In 2003 President Bush faced a backlash from Christians when he said that he believed that Muslims and Christians worshipped the same God.1
This question ties into Billy Graham's "Muslims are saved" remarks in 1994,2 and the Pope's remarks in 2013. {Muslims] worship the one living and merciful God, and call upon him in prayer."3 In 2014, false teacher Brian Houston (formerly of Hillsong) indicated that Allah and God are the same. Houston: "Do you know – take it all the way back into the Old Testament and the Muslim and you, we actually serve the same God. Allah to a Muslim; to us, Abba Father God."4 After a clip of this sermon went viral, Houston accused his critics of quoting him out of context.
JD Greear, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina muddied the waters in 2010 when he stated “Believing wrong things about God and worshiping him incorrectly doesn’t mean one is worshipping a different God” in his book Breaking the Islam Code (p.59). American evangelical apologist Neil Shenvi who is a congregant of The Summit Church recently reignited this controversy when he responded to a tweet from Megan Bashan on X regarding Greear's apparent affirmation that Muslims and Christians do in fact worship the same God. Shenvi's response: "I was inclined to say 'No', but Acts 17:23 seems hard to square with this. If pagans worshipping at a pagan shrine to an 'unknown god' were 'worshipping god in ignorance' what are the implications."
Shenvi subsequently removed his tweets with an apology, but by that time the damage was done.
Greear is typical of many false teachers who talk out of both sides of their mouths and fail to give a definitive answer. Below Greear says "absolutely not" while affirming that he has fewer problems with Muslims and Christians "attempting to worship the same God."
Greear: "Are there multiple ways to God and does God receive the worship of Christians and Muslims alike? The answer is absolutely not, because Islam is a false way of salvation. It presents basically salvation by works and it outright denies several key things that Christianity teaches about God, like God being a Trinity and the personal nature of God and just a number of things. There is some question as to... Muslims say they worship the God of Abraham. And some missionaries have found it helpful to start with that and say, like Jesus said to the woman at the well in John 4, 'Who you think you're worshiping you're not actually worshiping.' When Jesus confronted her, a Samaritan woman who was worshiping wrongly and had wrong ideas about God. He didn't say you're worshiping a different God. He said you're attempting to worship the One Creator, God, the wrong way. And I've heard people talk about that as an approach to Muslims and I think it has some merit. I think when you're a missionary on the field, one of the things that you're trying to do is you're trying to say, [is] this God that we believe has created the world, has been speaking through the prophets, this God was revealed fully in Jesus. He is a Trinity. And Muhammad is not an accurate prophet of him. If somebody says that, I have less problems with them saying that Christians and Muslims are attempting to worship the same God but in two entirely different ways."5
The Acts 17:23 Question
For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. (Acts 17:23).
Shenvi's implication that people can worship the true God under another name opens the door to heresy and universalism. Paul did not affirm that the Athenians were worshipping the true God, rather he was using the example of the altar to "the unknown god" as an evangelistic opportunity to proclaim the true God. The scriptures decisively deny the heretical claim that the Athenians worshiped the true God. Scripture interprets scripture, i.e. the less clear passages of scripture MUST be interpreted in the light of the clearer passages.
Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. (1 John 2:22-23).
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 16:15-17).
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. (1 Corinthians 15:3-5).
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9).
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6).
There is no common ground between Christianity and Islam theologically. The foundational teaching of the New Testament is that Jesus is the Son of God. Islam denies the triune nature of God and is unequivocal that Allah has no son. Islam asserts that Allah is the God of Abraham (Ibrahim) and Ishmael6 whereas the Old Testament repeatedly asserts: I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. (Exodus 3:6 cf Exodus 3:15-16;6:3).
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