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Continuing our discussion from part five, one of the primary reasons why some people become so easily deceived by such charlatans, is because they lack the Wisdom and Discernment of God's Holy Spirit. As a result, in a sense, they become spiritually blind; and thus, they are simply incapable of differentiating between what is truly of God, and what is not of God. Of course, as I also amply explain in a number of my other articles, even more elementary than this is the sad fact that such people simply do not possess a strong foundation in God's Word -- the Bible -- if any foundation at all. As a result, they have nothing with which to even compare the misguided teachings of the Qur'an.

Another reason why these false "angels of light" are able to deceive so many people, is because a lot of people knowingly turn their hearts away from Scriptural truth. In other words, perhaps they have heard it, or even read it for themselves, but they have knowingly rejected the truth for whatever their reasons. They become very hardened against, and insensitive to, the Voice of God which is speaking to their hearts. Thus, they soon fall prey to these deceptive individuals and evil spirits, which are more than willing to rush in and fill the spiritual void in people's lives. Consider the following verses:

"Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."


"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."


"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."


"Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:"


"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;"


Despite his blatant denial of the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and the Salvation which is obtained through His Name alone, Muhammad persisted in his attempts to try to convince the "unbelievers" -- that is, Christians and Jews -- that there is common ground between us; and that despite our different viewpoints and theologies, we all worship the same God. But is this truly the case? Is Allah -- the god of Islam -- also the God of we Christians, or of the Jews for that matter? Muhammad wrote the following in his second surah:

2:140-141. "Say, 'Do you dispute with us concerning ALLAH, while HE is our Lord and your Lord ? And for us is our works and for you your works; and to HIM alone are we sincerely devoted.' Do you say that Abraham and Ishmael, and Isaac and Jacob and his children were Jews or Christians ?' Say 'Do you know better or ALLAH, and who is more unjust than he who hides the testimony that he has from ALLAH ? And ALLAH is not unaware of what you do.'"

I consider myself to be a rather logical, analytical, and often skeptical person. As I have gotten older, I've learned that it isn't wise to always take people at their word, and just to accept whatever they may be telling us; particularly when it concerns important issues such as spiritual matters, and most importantly, the Word of God. Over the years, I've learned to conduct my own Biblical archaeology and to search out the truth of the Scriptures for myself. As I have shared with my readers on previous occasions, in the Gospels, Jesus stated the following:

"Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old."


It should come as no surprise to you then, that personally, I have a problem with Muhammad's claim that Christians, Jews and Muslims all worship the very same god. As I have told my readers before, if Christians, Jews and Muslims all believe in and worship the very same god, and if this god is really the author of our various sacred books, then it seems rather strange to me that he would impart such a vastly different message to each of these religions, concerning the nature and role of Jesus Christ. If he is the same god, then in my view, he is a very devious one indeed, not to mention a very confusing god as well. Wouldn't you agree? I believe that part of the answer is found in this verse, which I've shared with my readers before:

"For God is NOT THE AUTHOR OF CONFUSION, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints."


By now, I hope, dear reader, that you realize that I honestly do not believe that the followers of Islam worship the same god as I do; because the God who I worship would not deny the Divinity of His own Son, nor the Divine Mission which He gave Him to complete. Neither would the God I worship tell any of His followers to go around chopping off the heads of people who don't agree with the Christian faith, and much less blow up buildings, buses, or whatever, in which dozens, hundreds or even thousands of people are maimed and killed, in order to make some kind of political or religious statement.

I embrace the very same position when it comes to the Angel Gabriel. If the angel Gabriel of the Qur'an is the very same Angel Gabriel who we read about in the Bible, then why is it that in the Qur'an, he repeatedly denies Jesus' Divine Status as the Son of God? Why does Islam's angel Gabriel deny that Jesus is the Savior of the world, while in the Bible he does the exact opposite?

As you may recall, the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary just prior to her becoming pregnant with Jesus. During the brief conversation which ensued, Gabriel referred to Jesus as the Son of God two times. First the Angel Gabriel referred to the unborn Christ child as "the Son of the Highest"; and then a few sentences later he called Him "the Son of God". Consider the following verses from the Gospel of Luke:

"And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her."


Logic dictates that if we all truly worship the same god as Muhammad would have us to believe, and if the angel Gabriel of the Qur'an is the same Angel Gabriel of the Bible, then they would be saying the very same thing concerning Christ to each of these religions. But that is most certainly not the case. The only logical conclusion then, is that we are not all worshipping the same god. One of these gods is just a deceptive impostor, and one of these Gabriels is likewise not who he claims to be. Personally, I can't arrive at any other conclusion; can you?

I believe that my position regarding the religion of Islam should be sufficiently clear to any sincere Christian who is reading this series. I am convinced by this comparative study of the teachings of the Bible, and the teachings of Muhammad and the Qur'an, that Islam is not a work of God. Furthermore, I am personally convinced that it is a counterfeit religion which, while speaking of, and teaching of, many things which are also found in the Holy Scriptures, fails its followers in that it denies the greatest fundamental truth of all. That is that Salvation is found in the Name and Sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone, who is the only-begotten Son of God, who died for the sins of the world.

In the words of the Apostle Paul, it is my view that Islam's prophet -- Muhammad -- was a "natural man" who was unable to perceive or receive the true things of God's Spirit. Due to his pride, inflated ego and delusion of self-importance, he most certainly thought that he was receiving things from God. But in reality, Muhammad was a man who was full of spiritual darkness, because he rejected the Light of Jesus Christ. As Jesus had said of the Scribes and the Pharisees, Muhammad was likewise a spiritually blind leader who was leading his blind followers; because his understanding had become darkened, and his heart blinded to the truth concerning Jesus Christ. As a result, Muhammad became an easy pawn for Satan.

Ironically, as a result of his own spiritual confusion, the prophet of Islam -- Muhammad -- became convinced that anyone who did not embrace his new religion, was following in the footsteps of Satan, as we see by the following verse, which is also found in Surah Two:

2:209. "O ye who believe, come into submission all of you and follow not the footsteps of Satan; surely he is your open enemy."

Sadly, and tragically, despite all of the Scriptural truth which I have shared with you in this series, which clearly exposes the deception behind the teachings of Muhammad and Islam, it seems that there are some wayward American pastors who don't see things quite the same way as I do. As proof of this, consider the fact that I read a newspaper article some time ago which had the following headline: "Far From Ground Zero, Obscure Pastor Is Ignored No Longer". This article dealt with controversial Florida pastor, Terry Jones, who I first mentioned to you in part one of this series. But what really irked me about the article, were the following lines:

----- Begin Quote -----

More than a dozen houses of worship, of various faiths, also intend to respond collectively on the weekend of Sept. 11 by "affirming the validity of all sacred books," said Larry Reimer, pastor of the United Church of Christ.

Some pastors even plan to read from the Koran in their services.

----- End Quote -----

Over the years I have read quite a few accounts where we find so-called American "Christian" leaders of various persuasions failing miserably in their jobs as shepherds of God's flocks. Most of the recent controversy -- and failures -- as you will undoubtedly already know, has centered around so-called gay and lesbian rights, same-sex "marriage", and the ordination of gays and lesbians. The above news excerpts demonstrate the latest compromise to afflict our Christian faith. The article reeks of political correctness. I simply can't understand how any person -- be they pastor or layman -- who truly knows, believes in and really understands the central message of the Christian Bible, can make such a preposterous claim regarding the Qur'an being a valid sacred book.

Yet despite my personal dumbfoundedness regarding this issue, this wave of Islamic deception has apparently infiltrated a number of churches across the US in the past several decades. This marriage between our Christian beliefs and the tenets of Islam has come to be known as Chrislam. Upon conducting some online research, I discovered that this misguided religion was founded in Lagos, Nigeria among the Yoruba people during the 1970s by a former Muslim named Tela Tella. Currently, two different branches of Chrislam exist in Nigeria.

Contrary to the things I have shared with you throughout this series, Tela Tella asserts that Christianity and Islam share the same origins and the same core doctrine. For example, a short creed called the "Ifeoluwa Creed" states the following:

The God of Jesus is One
The God of Muhammad is One
Humanity is One
Chrislam, Chrislam, Chrislam

A page on the Wikipedia website offers us a description of Chrislamist worship services in the following manner:

----- Begin Quote -----

Tella refers to himself as "an instrument in the hands of God," and that God communicates with him through divine revelations. Tella conducts services for a small congregation in Lagos, who meet weekly on Saturdays. Tella explains that he did not want to conduct services on Friday because it leant itself to the Muslim faith, nor on Sundays for fear of favoring the Christian faith. The Saturday service takes place in Tella's temple, which Janson describes as "a garage-like white building with in the middle a colorful altar that is separated from the prayer ground where, like in a mosque, the congregation sits on the floor." Muslim and Christian worship songs are sung, the Quran and Bible are both consulted, and prayers combine Muslim and Christian elements.

Tella states that the holy scriptures of Islam and Christianity are "incomplete and contain some inaccuracies." Hence, Tella is working on compiling the Ifeoluwa Book, which will be the last Holy Book containing his divine revelations. Tella's teachings focus on the closeness of Islam and Christianity, and how God does not love one religion over the other.

----- End Quote -----

While I can obviously understand Tella's desire to bring a level of peace between the Christian and Islamic faiths, I simply cannot agree with this bastardization of our faith. In my view, it is like trying to mix oil and water, which is simply impossible to do, unless both liquids are kept in a constant state of agitation. For any true, Bible-believing Christian who is reading this series, it should be evident by now that there is very little evidence to support the belief that the Islamic sacred book -- the Qur'an -- is an inspired work of God. As I've already made clear, it is full of lies and deception, and it promotes violence against anyone who rejects its contents and the words of Muhammad.

As I mentioned earlier in this series, while the Qur'an may contain some of the very same characters and events that we encounter in the pages of our Christian Bible, that is as far as it goes. In fact, it is those very accounts which serve as the poisonous, deceptive icing on the cake, to draw in unwary readers who are not as familiar with the Gospel message as they should be. Quite frankly, Islam, the Qur'an, and its "prophet" Muhammad are a deceptive counterfeit religion that should be avoided completely.

Of course, if we consider the current politically correct mantra which claims that all paths lead to the same place, then it really isn't surprising that some of these leaders of organized religion would compromise their beliefs, and engage in such foolishness as to embrace the Qur'an as "a valid sacred book". What these people are doing is merely a continuation of the same deceptive and dangerous ecumenical spirit which has been promoted by the Roman Catholic Church, and by other like-minded entities and individuals in recent years.

At the beginning of this series, I stated that my purpose in writing it was to provide my Christian readers with informed reasons regarding why we should reject the religion of Islam, and all that it stands for. Our faith, and our beliefs, must not -- and should never be -- governed by, manipulated by, controlled by, or determined by political propaganda, or by mainstream media sensationalism, which is so common in the world today.

As I have shared with my readers on various occasions, our faith must be centered solely on the Word of God -- that is to say, the Bible -- because that is the only reliable anchor stone that we have. If we as Christians are going to reject Islam, then we must do it, not because of controversies such as the 9-11 attacks, or the New York City mosque debate, or any other worldly event. Rather, we should soundly reject it due to the fact that the religion of Muhammad -- Islam -- is totally incompatible with our Christian faith, and is in fact diametrically opposed to our most sacred core beliefs. Those core beliefs are embodied in Bible verses such as these:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."


"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."


"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."


"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."


That is why we should reject Islam. If we are doing it for any other reason, such as political party affiliations, or because of sensationalistic reports in the mainstream media which prey on people's emotions for the sake of profit, or for any other reason, then we are doing it for the wrong reason.

Before concluding this series, I would like to address any followers of Islam who may possibly be reading this series. If you are a dedicated follower of Islam and the teachings of Muhammad, I don't doubt that you will be offended, maybe even angered, by the contents of this series. Some of you, -- that is, the more radical elements within your faith -- may even desire to do me harm, just as you attempted to do harm to Salman Rushdie. While I obviously do not agree with such feelings, nevertheless, I do understand why you may harbor them. While you may not see it or understand it now, your religion has simply filled you with hatred and blind rage against anyone who does not agree with you. This is not what Jesus/Isa taught us, is it?

Having said that, I do want more level-headed followers of Islam to know that I don't believe that every single Muslim is a dangerous, evil person with an explosive pack tied to his chest, or a machete in his hand. In fact, I would dare say that the majority of you are probably nice, respectable, law-abiding individuals who wish to do harm to no one; and that the extreme, fringe elements only comprise a very small percentage of your faith. Perhaps the radical elements are an embarrassment to you as well. I recognize your right as a follower of Islam to choose your own faith, and to abide by its precepts as you feel led. Nevertheless, as I have clearly stated in this series, I firmly believe that Islam and the teachings of Muhammad have misguided you, and caused you to stray from the true path to Salvation, which is Jesus Christ.

Unlike your prophet Muhammad, I will not curse you for your error, or threaten you with violence. Instead, I will hope and pray that perhaps some day, in God's chosen time -- He does have His time for us all -- you will come to understand the central message of our Christian faith, and that you will choose to embrace Jesus Christ of your own free will, as I have done for many years now. After all, I am sure you will agree that faith which is forced upon a person by a sword, a bomb, a gun, or by some other form of violence, is not true faith at all, and will not endure during times of adversity. As Jesus/Isa taught us in the Gospel of Matthew:

"Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."


With these thoughts, I will bring this article to a close. It is my hope that you have found it informative, enlightening, and I pray that it has been a blessing in your life as well. If you have an account with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or with any other social network, I would really appreciate if you'd take the time to click or tap on the corresponding link that is found on this page. Thanks so much, and may God bless you abundantly!

For additional information and further study, you may want to refer to the list of reading resources below which were either mentioned in this article, or which contain topics which are related to this article. All of these articles are likewise located on the Bill's Bible Basics web server. To read these articles, simply click or tap on any link you see below.

Abundant Life Doctrine: Scripturally Exposed!
Elijah: Where Are the True Prophets of God?
Is Jesus the Only Begotten Son of God?
Message to the World
Middle East Peace: The Philistine - Palestinian Connection
Money-Making Bible Hucksters and Mammon
Oh Israel, Why Will Ye Die?
Palestinian Quest For Statehood And UN Resolution 377
Palestinian Suicide Bombers and Middle East Peace
Roman Catholicism, Water Baptism and the Holy Trinity
So You Really Think You Are So Humble?
The Blood Atonement: In Jesus' Own Words
The Children of God and Politics
The Fruits of Disobedience
The Great Tribulation and the Rapture
The Jerusalem Question: Middle East Peace, or War?
The Woman in the Wilderness and the 144,000
Yasser Arafat's Ultimatum: Why May 4, 1999?
You've Got It Wrong: Submit and Live!

ADDENDUM TO: HOLY QUR'AN AND ISLAM: A DOCTRINE OF DEVILS?

As I was working on part six of this series, where among other things, I discuss the differences between the true Angel Gabriel of the Bible, and the false angel Gabriel who is mentioned in the Qur'an, I received what I believe to be a rather unusual -- and I might add, totally unexpected -- confirmation of what I had typed only a few moments before. Those of you who have the faith will be able to accept what I'm about to share with you; while those of you who are not of faith will probably just chuckle or scoff.

As I am writing my articles, I often check online sources in order to verify certain facts and figures. I will also often resort to using my Macintosh "Online Bible" program which is installed on my computer, in order to find particular Bible verses which I wish to include in the writing project I am working on.

Quite often, I will also use the dictionary that is built into my computer's operating system, to verify the spelling and meaning of certain words. Well, as I was working on part six where I discuss the differences between the two Gabriels, I opened the dictionary app to verify the definition of the word "diametrically", which I use about three quarters down into part six. Imagine my shock when my eyes fell upon these words in the first definition for the word "diametrical":

----- Begin Quote -----

1 used to emphasize how completely different two or more things are : he's the diametrical opposite of Gabriel."

----- End Quote -----

Folks, let me tell you. My jaw just dropped as I read those words "he's the diametrical opposite of Gabriel." Sometimes something happens, and you just KNOW that it's the Lord who is speaking to you. Such was the case when I read those lines. I mean, seeing those words literally startled me and made me say "Whoah!" to myself.

If you doubt my word, and own a Macintosh computer, just look up the word "diametrical" in macOS's built-in dictionary for yourself. Seriously, that is just downright freaky. However, I do believe that the Lord chose for that to happen, as a way to encourage me, because He knows what a battle it has been for me to even complete this series. I have worked on it for several months now. I have been sick, and I am still sick. I have had visual problems, and I have experienced what I think may be spiritual attacks by dark forces which do not wish to see the completion of this series.

Nevertheless, by God's Grace, I have slowly persevered, and the series is now done. I trust that my labors have not been in vain, and that this series will be an eye-opener, as well as a source of truth for many of you who take the time to read it.

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