The Eric Metaxas Show - Doug Groothuis

Episode Date: October 4, 2023

Doug Groothuis "World Religions in Seven Sentences"

Folks, welcome to the Eric Metaxus show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m. Investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Do you check your bucket list lately? Are you ready to take care of item number seven? Listening to the Eric Metaxe show? Well, welcome. Tune in and then move on to item number eight, skydiving with Chuck Schumer and AOC. Here now is Mr. Completed My bucket list at age 12, Eric Mat, Texas. Folks, welcome back.

In a few minutes, I'm talking to Doug Groatheist. We're talking about seven sentences on world religions. This is going to be fun, I guarantee it. But right now I get to continue talking to Roger Stone because my producer was out of the room and he couldn't stop me. Roger, it is so much fun to talk to you. you were just making the point about DeSantis and the loyalty thing. And look, I take that very seriously.

I don't think DeSantis is a bad guy. I think he's been a great governor. But I really think that it was a tremendous miscalculation on his part. Probably, and you know this, it's not even probably, people with a lot of money who really hate Trump, they did the hard sell. on Ron DeSantis. You must do this. We will back you. You can't fail.

But he does seem not to have the Jeune de Siqua that you have to have if you're going to be, you know, a force in politics in America. And he does come across as wooden. And I just think it's a pity. I hope he remains governor of Florida for a long time. He's a wonderful governor. But it is so strange to me that people who just can't abide Trump did this and really put all their eggs in that basket. I guess I would argue, first of all, that likability is an absolute key factor in American politics.

Ronald Reagan had it. Donald Trump has it. Ron DeSantis does not have it. There's nothing likable about him. There's nothing warm. He's socially awkward. he's very, very strange. He's either an introvert and an expert's business or perhaps he's on the spectrum. I'm uncertain, but it's impossible to warm to him and his physical mannerisms are very

weird. The other thing, though, that is even more problematic is I'm going to argue with the assertion that he's a good governor. He took $9.5 million from Florida power and light, and we got a 22% electricity increase, the largest single increase in state history. If your home was destroyed in one of the two recent hurricanes, and you don't like what your home insurance company is offering you to replace your home or say your roof, you no longer have the ability to sue them. That's because of a bill that Governor DeSantis signed after taking $4.5 million from the insurance companies. He's been a, he's missing an action as governor. The state has an insurance crisis.

The state has a malaria crisis. The state has a growing crime crisis. And the governor is in Iowa trying to make his last stand. By the way, he's term limited. So he's in his final term as governor. He cannot run again. And I think he's very badly damaged his brand back here in Florida. Now, I did not think that the voters would care about the loyalty factor, but I was entirely wrong about that. Voters understand where Ronda Santis came from, and many say if he had just waited his turn, at least on paper, he would have been the natural candidate for 2028. I think that the flaws in his candidacy would have shown then anyway, just as a shrewd observer of political horse flesh, but perhaps not.

But let me put it in another way. If you have a chance to see the Beatles or a Beatles tribute band, which one are you going to say? We're going to go for the original article. Donald Trump is the leader. In fact, he's the founder of the America First Movement in American politics. Ron DeSantis is essentially establishment Republican who knows the words to the music, but I'm not sure he really believes them. Wow. Well, before we go, a couple of people sometimes.

have said nice things about Nikki Haley. I think they're deeply mistaken. I don't trust Nikki Haley. I have to say, I want to ask, what do you know, because I know that you know about these things? What do you know about Nikki Haley? I agree with your assessment. She's George W. Bush in a skirt.

She seems to be interested in endless foreign war. I mean, she's almost like Lindsey Graham in drag. This entire Ukraine first position that she exhibited in the debate is one that I don't think Republicans have much of an appetite for, or at least they have a receding appetite for. She is your unreconstructed neocon. She will never be president. She'll also never be vice president. And if Donald Trump has anything to say about it, she'll never be in another cabinet position. That is the exact brand of republicanism that Trump's nomination in 2016 is a rejection of. Ukraine first, America, second. The entire history of the conflict in Ukraine,

was never properly aired in the debate. Vivek Ramoswamy takes what I think is closest to the correct position. But sadly, he doesn't explain it nearly as well as, say, Robert F. Kennedy does who understands historically, this is not about Russia seeking to dominate Ukraine. It's about Russia objecting to NATO missiles pointed at Russia being based in Ukraine in violation of an agreement that this country signed with Russia. Unbelievable. Before we go, RFK Jr. has announced he's running as an independent. The question is whether that will take more votes away from Trump or from Biden or from whomever is put forward to replace Biden when he is eaten by worms? It's a two-part question, really.

First, while the notion of running his independence sounds great, you can't just wave a wand and become an independent. You have to get on the ballot in 50 individual states where the process to get on the ballot is very expensive, very arcane, very manpower intense and very truncated. In other words, you have to qualify, in most cases, with a certain number of pristine, certified signatures of voters, a very high number within a very short period of time. Whether Robert Kennedy's current campaign has the structure, the organization, the planning,

the money, the know-how to do that really remains to be seen. So we should not just assume that because it is, is his intention to run as an independent, that he will succeed in getting on the ballot in enough states to theoretically garner 270 electoral votes. Based on what little polling I have seen so far, it appears to me that he polls disproportionately from Trump rather than from Biden or whoever the Democrat may be. But let's be very clear. Half of his votes come from people who would go to neither the Democrat nor Trump, but who otherwise would not vote. So we're talking about a relatively small number of votes.

The chances of him carrying a state in a three-way race and thus throwing the election into the House of Representatives because no candidate gets a majority within the electoral college, I think, are remote. I think he's been a positive force. I like a lot of the things he says. I don't like him on the question of abortion. I certainly don't like him on the question of climate change, which I believe is a hoax. But now I think he's becoming a destructive force in terms of wrenching this country out of the hands of the globalists.

And I think his candidacy in the end now is doomed. Watch the process of getting on the ballot very carefully. It is not a piece of cake. Wow. Well, just so good to have you, Roger. Thank you so much. We need to have you back more often because there's only one Roger Stone, folks. I want to remind you folks, people say, what can I do? What can I do? You heard Roger say it. You can pray, and you ought to pray, and you ought to understand that is significant. You need to understand how significant that is. There are things you can do other than pray. I want to recommend to you that you support the Alliance Defending Freedom. They are absolutely. heroes in fighting for liberty, free speech, religious liberty. They are absolute heroes on the front lines. Please go to metaxis talk.com. Give generously. We need your help. They need your help. America needs your help. God bless you as you give. Technology is moving so fast. It's hard for many churches and nonprofits to keep up with the trends, especially when it comes to giving. Stay ahead of

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Please go check it out today. That's legacy pminvestments.com. Hey there, folks. Welcome to the program. I have as my guest, Dr. Douglas. Grote Heiss, don't try to spell that. He is a professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary. He's written many books, been on this program many times before.

The new book, brand new books, called World Religions in Seven Sentences. This should be a very short program. Dr. Douglas Grodeheis, welcome back. Thanks, Eric. Nice to be back. So what inspired you to write a book with the title of World Religions in Seven Sentences? Well, I'd written a previous book with the audacious title of philosophy in seven sentences. So this was a follow-up to that.

The idea is basically to find representative sentences of the world religions and then expand on those sentences. So I'm not trying to be overly simplistic or reductionistic, but sometimes one idea. Doesn't simplistic imply overly? What's that? I'm sorry. Doesn't the word simplistic imply overly? You said, I'm not trying to be overly simplistic. That would be like saying, I'm trying to be simplistic.

I know what you mean. I'm teasing you. But look, it's fun to boil things down. But so one of the headlines here is that you're essentially saying that there are seven quote-unquote world religions. Well, actually, what I start with is atheism. So the title maybe is a little bit of a misnomer. So the first chapter is on Nietzsche and the statement, I'm looking at is God is dead. So I started with the idea, if atheism is true, then all the

religions are false, and we really can't defend any religion. So I know that there are a lot of approaches to atheism besides Nietzsche's, but Nietzsche is a very well-known, very famous atheist, and he has that parable of the madman, with which I'm sure you are familiar, where the madman comes in and says, I seek God, I seek God, and people joke about him and say, why is God lost, et cetera. And the idea is that we have killed God. The idea for Nietzsche is that God is no longer a live option in educated society in the middle of the 19th century in Europe. So we need to own up to that, realize the universe has no meaning, and we have to find an entirely different worldview. So I deal with a couple of his criticisms of religion in general. And he really had Christianity and

Judaism in mind more than the Eastern religion. But what he was saying was that two things. One is that religion is anti-life, that especially Christianity is against the body. And if you're a Christian, you have to deny the enjoyments of life. You have to deny the goodness of the body and so on. And I challenge that idea, obviously, because God created the world and said it was good. But, of course, since we're fallen, we do have to deny ourselves to follow Christ, but that's really the highest good because Christ said and demonstrated that he would bring

us abundant life and that he was the way the truth and the life. So that critique really falls short. Christianity is anti-life. If we just get rid of God, then we have freedom, possibilities. We can create our own morality, create our own meaning. And of course, that idea is very much with us today, and it's a false and dangerous idea. And by the way, I believe that. The other idea, I'm sorry, go ahead. Yeah, very quickly. The other idea of Nietzsche's is that there can be a God because too many people don't believe in God. This is today called the hiddenness of God objection.

And it's the claim that if God is all good and all powerful, he would want to have a relationship with everyone. So everyone would just naturally believe in God. And I think the response to that is well said by my favorite, philosopher, who is not Nietzsche, who is Blaise Pascal. And Pascal dealt with this a long time ago in Ponce, and he said that there's enough evidence for those who want to know God, and there's enough obscurity to allow those who are otherwise disposed to turn away. And some philosophers have called this cognitive freedom. So God has revealed himself in nature and in the conscience and in scripture, but you are not compelled to believe. You have the responsibility to follow up

on the clues and the evidence that God is given. But the fact that there are unbelievers, a lot of unbelievers, is really not evidence against God, especially if you can build up a strong case for God from science and history, as I have in my book, Christian Apologetics, and you have in your books as well. So I think both of Nietzsche's criticisms fall very short. Nietzsche had some positive things to say about Buddhism. Buddhism is not a theistic worldview, but he was not a Buddhist. He denied all religions. So I basically start the book with a pretty short critique of atheism. I've got a much longer critique about 250 pages in my book, Christian Apologetics. And then we move on to six of the major world religions.

Before you go into the other world religions, I just want to say that, because when you bring up Nietzsche and, you know, the is God dead thing, God is dead, what I find funny, obviously you know I wrote a book called Is Atheism Dead? Because it strikes me that what you said, the evidence for God is overwhelming

on every level. And I would actually argue that everyone does, know that God exists. Some people just hate him enough or are confused enough that they say that they don't. But it is effectively impossible not to believe that God exists. And the animus that a lot of atheists have against believers, I would say, is really against God himself. So it is a strange argument. And when I ask the question, is atheism? People say, no, it can't be dead because I know an atheist. And I think, well, I know flat earthers, but flat earthism is dead. It doesn't really matter that there are people confused enough to say, I believe in flat earth theory. If you're

paying attention, the argument is over. Atheism is preposterous. So if you're upset about God, we can have conversations. But the idea that you would actually assert that there is no God, it no longer makes any sense. So I think it's vital to say that in response to to what you were saying about that the argument from, I don't know, what would you call it the argument? It's called the hiddenness of God argument. The hiddenness of God argument. Okay.

So that's just one. And I also would say that atheism actually is a religion, essentially, but we don't have to get into that. But so what are the other religions and what are some of the sentences that you use to describe them as headlines? Well, I start out with Judaism. And the statement that I took was God's revelation to Moses. in the burning bush where Moses said, what is your name? Who is sending me to deliver your people?

And God says, I am who I am. I was talking to a rabbi about this a few months ago. And he was curious. The book had not come out yet. And he said, what sentence did you use for Judaism? And he thought I was going to use the Shama. You know, hero Israel, the Lord your God is one. And I said, well, I certainly could have chosen that. But I wanted to deal with the Jewish concept of God. And I also relate that in the book to Jesus' statement before Abraham was, I am. I think it's legitimate to use that statement from Judaism from Exodus 3 because Judaism, of course, is nothing without the God who makes the covenant with the Jews and the God who delivers the Jews from Egypt and who makes promises about their coming redemption, which we as Christians believe has come through the Messiah, Jesus Christ. So what I look at is the significance of this statement. It's kind of a mysterious statement.

It can be translated a few different ways. But there's some key elements that I like to focus on as a philosopher. And one is that God is a self-reflective personal being. He says, I am who I am. So he's not an impersonal force or principle or some unknowable, unnameable something, which actually comes up in Buddhism and Hinduism and Taoism. He is a reflective agent who makes promises and fulfills those promises. He's a person.

He's not an energy force. Yeah, it's not a universal energy, force principle, consciousness, something like that. I mean, he is a consciousness. He's a self-reflective being who acts in the world. And also something I point out, which is so significant, and this has to do with the philosophy of language is that God is a God who speaks. He speaks truth into the world.

And the great Carl Henry, with whom I'm sure you're familiar, had a lot in his six-volume God Revelation and Authority on the God who speaks, the God who speaks and shows. And compare that to Taoism, for example, in the Tao teaching, it says the Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao. Well, that should have been the end of the book right there. because the Tao cannot be spoken, the Tao cannot be written, the Tao cannot be cogitated, the Tao just is a big question mark. But that's not biblical religion. God is a God who thinks

and acts and speaks and he speaks in ways that are intelligible. And communication is vital to human flourishing. You know, if you can't communicate well with your spouse, with your child, even with your pet, you can't get the point across, to people, or animals in some cases, then you're just in the dark. That's, this is, uh, we're going to, we're going to hit pause there. We'll be right back. I'm talking to Dr. Douglas Groteheist. I will spell it when we come back.

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That's a 50% discount. visit mypillow.com today or dial 800-978-3057 to grab this deal with promo code Eric. Act fast. It won't last. Use promo code Eric for more specials. 800-9783057. Use promo code Eric or Mypillow.com. Welcome back. Folks. I'm talking to Dr. Douglas Groot-Heist. Professor Philosophy, Denver Seminary. He has a new book out called World Religions in Seven Sentences. And Dr. Grode-Heist, you have many books. people to be able to look them up, so they have to be able to spell your last name. It is spelled G-R-O-O-O-T, as in Groot, G-R-O-O-T, H-U-I-S.

Now, that seems Dutch to me. Am I getting that right? You're right. Yeah, it means large house in Dutch. Large house, Grout-Hise, Groot-Hise. I have a bitter animus toward the Dutch people. I will not discuss it on this show. I want to talk to you about your book.

We're just talking now about world religions in seven sentences. So you're just talking about the Eastern religions, and they really have, I always find it funny and kind of overly gracious when people say they talk about the great religions of the world or whatever. It really, we're talking about dramatically different things. I mean, when you're talking about Judaism and Christianity or even Islam, they might be spoken of together. But when you start talking about the Eastern religions, it's really more like philosophy.

It's more like it just, it's dramatically different. So when people say, you know, don't all religions effectively say the same thing, not even, not even close. And that's why I'm glad you wrote the book World Religions in seven sentences. So let's talk about some of those Eastern religions. Right. Well, one we could talk about, which I mentioned in the previous segment, is Taoism. and Taoism doesn't have huge numbers of followers around the world, maybe just a few million. But there is this book, which is one of the most translated and popular books of all time, actually.

It's way behind the Bible. But it's called the Dao Te Ching or The Way. And it was supposedly written by a sage named Lao Tzu. Not much is known about Lao Tzu. He may not have even existed. We're not sure about that. But it actually doesn't matter to Taoism. Of course, it matters tremendously to Christianity that Jesus existed and died to tone for our sins and rose from the dead.

But Taoism has this statement in the Tao Te Ching that many people know and many people take to be extremely profound. And that is the Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao. So what does Tao mean? Tao roughly means the way or the path. and Taoism, if you read the Tao Te Ching, and compare it to the Bible, it's extremely different. It's a collection of aphorism, sayings. There's really no narrative to speak of. There's nothing like prophecy, fulfilled prophecy.

Very different than the Bible. But as a philosopher and just as a thinker, I wanted to look at this idea that the Tao, or the way of life, the basic reality of being. cannot be spoken. So if it is spoken, if it is written, then it's not the eternal doubt. Now, in one sentence, in one way, that's just obvious because a sentence about something is not the same as the thing you're describing. So a sentence about Eric is not the same as Eric, but that's just trivial. They're trying to say something more than that. And that is that the deepest dimensions of being cannot be put into language whatsoever. So how can you know that?

How can you even write the sentence? The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao. That's a sentence about the Tao, denying knowledge about the Tao. So we're getting into a logical problem there. But just think about this idea if this sentence is supposedly indicative of reality. That means that if you want to be a logical problem there, but just think about this idea if this sentence is supposedly indicative of reality, that means that if you want to to know the way of life, the way of having a family, the way of pursuing a career, the way of enjoying nature, the way of religion. Well, you really have no word on that. I mean, compare that

to Scripture, like to John 1. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. All things are made through Him, and without Him nothing has been made that has been made. and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And the word there, of course, is Logos, which is a very profound word philosophically because it has to do with the ordering of the universe. Now, you might say, well, that sounds like Tao. Could you say in the beginning was the Tao?

No, because the Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao. And Jesus Christ is the Logos incarnate. In fact, in John 118, it says, that the Logos has made the Father known, made the Father known. He was the living word, and he taught the truth about God and the way to live and salvation in the afterlife. So two things could really not be more different than the Logos and the Tao, because the Tao is supposedly beyond words, beyond description, beyond language.

And there's a whole school of thought that teaches this kind of thing. You see it in parts of Hinduism too. The idea that Brahman, the ultimate reality, is beyond language, beyond thought. Brahmin has no qualities, no attributes. You can't say anything about something that has no qualities. In fact, if something has no qualities, it can't even exist. That's a basic logical problem. So a lot of what I do in the book is to up.

try to compare a Judeo-Christian worldview and concept of revelation and a more eastern view of one form of Buddhism and Taoism. And I also critique Buddhism along those lines too, because Buddhism has this concept of Nirvana, which is different than the Tao. We're going to forgive me, you have to go to another break. Folks, I want to remind you, please go to Metaxistalkis talk.com, click on the banner. for the Alliance Defending Freedom. Very, very important. Metaxus talk.com. We'll be right back with Douglas Groteheist, the new book World Religions in seven sentences.

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It will change your life. You need to see this movie with your friends and family. The Essential Church is streaming today exclusively at SalemNow.com. That's Essential Church, streaming at SalemNow.com. Welcome back. I'm talking to Dr. Douglas Grote Heist, Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary. The new book is World Religions in Seven Sentences. And it seems to me that one of the things missing from some of the Eastern religions that you've touched on are the ideas of joy and love.

There seems to be a bleakness or a blankness at the heart of some of these philosophies. In other words, they seem to be anti-human, as though the goal of life is to transcend life, which not only is it unappealing, but it seems very, very confusing. And I think, you know, when you were talking about Nietzsche's view of Christianity, sometimes Christianity has been twisted in those directions so that people, whether

Nietzsche or Mark Twain or other people, they have been responding to a bastardized version of Christian faith, a version of Christian faith that is kind of bleeding toward Gnostic view or those kinds of of things. And so the biblical faith is not that kind of a faith. It's a very human, grounded faith. God comes to redeem matter. He doesn't tell us just to transcend matter, but that's exactly the opposite of what you're describing in some of the Eastern religions. Well, it is, and you have to go back to the nature of God and the creation that God brought forth. So we're told in Genesis that God created one kind of thing after another. And he says, it is good.

It is good. After he creates human beings, he says, it is very good. And we're told in Genesis that we're made in the image and likeness of God. And that is a teaching that's found in exactly one religious book, the Bible. It's not found in any other religious book. In fact, recently, I'm not going to get political on this, but recently, Vivek Ramoswami was asked about his belief. He said, well, I'm a Hindu. And as a Hindu, I believe everyone is made in the image and likeness of God.

And I went, whoa. Wait a minute. What version of Hinduism is that? That's called American cultural Hinduism, which is actually not Hinduism. Yeah. Right. Now, Hinduism teaches the exact opposite, which is the caste system, that human beings are born into specific casts and they cannot change cast within their lifetime. is based on karma and reincarnation. Two other things the Bible, two things the Bible does not teach. And it was fascinating. I just wrote a little article on that,

which will probably come out in the stream fairly soon. But there's exactly one religious book, one sacred scripture that teaches were made in the image and likeness of God. And that's the Bible. You don't find it in Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism. It's not in Islam either. Because Islam teaches that Allah is so transcendent,

so beyond us, that to say we're made in his image is actually considered blasphemy in Islam. But of course, being made in the image of God, according to the Bible, means that we reflect God, we represent God, we have certain qualities, we have creativity, we have relationality, rationality. But of course, we're infinitely short of being the uncreated creator.

So there's still a distinction, a big gap between us and God. But according to personality, God is an infinite personality, and we are finite personalities. And so the setup, metaphysically, is that God can speak to us, God can communicate to us, we can relate to God, the lines of communication, at least in terms of the basics of creation are open. The problem is sin. You know, the problem is rebellion against God.

And that's exactly why Christ came is to atone for our sin. It's funny when you bring up Vivek Ramoswami making that statement, Oh, I'm a Hindu, and I believe we're all made in God's image. And it just reminds me that when somebody claims to be some religion, chances are they're full of baloney. In other words, that many times people say, I'm a Christian, and you talk to them and you realize they don't have any idea of the most basic teachings. And I think that you find this a lot in the United States that people identify as this or that, but they don't even know the basics of it, really, so that they're actually only, He's a cultural Hindu, which is to say not a Hindu, but there are many people that are cultural Catholics or cultural Christians or cultural Muslims. I meet them every day in New York.

They don't really, they just kind of identify tribally. You know, I grew up in Saudi Arabia or I grew up here, so I'm, I guess I'm a Muslim, which is interesting to me, because we are, that's why it's important that people understand what these religious. teach and don't believe the lie that they're all sort of the same. Your book, of course, titled World Religions in Seven Sentences, because the differences among them are very dramatic. I mean, it's just, you know, in the little bit we're touching on right now, you start realizing that. Yeah, exactly.

Stephen Prothero wrote a terrific book about 10 or 12 years ago called Religious Literacy. And he said, Americans are very religious, more religious, let's say, than people in Western Europe, but they typically don't know much of anything about religion, including their own, which he thought was a paradox. We're much more religious than secular Europe, but he said secular Europeans tend to know more about religion, even though they're not religious. Americans tend to be religious, but are pretty ignorant about the religion they identify with and other religions as well. So one of the things my book can do is give you the basics on the world religions. Now, it is written from a Christian viewpoint, but I try to be fair with the other

religions, and I do critique the other religions philosophically, and I compare them to Christianity. But we live in a religiously plural world, especially if you're in a cosmopolitan area like you are, I am in Denver. So you are going to meet Buddhists and Muslims and New Age people and the rest of it. So we need to understand some basic beliefs. And of course, if we're followers of Christ, we need to understand what we believe and why, which is just vital. And, you know, I've stopped looking at the Barnapoles because they're always such bad news about how Christians don't even really know what Christianity is. But we certainly should. Well, when you talk about, you know, the Hindu caste system, for example, people need to know that that is racism.

That is as racist as it gets. One group is better than another group. That's better than another group. That group is inferior. Those groups, those people are untouchable by definition. That is as antithetical to what the Bible teaches as anything ever could be. It's fundamentally un-American. But that's the actual teaching of Hinduism.

Somebody needs to tell Vivek. We'll be right back talking to Douglas Grote Heist, the brand new book, World Religions, Seven sentences. Some people go to church just to signify. Trying to make a date with a neighbor's wife. Welcome back. Folks.

I'm talking to Dr. Douglas Grote Heist, Professor Philosophy at Denver Seminary. The new book is World Religions in Seven Sentences. So we're talking about the dramatic differences among these various world religions. and again, a lot of Americans in particular are guilty of buying this lie. Like, oh, we're all, you know, we all sort of believe the same thing. Well, we're all created in God's image, but that idea doesn't come from all these religions. And the religions themselves really disagree almost more fundamentally than we can imagine. I mean, some of them say there is a God.

Some of them say there is no God. it's pretty dramatic when you actually look at it. So thank you for writing this book, World Religions in seven sentences. So what have we left out? Well, we left out quite a bit. Maybe we could touch on Islam briefly because we talked about Hinduism and Taoism and briefly mentioned Buddhism. But of course, Islam is a monotheistic religion.

And some people will say that we have the three Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity. in Islam that all trace their lineage back to Father Abraham and God revealing himself to Abraham. Now, what I argue in the book is there's a natural continuity between Judaism and Christianity. Christ fulfills the messianic prophecies and the hope of Israel, and I make a case for that. But when you come to Islam, you have a discontinuity. Now, yes, Islam is monotheistic. it believes there's one God who sends prophets who created the world, who will judge the world. And Islam in the Quran says some positive things about Jesus, that he was sinless, that he worked miracles, things that are not said about Muhammad.

But I want to emphasize in the book that there is no continuity between Christianity and Islam. Islam claims to be the replacement of Christianity and the replacement of Judaism because it is claiming a a new revelation. Muhammad supposedly received a revelation from the God, Allah, through the angel Gabriel. But what do we find in that purported revelation? Well, the denial of the deity of Jesus, the denial that he died on the cross, which you don't have to be a Christian to believe any secular historian of that period, who emphasizes that period, will certainly claim that whatever else you think about Jesus.

by the Romans. That's a settled fact of history. Denies, of course, that Jesus is divine, that he is the mediator between God and man. So I think it makes sense to ask the question, why should we believe this? When we have such strong evidence for the Jesus of the New Testament, we have the gospel writers, the testimony of Peter and Paul, we have extra-biblical historians attesting to certain facts about Jesus. And why is it that over 500 years later, someone goes into a cave to meditate and supposedly receives a revelation that denies the gospel message of Scripture that Christ came to deliver us from our sins. He died on the cross. He rose again from the dead. He's at the right hand of the Father. Why should we believe this? I just don't find good reason

to do so. So, sure, you're describing monotheism. Islam is a monotheistic religion, along with Christianity and Judaism, but its type of monotheism is really quite different from what you have in either Judaism or in Christianity. So the sentence I chose for Islam is, there is one God and Muhammad is his prophet, which is what is confessed when someone becomes a Muslim. That's all they have to do is simply confess that with conviction. So I say, yes, there is one God, but Muhammad is not his prophet. We're going to have to leave it there. Folks, I want you to be able to spell Grootheist, G-R-O-O-O-T-H-U-I-S, Douglas Groatheist, the new book, World Religions in seven sentences. Dr. Groteheist, thank you.

You're welcome. Thanks, Eric.