To 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><\/p>\n
But 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
However, 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<\/em>, or two ways of doing y<\/em>, have diverged widely enough to have created\u00a0two distinct x<\/em>\u2018s or two separate y<\/em>\u2018s 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 from 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 first 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>. \u00a0\u201cThe Lord our God\u00a0<\/span>is\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
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Back in 2015, a controversy erupted at Wheaton College in Illinois, a very good evangelical school. \u00a0 It raised the question whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God. \u00a0 Responding to the controversy, David French\u00a0said \u201cNo\u201d: \u00a0 http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/article\/428763\/christians-muslims-same-god-wheaton-college \u00a0 Now, David French is a Harvard-trained attorney and longtime contributor to National Review […]<\/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":[2761,2181,870,1809,2601,66,2905,55,1769],"class_list":["post-79833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-allah","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-god","tag-islam","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormonism","tag-muslim"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>