Sunday, April 8, 2018

Dutch Bishop Wants to Change God’s Name in Name of “Tolerance”

[Welt] A prominent Baptist spokesman in the US has rejected the idea of ​​Dutch bishop Martinus Muskens that Christians could adopt the Arabic Islamic name "Allah" instead of "God."

For this, the theological differences between Islam and Christianity are too great, writes R. Albert Mohler, president of the influential Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky on his website. The main obstacle to equating God and Allah is that the Muslims did not recognize Jesus as the Son of God.

The Koran repeatedly emphasizes the strict unity of Allah. He could neither have a human son nor be separated between the Father and the Holy Spirit. Christians are baptized according to Jesus' command "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit". A baptism in the name of Allah is therefore unthinkable and Musken's proposal is therefore completely wrong, according to Mohler. He is one of the most important representatives of the Baptists in the United States with a nationwide religious radio program, after the Catholics it is the second largest denomination of the country.

The Catholic Bishop of Breda had recently stated in an interview with the Dutch television that he thought it would be good if God were generally referred to by the Arabic word Allah.

God would not be bothered by that, according to the 71-year-old: "He stands above such questions." The cross-religious use of the name "Allah" would in his opinion support tolerance and interreligious dialogue. Not only Muslims, but also Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians use the Arabic word "Allah" for God.


AMDG

11 comments:

P said...

I think this should be labeled as 'fake news'. Mgr Muskens is already 5 years death now; and the diocese of Breda is in The Netherlands, not Germany. Mgr muskens has been replaced by an orthodox Catholic bishop, Mgr VandenHende, and then in 2011 by Mgr liesen. So this is not news, but history.

Tancred said...

Thanks for the correction. I’ve changed the word German for Dutch.

Anonymous said...

He made the "allah-comment" in august 2007, Not fake news, but old news about a dead guy. Not very relevant, anymore.

Tancred said...

I didn’t notice the date till P commented. I think it’s still relevant that senior cleft feels so compelled to satisfy the gods of PC, don’t you?

El Codo said...

In Malta, a very observant country, the Lord is Allah. Fake news!

Tancred said...

#1. Do you think it’ll help create amity with Muslims?

#2. Do you Worship a God who commands the murder or enslavement of yourself and other Christians?

Max Zerwick said...

Christians in the Middle East, South Asia and South East Asia have used the word 'Allah' for God for fourteen hundred years.
The word comes from the generic semitic root 'Al' 'El' used in societies probably before Abraham.

Tancred said...

They don’t mean the same thing by that word.

Max Zerwick said...

The simple fact is that Christians and Muslims in those countries use the same word for God but preserve their own theologies just as Catholics use the words Jesus Christ with their own set of understandings that may be quite different from Southern Baptists.
So, what's your point?

Tancred said...

Why would you want to preserve a false and pernicious heresy like Mohamedism?

Max Zerwick said...

Deflection. The word for God used by Christians from earliest times in Aramaic and proto-Arabic was/is 'Allah.'
When Islam emerged it simply used the same word that had been embedded in Semitic languages for thousands of years. So what are you hoping to achieve with these pointless one line comments?