Introduction
Do Christians, Jews, and Muslims all serve the same God, since they all claim to follow the God of Abraham? Pastor Jim Butler walks through Jesus’s own words on the subject, in John 8 and John 15.
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Transcript
Keywords: Trinity, Abrahamic religions, Gospel of John, unbelieving Jews, Muslims, monotheism, Jesus Christ, biblical authority, salvation, idolatry
Speakers: Wim Kerkhoff (host), Pastor Jim Butler
The Question
Wim Kerkhoff: Do Christians, Jews, and Muslims all serve the same God? They all say they follow the God of Abraham, one God, a Creator, a Father.
What John 15 Says About Unbelieving Jews
Pastor Jim Butler: No, they do not follow the same God. Jesus makes that clear in the Upper Room Discourse, speaking of unbelieving Jews. In John 15:1 he says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser,” language applied to Old Covenant Israel often in judgment contexts. All the covenant promises of God are yes and amen in Jesus. Later, in verse 21, he says, “But all these things they will do to you for my name’s sake, because they do not know him who sent me.” He’s cautioning his disciples about the opposition of the world, and I believe that world specifically includes unbelieving Jews. That’s confirmed in chapter 16: “They will put you out of the synagogues. The time is coming that whoever kills you will think he offers God service, and these things they will do because they have not known the Father nor me.” Back in chapter 15: “He who hates me hates my Father also.” If you reject the one sent by the Father, you hate the Father who sent him. There’s no way, in light of our Lord’s words, that Jews and Christians serve the same God.
“You Are of Your Father the Devil” (John 8)
Pastor Jim Butler: Earlier in John 8, Jesus is combating unbelieving Jews. He says, “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants according to the flesh, but you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you.” They answer, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus says, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.” They say, “We have one Father, God.” Jesus answers, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God. Why do you not understand my speech? Because you are not able to listen to my word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” Our Lord did not say that unbelieving Israel had the same God.
The Trinity Was Always There, and Why Muslims Need Christ Too
Pastor Jim Butler: There is only one living and true God, who has existed eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To deny the Trinity is to deny the living and true God. Someone might say the Old Testament didn’t teach the Trinity. It’s like Warfield’s classic example: a darkened chamber filled with furniture. The furniture was always there in the Old Covenant, and at times the lights flickered. “Yahweh said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool,” is a glimpse of the Son of God as God. Isaiah 9:6 makes predicates about the coming one that are only made concerning divinity. All that furniture was in the chamber; the New Covenant flips the light on beautifully, but the furniture was always there.
To maintain that we have the same God as unbelieving Jews is a vicious thing, and no favor to them. You tell them: you need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to come to Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. The same applies to Muslims, who esteem Jesus in certain ways as a prophet. No, he’s the Son of God who fulfills a prophetic ministry, but he tells you to come to him for everlasting life, and he’s superior to the Old Testament prophets, to Moses, to all of them, and especially to Muhammad. The idea that because we’re all Abrahamic religions we have the same God cannot be shown in the New Testament, cannot be demonstrated in Scripture. It’s an unfortunate thing that attaches itself to monotheistic religions. But if your God isn’t the God defined in Scripture as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you don’t have God, you have an idol.
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