Islam's Response To Concept Of Christian Salvation?
That is what we believe. I’m referring to what Christian believe, they think that Muslims and their salvation criteria is false. I.e no sacrifice, no forgiveness. Only faith can save you, not good deeds because God’s Kingdom is too great to be earned through one’s own efforts etc. So the question is not, what is our salvation criteria but rather how do you respond to criticism of our salvation criteria by Christians? They think that Jesus’ sacrifice is the only way, no other way.
Should I start listing all the references from the Bible or do you want me to explain the origin of the concept? Generally their thought process goes like this: 1. Original sin from Adam gives human ability to sin. (Later God wipes out people on earth through Noah flood because sin was out of control) (That’s in the book of Genesis ) 2. God gives Torah so people can atone for sins, giving example of burnt sacrifices as “imperfect” way to atone sins until Jesus comes. (That can be found in Torah, especially in Book of Exodus if I’m not wrong, with the whole sacrifice offering ). 3. Jesus fulfilled the Law as explained in this article: “In His fulfillment of the Law and Prophets, Jesus obtained our eternal salvation. No more were priests required to offer sacrifices and enter the holy place (Hebrews 10:8–14) . Jesus has done that for us, once and for all. By grace through faith, we are made right with God: “He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14) .” https://www.gotquestions.org/abolish-fulfill-law.html 4. Therefore man can’t fulfill Law, so through new covenant i.e faith in Jesus’ sacrifice, one can find salvation because actions don’t work. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. ( Ephesians 2:8-9) Conclusion is that Christian believe that Muslims are misguided if they think they will obtain salvation without this new covenant of Jesus dying for their sins. Because God’s justice is too perfect and everyone without Jesus will fall under burden of their sins. Here is another article explaining this: “This is analogous to our sin situation. We have all strayed from God’s laws (Romans 3:23) , and are therefore guilty before Him, deserving death (Romans 6:23a) . God has to punish evil because He is just (Psalm 9:7-8, Psalm 9:16, Psalm 11:16) . If He did not punish us, He wouldn’t be a just judge, just as the judge in the illustration above wouldn’t be just if he had let the fine go unpaid. So God must punish us. However, God is also loving (1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16) and therefore desires not to punish us for our crimes. Just like the judge in the above illustration, God stepped down from His throne, taking on human flesh (John 1:14, Philippians 2:5-8) , and was punished in our place. He accrued the penalty to Himself by being crucified.” https://crossexamined.org/cant-god-just-forgive-us/