 |
| from insideislam.wisc.edu |
This is aptly answered by Rev. Pat Robertson's own speech titled, you guessed it, "Why Evangelical Christians Support Israel?" that appears on his own website.
This is how he described it: "If God's chosen people turn over to Allah control of their most sacred sites-if they surrender to Muslim vandals the tombs of Rachel, of Joseph, of the Patriarchs, of the ancient prophets.....then in that event, Islam will have won the battle. Throughout the Muslim world the message will go forth-'Allah is greater than Jehovah. The promises of Jehovah to the Jews are meaningless. We can now, in the name of Allah, move to crush the Jews and drive them out of the land that belongs to Allah."
I'm amazed on how ignorant Pat Robertson is about Islam. Is his view representative of most evangelical Christian pastors? I don't know that for sure but I will not be surprised if that's the case.
The simple truth is that Christianity is far closer in faith to Islam than Judaism. All three religions are considered monotheistic, believing in one living God. Apart from the fact that Jesus and his early followers were Jews, that's about it. The Jews of today don't believe that Jesus is the messiah, much less the Son of God. Their faith is predicated on how well they follow the letter of God's law, not the spirit of the law (as Jesus emphasized). The Gospel's "offer the other cheek" is a big departure from the Old Testament's "an eye for an eye." Forget about virgin birth, or Jesus' miracles or the second coming of Christ.
On the other hand, Muslims believe on the virgin birth narrative. Mary ["Maryam"] is considered "one of the most righteous women in the Islamic tradition. She is mentioned more in the Quran than in the entire New Testament and is also the only woman mentioned by name in the Quran."
Jesus ["Isa"] is considered to be a Messenger of God and the Messiah ["al-Masih"] in Islam who was sent to guide the Children of Israel with a new scripture, the Gospel ["al-Injīl"]. They believe that Jesus performed miracles, including the power to raise the dead, all by the permission of God rather than of his own power.
Muslims believe that Jesus will return to Earth near the Day of Judgment to restore justice and to defeat the "false messiah" or the Antichrist ["al-Masih ad-Dajjal "]. As monotheists and unitarians, they do not believe that Jesus is God nor do they believe that he claimed to be. But so do many unitarian Christians including Iglesia ni Cristo. They also believe that Jesus did not actually die on the cross. Rather, he ascended into heaven, like Mary, as believed by Roman Catholics, and will come again at the end of times.
Why Robertson is trying to distinguish the many names used to describe this one living God ("Allah, "Jehovah", "Yahweh") is an indication of his ignorance or prejudice or both.
