WND: Stunner! Radical Muslim in Congress defends Christian who promoted Jesus

World Net Daily posted the following:

Stunner! Radical Muslim in Congress defends Christian who promoted Jesus

August 16, 2023

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has been on the radical edge on many issues, … a real stunner, Omar has come to the defense of a woman who stated her Christian beliefs, and was attacked for those statements.

The situation developed when former Ohio GOP employee Lizzie Marbach went on social media with a basic tenet of Christianity: “There’s no hope for any of us outside of having faith in Jesus Christ alone.”

Ohio Rep. Max Miller, a Republican, took issue, claiming that statement, a foundational belief for Christians for millennia, was “bigoted.”

He said, “This is one of the most bigoted tweets I have ever seen. Delete it, Lizzie.”

He complained to her, “Religious freedom in the United States applies to every religion. You have gone too far.”

It was Omar, a Democrat, who stepped in.

She schooled Miller, “No! Stating the core beliefs or principles of your faith isn’t bigoted as Lizzie did, it’s religious freedom and no one should be scolded for that.”

She continued, Fox reported, “It’s also wrong to speak about religious freedom while simultaneously harassing people who freely express their beliefs.” And she explained, “That’s her actual belief, you can disagree, but it’s not bigoted for her to say what her beliefs are. That’s all.”

Miller eventually apologized. https://www.wnd.com/2023/08/stunner-radical-muslim-congress-defends-christian-promoted-jesus/

The position reported from Ilhan Omar is not a surprise. She realizes full well that much of Islam teaches that it is the only way, and she, like many Muslims does not embrace the entirety of the inter-faith agenda that the United Nations, many political leaders, and the Vatican support (more on that agenda can be found in the article: Will the Interfaith Movement Lead to Peace or Sudden Destruction?).

As far as Lizzie Marbach’s statement goes, it is somewhat correct, based on the following scriptures:

10 … Jesus Christ of Nazareth … 11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ 12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:10-12)

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)

9 … He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, (Hebrews 5:9)

Now, the reason I wrote “somewhat correct” is that it is likely that like many others who profess a belief in Christianity, Lizzie Marbach does not fully understand God’s plan of salvation and that God’s plan does include giving everyone who ever lived an opportunity for salvation–either in this age (see the following free online scripture-filled book: Is God Calling You?) or in the age to come (see the following online scripture-filled book: Universal OFFER of Salvation, Apokatastasis: Can God save the lost in an age to come? Hundreds of scriptures reveal God’s plan of salvation).

Now as far as Islam and Jesus go, notice the following, which is the 6th chapter of our free online book, which is also scripture-filled–though also with quotes from other sources, Proof Jesus is the Messiah:

Muslim Concerns

Do Muslims believe Jesus was the Messiah?

Yes, but not the same way Christians do.

They also believe in His virgin birth, but do not consider that He was the Son of God.

Consider:

The Quran refers to Jesus 35 times as “Isa ibn Maryam” (Jesus, son of Mary), a phrase occurring only once in the New Testament (Mark 6:3). The fact that he is not called the son of Joseph underscores Islamic agreement with Christians that Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus. (Morgan D. Essential Islam: A Comprehensive Guide to Belief and Practice. ABC-CLIO, 2010, p. 43)

Here is one example:

That is Jesus, son of Mary, in word of truth, concerning which they are doubting. It is not for God to take a son unto Him. Glory be to Him! (Sura 19:35, as shown in The Koran Interpreted: A Translation by A. J. Arberry. Touchstone, NY, 1955)

Related to the virgin birth, the following are also from The Koran Interpreted a translation by A. J. Arberry (Sura chapters are correct, but verses are estimates as they were not completely delineated in the text used):

And mention in the Book Mary when she withdrew from her people to an eastern place, and she took a veil apart from them; then We sent unto her Our Spirit that presented himself to her a man without fault. She said, “I take refuge in the All-merciful from thee!

If thou fearest God. . . He said, “I am but a messenger come from thy Lord, to give thee a boy most pure.

She said, “How shall I have a son whom no mortal has touched, neither have I been unchaste?” He said, “Even so thy Lord has said: “Easy is that for Me; and that We may appoint him a sign unto men and a mercy from Us; it is a thing decreed.’“

So she conceived him, and withdrew with him to a distant place. And the birthpangs surprised her by the trunk of the palm-tree. (Sura 19:18-21)

And she who guarded her virginity, so We breathed into her of Our spirit and appointed her and her son to be a sign unto all beings. (Sura 21:91)

The context (which I have read) makes it clear that this was a reference to Mary and Jesus. Islam accepts the virgin birth as well as the fact that Jesus performed miracles.

Now, as it turns out, Muslims also do believe that Jesus was the Messiah, but they reject His divinity, execution, and resurrection.

When the angels said, “Mary, God gives thee good tidings of a Word from Him whose name is Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary; high honoured shall he be in this world and the next, near stationed to God. He shall speak to men in the cradle, and of age, and righteous he shall be.” (Sura 3:41)

“We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God” — yet they did not slay him, neither crucified him, only a likeness of that was shown to them. Those who are at variance concerning him surely are in doubt regarding him; they have no knowledge of him, except the following of surmise; and they slew him not of a certainty — no indeed; God raised him up to Him; God is All-mighty, All-wise.

There is not one of the People of the Book but will assuredly believe in him before his death, and on the Resurrection Day he will be a witness against them. (Sura 4:157-159)

And We sent Noah, and Abraham, and We appointed the Prophecy and the Book to be among their seed; and some of them are guided, and many of them are ungodly.

Then We sent, following in their footsteps, Our Messengers; and We sent, following, Jesus son of Mary, and gave unto him the Gospel.

And We set in the hearts of those who followed him tenderness and mercy. (Sura 57:27-28)

So, Muslims tend to believe that Jesus will deny He was raised from the dead to be on the Earth. As originally written, the Koran itself uses the term al-Masih, the Arabic term for Messiah (Christ).

Similar to the Talmud to Judaism, but perhaps more authoritatively, Muslims have hadiths which are interpretative explanations of the Koran. Notice a couple of them:

“They will go to “Isa and say, “O “Isa! You are the Messenger of Allah and His Word which He cast to Maryam and a spirit from Him. You spoke to people while in the cradle. Intercede with your Lord on our behalf. Do you not see what we are suffering?” (Bukhari, Book of Tafsir, 4435)

So, Muslim believe that Jesus was God’s messenger and His Word—that is consistent with what the New Testament teaches (John 1:1-2).

Getting back to the Koran, it teaches:

They are unbelievers who say, “God is the Messiah, Mary’s son.” For the Messiah said, “Children of Israel, serve God, my Lord and your Lord. Verily whoso associates with God anything, God shall prohibit him entrance to Paradise, and his refuge shall be the Fire; and wrongdoers shall have no helpers.”

They are unbelievers who say, “God is the Third of Three. No god is there but One God. If they refrain not from what they say, there shall afflict those of them that disbelieve a painful chastisement.

Will they not turn to God and pray His forgiveness? God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.

The Messiah, son of Mary, was only a Messenger; Messengers before him passed away; his mother was a just woman; they both ate food. Behold, how We make clear the signs to them; then behold, how they perverted are! (Sura 5:76-79)

Muslims believe that Jesus was the “servant of God,” not the Son of God (Morgan, p. 46). Essentially, they believe (similar to secular skeptics) that parts of the New Testament were altered and hence reject parts related to Jesus’ divinity.

That being said, Sunni Muslims do believe that Jesus will return and usher in a glorious era:

The Sunni believe that after the al-Mahdi comes, Jesus will return to earth to fight the forces of evil led by al-Dajjal, the Great Charlatan or Antichrist. The forces of good will prevail, and Jesus will rule the world for an undisclosed period of time, after which he will die and be buried alongside Muhammad in Medina. (Morgan, p. 48)

The Bible tells of a leader from the predominantly Islamic lands, called the King of the South (Daniel 11:40) in North Africa and the Middle East rising up. After what looks to be the start (Daniel 11:39) of the “Great Tribulation” (Matthew 24:21), this King of the South will fight against the “King of the North” (Daniel 11:40-43) called the “Beast” in Revelation 13. The King of the North will win, but this Beast will be destroyed when Jesus returns (Revelation 19:16-20). Jesus will then establish the millennial kingdom and reign for 1000 years (Revelation 20:6).

Islam agrees with most of this (though the time period is not as defined), but believes that Islam will then reign supreme. Christians believe that Islam will essentially be gone by then.

Muslims believe that Jesus will return and kill the Antichrist which they call the ad-dajjal. But, they have differences. Notice the following:

Surely, Jesus the son of Mary will soon descend among you and will judge mankind justly; he will break the cross and kill the pigs and there will be no Jizya. (Sahih al-Bukhari 4.55.657)

The Jizya is a tax that non-Muslims can be forced to pay in Muslim territories. The above suggests that Jesus will kill all who will not be Muslim upon His return.

Why do Muslims generally NOT accept the deity of Jesus, etc.?

Muslims believe that Christians and Jews distorted the divine message given to Moses and Jesus and that today’s Hebrew scriptures and Christian Bible are flawed, unlike the Quran (Morgan, p. xvi)

However, hopefully those Muslims willing to look at the evidence will realize that the scriptures were not so corrupted (admittedly there were parts of two verses added to the New Testament, around 1000 A.D. that most scholars, and those in the Continuing Church of God, do not accept as genuine) that they cannot be relied on to accept Jesus’ divinity.

An Islamic Misunderstanding

While the group that called itself the Islamic State does not represent most of Islam, notice something it had in a magazine article titled Why We Hate You & Why We Fight You:

We hate you, first and foremost, because you are disbelievers; you reject the oneness of Allah – whether you realize it or not – by making partners for Him in worship, you blaspheme against Him, claiming that He has a son, you fabricate lies against His prophets and messengers, and you indulge in all manner of devilish practices. (Dabiq, issue 15, Shawal 1437, 31 July 2016, p. 31)

Getting past the hate comments, the reality is that the prophets DID teach that God would have a son. Notice what the prophet Isaiah was inspired to write:

⁶For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)

Notice what the Psalmist prophesied:

⁶“Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.” 7 “I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. (Psalm 2:6-7)

So, the Hebrew scriptures clearly prophesied that God would beget a Son.

Jesus was begotten to be the Christ:

¹⁰Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:10-11)

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

Muslims are supposed to believe the Old and New Testaments–though they claim that they were altered. Yet, there would be no reason that the Jews would have altered a prophecy in Isaiah to point to a Son being born who is called the “Mighty God” as that would support views of Christians. Nor would they have altered the Psalms for the same reason.

The Islamic State was wrong: it is NOT a lie to point to Jesus as the Son of God, and His arrival was prophesied.

Muslims are Not Familiar with Original Christianity

The Apostle Jude told Christians “to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).

Muslims condemn people they consider Christians as idolaters:

Say: “People of the Book, do you blame us for any other cause than that we believe in God, and what has been sent down to us, and what was sent down before, and that most of you are ungodly?”

Say: “Shall I tell you of a recompense with God, worse than that? Whomsoever God has cursed, and with whom He is wroth, and made some of them apes and swine, and worshippers of idols — they are worse situated, and have gone further astray from the right way. (Sura 5:64-65)

Early Christians did NOT have idols or icons. Even the Church of Rome was opposed to them for quite some time. Actually, the Eastern Orthodox call their Seventh Ecumenical Council of 843 A,D, the “Triumph of Orthodoxy” (Ware T. The Orthodox Church. Penguin Books, London, 1997, pp. 31-33) because they got the Church of Rome to agree with them on idols and icons. But, this is something that Church of God Christians did not accept then, and the CCOG does not accept now.

What most people, including Muslims, have seen claiming to be Christianity is a far cry from original, biblical Christianity.

Because of the use of crosses and the Crusades, Muslims, even in the 21^st century sometimes refer to Christians are crusaders.

Yet, original Christians did not use crosses.

Furthermore, original Christians were not militaristic and do not kill for the military. This is clearly documented in the first two centuries of the church era.

After the sun-god worshiping Emperor Constantine claimed to see an apparition with a cross as well as to have a dream, he ordered his soldiers to paint crosses on their shields for the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 A.D. After his side won, many who were militaristic claimed Christianity and many who claimed Christianity accepted militarization.

But that was NEVER PART OF THE ORIGINAL CHRISTIAN FAITH, nor was it endorsed by real Christians in the Church of God. To this day, the Continuing Church of God is not militaristic.

Also, what we tend to see today as Greco-Roman priests were also not part of the original faith. Even Roman Catholic sources admit that the garb, etc. their priests publicly wear did not come into “Catholic” use before the time of Constantine. Church of God leaders have never dressed like the Greco-Roman priests nor approved of their dress as Christian. Islam itself has condemnation for the greedy behavior of the Greco-Roman priests (Sura 9:32-34).

As far as the Greco-Roman trinity goes, it was formally accepted at the Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D. The Church of God was not part of that council nor did it endorse its conclusions, but instead held to the biblical position (Genesis 1:26; Ephesians 3:14-15; John 1:1,14).

According to Liber Pontificalis, it was a Bishop of Rome named Eleutherius that declared that his followers could eat biblically unclean meats c. 180 A.D. Those in the Church of God did not accept that declaration.

Also according to Roman Catholic sources, no Bishop of Rome took the title “Pontifex Maximus” until the latter part of the 4^th century A.D (Pope. Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911). This had been a title for pagan emperors, hence it was not recognized as proper by the Church of God.

While the Bible does endorse the observance of various religious (cf. Leviticus 23) and secular holidays (John 10:22-23), early Christians did not observe days such as Valentines, Halloween, Christmas, and Easter Sunday. Those were added by Greco-Romans later and never endorsed by Church of God Christians.

In summary, Muslims who have been turned off by what is called Christianity, before completely discarding it, should consider that from the beginning that real Christians:

Were not militaristic

Did not have idols or icons

Did not use crosses as a religious symbol or on military shields

Held the biblical position on the Godhead

Did not eat biblically-unclean meat

Never have accepted that a Christian leader is a Pontifex Maximus

Had not accepted holidays such as Valentines, Easter, or Christmas

Never accepted improper additions to the Bible (like 1 John 5:7b-8a)

Never truly had the type of priests that the Greco-Romans have

The Continuing Church of God still holds to those original beliefs (though we consider Jesus our High Priest, Hebrews 3:1, otherwise we do not have men dressed as “priests,” but we do have pastors and elders).

We also hold a few prophetic beliefs that are similar to those held by Islam.

Hopefully, those professing Islam will be more willing to look into real Christianity if they knew more about the history of the most faithful. They, and others, can also check out the free book, online at www.ccog.org: Continuing History of the Church of God.

Plus, hopefully they will do that in light of all the evidence in this book, as well as what they can learn from the word of God.