My Christmas this year was one of a kind. VERY different to every other Christmas i’ve had in all my 20 years of life!
I spent it not just in Nigeria, but in my paternal grandmother’s village. My family hosted and fed guests from all parts of the village. I encountered Muslims, Christians and Traditionalists. All who claimed to believe in God.
I have many Muslim course-mates and they all say they believe in God too, many even go as far as to say that Christians and Muslims believe in the SAME God (that is heretical – and i’ll explain why in this post).
But first we need to nail down one question. Which God?
God is not only a name but is also used as a title. All religions have gods, so how do we distinguish each of the gods from one another? by their name and their characteristics. I battled with differentiating between the god of Islam and the God of Christianity because I failed to do this meticulously.
But during the 4hr car ride back to Lagos on boxing day, the Holy Spirit brought so much clarity on the issue and it has been placed strongly in my heart to share it with you.
“Believing in god isn’t enough, you must believe in The One True God, Yahweh.”
There are three fundamental doctrinal Christianity beliefs that Islam contradicts:
- The nature of God
- The divinity of Jesus Christ
- The nature of salvation
- Muslims believe in one god, one supreme being that no-one can be equal to. We believe in the Holy Trinity of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God in three persons each being equally God and equally powerful.
- Muslims believe that Jesus Christ was just another Prophet. He was not the Son of God but just another messenger and the precursor to their Prophet Mohammed. We believe that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God. He is fully God and fully man and He existed before the beginning of time.
- Muslims believe in salvation through good works, deeds and actions.We believe in salvation UNTO good works, and that salvation comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Children of God, do not be deceived. We do not worship the same god as muslims or as any other religious group. Our God is the God of the bible, who revealed himself to man firstly through Moses as I AM, Yahweh [Exodus 3:13-15]. Then later on again through the person of Jesus Christ. And finally He reveals himself to believers through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 1:8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!
JO Adeluola
Joanne Olayinka 