Christians often distinguish themselves from Muslims by saying, “Islam is a religion of submission to rules, while Christianity is a relationship of love.”

However, when you press a devout Christian on what it actually means to be saved, the distinction collapses. If we look at the mechanics of both faiths—not the theology, but the required posture of the human—they appear to be the SAME PLAYBOOK.

Here is the case for why Fundamentalist Christianity is essentially “Islam with a different Savior.”

 The “Demons Believe” Problem

The Christian Claim: “We are saved by Faith alone, not by works. Muslims strive to earn Allah’s favor; we receive Jesus’s favor freely.”

The Reality Check: Ask a fundamentalist: “Can I believe Jesus is God, believe He died for my sins, and believe He rose again… but still live my life exactly how I want, ignoring His commands?”

They will inevitably say No. They will quote James 2:19: “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.”

The Conclusion: If “demon belief” (intellectual agreement) doesn’t save you, what is the missing ingredient? It is LORDSHIP. It is making Jesus the Master of your life. Therefore, the price of admission isn’t just “belief”—it is Total Surrender.

In Arabic, the word Islam literally means “Submission.”

In Christianity, “making Jesus Lord” literally means “Submission.”

The “Slave” Identity

Both faiths consider the highest human honor to be the total abdication of autonomy.

• Islam: The believer is called a slave/servant of Allah.
• Christianity: The Apostle Paul, in the original Greek, constantly refers to himself as a doulos (Rom 1:1, Phil 1:1).
  • Most modern Bibles soften this to “servant,” but the literal translation is “Bond-servant” or “Slave.”
  • A doulos has no will of his own; he only does the will of the Master.

 If Paul calls himself a “Slave of Christ” and a Muslim calls himself a “Slave of Allah,” why do you insist your system is about Freedom and theirs is about Bondage? Both systems demand the death of the “Self.”

 Both Christianity and Islam look to Abraham as the father of the faith. What is Abraham’s defining moment in both Bibles and the Quran?

• It wasn’t giving to the poor.
• It wasn’t being kind to strangers.
• It was his willingness to murder his own son (Isaac or Ishmael) because God told him to.

The Comparison:

• The Muslim View: Abraham is the hero because he submitted (Islam) to Allah’s will, even when it defied human ethics.
• The Christian View: Abraham is the hero because he feared God more than he loved his son.

 In both religions, the definition of “The Ultimate Good” is the same: Obedience to Authority overrides Human Ethics. If God asks you to kill your son, the “Moral” act is to say “Yes, Lord.”

 Christians cannot claim moral superiority over Islamic submission when their own “Father of Faith” is celebrated for the exact same act of blind obedience.

Christians argue: “But ours is a relationship! We obey because we love Him!” A “relationship” where one party holds the power of Eternal Torture over the other.

A “relationship” where one party holds the power of Eternal Torture over the other, and where the “love” is demonstrated by total obedience, has a name in the secular world. We don’t call that a partnership; we call it a Dictatorship.

If a Muslim obeys Allah to avoid Hell, and a Christian obeys Jesus to prove they are “truly saved” (and thus avoid Hell), the motivational structure is identical. The “Love” is indistinguishable from “Fear.”

If the only way to prove I am a ‘True Christian’ is to surrender my will, obey the commands, and call myself a slave to Christ… then Christianity isn’t the opposite of Islam. It is just a different dialect of the same language.