Muhammad grew up in a pagan setting, believing that the Kabah of holy Mecca was the house of God. Later people would come to believe that this Meccan shrine had originated with Adam, had been destroyed, and then been rebuilt by Abraham and Ishmael, founders of the true faith of God. Protected by a snake it was, says Lings.

The holy house of God was a place of prostration, where Abraham himself prostrated before God. A place of prostration is a masjid, or mosque. Muhammad is said to have been the first to enter the rebuilt Kabah, at which time he put a mysterious "stone" in place.

But growing up, it was simply the place where everyone went to honor whomever his god happened to be. One called "Allah" was the god of Muhammad's family. They faithfully honored him, and longed for the day when he would be exalted over the other gods.

This faith in a single god was inculcated into young Muhammad's thinking. It was eventually the driving force of his life, and is the driving force of Muslims around the world to this day.

As stated above, "Allah" is not the god of the Bible, though Muhammad attempted to bring this idea to his people. The Koran is filled with Bible-like stories, using Bible names, but most of them fall short of the Biblical account. Some of the stories are outright blasphemies, especially those dealing with the Son of God.

Over and over Muhammad denies that Allah is able to have a Son. Thus over and over he lets us know that Allah, with whatever "good" qualities he may possess, is not our god, but a creation of the new religion.

Jesus was raised in the already-established Judaism of Moses. Its people were oppressed by Rome in this day. Most of the fervor of the days of yore was vanished. Smart but often ungodly men ruled the religion from Jerusalem, the city conquered by David 1000 years earlier, and heaped upon with promises by God, promises that seemed far from fulfillment in Jesus' day.

Nevertheless, the House of God in the city of peace, Jerusalem, was standing. Muhammad surely must have known there was only one house that God called His own, if he knew the Scriptures at all. God had dwelt with His people in the Mosaic tabernacle, even in the tabernacle of David, but it was that David who wanted a beautiful building to house the glory of God. His son was instead appointed to carry out God's -and David's - plan.

The Solomonic Temple was a wonder of the age. But a few hundred years from its creation, it was destroyed by the Babylonians. The Persians allowed Israel to rebuild, but the resultant house of Zerubbabel lost much of the former glory. And when that building too was brought to decay, it was left to Rome, via the Edomite Herod, to raise it yet again.

It was Herod's refurbished Temple, well over 40 years in the re-building, that Jesus saw in His day. And though it was Roman, and though Herod was not Jewish, Jesus called it the House of God. Less than 40 ears after His death and resurrection, that Temple too was destroyed. No other has risen since, though Jesus has prophesied, through Daniel and John, that another will come. Ezekiel seems to have seen the very structure that will exist after Jesus returns.

Jesus, like Muhammad, entered the Temple, made it a holy place, then became the rejected stone. But Jesus knew that the true House of God is He Himself. Or in another picture, His Church is that House. Wherever God lives, that place is holy.