This thread has all the makings of a train wreck.
This thread has all the makings of a train wreck.
Burning Bush ?Actually, no. God says he never changes.
It's all technically the same 'god' - the three are all Abrahamic religions.
In the Muslims' piece-of-filth "holy" book, you will find many of the same figures as are present in the Christians' "holy" book, the Holy Bible as dictated by the Great 'I Am'... Mary, Joseph, Jesus of Nazareth, Noah, Abraham, etc., etc... having these figures in the Muslim text greatly encouraged converts from Christianity and Judaism in the beginning days of Islam - for people who literally believed that a man arose from an eternal, omnipotent invisible man who lives in the sky, it wasn't too much of a stretch to imagine that a messenger of this all-powerful being (who was also the being Himself) was called upon by 'God' to add onto the expositionary tale of vice and virtue told by His one and only Son.
'Allah' means, quite literally in Arabic, 'God'. So, yes, yes - both phrases do in fact refer to the same deity, regardless of whether and to what degree it outrages or upsets you... and I know I might find it very upsetting to worship - or to be considered to worship - the same deity as do roughly one billion violent adherents of a different - and thus inferior - religion. Any distinctions are based in desire, and not in fact based in Scripture, for He is in fact the sole and one true God, is He not?
Burning Bush ?
All religion threads eventually go there, it's just a matter of timeThis thread has all the makings of a train wreck.
Again?
No!
But this time it's for real! I'm actually impressed we've made it to this many posts without serious offenses. Must speak to a shared set of values.
henktermaat,
I'm actually done this time. I super cereal.
And
IBTL
Henk, I think Kdub's point was that God spoke to Moses through a bush that burned but was not consumed. I think the comparison would be saying that I must be a computer, since that's the only way most people here have ever "heard" my words.... Not comparing myself to God; rather the representation being different in form from the speaker. ...
This website might be helpful in the discussion. The website shows the similarities and differences between Islam and Christianity. I want to mention that this website is part of The Canadian Society of Muslims, which means that it is being portrayed from a Muslim point of view. I don't agree with everything portrayed on this site. That said, I think that it is helpful in understanding how Muslims describe their own religion.
Good link... I've read that one before. Also, here's another from the Christian perspective. It goes into probably too much detail for a casual read.
NOTE TO THE READER
We are well aware that the name Allah is used by Arab speaking Christians for the God of the Bible. In fact, the root from which the name is derived, ilah, stems from the ancient Semitic languages, corresponding to the Mesopotamian IL, as well as the Hebrew-Aramaic EL, as in Ishma-el, Immanu-el, Isra-el. These terms were often used to refer to any deity worshiped as a high god, especially the chief deity amongst a pantheon of lesser gods. As such, the Holy Bible uses the term as just one of the many titles for Yahweh, the only true God.
Yet the problem arises from the fact that Muslims insist that Allah is not a title, but the personal name of the God of Islam. This becomes problematic since according to the Holy Bible the name of the God of Abraham is Yahweh/Jehovah, not Allah:
God spoke further to Moses and said to him, "I am Yahweh (YHVH) and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty; BUT BY MY NAME, YAHWEH, I did not make myself known to them." Exodus 6:2-3Therefore, Christians can use Allah as a title but not as the personal name for the God of the Bible.
Allah
Yahweh
You think maybe somewhere the name was confused in translation? Maybe the teacher spelled it wrong? Maybe they had some word game and they said forget it, close enough? I mean, we are human right?
This thread has all the makings of a train wreck.
Or maybe Hebrew and Arabic are closely related members of the same language family that developed in close proximity over something like 5000 years or so and, therefore, have a great many cognates.
That's a stretch... I doubt the original two-word response with no accompanying argument or logic ("Burning Bush") can come close to the amount of thought you put into simply trying to figure out what he said.
"Allah" and "God" are different people, by definition. "Allah" may be the word for "God" in the muslim religion, but the definitions of the person "Allah" and God are specifically different. Anyone who says that "Allah" and God are the same doesn;'t know what they are talkling about.