Christianity and Islam: Do We Worship the Same God?
Can a religion that claims Jesus was a lesser prophet and most certainly not God, be considered to worship the same God as Christians? Apparently, it depends on who you ask. The head of the Catholic church, Pope Benedict, seems to think so:
Jesus Christ claimed to be the way, the Truth, and the life and that no one comes to the Father, except through Him (John 14:6). Muslims claim Christ was one of their prophets, though not the greatest and certainly not deity. However, Jesus did not leave them that option. He was either God or nothing. C.S. Lewis said it best: He was either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord.
Though I won't take the opportunity to make Lewis' argument here in it's entirety, it is clear that He was neither a lunatic nor a liar and He clearly left no room to simply be considered a prophet. If Muslims do not believe He is God, then, based on His own claims, Jesus should be considered a liar and not worthy of even being considered a prophet.
For his part, if he is truly a follower of Christ, Pope Benedict has no right to put the redemptive work of Christ on the cross on the same level of Islam simply so no one would be upset with him. Besides, why should the pope fear such a peaceful and loving group? What harm could possibly come to him? The fact is, the pope quoted a historical document and now much of the Muslim world wants him dead.
I hope that in several occasions during the visit ... my deep respect for great religions, in particular for Muslims - who worship the one God and with whom we are engaged in defending and promoting together social justice, moral values, peace and freedom for all men - has emerged clearly,' Benedict said during his weekly audience at the Vatican.Let me be clear on something: Muslim people are not an enemy. They should not be considered an enemy. They are descendants of Adam and thus sinners and victims of sin just like everybody else in the world. They, like me, need a savior. However, let's also be clear on something else: Christianity and Islam are nothing close to being the same thing and we do not worship the same god (certainly Muslims understand this or they would not consider Christians the infidel: "A person who does not acknowledge your god").
Jesus Christ claimed to be the way, the Truth, and the life and that no one comes to the Father, except through Him (John 14:6). Muslims claim Christ was one of their prophets, though not the greatest and certainly not deity. However, Jesus did not leave them that option. He was either God or nothing. C.S. Lewis said it best: He was either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord.
Though I won't take the opportunity to make Lewis' argument here in it's entirety, it is clear that He was neither a lunatic nor a liar and He clearly left no room to simply be considered a prophet. If Muslims do not believe He is God, then, based on His own claims, Jesus should be considered a liar and not worthy of even being considered a prophet.
For his part, if he is truly a follower of Christ, Pope Benedict has no right to put the redemptive work of Christ on the cross on the same level of Islam simply so no one would be upset with him. Besides, why should the pope fear such a peaceful and loving group? What harm could possibly come to him? The fact is, the pope quoted a historical document and now much of the Muslim world wants him dead.
Though I have absolutely nothing against Muslim people, I don't share in the pope's view of Islam being a "great religion." If Muslims truly want to be known as a peaceful religion, then stop the threats, the protests, and the violence and put away the sword.Benedict cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as 'evil and inhuman,' particularly 'his command to spread by the sword the faith.'
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posted by DAVID C. PRICE at 9/25/2006 06:20:00 AM
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2 Comments:
This has the makings of a great discourse, however in order for it to reach its full potential, one has to at first begin on truth. I read your post and it is full of error, I won't presume why, however, I will attempt at a correction.
"Can a religion that claims Jesus was a lesser prophet and most certainly not God,..."
Jesus(saw) in Islam is not viewed as a "lesser" prophet. In fact, there is no such teaching in Islam, all prophets are viewed the same as messengers of God. Jesus(saw) however, in Islam is always followed with the title the Messiah, and is recognized as a sign and word from God and will also return on the day of judgement. As far as his divinity or lack there of is concerned, that's the only true statement in that quote.
"Christianity and Islam are nothing close to being the same thing and we do not worship the same god (certainly Muslims understand this or they would not consider Christians the infidel: "A person who does not acknowledge your god")."
Islam and Christianity both claim to follow the God that was revealed to Abraham(saw). That is a basic start to the similarities. Muslims generally believe everything about Jesus(saw) that Christians do with the exeption only of the Cruxifiction narrative and the doctrine(s) of divinity.
Infidel doesnt even have an Islamic or Arabic equivalent. Its an English word most notibly invented by the Church itself. In Islam Christians and Jews are called People of the Book. The only thing close to the idea of infidel is Kuffar which means non-believer, which was always applied to polytheists. Christians throughout the Quran are only and always called People of the Book out of respect that they have received Divine guidance from God.
Outside of your obvious bias and views of my faith, I can truly appreciate the question you raised as it is one that is worthy of diaglogue.
Peace
Robert:
Thanks for your comments. I must respectfully submit to you that I do have a bias because truth is hard to come by when there are discrepencies in your comments and in your faith which is a spin-off of Christianity which was established before the Islamic faith was founded.
However, that is really beside the point as you have so eloquently pointed out by stating that the major difference is THE major difference in Christianity and Islam: What you do with Jesus is the point. This discount of His divinity leads me to stand by my original statement that we are completely different and we worship different gods. I worship Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh. You reject that.
In your comment, you did not answer how Jesus could be considered a prophet from God if His "prophecy" (if you want to call it that) was to claim to be God. How can Muslims not consider that blasphemy, thus disclaiming Jesus as anything but a lunatic or a very evil person? Yet Muslims both embrace Jesus and disbelieve His claims. How can that be? I mean you can reject Christ, but you cannot take away the words from His mouth. Islam has a VERY big problem there. And by the way, Muslims clearly consider Mohammed its greatest prophet, leading to a ranking in practice, if not in rhetoric.
Also, very secondarily is the point about the word, "infidel." If that is an English word, why is it that almost all of the terrorist messages have included something related to "death to the infidel." Why would we make that up about ourselves. Seems kind of silly to me.
Finally, as for the claim to follow the same God as revealed to Abraham. There is a bigger difference than you let on: The Bible tells us that the promise was revealed and fulfilled through Abraham's son from his wife, Sarah, named Isaac, and that Muslims are descendants of Ishmael (also a son of Abraham, but through Sarah's servant, Hagar). The only difference here is that Muslims (which again came after the establishment of Christianity), have a different version. The story is strikingly similar, except that the role of Isaac is played by Ishmael in the Islamic version, the son of promise. The problem here is that the historicity of the Muslim account doesn't hold up.
I don't want this to sound in any way combative. I respect you as a creation of the living God and appreciate you engaging in this dialogue. I simply discount Islam as being a legitimate religion grounded in truth or fact because it misses the very person of Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh, and distorts a historical account of the Judeo-Christian origin in order to make itself appear legit. If Muslims wanted to place themselves as the dominant religion (legitimately), they should have at least given a completely different account of their origins rather that simply choose to switch roles with an already established history.
The fact is, Robert, you are sincerely following a religion that I'm sure you believe to be true. The problem is, for thousands of years, God revealed to us our need for a savior because we could not save ourselves. We are sinners and that sin separates us from God. He delivered that savior to us just as had been prophesied all those years back in exactly the way He told us. Sadly, many people missed it then as they continue to do so now. My prayer for you is that you do not miss Him, too.
Thanks, again, for your comment.
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