This page is a work in progress. Updated September 2006.
Introduction.
Islam as faith in Mohammed.
Islam as a religion.
Islam as a Christian cult.
Islam as an ideology.
(This section coming soon.)
Islam means submission. For all practical purposes it means submission to Mohammed and his teachings.
Its adherents can sometimes be described and having zeal for God but without knowledge. But a more accurate description would be to say that they have a zeal for Mohammed without any personal relationship with God, and very little knowledge of His true character.
A belief in the oneness of God and that Mohammed is his prophet is the bedrock of Islam upon which everything is built.
Islam is all about the life, character and teachings of Mohammed. Period.
Islam has nothing to offer which adds any understanding of the truth of God already revealed in the Bible. (Having said that, it should be noted that there are ways to take the understanding an individual Muslim has about God and use that understanding to point the Muslim to the living Christ who is revealed to us in the Bible.)
Islam is spiritually bankrupt. It is a system designed for the benefit of Mohammed. He created an ideology with a religious veneer. And he is the one that every Muslim seeks to emulate if they are serious about Islam.
So, if you take away Mohammed, you have no Islam.
(This section coming soon.)
Islam can be considered the largest Christian cult in the world today. Why would I say this?
Islam is the only major world religion founded since the time of Jesus Christ. Islam started 600 years after Christ and thus was in a position to comment directly about Christ.
Islam, like most Christian cults, has specific teachings about the life and teachings of Christ. Mohammed had some exposure to Christian doctrine and he incorporated some of it into his message. In this message, he mixed together things he heard from a variety of sources.
It is precisely because Mohammed comments on the person and work of Jesus Christ and because Islamic doctrine has developed clear teachings about Christ, that Islam could be considered a Christian cult.
Read what Josh McDowell, Don Stewart, and Walter Martin have written about the definitions of cults:
