Jesus prayed to same God as Muslims

In response to Jane Pons, Matthias Victor and Keith Duane (Letters, Courier, August 21), there is a definite need to clarify some of the perceptions.

Firstly the headline “Don’t we worship the same God?” was placed on my letter by the respected editor. Nowhere did I say Christians and Muslims worship the same God, but I did say Muslims and Jesus Christ worship/worshipped the same God and I will stand by what I said. The God that Jesus prayed to is the same God Muslims pray to.

You will remember when Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane, he told his disciples: “Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground (like we Muslims do) and prayed, saying, ‘O my Father remove this cup nevertheless not as I will but as thou will.’ This is how Jesus prayed and this is how Muslims pray. In fact all the prophets of God prayed in similar manner. When Jesus fell with his face to the ground, he did not pray with the words “in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.”

The word “Trinity” is not found in any Bible of the Christians and the only verse that gives credence to this invented word is to be found in the first epistle of John where it reads : “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” (1st Epistle of John 5:7 – AV).

Our respected sister Jane Pons writes: “Unlike the God of the Muslims the God of the Christians does not require works or deeds to make a person clean and acceptable to Him. No rituals, no acts no good deeds can win a person a place in the Garden of Bliss.” (Courier August 21)

Inadvertently our dear sister commits “high treason” against her very own Bible where it says in the book of James: “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?…For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”(James 2 : 14 – 26)

The Muslims believe in Jesus Christ and no Muslim can be a Muslim if he or she does not believe in Jesus Christ. We believe Jesus Christ was born miraculously without any male intervention , we believe that he did many miracles like giving life to the dead, healing those born blind and the lepers by God’s permission. That is as far as we go with the Christians then there is a parting of the ways. Why? The Christian believes Jesus is God incarnate (God in human form) and the Muslim says he is not God but one who is sent by God. There is not a single statement in the Bible where Jesus says “I am the Almighty God,” or where he says “Worship me!” Rather he said repeatedly that we should worship God the Father.

And finally the verses given as proof to show that Jesus is the Almighty God are really misunderstood and here is a perfect example of just one of those verses.

“I and the Father are One” another verses commonly misunderstood to mean that Jesus is God. “I and the Father are one” John 10:30 is often quoted to show that Jesus is equal to God. But when you read the verse in its context you will find that the passage taken as a whole proves the opposite. People are often content to quote the verse in isolation to show that Jesus said “1 and the Father are one” and then the Jews picked up stones to stone him because they understood him to mean that he is claiming to be God. It is only when you read the passage to see what comes before and after this verse that you will realize that the Jews misunderstood what Jesus was saying. To my dear brothers Matthias Victor and Keith Duane and our respected sister Jane Pons, I have given you only one or two examples of how Bible verses have been misinterpreted and misunderstood and as such our belief in God ends up going in the wrong direction.

We cannot do justice to the topic in a medium of this nature and I think it is time we meet and discuss these issues in a most God fearing manner. Please feel free to contact me via e-mail or my cell number: Anwarsyed53@gmail.com Cell : 073 462 8139.

ANWAR SYED

Stanger

Letter shortened. This correspondence is now closed – Editor.