Posted on 08/17/2007 3:53:57 AM PDT by monomaniac
By Elizabeth O'Brien
AMSTERDAM, August 15, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Dutch Catholic bishop, with a history of dissident teaching, has encouraged Catholic faithful to pray to God as "Allah" in order to promote a better relationship between Catholics and Muslims, Catholic World News reports.
On Monday evening Bishop Martinus "Tiny" Muskens of the diocese of Breda told the Dutch television station "Network", "God doesn't really care how we address Him." God is, said the bishop, above "discussion and bickering".
The 71-year old bishop also said that although many might disagree with him at present, Dutch Catholics would refer to God as "Allah" in future. The bishop worked as a missionary in Indonesia over thirty years ago, and here Catholics refer to God as Allah, he said. According to the Radio Netherlands reports, the two names are also interchangeable in the Middle East.
"Someone like me has prayed to Allah yang maha kuasa (Almighty God) for eight years in Indonesia and other priests for 20 or 30 years. In the heart of the Eucharist, God is called Allah over there, so why can't we start doing that together?"
"Of course it is something we would have to prepare thoroughly and lengthily and contemplate extensively," he is quoted as saying in the NIH News Bulletin.
His words come shortly after the remarks of Geert Wilder, head of the Netherlands Freedom Party, who stated that the Qur'an should be outlawed because it "incites hatred and killing". He wrote that the book therefore "has no place in our legal order."
Bishop Muskens is also said to have suggested that the national holiday Whit-Monday be replaced with an Islamic holiday.
Responses to the report were not positive. They included one American woman saying, "Is there a reason that Christians must pray to Allah instead of Muslims praying to God? Isn't that a double standard, with all the give on one side and all the take on the other?" And another stated, "Rapprochement requires accepting our differences, not changing our practices in this case."
In 2006 Muskens created scandal by traveling to Ughanda in order to promote anti-AIDS activists, who support condom use. Dissenting from the teaching of the Catholic Church, Muskens stated, "It is permissible to opt for the lesser evil of condom use to prevent the greater evil of AIDS."
Read Previous LifeSiteNews coverage:
Dutch Bishop Pushes Condoms Undermining Uganda's AIDS Abstinence Success Story
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/sep/06090506.html
Radio Netherlands Report: http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/ned070814mc
I seem to remember something about early Christians being told “just make this small change in who you worship and you will be set free”. This exercise was usually followed closely by being tossed to the lions.
I am no theologian so I don’t know if the two names are linked in any way but what I do know is that as a Christian I was taught to honor and follow God. I was also taught that Allah was what some non-Christians called “their god”.
If you can say “what’s in a name?” why wasn’t it just as right for early Christians to call God “Jupiter” just to create better relations with the Romans? Sorry folks but I for one will walk with Jesus and take my chances with the lions.
His father should have worn a condom.
His boss should send him his retirement papers.
It’s not exactly the response to the Muslims that the Battle of Lepanto was.
//rolling eyes//
Retirement papers hell. He should be excommunicated. I wish someone could explain to me (a lifelong Catholic) how a nut like this gets to be a Bishop.
And exactly, what is the Popes e-mail address?
By Hal Lindsey
The very first news story I read yesterday morning was about a Dutch Roman Catholic bishop who is advocating that Christians rename "God" to "Allah."
Bishop Martinus Petrus Maria Muskens, (also known as "Tiny") told Dutch TV: "Allah is a very beautiful word for God. Shouldn't we all say that from now on we will call God 'Allah'?"
My mouth was still hanging open when I read the last part of his statement: "God doesn't care what we call Him."
If one doesn't believe that God is real, then it really doesn't matter what name one chooses.
It's like naming your 6-foot tall invisible white rabbit. You can call him "Harvey." Or you can name him "Peter Cottontail." He won't object either way – since he isn't real.
But if you try to rename your friend Fred from down the street, he may not be so pleased about being called George. Because Fred is a real person, you wouldn't think about calling him George simply because somebody else likes that name better.
Because God is as real as you or I, it isn't up to us to rename Him like He was a stray basset hound.
God has many names; most of them are names of praise and worship, rather than names in the sense of a personal name. They include Elohim, El Shaddai, Adonai, Jehovah (YHWH), Shepherd, Judge, Father, Counselor, Comforter, Advocate, or simply "Lord" or "Almighty God." One name that has never been ascribed to Him in Scripture is "Allah."
Bishop Muskens' comments found an immediate audience in America. Council on Islamic American Relations spokesman Ibrahim Hooper thinks it is a great idea.
"It reinforces the fact that Muslims, Christians and Jews all worship the same God," Hooper told FoxNews.com. "I don't think the name is as important as the belief in God and following God's moral principles. I think that's true for all faiths."
According to the God of the Bible, God's Name is very important to Him. "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain" (Exodus 20:7).
God's unique identity as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is very important to Him, as well. "And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. ... But My covenant will I establish with Isaac" (Genesis 17:21).
Have you ever noticed that it is Allah who is seeking to be identified with God, and not the other way around? There is no effort among Christians and Jews to declare God another name for Allah (with the exception of Bishop Muskens.)
Being worshiped as God is Satan's No. 1 objective to the exclusion of all else. Everything Scripture reveals about Satan exposes his agenda.
He tempted Jesus in the wilderness, demanding that Jesus bow down and worship him. Paul says he will sit "as God, in the Temple of God" during the Tribulation. John says he will demand worship as a condition of participating in his economic/religious system.
Notice this very important spiritual clue: It isn't God that wants to be worshiped as Allah, but Allah who wants to be worshiped as God.
It is both a distinction and a difference.
Christians and Jews worship a Living God. As a living entity, God cannot be "reinvented" to suit somebody else, since He already is Who He is.
The Scriptures were given us to reveal God for Who He is, rather than some impersonal, nameless spiritual entity "up there" somewhere.
The doctrine of Satan is that all religions are equally valid, that all paths lead to God, that God is impersonal, unknowable, and it is therefore irrelevant to Him what we call Him or how we worship Him.
If Allah and God are one and the same, then wouldn't the worship of the Hindu chief gods, Vishnu and Shiva, also be the worship Allah and God, only by a different name? Pretty soon, everybody is God.
Which is the same as saying that nobody is.
Allah is the name of the sun god that mohamed named his religion after when he combined 360 religions to form islam. Allah was a very minor god. The koran says to kill the people of the book, Israelites, and the Christians. Calling my God allah does not rewrite the koran. The Hebrews were so respectful of their God that they did not even say his name.
The Catholic Church seems to relish it's liberal leaders.
I thought arabic Christians used the name Allah? Don’t some Jews use Allah also? Am I wrong about that? Still, it’s kinda wacky for non-arabic speaking people.
Freegards
benedictxvi@vatican.va
Seriously.
[”God doesn’t really care how we address Him.”]
GOOD, then I’ll continue to call Him God until he speaks to me, as He, evidently, has to this guy and tells me otherwise.
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