Can you have two religions and be faithful to both?

Let me start by saying she can't be a Muslim if she accepts the Bible as it is, and she can't be a Christian if she accepts the Qura'an as it is.

However, a Muslim can be a "Christian" in that Jesus was a great man, a prophet, a messenger, who performed several miracles, was a great person to emulate in daily life, will return to save us, and receives his instructions from the creator.

Basically, a Muslim transported back in time to Jesus would have to do every thing Jesus told him to do. No and, ifs or buts about it. If it came directly from him, then he must do it.

 

I had a good friend who was both Christian and Buddhist. That may be a special case, but it worked for her.

 

In order to become Christian, you must first accept that you are a sinner and accept Jesus Christ (the Son of God) as your Lord and Savior.

Christians do not believe that Jesus was just a great man. I don't know where your source is, but it is not biblical.

 

Right. To be Christian means you believe Jesus is the son of God so no, you can't be both.

 

How does one believe that both they need to be saved by a Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and that they themselves are their own savior?

 

isn't also true with buddhists that you can believed in another religion?

 

I'll bet God certainly care.

 

There are lots of Christians who don't believe in the divinity of Jesus.

 

Why not hedge your bets and join all of them?

 

I hope this is not offensive in any way, but a Christian is defined differently within Islam. Those things you mentioned are not things that a Christian must do according to Islam.

This is why you will hear Muslim debaters (find them on youtube) say that they are "more Christian than a Christian" while obviously alluding to the Islamic definition of Christianity.

More interestingly from the Muslim perspective is that, in Islam, Jesus PBUH is Muslim. I don't think he ever used or knew the word Christian (as far as I know, please correct me if the Bible states otherwise). So in a sense, to a Muslim, Jesus PBUH was both a "Christian" and a Muslim.

Can a Muslim preach Jesus PBUH's message? Yes. As long as he doesn't believe Jesus is God, a Muslim can do this.

Ofcourse, I understand that the inverse is not true.

 

What are the minimum qualifications to call oneself a Christian? What are the minimum qualifications to call oneself a Muslim? Do they conflict?

Jesus actually demands that in the Bible?

I think religion is about how you conduct your life, and why you do so. So if a person believes that Jesus Christ provided the best teachings on how to conduct one's life, and they do so because they want to do good (is that not a good enough reason?) then it seems reasonable to me to call them "Christian".

 

Don't all religions inherently contradict each other? If so, then I'm guessing no.

This is really weird. Even more so IMO than being a Christian and a Muslim. These two religions are incredibly different in their ideals

 

Sure, but they contradict themselves too.

It seems to me that Christ is a quintessential bodhisattva.

 

Buddhism doesnt really have a God so to speak. Its generally about yourself. So I think its certainly possible since there is no prayer or anything that contradicts the tenets of Christianity that one can follow both. What the person calls themselves however, is certainly up for debate. I as a Christian could simply follow the basic tenets of Buddhism and thus follow both but would be called a Christian (that implements some Buddhist activity). Pardon my ignorance, but I only have a very basic understanding of Buddhism but I think what I am saying is possible.

Since Buddhism doesnt have a God I think it wouldnt cause any issue of believing that Jesus is the way et al.

 

I haven't taken up to reading the Koran yet, but Jesus makes it abundantly clear about where the bread of life comes from and how the gate of heaven is entered.

I don't think it takes a genius to understand what He said in that respect. It's just a matter of whether you want to read it and to believe it or not.

 

Can you fill me in? That seems like worthwhile info.

 

I’ve got a number of posts to get back to, but this is a very interesting topic and I want to comment on it first. I have also known some Muslims who I felt were quite remarkably godly people, and it caused me to wonder how Islam fits. From there I did a little bit of reading in the Qur’an to try to see how it fit with the Bible, and I found some very interesting things. With respect to what this woman has done, my only real issue is that I don't think she needed to become a Muslim, and even the Qur’an appears to tell Christians to remain Christians. In fact, while the Qur’an does attack some Christian heresies of the day, it does not appear to deny any of the core Christian teachings. This is something that even most Muslims don’t believe, but when you look at the passages that are identified as the ones that contradict core Christian teachings they don’t actually say this. It appear that the belief that the Qur'an contradicts the Bible is a historical position, but not one that goes back to the earliest days of Islam. It apparently only came about at around the time of the Crusades, when "Christians" and Muslims started waring with each other.

From a Christian standpoint, there is a very interesting passage from John 10 that needs to be considered when looking at this question:

14"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John 10;&version=31;

Who are these sheep from another pen? Could they be the Muslims who are truly following their teachings? I don’t have any strong sense that I know the answer to this question, but I do find it a very interesting passage.

Back to the woman in the article, I don’t really see a justification for being both a Christian and a Muslim no matter what the answer to the above question is. There is nothing stopping a Christian from going to a Mosque to pray, and most churches wouldn’t have a problem with a Muslim coming to take part in their services either. As converting goes, however, there are some different rules, which could relate to the different pens idea.

Here is a passage from the Qur’an that seems to say quite clearly that Christians should remain Christians. Here are three different transaltions, and note the context around the passage is very interesting as well.

005.047
YUSUFALI: Let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah hath revealed therein. If any do fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) those who rebel.
PICKTHAL: Let the People of the Gospel judge by that which Allah hath revealed therein. Whoso judgeth not by that which Allah hath revealed: such are evil-livers.
SHAKIR: And the followers of the Injeel should have judged by what Allah revealed in it; and whoever did not judge by what Allah revealed, those are they that are the transgressors.
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/quran/005.qmt.html

 

I'm sure I'll offend...but I find the Koran to be confusing as to Christianity. It presents a vision of a Christian faith I'm unfamiliar with...and suggests that trinity = polytheism. at one point it says that Christians are the one group of people you can trust and who are most like Muslims....at other points it suggests they aren't to be trusted and that you shouldn't develop close relationships with them.

 

That has nothing to do with it.

There are many differences, but a very simple and basic one would be their definitions of the afterlife. There's a huge difference between the idea of Karma/reincarnation/escape-from-the-cycle and Heaven/Heal.