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From: torsina@enuxhb.eas.asu.edu (Who???????)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Islam = Satanic ???
Message-ID: <May.23.04.56.05.1993.20042@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 23 May 93 08:56:06 GMT
Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu
Organization: Arizona State University
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Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu

Dear fellow Christians,  

	I had a dinner last night with a bible study group which      
I am in. We had a discussion about the difference between Christianity
and Islam. And I was shocked to hear that our bible study teacher
said that Mohammad was indeed a prophet but of Satan. I said, "What??"
I did not believe that, because I have some moslem friends who are
so kind and  nice, even sometimes I feel I wish I could be like them
(in my point of view, they don't sin as much as I do). How come if they
were under Satan, they could have such personalities. 

To tell you the truth, I don't know much about Islam.
But I know that they believe in God, they believe in the day of
judgement.
	
	Now I'm  asking you what your opinions about Islam and 
its teaching. 

IMPORTANT : I do not want to discuss whether they are saved or not.
	    I do not want to discuss about politic related to Islam.

P.S: I post this in bit.listserv.christia, soc.religion.christian,
     and bit.listserv.catholic.


In Christ, our Lord,                           Smile.........
					       Jesus loves you.......
	Tabut Torsina
	TORSINA@ENUXHB.EAS.ASU.EDU	   

[Let me start by saying that this is not the right newsgroup for a
discussion of Islam, since there's a group for that.  But I suspect
the point your teacher was making was not specifically about Islam.
Indeed it's going to be impossible to see what he was getting at
within your groundrules, since the question of whether non-Christians
are saved is at the heart of it.

The classic Christian view, which I think most people believed until
the last century or so, was that Christianity (and of course Judaism)
was the only religion founded by God, and that all other religions
worshipped false gods, and came from Satan.  This is more or less a
corollary of another traditional view that no one but Christians (and
possibly Jews) will be saved.  This need not mean that there's no
truth in any other religion, nor that all of their members are
intentionally Satanic.  After all, in order to be an effective snare,
Satanic alternatives would have to be attractive.  Thus they might
contain all kinds of truth, wisdom and spiritual insights.  They would
be missing only one thing -- knowledge of salvation through Christ.
If this is the background of your teacher's remarks -- and I suspect
it is -- that means that a discussion of Islam is not necessarily
relevant.  The point is not that there's anything intrinsically wrong
with it.  It may teach a fine code of behavior, and its practitioners
may all be wonderful people.  But if salvation requires being a
follower of Christ, it could still be a Satanic invention.

This is a reasonable deduction from the classic Protestant position.
Christianity says that salvation isn't a matter of being kind and
nice.  Those are good things, and we should encourage them.  But no
one is able to do them enough to be saved.  Salvation requires Christ.
(Please forgive me for doing this in Protestant terms.  There's a
Catholic equivalent to this that has similar implications, but in
different terms.)  A religion may be quite attractive in all visible
ways.  But if it doesn't have Christ, it's like a diet that consists
of food that looks wonderful, tastes great, but is missing some
essential food element so that you end up dying.

Let me be clear that I am not specifically advocating this position.
What I'm trying to do is (as usual) to clarify issues.  Indeed it is
now relatively uncommon for Christians to believe that all other
religions are Satanic.  Most Christians regard such beliefs as an
unfortunate vestige of the past.  This is part of a general move
within Christianity in the last century or so to a non-judgemental
God.  Christians now find it hard to believe that God would allow
anybody other than a really rotten person to end up in hell, and they
find it hard to envision that real malignant spiritual forces are at
work in the world doing things like creating superficially attractive
alternatives to Christianity.  Whether there is actually a sound basis
for the shift is a decision that people need to make for themselves.

--clh]
