from the non-Christian sources approve what the Bible records: Jesus was charged by the Jews for blasphemy by calling Himself Son of God and His followers were growing in number (leading to apostasy), He was crucified, and His disciples reported that Jesus was risen on the third day. Do remember because of this belief, His disciples were persecuted and even killed. Their faith remained strong even in the face of painful death. By this fact alone, it is almost assured that they did not go through all that simply for something they knew to be a lie but rather for something they eye witnessed themselves, the resurrection and ascension of Christ. It's quite clear that the evidence speaks against the Quran.

Another interesting claim made by Muhammad is that Islam is not a new religion but it has been here since the beginning. Muhammad even dared to appropriate all the figures in the Bible to be part of his own imagination and converted them to Muslims. Now, if Muhammad or Allah is telling the truth, then there should be evidence supporting their claim or at least there should be no evidence against their claim. The problem is not only there's no evidence supporting their claim but the evidence so far is against their claim.

Hinduism is historically believed to be the oldest religion in the world and you can see this by the many evidence: from their scripture that dated back to 3000 BC to their temples that are scattered everywhere. Hinduism does not and never need to claim that it is the oldest religion because the evidence speaks for itself. What evidence does Islam have? Simply the claim in the Quran? Anyone can make any claim and put it in any book and claim it's revelation from God. But that does not necessarily mean it's the truth just as being the oldest religion doesn't mean it's the truth.

The living God is the God who gives evidence. He expects people to have faith but He also gives a substantial evidence for us to begin with in the first place. Allah claims to be most merciful but he never shows that quality in particular. Jesus says God is love and He shows that by taking the punishment of sin on our behalf, even when we don't deserve it, and by showing the ultimate love that a person can show, that is the laying down of one's life. Allah claims that he will resurrect people but so far he hasn't resurrected anyone. He can't even resurrect Muhammad who is still deceased. However, Jesus says anyone who believes in Him will live even if he dies. His evidence for this is His own resurrection. Although He gave up His life, He could take back/give life. Jesus knows the future, He has predicted His own death in the most detailed way and the destruction of the Holy Temple. Muhammad didn't even know what would happen to him and there are things that Allah has not known yet (3:140-142). Jesus promises He will take His people to heaven (rapture) before the End Time and He has shown this by ascending to heaven in front of hundreds of eye witnesses. Where is Muhammad now? Lying cold in the grave.

So, my questions to Muslims remain... What's your evidence? Is Allah not powerful enough to produce any evidence? Why did he keep failing for thousands of years to keep his own religion that is supposedly to exist since Adam and Hawa? Why does Allah only manage to preserve Islam for the last 1400 years? Where was Allah thousands of years before? Are you willing to risk your eternity for baseless claims?

Battle of The Holy Books

Every religion has its own holy book. Each group try to prove their holy book to hold all the truth. Most of the time, they try impress people with scientific miracle in their book. This is not exclusive to Muslims only, even Hindus and Atheists do the same. The Hindu language, sanskrit, actually has the term "Vimana" that means flying vehicle. Does that mean Hinduism is the true religion? However, there's one big problem with Hinduism. Hinduism believe that the universe is eternal, while science has proven that the universe is not eternal. The universe expanded from one single point. How about Atheism who claim to be scientific, when faced with the question of the origin of universe, remain silent. They are forced to believe that in the beginning there was 'nothing' (or something-who-knows-what-but-it's-not-god) and then miraculously there was everything in order out of mere coincidence. Of course, anyone with the right mind would know that this is irrational.

But what about Islam? Does the Quran hold any scientific miracle?

Sura 88:20

And the earth how it is spread out?

It's quite easy to understand that according to the Quran, the earth is flat. You can even check the tafsir for this verse here and it only affirms the flat earth conception. The effort to defend this notion makes nothing but a fool of oneself. Especially, if one reads the following verse from the Bible:

Isaiah 40:22

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,...

This verse clearly states that the earth is round, no need for tafsir. The book of Isaiah was written around 800 years BC which means 1400 years before Muhammad. So, even if the verse 88:20 is somehow magically twisted and the word spread out (Da'ha) miraculously shifts its meaning from flat to spherical, it still does not prove that the Quran holds all the truth because the bible has already come up with this scientific fact hundreds of years before the Quran and Muhammad could have just easily plagiarized that, which he obviously did not. But the Bible doesn't stop there. It also contains prophecies that have been and yet to be fulfilled. One of the fulfilled prophecies that occurred during our generation is the following:

Jeremiah 29:14

"I will gather you from ALL the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive."

Israel's existence today, and the re-gathering of the Jews from ALL parts of the world is an irrefutable proof that the Bible is truly inspired by God.

John 5:39-40

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.

Nevertheless, the purpose of the 'holy books' is not for us to learn science, which is why God has given us intelligence for that, or to simply know things to come through prophecies. They are things that affirm the validity of the book but the main purpose of these 'holy books' is supposedly for us to get to know God more and attain salvation. But can a book contain everything we need to know about God? Can we learn all the truth just from books?

Now, this is where Christianity stands out from any other faith:

John 16:13

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.

Jesus promises that He will send the Spirit of Truth to all His disciples. Obviously, Muhammad can not be the Spirit of Truth because Muhammad was very deceptive and he was only born 500 years after the death of the early disciples of Jesus. So, if Muhammad was the Spirit of Truth, then Jesus had lied because His early disciples didn't receive Muhammad.

The Holy Spirit is what makes Christianity unique. God didn't promise to send a book. No, what God promised was His very own Spirit. The apostleship ended with Muhammad in Islam. But in Christianity, Jesus was the beginning of apostleship and His disciples keep growing in number even up to now. All this is the work of the Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:6

He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

A Christian is led personally by the Holy Spirit that gives (spiritual) life. This is what religious people don't have, spiritual life. Religious people are only led by letters, books, rituals. Their understanding of god is limited to what the letters say. They do not have the luxury of experiencing God in their life, to have His love in their heart. Christians really get to know God because He lives inside them, not just from a book. When spirit-filled Christians reads the Bible, they read the Bible in the light of Holy Spirit, not leaning to their own understanding.

The battle of holy books may continue but Christians they believe in the living God. Even if all the Bibles are burnt, God's Spirit is still at work. You can not limit God and contain Him to only a book(s). This is why God sends His Spirit to guide us to all the truth. In some occasions, God has spoken to me verses from the bible and I never try to memorize them. He can speak His Word directly to our heart. So, even though reading the correct book matters, but what truly makes a difference is the spirit guiding you, is it the Spirit of Truth or the spirit of error/deception?

Matthew 7:16

By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

The Great I AM

A Muslim friend of mine asked once "What's so great about Christians?" I simply told him that there's nothing great about Christians. Christians are just wretched good for nothing unworthy helpless sinners, like any other people, who have been saved SOLELY by God's grace. There is no reason at all for a Christian to boast. So, the better question is "What's so great about Christianity?" What is it in Christianity that you can not find in any other, not just Islamic, faith?

1. God Vs Man

In any other faith, mankind is considered to be 'good', just not perfect. So, "god' revealed to mankind a set of rules or a manual book that they can follow in order to reach up to heaven. It's about man's deeds/works in reaching up to heaven. Man is his own savior.

While in Christianity, mankind is considered to be born in fallen nature from Adam and Eve. We have all fallen from His spiritual image that God created us in. We are NOT good. We are all sinners and as sinners, our destination was hell. That's until God intervened and rescued us, Himself. As a sinner, there's nothing that we can do to save ourselves but to fully SUBMIT ourselves to God. God is the only savior.

The form of Christian submission is what Christianity calls "crucifixion of the flesh", meaning we give up all our thoughts and desires to God and replace them with God's thoughts and desires. This is called the renewal of mind and heart achieved only with the help of the Holy Spirit. What God asks is not good deeds/works but simply giving up our free WILL to Him. This is the real submission (Islam) that starts from within, not just external submission by doing rituals or following certain rules or holding certain pillars. This is the spiritual submission that Muslims lack.

2. Love

When I told my Muslim friend that the reason of God coming to earth, Himself, was His love towards His people, he responded the following, "That's silly. That's like the creator of X-BOX becoming X-BOX. You don't need to become X-BOX, you just need to give the manual."

My Muslim friend gave the right analogy in the Islamic view, however that view is WRONG. What Muslims failed to grasp is that God sees us more than just "X-BOX". He created us in His spiritual image so that we can have relationship with Him. That is before sin corrupted that image.

God wants to take us as His children. He loves us like a father loves his son. So, God actually wants to guide us personally and directly through His Spirit in our heart, not just by giving a manual. That is why the true loving God allows His followers to call Him "Father in Heaven". God is LOVE! That's something you can not find in any other faith, not even in the 99 names of Allah.

3. Salvation
The purpose of all religion is salvation, not simply becoming a better person or doing good deeds. I have seen some Muslims asking the following question, "If Christians are already saved, then why do they need to do good deeds?"

In any other faith, doing good deeds is the CONDITION to get salvation. While in Christianity, doing good is the RESULT of salvation. People who have been completely renewed by God will have a new nature that is to do good. Doing good is something that they do as their nature, Christians are convicted if they don't do good because they are going AGAINST their new nature. So, salvation in Christianity is not about our performance but rather our WILL to trust in God and let Him guide us personally. And since it's God that guide us personally, it is GUARANTEED that we will come to the destination, heaven where we will be truly with the holy God, not with multiple perpetual virgins which is found in the Zoroastrian religion and borrowed by Muhammad.


So, What's so great about Christianity? The God is!
The God that Christians worship is so great that He paved the straight way of salvation for us, lives inside every believer, and even gives believers the right to call Him Father in Heaven. He guides us personally daily until we reach the final destination, heaven. That's how great the true living God is!