All agree with the Bible teaching and Bible accuracy until we get to Abraham’s children. All call Abraham the “Father of the Faithful.” After the teaching about Abraham, you begin to lose the Muslims. The Muslims begin to follow the Koran. (The Koran even teaches that the promise of God was to come through Isaac and that Abraham was the one who sent Hagar and Ishmael away.) The Koran also teaches that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary.
The Jews not only accept Abraham, but they take great pride in tracing their ancestry back to Abraham. (Tracing their ancestry is virtually impossible since the complete destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD when all of the Temple records were destroyed.) The Jews openly accept the Old Testament and the writings of the prophets. They do not, however, accept Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah. They follow the Old Testament and the Talmud (the writings of the teachers of the Law as an interpretation of the Law).
There are strong feelings of animosity between the Jews and the Muslims. They both claim the land of Palestine as their own as a “birthright” and as a promise of God. That makes a settlement of their counter claims almost an impossibility today. They both look to God as the only God of their people, and themselves as the favored ones. Jehovah is the way the Jews refer to the Lord God. Allah is the word that the Arabs use. When the Arabs refer to Allah, they are using the Aramaic form of “Lord God or Jehovah.” That is somewhat confusing, as many think they are talking about a different Muslim god.
As Christians, we accept Jesus Christ as the “only begotten” Son of God. We believe that He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophesies. We believe that the Bible in its entirety is the complete Word of God! We believe that Jesus is the risen Lord and that God the Father made Jesus to be head over all things. We believe that salvation comes only through Jesus and that He will return one day to take us to live with Him forever.
CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS, JEWS – all so close, but so far apart! It should make us study harder.