Do Muslims, Jews and Christians worship the same God?
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Anonymous
I do! My DH! We have an interfaith family, and we have many, many peers. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
| I made similar observation in a different thread that Unitarians don't actually qualify as Christian since they don't believe the fundamental tenets of Christianity. Words have meaning, you don't get to decide what a word like "Christian" means arbitrarily. |
Anonymous
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The same origins but different interpretations and paths. I find these three religions more to do with history and politics and less with spirituality. So they are the cause of strife and war.
Oriental religions like Buddhism is more spiritual and peaceful. |
Anonymous
Let's not confuse the history of the Orient with one being entirely peaceful. I know many, many peaceful, spiritual Christians who look for God's grace and works in everything they do. |
Anonymous
But for those that do, is it the same as the Christian God? |
Anonymous
How do you explain the violence committed by Tibetan monks, or the Japanese who were indoctrinated to believe that their emperor was a god and that they had divine right to slaughter the Chinese who were sub-human. |
Anonymous
The whole point about Unitarian is that there is no consensus on much of anything. So if you ask this question to 10 Unitarians, you might get 11 different answers. |
Anonymous
Isn't this way, way off topic as well as inflammatory? Focus, everybody! |
Anonymous
This is very wrong. The gospels are full of sayings from Jesus about how "it doesn't matter what goes into your mouth, it matters what comes out of your mouth." And "You have heard it said, an eye for an I and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you in the right cheek, turn the other cheek also." And so on. Think of it as the Abrahamic faiths rewriting each other. Jesus got rid of dietary rules and eye-for-eye. Mohammed brought them back and got rid of Jesus' divinity. Which is better depends on your POV. |
Anonymous
| Hah! I meant to type "eye for eye" not "eye for I". |
Anonymous
But none of the major monotheists believe that God is a spaghetti monster. Those of us who believe in God, believe that God created the world and all it contains and that over time he has continually reached out us to give his loving guidance - and every time he does that, there are those who reject his message and his sacrifice. His attempts to reach us and guide us are what materialize in the different religions. The source of differences between the religions is that people have a hard time distinguishing between God's genuine attempts to reach us and false prophets. Those who reject his genuine communication because they fear false prophets - those people are not worshiping a different God, but they now have mistakenly rejected a complete relationship with him. That is not the same as starting a relationship with a different entity. And those who mistakenly follow a false prophet are not worshiping a different God either. They are misguided and therefore their relationship with God is off-track, but that relationship has not died or been transferred to another power. |
Anonymous
The Christian God and the Jewish God of the Old Testament are indeed the same God, and He is Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of mankind, who was foretold from the beginning of creation. He is the seed spoken of in Genesis 3 who would crush the serpent's head. He is the Angel of the Lord who spoke to Abraham and promised the birth of Isaac. He is whom Jacob wrestled with before Jacob was known as Israel. He is the LORD of David written about throughout the Psalms. He is the savior foretold in Isaiah 9 and Isaiah 53 and 54, and many, many other parts of the Old Testament. Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament scripture (Matthew 5:17) and the final revelation of God to all of mankind. (Hebrews 1) Jesus said to the Jewish leaders of His day, "You search the Scriptures (the Old Testament) because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me." (John 5:39). Those who truly followed God in the Old Testament were looking forward in faith (this is the entire chapter of Hebrews 11) to the coming of Christ, and they would have recognized the Messiah when he came. Indeed, Christ said of Abraham, "Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” (John 8:56) Abraham knew in faith that God and Christ were one and the same, because Christ was promised to Abraham as the blessing to the whole world through Isaac. So yes, Christians and Old Testament Jews worship the same eternal God, who is Jesus Christ. But those Jews who rejected and now reject Christ (or anyone else) do not worship the same God as Christians (or Muslims). You can have it no other way. Jesus Christ is God. If Christ is God (which He showed by his many miracles and His resurrection), how can you reject Him and say you'll find your own pathway to God? It makes no logical sense. If you don't want to believe Christ is God, I suppose that's your prerogative, but there's no coherent way you can reject the exclusive claims of Christ to His own divinity and say there are other ways to come to know God than just through Jesus Christ. If I rejected knowing you, there's no other way to get to know you. Same with God. |
Anonymous
| This entire post makes me want to be an atheist (though I am not). Who cares whether I think I worship the same god as you do? You care? Because you have a special deal or relationship? I somehow dilute your religion by claiming that my god is the same as yours? Excuse me for saying - but that's just crap. It's what I can't stand about how some people use religion to create division and strife. It sucks and I wish people would stop. |
Anonymous
| Muslims believe that we have similar origins but they are on the straight path and the rest of us have veered off in the wrong direction. |