The God of Christianity and the Allah of Islam share some titles and characteristics in common, and many people believe that God and Allah are one and the same. Reasoning that God and Allah are the same, some have suggested that Christians should call Jehovah God by the name “Allah” to ease Christian/Muslim tensions. But are they one person? Is the God of the Bible the Allah of the Qu’ran?
Commonalities
Consider what Muslims say about the name Allah. “Allah is the personal name of the One true God,” says the Institute of Islamic Information and Education.1 Christians also believe the same thing about their God. In the Bible, Moses says, “The LORD our God is one LORD” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Recording God’s own words, Isaiah writes, “Thus saith the LORD…I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me…” (Isaiah 45:1,5). Either these verses refer to the same deity or else these verses identify one exclusive divinity. Which is it?
Muslims believe that Allah is the creator, that he is eternal, the first and the last, and that he is merciful and compassionate. Christians believe the same things about the God of the Bible.
From these examples, we might conclude that God and Allah indeed could be the same deity. But there is more.
Jesus: God’s Son
The God of the Bible has a Son. The Old Testament refers numerous times to God’s Son, both literally and figuratively. Psalm 2:7 prophecies this: “I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.”
Proverbs 30:4 says, “who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?” Many other Old Testament Scriptures confirm that God has a Son. And of course, the New Testament is all about God’s Son, Jesus.
God also revealed His Son figuratively through the lives of His people as recorded in the Old Testament. For instance, Abraham and Isaac enacted the Son’s sacrifice when Abraham laid Isaac on the altar. Jesus declared that this incident was a revelation of Himself, the Son of God, when He told the Jews, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56).
The Bible makes it clear that salvation comes through God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus prayed,“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).
However, the Qu’ran says, “God forbid that He Himself should beget a son!…Those who say: ‘The Lord of Mercy has begotten a son,’ preach a monstrous falsehood.” 2
Allah cannot be the Christian’s God, because the God of the Bible definitely has a Son.
The Bible is inflexible on this point: “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father” (1 John 2:23). To call God “Allah,” then, would be to deny the Son and the Father, too.
Jesus plainly says, “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). It is by the death of God’s Son that we are saved. There would be no salvation without Him.
Paul declares, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). The whole plan of salvation hinges on this very point: God came in the person of His Son Jesus Christ to redeem humanity for Himself. Allah did no such thing. For Christians to call God Allah negates the very plan of salvation.
Different Entities
A comparison of the Qu’ran and the Bible gives irrefutable evidence that the God of the Bible and Allah are two very different entities. God declared in Isaiah 42:8, “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another…”
God commanded reverence for His holy name. The third commandment which protects the holiness of God’s name comes with a warning: “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7). To think that we can call the God of the Bible“Allah” would not only be a mistake, it would be blasphemous because the names “God” and “Allah” refer to two different entities.
It’s true that some Christians, when working for the salvation of Muslims, use the name Allah in reference to the God of the Bible when they first connect with Muslims so they can talk about the Deity. When it has been established that the God of the Bible is different from Allah, however, to continue referring to the God of the Bible as “Allah” would only be confusing, since the God of the Bible is a very different character from Allah. God, the Father of Adam, Abraham, Jesus and of all Christians is not Allah of the Qu’ran.
1. “To God ( Allah ) belongs 99 names,” Allah (God); (Accessed May 28, 2014). http://www.allah.org/
2. Qur’an 19:35, 19:88. http://www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Contra/tqachrist.html
Article by Tammie Burak, writer for Amazing Discoveries.
More Reading on this subject can be found in An Interview with Walter Veith – Part 1 and Part 2
pure bible truth,let bible (word of GOD)defend itself…..
I think Veith is asking the wrong question. 200,000 Christians who were raised Christian (not converts from Islam) whose native language is Arabic know no other word for “god” than “allah”. Jesus spoke Aramaic natively (sister semetic language to Hebrew). When Jesus said the word “God” in Aramaic, it was literally al-lah-ha which is pretty close to the Arabic allah. I don’t think “God” is any better of a reference to the one true deity than “Allah” and I doubt that thousands of Christians will be turned away from heaven’s gates because they spoke the wrong language. The Son of God issue is more important but can be resolved by an honest / open study and comparison of the the Bible and the Qur’an, avoiding “Christian doctrine” vs. “Islamic doctrine” in favor of what these two books actually say (not my endorsement of the Qur’an for the Christian by the way – the Qur’an actually insists its readers judge the Qur’an by the Bible). When the Qur’an was “revealed” to Muhammad, the visible and self-authorizing Roman church had passed the 538 AD landmark in prophecy (start of the 1260 days) and had incorporated paganism for hundreds of years since Constantine’s “mega-merger”. Two deities copulating and producing another deity was the “Son” that Muhammad spoke against and this was a norm in pagan Roman religion and all the mystery Religions before it. Muhammad brought his Arab people from idolatry back to monotheism at a time when the visible church was a far cry from the character and purity of the early church. Revelation 9 says of this time period that symbolically, Muhammad was destroyer (“Abadon”) to the unbelieving Jews and destroyer (“Apolyon”) to the apostate church. In my opinion there is much more opportunity to dialog and share truth from an approach which seeks to understand these Qur’anic statements in light of 7th century Roman Christianity rather than today’s “Christian” and “Islamic” dogma after centuries of fighting and killing from both sides (yes, “Christianity” pillaged, raped and killed in the word Veith uses for the true God). Veith’s approach on this issue is not conducive to building relationships which foster the trust necessary for sharing truth (Jesus is very clearly recognized as the Messiah in both books) but Veith disqualifies the sole authority (Allah) of Muslims, using semantics. So many fights can be avoided if we just stop and ask “what do you mean by…?” Let’s talk about it.
I believe you’re focus is wrong when you use the example of a small fraction, a tiny minority of Christian Arabs who use the name Allah to refer to the God of the Bible. Arab Christians usage of a terminology that is highly controversial is not a good evidence for or against the usage of the name of Allah. I would like to elaborate more.
Before I began, however, I want to clarify that I am aware of the Aramaic verbiage al-lah-ha, and which also can be found in some Syrian literature dating back to 3rd century A.D. No one at Amazing Discoveries would argue the historicity of such literature. We have no inherent issues with the name Allah itself. In fact our focus is not the historical usage of the name Allah, but instead we want to answer the question, who is the Allah of the Koran? Is he the God of the Bible or an imposter? Let’s not forget that we have been admonished to study and prove all things, and not to accept any other gospel even if an angel tells us, Galatians 1:8. You see, if it can be proven that the Allah in the Koran is the same Person as the Ancient of days mentioned in Daniel 7:9,13, 22, and who identified Himself as the Father of Jesus Christ in Mathew 3:7, then there will be no problem for any of us at Amazing Discoveries to accept and adore Him. But the problem with this is that no one can prove such a thing. It is absolutely impossible.
How and why? Because the Allah of the Koran and the God of the Bible are theologically and fundamentally in dissent to each other. Allah doctrinally is not a reflection of the Ancient of days, but rather stands in the position of opposition. Here are just a few doctrines from the Koran which refute Christianity, and if accepted and allowed to triumph will completely obliterate Christianity, for this is a full frontal attack against the firm foundation of God’s eternal Kingdom. Below are just a few examples of what the Koran teaches against Christianity.
Allah and the Koran deny the Sonship of Jesus Christ, Sura 5:88-92, 9:30, 19:34, 35.
Allah and the Koran deny Jesus as his Son. Sura 3:59, 4:171, 5:116, 43:57-59
Allah and the Koran deny Jesus dying on the cross, Sura 4:157-158
There is no way around this. No one can refute the Koran’s teachings on this matter. You can try and go around it, philosophize it, lessen its meaning. make detours, but the hard fact remains that Islam sets itself in direct opposition to Jesus Christ as the Creator God of the universe, the Son of the infinite God, and Father of Glory. And finally Islam rejects the death of Jesus on the cross as an atonement for the sins of the world.
Finally, I want to make this point clear that if anyone who calls themselves Christians and continues to uphold the Koran as “inspired,” or “semi inspired,” or “an inspired book gone wrong,” and defends this false book then they cease to be Christians, there is no two ways about it. — Shahbaz
Very shallow. You seem to presuppose that the Bible was written in English and thus God’s name in any other language is null and void
We do not think the Bible was written in English, and there was nothing of the kind in this article. This article has nothing to do with the actual “name” or “word” used for God. It has to do with the personality behind the name. WHO is the God of the Bible and WHO is Allah? Their word name is not as relevant as their characteristics. But unless you make a word change, it is confusing and misleading to know which deity you are speaking of. They are absolutely not the same deity. The point of this article is that the characteristics of Jehovah and the characteristics of Allah are very different and therefore they cannot be the same person. It is shallow to say that just because the word “Allah” refers to “God” they must be the same and it is OK to use them interchangeably. Our concept of God is critical to know whom we are worshipping. The belief that the two are interchangeable or synonymous is dangerous because it affects how we witness to others. We either present to them a real change of the deity they are worshipping or we leave them as they are and just add a few more points to what they already know. This has nothing to do with their culture. It is AD’s position that it is dangerous and misleading to use the same word for 2 very different personalities as it causes misunderstanding and no real change in a person’s life. It is a form of syncretism for which the ancient Israelites were condemned.
In an interview with Walter Veith who was asked the same question, here is what he answered:
Q: Is Allah the same God as the Bible, just with a different name?
A: On this point, I had a very interesting experience. We were on a tour in the Middle East, somewhere close to Jerusalem. I was taking pictures for my evangelistic series. All of a sudden a Muslim appeared and walked towards me. And out of the blue he says, “Allah is Yahweh just backwards.” And as he said this, he took a piece of paper out and showed me the name Yahweh in Hebrew and showed me again Allah in arabic. And then he ran off again. I stored it somewhere in the back of my mind, and when I returned back to South Africa, I contacted a friend of mine who is a theologian and I asked him if it was truly that way, that the name Yahweh written backwards pronounces Allah. He responded and said that he never heard of such a thing, and he said he would look into it. A bit later he called me back and said, nope, it isn’t working out. If you write Yahweh in Hebrew and you mirror it, or read it back, it does not say Allah in Arabic.
Three weeks later, I got another call from him. And he said that he had been mistaken. “It actually truly works.” And I asked him, “what do you mean?” And he said, “you have to flip it twice. You have to put it upside down, and then you can read the word Allah.”
Those kinds of weird things happen to me, isn’t that funny? Some weird Muslim doing his own thing around the marketplace, suddenly runs towards me. He probably saw that we were Christian and probably just wanted to clarify to me that we don’t have that special of a God. That it’s actually Allah also, but it’s kind of hidden.
Q: Is that connection known within the Muslim realm?
A: No.
Q: Then it must have been a very special man.
A: Yes. Of course, now you can have another reason for Walter Veith being a conspiracy theorist. But let me tell you, in the esoteric world, Satan is a master of flipping things. Everything is turned upside down. Aleister Crowley, another esoteric, taught his students to read backwards, to walk backwards, and to actually make everything backwards. And that’s why, I think it’s not necessarily unrealistic that somebody in the esoteric world would have thought, “what happens if I just turn this around and read it backwards?” Of course I acknowledge that this is just an idea, not a fact. But it is still interesting. Because if I read the Qu’ran, I see that Allah is basically the opposite of the God of the Bible, and the teachings are all turned around.
Q: Some say that the name Allah is connected with the Biblical name Eloah, and others say it is the Arabic moongod Al-ilah.
A: There are many sources that claim that it comes from the moon god, which comes from heathanism. And I don’t see any reason why that couldn’t be the case. Because there are supposedly these satanic verses that we find in the Qu’ran where the prophet allows the worship of heathen goddesses from the traditional heathen religion.
To explain that, they claim that Muhammad was overwhelmed by satanic inspiration. That’s why they call it the satanic verses.
After living in the ME for nearly 5 years, learning & speaking with many Arabics, both Christian & Muslim, I was shocked when I heard Christians using the word Allah to refer to God, until I was told it is the word for God in Arabic, just as Eloah in Hebrew refers to the Almighty. Here they know the name as Yahuah, not Yahweh, just as the name I use in speaking of my heavenly Father.
@Wendy
Thanks so much. This is very clear; can’t get any clearer
Thank you for the clear explaination. Its so very much appreciated as I grew up knowing God using “Allah.” and reading it in our bible Malay / Indonesian. The 2 personalities was not in my reasoning.. Now I see…
Allah is not the Christian God.Period.Worshiping to allah is worshiping to idols.Have you not wondered why moslems worship allah facing mecca?They face the Kaaba-the black stone that comprises 369 gods and whose chief god is the moon.Brethren;do not be cheated allah is not the creator of the universe.
This is not an issue of semantics or word translation. The statement is that the God of the Bible is not the same god as the one the Quran reveals. The character of the God of the Bible is different than the character of Allah in the Quran. The Quran, as well as other revered writings, assert that Allah says: “there is no one like me”, and “Allah has no sons”, whereas the Bible states in Genesis that God created man in His own image AND that Jesus has the same character as God the Father (Jesus came to reveal the Father to us) – a God of Love, who forgives and wants to reconcile us back to Himself, and He did it by offering Himself in the person of Jesus – the second person of the Godhead. While God could not go against his own character of justice as revealed in the law by acquitting sinners, He gave Himself to pay the penalty for breaking the law so that we can be reconciled back to Himself.
Allah is not a merciful, long-suffering, forgiving god — you have to “work” to gain favor, forgiveness, salvation.
So no, the God of the Bible and the Allah of the Quran are two very different persons. Christians and Muslims do not worship the same God.