DAY 10 - DAILY QUESTION ABOUT GOD'S WORD - WHAT IS ISLAM, AND WHAT DO MUSLIM'S BELIEVE?

June 3

Question: "What is Islam, and what do Muslims believe?"

Answer: Islam is a religious system begun in the seventh century by Muhammad. Muslims follow the teachings of the Qur’an and strive to keep the Five Pillars.

The History of Islam
In the seventh century, Muhammad claimed the angel Gabriel visited him. During these angelic visitations, which continued for about 23 years until Muhammad's death, the angel purportedly revealed to Muhammad the words of Allah (the Arabic word for “God” used by Muslims). These dictated revelations compose the Qur'an, Islam's holy book. Islam means “submission,” deriving from a root word that means “peace.” The word Muslim means “one who submits to Allah.”

The Doctrine of Islam
Muslims summarize their doctrine in six articles of faith:
1. Belief in one Allah: Muslims believe Allah is one, eternal, creator, and sovereign.
2. Belief in the angels
3. Belief in the prophets: The prophets include the biblical prophets but end with Muhammad as Allah’s final prophet.
4. Belief in the revelations of Allah: Muslims accept certain portions of the Bible, such as the Torah and the Gospels. They believe the Qur'an is the preexistent, perfect word of Allah.
5. Belief in the last day of judgment and the hereafter: Everyone will be resurrected for judgment into either paradise or hell.
6. Belief in predestination: Muslims believe Allah has decreed everything that will happen. Muslims testify to Allah’s sovereignty with their frequent phrase, inshallah, meaning, “if God wills.”

The Five Pillars of Islam
These five tenets compose the framework of obedience for Muslims:
1. The testimony of faith (shahada): “la ilaha illa allah. Muhammad rasul Allah.” This means, “There is no deity but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” A person can convert to Islam by stating this creed. The shahada shows that a Muslim believes in Allah alone as deity and believes that Muhammad reveals Allah.
2. Prayer (salat): Five ritual prayers must be performed every day.
3. Giving (zakat): This almsgiving is a certain percentage given once a year.
4. Fasting (sawm): Muslims fast during Ramadan in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. They must not eat or drink from dawn until sunset.
5. Pilgrimage (hajj): If physically and financially possible, a Muslim must make the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia at least once. The hajj is performed in the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar.

A Muslim's entrance into paradise hinges on obedience to these Five Pillars. Still, Allah may reject them. Even Muhammad was not sure whether Allah would admit him to paradise (Surah 46:9; Hadith 5.266).

An Evaluation of Islam
Compared to Christianity, Islam has some similarities but significant differences. Like Christianity, Islam is monotheistic. However, Muslims reject the Trinity—that God has revealed Himself as one in three Persons: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Muslims claim that Jesus was a mere prophet—not God’s Son. Islam asserts that Jesus, though born of a virgin, was created like Adam. Many Muslims do not believe Jesus died on the cross. They do not understand why Allah would allow His prophet Isa (the Islamic word for "Jesus") to die a torturous death. Yet the Bible shows how the death of the perfect Son of God was essential to pay for the sins of believers (Isaiah 53:5-6; John 3:16; 14:6; 1 Peter 2:24).

Islam teaches that the Qur'an is the final authority and the last revelation of Allah. The Bible, however, was completed in the first century with the Book of Revelation. The Bible warns against anyone adding to or subtracting from God’s Word (Deuteronomy 4:2; Proverbs 30:6; Galatians 1:6-12; Revelation 22:18). The Qur’an, as a claimed addition to God’s Word, directly disobeys God’s command.

Muslims believe that paradise can be earned through keeping the Five Pillars. The Bible, in contrast, reveals that sinful man can never measure up to the holy God (Romans 3:23; 6:23). Only by God’s grace may sinners be saved through repentant faith in Jesus (Acts 20:21; Ephesians 2:8-9).

Because of these essential differences and contradictions, Islam and Christianity cannot both be true. The Bible and Qur’an cannot both be God’s Word. The truth has eternal consequences.

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world” (1 John 4:1-4; see also John 3:35-36).

Recommended Resources: Answering Islam: The Crescent in Light of the Cross by Norm Geisler and Logos Bible Software.

While he is not the author of every article on GotQuestions.org, for citation purposes, you may reference our CEO, S. Michael Houdmann.


Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/Islam.html#ixzz33disdDEi

DAY 10 - DAILY HISTORY - AMERICAN MINUTE FOR JUNE 3, 2014

June 3

American Minute for June 3rd:


Spain's Iron Duke fought the Ottoman Muslims, recapturing Tunis in 1535.

He then turned to crush the Reformation in Holland in what is referred to as the 'Spanish Furies', 1572-1576, sacking and decimating the Dutch cities of Mechelen, Diest, Roermond, Guelders, Zutphen, Naarden, and Haarlem.

The Netherlands fought an 80 year war of independence from Spain, led by William of Orange and aided by English soldiers sent by Queen Elizabeth I.

The Dutch Republic of the Seven United Netherlands grew to become the foremost maritime and economic power in the world during its Golden Age, beginning in 1648.

The Dutch had settlements around the world, from Recife, South America to South Africa to New Zealand, including a monopoly on trade with Japan, Jakarta, Java and Asia.

Adopting the Calvinistic Protestant Dutch Reformed faith as the State religion, the Netherlands nevertheless exhibited a tolerance rare in Europe toward other faiths, including Remonstrants, Renaissance Humanism, Catholics, Anabaptists and Jews.

The Pilgrims lived in the Netherlands for 12 years before sailing to settle Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The prosperous Netherlands attracted some of the brightest minds of the age:

writer Jan Amos Comenius; astronomer Christiaan Huygens; scientist Anton van Leeuwenhoek; engineer Jan Leeghwater; playwright Joost van den Vondel; international lawyer Hugo Grotius; philosophers René Descartes, Pierre Bayle, John Locke, Spinoza; and

artists Johannes Vermeer, Jacob van Ruisdael, Frans Hals and Rembrandt.

The Dutch invented a way of financing their endeavors - The Amsterdam Stock Exchange. It was the first modern stock market.

People could buy shares in the Dutch EAST India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) whose ships sailed to Indonesia or Japan.

When the ships returned filled with goods and spices, they would be paid a profit.

And in case the ships sank, the Dutch invented "insurance" companies.

The Dutch experience the first stock market crash with the Tulip Mania of 1636-1637.

Tulips imported from Turkey became so popular that a single tulip bulb's worth exploded to more than the average person's yearly salary - then in one day it suddenly dropped to one-hundredth of its value, plunging the country into an economic depression.

The Dutch started the Dutch WEST India Company which sent Henry Hudson sailing west in hopes of finding a water route to India through North America.

Though unsuccessful, Hudson claimed the land along the "Hudson" River, and founded the New Netherlands Colony, receiving its charter JUNE 3, 1621.

The Dutch began a New Amsterdam Stock Exchange which met on the street next to the wall of the settlement.

In 1624, the Chamber of Amsterdam wrote articles for the Dutch Colony, establishing the Dutch Reformed denomination:

"They shall within their territory practice no other form of divine worship than that of the Reformed religion...

and thus by their Christian life and conduct seek to draw the Indians and other blind people to the knowledge of God and His word, without, however, persecuting any on account of his faith, but leaving each one the use of his conscience."

The New Amsterdam Charter of Freedoms, June 7, 1629, gave land to wealthy "Patroons" who helped 50 families emigrate, stating:

"Colonists shall...in the speediest manner...find out ways and means whereby they may support a Minister and Schoolmaster, that thus the service of God and zeal for religion may not grow cool."

One Dutch family that immigrated was the Roosevelt family, as Franklin D. Roosevelt told the Detroit Jewish Chronicle, March 7, 1935:

"All I know about the origin of the Roosevelt family in this country is that all branches bearing the name are apparently descended from Claes Martenssen Van Roosevelt, who came from Holland sometime before 1648."

Beginning in 1639, Lutheran Germans, Swedes and Finns, as well as Anglicans from England, began immigrating, numbering 500 of the colony's 3,500 population in 1655.

Presbyterians erected their first meeting house on Eastern Long Island in 1640, and the first Jews arrived in the colony in 1654.

After Britain's Admiral William Penn, father of Pennsylvania's founder, helped defeat the Dutch navy, the British took control of New Amsterdam in 1664, changing the colony's name to New York.

The New Amsterdam Stock Exchange then became the New York Stock Exchange, referred to as Wall Street.

Though British established the Anglican Church, French Protestant Huguenots began arriving in 1680.

The New York Charter of Liberties and Privileges, (paragraph 27), October 30, 1683, stated:

"That no person or persons which profess faith in God by Jesus Christ shall at any time be any ways molested...But that...every such person...fully enjoy his or their...consciences in matters of religion...not using this Liberty to Licentiousness...

The respective Christian Churches now in practice within the City of New York....shall...enjoy...freedoms of their Religion in Divine Worship and Church discipline."

The first Methodist meeting in the American Colonies was in New York City in 1766.

In 1781, was the first mention of a public Catholic worship service in New York.

In 1811, the New York Supreme Court's Chief Justice, Chancellor Kent, stated in the case of Peoples v Ruggles:

"Christianity was parcel of the law...that whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government...

The people of this State, in common with the people of this country, profess the general doctrines of Christianity...

We are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply engrafted upon Christianity, and not upon the doctrines or worship of those impostors."

In 1838, the New York State Legislature wrote:

"No people on the face of the globe are without a prevailing national religion....

With us it is wisely ordered that no one religion shall be established by law, but that all persons shall be left free in their choice and in their mode of worship.

Still, this is a Christian nation. Ninety-nine hundredths, if not a larger proportion, of our whole population, believe in the general doctrines of the Christian religion.

Our Government depends for its being on the virtue of the people, - on that virtue that has its foundation in the morality of the Christian religion."

New York's State Constitution, 1846, 1894, and 1938, stated in its Preamble:

"We, the People of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its blessings, do establish this Constitution."

Hide Endnotes

Staten Island, Microsoft7 Encarta7 Online Encyclopedia 2000, http://encarta.msn.com 8 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. http://odur.let.rug.nl/usanew/E/newnetherlands/nl5.htm, The United States of America & the Netherlands, 6/14 The towns of New Netherland, By George M. Welling: In the early sixties of the seventeenth century, Pieter Plockhoy of Zeeland province, The Netherlands, started the first of the many Utopias which shine in the pages of American history. In 1662 he sailed from Holland with twenty-four families, to establish his colony of 'universal Christian brotherhood,' ... to raise up an universal magistrate in Christendom, that can suffer all sorts of people (of what religion soever they are) in any one country, as God suffers the same in all the countries of the world.' The city of Amsterdam met the expenses of the expedition. The place chosen was on the Delaware River, & the following year forty more immigrants joined those already there. Plockhoy's Utopia was soon to come to a terrible end. It resisted the British troops of Sir Robert Carr which landed in New Netherland in 1664, & was destroyed 'to a very naile.'


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DAY 10 - STATE HISTORY - VIRGINIA

June 3

One of the 13 original colonies, Virginia was the first part of the country permanently settled by the English, who established Jamestown on the banks of the James River in 1607. The home state of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers, Virginia played an important role in the American Revolution (1775-83). During the Civil War (1861-65), the city of Richmond, Virginia, became the capital of the Confederacy, and more than half of the conflict’s battles were fought in the state. Today, many government institutions are headquartered in Virginia, particularly in Arlington, located across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. In addition to eight presidents, famous Virginians include singer Ella Fitzgerald, tennis star Arthur Ashe, actress Shirley MacLaine and authors Willa Cather and Tom Wolfe.

Date of Statehood: June 25, 1788

Did You Know?

Four of the first five presidents were Virginians: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe.

Capital: Richmond

Population: 8,001,024 (2010)

Size: 42,775 square miles

Nickname(s): Old Dominion; Mother of Presidents; Mother of States; Mother of Statesmen; Cavalier

StateMotto: Sic Semper Tyrannis (“Thus Always to Tyrants”)

Tree: American Dogwood

Flower: American Dogwood

Bird: Northern Cardinal


INTERESTING FACTS

Patrick Henry delivered his famous “Give me liberty or give me death!” speech before the second Virginia Convention at St. John’s Church (formerly Henrico Parish) in Richmond on March 23, 1775.

On October 19, 1781, following three weeks of continuous bombardment, British General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrendered to General George Washington in the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia, essentially bringing the American Revolution to an end.

Virginia’s borders have expanded and contracted numerous times since its inception as the first of the 13 original colonies.  In 1792, nine counties known as the Kentucky District of Virginia entered the union as the state of Kentucky, and in 1863, western counties of Virginia were approved to enter the union as the state of West Virginia.

The Arlington National Cemetery, one of America’s most renowned military cemeteries, was originally built in the early 19th century as a mansion by George Washington’s adopted grandson, George Washington Parke Custis.  Robert E. Lee, who married Custis’ daughter, Mary Anna, lived in Arlington House at various periods until 1861, when Virginia seceded from the Union and the couple vacated the estate.  On June 15, 1864, the property was established as a military cemetery.

Virginia was the birthplace of more U.S. presidents than any other state: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor and Woodrow Wilson.

The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg is the nation’s second-oldest institution of higher education, after Harvard; King William III and Queen Mary II of England signed a charter for its creation on February 8, 1693. At the persuasion of Thomas Jefferson, the first law school in America was established there in 1779.