Question: My dad’s side of the family is Christian, but my mom’s is Muslim, and therefore I have been taught some contradictory things. So, my basic question is this: Are Allah and God the same? I was taught that they are, and since in Turkish the only translation for God is Allah I really believe they are, but lots of Christians try to tell me differently. What do you think?

Answer: Technically, yes. Muslims believe in one God, as do Christians and Jews (these are the world three monotheistic religions. Christians and Jews believe that God revealed Himself through the Scriptures (Torah to Jews, the Bible to Christians). This is God’s written word. Christians believe that God also revealed Himself through the living Word (or logos), Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is the exact representation of God, and the same as God in substance.

Hebrews 1:1-3 explains it this way:

“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purifications for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”

Christianity is centered in the person and work of Christ, who came to earth in the form of a human, yet was also fully God. Jesus lived a perfect life, died on the cross for our sins, and then rose again, thereby conquering death, and becoming for all who believe in Him the first fruit of the future resurrection for all believers.

Now, when you define Christianity in this way, it is clearly different from Islam or Judaism. With Islam in particular, Jesus is recognized as a prophet. He is even recognized as sinless. But in no way is Jesus recognized as the Son of God. That is blasphemy to a Muslim. So, if the God of the Bible (the Christian God) is the triune God–where the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three Persons in one God–then that is a different understanding of the God of Islam, or Allah. By this measurement, Alla and the God of the Bible are quite different.

Another main difference between Allah and the God of the Bible is that Allah loves conditionally. He loves those who love Him. The God of the Bible loves unconditionally. Read 1 John 4:7-21. The key verse is “We love because he first loved us.”