The Chasm Is Wide Between Islam And Christianity--One Is Hate: The Other Is Love

When the Son of Man comes

in His glory, and all the holy angels

with Him, then He will sit on the

throne of His glory. All the nations

will be gathered before Him, and He

will separate them one from another,

as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.

And He will set the sheep on His right hand,

but the goats on the left.

Matthew 25:31-33

     Notice that this separation of the sheep and the goats occurs when the Son of Man, Jesus, is sitting on the "throne of His glory;" not before this is there a separating by God as with the Islamic religion that determines to either accept you as you convert to their religion or suffer the consequences that may, and often is, death due to your not converting to Islam. It must be remembered that Islam is not just a religion, it is a religio/political ideology that controls every part and parcel of a persons life. The judgment that Jesus imparts to the people occurs on the Last Day, not before, there is no rapture, as some teach, there is only the Last Day when Jesus comes to separate the sheep from the goats. We await that Day, we live for Him until that Day, and we do what a sheep does and not a goat. How do we know that we are a "sheep?" Jesus answers that question: The the King will say to those on His right hand, 'come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in'.....And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to y9u inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you do it to me" (Matthew 25:40). Christians do not make laws to control people, such as the Shiara Law of the Muslims, whereby women must wear shawls that cover their face, the burka a full body cloak worn by some Muslim women;or that you must pray towards Mecca five times a day, on a rug, and if you are not doing these things, and more, then you are subject to some form of punishment. The difference between Christianity and Islam is a wide chasm and the two are not compatible for Christians it is love that drives their lives: "For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another" (1John 3:11). John adds: "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth" (1John 3:18). No where does the Scripture, Jesus, the Apostles, the writers of those Scriptures teach us that we are to go and win others by conquering the people and forcing them to believe in the Scriptures. This is not true of Islam, for the fight to win the nation and then because there are religio/Political, they form laws that fit the Qur'an and force people to obey those laws. 
     From the beginning in Acts when 3,000 people converted to Christianity by hearing the word of God preached to them, not forced by some armed fanatical army, rather by God giving to them the faith to have the ears to hear the truth that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, is the Son of God, and is the Savior that takes away the sin of the world, then spread the Gospel into Africa, Egypt, Europe, Turkey, and into India, and even China, with missionaries taking the Gospel to those people, the Gospel of love, that due to the love of God Jesus came and died for them, the world, and is calling out His people. But this is not true of Islam for they forced by armed men to conquer lands, and peoples, even to attempt to conquer Spain, but lost at the Tours:

October 10, 732 AD marks the conclusion of the Battle of Tours, arguably one of the most decisive battles in all of history. A Moslem army, in a crusading search for land and the end of Christianity, after the conquest of Syria, Egypt, and North Africa, began to invade Western Europe under the leadership of Abd-er Rahman, governor of Spain. Abd-er Rahman led an infantry of 60,000 to 400,000 soldiers across the Western Pyrenees and toward the Loire River, but they were met just outside the city of Tours by Charles Martel, known as the Hammer, and the Frankish Army. Not only did this prove to be an extremely decisive battle for the Christians, but the Battle of Tours is considered the high water mark of the Moslem invasion of Western Europe.The Islamic ideology warred and won the Arabian peninsula fighting into Turkey and into Spain making Baghdad the center for Islam. Christians that attempted to go to Jerusalem were killed or persecuted. Yes, there was attempts by Christians to retake Jerusalem, and there was splintering of the Church by the Eastern Orthodox divines, and the Roman Catholic Church divines, and the invasion of the Visogoths and Vandals that eventually captured Rome, and in all this the Muslims attempted and won in Arabia, and in the Turkish regions the lands and the peoples. Christians were teaching the Gospel; this is not to delve into the many things that the Church was doing that was wrong, (this is for another study), and many such men as was Augustine and others who held to the teaching of the Scriptures, holding fast to what the Bible taught, and not what the Church was teaching, and fought to teach love and truth. This was and is not true today of the Islamic faith. Their goal is total global submission to Islam. They will do whatever they need to do to win this war; sometimes openly fought, other times subversive, such as send many Islamic people into a nation and then have many children, and take over the rule of the city, and then the nation, make then laws that fit the Qur'an. 
     Yes the chasm is wide, but not impossible to traverse. We as Christians live our lives according to the Scriptures, and preach the Gospel whenever, or wherever we can, but we do not force anyone to become a believer in Jesus Christ. God chose before the foundation of the world who would be His children, and He uses common sense, and everyday circumstances to bring about His will, for He does not take away our humanity, only our humanity becomes in conformity with Him. John gives to us how we are to be: "Beloved, if God so loves us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God" (1John 4:11-15).
     While there is this great ideological and religious chasm between Islam and Christianity, this chasm can be transverse by the Gospel, teaching love, and living a life of love, and allowing the Holy Spirit to call out from among the world His children. We are to preach and teach, to make disciples, and this we do with the help of the Holy Spirit who goes before us and leads us, showing that our truth is not a forced truth but a truth from God through the death, resurrection, and ascension of God, the Son, who died to save all that the Father would give to His Son. 
     There is more to write, and this I will do in the next blogs, and to show the contrast between Christianity and Islam. 


You believe that there 
     is one God. You do well,
Even the demons believe--and tremble!
     But do you want to know,
O foolish man, that faith without
    works is dead?
                                James 2:19-20


Pray not just for yourself, for others by Intercession


Richard L. Crumb

Convert Or Die--the Cry Of Islam--This Is Not The Way Of Christianity

Then Moses and the children

of Israel sang this song 

to the LORD, and spoke, saying:

'I will sing to the LORD,

for He has triumphed gloriously!

The horse and its rider

He has thrown into the sea!

The LORD is my strength and song,

and He has become my salvation;

He is my God, and I will exalt Him.

The LORD is a man of war;

the LORD is His name.

Exodus 15:1-3

     How often do those who oppose Christianity point to such Scripture to prove that the history of the Hebrew people was a history of war, death, blood, killing of women and children; therefore the Christian faith is not so different from those who kill in the name of their god. They are right, the Bible does point out that many people were killed, cities destroyed by the Hebrews when they entered into the land that had been promised to them by God. This promise was given to Abraham and to his descendants, it was their land and after some 400 years in Egypt they were now returning to their promised land. When Abram (Abraham) entered into the land which God had led him too, did he make war? No! Did he drive out the people that lived there? No! Did Lot live in Sodom? Yes! Was there war in that region? Yes! But not with Abraham, yet those people warred against one another and even took Lot captive causing then Abraham to take action, war to retrieve and save Lot. Abraham was told to go to a land that God would show him: "Now the LORD had said to Abram; 'Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed' (Genesis 12:1-3). Did God instruct Abram to drive out the people of the land to which they were going to inherit? No! God will bless those who bless Abram and his people, but, God is not to be confused with being some laid back non-concerned God about His chosen people. Hurt them and expect God, a God of war to save His people. Do we have confidence that God will save His people from all those who oppose Him? Yes! And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 10:15). God works in the circumstances of life and He uses the common sense which He imbued man with, so man is without excuse and is guilty of death when he opposes God's and His people, and is rebellious towards God.  
     The Amalekites attacked the traveling Hebrews in the desert by attacking the straggling people; why? These desert people were warring people even among other desert tribes and always were looking for booty. Beyond that they, who without doubt would have known of the feats that occurred with the nation of Israel would have known that these people were the people of the promised land and they did not want them to arrive to their destination. This is true when Joshua after the death of Moses, leading the people into the promised land warred against those who would oppose them their right to be in their land. Some fought and lost, some though may an alliance with Israel and lived in the land alongside the Israelites. One such people that God wanted destroyed due to their attack on God's people was the Amalekites, and Samuel reports that these people lost and their king Agag was taken alive and the Amalekite people were destroyed (1Samuel 15: 8). King Agag being spared was against the will of God and would have lasting affects against the people of Israel. Remember the story of Esther and Haman? Haman was the son of Hammedatha the Agagite who sought to destroy all the Jews (Esther 3:1,6). Many peoples have sought to destroy God's people, whether they be Israelites, or Christian, they oppose them and by doing so they oppose the God of the universe, the creator, the Savior. No matter what they say, whether they call themselves godly, or even use the name of Christ, they in all they do are in opposition and rebellion towards God. Now where do you read that the call of Abraham, Moses, Joshua, or others said to the people of the land they were entering into, or living in, convert to Judiaism or die! If you converted to Judiaism you were accepted as one of God's people. This is true today; accept Christ and be saved, you are of the family of God, one of the blessing given to Abraham. 
     This is not true of Islam! Convert or die! To the Muslim God requires bloodshed and war to all those who will not convert to Islam, or pay the tax they may require so that you might live, in either case there is duress applied to the people who should accept Islam, if not accepting, then die!
"Believers! Wage war against such infidels as are our neighbors, and let them find you rigorous" (Sura 9:124). "Make war upon such of those (Christians and Jews) to whom the scriptures have been given as believe not in god and His Apostle, and profess not the professor of truth, until they pay tribute out of hand, and they be humbled" (Sura 9:29). "Fight against them until idolatry is no more and Allah's religion reigns supreme. but if they desist, fight none except the evil doers." (Sura 2:193). "those who believe, fight in the Cause of Allah, and those who disbelieve, fight in the cause of Taghut (satan, etc.). so fight you against the friends of Shaitan (satan); Ever feeble indeed is the plot of Shaitan (satan) (Sura 4:76). "SAY to those Arabs of the desert, who took not the field, ye shall be called forth against a people of mighty valour. YKe shall do battle with them, or [other translations have 'until'] they shall profess Islam" (Sura 48:16). "O Prophet! Strive hard against the disbelievers and the hyporcrites, and be harsh against them" (Sura 9:73). "O you who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are close to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who are the Pious (Sura 9:123). Kill the disbelievers wherever we find them" (Sura 2:191). " fight and slay the Pagans, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem"
 (Sura 9:5). "slay or crucify or cut the hands and feet of the unbelievers, hat they b y expelled from the land with disgrace and that they shall have a great punishment in the world hereafter" (Sura 5:34). "Be harsh with unbelievers" (Sura 48:29). "O Prophet! MAKE WAR on the infidels and hypocrites, and deal rigorously with them" (Sura 66:9).
     The differences are clear, either become a believer in Allah and live, or not, and die! With Christianity, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior and live, if not, then God will judge and deal with that person, not man. There is much more written in the Qur'an that would lead a person to Jihad, or to oppose violently others who do not believe in Islam. No matter your position as a Muslim, for there are no extremist, nor fundamentalist, not radical, for all hold to the doctrines of the Qur'an and it is those doctrines that lead a person to oppose the God of the Bible, the God who loved man and hates sin so that He came as the Son of God, the very Wisdom of God, clothed in humanity to die for sin. It is clear, for the Muslim, convert or die, for the Christian, yes convert to God, but you cannot convert to Him unless He has enabled you, drawn you, and given to you the faith to believe upon Him and when you do you have eternal life with Him and He with you in this life. For the Muslim, to have God's approval, you must openly fight against all who do not believe in Allah, and your reward is to be given to you if you die in his cause.
     What a difference! I will show the spread of Islam and how it has affected the world, and Christianity, further, how do we as Christians handle this opposition? Therefore, I will not only show the spread of Islam, but how it is working in today's culture and world.


Blessed is the man 
     who walks not in 
the counsel of the ungodly,
     nor stands in the path 
of sinners, nor sits in the seat
    of he scornful; but his delight
is in the law of the LORD, and in
     His law he meditates day and night.
                                          Psalm 1:1-2


Pray Intercessory Prayer for those of Islam


Richard L. Crumb

The Battle For Truth-Never Easy-Yet Necessary

Truly, LORD, the kings of Assyria

have laid waste the nations

and their lands, and have cast

their gods into the fire; for 

they were not gods, but the

work of men's hands--wood and stone.

Therefore they have destroyed them.

Now therefore, O LORD our God,

I pray, save us from his hand,

that all the kingdoms of the earth

may know that You are the LORD God,

You alone.

2 Kings 19:17-19

     Hezekiah prayed to God for deliverance from the invading King Sennacherib. God heard the words of Hezekiah and God acted in behalf of Israel: "And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the LORD went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when the people arose early in the morning, there wee the corpses--all dead" (2Kings 19:35). God will act towards His people even though they attack them in many and various ways. Islam is one such attack. We are now preparing so that we can confront such error with the truth of God's word. 

  Mohammad (c.570–632 A.D.), became the leader that unified the various Arabian tribes into a religious polity called Islam. He is believed by the Muslims to be a messenger and a prophet of God. They further believe that Islam was not invented by Mohammad, rather that Islam was revealed to him by God. He is considered to be the last prophet of God. Muslims further believe that Mohammad restored the original monotheistic faith, that which is attributed to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Jesus, and other prophets. Mohammad from time to time as it was his habit to retreat to a cave for meditation and prayer and it was there at his age of 40 that he admits to his first revelation from God, revelations that he would receive during the rest of his life. Mohammad proclaimed that “God is One,” and that God required complete “surrender to Him” or Islam: In a religious context it means "voluntary submission to God" and this is the only way to be accepted by God.

            Mohammad was born in the Arabian city Mecca and became orphaned, and was raised by his uncle Abu Talib. Mohammed worked mostly as a merchant and as a shepherd, married by the age of 25. After receiving this revelation of God and his preaching to the Arab tribes, Mohammed gained few followers and even the Meccan tribes showed him hostility, and Mohammed and his followers were treated poorly so to escape persecution Mohammad sent some of his followers to Abyssinia, then he retreated with some of his adherents to Medina (622 A.D.). This event marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. It was in Medina where Mohammed united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. Mohammed warred with Mecca for some eight years and during this time his adherents had grown to about 10,000 followers. After this eight–year war Mecca surrendered and with this conquered city, Mohammed went about destroying the symbols of paganism in Mecca and then sent his followers to destroy all of the remaining pagan temples throughout Eastern Arabia. In 632 A.D. Mohammad fell ill and died but not until he had united the tribes of Arabia into a single Muslim religious polity: most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam. Those revelations from God formed the Qur’an and the hadith collections that are accounts of the verbal and physical traditions of Mohammad. These date from several generations after his death. With caution as being accurate historical sources Western academic view with much criticism. Some scholars judge those collections in the context of history and on the basis of their compatibility with events and figures.

            The question arises as to how and why Islam could take such a hold upon peoples and tribes; therefore a look at pre–Islamic Arabia is important. As most are familiar with the terrain of Arabia that it is desert and arid. This terrain makes it hard for agriculture except where there are oases or springs. The desert had small towns here and there, the prominent towns being Mecca and Medina. Median was a flourishing agriculture center and Mecca was an important financial center for the surrounding tribes. Due to the harsh environment it was essential to form communal life so that they could survive. Acting as a unit this tribal grouping was based on the bond of kinship by blood. The Arabian people were either nomadic traveling from one place to another for water and food, or sedentary, living in cities, applying agriculture and trade. The nomadic people relied upon raids against caravans and this raiding was not viewed as a crime. Before Islam the pre–Islamic people had gods or goddesses as protectors of individual tribes. These gods or goddesses were associated with sacred trees, stones, springs, and wells. The Kaaba shrine in Mecca had 360 idol statues of tribal patron deities. With all these gods and goddesses the Arabians shared a common belief in a supreme god called Allah (the god). Allah was remote, did not concern himself with everyday life, and was not the object of cult or ritual. Allah had three daughters, Allat, Manat, and al–Uzza. At this time monotheistic communities existed in Arabia; Christians and Jews. Another monotheistic tribe, although disputed by some was the Hanifs, and according to Muslim tradition Mohammad was a Hanif and one of the descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham.

            Tradition has it that in 520 A.D. Mohammed experienced the Isra and Mi’raj, a miraculous journey that he took with the angel Gabriel in one night. It is said that he traveled from Mecca on a winged steed, to the farthest mosque, a mosque that is identified with the Al–Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Then Mohammed is said to have toured heaven, and hell and spoke with earlier prophets, such as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus; some say that this is only a spiritual experience, others present it as a physical journey. Notice some similarity to the Mormon religion and Joseph Smith, Jr. and him being visited by Gabriel.

            Mohammed converted many to his theology and with the Qur’an allowing wars; Islam was at war much of the time. At one point Mohammed wanted to kill all the Jews expelling them and desired to kill them, only the chief of Khazraj tribe would not agree and ordered the Jews out to be expelled to Syria without their property. After the Battle of Badr, Mohammed allied with a number of Bedouin tribes to protect his community from the northern part of Hizaz. Much armed conflict and war could be said to be a hallmark of Islam and Mohammad, the final and much celebrated war was with Mecca. Without going into each and every war it is best to say that Islam was promoted to a people that already believed in Allah, and were superstitious and had protector gods, so that the change to Islam was not a huge chasm to leap. It was by war and forcing the people to accept that he was a prophet of God and that the Qur’an was God’s final word. While many accepted Islam there are many separate groups claiming to have the truth. The Qur’an has become the grid by which Muslims view the Bible and/or other religions writings. If anyone attributes the words of the Qur’an to be only the words of Mohammed will “roast in hell.” Qur’an #37: “Whoever hears it and alleges it is human speech has disbelieved, for God has rebuked, censured, and promised such a one an agonizing punishment, saying, I will roast him in the Hell-fire (Qur’an 74:26). Because God threatened those who allege, this is merely human speech (Qur’an 74:25) with an inferno of torment, we acknowledged and ascertained that it was the Word of the Creator of humanity, and does not resemble human speech.” (Italics mine).

            Getting to know the opposition is so important so that we may understand how they think, how they react, and act, so that we can be prepared, and so that our message would be such so that they hear and learn of the Gospel. There is more that needs to be written and this will be the thrust of the next blogs, then, I will compare this information with Jesus Christ and Christianity. God promised that He would call peoples from all nations and that includes those who have succumbed to the teaching of Islam. We are God’s ambassadors, we, as ambassadors, learn to preach the Gospel to all people, allowing God by means of His Gospel, the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension into heaven by Jesus Christ to sit at the right hand of God making eternal intercession for those entire God has given Him.

 Let them be confounded

     and dismayed forever,

Yes, let them be put to 

     shame and perish.

That they may know that You,

     whose name alone is the LORD,

are the Most High over all the earth.

                                      Psalm 83:17-18

Make Intercessor Prayer for the People of Islam

Richard L. Crumb