Apologetics – Page 4 – Faith Unto Ages

Do Muslims and Christian’s worship the same God?

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.

The Early Church Fathers: Were they Miaphysite?

A common misconception about the Oriental Orthodox Church is that it’s Christology is ‘Monophysite’, meaning, that She followers the erroneous teachings of Eutyches of Constantinople that Jesus’ humanity had disappeared into His Divinity.

On the contrary, the Church teaches that Jesus Christ is Fully God and Fully Man; but One Concrete and Composite Nature from Two. This form of Christology is known as ‘Miaphysitism’, which has its basis in the teachings of the Early Church Fathers.

Below is an explanation of our Church’s Christology is more detail by His Holiness Pope Shenouda the Third, followed by a Florilegium on this dogmatic teaching.

An Apologia for the Historic Accuracy of the Bible: The Last Supper & Liturgical Tradition

Just like many other topics which involve scripture, the accuracy and historic authenticity of the Last Supper has been challenged by skeptics. As a result, there were ideas which suggested that the narratives regarding the first Eucharist were not entirely factual, but was instead influenced by early Christian worship. For example, the Lutheran theologian and biblical scholar Rudolf Bultman has made the argument that “while Jesus may indeed have held a final meal with His disciples, the narratives as we have them are creations of the early church and so can tell us nothing about the actual historical roots of the Eucharist but can only witness to its later development.” 1