Before pontificating about the differences and similarities between your god and the God of Islam, you may want to inform us how may Gods there are. If in deed there is only one God, then you have no choice between the God they worship and the one you worship.(all errors in original)
There is only one God and some who purpose to worship do so in truth and others in error or rebellion. Catholics would throw Protestants in the last category since they purposefully reject the true worship - the Mass, as Catholics would put it. For this purpose, a Catholic who attends your form of worship for some reason on a Sunday would be obligated to find a Catholic Church and attend proper worship. So, I think you need to worry whether or not you worship the same God with Catholics before worrying about who else worships the same God with Catholics.
The "pontificating" line is a bit amusing coming from a papist. Also interesting is the fact that Dozie uses a lowercase "g" for my God, whereas Dozie uses an uppercase "G" for Islam's god. Poor Dozie seems to have lots of things backwards and confused, perhaps at least in part because of Dozie's attempt to make rational sense of the popes' position set forth in my previous article (linked above).
To answer the question, "How many Gods are there?" I reply: There is but one only, the Living and True God.
Dozie's claim, "If in deed [sic] there is only one God, then you have no choice between the God they worship and the one you worship." Actually, though, the Muslims worship something that is not god - a fictional deity. It is Jesus who created the Heavens and the Earth, but the Muslims deny that Jesus is God, claiming that Jesus is merely a prophet of their god. Their fictional god forgives sin arbitrarily and without satisfaction. He's a fiction that is drawn, like so many false gods, with some elements of the truth. The true God is the God of Abraham, but Abraham worships Jesus. The true God is He who created the world, but Jesus is He by whom all things were made and without Him was not anything made that was made. Yes, there is a difference between the True God, whom we worship, and the god portrayed in the Koran and Hadith literature.
Furthermore, Scripture addresses this issue. Though there are many gods that are called gods, to us there is but one God:
1 Corinthians 8:5-6
5For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) 6But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
Dozie's claim, "There is only one God and some who purpose to worship do so in truth and others in error or rebellion." This is an interesting claim. It is easily shown to be false. There are some who explicitly worship Satan. Will Dozie claim that those people are actually worshiping God as well? I would assume Dozie would not engage in such blasphemy.
Furthermore, recall the rebuke Jesus had for the Samaritan woman:
John 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
Recall as well what else Jesus told this woman that undermines Dozie's claims:
John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
You see, those who do not worship the Father in spirit and truth are not true worshippers of God. As Jesus continued:
John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must [Greek: δει] worship him in spirit and in truth.
The only way to worship God is in spirit and in truth. What then do the heathen nations worship? They worship false gods, as distinct from the true God. The prophet Zephaniah noted this contrast:
Zephaniah 2:11 The LORD will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.
Indeed, as noted in the subject line of this post, all the gods of the nations are non-entities. There is nothing behind their idols:
1 Chronicles 16:26 For all the gods of the people are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.
Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.
And the Psalms likewise contrast the worship of idols and the worship of God:
Psalm 97:7 Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.
Likewise, Paul makes the same contrast:
1 Thessalonians 1:9 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
Contrary to Rome's super-ecumenical expressions, the Apostle Paul also declares:
2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
When the Muslim prays to the "Allah" of the Koran, he is not praying to the LORD of the Bible - at least for the obvious reason that the "Allah" of the Koran is not Jesus.
Dozie's comments about the practices of those in communion with Rome ("Catholics would throw Protestants in the last category since they purposefully reject the true worship - the Mass, as Catholics would put it. For this purpose, a Catholic who attends your form of worship for some reason on a Sunday would be obligated to find a Catholic Church and attend proper worship.") are not particularly relevant. We do reject "the Mass" as idolatry, but that's not especially germane to the topic at hand.
Likewise, Dozie's assertion, "So, I think you need to worry whether or not you worship the same God with Catholics before worrying about who else worships the same God with Catholics," badly misses the point. Actually, what I am worried about is making sure I worship the God of the Bible. The God who inspired the Apostle John to write, "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father" (1 John 2:23).
Likewise it is written:
2 John 9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
The Muslims who do not abide in the doctrine of Christ do not have God. They may use the Arabic word for God, but they do not know the one true God. This in contrast to us:
1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
The Mass and the other worship of Catholicism (such as the veneration of saints and relics, prayers to and for the dead, and the worshiping of God by images) is not acceptable in the sight of God for it is not the worship ordained by His holy Word. Catholicism properly recognizes God to be the Trinity, but does not submit itself to the Word of God, to conform its doctrines and practices according to that higher standard. That's something that should seriously concern Dozie.
-TurretinFan
1 comment:
Of the many ironies here, one of them that sticks out for me in Dozie's apologetic in refuting yours comes to me more saliently because of a new found definition of "unbelief".
UNBELIEF: Unbelief, on the other hand, is to seek one's own justice; to defend it over against God's justice; to insist on one's own achievements; to measure everything, both what is earthly and one's life before God, by one's own concept of good and evil. It means to measure God Himself by what we consider to be just and unjust, possible and impossible, useful and harmful, good and bad. Unbelief is the only sin against the First Commandment, which is the source and principle of all other transgressions.
First off, I do not recall any Muslim preaching the "do's" and "don'ts" of the "Ten Words" of God, the Ten Commandments?
As I look see read the thoughts of men and women now, through that unbelief definition lens, my eyes are seeing clearer what god is behind the words and accurately, I am able to see their "god"! Oh that I was blinded, but I am not! Thank you God, the God I worship and bow down too daily and sometimes His Grace and Mercy are so sweet I find myself here:::>
Psa 119:163 I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law.
Psa 119:164 Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules.
Psa 119:165 Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble.
Psa 119:166 I hope for your salvation, O LORD, and I do your commandments.
We recently, in the last month had a visiting Doctorate of Theology teaching on a variety of subjects. During one of his lectures he pointed out that the Talmud was created around the time of Jesus as a way of keeping one from violating the Ten Commandments so that Jews could keep on living according to their old ways of the flesh and not be charged guilty and not actually step to the plate and cry out to God that their flesh is exactly what it is, a harbor for the law of sin and death! The authors of the Talmud gives invented words to the Talmud as a way of avoiding dealing with their own sin and more importantly it gives them the means of controlling others they found guilty!
I am making this parallel now with the inventions and conventions of the RCC and Dozie's association with the "god/God" of Islam, that Mohamed did not have all the cards to work with when he was present as each of us are now present, that is, while he was alive in the world. Now, we are alive in this world. It wasn't him so much who led the peoples astray as it was his followers who created the Kor'an, to "sidestep" the One True God and His ability to bring all mankind face to face with the Truth of the law of sin and death that kills us all guilty before God. The only escape for not "doing" the Ten Commandments is "unbelief" that the flesh produces to sidestep them! The RCC and Islam are religions of unbelief!
God saves us by His Faith alone, through His Grace alone, activated by His Christ alone, Who came and died to His own flesh alone, by the Scriptures alone, so as to connect us to His Glory alone! There is no escaping this! There is only One Way, One Truth and One Life to be alive in today if you "hear" what the Spirit is saying to you?
Now I am freed up from my flesh to confess that I violate the Ten Commandments because of my own "unbelief". And my only "Hope" is a Person, Who came into this world through a virgin's womb, once, lived once, died once, and is now Alive Forevermore the One True Messiah for those He came to die for alone!
The gods of Islam and the Roman Catholic Church are equivocal, while Our God is not. He is unequivocal. That is the problem between us and them, Our God and their gods. While we cannot bend to the will of the flesh though we sin daily with our own unbelieving flesh, the gods of Islam and the RCC lead their followers into a multiple of mindsets of who their god truly is.
How many Gods are there? Three and They are One!
Now, of course, we that have the Spirit of God have had already the revelation of this. No man has revealed this to you. It becomes apparent when reading and discerning a teaching or a word or a revelation by a spirit if the Holy Spirit of God is behind it or is not behind it.
Might I say in concurrence with you TF, Dozie does not have the Holy Spirit behind his refutation of your apologetics hereon!
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