DO CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS WORSHIP THE SAME GOD?
As my friends know, I love Muslims. I was a Muslim myself and all my family whom I love dearly, are Muslims. I do not dislike Muslims. Many Muslims are good people, just like many Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists are good people.
Most Muslims that I know are "secularized" Muslims. They were born Muslims and are not Muslims by choice. They know very little about their own religion and are only nominally Muslim, and they do their best to be good people and live decent lives. So, I do not dislike Muslims, but what I dislike is their religion, Islam. Like other religions Islam also teaches certain good moral principles, but Islam cannot change people's hearts neither does it offer a savior to sinful man. Only Jesus Christ can save sinners and give them a new life.
This being said, I want to address an issue that is being discussed these days: "Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God"?” One of my friends brought this up to me the other day, so here is my take on the matter:
NO. CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS DO NOT WORSHIP THE SAME GOD; and here are the reasons why:
FIRSTLY: The god of Islam and the God of Christianity do not have the same name. The name of the god of the Muslims is "Allah" which is the generic Arabic word for "deity" or the equivalent of the word "god" in English. Now Arabic-speaking Christians also use the word "Allah" in worship and prayer just like English-speaking people use the word "God" or Spanish-speaking people use the word "Dios.". The word "Allah" pre-dates Islam and was used by Arab Christians for centuries before Mohammad was born; tTo Arab Christians, it means nothing but the generic word for deity as the word "God" is in the English language.
For Muslims on the other hand, "Allah" is both the Arabic word for deity and the NAME of their god.
"Allah" however is not the name of the god worshipped by Christians. His Name in the Old Testament is primarily YHWH but in the New Testament we come to Him through the name "Jesus" which is the Name of His Son and the Name above every name. Muslims honor Jesus as the greatest of all prophets, but do not recognize Him as the Son of God and as the only way to God.
SECONDLY: The only true God who Christians worship is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is His only begotten Son. The god of the Muslims is NOT the father of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact their god says clearly in the Quran: "Lam ya lidd, wa lumm yu ludd" which means "God is not begotten by anyone neither does he beget anyone.".
In other words, the God who we worship as Christians is the Father of our Lord Jesus (and now also our Father!), but the god of the Muslims is NOT the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our God gives us the new birth and thus makes us His sons and partakers of the divine nature by faith, but the god of the Muslims is incapable of doing any such thing.
THIRDLY: The God who the Christians worship and the god who the Muslims worship are vastly different from one another in their character, as is evidenced by what the respective deities teach in the New Testament and in the Quran. The God of the Christians teaches in the New Testament, "Love your enemies, bBless them that curse you, do not retaliate against evil, but overcome evil with good, .... etc etc.". The god of the Muslims teaches in the Quran "Do not befriend the Yahood or the Nisaara (Jews and Christians), but resist them and fight them..."
So, you can see, although Muslims and certain "Christians" may claim that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, it is not so. The God of the Christians is vastly different from the god of the Muslims and there is no common ground or similarity between the two.
Originally posted on Facebook by Pastor Christopher Alam