The Birth of Three Religions
The religion of Islam is all about Ishmael
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When God came to Abraham in Genesis 12, the Lord told him the whole earth would be blessed through him, and that a great nation would come forth from his descendants. In fact, God said Abraham’s offspring would be as numerous as dust in the earth—so many, that the number would be completely uncountable! (Genesis 13)This was a wonderful promise, but there was a serious problem: his wife Sarah was barren, so how could they populate a nation with their offspring if they couldn’t even give birth to a single child? Abraham mentioned this to God in Genesis 15, but the Lord told him “Not to worry —Sarah would indeed give birth to a son from Abraham’s seed and Sarah’s womb.” |
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And so Abraham and Sarah waited for this magnificent promise to be fulfilled. And they waited. And waited. And waited. The years rolled by (about 25 in fact), and no child came. By this time Sarah was getting desperate, so she came up with a plan in Genesis 16 —she told her husband to have sexual relations with Hagar, Sarah’s maid. The custom of that day stated that since Hagar was Sarah’s servant, then any baby born to Hagar would also belong to Sarah. So Abraham did as his wife suggested. Hagar became pregnant with his child, and his son Ishmael was born. And that’s when all the troubles really began, for this was NOT the son that God had promised to Abraham. In Genesis 16 pregnant Hagar began to despise barren Sarah, which led to thirteen years of marital friction between Sarah and Abraham (Genesis 16:16-17:1).Finally, in accordance to God’s timing, when Abraham was a 100 years old and Sarah was 90, she became pregnant, and the promised son Isaac was born (Genesis 17:17 & 21:1-7). |
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Abraham loved both his sons Isaac and Ishmael, but God had given very specific instructions that the Lord’s special blessing was upon Isaac (Genesis 21:8-13). Apparently this made Ishmael jealous, because he started mocking and putting down his much younger brother on a regular and persistent basis. Apparently Ishmael’s hostility must have been great, because Abraham was forced to step in and take drastic action. Even though he loved his son Ishmael, Abraham had to send him and his mother Hagar away because they couldn’t accept God’s special blessing upon Isaac. (Genesis 17:18-21)Abraham is the father of the Jews, the Arabs and Christianity. From Abraham came Isaac and from Isaac came Jacob, whom God later changed Jacob’s name to Israel ( Genesis 25 & 32:28). The Israelites of course are the Jews. From Abraham came Ishmael and from Ishmael came the Arabs (Genesis 25:12-18). As for Christians, we were the lost pagans living in the darkness of a sin-ravaged world, but whenever a person confesses Jesus (a Jew) to be the Messiah, God has clearly stated that believer is now considered to be a “spiritual Jew.” (Romans 2:28,29) |
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The Old Testament gives us the history of how the Jewish religion (Judaism) came into the world through God’s revelations of His laws to Moses in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The New Testament tells us how Christianity developed in the world. It has as its solid rock foundation Abraham as our spiritual father, and Jewish laws, practices, teachings and writings, but Christians then built on that sure foundation by adding the teachings of a Jewish Jesus. |
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The religion of Islam was birthed in the world through the Arabs about six hundred years after the birth of Jesus. An Arabic man named Muhammad was living in Saudi Arabia around 600 A.D., where it is said he was visited by the angel Gabriel. At that time in the Mid East, most of the tribes and nations believed in many gods, but Muhammad was instructed to proclaim that there is only ONE God —the same message that Jews had been stating for a couple thousand years (Although Muslims call God “Allah,” it is simply an Arabic word that means “THE God.”) Muhammad was also told by the angel that the teachings of Jesus were valid revelations of God —but it should be noted that in the teachings of Islam, Jesus is honored as being a prophet, but it is considered blasphemy to say that Jesus IS God. |
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Muhammad was also given a book to write, which is the Qur’an (Koran). Muslims teach that there have been four great revelations by God in the earth: God revealed to Abraham that there is only ONE God. To Moses God revealed His Law in the Ten Commandments. Through Jesus, God revealed the Golden Rule. And now through Muhammad and the Qur'an, God has revealed how the Golden Rule is to be put into practice. The teachings of Islam have been so persuasive, that it is one of the fastest-growing religions in the world. It claims to have over one billion followers, which is twenty percent of the world’s population. --Spiritual Borg 2001 |
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Source: |
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The Illustrated World’s Religions |