ksazma posted:Keith posted:Fate is usually thought of as a predetermined course of events beyond human control. A typical response to a belief in fate is resignation if we can’t change destiny, then why even try? Whatever happens, happens, and we can’t do anything about it. This is called "fatalism," and it is not biblical.
Fatalism is a major premise of Islam as you might know, which demands total submission to the sovereignty of Allah.
I find this quite interesting especially since it is such an erroneous point of view. Coming from a Christian makes it amusing. First of all, submission to the "sovereignty of Allah" (actually it is submitting to the ways of Allah) has nothing to do with predestination. Islam teaches that everyone is responsible for their actions alone. How much they do will determine how much they reap. They don't believe in a flawed ideology that people are born with or in sin. Every child is born free of sin and full of opportunity to make whatever they will out of life. After death, they will reap the rewards only of what they sow and will not have to bear the burden of any other person or thing. It also teaches that no one can carry another person's sins to the idea of anyone dying for peoples' sins is unacceptable.
Coming to your question @Amral, Islam teaches that because Allah is all knowing, He already knows how we will turn out. He did not write our destiny or our actions beforehand. He just know already how you or I will live and die. Christians say things like "God wants to know". That is completely foreign to Muslims because God does not test us so He can know what we will do. Because He already knows everything, He already knows how we will react to those tests. We are not all knowing so we wouldn't know how we would react to those tests so we are given the tests so we can learn about ourselves. Plus tests are also a good way for us to strengthen ourselves.
ksazam my brother, happy new year to you and the family. Fatalism within Islam is not something I made up, It's widely known, there was even an Oxford Islamic study on this particular issue and many other articles written on it.
"Every child is born free of sin", this is wrong. We are all born sinners with sinful, selfish natures. Unless we are born again by the Spirit of God, we will never see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).
No one has to teach a child to lie; rather, we must go to great lengths to impress upon children the value of telling the truth. Toddlers are naturally selfish, with their innate, although faulty, understanding that everything is "mine." Sinful behavior comes naturally for the little ones because they are born sinners.
We are born with a sinful nature, and we inherited it from Adam. "Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people" (Romans 5:12). Every one of us was affected by Adam's sin; there are no exceptions. "One trespass resulted in condemnation for all people" verse 18. We are all sinners, and we all share the same condemnation, because we are all children of Adam.
Adam and Eve were separated from God because of their sin in the garden of Eden. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Romans 3:23-24.
I have stated this many times before, during the times of Abraham, Isaac, etc. before the death of Christ on the cross sacrifices were made onto God by the killing of lambs to atone for man sin. Are we still sacrificing lamb today? No, Christ was the ultimate sacrifice for our sin to reconcile us back to God.
The statement you made above, "Christians say things like "God wants to know"", Christian(s) who are making such statement is WRONG for we know God is "omniscient".