Zone1 Ironicallg the one fact that impacted me in my belief in Jesus, his repeated mentioning in the Qu'ran

[shockedcanadian]

When a Muslim co-worker made me aware of this I was just stunned. Before that statement, as an ignorant Atheist I had always just assumed that religions were just conflicting fables not based on historical fact. When I learned about the relations between Abrahamic religions I knew I had to understand more. I couldn't be ignorant of the potential for there being a God any longer. I encourage anyone interested to look it up, this isn't just a sentence or two, there are MANY specific references to Jesus.

 

[Calypso Jones]

With all respect to the OP, Islam wasn't around till 650 years after Christ. Mohammad plagiarized Christianity.
Just because they build their religion around Christianity and mention the same names does not mean that islam is an Abrahamic religion and i don't care what any body says. Muslims do not believe Jesus is the Son of God. He is a prophet and he will bow to allah at the end of time. Muslim's god has no son, is capricious and offers no way to salvation except through murdering the opposition. If you tell muslims otherwise they will kill you. Christians are more tolerant.

 

[shockedcanadian]

With all respect to the OP, Islam wasn't around till 650 years after Christ. Mohammad plagiarized Christianity.
Just because they build their religion around Christianity and mention the same names does not mean that islam is an Abrahamic religion and i don't care what any body says. Muslims do not believe Jesus is the Son of God. He is a prophet and he will bow to allah at the end of time. Muslim's god has no son, is capricious and offers no way to salvation except through murdering the opposition. If you tell muslims otherwise they will kill you. Christians are more tolerant.

Obviously they view him drastically different, I was aware of this. The fact that they acknowledge his existence to me at all was an epiphany of sorts that "the argument for the existence of God may be much stronger than I had thought". In fact, I recall my viseral reaction to him telling me this, blood rushed to my face, I was floored by the premise that seemingly conflicting religions could have any details in common.

 

[Calypso Jones]

More plagiarism than epiphany. There's no epiphany when his divinity is denied and he is relegated to serving the god allah.

 

[occupied]

Every religion is an amalgam of existing faiths going back to prehistory. No doubt Jesus was included to attract Christians to Islam.

 

[Esdraelon]

I encourage anyone interested to look it up, this isn't just a sentence or two, there are MANY specific references to Jesus.

If you want to get a good appreciation for the similarities in the eschatology of Christianity vs Islam, the very BEST source is a book by the author Joel Richardson. It's called THE ISLAMIC ANTICHRIST. The title seems provocative but as a Christian he does not use the book to foment hate against Muslims. It is very well researched and has abundant references.

In short, he lays out the uncanny mirror image relationship between the end-time figures that are spoken of in the two religions. Islam has the "hidden Imam" they call the Mahdi (rightly guided one) where Christianity has Jesus. Islam also has a "Jesus" they call Issa. They do not believe He is the son of God. In fact, it is a mortal sin for them to think such a thing. In Bible eschatology, their Issa has all the attributes of the "False Prophet". The book is amazing.

 

[Calypso Jones]

Every religion is an amalgam of existing faiths going back to prehistory. No doubt Jesus was included to attract Christians to Islam.

no. they're not. what they are, are copycats of the original. and just plain man inspired.

 

[occupied]

no. they're not. what they are, are copycats of the original. and just plain man inspired.

The original religion was the primitive nature worship of neolithic times. Everything since has been built on top of whatever people believed when the new prophet/conman/occupier came along with a different idea.

 

[shockedcanadian]

The original religion was the primitive nature worship of neolithic times. Everything since has been built on top of whatever people believed when the new prophet/conman/occupier came along with a different idea.

I believe there.was 400 years between Jesus and the last Old.Testament prophet Malachi. This isn't a weekly occurence of new.prophets.

 

[occupied]

I believe there.was 400 years between Jesus and the last Old.Testament prophet Malachi. This isn't a weekly occurence of new.prophets.

It kind of was in those days, The crossroads of the world was full of Prophets, seers, witch doctors and other assorted God botherers. The Roman occupation brought the religious thought of the known world together in a melting pot. It was the birth of evangelism where Gods were bought and sold in the public marketplace