Islam vs. Christianity - So What's the Difference?

On our recent mission trip to Dubai, one person told us the government has a goal of building a mosque within walking distance of everyone’s place of residence. Whether that’s true or not I have no way to verify; however, there are lots and lots and lots of mosques there already. It certainly seems possible.

We took a guided tour of one famous mosque, the Jumeriah Mosque. The man who led the tour seemed like an incredible guy – the kind of guy I could be friends with. He volunteers his days off work to share his faith by giving tours of the mosque and explaining the basic tenants of Islam. To say he was charismatic, amazingly entertaining, and compelling would be the understatement of the year. He put Islam’s best foot forward for sure. To some degree or another, he walked through the five pillars of Islam and the meaning of each, the calls to prayer and reasons for each, and even touched on where the Muslim faith came from and why Islamic extremists are a perversion of the faith and not the purest version of it. It was the perfectly wrapped package ready to be delivered to each of the seventy to eighty people who attended the tour...well, an almost perfectly wrapped package.

Here’s the deal. When it came down to explaining the core of his faith, this deeply religious, deeply devoted, deeply dedicated man described peoples’ hope for eternity in this way:

There’s a good angel on everyone’s right shoulder and there’s a bad angel on everyone’s left shoulder. They are there your entire life. Every time you do something good, the good angel writes it down. Every time you do something bad, the good angel writes it down. When you die and appear before Allah, ‘the one true God’, if your good angel has more written down than your bad angel, he will let you into heaven.
No, I’m not making this up. That’s almost word for word what he said. And the reason he went into a discussion that specific was to explain why people would interrupt their lives five times each day to go to a mosque to pray: in other words, they go to the mosque to pray because that guarantees at least five good marks by the good angel that day! They go because it’s crucial to earn the good marks to counter balance the bad marks of the day. Now, is that representative of every Muslim deepest motivation? Of course not (I wouldn’t think); however, it was his clear explanation for the faith he holds. Good deed – good angel writes it down. Bad deed – bad angel writes it down. It’s as simple as that. God looks at the 51% side and that’s it.

Step back for a moment and imagine what it would be like to actually live with that worldview. Every time you talk about someone behind their back – oops, that’s written down…forever. Every time you fudge a bit of personal email into work hours – oops, that’s written down…forever. Every time you snap at your toddler merely because he annoys you and is cutting into your football game – oops, that’s written down…forever. Every time you long for someone else’s house, or clothes, or hair – oops, that’s written down…forever. Every time you nurture sexual thoughts – oops, that’s written down…forever. And the only way to deal with that sin is to out do it by getting the good angel’s pen smokin’ faster? I don’t know about you but if I did only good from now on until I die, there’s still no chance I could tip the scales to the positive. My good simply isn’t good enough. The horrible wretchedness of living under a worldview that says I must earn my way into eternity with God, I can’t hardly bear the thought.

The truth is, this dear man is carrying his sin around his neck because the Lord Jesus has not released it from him through his death on the cross. On top of that, he’s carrying the burden of trying to earn right standing with God through self effort. Between the two, I’m not sure how he’s able to walk. What a wretched way to live. How freeing the Gospel would be for him. What joy he could know if he would meet the Savior…

Christianitiy and Islam. What’s the difference? Both claim to have their roots in the Old Testament. Both claim to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Both claim Jesus as a strategically important and historical figure. So, what’s the difference? One word – GRACE. My friends, may you live, and move, and breathe, and rest, and rejoice, and repent, and truly quit trying to earn, and consider giving your life to tell people like the guy giving tours every week at the mosque in Dubai that grace is for real. Grace has set us free.