Christianity & The Religion of Abraham
Question: Is Christianity the continuation and fulfilment of the religion of Abraham?
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Overview
Muslims often claim that Islam, in contrast to Christianity, was the religion of Abraham. However, it is Christianity rather than Islam that continues and fulfils the religion of Abraham. The following are three examples.
Abraham & The God-Man: According to the Old Testament (Genesis 18:1-33), God appeared to Abraham as a man and ate and talked with Abraham. This is significant because Muslims commonly reject the idea that God can or will enter creation and appear in human form. Unlike Islam, however, Christianity and Judaism accept that Abraham met God in Genesis 18, and within Christianity (John 1:1-18) the Second Person of God (the Son) later became human and appeared as a man (Jesus).
Abraham & The Sacrificial Son: According to the Old Testament (Genesis 22:1-19), God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. This was a human sacrifice as well as the sacrifice of a father and son. Only within Christianity is the idea of God (the Father) sacrificing Jesus (the Son) continued as Jesus dies on the cross for human sin according to the will of God the Father (John 3:16-18, Romans 3:21-26, 5:6-11, 8:31-32 & 1 John 4:9-11). Islam, in contrast, denies the Fatherhood of God, the Sonship of Jesus and the death of Jesus as the atoning sacrifice for sin, which were all foreshadowed in the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22.
Abraham & Faith: According to the Old Testament (Genesis 15:1-21), Abraham received God’s salvation and was declared righteous by God through faith. This means that faith (trusting in the promises of God) and not works brought Abraham into a blessed and right relationship with God. Salvation in Christianity is likewise through faith (Jesus died as an atoning sacrifice for human sin) and not works (Romans 4:1-25 & Galatians 3:1-14). Unlike Abraham in Genesis 15, Islam teaches that salvation is received or merited through works, as Muslims use their good-deeds to offset their bad-deeds and thereby earn paradise.
In summary, God appearing to Abraham as a man in Genesis 18, God instructing Abraham to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis 22 and Abraham receiving God’s salvation through faith and not works in Genesis 15 are all ideas that are continued and fulfilled in Christianity. This shows that Christianity, in contrast to Islam, is the continuation and fulfilment of the religion of Abraham.
Further Considerations - Corrupted Scriptures
It is important to highlight that since the Old Testament does not support the idea that Abraham was a Muslim or that Islam aligns with the religion of Abraham, Muslims are forced to say that the previous scriptures have been corrupted. However, this exposes the circularity of Islam. The only proof that Muslims have (without the previous scriptures) that Islam was the religion of Abraham is Islam. In other words, Muslims say that Abraham was a Muslim and then use what Muhammad said about Abraham as proof. This presupposes that Muhammad and the Quran are providing accurate information about Abraham.
Christians, in contrast, do not claim that the previous scriptures have been corrupted, and Christians use the previous scriptures to validate the truth of Christianity (Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecy). In addition, the New Testament is a collection of twenty-seven books authored by different individuals, which means that Christians appealing to the New Testament (and the different books/authors within) is not circular. In Islam, however, all revelation is received through Muhammad who stands alone.
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Bible Passages
Genesis 15:1-21
(1) After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
(2) But Abram said, “Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” (3) And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
(4) Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” (5) He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars - if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
(6) Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
(7) He also said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”
(8) But Abram said, “Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
(9) So the LORD said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
(10) Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. (11) Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
(12) As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. (13) Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. (14) But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. (15) You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. (16) In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
(17) When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. (18) On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates - (19) the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, (20) Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, (21) Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”
Genesis 18:1-33
(1) The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. (2) Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
(3) He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. (4) Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. (5) Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way - now that you have come to your servant.”
“Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”
(6) So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.”
(7) Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. (8) He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.
(9) “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.
“There, in the tent,” he said.
(10) Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. (11) Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. (12) So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
(13) Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ (14) Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
(15) Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”
But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”
(16) When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. (17) Then the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? (18) Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. (19) For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”
(20) Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous (21) that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”
(22) The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. (23) Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? (24) What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? (25) Far be it from you to do such a thing - to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
(26) The LORD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
(27) Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, (28) what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”
“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”
(29) Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”
He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”
(30) Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”
He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
(31) Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”
He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”
(32) Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”
He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
(33) When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
Genesis 22:1-19
(1) Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
(2) Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love - Isaac - and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
(3) Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. (4) On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. (5) He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
(6) Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, (7) Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
(8) Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
(9) When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
(10) Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. (11) But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
(12) “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
(13) Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. (14) So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
(15) The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time (16) and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, (17) I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, (18) and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
(19) Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.
John 1:1-18
(1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) He was with God in the beginning. (3) Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (4) In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. (5) The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
(6) There was a man sent from God whose name was John. (7) He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. (8) He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
(9) The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. (10) He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. (11) He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. (12) Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - (13) children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
(14) The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
(15) (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) (16) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. (17) For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (18) No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
John 3:16-18
(16) For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (17) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (18) Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Romans 3:21-26
(21) But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. (22) This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, (23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (24) and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (25) God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood - to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - (26) he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
Romans 4:1-25
(1) What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? (2) If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about - but not before God. (3) What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
(4) Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. (5) However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. (6) David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: (7) “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. (8) Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”
(9) Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. (10) Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! (11) And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. (12) And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
(13) It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. (14) For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, (15) because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
(16) Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring - not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. (17) As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed - the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.
(18) Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” (19) Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about a hundred years old - and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. (20) Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, (21) being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. (22) This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” (23) The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, (24) but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness - for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. (25) He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Romans 5:6-11
(6) You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. (7) Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. (8) But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
(9) Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! (10) For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (11) Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 8:31-32
(31) What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (32) He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Galatians 3:1-24
(1) You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. (2) I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? (3) Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? (4) Have you experienced so much in vain - if it really was in vain? (5) So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? (6) So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
(7) Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. (8) Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” (9) So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
(10) For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” (11) Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” (12) The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” (13) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” (14) He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
1 John 4:9-11
(9) This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. (10) This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (11) Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.