Omar,
Have you accepted Jesus as your savior or have you rejected his FREE gift of eternal life? If not, is your salvation in doubt?
You're well aware that we do worship the lord of the Jesus, rather than one of his own messengers. (I believe he is considered the father in Christian faith)
Our salvation lies only in the hands of God himself. He made that very clear; he is the only one who could forgive or either punish his slaves.
Speaking of which, while he considered all of us his own slaves, then perhaps that could explain why he did ordered his followers to enslave disbelievers.
How do you know that your interpretation is correct when evidence is not allowed in matters of faith?
Critical-thinking is allowed to - an extent - in Islam, btw. You'd better hold the required qualifications though; deep thorough knowledge of Islamic literature, along extensive knowledge of Quran & Hadith contexts, for example. You'd also be aware of the no-invention principal in worship acts, which is a key stone in the face of anyone who would like, for example, to tailor his own prayers way or praying determined times.
To be honest, I'm not too qualified to give a completely correct opinion on that matter. Also it's possible that I didn't understand exactly the target of your question.
If God exists, he could be literally anything. If he inspired any of the worlds great religions then he is clearly a liar. There can be no other explanation for the hundreds of INTERNAL inconsistencies in each of their holy books. Do a search of Koran inconsistencies on google for example. These books have less internal consistency than the most 3rd rate hack historical writer in the modern era.
He can't be any "thing" since he is the one that created everything in our known universe. He won't possibly materialize in any substance that he had created to show us his craftsmanship.
Those inconsistencies of which you're speaking, you wouldn't believe me if I'm telling that in fact we don't consider them conflicting at all.
First, you must consider that there was a specific reason/event for many of verses (if not most) in any religious book.
Circumstances could change dramatically from one location, time, or age to another.
Mohamed for example, he held a great degree of mercy while in peaceful times. Where, as well known, he was ordered to strike with decisiveness against God's enemies during wars time.
Second, Quran wasn't released in a bulleted way of a clear and specific orders. He did it that way intentionally; a way of mercy in case you may carry that specific order and ignore another - depending on your objective judgment and extent of ability for you to carry that order. Flexibility
in some orders is real and irrefutable fact, known well by any Islamic scholar at least, and you may check it down further. But, there are also those rules that the evidence to back them up is very precise and pretty clear to the degree that it's considered non-negotiable subject.
Punishment/forgiveness subject: You'd find that in one verse it mentioned that he would punish us for each and every sin we do commit. While in others and particularly Hadith; his forgiveness is without limits, especially for those who regret and resort back to their Lord.
How could we combine both? from my understanding, it's quite clear that you can head for both ways: be that fearful person who abandon sins as best as he could, or that sinful one but he keeps regretting it and asks for forgiveness in each and every time he commit such act, and trust me
the God likes both kinds.
Third, there were some rules that was replaced with another while the context wasn't voided either. But those are limited in numbers.
Take for example, the controversial subject of Jihad (Islam by sword/by force) vs. non-coercion in religion choosing; both were mentioned clearly in Quran.
There is a major debate between some scholars over which one prevailed the other. Unfortunately though, I found a strong agreement that the sword verse was elected to role (obvious, if we look back into history).
Before you do that though, think about it hard. Do you really want to risk your faith for the truth? I now know the truth and it has made me a less happy person. If you really value your faith, these kinds of discussions can be very detrimental to it, especially if you are highly intelligent and logical. Many many many people have lost their faith in discussions just like this. This is the reason that I try to minimize discussions like this with my family. They are all happier than me and they all believe what their pastors tell them to believe without thinking that hard about what is actually true (none of them are critical thinkers)
Trust me I've done that already. Went through it during many stages of my life.
That's why I consider it's a must to stop at some point and make a major assessment of many aspects of our mindset and beliefs.
Problem is, I also in the same time wouldn't recommend that at all, since I well know how such painful/mind consuming process at sometimes it was. Honestly I'm mostly happy seeing people drafting away with their normal lives without questioning neither their religious believes, historical stories or politics.
Vast knowledge, knowing other sides stories, long observation process, history and objectivity are key points in order to decide your standing point.
Worst enemy of such process might be the too-quick-conclusions drawn by our own imaginations and nothing more.
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