So I'm in an online discussion with a lady about how the Catechism/Lumen Gentium declares that we worship the same god as Muslims. Here is what she said:
"Of course we worship the same God as the Muslims! They just don't worship Him in His fullness that is the Trinity. There's only One God so as long as you worship God and not Satan you are still worshipping God, even as imperfect as that understanding may be. Your responsibility as a Catholic is always to construe the Catechism in the way the Church construes it, not in the way YOU construe, lest you be in error."
How would you respond to her?
It's tempting to think that Catholics and Muslims worship the same God -- until you think about it.
No, Muslims do NOT worship the same God.
Their "god" did not give his only-begotten son to save us and re-open the gates of Heaven. Our God did do this!
Muslims think that Mohammad is a more important "prophet" than Jesus Christ -- speaking of Whom, Muslims don't believe that Jesus is God.
Their "god" is OK -- even happy -- with Muslims killing Christians (the Church founded by Jesus Christ) in order to spread the new Muslim religion. Muslims spreading their religion "by the sword" was NOT a cultural thing, an aberration, an abuse -- no, they were 100% following their religion when they did this.
Islam was the first Syncretist religion -- blending elements of multiple religions together to form an ecuмenical stew.
It comes from THREE sources.
1) Judaism (no pork, ritual cleanness, women veiling, their practices of divorce, the day starts/ends at Sundown, lunar timing of holidays)
2) Christianity (the persons Jesus and Mary, fasting, prayers, liturgical bowing, having a spiritual headquarters in Rome, etc.)
3) Arab Paganism (the Djinn = where we get "genie" from, the Kabaa object they worship in Mecca, etc.)
Of course, 1 and 2 are closely linked, as Our Lord took the True Religion and raised it to a new level. So things like prayer, fasting, set prayer times were present in Judaism, though Christians changed how those things were done. Also, you could say he borrowed some things from BOTH at once, as having a sacred book, and a set language (Jєωs: Hebrew, Christians: Latin, Muslims: Arabic) that religious work is done in.
Other things were clearly from just ONE of Christianity or Judaism. For example, divorce. There was no Catholic divorce since Our Lord's public life. However, Judaism had rules for it -- and so does Islam. And the Muslims extremely carnal notion of heaven/paradise -- that seems to be more Jєωιѕн, although the carnal-mindedness of the Jєωs wasn't universal, was it? Did some good/pious Jєωs understand that the possession of God forever was the essential happiness of heaven?
Suffice to say that Mohammad drew from these 3 dominant religions of his time, making a new religion. I guess you might also say that he drew from the dominant CHRISTIAN HERESIES of his day as well.
Topic: How Would You Answer This Woman? (Read 2963 times)