Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God? - Is Allah God?

Theology
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@Niblo I see that you’re well read about a wide spectrum of views on Jesus. I’d like to approach it a little differently – because I believe that Jesus’ person is directly related to why He came, as well as related to who God is.

I think you would agree that God is good, loving, holy, righteous, just and merciful, but we are imperfect and sinful. The Injeel, quoting from the Psalms, says:

As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

Romans 3:10-12

and

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 3:23

and

For the wages of sin is death

Romans 6:23

God is perfect in all His attributes, including justice. So sin must be punished, or His perfect justice will be violated. Throughout the Taurat blood was shed to atone for sins:

  • God covered Adam and Eve with the skins of animals after they rebelled against His command to not eat the forbidden fruit;
  • God provided a sacrificial ram as a substitute for Abraham’s son;
  • During the last of the plagues of Egypt, God’s Angel of Death passed over the firstborn sons of the houses that had sacrificed a lamb and applied its blood to the doorposts;
  • God commanded numerous sacrifices from the people of Israel to temporarily cover their sins. (See Leviticus 4:1 - 5:13 for some of them.)

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Hebrews 9:22

Why did Jesus come? As a prophet? No. The New Testament shows Jesus as the fulfillment of prophesies and the final adha - the perfect, sinless sacrifice to cover our sins.

When he saw Jesus, the prophet John (Yahya) said

“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

John 1:29

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Matthew 16:21

… just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Matthew 20:28

The Jewish leaders and Romans thought they took Jesus’ life, but He said

I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.

John 10:14-15, 18

Through Jesus’ death both God’s justice and mercy are satisfied.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:6

Jesus was different from any of the prophets. Only He was born of a virgin. He healed the lame and the blind, multiplied a small amount of bread and fish to feed thousands of people, walked on water, calmed storms and even claimed authority to forgive sins. He raised people from the dead.

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John are the testimonies of three witnesses to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and the Gospel of Luke is a carefully researched contemporary account of His birth, life, teachings, death and resurrection. All four dedicate multiple chapters to Jesus’ teaching that He came to die as the eternal Passover sacrifice for us and to rise forever from the dead.

Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

1 Corinthians 5:7

Are your sins against God covered by the blood of the ultimate sacrifice, which He provided for us? Our good deeds, no matter how many, cannot make up for the enormity of even one of our sins against the infinitely holy and righteous and just God.

For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Hebrews 2:2-4

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin [or a sin offering] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:20-21

I cannot urge you strongly enough - read (or re-read) the four Gospels, the testimony of Jesus’ witnesses, to learn about His life, why He said He came and who He said and showed that He is. Read them each from beginning to end, as they were meant to be read. Pay particular attention to what He said about Himself. Read the Bible verses I quoted in their context. Read the letters of the Apostle Paul to the Romans and to the Galatians (after reading Genesis 17:9-14 for context about the importance of circumcision for the Jews) to see that we cannot be made righteous before God by following Law (whether the Torah, the Quran or some other Law) but only by faith in Jesus’ sacrifice in our place, proven by His resurrection.

You can get the YouVersion Bible app and read it in any language that you choose. If you’d like to correspond with someone, possibly even someone from a Muslim background who now follows Jesus, I might be able to arrange it for you.

I’ll pray that God will give you eyes to see and ears to hear and an open heart to receive the Good News of Jesus, the Messiah, who has changed the hearts and lives of countless people for over 2000 years.

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I think it’s important to make a distinction between Categorical Difference and Theological Difference.

Categorically speaking, Jews, Christians, and Muslims all worship the same God–the God of Abraham. However, theologically, it’s a lot muddier than that. Does simply saying “I worship that God” mean we actually worship God? If the God we claim to worship, and the God we worship–through what we believe about Him, how our lives are shaped by that worship, by the shape of our religion and faith and devotion, etc–does not match the truth of who and what God is, then are we truly worshiping God? Or are we worshiping an idol and calling it God?

And that’s a lot bigger, and deeper, than the question of whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God. That becomes a question for each of us who are, in fact, Christians–is our view of God being properly shaped by God’s truthful Self-disclosure of Who He is in Jesus Christ? I think this becomes more deeply introspective, and calls us to a place of repentance and penitential self-examination as we contemplate just what it means to call ourselves Christians, what it means to believe in Jesus, to follow Jesus. Who we are, as Christians, in the world, to one another, in relation to other people, etc.

In that sense, do Muslims worship the same God as Christians? The answer, in this case, is no. Not because of a categorical difference; but rather a theological, religious, moral, and practical difference: The God I want to worship is the God who meets me in the suffering Lamb of God, in Jesus, who gives His life, who dies for the sins of the world. A God who isn’t that, isn’t God at all. But a cheap imitation, a false god. But this isn’t something that becomes a unique problem for the Muslim; it is something that I have to address for myself even as I spend my days trying to take up this cross and follow Jesus, for every time I call myself Christian. Am I being a Christian, or am I just calling myself one? What is the condition of my heart, am I receptive to the Spirit’s work of changing, transforming, healing, and drawing me toward Jesus or am I resisting and quenching the Holy Spirit? Each day is a battle, a struggle, and also an opportunity to choose to follow Jesus–and each day has its own fight–do I choose Christ or do I choose myself?

The man in the parking lot is suffering, what do I do? Who am I supposed to be toward that man? I’m cut off in traffic, do I curse or do I bless?

Lord Jesus have mercy on me, a sinner.

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@TheologyNerd

Thanx for your perspective. I appreciate your designation of a “Categorical Difference and Theological Difference.” I know what you are communicating here, and I applaud it.

To illustrate your point, you said:

“Catagorically”, you are a sinner, since you were born into sin, and you have not lived a holy life. But, “Theologically” you are NO LONGER a sinner, since

Romans 4:5

“But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,”

Romans 4:24-25

Righteousness “shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”

2 Corinthians 5:21

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Ephesians 1:3-12

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth–in Him.

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

Thanx again
KP

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Many thanks for your sincere, and courteous reply. I apologise for the delayed response.

You write:

‘I cannot urge you strongly enough - read (or re-read) the four Gospels, the testimony of Jesus’ witnesses, to learn about His life, why He said He came and who He said and showed that He is. Read them each from beginning to end, as they were meant to be read.’

Thank you for your advice.

Born in 1945 – in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales – and raised a Baptist, I became, at the age of fifteen, a Catholic; and remained one for over fifty years.

For ten years I was a professed member of the Carmelite Third Order; and studied biblical and dogmatic theology; hermeneutics; biblical criticism; canon law, and so on. I had excellent teachers. I was a Thomist, and still have a very high regard for the methodology of Aquinas.

I spent a year with the Carmelite Friars at Hazlewood Castle in Yorkshire (now a hotel); and over a year with the Cistercians (Trappists) at Mount Saint Bernard Abbey in Leicester, testing a vocation (I first visited the Abbey in my early twenties, and knew the community well). It became clear that life in a religious order was not my calling, and so I became a husband and father (as the Abbey Secretary said to me: ‘Our novitiate is a seedbed of good Catholic marriages!’). I look back at my time with the Carmelites and Cistercians with great affection. Even though I no longer share all their doctrinal beliefs, I admire their spirituality, and their honest convictions; and their way of life – especially that of the Cistercians.’

It is unwise to cram the Exalted into a casket of our own manufacture, and then to claim sole ownership of its contents.

This practice is all too common among fundamentalists – both Christian and Muslim; among folk who delight in condemning those who do not share their particular beliefs.

By God’s grace, I am not one of these.

Blessings.

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I appreciate your apology for taking a few days to respond to my post, but it was unnecessary; I’ve also learned that it’s best if I “tune” my replies for a day or two before I send them.

Thank you for your brief autobiography. It was much different than I would have expected, but I don’t think my reply would have been much different had I known your background beforehand: I presented you with the Gospel and the way it says we must be reconciled to God according to the best of my understanding of the Bible, Old Testament and New - with emphasis on our inability to atone for our own sins and the necessity of God’s provision of the ultimate sacrifice.

My early background is Presbyterian (PCUSA). I didn’t really hear and understand the Gospel, though, until I was a teenager and some Friends who I went to school with clearly communicated it to me (“Friends” being capitalized because besides being acquaintances from school, they were members of the Church of Friends / Quakers). The main point I remember from that day is that Jesus is to be Lord of our lives, not just a side matter. Some time later I memorized 2 Cor. 5:15:

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

I have also seen how frequently the New Testament emphasizes that Jesus is Lord (Rm. 10:9, Phil. 2:11, Col. 2:6, and many others).

Some years after college I worked for several years with the computers in a hospital in a Muslim country, so I became familiar with some of Islam’s teachings.

After we returned to the US I was severely underemployed and struggled financially for a span of several years. The independent, Baptist background church that we had settled into taught a legalistic view of tithing, which led me eventually to realize through reading and rereading Romans and Galatians that Jesus changed the paradigm from the Jewish (and sometimes Roman Catholic or Protestant or Islamic) idea of attempting to be righteous through Law (which according to the Epistles is impossible) to a relationship with God, a divine renewal of our hearts and minds and adoption as God’s children through faith in Christ and His atoning sacrifice and resurrection.

Regarding Jesus’ divinity, the Apostle John obviously believed in it - “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (Jn. 1:1, 14), and the Pharisees who heard Jesus’ I AM statement believed that was what He was claiming, shown by their picking up stones to kill him for blasphemy (Jn. 8:59).

A physical analogy of Jesus’ nature is light: it is simultaneously particles and waves, neither to the exclusion of the other.

I hope you do not count me with those who “cram the Exalted into a casket of our own manufacture, and then to claim sole ownership of its contents.” I am only trying to the best of my ability to present to you the true, simple Gospel as I see it in God’s word, and to remind you of the necessity for each of us to accept God’s gift of Jesus’ sacrifice. I freely admit that my understanding of most things is very limited and certainly flawed in many respects, but reading through Romans and Galatians greatly helped clarify my understanding of our relationship with Law and that it cannot justify us before a perfectly righteous, holy God.

I don’t by any means claim expertise on Islam, but I’ve read that it teaches that when we are judged our good deeds will be weighed against our bad deeds. If that is so, no one will be found to be righteous before the Holy, Holy, Holy God Almighty - but the Gospel provides for the satisfaction of both God’s perfect justice and His perfect mercy, without diminishing either, through Jesus’ blood sacrifice.

Your academic background is impressive (and far surpasses mine), and I respect and admire it - but sometimes our knowledge of alternative theologies and philosophies blinds us to simple truths. Jesus said

Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Luke 18:17

I have read that most scholars have found that the Bible is extremely faithful to the original documents.

I respectfully repeat my suggestion that you attempt to put aside what you’ve learned over the years and read the Gospels afresh, not piecemeal as we so often study them but from beginning to end, and Romans and Galatians as well. I also will do this.

May the Lord of Lords give you clarity and insight and peace.

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Greetings.

You write:

‘I hope you do not count me with those who “cram the Exalted into a casket of our own manufacture, and then to claim sole ownership of its contents’

Nope. I believe you’re a lad with a genuine concern for my spiritual welfare. Thank you.

Another contributor to this thread has written:

‘The God I want to worship is the God who meets me in the suffering Lamb of God, in Jesus, who gives His life, who dies for the sins of the world. A God who isn’t that, isn’t God at all. But a cheap imitation, a false god.’

This is a classic ‘casket’ statement: ‘If your understanding of the nature of God does not accord with mine, then the god you worship is a cheap imitation, a false god.’

Compare this statement with one proclaimed by Pope Paul VI, on November 21st, 1964:

‘But the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In the first place amongst these there are the Muslims, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind. (‘Dogmatic Constitution on the Church: Lumen Gentium; para 16’).

‘Lumen Gentium (‘Light of the Nations’) is one of the principal documents of the Second Vatican Council.

And with this; proclaimed by Pope Paul VI, on October 28th, 1965:

‘The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honour Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting.’ (‘Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions: Nostra Aetate; Para 3’).

‘Nostra Aetate’ (‘In Our Time’) is also from the Second Vatican Council.

And with this:

‘Those (Christians and Jews) who believe and do good deeds are the best of creation. Their reward with their Lord is everlasting Gardens graced with flowing streams, where they will stay forever. God is well pleased with them and they with Him. All this is for those who stand in awe of their Lord.’ (Qur’an: Sūrah ‘Al-Bayyina: 7 -8; my emphases).

And this:

‘They are not all alike (Christians and Jews). There are some among the People of the Book who are upright, who recite God’s revelations during the night, who bow down in worship, who believe in God and the Last Day, who order what is right and forbid what is wrong, who are quick to do good deeds. These people are among the righteous and they will not be denied (the reward) for whatever good deeds they do: God knows exactly who is conscious of Him.’ (Qur’an: Sūrah ‘Al‘Imran: 113-115’).

Take especial note of these ʾāyāt (verses). It has been my privilege to know – and to love – Christian and Jews who were shining examples of love and good practice. These ʾāyāt assure me that every Christian, and every Jew, who carries the Beloved in their hearts, and who strives to do good, will have their reward in Heaven. This is a solemn promise, and the Beloved does not renege on His promises.

Blessings.

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You write:

‘I don’t by any means claim expertise on Islam, but I’ve read that it teaches that when we are judged our good deeds will be weighed against our bad deeds.’

About eighteen years ago, my wife and I visited our Muslim family in Rabat (Morocco). I was not then a Muslim.

One Saturday night, a van – driven (without lights) through a pedestrian precinct – struck me; knocking me over and causing a number of scalp injuries.

After hospital treatment, I was driven back to my son’s home. Waiting outside were two detectives. The senior detective approached me. His first words were: ‘Do you pardon him (the driver)?’

I said that I did; and that was the end of the matter.

I found it very odd at the time, to have been asked that question. It was only later – after I had learned more of Islam – that I understood why.

Islam teaches that the Beloved’s mercy overcomes His wrath.

In the Qur’an, the best response when harmed by another is to pardon. If that driver had killed me (either by accident or design), then the question: ‘Do you pardon him?’ would have been asked of my wife. An affirmative answer would have resulted in his release.

All three Abrahamic religions teach that our deeds are recorded.

According to Islamic theology, all will stand before the Beloved on the Day of Judgment. Each will be given a record of their deeds. Those whose book is placed in their right hand will be admitted to Paradise; and those whose book is placed in their left will not.

It is a tradition that a record of good deeds is made straight away; but that a record of bad deeds is delayed for some hours, to allow for repentance. Even when a sin is recorded it can be erased by sincere and genuine repentance (tawbah).

Every day of their lives – many times a day – Muslims address the Beloved as the ‘Lord of Mercy’; and the ‘Giver of Mercy’. He is ‘the Compassionate’; ‘the Merciful’.

These are the Beloved‘s Names.

We did not give them to Him, He chose them for Himself. Of all His Names, these are His favourite. That is why we are asked to speak them so often – so that we do not forget Who it is that loves us; Who it is that binds us to Himself with ties of loving tenderness; of mercy; and of forgiveness.

As you know, the truth that the Beloved not only forgives sins, but wipes them out is proclaimed in the Bible also:

‘Yahweh is tenderness and pity, slow to anger and rich in faithful love; His indignation does not last for ever, nor His resentment remain for all time; He does not treat us as our sins deserve, nor repay us as befits our offences. As the height of Heaven above earth, so strong is His faithful love for those who fear Him. As the distance of east from west, so far from us does He put our faults. As tenderly as a father treats his children, so Yahweh treats those who fear Him; He knows of what we are made, He remembers that we are dust.’ (Psalm 103: 8-14).

Jews, Christians and Muslims agree that the Beloved’s love, mercy and compassion are the greatest of things, without which none could stand, not even for the briefest of moments.

A person could spend an eternity in contemplation of this truth and not touch the depth or breadth of it.

Blessings.

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That’s a good point. In the Lutheran tradition we refer to this as Simul iustus et peccator, a Latin phrase that translates roughly to “both saint and sinner” (literally “simultaneously just and sinner”). As Christians we have been made new in Christ, by grace, which is through faith; what the New Testament calls “the new man” and simultaneously we continue to struggle against “the old man” who continues to be dominated by his sinful appetites. So we are sinner-saints; there’s what we were when we were strangers and apart from Christ in that we still have these dusty old mortal bodies, we still have that inborn sinful human nature we inherited from Adam that we are now called to struggle against; but we also have a new humanity in Christ, which trusts in Jesus and is alive by the Holy Spirit who is in us conforming us to the image of Christ. This present life of the dying old man, and the living new man is part of our cross to carry as disciples of Jesus, “Take up your cross and follow Me”. As we look forward to our glorious hope, when Christ returns, and even our mortal bodies are transformed and healed, made new (“this mortal must put on immortality”) in the resurrection of the dead we are looking forward to the complete and perfect release of ourselves from the old man–that old Adam that strives against God; as we are brought into glorious perfection in Christ, “He who began a good work in you will continue that good work until the Day of the Lord Jesus”.

So today am I a sinner? Yes–the Law declares me a sinner because my deeds are unrighteous and I do not uphold the righteous commandments of God; but God in Christ has declared me righteous on Christ’s account, and therefore in Christ I have been imputed Jesus’ righteousness, and am therefore called the righteousness of God. It is both-and. I am a sinner by what I have done; I am a saint by what Christ has done. Who I am, therefore, is now new in Jesus–and it is that newness that drives me to cooperate with God, to not merely say I’m a Christian, but to live as one. And therefore to “work out [my] salvation with fear and trembling” (not that my works justify me, but that I am created for good works, Ephesians 2:10).

Every and each day, then, I must take up my cross and follow Jesus. What that cross of discipleship looks like depends on all sorts of factors; but it always consists in choosing to follow Jesus rather than myself. It may be a cross of my own sinful lusts clawing inwardly to draw my heart away from Christ; it may be a cross of suffering because we live in a sin-sick world of injustice, disease, natural disasters, and death. But we are always, and daily, called to deny the old man, put on the new man, and walk in faithfulness. We are sinner-saints, and we live solely because of mercy.

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@Niblo, what you say is partially true, but the Christian faith says that Jesus actually died to obtain the Father’s mercy for us believers and actually rose from the dead to give believers new life and the power to make progress in following God’s ways.

It also says what the Gospel of John says that Jesus has always been and is fully God and fully human because he did die and rise again, as witnessed by many others who were willing to suffer and die rather than give up their testimonies to those historical events.

Islam fails to acknowledge those truths.

30

@Niblo Thank you again for your thoughtful replies.

I expect that the passages you quoted from the Vatican Councils and popes are affirming to you as a Muslim and an ex Roman Catholic, basically saying that whichever choice you make is fine (which is very much a reflection of our modern culture of inclusion). The Bible, however, doesn’t give us that choice. When the words of men and the word of God are in conflict I have to believe God, and I have to believe themes that repeat throughout His word..

As I laid out in my first reply, from the beginning God consistently required blood sacrifices for forgiveness of sins. The New Testament, including Jesus’ words as recorded in all four Gospels, consistently, repeatedly says that Jesus came to die for us as the ultimate sacrifice and rise again. As I quoted earlier:

Hebrews 9:22

Indeed according to the law almost everything was purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

I appreciate your arguments for inclusivity but they conflict with the clear teachings of the Bible:

Jesus says:

John 14:6

Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

and

John 10:7, 9

So Jesus said to them again, “I tell you the solemn truth, I am the door for the sheep.

I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and will come in and go out, and find pasture.

Matthew 7:13

“Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.

Elsewhere in the New Testament it says

Acts 4:12

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.

Romans 3:25-26

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

What more can I say? I have presented God’s truth to you to the best of my ability - not from traditions or from human proclamations, but from His word - so now it’s your choice.

2 Corinthians 5:10, 20-21

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus said

Matthew 19:29

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

But still, I expect that you are thoroughly invested into Islam and into your wife’s family and culture, so it’s difficult to even consider turning to a Biblical Christianity. I’ll continue to pray for you, though, that the Spirit of Truth will continue to tug at you and will open your eyes and heart to see the true Gospel, and your need of our Savior.

31

Good afternoon, Neal.

You write:

‘I expect that the passages you quoted from the Vatican Councils and popes are affirming to you as a Muslim and an ex Roman Catholic, basically saying that whichever choice you make is fine.’

No indeed!

Although the Conciliar documents I have quoted affirm that Muslims and Christians worship the same God, the Church encourages Catholics to evangelise Muslims.

You write:

‘But still, I expect that you are thoroughly invested into Islam and into your wife’s family and culture, so it’s difficult to even consider turning to a Biblical Christianity.’

What is ‘Biblical Christianity’?

A little over fifty years ago, I had an older friend who was a Biblical Unitarian. The doctrine of the incarnation was a frequent conversation. On one occasion, I became frustrated and angry with him (I was fiery in those days!). I grabbed my Bible and thrust it under his nose. ‘This is my Book’, I hissed. ‘What’s yours?’

He smiled, and gently removed the Bible from my hand. ‘This!’, he replied. I was stunned.

How could this man read the very same Book as I, and yet reach conclusions so opposed to my own? He was no fool; neither was he perverse. He was both genuine and honest; a decent man who lived his faith according to his conscience. And yet, he did not, could not, believe what I believed.

Over the years, I thought a lot about what my friend had said; but, in the end, it came down to a simple belief: that my form of ‘Biblical Christianity’ was correct, and his was not. He, of course, would say the same….but in reverse.

Long before I gained a Muslim family – before I made it my business to learn all I could about Islam – I questioned certain Christian beliefs I once held as true; and which I had defended many times over the years.

Moving from Christianity to Islam was a very painful journey (by far the hardest part was having to tell Yeshua – in tears – that I could no longer accept him as my Lord); but it was the right journey……at least for me.

Blessings.

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