Sunday, 5 June 2016

Analysis: Common Evangelical Christian Argument Saying Allah is not the God of the Bible


This is a response I wrote via a comment to an evangelical Christian argument that goes along the lines of:

Islam teaches Allah is not the father of anybody while according to the Bible Jesus calls God the Father therefore Allah is not God.

It's a very simplistic argument that has an obvious fallacy to it (see my first point) and under further scrutiny we see there's an interesting side question of the authenticity of the term "my Father" attributed to Jesus in the Gospel texts (second point).

Here's the response with amendments:

Hi, IIRC you argued the God that sent Jesus cannot be the God Muslims worship as Jesus called God the Father while Islam teaches God (Allah) is not the father of anyone.

Firstly, Jews used the word abba for God in a metaphorical sense denoting closeness and an intimate relationship with God.

[Thus the prohibition of calling Allah "my Father" does not mean Allah is not God. Think about it, there are dietary laws that are taught in the Hebrew Bible but done way with in the New Testament, would the Evangelical now seriously argue the God of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is not the same God that Paul preached about? The argument is not only flawed but it is inconsistently applied]

Secondly, there’s no hard evidence Jesus called God by the term “father”. If you have a look at Mark 3:35 you will see Jesus is said to have used the word God while Mattthew changes the same statement by replacing the word ‘God’ with the word ‘Father’ in Matt 12:50.

However, there are other references in Mark where "Father" is used for God. Thus, the Christian will believe both Father and God can be used interchangeably. Therefore, banning the use of "Father" would not denote an ontological change in God.


Let me know what you think of this. Also, try and visit your local mosque to study scripture together (with Muslims) and have friendship and dialogue.

Peace


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