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24One’s Future in Hinduism, Buddhism and Islamstrength, and character necessary to meetsome need of Allah the employer. Soit would be incongruous in this system toconsider fellowship with such a deficientGod as a reward for one’s praiseworthiness in meeting his needs.Precisely at this point the uniquenessof the God of the Bible becomes mostevident, for he “is not served by humanhands as if he needed anything” (Acts17:25). To the contrary, the God of theBible works on behalf of, or for thebenefit of, those who trust and hope inhim. And he is so complete in himselfthat in thus working he finds his greatestjoy. As Old Testament theologianWalther Eichrodt observed, Israel’s religionwas the direct opposite of thosepracticed by the surrounding peoples. Intheir religions god was the client forwhom the people must work in order toget from him certain blessingsregarded as wages— something earned.But for Israel it was just the reverse:Israel was to regard itself as the client forwhom God was working, as long asthe people trustingly obeyed his directivesfor their welfare.The situation in Islam is exactlyreverse of Christianity. In the Christianfaith God is the praiseworthy workerwho meets the needs of believing people,then having fellowship with such agood God becomes most desirable.We thus can conclude that Islam, in comparisonwith Christianity, promises aheaven that falls far short of being whatthe human heart craves for most.No Assurance in IslamThis second drawback is madeclear by the Koran, which teaches that it isonly the pan-balances at the futurejudgment that will determine those Muslimswho will be saved. In the meantimeone can only hope that his or hergood works will outweigh the evil.But no one can be sure, and this fear offailure tends to keep one somewhatnervous about the future and to that extentunconcerned about the needs of others.Thus the very lack of assurancereduces a person’s potential for beingloving. Also the less benevolent one is toothers, the fewer good works will bein the pan-balance to counteract the evilones. This situation in Islam, andeven in some branches of Christianity(i.e., Roman Catholicism) can easilycreate a vicious circle, where the lack ofassurance of being God’s child keepsuncertainty reigning in the heart, which inturn lessens one’s chances for doinggood works. And the more people realizethat this fear is keeping them fromlooking for opportunities to be benevolent,the more they lack assurancethat God will be pleased with them.Here then, is a striking contrastbetween Islam and the religion of theBible. Hebrews 6:11-12 says, “Wewant each of you to prove the same diligenceas before in maintaining fullassurance of hope unto the end of yourlives, in order that... you may be imitatorsof those who through faith andpatience inherit the promises”(author’s own translation). The Biblemakes full confidence that God is forus and not against us which is the foundationon which to build a life of goodworks. In contrast, Islam teaches that onemust try to amass as many goodworks as possible without any such assurance,since only at the final judgmentcan it be known whether one is tospend eternity in paradise or in hell.These two major drawbacks in Islamunderscore the superior value of thereligion taught in the Bible, as do the difficultiesinherent in Hinduism andBuddhism. We therefore conclude, thatthe Bible sets forth a message wellworth our while expending the time andenergy to understand. Only by appropriatingits message will the God-shapedvacuum of the heart be satisfied,completely and forever. 15Review Questions on Islam1. In what sense is Allah merciful,even though paradise is reserved onlyfor those whose good deeds outweigh thebad?2. What is the most significant omissionin the Muslim description of paradise(heaven) in contrast to the Christiandescription of heaven?3. Who is the client in Islam, God orthe Muslim? Who is the client in biblicalreligion, God or the believer?4. When should one gain fullassurance of sins forgiven in Christianity?When is it gained in Islam?5. Explain why the Christian doctrineof assurance helps one to be morebenevolent than does the Muslim doctrine.Notes1. The Bhagavad Gita, trans. ShriPurohit Swami (London: Faber &Faber, 1978). This song is part ofthe Mahabharata, a 100,000-verse epiccomposed 400 B.C.-A.D. 400.According to John B. Noss, scholarsestimate that the Bhagavad Gitawas composed around A.D. 100(Man’s Religions, 3d ed. [NewYork: Macmillan, 1963], 266).2. Ajith Fernando, The Christian’sAttitude Toward World Religions(Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House,1987), 43. The author is a native of SriLanka.3. The information regarding Buddhismfor this summary comes fromNoss, Man’s Religions, 167-252, andfrom A Buddhist Bible, ed. DwightGoddard (New York: E. F. Dutton,1952).4. Noss, Man’s Religions, 180.5. Ibid., 217.6. Edward Conze, Buddhism: Its Essenceand Development (NewYork: Harper & Row, 1959), 128.7. Noss, Man’s Religions, 221, citingSir Charles Eliot, Hinduism and Buddhism,3 vols. (London: EdwardArnold, 1921), 2:30. The quotation isfrom the Lesser Sukhavati-vyuha.8. The 114 suras, or chapters, in theKoran (“Reading”) are arrangednot chronologically but generally bylength (e.g., the second is 15 percentof the whole Koran; the last oneconsists of only seven lines). Quo-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FRONTIER MISSIONS
Daniel P. Fuller25tations from the Koran are taken fromThe Koran Interpreted, trans.Arthur J. Arberry (New York: Macmillan,1955), a translation regardedas of the highest quality.9. Muhammad never regarded himselfas an inspired revelatory spokesperson,but only as one who repeated whatthe angel Gabriel, the “noble Messenger,”told him.10. Because Muslims have a lunar calendar,over the course of severalyears Ramadan occurs at every seasonof the year.11. The “believing” here is limited to theaffirmation of Muslim beliefs andthe denial of others; for example,“They are unbelievers who say,‘God is the Messiah, Mary’s Son”’(5:19). Unlike the Bible, the Koransays nothing about the power offaith,understood as hope and confidencein God’s promises, to produceworks pleasing to God and helpfulto others.12. Blaise Pascal was a genius who, inhis twenties, developed analyticalgeometry and the principles ofprobability. At the age of thirty-two,he pursued more actively his longtimeinterest in religion and entered thereform-inclined, monastic Jansenistcommunity of Port Royal, France.At the risk of his life, he wrote ascore of pseudonymous letters exposingthe devious practices the Jesuitswere successfully using to silenceall dissent against the papacy.Overtaken by cancer in his late thirties,he began his lifelong ambition ofwriting a book on the evidence for thetruth of the Christian religion. Hisdeteriorating health, however, allowedhim only to jot down about onethousand “thoughts,” which where tobe basic themes and arguments forthis book. Though death intervened atage thirty-nine, his “thoughts”have been regarded ever since as theologicalthinking at its best. Thesource for quotations here, both Englishand French, is Pascal’s Pensees,trans. H. F. Stewart (New York:Pantheon Books, 1950).13. In this chapter and the preceding one Ihave attempted to carry out, on asmall scale, such an examination ofthe world’s four major religions-Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, andChristianity. Now we have seenthat, unlike the other three great religions,Christianity satisfies thecraving of the heart and enhances thewelfare of society, thus makingits truth of the greatest relevance.14. Only a century after Islam’sfounding, a mystical movement arosein a group called the Sufis, whosought to gain a sense of fellowshipwith Allah. Such a developmentindicates the insatiable desire of thehuman heart to have close communionwith what is ultimately transcendentin one’s religion.15. After comparing the Bible’s messagewith the teachings of other religionsit becomes evident that its teachingabout a God who works forpeople is unique. Tragically, however,this message is absent from manyChristian traditions that have not kepton testing their teachings againstbiblical theology so that they might“always be reforming themselves”(semper reformandum). Asrecently as 1990 it dawned on methat the Bible’s unique message providesthe quickest proof of theBible’s truth.Step #1: The human ego iscompletely averse to the idea of a Godwho works for people, becausethat idea gives the ego no room forpride. So in other religions, aswell as tradition-bound Christianity,we hear much talk about our obligationto work for God. In Islam, forexample, one works for Allah andearns “recompense”and “wages” fromhim (Koran 39:35-36; 55:49-60).But in Acts 17:25 Paul said to theproud Athenians “God is notserved by human hands as though heneeded anything.”Step #2: How did the Bible,penned by humans, ever come upwith this message so offensive to thehuman ego? The answer beginswith an axiom, a self-evident proposition,verifiable by the absurdity ofits denial. The axiom is that everyeffect must have a commensuratecause. The Bible is an effect. But weneed to see that what caused it, orwhat brought it into being, cannot liewithin the realm of humandynamics because human nature hatesthis message. But since everyeffect must have a cause, we have toleave the “first floor” of humandynamics and go upstairs to the “secondstory” of God’s enablementto find the cause for the Bible’s existence.The apostle Peter in 2 Peter1:21 talks of how writers of Scripture“spoke as they were moved by theHoly Spirit.” This explains the uniquemessage of the Bible. It existshere on the “second story” becausethe Holy Spirit countered the egosof the Bible’s revelatory spokespersonsand moved them to write amessage totally abhorrent to thehuman ego.Step #3: Therefore, the Bible’smessage is true, because its existencecan be explained only as a workof Almighty God. In that Godmoved people to pen such a messageagrees with Paul’s statement thathe and the Bible’s other revelatoryspokespersons did not use “wordswhich man’s wisdom teaches, butwhich the Holy Spirit teaches.”(See 1 Cor. 2:13)Dr. Daniel Fuller is senior professor ofbiblical interpretation and formerdean of the faculty at FullerTheological Seminary in Pasadena,California.[Editor’s note: This article is areprint of chapters 5 and 6 from Dr.Fuller’s book The Unity of theBible, a Zondervan publication. It ismust reading for anyone seriousabout developing a Christianworldview. Permission granted forreprint.]VOL 14:1 JAN.-MARCH 1997
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