Sunday, March 27, 2011

DO YOU KNOW GOD?

The word, "God," gets used so often that one may come to the conclusion all religions worship the same Being. And if we narrow it down to the three monotheistic religions, that assumption seems even more likely. All three were spread through the lineage of one man, Abraham. The Jewish and the Christian faiths believe in the God of the Bible, while the Muslim faith believes in the God of the Koran. The Jews and Christians know God as Elohim, or Jehovah. The Muslim faith calls God "Allah." The question is, are Jehovah and Allah the same God? You be the judge.

The New Testament gives us several clues as to whether the God of the Jews and the Christians is different from the Allah of the Muslim faith. The Koran denies that Jesus was born of a virgin, that He is God, and that His death on the cross was sufficient to satisfy God's demand for death to pay for sin (Jn. 8:24; Rom. 5:8; 1 Jn. 2:2; 4:10). In other words, the Bible teaching on the life of Jesus is rejected by Muslims. That is supremely significant, because God's revelation of Himself is found in Jesus Christ. The Bible says:

*John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared [him].
*John 14:7-9 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou [then], Shew us the Father?
*Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
*1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
*Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of [his] glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Then there are the verses that proclaim Jesus as God. They are so numerous that I do not have space to print them all. But, I will give two examples from both Testaments:
*Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
*John 1:1-2, 14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.

From these passages, it is clear the God of the Jews and Christians is not the same Being as Allah.

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