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Enjoying God Blog

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In what we know as the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:7-15), it is the name of God, Yahweh, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Father as well, that is to be “hallowed” (v. 9b). It isn’t the name of Allah or any other alleged ‘god’ but the name of our heavenly Father that is the focus of our prayers. Continue reading . . .

In what we know as the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:7-15), it is the name of God, Yahweh, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Father as well, that is to be “hallowed” (v. 9b). It isn’t the name of Allah or any other alleged ‘god’ but the name of our heavenly Father that is the focus of our prayers.

In case you are wondering, and contrary to what many today are saying, Allah is not the same as the Christian God. In fact, there is no Allah. Allah is a name used to describe a vacuum, nothing. Islam explicitly denies that God is Triune. Islam denies that God exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Muslims explicitly deny that God has a Son. And the NT repeatedly declares that if you deny the Son you also deny the Father. If you do not love the Son, believe in the Son, and obey the Son, you do not know God (see John 8:18-19, 24, 39-42). The apostle John put it as pointedly as anyone possibly could:

“Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:22-23).

You cannot know God or worship God or be in a saving relationship with God unless you acknowledge and believe in Jesus Christ as his only Son whom he sent to be a sacrifice for sinners. And it is to this one and only God that Jesus tells us to pray.


In a recent article on the website of The Gospel Coalition, Thabiti Anyabwile said much the same thing. His article was titled, “Muslims and Christians Do Not Worship the Same God.” He wrote:

The recent move of Wheaton College to suspend one of its faculty has sparked debate about whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God. This debate recurs because of the culture’s tendency to flatten religious differences into nebulous and impersonal ideas about “God” and because of widespread ignorance of religious faith. As Stephen Prothero points out in God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World–and Why Their Differences Matter, our happily ignorant “pluralism” can in religious matters lead to car bombs exploding, bullets fired through office buildings, hostage situations at abortion clinics, and waves of genocidal violence.

Religions create a lot of problems in the world. Ignorance of religion compounds those problems. Arguing that Christians and Muslims worship the same God is often well-intended. But in a world increasingly filled with clashes between adherents of Islam and the west, this confusion is dangerous. Muslims and Christians do not worship the same God and that matters immensely!

God

Muslims hold that “God is one.” Allah has no partners and assigning partners to him is shirk, the highest blasphemy. Christians believe “God is one in three Persons.” Each Person in the Trinity is fully and eternally God. Yet there is one God. Our Muslim neighbors believe Christians are guilty of the greatest sin–making partners with God. Christians believe their Muslim neighbors are guilty of the greatest sin–idolatry.

The two views of the nature of God are irreconcilable.

Duty

Muslims believe that man’s duty toward Allah is to submit to his will. The goal of Islam is not salvation, but to bring the entire world under the rule of Allah–dar al Islam. The Christian believes that the most fundamental duty toward God–out of which obedience arises–is repentance and faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. No one knows God who does not know the Son who is the only mediator between God and man. The goal of Christianity is the salvation of sinners through the righteousness, substitutionary atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The goals of the two religions could not be more different. And because the goals differ, how we worship and how we act in the world also radically differ.

Enemies

Despite all the debates about who is or is not a “true Muslim,” it cannot be doubted that significant numbers of Muslims believe it’s permissible, even necessary, to strive in the cause of Islam. Some believe that includes violent defense of Islam. The Lord Jesus Christ teaches that Christians are to love our enemies. Christians must turn the other cheek. Christians do not wrestle with flesh and blood but with spiritual forces of evil in high places.

Because Christians and Muslims define their enemies differently and respond to them differently, we cannot be said to worship the same God.

Conclusion

I could go on. Though at many places there is a common history (both groups come from Abraham), a common vocabulary (i.e., faith, worship, etc.) and increasingly a common address in the world, we may be tempted to think there's more in common than is truly the case. Let us not make that mistake. The differences are radical and they lead to wildly different ethics. Sobriety and charity require us to lovingly state this truth and work out the implications.

 

3 Comments

The biblical clarity of this entry is a breath of fresh air in comparison to those "Progressive Christian" rag sites posing the notion that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. 1 John 2:22-23 needs to be read over and over again. In fact, the whole letter of first John is highly relevant regarding this issue.

I think it can be confusing because Arabic Christians use 'Allah' to refer to 'God'. As I understand it 'Allah' is the Arabic term for 'God' equivalent to the Hebrew term Elohim. Some people will use this to argue that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. But that doesn't necessarily follow. There are many Sams Jims and Daniels. That doesn't mean these terms refer to the same person.

Thanks for this clear and timely article. As you've mentioned before, clear verbal communication can be extremely helpful. Unfortunately, I think some words are muddying the waters as this is discussed in the public sphere.
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"Christians" - Some people point to the Roman Catholic church's statements regarding Muslims (and Jews) to say, "Look, billions of Christians *do* say they worship the God of Islam, and that Jews can be reconciled to God without Jesus." I've found the need to say, "biblical New Testament Christianity" to distinguish from the false parts of Roman Catholic theology. Unfortunately, many evangelicals don't understand the fundamental differences between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.
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"Allah" - It's true that Arabic-speaking Christians called the God and Father of Jesus Christ "Allah" before Islam ever existed and still do today. I've found it helpful to say, "the Allah of Islam" to acknowledge this, just as I'd distinguish the "Jesus of Mormonism" is different than the Jesus of Christianity.

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