Equating Jews and Muslims in this respect is ludicrous. There is a big difference between them.
No, it’s logical, because Jews deny the Incarnation and the Trinity just as strenuously as Muslims do. You could make a case that Muslims are
more likely to be worshiping the true God than Christians, since they do at least give Jesus high regard as a prophet–but I don’t think that’s a significant consideration for the present discussion.
The key to understanding the difference lies in remembering the historical perspective of how the three religions were born and developed:
Judaism > Christianity > Islam
Not relevant to the question of which religion “worships the true God.” It is relevant to all sorts of other considerations, of course, but not that one. (And one could argue that Judaism as we know it really doesn’t predate Christianity, anyway.)
True, Jews (in general, but with more and more exceptions) deny the Trinity
This depends on what you mean by “Jews,” of course.
Muslims could similarly say, “Christians in general, but with more and more exceptions, hold to the false doctrine of the Trinity, which is a corruption of the original teachings of Jesus, peace be upon him.”
We Christians would respond that from our perspective a Christian who denies the Trinity is not fully a Christian.
but you could call this a blind spot in their faith.
You could, if you were desperately committed to a logically untenable position.
Classical, rabbinic Judaism has no room for Jesus whatever. It’s not a question of a “blind spot” but of a radically different understanding of the Old Testament.
As the original recipients of God’s revelation, Jews fully believe in the God of Abraham who revealed Himself in the Old Testament. So we are talking about a failure to recognize the fullness of God’s revelation. Coming to a recognition of the Incarnation and Trinity would thus perfect and complete their Jewish faith, without any need to throw out their Jewish heritage.
Most Jews would dismiss this as dishonest Christian propaganda. But at any rate, I don’t see how this is relevant to the question of who worships the true God. Since Muslims have some regard for Jesus–more than traditional Jews but falling short of orthodox Christianity–you can argue that they have a less imperfect version of revelation than Jews, in the respect that matters most, which is Jesus.
Muslims, on the other hand, are another story: First, they claim that both the Old Testament and New Testament have been falsified, so they don’t even really believe in any part of God’s original revelation.
Irrelevant, because they believe the same things Jews do about God. The points on which they think the OT has been falsified do not pertain to the doctrine of God, as far as I know. They pertain to the special role given the Jews, and to certain other points where Muslims appear to have a garbled version of the Biblical narrative, which of course they conside themselves obligated to defend as the true version.
So the point remains: if Muslims believe in a false god because of their denial of Trinity and Incarnation, so do Jews.
In addition, Muslims add the teachings of Muhammad in the Qur’an as most authoritative, and claim that these were revealed by God. Now these teachings explicitly deny the Trinity, Incarnation, Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, etc… So for a Muslim to come to the truth of the Christian faith, he would have to explicitly reject the teachings of Islam.
Exactly the same is true of rabbinic Judaism. You are showing a lack of understanding of Jewish tradition in thinking that it does not explicitly reject what Christians believe about Jesus. Jews celebrate the memory of martyrs who died rather than become Christians.
Granted, it may be uncharitable to Jews to remind Christians too often of how opposed Judaism is to Christianity. In the High Middle Ages, Christians made the discovery, and the result was lethal for Jews. Perhaps it’s a good thing, pragmatically speaking, that many Christians have become confused on this point again. But truth matters.
It seems to me that there is a big difference between the people to whom the Messiah was promised and, though they still fail to recognize Him, have still a certain openness and expectation of the Messiah in their own Biblical faith, and on the other hand the members of another religion whose basic tenets explicitly deny all the pillars of God’s biblical revelation.
There’s a big difference in your sentiments toward the two groups. None in their actual attitude toward Christian revelation, except insofar as Muslims have a more positive one.
Edwin
