here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I have to admit to being puzzled by David French\u2019s citation of the Protestant theologian R. C. Sproul: \u00a0\u201cTo Muslims, god \u2018is a single person, transcendent. The God Christians worship, on the other hand, is the maker of heaven and earth. He is one being and transcendent.'\u201d<\/span>
\nBut the Qur\u2019an, too, portrays God as \u201cthe maker of heaven and earth.\u201d \u00a0I haven\u2019t counted, but I\u2019m guessing that he\u2019s described that way at least a hundred times in the text. \u00a0He did it in six days. \u00a0He planted a garden and put Adam and Eve in it. \u00a0And so forth. \u00a0And, according to Islamic theology, God is every bit as \u201ctranscendent\u201d as Christians have ever made him out to be, if not far more so.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the difference that French and his sources take to be the crucial point\u00a0is that, in Islam, God is \u201cone,\u201d whereas in mainstream Christianity he\u2019s \u201ctriune\u201d \u2014 somehow simultaneously one single God in the three persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Well, of course, that is<\/em> a difference, and no small one.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
And deciding when two views of x, or two ways of doing y, have diverged widely enough to have created\u00a0two distinct x\u2019s or two separate y\u2019s is always a judgment call. \u00a0When, exactly, did the Latin of the Iberian Peninsula cease to be Latin? \u00a0When did that subsequent language become Spanish and Portuguese? \u00a0Precisely when, in evolutionary biology, does a new species emerge? \u00a0Is Swiss German a different language than standard German, or is it just a dialect of (and within) German? \u00a0On what date did Dutch cease to be a German dialect and become its own language? \u00a0If John has a beard, does it cease to be a beard if Jane plucks out a hair? \u00a0How about ten hairs? \u00a0How about a hundred? \u00a0A thousand? \u00a0Exactly when can it be said that John no longer has a beard?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I contend, though \u2014 and I\u2019m in excellent company \u2014 that the similarities between the Muslim and Christian conceptions of God are still far and away sufficient to view them as referring to the same being. \u00a0And I might ask Mr. French whether he believes that Jews<\/em> and Christians worship different Gods. \u00a0Because Jews no more believe in a Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit than Muslims do. \u00a0(As a matter of fact, Muslims have a far, far more positive view of Jesus than Judaism has historically had.) \u00a0\u201cHear, O Israel,\u201d says the famous Hebrew shema<\/em>. The LORD our God\u00a0<\/span>is<\/i>\u00a0one LORD\u201d (Deuteronomy 6:4). \u00a0<\/span>I would be surprised to hear Mr. French\u00a0say that Jews worship an altogether different God than Christians do, but perhaps that is<\/em> his view.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Salt Lake City, Utah<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 David French, for whom I have great respect and with whom I typically agree \u2014 he and his wife even headed up \u201cEvangelicals for Mitt\u201d during both the 2008 and 2012 primary and general election seasons \u2014 says \u201cNo\u201d: \u00a0 http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/article\/428763\/christians-muslims-same-god-wheaton-college \u00a0 He\u2019s wrong. \u00a0 Francis Beckwith, who has a lengthy history of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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