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© 2009 All rights reserved. Rightly‐dividing.com Page 1
Following the “Five Pillars” to Get to Heaven?
With the world becoming much more aware of Islam, which is essentially a works
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based religion,the idea of working for your salvation, or eternallife continues to be a hot topic of discussion.To hear members of the Islamic faith tell it, it’sreally not all that different than any other religionwhich claims that by keeping specific lawsthroughout their life, one gains salvation. Tell methis is not works
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based. Of course it is works
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based.There is NO religion besides Christianity that statessomething else altogether; that salvation comes bygrace, through faith in Christ’s finished work onCalvary’s cross. It is that simple, however it is notsomething that seems palatable to people in general, because of that very fact of being“simple.”In this article, I’ll be quoting from another website that is dedicated to attacking,vilifying and debunking Christian beliefs concerning God, Jesus, the Bible, theresurrection, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, etc., etc. The difficulty of course is uponreading many of their rantings, it becomes very clear that they really do not understandwhat the text of Scripture says, much less how to defend or debunk it. In fact, even acursory glance by many will highlight the fact that these deluded folks simply do notknow their history, nor do they understand the vernacular used in biblical times todescribe events, people and history.However, the focus of this article is on what Islam believes about gaining eternal life,and if that is even something that the Muslim can know without doubt in this life thatthey actually have obtained. We’ll follow their line of reasoning and see where we endup and then we’ll talk about the Bible and what it has to say about eternal life.One of the biggest areas of difference between Islam and Christianity (besides thedifference between Mohammed and Jesus), is the way an individual obtains or receiveseternal life.
ISLAM’S ‘ETERNAL LIFE’
In Islam, the devout Muslim must follow what is termed the “Five Pillars” in order toeven hope of obtaining, or becoming a possessor of eternal life. Those Five Pillars are:
 
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Shahada which is their Profession of Faith2.
 
Salah which is their Prayers3.
 
Zakat which is the Giving of Alms4.
 
Sawm which is Fasting during Ramadan5.
 
Hajj which is their Pilgrimage to MeccaAs I indicated, if a devout Muslim is consistent about following these Five Pillars, thenthe chances of becoming a possessor of eternal life is greatly increased, but notguaranteed.I can think of no other religion off the top of my head (and that would include thereligion of the New Age movement), where the possibility of obtaining eternal life,salvation, entering paradise, or whatever these religions call it, is not received via works.In fact, the one thing that they all have in common is that they are all works
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basedreligions, or religious systems.Christianity is the only religion (for the lack of a better word) which unequivocally statesthat salvation comes through grace, by faith in the finished redemptive work of JesusChrist on Calvary’s cross.
MUSLIMS’ VIEW OF CHRISTIANITY
However, what is interesting is that if you talk to a Muslim about Christianity, they willtell you that Jesus talked about following the Law, by loving your neighbor as yourself and loving God above all things.Here is a quote that bears testimony to that idea: “’What must I do to inherit eternallife?’ No other question can be more straight forward than this. Notice how Jesusanswered this straight forward question: ‘Love the Lord your God with all yourheart......and love your neighbor as yourself......Do this and you will live.’“Notice that Jesus didn't talk about any trinity
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lie concept, nor did he say to the manthat he must accept Jesus as a mediator between him and GOD Almighty to win EternalLife. Jesus was pretty clear and straight forward here: LOVE GOD ALMIGHTY AND LOVEYOUR NEIGHBORS AS YOURSELF. That is simply all there is to it to win eternal life inJesus' standards.“It certainly wasn't necessary for the man who asked the question to believe in trinity inorder for him to be saved. Jesus assured him Paradise if he believed otherwise.”
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 The owner of the website in question continues this theme by quoting various gospelaccounts of Luke 10 and Luke 18 (Rich Young Ruler). Here it is pointed out that the manenters into conversation with Jesus by saying “Good teacher…?” Jesus responds with“Why do you call me ‘good’? No one is good, except God alone.” The owner of the
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http://www.answering
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christianity.com/jesus_paradise.htm
 
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website is offering this as proof that Christ is literally denying the fact that He is God.Actually, in point of fact, Jesus is not doing this. He is asking the young ruler astraightforward question which amounts to “Are you calling me ‘good’ because youactually think I am good, or that you think I am God?” The man doesn’t respond toJesus’ comment, so Jesus tells the man what he must do in order to inherit eternal life.Christ goes on to point out that since this young man felt that he had upheld every lawgiven to him through Moses, he still lacked one thing. The one thing was that he placeda very high value in his own riches.Jesus tells him to sell everything he had, give to the poor and follow Him (Christ). Theresult is that the man walks away extremely sad. Why? Because he was unwilling topart with his money.
SO IS ETERNAL LIFE EARNED OR GIVEN?
 So just what exactly is Christ saying; that if the young man simply DOES a few things, hewill inherit eternal life? Is Christ really advocating a works
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based salvation here?Hardly. What Christ is telling the young man is that he can be absolutely no good tohimself or anyone else unless he is willing to part with his own special god; the god of money and riches. Christ was literally telling the man to put down his idols and worshipthe one, true God. Salvation for this young man would only be found in coming to gripswith the fact that his idolatry was the only thing that was keeping him from obtainingsalvation. Jesus was not telling the man to go out and get involved in good works forsalvation. He was telling him without equivocation that he would never be able toreceive salvation as long as he continued to cling to his idols.Proof of the above is the fact that Jesus did not tell every rich person he saw that thiswas in fact what he needed to do to receive salvation. When Christ met Zaccheus, achief tax collector (Luke 19:1
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10), he tells him to come down from the tree becausetoday, Jesus would dine with him. Of course the people who heard this invitation byJesus were absolutely shocked. How could a man like Jesus be willing to dine with a“dirty” man like Zaccheus?! Obviously Christ was not aware of who this man really wasand how he had possibly cheated his own brothers (fellow Jews).Please note the text says that Jesus says nothing, but simply stood waiting. It wasZaccheus who actually said something first and this is what he said: “Behold, Lord, thehalf of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by falseaccusation, I restore him fourfold.” Jesus’ response is telling: “This day is salvationcome to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man iscome to seek and to save that which was lost.”Did salvation come to Zaccheus because of what he intended to do? No, salvation cameto Zaccheus because he saw that his life was in need of salvation and because of that henaturally wanted to do what was right. This is the amazing thing about salvation. When
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