Do Christians, Jews, and Muslims Worship the Same God?

Jesus slammed the door shut on
this question in John 8:19 when
he blasted the Pharisees for not
acknowledging his deity: “You know
neither me nor my Father. If you knew
me, you would know my Father also.”

In other words, if you do not worship
Jesus, you do not worship the Father,
either. Neither Jews nor Muslims worship
Jesus; therefore, they do not worship
the same God.

Why Is This Question Even Asked?

While this question is likely raised
because postmodernism demands
that all roads lead to God, it still has
some validity because of a man we
meet in the book of Genesis: Abraham.

Islam claims Abraham is the father
of their religion, but that does not automatically
mean we worship the same
God. For starters, the Koran teaches that Abraham’s promised descendants
come through Ishmael, not Isaac.
Worse than that, the Koran does not
portray Abraham’s Allah as the kind,
compassionate, loving Yahweh of the
Bible (Exodus 34:6–7; John 3:16).

Allah loves only those who first love
him (Qur’an 3:31–32) or who do good
deeds (2:195). God first loves us while
we are yet sinning (I John 4:10;
Romans 5:8). The Koran’s Allah and the Bible’s
Yahweh are simply not the same deity
with the same attributes.

Things get a bit trickier with Judaism
because the Old Testament God is
“the Father” of the Christian Trinity.
Jesus made it clear that Jews who worship
only one-third of the Trinity do
not rightly worship the true and living
God. That is why every single orthodox
creed of Christianity states that
only those who worship the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit will be saved.

You might think this is uncharitable,
but conservative Muslims and Jews
agree that the three Abrahamic faiths
do not worship the same God. As for
liberal Muslims and Jews who claim
we do, their refusal to bend the knee to
Jesus renders their claim meaningless.

What Do We Do With This Knowledge?

Knowing that incorrect theology is
damnable should give us two unshakable
convictions:

1. It is the Christian’s duty to contend
   earnestly for the faith that has
   been handed down to us (Jude 3).
2. It is the Christian’s high honor to
   proclaim that salvation is found in no
   other name than Jesus (Acts 4:12).

Jesus himself would tell the most
devout Muslim or Jew, “Whoever
believes in the Son has eternal life;
whoever does not obey the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God
remains on him” (John 3:36). If we love
Muslims and Jews, we will (lovingly)
tell them the same thing.

SourceThis article originally appeared on answersingenesis.org

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