Sections > Christianity

Muslim methods to deny Christianity

There are challenges for Christians when talking to Muslims about their faith. Many Muslims have a different world view than Christians. Attention to listening and being aware of their ways of thinking is therefore of added value. It takes some time to understand the pitfalls in the conversation. God's wisdom is needed and lessons learned or examples from others will also help. Common methods used by Muslims in their approach to Christians are discussed here.

1. Reliablility of the Bible

Assumption of a changed Bible

One of the most common methods of denying belief in Jesus Christ is to deny that the Bible is reliable. It is not only a denial about the original texts, but also about a collection of the authorized books of God and that this collection of books can be trusted. [1] That the Qur'an affirms that the Bible is the same and has not changed is not enough for Muslims. They say that the original Bible has been changed. Muslims have no argument from the Quran or Hadith, it is just deception. But when a Muslim reads the Bible, his eyes will be opened to God's truth. The Bible has the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is almost all in Hebrew. The Septuagint [2] is a Greek translation from 200 BC, with negligible differences from the modern Bible. The New Testament has over 4000 different Greek manuscripts. Even atheists agree that the Bible is a surprisingly reliable copied document over so many centuries. However, with the abundance of material, it can be a pitfall to come up with historical evidence. Such an intellectual discussion will not lead to the focus of the Christian mission to win souls for God's Kingdom. The unbeliever in God's word begins with doubt. It is the job of a Christian worker to find a bridge by God's grace to give the Muslim a little bit of faith in the Bible.

Refuting Hebrew and Greek manuscripts

The challengers of an unchanged Bible have a point that there are no texts available from the original writers such as Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, and Peter. Many Muslims like to refer to the Gospel of Barnabas. However, it has been proven by historians and confirmed by many Muslims that this document is false. Evidence for a reliable Bible comes from the copied manuscripts, the earliest being from the Gospel of John in the early second century [3]. The high number of manuscripts removes doubts that the Bible is corrupt.

Claim of contradictions between Bible verses

Muslims may come to Christians with some Bible verses that contradict each other. Since only the Holy Spirit is able to answer all Bible questions, in most cases a Muslim does not have enough knowledge of the Bible. A Christian may come with questions how it contradicts. It is possible that a Christian will come back to refute the contradiction, but intellectual discussion is not the main goal of reaching Muslims for Christ.

Assumption that only the Qur’an is true

Muslims like to assume that the Qur'an is better than the Bible because there are no errors in it. This claim can be refuted by non-Muslims, because there are hundreds of contradictions in the Qur’an and many historical errors as well. The praise grammar and poetic construction also has its shortcomings. Therefore the Qur’an cannot be perfect. By carefully listening to the arguments of the Muslims and analyzing their logic, it will always be possible to refute their claim that only the Qur’an is true. Muslims reconstruct Biblical truth in such a way that it makes no sense. It is the challenge for a Christian to come up with such an answer to a Muslim, that he will be guided to God's straight path to eternal life in Jesus Christ.

2. Approach to explain Bible verses with Qur’an verses

Muslims are trying to match Bible verses with Qur’an verses. With this they hope to convince people that Islamic concepts are true and Christian concepts false. For example, some Muslims claim that the message of the Bible contains violence and that the Bible is no less violent than the Qur’an. The Bible contains verses with violence, but the underlying concept is promoting peace. Removing Biblical content is a method used by Muslim apologists to manipulate Bible verses. But reading the Bible needs interpretation with the Spirit of God. People often take verses out of context from the Bible. The way out is to make Muslims aware that the Holy Spirit is needed to do interpretation of the Bible. A favorite method of Muslims is that when they feel uncomfortable in a discussion, they change the subject and come up with Qur’anic verses. There are difficult verses in the Bible, but a reader should be aware of the message of the Bible and not read verses out of context as Muslims too often do. The difference with the Qur’an is that the Biblical violence is only directed to a local area and a short time, while the violence in the Qur’an is not local and forever.

3. Teachings of Jesus and Paul are different

Claiming that Paul never met Jesus

Muslims claim that Paul was not a disciple of Jesus. But there is evidence in the Bible that Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3-5). During the meeting, Jesus gave Paul instructions in the same way he did his disciples. The Apostle Paul was chosen and called by Jesus Christ himself to be his Apostle. (Acts 9:5-6, 26:16) He had been installed as an apostle of Christ by the other apostles. (Galatians 2:9, 2 Peter 3:15-16) There is no verse in the Qur’an that says the apostle Paul had false teachings. The Christian community using the teachings of the apostle Paul became the largest religion to date.

Assumption that Paul changed the Gospel of Jesus

Many Muslims think that the New Testament, written by Paul teaches only about God's love, joy and peace. This is not the practice of a lifetime and sounds unrealistic for a Muslim. Paul preaches Jesus as the Savior of the world. Everyone should read the New Testament, whether it is true or not that Paul promoted Jesus in any way other than the teachings of Jesus. The problem with reading Paul's letters is that he was a well-educated scholar and also experienced in the practice of law. That is one reason why many people do not understand Paul and accuse him of following something other than what Jesus preached. Christians can say with support from many Bible verses that Paul followed Jesus on his way to a holy life and kept the law of Moses. Paul followed the commandments of God's law (Acts 22:3, Galatians 1:14, Philippians 3:4-6). After receiving a spiritual revelation from Jesus, he did not stop following the law of Moses. He only added faith and grace through Jesus the Savior Messiah, but only to bring motivation to do God's will, like Jesus (Romans 3:31).

Claiming that Paul started saying that Jesus is God

For Muslims, the Christian doctrines and Biblical statements that Jesus is God are a target to refute. One of their methods is that Paul “invented” that Jesus is God. For a Christian, this can be easily refuted because many verses in the Gospel support the divinity of Jesus (Matthew 1:23, 26:63-64, 28:18; John 1:1-14, 8:58, 10:30-33, 14:9-11; Revelation 1:8, 22:13).

4. Divinity of Jesus

Muslims attack the doctrine of the Trinity

Muslims reject the divinity of Christ and do not worship him. They only accept him as a great and inspired prophet, according to a number of Qur’an verses. According to Muslims, Jesus is the son of Mary, not God. They believe that Trinity is contrary to the belief that there is one God. An easy way out for a Christian is to say that the original Trinity doctrine declares that there is only one God and that the Bible affirms that there is only one God. Muslims believe that Christians worship three gods. If a Christian comes up with many arguments, it may not lead to the goal of evangelizing a Muslim. Best practice is to tell that Jesus is greater than anything a Muslim can think about.

Son of God is unacceptable to Muslims

When a Christian tells a Muslim that Jesus is the Son of God, there are many ways a Muslim can refute it. But referring to Jesus as the Messiah, Spirit of God, Word of God or even "a revelation" or "a grace" will not result in a difficult discussion with a Muslim [4]. To say that Jesus is God is too difficult for a Muslim to accept. They think that if Jesus is a child of Mary, and the Son of God, then Mary had a relationship with God Almighty. Therefore, possible remarks of a Muslim could be: "Allah has no son or any other partner". Muslims are not aware that the title "Son of God" is not physical. Acceptance will be greater if you say that Jesus is stronger than your mind can imagine. He is the greatest who works miracles.

Assumption that Jesus is a local prophet

To compete with Muhammad, Muslims try to downplay Jesus as God by saying that he was just a prophet to the Jews of Israel. They refer to the early ministry of Jesus in Matthew 15:24. However, the Gospel is full of references that Jesus is for the whole world, for example Matthew 8:12, 28:19-20.

References in the Qur’an to the extraordinary nature of Jesus

Jesus was created by a Word of God, so he is heavenly (Qur’an 3:45). According to the Qur'an, Jesus had no mistakes in his life on earth (Qur’an 19:19), while other people disobeyed God in their life on earth. Jesus is always spoken to with reverence and without criticism in the Qur’an. In the Qur’an, Jesus is the Word of God and the Spirit of God (Qur’an 4:171).

5. Crucifixion of Jesus

Most Muslims believe that Jesus was not crucified, but was taken up by God. Their support comes from Quran 4:157 that "they did not kill or crucify him - it was only made so". It is very difficult for a Muslim to believe that a mighty prophet of God has been executed. This is why Muslims want to deny all historical facts in the New Testament. It is a paradox, because many prophets were tortured to death, such as John the Baptist (Yahya) who was beheaded and martyred. It is also difficult to refute the Bible, the Previous Scriptures, because the Qur’an says that they come from God. There is no general explanation why Jesus did not die on the cross. Most Muslims accept the replacement theory, that another person was crucified in the place of Jesus. Others think the salvation theory is the correct answer, in which Jesus was saved from the cross and ascended to heaven. A third theory is the swoon theory, Jesus was crucified but survived the method of execution on the cross. Islam promoters Ahmed Deedat and Zakir Naik have used this theory, although it is easy for a Christian to refute them with Matthew 27:26; Mark 15:15, 15:44; John 19:1, 19:33. There is also plenty of historical support and it is assumed by non-Christians that Jesus was crucified and died.

6. Refuting the resurrection of Jesus from the dead

Muslims say that Jesus did not rise from the dead because he was immediately taken to God and did not die. This is the result of their literal interpretation of the Qur’an which says that God took Jesus unto Himself (Qur'an 4:158). Therefore, they refute the resurrection of Jesus. However, a Christian can answer that the death of Jesus is related to his resurrection. When Jesus was executed and died, his disciples left him or denied him. But the resurrection of Jesus Christ changed everything. Since then, the disciples changed their lifestyle and motivation to tell about Jesus Christ. A senator from the Roman Empire informs us that Jesus Christ was executed by one of their leaders, but that Jesus suddenly became popular because people said that he was resurrected. It's hard to deny that this is an awe-inspiring and amazing phonemenon in the history of mankind.

7. Fall of people

Muslims reject original sin and claim that humans are innocent of the mistakes humans have made throughout history. They think Adam repented of his sin and this was accepted by God. (Qur’an 20:122) In Islam, sin is punishable, but a mistake is not. Adam committed no sin, only a mistake. A Christian can focus on the perfection of the soul in case it wants to live forever. One error is already directed against the perfect soul.

8. Knowledge about salvation

According to Muslims, there is no knowledge of salvation of your soul. Only God knows about it. There is no Savior in Islam, because for Muslims, Jesus does not serve as the Savior since the concept of original sin is not present in Islam. Therefore, a Muslim tries to do more good deeds than wrongs by believing in God, Qur’an and good deeds. But he never knows if he's done well enough. It is a very challenging question to ask a Muslim: Where do you go when you die? Possible answers from a Muslim could be that he is not sure or that it depends on whether he has done enough good deeds. Most Muslims are not aware of the serious consequences of sin [5]. But sin is a valley between God and man, the reason why he can't be in the Presence of God in heaven: “The law of the Lord is perfect, and converts the soul.” (Psalm 19:7) [6] The only solution to this problem is to accept God's Savior, Jesus Christ. There are opportunities to overcome Muslims' hesitation to accept the message of the Gospel. Testimonies of living faith and God's revelations and miracles will help. The unbeliever must be confident that after he has made the decision to accept the Savior, he will be better tomorrow than today. Muslims believe that the effect of sin only disappears on the Day of Judgment. This contradicts the experience that the effect of sin can also be broken on earth by God's grace, for example in 2 Samuel 12:13. When a Christian says that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, a Muslim can refute this with Qur’an verses. But this difficulty can be avoided by saying that Jesus is God's sacrifice for you, like the lamb for the son of Abraham. A Christian has a good message to tell a Muslim: he can know that his sins are forgiven because of the sacrifice of Christ based on the promises of God. Everyone in Christ knows that he has eternal life because of the resurrection of Christ, and nothing can separate us from God's love in Christ. [7]

9. Distinguish mainstream Christianity from sects

Muslims like to tell Christians that there are too many denominations and that it is weak not to have more unity. This cannot be denied. But they make no distinction between mainstream Christianity and sects such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and sects in the time of Muhammad. Another problem is that Muslims do not have enough knowledge to tell the difference between the Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox Churches and Protestant denominations. Muslims have problems when members of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches pray to Mary and have pictures and statues in the church. True followers of Jesus can be recognized independent from denominations by the same maturity level of spiritual and moral values. Jesus taught the Gospel (Matthew 5:5:3-12), equipped 12 disciples (Mark 3:14) , many followers (Matthew 4:25) and gave them the Holy Spirit on Pentecost (Acts 1:8). He commissioned them to preach the Gospel to all the people of the world (Matthew 28:19-20), the starting point of mainstream Christianity. The first leader of the church was the apostle Peter (Acts 2:14). Paul made a huge impact by taking the Gospel to non-Jews. On the other hand, Islam is also not strongly united. The Muslim must be aware of the not insignificant differences between Sunni and Shiite Islam. Furthermore, there are more than a hundred sects in Islam, of which Ahmadiyya is the largest.

Conclusion

The best practice is conversation aimed at winning the soul, don't try to be right with rational arguments. Avoiding yes-no discussions, return always back to the lost soul and salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus. Winning the soul to convert to Jesus. The Muslim soul must be born again. Praying for Muslims will help to be involved in reaching them. The next step is to gain experience in talking with Muslims to accept Christ as Savior. By God's grace they will make the right decision and start a new life with Jesus.

Notes

1. Josh McDowell, Sean McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Study Guide, Jesus and the Gospels, Nashville, 2017, 119.
2. Septuagint (LXX), Wikipedia.Org.
3. John Rylands Library Papyrus P52.
4. Ibrahimkhan O. Deshmukh, The Gospel and Islam, GLS, Mumbai, 2011, 164.
5. E.M. Hicham, How shall they hear? Sharing your Christian faith with Muslims, Belfast, 2009, 216.
6. Ray Comfort, Hell’s Best Kept Secret, 2019, Livingwaters.Com.
7. E.M. Hicham, How shall they hear? Sharing your Christian faith with Muslims, Belfast, 2009, 89.