Tonight I was at a lecture where the question was again raised, "Don't people of the major religions, at least, all relate the same God?"
Often the answer seems to be framed along these lines: Jews relate to Yahweh, Muslims relate to Allah (and this should be understood as a different name for the same 'God' [Yahweh]), and Christians relate to God (the Father -- and God the Father, supposedly distinct from the Son and the Spirit, is the same God as Islam's Allah or Judaism's Yahweh).
But it occured to me that when a Biblically orthodox Christian says (or relates to) 'God,' he or she always necessarily means the God who is Triune (Father, Son and Spirit). This is who (and what) God is, according to Biblical Christianity -- triune, necessarily Father-Son-and-Spirit.
With that being the case, it hardly seems plausible to say (nor can I imagine an orthodox Muslim or Jew would want to say) that people of all three religions are relating to the same God, for it is an affront to both Jews and Muslims to say that God is a Trinity -- but for Christians it is essential.
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Speaking of Islam, Norman L. Geisler states, "Many doctrines are shared with Christianity, such as creation, angels, heaven, hell, and the resurrection of all people. As for Christ, they affirm his prophethood, virgin birth, physical ascension, second coming, sinlessness, miracles, and messiahship."
"Muslims deny the heart of the Christian message, namely, that Christ died on the cross for our sins and that he arose from the grave physically three days later" ("Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics," p. 369).
Would the God that is revealed in the pages of Scripture give two such contradictory messages to two different groups of people (Ephesians 2:11-13)?
Geisler continues, ". . .the heart of Islam is not to know God but to obey him. It is not to meditate on his essence but to submit to his will. As Pfander correctly observed of Muslims, 'If they think at all deeply, they find themselves absolutely unable to know God. . . .Thus Islam leads to Agnosticism'" (p. 371).
This is hardly the same God that walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the garden, that spoke to Moses as a man speaks with his friend, that longs to fill us with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:14-19).
This is right, and reminds us that the Christian view of God contains too much trinitarian baggage for either us or them to agree that we worship the same God.
Your understanding that this tenet of Christain faith--the Triune God-- is 'essential' reminded me of Augustine's great (and difficult) work "The Trinity." Notably when he says that seeking the "unity of the three, of Father and Son and Holy Spirit" is nothing less than seeking the very face of God (Psalm 105): A search unlike any other, "For nowhere else is a mistake more dangerous, or the search more laborious, or the finding more advantageous." Essential, indeed.
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