Christian Revelations

Christians and Muslims can disagree on a variety of issues about religion, but both can agree that revelation is how God (Allah) communicates His wishes and commands to His believers. Revelation is meant for all of God’s people, but only a select few are chosen by God to inform others about the new information. In both religions, there are many revelations because God knew that humanity was not yet ready for the full message to be revealed all at once. These revelations include the Torah revealed to Moses, the Psalms revealed to David, and the New Testament revealed to the apostles. Christians, however, believe that Jesus was God’s ultimate revelation while Muslims believe that Allah’s ultimate revelation was revealed to Muhammad in the form

The perfect and true message of God can be found in the Quran, a book that was not created but has always been. Muhammad may have received this revelation, but he had no influence over the message. He was merely the one who transcribed the Quran as the angel Gabriel told him what to write. The only human influence that can be seen in the Quran is the addition of chapter titles and verse numbers. Christians do not acknowledge the Quran as being revelation from God. The New Testament is the last of God’s major revelations. This includes the descriptions of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and other writings of the apostles. Christians also believe that the Bible is an inspired book- it was influenced by the Holy Spirit- but also a human book because it was written by human beings. The Holy Spirit provided the ideas that God wanted revealed in these writings but the writers used their own words and writing style to convey these

Scripture tells us how to gain salvation and how to live a God-pleasing life, but ultimately our salvation is not dependent on a book that was created. Our salvation depends on an eternal being that become human for our sake. We cannot gain salvation simply by being a good person and cannot be saved by our own will. For Muslims, without the assurance of Jesus, are often unsure of where they will be placed in the afterlife. They must rely solely on their own good deeds and how happy God is with their life for entrance into heaven. All they can do is follow the teachings in the Quran- which they may or may not be able to read for themselves- and pray that God shows mercy on them when they die. They live in a constant state of uncertainty, because they must bear their own sins and must be judged by these sins against their good deeds in life in the end. The ultimate revelation for Muslims is the Quran, a book that tells them how to live but gives no reassurance for salvation that the ultimate revelation of Jesus in Christianity does. This assurance and display of mercy reveals the loving nature of God to Christians and perhaps creates a stronger, more nurturing and caring relationship between God and Christians than Allah and Muslims. Worship becomes more about thanking God and loving him out of free will and gratitude rather than asking