THE ORIGINS OF ISLAM
Truth
Under Fire.
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APOSTLE’S CREED
What Christians
confess.
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to hell. The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic* church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
God made a promise to Abraham and Sarah that seemed impossible.
“Look toward heaven, and number the stars... So shall your offspring be.”
Abraham and Sarah take matters into their own hands.
11 The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
God confirms the covenant.
“If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
“But my covenant I will establish with Isaac...”
Ishmael was blessed by God. Isaac was the son of the covenant.
THE COVENANT
A people. A place.
A promise.
A People
“I will make you a great nation.”
GENESIS 12:2A Place
“To your offspring I will give this land.”
GENESIS 12:7A Promise
“In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
GENESIS 12:3God was creating a people, in a place, through whom He would bring a Person.
GENESIS 21
The promise
finally arrives.
Abraham’s son through Hagar.
Abraham’s son through Sarah and the promised covenant heir.
8 The child grew and was weaned... 10 “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”
12 “...it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. 13 I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”
Hagar and Ishmael leave Abraham’s household and wander in the Desert of Beersheba.
God was with the boy as he grew up... While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.
From promise
to Paran.
God promises Abraham a son.
Abraham and Sarah become impatient.
Abraham has Ishmael through Hagar.
God promises to bless Ishmael.
God gives Abraham and Sarah Isaac.
God establishes His covenant through Isaac.
Hagar and Ishmael leave Abraham’s household to Beersheba.
God protects Ishmael and promises to make him a great nation.
Ishmael settles in the wilderness of Paran.
2,500 YEARS LATER
From Mecca
to Medina.
Muhammad is born in Mecca
Muhammad marries Khadijah
Muhammad receives his revelation
Begins preaching publicly
Islam doesn’t claim Muhammad came to introduce a brand-new God. Islam claims Muhammad came to restore the religion of Abraham.
Humanity corrupted the original faith of Abraham, and God has sent Muhammad to restore it.
The Hijrah to Medina
The turning point. Medina — “the city of the Prophet.”
Beginning of Muhammad’s revelations.
QUR’AN — MECCAN PERIODBeginning of the Islamic community as an organized society.
QUR’AN — MEDINAN PERIODMilitary conflict
At this point Islam is no longer merely a religious preaching movement. It is becoming a significant political and military force in Arabia.
Treaty of Hudaybiyyah with Meccans
Muhammad takes Mecca
Muhammad dies
MUHAMMAD WITHOUT POLITICAL POWER
Mecca: Prophet / Preacher
MUHAMMAD WITH POLITICAL POWER
Medina: Prophet / Political Leader / Military Leader
For 2,500 years after Abraham, there is no Islam. Then around AD 570, a man is born in Arabia who will claim that the God of Abraham has spoken again, and that Abraham’s original faith needs to be restored.
Two different
storylines.
Abraham → Isaac → Jacob / Israel → Judah → David → Jesus
Abraham → Ishmael → Arabian ancestry → Muhammad
3 Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures... 6 he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time... 8 and last of all he appeared to me also.
QUR’AN 4:157–159157: “...they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him—it was made to appear so to them...”
158: “Rather, Allah raised him to Himself...”
159: “...on the Day of Resurrection Jesus will be a witness against them.”
THE CONTRAST
Muhammad came out of the cave with a message. Jesus came out of the grave with victory.
Islam takes you to a cave where Muhammad received a vision from a demon. Christianity takes you to an empty tomb where Jesus defeated death, hell, and the grave.
In Islam they visit a cave because Muhammad was there. In Christianity, we visit the tomb because Jesus isn’t.