This article is part of an on-going series contrasting the Judeo-Christian Bible with the Koran on a variety of topics. Previous articles include: "Was Abraham a Jew or a Christian?", Idolatry 101, 102, 103, Oneness, Unbelievers, God's Character, The Resurrection, The Proclamation, The Judgment, The Creation of Man, The Creation of Woman, and The Fall of Man: Part 1-The Command, Part 2 – The Disobedience, Part 3 – The Consequence, Part 4 – Its Ramification, and Rightly Dividing (Interpreting) the Word – Part I, Part II, Part III.
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Mortality versus Immortality
Was man created immortal or mortal? This is the question we will be examining today from the Koran and from the Bible. Not surprisingly, the answers differ.
The God of the Koran created Adam mortal. This of course means that Eve was mortal as well. Several passages in the Koran point this out.
THE KORANIC ACCOUNT
“No man before you (Muhammad) have We made immortal. If you yourself are doomed to die, will they live forever? Every soul shall taste death. We will prove you all with evil and good. To us shall you return (1).” This verse shows that Satan is telling the truth in the Koran, from the Koran’s point of view when he said, “God had created man mortal.”
“He (Satan) replied, “I will not bow to a mortal whom You created of dry clay, of black molded loam (2).”
According to the Koran it is at the Judgment that those who have faith and do good will become immortal.
“Paradise shall be brought close to the righteous. We shall say to them ‘Here is all that you were promised. It is for every patient and faithful man, who fears the Merciful, though He is unseen, and comes before Him with a contrite heart. Enter it in peace. This is the day of immortality (3).”
Up until this time all people are mortal. Only the righteous from the Koran’s point of view, are given immortality. The others will maintain their mortality and go to hell.
In the Koran god tells Adam and Eve, “Never approach this tree or you both shall become transgressors (4).”
Here is a breach of logic and non-communication. Adam and Eve, according to the Koran, are already transgressors. They were created that way by virtue of being created mortal. What the Koran does not point out is that sin is what makes people mortal. They were created with sin. They could not become transgressors by eating the fruit of that tree for they were already transgressors by creation.
THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT
God created Adam sinless and immortal. God warned Adam that the day he would eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil he would surely die (5).
Adam and Eve ate of the fruit and died. This is when mankind became mortal. The Apostle Paul points this out.
“Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin; and so death passed upon all man (6).”
Without sin there is no mortality. The God of the Holy Scriptures did not create Adam sinful but he became that way through disobedience to God.
Isaiah writes, “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear (7).”
We are all separated from God by Adam’s sin which we add to as our life goes on. How then can God forgive the sinner, the unjust which includes all of us (8).
We are justified freely by God’s unmerited favor through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ (9).
Jesus Himself bore our sins in His own body on the cross (10). He received the wrath of God, which is separation from God, against these sins (11). In this way He tasted death for all men and women (12).
The Koranic account of tasting death appears different than the scriptural account of tasting death. In the context of the Koran, Muhammad is told that he will die just as everyone else dies. Death then, I suspect, is referring to physical death. In the Holy Scriptures the death being referred to is total separation from God. This, Jesus endured on the cross when it became dark at midday and He said, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me." Jesus as God had always been in perfect fellowship with God the Father. This was broken for the space of several hours. When the infinite God, Jesus, had reduced the world’s sin to zero He could say, “It is finished.” The normal relationship and fellowship with God the Father could then resume. He then gave up His Spirit at the time of His choosing.
This substitutionary death of Jesus gives God the right to forgive mankind. This is not recognized in the Koran. The god of the Koran acquits sinners. Thus, sins go unpunished by the god of the Koran. The God of Scripture is Holy and Just and does not acquit sin or sinners. With Jesus substituting Himself for you and me and all mankind God was able to be Holy, Just and not acquitting sin and at the same time justify the sinner.
For each of us to receive the wrath of God for sin we would be forever under God’s wrath. We are not infinite and sinless as Jesus is (13).
Since Jesus is God the Son He was able to withstand being separated from God and still live. He took away the sin of the world (14).
I ask you, which God is merciful? Is it the one who will make all man taste death, or the One who tasted death for all mankind?
Only in Scripture is one told how to be saved from perdition (hell, or eternal separation from God). This comes through faith in Jesus. Only in the Holy Bible do we find these powerful, hopeful, and redemptive words, “For He (God the Father) hath made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (15).”
You must believe that Jesus is God in flesh. He received God’s wrath for your sins on the cross. He died and rose from the dead. Confess to God you are a sinner and invite Jesus into your heart. As simple sample prayer is, “Lord, Jesus Christ, forgive me of my sin and come into my heart.”
REFERENCES
1. The Koran Page 229 Paragraph 21:34. 35
2. The Koran Page 185 Paragraph 15:33
3. The Koran Page 336 Paragraph 50:30
4. The Koran Page 13 Paragraph 2d35
5. The Holy Bible, Genesis 2:17
6. The Holy Bible, Romans 5:12
7. The Holy Bible, Isaiah 59:2
8. The Holy Bible, Romans 3:25
9. The Holy Bible, Romans 3:26
10. The Holy Bible, 1 Peter 2:24
11. The Holy Bible, Mark 15:4
12. The Holy Bible, Hebrews 2:9
13. The Holy Bible, 2 Thessalonians 1:8
14. The Holy Bible, John 1:29
15. The Holy Bible, 2 Corinthians 5:21
