War and peace

The OrthoDixie blog posted a comment from a certain Muhammad, in which he patiently lectures us on the errors of our belief in the Jesus of the Bible. Muhammad (not the prophet of Allah) wrote…

For the sake of peace and tolerance we should read books of other faiths. Quran is the only book with its original text intact. It is the only book that confirms and respects Jesus and Moses (and other biblical prophets as well). Knowledge never hurts. Intolerance does, and it comes from lack of knowledge. God bless all my Christian brothers and sisters. There is Old testament, there is New testament and there is Final testament, and just as Jesus said, I have come to revive the law. The book given to Jesus was Injeel, in Aramaic. Unfortunately, it is not available anywhere. Oldest bible is in ancient Greek, in museum. Present bible is according to Mark, Matthew, John and Luke, but not according to Jesus. Quran is that revival of law that Jesus refers to. Muhammad was last prophet sent to do the work that was left incomplete.

My response follows…

Muhammad, my friend, your comments are a concise summary of the classic Islamic defense of their claims. If the 1400 years of your religion's existence hasn't been able to prove its truth either doctrinally or historically against Christianity, perhaps it's time to give up.

We can live with you in peace, even while you tell us that your prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is better than our Jesus Christ, and that everything we believe about Him is a distortion, if you can renounce your religion's violence and aggression against other faith communities. Though Christians have waged religious wars at times, it was against the explicit words of our Bible, and based on human misapplication of those words. How will you, or can you, spiritualise the explicit injunctions to violence that are in your Qur'an, and reduce them to allegories of internal struggles of the soul with sin? Because if you cannot, then we cannot live with you in peace.

This is the difference between Christ and al-Islam: Christians break the commandments of the Bible when they try to dominate others in the name of God, because our God only wants people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. Muslims fulfill the commands in the Qur'an when they try to dominate others in the name of Allah, and they must entirely subjugate all humans, by force if necessary, and incorporate them into the Islamic state.

Jesus Christ died for men, to open to them a heavenly kingdom.

Muhammad (pbuh) killed men, to establish an earthly kingdom.

The thieves were stealers, but reason condemned Him, and the grave was empty where they had laid Him. Why was the grave empty? Jesus Himself says, “Do not be afraid, it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One, I was dead and now I am to live for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of Hades.”
Revelation 1:17-18 JB