Are Allah and YHWH the same God?
I’ve recently been reading the writings of Emir Fethi Caner (Passionate Conviction, “Islam and Christianity”, 187–204) and this is what he has to say on some of the ‘comparisons’ between Christianity and Islam and their conceptions of God.
Often times Muslims or religious pluralists will draw comparisons between words. ‘Allah’ is the Arabic word for God, YHWH is the Hebrew word for God, therefore, Muslims and Hebrews worship the same God, who is simply denoted by a different word. This is what’s known as equivocating.
Consider the etymology of Baal, which is derived from the root word for lord or master. Yet we read in 1 Kings 18:21, “and Elijah came to all the people, and said, ‘How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.’ but the people answered him not a word”. If it … (Read more)
Arguments from evil
One thing I never understood about the argument from evil is how people came to view it as an argument against the existence of God, or at least against the existence of a personal and all loving God. My confusion over this argument isn’t simply because if it’s formulated incorrectly, you must assume what you’re trying to disprove (an objective moral standard with which to differentiate between good and evil, necessarily requiring God). My confusion over this argument is because ‘evil’ as a thing from which people argue, if they argue from naturalistic presuppositions, simply doesn’t exist. Whether it’s gratuitous evil and suffering (animal or otherwise) or simply bad actions. Epicurus was wishfully thinking, there is no evil in his argument to remove God.… (Read more)
Was Jesus who he said he was?
In between school and work (started a new job) I’ve been listening to a lot of Mark Driscoll and his sermon on the claims of Jesus is something I would like to share. Watch and enjoy! At least I enjoy, because we’re similar in personality.
Hosea 4:6 — Lack of knowledge is an understatement.
When I read the Old Testament two things strike me as immediately apparent. The first is that Israel was commanded to worship and keep the commandments of Yahweh and Yahweh only (Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5, Numbers 33). The second is that by-and-large, they didn’t and as a result their nation was at first divided and then destroyed.
When Israel was on the verge of entering the Promised Land God laid down a few rules. We read in Exodus 34:12–14 (NASB):
12 Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst.
13 But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim
14 you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God
Now what happens … (Read more)
Did Jesus Exist?
I came across an article written by a man named Mark Thomas on the existence of Jesus, you can find it here. This is something of a reply to a few of his claims as I understood them.
The article claims the following contentions:
1. Jesus had no earthly existence
- i. No reliable extra-Biblical references
- ii. The Gospels are unreliable historical accounts
- iii. Jesus’ biographical details were not known by Paul
- iv. Jesus was seen as a spiritual sky-god by Paul and others
2. Scriptures were not taken as sacred
3. Christianity was heavily influenced by surrounding religions
4. Prophecies were not fulfilled
This post will most likely deal with only the first contention; that Jesus had no earthly existence. At some point in the future I’ll address the others.
#1 Jesus had no earthly existence
The majority of scholars, both liberal and conservative, do not doubt that a person named … (Read more)
William Lane Craig: Kalam and contemporary science
Some times I hear people criticize William Lane Craig for his lack of knowledge when it comes to science in general and astrophysics especially. It’s a criticism I really don’t understand, I don’t think it’s valid at all. I came across a series of videos on Youtube where Craig fields questions from professional philosophers and physicists and again, I don’t see how people believe they can ‘get away’ with saying Craig isn’t informed…
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