Islam And Jesus

Muslims believe the Koran is a book from God or Allah.  They believe it has eternally existed and is without error.  They believe the angel Gabriel revealed the Koran to Muhammad their prophet.  The Koran even mentions Jesus.  

The Koran teaches the virgin birth of Jesus, but denies that he is the Son of God.  Muslims do not believe that God could have a son.  There seems to be a misunderstanding of this doctrine in Islam.  They seem to think that God having a Son means that there had to be male/female relations.  Christians do not believe that.  Islam denies the doctrine of the Trinity as well.  Muslims hold to a unitarian monotheism, believing Allah alone is God.  Christians hold to trinitarian monotheism, believing God is three persons of one essence.  The Koran mistakenly lists the Trinity as God, Jesus, and Mary.  The Trinity is actually God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  There was an obvious misunderstanding of basic Christian doctrine by the writer of the Koran.  It is also interesting to note that it gets Mary mixed up with Miriam the sister of Moses.  Muslims also believe that Jesus was not crucified.  They believe that someone else took his place on the cross, maybe Judas Iscariot.  Since Muslims do not believe in the crucifixion of Jesus they also do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus.  

Muslims believe that Jesus was a great prophet.  They believe there was a line of prophets (Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad).  They believe Muhammad was the final prophet and the messenger of Allah.  Islam holds that the Old and New Testaments were corrupted by the "People of the Book", that is Jews and Christians.  Though they do believe the Old and New Testament were from Allah.  Muslims believe that Deuteronomy 18:18 speaking of a prophet to come is referring to Muhammad.  But the prophet spoken of in the passage is obviously fulfilled by Jesus.  Islam also holds that John 14-16 is speaking of Muhammad but it is obviously talking about the Holy Spirit.  

Islam believes in a salvation by works.  A person must earn his way to heaven and he cannot be sure of his salvation.  Islam rejects the belief that Christians hold in the atoning death of Christ on the cross.  

The Bible teaches that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah.  It teaches that Jesus came to save his people from their sins.  Christians believe that Jesus lived a perfect life without sin, died on the cross taking the sins of his people on himself, and was resurrected proving he was God.  The Bible teaches that salvation is by God's grace through faith in Christ alone.  Christians can have assurance of their salvation because of what Christ has done.  

Muslims believe the Koran is from God but the evidence says it is not.  It is obvious the author does not know or understand the basic beliefs of Christians.  Surely Allah would be able to get the beliefs of Christians right.  The evidence also does not support the corruption of the Bible theory of Islam.  Surely Allah could have prevented it's corruption.  And if Allah allowed it to be corrupted, what would prevent the Koran from being corrupted?  The Koran also denies the crucifixion of Jesus. This goes against the views of almost all historians.  It is attested to by non Christian sources such as Josephus (the Jewish historian), and Tacitus (the Roman Historian).  Even radical, liberal scholars do not doubt the historical fact of the crucifixion of Jesus.  

The author of the Koran was most likely Muhammad himself.  He seemed to have little knowledge and understanding of Christianity. It is also interesting to note that Muhammad himself had doubts that the Koran was really from God.  Muhammad was not a true prophet and the Koran is not the word of God.  Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and the Bible is the Word of God without error.