Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?
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There is a growing myth that needs to be exposed. Recently, an influential evangelical pastor reportedly has declared that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. This misunderstanding is found in the broader misunderstanding that all the monotheistic religions worship the same God. A. According to Eerdman’s handbook of religion “Judaism is the oldest of the three great monotheistic religions and is the parent of both Christianity and Islam.” The assumption then is since we have a common ancestry, we must then have a common God.
Now, beside the fact that if one is to read the Koran he or she will discover that the Allah of the Koran is quite different in nature then the God of the Bible. But let’s not argue that particular point. For those of us who are Christians, the authority of Scripture must be the foundation upon which we build our world view on this important question.
I believe that there are two key passages which help us answer the question as to whether or not we who name the name of Christ and those who follow the prophet Mohammad are in fact trying to approach the same God.
Our first passage is found in Acts 17. Paul is in Athens and he has observed the multiplicity of ways in which the Athenians were trying to approach God. “So Paul stood up in front of the council and said: People of Athens, I see that you are very religious. As I was going through your city and looking at the things you worship, I found an altar with the words, “To an Unknown God.” You worship this God, but you don’t really know him. So I want to tell you about him. This God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he doesn’t live in temples built by human hands. He doesn’t need help from anyone. He gives life, breath, and everything else to all people. From one person God made all nations who live on earth, and he decided when and where every nation would be. God has done all this, so that we will look for him and reach out and find him. He isn’t far from any of us, and he gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are. “We are his children,” just as some of your poets have said. Since we are God’s children, we must not think that he is like an idol made out of gold or silver or stone. He isn’t like anything that humans have thought up and made. In the past, God forgave all this because people did not know what they were doing. But now he says that everyone everywhere must turn to him. He has set a day when he will judge the world’s people with fairness. And he has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death.” (Acts 17:22–31, CEV)
Notice a number of key points Paul makes: (1) it is possible to be religious yet deceived. He says, “You worship this God, but you don’t really know Him. If one stops and thinks about it for a minute, if the Bible is true and “Only Jesus has the power to save! His name is the only one in all the world that can save anyone.” (Acts 4:12, CEV), then one of Satan’s most diabolical devices is any belief system that points people anywhere else but to Christ. Indeed, Paul makes this point in the text above. (2)” In the past, God forgave all this because people did not know what they were doing. But now he says that everyone everywhere must turn to him. He has set a day when he will judge the world’s people with fairness.” May I put this in plain English, people who try to get to God any other way beside Christ are worshipping in vain; they are spinning their wheels so to speak. (3) The third key point Paul makes is that the resurrection of Christ has “sealed the deal” and in judgment Allah will not save you, Mohammad, will not save you, Moses will not save you, Abraham will not save you, Buddha will not save you, nor will any of the 300 million gods of Hinduism. Only Christ can save you.
Now, let’s jump back to a very key passage of Scripture found in John 8. Jesus is in a debate with the Jews. They claim, “The only Father we have is God himself.” (John 8:41). Look carefully at Jesus’ response: “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” (John 8:42–47, NIV84). And earlier in John 8 Jesus says something quite astonishing, and, if I may be so bold, quite clearly. Look at John 8:19, “You do not know me or my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”
What did Jesus just say? Very simply He says clearly and firmly that the only way to know the true God is by knowing Him. If I understand this correctly, Jesus has just claimed that unless we recognize Him, we cannot recognize God. Therefore, any religion that worships any God apart from Christ is not worshipping the One True God of Heaven!
Now, before you start crying “Bigot,” “Elitist,” and start telling me to “read the rest of the Bible,” etc., etc., let me remind you of two other very important passages of Scripture. John 14:6 and Matthew 26:39. In John 14:6 Jesus makes a very startling claim, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, NIV84). Notice here please that Jesus does not claim to be a way to God, but He claims to be the only way to God. That “no one” is a universal exclusive. So if you are going to call anyone a bigot, and an elitist, and arrogant, you need to start those accusations with Jesus since he is the one who made the claim.
Many of course want to argue that Jesus really said no such thing. It is amazing how selective we get when it comes to wanting to believe what we want to believe. Many claim to accept the authority of Scripture except when they say something they don’t want to hear, then they start all sort of mental gyrations to get it where they want it. One of my favorite is the guy who told me, “Well, Jesus didn’t mean that He was the only way to God, what He meant was His way of love is the only way to God.”
So put John 14:6 aside for a minute, and look at Jesus’ prayer in the Garden. “Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’” (Matthew 26:39, NIV84). What is Jesus asking for here? He is asking the Father if there is any other way of salvation; any other way men might be able to get into real fellowship with God, any other way men might be able to enter the Kingdom of God, then, please, don’t let Him go to the cross. Does He go to the cross? If the answer is yes, then the corollary to that is there is no other way to heaven except through Jesus the Christ.
Years ago, after a trip, I came home and received some very bad news; news no one wants to hear—ever. I was told that a biopsy had revealed not only a cancer, but the fastest growing cancer known to man. Not good news. Let me ask you a question. Wouldn’t it have been more loving for my doctor and then my wife (who delivered the news to me), just to keep quiet about it? Not to tell me the truth about my condition? Obviously the answer is no. The most loving thing they could do was to tell me the truth, give me the prescribed course of treatment and then let me decide whether I would believe them and follow the advice, or if I would deny the advice and frankly die.
Strange to me at least that we can understand that logic on a physical level, but on the spiritual level where we are dealing with eternal matters of life and death, we think it is more loving to let people believe in that which is not true rather than run the risk of offending them. I weep when I realize some believing Muslims strap bombs to themselves, blow up innocent people (it matters not if they are infidels or other Muslims) believing that they are going to wake up in Paradise. But if what Jesus said, is true, they wake up instead in an eternal hell. Oh, wait, I guess it is not loving for me to point that out is it.
Whatever you think on this matter is ultimately between you and God. I for one am going to rest on the authority of the revealed Word of God rather than upon my own wishful thinking.
