Calling God Allah?

Is it OK to call God Allah as some missionaries in Muslim countries say is OK to do?
For me the matter is simple, however I will try to expand on it below. Sorry if things tun out to be a little long-winded, but I will try to be as brief as possible. I have included the references that I know to where things are found within the Qur'an.
In my mind there is no other way to look at this subject than as blasphemous, and is a transgression of the third commandment: "you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain", for one basic reason:
The concept of a name in the Bible is not just a title that you call someone so you know how to address them when you speak to them, but it incorporates the very character of that person and often includes details about the person with regard to their heritage, role or activities.


For example, Jacob means grabber of the heel, and he was called this because he was born grabbing the heel of his twin brother Esau who was born minutes before him. It also illustrates Jacob's character as throughout his life he was always trying to grab things instead of trusting God for them. Another meaning of the name, by implication, is deceiver. This is seen in the deceptive activities of Jacob in trying to grab things.

Jesus is another example, as in Hebrew the name Yeshua means God is salvation.

This concept however is not unique to the Bible, as it forms part of many of the cultures around that area for thousands of years. In fact, most of the Afrikaans surnames around today follow the same principle from the time of William of Orange who forced the Dutch to take on surnames. Many were chosen to illustrate the origin or occupation of the person (e.g. de Klerk – the clerk).

Therefore, when you are referring to God by a name, you are not just giving Him a tittle of reference, you are also referring to His character. As a result, if you are going to call God Allah, then you are actually saying that God has the character of Allah. The same would apply if you were calling Him Krishna or one of the many other names given to the gods of the many religions around the world.

If then you are referring to the character of Allah when you call God Allah, what then is that character? What does Allah represent?

I am going to answer that question by looking at a few teachings of Islam.

Atonement
According to Christianity, and Old Testament Judaism, in the atoning act of God, a substitute was to be sacrificed for the repenting sinner. This substitute was then accepted by God instead of the offender and the punishment was executed on the substitute. This we know to be Jesus.

However, the Muslims reason that this would be unjust of Allah to punish an innocent person for the offences of the guilty. The just should be rewarded with goodness, and the guilty would be punished with tribulation. Jesus, the just, therefore could not really suffer for the unjust, for this would be offensive to Allah's concept of righteousness and justice.

This is nullifying the whole atoning work of God. It is also making Him out to be a liar and that His promises and fulfilment of those promises contained in the Bible are false.

Son of God
According to the teachings of Islam, “God neither begets nor is begotten” (Sura 112:3) therefore Jesus could not have been God's Son. Therefore, Jesus was not in anyway God. In fact they teach that Jesus was just a great prophet like Abraham, Moses and Mohammed (Sura 5:73-75).

This is a clear denial of the teachings of Christ's divinity contained within the Bible.

Trinity
According to Islam, the Christian trinity is God, Jesus and Mary, not the Holy Spirit. They also say that we are worshipping three gods and not one (Sura 5:73-75). Granted, the word Trinity is a theological term and is not directly mentioned within the Bible, however it is implied in many passages throughout Scripture, from Genesis 1 right through to Revelation 22.

The Trinity is a vital doctrine of the Christian faith and to deny it is to deny the very character of God as revealed in His Word.

The Crucifixion
This is the most vital issue in the Christian-Islamic controversy. For the Christian, there is no possible compromise. Neither is it possible on the side of the Muslims. They are taught within the Qur'an that Jesus was not crucified. It was the plan of Jesus’ enemies to crucify Him, but Allah saved Him and raised Him up to him. A likeness of Jesus was put over another man whom Jesus’ enemies took and crucified, thinking that he was Jesus (Sura 4:157).

This is in clear contrast to the teaching of the Gospel message and is very similar to the Gnostic teachings prevalent during the first few centuries of the church.

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”
Muslims deny this teaching of Jesus. They claim that He was only talking to the Jews during that time period and that for them it may be true, but not for those since or those outside of Israel and Judaism. This then opens to door for someone else to step in and claim to be the way for the Gentile nations. In the Muslim's mind, Mohammed and his teachings contained within the Qur'an is the only way to get to Allah.

This is in clear contrast to the teachings contained within the Bible.

Judgement Day
According to the Qur'an those who die while believing that “There is no true god but Allah, and Muhammad is his Messenger” and are Muslim will be rewarded on that day and will be admitted to Paradise forever (Sura 2:82). But those who die while not believing this or are not Muslim will lose Paradise forever and will be sent to Hellfire (Sura 3:85,91). Basically, Allah does not accept adherence to any religion other than Islam.

This is clearly a contradiction of the teachings of the Bible.

The Bible
Muslims believe that the Bible we have today is not the true Word of God because it is not the original scriptures that were revealed by God. It underwent alterations, additions, and omissions. However, the Qur'an is the final revealed word of God and has not been changed since it was written 14 centuries ago.

As Christians we believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God, and that all revelation ended with the closing of the canon. The Qur'an came centuries later and therefore falls outside of this time frame.

It is also interesting to note that Muslims reject that God rested on the seventh day. Again making God and His Word out to be a liar.

Conclusion
Do any of these things sound at all anything like the God of the Bible? Why then would we call God Allah when the attributes of Allah stand in stark contrast to the God of the Bible? To do so would be blasphemous and would be taking the name of God in vain, a clear transgression of the third commandment.

One may argue, as it seems from the articles and other sources that I have read, that language is merely a way of communicating and it does not matter what one calls God, it is merely a title that we humans have placed on Him. But what I said earlier about what a name represents cancels out this argument.

It sounds ludicrous, but we might as well just call God Spoon if words or names do not matter. The very idea of calling God Spoon certainly would not be accepted because God is not a spoon. He does not look like one, He does not function like one, and He is not lifeless like one. So why would we call Him Spoon. Using the same argument, God is nothing like Allah, so then why would we call Him Allah?

Also to say what some others have said that Paul used a similar method in Acts 17 is taking the whole Biblical narrative out of context. The word used there for the “unknown god” is not a name of a god, but rather the general word used for a god, theos. This is the same as us using god with a small first letter (like referring to money as a god). Paul was in no way using the name Zeus or Apollo to name God in this context. The name Allah is a name within itself and is not a general term meaning a god. So this argument falls short.

In conclusion therefore, if you are going to call God Allah, then you are assigning a character to Him that is not what is revealed to us in Scripture, but rather what is contained within the Qur'an. Just as in the same way if you were to call Him Krishna, you are assigning attributes to Him that are contained within the Baghavad Gita. This is blasphemous. We can only call Him by a name that is in line with what He has revealed about Himself within the Word of God.

There are churches in Indonesia that use the name Allah during communion. If you think about it, this in itself is blasphemous towards the Muslims too as they teach that Allah did not come to earth and die for them.

The whole idea of calling God Allah was originally started by a retired Dutch Roman Catholic priest who was a missionary in Indonesia. The Catholic church as you know is one of the forerunners in the ecumenical movement which is trying to unite all the world religions together.

I believe that if we go the route of calling God Allah, then we are doing exactly what the Muslims and the devil want, and that is to submit to the spirit of the world that is at work trying to separate man from the one true God. In fact, the word Islam itself means submit.
I know that this issue is a sensitive one, however I believe that there is a principle at work here that is not of God. The devil wants people to worship anyone but the God of the Bible and if he can convince people to do so, he has already had a victory within the battle.
Baruch atem b’Shem Yeshua! (Blessings in the name of Jesus!)
GW