One of the burdens of living in a post modern society is the constant arguments about what and who is right. Today, it is increasingly becoming taboo to claim that Christianity is the only way of salvation. Popular media, civilized societies and general social media bullies try to not only convince us, but force us to accept the ridiculous claim that we all serve the same God. This concept is captured in the popular saying, “All roads lead to Rome”. Alas, nothing can be further from the truth.

The three great monotheistic (belief in one God) religions in the world are Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Although there are a few other monotheistic religions, for the sake of this discussion we’ll stick with these three. Basically, Christians, Jews and Muslims believe in the existence of a being that is Transcendent, all powerful, the creator of all things that exist and all knowing, to mention a few. They call this being GOD. The difference lies in WHO they think this God is. In the United States of America, there is a very powerful person, he sits in the highest place of power, has the power to approve or veto laws passed by Congress, in fact, he is the commander-in-chief of the Armed forces. They call this person POTUS (President of the United States). The office of the President has existed since the country as we know it today came into existence, the holder of the office has changed over time. We cannot just call any random name and say “That is the President of the US”. Let us for the sake of discussion create an hypothetical argument between two US citizens about the identity of the POTUS.

Jane: The POTUS is Mr Barrack Obama, a white male with a French accent, has an African American wife with four children.
John: The POTUS is Mr Barrack Obama, an African American male with American accent, has an African American wife with two daughters.

Jane and John are talking about the same office, but are obviously talking about different people.

When Christians and Muslims talk about God, while they may be talking about the same “office”, they are definitely talking about different beings. Since only one Being can be eternally God, both cannot be equally correct.

Muslim: God’s name is Allah
Christian: God’s name is Yahweh
Muslim: Allah is Unitarian in Essence
Christian: Yahweh is Trinitarian in essence
Muslim: Allah is morally transcendent
Christian: Morality flows from Yahweh
Muslim: Allah has not begotten son
Christian: Jesus is the begotten son of Yahweh

This conversation can go on and on, but already, we can begin to identify that the Muslim and and the Christian are talking about two different beings.
Can both of them therefore be the same God? Definitely not.

What about Jews and Christians? Do they worship the same God?


2 Comments

ik · January 9, 2016 at 3:50 pm

Hmmmmm. The last question is particularly thought provoking. Do the Christians and the jews worship the same God? I’m curious to find out how you answer this one. My random thoughts; they are. They just don’t worship him on the same terms ( one worships him in the terms he has revealed, the other are stuck in the past)

    Emmanuel Osana · January 9, 2016 at 4:10 pm

    Yes IK, I think there are usually many ways we can look at it. A question though; Christians see Jesus as God, Jews think He is a fraud. So, does somebody that calls your God a fraud worship the same God as you?

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