The General System of Beliefs of Present Day Christians

The belief and practices of present day Christians vary widely among its many sects. Nevertheless, in this post, we will outline their general system of beliefs which is important to know before studying specific sects in detail.

Christianity was intended to discipline the Jews and enable them follow the teaching of Musa (AS) better. Its foundation was the same as that of Islam. The Prophet (SAWS) said/: “The prophets are brothers. Their mothers are so many and their religion is one”. After the disappearance of the Gospel and the appearance of so many versions of  texts that were called “holy books”, Christianity evolved into something very different from its original teachings.

The concept of Allah as the Owner of everything was turned into the idea of the Father. Due to philosophical explanations derived from Greek philosophy, the concept of God was altered. They use the word “Maker” to describe Him which is not proper because a maker can make something already made by someone else. Using the word “Creator” is better as He creates out of nothing. They believe in Messiah who they call the only son of God. The attribute divinity to him. Some groups consider Jesus (AS) to be God himself. The Quran negates both opinions. “The have disbelieved those who say Allah is the Messiah the son of Mary”. They believe in the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Allah - the life of Allah. From this they conclude that Jesus (AS) became a part of Allah.

They consider these three gods - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - as one god. This is the concept of trinity which they say it is monotheism. This is obviously not monotheism as they worship three gods not one.

“The have disbelieved who say Allah is the third of three and there is no god accept one God. If they do not stop what they are saying those who disbelieve will suffer from a severe punishment”.

They believe that Jesus (AS) died on the cross to give salvation to the people. They claim that this is because of Allah’s extreme love for the people. Allah decided to subject His only son to extreme pain to save people from punishment. If Allah wants to forgive people, why can’t He forgive without subjecting His only son to agony. If Allah is fair, would it be fair to put someone so pure as Jesus to pain to save the sinful and wrongdoers. Allah says this is wrong.

“And their saying that we have killed the Messiah, Jesus the son of Marry, the messenger of Allah. Nay, they did not kill him and they did not crucify him but it was made to seem so to them. Those who dispute in him are doubtful in him. They do not have knowledge except for a conjecture and doubt. They have not killed him for certain. But Allah raised him up to Him. Allah is Exalted, the Wise”

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Their belief in the reckoning in Hereafter is that Jesus (AS) will sit on the right side of Allah. The human part of him will enable him to judge people for belief in him on Judgement Day. They take the cross as their symbol. It is sanctified and considered holy by a lot of them.. They consider it as a sign of love for Jesus (AS) and a sign of following him. If they truly loved Jesus (AS) they would have hated the cross because the cross was used to harm Jesus (AS). They consider Mary to be the mother of God. Some groups dedicate their worship to her.

In terms of religion they consider Christianity to be a universal religion not limited to the Children of Israel as it was intended. This is in difference to what Jesus (AS) taught. In the Bible he has been reported to have said “Do not go to the nations and do not enter  the cities of the Samarieen. Rather you go with this guidance to the stray sheep to the Children of Israel.”

They consider their Holy book to include the Old Testament (Torah, the chapters of the Prophets and  historical material) and the New Testament consisting of the four bibles (Mark, Luke, Matthew and John) and letters to the messengers. They believe that the New Testament cancels the Old Testament. They say that the words of Bible are the words of God. Christians do not circumcise like Muslims and Jews.

Their is no agreement on the specific forms of their prayers. They use any type of  words and statement that suit them. There is lot of variation in this among their many groups. Now many groups use music and dancing in their prayer services. The format and period of fasting varies from group to group. Generally they only fast from products which have animal derivatives. They baptize their children by putting water on them in the name of the trinity to erase the original sin. This is against Islamic belief that child is born sinless.

Some of their groups confess the sins to the clergy who then provide forgiveness to them. In 1215 AD, it became necessary confess one's sins to the clergy at least once a year in some sect. There are different frequencies of confession in different churches. In the Eastern Church marriage is allowed only once. Polygamy is not allow although it was initially allowed in Christianity. It is permissible for a priest to sanctify the marriage. Divorce not accepted except in case of adultery among them. When separation occurs due to divorce or death, marriage can occur. There is great variation in Christianity regarding marriage.

The present day Christianity has been influences by a wide range of beliefs, doctrine and practices of other religions and philosophies, including Judaism, Greek philosophy, Hinduism, Buddhism and ancient pagan religions. It is believed that the concept of the three main Hindu gods - Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva influenced the development of the concept of the trinity. These transformations in Christianity resulted in it losing its essence and spirit. Thus, Christianity today is very different from the original religion that Jesus preached.

Today Christians make up of 60% of the world population. They are found all over the world. Christianity was spread through the intense efforts of missionaries and evangelists. Among the Muslim scholars, Ahmed Deedat and Dr Zakir Naik were able to expose the flaws in Christianity and debate successfully with Christian scholars. Their videos and books are very helpful is understanding the weakness of Christianity.

Muslims believe that the People of the Book are polytheists and disbelievers. The Quran says

"Those who disbelieve from the People of the Book and the pagans are in the fire of hell eternally dwelling in it. Such people are the worst of creation”

In Islam, we are supposed to treat the Christians according to the Book of Allah in this world. We should deal with them with kindness, righteousness and fairness. It is permissible for Muslims to eat their food if it is halal. In theory, Muslim men are allowed to marry their women if it is safe to produce children from them which will be practicing Muslims and that they would not influence the faith of the Muslim husband. This is not possible these days. Also Muslims are supposed to treat them with kindness and keep their promises with them as long as they are not fighting the Muslims with respect to their religion and are not driving the Muslims from their homes. If they live in Muslim lands they are the people of covenant. They have the same rights of the Muslims and they owe the same responsibilities and duties as the Muslims.

The History of Distortion and Deviation in Christianity

The disciples and messengers that Jesus (AS) had prepared to take the Truth to the other places were persecuted and executed one by one. This caused the his followers to suffer in great turmoil. It seemed that Christianity might diminish and be extinguished.

At that time, a Jewish man named Chaul, who was very well educated in philosophy and civilizations and who had participated in the persecution of the followers of Jesus (AS) unexpectedly converted to be a follower of Jesus (AS). He claimed to have seen Jesus (AS) from his way from Damascus appearing to him in the sky. He claimed that Jesus (AS) reprimanded him for persecuting his followers and commanded him to spread his teachings to the people. Some Christians were happy about Chaul's acceptance of Christianity but some did not believe him. Barnabas one of the disciples who defended him and introduced him to the rest of the disciples. Chaul was able to achieve a high rank among the disciples. He named himself Paul or “Boulous”. The disciples started to spread the message of their faith in the neighboring lands. They established churches in Alexandria, Rome, Athens and many places in Europe and the Middle East.

The deviation in Christianity started in between the year 51-55 AD when the first convention was held which brought surviving disciples together in their first meeting. This was the Convention of Orchaleem which was held under the leadership of Jacob the son of Joseph the Carpenter who was killed by stoning in the year 62 AD. This convention was held to discuss the issue of exempting the non-Jews from the responsibility and obligation of following  the teaching of Musa (AS). It mandated the teaching of Musa (AS) on everyone. It agreed on the prohibition of adultery, the consumption of ritually unslaughtered animal meat and the meat of animals that were slaughtered for the idols. Unfortunately, eating pigs meat, dealing in usury and drinking wine were introduced in Christianity,  although they were forbidden by the religion that Jesus practiced.

Paul and Barnabas returned to Antakiya but they differed and separated because of the announcement of Paul to abrogate all the teachings of Torah. He claimed that the Torah was a curse and they needed to get rid of it. He claimed that the Messiah came to change an old era for a new one. As a result of his philosophy and the influence of Greek philosophy of that time, he had borrowed the idea of the connection between God and His creation on earth. He introduced the idea of son of God and the Holy Spirit. He also introduced the concept of salvation through crucifixion. According to this he claimed that Jesus will rise to heavens and will sit on the right hand of God and will judge humanity on the Day of Resurrection based on their accepting him as divine. Paul visited Europe and Asia. Finally he was killed in Rome in 65 AD.

Initially there was a lot of resistance to Paul’s ideas. Nevertheless, the seeds of trinity and idolatry were sown in Christianity. The rest of the disciples and messengers of Jesus were killed by the idolaters. 

The Christians suffered from the hands of the Jews who had religious authority and from the hands of Romans who had political authority and control, The Christians of the Palestine & Egypt were more severely persecuted. They were sawn, burned and crucified alive. Of these remarkable persecutions was the persecution of Nirone in 64 AD, that of Demtianos in 90 AD in which John wrote his Bible in the Greek language, that of Trajon in 106 in which he ordered the execution of Christians and burning of Christian books, that of Decladianos in 284 was most barbaric. He insisted that he will not stop killing Christians until their blood reach the knees of his horse and he achieved this objective. He destroyed Churches and burned Christian books. As a result, the Egyptian Coptic Christians chose 29 August year 284 AD as the beginning of their calendar to commemorate their victims.

Only later on, the Romans started to have a dialogue with Christians and accepted them. They used their alliance with them for political reasons to extend their empire in the East. More churches were built for them by the Romans.

This period in Christian history is characterized by great loss of lives. It was then that the Bible was lost, the Torah was ignored and the concept of the prophet-hood of Jesus (AS) dissipated. Jesus's (AS) disciples and messengers were killed and the religion became known as "Christianity"

Celibacy, monks and nuns appeared in Christianity due to the efforts of St. Paul and St. Antion in Egypt in 241-356 AD. Small monasteries began to be built in the south of Egypt. Schools of religious Christianity began to be influenced by Greek/Egyptian philosophy in Alexandria.

The golden age of Christianity according to Christian sources began with the coming of power of Constantine when he became the Emperor of the Roman Empire in 312 AD. In that era, efforts were made to unite all Christians on one doctrine. Constantine hired Christians, he built churches and took the cross as a symbol to his empire in addition to its idolatry significance. Many people converted to Christianity and this led to the appearance of many versions of the Bible. It is said that more than 50 versions were in circulation.

Emperor Constantine divided the empire among his three children. One controlled the East. The other the West. The third the central part of the empire. Each son followed a strategy to support his position by following the religious dogma which was found in his lands. Two of the sons were killed. The son who ruled the empire of the East - who was named Constantios - combined all the empires under his control. In 361 AD he died. In 382 the first convention of Constantine was held. It was decided to accept the dogma which said that the Holy Spirit is divine, alive and is the Spirit of God. and that Jesus (AS) has both divinity and humanity. A decision was made to persecute people who opposed this dogma. 

The Papal position in Rome was established as a result of the division of the Church in Eastern and Western. In the Western Church in Rome, the government was separated from religion. The beginning of treating images and portraits of Jesus (AS) and Mary as sacred was as a result of the convention of 787 AD. The decision was made to hang the portraits and images of Jesus (AS) and Mary in the churches, homes and roads so that looking at them will make people think of them. 

In 869 AD the Patriarch of Constantine raised the issue of the nature of the Holy Spirit. He stated it came only from God. The Patriarch of Rome claimed that it came from both God and Jesus (AS). The fourth convention of Constantine in 869 AD was held to decide this matter. It was declared and concluded that Holy Spirit comes from both God and Jesus (AS). It was decided that all Christians must be affiliated under the authority of the Pope of Rome and that anyone who wants to know anything about Christian doctrine has to ask him directly. This led to the separation of the Western Church under the Pope in Rome and the Eastern or Orthodox Church under Patriarch of Constantine. The administrative division between the two churches occurred in 1054 AD. This has led to a lot of conflict between them.