Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?

The Atonement is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the Christian faith. From cultural trends to popular teachings, the meaning of Christ's sacrifice is often lost. But do you understand what it means that God became human and took the punishment for our sins? Saved From What is a booklet that helps you grasp the heart of the Atonement. It's the foundation of salvation and the Christian faith. Your understanding of the cross shapes how you see sin, salvation, and the hope we have in Jesus. Thanks to your support, we are offering this booklet for a donation of any amount.

Visit solomedia.org slash offers to receive your copy today. So there's a park right by where I live where every Saturday, different religious groups will set up canopies and hand out literature. A few days ago, I was there with my kids and we stopped by the group of Muslims that was sharing about Islam and handing out English copies of the Quran.

Before we approached this canopy, this particular canopy, I told my oldest son, hey, let's ask them what they think about Jesus and see how it lines up with what we believe as Christians. Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God? So it didn't take long before it became clear that the Quran's teaching about Jesus is very different from what the Bible says. When we asked them about who Jesus was, they responded by saying he was a Muslim, someone who submitted to Allah.

He was used by Allah as one of several prophets. They totally rejected the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. They denied that Jesus was the son of God, that he died on a cross, that he rose again from the dead. To put it frankly, all of the core tenets of what we believe as Christians about who God is and what he's done for us to save us from our sins, all of them are rejected by Muslims. Even their doctrine of sin is different from the traditional Christian view. They deny original sin. They think that if Allah wants to forgive someone for the bad things that they've done, he can just do it apart from the sacrifice of Jesus or some other sacrifice.

It's all up to him. This is all really important information when we're answering the question, do Christians and Muslims worship the same God? On the one hand, Christianity and Islam are both monotheistic religions.

Monotheism is the belief in one God as opposed to many gods. Christianity and Islam give us two very different answers of who the one God is. Therefore, it's clear that Christians don't worship the same God as Muslims. Islam began some 600 years after Christianity. One of the great ironies that came out in my discussion that one afternoon was, as I was talking about the Gospels, I said, well, you can't trust the Gospels.

They were written decades after the events took place. What was funny to me is this individual didn't realize that he was saying, you can't trust the Gospels because they were written decades after the events took place, but he was asking me, asking the people that were there on that day to believe the Qur'an's depiction of those events, the stories about Jesus written centuries, hundreds of years after Jesus walked the earth. In some ways, there are parallels between Muslims and how they approach this question and how modern LDS or Mormons approach it. Both religions teach that the Bible has been corrupted and that new revelation needed to be given in order to restore the truth. For Muslims, of course, that revelation came through Muhammad, and for Mormons, that revelation came through Joseph Smith.

They're different versions of the same kind of deception. Writing within the first couple hundred years of the birth of Islam, the Christian theologian John of Damascus described the religion as the, quote, superstition of the Ishmaelites. He said they were idolaters until a false prophet named Muhammad appeared in their midst. This man, after having chanced upon the Old and New Testaments, and likewise, it seems, having conversed with an Arian monk, devised his own heresy. Then, having insinuated himself into the good graces of the people by a show of seeming piety, he gave out that a certain book had been sent down to him from heaven.

He had set down some ridiculous compositions in this book of his, and he gave it to them as an object of veneration. Here's how John of Damascus described the teaching of Muhammad, citing the Qur'an. He says that there is one God, creator of all things, who has neither been begotten nor has begotten. He says that Christ is the word of God and his spirit, but a creature and a servant, and that he was begotten without seed of Mary, the sister of Moses and Aaron. For he says the word of God and the spirit entered into Mary, and she brought forth Jesus, who was a prophet and a servant of God. And he says that the Jews wanted to crucify him in violation of the law, and that they seized his shadow and crucified this. But the Christ himself was not crucified, he says, nor did he die.

For God, out of his love for him, took him to himself into heaven. And he says this, that when the Christ had ascended into heaven, God asked him, O Jesus, didst thou say, I am the Son of God and God? And Jesus, he says, answered, Be merciful to me, Lord. Thou knowest that I did not say this, and that I did not scorn to be thy servant.

But sinful men have written that I made this statement, and they have lied about me and have fallen into error. So that's how John of Damascus says that Muhammad talked about Jesus. Jesus says, Oh no, I never said that I was God.

I never died on the cross. Here we do well to remember the words of the Apostle John in 1 John 4, verses 1 through 6. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.

For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming, and now is in the world already.

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world, therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Jesus taught us that many false prophets would come into the world denying his person and work. In the case of Islam, while we can point to some similarities between Christians and Muslims, our views about Jesus are irreconcilable.

To reject the true Jesus is to reject God himself. If you're a Muslim watching this video, my encouragement to you is to read the Gospel accounts and see how greatly they differ from the stories of Jesus found in the Quran. If the Gospels, which were written within decades of the events, are erroneous, then why should we imagine that the account of a man centuries later is accurate?

If your response is, well, the Quran came down from heaven, it was inspired by God, then I would reply to you by saying that we too believe the holy scriptures are inspired and without error and that the prophets of the Old Testament foretold not only the coming of the Son of God, but also his suffering and death in great detail, things that the Quran rejects. Rather than assuming that the apostles and prophets' words were corrupted, let us humbly go back to the holy scriptures and consider the vital question, who is Jesus? When we do, we recognize that he wasn't merely a prophet and servant of God, but the eternal word of the Father who assumed humanity so that he might save us from our sins. Being of one substance with the Father, he came down for us and for our salvation. Being crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered and was buried. On the third day, he rose again from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father, from whence he will come to judge all mankind.

When he does, the main thing you need to get right is, who is Jesus? Here at Sola, we encourage disciples and equip disciple makers by drawing on the riches of the Reformation to apply historic Christian theology to all of faith and life. Our work is only possible thanks to the generosity of thousands of supporters across the world. In order to keep our resources free, we need your support. Will you prayerfully consider a donation to help us equip and encourage even more people to grow in knowing God and seeing everything in his light? If so, please visit SolaMedia.org slash donate.