Do Christians and muslims worship same God?

[Lion_IRC]

Lion_IRC:

Your question ambiguates and conflates the word “same”.

If two people are both looking at the same thing - a four legged animal with fur and a tail - and one thinks it’s a cat while the other thinks it’s a dog, would you ask…are they both looking at the same thing? No. Of course not.

As a matter of plain fact, they are both looking at just one single animal - not two. They actually agree there is only ONE animal to be seen. Neither accuses the other of hallucinating the existence of a second animal slightly off to the left or right.

The ‘animal’ remains the same, whatever anyone chooses to call it. There is only ‘One God’ the creator of all that is seen and unseen. If the truth be known, we all have an incomplete understanding of God, but that does not change who God is.

^what he said^

 

[Niblo]

ROFL. Exactly!

 

[Godfollower]

Interesting. I’ll have to read that. Tell me, are there any other parts of the Catechism and Vatican II that Cardinal Burke rejects?

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.”

Catechism para. 841.

The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth,(5) who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting.

Nostra Aetate para. 3.

 

[Eric_Hyom]

You may as well ask, do the hundreds of Christian denominations worship the same God? You would think if we all worshiped the same God, then there would only be one Christian religion.

 

[PeterT]

But they reject the Holy Trinity, so in a way we do not worship the same God.

That is NOT what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches. The Catechism is quite clear on this topic: both Christians and Muslims worship the SAME God.

 

[awesomecatholic]

Yes but they reject the divinity of Jesus. Muslims may think we worship the same God but they really don’t. Christ is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. Muslims worship neither,so therefore we don’t worship the same God.

 

[Ghosty1981]

Yes but they reject the divinity of Jesus. Muslims may think we worship the same God but they really don’t. Christ is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. Muslims worship neither,so therefore we don’t worship the same God.

The Catechism is very clear. Muslims and Christians worship the same God. Period, end of argument.

The Muslims worship God in an erroneous way, and have erroneous beliefs about God, but they absolutely worship the God of Abraham just as the Jews and Christians.

Correct object of worship does not equal correct manner of worship.

Peace and God bless!

 

[Eric_Hyom]

Muslims may think we worship the same God but they really don’t.

Muslims worship the God who created the universe and life. As only ‘One God’ created the universe, it must be the same.

 

[Eric_Hyom]

No they don’t the God of Islam Allah is not like the God of Christianity Jesus Christ

Allah the God of Islam didn’t die for you

Jesus the God of Christianity came to earth died and resurrected for you.

And if there was only ‘One Jesus Christ’, there should only be ‘One Christian Faith’. No matter how we juggle our beliefs about, the same God hears all our prayers. We have a duty to care for all of God’s creation and that has to mean caring for each other despite our differences.

 

[GordonP]

We have a duty to care for all of God’s creation and that has to mean caring for each other despite our differences.

A particularly humbling way of thinking about it is to remember that God loves every atheist, pagan, Muslim and Jew exactly as much as he loves me and you. His love and mercy are boundless. He even loves Hitler and Stalin, in spite of the fact that they didn’t love him. By loving even our enemies, as Christ commanded, we partake in the very nature of God.

 

[goout]

The CCC (which is the sure norm of the Catholic faith) does not say that Muslims worship “the same” God, as if worship is homogeneous across religious boundaries.

They worship the “one God”

"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,

The word same does not appear here. “Same” denotes consistent identification across theology and worship, one with the other. No, there are differences.
However the God of Abraham is one across Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. It’s God who is one, not the same beliefs and worship.

Is this really that hard to understand? No. Prejudice clouds understanding and darkens the mind.

 

[Genesis315]

Muslims do acknowledge the one God, even if they profess other errors. First, I think there should be noted the difference between worshiping God in Spirit and in truth, offering Him “true worship,” having supernatural faith, obeying Him, etc., and acknowledging God or worshiping God according to religion (which is not a theological virtue; it falls under natural justice).

St. Thomas defines this virtue in the Summa as “to show reverence to one God under one aspect, namely, as the first principle of the creation and government of things.” SUMMA THEOLOGIAE: Religion (Secunda Secundae Partis, Q. 81)

Muslims certainly worship God as First Principle and Supreme Governor of all things, but is it the same God we know? Can one acknowledge the one God without acknowledging the Trinity?

Faith is required to acknowledge the Trinity. The Trinity cannot be reasoned out, as St. Thomas explains:

I answer that, It is impossible to attain to the knowledge of the Trinity by natural reason. For, as above explained (12, 4, 12), man cannot obtain the knowledge of God by natural reason except from creatures. Now creatures lead us to the knowledge of God, as effects do to their cause. Accordingly, by natural reason we can know of God that only which of necessity belongs to Him as the principle of things, and we have cited this fundamental principle in treating of God as above (Question 12, Article 12). Now, the creative power of God is common to the whole Trinity; and hence it belongs to the unity of the essence, and not to the distinction of the persons. Therefore, by natural reason we can know what belongs to the unity of the essence, but not what belongs to the distinction of the persons.

newadvent.org/summa/1032.htm

Therefore, we can know of God, as the Principle of all things, apart from faith, but we can only know of the Trinity with faith since it is a revealed dogma. The First Vatican Council also defined that God can be known from natural reason alone (Dei Filius, Canon 2.1) and St. Paul says, on account of this, those who do not acknowledge God (but worship idols, are atheists, etc.) are without excuse (Rom. 1:20).

Therefore, one can acknowledge the one God and Creator of all things without having faith and acknowledging the Trinity.

continued…

 

[Genesis315]

continued from above…

In addition, it is the essence of the thing that determines what it is. If we acknowledge the same essence, we acknowledge the same thing. What we can say about the essence of God is that it is the same as His existence. This is summed up as “God is” or, in His own words, “I AM” or “I AM who AM.” (Exo. 3:14).

God is a purely self-existent being that exists in complete actuality. God is not a being that is created by another god; neither does God create Himself into existence. Rather, God has always existed as an unchanging, completely actualized being. God has his Being of himself and to himself such that he is absolute being and the very definition of existence (see Acts 17:22-28). Since God’s existence is the same as his essence, it follows that God is existence. (Note: this is not to assert pantheism. All other beings participate in his existence on a contingency and thus do not possess the essence of God. Therefore, no other being can be said to be a god or share a part in the godhead since they exist solely on a contingency.) This concept is at the root of the definition of all of God’s other perfections because if God is absolute being he must logically contain in Himself all perfections of being.

Since God’s essence is existence, if one acknowledges His essence, one can only acknowledge He who exists–it is impossible to acknowledge a completely actualized being that is not the one and only God. Similarly, there cannot exist two of such beings, because then neither would contain in Himself all perfections of being.

The CE article on Essence and Existence explains this:

-If essence and existence were but one thing, we should be unable to conceive the one without conceiving the other. But we are as a fact able to conceive of essence by itself.
-If there be no real distinction between the two, then the essence is identical with the existence. But in God alone are these identical.

newadvent.org/cathen/05543b.htm

Since Muslims do conceive of God as being completely self-actualized andnon-contingent where essence and existence are one thing, they therefore can only be said to acknowledge the one God who exists and it is to Him that they honor and worship as First Principle and Creator according to the virtue of religion.

I would say therefore that we know God; they know of God. St. Thomas makes this distinction in his commentary on John to reconcile Biblical passages where Jesus says one must know Him to know the Father with those where people without faith are said to know or worship God (such as those passages cited above from Acts and Romans). We know Him as the Father of an only Son and worship Him in Spirit and in Truth and serve Him in supernatural faith and charity.

See also this article by a well-known Catholic philosophy professor:

Edward Feser: Christians, Muslims, and the reference of “God”

 

[rose321]

By way of analogy: Republicans think Trump is the best thing to happen to this country since sliced bread; Democrats think he’s the worst person to set foot in the White House since Gen. Robert Ross. How many U.S. Presidents are in office right now? Just one. Republicans and Democrats are governed by the same President; and Christians and Muslims worship the same (the only) God.

Respectfully opinion only confused politics and Pres is a political figure not God, and are elected and changes every 4-8 years and we do not worship them or faithful to them personally, but obey the Laws of the Land do we not?

Respectfully toward asking wanting to learn and understand… do they worship and believe that Jesus is God who came in the flesh, died for our sins or believe Jesus was not God, nor died for their sins, nor died on the cross, but believe Jesus was a great prophet of God?

And do they believe Jesus was crucified, died and was risen?

Respectfully toward and respect also… do they believe in the Trinity?

Thank you just asking respectfully not to offend but to learn understanding. …Peace

 

[Feanor2]

The CCC states that Muslims worship the same God. That is official Church teaching

 

[niceatheist]

Yes but they reject the divinity of Jesus. Muslims may think we worship the same God but they really don’t. Christ is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. Muslims worship neither,so therefore we don’t worship the same God.

But by that token, did Miaphysites and Arians worship the same God as Orthodox and Western Christians? Do Nestorians? For that matter, do Jews, as their theology, at least so far as the nature of God, is far closer to Arianism and Islam?

 

[goout]

The ONE God.

 

[Feanor2]

Just like the Jews I suppose

 

[goout]

Jews are Jews, Muslims are Muslims, Christians are Christians.
There is one God and all three profess to worship the one God of Abraham, although not in the same way with the same theology.
I hope that makes sense.

 

[Malcolm]

to the extent anyone worships the one true creator of all things then of course they are worshiping our God

however - to the extent muslims worship the “author of the Qur’an” then they most decidedly do NOT worship our God and there should be no waffling about that fact.

Muhammad said a spirit (supposedly the Archangel Gabriel) dictated the Qur’an to him (Muhammad) directly from God so we as Christians should discern the nature of that spirit before judging its message. The New Testament tells us how to do this …

[…] test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

As the spirit behind the Qur’an definitely denies Jesus Christ it is (by biblical definition) the “spirit of the Antichrist” so for us to suggest in ANY WAY that there is ANY equivalence between that spirit and our God comes very close to blaspheming the Holy Spirit (in my opinion).

Now you are aware of the distinction you are without excuse so please don’t do it , ever .