The Crescent and the Cross… the unitarian Islamic deity (Allah) and our trinitarian Christian deity (Yahweh). Some will have you believe that these deities are one-and-the-same, while others see the danger in referring to them both as though they are one. Are Muslims and Christians talking about the same Being, or do they each have someone different in mind?

I have already chatted about this subject here and here, but have tripped over more discussion on the subject elsewhere and this seems a good as time as any to highlight a concern that is coming to light.

Back in October 2007 a letter was written, signed by 138 representative Muslim leaders, calling on two “Abrahamic faiths” (Islam and Christianity) to love God and neighbours together. A similarly large number of Christian theologians, ministry leaders, and prominent pastors signed the response letter issued by the Yale Center for Faith and Culture.

The Christian signatories said that they “share the sentiments” of the Muslim leaders who pointed out that Muslims and Christians make up over half of the world’s population and therefore true peace cannot occur as long as conflict persists between the two religious communities. And the Christian signatories asked:
1. that Muslims forgive Christians for their past sins – such as the Crusades and excesses of the “war on terrors” – as taught by Jesus Christ who said to “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out your neighbor’s eye” (Matthew 7:5).
2. that an interfaith dialogue takes place that moves beyond “polite” ecumenical talks between selected leaders, and wrote that leaders of both faiths should hold dialogues to build relations that will “reshape” the two communities to “genuinely reflect our common love for God and for one another.”

However, some very important fundamental issues are being ignored. They were picked up by Dr R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, one Christian theologian who did not sign the response letter. Source. He was disturbed by the Christians’ request for forgiveness of sins committed against Muslims, including the Crusades and excesses in the war on terror.

“I am sure that all kinds of sin went on with the Crusades on both sides,” he said. “But I am not going to apologize for the Crusades because I am very thankful that the Muslim effort to reach a conquest of Europe was unsuccessful. Otherwise, we would be speaking Arabic on this program right now and we would be talking about the Muslim continent of Europe and potentially even of North America.”

The war on terror, he also noted, is the responsibility of the United States so he was “not sure” why Christians are apologizing for that as a sin against Muslims.
“I don’t think that is the right way to put it,” Mohler said. “I don’t think we associate the United States of America with the Christian church. For whom are we apologizing and for what are we apologizing?”

Dr Mohler explained that Muslims also believe in Jesus but only as a prophet, not as the son of God. Christians must distinguish what kind of God they believe in when responding to the Muslim letter, which emphasized love for a common God.

“We don’t believe that Jesus Christ is our hero. We don’t believe that Jesus Christ is merely our prophet. He is Prophet and Priest and King. He is the incarnate Son of God. He is the second person of the Trinity. He is the Lord over all. Any minimization of that is a huge problem.”

“This is the God who very clearly identifies Himself and says, ‘I am this and I am not anything else.’ If you disagree about the identity of Jesus Christ, then you disagree about the identity of God. The most important issues about the dialogue with Muslims is that Christians are very clear about the Gospel. It is not enough just to say, ‘we renounce violence.’ It is important, but it is not enough.”

“Now, I want to be very clear: we should have nothing against a conversation. But I don’t think this is the way to get into the conversation,” Mohler clarified. “My concern is that when Christians enter the conversation with Muslims we must enter the conversation as Christians,” he said. “I think when you address a letter to Muslims and refer to God in their terminology then there is a big problem…when Christians enter a conversation, we have to show up as Christians.”

I am in absolute agreement with Dr Mohler. This is certainly not being picky. The Muslim perception of God is that which is described in their Qur’an. The Islamic Allah does not love Christians. He loves only Muslims, and he instructs them to slaughter those who will not submit to him and become Muslims (Surah 9). There is no love there for any neighbour who is not Muslim. When Islamic clerics speak of God, it becomes very confusing when Christians suppose they are speaking of God of Judeo-Christian scriptures, Yahweh. We know that the word Allah is the Arabic word for God, meaning the Supreme being and Creator of all. When Arabic Christians speak of Yahweh, they use their word Allah. But when Muslims speak of Allah, they are referring to the one who is portrayed in the Qur’an… and he is nothing like Yahweh, the God whom Christians worship.

At the heart of the Muslim letter was the “common ground” that believers of both faiths share – love for God and love for neighbours. My concern are the unanswered questions… What common ground? How much common ground do we actually have? When speaking of God, who exactly do we actually mean - the unitarian Islamic Allah, or the trinitarian Christian Yahweh? They are most definitely not the same, there being profound differences theologically, historically, and in their outworking. Until this issue is made crystal clear, then both parties are talking past each other and no real dialogue, that to which each side is truly accountable, can ever properly take place.