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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a

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moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith.

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Today, we are comparing Christianity and Islam. We've been doing this for the last few weeks.

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We've looked not only at what is Allah in comparison to the God of the Bible, Yahweh,

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but today we're going to be looking at how am I saved? These are questions that every religion

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must ask. I'm approaching our comparison between Islam and Christianity with three different

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questions, posing three different questions for you. It's going to take us practically all of the

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summer to do it, but the first question that we must ask of every major world religion is who do

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I worship? And we see, of course, with Islam, it is the God Allah. And we saw last week that Allah

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was originally, when Muhammad plucked him from the panoply of gods of the Kirash tribe of the Arabian

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Peninsula, he was one of 360 gods that were worshipped in the pagan tribes, elevated suddenly

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to the great creator, the great God of gods in competition with Yahweh, the God of Israel,

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the God of Christians as well, of course, the God of the Bible he is. Well, today we want to see,

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we want to pose this question to both Christianity and Islam. How am I saved? Every major world religion

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must answer this question. How am I saved if I need to be saved at all? Well, I would pose to you

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the question also, is not Christianity counterintuitive to the world's religions? Every other world religion,

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that we see on the face of the earth has to do with working one's own way to salvation, to earning one's

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way with God, such that he will be assured a place in heaven. How about the biblical Christianity? Well,

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we will take a look at this in the next few minutes, and we will see indeed that Christianity is

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counterintuitive to the world's idea of salvation, counterintuitive. There are many things that are

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counterintuitive in life. For example, I grew up in western Michigan, where we lived and worked and

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recreated on the Great Lakes. I was always told growing up that I had to know how to cope with

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dangerous undertow created by the waves on all the Great Lakes, but especially on Lake Michigan. Under certain

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circumstances, the undertow on Lake Michigan could be so strong that it could pull a swimmer down

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into the water and out into the lake faster than he could swim towards shore. When a swimmer gets caught

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in such a situation, several things usually happen. First, he panics. Then he swims even harder, which is

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the intuitive response to swim even harder if you're not going anywhere. But he is nevertheless carried

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down and further out into the lake, and then he exhausts himself. And then finally, what do you think

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happens? Oh, he drowns. We were trained as kids by parents and aunts and uncles, swimming instructors,

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that if we were to save ourselves in such a circumstance, that we must do a counterintuitive

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thing, even as we must do a counterintuitive thing if we are to be saved as Christians,

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we must do a counterintuitive thing, that is, let the current of the undertow carry us out into the lake,

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and we must swim with the undertow further and further out until it weakened the undertow,

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such that it no longer pulled us down. It demanded a counterintuitive response, that one not panic,

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that one stay calm, and that one do exactly what every fiber in one's body says is wrong,

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and that is swim with the undertow, swim with the current out so far into the lake that it no longer

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could pull you down and out. Then you are in a position to swim to another part of the beach where

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the undertow was not so strong like a dock or a sandbar or a jetty. Another counterintuitive way to

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save your life is in a bear attack. Oh, yes, we face this much more here in the area of Idaho,

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don't we? Bear attacks. And the counterintuitive way to save your life is to have bear spray and not

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a gun. At first, I scoffed at this idea when it was suggested to me. I thought that pepper spray

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combined with rolling up into a passive ball instead of fighting like your counsel to do

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merely meant that you were a virtual seasoned peppered meatball for the bear. Surely, I thought,

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a .44 Magnum or a .30-06 is not only more macho, but more deadly and effective against a bear.

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But not so, says a whole raft of new evidence. For example, the Journal of Wildlife Management

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published a study that concluded that in 269 close encounters with bears with guns, bear injuries

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occurred in 151 of these incidents with bears. But in contrast, in all encounters involving bear

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spray, and there have been 83 since 1985 when spray was introduced, 98% of the aggressive bears were

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repelled and there were only three injuries and none of them fatal. Bear spray is more easily deployed

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and it's more foolproof. In a panic situation, many of us respond as fools, don't we? Well,

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these are all counterintuitive ways to respond to save one's life. And when it comes to counterintuitive

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ways to save, none is more counterintuitive than that of Christianity versus Islam. The consequences,

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however, dear listener, were down to eternity, not just this mortal life as significant as this

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mortal life may be. Each religion has an accounting of whether we need to be saved in the first place

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and then the standard by which one attains unto salvation, and then the means by which this

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salvation is provided. Let's look at each one of these in turn, comparing Christianity with Islam.

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First of all, we ask, how am I saved under Christianity and under Islam? How am I saved?

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Well, first we must answer, what puts me in the situation where I need to be saved?

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Let me remind you, dear listener, of my approach. Who do I worship? How am I saved? And what are the

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fruits of that religion too? We must ask, what are the fruits of the respective religions that we

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compare? The question asking, how am I saved? Presupposes a very important premise. That is,

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I need to be saved. Biblical faith is the only faith which begins the salvation of man,

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putting him in the absolute worst status of any world religion. The apostle Paul says,

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for example, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which he once walked and were by nature

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children of wrath. Paul says, we were dead in our trespasses. And of course, Adam and Eve from Genesis

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that we know from the book of Genesis, that Adam and Eve are our first parents are the ones who put us

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in such a situation. Now, those of us in Christian circles articulate this reality as total depravity

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in which man, while not as bad as he could be, we will become as bad as we possibly can be in the age

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to come in the period when we are cast into hell. But right now, total depravity means that we are dead

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in all of our faculties. That's in the fall when Adam and Eve passed on to their progeny, their nature,

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their nature included the idea that we are dead in our mind, in our heart, in our will to the life of

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God. We are alive to other spiritual realities, perhaps, but towards the God of the Bible, towards

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the living God of the Bible who made us, we are dead in our mind, our heart, and our will so that we

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cannot even choose for God to be saved. Accounting for man as totally depraved, it does several things.

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I'd like to list three of those things. Number one, when we say as biblical Christians that we are

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totally depraved, we have this advantage. Number one, total depravity accounts for how evil man gets.

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The ugly depths to which we sink as humans suddenly becomes comprehensible.

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Under the doctrine of total depravity. Things like torture, or cannibalism, or slaughter like we

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see before us with ISIS in the Middle East, or the Holocaust during World War II, or child abuse

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that we hear about every day, or the wicked idolatry that occurs all over the world. All these things can

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be attributed to the baseness of our nature in total depravity. If man is basically good, however,

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as most other world religions say, if man is basically good, then how do you reason to these

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depths of ugliness and sin? Only total depravity accounts for it in the most comprehensive way.

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And secondly, the doctrine of total depravity means that there are no excuses or extenuating

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circumstances that need to be given to human nature. Yes, when we say that man is totally depraved

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in his mind and his emotions and his will, then we don't need to give excuses or have extenuating

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circumstances given to our human nature. But if you begin with man as basically good or partially

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good, as Arminianism says, or basically good as all other world religions say, then deep evil needs to

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be excused or redefined. Like a woman's choice in abortion, for example, or sexual identity with

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homosexuality, these kinds of things. Or the wicked human nature must be made some kind of exception to

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the rule. Yet when, over the centuries, deep evil seems to be the rule, then man's goodness as a

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beginning, optimistic assumption. It rings so hollow, doesn't it, as we look past in history,

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it becomes impossible to explain the origin of evil and its ubiquity to on the premise that man is

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basically good. So, total depravity does this. It offers no excuses or extenuating circumstances

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and need to be given to the idea of evil in human nature. Well, the third thing that total depravity

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also does is it says that only when we see how bad we are will we see how good God is. Total

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depravity consults and informs and reveals that only when we see how bad we are will we see how good God

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is. Human nature tends to flatter itself, doesn't it, to be better than it really is? Well-intentioned

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people bent on flattering an audience, they may tell them, as Joel Osteen does in his book,

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Your Best Life Now, Seven Steps to Living at Your Full Potential. Joel Osteen says, you may think

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there was a lot wrong with you, but there's also a lot right with you. That's a thin gruel platitude,

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isn't it? While these simple platitudes may work for a while, as long as we measure ourselves on a

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horizontal scale with other human beings and we grade ourselves on a curve with other human beings,

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well, they do not work when we look upwards to a perfect and holy God. Then we say with Isaiah,

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when he saw the holy God seated upon his throne, Isaiah beat his breast and said, woe is me, I am

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undone. I am a man of unclean lips in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Well, then we see when we

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compare ourselves vertically with an all holy and all perfect God that we need to be saved. Oh, this is

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the basic upshot of biblical Christianity. There is a need for us to be saved. And unless this opening

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premise of religion is squarely faced, all else will fail. If you set the depth charge of salvation,

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if we can liken salvation to a depth charge and damnation to a submarine lurking in the depths of

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our nature, if you set the depth charge of salvation too shallow, it will miss this target altogether,

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the submarine of sin, if I can put it that way. The depth charge rather, as we see in World War II when

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they were hunting submarines, the depth charge must go as deep as that submarine of sin travels if it is

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to be destroyed. And only biblical Christianity squarely faces the depth to which sin travels in the sea of

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our soul. And only biblical Christianity is prepared to destroy it. Well, what about Islam? What does Islam have to say of

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salvation and its need for the human soul? Islam teaches that man is basically good? Ah, aren't you shocked?

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Every other world religion on the face of the earth posits that man begins, at least, starts out as basically good.

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And the Imam Ishmael al-Tarruqi, who currently teaches and is one of the premier teachers of Islam today,

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especially among radical groups, he says this about human nature, and I quote him,

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Islam teaches that people are born innocent and remain so until each makes himself or herself guilty by a guilty deed.

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Islam does not believe in original sin, and its scripture, that is the Quran, interprets Adam's

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disobedience as his own personal misdeed, a misdeed for which he repented and which God forgave, unquote.

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Well, this is the universal understanding of man standing before God, I submit to you. Islam only has

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a particular take upon this, and it is taken from accounts like this from the Quran. Here from the

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Quran is the account of Adam and Eve. The Quran in Surah number two says,

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O Adam, dwell in the garden, and eat of the bountiful things therein, as ye will. But approach

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not this tree, or run ye into transgression. Then did Satan make them slip from the garden,

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and get them out of the state of felicity in which they had been. Get ye down, O mankind,

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from the garden. On earth will be your dwelling place. Then Adam learnt from his Lord and turned

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towards him, for Allah is oft returning most merciful, unquote. This is from the Quran, Surah number two.

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So, according to Islam, man has no intrinsic need for salvation. The former Muslim, Abdul Salib,

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now converted to Christianity, reflects on these things. And I quote him, Abdul Salib says,

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Islamic theology actually has no room for any doctrine of the fall of man. Adam sinned. God

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forgave him. That's the end of the story. Adam sinned had no consequence for people who came after him,

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unquote. Oh, this is quite the opposite, is it not, of biblical Christianity. In fact, another point of

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consensus in Islam, there are precious few of them. They're always at war with one another. But one of

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the other points of consensus in Islam is that the fall was a good thing. Oh, they say this. Mullah

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Shabir Akhtar says this about the goodness of the fall. And I quote him, indeed, Muslims view Adam's

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expulsion from Eden as the occasion for the rise of man. Adam's original disobedience to God's will

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is seen as being merely the joint result of ignorance and a weak will. Men need only mentors

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and the grace of God. Unquote. From one of the premier mullahs practicing, of course, in the Muslim world

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today. Well, Islam, I submit to you, sets the depth charge of salvation at a very shallow level and

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misses the target altogether. Consequently, that submarine of sin runs rampant throughout the

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religion of Islam, torpedoing every effort of man to escape his predicament. And the God of the Bible

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does not turn away. Indeed, he will judge one day. Well, what is the standard by which all of this is

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measured, dear listener? This brings me to point number two. And we are asking today of both Islam and

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Christianity, how am I saved? And we must know what the standard is by which I may attain unto salvation.

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And of course, the Bible gives us a very clear picture of what God expects and the standard by

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which he measures with whether we have achieved that point of salvation or not. One example is from

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Deuteronomy chapter 10, where God says, and now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you

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but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with

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all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord,

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which I am commanding you today for your good, unquote. All too often, we begin measuring ourselves

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by the wrong standard, do we not, as human beings? We look around and we look at our own performance

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in relation to someone else. Dear listener, we can always find someone who's a little bit worse

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than us down the scale. Even Charles Manson, you may remember in his jail time, his trial time,

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carved indeed a swastika on his forehead because he was pointing to Hitler as more of a mass murderer

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than him. So even Charles Manson can find somebody worse than him. So when we are finished grading

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ourselves on the curve, which we're fond of doing, we usually find ourselves with an A, perhaps.

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Or if maybe we're a nominal Presbyterian or maybe a Lutheran from Lake Wobegon, perhaps we're more

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modest than we give ourselves. A B, maybe, huh? But this is not how God grades us. He does so by his

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own measure, and that measure is the measure of perfection. Oh, Moses says of this God, he says,

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the rock. His work is perfect for all his ways are just as a God of faithfulness and without iniquity,

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just and upright as he, unquote. Our dilemma as human beings is that because this God is just and

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holy and perfect, he requires that from us in our performance of the law as well. Jesus himself said,

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you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Now the man on the street is

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perfectly ignorant of this fact, I would submit to you. He's not perfect, but he is perfectly

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ignorant of this fact. And when he does become aware of it, cognitive dissonance and despair then

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ensues. He says, woe is me, I am undone. Or as Paul says, I am the chief of sinners. Or as the

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Philippian jailer said, what must I do to be saved? Oh, this is right where God wants us, I submit to you,

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in Christianity. When he realizes indeed that God's standard is perfect, he measures us by

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perfection because he is a perfect God. Would you want any other kind of God, dear listener?

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And would you want any other heaven except a perfect one in which a perfect God and perfect beings

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dwell? Well, what about Islam? Well, Abdul Salib, that former Muslim who is now a Christian,

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he reflects and he says this, in the Quran, God is portrayed in highly majestic and sovereign terms.

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However, in the entire Quran, holy is attributed to God only twice. Yet in one verse in Isaiah,

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holy, holy, holy, there are more references to the holiness of God than in the entire Islamic

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scripture. This has shaped the limited understanding of the holiness of God, unquote. From Salib, of course,

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who knows now just how far short the God of Islam falls in his holiness and his perfection.

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And it has profound consequences for the performance of his creature, man. While Allah may be perfect,

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he is not holy. That is, he is not perfect in moral character. That is part of what holiness means.

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Perfection in one's moral and ethical character. Salib says this about Muslims, and I quote him,

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Muslims do not believe that God has revealed his character or his righteousness. They say that God has

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revealed his will and his commands. However, that will and those commands do not reflect God's righteous

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and holy character because we cannot know God. His law is not based on his own character. Because of that

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understanding of God and the diminished view of how holy he is, it is obviously very hard for Muslims

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to understand how sinful we are and the radical nature of human sinfulness, unquote. This is a great insight

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because of the lack of understanding of God and how holy he is. It is hard for Muslims to understand

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how sinful we are, how radical nature of our sinfulness actually is. And so the bar we must leap

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in Islam is much lower than that of the Bible. In fact, it is a different bar altogether, I submit to

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you, where sin is not being zealous enough for Allah. That's the understanding of sin in Islam is that

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you're not as zealous enough for Allah. Or perhaps as the Quran tells us, you fail to pay back every

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slight to Muhammad's name or to Allah's name or for failing to do, for example, the five pillars of

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Islam. Well, the sense of a moral and ethical standard based upon the moral nature of God is absent

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from a consideration of Allah. It is nonsense to the Muslim. This is why sin can be so easily forgiven.

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And I submit to you that sin is less forgiven in Islam than it is dismissed. That's a better

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understanding of sin, the forgiveness of sin in Islam. No price need be paid for moral demerit in

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Islam. Allah can merely dismiss it, brush it off the table, if you will. Allah is called merciful, that

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is, and mercy, of course, is not getting what you deserve. And he is called merciful far more than he is

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called gracious. Now grace demands a price. That is having another pay the price that you owe. That is

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the sense of grace. But even then, when Muslims call Allah merciful, that sense of grace is that of

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sweetness and grandfatherly mercy rather than true grace. Oh, this skewed sense of standard, dear

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listener, has profound consequences when it comes to asking, what must I do to be saved?

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So, we must also ask of every major world religion, we'll ask this of Islam, we'll also ask this then

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of Christianity, what are the means that God has provided? Of course, since man cannot save himself,

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the Bible makes very clear that another must do the saving, and that is God himself. For example,

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Ephesians chapter 2, dear listener, God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved

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us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ. Here's your means

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of salvation, dear listener, it is Christ. Paul goes on to say, by grace you have been saved. Yes, not by

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works, your own works. No, not by your own labors, not by your own keeping the law, but rather by grace

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have you been saved, your listener. Paul goes on to say, and he raised us up with Christ and seated us with

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Christ in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the

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immeasurable riches of his grace. Once again, grace, dear listener, the immeasurable riches of

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his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Paul goes on to say very crucially here, for by grace

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you have been saved through faith. And this, that is, faith is not your own doing. Even faith is a gift

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of God, Paul says, not a result of works. Are you listening? Every other major world religion

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says that you are saved by your own works, or at least partially by your own works. Biblical

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Christianity says that your salvation is not your own doing. It is not a result of works, so that no

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one may boast. Oh, dear listener, you are not saved by works, but by grace. This is biblical

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Christianity. Salvation is holy of God and none of man at all. Excluded are our own good works towards

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being constituted as just and righteous and perfect. No, our works can be no such thing in true biblical

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Christianity. What about Islam? Remember that low bar of holiness, if you will. Well, Abdul Salib says,

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and I quote him, since Islam does not view sin as a radical problem, it is very natural that salvation

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for Islam also is not as radical a solution as the Christian faith claims. Basically, Islam claims that

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salvation is earned by good works, unquote. Oh, dear listener, for the Muslim, then he goes clipping along

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through life, acquiring good works and bad deeds like marbles in a bag. And at the end of his life, on the day of

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judgment, those marbles are dispersed into the scales. And if there are more white marbles than black

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marbles, then on to heaven he goes. But if there are more black marbles than white marbles, then zip down

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to hell he goes. In fact, the Quran says in Surah number 23, and I quote the Quran now, then those whose

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balance of good deeds is heavy, they will attain salvation. But those whose balance is light will be

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those who have lost their souls. In hell they will abide, unquote. One of the persistent themes in

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Islam, then, is that good works are the thing that saves, when it is indeed just the opposite, as the

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Bible tells us. Christ is our means of salvation. Grace in Christ is our means of salvation, not our own

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good works, and not the mere dismissive mercy so-called of God. This has been Pastor David Bass at New

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Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a Moment of Truth, where we've been comparing, how am I saved

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under both Islam and Christianity? And you've seen today that, indeed, like every other world religion,

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dear listener, Islam tells us you're saved by your own good works. This is a damning thing, in the end,

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dear friend, because none of ours can save. Only by grace are we saved, as in biblical Christianity,

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the only world religion that asserts such. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox

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Presbyterian Church. We meet for holy worship on Sundays at 10 a.m. at 1014th Street on the corner of

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4th and Boulevard. And you can call us at 523-0196. Once again, we meet at New Geneva for holy worship

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at 10 a.m. at 1014th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Idaho Falls listens to KID Newsradio 5.