Warning: If you are offended by icons of Muhammad, you may not want to click “Read more”.
I’ve talked about iconoclasm in Islam briefly a few months ago and recently stumbled upon an icon of Muhammad that most modern day Iranian Shi’as have in their homes. I found the similarities between this and an Orthodox icon of Christ Pantocrator striking. The photo to the left is an icon from St. Catherine’s monastery in Sinai from the 6th-7th century.
Guest post written by Seraphim Hamilton:
In Response to a Question. Why be a Christian? What persuades me of Christianity?
This is a big question, and you definitely have my prayers…but let me give you a few “big picture” reasons for my belief in Christianity.
1. I find the narrative presented by Christianity to be extremely compelling. Remember that the Christian faith is not first and foremost a set of dogmas. It is a way of viewing the world, of telling the human story. And in the Christian account, we talk about humanity spiraling deep into sin, after which God chooses one, small family through which he blesses the whole world. So look at the history of the Near East. You’ve got kingdoms and empires rising and falling. And in the midst of this, you’ve got one little kingdom, Israel. Not particularly powerful. Spends a lot of time as a vassal state. Ends up getting kicked out of their land and then coming back in subjugation to a series of other empires. But the whole way through, Israel is saying “one day, all nations will worship our God.” No other nation is saying this. Tiglath-Pileser is not saying this about the gods of Assyria. Nebuchadnezzar is not saying this about the gods of Babylon. Cyrus is not saying this about the gods of Persia. But the Israelites are saying it about their God.
The doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation have, understandably, been a stumbling block to most Muslims who have only ever understood God as one in essence and person. While many assume this sort of absolute monotheism is the norm among monotheistic faiths, it actually has not been—modern Judaism and Islam are the only two faiths that emphasize absolute monotheism.
My upcoming series on monotheism is going to address these issues more in depth, but I will touch upon them a bit here and then get into what the Incarnation actually means.
Islam Meets Orthodoxy 