Christians, Jews, Moslems,
and the Bible
In this terrible time of hatred and war between the world’s most predominant religions, it is easy to forget that all three have common roots.
What are these roots? They all start with God’s promise to the faithful man Abram (Abraham). For at Genesis 12:1-3 God promised him, ‘Leave this land, your family, and your father’s home and go to a land that I am going to show you, because I’m going to make a great nation of you. I will praise you, make your name famous, and you will be blest. I will bless those who praise you and curse those who curse you. All nations will be blest because of you.’
Then at Genesis 17:4, 5 God said, ‘Look, I am making a Sacred Agreement with you. You will be the father of many nations. Your name will no longer be called Abram… it will be Abraham, for I have made you the father of many nations. I will make you grow tremendously. I will make nations come from you, and kings will descend from you.’
What are the ‘many nations’ that descended from Abraham? They are the nation of Israel (the ‘Jews’) and the many ‘Arabic’ nations who also descended from Abraham, and/or Isaac, and/or Jacob. In addition, the Bible includes those who claim the God of Israel as their God (the ‘Christians’) as adopted sons of Abraham. So, those who follow Judaism, Christianity, and the religion of Islam can all claim to be descendants of Abraham and worshipers of Jehovah.
Probably one of the hardest things for people who claim Christianity as their belief to understand, is that Jesus was first and foremost a Rabbi (teacher) of the Law of Moses (see Matthew 5:17-19). For, as a person who was born under the Law of Moses, he had to obey that Law strictly in order to become the Christ, Messiah, Anointed, or Promised One, and he had to worship the God of Israel, whose name was likely then pronounced Ya/h’/weh (Jehovah in English).
And even after Jesus was put to death, the primary responsibility of all the Apostles was to offer the hope of ‘life in the age’ to the Israelites, most of whom were from the tribes of Judah and BenJamin, who were called (in English) ‘the Jews.’ In fact, wherever Peter, Paul, Timothy, etc., went to preach in non-Jewish cities, they always started their preaching in Jewish synagogues, not among those who they called ‘the gentiles’ or ‘the ethnics.’ So to begin with (from 33 to 60 C.E.), Christianity was primarily a Jewish religion.
The other connection that most people – Christians and Moslems (or Muslims) alike – simply wish to ignore, are the common roots between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Since many ‘Arabic’ peoples are descended from Abraham (through his other four sons) or from Isaac (through Isaac’s other son, Esau), and many modern Arabs are actually descended from the ancient ten-tribe kingdom of Israel, it isn’t surprising that the religion of Islam teaches of God’s promises to Abraham, and that Moses is considered a great Prophet of God by them. So, the first portions of the Bible are surprisingly quite similar to parts of the holy book of Islam – the Koran.
The other (and most controversial) link between all these religions is the connection between Islam and those who were called the Samaritans in Jesus’ time. While Islam claims its roots from the teachings of their Prophet Mohammed, the teachings and ties of this religion actually go back several hundred years before Mohammed’s birth. For example, notice the marked similarity between the beliefs of the Samaritan woman who Jesus met at the well in Sychar, where Jacob’s well was located. For we read at John 4:12, ‘You aren’t greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well and who drank from it with his sons and cattle, are you?’ Then again at John 4:20, where she said, ‘Our ancestors worshiped here on this mountain, but you people say that Jerusalem is where people ought to worship.’
So, these people (although they weren’t Jews or from the tribes of Judah or BenJamin) claimed to be descendants of Jacob (or Israel), and like modern Islam, they held places other than God’s Temple in Jerusalem as sacred.
Then notice what we were told at John 4:39-41, ‘Now, many of the Samaritans from that city put faith in [Jesus] because of what the woman testified to … and … many more believed [in him] because of the things he said.’
So, it isn’t surprising that the Koran also speaks of Jesus as a great Prophet. For more information on Islam, see the linked contributed article, ‘Allah the Moon God.’
For more information on ties between Israel and Islam, see the Note in First Chronicles, ‘The Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.’
The name ‘Christians’ (or followers of the Christ or Anointed One) was started by the people of Antioch, Asia Minor, near the middle of the First Century B.C.E., as Acts 11:26 tells us. Yet, while many today think that it truly was a new religion with new teachings, it wasn’t anything new to the Jews of Jesus’ day. Rather, most (including all the Jewish Christians) considered it just a continuation of the same worship of Jehovah. However, unlike the orthodox Jews, especially among the gentile converts, Christians came to believe that they were no longer under the Law of Moses, but that they had a New Sacred Agreement with God that was inaugurated by the death of Jesus.
Yet today, most Christians may in fact not only be adopted sons of Abraham, but literal sons as well. For, due to the wide dispersion of the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians in 740-B.C.E., the dispersion of the Jews in 607-B.C.E. by the Babylonians, and again by the Romans in 70-C.E., then the thousands of conversions to Christianity and intermarriages ever since, most us are likely actual descendants of Abraham, and possibly actual descendants of the Jews. So, the roots of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and their peoples are far more common and interlinked than any of us could imagine.
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