Christians & Muslims

Christians & Muslims – Do we worship the same God?

By Dennis Pollock

Since our military response to September 11, American political leadership, and in some instances, religious leadership, have been bending over backwards to assure the American public that the terrorists who committed these atrocities were not representative of Islam. They were merely a fanatic fringe group who somehow misunderstood the teachings of the Koran. A major news magazine pasted on its cover page: “The Hijacking of One of the World’s Great Religions,” not so subtly implying that Osama and company must have somehow been goofing off when their religious instructors taught them about the peace-loving nature of Muhammad.

President Bush spoke with unusual firmness at the outset of our invasion of Afghanistan, and told the world’s Muslims, “We respect your religion.” While I respect Mr. Bush for his firmness and moral convictions, I cannot say that I respect his respect of Islam. I have a hard time imagining the prophet Elijah telling the Baal worshippers how much he respected their religion! When you read the Scriptures, you just don’t find much respect for any religion other than God’s revelation of Himself through Israel, and ultimately, through His Son Jesus.

Of course one might well have expected the political leaders to kowtow to Islam. With their perceived need of being inclusive and offending as few as possible, the prospect of alienating millions of Arab-Americans, and upsetting the oil-rich Arab nations of the Middle East must be appalling to contemplate. What really is upsetting to hear religious leaders fervently trying to convince us that “we all worship the same God.”

The argument goes something like this. Christians believe in one God who created all things. Moslems believe in one God who created all things. Therefore the God of the Scriptures, YHWH, and the Moslem god, Allah are one and the same. They are simply two different names for the same divine Being. Kind of like a guy who goes by Robert to his casual acquaintances and Bob to his close friends – same guy, different labels.

A Catholic Bishop, Edward Braxton, wrote: “If you accept monotheism, the belief that there is only one God, you realize that Yahweh, the God of Israel, Abba Father, the God of Jesus Christ, and Allah the God of Islam is the SAME God, since there is only one God. Judaism does not have God, Christianity does not have God, Islam does not have God. If the God in whom we believe is God, then we do not have God, God has us!”

The only people who could swallow such patent drivel would be those who knew nothing of the Bible, nothing of the Koran, or nothing of either. Those who gain even the most rudimentary knowledge of the “gods” presented by the two books will quickly recognize two radically different personalities are being described.

Jesus dealt with this very issue in His famous conversation with the “woman at the well.” This lady was a Samaritan, and as such claimed a relationship with God. The Samaritans claimed to be the true followers of Moses and, like the Jews believed in one God. Jesus told this woman something that would certainly offend all the “different strokes for different folks” crowd: “We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22). It is interesting that Jesus used the plural “we.” Errant as the Jews were in their views of the Messiah, as many problems as they had in continually offending the God that had chosen them, He still acknowledged that it was the Jews and only the Jews who had the correct understanding of the nature of God. And that understanding had been given by God Himself through the Jewish writings we call the Scriptures.

Jesus went on to say that those who worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. To worship God in truth is to worship Him for who He truly is. Those who would relate to their Creator are going to have to get it right as to who He is and what He is like. And it is only through the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures that any man or woman will ever worship God in Spirit and in truth.

Evangelical Moslems

Those who defend Islam as a religion of peace try very hard to convince us that the terrorists of September 11 were ignorant zealots who totally missed the point of their religion. If these were the only Koran inspired thugs, perhaps we could believe them. But our world is full of angry young Moslems, brought up on the Koran, who would gladly kill or be killed in the name of Allah.

Don Feder wrote an article for the “we respect Islam” crowd where he states that there sure must be a lot of Moslems who don’t understand their own religion, and perhaps need us westerners to straighten them out. He lists:

The suicide squad from the Pakistan-based Army of the Prophet Mohammed that blew up the legislative assembly building in the Kashmir, killing 26.
Sheik Ahmed Abu Halabiya, who, in a sermon broadcast on Palestinian Authority television raved: “Have no mercy on the Jews … Where you are, kill those Jews and Americans who are like them.”
Leaders of Nigeria’s Moslem states, who’ve plunged the nation into chaos by trying to impose Islamic law on non-Moslems.
Demonstrators from West Africa to Indonesia, who hail Osama bin Laden as a savior. In Indonesia, where the Lashkar Jihad forcibly converts Christians to Islam, 50 percent of respondents to an online poll said bin Laden is a “freedom fighter.”

Then, of course, there is that never ending supply of young Palestinian men, who are willing, in the name of Allah, to strap a bomb upon themselves, walk into a Jewish area where there are plenty of women and children, and blow themselves up. The Palestinians boast that they have enough volunteers for such “missions” to keep killing Jews for the next hundred years.

Any serious thinker has got to wonder if there isn’t perhaps something in the Koran that encourages such violence.

The truth is that the Koran has a liberal sprinkling of “do unto them before they do unto you” type verses. A few of these would include:

The curse of God on the infidels!
God is an enemy to infidels.
Whoever offers violence to you, offer you the like violence to him.
Fight for the cause of God.
God loves no infidel.
And if you shall be slain or die on the path of God, then pardon from God and mercy is better than all your amassings; For if you die or be slain, verily unto God shall you be gathered.
They who believe, fight on the path of God… Fight therefore against the friends of Satan.
Verily, the infidels are your undoubted enemies!

Linda Chavez writes: “The very nature of fundamentalism is to take these instructions literally. And there is plenty of historical precedent. For nearly one thousand years, Europe was under almost constant siege from Islamic invaders … So long as the trend within the Moslem world today is toward a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, the West will continue to face a new threat to its survival.”

Now it can be argued that there are millions of peaceful Muslims that either ignore these Scriptures or refuse to take them at face value. Granted. In Christianity there are millions of professing Scriptures that don’t take their Scriptures seriously either. The difference is that, when Christians take their Bibles seriously it makes them more loving, forgiving, and peaceful. They are forced to deal with such Scriptures as:

“Love your enemies.”
“Forgive those who trespass against you.”
“Do good to those who hate you.”
“Bless those who curse you.”

Here we find one of the radical differences between Christianity and Islam. The closer you get to the teaching of Christ, the more forgiving and peaceful you become. When a Moslem gets serious about the Koran, and starts taking his religion seriously, he just might rent an apartment in the U.S., take flying lessons, and go out in a blaze of glory. Suicide bombers and airplane hijackers are the evangelicals of Islam!

YHWH vs. Allah

Clearly we are talking about two different beings here. They go by different names, make different demands, offer different plans of salvation (Moslem version: acknowledge Allah and Muhammad, pray five times a day, give to the poor, fast during Ramadan, visit Mecca, and hope you make it.) There is one special dispensation: Martyrs are given an automatic ticket to heaven, with no questions asked – blow yourself up in the cause of Allah and you’re in!

To say that Christians and Moslems worship the same God is absurd. Suppose someone tells me, “Oh, yes, I know your wife. She’s about five feet tall, with blond hair, a heart tattoo on her left arm, and walks with a decided limp. I met her last night, and she told me she was your wife.” My response would be, “She may have told you she was my wife, but I can tell you for sure, “That ain’t her.”

To paraphrase a cliché, “If it doesn’t look like a duck, doesn’t walk like a duck, and doesn’t quack like a duck, it’s probably not a duck!”

The One True God

The God revealed in the Scriptures outshines Mohammed’s poor imitation as the blazing sun outshines a cheap flashlight. Holy, awesome, just, compassionate, and merciful, He is the great “I AM THAT I AM.” Miraculously He has gone further than merely inspire writers to describe His marvelous character. In the Person of His Son, God has visited our planet. John writes, “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18).

Like virtually every major religion save Christianity, the Moslem version of salvation depends upon good works and offers no guarantees. Only through the Biblical revelation do we find God’s utterly unique plan for reconciling sinful men with Himself.

Jesus declares: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:29).

Paul writes: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5).

And Peter proclaims: “Whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43).

Through the Scriptures, through the Holy Spirit, and through the Person of Jesus Christ, the eternal I AM has made Himself known to His creation. If you like, you can reject Him and form for yourself a imitation such as Allah, Krishna, or Buddha. He gives you that choice. But don’t deceive yourself with this nonsense about all of us worshipping the same God. We have it on good authority that those who worship the true God must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth!