After all, if Islam is supposed to be the conclusion and replacement of Judaism and Christianity, then it should have wider, deeper and more plentiful types and foreshadowing in the Old Testament that point toward its prophet… Right?
Compared to Christianity, which places Jesus Christ as the fulfilment of the entire Old Testament – particularly prophecies, types and foreshadowing (Colossians 2:17) leading to Himself.
Of course you have the hundred plus prophetic passages that were specifically fulfilled by Jesus.
Which includes OT books that were written at the very minimum 122 years before Jesus was born on earth.
Or like the various festivals ordained by God in Leviticus 23, and how they are types of the New Testament… Such as the Passover where a perfect, firstborn, male lamb’s blood saves from physical death and none of its bones are broken (Exodus 12:46, Numbers 9:12) typifying Christ the sinless Lamb of God’s blood saving from spiritual death and none of His bones were broken while on the cross (Psalm 34:19-20 John 19:31-36). I mean, what is the purpose and significance of not breaking the Passover lamb’s bones which would let you get at the juicy marrow? Without pointing to Christ, it’s meaningless and confusing.
Or the Festival of Firstfruits where the first and best of the harvest is offered to God on the first Sunday following Passover typofying Jesus returning to life on the Sunday after Passover, as the firstfruits and firstborn from the dead and resurrected (1st Corinthians 15:20-23, Colossians 1:18).
And there are countless acts and events that seem to be arbitrary or make no sense, unless they are put into the context of prophetic typology leading to Christ… Such as Moses being commanded by God to produce water from the rock on two separate occasions. The first time he was commanded to strike it (Exodus 17:1-7), the second time merely to speak to it (Numbers 20:1-13). However Moses, in anger and frustration at the stubborn Israelites, instead struck the rock twice the second time. God punished his disobedient act by barring him from leading the Israelites into the Promised Land.
Why such a harsh sentence for Moses? Was it just for his (very rare) disobedience and temper? Especially when he was commanded the first time to strike, but ‘arbitrarily’ the second time to speak instead? This always seemed to me to be missing something.
Here is the something: Moses’ acts were supposed to foreshadow Jesus Christ as the solid rock (Psalm 27:5, Matthew 7:24-27, Matthew 16:18) who gives us living water (John 4:13-14) that is the Holy Spirit (John 7:38-39). Christ was struck down only once (1st Peter 3:18), and after that promises the Father will give the Holy Spirit when Jesus merely asks. What Moses did with his brief flaring of anger was to spoil God’s carefully considered typology of Christ’s sacrifice bringing the Holy Spirit!
Or Abraham’s near-sacrifice of a Isaac, and how God stopped him at the last moment only to provide a male sheep for the sacrifice instead. In Christianity, Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his only son of promise is a type of God’s sacrifice of His only son Jesus on the cross – and just as God provided the male sheep in the place of Isaac, He did not spare to provide Christ as the sacrificial lamb – who by the way is descended from the line of Isaac, not Ishmael. More typological symbolism can be found at the lists here and here.
By contrast, what prophetic or typological significance is there in the Islamic analogue of Ibrahim near-sacrificing Ismail???
So, anyone can educate me on the case for Islam as the typological inheritor and prophetic fulfilment of the Old Testament? If you can outnumber the New Testament fulfilments I’d be impressed, since Islam is supposed to supplant Christianity as the completion of the God’s revelation! It shouldn’t be that hard… After all, the entire Quran is about the length of the New Testament, and you can add all the various Hadith as well.
Jesus said in Matt 5:20, For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Islam tries to be that, ‘more righteous than the Pharisees’, with their expanding and deepening of the OT-style Mosaic law.
But Jesus’ actual meaning is that a continued legalistics focus on law is not the answer… After all, look where it got the Pharisees. Rather, what is needed is a paradigm change to grace.
Islam just offers more of the old.
———————
See also another contrast, One Piece’s Neptune – A Kingly Sacrifice: Christian and Muslim Views… And an agreement, Walad and Ibn: Christianity Agrees With Islam, God Did Not Have a Son (Sexually).







