Since Islam has and continues to be in the news more and more, today we're going to cover a kind of “Islam 101” class.

There are many, many topics that we might talk about when discussing Islam from a Christian point of view, but today I want to talk about the basics of what Islam is and where it came from. Perhaps we'll get into a little of how Christians should think about their Muslim neighbors.

One of the first things to point out when talking about Islam is that Islam, like Christianity, is a theistic religion. They believe that there is one God. Christians believe that there is one God. Where we part ways is in that Muslims believe that there is one person in God. Christians believe that God is tri-personal, that there is a Trinity, that there are three persons in one being. Christians are trinitarian and Muslims are unitarian. This is a huge divide because, to them, one of their greatest sins is basically a belief in the Trinity. They say that you can't add anything to God. They think, if you're saying God is a trinity, you are adding to the one person or being of God. They see this as a very large issue. We also see this as a very large issue.

It's important to understand that there are theological differences at the heart here. It’s not just how we interact in the world or how we dress, but our very conception of God is different because we are trinitarian and they are unitarian. They believe that there is one person in God.

Now that we've talked (very briefly) about the differences at a God level, I want to give you a little history of Islam.

The first thing to start out with is terms. It's interesting to me that many Christians don't know the difference in the term “Islam” and the term “Muslim”. Islam is the religion, just in the same way that Christianity is a religion. A Christian is someone who practices Christianity. A Muslim is someone who practices or follows Islam. Islam and Muslim are not interchangeable terms. A Muslim is someone who follows the religion of Islam, like a Christian is someone who follows the religion of Christianity.

Islam means “submission,” submission to God first and foremost. Muslim is a term that means “one who submits to God.” There's a very heavy submission theme in Islam.

Islam was established by Muhammad on the Arabian Peninsula in the year AD 610. This is when Muhammad started receiving (he claimed) divine revelation through the angel Gabriel. God, (Allah in Islam), would speak to Muhammad through Gabriel and dictate what came to be the Koran. The Koran is kind of like a Muslim's Bible. It is what contains their inerrant scripture.

You'll notice that this dictation of Muhammad receiving the scripture is different than Christianity. Now some Christians think this is how the Bible was given, but this isn't actually what the Bible tells us. The Bible has a dual authorship. There is a a divine author, God, and there is also a human author. There are two authors, such as that when Luke writes the Gospel of Luke, they are his words. He chose them. He has his own syntax. He has his own perspective. But they are the words of God. You can't separate these two. There is a dual authorship there. As it says in 1 Peter, "Men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” so, they are men's words and God's words. This is different than Islam, where God dictated and Muhammad wrote it down or memorized it.

Then, after its start in around AD 610, it expands. Islam grows as a religion, and by force and persuasion, Islam spreads across North Africa and the Middle East, ultimately reaching India by about the 11th century. It conquered (I use that word intentionally), largely by force, an area larger than the Roman Empire, ultimately, and in 500 to 600 years. That is a huge …