Bible Question: The Quran says that Abraham PBUH was not a Christian and was not a Jew but was a Muslim. It states that he was not a believer of polytheism. What does the bible say about the Prophet Abraham's beliefs? |
Bible Answer: A Muslim is a person of the religion of Islam. Islam did not exist at the time of Abraham. This religion did not come into existence until the early Middle Ages of Europe. In the late 600s or early 700s A.D.,Islam was begun by a man named Mohammed who claimed to be a prophet and founded this religion partly because he saw the practice of using icons and statues in the churches as idol worship. His religion departed from the Bible altogether and uses the Qoran [pardon me if I have spelled it wrong]and he believed in converting the rest of the world to "his religion" by the sword...that the infidels [in his opinion] should convert or die. His religion does not include Jesus as the Son of the Living God but as merely a prophet and teaches that he is a later prophet with a more clear understanding than Jesus had. It does not acknowledge the crucifixion or the value of it nor does it acknowledge the resurrection. It holds many other teachings that I do not know as I have not studied the religion. However, the Muslims at that time threatened all of Christian Europe in the early 700s. Charles Martel defeated the Muslims when they came up from North Africa and attacked Spain. Then the Muslims began making raids across the Pyrenees Mountains. By 732 Charles Martel met them near Tours, deep inside the Frankish kingdom and he inflicted heavy losses on them. They retreated toward Spain and never again were a major threat to Europe. I have taken this information from the 2nd Edition of "Church History in Plain Language" by Bruce L. Shelley, published by Word. I believe Abraham was Sumerian, the son of Terah who was an idol worshipper. Somehow or another he came to believe in the one true God and never wavered in that belief to the degree that he did not live a perfect life, but he "believed God" and acted as though he believed Him. In other words, he didn't say one thing, but make his decisions as though he believed something else. I hope this is of some help to you. |