“And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.”
Rev. 9:1-3
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Order of Contents
Articles
Books
Quote
History
. Interaction with Post-Reformation
Worship the Same God?
Swearing on the Koran & Bible
Latin 10+
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Articles
1500’s
Marbeck, John – ‘Mahomet’ in A Book of Notes & Common Places, with their Expositions, Collected & Gathered out of the Works of Diverse Singular Writers, & Brought Alphabetically into Order… (London, 1581)
Smith, Henry – Ch. 4, ‘Wherein is Briefly Showed the Religion of Mahomet to be a False & Wicked Religion’ in God’s Arrow Against Atheists (London, 1593)
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1600’s
Leigh, Edward – bk. 1, ch. 3, ‘The Second Great False Religion is Mahometism’ in Fœlix Consortium [a Fruitful Fellowship], or, A Fit Conjuncture of Religion & Learning in One Entire Volume, consisting of six books… (London, 1615)
Osborne, Francis –
Osborne (1593-1659)
Comenius, Johann Amos – Ch. 148, ‘Mahometism’ in The Visible World, or, A Picture & Nomenclature of All the Chief Things that are in the World, and of Men’s Employments Therein (London, 1659), pp. 302-303
Comenius (1592-1670) was a Czech philosopher, pedagogue and theologian from Moravia who is considered the father of modern education. He served as the last bishop of the Unity of the Brethren before becoming a religious refugee and one of the earliest champions of universal education, a concept eventually set forth in his book Didactica Magna. As an educator and theologian, he led schools and advised governments across Protestant Europe through the middle of the seventeenth century.
The Unity of the Brethren church had its roots in the teaching of Czech reformer Jan Hus. Comenius was greatly influenced by Boehme and was interested in prophecy. PRDL lists him as reformed.
More, Henry – An Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness, or, A True & Faithful Representation of the Everlasting Gospel of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ… (London, 1660), Book 5
ch. 9, ‘On Mahomet’
ch. 10, ‘That Mahomet was no true Prophet, discovered…’
ch. 12, sections 5-8
More (1614–1687) was an Arminian, Latitudinarian, English philosopher of the Cambridge Platonist school.
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1900’s
Boettner, Loraine –
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Books
1600’s
Bedwell (1561–1632) was an Anglican minister and scholar, specializing in Arabic and other oriental languages, as well as in mathematics.
“…contains those objections to the Qur’an which had turned into commonplaces in the late Middle Ages.” – Alastair Hamilton, William Bedwell the Arabist (Brill, 1985), p. 68
For more background on the work, see Dr. Derek Dunne,‘Mohammedis Imposturae…’.
Rycaut, Paul – The Present State of the Ottoman Empire, Containing the Maxims of the Turkish Polity, the Most Material Points of the Mahometan Religion, their sects & heresies, their convents & religious votaries, their military discipline… (London, 1668)
Rycaut (1628–1700) was a British diplomat, author and traveler. Rycaut served as secretary to the British Embassy at Constantinople. Afterward, he served as consul to the Levant Company in Smyrna, Turkey.
Prideaux, Humphrey – The True Nature of Imposture Fully Displayed in the Life of Mahomet, with a discourse Annexed for the Vindicating of Christianity from this Charge, Offered to the Consideration of the Deists of the Present Age (London, 1697)
Prideaux (1648–1724) was a low-Church Anglican clergyman, professor and orientalist.
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1700’s
Reland, Adriaan – Four Treatises Concerning the Doctrine, Discipline & Worship of the Mahometans: viz. I. An Abridgment of the Mahometan Religion… II. A Defense of the Mahometans from Several Charges Falsely Laid Against Them by Christians… (J. Darby for B. Lintott and E. Sanger, 1712)
Reland (1676-1718) was a noted Dutch Orientalist scholar, cartographer and philologist in the reformed tradition.
“Reland, through compiling Arabic texts, completed De religione Mohammedica libri duo in 1705. This work, extended in 1717, was considered the first objective survey of Islamic beliefs and practices. It quickly became a reference work throughout Europe…” – Wikipedia
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Quote
1200’s
Thomas Aquinas
Summa Contra Gentiles, bk. 1, ch. 6
“On the other hand [in contrast to Christianity], those who introduced the errors of the sects proceeded in contrary fashion, as is clear from Mohammed, who enticed peoples with the promise of carnal pleasures, to the desire of which the concupiscence of the flesh instigates. He also delivered commandments in keeping with his promises, by giving the reins to carnal pleasure, in which it is easy for carnal men to obey.
Also, the lessons of truth which he inculcated were only such as can be easily known to any man of average wisdom by his natural powers—in fact, he mingled the truths which he taught with many fables and most false doctrines.
Nor did he add any signs of supernatural agency, which alone are a fitting witness to divine inspiration, since a visible work that can only be from God proves the teacher of truth to be invisibly inspired, but he asserted that he was sent in the power of arms, which sign is not lacking even to robbers and tyrants. Again, those who believed in him from the outset were not wise men practiced in things divine and human, but bestial men who dwelt in the deserts, utterly ignorant of all divine teaching, and it was by a multitude of such men and the force of arms that he compelled others to submit to his law.
Lastly, no divine oracles of prophets in a previous age bore witness to him; rather, he corrupted almost all the teaching of the Old and New Testaments by a narrative replete with fables, as one may see by a perusal of his law. Hence, by a cunning device, he did not commit the reading of the Old and New Testament books to his followers, lest he should thereby be convicted of falsehood. Thus it is evident that those who believe his words believe lightly.”
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The History of Islam
On the Medieval Age
Rhodes, D. Bryan – John Damascene in Context: An Examination of ‘The Heresy of the Ishmaelites’ with Special Consideration Given to the Religious, Political, and Social Contexts During the Seventh & Eight Century Arab Conquests Master of Arts thesis (Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, 2009)
Christians under Islam on our page, Medieval Church History
In Interaction with the Post-Reformation
Colombo, Emanuele – ‘Western Theologies and Islam in the Early Modern World’ in The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Theology (Oxford, 2016), p. 482-98
Colombo is a professor of Catholic studies at DePaul University.
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Do Christians & Muslims Worship the same God?
Order of
Article 1
Quotes 5
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Article
2000’s
Feser, Edward – ‘Christians, Muslims & the Reference of ‘God” (2015) 40 paragraphs
Feser, a Roman Catholic professor of philosophy and analytical Thomist, argues that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, “with one qualification”.
“First, we need to keep in mind the Fregean point that a difference in sense does not entail a difference in reference. To use Frege’s famous example, the sense of the expression “the morning star” is different from the sense of the expression “the evening star.” But these two expressions refer to one and the same thing, viz. the planet Venus. Similarly, expressions like “the God of the Christians” and “the God of the Muslims” differ in sense, but it doesn’t follow from that alone that they don’t refer to the same God…
Second, even a speaker’s erroneous beliefs don’t entail that he is not referring to the same thing that speakers with correct beliefs are referring to… Similarly, the fact that Muslims have what Christians regard as a number of erroneous beliefs about God does not by itself entail that Muslims and Christians are not referring to the same thing when they use the expression “God.”
Having said that, it is also true that not anything goes. As I noted some time back… it is possible for someone’s body of beliefs about some thing to be so thoroughly disconnected from reality that he cannot plausibly be said successfully to refer to that thing…
Similarly, it is perfectly coherent to say that Muslims are “importantly” and “crucially” wrong precisely because they are referring to the very same thing Christians are when they use the word “God,” and that they go on to make erroneous claims about this referent. That the errors are “important” or “crucial” is not by itself sufficient to prevent successful reference. And since Muslims worship the referent in question, it follows that it also is not by itself sufficient to prevent them from worshipping the same God as Christians.
Even errors concerning God’s Trinitarian nature are not per se sufficient to prevent successful reference. Abraham and Moses were not Trinitarians, but no Christian can deny that they referred to, and worshiped, the same God Christians do. It might be objected that though they were not Trinitarians, this is only because they did not even know about the doctrine of the Trinity, whereas Muslims do know about it and positively reject it. But this is irrelevant. From the beginning of the history of the Church, Christians did not accuse others of worshipping a false God merely because they rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. For example, those Jews who rejected the claim that Jesus was the incarnation of the second Person of the Trinity were not accused by the early Church of worshipping a false God. Nor were heretics generally accused of this…
Hence from a Christian point of view Muslims clearly must be regarded as like Jews and Arians rather than like Mormons. They are in error about the Trinity, but not in error about divinity as such [as Mormons are].
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Of course, we also know that God’s nature is Trinitarian, because this fact has been specially revealed to us. But that does not entail that we have immediate knowledge of that Trinitarian nature… we might say that we know God’s Trinitarian nature only by description, not by acquaintance. Hence, even given divine revelation, the Christian no less than the non-Christian has to refer to God by way of his effects rather by way of direct knowledge of his essence. And where the most general of those effects are concerned (e.g. God’s creation and conservation of the world in being, as opposed to his causing of miracles), non-Christians can in principle know those as well as Christians can. Hence non-Christians can refer to God just as well as Christians can…
Now, if even an idolatrous pagan can successfully refer to the true God when he uses the name “God” — that is to say, he really is talking about God even if he has gravely erroneous beliefs about God — then obviously Muslims, who are as well aware as any Christian is that God cannot be identified with an idol, can successfully refer to the true God, despite their gravely erroneous rejection of Trinitarianism. And since they worship that to which they refer, it follows that they worship the true God…
The qualification is this. What I have said in this post applies to Christianity and Islam in the abstract and to Christians and Muslims in general. But it is nevertheless still possible that there are particular individual Christians and particular individual Muslims whose personal conceptions of God differ in such a way that they do not plausibly worship the same God.”
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Quotes
Order of
Perkins
Arrowsmith
Baxter
Pictet
Reland
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1600’s
William Perkins
Commentary on Hebrews 11:6
“The third sort are such as acknowledge and worship the true God but in a false manner. And of these there are three principal sorts: first, Turks; secondly, Jews, who hold the true God but deny the Trinity of Persons and the deity of Christ.”
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John Arrowsmith
Armilla catechetica: a Chain of Principles, pp. 68-69
“The modern Jew acknowledges the true God of his fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but owns not Jesus the son of Mary for the true Christ…
The deluded Mahometan confesses one God, the Creator of heaven and earth; yea conceives so well of the Lord Jesus, as not to suffer any Jew to take up the profession of a Musulman, till he have first renounced his enmity against Christ.”
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Richard Baxter
The Reasons of the Christian Religion, pp. 202-3
“In the religion of the Mahumetans I find much good, viz. a confession of one only God, and most of the natural parts of religion; a vehement opposition to all idolatry; a testimony to the veracity of Moses, and of Christ; that Christ is the Word of God, and a great prophet, and the writings of the apostles true: All this therefore where Christianity is approved, must be embraced.
And there is no doubt but God has made use of Mahumet as a great scourge to the idolaters of the world; as well as to the Christians who had abused their sacred privileges and blessings: Wherever his religion does prevail, he casts down images, and fills men’s minds with a hatred of idols, and all conceit of multitude of Gods, and brings men to worship one God alone, and does that by the sword in this, which the preaching of the Gospel had not done in many obstinate nations of idolaters.”
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1700’s
Benedict Pictet
True & False Religion Examined, pp. 41-42
“When we look into the doctrine of Mahomet, we find therein many truths, which he had taken from Jews and Christians, which greatly advance his religion above that of the pagans. He admitted only of one God, and asserted that his essence was simple and infinite… Thus far his doctrine is good: these are truths which that impostor drew from the books of the Old and New Testament.”
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Adriaan Reland
Four Treatises Concerning the Doctrine, Discipline & Worship of the Mahometans (London: Darby, 1712), Of the Mahometan Religion, Two Books (London: 1712), Author’s Preface, p. 10 Reland (1676–1718) was a Dutch reformed Orientalist scholar and professor.
“The Mahometans are not idolaters, but worship God.”
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On Swearing on the Koran & the Bible
Willet, Andrew – Hexapla in Genesis & Exodus (d. 1621; 1633, London), ‘Of the Ten Commandments in Particular’, ch. 23, 3. Questions Discussed
Question 27, ‘Whether a Saracene may be Urged to Swear upon the Gospels or in the Name of Christ?’
Question 29, ‘That it is Not Lawful for a Christian to Swear upon the Turks’ Al-Koran, or Mahomet’s Thigh, Nor for a Turk Himself’
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Latin
1500’s
Flacius et al. – Historia ecclesiastica Magdeburgica, vol. 2, 7th century, pp. 330-65
Bibliander, Theodore – Of the Principles of Mohammed of the Saracens & of the Life of his Successors, & of the Doctrines of the Al-Koran Itself… (1543) ToC
Bibliander (1509-64) was reformed.
This “…is considered one of the most important early modern texts on Islam published in the Latin West. This work reproduced for the first time in print the Copus Cluniacensis, the authoritative medieval source collection on Islam that included the Latin translation of the Qur-an by Robert of Ketten (ca. 1092-1156), along with a set of medieval polemical works. In this sixteenth-century ‘encyclopedia of Islam’, Bibliander wanted to provide Christian scholars with the instruments to oppose the Islamic threat and evangelize Muslims… Bibliander’s compendium shaped the early modern view of Islam in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries…” – Emanuele Colombo, Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Theology, p. 483
Postel, Guillaume – A Book of Concord between the Koran, or the Law of Mohammed, & the Evangelists… (1543)
Postel (1510-1581) was a French linguist, astronomer, Cabbalist, diplomat, professor, and religious universalist.
“Postel… who knew Arabic and had a direct knowledge of the Muslim world, fluctuated between a universalistic approach that minimized differences of belief between Christianity and Islam, and the acceptance of conventional negative views. Postel corrected some of the mistakes of his predecessors…” – Emanuele Colombo, Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Theology, p. 484
Anon. – Confutations of the Mohammedan Law, which They call the Al-Koran… ([no date or publisher]) ToC
This is a similar style compendium as Bibliander’s above, but different.
Lonitzer, Philipp – Chronica Turcica, vol. 1, 2, 3 (Frankfurt: Johannes Wechlus, 1584)
Lonitzer (d. 1599) was a German, Lutheran minister and historian.
Possevino, Antonio – p. 502 bottom & the bibliography in Bk. 7, ch. 26, the 10th Rule of A Select Library, wherein it is Discussed of the Rule of Studies… (Rome, 1593), vol. 1
Possevino (c.1533-1611) was a Jesuit, a protagonist of the Counter-Reformation as a Papal diplomat, a controversialist, encyclopedist and bibliographer.
This work was “one of the most influential Catholic bibliographic encyclopedias… In Book 7, devoted to heresies and enemies of the Church, Possevino offers a particularly harsh image of Mohammed and Islam, and reiterates the legend that Mohammed had been instructed by a heretical Christian monk named Sergius (or Nestorius). When suggesting a list of readings about Islam, Possevino quotes standard medieval authors.” – Emanuele Colombo, Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Theology, p. 484
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1600’s
Forbes, John – Instructiones historico-theologicae, bk. 4, pp. 173-221
Hottinger, Johann H. – Historiae ecclesiasticae, vol. 1, 7th cent., sect. 2, pp. 390-410
Voet, Gisbert
5. ‘Of Mohommedism’ in Syllabus of Theological Problems (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 2, tract 4 Abbr.
41. ‘Of Muhammadism’ in Select Theological Disputations (Utrecht: Waesberg, 1655), vol. 2, pp. 659-84
Hoornbeeck, Johannes – bk. 3, “De Muhammedismo” in Summa controversiarum religionis…editio nova (Kolberg: Joann Kwicel, 1676), 70-192
Witsius, Herman
A Philological-Theological Exercise on the Mohammedan Creed, ‘There is No God but One’ Against that Most Holy Trinity, Defended (Utrecht, 1696)
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