To Create a Clean Heart.
The god of the Koran and the God of the Holy Bible are both alleged to be creative, having created the universe and everything in it. However, can and do either of them create a clean heart in a person, who has sinned, before the day of judgment?
The god of the Koran and the God of the Holy Bible are both alleged to be creative, having created the universe and everything in it. However, can and do either of them create a clean heart in a person, who has sinned, before the day of judgment?
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THE KORANIC ACCOUNT
THE KORANIC ACCOUNT
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The fate of each man We have bound about his neck. On the Day of Resurrection We shall confront him with a book spread wide open, saying: ‘Here is your book: read it. Enough for you this day that your own soul should call you to account (1)
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On that day every soul shall be recompensed according to what it did. On that day none shall be wronged. Swift is God’s reckoning (2).
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Attend to your prayers morning and evening, and in the night-time too. Good deeds shall make amends for sins. That is and admonition for thoughtful men. Therefore have patience; God will not deny the righteous their reward (3).
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Say: ‘you people! I have been sent to warn you plainly. Those that accept the true faith and do good works shall be forgiven and richly recompensed; but those that seek to confute Our revelations shall be the tenants of Hell (4).
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COMMENTARY ON THE KORANIC ACCOUNT
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The Koran shows the god of Islam oriented to the judgment at the time of the resurrection when people will be rewarded or condemned according to the works which each person has done. Doing good will help to make up for whatever wrong one has committed. The amount of good required to make up for one’s evil done is not specified. You can never be sure you have done enough good to make heaven before you die. Believing in Islam goes a long way to put a person in good stead with the god of Islam. Refuting what he says will earn one a place in hell.
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Nowhere is it mentioned that the god of Islam will clean up a person from the evil within or forgive with out good works.
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THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT
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Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me (5).
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Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities (6).
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Create in me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit with in me. Cast me not away from your presence; and take not your Holy Spirit from me (7).
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The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise (8).
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Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool (9).
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I, even I, am He that blotteth out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins. Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that you may be justified (10).
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…there is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside Me. Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else (11).
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COMMENTARY ON THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT
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King David had adultery with one of his subjects, and then had her husband killed in battle after which David married the widow. This displeased God greatly and sent Nathan the prophet to confront David (II Samuel 11:1 – 12:23). King David repented and Psalm 51 is the record of his prayer of repentance.
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David asks God to get rid of the record of his evil and to wash him and cleanse him. He acknowledges his transgressions to God rather than denying them or trying to hide from them.
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David asks to be purged and cleaned so that he would be whiter than snow on the inside. A second time David asks God to erase the record of his sins. David asks God to create in him a clean heart. This is acknowledgement by David that he cannot clean his own heart. It takes a work of God.
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David says that what God looks for is a broken spirit in a person. A broken and contrite heart God does not despise. This is as opposed to a proud spirit and a proud heart which God hates (Proverbs 8:13).
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With God there is no respect of persons (Romans 2:11) so if He will cleanse King David He will cleanse others also. Speaking through the prophet, Isaiah, God says that the people who have sinned should go to Him and He will clean them up on the inside and make them whiter than snow.
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We read that God blots out transgressions for His own sake. He will remember our transgressions no longer. God tells us that we are to confess the case of our sin to Him that we may be justified by Him. Justified means to be made right with God in a way that proclaims; we have never sinned.
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God says that there is no other. This is Elohim the triune God. He says He is just and a Savior. There is no one else. He is the one we all on earth are to look to be saved from the consequences of our sins.
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COMPARING & CONTRASTING THE KORAN WITH SCRIPTURE
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The god of Islam seems to delight in confronting each person with all they have done wrong and then passing judgment on the individual. There is no provision for getting expunged from the record all one has done wrong before the Day of Judgment.
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The God of Scripture will expunge the record of people so they will be just before God on the Day of Judgment. God says that He alone is a Savior and we all are to look to Him wherever we are on earth.
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The god of Islam will forgive one if he is satisfied with the good works a person has done. Nothing says what exactly is needed for acceptance.
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The God of Scripture will forgive the one who confesses to Him the error he has made and the one who has a broken and contrite spirit. God will renew and clean the sinner and make him whole, just as if he had never sinned.
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CONCLUSION
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The God of the Bible will create in you a clean heart and spirit, if you but ask Him too. A sample prayer is, “Lord Jesus Christ, forgive me of my sin, and come into my heart.”
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REFERENCES
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1. The Koran Page 198 Paragraph 17:14
1. The Koran Page 198 Paragraph 17:14
2. The Koran Page 329 Paragraph 40:17
3. The Koran Page 165 Paragraph 11:114
4. The Koran Page 238 Paragraph 22:49
5. The Holy Bible Psalms 51:1-3
6. The Holy Bible Psalms 51:7,9
7. The Holy Bible Psalms 51:10,11
8. The Holy Bible Psalms 51:17
9. The Holy Bible Isaiah 1:18
10. The Holy Bible Isaiah 43:25,26
11. The Holy Bible Isaiah 45:21b,22
I have used the example of David this way when I witnessed to a Muslim. But she said that it is impossible that David could have committed adultery since he is a prophet. They think God could never choose someone to be a prophet, knowing that he was going to commit a "big sin" like that. She said that she thinks Psalm 51 was written by someone else.
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