For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before.
-Matthew 24:24-25
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
-2 Thessalonians 2:8-12
These passages constitute some of the most serious warnings about the end times in the Bible. They indicate a time of such deceit and confusion comingled with persecution with the result that the path of virtue will lead to martyrdom. Only those who truly value truth, who sacrifice themselves to it, will be able to find and keep hold of Christ in the cloud of deceit. There have been many false messiahs in history already and there are a number in the world today. These range from people claiming to be Jesus of Nazareth, such as a man who holds court on a mountain in Siberia, to those pretending to be the saviour figures of other religions, such as men who claimed to be the Mahdi of Islam.
We have also seen false prophets, figures who have amassed followings and given messages and predictions that turned out not to be from God. These people, as with the messiah claimants, have appeared within Christianity and without, often forming their own separate religions.
In these times, syncretism and compromise are among the most prominent forms of religious deceit. A blurring of religions poses a threat to the naïve and rebellious, because salvation in biblical terms is based on exclusive loyalty to YHWH. Those who worshipped other gods were apostates, whether they called themselves that or not. This is important for the modern reader, not an idle excursion into history, because the apostates of ancient Israel did not usually claim to have rejected YHWH. They often worshipped him alongside other gods of the Canaanite and neighbouring pantheons. On one famous potsherd, the inscription says “YHWH and His Asherah” and there are pictures of two humanoid figures. The prophets mention Israelites making cakes for the “Queen of Heaven”, and the Elijah saga tells of Baal worship.
Today there is a persistent claim made by both Muslims and Christians that they worship the same god. One Cathedral in England permitted a Muslim call to prayer to be made within the sanctuary. The answer to the question of whether Muslims and Christians worship the same god or not is important, particularly in the current political climate. If they do not worship the same god, then attempts at syncretism are really apostasy and idolatry and will result in perdition, unless the worshipper repents sincerely before death – and that repentance ought to be as public as possible.
YHWH and Allah are not the same god. Although Allah is cognate with El and Elohim, this word only communicates what God is – a spirit – not who God is – His character. YHWH, by contrast, and Jesus, which name contains the word YHWH, tells us who this spirit is. This Spirit is existence itself, the Creator, whose existence is necessary, but on whose existence all others are contingent. Jesus indicates that YHWH is the Saviour, and the New Testament tells us that He effected salvation for us by death on the cross, and that He is the only Saviour.
The fact that Islam claims to worship the Creator is not sufficient to show that Muslims and Christians worship the same god, because Islam makes claims about what Allah is not or has not or has not done. These claims contradict claims made by Christianity, so both cannot be true. Furthermore, because Islam makes claims about what Allah is like or has done or will do and many of these claims are also in contradiction to Christianity, from a Christian perspective they constitute blasphemy. Making claims about God that present Him as evil constitute blasphemy.
There is a kind of gradation. Being fallen creatures, trying to learn more about God through relationship with Him, it is the case that most, if not all, Christians will have mistaken ideas about Him. The nature of the idea is important, however. People who hold to Trinitarian theology and believe that Jesus is the only way to the Father are still Christians, even if they are not disagree about the role of works and faith in salvation. But people who deny the Trinity are dealing with deeper claims about God’s nature and His character: they are calling God a liar. Such people, and Muslims fall into this category, do not worship YHWH. The figure they worship is someone else. Is there an actual spirit involved? That must be the subject of another post.
“Today there is a persistent claim made by both Muslims and Christians that they worship the same god. “
It’s easy to dispel this notion, as you allude with what they make claims as what their god is not. Ask, “Is God Trinitarian and one person of that Trinity is Jesus the Nazarene?”
They will say, “No.”
And you will have the answer.
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Of course one will argue neither will the Jews. But Judaism is the foundation of Christianity. The history of Islam does show that it borrowed from Judaism and Christianity and other things. So, there is a distinction between our relationship with Judaism. Islam is more related to I would say Arianism, Modalism, Albigensianism etc.
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Yes, that is very much how I see it. Despite the unpopularity of this message, we have to keep saying it for as long as we can. People’s souls are at stake. “Come out of her my people” can apply to people leaving religions, and Islam is a religion.
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The key is the etymology as you discussed. As we hold as YHWH to be one person of the Trinity, we share the foundation with Judaism.
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I think people often use YHWH to mean the Father, because of passages in the OT where you have YHWH (the Father) and the Angel of YHWH (the pre-incarnate Christ) together in the same scene. Personally, I tend to use YHWH as the Fathers and others use the term Ousia, since they both come from the verb to be in their respective languages. Jesus in the OT was the visible YHWH, the form of YHWH the Israelites could see (hence Paul’s “image of the invisible God”).
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what happened tomycomment
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There have been many false messiahs in history already and there are a number in the world today. These range from people claiming to be Jesus of Nazareth, such as a man who holds court on a mountain in Siberia, to those pretending to be the saviour figures of other religions
No kidding
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I have to redo my comment. Thanks alot to who ever is in charge here.
There have been many false messiahs in history already and there are a number in the world today.
Oh how great is the priest! . . . If he realized what he is, he would die . . . God obeys him: he utters a few words and the Lord descends from Heaven at his voice, to be contained within a small host.
And if the soul should happen to die (as a result of sin) who will raise it up, who will restore its calm and peace? Again the priest. After God, the priest is everything!
(St. John Vianney).
Catholic teaching says that a priest is an alter Christus.
https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/Story/TabId/2672/ArtMID/13567/ArticleID/8029/Priest-Alter-Christus.aspx
“The pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that he is not a mere man…he is as it were, God on earth, sole sovereign of he faithful of Christ, chief of kings, having plenitude of power.”
(Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca, 1763, Volume VI, ‘Papa II’, pp. 25 – 29)
“The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, he is Jesus Christ himself, hidden under the veil of flesh.”
(Catholic National, July 1895.)
Say, aye….good brother Nicolas , how come you didnt mention the biggest blasphemer on the planet? Are you scared of what the idolatrous Mary worshipers might do to you? All these things they believe. If they don’t , they are anathema. But they do, they just are embarrassed to talk about it. And they sit there all smug and tell me im a child of the devil….good brother Chalcedons favorite nick name for me.
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