Ask Dr. Youssef: Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?

QUESTION:

“Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?”

ANSWER:

Islam and Christianity present vastly different pictures of who God is and how humanity should approach Him. In Islam, Allah is distant and unknowable. He does not reveal himself. Muslims have only what their prophet thought his will is. His mercy is contingent on his mood. He is capricious, meaning changeable and unreliable, and cunning, which is one of the reasons why Islam offers no assurance of salvation. The god of Islam is vengeful, and there is an emphasis on his all-powerful nature.

The God of the Bible, on the other hand, has made Himself known. He is personal; we can call Him Father. And He has revealed Himself perfectly through the incarnation of Jesus Christ, through whom He expresses unfathomable love in His sacrificial acts of grace—His incarnation, life, death, and resurrection for us. He is the faithful God, “who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17). He is Truth. He is love (see 1 John 4:8). He holds mercy and justice together; His power is balanced by love.

Islam and Christianity offer two radically different prescriptions for living. For the Muslim, good works are motivated by fear of punishment that may be inflicted by a remote and impersonal god. The Muslim hopes to be acceptable to Allah because of his deeds—but he can never be sure he has done enough. But the Christian Gospel offers a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. In Christianity, we have the absolute assurance that we stand cleansed and spotless before God because of the shed blood of Jesus. Indeed, our God is one whom we delight to know and worship because He is good.