Mahomet and Mohammedanism, Part 3:
Saracen was the general name of the Arabian tribes when Mahomet appeared in the beginning of the seventh century. Their religion at this time was Sabianism or the worship of the sun, moon, etc. and intermingled with some Jewish and Christian maxims and traditions.
These Arabian tribes were generally at variance with each other as they are today, yet Mahomet constructed a mighty empire; converting the relapsed Ishmaelite’s into good Mussulmen (follower of Mahomet); uniting the warring tribes under one banner; supplied what was wanting in personal courage by and through the rays of religious zeal; and out of these little and unknown Arab bands, Mahomet raised and armed multitudes which would prove to be the scourge of the world.
Mahomet descended, according to eastern historians, in a direct line from Ishmael. His manner was engaging, and his eloquence powerful; but he was illiterate, as were most of his countrymen, and indebted to a Jewish or Christian scribe for penning his Koran.
All the things verifying the prediction given of Ishmael at his birth, that he, in his posterity should “be a wild man,” and always continue to be so, through “he shall dwell forever in the presence of his brethren.” Paul first preached the Gospel in Arabia, Gal.1:17.
Christian churches were founded, and many of the Arab tribes embraced Christianity prior to the fifth century; most of which appear to have been impregnated in the mind with the Nestorian heresy. You may be asking who was Nestorian and what was his Heresy?
A Nestorian is an adherent of Nestorius, a patriarch of Constantinople in the 5th century who was deposed and condemned as a heretic for maintain that the two natures in Christ were not so blended and confounded as to be undistinguishable. The Catholic clergy was fond of calling the virgin Mary “Mother of God” to which Nestorius objected, as implying that she was mother of the divine nature which he properly denied and for this he was called a heretic.
So why were these Arabs drawn into the religion of Mahomet? For several reasons, one may be because no version of the Bible was to be found in their own language, leaving them confused, and because of the bickering and strife within the Christian community.
According to Mohammed, his religion was the only orthodox creed existing from the beginning of the world, and preached by all the prophets since Adam. It is also called Islam, Resignation, entire Submission to the will and precepts of God. In its exclusively settled opinion or theoretical part, it is “Iman,” Faith; in its practical, Din, Religion (by way of eminence.) The fundamental principles of the former are contained in the two articles of belief: “There is no God but God; and Mohammed is God’s Apostle.”
The Mohammedan doctrine of God’s nature and attributes coincides with the Christian, in so far as he is by both taught to be the Creator of all things in heaven and earth, who rules and preserves all things, without beginning, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and full of mercy. Yet, according to the Mohammedan belief, he has no offspring. But the Scriptures reveal,
Matthew 16:16, Jesus asked Peter, “Whom say you that I am?” Peter answered Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Mohammedan belief teaches “He (God) begetteth not, or is he begotten.”
The Father said of His Son Jesus, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.”
They claim Jesus is said to be only a prophet and apostle, although his birth is said to have been due to a miraculous divine operation; and as the Koran superseded the Gospel, so Mohammed the Christ, not Jesus the Christ.
Luke 21:8, Jesus said, “Take heed that you be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ.”
Mohammedan teaches the crucifixion is said to have been executed upon another person, Christ having been taken up unto God before the decree was carried out.
Paul writes, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “I (Paul) received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And that He was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”
Muslims claim He (Jesus) will come again upon the earth, to establish everywhere the Moslem religion, and to be a sign of the coming of the Day of Judgment. Next to the belief in God, that in angels forms a prominent dogma. Created of fire, and endowed with a kind of un-corporeal body, they stand between God and man adoring or waiting upon the former, or interceding for and guarding the latter.
John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father, but by me.”
Muslims teach, the four chief angels are the “Holy Spirit,” or angel of Revelation:” Gabriel; the special protector and guardian of the Jews: Michael; the “Angel of Death:” Azrael Raphael, in the apocryphal gospel of Barnabus), and Israfil Uriel, whose office it will be to sound the trumpet at the Resurrection. It will hardly be necessary, after what we said under Mohammed to point out, in every individual instance, how most of his “religious” notions were taken almost bodily from the Jewish writings.
Besides angels, there are good and evil genii, the chief of the latter being Iblis (Despair), once called Azazil, who, refusing to pay homage to Adam, was rejected by God. These Jin are of a grosser fabric than angels, and subject to death. They, too, have different names and offices (Peri, Fairies: Div. Giants; Takvins, Fates, etc.) and are, in almost every respect, like the Shedim in the Talmud and Midrash.
A further point of belief is that certain God-given Scriptures were revealed successively to different prophets. Four only of the original one hundred and four sacred books; viz, the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Koran, are said to have survived; the three former, the Pentateuch, Psalms, and Gospel however are said to be in a mutilated and falsified condition.
Revelation 3:2. And it is declared that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
Besides these, a certain apocryphal gospel attributed to St. Barnabas and the writings of Daniel, together with those of a few other prophets, are taken notice of by the Moslems, but not as canonical books.
The number of prophets sent at various times, is stated to be between two and three hundred thousand among whom 313 were apostles, and six were specially commissioned to proclaim new laws and dispensations, which abrogated the preceding ones. These were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed, Mohammed the last and greatest of them all, and propagator of the final dispensation.
Hebrews 1:1-2, “God, who at sundry times in divers manners (many ways) spake in time past unto the fathers (Moses, Daniel, etc.) Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.”
Phillip LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com