Christianity or Islam? Which one to believe?

hunnybunny wrote: »

When comparing the bible and the Quran, something that hits me is that the Quran has never been changed since it was written.

Actually there are many variant readings in copies of the Quran. Have you ever heard of the Satanic Verses? These were a part of the Quran where supposedly Mohammed was deceived by Satan to teach that there were some godesses - but they were later removed. http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_Verses

And it was written directly by Mohommed himself.

That would have been somewhat difficult since many Islamic scholars teach that Mohammed was illiterate.

The Koran is also younger and when translated into English , it reads in a way I can easily understand.

Age has little to do with truth. The Daily Star is younger than either the Quran or the Bible.

Actually Islamic scholars teach that the Quran is only the Word of god when you read it in Arabic. Once you translate it into English or any other language it ceases to be the literal word of Allah and is only an interpretation.

The Bible, however, is available in plenty of modern translations.

The bible on the other hand, was not written directly by Jesus. There are many books but only a certain few made it into the bible. Which sadly leads me to question what is written inside it.

The fact that they operated a quality control system to weed out unworthy books increases my confidence in the Bible rather than diminishing it.

In school I wasn t really encourage to read and interperet the bible for myself. I read many chapters of the bible independently at home.
Many other Catholics I know don t even own one and they were surprised at many of the things I told them that I read about eg. book of revelations and what it says about women. It contradicted what the church tells them and what our society is now.

I'm not a Catholic, so I'll make no comment on that.

Why don't we as christians question things more, like about what the bible says?

We do. We question it in small bible study groups, in theological studies, and on internet fora like this one. In fact Christians today are generally much more free to question the Bible than Muslims are to question the Quran. Nobody will stone you if you disagree with the official line.

Another thing, with regards to Mohommed himself. We know he existed and he created an amazing movement that so many Muslims today follow.
Does nobody else question why they do this? How do we know that Jesus was the last messenger? Why don t we even take look at Mohommed and his teachings?

Jesus was not just a messenger. He was the Son of God who died for the sins of the world. Many of us have looked at the teachings of Mohammed and we have rejected them as inferior to the Gospel.

I can belive that Jesus was an amazing person who changed the world. But if there is only one god, how could Jesus be the son of god? There is meant to be no other gods other than the creator, as was said in the old testament and the koran. The Koran also says that Jesus will come again.

Jesus claimed to be God. If He was wrong about this then he was not a Messenger or a great prophet - rather that would make Him a liar or a nutcase. There is only one God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We call this the Trinity, and I freely admit it is hard to understand. That will cause trouble for those who think our finite minds should be able to comprehend the nature of an Infinite God.

Jesus will indeed come again at the end of the ages. This time He will come as a Judge rather than as a Saviour.

In Islam you can accept both Jesus and Mohommed as messengers of God, yet in Christianity I will be completely shutting out one prophet. What if this is a mistake?

Jesus said "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No-one comes to the Father except through me." If you follow Mohammed then, by definition, you have to reject Jesus as who he really was and instead believe a distorted message about Jesus. If you follow Jesus you do indeed have to shut out false prophets.

I feel like I am on the correct road but which path should I follow christianity or Islam? I know only I can answer this!

Indeed. No-one else can make that decision for you.

At least we can be thankful that you have a choice. In centuries gone by the Catholic church would have killed you if you didn't choose their way. Today there are some Muslim states where you can be imprisoned or killed for choosing to follow Jesus. Being free to make your own choice is good, isn't it?

Muslims believe in their religion with such devotion. I really admire it. You never hear of Muslims converting to christianity, yet some christians do convert to Islam. Why is this?

Christians who convert to Islam can freely talk about their conversion without any risk. However, in some parts of the world Muslim converts to Christianity have to do so in secret because of persecution.

Ahmad Al Qataani أحمد القطعاني An important Islamic cleric,said on Al Jazeera, speaking of Africa alone: “In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Ever year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity."

In my own Church two of my assistant Pastors are converts from Islam. We have more converted Muslims in the congregation.

To be honest certain things about Islam (in the Koran) make perfect sense to me, when there are so many things about christianity (in the bible) that confuse me in todays world.
Then again there are things in Islam that I question, but its mainly to do with the culture in todays world. I tend to agree with the prinicples but I don t like the way I see some of them simply ignored or twisted to suit their culture (like in Saudi Arabia)

I think there are things in both the Quran and the Bible that most people will find confusing. Cultures and political rulers will also twist both religions to suit themselves.

Muhammad is a prophet of 2 major world religions?

Pyr0 wrote: »

But what about the sections we never got to read or study ? That happened to be cleverly weeded out over the years ? Surely some of them have been written by eyewitnesses too ? Gives me the impresstion they were trying to control what people believed and gathered from the Bible to suit their own personal needs as time progressed.

We have discussed this before in this forum.

There are other accounts that claim to be written by eyewitnesses, but many of them are obviously from a much later date.

Actually you are free to read and study them. The myth that the Church methodically wiped out all competing books owes more to fiction like the Davinci Code than it does to history. Here's a link if you want to read and study some of them. I have done so, and it is an interesting experience. http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/

What happened was that the early Christians began to read and share with each other the writings and accounts of Jesus that squared with the memories of the eye-witnesses that became the apostles and leradership of early Christianity. Individual churches steered clear of books that were obviously not consistent with this. Gradually a consensus developed as to which books were considered 'Scripture' and at a later date various Church Councils put their seal of approval on that consensus.

Nothingcompares wrote: »

PDN, I think you're letting yourself down by your choice of language in your most recent post.

Well I'm always open to correction.

Which part do you think is offensive?

The fact that Mohammed was illiterate? This is taught by many Islamic scholars.

The fact that he was an Arab? That is surely relevant since he came from a different culture to that of Jesus.

The fact that he was a merchant? Somewhat irrelevant, I must admit.

The fact that he claimed an angel gave him the facts about Jesus?

The fact that he lived 550 years after the life and death of Jesus?

Or do you think I should follow the politically correct and inconsistent media practice of referring to him as 'The Prophet Mohammed'?

PDN wrote: »

That's a very good point. So which version is most likely to be correct?

a) The version that was written down by eye-witnesses, by followers of Jesus, and by close associates of those followers. The version that was written and widely circulated within 50 years or so of His life and death.

b) The version that an illiterate Arab merchant says he received from an angel 550 years after the event.

Think about it.

Er, if you believe it actually was an angel then surely the correct answers is B, is it not.

PDN wrote: »

Only if you believe that all angels are both good and truthful.

Ok, let me clarify, if you believe it was an angel sent by God, then surely the correct answer is B

why would anyone believe a bunch of humans over an angel sent by God?

Bduffman wrote: »

Asking christians which religion to believe in is a bit like asking a cork man what hurling team you should support. You are hardly going to get an objective answer from anyone who is born into a religion.

And what about those of us that weren't born into a religion?

In fact, since Robin claims that everyone is actually born as an atheist, your logic would pretty well mean that nobody can give an objective answer about atheism.