Muslims almost always object to using the title “Son of God” concerning Jesus. The main reason is that many Muslims believe the phrase “Son of God” implies that God the Father had sexual relations with Mary and that Jesus (the Son) was born of this union. Some understand the Christian Trinity as consisting of the Father, Mary and Jesus. Christians actually do not believe this and like Muslims we find the idea repulsive and blasphemous. Unfortunately this is often the Muslim understanding of the phrase “Son of God.”
The Deity of Christ
The Qur’an does say that Jesus was born of a virgin. Various Muslim traditions ascribe miracles to Jesus such as healing the sick and raising the dead. However, the Qur’an states that He was no more than a human being, a prophet like all other prophets. Islam thinks that Chrisians are trying to elevate Jesus to be God. Yet, the reality is that Jesus is not a man whom we are trying to elevate to be God; rather He is God who humbled Himself to become man.
Islam refuses to ascribe deity to Christ and rejects the doctrine that Jesus is the Son of God.
In Christianity, the title, “Son of God” indicates the majesty, honour and glory of Jesus (2 Peter 1:16-18). The title is tied not only to His divinity but also to His kingship. Nathan’s prophecy in 2 Samuel 7:12-14, one of the early prophecies of the Messianic King, speaks of David’s descendant as God’s Son. “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me.” It is certain that the early believers understood Jesus’ role as “Son of God” as being related to kingship: “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel” (John 1:49, 11:27, 20:31 and Romans 1:1-5). The messianic king’s appointment was described as begetting a son (Psalm 2:7, Acts 13:33, Hebrews 1:5). You can find a longer article on this subject on our site here “Explaining-Son-Of-God”.
Prayer Starters:
- May God bring real breakthroughs in this area of Muslim misunderstanding. This subject is one of the most significant hindrances for Muslims coming to Christ. Believers need wisdom in addressing this issue.
- Pray for Muslims to have a biblical understanding of the phrase “Son of God.” Meditate on and proclaim in prayer the texts cited above.
Special Section: Prayer for the Peoples of Sudan — The Guhayna people
The 1.3 million Guhayna are a largely nomadic people living in Central Sudan. Not much is known about this people group other than that they are Sudanese Arabs who trace their heritage to the Bedouin who wandered the deserts of Saudi Arabia centuries ago.
The Guhayna embrace rigid codes of honour, loyalty and hospitality, the strong role of men in society, the value of children, subservience of women and the five pillars of Islam. To confess Jesus as Lord is not well accepted and has serious consequences. Pray that fear of persecution from Islamic relatives will not hinder the Guhayna as they consider the Gospel. No one is actively reaching this people group.
Pray for missionaries and funds so the Guhayna can hear about Jesus.
Video: Hope Lights
Hope Lights from Salomon on Vimeo.
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Who should we believe, “dago”, “Diago”, “vj” or the Vatican and the Pope:
………………………….
Under the title Emancipating ourselves from our worst prejudices (Nous libérer de nos préjugés les plus notables) the authors address the following suggestions to Christians:
“Here also, we must surrender to a deep purification of our attitude. In particular, what is meant by this are certain ‘set judgements’ that are all too often and too lightly made about Islam. It is essential not to cultivate in the secret of our hearts views such as these, too easily or arbitrarily arrived at, and which the sincere Muslim finds confusing.”
One extremely important view of this kind is the attitude which leads people to repeatedly use the term Allah’ to mean the God of the Muslims, as if the Muslims believed in a God who was different from the God of the Christians. Al lâh means ‘the Divinity’ in Arabic: it is a single God, implying that a correct transcription can only render the exact meaning of the word with the help of the expression ‘God’. For the Muslim, al lâh is none other than the God of Moses and Jesus.
The document produced by the Office for Non-Christian Affairs at the Vatican stresses this fundamental point in the following terms:
“It would seem pointless to maintain that Allâh is not really God, as do certain people in the West! The conciliar documents have put the above assertion in its proper place. There is no better way of illustrating Islamic faith in God than by quoting the following extracts from Lumen Gentium [ Lumen Gentium is the title of a document produced by the Second Vatican Council (1962-1966)].
‘The Muslims profess the faith of Abraham and worship with us the sole merciful God, who is the future judge of men on the Day of Reckoning . . .’”
continued..
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One can therefore understand the Muslims’ protest at the all too frequent custom in European languages of saying ‘Allâh’ instead of ‘God’ . . . Cultivated Muslims have praised D. Masson’s French transition of the Qur’an for having ‘at last’ written ‘Dieu’ [ God.] instead of ‘Allah’.
The Vatican document points out the following: “Allâh is the only word that Arabic-speaking Christians have for God.” Muslims and Christians worship a single God.
The Vatican document then undertakes a critical examination of the other false judgements made on Islam.
I am certain that this defense of Islam by the Vatican will surprise many believers today, be they Muslims, Jews or Christians. It is a demonstration of sincerity and open-mindedness that is singularly in contrast with the attitudes inherited from the past. The number of people in the West who are aware of the new attitudes adopted by the highest authorities in the Catholic Church is however very small.
Once one is aware of this fact, it comes as less of a surprise to learn of the actions that sealed this reconciliation: firstly, there was the official visit made by the President of the Office for Non-Christian Affairs at the Vatican to King Faisal of Saudi Arabia; then the official reception given by Pope Paul VI to the Grand Ulema of Saudi Arabia in the course of 1974. Henceforth, one understands more clearly the spiritual significance of the fact that His Grace Bishop Elchinger received the Grand Ulema at his cathedral in Strasbourg and invited them during their visit to pray in the choir. This they did before the altar, TURNED TOWARDS MEKKA.
AW,
I haven’t had the time to follow everything, but I want to address the following quote: ‘The Muslims profess the faith of Abraham and worship with us the sole merciful God, who is the future judge of men on the Day of Reckoning . . .’” This is no different to me as when Jehovah Witnesses, Mormans, or even Muslims for that matter, say “I believe in Jesus.” They may use the same English word “Jesus” but they don’t have the same definition for the word. Muslims, Jews and Christians all “profess” to believe in the same God, but if our definition of God is different from the self revelation of God found in the 66 books of the Holy Bible, our ‘god’ is not the God of Abraham.
God has made himself known to us through his relationship with Abraham, Moses, the prophets and finally through Jesus, and God does not change. How is it that the Muslim Allah is an impersonal and unknowable god while the God of the Jews and Christians is a personal and knowable God? Could it be we are not talking about the same deity?
aw you seem to be very sensitive about actions of OTHER people, but you do not see the actions of muslims.
there are muslims who have prayed by turning to mekka specially the teenagers who have become targets of terrorism they prayed and then next action went out with bombs and weapons to commit destruction of properpy and lives. Now how do you justify that ALLAH WHO IS GOD FOR YOU ACCEPT THE ACTIONS OF SUCH PEOPLE?? Even today as i speak muslims are plotting to kill muslims even in pakistan,afghanistan,yemen,somalia,etc.
PLESE REMEMBER THAT THEY TAKE THE NAME OF YOUR GOD ALLAH AND COMMIT THESE ACTS, AND THESE ARE JUSTIFIED BY THE MUSLIM MULLAHS AND THE WHOLE MUSLIM COMMUNITIES.
I also gave you the example of how the word allah has been creating a problem in malaysia, but you definitely have no reply to that because you justified vatican’s statetments, BUT HOW WILL YOU JUSTIFY MUSLIMS ACTIONS.
SO ALLAH FOR MUSLIMS IS GOD BY NAME ONLY(false god) AND NOT THE TRUE GOD OF ABRAHAM, and to further prove to you allah has told muslims not to make friends with christians and jews.
But see how your justification is.
Also according to quran jesus did not die, but history confirms the death, writers confirm the death and even names of witness are provided to confirm that it is true. MARY TOOK THE BODY OF JESUS IN HER OWN ARMS. Now if the body was someone else then ALLAH (WHOM YOU BELIEVE IS GOD FOOLED MARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS).
You are justifying a false claim -
not one claim but 100′s of claims of bible to be false. Sorry dear. The bible says that these false claims are from a dreamer and he suceeded in keeping his name next to allah’s name and thus you proclaim him and treat him above ALLAH
THIS GOES TO PROVE THAT THE QURAN IS CERTAINLY NOT TURE BECAUSE GOD WILL NEVER GIVE YOU A TRUTH WITHOUT PROOF OR JUSTIFICATIION. THEREFORE YOUR CLAIM IS FALSE.
BIBLE IS THE TRUE WORD OF THE LIVING GOD AND QURAN IS NOT AND NEITHER ITS WRITERS, ETC
AW
Remember that every language call god by his or her language if he is worshiping God of Abraham, so in english we say god, in french deiu, in indian bhagwan, etc. etc. so if god is god in english and if allah is god in arabic, then Why should god force people to call him only by one word allah? This is not the doing of god, but of man.
If god of abraham is universal then god can be called god by the worshiper’s own language, because god knows the language of his own creation, god even know the language of the animal kingdom as well.
so if muslims insist that god MUST BE CALLED BY THE NAME OF ALLAH, (today if we are witnessing BRUTALITY BECAUSE OF THE GOD OF MUSLIMS WHO IS CALLED ALLAH, then the muslim god is certainly not a universal god and moreover muslim god only know one language and that is arabic, because you force people to read the quran in arabic.
The god of abraham knows my language and he speaks with me in my language, otherwise he is not a god and moreover he then would not be a universal god.
DEUTERONOMY 18:20
But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.”
MUSLIMS INSIST THAT THEIR PROPHET TOLD THAT MANKIND MUST UTTER ONLY IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, AND TODAY WE HAVE ALREADY SEEN THE LIKES OF MUSLIMS IN MALAYSIA WHERE ANYONE WHO WILL USE ALLAH MUSLIMS ARE PUTTING MANKIND TO BURTALITY / DEATH.
GOD HAS ALREADY DONE HIS PART BY PUTTING THIS PROPHET TO DEATH AND THIS PROPHET WANT MANKIND TO FOLLOW HIM – THE DEVIL IS ON THE LOOSE.