Deity Continued

[spk1121]

(See HERE for the beginning of the thread and some responses.)

• But I do think God is Y-w-h is Allah.
• Christian God and Muslim Allah really ARE the same god, as both faiths originated from the old testament and deviated at a later point.
  

A couple different people expressed this kind of sentiment, so I'm going to express my take on it.  To do so, I'm going to turn to a non-Biblical analogy: say you are discussing fraternal and identical twins.  One can argue that there are many similiarties between the two types of pregnancies -- each involves the children being the offspring of the same parents, more than one fetus grows in the uterus, they experience the same gestation period, have the same birthday, etc.  They are indeed similar types of pregnancies.  However, if you try to convince someone (especially a doctor or nurse) that they are the same, they will look at you like a crazy person!  Probably the first thing they would bring up is that fraternal twins can involve both a boy and a girl, but they have to be the same gender in a case of identical twins.

So, I most definitely think that the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition has a lot of commonalities and similar views, especially as relates to the concept of monotheism.  However, the sticking point is Jesus Christ -- true Man, true God.  Jews would not link a human face with God, that's idolatry and breaking the second Commandment.  So, too, with Muslims -- Isa (Jesus) is a highly respected prophet and the greatest before Muhammed, but not God made flesh.  To say otherwise is the gravest of heresies in Islam.  Yet that's what traditional Christians believe -- One God, Three Persons.  Jesus said to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  However, he also said he came to fulfill the Law and not to abolish it, and the Law clearly states that there is only one God.  So, this means that God has somehow miraculously worked within history in a way that we can hardly comprehend -- eternal, yet born; immortal, yet subject to death; majestic beyond all kings, yet humbled by a criminal's punishment for the sins of all.  We take it for granted, but it really is absolutely mind-boggling when you take the time to think about it!

There are undoubtedly links between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  Muhammed acknowledged that himself by referring to Jews and Christians as "People of the Book."  Christians acknowledge that Jesus and all his disciples were Jewish, and that the message of salvation only came to the Gentiles after the Chosen People had already been told the Good News.  However, unless you can say without qualm that Jesus, who lived and walked on this planet, was God incarnate and fully divine, we don't believe in the same God.  We have a similar concept of God, but not the same.  It's like acknowledging the existence of the United States of America, but not admitting that 17 states are a part of the (one) nation!  For Christians, you can't have "God" without Jesus, without the full and blessed Holy Trinity in One.