[From article]
The recent flap at Wheaton College, an Evangelical college near Chicago, caused by Dr. Larcyia Hawkins donning a Muslim hijab to stand in religious solidarity with Muslims ‘because Christians and Muslims believe in the same God,’ touched off a spate of opinion pieces on whether or not Hawkins is correct. Some supported her contention and some did not. Reader comments after most of these essays were split as well, but the majority clearly supported the ‘no we don’t worship the same God’ position.
[. . .]
The opinions offered in the ‘no we don’t’ essays, are based on the theology that Christians worship a loving, merciful but just triune God of reason -- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, while Muslims pray to a demanding and unreasonable God who condones murdering nonbelievers, honor killing, polygamy, and keeping women subservient and uneducated, etc. The Muslim God is clearly not the same God that is worshipped by Christians.
If the doctrine of monotheism is correct, the ‘yes we do’ arguments goes, then there is only one true God. As such, all monotheistic religions are worshipping this same God, even though each religion may have a different name for God and a different understanding of the nature of God. Additionally, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all worship the God of Abraham initially revealed in the Old Testament. They part company when it comes to discerning the nature of God and exactly what He expects of us.
[. . .]
Both sides in this argument have valid points. Assuming the God of Abraham is the one true God and Christians, Jews, and Muslims all worship the God of Abraham, they all do worship the same God. But since Muslims have a vastly different understanding of the nature of God, as ’revealed’ by Muhammed, they are, in effect, worshiping a different God.
[. . .]
Both sides in this argument have valid points. Assuming the God of Abraham is the one true God and Christians, Jews, and Muslims all worship the God of Abraham, they all do worship the same God. But since Muslims have a vastly different understanding of the nature of God, as ’revealed’ by Muhammed, they are, in effect, worshiping a different God.
[. . .]
The newest craze is a rising segment of the population who say they are “spiritual but not religious.” Belonging to an “organized religion” is just not their cup of tea, so instead they belong to “the Church of me” where they get to decide all by themselves how they should worship God, how they should live their lives, what God expects of them, what is true and what is false, what is moral and what is not, and so on. No question about it – it’s a lot easier to make up your own rules as you go along and just follow your own conscience.
[. . .]
So I encourage people to thoroughly explore the doctrines of their own and other religions, including examining the pros and cons on the various doctrinal differences (the apologetics offered by theologians of each religion), before settling on a system of beliefs.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/12/debating_the_nature_of_god.html
January 3, 2016
Debating the Nature of God
By Gene Van Son
Both sides in this argument have valid points. Assuming the God of Abraham is the one true God and Christians, Jews, and Muslims all worship the God of Abraham, they all do worship the same God. But since Muslims have a vastly different understanding of the nature of God, as ’revealed’ by Muhammed, they are, in effect, worshiping a different God.
[. . .]
Both sides in this argument have valid points. Assuming the God of Abraham is the one true God and Christians, Jews, and Muslims all worship the God of Abraham, they all do worship the same God. But since Muslims have a vastly different understanding of the nature of God, as ’revealed’ by Muhammed, they are, in effect, worshiping a different God.
[. . .]
The newest craze is a rising segment of the population who say they are “spiritual but not religious.” Belonging to an “organized religion” is just not their cup of tea, so instead they belong to “the Church of me” where they get to decide all by themselves how they should worship God, how they should live their lives, what God expects of them, what is true and what is false, what is moral and what is not, and so on. No question about it – it’s a lot easier to make up your own rules as you go along and just follow your own conscience.
[. . .]
So I encourage people to thoroughly explore the doctrines of their own and other religions, including examining the pros and cons on the various doctrinal differences (the apologetics offered by theologians of each religion), before settling on a system of beliefs.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/12/debating_the_nature_of_god.html
January 3, 2016
Debating the Nature of God
By Gene Van Son
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