BETHLEHEM Mayor Victor Batarseh yesterday attacked Israel and angered members of Australia’s Jewish community within hours of arriving in Sydney - just as Australian immigration officials in the Middle East warned would occur if he was granted a visa.
Dr Batarseh told The Australian Israel’s construction of a security wall was about grabbing Palestinian land, not stopping suicide bombers. “If you want peace, you build bridges of love and understanding between people, you don’t build walls of hatred,” he said.
The Australian revealed earlier this month that Australian immigration officials in the Middle East had warned that the delegation had the potential to “adversely affect” the local Jewish community because of the council’s links to the Hamas terrorist group and because Dr Batarseh was likely to criticise Israel. @News.com.au
I watched Dr Batarseh - who happens to be the Major of Bethlehem and a practicing Catholic - on a show this morning and one of the things he said was that all three religions worship the same God - so we should all unite!
So this brought to my mind the question of God and is He the same God that is written of in the Koran and the Judeo/Christian bible.
Well, I respectfully disagree that Islam’s Allah is the same God of the bible. Especially considering the Dome of the Rock has permanently inscribed on it the following…
“The Sonship of Jesus and the Trinity are false”, and “It is not fitting that God should beget or father a child”.
Yet, John in the New Testament says the exact opposite in regards to the Father/Son relationship:
1Jn 2:22 Who is the liar, except the one denying, saying that Jesus is not the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one denying the Father and the Son.
And we should not forget that the Koran strongly denies that Christ is the Son of the Father when it states…
“They say the Merciful has taken to Himself a son—ye have brought a monstrous thing! The heavens well-nigh burst asunder thereat, and the earth is riven and the mountains fall down broken, that they attribute to the Merciful a son! But it becomes not the Merciful to take to Himself a son.”—Surah Miriam, vs. 91-93.
“Praise belongs to God who has not taken to Himself a son and has not had a partner in His kingdom, nor had a patron against such abasement.”—The Night Journey, vs. 112.
The question I would like to ask is this. Does the Koran represent the same God that the Judeo/Christian bible speaks about?
According to John the answer is a resounding NO! And because my faith is bound by my belief in the absolute truth of biblical scripture, no matter how politically incorrect that may be, then I have to say that I agree with John.
Even if you don’t agree with the bible and its claims, you cannot deny that the Bible actually does say that Jesus is the Son of the Father. It is recorded in the written Word that He is the Son of the Father. Whether you agree with that or not is beside the point, that’s what it says!
The Father Son/Messiah relationship is something that is a common thread in the Old Testament. And the Talmud, the Zohar and Midrashic interpretations of scripture is very clear about the scriptures that speak of a Messiah that is the Son of the Father.
The Talmud tells many stories about the Messiah, some of which represent famous Talmudic rabbis as receiving personal visitations from Elijah the Prophet and the Messiah. For example:
R. Joshua b. Levi met Elijah standing by the entrance of R. Simeon b. Yohai’s tomb. He asked him: ‘Have I a portion in the world to come?’ He replied, ‘if this Master desires it.’ R. Joshua b. Levi said, ‘I saw two, but heard the voice of a third.’ He then asked him, ‘When will the Messiah come?’ — ‘Go and ask him himself,’ was his reply. ‘Where is he sitting?’ — ‘At the entrance.’ And by what sign may I recognise him?’ — ‘He is sitting among the poor lepers: all of them untie [them] all at once, and rebandage them together, whereas he unties and rebandages each separately, [before treating the next], thinking, should I be wanted, [it being time for my appearance as the Messiah] I must not be delayed [through having to bandage a number of sores].’ So he went to him and greeted him, saying, ‘peace upon thee, Master and Teacher.’ ‘peace upon thee, O son of Levi,’ he replied. ‘When wilt thou come Master?’ asked he, ‘To-day’, was his answer. On his returning to Elijah, the latter enquired, ‘What did he say to thee?’ — ‘peace Upon thee, O son of Levi,’ he answered. Thereupon he [Elijah] observed, ‘He thereby assured thee and thy father of [a portion in] the world to come.’ ‘He spoke falsely to me,’ he rejoined, ’stating that he would come to-day, but has not.’ He [Elijah] answered him, ‘This is what he said to thee, To-day, if ye will hear his voice.’
Heb 3:15 as in the saying, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation.” Psalm 95:7,8
In Midrash Literature Messiah ben Joseph (Hebrew: משיח בן יוסף) also alternatively known as Messiah ben Ephraim (Hebrew: משיח בן אפרים) is a Messianic figure peculiar to the rabbinical apocalyptic literature. [...] According to these, Messiah b. Joseph will appear prior to the coming of Messiah ben David; he will gather the children of Israel around him, march to Jerusalem, and there, after overcoming the hostile powers, reestablish the Temple-worship and set up his own dominion. @Wiki
The Zohar also says…
A Jew named Baruch, and the author, who is introduced by the Greek name Capnio. Capnio would have it that the doctrine of the Trinity is to be found in the first verse of Genesis. He submits, if the Hebrew word bra (bara), which is translated “created,” be examined, and if each of the three letters composing this word be taken as the initial of a separate word, we obtain the expression ben, ruach, ab, i.e., Son, Spirit, Father. Upon the same principle we find the two persons of the Trinity in the word abn (eben), “stone,” occurring in Ps. cxviii. 22–”the stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner,” by dividing the three letters composing the word abn into ab ben, i.e., Father, Son.
We are told (Zohar, III, 262a; comp. 67a) that “there are two, and one is connected with them, and they are three; but in being three, they are one,”
In one codex of the Zohar we read on the words “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Is. vi. 3): “the first ‘holy’ refers to the Holy Father; the second to the Holy Son; and the third to the Holy Ghost”; but this passage is now omitted from the present recensions of the Zohar, and has been regarded by some Jewish writers as an interpolation.
Jewish Sages understood the concept of the trinity but what they didn’t understand is the One-Messiah Two-Comings being fulfilled in Mashiach ben Jesus the Jew, Rabbi Yeshua Ben Yosef of Nazareth. He has come as Mashiach ben Yosef and is yet to come as Mashiach ben David. They did not recognise Jesus as Mashiach ben Yosef, they thought as He entered the gates of Jerusalem and as they waved palm trees and singing a song that Jesus had come to restore the kingdom as a type of King David.
The right song but the wrong time…
The highlight of the Hallel Rabah is: Hosanna, hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His loving kindness endures forever. Hosanna, hosanna.
The Jews were meant to sing that on Passover, with their hands waving. They were also meant to sing it at the Feast of Tabernacles, while waving palm branches in their hands.
On Palm Sunday, the Jews began to celebrate Passover (which teaches about the Messiah who was the Lamb who would be slain), as if it were the Feast of Tabernacles, which corresponds, in the typology of the Jewish calendar, to the Millennium.
The Feast of Tabernacles (seen in John 7:2), drawing on the background of Ezekiel 47, is associated in Jewish thought with the Davidic Kingdom. @Moriel - by Yakov Prasch
They had not seen from scripture that Mashiac ben Yosef was to come first. Yet they knew that a Messiah was to come.
Anyway, here is the poll that asks the question…
Does Allah from the Koran represent the same God from the Judeo/Christian bible?
Thank you for your blog. Your articles and commentaries give me great encouragement and eagerness to know more and to be able to speak the truth in love to people around me. I just thought I should let you know I’m here. Sometimes one can feel so alone, but we are not!
From, a Christian sister in Japan
Thank you Becky for stopping by and letting me know that you have found encouragement in what I post.
You are not alone, and I do know what you mean when you say that we can feel that we are alone when there is false doctrine in most of the mainline churches.
We are certainly living in the last days as the bible says that there will be many false prophets and scoffers.
2Pe 2:1 But also false prophets came to be among the people, as also false teachers will be among you*, who will secretly bring in destructive, heretical sects, and denying the Master having redeemed them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
2Pe 3:3 first, knowing this, that during the last days scoffers will come walking according to their own lusts,
We are to remember our first love, which is Jesus and He is the Word of God. If we are to love Jesus and remember Him, then we are to love His Word as He is the Word manifest.
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
Thanks for your support Becky.
The answer in no! There are many people who try to lump them all together by saying, it doesn’t matter what you call God, he is still God. But God gives his people clear instructions into who he is. He is a Spirit who moved His invisible kingdon into the nature realm so that everyone who can see, smell and taste will know it is he who gave man this ability.
The God of the Muslim is not the same as the God of the Christian. The difference is we believe Jesus is the lamb slain for our sins, was born of a virgin and his father is God. They however believe Jesus was a prophet, but not the son of God, because To them God could not have a son. They do agree that Jesus was alive on the earth and did many good things and was born of a virgin. So we ask them if he was born of a virgin, who is the father but God?
When you study the roots of their religion you will find it goes back to anicent moon worship, though they will tell you it doesn’t.
When I was in bible college i learned that there are many gods in this world, all were created to distract a person from seeking the one true God, YHVH.