Do All Abraham’s Children Worship Abraham’s God?

Pastor-scholar Tony Richie says there is no Jewish-Christian-Muslim God. Nor is there a simple answer to the “Same God” question.

When people realize I participate in interreligious dialogue and cooperative efforts they often ask me some version of the question in the main title of this post.[1] If I manage to mention that I have written a couple of books on Christian theology of religions from a Pentecostal perspective, I can almost certainly count on that question coming up. Actually, it usually centers more on two of the three “Abrahamic religions” (world religions tracing their origins to the biblical patriarch Abraham). They ask whether the Christian Trinity and the Muslim Allah is the same God. Almost always they want a simple, straightforward yes or no response. There is complexity implied in saying there is no Jewish-Christian-Muslim God, and it is not what they want to hear. To an extent, they are correct. There’s no such thing as a Jewish-Christian-Muslim God! Before unpacking what I mean by that bold statement I’ll briefly provide some important background.

Correlating Yahweh, God of Israel, and the Christian Trinity can be critical even between Jews and Christians.[2] Although Judaism has a special parental relationship with Christianity, the two religions have far different understandings of God’s name and nature. Yet Christians believe that the God of the Jews and the God of the Christians is one and the same God. To suppose otherwise succumbs to an ancient heresy known as Marcionism (rejecting the world’s creator and Israel’s lawgiver as the God revealed in Jesus through the Spirit). The Early Church judged it better to deal with the tensions between Israelite and Christian conceptions of God than to dismiss them through dividing the deities. Therefore, two different religions with quite varied understandings of God nevertheless worship the same God—albeit obviously not in the same manner or mode. Of course, the Jewish-Christian historical and theological relationship is a unique case. Still, it calls for careful deliberation about how differing perceptions of God don’t necessarily preclude attributing an amount of authenticity to another religion.

Identifying or distinguishing a common deity is also important for Christian theologies of the other Abrahamic religion: Islam.[3] Islamist scholar Ataullah Siddiqui explains that “The divide between Islam and Christianity that most needs bridging derives from their different understandings of God and relationship with him”.[4] Christians may reasonably ask if it could be that just as Christians share with Judaism the worship of the same God, although through vastly differing faiths with different names for God and differing views of God’s nature, this same possibility exists for Islam. In other words, is it at least possible that Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship the same God? If so, then one thing is certain: they certainly have greatly different conceptions of God and how God ought to be served and worshiped.

An important point arising out of the above possibility is that Christians needn’t consider either Jews or Muslims as inevitable idolaters (or vice versa). There is only one God. Yahweh, the Holy God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, that is, the Holy Trinity, this is God.[5] There is no other God. The question is not whether there is some other God but whether there are those who in some sense worship this one true and living God albeit with different understandings. As a Christian I believe the full and final revelation of God’s nature and character has been definitively and decisively made known in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christians, with our understanding of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, articulate a distinctive theology of God as communal or relational. Thus, the life of faith is primarily a loving relationship with God and with one’s neighbor. Relating to God in terms of intimacy or interpersonal fellowship is foreign to the radical monotheism of both mainstream Islam and Judaism. Islam emphasizes devotion to God through total submission to the divine will. Jewish devotion to God is expressed through righteous observance of the Torah (Law). This is not to imply that Christian perceptions of God don’t include obedience and submission. Quite to the contrary! Nor is it to imply that Jews and Muslims have no perception of God’s personal nearness. Of course not! But it does affirm that the Christian doctrine of the Trinity implies communal and relational realities not found in Judaism or Islam.

Conceivably, one might argue that Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship the same God but don’t know God in the same way. This statement is not merely semantic.[6] As a Christian I fully believe the New Testament revelation of God in his Son Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). Further, I fully believe that Jesus Christ alone is Lord and Savior (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). However, I’m not ready to say that Jews know nothing of God. I’m not ready to say Muslims know nothing of God either. If I did say that, I’d be going beyond the biblical authority itself. The Bible teaches that the God of Abraham blessed Ishmael, the acknowledged progenitor of the Arabic people among whom Islam arose and to whom Muslims trace their spiritual ancestry, and that the Lord was with him (Genesis 16:7-16; 21:17-21). Of course, the New Testament clearly connects the God of Abraham with Jesus Christ (Acts 3:13). Yet these sentiments can only be properly understood in the context of unswerving commitment to the central truth of Christianity that “Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who provides eternal life to anyone who comes to him in faith” and that Jesus is “the true revelation of God” (1 John 5:20).^[7]

A number of thoughts deserve attention. First, the approach outlined above isn’t an open-ended endorsement of non-Christian religions—not even of Abrahamic religions. Yes, we share deep monotheistic roots. But we do have profound differences which mustn’t be denied. Second, this approach brings our attention back to where it belongs: squarely on Jesus Christ. The paramount topic of theological conversation between Jews, Christians, and Muslims isn’t about their general concept of God; rather, it’s all about the person and work of Jesus Christ. All of this debate about whether Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship the same God is an unfortunate and potentially fatal distraction.

Third, now I return to my earlier statement that “There’s no such thing as a Jewish-Christian-Muslim God!” The Bible declares that God cannot be contained by heaven and earth or in any house of worship (i.e. religion) (Isaiah 66:1; Acts 7:49). God informs us, perhaps even warns us, of God’s own holy and ultimate transcendence.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the Lord.

^ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.”^[8]

Therefore, when I speak of “my” God and “my” Lord, I am not claiming ownership of the transcendent God. God is beyond anyone’s ownership! Rather, I am describing a personal relationship with God. The Lord God isn’t defined by or confined to our conceptions about God. In this sense, there’s no “Jewish God” (a God owned by Jews) no “Christian God” (a God owned by Christians) no “Muslim God” (a God owned by Muslims). God is God! For Christians, what is really more to the point is the reverse—not religions’ ownership of God but God’s ownership of believers. The Church belongs to Christ as the bride belongs to the groom (John 3:29). Christians belong to God as those who have heard God’s word in Christ (8:47). And Christians belong to Christ as the gift of the Father to him; therefore, Christ gives the Spirit to them to make known the otherwise unfathomable depths of divine mysteries (16:15). Accordingly, Christian doctrine and theology can affirm that God isn’t the exclusive property of any particular religion and also that God is definitively and decisively made known in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Jews, Christians, and Muslims differ drastically over the deity of Jesus but share common commitment to monotheism. Furthermore, they differ over the nature of monotheism. Christians affirm a version of monotheism that affirms unity in plurality while Jews and Muslims affirm a version which denies the possibility of plurality within the unity of the Divine Being. Yet, and this part is extremely important, all three ardently affirm the doctrine of monotheism in explicit identification with the God of Abraham. That’s why they’re called Abrahamic religions! Thus Christians may with complete theological consistently admit that they worship they same God while nonetheless insisting that everyone needs to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. That’s what makes us Christian.

Neither is the singular identification of the God of the Abrahamic faiths a recent theological innovation. Significantly, the great American theologian, Jonathan Edwards (1703-58), an Evangelical titan, grouped Muslims together with Jews and Christians as “that part of the world which acknowledges the one only true God.”[9] Edwards explained Islamic monotheism as a result of Christian influence.[10] For him, Jews, Christians, and Muslims together have escaped from “heathenish darkness” and from being “sottish and brutish idolaters”.[11] This remarkable reference is an explicit assertion that Jewish, Christian, and Muslim monotheists, despite deep differences, nevertheless worship “the one only true God.” Not surprisingly, Edwards continued to stress Christian evangelism toward Jews, Muslims, and others.[12]

So then, do all Abraham’s children worship Abraham’s God? Perhaps a circumspect reply would be a carefully qualified “Yes and No.” All those who authentically worship the God who revealed God’s self to Abraham may be acknowledged in the affirmative. But “the Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands” (John 3:35 NIV). And that’s what makes all the difference. Knowing God as Creator and Supreme Lawgiver or Master of the Universe just isn’t the same as knowing God as your Heavenly Father through his Son Jesus Christ.

 

PR

 

Notes

[1] I wrote an earlier version of this piece in blog form about two years before the recent, and very public, controversy erupted over Larycia Hawkins’ statement that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. See Emily McFarlane Miller, “Wheaton professor who left college over ‘same God’ flap: ‘I would do it again,’” Religion News Service (Feb 26, 2016): http://www.religionnews.com/2016/02/26/wheaton-professor-who-left-college-over-same-god-flap-i-would-do-it-again-and-again-and-again/. The intended publisher declined it based on alleged conflict with their official theological position. In short, a Wesleyan editor thought it went too far. So I sent it to a “mainline” Protestant colleague for input. He suggested it did not go far enough. After the subject came up again, due to Hawkins and Wheaton, in a manner that really should have been anticipated by Evangelicals, I pulled the file out, brushed it off, and updated it a bit. I appreciate The Pneuma Review publishing it, not necessarily out of agreement with its contents but out of recognition that it is a needed conversation for Pentecostals and Charismatics. I leave it to readers to assess its contents and to God to judge my intent.

[2] Peter Ochs, “Judaism and Christian Theology,” in David F. Ford, ed., with Rachel Muers, The Modern Theologians: An Introduction to Christian Theology Since 1918 (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 650-51.

[3] Miroslav Volf, Allah: A Christian Response (New York: HarperOne, 2011). [Editor’s note: See the review by Pentecostal scholar Amos Yong.]

[4]Ataullah Siddiqui, “Islam and Christian Theology,” pp. 663-81, Ford, Modern Theologians, pp. 663-64.

[5] Cp. Steven Jack Land, “Faith of Our Fathers,” at http://ourcog.org/dr-steven-land-faith-of-our-fathers/.

[6] Those who argue that since in early Arabic history Allah was used of pagan deities it therefore can’t refer to the true and living God ignore two obvious facts. First, the earliest Israelite designation for God, El, was also used of pagan deities. It was simply the cultural and regional name for “God”. The same is true even of the New Testament use of theos for God, a term that was applied by pagans to Zeus and other so-called deities but was nonetheless taken over by Greek-speaking Christians. That leads to a second obvious fact: Arabic-speaking Christians pray to Allah in the name of Isa because these words are simply comparable terms for God and Jesus.

[7] D. L. Akin, (2001). 1, 2, 3 John in The New American Bible Commentary vol. 38 (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001), 216.

[8] Isaiah 55:8–9 (NIV).

[9] Jonathan Edwards, “A History of the Work of Redemption,” The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volumes 1 & 2 (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 2011), from 1834 British edition, 1:593.

[10] If Judaism is Christianity’s parent, Islam is its younger sibling. Cp. Tony Bayfield, Alan Race, and Ataullah Siddiqui, eds. Beyond the Dysfunctional Family: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Dialogue with Each Other and with Britain (Seattle, Washington: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012).

[11] Edwards, “History of the Work of Redemption,” 1:593.

[12] For more on this topic, see Tony Richie, “‘The Grand Design of God in All Divine Operations’: Jonathan Edwards’s Distinctive Contribution to the Positive Significance of Non-Christian Religions,” Amos Yong and Steven M. Studebaker (eds.), From Northampton to Azusa: Pentecostals and the Theology of Jonathan Edwards (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, forthcoming).