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Abrahamic religions--a misnomer

Discussion in 'History Forum' started by church mouse guy, Apr 18, 2013.

  1. church mouse guy

    church mouse guy Well-Known Member
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    The general public refers to Abrahamic religions and means Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and apparently sometimes even Baha'i. This is nonsense on stilts.

    Islam cannot trace its origins to Abraham and neither can the smaller Baha'i. Abraham knew nothing about these two man-made religions and monotheism is not a common denominator in any example. Any attempt to construct genealogies showing Muhammad to be a descendant of Ishmael except in a general sense fails for lack of evidence. Ishmael did not accept Judaism, was expelled from Israel, and therefore is not an heir of Abraham. Baha'i, a little over a century old, is like Islam in a lack of a connection.

    Personally, I think the idea that Islam is an Abrahamic religion should be dismissed as a misleading term. As Milton noted, Allah is just another name for Satan.
     
  2. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
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    1-Islam says that Gen. 16:25 shows that Ismael was the first Arab.

    2-The word Allah simply means God. There is a Baptist Nigerian pastor here studying for his Ph.D. In his native Nigerian language the word for God is Allah. He is definitely praying to the same God as you and I.
     
  3. church mouse guy

    church mouse guy Well-Known Member
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    Right, Muhammad had no direct genealogy to show his exact relationship to Abraham some 2,500 years later.

    It is clear that the Allah of Islam is not the same as Jesus or the same as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It may be unfortunate that the man you mention speaks Arabic as his native language to the extent that Allah in Arab history would refer to some idol. But if by Allah one means the god of Islam, then the Christian can agree that Allah is just another name for Satan. Sounds like the Arabic language is limited, doesn't it? I have heard that Palestinian Christians also are trapped by the shortcomings of the Arab language.
     
  4. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
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    His native language is not Arabic. When I asked him he said it is one of a number of languages spoken in Nigeria. I had never heard of the language he said is used in his region of Nigeria. I expect many languages there use the word Allah. The Christian Allah [God] is not a false God. Other Allah's are.
     
  5. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    And what do you say?
     
  6. church mouse guy

    church mouse guy Well-Known Member
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  7. saturneptune

    saturneptune New Member

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    It is hard for me to see the significance of Ishmael in this discussion. He is just another in a long line of individuals the Lord rejected (ie Cain, Esau, King Saul, Lot, Ahab, Judas, etc). What difference does it make who the first Arab was? Further, whether or not Muslims believe in the first five books of the Bible also makes little difference. God is God in His totality, which includes Jesus Christ. They certainly do not believe in Him. In addition, Muslims reject the rest of the Old Testement.

    If we believed in the same God, we would have the same beliefs. We do not.
     
  8. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
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  9. church mouse guy

    church mouse guy Well-Known Member
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    Thanks! Although I had read about Arab Christians who call God The Father as Allah, I never realized that Allah had spread into African languages. I am hoping that someone will find another word to clarify that people are not referring to the god of Islam.

    Yes, English has heavily borrowed from languages all over the world. I have read that we have a half million words in English, making it the largest language.

    I recently saw a tv show confirming that languages do not all have a common ancestor--as I was taught years ago--but there are at least 20 or more families of languages with no relationship to each other. The tv lecturer also noted that languages tend to go downhill, losing their complexity and innovation except for borrowing. This confirms the fact that God confounded human language at the Tower of Babel. I posted a summary of the written statement of the tv show on the Baptist Board under the title "Language confounded at Tower of Babel":

    http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=85363&highlight=tower+babel

    Best wishes!
     
  10. saturneptune

    saturneptune New Member

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  11. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
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    Languages and their words meaning God:

    This is obviously not a complete list.

    French = Dieu
    Greek = Theos
    Italian = Dio
    Portugese = Deus
    German = Gott
    Lithuanian - Dievas
    Russian - bog
    In Finnish - Jumala
    In Norwegian - Gud
    Latin - Deus
    Semitic word - El
    Arabic word and various African languages - Allah
    Persian word - Xoda
    Swahili - Mulungu

    The word is not the problem. What God a person worships is what is important.
     
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