Islam
This week before going on our visits we studied about Islam. Islam is one of the youngest and one of the fastest growing of the major religions. It is estimated there are 1 billion followers in the world. This would mean that 1 in 6 people on this planet is a Muslim. Muslim, meaning one who lives his life according to God’s will, is the name for those who follow this religion.
Islam means submission. This is the submission to Allah, the God of Mohammed. He was born in 570 A.D. He came from a well-to-do family, which had a lot of tradigy strike when he was very young. His dad died a few days before he was born. His mom died when he was six. He was grandfather raised him until he died when Mohammed was nine. The rest of this raising was spent with his uncle where he herded flocks.
Most of his Ideas and exposure to religion was by spending time in the caravan trade where he took trips with his uncle to Syria and Persia. It is believed that he draws a lot of influence from the Jews inspiration from the Talmud. He also came in contact with the Monophysites and the Nestorians. The Monophysites believe that Christ was fully divine without a being human. The Nestorians believed that Christ did have two natures but they were separate from each other. Keeping all this in mind you can see how the structure and beliefs about Chirst in Islam was built from these three influences.
Their Holy Book is the Koran. It is said that Mohammed received this from the Angel Gabriel. Since Mohammed couldn’t read or write, the Koran was dictated partly by Mohammed and written down by followers who remembered his teachings. With this in mind they believe the Koran is the only correct book with the original, written in Arabic, in heaven. The bible, theTalmud and other books of Judaism are said by Islam to have been corrupted. They also have an extra teachings in the Sunnah, meaning path. This Sunnah was gathered into a book called the Hadith. Doesn’t this sound real close on how the Talmud supplements the Hebrew Bible. They also have there teaching on the law which they call Shariah, meaning “law.
The main part of their faith is the 5 pillars which they must keep to be a “good Muslim”.
Statement of belief; they must recite “There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is the prophet of Allah”.
Prayer; they must pray 5 time a day in the right position and facing the city of Mecca.
Alms; They must give 2.5% to widows, orphans, and the sick.
Ramadan; the ninth month on their calendar. They must fast during daylight hours and stay away from forbidden activities.
Pilgrimage to Mecca; at least once in their lifetime, if possible, they are required to make a trip to Mecca. If they can’t go they can send someone in their place.
It all come down to without the shedding of blood we can not have the forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22). I doesn’t matter if we think we are a good Muslim or a good person the bible says that there is none good no not one (Psalm 14:3) and all of us are sinner (Romans 3:23). There has to be a payment for our sins and I am glad Jesus did that. Ephesians 1:7 says that we are redeemed through the blood of Jesus. We must repent and turn away from our sins and our self-reliance of our good work to save us and put our trust in Jesus to save us.
Our Visit
This week before going on our visits we studied about Islam. Islam is one of the youngest and one of the fastest growing of the major religions. It is estimated there are 1 billion followers in the world. This would mean that 1 in 6 people on this planet is a Muslim. Muslim, meaning one who lives his life according to God’s will, is the name for those who follow this religion.
Islam means submission. This is the submission to Allah, the God of Mohammed. He was born in 570 A.D. He came from a well-to-do family, which had a lot of tradigy strike when he was very young. His dad died a few days before he was born. His mom died when he was six. He was grandfather raised him until he died when Mohammed was nine. The rest of this raising was spent with his uncle where he herded flocks.
Most of his Ideas and exposure to religion was by spending time in the caravan trade where he took trips with his uncle to Syria and Persia. It is believed that he draws a lot of influence from the Jews inspiration from the Talmud. He also came in contact with the Monophysites and the Nestorians. The Monophysites believe that Christ was fully divine without a being human. The Nestorians believed that Christ did have two natures but they were separate from each other. Keeping all this in mind you can see how the structure and beliefs about Chirst in Islam was built from these three influences.
Their Holy Book is the Koran. It is said that Mohammed received this from the Angel Gabriel. Since Mohammed couldn’t read or write, the Koran was dictated partly by Mohammed and written down by followers who remembered his teachings. With this in mind they believe the Koran is the only correct book with the original, written in Arabic, in heaven. The bible, theTalmud and other books of Judaism are said by Islam to have been corrupted. They also have an extra teachings in the Sunnah, meaning path. This Sunnah was gathered into a book called the Hadith. Doesn’t this sound real close on how the Talmud supplements the Hebrew Bible. They also have there teaching on the law which they call Shariah, meaning “law.
The main part of their faith is the 5 pillars which they must keep to be a “good Muslim”.
Statement of belief; they must recite “There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is the prophet of Allah”.
Prayer; they must pray 5 time a day in the right position and facing the city of Mecca.
Alms; They must give 2.5% to widows, orphans, and the sick.
Ramadan; the ninth month on their calendar. They must fast during daylight hours and stay away from forbidden activities.
Pilgrimage to Mecca; at least once in their lifetime, if possible, they are required to make a trip to Mecca. If they can’t go they can send someone in their place.
It all come down to without the shedding of blood we can not have the forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22). I doesn’t matter if we think we are a good Muslim or a good person the bible says that there is none good no not one (Psalm 14:3) and all of us are sinner (Romans 3:23). There has to be a payment for our sins and I am glad Jesus did that. Ephesians 1:7 says that we are redeemed through the blood of Jesus. We must repent and turn away from our sins and our self-reliance of our good work to save us and put our trust in Jesus to save us.
Our Visit
My teams visit ended up not being home and since it was far out, we didn’t get a chance to make another one. We had a great time in fellowship and talking discussing our testimonies. There were some other great visits by other teams. The gospel was presented by one group and the girl that was saved last week was visited and baptism was discussed.
Prayer Request
Pray for the people that were killed in the auto accident the night of FAITH. Some of our teams were delayed getting to the church because of this. Pray for their families. Pray for our Missionary Glen Knight. Great work is going on in the newly renamed village of Bethany.
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