Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 237
237. way to the same God to whom the Old Testament had guided men before. But after the death of Christ, the Christians set up a new God for themselves, of whom no trace was found in the books of Moses and ;the prophets, and who was quite unknown to the Israelites. Faith; in this new God overturned the whole scheme of the Old Testament doctrines. All the directions which had been given by the prophets of God for many centuries for attaining true purity of life and obtaining salvation from the bondage of sin, were overthrown, and purification from sin was based on the monstrous theory that Jesus was in fact God and that he himself chose to die a shameful and accursed death on the cross in order to give salvation to. the world. But the Christians did not stop here. They went further still and abo- lished many of the Old Testament laws which had been given for all times. In short, the Christian religion has uudergone a complete metamorphosis and is so completely changed that if Jesus himself were to come back, he would not recognise in Christianity the religion which he had taught and preached. It is astonishing indeed that men who had been eujoined to regu- late their conduct by the laws of Old Testament which had been given for all times forsook that sacred book all at once. For instance, it is nowhere written in the Gospels that the prohibi- tion against the flesh of swine was taken away by Jesus, or that circumcision which was required by the law was prohibited by him. How could principles be introduced into religion regard- ing which Jesus gave no directions? But it had been ordained that a universal religion viz-, Islaru, should be established upon earth, and the corruption of Christianity served as a sign of its advent- Hinduism had met a similar fate before the appearance of Islam. Idol-worship was prevalent throughout India, Corrupt