The Same-God Heresy: Gateway to Apostasy (Part 2)

"Christianity and Islam cannot both be true. The Allah of Islam is directly, and in a specific, vigorous manner, opposed to the Christian God... In the Islamic view, Jews and Christians alike are under Allah’s judgment and wrath. "


Allah’s Theological Jihad against Christianity

by Ralph H. Sidway

(Continued from Part 1- See also Part 3, Part 4)

The Koran: words against the Word.

The first problem for a Christian who affirms that Muslims worship the same God, is that such a Christian has to contend with the Koran, which Muslims believe to be the unalterable, eternal words of God, revealed to Muhammad alone, which pre-existed in heaven before all eternity. 

Allah in the Koran explicitly condemns the foundational truths of the Christian Way, calls Christians “blasphemers” and “deluded”, and pronounces curses on Christians:

The Same-God Heresy: Gateway to Apostasy (Part 1)

Rod Dreher's sincere confusion on a fundamental theological point brings the “Same God” question out into the public square.


Introduction: An Epistemological Malady

by Ralph H. Sidway

(See also Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Professor Larycia Hawkins

I am thankful for Rod Dreher’s December 17, 2015 post, “Muslim God, Christian God”, even if I am deeply saddened by it.

Dreher is grappling with one of the most important questions of our age, prompted by Wheaton College’s suspension of a professor over this very question. Dreher cites Wheaton’s statement:

On December 15, 2015, Wheaton College placed Associate Professor of Political Science Dr. Larycia Hawkins on paid administrative leave in order to give more time to explore theological implications of her recent public statements concerning Christianity and Islam…  

[Her] recently expressed views, including that Muslims and Christians worship the same God, appear to be in conflict with the College’s Statement of Faith.

And so, we launch into the theological deep-end, with the “Same God” question finally being brought out into the public square. You can read the whole thing, which for all its obvious sincerity is hopelessly muddled, but I think that’s part of Dreher’s point.

I commend Dreher for his honesty, especially this section (emphasis added):

To be honest, I’ve never thought at all about whether Muslims pray to the same God as Christians. The Catholic Church teaches that they do, and that was my belief when I was a Catholic, though I never gave it a minute’s thought. I don’t know what I believe now, to be honest. We know that Muslims do not pray to the Holy Trinity — but this is also true of Jews.  

Don’t Christians (most Christians) believe that Jews pray to the one true God, even if they have an imperfect understanding of His nature? If this is true for Jews, why not also for Muslims, who clearly adhere to an Abrahamic religion? This is why my tendency is to assume that Muslims do pray to the one true God, even though they have a radically impaired view of Him. 

But how far do we go with that?

How far indeed!

The Church Fathers would have plenty to say about this, including a vigorous denial — based on the Scriptures — of the statement that Islam is an “Abrahamic religion.” 

Celebrating the Nativity of Christ in Pakistan (with photos)

"After the Divine Liturgy, Fr. Joseph Farooq preached the deep theology of Christ’s incarnation which is interpreted by Blessed John Chrysostom Archbishop of Constantinople and the teacher of church. In his sermon, Fr. Joseph Farooq emphasized that the faithful should strengthen their faith as they face trials, tribulation and persecutions."

Please help support the Orthodox Mission in Pakistan by your prayers and your donations!

THE BLESSED FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST IN PAKISTAN

by Fr. Joseph Farooq, January 10, 2016
ST. MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL ORTHODOX MISSION PAKISTAN (ROCOR)

Merry Christmas!

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan HILARION, Archbishop of Eastern America and New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, on January 7, 2016 the Russian Orthodox believers outside Russia in Pakistan celebrated Christmas according to Traditions and Faith of the Mother Church (Russia). It is our true joy and strong spiritual unity that we celebrated Christmas on the same date along with our Orthodox brothers and sisters around the world by following the “Julian calendar”. therefore Orthodox Christians annually celebrate Christmas Day on January 7.

January 7 “The Day of Joy and Blessing” For Pakistani Orthodox Christians

It is worth mentioning that the Christmas Lent is a favourable time in which we need to bring the fruits of repentance and prayer. The ROCOR priest Fr. Joseph Farooq in Pakistan preached forty days of fasting to the orthodox believers and they were taught not to eat meat and were asked to pray for the repentance of their sins and do some charity for the poor and needy. The Christian Community in Pakistan is very poor but they do some charity for their brothers and sisters. Many of the faithful come for confession during the regular Sunday’s Divine Liturgy to gain spiritual perfection. All the religious services on New Year and on Christmas Day were full of orthodox worshippers in Pakistan.

Islam and Islamism in America in 2015: Part I

An exhaustive and must read survey on Islam in America. 

Islam and Islamism in America in 2015: Part I

Gatestone Institute via Creeping Sharia, January 27, 2016:

The Muslim population of the United States surpassed 3.5 million in 2015, according to demographic projections compiled by the Pew Research Center. In percentage terms, Muslims currently comprise roughly 1% of the US population.

As in Europe, Islam was an ever-present topic in American newspaper headlines during 2015. Most news items involved terrorism-related issues — including many cases of lone-wolf terrorists — closely followed by articles about Muslim integration and assimilation. [or lack thereof]

JANUARY 2015

January 6. Officials at the Rocky Heights Middle School in Littleton, Colorado, ignited controversy when they told female students to dress according to Sharia law while visiting a mosque during a field trip. Peter Boyles, a radio talk show host in Denver, said: “Public schools are forbidden from holding girls to different standards than boys. They’re holding these girls to a different standard, it’s a religious reason. Islam dictates many … repressive practices against women…. That’s their belief … but don’t apply it to public school kids.”

January 7. Hashim Hanif Ibn Abdul-Rasheed, a 41-year-old Muslim armed with two knives taped to his legs, attempted to buy a plane ticket at the Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio. Abdul-Rasheed was shot after he lunged at a police officer. Police said his behavior was “consistent with someone who intended to hijack an aircraft.”

January 9. Abdalah Mohamed, a 19-year-old migrant from Kenya, was arrested after he threatened to kill the owner of a Jewish delicatessen in Portland, Oregon. Police said Mohamed entered the store asking for a single cigarette. When the owner replied that he did not sell individual cigarettes, Mohamed reportedly said: “I will blow up your store. I’m going to take care of you, you mother (redacted). I’ll call my people to take care of you to shoot you! I will blow up your store in the name of Allah, I will take care of people like you!”

January 12. ISIS sympathizers hacked the official Twitter account of the US Central Command, the Pentagon division in charge of the Middle East. One tweet sent from CENTCOM’s account stated: “American soldiers, we are coming, watch your backs.” Another tweet said: “ISIS is already here…. With Allah’s permission we are in CENTCOM now.”

January 13. Representative André Carson (D-Indiana), a convert to Islam, was appointed to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Carson, who has extensive ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, is the first Muslim to sit on the committee.

January 14. Christopher Lee Cornell, a 20-year-old convert to Islam, was arrested in Cincinnati, Ohio, for plotting to “wage jihad” by attacking the US Capitol. Cornell and his accomplice, who was actually an FBI informant, planned to detonate pipe bombs and gun down lawmakers. Cornell, whose Muslim name is Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah, had bought two M-15 rifles and 600 rounds of ammunition. He had also posted messages and videos espousing support for ISIS.

January 14. Shelton Thomas Bell, a 21-year-old convert to Islam from Jacksonville, Florida, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for attempting to provide material support to terrorists. According to court documents, Bell “conspired to train and prepare as a combatant for overseas violent jihad, then travel from Jacksonville to the Middle East for the ultimate purpose of providing the skills to terrorists, including members of Ansar al-Sharia in Yemen.”

As part of his training, Bell conducted a late-night “jihadi training mission” that involved destroying religious statues in a multi-denominational cemetery in Jacksonville. He also uploaded training and recruiting videos onto the Internet, including one in which he makes homemade pipe bombs and another in which he burns an America flag.

January 15. Carol Swain, a prominent professor of law and political science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, penned an op-ed in The Tennessean titled, “Charlie Hebdo attacks prove critics were right about Islam.” She wrote:

Bishop Angaelos: Condemns Church’s silence, fails to mention Islam as cause of Christian 'decline'

As important as this report is, and the admonitions of Bishop Angaelos, it is noteworthy that absolutely nowhere in this story is there any mention of the actual cause of the "decline of Christianity in the Middle East." Why, judging from this news story and His Grace's words, the cause could be drought brought on by Climate Change. Or it could be lack of job opportunities. Or it could be falling oil prices.

The early 21st century is already drenched in blood and carnage by the global Muslim jihad against Christians, yet you don't get a word of that from this news report, nor from most Christian leaders.

The shameful irony of Bishop Angaelos' words is that, unless his remarks have been heavily edited, his condemnation of the Church's silence perpetuates that very silence when it comes to naming the root cause of the "decline of Christians in the Middle East": Islam and jihad in the name of Allah.


Bishop Angaelos: The Church’s silence has contributed to the decline of Christianity in the Middle East
Christianity Today via Pravmir, January 19, 2016:

The Church’s silence on refugees has been a contributing factor to the decline of Christianity in the Middle East, the General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK said today.

His Grace Bishop Angaelos addressed a conference hosted by the World Council of Churches and the UN to speak of practical ways leaders can respond to the refugee crisis.

He joined a number of other church leaders to highlight the mass exodus of Christians from their homeland in the Middle East.

“Where there was once a 25 per cent Christian population in the Middle East it is now around 5 per cent, and tragically 4 per cent of those 5 per cent are in Egypt,” he said.

“Our silence as Churches, nations, and as a world community, has been a contributing factor to this,” said Angaelos in an impassioned plea.

Orthodox Christian Mission in Pakistan: Donations via PayPal back online!

Important update enables global support for the Orthodox Mission in Pakistan to spread!

Forgive my delay in posting this announcement!  I am only now getting somewhat caught up after a tumultuous several weeks...

I received this welcomed email from Fr. Joseph Farooq back in mid-December:

Greetings and blessings in the Holy Name of Lord Jesus Christ! 

Met. Hilarion, and Fr. Joseph Farooq

It is my joy to inform that with blessings of my ruling bishop, His Eminence Met. Hilarion, our paypal account is activated. Now the kind donors are requested to send their charity and funds for the widows and orthodox children on Christmas. Please find the link mentioned below. 

Donations via PayPal back online 

May God grant you many good years, good health, well-being and spiritual growth. 

Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary!
With best wishes happiness and joy!
Fr.Joseph Farooq

And this post from the Mission's website:

2015 Deadliest Year for Christians Worldwide

Open Doors' World Watch List finds the persecution level against Christians virtually doubled from 2014, with Muslim nations representing nearly 90% of the top 50 worst offenders.

by Samuel Smith, Christian Post, January 13, 2016

Open Doors' 2015 World Watch List Map:  The entire Muslim world is united in ever-worsening persecution of Christians.

The Christian persecution watchdog group Open Doors has released its annual list of countries where Christians face the greatest persecution and found that it has reached unprecedented levels worldwide as over 7,000 Christians were killed for their faith between Nov. 1, 2014, and Oct. 31, 2015.

Although the California-based ministry, which works in over 60 countries, stated last January that 2014 was the worst year for Christian persecution than any other time in modern history, the organization said during the rollout of its 2016 World Watch List that 2015 surpassed 2014 as the deadliest year for Christians worldwide.

Open Doors found that over 3,000 more Christians were killed for faith-related reasons during its reporting period for the 2016 World Watch List than it found during the reporting period for the 2015 report. Additionally, over 2,400 churches were attacked, damaged or destroyed during the reporting period, which is more than double the number from last year.

"The 2016 World Watch List documents an unprecedented escalation of violence against Christians, making this past year the most violent and sustained attack on Christian faith in modern history," Open Doors CEO David Curry explained at a Wednesday press conference introducing the report. "This research has concluded that after the brutal persecution of Christians in 2014, 2015 proved to be even worse with the persecution continuing to increase, intensify and spread across the globe."

For the 14th consecutive year, North Korea was listed at No. 1 on the World Watch List, again making it the greatest persecutor of Christians in the world with a persecution rating of 92 out of 100. As the Kim regime continues its intolerance toward religion, between 50,000 to 70,000 Christians are suffering in regime labor camps.

While pariah states like North Korea, Sudan (No. 8) and Eritrea (No. 3) continue to stomp on the religious freedoms of Christians and others, the dramatic rise in the amount of persecution against Christians is in part due to the rise of Islamic extremist groups like the Islamic State, Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab.

As IS continues to have a stronghold on much of the historically-Christian Nineveh province in northern Iraq, Iraq is listed at No. 2 on the list.

With the emergence of the IS, thousands of Christians have been forced to flee their homes and villages or risk being killed for their love of Christ. Due to the mass exodus of Christians, the research finds that Christianity is "on the verge of extinction" from Iraq, a place where Christians have lived for two millennia.

Considering that IS also has control of chunks of Syria, Open Doors lists Syria at No. 5 on the list.

"Islamic extremist caliphates are solidified and expanding," Curry said. "The data shows that the Islamic State caliphate has effectively carried out genocide against Yazidis and Christians in Syria and Iraq, pushing hundreds of thousands of Christians into refugee camps in North Iraq and other countries."

The Problem With Islam Is Aggressive Scripture, Not Aggressive 'Traditionalism'

Islamic culture and traditional societies, and Muslim behavior, are based on the Islamic scriptures, which are anything but "moderate."

By Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review Online, January 16, 2016:

The Koran — Beautiful script, eh? But is it the passage which commands Muslims to "Strike them over the necks, and smite over all their fingers and toes" (Sura 8:12).

On the Corner this week, the eminent Jim Talent touted (with some reservations) an essay about "moderate Islam" by Cheryl Bernard. A Rand Institute researcher, she is also a novelist, a defender of war-ravaged cultures, and the wife of Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. ambassador to post-Taliban (or is it pre-Taliban?) Afghanistan. 

With due respect to Dr. Bernard, who does much heroic work, I believe the essay highlights what is wrong with Western academic analysis of Islam.

The problem comes into focus in the very title of Senator Talent's post, "Aggressive Traditionalism." That is the attribute of Islamic societies that Dr. Bernard blames for the frustration of her high hopes for "moderate Islam." In truth, however, the challenge Islam poses for moderation is not its tradition; it is Islamic doctrine -- the scriptural support for traditional sharia and Islamic supremacist ideology.

I give Bernard credit. She is the unusual strategist who is willing to admit failure -- in this instance, of the strategy of promoting "moderate Islam" as the antidote to "radical Islam." 

Franklin Graham: ‘Islam and Christianity Clearly Do Not Worship the Same God’

Franklin Graham clearly deserves thanks and credit for some of his recent initiatives:

• Franklin Graham Says Obama's 'Sympathy to Islam' Will Lead to Christian and Jewish Persecution in America
• Franklin Graham meets with Patriarch Kiril, to discuss Muslim persecution of Christians and the recent religious and moral collapse in the West.

Franklin Graham: ‘Islam and Christianity Clearly Do Not Worship the Same God’
by Thomas D. Williams, PhD, Breitbart News, January 24, 2016:

Muslims and Christians do not worship the same God, celebrated evangelist Franklin Graham said in response to the controversial claim by a faculty member at Wheaton College in Illinois.

In a series of tweets late Saturday night, Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham, laid out his opposition to the recommendation of the college’s faculty council that the school drop its plans to terminate a professor who published her belief that Islam and Christianity worship the same God, which Graham said was “no minor issue.”

In December 2015, Larycia Hawkins, who teaches political science at Wheaton College, was put on administrative leave after wearing a hijab to school in solidarity with Muslims. Wheaton is a private evangelical Christian college, which has sometimes been called the “evangelical Harvard” because of its reputation for academic rigor.

Hawkins announced that she would wear the hijab to demonstrate support for Muslims in the aftermath of the shootings in Paris and San Bernardino, California. She also used the gesture as a platform to express her belief that Christians and Muslims worship the same God.

In a separate Facebook post, Graham said both his father and mother attended Wheaton College, where they met for the first time.

“I’m surprised and disappointed that the faculty council there is now recommending the college drop their plans to terminate a professor who published that she believed Islam and Christianity worship the same God in December. This is no minor issue that should be debated,” Graham wrote.

The fundamental issue for Graham is the theological question of the nature of God and therefore the mission of the college.

“Islam denies that God has a Son,” Graham wrote. “They deny that Jesus is God. They do not believe in a Triune God–the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I can tell you–Islam and Christianity clearly do not worship the same God.”

“How the faculty council can now support this professor being allowed to teach students is deeply concerning,” he concludes.

A Hilary worthy of Praise

Unlike the contemporary Hillary, the corrupt public figure who lies, violates the laws of the land, imperils national security, sacrifices the lives of her countrymen to advance her agenda and protect her interests, advocates murder of the unborn, tramples on freedom of speech, and advances the interests of Islam (the forerunner of Antichrist) in America and throughout the world, Hilary of Poitiers was a noble soul who embraced the Truth which is in Christ Jesus, and labored to defend the True Faith against the heresy of Arianism.

St. Hilary of Poitiers wrote this of Islam and Muhammad almost three centuries before the false prophet appeared in Arabia to lead many astray and unleash his bloodlust upon the Christian world:

"When men show themselves impatient of the true message, and heap up teachers according to their own human desires, we can no longer doubt about the times, but know that while the preachers of sound doctrine are banished truth is banished too. We do not complain of the times: we rejoice rather, that iniquity has revealed itself in this our exile, when, unable to endure the truth, it banishes the preachers of sound doctrine, that it may heap up for itself teachers after its own desires. We glory in our exile, and rejoice in the Lord..."

ST. HILARY OF POITIERS Confessor of Christ and the Holy Trinity Commemorated January 13/26

Pravoslavie, January 26, 2016:

Our father among the saints Hilary of Poitiers was a leader in the West in the fight against Arianism in the fourth century. In this fight he was joined in the West by Sts. Ambrose of Milan and Martin of Tours. His popularity among the people of Poitiers was so great that he was elected bishop of Poitiers even though he was still married. During the course of the fight against Arianism his successes were mixed with setbacks, including being banished by the emperor for four years. He presented his position with many writings as he supported the "Homoiousians." His feast day is celebrated on January 13.

Life

Hilary was born into a family of pagans of distinction. Only approximate dates of both his birth and death are known. He was born near the turn of the third to fourth century in Poitiers. He received a good education which included—a rarity for his day in the West—knowledge of Greek. He studied the scriptures of the Old and New Testament which led to his leaving Neoplatonism for Christianity. With his wife and daughter, Apra, he was baptized in mid-life and received into the Church. His fame in Poitiers was such that the Christians unanimously elected him as their bishop at about 353.

These were the times when the Arian controversy was becoming intense in the Western Church. In his efforts against Arianism he fought to secure the excommunication of the Arian Saturtuinius as bishop of Arles as well as his two supporters, Uracius and Valens. He also wrote to Emperor Constantius II about the persecutions that the Arians were using against their opponents. His efforts received a setback when the Arian-dominated synod of 356 in Beziers, convened by Constantius, banished Hilary to Phrygia for almost four years for his strong defense of St. Athanasius of Alexandria. Hilary has often been referred to as "Athanasius of the West."

From exile he continued to lead his diocese. Also, he used this time to study the writing of the Eastern fathers and to write a number of dogmatic and polemical treatises presenting the Nicene position to the Arians, one of which, On the Trinity, was one of the first successful attempts to express the theological subtleties of the original Greek into the Latin. 

Raymond Ibrahim: 'A Gruesome Christmas under Islam'

If ISIS has nothing to do with Islam, how does one explain how so many Muslim governments, and ordinary Muslims across the globe "terrorized and slaughtered Christians on Christmas."

by Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institute, January 18, 2015

Brussels: “Refugees” torch public Christmas tree to cries of “Allahu Akbar.”

On Christmas Day in the West Bank, two Muslims were arrested for setting a Christmas tree on fire in a Christian majority village near Jenin.  On the same day in Bethlehem, Muslim rioters greeted the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem with a hail of stones.  Authorities subsequently arrested 16 “Salafi radicals” who were planning to carry out terror attacks against tourists celebrating Christmas.

If this was Christmas in Bethlehem—Christ’s birthplace and scene of the Nativity—Christmas in other parts of the world experienced similar and worse abuse, including mass murder, at the hands of Muslims.

In the United States, a 46-year-old Christian mother of three was among the 14 people killed in the San Bernardino terrorist attack targeting a Christmas party.  Ironically, Bennetta Bet-Badal had fled Iran to the U.S. at age 18 to escape the persecution of Christians following the 1979 Islamic revolution.  Over the course of the next three decades, she graduated college with a degree in chemistry, married and raised three children.  But the Islamic jihad finally caught up with her.  She was attending a Christmas luncheon and bringing gifts to her co-workers when the Muslim terrorists burst in and massacred them.

Belgium was like Bethlehem: A video appeared showing a number of teenagers lighting a petrol bomb under a Christmas tree in Brussels.  Seconds later an explosion can be heard, and the tree is quickly engulfed in flames. As they run away, the teens shout Islam’s war-cry, “Allahu Akbar.”  The original uploader, Mohamed Amine, has since taken down his Facebook page.

In Germany, four Eastern Orthodox Christians were accosted in the early morning hours after Christmas Day in Berlin by a man shouting, “I am a Muslim! What are you?”  The man and his friends then pounced on and violently beat the Christians.

The few anecdotes of Muslims terrorizing, beating, and even killing Christians on the occasion of Christmas in the West—where Muslims are minorities—were much amplified in Muslim majority nations.

Stifling Christmas

In Syria, the Islamic State “arrested, if not executed, some youth [five] in the city of Raqqa for befriending and greeting Christians on the occasion of Christmas.” ISIS reportedly told the five youth that “they are being detained after an investigation [including through their personal computers] found that they greeted the Christians and wished them a Happy New Year.” When one of the youth tried to exonerate himself, an ISIS member replied: “Shut up! You accompany the Christians—is that not so?” The five youth were then hauled to an unknown location.  No information has since surfaced concerning their fate.

New Book from Timothy R. Furnish: 'Sects, Lies, and the Caliphate'

I am very pleased to report that the newest book by Islam and Mahdi scholar Timothy R. Furnish, Sects, Lies, and the Caliphate: 10 Years of Observations on Islam is now available from Amazon in paperback (as well as in Kindle format).

Dr. Furnish describes his new title as follows:

Unlike the predecessor and complementary Ten Years' Captivation with the Mahdi's Camps which deals exclusively with Islamic apocalyptic thought and movements, Sects treats more mundane but nonetheless crucial topics, such as: ISIS's historical context; the Islamic doctrines behind Islamic terrorism; Islam vis-a-vis Christianity; Iranian geopolitics, and, in the longest section of the book, US policies (or lack thereof) toward Islam, both domestically and in foreign policy.

Furnish's writings are designed to provide a depth of understanding on Islamic motivations — so urgently needed in our darkening times — for both ordinary readers and policy makers in the West. 

Christians would do well to read both of these titles for the insights they offer into the alien religion of Islam, which claims to worship the Same God as we, yet whose "God" has such a radically different ontology, theology, and ultimate purpose for mankind than does the divine love of the Holy Trinity, revealed to us by Jesus Christ, His sacrifice on the Cross and His Resurrection.

From the publisher's sobering description:

The Logic of Islamic Intolerance

Islam's intolerance and aggression towards non-Muslims has an internal logic, utterly convincing to millions of Muslims. But the post-modern West's failed epistemology is utterly unable to grasp it.

by Raymond Ibrahim, FrontPage Magazine, December 1, 2015:

Sheikh Muhammad Salih al-Munajjid

A sermon delivered by popular Saudi Sheikh Muhammad Salih al-Munajjid clearly demonstrates why Western secular relativists and multiculturalists — who currently dominate media, academia, and politics — are incapable of understanding, much less responding to, the logic of Islamic intolerance.

During his sermon, al-Munajjid said that “some [Muslim] hypocrites” wonder why it is that “we [Muslims] don’t permit them [Western people] to build churches, even though they allow mosques to be built.”  The Saudi sheikh responded by saying that any Muslim who thinks this way is “ignorant” and

wants to equate between right and wrong, between Islam and kufr [non-Islam], monotheism and shirk [polytheism], and gives to each side equal weight, and wants to compare this with that, and he asks: “Why don’t we build them churches like they build us mosques? So we allow them this in return for that?”  Do you want another other than Allah to be worshiped?  Do you equate between right and wrong? Are Zoroastrian fire temples, Jewish temples, Christian churches, monks’ monasteries, and Buddhist and Hindu temples, equal to you with the houses of Allah and mosques? So you compare this with that? And you equate this with that?  Oh! Unbelievable, for he who equates between Islam and kufr [non-Islam], and Allah said: “Whoever desires a religion other than Islam, never will it be accepted from him, and in the Hereafter he will be among the losers” (Koran 3:85).  And Prophet Muhamad said: “By Him in whose hand is the life of Muhamad (By Allah) he who amongst the Jews or Christians hears about me, but does not affirm his belief in that which I have been sent, and dies in his state (of disbelief), he shall be of the residents of Hellfire.”

What’s interesting about the sheikh’s zealous diatribe is that, although “intolerant” from a Western perspective, it is, in fact, quite logically consistent and reveals the wide gap between Islamic rationalism and Western fantasy (despite how oxymoronic this dichotomy might sound).

If, as Munajjid points out, a Muslim truly believes that Islam is the only true religion, and that Muhammad is its prophet, why would he allow that which is false (and thus corrupt, cancerous, misleading, etc.) to exist alongside it?  Such gestures of “tolerance” would be tantamount to a Muslim who “wants to equate between right and wrong,” as the sheikh correctly deplores.

The Worship of the Trinity versus 'Mutilators of God'

How the Great Feast of Theophany reveals the divinity of Jesus Christ and the Triune nature of the Godhead, while exposing the false god of Islam. And how this theophany concerning the True Nature of God is the means of salvation for all, including Muslims who turn to Jesus Christ.

_______

When Jesus was baptized by John the Forerunner in the Jordan River, the worship of the Trinity was for the first time openly revealed. As the hymn for the Feast of Theophany proclaims:

When You, O Lord

were baptized in the Jordan,

The worship of the Trinity

was made manifest, 

For the voice of the Father

bore witness to You,

And called You His beloved Son. 

And the Spirit, in the form of a dove, 

Confirmed the truthfulness of His word. 

O Christ, our God,

You have revealed Yourself 

And have enlightened the world,

Glory to You!

The nature of the Godhead as Three Divine Persons in a communion of co-equal loving action is pointed to through signs in the Old Testament, and perfectly revealed in the New, and transcends artificial attempts to adhere to a so-called “pure” monotheism (the Islamic doctrine of tawhid). The great Church Fathers St. John of Damascus and St. Gregory Palamas clearly point out the inherent fallacies and inconsistencies of Islamic theology by articulating the dogma of the Holy Trinity as found in the scriptures, and comparing it to Koranic passages. St John Damascene is quite bold in his refutation: