First, Muslim and Christian are faith with tenants, they are not the color of your skin, your gender, or your cultural or national ancestry. Redding's logic is flawed from the beginning.
I can carry two passports but I cannot say mutually exclusive claims are both true.
According to World Religions compiled by Steven Cory, among several other key points:
Allah means "the God"--indicating the radical monotheism of Islam. "We shall not serve anyone but God, and we shall associate none with Him" (Koran 3.64). Any division of God is rejected, including the Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the divinity of Christ.
The majesty and might of Allah is often portrayed in the Koran, and it is emphasized that his purposes are always serious. Justice is Allah's most important feature for Muslims.
Allah is also merciful and compassionate, but that mercy is shown mainly in his sending messengers who proclaim the truth of man's responsibility to live according to Allah's dictates.
This is apparently not clear to the Dutch bishop happy to refer to God as 'Allah'.
This is in stark contrast to the Christian position.
But the Lord is the true God--He is the living God and the everlasting King (Jeremiah 10:10).
And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me (Isaiah 45:22).
There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy (James 4:12).
For even if there are so called gods whether in heaven or on earth as indeed there are many gods and lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. However not all men have this knowledge (I Corinthians 8:5-7).
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse (Romans 1:20).
God is love (I John 4:8-9).
Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow (James 1:17).
A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, is God in His holy habitation. God makes a home for the lonely; He leads prisoners into prosperity, only the rebellious dwell in a parched land (Psalm 68:5-6).
The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth (Psalm 145:18).
The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin--yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7).
Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil, and Thou canst not look on wickedness with favor (Habakkuk 1:13).
God...works all things after the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:3, 11).
You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? (Romans 9:19-20).
Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowiedge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! (Romans 11:33)
He< NOBR>...is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords; who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen or can see (I Tirnothy 6:15-16).
No man has seen God at any time--the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father He has explained Him (John 1:18).
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son (Hebrews 1:1-2).
Every word of God is tested--He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words lest He reprove you and you be proved a liar (Proverbs 30:5-6).
I, the Lord, do not change (Malachi 3:6).
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever (I Timothy 1:17).
The differences are mutually exclusive and exist not only in the nature of God but in many other foundational aspects of our faith. The idea that a person can be both Christian and Muslim is heresy.
2 comments:
Thanks Rick, for your comment and your own post here.
I do not know enough about Ann's beliefs to agree one way or t'other but I think it raises a number of questions worth exploring, not least that maybe our own western consumer culture is a religion in its own right complete with its own tennants that we seem quite happy to incorporate into our own christian faith.
Which I think is a Q worth asking of a lot more relevance to me that can i be a muslim and a christian but i think also helps gives an inflection to our orientation of our life not just professions of belief and pronouncements of heresy - afterall the devil believes that all those passages you quote are true, doesn't make him a christian however :)
Paul - there are two points I'd like to make here. The first is what I said in the comments at your blog which is that I can align with your thinking if you are speaking culturally and not in terms of faith but then I know I would not choose language which could so easily confuse the two.
The second is absolutely, what is going on with Ann should raise questions in ourselves regarding things such as, "in what ways to I have thinking, values, etc. that are in competition with my Christian faith?"
I may have misread your post in that you more than questioned these things in yourself (or for me in myself). I read that you allow space that she may be ok - and clearly from the conflicts in the tenants of these faiths, she cannot be. She cannot profess both because they are mutually exclusive.
So as a launching point for introspection, good questions. To crack the door for some acceptance, no chance.
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