Islam

[richbronze]

What is your understanding of Islam and Muslims? Are there very many Muslims in Puerto Rico?

[El_Jibaro]

Muhammad was born around 570 AD in the city of Mecca. When he was 25 years old he married a 40 year old widow named Khadiyah. When Muhammad was 40 years old he started having visions. Muhammad thought he was possesed by demons, but his wife Khadiya persuaded him that it was divine. When Muhammad proclaimed his message to the people in Mecca they rejected him. So he went to the desert where the Bedouins accepted his message. With the help of Bedouin converts he went to Medina and was accepted. He later came back to Mecca and conquered the city to his new religion. An important ingredient in the early spread of Islam was military might: forced conversion. Muhammad died around 632 AD; he died a rich man with many wives and slaves.

Islam rejects Jesus as being God the Son. To Muslims it is impossible for God to have a Son: God doesn't have any sex. To Islam Jesus is just another prophet. Muhammad is a Prophet greater than Jesus. The Koran also says that Jesus did not die on the cross but someone else that looked like him.

All this contradicts the Bible. The Bible does no say that God had sex with Mary. The birth of Jesus is through a Virgin (Isaiah 7:14; Gospel of Matthew 1:23), that is a woman who has not had any sex. The formation of Jesus inside Mary's uterus was a creative miracle performed by the Holy Spirit. Also, Jesus always existed before the Creation of the Universe (Gospel of John 1:1-3). Jesus may not have had always the name Jesus, but in Heaven He always existed with the Father: Daniel 7:9-14, and this was written 500 years before Jesus was born. The Koran's teaching on Jesus not dying, but someone else dying instead would be a deception to all the disciples and the people who witnessed His death. Also it would make Jesus a liar, since He foretold His death to the disciples (Gospel of Matthew 16:21). And if Jesus did not Rise from the Dead then all of us Christians believe in Jesus in vain (First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 15:14-19). Thus, to believe in the Ressurection of Jesus is a must for any Christian.

Islam is not popular in Puerto Rico at all. There are not many Muslims there. In fact there may be more Ba'hai in PR than Muslims. However, most of the people in Puerto Rico are Catholic (55%) or Evangelical (40%) with the rest being mostly Jehova Witnesses, Hare Krishna's, Santeros and Atheists.

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Manuel Alonso

[richbronze]

Thank you for that response and insight into Islam. What is Evangelical, I have never heard of it before, except through the TV ministries?

[Cagueno]

Evangelicals are Christians who are not Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic or Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Serbian, Syrian, Coptic, etc.).

Basically is any Christian Church developed after the Reformation (after Martin Luther's 99 Thesis).

Evangelical Christians encompass Lutherans, Episcopalians, Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Adventists, and any others in between.

Evangelicals share with Catholics and the rest of Orthodox Christianity the belief in Jesus as the Messiah, the Savior of all mankind, and the doctrine of the Trinity [Father-Son-Holy Spirit, One God, Three Persons]. The share the Apostles Creed, up the the Nicean Version.

Things they don't share with Roman Catholics: the Pope, worship to Mary, worship to angels, worship to saints, worship of images, notions on Purgatory and salvation by good works. All Orthodox Churches (Russian, Greek, Serbian, Syrian, Coptic, etc.) do not have the Pope in Rome as the head figure, but they share with Roman Catholics most other dogmas.

[SJB]

I need to comment on El_Jibaro's response in saying that "Muhammed is greater than Jesus". All prophets in Islam are treated as messengers of God (Rasool Allah) and with equal respect. Each had a mission and each came in a time when there was an abundance of irreligion.

Does anyone living in Puerto Rico know how many Muslims may be living there?

[guarionex05]

IF JESUS WAS NOT THE SON OF GOD,AND NEVER DIED ON THE CROSS .THEN MY FRIEND WE ARE SURELY BOUND FOR HELL WITH NO HOPE AT ALL.MUHAMED COULDN'T EVEN SAVE HIM SELF. WHAT MAKES MUSLIMS THINK THAT HE WAS GREATER THAN JESUS. AS A MATTER OF FACT MUHAMMED WAS AN ARAB OF THE SON OF ISMAEL SON OF AGAR THE SLAVE GIRL OF ABRAHAM'S WIFE ELIZABETH AND NOT THE SON OF THE PROMESE.ISACC THE FATHER OF ISRAEL SON OF THE PROMISE WHO IS JESUS THE CHRIST.

[El_Jibaro]

Muhammad presents himself to be the Prophet of all prophets, and thus is steemed by most, if not all Muslims. I have seen Muslim Clergy claim that Muhammad is the Holy Spirit, or fulfills the function of the Holy Spirit [they quote the promise that Jesus gave the Disciples that once He would go away from them He would send a Counselor (Consolador) John 16:5-15].

Muhammad in the Koran definitely says of Jesus that He was never the Son of God.


The following verses from the Bible clearly show the Koran to be wrong:

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
1 John 4:1-3

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.
1 John 4:15

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
1 John 5:1

Read the entire First Letter of John, and you will see that the Bible is the Anti-Thesis of the Koran [as far as Jesus is concerned].


Concerning Salvation, Muslims do not believe in Salvation like Christians. To Muslims, the Righteous go to Heaven based solely on their works. This is Contrary to the Bible, the Gospel of Jesus, that states categorically that Believers go to Heaven not based on their works, but because they Believe on the Fact that Jesus Died on the Cross for the Sins of the Entire World, and that He rose from the dead. To Muslims, when one dies, one's soul is placed on a Balance: if One's Good Deeds are greater than One's Bad Deeds, then one goes to Heaven. Reading the Letters of Saint Paul to the Romans and Saint Paul to the Galatians one can clearly see that Works do not get Christians to Heaven, but His Sacrifice does [and that Good Works are the Fruit of a Christian when he/she Repents of their Sins and Surrenders their lives to Jesus].

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Manuel Alonso