Mondo Gonzales, Pastor of CrossRoads Community Church in New Lenox
When we look at the world today, it doesn’t take long to see that there is religious turmoil all around us. It is within this environment that most of us long for a time when there will be peace and righteousness. Yet sometimes people who are seeking this peace will unfortunately sacrifice truth. Take for example the three largest monotheistic religions of the world: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Although there are many religions that believe in polytheism (many gods), these three religions, which espouse monotheism, (belief in one god) have almost 3 billion followers. It has been common and may I say politically correct over recent years to proclaim that these three religions worship the same “one” God, but just have different names. For the Jewish and Christian religion, God is called “Yahweh” or “Jehovah” whereas the name of this God in Islam is “Allah.” What does the Bible say to this? Do we all worship the same God, but just have different names for Him? And if He is the same God, does He accept all these various forms of worship as sincere attempts on our part to please Him?
One of the easiest ways to answer these questions is to look at the ways in which God has revealed Himself to us in the Bible. Let me give an example. Let’s say that you and I were having a conversation about George Bush and after awhile we both began to realize that were having a difficult time understanding one another. Finally, you say to me, “Whom are you talking about?” I respond, “I am talking about George Bush. You know, the one who is about 6 feet 10 inches, blonde hair, has a Swedish accent.” You would know right away because of the descriptions I gave, that just because the name is the same, we have two distinctly different persons. This is the way it is with the name or title “God.” All three major religions tenaciously affirm that the Creator is one God and thus are monotheistic. Yet Christianity teaches that the Creator has revealed Himself as one God, but in three persons. Now I realize that the concept of the trinity is a very difficult one to fully understand, but it is indeed Biblical.
So the questions still need to be answered. Both Judaism and Islam reject
the concept of the tri-unity of God. They both adamantly deny that Jesus is
God in the flesh and God’s Son. So for those of us committed to the Biblical
teaching that Jesus is God and Yahweh in the flesh, we find a major discrepancy
between the three religions. It is well known that Judaism and Islam teach
that God does not have a Son and so they reject the Biblical teaching (Isaiah
9:6; Psalm 2:7; Prov 30:4; John 1:1-3; Hebrews 1:1-3). Based on the descriptions
of how God describes Himself in the Bible, we conclude that we certainly don’t
worship the same “God.” The beauty of Christianity is not that “man became
God”, but instead that God became a human and lived among us (John 1:14).
God came down in the person of Jesus to live like us, eat like us, hurt like
us, and sorrow like us. Jesus understands the way human life is because He
lived as a human. The next time you have pain or joy in your life, God understands
because He too has lived with pain. That is why Jesus is so compassionate
towards us, He understands! It’s also the reason why the true God as revealed
in the person of Jesus will accept no other worship. He is not Allah or any
other name, but the God of the Bible has spoken saying that the only way to
get to heaven is through repentance from our sins and trusting in the name
of Jesus (Acts 4:12). Are you looking for the truth? If you look to Jesus,
you have found it. He said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one
comes to the Father, except through Me” (John 14:6). Have a blessed week!
(www.ccc-nl.org)
Gonzales, Mondo. "Do all Religions Worship the Same God?" New Lenox
Patriot, 23 August 2007, Sec. A-6.