Posted on 11/20/2003 4:54:20 AM PST by truthandlife
I was watching the Tony Blair and President Bush press conference and an American reporter asked a question on the lines of do you believe Muslims and Christians worship the same God.
President Bush said that Christians and Muslims worship the same God!!!!
Yes. But Shiva, Vishnu, Budda, Allah etc are quite different from the God of Christians who is THE CREATOR of all.
and
There is ONE satan!
Speaking as a Christian theologian, I would say that President Bush ought not quit his day job.
Your god advocated the sacrifice of a man's son upon an alter,
In the case in point, the "sacrifice" of Isaac was a prophecy of the sacrifice of Christ, taking place on the very spot of the crucifixion 2000 years earlier. Abraham realized that he was acting out prophecy, which is why he named the place "The-Lord-Will-Provide," which in Moses' day spawned the saying, "In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided" (Gen. 22:14). In any case, you'll notice that God didn't actually make Abraham go through with it, so your whole comparison is a non-starter to begin with.
. . . allowed the death of Able,
Yes, God allows us to do evil. He respects free will. That's not the same as ordering the death of Able.
. . . committed genocide to clense the world,
Yep. God respects free will, but there comes a point when He has to step in, take a hand personally, and pass judgment. He withholds His judgment as long as possible so that as many as possible can repent and be rescued.
. . . advocated slavery,
Debt slavery. It was the second millennium B.C.'s answer to bankruptcy. Those who so sold themselves went free on the seventh year.
. . . domination of women,
Actually, the Bible's rules on the subject are there for the protection of women. Even the ones that seem completely unfair make perfect sense when their cultural context is taken into account.
. . . and a host of politically incorrect attrocities in the old testiment which were subsequently mollified in the new.
Nothing was "mollified" in the NT, as if the OT were broken and needed to be fixed. All that the NT does is clarify the Old. Those who want to pretend that God suddenly got softer in the NT are deluding themselves, as are those who think that He doesn't show His love equally well in the OT.
This is the God of the Jews and the Muslems as well.
The God of the Jews, yes. We just have a standing disagreement on whether Jesus is the Messiah and whether the Messiah is God in the flesh, but we largely agree on God's nature and personality.
But Allah? He's the exact opposite of the God of the Bible. God delights in making covenants (relationships) with people and keeping them. Allah is presented as capricious in the Quran, untrustworthy. God cannot lie, Allah can. Allah calls his followers servants. God, on the other hand, calls His His own children, His brothers and sisters, His bride. Allah demands submission, God desires fellowship. For Allah, the only way to be certain of entering heaven is to die while killing Allah's enemies--that's why you have all the volunteers to be suicide bombers in the Islamic world. For God, the only way to get into heaven was through the death of His own Son.
The view that Allah and God are basically different names for the same Person is naive. Those of us who have studied both and don't have to worry about riots breaking out when we speak honestly can tell you that they're no more the same than Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
You are correct. Many wars and conflicts have been waged in the name of religion because people can't accept the beliefs of others. People should believe what they want to believe. If some think that others will go to hell for their beliefs, then fine. Let God sort it out.
None for the purposes of this discussion. The question is only if the big three religions all worship the same God. Since all three religions sprang from the old testement then at the core they MUST, by definition have the same God.
As I said in another post, the nature of God did not change with the birth of Jesus, only our understanding of Him changed. Therefore Jews and Muslims who all have the same old testement at their core, worship the same God, merely with less perfect understanding of Him.
Technicall the branch dividians and the Johnstown cult all worshiped the exact same God as well, but again we all get screwed up by the messagers.
For that matter consider the Native American's before the introduction of European invaders worshiped "the great spirit", one god so similar to ours that the Mormons addopted portions into their religion as proof that God was everywhere. Again same God, different messagers.
How the Islam "sprang from the old testement"? Koran is not derived from the Old Testament (or the New).
You are confusing Muslim legends ABOUT the Old Testament with having O.T. "at their core".
Nitpickers.
Good day.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.