XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis, rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: bbwebpage+usenet@gmail.com   
      
   John W. Kennedy (jwkenne@attglobal.net) wrote:   
   > Opus the Penguin wrote:   
   >> John W. Kennedy (jwkenne@attglobal.net) wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> You could probably find Moon-landing deniers, too. Nevertheless,   
   >>> educated Christians, and Lewis in particular, still know that   
   >>> Islam believes in the same God that Jews and Christians do.   
   >>   
   >> I am an educated Christian. I deny that. I believe Lewis would   
   >> too. Christians believe in a God who is Father, Son, and Holy   
   >> Spirit--three distinct persons, one God. They stipulate that   
   >> there is no other God.   
   >>   
   >> Lewis specifically denied that it was possible to receive Jesus   
   >> as merely a good man. He must be received as God or not at all.   
   >   
   > None of which alters the fact that Moslems, following Mohammed's   
   > own teachings, expressly worship the God of Abraham. If you wish   
   > to maintain that Moslems do not worship the same God as   
   > Christians, then you must be willing to maintain, too, that   
   > Christians do not worship the same God as the Jews -- and that   
   > makes utter nonsense of the entire Christian faith.   
   >   
   > That Moslems do not believe all the same things /about/ God that   
   > Christians do does not mean that they do not worship Him.   
   >   
      
   I understand your point, but I don't entirely agree. To a certain   
   extent this hinges on the difference between worshiping the true God   
   falsely and worshiping a false God. Do you agree that there is a   
   point where the situation stops being the former and starts being the   
   latter? If so, then we're discussing which side of the line Muslims   
   fall on, and that's probably not terribly interesting. If not, then   
   we probably don't have enough common ground to pursue the   
   conversation without more work than either of us may feel like   
   putting in.   
      
   Let me just develop my last quoted thought above. Lewis denied that   
   one could receive Jesus as merely a good man. He must be received as   
   God. To reject Jesus as God is to reject the one who sent him. I   
   think Lewis would agree with that, though I can't think of a specific   
   quote that says as much.   
      
   If that is granted, then we have to say that from the Christian   
   perspective, Muslims at least in some sense reject God. Perhaps it   
   makes more sense to say they have a sort of dissonance in which they   
   both believe in God and reject him at the same time. I wouldn't   
   object to that formulation. But I'm unwilling to say, from a New   
   Testament perspective, that Muslims believe in and worship the same   
   God without qualifying that statement in some way. Does that make   
   sense?   
      
   --   
   Opus the Penguin   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)