Diverges 7th century AD

Islam

Islam arose in Arabia roughly 600 years after Christ. It honors Jesus as a prophet and claims the heritage of Abraham, yet it denies the things that stand at the center of the Christian gospel.

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Key person

Muhammad (c. AD 570 to 632), born in Mecca, taught that he was the last in a line of prophets and that the Qur'an corrects and completes the earlier Scriptures. His teaching united the Arabian tribes and spread rapidly after his migration to Medina in AD 622.

Timeline

Genesis 16:11-12

Ishmael, Abraham's son by Hagar, is promised to become a great nation.

Genesis 21:12-13

The covenant line runs through Isaac, though Ishmael is also blessed.

c. AD 610

Muhammad begins to recite what becomes the Qur'an.

AD 622 · the Hijra

His migration to Medina; the Muslim calendar begins.

AD 632

By his death, much of Arabia follows the new faith.

Where it splinters from faith in Christ

Islam affirms Jesus as a virgin-born prophet and worker of miracles, yet it denies that He is the Son of God, denies that He was crucified (Qur'an 4:157), and denies His resurrection. It denies the Trinity and holds the Qur'an above the Bible, teaching that the earlier Scriptures were corrupted. The divergence is the heart of the gospel itself: the deity, the cross, and the resurrection of Christ, together with the authority and sufficiency of the Bible. To affirm Jesus as a prophet while denying who He is and what He did is, in New Testament terms, still to miss Him.

What Islam holds

One God (Allah); Muhammad is His final prophet.
The Qur'an as God's final and uncorrupted revelation.
Jesus as a prophet and Messiah, but not divine and not crucified.
Salvation through submission, belief, and obedience to God's law.

Biblical touchpoints

Genesis 16-21 - The account of Hagar, Ishmael, and the line of promise through Isaac.
Galatians 3:7, 29 - The true children of Abraham are those who share his faith.
1 John 2:22-23 - Denying the Son means not having the Father.
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 - The crucifixion and resurrection as the core of the gospel.