The Heresy of Islam | St. John of Damascus

[Music] in the 7th to 8th Century the religion of Islam begin to spread all over the Arabian Peninsula and Beyond around this time St John of Damascus also known as damine who was an Arabic Christian became increasingly aware of the heresies this religion taught and in one of his writings on heresies he deals with Islam and specifically Muhammad and refutes the false teachings that he espoused this text became very influential as it was one of the first major reputations put forward against Islam and today we'll cover a few of the objections demine raised and tie

it into modern scholarship in the state of Islamic beliefs today dine starts out by stating there's also the Superstition of the ishmaelites which to this day prevails and keeps people in error being a forerunner of the Antichrist a false prophet named Muhammad has appeared in their midst this man after having chanced upon the Old and New Testaments in and likewise it seems having conversed with an Aryan monk devised his own heresy then having insinuated himself into the good graces of the People by a show of seeming piety he gave out that a certain book had

been sent down to him from Heaven he had set down some ridiculous compositions in this book of his and he gave it to them as an object of veneration some Muslims might object to John's account of Muhammad having conversed with an Aryan monk since in their own is Islamic tradition Muhammad meets with a noorian Christian instead but this story of the noorian Christian actually comes much later after dein's account in History Dr Daniel josic writes however since he does not mention the involvement of a monk this could indicate an earlier rendition of the story before

it took on the historian persuasion and the monk was given a name as with the comparison of early and late hadiths when a story contains more specific references to people or events it is usually an indication that the story has been embellished through the passage of time and the earliest version is the more correct one after describing the quran's account of the birth of Jesus demine goes on to talk about Islam's view on Jesus's crucifixion and he Muhammad says that the Jews wanted to crucify him in violation of the law and that They seized his

shadow and crucified this but the Christ himself was not crucified he says nor did he die for God out of his love for him took him to himself into heaven damine goes on to call this in another claim made by the Quran a ridiculous belief and truly it is ridiculous in the realm of history for example The Scholar by IR someone whom Muslims love to utilize says that one of the most certain facts of history is that Jesus was crucified on orders of the Roman prefect of Judea Pontius pilot on this topic New Testament scholar

John Dominic cross States further that he Jesus was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be doubting the historicity of the crucifixion is contrary to historical reasoning and demonstrates an inconsistent and bias standard on the part of the Muslim the crucifixion account of Jesus is early and simply passes due to the Criterion of embarrassment and it being multiply attested many modern Muslims will say that people were mistaken and crucified the wrong person such as Simon of C or that Allah had made it seem as if Jesus was crucified but it was not actually

him on the first claim modern scholarship would simply reject such an assertion as there's simply no evidence to support that conclusion in fact it would be on the contrary on the second point that Allah deceived the people into thinking Jesus was crucified is problematic as Allah would be able to deceive the Jewish people while knowing that by doing this he would start a false religion that would lead people to hell this position as well would be redu you at absurdum or self-refuting because God by his very nature cannot deceive damine also cites a quotation from

the Quran about their belief that Jesus never claimed to be God and he Muhammad says this that when the Christ had ascended into heaven God asked him oh Jesus didst thou say I am the Son of God and God and Jesus he says answered be merciful to me Lord thou knowest that I did not say this and that I did not scorn to be thy servant but sinful men have written that I made this statement and they have lied about me and have fallen into error and God answered and said to him I know that

thou did not say this word yet again damine believes this to be a ridiculous and extraordinary belief that Muhammad espoused as our earliest Christian Witnesses never held to such a claim for example Paul whose teachings were accepted by Jesus's apostles says this in his letter to Titus while we wait for the Blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ now of course Paul's letters are some of our earliest writings in the New Testament and we need not to worry that Paul simply made up this claim since the

very Disciples of Christ accepted Paul's teachings further to doubt that Paul is not claiming Jesus as God but is making reference to the father in this verse goes against General biblical scholarship as in the Jerome biblical commentary put together with the help of many scholars including the well-respected Raymond Brown states that this verse is an eloquent expression of Paul's belief in the Divinity of Christ after this the commentary goes on to refute the claim that it refers to the father even the earliest written gospel Mark Clearly portrays Jesus as the Divine Messiah that Daniel for

tells as one that will have an everlasting and eternal Reign and one who will come on the clouds of heaven and make Divine judgment judgements on this matter another respected New Testament scholar D Allison notes Jesus words about the coming of the son of man were one might conjecture deliberately open-ended because the realization had to be left to the deity riding clouds and assembling the quick and the dead for judgment are Beyond human ability of course this is very much contrasted to Islam which does not Teach an eternal Reign or messiahship of Jesus nor is

there view anywhere close to a Divine Messiah as a side note if you want to help support me consider buying my new released merchandise which is based on St Thomas aquinus thank you for any support damine presents another problem Muhammad tells the people not to do anything such as marriage and buying property without Witnesses these would be considered normal ordinary acts but what about extraordinary acts such as Muhammad receiving his first revelation according to damine we should ask why there are no witnesses to justify this claim when we ask again how is it that when

he Muhammad enjoined Us in this book of yours not to do anything or to receive anything without Witnesses you did not ask him first do you show us by witnesses that you are a prophet and that you have come from God and show us just what scriptures there are that testify about you on this note Dr Daniel josc writes John also Al finds fault with Muhammad's rumor that the scriptures that he gave to his people were brought down from heaven without Witnesses even though other ordinary acts such as marriage and buying property required Witnesses the

real travesty according to John was that Muhammad then expected his followers to obey the pronouncements now John of Damascus makes a couple more claims but these will be covered in a future video suffice to say Muhammad was clearly mistaken on multiple issues of History such as the cruci ition in which to reject leads to a self-refuting position he also lacks knowledge on the deity of Christ since our earliest accounts clearly show that Jesus proclaimed Divinity finally damine finds issues with evidence in trusting Muhammad's Revelation since Muhammad was the only one to witness it according to

John of Damascus Muhammad's claims were ridiculous and contradict the earliest Christian Witnesses thank you for watching if you enjoyed the video please like And subscribe and if you want to help support the channel consider becoming a channel member as always God bless