ISLAM AND THE BIBLE

Devout Muslims desire to know God but they do not believe God is personally knowable. 
The Allah of the Qur’an is not personal but an unknowable supreme authority, lawmaker and judge.

The Bible tells a different story.

• God is love.

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:8 (NKJV) 

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

• God is love. 

Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16 (NIV) 

Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:4-5 (NIV) 

We cannot be saved and enter Paradise by our good works or religious life but only by the love and mercy of God, the God who LOVES His enemies.

For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Romans 5:10 (NIV)  

The Bible says that everyone who is motivated by hate and anger (or even by mere selfishness) is an enemy of God. 

• There are angry holy warriors of Islam like this. 

Jesus is quite different. When He was dying on the cross, He prayed for God to have mercy on His enemies.

Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." ...Luke 23:34 (NIV) 

Even people who are unselfish and serve others from an attitude of self righteousness or religious duty are unable to know God. 

There are good moderate Muslims like this. 

• They live like good religious people who live morally good lives and help others. 

• They fear the fire of hell and they hope when they are weighed in the balance of judgement, their good deeds will outweigh their sins.

But the Bible teaches that we cannot earn salvation. We all deserve God’s punishment but God gives salvation and eternal life as a free gift to everyone who trusts in Jesus.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (NLT) 

Because of his kindness, you have been saved through trusting Christ. And even trusting is not of yourselves; it too is a gift from God.

• Salvation is not a reward for the good we have done, so none of us can take any credit for it. Ephesians 2:8-9 (TLB) 

The Bible says we can know God personally as our Heavenly Father.

Islam teaches that Allah is the supreme God but he is not a father, has no sons or daughters and cannot be known personally. 

• Muslims hope to enter a Paradise full of luxury, happiness and sexual pleasure but in this Paradise, there is no personal friendship with a supreme personal God.

The Bible tells a completely different story.

And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." 

And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." 

Then He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. 

I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.  

"He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. Revelation 21:5-7 (NASB)

The Qur’an teaches that Jesus was a prophet of Allah but NOT the Son of God.

The Bible says the only way to know God is by believing in Jesus as the Son of God.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16 (NASB) 

Jesus answered, 

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 (NIV)