Yes, Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God (But Here’s What That Means & Doesn’t)
Yes, Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God (But Here’s What That Means & Doesn’t) -- original article
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Wheaton College is stirring up an old debate this week that’s worth revisiting. Professor Larycia Hawkins, in an effort to show solidarity with Muslims, decided to wear a hijab during advent. While wearing a hijab may have been tolerated by the school, what she said about the relationship between Islam and Christianity, was not. She wrote :
“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.”
For the crime of saying, “we worship the same God” Hawkins was suspended from school. Once news of this broke, the Evangelical Machine™ went into over-drive to celebrate the decision. Bloggers quickly weighed in with approval, and it certainly caught the eye of my brother-from-a-TOTALLY-different-mother, Franklin Graham, who said “shame on her!” for wearing a hijab (as if a head covering is some mortal sin), and continued to say she was “absolutely wrong” that we worshipped the same God.
In light of what will be ongoing conversations about Islam in America, the issue of God v. Allah is a critical one to have.
Do we worship the same God? If so, what does that mean?
The best answer to this question is, of course, Miroslav Volf’s book, Allah: A Christian Response . It’s so important that I’d almost say one should hold off on having a firm opinion on the matter until they’re informed- and Volf has produced what really is the best that exists on the topic. However, for those who would never go out and read a book, I’m going to answer this question in the most broken-down, basic way I can.
Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God? Is God and Allah one-in-the-same? In the most primitive way, yes. Let me explain:
In ancient times there was a man named Abraham who is revered in three of the world’s great religions. Abraham, of course, is considered the father of the Jewish people as well as Arabs and then Muslims. Essentially, Abraham somewhat founded a religion that went into three different streams : Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Here’s the important part: all three of these religions are Abrahamic religions, trying to worship Abraham’s God .
And this is where we can say all three religions do in fact worship the same God, as all three religions are pointing to, offering worship, and attempting to describe, the same object.
On the surface, it appears different because we say God, and Muslim’s say Allah, but that’s simply because that’s the word for God in Arabic. In fact, Christians in that part of the world also call God Allah . Allah is just a word- if Islam were born in a different culture, they’d use a different word. In this regard, saying that God and Allah are different because we’re using different words would almost be like saying, “ Who is this weird god Mexicans worship and call Dios? ” It’s an issue of language, that’s all.
Here’s where we’re at: all three religions are offering worship the same object , and that is Abraham’s God– though they might use different terminology (and described traits, which we’ll get to).
Now, when we affirm that Muslims and Christians worship the same God the Evangelical Machine™ goes bonkers, and that’s because they assume we’re affirming way more than what we affirm when we say, “yes, it’s the same God.”
Same God yes, but that doesn’t mean all three religions are equally true, or that we’re describing this God in the same way.
Affirming the basic fact that Christianity, Judaism and Islam are three religions attempting to worship and describe the same God (Abraham’s God, whatever one calls him), doesn’t mean we’re saying all three religions are the same, equally valid, correct, or anything else. We’re simply pointing to the fact that we’re attempting to describe the same entity.
Some will argue that God and Allah are not the same (Abraham’s God) because Christians and Muslims describe the character of Abraham’s God differently, even conflictingly. However, describing an object differently doesn’t mean that two people are describing two totally different objects. For example, let’s say Jane and Henry both work for a guy named Jeff. Jane says that Jeff is a decent boss who treats people fairly. Henry on the other hand, describes Jeff as being lazy and unavailable. The two people may be describing Jeff differently, and one or both of them might be wrong in their understanding of Jeff, but they’re still attempting to describe the same object.
Describing an object differently doesn’t make it a different object.
However, if having different understandings and opinions on the attributes of the object to which we offer worship were a legitimate argument to say that they are entirely different, one would have to say the same thing about Judaism, and even among Christian denominations/traditions.
For example, Evangelicals are quick to paint Judaism as our close brother, and will say that not only do we worship the same God, but that they are God’s favorite people. However, Jews do not believe about God what we believe about God. If this difference in understanding God’s attributes or activity through history makes the God of Islam a different God than the one we are worshipping, we would have to say the same thing about Jews . Not only that, we’d have to say it about other Christians, too– making the case that each denomination has it’s own God.
And this is the basic logic that’s wrong: “You describe the object differently than I do, therefore it is a different object.” Unfortunately, that logic would get us into all sorts of problems.
For example, plenty of Christian traditions describe a God I have a hard time recognizing. I even find some of the ways they describe his attributes to be offensive. However, as Christians we do in fact worship the same God– we just disagree on what God is like . It’s not the object we disagree on, but the attributes.
We could play this out with every Christian sect– 40,000+ of them. Again, if we apply the same principle Evangelicalism applies to Islam (they describe God differently than how we describe God, thus it is a different God) that same logic would cause us to declare that every Christian different than ourselves is worshiping a different God.
However, we don’t do that. While we disagree and sometimes even fight about these differences, we still have the charity and decency to largely affirm that all Christians are attempting to offer worship to the same object: the God of Abraham. That obviously doesn’t mean we think all Christian traditions are equally right or valid– we simply affirm that we are attempting to worship the same entity: Abraham’s God.
We extend this charity to other Christians. We extend this charity to Judaism– which outright rejected God’s covenant and the Messiah . Yet, when we find Islam, we depart from our norm of acknowledging the object of our worship is the same but simply disagree on what the nature and characteristics are like.
Why we refuse to have the charity to admit that, like Jews and 40,000 versions of Christianity we disagree with, we’re all attempting to worship Abraham’s God, is beyond me. There’s plenty the Christian and Muslim disagree on, theologically. We disagree on the attributes of God, the nature of sin, soteriology, etc. However, like it or not, both religions are attempting to worship the same entity .
And that is the God of Abraham.
When I myself was struggling with this question, the most helpful words came from Miroslav Volf when he came to speak to my class when I studied Islam at Gordon-Conwell. Volf said, “there’s a difference between worshipping the right God, and worshipping the right God rightly. “
One can affirm we are worshipping the same God without it being an affirmation that one is worshipping the right God in the right way.
So, yes: Christians and Muslims do in fact worship the same God– but that doesn’t mean everything you’re assuming we mean when we say it . It’s not a confession of Unitarian Universalism. We’re not saying both religions are the same and equally true or correct.
All it means is we affirm that Jews, Christians, and Muslims are all trying to worship the same entity: Abraham’s God.
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While it is true that we must beware the semantic trap -- arguing over definitions rather than substance -- I disagree fundamentally with this blog.
I follow the God of Jesus... who is not , IMHO, the God of Abraham. Historical precursor to the God of Jesus, the God of Abraham was a God of Rules. Obeying God meant following the rules. The God of Jesus is a God of Love. Obeying God means loving one another. Not at all the same.
Many self-styled "Christians" are followers of the God of Abraham, "following the rules" even against the commandment of Jesus to love one another. I do not consider them to be followers of Jesus. (Jesus loves them anyway, of course...)
"Islam" means "submission". Islam is the abandon of one's own ego in favor of obedience to God. IMHO, that's pretty close to those self-styled "Christians" who prefer the God of Abraham to the God of Jesus...
I have a problem calling these gods the same when the religions preach completely opposite precepts ...
Bob,
I think Jesus and James would disagree with you. Jesus was born a Jew and died a Jew. He never renounced his faith, and even the Last Supper was the Passover Sader. Furthermore, he would not have been offended by what was going on in the Temple, if he didn't see that as his people, messing around with where they went to pray to his father, which is god. So they are the same god. The differences in the two books of the bible are what Jesus passed on as an adjunct to the way to live, not a dismissal of the old ways.
And this became a huge bain of contention between James and Paul especially over circumcision. Paul was more interested in getting converts from the Greeks, who were more than happy to get hip to Jesus, so long as their penises didn't need a trim. But James felt differently, saying that it was against their roots of the faith and their covenant with god. For this not to be the same god, there would have been no discussion.
Also you are make the comparison about submission. That isn't what the old testament is about. It is about the duties to mankind and hence why christianity could come from these roots.
Perrie,
I think Jesus and James would disagree with you. Jesus was born a Jew and died a Jew.
Yes. He was quite clear: the old rules were valid unless they interfered with His Commandment. Which meant... often.
That said... Jesus lived 2000 years ago. Lotsa water under that bridge. The battle over "all Christians must first be Jews" was settled early on, and (I think) in the only way possible in a much wider world than Judea. Jesus's message was very different from Moses's. The "process included" was different. Moses's law said murder was wrong... because God decreed it so! Jesus said "love one another", which kinda sorta precludes murder.
The NT shows Jesus to be a very good politician. He was regularly set before the trap of "new religion or not"... and always managed to find some wiggle room. He could not break with the past... but at the same time his message was a radical break with the past.
That isn't what the old testament is about.
Agreed. In theory. ... But!! Most "Old Testamentians" (dunno what to call "Christians who put the OT before the NT") simplify things into "ya gotta do it 'cause God says so".
Bob wrote:
That isn't what the old testament is about.
Agreed. In theory. ... But!! Most "Old Testament's" (dunno what to call "Christians who put the OT before the NT") simplify things into "ya gotta do it 'cause God says so".
That is because of two things. One: the OT (otherwise known as the Torah), was translated from Hebrew and Aramaic, into Greek, then Latin, then English and other languages. This lead to crazy translations like "When Moses came down from receiving the word of God he had horns" and thus, led Michelangelo to do a statue of Moses complete with horns.
The second thing is that the OT isn't supposed to be taken at word. They are stories to be interpreted. Example: The story of Abraham going to sacrifice Isaac because God asked him to. Most NC versions take that to never question the word of god, but god is merciful. Yet many jewish interpretations are if you know something is wrong, (killing your child), you shouldn't do it, even if someone in authority tells you to. The reason for that the interpretation is that after that, Abraham and Isaac never talk again... showing that it was wrong to do.
So I don't think that the two faiths are that different... but just like the extreme versions are.
John wrote:
Human religions are cultural expressions of man's search for supernatural existence. Beliefs in multiple Gods are those human expressions, they do not reflect the ultimate truth. There is only one large g God, or else the term is meaningless.
I have to agree with John. God is god. Religion is just an expression of how he is revealed to a people. In this way, I agree with the Bahai.
Perrie,
I may be getting onto shaky ground chronologically...
I had the impression that the "if you know something is wrong, (killing your child), you shouldn't do it" interpretation is posterior to Jesus. Which raises another point: most Christians say/think "the Jews follow the OT", when in fact their interpretations of the Torah have continued to evolve over the millenia -- Maimonides, and all the others. The beliefs of a modern American Jew are very different from those of a Judean Jew in Augustus's age.
I have read that Hellenistic influence was significant, even that the Greek philosophers set the stage for the shift from "God of Laws" to "God of Love". The problem with that, of course, is that there is no indication that Jesus knew Greek ideas. And the parry to that is that if those ideas had seeped widely enough into "thoughtful" Jewish circles... Jesus was a rabbi, used to conversing with people who thought about God a lot.
In this conversation we -- and I very much include myself -- need to beware of semantics. What defines a God as "different" or "the same"? In my scenario, the God of Abraham is clearly a (necessary) precursor to the God of Jesus. Before Him, gods were arbitrary and unpredictable, ripping through the lives of men without rhyme or reason. The God of Abraham made His pact with the Jews and brought order into the relationship between God and man. But He was still a violent, imperfect God , close to the gods of thunder of other tribes.
A thousand years later, in an age when "Platonic archetypes" were a widely known notion, Jesus gave us a God of perfect love.
I am surely Lucy's great-to-the-Nth-grandson... but I am not much like her...
Bob,
You are kind of arguing in circular logic. God is. The same god who created Abraham, created Jesus. He was not imperfect, man was. What was radically different, was that Jesus was preaching pacifism. But there were many rabbis of the time who also preached the same. It was not a unique idea, even then. But Jesus got the message out, and so started a new tradition.
But god is god.
People seem to be arguing theology or the history of religions as evidence or indication of multiple "Gods". In other words, a Christian God or a Jewish God or a Muslim God might be different because their scripture is different. I don't think it works like that.
Perrie,
Ah... We were talking at cross-purposes.
I was speaking of man's perception of God. Of the evolution of that perception.
I don't pretend to know what God is. I believe that "God is Love"... but if I try to really think about that "simple" phrase, my head hurts.
In any case, I agree that whatever God is, He always has been and always will be.
He always has been and always will be.
Even the Big Bang had an exact date of occurrence even if "time" did not exist then .
There is no such thing as a "God of Abraham" that is THE God, that is a separate entity from the God of, say, Martin, or the God of John.
ANY (and every) monotheistic religion MUST worship the same God as any other monotheistic religion. If God exists, it exists independent of what human beings think about it.
Human religions are cultural expressions of man's search for supernatural existence. Beliefs in multiple Gods are those human expressions, they do not reflect the ultimate truth. There is only one large g God, or else the term is meaningless.