
A recent wave of discussion has emerged on various online platforms between Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics regarding whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God. This is because some Roman Catholic apologists have made attempts to defend what the Second Vatican Council taught:
“But the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In the first place amongst these there are the Muslims, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind.” – Lumen Gentium Chapter 2:16.
To contribute to this discussion, I would like to share the perspective of a medieval Coptic Orthodox Church’s father on this subject, and then compare it to that of earlier fathers, as well as scripture itself, to see if they have aligning view points.
To begin, it is relevant to discuss that there was a term used within the Quran to describe Pre – Islamic Abrahamic monotheists, called “Hunafa”. Though the Quran defines it as such, Medieval Arabic and Syriac Christian writers used the term to identify Pagans, which included the Mohammedans (c.f. David Thomas, Christian At the Heart of Islamic Rule, 13).
One such Arabic Christian writer was a certain Severus ibn al-Mugaffa’, a 10th century Coptic Orthodox bishop, theologian, and historian. In his work ‘Kitàb al-ìdah’, he stresses in the introduction his concern that Christians were mingling with Muslims; which resulted in them compromising the Orthodox faith on topics related to the Holy Trinity and the Sonship of Christ – two doctrines rejected by Islam. By extension, they also considered the Holy Spirit to be “created” just like the Macedonian heretics, and even went a stretch further to blasphemously claim that He is actually St. Gabriel the Archangel. Given that Severus was familiar with their false doctrines, he said the following:
“I shall begin with its clarification by first saying that the clear exposition of this mystery is undisclosed to the believers, mu”minùn, in the present age as a result of their mingling with the hunafa and of their having lost their language by means of which they may understand the truth of their religion. They do not hear the Trinity mentioned often anymore, and the Son of God is not mentioned among them except by way of metaphor. Ever so often they hear that God, exalted be His name, is samad and the rest of these words which the hunafa utter.”
Basic examination of this quote shows that the father would not have regarded Muslims as fellow worshipers of the one true God of the Bible given that they reject Divine Revelation, namely, that God is Triune and that Christ is ὁμοούσιος (One in Essence) with the Father as His Son. Considering that they reject the entirety of the Godhead, they have therefore created for themselves a new god alien to that of the Bible which earned them the name hunafa by the father, as all of the Persons of the Holy Trinity are equally God, One, and Inseparable (1 John 5:7). Christ’s Divinity cannot be separated from the Godhead, as the entirety of the Godhead is within Him bodily (Colossians 2:9). In the words of His Holiness Pope Shenouda III:
“If all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in the Lord Jesus Christ, then He lacks nothing and He is God, and there is no other God but Him, because there is nothing outside the fullness.” – The Divinity of Christ, Page 14.
St. John Chrysostom would be in agreement with Severus on this matter if he lived to see Islam, because he had even considered non-believing Jews to be idolaters given that they have denied Christ and therefore the Triune God:
“If, then, the Jews fail to know the Father, if they crucified the Son, if they thrust off the help of the Spirit, who should not make bold to declare plainly that the synagogue is a dwelling of demons? God is not worshipped there. Heaven forbid! From now on it remains a place of idolatry. But still some people pay it honor as a holy place.” – Homily 1 Against the Jews.
The language of St. John Chrysostom is also consistent with that of St. Stephen the Archdeacon. When Stephen had spoken about the Temple, he said:
“However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says” – Acts 7:48.
The original Greek for: “made by human hands” is χειροποιήτοις (cheiropoietois). Though this term can be used in many different contexts, it was also used to refer to idols by Hellenistic Jews. (c.f. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon STRONGS NT 5499: χειροποιήτοις).
St. Stephen used this term to refer to the temple as such since Christ is the New Temple (c.f. John 2:21, Heb8:2), making the old one obsolete (c.f. Heb 9:11-14).
In the words of Kesich:
“about the temple and provoked a violent reaction among the loyalists. Stephen described the temple as “made with hands” (ceiropoietos), a phrase known to those in the Hellenistic world who opposed idolatry. The Jews in diaspora used the same word to condemn paganism. By applying this expression to the temple, Stephen identifed the place as an idol, for the most High does not dwell in houses made with hands” (Kesich, Formation and Struggles, The Birth of the Church AD 33-200, 44).
If such was said about the Temple by which our spiritual ancestors once worshiped before Christ had become Incarnate, how much more could be said about the religion of Islam which has absolutely no ties to the Abrahamic Covenants and rejects who God truly is; Triune? History shows us that the false religion itself was founded upon idolatry and Gnosticism within ancient Arabia. In the words of Bishop Dionysius Bar falibi of the Syriac Orthodox Church:
“They used to worship the idol of Akbar and also the star al-‘Uzzà, that is to say, Aphrodite.”
Finally, St. John the Apostle made it very clear:
“Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.” – (1 John 2:22-26).
This scripture alone demolishes the idea presented by heretics that we worship the same God; as they not only deny that the Logos Jesus Christ is Uncreated, but they also deny that He is Son of the Father. In addition, the Muslims also believe that Mohammad is “greater” than Jesus, even teaching that Mohammad had ascended above Jesus in Heaven (c.f. The Oxford Handbook of Christology, 187).
Would this not deify the false prophet, to imagine that he could rise above the Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father? (c.f. 1 Peter 3:22). Would this not be the same audacity of Satan, who himself tried to rise above God? (c.f. Isiah 14:12-14).
My beloved, let us not be deceived by false doctrine, but stay within the bosom of Christ’s Church which had guarded the true faith on this matter, and let us also pray for the conversion of those that have not yet accepted the Triune God as Lord. God bless.