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FROM THE PASTOR'S STUDY

Topic: The Foundations of Truth

Cavalierly Dismissing Islam

by Darrel Cline
(darrelcline biblical-thinking.org)

In another article, (167) in our consideration of the quest for Truth, we disposed of the major world religion of Islam in one brief paragraph. We said that Islam cannot be a true religion because its founder said of Jesus Christ that He was a true prophet of the true God. And, since Jesus Christ rejected people who consigned Him to the mere identity of a prophet, we argued that only a false prophet can call Jesus Christ a prophet of the true God and then turn around a start a new religion that fundamentally opposes everything that Jesus said and did.

For many people this will seem cavalier. After all, can we really dismiss the religion of millions of people so easily? Can we consign so many people to the condemnation of eternal death, and really be correct? Can that many people really be wrong?

It is at this point that we must return to the twin tools of understanding Truth: reason and experience. Reason's roots are logic. Contradictions of true logic cannot be of the Truth. Truth is logical in the academic sense of the word logical. Here we must admit that many people do not know what true logic is. Most people think that if a thought contradicts what they believe, it is not logical. But this way of thinking is actually non-thinking; it is thoughtless and illogical. It assumes that what people believe is true and that they possess this truth intuitively. But faith does not generate Truth, and understanding of what is true requires that we subject our beliefs to a better standard than our thoughtless irrationality. Logic is a mental discipline in which actual contradiction is not tolerated.

This is why we can dismiss a way of thinking that has infected millions of people and not look back. If there is an inherent contradiction in the roots of the things believed, the system of thought possessing that contradiction has to be false. Jesus Christ was not a prophet of Allah Who can be so easily dismissed as Mohammed dismissed Him. Jesus Christ claimed to be the Second Person of a Triune God--a claim that Islam adamantly opposes. Thus, either Jesus Christ was a false prophet, or Mohammed was. Since the illogic is in Mohammed's writings, he has to be the false prophet. This does not prove Jesus was Who He said He was, but it does prove that Mohammed was not who he said he was--a true prophet of the true God.

Thus, though it may seem at first blush to be rather cavalier to dismiss the millions who worship at the altar of Allah, it is actually a logical necessity. People who are unwilling to follow true logic to the ends to which it takes them cannot be discoverers of the Truth. Truth demands of its disciples that they be willing to be rational and logical in their thinking.

Truth demands that we decide issues on the basis of the facts, with the diligent application of ruthless logic. We cannot know the Truth if we are unwilling to put ourselves at the disposal of the logic that leads to Truth.

Therefore, we no longer have to wonder if Islam really is a revelation of Truth. Logic denies that identity to it, and if we are willing to rest in Truth, we do not have to go any further with Islam. It cannot be true.


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This is article #168.
If you wish, you may contact Darrel as darrelcline at this site.