A Brief Summary of Islam, Part 5

A Brief Summary of Islam, Part 5
Friday, March 15, 2024 by Dr. James W. Walraven

Categories: Apologetics / Contemporary issues / The church / Thought for Today / Truth telling

Where did Judaism and Christianity come from? How did they originate? Since the writings handed on down to them are now corrupt, Judaism and Christianity, as we know them, had to have come from somewhere else, someplace different from where their lost original writings would indicate: the lost writings that would show both groups to have been true Muslims. What happened? Where did things go wrong?

The Quran, itself, doesn’t discuss those topics in much detail, but in the copy of the Quran I have, the footnotes and appendices do. Both groups made the deliberate choice to corrupt their corresponding “Book” that had been given to them.

With the Jews, a couple key turning points are mentioned:

The first took place during the time of Josiah. The Old Testament discloses how during Josiah’s reign the Book of the Law, the “Book” that had been lost, was found. Josiah rends his garments after hearing what it says, and God tells him that due to his response, he won’t see the destruction of Jerusalem that is coming. Josiah then institutes reforms in an attempt to turn the nation back to God.

According to the appendices in the Quran, what actually happened was that Josiah, with the help of priests and the prophet Jeremiah, invented a new version of the Law, a version that was a corruption of the original true Law.

The second key turning point took place after Israel’s return from the Babylonian captivity. The Old Testament books of Ezra and Nehemiah deal with their reforms. But, according to the notes and appendices in the Quran, although Ezra attempts reforms, he introduces even more changes away from the true original Law.

The net result is that Judaism as we now know it, most likely originated with Ezra. Thus compared to the genuine Islamic teachings of Moses, Judaism is a comparatively late apostate religion, a false religion that deserves to be opposed. Indeed, even the idea that God may have favored the Jews at any point in history is seen as making a mockery of true religion. Interestingly, it is also mentioned that we are not to wonder at God’s revelation specifically coming through Arabs.

As for Christians, we’ve already seen that per Islam, Jesus declared that he was a devout Muslim, and therefore never asserted that he was God. Thus the idea that Jesus is God had to arise from some other place. We’ve already noted that per Islam, early Christianity did not have a uniform belief about Jesus, that some groups held to the truth that Jesus was not God. In the wrangling that followed between the various Christian groups, the “Orthodox Christians” won, and it was the “Orthodox Christians” that introduced the false belief about Jesus being God.

Given that Judaism and Christianity are false religions, how are Jews and Christians to be treated by Muslims? We will turn to that question in the next post.

*Personal side note: I do find it interesting how biblical source critics and those who support the Gnostic “gospels” end up agreeing with key tenets of Islam. One might ponder, “Why is that?”

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