David Ancell / Monday December 02, 2002
It seems I finally have a bit of a controversy. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but a reader (Michelle) has respectfully disagreed with my post on whether Muslims worship the same God.
It’s true that a limited understanding does not mean that one does not worship the true God. However, at some point a line must be drawn at which one is no longer worshiping the same God. Otherwise, it would be just as well to say that all religions are really just different understandings of the same God. The people in Biblical times who sacrificed their children to Molech would then be worshiping the same God as the Isrealites. This example is a bit extreme, and a more reasonable conclusion would be that Michelle draws the line at a different point than I would.
The Jews received an incomplete revelation from God, but they nonetheless received a revelation from the true God. Everything they received is authentic and remains so. In Jesus Christ, we have received a deeper revelation. We do not and will not ever know everything about God, but we receive our revelation from God himself. In the case of Islam, their revelation was received from one who claimed to be a prophet and who rejected prior revelation from God.
Is this to say that Muslims are bad people? I do not think so. Of course, there are Muslims who are evil. Needless to say, Christianity has its share of evil people as well. The point is that Islam’s origins may have implications for the identity of the God whom they worship. If someone shows me an authoritative Church teaching that says otherwise, I will retract my opinion.
LATER NOTE: See the TrackBack. I indeed retracted.
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