I don’t make it a point of doctrine, of course, but I do believe that the Muslims, though their understanding can be twisted, dark, and erroneous, is reaching out to the God of Abraham, as they understand Him.Consider that the Athenians were ignorantly worshipping the Unknown God–and Paul came along to declare Him unto them. To tell them the truth about this Unknown God, to reveal what they did not know, to straighten out misconceptions.It occurs to me that the radical Muslims of today are pretty much like the early Old Testament Hebrews. Consider that when Muslims stone someone, we are taken aback, considering it barbaric…yet in the OT, that was standard operating procedure.Hands could be cut off in the OT…same with the Muslims today.Both believe strongly in circumcision (since both Ishmael and Isaac were circumcised).The modern-day Jews have pulled away from many of these OT practices. I’m not sure I understand their justification for doing so. Christians have justification, since we believe in the grace of Jesus, but I’m not sure that Jews have as good a reason for acting like stoning is somehow barbaric, since, supposedly, that is the Law they should be following, right?Just to clarify, Muslims are WRONG. They are going to hell if they don’t accept Jesus. Further clarification: Jews are WRONG. They are going to hell if they don’t accept Jesus.
There’s a lot to unpack there Aaron so I’ll just keep it short.When Christians say Muslims don’t worship the same God as I do, on the surface that may seem incorrect if you ONLY consider the term God and the historical context from which they claim their religion flows.Muslims claim the word Allah is simply God in their language and I agree with that. However, saying that he is the same God as Yahweh is not true based on the revealed nature of Yahweh vs. the god of Islam. And the revealed nature of God is the very core of the mater. The name and historical link (creation and Abraham) are insignificant.Then there’s Jesus. The physical, human, tangible manifestation of God that Christians actually DO worship, denying Him is the opposite of the claim that we worship the same god. So, while many Christians might be ignorant of the historic reasons for saying Allah and God are synonymous, in their hearts they understand that the revealed Christ is the core of who God is and that there is not even a vague similarity.
Re: The God of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims?
Our God is a God of Love and does not require us to kill those who dont convert to Christianity. I could go on and on but you get the picture.I wonder how our wives would feel if we were awarded 72 virgins in heaven?How would we feel if our wives were awarded 72 men in heaven? It seems to me that lust would be prevalent in heaven if this was the case.As a side note ;
Partially correct, Aaron. 1. Christians access Jehovah via Jesus.2. Jews reach out to Jehovah, while rejecting Jesus as Messiah.
Re: Uncle JD
Re: Uncle JD
Not UJD, but Muslims, while they do not acknowledge Jesus as savior, they regard him as one of the greatest of prophets. Even their holy book confirms the virgin birth of Jesus. Oxymoronic that they do this and still hate Jesus’ followers enough to kill them wholesale.
As far as the name ‘Allah goes, Christians use that term. The evidence seems to support the idea that this was the pre-Islamic Christian name for God. Some of the Christians named their boys ‘Abdullah, which is a contracted form of ‘Abdu ‘Allah. ‘Allah is believed in the cognate with ‘El in Hebrew. ‘Abdu is cognate with ‘Obed. Do Muslims worship the same God? Maybe it’s a question of semantics. We might argue that the Samaritans were closer to Judaism than ‘Islam. But Jesus said to the Samaritan woman ‘Ye worship ye know not what.’But we might translate that as ‘Ye bow down to ye know not what.’ The topic she had raised was the proper place of prostration. The Samaritans had had a rival temple in Samaria after a high priests brother was expelled from the Jerusalem temple for marrying Sanballat’s daughter, and was given the role of high priest in a temple Sanballat built for him, taking a number of priests with him, according to Josephus. I’ve heard that Islam teaches that ‘allah is the biggest deceiver. For Christians, that sounds like a description of the Devil.In speaking to Muslims, particularly in languages where ‘Allah is a name for God that Christians use, I don’t think it is wise to say they worship another God. Talk about what ‘Allah is like. You can point out that Muhammad claimed that the proof of his prophethood was in the Gospels and Torah, so explain that those books aren’t corrupted, and then point out how important it is to study these books. Then tell them what the Bible says________________
Uncle JD…
My friend, Muslims accept large portions of the OT and NT. They believe Jesus was born of a virgin.That Moses was a prophet.Etc. They borrow heavily from the OT and NT.
Aaron, son, I don’t know what sources you been readin an all, but be encouraged to keep readin. Yep, large portions a the OT an NT, wrongly interpreted, an changed to fit Islam.Jesus born a virgin, but not the son of God? Not the Savior of the world? What good is a Jesus that aint God?Moses a prophet? Yep, but far inferior to Mohammed. An not the Moses equal to the one we read about in the Bible.Son, Wicca teaches some things in the Bible.Mormonism/JW teach some things in the Bible.Em Rosicrucian boys believe some things in the Bible.Hinduism/Buddhism believe in Jesus.
Uncle JD
They have this new thing now called Google. Check it out.
Is there a way to get it to come up with something that doesn’t exist? that would be cool. The Google machine (Deja to us old timers using it since 1997), said they have their own teachings on Biblical characters, but they are no more than borrowed names. They have an Adam that built a temple in Mecca, an Abraham who’s promised seed was Ishmael and a Jesus was a Muslim prophet born of a virgin but not the son of God. So saying they accept swaths of the Bible is incorrect unless you can make the Google show us. The truth is they accept NONE of the Bible, the very concept of the Koran is that it is a correction of all of the errors in the Bible. While you can find that they claim to believe in the Torah, in the Psalms, and the gospels, they simultaneously believe that the versions that you and I read are corrupted and that God had to reveal the true version to Muhammad.
Muslims accept, for instance, that Jesus was born of a virgin.And about Ishmael, they have a pretty good case, do they not, with him being the firstborn? Yes, you and I know and believe differently, but they do believe Abraham had a son, Ishmael.They believe in circumcision.Like kosher Jews, they abstain from pork, etc.They believe Jesus will return.
Ok, I was confused because you used the above to disprove what I claimed about the fact that they have to deny every single thing they believed about scripture once they come to Christ. If you meant they claim to believe a lot of the same things we do (albeit with huge changes to the facts), then I can agree on that. The fact is they claim that the entirety of the Bible is corrupt and only in light of their Koran can it be interpreted correctly (negating the authority of the Bible)
They might get to keep a little of what they know about Him. They may have to throw out 70% or 90% or whatever. A lot of Jews have to discard a lot of what they believed before. Orthodox Judaism has a lot of ‘traditions of men’ as a religion descended from the religion of the Pharisees________________