1. Experts Patheos.com(http://experts.patheos.com/expert/roberthunt/2011/03/07/do-christians-and-muslims-worship-the-same-god/)
Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?, 7 March 2011
by Dr. Robert Hunt
Whenever I give a lecture or seminar on Islam I’m asked whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God. For Muslims this is an odd question. The Quran tells them explicitly that they worship the same God as Christians do. But Christians of course need to ask whether, from a distinctly Christian theological viewpoint, we worship the same God as Muslims. This is particularly the case since recently a number of Christian pastors have refused to let Muslims borrow space in their churches for worship, and have even refused to allow Muslim leaders to speak in their sanctuaries.
If we actually read the Bible we find the following: First the New Testament is clear that Christians and Jews worship the same God. This is clear not only in the teaching of Jesus, but in Paul’s letter to the Romans, where he affirms that the Jews remain in a covenant relationship with God.
Practically speaking this means that although Jews and Christians disagree over whether God is Trinity, and although they disagree over whether Jesus is the Messiah, they still worship the same God. Put another way, one can believe in God and worship God without believing in the Trinity or worshiping God as revealed in Jesus Christ.
But what about non-Jews? Well Luke gives us a couple of case studies from the life of Paul. In Athens (Acts 17) Paul tells the Athenians that the unknown God whom they worship is none other than the God who is revealed in Jesus Christ. He doesn’t say that the altar to the unknown God is to no God, or to an idol, but simply that it represents something they need to know more fully, and can through Jesus Christ.
In Acts 14 Luke tells us about another encounter of Paul with non-Jews. In this case he urges them not to commit idolatry, then tells them that God has not left himself with a testimony, and that they hear and respond to this testimony each time they enjoy the fruits of the changing seasons. Paul’s teaching is grounded in the Old Testament (Genesis 9), which tells us that God made an eternal covenant with all humankind and all creatures. God promised that seed time and harvest would come in their turn, and that the rainbow would testify to that promise. And of course God made basic ethical demands on humanity and gave them a purpose to fulfill. Humans may ignore God’s testimony and fail to fulfill their part of the covenant, but God never fails to fulfill his part and remains in active relationship with every human being and every creature. Thus Paul knows that whenever people feel joy it is because God is filling their hearts.
Thus the fault of the people of Lystra and Derby was their propensity to worship idols instead of the source of their joy. Paul talks about this failing more generally in the letter to the Romans. But this is clearly not a fault of Muslims, who vigorously condemn idolatry and who understand the God they worship to be the God whom created all things and lives in covenant with them; a covenant of both provision for their needs and the demand that the follow Divine Law. The only possible Christian conclusion is that Muslims worship the same God whom Paul believes made a covenant with humanity first, and then the Jews, and finally through Jesus Christ with the Body of Christ. A God who does not leaves God’s self without a witness in any part of the human family.
Of course, from a Christian standpoint Muslims have an imperfect understanding of this God, as do the Jews. A full understanding of God’s nature comes only with the revelation of God in Christ. But this isn’t a difference in gods. It is a difference in understanding of the one true God. Nor is the difference between these monotheistic religions a failure to acknowledge God’s own self-witness. From a Christian standpoint it is simply a failure to acknowledge God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ, while acknowledging others. And we know from the Bible that there are others.
When Muslims worship God, they worship the same (and only God) as Christians and Jews.
2. The Malaysian Insider (http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/cabinet-nod-but-malay-bibles-still-held-up-say-christians/)
Cabinet nod but Malay Bibles still held up, say Christians, 8 March 2011
by Melissa Chi
KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — Christians in Malaysia are still waiting to get back 5,000 Malay Bibles confiscated by the Home Ministry since 2009 on security grounds despite the Cabinet approving their release.
The long wait has prompted National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF) secretary-general Sam Ang today to ask Christians in Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia to pray for the “unconditional and immediate release” of the 5,000 Alkitab together with other Christian materials as approved by the Cabinet last year.
“Since then, these detained materials have not been released despite the many calls and appeals to the government.
“Though, the Cabinet has approved the release of these materials, yet the Home Ministry’s Publications Control and Quranic Text Division has refused to pay heed to the instructions given,” Ang said in a statement today.
The Malaysian Insider had reported that Christian groups have been given conflicting instructions concerning the release of the Bibles shipped in from Indonesia and seized by Customs officers in March 2009 because they contained the word “Allah”.
The matter is a touchy issue in Malaysia where Islam is the official religion and Muslim officials are against non-Islamic religious books printed in Bahasa Malaysia or containing the word “Allah”, the name of god in the faith which is outlawed for use by other religions.
It is understood that Christian leaders had broached the matter with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the Christmas open house last year.
Ang said the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) imported 5,000 Alkitab Berita Baik from Indonesia on March 23, 2009, but the Malay Bibles together with 100 copies of other Christian literature were confiscated and detained by the Home Ministry at Port Klang, and that the BSM had tried to retrieve them for over a year.
BSM’s repeated attempts to clear up the confusion with the ministry helmed by Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein — who oversees the Immigration and Customs departments — at its highest-level of command have been met with sympathy but not action.
Ang also asked the Christians to pray for the freedom to profess and practise their religion in peace without “undue and improper interference” from the state authorities, as well as for the civil service and enforcement authorities to honour the rights of all people as enshrined in the Federal Constitution, and comply with decisions made in accordance with the rule of law and established administrative processes.
There is also a similar incident involving another Christian group, the Gideons, which had its shipment of 10,000 Malay-language Bibles detained in Kuching in 2009; but had the confiscation order lifted after Putrajaya intervened directly.
BSM was reported as saying that it has a strong legal case.
But being a Christian organisation, it is reluctant to take legal action unless forced to, like what the Catholic Church did with its Herald newspaper case.
The group noted that the Court of Appeal’s delay in hearing the controversial “Allah” suit, 15 months after the High Court ruled Christians have a constitution right to use the word, and that it had impacted on its case as well.
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