Weblog Entry - 01/30/2003: "The same God?"

01/30/2003 Entry: "The same God?"

Joel Fuhrmann of Religious Left Watch ponders the question of whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God. He concludes that they don't:

Christianity and Islam present two images of God which have different attributes, one claiming the eternal existence of God's Son, and the other denying it. The contradiction forces me to admit those two images of God cannot describe the same God.

I can't argue the distinction, but I do take issue with the conclusion. Just as the same person may be experienced differently by different people, it doesn't take much imagination to see that the Muslim can have a different "image" of the same God. Of course, I believe that in Jesus we have the most complete revelation of God that we can have this side of glory, but that doesn't mean the Muslims have a picture of a different person completely.Christianity and Islam are cousins. Therein, I think, lies our problem.

Replies:

I quite agree Pen. Saying "all roads lead to God" or "all religions are basically the same" is disrespectful to all of them, quite wrong, and certainly not what I meant to imply. Being cousins doesn't mean we will look or think alike.

Posted by Richard @ 01/31/2003 04:36 PM CST

Good conversation... I like Richard's comments about Islam and Christianity sharing the same heritage.

My hot button in this conversation is the 'all roads lead to Heaven/God' aspect. Saying Islam and Christianity share a God gets confused in working out the details. I can't argue with Richard's funeral illustration... less the coffin and you would surely think there were two deceased persons involved.

But the tragedy that comes with equating the two (Allah & God) too closely - is to create the impression that our discipleship actions don't matter. The idea that all roads lead to God assumes that the ethical and spiritual implications of our life of action pleases a God that appears to have multiple personalities.

I know this is not a definitive stand for or against the idea of Allah and God being the same or different. But here in this context my church people like to think that it doesn't matter whether they read the Bible, the Dalai Lama, or Deepak Chopra... it all gets them to the same place... which just doesn't work for me...

It is just a pain in the rear to have to be the keeper of orthodoxy -- especially when you are a post-modern gen x-er...

Grace & Peace, Pen

Posted by Pen @ 01/31/2003 01:07 PM CST

Richard,

I have pondered the same question often in the last few years. I found a really helpful article at:

http://www.antithesis.com/features/islam.html

Which quotes C.S. Lewis in it as saying "Islam is only the greatest of Christian heresies."

(Bible Geek, are you able to find where C.S. Lewis said your quote from please?)

It concludes:

"Overall, then, we have today a resurgent Islam worldwide, a religion that began by gaining a following in Christian lands. It continues to advance rapidly, particularly in the United States. We find in Islam a religion that emphasizes the sovereignty of Allah, man's obedience and submission to him, a solid doctrine of predestination, practical preaching that addresses the problems of day-to-day living, and a stimulating vision of bringing divine precepts into the arena of public affairs. The same could be said of some Christian denominations today. No wonder Islam is on the upswing. It's just close enough to Christianity to lead many astray.

All that's missing is the Gospel."

It's well worth the read.

Rachel

Posted by Rachel C @ 01/31/2003 01:28 AM CST

Sorry BG, but I think you are profoundly wrong. And though CS Lewis was undoubtedly a great man, he was not infallible you know.Of course Islam understands Jesus differently from Christianity - that's the nub of the distnction between the 2. But so does Judaism. Does that mean they have a different God too? How could it?! We may not like to face it, but we share a heritage with the Islamic world. The God of Abraham and Jacob is the God of the Muslim too.

In my line of work, funeral services are a regular duty. Sometimes you hear two sides of a family talking about the same person in a completely different way. Were it not for the coffin you might be tempted to think that there were in fact two individuals. One story may be closer to the truth of the person than the other, but I have found it is always a mistake to dismiss one or other out of hand.

Posted by Richard @ 01/30/2003 11:37 PM CST

Islam, according to C.S. Lewis, is a "bastardization of Christianity." And I think he's right. Islam is not the cousin of Christianity. It is the retarded, red-headed step child of Christianity. (Apologies to all retarded, red-headed step children out there).

Islam accepts a prophetic, miracle-working, virgin-born Jesus, but not a suffering, dying, crucified and risen Lord and Savior--the eternal Son of the Father--very God of very God. To fail to see God in Jesus Christ and to fail to see Christ as fully God and fully man is to fail to see God. Islam doesn't just have a different image, they have a different God, which THEY claim is actually the same God as in the Hebrew Bible and of which Jesus spoke. No, no, no. Jesus IS that God.

Nuff said.

Posted by Bible Geek @ 01/30/2003 10:54 PM CST

It is as if the Muslim and Christian worlds were the two sides of a coin. The obverse and reverse sides, though joined inextricably by the coin itself, see only outward into their own religious world constructs. The coin itself then represents God, who by His strength binds everything together and allows the opposite sides to exist. Perhaps the two 'cousins' can only begin to see each other properly by looking inward, and thus realizing they are each bound to our ultimately common Father. Until then neither will see the other in a truly knowing way, and will remain estranged. Let us pray that hard hearts are changed changed by our Maker's hand...

Posted by Rick O'Donnell @ 01/30/2003 07:51 PM CST

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