Not to interrupt, thomas malloy wrote:
> Different name; yod hay vav hay as opposed to Allah,
Steven Johnson posted; > > >So, you know for an absolute fact that Allah isn't God?
and Merlyn added;
Same God, different interpretation. The Jewish/christian god has NO name, this is why He/She is referred to as God. Allah is arabic for
god, so the translation is the same.
>So, you know for an absolute fact that Allah isn't God?
My reply
In other words, if you believe in Allah you must prefer dictatorships over democracies?
Allah = dictatorships?
Islam means submission, does that answer your question?
That's why Allah isn't god?
My reply
He, the G-d of Israel, has a name, it is spelled yod, hey vav hey, it means I am what I am. There is no way that the two entities are the same, there is only room in the universe for one all powerful king. Or as a pastor I listen to puts it so eloquently, "we can't both of us be right." A comparison of the two systems that resulted from them makes that obvious.
Brief (and simplified) History Judaism was first. Some jews believed that the messiah came and became Christians, other jews continued to wait for his arrival. Some Jews followed a new prophet and became Muslims, others retained their original belief structure.
My reply
Very few Jews converted to Islam. By in large the converts were Arabs and other people who were in the way of Islam's conquest.
As for prophecy, that's all in the interpretation, which never seems to happen until after the event has occured. If you want to convince me, you are going to have to find a very specific prophecy, something that says "on this day this will happen to these people" and you are going to have to find it before that date and have it witnessed in some fashion.
My reply
We have predicted the return of the Jews, the conquest of the land of Israel, and the rebuilding of the Temple, which is happening now. As for dates, forget it.
Steven Johnson also responded that Carl Sagan never accepted Christianity. He seems to know more about it than I do.
This was an interesting discussion. The bottom line is that a group of religious Jews and Christians are continuing their efforts to rebuild the Temple. In what is, IMHO, the most under reported story of 2004, the Sanhedrin, the religious Jewish equivalent of a court, has been reconvened after 1900 and some years. One of my rabbi's talks about this issue can be purchased at www.hatikva.org .
