Dr Paul Allen

Do Christians and Muslims worship the same deity? It has become one of the most pressing and controversial questions in the world in the last fifteen years. The question was stirred up in earnest in 2001 in the aftermath of fundamentalist Muslims flying hijacked commercial jetliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. And tragically the question has been stirred up time and time again in the decade and a half since, after a wave of major terrorist attacks, undertaken in the name of Allah. Recent months have brought large-scale tragedies in Paris, Orlando, and now Istanbul and Baghdad. After each attack, fresh voices either demonize Islam or seek to dispel any notions that Islam itself might be the problem. But however important the sociology and politics may be for secularists, beneath it lies the all-important question for Christians and Muslims: Is the Islamic notion of Allah compatible with the Christian belief in God? I had the privilege of putting t...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The fact remains that Western civilization — and much of the world beyond — is directly threatened by a militant form of Islam that has the allegiance of millions of Muslims . While the vast majority of Muslims in the world are not fighters in a jihad against the West, and for that we must be thankful. WE KEEP HEARING LEADERS SAY: This is not at war with Islam. We can understand why they would say this, and we also need to admit that there is an important element of truth in the statement. The West is not at war with Islam if that means a war against all Muslims and against all forms of Islam.  But, true as that statement may be, we must also be clear that we are facing a great and grave civilizational challenge from millions of Muslims who believe, quite plausibly, that their version of Islam is more faithful to the essence of Islam and the Quran .   This understanding of Islam is growing, not receding.  It is now drawin...

An example of Allāh written in simple Arabic calligraphy. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) A rose is a rose is a rose. This dictum reinforces the adage that a rose by any other name is still a rose. The idea is that the essence of the rose is not conditioned by what name is attached to it. It is its res, not its nomina, that determines what it is. In different languages, the same flower is known by different names, but it is still the same flower. When we apply this idea to theology things get a bit more complicated. Indeed the rose adage has been transferred indiscriminately to religion in order to create a theological concept. The concept is: “God by any other name is still God.” Now certainly, it is true that the immutable essence of God is not changed by the alteration of His name. In English, we may say “God,” in German “Gott,” in Greek “Theos,” yet all these names or words are used to point to the same Deity. Beyond this, however, things get murky. It is a quantum leap to go from ...

Allah in Arabic (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) What is Islam ? Is it one of the three great worldwide monotheistic religions, or is it a pretender to Christ ’s throne, a scourge of the Devil ? Is it an interesting historical and cultural phenomenon to be examined with the care and aloofness of an academician, or a heresy to be denounced and hooted off the stage? Making the question more difficult is the reality that somewhere out there is probably some kind of Muslim publication addressing the issue of the Christian faith . Would I want them to treat Christianity with respect? Would I want them treating the faith once delivered unto the saints as some kind of joke? And mustn’t I do unto others, even if they are outside the church? Here’s a particular issue. The Qur’an capitalizes all references to deity. We quote the Qur’an. We believe Allah to be a false god, and capitalize all references to the true God . What should we do? We decided to follow their style, not because we believ...

Bhagavad gita english (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Have all major religious teachers proclaimed approximately the same message? For example, have many of the religious teachers taught that they were God , as Jesus did? It may surprise many to learn that we have no reliable historical data that any of the founders of the world’s major religions—apart from Jesus—ever claimed to be God.  No early writings attest such a claim on behalf of these persons. For example, Chinese teachers Confucius and Lao-tzu exerted moral, social, and cultural influences on their students but were not theologians.  Many of their wise sayings are reminiscent of the Hebrew book of Proverbs. Strangely, Buddha may have been an atheist who did not believe in any kind of divinity! The Muslim holy book, the Qur’an, definitely does not elevate Muhammad to the place of Allah (God). While we are told that Muhammad is Allah’s chief prophet, there is no attempt to make Muhammad deity. To the contrary,...

Vision from Book of Revelation (Photo credit: cliff1066™ ) "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." ( James 3:6 ) Since the tongue can be a "world of iniquity" if it is "set on fire of hell," this implies that hell itself is not merely a "lake of fire" but is essentially a world of iniquity where "he that is unjust" and "he which is filthy" are unjust and filthy still ( Revelation 22:11 ), separated forever "from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power" ( 1 Thessalonians 1:9 ). This is the destiny of all who "obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ " (v. 8). Their resurrected bodies presumably will be quickly consumed by the very real fires of the fiery lake, but their spirits are eternal, created in the image of God , and will co...

Our Lord Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens." ( Psalm 96:5 )   As the apostle Paul reminded the Corinthian Christians, "though there be |many| that are called gods, . . . to us there is but one God , the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ , by whom are all things, and we by him" ( 1 Corinthians 8:5-6 ).   Every person has his own "god"; even atheists order their lives by some principle of their own choosing which thus becomes in effect their "god"! There are multitudes of others who follow various other gods. For example, the Hindus have almost innumerable gods. Muslims, on the other hand, strongly argue for just one god, whom they call Allah , but it was not Allah who "made the heavens." The truth revealed in the Bible is that it was God's "dear Son" by whom "were all things created, that ar...

English: A green version of http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Allah-eser2.jpg (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) By Nathan Lovell. Last week I awoke to the news of an Islamic protest march through the centre of Sydney . It wasn’t an entirely peaceful protest. I am Australian , but I live in Africa where this kind of thing is common, and often worse. Earlier this year, one of my students from Nigeria was unable to attend the first two weeks of term because his town was literally under siege by Muslim insurgents who were burning churches and the homes of Christians . No doubt the Christians were doing their own share of insurgency also. Nevertheless, it was still shocking for me to see pictures of Muslim protestors marching through Hyde Park to uphold the honour of their prophet Muhammad . One photograph showed a child holding a banner that read, “Behead all those who insult the prophet!” How should Christians respond? There is no doubt that their prophet was being insulted. They we...

English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Near the center of every religion is a ledger. Every religion acknowledges, on one level or another, that people do good things and bad things and every religion then maintains a tally, supposing that one day there will come a reckoning. Every religion hopes that on the day of accounting, the day of the audit, the good will outnumber or outweigh the bad. There is hope for those who come to that day with a surplus and no hope for those who come with a deficit. Islam  acknowledges sin —deeds that contradict the will of Allah —and calls its adherents to do good that will outweigh the bad. Good deeds are repentance, prayer and certain acts of charity and kindness. Each of these go in the ledger as credits meant to balance the debits. Judaism  acknowledges sin —violations of God ’s commandments—and calls on its adherents to make atonement, reparation of relationship with God, through the good work of re...