God, Yahweh, Allah, all one and the same?

1. 60

   Disappearingheadposted 12 years ago

   Judaism and Islam thinks so, but the Church on the whole does not.
   
   I've seen a Christian claim that Allah is actually a derivative of the pagan god Bel. On the other hand I've also heard a counter argument that the semitic people were, just like the Arabs, originally polytheists. El was the supreme God and was subsequently followed by the Jews. So that argument doesn't quite work.
   
   Allah is the Arabic word for God.....so they are all one and the same......simples, yes?. The Church however will get into a debate with the Muslim about how the descriptions, attributes, and commandments given in the Quran are so different from the bible that they cannot be one and the same.
   
   For me this is easily resolved. Though I'm known by colleagues, friends and familly, they all have a different opinion of me because I behave differently to each group and reveal myself to different degrees. Yet I am one and the same. If my colleagues were to write a book about me, it would describe me completely differently from one that my familly might write, and the colleague's book is bound to be full of assumptions, errors and inaccuracies, and probably considerably fewer pages.
   
   So which is the correct book? Bible or Quran? Who did God/Allah truely reveal Himself too, and which was made up? That's up to you to decide; nobody has solid evidence because we can't get inside the heads of the authors. It's a matter of faith ultimately.
   
   To the atheist, it's easy to write them all off as fantasy. But that view I'd say was born out of simple dismissal without being based on thorough investigation.

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      dingdondingdonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Plenty of atheists have made thorough investigations, and it is silly and unfair to dismiss their conclusions as just "simple dismissals" because their conclusions are not the same as yours.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I like that analogy. 
      
      The mistake most religions make is to regard their Holy book as the word of God himself, whereas it is always the word of God as filtered through fallible human beings.

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      Baileybearposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      from what I've read about the history of religion so far, my view is that God evolved in people's minds & cultures - they all adopted traditions & changed them a bit

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2. 58

   bushraismailposted 12 years ago

   As a Muslim I  say that ALLAH is the only god. He is not Jesus or any other god by any other name.Alllah cannot be the god of other religions coz the attributes of Allah do not match the other gods. for Example Allah has no son no daughter, no father , no wife.
   
   There are many other attributes that don't match the other gods.

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   1. 59

      Beelzedadposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      That's old news. Every follower of religion says exactly the same thing about their god.
      
      Got anything new to offer?

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3. 61

   Peter Owenposted 12 years ago

   And away we go again.

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4. 61

   Peter Owenposted 12 years ago

   And away we go again.

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      mtariqsattarposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      yes these name are the names of ONE and only ONE GOD ALMIGHTY.

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5. 61

   Dave Mathewsposted 12 years ago

   I say that God is God each religion may have a different name for God but the creator of heaven and earth the animals and man is, was, and always will be Almighty God.

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      Disappearingheadposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Agreed. At the end of the day we all want to say "Will the real almighty God stand up please and identify yourself". Just because the Quran has a completely different view of that God than the one I have, it does not mean that Muslims are following a different God.
      
      I'm not going to say there are many roads to Heaven, as Yeshua said He was the way the truth and the life. But considering that Yeshua was actually God Himself in the flesh, then we can say that the only way to God is through God.

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         brotheryochananposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         no we can't say the way to God is through God. The way to God is through jesus. Jesus died on the cross and when we dismiss that, we dismiss God. We cannot make the work of the cross to none effect. The cross is entirely and completely important. Nothing else is so important as what jesus did on the cross. We need to follow jesus to that cross and recognize what was done on that cross. Its Gods finest work!

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6. 70

   Cagsilposted 12 years ago

   Who cares what you call a delusion. It's still doesn't make it anymore real. It's still just a delusion.

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   1. 60

      Disappearingheadposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Searching for a destiny that's mine there's another place another time.
      Touching many hearts along the way
      yeah
      hoping that I'll never have to sa@
      It's just an delusion - delusion - delusion.
      Follow your emotions anywhere
      is it really magic in the air?
      Never let your feelings get you down. Open up your eyes and look around
      It's just an delusion - delusion - delusion.
      Could it be that it's just an delusion putting me back in all this confusion?
      Could it be that it's just an delusion now?
      Could it be that it's just an delusion putting me back in all this confusion?
      Could it be that it's just an delusion now?
      Could it be a picture in my mind? Never sure exactly what I'll find.
      Only in my dreams I turn you on. Here for just a moment then you're gone.
      It's just an delusion - delusion - delusion.
      Could it be that it's just an delusion putting me back in all this confusion?
      Could it be that it's just an delusion now?
      Could it be that it's just an delusion putting me back in all this confusion?
      Could it be that it's just an delusion now? . .
      
      
      Ooops, I think its "illusion" not "delusion". My cassette tape player must need its head cleaning.

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   ceciliabeltranposted 12 years ago

   the semetic languages dispense of vowels.
   
   so the names of G-d can be read many ways.
   
   EL, Al, Elohim, Allah-yim, Jehovah, Yahweh etc.
   
   But the names stand for different sets of stories, characteristics  so you can say they are both one and the same and different.

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      WannaB Writerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I like the way C.S.Lewis addresses this issue in the last of the Narnia books: The Last Battle. It's fiction, of course, but deals with the character of Aslan, the Christ figure, as opposed to the character of Tash, who was worshiped by the enemies of Narnia. I won't attempt to rehash the book here. Anyone can read it in a hour or two. In a nutshell, those who worship God with the character of the Christian God, no matter what the name they've learned, actually are worshiping that God. It's our view of the character of God and whether it matches the character of the God Jesus is the way to, that matters. Likewise, people can believe they are worshiping the Christian God when they may actually be worshiping a God with an entirely  different character who behaves very differently than the God of the Bible. By whatever name we call God, we must rely on the work of Jesus on the cross for a relationship with God, even if we are ignorant of it. God can read our hearts perfectly, and He knows if we realize we have nothing to offer but our hearts and hope only in His mercy to stand in His presence. When He sees that hunger for who He is as opposed to what we want out of Him, I believe He will respond with mercy.
      
      Don Richardson wrote a wonderful book called "Eternity in their Hearts" where he describes how God has reached out to those who had never heard of Jesus, but were none the less being prepared to learn of Him.  This may be out of print now, but is well worth reading if you wonder what happens to those who have never heard of Jesus and may have been raised in a different religion. 
      
      None of us will have a perfect view of God or be able to worship Him perfectly here. The question is whether we realistically see our need for Him, since no one is good enough to come into his presence to stand before him with only our own works.

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   earnestshubposted 12 years ago

   Yes they are all the same.
   
   Myths.

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