A Q on the Catechism regarding "Catholics and Musliums"

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This is an email from my Protestant friend, can you please help me answer his question?

Section 841 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1993) says:

The Church’s relationship with the Muslims. “The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”

However, the Quran clearly states that Jesus Christ is not God, and that God has no Son, but we hold God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit to be the Triune God. IT seems very clear to me that we do not worship the same God as the Muslims, but the Catechism indicates that we do.

How do you reconcile this statement in the Catechism with the Christian belief in the Triune God?

Don’t know where to go?

Thanks,
Joe
 
This is probably one of the most misunderstood things in the Catechism, by Protestants as well as Catholics, but it has to be read in context of the rest of Church teaching:

**843 **The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search, among shadows and images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all goodness and truth found in these religions as “a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life.”
The Church, in the chapter on Islam, is simply praising what is true in Islam – not saying the whole religion is true or in any way equal to Christianity. The biblical basis for this understanding can be found in Acts 17:22-33 and Romans 1 and 2, which tell us God has witnessed to all of mankind through creation and the natural law written in the human heart, so that even those without special revelation can know something of God and in turn be saved.
**844 **In their religious behavior, however, men also display the limits and errors that disfigure the image of God in them:

Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their reasonings, and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator. Or else, living and dying in this world without God, they are exposed to ultimate despair.This chapter makes clear that the Church doesn’t consider all non-Christians to be on the road to heaven, and this passage is taken directly from Romans 1:21-32.

**847 **This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:

Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.**The key words in this paragraph are “through no fault of their own” – people who are innocently ignorant of the Gospel --not people who have deliberately rejected it, which many Protestants assume to be the case in non-Christians. Also, “moved by grace” - - salvation is always by grace, and non-Christians are saved by the grace won for us on Calvary – they are saved through Christ, even if they haven’t heard of Him. This was the case in the Old Testament – the Messiah was promised, but had not yet been revealed, and they were saved by the sacrifice of Calvary then as much as we are now. **

**It may also help to read John Paul II’s evaluation of Islam from his book, *Crossing the Threshold of Hope: “***Whoever knows the Old and New Testaments, and then reads the Koran, clearly sees the process by which it completely reduces Divine Revelation. It is impossible not to note the movement away from what God said about himself, first in the Old Testament through the Prophets, and then finally in the New Testament through His Son. In Islam, all the richness of God’s self-revelation, which constitutes the heritage of the Old and New Testaments, has definitely been set aside. Some of the most beautiful names in the human language are given to the God of the Koran, but he is ultimately a God outside of the world, a God who is only majesty, never Emmanuel, God with us. Islam is not a religion of redemption. There is no room for the cross and the resurrection. Jesus is mentioned, but only as a prophet who prepares for the last prophet, Mohammed. There is also mention of Mary, his Virgin Mother, but the tragedy of redemption is completely absent. For this reason not only the theology but also the anthropology of Islam is very distant from Christianity.”
 
As always, one needs to be careful to not read more into what’s said than is actually there.

Christ died for the sins of the whole world, didn’t he? - so everyone is included in the plan of salvation. This doesn’t mean that everyone will be saved.

The Muslims certainly profess to hold the faith of Abraham, don’t they? They’re wrong, but it’s what they claim.

Muslims believe that God will be mankind’s judge, don’t they? They know that he’s One, don’t they? Sure, they reject the idea of the Trinity but so do the Jews; surely you wouldn’t say that the Jews don’t believe in the same God we do.

Nothing in the sentence is false, and it doesn’t say that Islam is true.
 
Perhaps this can help:

Muslims Worship the One True God
Only Their ‘Receiving Apparatus’ Is Defective

In recent years many self-styled “traditionalist” Catholics have expressed shock that Pope John Paul II has stated on various occasions—usually during his apostolic journeys to nations with a strong Muslim presence—that the followers of Islam, together with Christians, worship “the one true God.” But the Holy Father has done nothing more than restate the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, which said, “The Church also views with esteem the Muslims, who worship the one and only God, living and subsistent, merciful and omnipotent, the Creator of heaven and earth” (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions 2).

Some “traditionalist” Catholics cite these statements of the Council and the Pope as evidence for the sedevacantist position, which holds that the See of Peter is vacant, i.e., that there has been no true pope since Vatican II. Their thinking is that since Allah is a false god, the statements of Paul VI and John Paul II to the contrary constitute public heresy—even apostasy and idolatry—which is incompatible with their being true popes.

These people use this issue as a litmus test for determining who is Catholic and who isn’t. Simply ask a professing Catholic, they say, whether Muslims worship the one true God (as John Paul II says they do). If the person answers yes, then you can know without further ado that he has already reached “the end of the road”—total apostasy.

more…
 
When people worship one God–like the Jews or Muslims–it is considered to be the one true God. In Acts 17:23, St. Paul tells pagans they are worshipping the one true God:

“For passing by, and seeing your idols, I found an altar also, on which was written: To the unknown God. What therefore you worship, without knowing it, that I preach to you.”

Here are some more pre-Vatican II sources for this idea that Muslims worship the one true God:

Pope St. Gregory VII (11th century) to a Muslim prince: ‘Almighty God, who wishes that all should be saved and none lost, approves nothing in so much as that after loving Him one should love his fellow man, and that one should not do to others, what one does not want done to oneself. You and we owe this charity to ourselves especially because we believe in and confess one God, admittedly, in a different way, and daily praise and venerate him, the creator of the world and ruler of this world.’

Catechism of Pope St. Pius X : 12 Q. Who are infidels?
A. Infidels are those who have not been baptised and do not believe in Jesus Christ, because they either believe in and worship false gods as idolaters do, or though admitting one true God, they do not believe in the Messiah, neither as already come in the Person of Jesus Christ, nor as to come; for instance, Mohammedans and the like.

Catholic Encyclopedia: As in ecclesiastical language those who by baptism have received faith in Jesus Christ and have pledged Him their fidelity and called the faithful, so the name infidel is given to those who have not been baptized. The term applies not only to all who are ignorant of the true God, such as pagans of various kinds, but also to those who adore Him but do not recognize Jesus Christ, as Jews and Mohammedans.

Also see this chapter on Islam in Hillair Belloc’s "Great Heresies."
ewtn.com/library/HOMELIBR/HERESY4.TXT
 
jeckert79 said:
… Section 841 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1993) says:

The Church’s relationship with the Muslims. “The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”

However, the Quran clearly states…
Click to expand...
Hi Joe,

Both Catholics and Muslims acknowledge that the God of Abraham is the the one and only true God, The Creator.

But you are confusing yourself when you mention the Qur’an, because you’ll never find a responsible Catholic who acknowledges that this book is God inspired scripture. The muslims are wrong in this regard (and I don’t want to discuss that further - start a new thread, if you must). But, they are still God’s children who acknowledge Him as The Creator.

Personally, I think muslims are of particular interest to God because they are descendents of Ishmael, son of Abraham and his servant Hagar, and they have been a dealt a cruel blow because they thought Ishmael would be the promised son. (Instead, it turns out that the promised son was Isaac, aka Israel.) They are probably still crying from that 4,000 year old event. This is an interesting topic, and probably worthy of new thread if you are interested to find out more.
 
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