COMPARISON OF THE BIBLE AND QURAN - THEOLOGICAL

COMPARISON OF THE BIBLE AND QURAN - THEOLOGICAL

Theological Bible

Biblical theology seeks to follow the flow of “redemptive narrative” as it unfolds.  It reflects the

diversity of the Bible.  Systematic theology deals with a single topic in each place.  It reflects

unity.

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The Christian concept of progressive revelation differs from the Islamic understanding in which

successive revelations of God might annul former revelations, completely replacing them with a

new truth.  The Christian model within biblical theology sees the concept of revelations as

progressive; each new truth supports, expands, and stands upon former revelations of God’s

truth like brick laying.  This progressive revelation ultimately climaxes in Christ, and ends with

the New Testament Acts of the Apostles under the direction of the Holy Spirit awaiting the

Second Coming of Jesus.

The summarized message of the Bible is about “God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule

and blessing.” [Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel and Kingdom, Paternoster, 1981]

Doctrine of Election?

Does the Elect refer to those who are worthy in the eyes of God?  Those who wholeheartedly

and genuinely come and deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Jesus)’ [Matthew 16:24]?

God sent Jesus to die for the entire world, to provide a way for salvation to be offered to all,

not just the Israelites.  Jesus died to make able to possibility of freeing the world from being

slaves to sin, and calling them to serve God, to be slaves and servants of God and Christ.

Predestination cannot be seen apart from God’s own nature.  When we see that God knows

“the end” of everything “from the beginning” then of course those who are saved can be seen

to be predestined.  It is God’s perspective.

Romans 9:16-18

1 Peter 1:20

Ephesians 1:3-14

Romans 8

It seems that Scripture reveals that God’s purpose is quite exclusive over His knowledge of the

choices of mankind.

Theological Qur’an

The Nature of the Qur’an in Early Islamic Theology

THE TABORIC LIGHT – FREE WILL (?)

The predestination of Islam doesn’t fit well into the western view of the human person, “keep

in mind that if you fall into hardship, how will you act and how will you remain steadfast, and

remember that you will return to God and remember that anything that happens to you could

never be avoided and what did not happen to you could never have happen to you [Reuters

translation].  This kind of statement simply makes no sense to a Christian, but it fits well into

the Islamic doctrine that man is not the real cause or creator of his own actions; instead, Allah

alone is, (Todd).

In the orthodox tradition of Islamic theology, it teaches that Allah creates the power to act in

the human agent while simultaneously creating the object (i.e. the action in itself) as well, and

this makes man nothing more than a puppet doing things (good or evil) that have been

predetermined by Allah.

Concerning freedom of choice on the part of man al-Ghazali [A.D. 1058-1111], says that

“…everything is due to the creation of Allah, for the choice itself is also due to the creation of

Allah and man in forced into the choice which he makes.” [al-Ghazali, Ihya]

In opposition to this idea, the Mu’tazilites claimed that man is an autonomous agent who is

able to create his own acts.  The Kadarites also held that man had the ability to act freely.  Both

of them were condemned for their teachings on free will by Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, [A.D. 780-855],

al-Ash’ari and Ghazali.

As the creed of al-Ash’ari clearly states, “we hold that there is no creator except Allah, and that

the acts of human beings are created and decreed by Allah, as He said, ‘Allah has created you

and what you do’ [37.96]; and we also hold that human beings are unable to create anything

but are themselves created; as He said:  ‘Is there any creator other than Allah” [35.3]; and

‘Those to whom they call apart from Allah created nothing and are themselves created’ [16.20];

and :  ‘Or were they created from nothing, or are they creators?’ [52.35].

If Allah is the cause of man’s actions, and also the cause of the acquisition of the acts, then it

follows that man is not responsible for either his good or evil actions.

The Creed of Hanbal points out that it is a form of idolatry for a man to say that any action,

good or evil, is not from Allah as to its source.  Thus adultery, theft, murder, all sins and all good

actions as well, are predetermined, caused, and created by Allah, thus man cannot avoid his

fate in these things.

So, the Kadarites (a.k.a., the Qadarites) and the Mu’tazilites, two early Islamic groups that held

that man had the ability to act freely, were both condemned for their teachings on free will by

the greatest theologians of the formative period of Islamic thought on these matters.  It is all

because of the Greek philosophical rationalism on free will.