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September 1st, 2013
03:26 AM ET
Do Christians, Muslims and Jews worship the same God?Opinion by Jeffrey Weiss, Special to CNN (CNN) - Pope Francis surprised Israeli and Palestinian leaders last month when he invited them to a special prayer ceremony at the Vatican this Sunday - not least because religion has often been the source, not the salve, of the region's conflicts. Still, Pope Francis offered his "home" - the Vatican - as the perfect place to plea for some divine assistance, and Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas dutifully agreed to attend. "The Pope has placed it in this perspective: Prayer is like a force for peace,” Vatican Secretary of State Archbishop Pietro Parolin told Vatican Radio. "We hope that there, where human efforts have so far failed, the Lord offers to all the wisdom and fortitude to carry out a real peace plan." But Sunday's special ceremony at the Vatican raises an interesting question: When Francis, Peres and Abbas bow their heads in prayer, will they be talking to the same God? After all, Jews, Christians and Muslims all trace their faiths back to a fellow named Abraham, whom they all claim was chosen for special treatment by the Almighty. Not academic The “same God” question is one theologians have hammered at for as long as there have been enough religions for the query to make sense. The question is hardly academic, though. In fact, a number of politicians, religious leaders and scholars have expressed hope in recent years that a convincing answer on the God question might dampen the violence committed in His name. Yale Divinity School theologian Miroslav Volf recently edited a book titled “Do We Worship the Same God? Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Dialogue.” In the introduction, Volf explained why the title question matters:
On the other hand, there’s CNN Belief Blog contributor and Boston University religion professor Stephen Prothero. His book on this subject is titled “God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run The World.” Prothero writes:
In the world of politics, President George W. Bush asserted the unity side of the argument more than once in the years after the 9/11 attacks - often as a way to deflect accusations that America was at war with Islam. Bush told Al Arabiya television, “I believe there is a universal God. I believe the God that the Muslim prays to is the same God that I pray to. After all, we all came from Abraham. I believe in that universality.” Pope Francis invites Israeli, Palestinian leaders to Vatican peace talks Pope John Paul II drew from the same rhetorical well several times. “We believe in the same God, the one God, the living God, the God who created the world and brings his creatures to their perfection,” he first said in a speech to Muslims in Morocco in 1985. Looking for a more recent example? Consider the plight of Vatican envoy to Malaysia. Shortly after he arrived there last year, Archbishop Joseph Marino said that is was fine by him that Christian translations of the Bible into Malay use the word “Allah” for “God.” “Allah” is, of course, the Arabic word for God and is found in the Quran. The Christian translators explained that since most Malaysians are Muslim, it’s the word they’re most comfortable with and therefore the best choice for the translation. But many Muslim authorities in Malaysia were furious. They say Christians are slipping in the familiar word as a way to convert Muslims. And conversion of Muslims is all but illegal in Malaysia. There’s a lawsuit ongoing about the translations. Marino had to apologize for pushing into Malaysian politics. Points of disagreement So what do the “Abrahamic” religions disagree about? Among other things: the purpose of humanity, the relationship of God and humanity, sin, forgiveness, salvation, the afterlife, Jesus, Muhammad, the calendar, and the religious importance of Abraham himself. Plus the nature of God. Any summary will leave out enormous nuance. Internal divisions within religions have fueled some of the worst examples of human violence. Consider the long and frequently bloody history of troubles between Catholics and Protestants or the growing death toll of Muslim-on-Muslim attacks. But there are common elements about God widely accepted in each tradition. Judaism Start with Judaism, since it came first and established roots that carried into the other two. Jewish tradition teaches that there is one and only one God, creator of everything, and He established physical and moral laws. As Judaism’s preeminent prayer says: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” This God walks and talks directly with His creations – for a while. Eventually, He chooses one particular nomad (Abraham) to father a mighty nation that God sets up as an example to other nations. This God likes the smell of burning meat and demands other extremely specific physical offerings as evidence of obedience and repentance. And He gives His chosen people a particular set of laws – but doesn’t mind discussion and even argument about those laws. A famous rabbinic saying implies that every word in Judaism’s sacred texts can be understood in 70 correct (but related) ways. And human reasoning can even trump divine intention. (No kidding. It’s in the Talmud) This God judges His people every year. Tradition says he’s willing to accept imperfection, as long as it comes with repentance. He’s big on obedience, not so much on faith. He’s not nearly as attentive to the behaviors of non-Jews. (There’s a famous Jewish joke with the punch line “Would you mind choosing somebody else once in a while?”) Tradition holds that there’s a World To Come after death where moral accounts will somehow be settled. But this God is vague on details. Christianity The most obvious differences in the Christian God are the traditional teachings about the Trinity and Jesus. God is three separate persons who are also one. How? Christianity says the Trinity is a “mystery” of faith. According to Christian tradition, God begets a son who is somehow also Him but not Him to atone for Original Sin. He sacrifices that son though a brutal death and thus achieves humanity's salvation. But the son, who also is God, rises from the dead. And that sacrifice redeems eternally all who accept and believe in it. Faith, not behavior, is the essential measure of salvation. This God is willing to vastly expand what it means to be among His “chosen people.” He’s also willing to cancel many of the laws that had applied to that chosen group for this expanded membership. Orthodox Jews say that God prohibits them from eating a cheeseburger; Christians say God has no problem with them wolfing down Big Macs. Unlike the Jewish God, whose instructions are almost all about this world, the Christian God is focused more on eternal salvation: heaven and hell. Finally, for this God, much of the Jewish scriptures (which are all God’s word) are actually about foreshadowing Jesus. Including Abraham. Islam The Muslim God is a bit more like the Jewish God. There is no Trinity in Muslim tradition. Jesus was a prophet, but no more divine than other prophets. God has never has had anything like physical attributes and has no gender. (Some Muslim commentators say that the noun “Allah” is masculine, but only in the way that all nouns in some languages include gender.) Muslim tradition holds that God wants one thing from humans: Submission. The word “Islam” is defined as “submission to the will of God.” For Muslims, all true prophets in Jewish and Christian traditions were actually Muslim because they knew to submit correctly to God. Differences between Muslim, Jewish and Christian interpretations of God are due to errors that crept into the other two faiths, Islam teaches. The Muslim God, like the other two, initially demanded that Abraham sacrifice a son. But the Muslim God wanted Abraham’s son Ishmael, not Isaac, who Jewish tradition holds was offered as a the sacrifice. The Muslim God also designated, from before the world began, a perfect man to be his final prophet: Muhammad. God’s perfect truths are found only in the Quran and in the sayings of Muhammad, the hadiths. And the Muslim God, like the Christian God but unlike the Jewish God, will welcome believers to paradise and condemn many non-Muslims - exactly which ones is a matter of much discussion - to eternal torment. Final answer So do Christians Muslims, and Jews, really all worship the same God? In two major volumes on the subject recently published by scholars from various faiths and traditions, including Volf’s, the most inclusive response from these scholars is basically: Yes, and it’s our God. This is not a new way of answering the question. In 1076, Pope Gregory VII wrote this to a Muslim leader: “We believe in and confess one God, admittedly, in a different way…” But like many other religious leaders on all sides of the argument, Gregory insisted that his version of the Almighty is the one whom the others are unknowingly and incompletely worshiping. A less exclusivist set of religions might shrug off the differences. But all three claim to have the only “True Faith.” So do all three faiths actually worship the same deity, whether they call him God or Allah or Adonai? God only knows. Jeffrey Weiss is an award-winning religion reporter in Dallas.The views expressed in this column belong to Weiss. A version of this story first ran in September 2013. CNN's Daniel Burke contributed to this article. soundoff (7,438 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 Next »
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"Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of hemp fields"..?- Henry Ford
http://carm.org/do-christians-muslims-jews-worship-same-god
Pope Gregory was quoted here. This should prove a point in that Gregory was a murderer of humanity.
Gregory Peck was not quoted here. This should prove a point in that Gregory was a mediocre Hollywood actor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=349YdFqr9VQ
Anyone who has read the complete works of Shakespeare understands what the bible, it it were real, would be like.
Which begs the question, why waste your time reading the bible when there are so many millions of better choices?
C'mon, the OT is a good read. All those old yahoodies tolchocking each other and having the old in out with their wives' handmaidens while drunk on Hebrew vino. What's not to like?
A rousing good read to be sure, I am just saying there are so many better choices is all.
True, anything by Cormac McCarthy for example.
I am just starting Blood Meridian.
I won't spoil it, but prepare for beautifully prosed carnage.
God help us all if these brutal religions join in a common effort.
Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of hemp fields..?- Henry Ford
Harvard Says Pot Cures Cancer **V**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_ck97O7owk&feature=player_detailpage
Lionly Lamb, have you just recently discovered pot?
This will not blow your mind, but it will cause minor irritation in some. I am being told a slight issue in accuracy has been found with the Bible. Read with caution I suppose. Good night all.
Sweet dreams!
I dont know whether to laugh, be angry, or cry about how those in our world who say they follow God and then kill others or look down upon others for worshiping God in another faith. Its a waste of time, a waste of lives, a waste of energy.
I am not in favor of waste.
Anybody who has read the OT can understand it perfectly.
Cain demanded the acceptance from God of his fruit and vegetable stand profits. This didn't glorify God's solution for man's sin problem with the shedding of the Savior's blood. The rest is history.
Oh well, the mall is always crazy in the summer.
This summary is so flawed as to be rendered irrelevant. The statement that the Christian religion is primarily focused on the afterlife is but one perspective, one that is present but rapidly fading in the face of those in the faith who understand Jesus' message about being about the here and now. Both are important, but it is not ABOUT the afterlife. It is about what can be done in, with, and through God in this one. Peace, Shawn
Now Christians are both "for" and "against" the bible? Anything goes to keep "the faith", whatever that is?
Shawn, do you believe in the OT as the predecessor to the NT?
Somebody likes to use lots of words to say very little.
Make $$$ money working from home (Revelation 3:18)! Paul the Apostle (Isaiah 33:23-24, Acts 27, Acts 28:1-5). Joseph of Arimathea (1 Kings 13:30, Mark 15:43). John the Baptist (book of Esther – John as Haman). Judas (book of Ruth – Judas as Ruth with the sop and apostles as reapers).
God (Genesis 4:7, Revelation 3:20)
All religions teach that there is one God. There maybe many different manifestations of the one God but there is only one. His most preferred name is Yahweh. His son is Jesus. Worship holy God in spirit and in truth. Call on him in your moments of doubt. He will answer you if you are sincere in seeking Him.
No, no, no and no.
It is the truth so yes, yes, yes and yes.
Nope.
...and yes.
Ad infinitum.
All religions teach that there is one God.
No, they don't. There are plenty of religions that are polytheistic.
Not all christians worship the same god.
The church I grew up attending had a wite man with blue eyes hanging on a cross behind the alter. I have seen a black representation of JC nailed to a cross as well. However, I have NEVER seen an image of jesus that looked like a member of the jewish race on the cross.
That is because, people, of all races, want to worship someone that simply looks like them. I am a Christian and will admit, it is stupid. Jesus was an ethnic Jew, so He would look... Jewish.
Regardless, the fact is largely unimportant, all truly Christian churches worship the same Jesus.
Some distance denominations and other religions (including Islam and Jews) do however worship a different Jesus
I happen to think it is very important.
If you cannot accept jesus as he was, then you cannot accept jesus as he is.
I'm not even attending church anymore, and this still annoys me.
Ok, well, like I said He was Jewish, so He would look Jewish.
Don't confuse the fact that people typically represent Jesus as white or black or whatever with what He really was
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZSbIwE_BKM
Mecca
Blankety blank out about to catch ya
Rollin it up, got my paper
L.A. is a friendly neighbor yo
Don’t put on the upities and yuppities
I like dogs better
Give it a rest yo, chill and be a friend and not on facebook
You can take that junk, place it in the oven to cook yo
Raised on religion, living on stealin’
Mecca’s in my head buy not in my religion.
Interesting to see that from religious talks this thread has moved to a discussion on the existence of God.
I'm sure everybody will have an opportunity to face the truth. That day, the believers will get reassured for what they believed and the non-believers will get a chance to look at God and believe in Him. My sincere wish and prayer is that everybody, dead, living or will be born, get an opportunity to realize the truth of this age-old debate and believe in the One True God. No soul shall perish, that's every believer's prayer.
I assume you're referring to Odin.
Enjoy chatting to miscarried fetus's souls for eternity.
LOL! Christians are so blind in their obscure ego-driven belief system it boggles the mind!
The ego concept is built on sand. Freud had a wet nurse. You bought it, though. The rich are like that.
What's wrong with having a wet nurse?
I want to live forever too, and I know the idea of not being anything is terrifying, but the reality is that when your brain ceases to function and you can no longer access the stored memories and impulses that comprise what you think of as 'you,' the conscious part of your self will no longer exist. And isn't that really what the Garden of Eden parable is about anyway – mankind's knowledge of the inevitability of death? We have, relative to each of us, 'eternal' life already – we'll all live 100% of our lives, and never know a moment that we weren't alive. The promise of the soul and the afterlife is designed to make us not fear the end by viewing it as a new beginning, which it is, in a way, as we rejoin our ancestors in the carbon from whence we came.
Well, that makes total sense if you believe that each person is just a physical body. Christians and those of most other religions believe that there is a spirit or soul element that is also a part of each person. They believe (I included myself in this) that after a person dies, their physical body of course dies, but their spirit or soul lives on
Some people believe that they are crime fighting chipmunks from the planet Freakout. It doesn't make it so.
Very true, I'm merely trying to say that, that is what most religious people believe, so if you want to understand religious people, you have to view it through that lens
Fair enough.
May I ask what you believe?
I believe in whiskey and wh.ores.
What do you mean by that? Do you just believe that people should basically just live for themselves and have fun?
You betcha.
Well, do you believe that there could be a god?
I understand that's the case, but I don't know why anybody would actually think that, barring that somebody told them that and they just liked the sound of it.
Well, I do for one
As to answer your question though, my best answer would be faith.
Which I don't know if you believe that is good enough for you, but regardless, there are almost definitely things you all ready put faith in
No.
What do you believe will happen when you die?
Eternal nothingness.
If I did not believe in God, I would agree with you, expect for the fact that I believe in God, your believe makes perfect sense
I would try to convince you that God is in fact real, but my guess is that you don't want that. Do you?
It would be like trying to convince me that Oscar te Grouch is real.
Ok, well, I have to ask then, why do you believe what you believe? Jw
Well, there are things that I hope for, and things that seem likely, but I don't think there's anything I choose to take as unshakably true, particularly something rooted in ancient texts that involve a broad spectrum of supernatural phenomena. I can totally get 'wouldn't it be cool if our sense of consciousness survived our physical deaths and we got to hang out with the consciousnesses of all the people we loved who died' but the jump from that to 'I'm positive we have immortal souls' seems too much like wishful thinking that's been codified by some form of group consensus.
Yeah, it is a big step, I'll give you that much. Religion is tough stuff, because it deals so much with our minds and stuff we can't see. Frankly, I don't know of any way to explain it to you, that might help. I believe out of faith, but the reason I believe isn't just because I want to see my family and friends after I die, I believe because I believe in God if that makes sense. And I believe in Him because of the work He has done in my life so I have physical evidence
Why wouldn't I is a more salient question.
Because there is plenty of evidence to support not only the existence of a god, but the God of the Bible
No there isn't.
Yes there is, I have seen the evidence, from both sides, and tons of religions and promise you, Christianity is the only one where the more you look into it, the more it makes sense
Thank you very much for the discussion – I have further questions, but this isn't a particularly great forum for them. It's been interesting!
I agree, would you like to continue talking some other way?
No it doesn't.
Ok, prove it
After you.
Ok, sure, give me your email and I'll send you the links to prove that what I am saying is true
Are you a Nigerian monarch/businessman/official? Would you also like my bank details?
No, I'm just a Christian. You talk me to prove what I'm saying, I'm telling you that if you give me the chance, I will
If it could be proven, 99% of scientists on the planet would be Christian, as their's is the search for truth.
Yeah, but they are biased in that they seek to prove everything through the lens of evolution so they often look in the wrong direction, and a large number of scientists are in fact Christians
My point is this, if you take the time to look for the evidence and be open to it, you will find that there is a respectable amount of evidence to support the fact that there is a god and that he is the God of Christianity
It all boils down to "This is what I was raised to believe in, therefore it has to be true". The "proof" each belief system relies on are the religious texts each religion venerates due to long tradition. Each faith fears and fights any other system that may contradict it (including science), because faith is inherently fragile due to the lack of any tangible proof.
Thus each group shouts that their particular invisible man is the right one, too often killing others who disagree. It is obviously insane, except for those in the thrall of religion.
"Fire Bug" by JD McPherson
"Tiny Light" by Grace Potter And The Nocturnals
Three weeds of the same root...
The good philistines were just the early victims of religious "good" people.
People do wrong things regardless of faith… it mostly because greediness, power and so on… very few among the mankind fear Lord The Almighty which includes Muslims as well… and which is why today we see these actions are being done by human in everywhere… as a matter of fact its been there since the beginning of mankind… now we have been blessed with media and anything happens, next minute we can see it and sometimes we see what the media wants us to see…
I have mentioned few verses from the Quran addressing the Mankind / Muslim:
49:13 – O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Verily, the most honorable of you with Allah is that (believer) who the one most righteous. Verily, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.
4:1 – O mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single person (Adam), and from him (Adam) He created his wife [Hawwa (Eve)], and from them both He created many men and women and fear Allah through Whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (do not cut the relations of) the wombs (kinship). Surely, Allah is Ever an All-Watcher over you.
4:135 – O you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even though it be against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, be he rich or poor, Allah is a Better Protector to both (than you). So follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest you may avoid justice, and if you distort your witness or refuse to give it, verily, Allah is Ever Well-Acquainted with what you do.
If people especially who claims to be a Muslim follows these few verses, there will not be any killing or anything like that…
I wish you all peace and blessings…