I was reading the news a few days ago when I came across this article about this “priest” who claims to be both a Christian and a Muslim. I did a double take. The answer to me is fairly obvious….you cannot be both. Yes, Muslims believe Jesus was born of a virgin, did miracles, and lived a perfect life. BUT they do not/can not/will not put Him equal with Allah. A, very basic, point of Christianity is that there is One God who revealed Himself to humanity in three different ways. Therefore, Jesus is God while being all man.
I was reading Dr. Mohler’s blog when I saw he dealt with this issue. I think he lays it out straight:
Rev. Redding wants to claim to be both a faithful Christian and a faithful Muslim. The problem with this is immediately clear to anyone who understands the most basic teachings of Christianity and Islam.
Christianity stands or falls on doctrines such as the Trinity and the deity of Christ. The heart of the Christian understanding of Jesus Christ is that He is the only begotten Son of the Father, fully human and fully divine. Christianity also points to Jesus death on the cross as the means of our salvation and to Christ’s bodily resurrection from the dead as the Father’s vindication of the Son and the promise of the resurrection of believers yet to come.
Islam acknowledges Jesus as a historical figure and a great prophet, affirms the virgin birth, and points to a future role of Christ in judgment. Nevertheless, Islam explicitly denies that Jesus Christ is in any way begotten of the Father, that He died on the cross, and that He was raised from the dead.
These are merely the most obvious foundational contradictions between Christianity and Islam. Furthermore, these most obvious contradictions are affirmed by all major Christian denominations and both historic branches of Islam.
That doesn’t deter Rev. Redding one bit. “At the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That’s all I need,” she says. The important point here is that “the most basic level” to which she points is a figment of her own fertile and heretical imagination.