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Are they simply doomed from birth?
no, i don't.
Muslism are aware that there are Christians who believe in Isa al-Masih, not in Muhammad. they are aware that Christians have their own scriptures, beliefs, and traditions of worship.
many Muslims have read the Bible, yet were unimpressed or did not see the text as applicable to their own lives. they have the Quran, and tend to consider it a much more beautiful, true, and relevant text than the Bible.
there are quite a few Muslims who, for various reasons, become followers of Christ. in the end, we will be judged by our deeds, by how we used this gift of life. God is the God of all peoples- the One who holds our lives in His hand, who has made the heavens and the earth, in Whom we live and move and have our being.
yes, He would like us to hear of and follow His beloved Son. i have known many Muslims and Christians both who are kind, humble, giving, and thankful to be alive, with honest, good hearts and sincere respect for others. what drove me from Islam was a spiritual thirst that could not be satisfied by salah or by the Quran.
our eternal destiny is between us and God.
I don't think anyone following or trying to follow God will be sent to any kind of hell.
This is the very question that drove me away from the Baptist church and into UUism. I had spent several years in Mulim countries and had many friend who were Muslim. I was told repeatedly that they were all going to hell because they hadn't accepted Jesus Christ as their savior and that was the one and only way to get into Heaven. I actually prefer the Muslim belief that there are three ways to get into heaven; through observing Allah's works (nature), the Holy Scriptures and/or the Prophets.
on the other hand, one has to understand that Allah is not simply a general, abstract, univeralist understanding of diety, as might be found in Hindusim or Sikhism. he is described in the Quran as a very much transcendent yet willful being, whose commands, attributes, and allowances differ a great deal from the God of the Bible, and differ also a great deal from what Jesus of Nazareth has taught and revealed about God, through Himself and through His own words. the problem is, that Muslims understand Jesus' "Abba" (Father) and Allah to be the same God, and view Mohammad and Jesus both as valid messengers of Allah. as a Christian, i can not accept that.
If not knowing Jesus or the bible exempts someone from damnation, shouldn't the whole faith be kept secret so no one gets sent to hell? Given that "spreading the word" usually results in most people rejecting it, thus making missionary work malicious.
ulimately, who fist revealed to the world this religon of Allah, and under what conditions, commandments, and pretexts? that needs to be examined, too. the truth of Mohammad's claim to a specific line of prophethood (he was not merely a poet-saint detached from any tradition, as Kabir Ji, for example) is also significant.
Christians, Do you believe that all of the Muslims who have heard of the Bible are going to Hell?
Trey, ask a Muslim and he will say yes. as many others, and they will say no.
Muslims believe, sincerely, that Allah and Yahweh are the same God, and that Mohammad spoke as a vlid messenger of the same Creator who sent Jesus of Nazareth into the world.
i used to believe this, deeply. and believed that so long as one said "God", it didn't matter what one called Him. not realizing or wanting to realize that the God Jesus talked about and taught about and served and loved, has said very different things through Jesus than what Allah has said through Mohammad.
in light of these manifold differences, logically and by faith and grace, i have come to conclude that they can not be the same god.
kai ~
depends on which Christian you ask. some denominations will say that one is saved, primarily, by being born into or by joining their own denomination. others would understand salvation as a life-long process of faithfulness and good works.
i know that my own life turned around completely at a singular point- the change came about not because of anything kind or meritous i did, or because i joind a certain church, but by faith and by God's grace. i agree that "faith without works is dead". one can not live as a disciple of Jesus only by believing things about Him- one must put His commandments and example to work in one's own life. and if one is, as Jesus says "born in the Spirit", then one's actions and attitudes will begin to cange naturally, not just as a result of applied principals.
the crucifixion is unique and important for a number of reasons. Christ had to die before He could be raised to life- and His resurrection means that He is alive, today, right now, and that He has a unique and holy power (He has said that all power in heaven and on earth has been given to Him) to change lives in real and personal ways.
in attonement languge, His death paid the price for our sins. now, we may be generally good and kind people, and may sincerely seek the truth. but there is still that elusive veil between us and God. not an abstract, Brahaman-like God which simply "is" or exists as "pure consciousness", but the God who fashioned the universe with intelligence and purpose, whose hand is willful and almighty, and who loves and knows us more deeply than we can ever be aware of. for a Christian, to be reconciled to God is not a matter of merging with Him, or of waking up to a monistic understanding of the universe, but a matter of lovingly surrendering to and walking with Him (in imitation of the Son)- it's a relationship with someone to Someone. that which keeps us from realizng that we can walk with God, that we can live as His children in a fruitful and blessed relationship, is our sin nature. until that is removed by the blood of Christ, we'll still be in the dark.
we may be aware of God's presence or existence in a general or philisophic way, but we will not know Him as Abba, Father, in the complete and understanding joy that Christ talked about. His joy was not a joy of mystical untion with an ocean of divinity, but an intimate, personal walk with the God He knew, loved, and who walked with Him and talked with Him, and who in the end, called Him home by name.
without the cross, none of this is posible. it's true that Muslims do not believe in the crucifixion. by not doing so, it is ultimately not Christ that they believe in. it's an historical fact that a Jewish teacher named Jesus was crucified by the Romans some 2000 years ago- numerous extra-Biblial sources attest to this, and the rest is left up to faith. so to say "isa al-Masih was never crucified" is to compltely disassociate Isa al-Masih fom the Jesus of Nazareth of Christianity.
a Christian would say that if one rejects the Son, one does not truly, ultimately have the Father. for the Son came to open up withn Himself and through His atoning death a return to that "walk with God in the cool of the evening" that we lost at the fall. He came to show all peoples the Way of God, in Himself. Christ, risen, is the spiritual template, the image one is made new into. without Him, we can not come to the Father.