Does God = Allah

Anybody who thinks it's possible for anyone at all, let alone God, to make the "mistake" of saying Abraham has two SOLE heirs or that God has a Son and does not have a Son, lives in some other universe than the one I live in.So far as you know God doesn't accept worship? What Bible do you read? "God seeks true worshipers" is what mine says, those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. Certainly worshiping in humble faith is what it means, rather than some outward show. This is clear throughout the Bible. But worshipping, not just contrition, IS what is being talked about. Just a FEW of the references to worship in both OT and NT: And for your notion that worshiping Jesus is idolatry, Jesus did not ever stop anyone from worshipping Him. Angels refused worship in the Bible, people refuse worship, but Jesus Christ is God and He accepted worship. When Thomas said "My Lord and my God" Jesus did not rebuke him.Worship is acknowledging the greatness of a person, for instance in the obeisance to royalty done throughout history, and absolutely so before God. -- it is humbling oneself before Him and acknowledging His greatness, power, majesty, rightness and sovereignty and one's own inferiority and dependence. It is not mere contrition.The offering of incense on the altar by the priests was a picture of worship, and when Nadab and Abihu did it their own way rather than according to God's instructions, God struck them dead. This is how important it is to do it right rather than follow your own half-baked ideas about it.This message has been edited by Faith, 04-27-2006 11:31 AM

This is exactly what I have been saying. We worship two different Gods. That is my point. We have no argument.

The Israelites believed they were worshipping the one true God when they worshipped the golden calf. They called it the God or gods who brought them out of Egypt. I believe in the Hebrew they called it "Yahweh" but I will have to chedk that. Apparently the Jewish conception disagrees with Moses who condemned them for falsely believing they were worshipping the one true God. And God punished them for it, contrary to your view that "for God, that is good enough."

Again you are proving my point. We are talking about two different religions, two different conceptions of God. We do not worship the same God at all. That's all I've been saying.

You are correct, they are mutually exclusive religions. And don't let jar confuse you with his word games parsing between "religion" and "God." If something as basic as Jesus being the Son of God is contradicted by Islam, then they are in fact worshiping a different God than Christians worship.

Because what the other religions believe is contradictory with Christianity. The three religions worship different Gods. If Christianity is correct then the others simply are not. If any other religion is correct then ours is not. You can't believe that all three major religions, or even two, are true, rationally. You can switch of course, and people do it all the time, changing from one religion to one of the others, in all directions.This message has been edited by Faith, 04-27-2006 11:46 AM

Faith So what you are saying here is that there is more than one God?

I agree with Faith that the Gods of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are not logically equivalent. The Islamic God does not have the Jews as a chosen people, and the Jewish God does not have a son - that should settle it right there, they are not exactly the same concept. Of course, the God worshipped by Christian A, and Christian B are also likely to be different on some level as well.Since God is usually defined to be incomprehensible in some regards, couldn't we say that everyone has an incomplete understanding of God? What if the differences between Allah and Yahweh are minute in comparison to what is unknown about God?

If people had to follow a book or a belief in order to find God, I would agree with you. I also agree that technically you are right from a Biblical literalist perspective.I think (and believe), however, that the God we serve is bigger than just religion and our Bible...no matter how much wisdom that Bible contains!Remember this verse? To me, that indicates that the ways of God exceed the Bible as we know it.

Well when I look at it from the point of view of someone who is neither Christian Jewish nor Muslim it seems self apparant they all worship the same God, but have different ideas on that God's characteristics.The best way to see this is to look from the Muslim point of view. From their point of view they worship the same God as Christians and Jews. They just see the original writings about that God having been corrupted by men over they centuries until they have warped so much the real meanings have been lost. They accept Jesus and Moses and Abraham as prophets of God, but disagree on some of the details that survived in recorded form about them.The Christian/Jewish thing is easier still. Naturally neither Christians nor Jews worship the Islamic idea of God but Christians do worship the Jewish God, but believe that He has provided us with a New Testament after he manifested himself into flesh and came to Earth.So, Christians worship the Jewish God and Muslims worship the God of Christians and Jews. Jews are the ones remaining. Obviously in their concept of God He has not been made flesh so Jesus was not his Son. Its the same God, they just deny that there was a New Testament and they are still working off the old one.To cut the story short. They do worship the same God, their disagreement lies not in which God they worship but in the significance and authenticity of certain prophets. To Muslims, Jesus was a great prophet and Mohammed is the final prophet. To Christians, Jesus was God made flesh and Mohammed was not an authentic prophet. To Jews, neither Jesus nor Mohammed were authentic. Its not the God that the disagreement centres on, the disagreement lies in who His agents were.

I agree with you in this sense that the religions can all be correct when stripped down to their basics. But some of the specifics of them contradict each other. Now, I agree with you that the basics are what’s important, but I think some of Jesus’ teachings would go against your beliefs. So I disagree with you that some of the specifics are not important. Like: I think it does matter if Jesus really is divine and I think his teachings reflect that.(I’m at work right now and don’t have time to dig through a bible to quote passage though so I can’t really support this claim right now if you disagree) I don’t think that you have to believe in Jesus to go to heaven though. I don’t really know what you mean by being the reality of GOD. I wouldn’t put any limit on god.

Because that’s the one they believe, it’s the one they think is most right, or only right, and it’s the one that makes most sense to them. Its possible. In my experience, I was raised catholic but in college I was atheist while learning science and I explored a bunch of other religions. When it came down to it, I thought Jesus’ message was the right one so I called myself a christian again. Then I said, well, I was raised and confirmed catholic so I guess I am one. I think they do entertain other things as being remotely correct. And like I replied to ar, when you stripp them down to the basics, the religions are very similar, its just when you get down to the gnat’s ass that you start getting the contradictions.

Having contradictions in the religions doesn’t make them worship different gods. If Islam claims that it is worshiping the same god as Jesus but Jesus was not his son, then they could be worshiping the same god and just be wrong in that claim. I don’t see how their misunderstanding automatically makes it a different god.

Very well put Modulous, I totally agree.As a christian I worship the god of the jews who provided us with a new testament through Jesus and I don't think that Mohammed was an authentic prophet.

What a wonderful God you worship! sounds like a spoiled brat.