Allah vs God

We’re often told that the God of the Bible and Allah are the same, that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. I even saw recently where some British clergyman announced it would be a good idea for Christians to use the name Allah in the spirit of tolerance and friendship, since there’s no difference.

This idea, of course, is utter nonsense.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has many qualities as outlined throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. He’s good, just, merciful, loving, and full of grace. He’s all powerful and all-present. God cannot learn since He knows all things nor can He lie. And best of all, God keeps His promises and delights in doing so. We can count on Him in all things.

Allah, the god of the Muslims is capricious. No one knows what he’ll do which means Muslims have no real assurance of salvation. One Muslim descendent of Muhammad once said that even if he had one foot in Paradise, he still couldn’t be sure that Allah would let him in. You may do a ton of good works, you can live your entire life with a Mother Teresa-like selflessness, but in the end there’s still no guarantee you’ll get into Allah's heaven.

Sadly, the one and only sure way to enter Paradise is to die wielding the sword for Allah against the infidel. It’s no wonder there’s a waiting list to become a suicide bomber!

And speaking of heaven, isn’t it strange that the rewards promised to Muslims like endless sex with dozens of virgins and all the wine you can drink are considered sins and highly condemned on earth. Talk about flip-floppng standards!

Allah is known for having 99 names. Some of them, however, are downright Satanic. Allah is called The Greatest of All Deceivers, The Lord of the Dawn (or Morning Star which is used to refer to Lucifer in Isaiah 14), The Humiliater, and The Most Proud One among others.

Here's another reason Allah can’t be the same as the God of the Bible -- Muslims fiercely deny that Jesus was the son of God. It's written right on roof of the famous Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem where it says 'there is no god but Allah and he has no son'. After being rejected by the Jews, Muhammad waited until he grew strong enough and then returned to slaughter them all. The Koran reflects his hatred of Jews and Christians throughout and is in many ways a reaction to them. Why else would the Koran keep repeating that God has no son? And why else do Muslims continually shout Allah Akbar, which means ‘Allah is greater than’. Greater than what? The God of the Jews and Christians, of course. As Shakespeare might say, methinks they protest too much.

The God of the Bible is also a jealous God. Oprah got very turned off by that quality when she was in her twenties; it’s part of what led her down the new age path. Jealousy has gotten a bad rap. Although it can be, it's not necessarily an irrational, knee-jerk reaction that results in crazy behavior with no ties to logic or reality. Jealousy in this case means being vigilant in guarding something you care about. We should all be on our knees thanking God for being jealous of us when we don’t deserve it. Jealousy means He cares. Jealousy means He wants our love and reverence all to Himself. And why shouldn’t He have it? After all, He’s the one who created us. We can maybe understand this better using marriage as an example -- who wants a spouse who doesn't care what we do or who we see? No matter what they might say otherwise, we wouldn't think much of the level of their affection.

The Bible tells us that God loved us so much He sent His only begotten son to die for us to pay for our sins so that we might spend eternity with Him. All we have to do is believe in Jesus and obey His commands.

Indeed, Allah of the Koran and Jehovah God of the Bible are nothing alike.