Who is a True Prophet? and Muhammad.
The God of Israel refers to himself in plural, "Us," in the Bible, while
Allah (El) of Islam is nowhere referred to in plural. The multiplicity
of the God of Israel can easily be explained by analysing the characteristics
of us humans since we were created in God's image - Genesis 1:26
"Let us make man in our image, in our
likeness". Our beings constitute three dimensions or persons,
a soul (person), a body (person), and a spirit (person). Similarly the God
of Israel has this unique characteristic of being represented by different
persons under different circumstances.
God, himself, the soul, with his intense love and righteousness. We
cannot see him, but we can experience him like a caring father.
God the Spirit, who was there from the beginning as we see in Genesis
1:2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness
was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over
the waters. It is nearly as if the earth was so desolate that
God didn't want to set foot on it, which supports the view that the creation
described in Genesis 1 of the Bible was actually a re-creation of the earth
due to some catastrophe that had hit it. God also puts His (The) Spirit on
people to establish a special relationship with them: I Samuel 16:13
So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him
in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD
came upon David in power. Later, after David had sinned we see
how precious his special ties to God are from his following plea: Psalms
51:11 Do not cast me from your presence or take
your Holy Spirit from me.
But we also see that God can put other spirits on men to punish them, or
for some other purpose. I Samuel 16:23 Whenever
the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take his harp and play. Then
relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would
leave him.
| God the Body. The main difference between the God
of Israel and other gods is that he is not represented on earth by objects,
e.g.. Buddha statues, the Black Rock in Medina, etc., but by a person
with a human body. The first time we come across the God of Israel in human form is where Abram was visited by three men. Genesis 18:1 |
 |
The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees
of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of
the day. 2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw
them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low
to the ground. 3 He said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord (Adoni
in Hebrew), do not pass your servant by.
It can be said that Abraham's calling one of the three men "my Lord"
was simply in the context it is used today in Israel, meaning Sir or my Sir.
But we know this Lord was God from the fact that the original Hebrew text
calls him Jahwe instead of "Lord" in Genesis 18:1. So he was God in
human form, most probably the Messiah, also called Immanuel, which means
"God with us".
Due to the fact that Islam is a monotheistic religion like Judaism, it doesn't
even occur to most Jews to consider the possibilities that different Gods
can be behind their religions. But they simply cannot be the same God for
reasons already mentioned and others that are to follow.
The "complete" number, SEVEN, is associated with the true God, the God of
Israel. For this reason he chose the Seventh day as his day of REST:
Gen 2:2 By the seventh day God had finished the work
he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from
all the work of creating that he had done. NIV
As against this, Allah of Islam chose the SIXTH day. Consequently, we can
say he didn't create man because he was resting that day - fact is, that
he didn't create anything and he doesn't need to rest -- something we see
in the way the Muslims keep their Holy Day: they just stop work to go and
pray. Six, however, is an incomplete number, the number of man:
"Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count
the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is
Six hundred threescore and six." Revelation 13:18 KJV
The word seven occurs 379 times in the NIV; seven hundred 8
times; seventh 116 times. Total 503
The word Six occurs 97 times in the NIV; six hundred 26
times; sixth 44 times. Total 167
Based purely on numerology, we can therefore say that the Bible is a book
of sevens.
How can Allah, a spirit, have the number of man?
It is probably due to him not having a human body (a Son, like Messiah Yeshua)
who could have been given for the sins of men -- instead men have to give
their sons as human sacrifices --- worthless redemption that cannot
pave a way to heaven (even for suicide bombers) because it is limited to
human level. (The promise of 72 virgins for shahids, is of course false,
since spirits cannot experience physical pleasures that are limited to the
human, physical, level.)
The totally different objectives or missions of Islam and Judaism raise the
question whether these religions or groupings can be controlled by the same
God. How can one group of followers of a god have as its aim the destruction
of another group of followers of the same god as is the case with Muslims
wanting to destroy Jews and the Jewish state? The Islamic Jihad slogan,
"First (we'll kill) the Saturday people (Jews)
and then the Sunday people (Christians,
Crusaders)," is only too well known
and experienced - in Islamic terrorism.
What comes to mind is what Yeshua of Nazareth had said about a divided kingdom.
Matthew 12:25 Jesus knew their thoughts and said
to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every
city or household divided against itself will not stand.
It can only be a schizophrenic leader who can have such a vastly different
agendas for two groups of his followers as the Jews or those adhering to
Judaism and the Muslims.
The followers of the Gods of Islam and Judaism, serve them in completely different ways and according to completely different standards. Viz. Islam's holy day is the sixth day, while the day of rest in Judaism is the seventh day in accordance with the day the God of the Bible (Tenach) rested after working six days.
The God of Israel is a Merciful God, while there doesn't seem to be any mercy
or sympathy in Islam - especially to woman and non-Muslims. Whereas the God
of Israel's righteousness doesn't allow him to let sin go unpunished, he
first creates an opportunity for sinners to acknowledge their sin and to
repent. Take the way he approached Cain after he had killed his brother.
By asking him, "where is your brother", God
gives him the opportunity to confess. In discussing his plans with Sodom
and Gommorah with Abraham, God is actually trying to find extenuating
circumstances before he metes out punishment.
It is often said that the Muslims are only involved with the harsh judgmental
side of God, while Jews and Christians also identify with his merciful side.
But the God of Israel's mercy and love is so great that those who are serious
about knowing him and following him cannot fail to benefit from it in the
end. What comes to mind is the fact that the Muslims haven't been favored
with a victory over Israel in all their wars the last fifty years. Meanwhile
it is inherent to Islam that Allah gives his followers victory in war.
Islam does not contain a means of spiritual salvation. Salvation cannot be earned or obtained by performing rituals or pilgrimages or by dying as a martyr. In the article, Searching for the Blood of Atonement, a story by an old Jewish man, it can be seen how salvation can be obtained via Judaism. The fulfillment of the promise of salvation is also shown in the following article, And all Israel will be saved!, by Philip Blom.
Contrary to Judaism and Christianity Islam has a weak connection to Jerusalem
as seen from the following report by Arutz-7 News: Sunday, May 24, 1998.
Former Israeli Ambassador to Egypt Moshe
Sasson, an expert on Islamic affairs, explained to Arutz-7 today the exact
nature of Islam's connection to Jerusalem: "We must differentiate between
the holiness of the city and the holiness of sites within the city. The Caliph
Abd El-Malik, when he moved his center of power from Damascus to Jerusalem,
sought to build up the importance of Jerusalem as an Islamic center, and
built the mosques there. The Al Aksa mosque was built 21 years after Mohammed's
death. Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Koran (it is mentioned
667 times in the Bible), and the Al Aksa mosque is mentioned only once -
and even that is not a reference to the mosque of today. In verse 1 of chapter
17, the Koran states that Allah transported Mohammed from Mecca to Al-Aksa;
but this cannot be referring to the mosque in Jerusalem, because when Mohammed
was alive, there were no mosques there. Rather, it refers to the 'end' (aktsa,
in Arabic) of the sky."
Sasson said that in Islam, there is a differentiation between political
sovereignty and religious significance: "None of the holy cities in Islam
are political capitals. This goes for Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, whose
capital is Riyadh, and the three Shiite Islam holy cities in Iraq, none of
which were chosen as the capital of Iraq. This is true even for Jerusalem
itself, for when King Abdullah captured it, he did not move his capital from
Amman to Jerusalem." Sasson said that the holiness of Jerusalem to Islam
can therefore not be an issue when discussing its future political status.
He said, however, that in his opinion it would be advisable to grant some
sort of special non-sovereign status to the Arabs over the sites that are
holy to Islam.
The God of Islam has as his aim to conquer territory, including Israel
and then proclaim his law of the Quran over it. As against this the God of
Israel has chosen the land Israel and its people, the Jews for himself. It
is his intention to rule the word from there at the end of the era we're
living in. That is why such a battle is raging for control of Israel and
Jerusalem. Nations are used in the battle, although we see in Ephesians
6:12 that
....our
struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against
the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Spiritual forces incite nations to do battle for them, using them as cannon
fodder, viz. the Islamic suicide bombers. As we approach the end of the age,
the nations will be more and more drawn to be involved in the battle for
Jerusalem. The God of Jacob, in his mercy, warns the nations that they will
suffer if they get involved. Zechariah 12:3 On that
day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make
Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will
injure themselves. Zechariah 12:9 On that day I will set out to destroy all
the nations that attack Jerusalem.
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