William Lane Craig Misrepresents Islam!

 

I came across the above video by William Lane Craig titled: “Islam & Perfect Being Theology,” in which he brings the typical Evangelical accusation against Islam, that the God of Islam is not a “God of love”. Here is the transcript:

“According to perfect being theology, God is a maximally great being; and that resonates immediately with Muslims: The greatness of God, “Allah Akbar,” “God is great;” and so there is common ground here between Christians and Muslims with respect to God’s greatness. And I think that this can help the Muslim to refine his concept of God consistent with God’s maximal greatness. One of the problems that I have with a Muslim concept of God is that Allah seems to be morally defective. He is not an all-loving being. He only loves those who first love him. And so over, and over, and over again in the Koran we read about those whom Allah does not love. He only loves faithful Muslims. If they will love him, then he will love them in return, and that is a morally defective concept of God. And so I would appeal to the Muslim to revise his concept of God, to make it consistent with God’s being truly maximally great, and therefore morally perfect, and all-loving.”

I had previously discussed the subject of the love of God in Islam in two earlier blog posts which can be seen here and here, therefore there is no need to discuss it in further detail in this post. As far as God “hating” people is concerned, there are plenty of Bible verses affirming that God loves the righteous, and hates the wicked, the sinners, the unrighteous, of which the following are a few examples:

Leviticus 20:

23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.

Leviticus 26:

30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.

Deuteronomy 18:

12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

Deuteronomy 22:

5 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.

Psalm 5:

5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.

Psalm 5:

6 Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.

Psalm 11:

5 The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

Psalm 106:

40 Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance.

Jeremiah 12:

8 Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest; it crieth out against me: therefore have I hated it.

Jeremiah 14:

19 Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul lothed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!

Hosea 9:

15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.

Malachi 1:

2 I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob,

3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

Romans 9:

13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

According to the words of Jesus, the greatest commandment of all is to love God with all one’s heart, might, mind, and strength (Matthew 22:34–38; Mark 12:28–30; Luke 10:25–28). If that be the case, then not loving God is breaking the greatest of all the commandments of God, and qualifies one for the condemnation and disapproval of God above all else, according to the verses quoted above. And the Bible does indeed teach that God loves those who love him:

Proverbs 8:

17 I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.

So it looks like the Quran is spot on as far as its theology of “loving God” is concerned. God loves those who love him, and abhors those who hate him. His problem is that he doesn’t know his Bible very well; and his theology is based more on philosophy than the Bible. There is no such thing as a “perfect being theology”. That is his philosophical innovation. A theology is either biblical, or it isn’t. If it is biblical, then it is sound Christian theology, otherwise it isn’t.