Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son (2 John 8-9 ESV).
From the dawning days of the Church and continuing through the present day, attacks on the person and work of Jesus Christ have been rampant.
In John's day gnosticism was prevalent, and his epistles to the early Church confront this error head on. The gnostic teachers held that spirit was good and flesh was evil. Therefore they taught that Jesus as divine, could not have taken on flesh in the incarnation. They twisted the truth as it relates to who Jesus is, fully God, yet fully man, and in effect preached a "different" Jesus (2 Cor 11:4 ).
Attacks on the deity of Christ have abounded in various forms throughout the centuries, and will persist until Christ returns. The teachings of the Jehovah's witnesses are one example of this, and the teachings of Muhammad or Islam is another. The latter is what I would like to look at in this post today.
Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son (1 John 2:22 ESV).
Two things are mentioned here, the denial of Jesus as Messiah, and the denial of the Father and the Sonship of Jesus.
Muslims believe in the existence of Jesus. He is mentioned in the Quran, they consider Him a prophet in a line of prophets ending with Muhammad. They believe He did miracles, and even look for Him to return to the earth in the last days. However their idea of what He does when He returns and what the Bible states stand in opposition to each other.
They will claim that Jesus (Muslims refer to him as Issa) is indeed the Messiah. Perhaps a messiah is a better way of putting it. They have a different concept of what is meant by the title Messiah. To a Muslim it means little more than Jesus was merely a prophet. They reject the Biblical description of Jesus as Israel's savior and king. They also reject the idea of Jesus as savior from sin and death.
In the Hadith (the sayings of Muhammad) it is taught that preceding the day of judgement the Muslims will wage war against the Jews and exterminate them. In fact the rocks and trees will cry out "There is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him." At this time one whom Muslims call the Dajjal (their version of the antichrist) will come and the Jews will go to him for deliverance, yet prophet Issa will ultimately destroy him at the battle of Armageddon.
This scenario is backwards from what the scriptures actually teach. In the last days Satan mounts one final assault against the Israelites through the antichrist and his kingdom. Jesus as Israel's Messiah returns and delivers them from their enemies, destroying this final Satanic empire, and setting up His universal reign.
This is a denial of Jesus being the Christ, or Messiah. Instead of coming to deliver the Jews in the time of their tribulation and setting up His righteous kingdom, Islam teaches that Issa will destroy the Jews and Islam will rule the earth.
The other aspect of Christ's mission is the deliverance from sin and death. This He accomplished on Calvary when He was crucified and then arose from the grave three days later. However Islam teaches that Jesus was not crucified, in Quran 4:157 it states, That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Apostle of God";-but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not.
According to this, the crucifixion of Jesus was only an illusion. Some say that Judas was actually crucified, his face miraculously appearing as the face of Jesus. Anyone who believes otherwise is filled with doubts and has no knowledge. This Satanic lie has kept millions of people in spiritual darkness for some 14 centuries, a denial of the heart of the gospel, what Jesus ultimately accomplished for the salvation of mankind.
Islam also denies the Father and the Son. The god of Islam, Allah, is not a father, and has no son. Again quoting from the Quran, Yusuf Ali translation, we read, No Son did God beget, nor is there any God along with Him: (if there were many gods) behold, each god would have taken away what he had created, and some would have lorded it over others! Glory to God! (He is free) from the (sort of) things they attribute to Him! (23:91)
Quran 17:111 also states, Say, praise be to God, who begets no son, and has no partner in (his) dominion: nor (needs) He any to protect Him from humiliation.
So according to this Allah stands alone, free from all that Christians attribute to Him. Bear in mind that Muslims consider Allah to be the same God as the God revealed in the Bible. They teach that Christianity has corrupted the Bible. Therefore, God is not a Father, and has no Son. Notice how the deity of Christ is attacked in this verse. As Christians we understand when Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, He was referencing His deity. Yet we see that Islam teaches Jesus was not God's son, therefore He was not divine. The above Quranic verse makes sure we understand there was no other God along with Allah. No doubt a counter against the Christian concept of the triune God.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist , which you heard was coming and now is in the world already (1 John 4:1-3 ESV).
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is a deceiver and the antichrist (2 John 7 ESV).
Here we see the spirit of antichrist. Did Jesus, the divine Messiah, come in the flesh? Islam says no. God would never stoop so low to take on flesh, becoming human to identify with us. That is beneath his dignity. They are repulsed by the concept of the incarnation.
I would like to pause here and make a few things clear. I do not wish to insult Muslims. I personally know many Muslims, and love them as a people. They are lost in a false religion that keeps them from knowing the truth that can save their souls. As Christians we have a duty to reach the lost, and there are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world today. That is 24% of the world's population trapped in Islam. So first of all let's love them and seek to see them embrace Jesus as Lord and God.
Yet it is vital to us as Christians to be wise and understand the times. While many eyes are looking for some kind of European antichrist empire to arise, we must understand that the Bible points over and over again to Middle Eastern and North African nations who will rise up united against Israel in the last days leading up to the return of Christ. It is important to note that these nations are Muslim majority nations. These are the nations to watch as we approach the day of the Lord.
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