Islam and Christianity are two of the world's biggest religions. Their histories begin in exactly
the same place, starting in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Also, Islam and Christianity, along
with Judaism, are known as Abrahamic faiths, meaning that they all believe that the Biblical prophet,
Abraham, was one of the original fathers of having these faiths delivered to humanity. However, there
are several key differences between these two religions that I'll be exploring in this episode.
Welcome to another episode of FTD Facts. My name is Leroy Kenton, and yeah, we're exploring the world of
religion again. And this time, we're looking at the differences between Islam and Christianity.
So, if you are either Christian or Muslim, give this video a big thumbs up. Or if you just love
learning in general, also hit that "like" button on this video. And, if this is your first time here at
FTD Facts, you know what to do. Hit that subscribe button and that bell notification, to be notified
of future videos like this. Okay, so let's begin. We got a lot to talk about in this episode. When
we first look at Christianity, Christianity consists of people who believe in the deity,
Jesus Christ. Christians, generally speaking, believe Christ is the Son of God, and walked on Earth as
the incarnate form of God, the Father. So, in other words, they believe that Jesus was God in the flesh.
Islam is made up of individuals who believe in the deity, Allah, which is just the Arabic word for God.
They believe that Allah's teachings were recorded word for word by God's last Prophet named Muhammad.
Currently, Islam is the second-largest religion in the entire world, after Christianity. And
based on the latest estimates, the current global population of Christianity, sits at 2.3 billion
followers, which is 31% of the total population of the world. Islam follows behind at 1.8 billion
followers which works out to be approximately 24% of the entire global population. So, as you can see,
these two religions, of course, have played a huge role in shaping what we know to be
human history. Because, look at this, this is half of the population here falling between these two
religions. Now, when we look at when these two religions were formed as organized religions,
Islam takes us back to 610 - 622 CE. Christianity on the other hand, was established as an organized
religion in 28 - 33 CE, which was centuries before Islam. So, we hear the terms Christian, Christianity,
and all of that. So, what does Christian actually mean? If someone calls himself a Christian, what are
they saying? Well, Christian simply means, a believer in Christianity, which is someone that follows the
teachings of Christ. Very simple. Now, Islam means "submission to the will of God." And those who submit
to the will of God, are called Muslims. When it comes to the place of worship where do Christians
go to worship? Well, of course, we know of churches. There's also chapels, cathedrals, basilicas, as well
as, Christians are allowed to worship in homes and any other living spaces. Muslims, worship at mosques
a.k.a masjids and any other place considered clean by Islamic standards. So, it's pretty
open. There's not necessarily a specific place that you have to go to worship. Both these religions are
pretty open. One of the main differences between these religions is the doctrine of the Trinity.
The trinity or the godhead, is one of the core beliefs of Christianity, and it states that
The Trinity, or the Godhead, is one of the core beliefs of Christianity. And it states that there is one God who has three manifestations - the father, the son, as well as the holy spirit.
And I kind of like to use this example. It's not really the best, but you got to think of it like
a corporation that has three founders, and all the three founders have different roles, but under the
same umbrella corporation. So, in this case it would be like God corporation, and then we have, Father,
Son, Holy Spirit, which is kind of equally all God. That's kind of how I try to wrap my brain around
it, and hopefully that made sense for you. But, Muslims however, believe that they are the ones
that practice true monotheism, which means that they do not accept the doctrine of the trinity
because, how can three be one? And the core belief of Islam, is that there is no God worthy of worship
but Allah. And it's a simple concept. There's just Allah, that's it. When it comes to the differences
between the scriptures in Christianity and Islam, the holy book in Christianity of course,
is the Bible. And it's said to be the inspired word of God. This means different things to different
people, but pretty much, it means that Christians believe that the books of the Bible are written
by many people over a span of 1,500 years. And those people were guided by the spirit of God
through divine inspiration. And these writings came through various different forms, you know? In the
Bible, there's songs, there's poetry, there's stories, there's genealogies. And in these writings, we see
personal expressions of human beings working side by side with God. Now, when we look at the
holy book of Islam, the Quran, it is said to be the word of God, and it was dictated to Muhammad,
and it was written down word for word, without any sort of personal expression or any other
human-ness, if you will, added to the writings. The most true reading of the Quran has to be in it's
original Arabic language. Because, translating it into other languages can also take away from the
interpretation of the Quran. So, that's where a lot of times, you get a little bit of confusion When it
comes to the scriptures of the quran. People are like, "No, but in the original Arabic, it means this -
but if you translate it in English or another language, there's not necessarily a direct
translation, so some of the contexts may be lost. So, that's what they say - if you want to get the
most out of reading the Quran, learn some Arabic! Or, at least find somebody that knows Arabic, and
is very verseD in the Quran, to help you out. So, yeah, we discussed quite a bit so far. But, before
I continue in this episode, you definitely have to check out our playlist about Islam. And I have
links to that in the card section of this episode, as well as below in the video description. And, I'll
also have it at the end of this episode. But in it, we have videos just dedicated to the religion of
Islam, where we go into more of the history as well as the impact that Islam has on the world.
Because, obviously, I can't cover everything in this episode. But, you definitely want to check
those ones out. And as a bonus, we do have a playlist on religions, in general, so I'll
link to that one as well. There's a lot of learning that you can do here in FTD Facts. We've done a lot
of videos about religion and culture here on ftd Facts. So feel free to check those out after this
episode. Okay, so the next difference I'm looking at is the difference in the prophets. So, in the
Quran, the prophet Abraham, was known as the beloved servant of God. And, because of Abraham's devotion
to God, God made many of Abraham's descendants, prophets. Now, the story of the prophet Abraham
being commanded to sacrifice his own son Isaac, is known in both Christianity and Islam. In Islam, that
son, however, who God told Abraham to sacrifice is, Ishmael. And it was through his lineage that Islam
was established through the prophet Muhammad. In Christianity, the son that Abraham was told to
sacrifice, was his son Isaac. And through the line of Isaac comes many prophets like: Jacob, Joseph,
Moses, David, King Solomon, and of course, Jesus Christ. Now, I want to talk a little bit more about
the differences in the beliefs of Jesus Christ in both of their religions. In Islam, Muslims accept
that Jesus of Nazareth did in fact exist, and that he was born of the Virgin Mary. But Islam also
believes that Jesus was simply another prophet, equal to other prophets before him. Muslims believe
that Muhammad is a final messenger and is superior to all other previous prophets that came before
him. In the Christian faith, they believe that Jesus is the son of God, which makes him equal to God. And
before he came to Earth as a man, he was accepted as a second person of the Trinity. And another
title that Jesus is given in Christianity before he came to live on the Earth as a man, is the word
of God. And then the word of God, came down to live on Earth in human flesh. Islam doesn't believe in
the idea that Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross. They believe that God spared him
from that. In the Christian faith, God, sacrificing his son Jesus on the cross, is actually the focal
point of the faith. Because without that, the world would remain hopeless, just doomed. Humanity done.
So, that leads me to the next difference I want to highlight. What are the differences between the
ideas of salvation in both of these religions? Well, Islam teaches that salvation is based on
working to achieve it. So, how it works is like this - A muslim must keep the 5 Pillars of Islam. They
have to confess the Shahadah, which is that there is no God but Allah, as well as, Muhammad is his
Prophet. And generally speaking, when Muslims pray, they are to pray towards Mecca five times a day.
They must also fast during the daylight hours of the month of Ramadan. They're also required
to give money to the poor, help out people who are in need, and make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least
once in their life. Islam teaches that the day of judgment will involve people's good deeds and bad
deeds being weighed side by side to see, "Okay did the good deeds outweigh the bad deeds?" Christianity
has a much different concept of salvation. And it teaches that a person is saved by the gift of God,
which is through accepting the death of Jesus Christ, through faith in him. So, therefore, you're
no longer required to do a bunch of different good works to be accepted by God and be saved, but
rather, you're just saved through faith in Jesus. And, because you're saved, you just naturally want
to now do good works. Because, yeah. Who doesn't want to help out their fellow man? And just be a good
person in general? We're coming down to the end of this episode, and there's a couple things that I
want to take a look at. First of all is the clergy. The different clergy in the two religions. Islam
has Imams, and they are the ones that lead the congregational prayers in the mosques. They also
have Sheikhs, Mawlānās, Mullahs and Mufti's in their religion. In Christianity, there are Priests, Bishops,
Ministers, Monks, as well as Nuns, as seen as official clergy. And what are some of the holy
days that these religions recognize? Christianity recognizes probably the biggest celebration in
the world, Christmas, which celebrates the birth of Jesus. There's also Good Friday, which celebrates
the death of Jesus, and depending on which denomination of Christianity you fall into,
Sunday or Saturday, is viewed as the day of rest, or the Sabbath. Another holy day for Christians
is Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And for Catholic Christians, they
celebrate lent which is the season of 40 days. But, it doesn't count Sundays. And this begins
on a day called Ash Wednesday, and ends on Holy Saturday. And Catholic Christians also celebrate
different Saint Feast Days. Islam of course, has their fair share of celebrations, but officially,
not as much as Christianity. There is a month of Ramadan, which is the month of fasting.
There's Eid ul-Adha, which is the feast of the sacrifice, and Eid ul-Fitr, which is a festival
at the end of Ramadan. Now I've gotten to the final difference that I want to explore in this episode.
So, similar to Judaism, Islam tends to have stricter guidelines or rules than Christianity.
Now in modern Christianity, most of the hardline rules of the Old Testament are more so related to
Judaism now. And many of the rules found in the New Testament, are sort of not as harsh
as the Old Testament. For example, most Christians freely eat whatever they choose including, pork and
foods that are not blessed by religious leaders. But this is something that Muslims and Jews do
under the halal and kosher diet rules. So, a lot of the ancient traditions related to their dietary
laws, as well as living laws, still remain alive today. So, that concludes this episode on the
differences between Islam and Christianity. Now, this video was presented in the most general sense
possible. I know that Christianity and Islam has various different schools of thought
and different denominations and all of that. Which may have completely different views to anything I
just shared in this episode. But, for the most part, this is the general views and general differences
between Islam and Christianity. So, if you have any thoughts or comments about what I shared in this
episode, feel free to leave them down below. I love the discussions that we have here on FTD Facts
because, not only do I get to learn, but we all get to learn together, as a community.
You can follow me on social media as well. Those links are below in this video description. So, shoot
me a message, and I'll do my best to reply to you as soon as possible. Until the next episode, stay
awesome, stay educated, and you know, one love! My name is Leroy Kenton, and I'll see you soon.
Okay, now, for all the people that made it to this end screen, here's that playlist on
Islam, as well as that playlist on religion in general that I spoke about. So, don't forget to
come back here to FTD Facts, every single week, for more interesting topics about
your favorite subjects. Thanks for watching, and look out for another video really soon.