Is Allah the God of the Christians and Jews?

I have been reading a book in preparation for my trip this summer entitled The Cross and the Crescent: Understanding the Muslim Heart and Mind by Phil Parshall. In one of the first chapters, Parshall argues something that I have been reflecting on for the last week, which caught me off guard. He argues that Muslims who convert to Christ do not sense that they are changing G/gods. They feel as if they came to a better understanding of what had been a distorted picture of God in Islam.

As I think about this idea, I understand what I think he is trying to say, but biblically, don’t see a way to make his argument work, when there seems to be clear evidence to the contrary. I asked Kamal what he thought, and he agreed with me. When he became a believer after growing up Muslim, he saw the divide between the two religions, and understood that Allah was no longer his god.

Biblically, the lost person is living in the dominion of darkness, under the rule of Satan. In the Garden of Eden, when mankind fell, they chose to submit to the serpent instead of God. The New Testament makes it clear that the whole world is ruled by the Devil (Matt 4), and Christ came to redeem a people from his rule (Col 1:13). This does not leave the possibility for Muslims to become a Christian without recognizing Allah as a false god, and a ploy of the evil one to keep them in darkness.

Dr. Mohler remarked in his lecture on Islam that I listened to this morning that the God of Christianity cannot be known apart from His ultimate revelation in His Son, Jesus Christ. He went on to note that, in effect, Islam takes the Word concept of John 1:1 and makes it the Qu’ran. The Word is not Jesus Christ in Islam. He cannot be the Word. This possibility is explicitly and openly denied. The Word in Islam is the Qu’ran. This is the ultimate divine revelation for Muslims.

This is unacceptable to Christianity and the two systems of belief are completely at odds with one another. They are irreconcilable. The two G/gods cannot be one and the same. One is true and the other false.

The onus remains on Islam to substantiate the claims of Muhammad. He made radical accusations against the Jews and Christians for changing the Bible. The fact of the matter is, none of his claims have ever been substantiated. Textual criticism has shown that the text we have today is remarkably close to the ancient text, as it was written, and shows no evidence of the wholesale changes needed by Islam to verify Muhammad’s claims.

Jesus Christ was crucified and rose from the dead. In him we have been forgiven of sin and entered into a relationship with God, our Father.