Does God care what He is called - Can a Christian to call God by an Islamic name?

Does Christianity and Islam share the same God, the same teachings of God? If so then the names of God from each religion would be interchangeable. One issue that continues to come up is the name Allah as an appropriate generic name for God. Some believe this name is acceptable to use inside the church.

After being slaves among the pagans in Egypt for over 400 years The Lord who promised and prophesied Israel’s bondage and release to their own land did just that through Moses. (Gen.15:13-18)
They lived among those who had made gods of nature, even their own leader, Pharaoh, was a manifested god of nature. It was easy to get Israel out of the land of numerous gods but it was not as easy to have them believe in the one God who delivered them through Moses.
In their journey to the Promised land the Lord (YHWH) called Moses up the mountain and gave him 10 commands on stone tablets for Israel. Exodus 20:2-5: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. “You shall have no other gods before Me.” V.4 they are told not to make a likeness of God v.5 “you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God.”

Here we find God is jealous. Jealous of what you may ask? He does not want us to mistake other gods for him, or worship him the way others do their gods. One of the main ways to identify these other gods would be by their name. Exod. 23:13 “… make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth.”
Exod. 34:14 'for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Deut.4:24; 5:9; Ezek. 39:25). God’s jealousy is not like a human jealousy, it is about truth, it is about our relationship to Him and the consequences of willfully disobeying in worship and service.

None of the gods of Egypt were like the God of Israel. This is why the true God said, “… against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD” (Exod. 12:12; also Jer. 46:25:). The Hebrews did not adopt the Egyptians names of Amon or Ra, they knew who was the true God and did not use other name in worship.

So to answer the fundamental question: does Christianity and Islam share a belief in the same God, or share the same moral code based in the Ten Commandments? The answer is NO. Just because someone uses another gods name and inserts it into a bible translation does not mean we are obligated to accept it. Their gods are not our God. Their God is not the God of Israel. Therefore to call God Allah, because it is found in some Arabic translations is completely misleading and would be a travesty for the genuine Church that is bought by the blood of Son of God to accept this as a valid substitution. For Allah does not acknowledge Israel, the Jews, Christianity or the Bible. As far as the commandments: the first command to Israel is not to have any other God before their God.

Josh. 23:7 “and lest you go among these nations, these who remain among you. You shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them; you shall not serve them nor bow down to them”
In other words other gods of the nations are not to be included in our worship or service.

Islam says the Qur’an is Mohammed’s sign of his prophethood. Our principle example is in Deut. 13:1-5 where Israel had a prophet or a dreamer that gives a sign or a wonder, and speaks, ‘Let us go after other gods'-- which you have not known--' and let us serve them,' “you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. “You shall walk after the LORD (YHWH) your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. “…he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God”
Here we have the reason; it removes one from the true God.

There is rapid changes taking place in the church, one of the issues that continues to come up is the introduction of the name Allah as a generic name for God. It is useful to bring the exclusive Islamic name of God into the church and have Christians believe that we all worship the same God. It is a byproduct of what is called Chrislam, an intentional blending of the religions.

Let me use this one particular example as a representation of this new paradigm introduced. A Dutch Roman Catholic bishop came out supporting Christians to rename “God” to “Allah.” Bishop Martinus Petrus Maria Muskens, told Dutch TV: “Allah is a very beautiful word for God. Shouldn't we all say that from now on we will call God 'Allah'?” http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57178,

I’m not sure if this man came to his own conclusions or has read the Emerging church ideas or Daniel Kikawa’s book, who says essentially the same thing. Names have meanings, especially when they represent another religion’s god.
In his statement was: “God doesn't care what we call Him.” “The Almighty is above such “discussion and bickering,” he insisted.

Muskens points to Indonesia, where he served 30 years ago, as an example for Dutch churches. Christians in the Middle East also use the term Allah for God.
“Someone like me has prayed to Allah yang maha kuasa (Almighty God) for eight years in Indonesia and other priests for 20 or 30 years,” Muskens said. “In the heart of the Eucharist, God is called Allah over there, so why can't we start doing that together?”

His intention is appeasement. The Muslims Catholic churches in the Netherlands should use the name Allah for God to ease tensions between Muslims and Christians.”

To say Allah is in the heart of the Eucharist (The Bible calls it communion) is introducing a dangerous concept. The ceremony represents the body and the blood of the Son of God, which Islam vehemently denies. This ignores the true heritage and people that Jesus was born through. The Jewishness of Jesus seems to be avoided with this new approach, since it is a reference to the Passover. As we see the world turning against Israel we should expect modifications in their approach to Jesus being of Jewish origin. The Bible records the magi, who were non Jews, traveled a long way to ask, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? (Mt. 2:2).

Tradition eventually becomes the accepted standard, in this case it is the Arabic bible inclusion of Allah. If we are to accept the name of Islam’s God, should we not also accept what their god taught them?  Did the God of Islam tell them about anything accurately recorded in the Bible? Did he tell them about his Son in prophecy? How can we connect the Son of God – Jesus, with Allah?

This has become a trend, the spirit of the age. The belief that we all have the same God is no longer an isolated belief, it is the zeitgeist. In his book, Third Millennium Teens, George Barna records: 63 percent of church-going, supposedly Christian teens said that they believe “Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jews and all other people pray to the same God, even though they use different names for their god.”

God has a variety of titles and names in the Bible; and also uses attributes and characteristics attached to his name Elohim, El, Adonai, Yahweh. The name that has never been ascribed to God in Scripture (the Bible) is “Allah.”

The doctrine of Satan is that all religions are equally valid, that all paths lead to God; that God is impersonal, liberal and always loving, not judgmental about anything and it is therefore irrelevant to Him what we call Him or how we worship Him. Nothing could be further from the truth that God himself has said He is “the God of Israel,” (over 700 times). Can we call Allah the God of Israel, God over the church, when the book he has given by Mohammed incites hatred for Israel, the people and the land and does not acknowledge the church?

Apparently yes, says Catholic writer Peter Kreeft:
“Allah is not another God...we worship the same God” (Peter Kreeft, Ecumenical Jihad p. 30)
“The same God! The very same God we worship in Christ is the God of the Jews-and the Muslims-worship.” (Ibid. p. 160)

The Bahai’s who are monotheistic are an offshoot of Islam, (the Shia sect) agree that men have called Him by different names. Each of the messengers of the different religions taught the same religious faith. “O’ ye people of the world! The religion of God is for the sake of love and union; make it not the cause of emnity and conflict….: LO: ALL ARE OF GOD” (Baha’u’lla Last will and Testament)

“Although we may have different concepts of God's nature, although we may pray to Him in different languages and call Him by different names—Allah or Yahweh, God or Brahma--nevertheless, we are speaking about the same unique Being” (The Bahá'í Concept of God, http://info.bahai.org/article-1-4-0-2.html )

“Many names in many religions are used to describe the same God.”
http://www.sfu.ca/~cabs/Kerns/1-Unity.doc

Margaret Irene Johnson states: “We all have the ONE and SAME God, no matter how we name her/
him.” (Sister Margaret Irene Johnson, Call to Renewal Evangelical Environmental Network, OSU
Quoted in Media Spotlight -Vol. 22.3) Unfortunately others join in this ecumenical chorus.

In the book “The Gods of the Maori”, author Eldson Best makes the observation “when we come to consider the departmental gods of the Maori, and we shall see that this tendency to combine gods, or attribute many names to one being, is also observable in New Zealand.” (Quote from chapt.5 Idolatry in their Hearts)

This syncretism has been going on for a long time, but now it is getting traction inside the walls of the church. It is being brought in by men that may even call themselves evangelical but in theology and function are not. What kind of person would ever give permission use another God’s name in prayer, worship or devotion? Think about it? It can only be those who are either ignorant of both religions, or those who don’t care for the truth. Its not that important in their life. If it is the latter than they are betrayers that are mentioned of the last days. Those who have a covert disdain for the Bible. All Bible adhering Christians are to resist persuasive trends like this.

This name substitution is mostly occurring in countries where there is a small Christian population among Islam. But even Islam sees that it can cause confusion.
Malaysian Islamic scholar says the use of “Allah” for “God” in Malay-language Bibles “must be abandoned because it erroneously represents the two religions as equal”

Qur'an 29:46 says “Our Allah and your Allah is One, and unto Him we surrender,” but it is a talking point for Islamic proselytizing, and a one-way line of discourse in a manner in which a non-Muslim would be prohibited from preaching to a Muslim under Islamic law.

Malay Christians have used the name for “God” for hundreds of years. The allegation of a “mis-translation” is not new, but a 400-year-old Malay-Latin dictionary shows that Christians' use of the word “Allah” is far older than the latest round of supremacist posturing against it.

“Malaysia: Christians can not use “Allah” to define God,” from AsiaNews, July 22:
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The use of “Allah” for God by Christians must stop because it may cause Islamic anger: this is the position of a prominent Islamic Malaysian Mohd Sani Badron in a speech yesterday at the Islamic Understanding Malaysia (Ikimono) reopening the dispute over the Bible translation of the vernacular term to refer to God.

Badron, Director of Economic and Social Studies, said that “the mistranslation of the word 'God' as 'Allah' in the Malay Bible must be abandoned because it erroneously represents the two religions as equal. “ “The translation of 'God' as 'Allah' is very wrong, it should be translated correctly ... we understand not only the word but the meaning and the meaning is wrong and inaccurate.” He continued: “Looking at the meaning, the correct term for 'God' in Christianity is 'Tuhan' and the word 'Lord' is also 'Tuhan', not 'Allah'.”

The local Catholic newspaper, the '“Herald Malaysia” has won a lawsuit at the Supreme Court two years ago for the right to publish the word “Allah” referring to the Christian God , but can not use it because there is a pending appeal by the Ministry, and the case has been dragging on since then at the Court of Appeal.

According to Mohd Sani Badron the translation of the Christian God as “Allah” is not respectful. “The term 'Allah' is a term of respect for Muslims, this judicial action has spread the perception that Muslims are oppressive, and certainly will raise the ire of the Muslim community.”

But Christians have republished a 400 year old Latin Malay dictionary, which shows that from the beginning the word “Allah” was used to define God in the Bible in local languages.” (source: Jihad watch)

If we want to see Christians persecuted in Muslim countries, continue to use Allah’s name in their bibles.
Just because the name was used for hundreds of years does not mean it is correct. Certainly when they began to put this name of Islam’s God in Arabic bibles there was not the controversy that we have today. From what I understand there is another Arabic word other than Allah that can easily be used; Elihu; the general term for a god in Arabic is “ilaah. Would Islam put Jesus or Yahweh in the Koran? This would not be acceptable by Muslims, so why is the church so easily manipulated to compromise?

This heterodoxy that is now being adopted in the culture and by the compromising churches was introduced and popularized by one of the Beatle’s, George Harrison, who sang my sweet lord and put the ecumenism to a beautiful musical setting. In his album Somewhere in England he sang “They call you Christ, Vsnu, Buddha, Jehovah, our Lord. You are Govindam, Bismillah, Creator of All” (Song “All in All”).

Numerous cults and religions like Science of Identity also claim this same ecumenical explanation.

These concepts gain momentum inside the body of Christ when the church does not halt its spread. In an interview with Daniel Kikawa:“We’re not saying that we need to worship a bird god or we’re not saying we need to worship a moon god. But were saying that those people understand it that way and they already have it as their god and perhaps we can use that name and teach the truth about the character of Jehovah God, without going to an Arab Muslim and saying you have to accept the Jewish God, so that’s where we are coming from” (Word to the World interview with Daniel Kikawa Feb.13, 2006, #6).

In other words it does not matter that he is the God of Israel, this is a subtle erasing of that fact of the Messiahs Jewish heritage. Jesus himself responded to the Samaritan woman saying that “Salvation is of the Jews” (Jn. 4:22).

Jeremiah asks in Jer. 14:22 if there is any god of all the nations that can do what the God of Israel can do.
God was very clear that the gods of the nations included Amon (Jer. 46:25), Marduk (Daniel 3:16-
18) and Hadad (1 Kings 20:28) are not Himself and would be judged. We should never call Him by these gods names.

The Bible speaks of numerous gods who have many names. It is not one God with many names in the various different religions:
1 Cor. 8:5-7: “For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.”

God acknowledges that there are those who are called gods by the different cultures and nations, however to us “Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” (Exod. 15:11).

Israel’s God is distinct and is vastly different than Islam’s. There are spiritual reasons Israel was instructed: “You shall not make mention of the name of their gods” (Josh. 23:7-9).

The dilemma the church is facing: The Hebrew Bible states the proper name of the one true God is eternally YHWH - I am who I am (Exod.3:15). Islam - the Qur’an tells us that the proper name of the one true God is Allah. Obviously it cannot be both. The Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament explain: He is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Does Allah, identify himself as this? Islam identifies itself with Abraham, but not Isaac, (instead it is Ishmael) and certainly not Jacob (who is names Israel); He is the God of all three patriarchs, not one, not two. This “I am” became a man called Yeshua in Hebrew (Jesus), Islam says God (Allah) cannot become a man, impossible. So why would anyone want to identify YHWH, “I am” with Allah?
What does Allah mean in Hebrew? ‘Allah’ written in Hebrew according to the closest pronunciation in the concordance is oak (A variation of #424).
Jos.24:26: "Wylktop yahowshua ethadbaariym haa’eeleh b’cepher towrat eloheem (God) Waylqach 'eben gdowlaah wayqlymehaa shaam tachat haa'alaah (oak) sher miqdash yahweh."
[0427] Brown driver Briggs- 427 'allah- 1) oak 2) terebinth. Concordance -'allaah 1) oak.
Both words 'eloheem (God) and 'alaah (oak) are used in the same verse showing they are not the same word for God in Hebrew.

Is it right to intentionally try to interchange the other religions name[s] as though there is no difference?
If Allah and the God of the Bible are one and the same, then would not the names of the Hindu gods, Vishnu or Shiva also be acceptable just as Allah is acceptable? Where does this end, soon, everybody’s god is God. This is like putting a Mercedes hood ornament on a Honda Civic and calling it a Mercedes.

The primary way to divide and conquer is to mix the truth with what is false. The Bible does not ask us to just believe in God, but to “believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:29).
We are to worship the Eternal Living God. God’s name cannot be “reinvented” or be exchanged to suit somebody else, since He is unchangeable. The Scriptures were given to reveal God, whose name is “I am who I am” forever – it reveals who He is, rather than some impersonal entity that you name. We do not have the leeway to call him any name we decide, or use other god’s names from other religions.

Do we then call on Allah to save us; to heal us? Acts 4:12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Jesus means salvation. The name explains to us the one it represents.

No converted Muslim should continue to use the name Allah to call on God anymore than then a Muslim would willingly use the Hebrew name of God or call on Jesus as God.
Watch out for those who claim Allah is the same, or that you can use this name (or others) and it is acceptable. God who saves is “highly exalted” and given the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:9-11)

The apostles were forbidden to speak in the name of Jesus. Acts 4:17-19: “But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.”
The same thing continues today. We see legislation being made to stop us from using Jesus’ name in public prayers, in school, etc.

Why? Because it is the name above all names. There is power in the name, because it represents the person behind it.

The political correctness of our day is pressuring Christians not to speak up what is right, or use his name. This was the conclusion of Peter and John in Acts 4:18-19: “And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.”
Their answer was NO. The early Christians refused to burn incense to Caesar and call him lord, even when it would save their life. Many people throughout the world in other countries are experiencing a similar persecution today.

Lev. 19:12 'And you shall not swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.” How is this different from “their fathers forgot My name for Baal” (Jer. 23:27).

How then can they who speak Arabic distinguish the God of Islam from the God of the Bible? By calling Him the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; The God of Israel; the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ or call him Alpha and Omega. These give a clear distinction.

To the Church of Philadelphia :
Rev. 3:8: “for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.”

To the Church of Pergamos: Rev. 2:13 “I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith …”

God’s punishment for misleading the people is seen in what The Lord (YHWH) told Israel, “You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you 'for the LORD your God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the LORD your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth” (Deut. 6:14-15).

Israel was told early on Deut 6:14: “You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you.” But we later find in Judges 2:12 “and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger.”

Are they Muslim influenced by Christianity or are the Christians influenced by Islam? Islam’s best tactic they have is to have Christians believe that Allah is the same God.

John 3:16 - “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. . . .”
Allah is strictly singular and has no son.
Was the word in the beginning with Allah? No.
Was Allah manifested in the flesh? No.
Did Allah send his only son to die for our sin? No, he has no son.
If we don’t keep another god’s name from the Bible or our lips what will become of us?

I Jn. 4:14: “the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.” And His name is Jesus. Eph 1:20-21: “which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.”

For more on this subject -http://www.letusreason.org/curren33.htm