The document discusses key theological differences between Islam and Christianity, emphasizing misunderstandings that Muslims have about core Christian beliefs, such as the nature of God, the deity of Christ, and the concept of sin. It also critiques the Qur'an while defending the integrity of the Bible, arguing that Christians should focus on living out their faith and engaging in respectful dialogue. Furthermore, it highlights the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as pivotal truths that underpin Christianity's claims against those of Islam.

1. Islam – Theological Problems
Dr. Robert Patton

2. Basic contentions by Muslims
 The Muslim believes the following:
 Christians have changed the Bible; therefore it is not the
same as the Qur’an
 The death and substitutionary sacrifice of Christ never
occurred
 The trinity means three Gods
 The deity of Christ – Christians think that God had sexual
intercourse with Mary

3. Basic misunderstanding
 The absolute holiness of God, and His abhorrence
of sin -
 If you can go to heaven if your good deeds
outweigh your bad ones, then God tolerates sin
 Sin can be present in heaven by implication
 Remember – Allah can (and does) lie and deceive,
and fill hell with persons

4. Basic misunderstanding
 The need of redemption via a substitute
 Man cannot change his nature by himself. He is
born a sinner –
 This is denied by the Muslim,
 who believes that man is good, but weak and forgetful
 Man’s basic problem is his forgetfulness and not his
sinfulness

5. Initial contacts of Muslims with Jews &
Christians in the 7th century
 With Jews, who also killed Jesus because He
claimed to be God (shirk)
 The Jews also found Christ crucified a
stumbling block
 They also contacted aberrant Christians who
did not teach good doctrine – off on the trinity
& deity of Christ

6. Our lives must speak
 We must win their hearts with our lives of love
to open them to hearing the gospel
 Mere facts are not enough – they have been
programmed to reject them

7. Theological differences
 Truth = Qur’an for the Muslim
 Truth = total Biblical witness, culminating in
Jesus for the Christian
 Our lives must verify our beliefs

8. Theological differences
 God’s mercy = revelation of perfect law for the
Muslim; we can obey if we want to – often through
fear
 God’s mercy = the suffering, redemptive love in Jesus
Christ for the Christian – not receiving what we
deserve as sinners

9. What is missing in the Qur’an??
 For the Christian:
 God’s holiness
 Man’s sin nature which he cannot overcome
 God must intervene and save mankind
 For the Muslim, these are nonsense, and you end up
with a works religion. You can save yourself if you
work hard enough, but this is never certain as Allah is
unpredictable and can do what He wants

10. What is ultimate truth
 Qur’an is uncreated and eternal book preserved
in heaven – Muslim
 Bible is God’s authentic authoritative Word
revealed supremely in Christ.

11. Do not insult
 Muhammad – recognize the good he did, such
as reforming from idolatry and protecting
certain groups. But he is not our prophet
 Talk then about Jesus
 Miraculous birth – unlike any other
 Miraculous life without sin – unlike any other
 Miraculous ascension to heaven – unlike any other,
though Elijah & Enoch went directly without dying

12. The Qur’an
 We appreciate the wonderful things that it says
about Jesus
 His virgin birth
 His miracles
 His ascension
 His sinless life

13. Prophecies of Muhammad vs. Jesus
 Some could be thought to refer to Muhammad –
Gen 12:1-3; Deut. 18:19, John re comforter
 But more than 300 talk about this special
prophet, the messiah, who is Jesus

14. Deity of Christ – one approach
 Starting with common ground
 Christ had a supernatural birth with no father. (Adam
did too, but his was supernatural too)
 Christ did many supernatural acts – healing, raising
the dead – so his life was supernatural. Others did
some miracles as well

15. Christ’s supernatural resurrection
 Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and also
arose from the dead and conquered death.
They may object – but keep going
 Then the prophet Jesus went to heaven and
there is no grave and no bones to worship
 So His death was supernatural

16. So His birth, life and end of life
 Were all supernatural
 What other prophet can say that?
 He was the most supernatural person who ever lived
 The Muslim agrees with the virgin birth, the
miracles, and the ascension of Christ

17. Christ as the Son of God
 Show that we TOTALLY reject the idea that God had
sex with Mary = blasphemy
 The Muslim says that the term son must be
biological relationship
 Son of the road – 5 times in the Qur’an. Does this
mean that the road married and made little roads?
 Similar fashion – the Bible uses it metaphorically,
referring to covenant relationship

18. God the Father
 To the Muslim, God is far away, and our
relationship with him is primarily obedience. He
conceives of sonship as biologic
 For the Christian, God is close to the individual.
The issue is obedience, but also that God has
chosen to reveal himself. The son is also eternal,
so it is not about procreation but relationship

19. Jesus reveals God
 Jesus reveals God like a son can reveal the
father because he resembles him.
 We cannot tell God what to do or how He may
choose to reveal Himself.
 Jesus is like the veil being opened or removed.

20. The trinity
 Muslims hold
 The sovereign will of God
 The eternal uncreated words of God – Qur’an
 The argument: Then you have 2 uncreated things,
thus 2 gods. When they object, point out that we have
3 uncreated things, the persons of the trinity.
 This contradicts the contention of Tawhid – or the
absolute unity of God. One Muslim scholar was
beheaded for claiming that the Qur’an was eternal

21. The trinity is accepted by faith
 The word trinity is never found in the Bible
 The fact is that three persons listed in the
trinity show the characteristics of God in
essence
 Eternal existence
 Omnipotence
 Omnipresence

22. The trinity is accepted by faith
 There is a difference between being or essence,
and that of personality
 The Godhead has one essence or being, but
expresses itself in three persons
 It is this trinity that makes relationship possible
throughout eternity

23. The trinity is accepted by faith
 Trinity is ONE GOD – but existing in three
persons
 It is taught in the Bible
 It is accessed by faith – and has been a
challenge for Christians in the past
 Not 1 + 1 + 1 =3, but 1x1x1 = 1

24. Allah versus Yahweh
 Allah can lie; Yahweh cannot lie because it is against
His character
 Allah is not holy – Yahweh is holy
 Allah is ONE but Yahweh is three persons in One God
 Allah is pure transcendence – Yahweh is also
immanent, and interacts with his creatures

25. Allah versus Yahweh
 Allah hates transgressors; Yahweh loves sinners, and
died for them
 Allah’s relationship with believers is as master to slave
but Yahweh’s relationship is as a father to a son

26. The problem of holiness
 The Muslim needs to see that even a little bit of sin is
an affront to a holy God
 One way is to offer a contaminated drink (showing
them the contamination) to illustrate that a little
poison makes the whole thing unacceptable.
 Adam sinned once, but was punished by God

27. Works do not provide holiness
 Only Christ can remove sin
 Heaven is holy and we cannot enter with sin in our
lives.
 Animism cannot give power over sin, but Christ can do
so

28. Four areas of vacuum in the Qur‘an
 A loving God
 A personal God
 The assurance of forgiveness of sins
 The assurance of eternal life

29. Impersonal God
 Muslims do not pray to God for personal things
 They feel that he is transcendent, and may pray
to saints, etc for personal things
 We can pray for them
 Main things: LOVE AND PRAYER

30. Is the Bible corrupted?
 The problem –
 Christians: The Bible is God-breathed and inspired
by God and cannot be changed: 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2
Peter 1:19-21; Rev. 22:18-19
 Muslims: The Qur’an is the mother of books on the
throne of God
 But in many places there are differences!

31. The answer from the Muslim
 The Qur’an is the FINAL revelation which is to all
people
 The Muslim accepts the law of abrogation, where a
more recent writing negates earlier ones to explain
the inconsistencies of the Qur’an
 Thus they would state that the Bible has been
changed by Christians or Jews

32. The Qur’an and the Bible
 The Qur’an gives encouragement that the Bible
is the Word of God: 5:68; 21:7
 The Qur’an states that God’s Word cannot be
changed: 6:115; 10:64

33. The big question
 Then when was the Bible changed – before or after
Muhammad?
 If before – then Muhammad was a false prophet
 If afterwards – we have many manuscripts that show
no change. Furthermore, there was no change dating
way back to the second century!

34. Then ask…
 Who changed the Bible?
 When was it changed?
 How can they change God’s Word?
 Is God so weak that He cannot preserve His word?

35. Who dares to change it?
 Jews would not dare change the Bible – warned in
Deuteronomy x2
 Jews made every sort of effort – counting letters,
speaking each word before writing it, etc.
 Christians have severe warnings not to do so –
Revelation 22:18-19
 Jesus said that his words would never pass away

36. Consistent over the years…
 Dead sea scrolls about 100 BC are virtually identical
with translations in 10th century
 Itala & Syrian translations in 2nd century are the
same as KJV

37. What about translations?
 The translations are somewhat different, but
also there are a number of translations of the
Qur’an. They do not invalidate the Qur’an
 I have looked at three different English
translations, and there are minor differences
between the three

38. What about translations?
 There are 40 authors of the Bible vs. one for the
Qur’an
 The Bible, when studied properly, is internally
consistent – not allowing abrogation
 5000 copies available to cross-check
 There are a few copies of the Qur’an, but cross-
checking destroyed by Uthman when he burned
other translations

39. Muhammad vs. Jesus?
 Jesus was born of a virgin; Muhammad had a human
mother and father
 Jesus was sinless; Muhammad was told to ask
forgiveness of sins, and had no assurance of going to
heaven
 Jesus treated women with respect, but had no wives;
Muhammad had at least 10 wives and sexual
relationships with slaves as concubines

40. Muhammad vs. Jesus?
 Jesus did many miracles, including raising the
dead; Muhammad did not – claimed that the
Qur’an was his miracle
 Jesus went to heaven bodily; Muhammad’s
bones are still in the grave

41. Muhammad vs. Jesus?
 Muhammad claimed that he was prophecied in
the Bible but Bible was changed – Deut. 18, Jn.
16, and a few other locations. But Deut. 18 was
about a Jewish king; John 16 is about the Holy
Spirit, and cannot be Muhammad
 Many very specific prophecies (total of 300)
were fulfilled by Jesus – O.T. spoke a lot about
him.

42. Important prophecies of Christ
 His family – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David
 His birthplace – Micah – in Bethlehem of Judah
 Virgin birth – Isaiah 7:14
 His birth as God’s son, etc – Isaiah 9:5-6
 His crucifixion – Psalm 22
 His death for us, burial & resurrection – Isaiah 53
 His resurrection – Psalm 16

43. Jesus vs. Isa
 Both were born of a virgin, did miracles (although Isa
was reported to speak from the cradle, and to make a
clay bird and give life)
 Both were sinless and went to heaven
 But – Isa never died, but went direct to heaven. Isa will
return as a Muslim, deny he ever claimed to be God,
fight against Christians and Jews, and make everyone
become a Muslim; he will marry & have children, die
after 40 years

44. Jesus vs. Isa
 Jesus claimed to be God several times
 Many references in John
 But also in Mark – The prophecy of Isaiah 40
 Jesus pointed to Daniel 7 when challenged by the High Priest
 The Jews killed Him for that – shirk
 Jesus accepted worship on several occasions

45. Crucifixion and resurrection
 Best-documented fact in ancient history
 Four accounts cross-verify each other and show no
collusion – they do fit together
 The lives of the disciples were transformed – they were
bold and all persecuted – 10 died as martyrs; John they
tried to kill without success

46. Crucifixion and resurrection
 Predicted in detail in Psalm 22 – 800 years before the
first crucifixions were carried out
 Death location and reason, resurrection outlined in
Isaiah 53 – so accurate Jews call it the forbidden
chapter
 No rotting in the grave – Psalm 16
 Jesus predicted this on several occasions although the
disciples did not understand

47. Resurrection
 Predicted in detail in Psalm 22 – 800 years before the
first crucifixions were carried out
 Death location and reason, resurrection outlined in
Isaiah 53 – so accurate Jews call it the forbidden
chapter
 No rotting in the grave – Psalm 16
 Jesus predicted this on several occasions although the
disciples did not understand

48. Resurrection
 If the crucifixion and resurrection are true, then
Christianity is true, and Islam is a false religion
 If the crucifixion and resurrection are false, then Islam
may be true, but certainly Christianity is false, because
the resurrection is key to Christianity
 Evidence of the resurrection is more solid than any other
fact of history using historical criteria

49. Helpful hints
 Do not ridicule or condemn Muhammad, but
raise up Jesus as Lord
 Avoid calling Islam a religion of words or the
mechanics of Muslim prayers
 Remember that Muslims do believe in God’s
laws and have a fear of God

50. Helpful hints
 Muslims are aware of sin and ask for mercy,
though they have no assurance of forgiveness
 Appeal to their conscience and need of a Savior
 Tell the about our beliefs in Jesus Christ
 Our behavior must back up our belief

51. Helpful hints
 Our message will be evaluated on the basis of
the character of the messenger.
 Show true love in the face of bitterness. You
may be tested
 Start with truths that the Muslim knows – that
Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, that He is
known as the Word of God (Kalimat Allah)
 Rely on the Holy Spirit

52. Helpful hints
 Discuss with the same sex only.
 Men – not into a home where no man is present.
 Women, dress modestly & avoid all men groups
 Don’t argue; praise the Lord Jesus
 Do not insult Muhammad, Islam or the Qur’an

53. Helpful hints
 The Muslim handles the Qur’an with great
respect – the highest place in the house, only
holy hands may hold it
 We need to be careful about the Bible – not
placing it on the floor or flinging it to the back
car seat. Be careful about taking notes in the
Bible itself – may be considered disrespectful