Mustard Seed

"Different religions call God by different names,
but they all worship the same God, right?"

Every language and culture has its own word for "God." In the Old Testament the Hebrew word for God is pronounced "EL" or "ELOHIM". In the New Testament the Greek word for God is "Theos" or "Ho Theos." We may respect each culture's word for "God." Our Christian brothers and sisters in predominantly Muslim countries refer to God as "Allah." But what the Muslims and Christians in those countries believe about Allah are very different. Even though they call God by the same name, they do in fact worship very different Gods.

The God who calls Christ "his only begotten Son"

-- is he the same God who has no son?

The God who offers salvation only by grace as a free gift

-- is he the same God who requires certain religious works for salvation?

The God who seeks to win the hearts of people by His Spirit and His Word

-- is he the same God of adherents who execute those same converts on the charge of "blasphemy"?

The God who identifies a certain man as a great prophet

-- is he the same God who describes that same man as a false prophet?

The God who became human in Christ Jesus

-- is he the same Christ Jesus who is merely a creature and is not God? Or is he the same one who started as a mere human and eventually became a God?

The claim that all religions worship the same God is ill-informed and illogical.

You may ask, "What about Christians who do evil acts in the name of Christ? Remember the Crusades and the Inquisition." Those who do such things don't know Christ! When people who claim to be Christian perpetrate such evil, we must expose them as false believers who are disciples of a false "christ" of their own making. That "christ" is not the Christ of the Bible.

~~Pastor Ron