Download Part One: Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?

“Salvation is found in no
one else, for there is no
other name under heaven
given to mankind by
which we must be saved.”
Professor Larycia Hawkins stated on
Facebook, “I stand in religious
solidarity with Muslims because
they, like me, a Christian, are people
of the book. And as Pope Francis
stated last week, we worship the
same God.”
Some people who promote that
Muslims and Christians worship the
same God, like to accuse anyone who
disagrees with them as using theology
to cover bigotry. Those who make
such accusations do so in order to win
the argument by intimidation. Their
manipulative style should lead you to
question the validity and strength of
their arguments. Pastor Mark
The arguments promoting that Christians
and Muslims worship the same God
CHRISTIANITY
ISLAM
God: Only one in all existence
Affirm
Affirm
God: Eternal, no beginning or
end
Affirm
Affirm
God: Transcendent
Affirm
Affirm
God: Omniscient,
Omnipresent, Omnipotent
Affirm
Affirm
God: Creator of Adam and Eve
Affirm
Affirm
Believe in Noah and Abraham
Affirm
Affirm
• My brother has ears. An
elephant has ears.
Therefore my brother is an
elephant.
• Faulty logic: Similarity does
not mean the same.
Nabeel Qureshi- “I should start by saying this:
for years after leaving Islam and accepting Jesus
as Lord, I believed that Muslims worshiped the
same God as Christians but that they were simply
wrong about what He is like and what He has
done. After all, I had been taught as a young
Muslim to worship the God who created Adam
and Eve, who rescued Noah from the flood, who
promised Abraham a vast progeny, who helped
Moses escape Egypt, who made the Virgin Mary
great with child, who sent Jesus into the world,
who helped the disciples overcome, and who is still
sovereign today. Is that not the God of the Bible?
For that matter, the Quran asserts that the
Torah and the Gospel are inspired scripture
and that Jews and Christians are people of the
Book. The Quran tells Muslims to say to
them, “our God and your God is One, and
unto Him we surrender” (29.46). If the Quran
asserts that Muslims worship the same God as
Jews and Christians, does that not settle the
matter?
For years I thought it did, but I no longer do.
Now I believe that the phrase “Muslims and
Christians worship the same God” is only true
in a fairly uncontroversial sense: There is one
Creator whom Muslims and Christians both
attempt to worship. Apart from this banal
observation, Muslims and Christians do not
worship the same God. I do not condemn those
that think they do, but the deeper I delve into
the Christian faith, the more I realize that this
assertion is not only untrue but also subverts
Christian orthodoxy in favor of Islamic
assertions.”
For years I thought it did, but I no longer do.
Now I believe that the phrase “Muslims and
Christians worship the same God” is only true
in a fairly uncontroversial sense: There is one
Creator whom Muslims and Christians both
attempt to worship. Apart from this banal
observation, Muslims and Christians do not
worship the same God. I do not condemn those
that think they do, but the deeper I delve into
the Christian faith, the more I realize that this
assertion is not only untrue but also subverts
Christian orthodoxy in favor of Islamic
assertions.”
For years I thought it did, but I no longer do. Now I
believe that the phrase “Muslims and Christians
worship the same God” is only true in a fairly
uncontroversial sense: There is one Creator whom
Muslims and Christians both attempt to worship.
Apart from this banal observation, Muslims and
Christians do not worship the same God. I do not
condemn those that think they do, but the deeper I
delve into the Christian faith, the more I realize that
this assertion is not only untrue but also subverts
Christian orthodoxy in favor of Islamic assertions.”
•Choice 1 –
Whatever is popular The foundation of
public perception and
political correctness.
• Choice 2 - The Quran as your authority.
Nabeel says… “So how can people argue
that Muslims and Christians worship the
same God? By unduly giving priority to
the Islamic assertion that this is the same
God. The Quran says that Allah is the
God of the Bible, so He must be. The
Quran says that Allah is the God of the
Biblical prophets, so He must be.”
• Choice 3- The Bible and
Jesus as your authority.
Christians believe
Jesus is God, but the Quran is so
opposed to this belief that it condemns
Jesus worshipers to Hell (Quran 5.72).
For Christians, Jesus is certainly God,
and for Muslims Jesus is certainly not
God. How can it be said that Christians
and Muslims worship the same God?
This fact alone is enough to settle the
matter.
According to
Jesus, God is our Father, yet the
Quran very specifically denies that
Allah is a father (Quran 112.1-4). In
fact, in 5.18, the Quran tells Muslims
to rebuke Jews and Christians for
calling God their loving Father
because humans are just things that
God has created.
Islam roundly
condemns worship of the Trinity (5.73),
establishing in contrast its own core
principle: Tawhid, the absolute oneness
of God. Tawhid specifically denies the
Trinity, so much so that it is safe to say
the doctrine of God in Christianity is
antithetical to the doctrine of God in
Islam. Not just different but completely
opposed to one another.
There is much more to be
said about the differences between the
Christian God and the Muslim God, but this
much can already be said with confidence:
the Christian God, both in terms of what he
is (Triune) and who he is (Father, Son, and
Spirit) is not just different from the Muslim
God; He is fundamentally incompatible.
According to Islam, worshiping the
Christian God is not just wrong; it sends
you to Hell. They are not the same God.
CHRISTIANITY
ISLAM
Believe Jesus is God in
the flesh
Affirm
Deny
God is our loving Father
Affirm
Deny
God: Trinity of three
Persons (Father, Son,
Holy Spirit) in One God
Affirm
Deny
•
• Muslims reject that Allah has a son and
teach that Jesus was a prophet and not
God is the flesh.
• Jesus’ exclusive claims as in John 14:6.
• The Apostles made exclusive claims as in
Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one
else, for there is no other name under
heaven given to mankind by which we
must be saved.”
• Colossians 1:15 “Christ is the
visible image of the invisible
God…”
• I John 2:23 “Anyone who denies the
Son doesn't have the Father, either.
But anyone who acknowledges the
Son has the Father also.”