260712 Middle-east post 14
It must be noted carefully that the God of the Bible (and of His Church, and of His people Israel) is not the God of any other religion that claims his name as their God. In particular, the God of Islam is not the God of the Bible. Regardless of what people claim, the god Allah is not the God of the Bible. They are 2 separate and distinct beings. If we look at the words and writings of both Islam and Christianity/Judaism, it is clear that the Gods of each religion have teachings that oppose each other. Christianity’s God is a God of love, one who died in the place of sinful man so that man could escape the righteous judgement for his sin. There is no similar record of such teachings in Islam. Instead, Islam is a religion of works, where one must work to obtain the pleasure of his God. Those muslims who die allegedly for their faith are proclaimed martyrs which appears to be the ultimate work to please their God. While the Christian is required to love his enemies and do good to those who persecute him, the muslim is rather to defend his beliefs by physically opposing those who would dare to oppose them. And the Christian cannot attain to heaven by works; it is by faith in God who has died for them in their place. On the other hand, for muslims, there does not appear to be any salvation through belief in the substitutionary death of their God in their place; there is no Christ/God figure who paid for their sins in full.
The ultimate definition of any God can be seen by looking at those who serve him. Christians are to be ambassadors for Christ who is God (2 Corinthians 5:20); they must show to the world the attributes of the one whom they serve. Thus they must show love, justice, care to those around them, and it should not make any difference if those around them hate them – they are commanded to show love by doing good to even those who hate them! Any Christian who does not demonstrate Christ-like attributes to others is not a good Christian, or may not even be a genuine Christian! Fightings among Christians is declared the sinful consequences of our sinful nature.
James 4:1 – From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
However, Islam does appear to strongly encourage defending of their faith via physical violence, rather than meekly accept hurt from others without returning the violence. The best definition of a person’s God is to see how that person behaves. A good servant of any God will try to behave as much like their God as possible, to imitate their God. There’s a saying “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”; imitating your God is definitely a form of worship.
1 John 2:6 – He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. That is, if we claim to be the servant of God, we should live our lives as our God (Christ) lived His. Effectively this must be true. And likewise true for servants of Gods of other religions. Your behaviour demonstrates the type of God you serve.
that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. (1 Timothy 1:16)
Thus, if two people who claim to serve a God walk completely different lives from each other, then it is reasonable to assume that they serve two different Gods. Clearly muslims worship a different God to the God of the Bible.

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