The Catholic church has been a massive influence on religion and even on pop culture throughout the world for longer than most people can remember.  

The Protestant Reformation of the 1500's caused a significant split in the church with many choosing to leave the organized Catholic church and plant various other "Protestant" churches.  

Martin Luther is widely accredited with starting the Protestant Reformation with his "95 Theses" which he nailed to the door of the All Saints Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517.  (Next year is the 500th aniversary) This document, composed in Latin, challenged the Popes authority and the churches selling of indulgences among other things.  

Luther's attempt to reform the Catholic church led to his excommunication and separation from the church and ultimately the creation of a new kind of church called the Protestant church.  The Protestant movement has led to many different denominations including but not limited to Baptists, Anabaptists, Calvanists, Lutherans, Methodists, and Pentacostals.  

Many popular church denominations today have originated from this Protestant movement and still hold to the positions that Luther and others like him espoused.  

The Catholic church has resisted many of the changes that Luther recommended and has held to the many of the original traditions and practices but both groups have evolved slightly over the years.  

This massive split within Christendom has led many people to ask, Who's right?  Is Catholicism a truer expression of Christianity than Protestantism? Are Catholics even Christian? Are Protestants?  If I choose to follow Jesus, will I be better off following him in a Catholic church or a Protestant church?  Does it even matter?  What are the actual differences between the two?

If you have questions about Protestantism or Catholicism, you are in luck.  Pastor Brian Reed gave a seminar which you can listen to here.  Also feel free to follow along with the downloadable notes.  

Well, the short answer is that Islam is a religion who's followers are called Muslims.  The long answer is a bit more complicated.  

A 2011 survey estimated that there are over 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide making Islam the 2nd largest religion in the world. 

1.6 billion is roughly 22% of the world’s population which means that for every 10 people in the world, 2 of them are probably Muslim.  That’s massive. 

A religion this large is difficult to put in a box and understand succinctly.  If you don’t believe me, ask two different people to explain the religion of Islam and you’ll quickly see that they either don’t know, or don’t agree. 

The American media has done very little to help us understand the complexities that naturally arise within a group of 1.6 billion people from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds.  Politics has muddied the waters even further which has led to misunderstandings and radical views based on false information. 
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Racism plays a huge role and replaces a lack of understanding with a fear of the unknown which has led to violence and hatred and even more racism.  American politics has drawn lines between peaceful Muslims and Radical Islamist Terrorists which has caused division even among Americans but it’s baffling to think that as much as Muslims are in the American news and as often as they are talked about, most Americans know very little about Muslim beliefs, practice, or history. 

It is important to remember that Islam is a large religion and the 1.6 billion followers are multi-faceted and complicated human beings.   If we want to understand, we should probably QUIT watching the news and START doing some research. 

But where do we start. 

Thankfully, Brian Reed has put together a fantastic eBook called "A Christian response to Islam", packed with information including:

• The Story of Muhammad
• Evaluation of Muhammad’s prophetic claims
• Muslim History after Muhammad
• Muslim Communities and Sects
• Muslim Beliefs and Practices
• The 5 core Beliefs and 5 Pillars of Islam
• The Muslim State
• The Meaning of Jihad
• A list of resources for further study
• And much more 

​You can download the eBook by clicking Here. 





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