Every language has its own word for God.
The Arabic word for God existed long before the English word “God”.
Arabic Muslims, Jews, and Christians ALL call God “Allah” because they speak Arabic, and that is THE Arabic word for God.
Allah is the word for God in the Arabic scriptures of Arabic Jews and Arabic Christians.
The video creator is correct that God’s name, from the Hebrew scriptures, is Yahweh. So, he makes an excellent point that the Koran uses Hebraic names that honor the Hebrew titles and name of God. He is only partially correct about the New Testament references to God. The New Testament quotes Old Testament passages in which Yahweh is translated as “Lord,” and these New Testament passages apply this title to Jesus.
For example, “Whoever shall call on the name of the Lord [Yahweh, but applied to Jesus], shall be saved.” See Romans 10:10.
The main reason I point this out repeatedly on this forum is because Christians should not ignorantly malign God’s Arabic title “Allah” just because Muslims misuse it to refer to their false god. We would never malign the names of Jesus because certain cults misuse it.
Fascinating. Perhaps you could corroborate a few things before we chuck away all of our beliefs in the true nature of God and hop on your crazy train?
“The main reason I point this out repeatedly on this forum is because Christians should not ignorantly malign God’s Arabic title “Allah” just because Muslims misuse it to refer to their false god.”
I think that bears repeating. I just did a search and came across a pdf (”Allah in Translations of the Bible”, by Kenneth J. Thomas) that talks about how the word “Allah” is used for God in the Old and New Testament. (The writer stated that YHWH was reserved for God/Allah as revealed to the Hebrews). He also gave several caveats on several of the believed origins of the term Allah.
In Malaysia(?), the government said that Bible translations could NOT use the term Allah, much to the dismay of Arab Christians there!
And in that pdf paper he also points out that while the word Allah refers to God for Jews, Christians and muslims - the IDEA and attributes of that God are all different. While I like to think that I worship the same God as the Jews (just with a more complete understanding of Him), I’m guessing most Jews would say that I am wrong. So am I really worshiping the same God as the Jews??? I’m guessing we could have an interesting discussion.
A doubt that there would be little discussion and lots of blood shed if I were to attempt a similar conversation with a Jihadi about his made-up god.
However, I imagine that using an Arabic Bible with the word Allah for God in ministering to muslims is really beneficial. Just last week our pastor was talking about how he was in Europe, and the thousands and thousands of muslim refugees that are becoming Christian.
I’d read long ago that Allah was one god among many and is not the Arabic word for god. The name was familiar and was appropriated for that reason.
“Every language has its own word for God.”
But which god are they refering to with their “own word”?
Good thing God (of the bible) knows hearts and intentions of people because unfortunately we live in a world with many deceivers
Yahweh, YHWH, and variants is usually “LORD.” (all caps)
“Lord” in the Old Testament is usually Adonai (and variants)
“Lord” in the New Testament is usually Kyrios (and variants)
There are exceptions.
Wow. A post on FR that actually taught me something. Thank you.
I dont have the time or the energy to dig through my research but.... you are wrong. the religion we call islam didn’t even exist when the the english word “God” first came into usage. a precursor to the word allah, don’t remember.. sallah? was considered a minor god, one of literally hundreds of gods worshiped by the various and numerous tribes and clans that covered the middle east and north africa.
Allah as used in the modern religion? of islam did not come into usage until mid 9th century AD and as for the middle eastern christians (syrian) that I know and pray with use the words Jesus Jehovah and Yahweh.
thanks for calling and sharing