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Through the months, I’ve received occasional emails arguing, with surprising intensity, for or against the different “Names” assigned to God by Jews, Christians and Muslims. It finally dawned on me that some believers are missing an elementary point.
Through the Prophets of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, we are warned against praying in the name of any of the more than 2,000 “gods,” worshiped by mankind in ancient times. Each manmade idol was given its own name by the people who concocted it! So, every monotheistic Prophet, beginning with Abraham, has advised us to pray to the unseen, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent “Lord God.” And all Jews, Christians and Muslims pray to Him, regardless of the precise Name their language assigns Him.
Granted, Jesus gave us permission to pray in his name, not because he was representing himself as God incarnate, but because he was sent by the Father as mankind’s Messiah. History proves that most human beings need a “human form” to envision and pray to — an invisible God is just too hard for many to mentally and emotionally embrace. So “the Messiah Jesus,” as Muhammad always identified him, helps all who need a human manifestation of Divine Power.
Of course, the Christians also began to pray to saints, but that’s part of their “mix-up” over God’s Identity. We can know the Lord God understands human weaknesses and confusion, since even humans can usually come to understand what causes their “mistakes!” But the intense persecution and suffering that Christians and Muslims have deliberately inflicted on persons who worship the same God, but differ in their religious practices -- beginning with as simple a subject as His Name -- is another story! Our merciful God might not wholly excuse hateful actions committed in any one of His Names!
6 comments:
I don't care what you say, Jane. The name, Allah, isn't the name of the true God. It never appears in any edition of the Bible, and that's the Book I learn from.
Bill, If all you've learned is from the New Testament--and I suspect you're a know-it-all Catholic which means that's all you've read, you ought to try reading the Old Testament. I bet all you've been taught from it are the Psalms! God, in any language, is God.
I believe this whole discussion about God's "name" is foolishness. Who cares what Mohammad called God! He was a conniving man seeking power, and he still holds power over billions of people who are out to make us Moslems! That spells WAR to me.
I care about my God's name and it isn't Allah! I want nothing to do with muslims god. It's a manmade god that's led bunches of people "astray," like my Lord warned me.
I think it's downright stupid for people to argue over the name of their god while they talk about how their god loves everybody and wants us to love each other. If you can't even agree to disagree about his name, how are you going to love anybody, you hypocrites. Thank god I'm an atheist.
Mohammad proved he could not be a true Prophet from God. He even called his god by a different name. Besides, nobody needs another Prophet after Jesus. He taught us all we need to know to gain eternal life. If Mohammad was for real, he would have taught what Jesus taught.
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