Category: Who is God?

Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?

Alan Shlemon writes a monthly letter for Stand to Reason.  This month’s letter addresses the person and nature of God within Christianity by asking the question:

Do Christians worship the same God as Muslims? (Click to read the article)

Alan opens the letter by saying that most Muslims would say yes.  That’s not my experience… I have yet to meet a Muslim who has said yes.  They have always told me that Christians worship three gods, not one!  I also don’t agree with part of his conclusion in the letter.  I think if Jesus were to show up on the streets of Detroit today, every Muslim would fall in worship – they’d have no choice at Christ’s second coming – Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!  Philippians 2 says this.  But I get Alan’s point.  If Jesus were to somehow return a second time in his state of humiliation and not his exaltation, Muslims wouldn’t bow and worship him, unless they converted to Trinitarian worship.

With that said however, Alan does a great job in my opinion of showing how Muslims believe in a God that is one person, one essence.  Christians believe in a god that is three persons, one essence.  Big distinction!

I like to say, “Jesus is God or Jesus is just a man.”  Clearly, we’re not worshiping the same God.  But from my experience, many Christians simply don’t fathom this.  I have seen classrooms filled with mostly Christians divided on this question, just like Alan said.

Why?  Why are Christians divided on this issue?

Andy Wrasman1 Comment

Jesus Claimed to Be God

Muslims say that Jesus never claimed to be God.  Some religious pluralists might say this too.  Some humanists will likely say this also.  And many people will not care.

I believe that we can trust the Gospels to be Historically reliable.  With that being said, I believe Jesus actually claimed to be God and that he backed up such claims by living the perfect life that none of us can live, dying the death that none of us can die, and rising from the grave, something that we all will do, however, some to everlasting life, and others to everlasting condemnation (Daniel 12:1-3).

People struggle to admit that Jesus claimed to be God, because they really like his teachings of universal love and compassion towards others.  They like his don’t pay back evil with evil mentality, because although we all break his commands, we recognize that they are the highest road of morality, and the path that most be followed for world peace.

People who want to embrace the Jesus of pacifism, but reject the Jesus who is the Messiah, will sometimes say, “Well, he never said the exact words, ‘I am God,’ so what Christians interpret to be claims to be God, must somehow be misunderstood.”  So, I’ll change the lyrics of the Animals song slightly to fit this situation, “Oh Lord, please don’t let him be misunderstood.”  Make no mistake, Jesus claimed to be God.  Here is how he claimed to be God as recorded in his biographies, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John:

Divine Titles Proclaimed by or attributed to Jesus Christ:

God (John 1:1, John 20:28, Romans 9:5, Titus 2:13, Hebrews 1:8, 2 Peter 1:1)
Lord (Mark 12:35-37, John 20:28, Romans 10:9-13, 1 Cor. 8:5-6, 12:3, Philippians 2:11)
Messiah (Matthew 16:16, Mark 14:61, John 20:31)
Son of God (Matt. 11:27, Mark 15:39, John 1:18, Romans 1:4, Galatians 4:4, Hebrews 1:2)
Son of Man (Matt. 16:28, Matt. 24:30, Mark 8:38, Mark 14:62-64, Acts 7:56, Dan. 7:13-14)

Divine Names, actions, or roles proclaimed by or attributed to Jesus Christ:

Creator (John 1:3, Col. 1:16, Hebrews 1:2,10-12)
Sustainer (1 Cor. 8:6, Col. 1:17, Hebrews 1:3)
Forgiver of sins (Mark 2:5-7, Luke 24:47, Acts 5:31, Col. 3:13)
Object of prayer (John 14:4, Acts 1:24, 1 Cor. 1:2)
Object of worship (Matt. 28:16-17, Phil. 2:10-11, Hebrews 1:6)
Object of saving faith (John 14:1, Acts 10:43, Romans 10:8-13)

Divine Attributes or Qualities proclaimed by or attributed to Jesus Christ

Eternal Existence (John 1:1, John 8:58, John 17:5, Hebrews 13:8)
Self-existence (John 1:3, John 5:26, Col. 1:16)
Omnipresence (Matthew 18:20, Ephesians 1:23, Ephesians 4:10, Col. 3:11)
Omniscience (Mark 2:8, Luke 9:47, John 2:25, John 4:18, Col. 2:3)
Omnipotence (John 2:19, Col. 1:16-17)

Jesus equated himself with the Father

To know Jesus is to know God – John 14:7
To see Jesus is to see God – John 14:9
To encounter Jesus is to encounter God – John 14:11
To welcome Jesus is to welcome God – John 5:23
To hate Jesus is to hate God – John 15:23
To obey Jesus is to obey God – John 14:23

Jesus made direct claims that many Jewish religious leaders considered to blasphemous – John 5:17-18, John 8:58-59, John 10:30-33, and Mark 14:61-64.

Jesus is considered by scholars such as Weber ...
Jesus is considered by scholars such as Weber to be an example of a charismatic religious leader. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So based on these claims…

Who do you say Jesus is?

Andy Wrasman9 Comments

Contradictory Views of the Divine

who is GodViews of the Divine:

  • Judaism – Monotheism.  One person, one nature. God is transcendent and he is called Yahweh.
  • Islam – Monotheism.  One person, one nature. God is transcendent and he is Allah.
  • Christianity – Monotheism. Three persons, one nature.  God is transcendent and exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
  • Hinduism – Polytheism/Pantheism.  There is an extensive number of gods and goddesses that can be worshiped.  Yet those gods, as well as all things, are at their core existent of the same divine essence, called Brahman.
  • Buddhism – No God/Irrelevant.  The Buddha denied Brahman and the individual soul as he split from the teachings of Hinduism.  Irrelevance, or ambivalence, best describes the Buddha’s doctrine of God.  Belief and worship in God can actually be a hindrance to reaching nirvana because following a Supreme Power produces fear, as explained by the Buddha in the Dhammapada verse 188, “Men in their fear fly for refuge to mountains or forests, groves, sacred trees or shrines.” Instead of from a God of sorts, refuge comes from the Four Noble Truths.
  • Wicca – Pantheism and other views.  Everything is the manifestation of the divine, which is associated as being of the female sex, being called the Goddess.    Some descriptions of the Goddess give the impression of energy, like the Force in Star Wars that connects all things.  Although some Wiccans are monotheistic, and others say there is both a transcendent God and Goddess, and some say that both the God and Goddess are one, being of the same divine essence.
  • Scientology – There is a Supreme Being, but “the Church of Scientology has no set dogma concerning God that it imposes on its members.”  One’s view of God is contingent upon each individual’s “level of spiritual awareness.”  (Scientology.org)
  • Laveyan Satanism  – Each man is his own God.
  • Atheism – No God.

Contradict Bumper Sticker

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How do we know who God is?

How do we know who God is?

The Bible reveals who God is to mankind.  It contains the history of God’s interaction with humanity from his creation of the first human beings to his direct entering into the world through the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ.

Two kinds of revelation

The Bible teaches that we do not have the ability to search and discover who God is.  It is not as if we can turn over a rock and find God!  If we are to have any knowledge of God at all, he must first reveal it to us.  This revealing work on God’s part is called revelation.  From the Bible we see that God has revealed himself to us in two different ways.  The first method of revelation which is available to all of mankind is called general revelation, or natural knowledge.  The other method of revelation is called special revelation, or revealed knowledge.   Both of these forms of revelation grant humanity information about God, however, only one of these can tell us who God is, what he requires of us, what he does and has done for us, and how to have a relationship with him.

General Revelation or Natural Knowledge

Through general revelation, also called natural knowledge, God has revealed himself to mankind through what he was created.  This means that through our knowledge and experiences within the world around us, we can glean information, or knowledge, about who God is.  The names given to this type of revelation can be useful to help remember what type of information we can gain from this type of revelation and where we can look to attain it.   Using the name natural knowledge, remember that this type of revelation is knowledge that mankind can obtain from nature.  Using the other name for this classification of God’s revealing work, general revelation, reminds us to what extent we can gain information about God from nature – it’s only general information, there’s a God, and he’s all-powerful!

From looking at the design, order, consistency, laws of nature, purpose, and aesthetics of nature and life, one should be able to come to the conclusion that there is in fact a designer, a creator of the universe and the cosmos, that there is a divine, eternal being – the cause of the effect we see in motion.  However, as the Bible explains, even though God’s existence is evident from what he has made, humanity regularly turns from this knowledge to worship and deify aspects of the created order or to worship idols made by the hands of men.

A passage of scripture commonly used to support general revelation is Romans 1:18-25.

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” – Romans 1:18-25

Special Revelation, or Revealed Knowledge

Looking at a tree, the sunset, or rise, the human anatomy, or virtually any aspect of this world, one could easily come to the conclusion that there is a God. But who is that God?  What is his, or her, or its name?  Does this God love us, hate us, want to have us over for dinner, to get to know us, or does this God already know, he just wants a relationship with us?  Or maybe God is in all of us in such a manner that we are constructed with the divine essence itself, meaning we are God?  Does this God demand anything of us – throw a virgin into a volcano for instance!  None of the answers to these questions can be derived from general revelation alone.  All general revelation does is condemn us, leaving us with no excuse when we stand before our maker on the Day of Judgment as Paul wrote to the Romans.

This is why we must have special revelation, also known as revealed knowledge.  This type of revelation is God’s direct revelation of himself to mankind through his interaction with us in history recorded in the Bible and through the historical figure, Jesus Christ,

A commonly used verse from the Bible to support special revelation is Hebrews 1:1-2.

“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.” – Hebrews 1:1-2

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