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The Same God?
Human Events ^ | 10/09/2007 | Cal Thomas

Posted on 10/09/2007 5:03:33 AM PDT by vietvet67

Whatever else his critics say of him, no one can fault President Bush for failing to go the extra mile in his efforts to show that neither he, nor the United States, is opposed to the Islamic faith, or to Muslim nations.

Last week, the president and Mrs. Bush hosted their seventh Iftaar Dinner, the celebration that breaks the Muslim fast during Ramadan. Immediately after 9/11, the president visited a Washington, D.C., mosque and proclaimed Islam a “religion of peace.” He has frequently said that terrorists are not real Muslims, anymore than people who proclaim to be Christian and engage in violence are genuine Christians.

The president is the most openly evangelical Christian and faithful churchgoer since Jimmy Carter. And the evangelical community has mostly embraced him and twice voted for him in overwhelming numbers. But that constituency is likely to be troubled over something the president said in an interview with Al Arabiya television. In an official transcript released by the White House, the president said, “…I believe in an almighty God, and I believe that all the world, whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God.” Later in the interview, the president repeated his statement: “I believe there is a universal God. I believe the God that the Muslim prays to is the same God that I pray to. After all, we all came from Abraham. I believe in that universality.”

(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bush; bushandgod; calthomas; faith
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To: jveritas
Not answering the question will be the same as saying what you want him to say.

Wouldn't think so. Not answering the question leaves the opinion unexpressed.

81 posted on 10/09/2007 1:56:46 PM PDT by William Terrell (Individuals can exist without government but government can't exist without individuals.)
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To: All

“...prays to the same God.”

No.


82 posted on 10/09/2007 3:53:40 PM PDT by Cindy
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To: jveritas; P-Marlowe; blue-duncan
Do not use the Christian religion as a cover to fight a war, it is against Christianity itself.

That is not accurate. The large majority of Christianity has believed for many, many centuries that there are times when it is necessary to go to war.

83 posted on 10/09/2007 3:59:15 PM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain And Proud of It! Those who support the troops will pray for them to WIN!)
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To: xzins
You misunderstood me Reverend, please read my post 66.
84 posted on 10/09/2007 4:27:10 PM PDT by jveritas (God bless our brave troops and President Bush)
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To: alexander_busek

http://www.jesusvisions.org/index.shtml

http://isaalmasih.net/isa/dreamsofisa.html

http://net-burst.net/hot/muslim.htm

http://www.brokenmasterpieces.com/archives/000347.html

http://www.morethandreams.tv/index.html

There are many more sources.


85 posted on 10/09/2007 4:44:57 PM PDT by ovrtaxt (Sworn to oppose control freaks, foreign and domestic.)
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To: vietvet67

I’m not smart enough to wrap my little mind around the idea of defining God. However, I do have an excellent guidepost for religion in general. Someone once told me, “By their fruits you shall know them.” Once someone can show me the Islamic equivalent to Mother Teresa or Albert Schweitzer, then I’ll begin practicing tolerance immediately. As long as the Moslems keeps telling me to convert or be killed, though, I’m mighty skeptical.


86 posted on 10/09/2007 5:41:55 PM PDT by redpoll (redpoll)
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To: Brilliant

Poor Bush. He cannot get anything right lately over the last 4 years. Actually, the tax cuts, the WOIslamofascism have been his highlights. His feted born again view of Jesus has now been milked down to say Islam is peace, illegals are not illegals, Mexico is our friend and ......You list it for us.


87 posted on 10/09/2007 5:52:02 PM PDT by phillyfanatic
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To: jveritas

I have to agree with you. God shone favor to King David, and he didn’t always go the way of peace. It’s a dog eat dog world we live in these days, and we just have to show the world our military has honor and courage in the face of all the nastiness. It’s an ugly job and thank God they are brave enough to do it. God bless our military!


88 posted on 10/09/2007 9:40:45 PM PDT by Not just another dumb blonde
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To: alcuin

We, as christians, are supposed to hate evil.


89 posted on 10/09/2007 9:43:41 PM PDT by Not just another dumb blonde
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To: aruanan

Ismael was Abraham and Hagaar’s son. Hagaar was Sarah’s maid servant. If I remember correctly Hagaar was Egyptian. You should read about the description of Ismael, it’s prophetic. After I read it I understood much more why the Arabs hate the Jews. Ismael was an illegitimate son so he didn’t get to be Abraham’s heir, Isaac was.


90 posted on 10/09/2007 9:56:33 PM PDT by Not just another dumb blonde
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To: allmendream
Sorry, but genetic evidence links Arab and Jewish populations as both being of Semitic origin (Science confirms Biblical linkage). And the Bible says from Genesis 21....

No. This is still at too general a level. More specifically, if Abraham indeed was the founder of both the Jewish and the Arab groups, there would be a very close link between them. Such a specific link does not exist. The closest in genetic lineage with Middle Eastern Jews are certain non-Arab groups in the Mesopotamian region, not Arabs. And the Bible passage you quoted says nothing about Arabs being descended from Abraham.
91 posted on 10/10/2007 2:47:39 AM PDT by aruanan
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To: William Terrell
That's an odd theory. First I've heard of it. Why was Genesis 16:11-12 written, if he were just an individual wild man, then died? Who are the brethren he lived amongst?

What's an odd theory, that the Arabs were not descended from Ishmael? The Bible says nothing about it. It was Muhammed, et al, who claimed this. The idea among Christians that the Arabs are the descendents of Ishmael has its origin among the Muslims. It has even less scriptural support than a pretribulation rapture. Some Christians especially love this part of the prophecy about Ishmael:
"He will be a wild donkey of a man;
       his hand will be against everyone
       and everyone's hand against him,
       and he will live in hostility
       toward [b] all his brothers."
They claim, well, it's true that this describes the Arabs so they must have descended from Ishmael. That, of course, is the fallacy of the undistributed middle: A is B and C is B so A must be C (or C must be derived from A), "Descendents of Ishmael will be troublesome and hostile, Arabs are troublesome and hostile; therefore descendents of Ishmael are Arabs." This is as true as saying, "Dogs are mammals. Cats are mammals. Therefore, dogs are cats."
92 posted on 10/10/2007 3:14:20 AM PDT by aruanan
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To: Not just another dumb blonde
You should read about the description of Ismael, it’s prophetic.

See #92.
93 posted on 10/10/2007 3:15:42 AM PDT by aruanan
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To: DungeonMaster
What ever happened to his Christian testimony? Was he lying or was he just spinning his theology to bait evangelicals?

The Christian right was played like a violin by GWB .He is the same kind of "Christian" that most of our Presidents have been, cultural.

He has denied Christ with that statement, that does not bode well for him

94 posted on 10/10/2007 3:39:13 AM PDT by ears_to_hear (Pray for America)
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To: ears_to_hear
He has denied Christ with that statement, that does not bode well for him

I just had a though, maybe there is some truth to Bush's statement considering this:

John 4:21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

He didn't say that she worships the wrong God, only that they worship a God that they don't know. Not knowing Him is the same as not being saved and results in going to hell, but it does leave wiggle room to say that they worship the same God.

95 posted on 10/10/2007 6:29:42 AM PDT by DungeonMaster (John 2:4 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee?)
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To: aruanan
Well then, what “great nation” was founded by Ishmael as God promised? Both Arab and Jewish tradition holds that Ishmael founded the Arab nation. The Bible doesn’t say “Arab” but it mentions a place, and that place was Arabia. The Bible doesn’t mention a nation, but the nation of people that live in Arabia is Arabian.
96 posted on 10/10/2007 6:36:21 AM PDT by allmendream (A Lyger is pretty much my favorite animal. (Hunter08))
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To: aruanan
So the best argument that Arabs were not descended from Ismael is that Muhammad said they were?

97 posted on 10/10/2007 6:40:51 AM PDT by William Terrell (Individuals can exist without government but government can't exist without individuals.)
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To: ovrtaxt

Thanks for the links! (All of which seem to have been set up by the same people.)

After having perused them, I have come to the conclusion that “the coming massive wave of Muslim conversions to Jesus” of which you wrote is non-Biblical and could be more-accurately described as follows:

“...the coming massive wave of Muslim conversions to Jesus - which a couple of Internet kooks claim to have seen in DREAMS and VISIONS.”


98 posted on 10/10/2007 7:39:48 AM PDT by alexander_busek
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To: Malesherbes

Some people like to use religion to create tension and hostility, some like to use it to try to promote peace and cooperation. The zealot likes the former, the statesman the latter.

Bush is right to restrict his enmity to murderers and avowed enemies of the US, and not to spread it to encompass every individual raised within a particular culture.


99 posted on 10/10/2007 7:57:39 AM PDT by beavus (People are rational in the mundane. Irrationality is left for what matters most.)
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To: DungeonMaster
He didn't say that she worships the wrong God, only that they worship a God that they don't know.

Great catch!
100 posted on 10/10/2007 8:22:53 AM PDT by newgeezer (fundamentalist, regarding the Holy Bible AND the Constitution. Words mean things.)
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