Do Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians worship the same God?

[TonyChanYT]

The one true God is the creator of all things, visible and invisible (Colossians 1:16).

Do not make an image to represent the true God to bow down to it (Exodus 20:4-5).

2 Chronicles 35:

20 After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple,

Josiah was a good king of Judah. He repaired the temple.

Neco king of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to meet him.

Neco was a gentile. By God, he tried to dissuade Josiah from fighting him.

21 But he sent envoys to him, saying, “What have we to do with each other, king of Judah? I am not coming against you this day, but against the house with which I am at war. And God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is with me,

i.e., elohim

lest he destroy you.” 22 Nevertheless, Josiah did not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but came to fight in the plain of Megiddo.

A good king of Judah fought against a gentile king. God was with the gentile king. Josiah died as a result.

I am not even sure that Neco knew the name YWHW. Yet, it seems that the true God was with him.

Later, in Isaiah 45:

1 “This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him

The Lord (the true God) called Cyrus his anointed.

4 For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me.

Even though Cyrus did not acknowledge the true God.

In the NT, Acts 17:

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

but they did not know the LORD personally

23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

god is a multifaceted concept.

26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God,

the one true God

and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.

The Lord God apparently accepted worship from Athenians who didn't know Him exactly. But then, who knows Him exactly?

Acts 17:

30 Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent.

God is gracious to everyone who repents, even if they don't know Him exactly. See What about people of other cultures?.

Do Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians worship the same God? Do Christians worship the same God?

Generally speaking, most Christians seem to worship the same God, the creator God with no idols/images. Buddhists and Christians worship different gods because of their heavy use of idols. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam worship more or less the same God: creator God and no idols. I spent four years working in Saudi Arabia. The longer I stayed there, the more I felt that they were worshiping the God of Abraham. I had joined their worship in their mosques. Importantly, only Christians can be born of the Paraclete.

 

[lforrest]

No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

No exceptions. Judaism and Islam reject Jesus as the son of God.

So the question becomes what does it mean to have the father? And I would say it is the relationship with the Father through the Son Jesus Christ.

Then the question is on how God treats these outsiders. Is there any benefit to those worshiping only the Father instead of idols?

Perhaps there are three analogies to draw.

Children in the house
Servants outside the house
And others at the house down the road.

 

[Starise]

No they don't worship the same god.

 

[Lambano]

My only exposure to Buddhism was through a brother I met on another forum who had come to Christ from an unhappy Buddhist background. I was left with the impression that God is irrelevant to a Buddhist. This may not be a fair characterization.

There is some commonality in the Christian and Islamic understanding of who and what the God of Abraham/Ibrahim is. But there are some MAJOR, SIGNIFICANT, and IRRECONCILABLE differences in our understanding of God, especially regarding how He has revealed Himself to us (especially Jesus), how He relates to us, and how He wants us to relate to Him and to each other.

This is about as fair and nuanced an assessment as I can give.

Of course, even among us Christians, there is a quite diverse understanding of who God is and what He wants from us, as this Forum so often shows.

 

[Randy Kluth]

Generally speaking, most Christians seem to worship the same God, the creator God with no idols/images. Buddhists and Christians worship different gods because of their heavy use of idols. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam worship more or less the same God: creator God and no idols. I spent four years working in Saudi Arabia. The longer I stayed there, the more I felt that they were worshiping the God of Abraham. I had joined their worship in their mosques. Importantly, only Christians can be born of the Paraclete.

I've had friends get real hot with me when I even remotely suggest that Muslims worship the same God as Christians and Jews do! So I have to be careful. As you said, the one true God can be understood as such and still be misrepresented in the form of errant religions.

So is God the same God for all religions who acknowledge a supreme Deity? No. The sense of a single Deity is true and understood, but recognition of how He is to be viewed can be true or idolatrous.

God's word defines who He is, and not Man apart from God's self-revelation. Sin began when Man chose to begin to see things apart from divine revelation. All the false religions of the world are based on a mixture of divine revelation and the choice to see things independent of that revelation.

 

[Bob Estey]

The one true God is the creator of all things, visible and invisible (Colossians 1:16).

Do not make an image to represent the true God to bow down to it (Exodus 20:4-5).

2 Chronicles 35:


Josiah was a good king of Judah. He repaired the temple.


Neco was a gentile. By God, he tried to dissuade Josiah from fighting him.


i.e., elohim


A good king of Judah fought against a gentile king. God was with the gentile king. Josiah died as a result.

I am not even sure that Neco knew the name YWHW. Yet, it seems that the true God was with him.

Later, in Isaiah 45:


The Lord (the true God) called Cyrus his anointed.


Even though Cyrus did not acknowledge the true God.

In the NT, Acts 17:


but they did not know the LORD personally


god is a multifaceted concept.


the one true God


The Lord God apparently accepted worship from Athenians who didn't know Him exactly. But then, who knows Him exactly?

Acts 17:


God is gracious to everyone who repents, even if they don't know Him exactly. See What about people of other cultures?.

Do Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians worship the same God? Do Christians worship the same God?

Generally speaking, most Christians seem to worship the same God, the creator God with no idols/images. Buddhists and Christians worship different gods because of their heavy use of idols. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam worship more or less the same God: creator God and no idols. I spent four years working in Saudi Arabia. The longer I stayed there, the more I felt that they were worshiping the God of Abraham. I had joined their worship in their mosques. Importantly, only Christians can be born of the Paraclete.

I suspect Muslims and Christians worship the same God (John 10:16). (One might then ask why they have difficulty getting along with each other.) As for Buddhists, I don't know much about Buddhism. I don't know if they worship any God.

 

[Scott Downey]

John 4 may help explain somethings, Jesús tells the Samaritan women this

21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

------------------------------------------------------------------
Jesus is telling her she is not a true worshipper of God
In her case He implies one day she will worship God in spirit and in Truth
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7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”

26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

 

[Triumph1300]

I suspect Muslims and Christians worship the same God

I disagree.
I don't think muslims believe in what Jesus did on the cross.

 

[Bob Estey]

I disagree.
I don't think muslims believe in what Jesus did on the cross.

What if they obey the two great commandments that the law is based on?

 

[Triumph1300]

What if they obey the two great commandments that the law is based on?

Scripture tells us we need to be born again,
part of that means accepting what Jesus did on the Cross for us.

Muslims don't believe Christ died for our sins on the Cross.

 

[Bob Estey]

Scripture tells us we need to be born again,
part of that means accepting what Jesus did on the Cross for us.

Muslims don't believe Christ died for our sins on the Cross.

Jesus said there were two great commandments, and the law was based on these: Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:34-40). I find it hard to believe that you could obey these two commandments and then be sentenced to an eternity of torture.

 

[TonyChanYT]

Muslims don't believe Christ died for our sins on the Cross.

Right. Check out What would happen to people who don't acknowledge the true Jesus?