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Allah and Biblical History

13K views 240 replies 14 participants last post by  ironglow 
#1 ·
Because Islam uses the word “Allah” in reference of the godthey worship, many Christians have come to associate that word as the name ofthe god of Mohammed. Further still, many non-Arab Christians do not understandhow Arab Christians can continue to use the word “Allah” in reference to God,even though they have been using that word longer than English speakers haveused to the word “God.”


One place to start is to understand the difference between a“word” and a “name.” Allah is not the name of God in Islam; it is the Arabicword for “God.” It is not a word that can be applied to anyone else but God, orto any other “gods,” so it is a unique word, but it is not God’s “name.” If Godhas a name, He has not shared it, according to Islam, so they simply use theword for God whenever they address Him, or talk about it Him. This is part ofwhy they reject the Christian doctrine of the trinity; in their way ofthinking, one word = one person, and cannot be applied to anyone but that oneperson. The other reason they reject Christian theology is the word itself, “Al’lah”simply means “THE The.” “AL” is the definite article in all semitic languages(which we’ll see later in Hebrew). If you put Al in front ofAl, you get Al’lah, which literally means “THE the.” The underlying meaning isthat if you say anything about God, like He is the Holy one, or the Creator, orthe Redeemer, etc. the common thread is “the.” If you put another “the” infront of the, it makes God not just THE MOST Holy One, but THE ONLY Holy One. Al’lahoveremphasizes the unique difference of God from anyone or anything else, notjust in person, but in quality. He is THE the.


Think of it this way, if I told you to wash “the” truck, andthere was a whole parking lot of trucks, I would have in Arabic had said “Al”truck. You would probably ask, “which truck?” Because saying “the” truck didn’thelp you when you have a lot to choose from. I could name the truck uniquely andsay, “The Ford F-250.” That’s a name, not a word. Or I could say, “the blacktruck” which simply gives it a quality. Or I could say, “You know … THE truck!”in reference to a truck that is unique, special, or stands out in some way thatby emphasizing “THE” you immediately knew which one I meant. If you followthat, you are still only have way to understand what Al’lah means. Imagine thena truck that was so unique, so much better in every way, so transcendently beyondany other truck, that to call anything else a truck would be a lie. That iswhat Al’lah means about God. It’s not a name, it’s a word that uniquelydescribes Someone so different that the word cannot be used to talk aboutanything else.


In the Judeo-Christian heritage, God revealed His name toMoses in Exodus 3:14 as “YHWH” (Yahweh) which in English is translated “I AMWHO I AM.” When God the Father or God the Son (Jesus) speaks that name “I AM”it conveys power that literally knocks people over. That is the name thatGod provided when asked by Moses. But that is not the word for God in Hebrew. The word is "El."


The Jewish tradition has many other names for God some ofwhich would be known by Christians: El Shaddai, El Gibbor, El ‘Olam, Elohim, Eloah,Elohai, Elah (Yisrael, Yerushelem, Shemaya, Avahati, Elahin), El Roi, Elyon. Ifyou’re wondering if the “El” in Hebrew and the “Al” in Arabic are related, youare on the right track. El in Hebrew is the definite article. In fact, its usedby itself in Genesis 33:20, and 46:3 by itself to mean “God.” El Shaddai means “THEGOD who is Almighty”; El Ro’I means “THE GOD who is my shepherd.” And so on …It also shows up in names in the bible, like Dani-el which means “God’sjudgment” or Isra-el “one who struggled with God.” Michael, Raphael, Ariel, Ishma-el(God who hears) and Immanu-el “God is with us.”
And then of course Jesus shouts out on the cross “Eloi,Eloi, lmala sbacthani!” Which is the “El” plus the possessive “I” which makesEloi mean “my God.” But wait, that’s not in Hebrew, that’s in Aramaic! Which isnot a Jewish language – its an Arabic language that would have been commonlyspoken in his home town of Nazareth which is way up north of Jerusalem, andhistorically influenced by the surrounding non-Jewish peoples descended fromIshma-el. Jesus certainly new both Aramaic and Hebrew, but in his moment of grief he called out in his home town talk - Aramaic.


How is then that the words Al’lah and El function the sameway in two different languages associated with two very different religions?


Start with Noah. He had three sons, Ham, Shem and Japeth.After the flood, they scattered around the land and all peoples and languagesare descended from them. Shem stayed in the land where Israel and the Arabworld now occupy, and their languages are derived from the same “Shem”itic, or semitic, language.


Now go to Abraham, who has two sons: Isaac and Ishmael. Whatlanguage did Abraham speak? He was descended from Shem, so he spoke a semiticlanguage, and his sons would learn the semitic language, and we know that inone of the oldest semitic languages (Ugaritic) the word for God was “El”. Not aname, just the word for God. So both the father of Israel and the father of theArab world were raised to call God “El.” Roll forward over time, and as thedescendants of the two sons of Abraham separated into those who followed theGod of Abraham and Isaac, and those who did not, “El” persisted as the word forGod.


Now back to Jesus, who in 33 AD calls out to “Eloi” … “myGod.” And then Christianity inherits the linguistic heritage of Israel, and later AmyGrant can write a song “El Shaddai” and Americans can sing praise songs aboutGod using a semitic term common to the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael.


Paul then takes the Gospel outside of Israel, outside of thesynagogues, and to the people some of whom are Roman occupiers, some of whomare transplanted Greeks … but most of whom are the descendants of Abraham whohave lived in that area for hundreds of years, outside of Israel. The apostlesspread the Gospel to places like Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, Persia. TheChurch springs up amongst these semitic/Arabic speaking peoples in Syria, and theyworship not just the God of Israel (Elah Yisrael) but also God’s son Jesus, theImmanu-el … God with us … and the Holy Spirit (El Ruah) the breath of God. TheEl in Hebrew and the Al in Arabic both mean “the” and are used in reference toGod. In Arabic, another “al” was added to distinguish the God of Abraham fromall the other false gods common in the lands descended from Ishmael. And theArabic speaking churches are worshipping Al’lah Alah Yisrael, God, the God ofIsrael, whose name is YHWH. And they do so in the name of His son Issa Al’massihor Jesus the messiah, who died that they might be born again even if they werenot born to Israel.


It wouldn’t be for several more centuries before the Gospelspread to the pagans, the forefathers of the English speaking peoples.The earliest records of a Christian church in Britain dates to early in the 3rdCentury, but was considered a minority cult. Meanwhile the Christian Church inthe Arab world was spreading like wildfire into Africa, and east towards India,etc. Tens of thousands of Christians were singing praise to Al’lah forcenturies before the first English speaker sang praise to God.


Roll forward to the latter half of the 6thcentury, and a guy named Mohammed destroys all the religions, and establishesone to worship the God of Israel, the God of Christians, the only true God … buton his terms, with a special revelation from an ang-el (messenger of God) named Gabri-el (strength of God). [Joseph Smith will dothat again in the US 1200 years later with Micha-el and others, but the fact that his primary sources is Moroni ... which does not end in -el ... is an indicator.]


Islam isn’t a new religion, it’s a cult derived from its Judeo-Christian roots, that has added, subtracted, multipliedand divided the original messages. Like all other cults, it uses the samewords, but applies different meanings. That’s why today in the same town inLebanon, while Muslims are praying “God is great” allhu alakbar, thinking about killing Christians ... the Christianchurch which has stood for 2000 years is thanking God for their after servicepotluck, saying what we all probably learned at Christian summer camp, “God isgreat (allhu alakbar) God is good … let us thank him for our food.” Arab Christians don't need to be ashamed to use the word for God that has been theirs since Abraham. And non-Arab Christians have nothing to fear from that word either.
 
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#5 ·
Since islam is the ideology of death, (not a religion) allah in today's context is certainly used in an evil manner.
 
#3 ·
Well, an oldster many years ago told me to focus on the middle of the road. A metaphor referencing the Bible.
Son, an old King James will tell you everything you need to know, and will never steer you wrong.
As I've now become that oldster, I'm not really interested in what word somebody in the middle east uses for any given God.
I've got all I can handle here here with my own language. 🤗
 
#15 ·
Yes. Not just deistic, but specifically monotheistic, and specifically the God of Abraham.


If you consider Masonry requires its members be deistic and monotheistic, and originally began with Muslim, Jewish and Christian members only and continues to this day with all 3 abrahimic monotheistic religions represented in its membership, you can see the similarities ... on paper.
 
#16 ·
We will likely find ourselves facing more people with these values so that bit of understanding will help. You spoke of Arabic Christians ministering to their own. Do you know if statistics demonstrate that they have a better impact with Muslims compared to western missionaries?
 
#20 ·
From TN;

" The key difference is the person of Jesus ... that is where the Gospel starts and finds its end. Its no different than sharing the gospel with any other cultist - its harder since they've been steeped in a false view of the same language we use in Christianity. But there are millions of Arab Christians who were never Muslim, who are active in evangelism to their countrymen who were raised in the cult, and they always find that Jesus makes the difference. That and the clearly distinct testimony of a converted Christian's walk before all men. But that's true here in English speaking country, isn't it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They sound like solid and active EVANGELICALS... Witnessing, encouraging, sharing the Gospel, and bringing forth converts to Christ !

...After all, "the fields are white to the harvest".
 
#22 ·
I don't know how to say it any plainer that allah is a word not a name. Its a word that has been used by faithful evangelical Arabic speaking Christians around the world in the true worship of the God of the Bible for 2000 years. That you have your panties in a wad over a word is your problem, and has no basis in scripture or Christian history. And if you reject Christians who do not speak English, then you probably need to realize that the Arabic speaking Christians were in the church long before the English ones were, so they have a better claim to kick you out than you do. And then you have a problem with Jesus, who called out to Eli on the cross, in Aramaic, an Arabic language.


Guess you'll have to give up using the name of Jesus too, since the cults claim to use Jesus, and if they're cults then they worship satan, so Jesus must now mean satan in your way of thinking. Good grief.
 
#26 ·
No as I and Team Nelson have said that is the same as calling the one true God of Christians in that area satan.
It is a stupid thing to say at any time.
God for the Muslims is a singular god, they do not recognize the Son and the Holy Ghost, that is all.
The Koran is a man made made rewrite of religious doctrine just as the Mormons and JWs have done, nothing more.
Satan has nothing to do with it, period


BOB. satan has EVERYTHING to do with it. All these cults main goal is to steal souls from Jesus. They use just enough truth to make their lies believable. Satan has tried to kill Jesus before but found that he can't. He can't kill him, so the next best thing is to steal souls. Think about it. CHARLIE.
 
#27 ·
P-Man, what would you have Arabic speaking Christians, who have used the word Allah to refer to God for 600 years prior to Islam, 300 years prior to the English speaking church, use? They received that from Jesus, Paul and the apostles that brought them Gospel in the 1st Century - you want them to give that up? Would you have them give up what is rightfully theirs that has been perverted by a cult?


Would you give up using the word Jesus because satan's stooges have perverted it? All over the world there are people functionally worshipping satan while calling him Jesus. Or would you continue to use it because its precious to you?
You've worked amongst non-English speaking peoples. Are you offended when they use a word in their own language to refer to God?
 
#28 ·
Can you who believe that satan is just a word and just another word for GOD why the false muslim god teaches hatred and death from practicaly birth. Beating wives is OK, beheading folks just because they refuse islam, mercy killings, etc. The list goes on and on. I call muslims the godless ones because they ARE. Does that seem like the same GOD, just a different name. Satan invented islam 6-700 years AFTER Christ.

JESUS teaches love, peace, and harmony. Same God, different name?? Not hardly. Come on guys think about this. alla sends HIS people all over the world to murder folks, anybody, just so they bleed, suffer and die?? That is NOT the God I love, satan does that. CHARLIE.
 
#32 ·
If a-rab christians use the name allah, that's their choice.
It's not mine or any Christian that I know.
Are you panties in a wad?? I didn't think so, mine aren't either.
It seems that the bible lawyers here are using technicalities to try and justify their belief that satan not such a bad guy. Man fails because satan put temptations right in his way.
We know that man is weak, Peter was scared and denied Jesus. So there is hope for the people who cling to Jesus, after all, he suffered and died for ME.
That created a love for Jesus in me, and I gladly accepted him as my Savior.

I will never pray to allah because that's the name islam gives to their god.
My GOD is called GOD, and Jesus/GOD is called Jesus.
The other folks here who want to play Bible lawyers can do so till their heart's content.

As Goodshot would say, no church or no other man except Jesus died for me.
 
#29 ·
Charlie you are blaming Satan for the acts of man.
Satan did not cause Adam to fall, a woman did and a few word from a snake controlled by Satan was all it took for Even to act like a fool.
No one forced her or Adam to do as they did , they did it all by themselves.

If the story of Mohammed is true, no one force him he believed is woman and and fell for it.
To blame Satan is ignoring the real failure of man, man himself.
Crying Satan this and Satan that just looks silly.
 
#30 ·
TN and Powderman, the way it was explained to me, in saudi arabia there was a practice of worshipping a different god for each day, mohammed picked one named "ah-lee" and made him the one true god, it was later transliterated (?) to allah.
Have either of you been made aware of this explanation?
 
#33 ·
Due solely to language differences, the term for God differs between peoples, take a look:

https://chestofbooks.com/reference/...e/The-Name-Of-God-In-Different-Languages.html

I am convinced that the terrorist's god is Satan in disguise.. the old pretender fooled their "prophet" along about 620 AD

It certainly doesn't help that terrorists use their name for their evil god, each time they commit and outrage, but of course..they are driven.
 
#34 ·
That was interesting.
And my point about not using the name allah, Is that I would never want someone to think that I am praying to a terrorists god.
And, that's the reason I would never pray except in Jesus' name, so there's no mistake.
 
#38 ·
#41 ·
If they live here, yes.
 
#40 ·
Well lets see here. "The Great Tempter" is innocent of any wrong doing, and he sent a snake to do his biding.
His tempting has no bearing on our sin, so Gods referral to him as the "Prince of the Earth" was just a jab at someone He doesn't like.

And lastly, English speaking Americans not wanting to use Allah in place of God, when referring to God, are narrow minded, or perhaps don't care how they do it in other countries.
Which is also narrow minded.
 
#43 ·
And lastly, English speaking Americans not wanting to use Allah in place of God, when referring to God, are narrow minded, or perhaps don't care how they do it in other countries. Which is also narrow minded.
No. No. No.
That is a complete misinterpretation of what was said.
As far as “if they live here” ...yes, I agree.
The discussion about Arab Christians, though, was not about folk who live here. It was about the fact that there are Christians in other countries who use Allah in their prayers who are praying to the same God as you because that is the word for God in their language. Allah does not mean Satan.
 
#44 ·
It makes no difference what one calls his god, unless you're a muslim.
And their god in not the GOD of Abraham. They can make that claim until they turn into donkeys and camels, but that don't make it so.
They serve satan, so would the GOD of Abraham give them one second of his time?? No.

Anyone who claims to follow islam, gets his info from the koran, which is the book of death.
My book on the other hand, is the book of Life.
 
#46 ·
So two brothers are Arabic and live in Saudi Arabia. One is Christian and one is Muslim. Within their language they only have one word for God. The Arabic Christian can or cannot use the word Allah?

The brother who is Christian moves to the United States. He must now use the word God and can no longer use the word Allah?

Is it a personal sin for him to use the word Allah in the United States, an English speaking country, and not a personal sin for him to use the word Allah in his native land?
 
#50 ·
LOL, I doubt if anyone will. I won't.:tango_face_surprise:tango_face_devil:
 
#53 ·
They probably did it to give normalcy to their death ideology.
I don't think ideologies have gods, and most of them serve satan.
 
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