George Bush and God Concepts

A number of folks around the internet have gotten pretty worked up about [tag]George Bush[/tag]’s comment to an Al Arabiya reporter in an interview that he believes Muslims and Christians worship the same God. Here’s an extract (source: www.whitehouse.gov):

Well, first of all, I believe in an almighty God, and I believe that all the world, whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God. That’s what I believe. I believe that Islam is a great religion that preaches peace. And I believe people who murder the innocent to achieve political objectives aren’t religious people, whether they be a Christian who does that — we had a person blow up our — blow up a federal building in Oklahoma City who professed to be a Christian, but that’s not a Christian act to kill innocent people.

Amongst those who have responded negatively to this is Joe Carter who applies considerable logic to refuting this idea that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. Carter is pretty thoroughly convinced that it just can’t be so.

As a note to any liberals who are crowing about Christian conservatives turning on Bush, I must note that in my part of the world, Bush is often regarded as a liberal himself. Conservative Christians haven’t been all that much on board with him from the time of the primaries. He was certainly better than Kerry from their point of view, but he is not one of theirs. It shouldn’t be surprising that when he talks about religion, it’s not pure conservative evangelicalism.

Further, let me note for the record that I am a trinitarian Christian who accepts the incarnation as the central doctrine of Christianity. In other words, I believe that Christ was divine, and more specifically uniquely divine, i.e. not just having a divine spark, and in a way that I and other people are definitely not divine. Thus I differ from the Jewish and Muslim concepts of God.

But there are two major issues that I think run through this debate. First, one’s concept of God is, hopefully, something different from one’s God. In fact, worship of the concept is something I discussed in an earlier post Conceptual Idolatry. Second, just how “right” does one have to be about God in order to worship him? I’m going to very briefly look at these.

All of us have some sort of concept in mind when we refer to God. It may be a concept that we reject as impossible, or it may be one in which we put our trust. The quality and value of our concepts vary substantially, I would guess. God is not limited by, defined by, or fully described by our concepts. It almost goes without saying that as a trinitarian Christian my concept of God differs from the Jewish or Muslim concepts, amongst many others. It differs in smaller ways from the concepts of God held by my fellow Christians, including those who are worked up over George Bush’s concepts.

I would like to think that my concept of God is more accurate than mine. I come to the Father through Jesus Christ (John 14:6) and I believe Jesus gave the clearest picture of God for us. I don’t regard this as exclusive, since I believe one can follow a road without necessarily comprehending all the roadsigns. (If anything generates a comment, that one should, but I’m not going to explain further in this post, so there!) I am, however, fallible, and I’m quite certain that my concept of God is not perfect.

So we could replace the question first with this: Are our concepts of God the same? No. Are the similar? In many ways, they are not.

But if we are truly monotheistic, we believe there is only one God. So I think there is a second question: Can you worship God (the only one there is) when your concept is flawed, even seriously flawed? Well, Paul suggested that the Athenians did, in worshiping their unknown God:

?23? For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” — Acts 17:23 (NRSV)

Paul, as reported by Luke, starts from the point of view that they are, in fact, worshiping this unknown God, even though they don’t know him, his attributes, his name, or anything whatsoever about him. Is Paul asserting a theological point here that one can worship a God one does not know? He could be simply starting from his opponent’s viewpoint in order to lead them to his, but it seems to me that he does allow that they are actually worshiping God in some way, however partially. Romans 1 and 2 I think expands on this idea quite a bit. People who do not know God explicitly nonetheless can serve him.

So I think the arguments fail on both points. That two people’s concepts of God differ does not mean they are worshiping two different gods, any more than the fact that my concept of my wife and someone else’s differ means we’re talking about different people. Further, one can worship something one does not know.

Does this mean that I accept the doctrines and concepts of Islam on the same basis as I do my Christian doctrines? Not at all. If I did, I would be a Muslim. I simply believe they are worshiping the same God, not because of how right or wrong they are (or I am), but rather because I believe there is only one God available to worship.

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10 Comments

  1. Henry, in general I agree with you. But how far would you take this? If there is only one God available to worship, would you say that Hindus who claim to worship many different gods, or Satanists who claim to worship Satan, are in fact worshipping the same one God as you worship?

  2. I’m surprised to hear such a (relatively) enlightened comment from W. If he really meant it, I guess I’ll have to rethink my opinion of him…

  3. Peter, I would guess there would be a point where someone is no longer worshiping the same God, though I’m not sure precisely where that is. I would regard it more as a function of the heart than of their god-concept. C. S. Lewis’s comment via Aslan, that the great emperor over the sea had arranged things so that no good act could be done in honor of Tash, and that any good act he accepted as worship of him.

    But I don’t have to find the borders, because I’m going to preach and teach a point as near to the bullseye as I can possibly make it, though I realize I will always fail of 100% accuracy.

  4. I wouldn’t go that far. We still have a war in Iraq, official torture, and state secrets being used to protect the executive from being called to account for its mistakes.

    I need more than a fairly open-minded statement on religion to get me to rethink.

    But I suspect there was a mite of sarcasm in your comment … 🙂

  5. Is Paul asserting a theological point here that one can worship a God one does not know?

    This is the crux of the issue. Perhaps a person can worship God before knowing (or even hearing about) Jesus. But what happens after he is presented and rejected? How can a person reject God and yet still be said to worshiping this “same” God?

  6. In my view one is either worshiping God, the only one there is, not worshiping at all, or engaging in some form of idolatry. I just refuse to draw the line. God can do that.

  7. I just refuse to draw the line. God can do that.

    I thought God had already drawn the line. ; )

    I agree with you and would come down on the side of it being idolatry. By rejecting Jesus, the Muslim and Jews are worshiping and idea of what they want God to be (or think he is) rather than worshiping the true, living, triune God.

  8. Hmm. I need to be more specific. The line I mean is the issue of “rejecting Christ” versus ignorance. I don’t know where a person actually stands there. I would think both Acts 17 and Romans 2 apply to any person who could still be regarded as open, and the only one who would know that is God.

  9. http://www.hotconflict.com/blog/2007/10/allah-the-god-o.html
    There seems to be a lot of debate here in the United States. Many people are trying to suggest that the God Allah of the Muslims is not the same God of the other monotheistic religions. This is a very serious misunderstanding of Islam and I am surprised it is so common in this society. The very essence of the message of Islam is that there is no other God than Allah. The God of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad.

  10. Religion seems to be the problem. If people would not seek religion and seek the word of God,then the world would be at peace. With Religion comes docrine, with the Word comes the truth and when you find the truth you are set free.

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