Some shallow thoughts on a deep subject

Submitted by Rebecca Bynum (United States), Jun 28, 2005 at 19:27

Although God is changeless, man's conception of God changes over time.

Yahweh, as portrayed in the OT, is very similar to Allah. He was a tribal god, essentially. The Hebrew tribe took him into combat to battle with the Baals or the Caananites for example. But this concept of tribal diety gradually evolved to a God of all the earth and then God of all creation.

Along with that developed the concept of how man relates to God - first as a subject/king relationship and then to a child/father relationship - along with this came the universality of God the Father. This developed in Judaism, but was clarified by Jesus.

You can see the concept of God evolving in the Bible into the Universal Father Jews and Christians worship today. Allah is a throwback and an attempt to obliterate the more advanced Jewish and Christian teachings that advanced the God concept beyond the vengeful, wrathful, whimsical anthropomorhic God of old. Allah is no father. He is basically a king more or less.

But beyond that, Islam teaches that religion SHOULD NOT EVOLVE. So the God of Islam remains of the same base character of the very earliest human God conceptions. The God concept in Islam cannot change, which is different from saying that God is changeless.

Also, one thing puzzles me. When Muslims are required to pray to the correct name of the 99 names of God, otherwise their prayers won't be heard, isn't that praying to 99 different gods? If each "name" has a different function, isn't that the similar to the Christian Trinity concept? The three as one, the 99 as one? Am I missing something?

Best to all, Rebecca Bynum
News Editor Jihad Watch
www.jihadwatch.org

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