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One of my
students, Altan from Turkey, asked me, "Why
do Christians call Jesus the Savior? What does that word 'savior' mean?"
I explained to him that Jesus Christ came to the earth to save all people
from their sins. When we put our faith and trust in Jesus our sins are
forgiven and we have the gift of eternal life. Altan
then said, "We Muslims believe in Jesus, the Messiah. He is one of our
prophets. In fact, he is one of the greatest of our prophets, just under
Mohammed in importance." I explained to Altan that God sent many prophets to the world, but He
sent only one savior. He only sent one savior to provide a way for us to have
our sins forgiven. Because of this, a savior is more important than a
prophet. Then my Muslim friend said, "If what you say about Jesus is
true, then why would Allah need to send Mohammed?" If what the Bible
says about Jesus is true, then there would be no need for Mohammed! Christianity is based on three principles - 3 truths:
Ř Jesus is the Savior of the world. Ř
The
Bible is the Word of God. Ř
We
can know & experience forgiveness for our sins. The
Bible teaches many other things, but these three are foundational.
I. Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. Jesus is the Savior because he gave
his life as a sacrifice for our sins. When he died in Jerusalem in AD 29,
crucified by Roman soldiers, he was dying for us, as a substitute to pay for
the punishment which we deserved. His death on the cross was confirmed by
ancient historians: -Pliny, the Roman governor of Asia Minor, wrote to the
Emperor in Rome asking for advice concerning the Christians who he said
believed that Jesus died on a cross. -Tacitus, the royal court historian in
Rome, told about Jesus' miracles and his crucifixion in his Annuals.
-Josephus (Jewish historian) wrote much about Jesus including his miracles,
his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. Most importantly,
the Bible tells us that Jesus’ own mother was present when he was crucified.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, stood watching as the Roman soldiers put the nails
in her son's hands and feet and lifted him up on the cross. Jesus spoke to
his mother when he was on the cross, committing her into the -care of one of
his disciples named John. Surely, Jesus’ mother knew who was being crucified
before her own eyes. There was no mistake. It was really Jesus who was being
put to death on the cross, not another person. The Bible says that we all are
guilty before God for our sins. Jesus' death on the cross is God's provision
for our rescue from the punishment of sin. If we reject God's plan to save
us, there is no other alternative plan. God has no second plan to save us.
When a doctor gives us medicine to heal us from a disease, we don't refuse to
take it just because it tastes bad. We take it gladly because we know the medicine
will heal us. God's medicine for our disease of sin does not taste bad. In
fact, knowing Jesus in my life as my Savior has been the greatest blessing,
the greatest joy of my life. When Altan asked me, "If the Bible is true, then why
would Allah need to send Mohammed?" he could see the answer himself.
If Jesus' death on the cross provided forgiveness for all our sins, then
Mohammed and Islam were not necessary. He immediately understood this and
said, "Well, we know that Jesus did not really die on the cross! The
Koran says, it was someone else, not Jesus who was
crucified." Muslims say they believe in Jesus - but it is clear that
the Jesus they believe in is not the Jesus of the Bible. They believe in a
false concept of Jesus. II. The Bible is the
Word of God. Is what the
Bible says about Jesus true? The Bible mentions or refers to Jesus' death 137
times. The Koran says that Jesus did not die on the cross, the Bible says
that he did and explains why this was God's plan to rescue us from the punishment
for our sins. Which one is right? The Bible,
especially the New Testament, was written by eyewitnesses who actually saw
what they wrote about. The Koran was written 600 years later. Which one
should we believe, eyewitnesses or a document which was
written hundreds of years later? a) The Biblical writer Peter, wrote: "We
did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye-witnesses of his
majesty." Not only was the
Bible written by eyewitnesses, but also archeology gives evidence that the
Bible is true. Dr. William Albright of John Hopkins University says from
archeological evidence alone, the Bible is the most true.
The October 25, 1999 edition of U.S.. News &
World Report had a lead article entitled, Is the Bible True? In the article
it told of all the recent discoveries of archeology to prove the Bible is
accurate in what it says. The article said: "In extraordinary ways,
modern archeology has affirmed the historical core of the Old and New
Testaments - corroborating key portions of the stories of Israel's
patriarchs, the Exodus, the Davidic monarchy, and the life and times of Jesus. " Early manuscripts also give evidence that the Bible has
not been changed. There are over 4,000 copies of the Greek New
Testament in existence today. Some of these are very old, dating from 150 -
200 years from the original writing. When scholars compare all these ancient
manuscripts they find that over the years (about a 1000 years of copying)
there is no essential difference in what was written in the year 150 and what
was written in the year 1200. I've seen# some of these very early manuscripts
myself in the Royal British Museum in London. Leading scholars of ancient
manuscripts give testimony to the trustworthiness and the accuracy of the
Bible:
a) Westcott and Hort were well known textual
critics of ancient documents. They said: "The words in our opinion still
subject to doubt can hardly amount to more than a thousandth part of the
whole New Testament." We can believe what God
says. I
showed this verse to my Muslim friend Altan and
asked him if the Old and New Testament Scriptures (the Tevrat
and the Injil) were the words of Allah when they
were originally given. He agreed that they were originally the words of
Allah, but that they had been changed later. Then I said, then that means the
Koran is wrong and has a mistake in it. Because the Koran clearly says the
words of Allah can never be changed. If the Old and New Testament have been
changed then the Koran is wrong. If the Koran is right, then the Bible has
not been changed. I asked Altan, "Which one is
it? Has the Bible been changed or is the Koran wrong?" He didn't know
how to answer this question. Those who say the Bible has been
changed usually misinterpret the Bible or they
do not use the original Hebrew and Greek - they find mistakes in the English
translations. I used the Arabic Koran. III. We can know and
experience forgiveness for our sins. The message of the Bible is
very clear - God loves us and He wants to give us a new life. He is willing
to forgive our sins and to fill our lives with peace and joy, if we will
accept His escape plan for us. What we see in the world today is not God's
plan. We see war, hunger, crime, hate, murder - all these evil activities are
caused because mankind is living in rebellion to God. They have rejected
God's perfect plan for their lives and have chosen to live for themselves.
When each person is only living for himself: he will naturally come into
conflict with others who are living only for themselves. What we see
happening in the world is the result. On a personal level, we see the result
of man's rebellion against God, hatred, anger, envy, jealousy
against others. Also, loneliness, confusion, despair, drunkenness,
frustration are things we all experience in our lives. God's plan is to
change all that. He wants to give us His peace, love, joy, patience and
acceptance. That's why He sent Jesus. Jesus died on the cross for us to pay
for our sins and to give us a new life. This is how we can know and
experience in our lives God's forgiveness and acceptance. Some people ask, "Why do I need a savior?"
We need a savior because we are all sinful people. Everyone who lives does
wrong things at sometime. The Bible clearly teaches: "Everyone has
turned away from God, all people together have become corrupt, there is no
one who does good all the time, not even one
person." (Psalm 53:3) Because of our sins, we are guilty before God. He
will punish us for the evil that we have done. The Bible says: "The
person who sins is the one who will have spiritual death .... The sin of the
sinful person will be counted against him." (Ezekiel 18:20) Jesus is the
only way for us to be saved from our sins. Why is Jesus the only way? Because
Jesus is the only one without sin, so he is the only one who was able to save
us. Why is Jesus the only way? Because Jesus is the only one who died as a
sacrifice for our sins, therefore he is the only one who can save us. Why is
Jesus the only way? Because Jesus is the only one who came back alive again
to prove that he really is the true Savior of the world. But the Bible offers
us hope. By simple faith in Jesus Christ and believing that he died on the
cross for our sins, we can know God's forgiveness and mercy and experience
salvation which brings us eternal life. The Bible makes this very clear: “For
you know that it was not with temporary things like silver or gold with which
you were saved from the sinful life you inherited from your forefathers, but
it was with the life blood of Jesus Christ, who was like a lamb sacrificed
for us, because he was without sin or defect in any way." (1 Peter 1:
18-19) Every other
person, even every prophet sent by God, was a sinner who needed a savior to
be made right with God. The first man, Adam, sinned. Abraham, Moses and David
all sinned against God. According to the Koran, even Mohammed is a sinner
needing forgiveness (see SURA 47 verse 19 and SURA 48 verse 1-2). You see, Jesus is the only one who
could be our Savior, because he is the only one without sin. The Bible
teaches us that God loves us so much that He sent Jesus Christ to save us.
This is what the Bible says: "For God loved the world so much that He
gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in him (and puts complete
trust in him) will not be lost (or punished for his sin), but he will have
the gift of eternal life. God did not send His Son into the world to judge
the world, but to save the world through him." (John 3: 16-17) Islam does not
offer us forgiveness. Mohammed did not die for our sins. The
Koran does not teach that we can know we have eternal life and are going to
heaven. The Muslim religion does not give us assurance of our salvation. Only
faith in Jesus can do that. This short article was not meant to
offend anyone. It was only given for the purpose of showing the
differences between Islam and Christianity. Also, it was given to point out
those areas where Muslims have wrong ideas about Christianity. We need to be
sure we understand what Christianity teaches before we reject it. Otherwise,
we will believe a lie and miss out on the greatest blessing that God has
given to all people - the chance to have our sins forgiven and to have
eternal life. Author known, ex-Muslim
scholar. For further information
contact:
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