Page 3 - World Religions I - Islam

World Religions I

Understanding Islam: A Study from a Biblical Perspective

Written by David Bjorgen

Study Section 1: Introducing Islam

1.1 Connect

As we will learn, there are over 1.8 billion Muslims in our world today. They, for the most
part, have no ideas who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for them to save them from
their sin. They live under the scrutiny of Allah, their god, who may or may not accept them as
he is not a god of compassion or love. Islam is a religion of performance. If you perform to
Allah’s satisfaction, you MAY BE acceptable, yet that is not guaranteed. Allah does not love;
rather he observes and judges. No Muslim as any eternal security or do they experience love from their God.

The Christian faith is about as opposite as you can get. While we both believe in one God, the God of the
Christian is loving and merciful. He demonstrated His love by paying the penalty for our sins on the cross of
Calvary. We can come to Him in faith and KNOW that we are forgiven and have a place in Heaven someday.
In this course, we want to understand what the 1.8 billion Muslims are taught in their mosques and how we
can better learn to share the glorious Gospel with them, so they can know forgiveness. Let’s get started…

1.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to briefly state the major beliefs of Muslims.

2. The student should be able to explain the core practices of Muslims.

3. The student should be able to describe the major denominations of Islam.

1.3 Introducing Islam

Islam (literally "submission" [to God]) is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion
articulated by the Qur'an, a text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of
God (Allah), and by the teachings and normative example of Muhammad considered by

them to be the last prophet of God. An adherent of Islam is called a Muslim.

Growth Statistics 1
Islam is the world's 2nd largest religion after Christianity.
• There are over 1.8 billion Muslims in the world. By contrast, Christianity has 2.2 billion adherents,
roughly 31% of the world's population (but dropping).
o 24% of the world's population is Muslim.

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