Weston Blaha

Tag: Father

  • Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?

    Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?

    Imagine two patients diagnosed with terminal cancer.
    Both are prescribed chemotherapy. One receives the real thing—an intravenous mixture packed with cytotoxic agents designed to destroy cancer cells. The other receives a solution labeled “chemo,” but it’s made of vitamins, sugar water, and saline. It carries the name, but lacks the necessary power to save. As such, One is healed. The other is not.

    Why? Because despite the label, only one contains the active ingredient—the thing that actually kills the cancer.

    This is the difference between the Christian God and the god of Islam.

    What Makes Chemo Work?

    Chemotherapy isn’t just a name—it’s a treatment defined by its active agents. Drugs like cisplatin, doxorubicin, or paclitaxel do the hard work: they attack DNA, disrupt cell division, and force cancer cells into programmed death. BUT, if you strip away those compounds, you no longer have chemotherapy. You have a label without power.

    The Same is True of God

    Muslims and Christians may both use the word “God,” and they may even believe they are worshiping the one Creator. But when you examine the actual content—the nature and work of that God—you quickly see they are not the same.

    Here’s what the Christian God possesses that the Muslim god denies:

    1. The Trinity – God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not an add-on; it is God’s eternal identity.
    2. The Incarnation – God became flesh in Jesus Christ. Islam rejects this completely.
    3. The Cross and Resurrection – At the center of Christian faith is the saving death and bodily resurrection of Jesus. Islam denies both.
    4. Faith-Based Righteousness – Christianity offers salvation by grace through faith in Christ. Islam teaches salvation by works and merit.
    5. The Bible – Christians receive the Old and New Testaments as God’s Word. Muslims reject or overwrite this revelation with the Qur’an.

    By the way, even Muslims don’t believe we worship the same God.
    The Qur’an explicitly denies the deity of Christ, and Islam considers the worship of Jesus as “shirk”—blasphemous idolatry.
    So if Jesus is God to Christians, and not God to Muslims, we are not worshiping the same being.

    Why This Matters

    To say that Christians and Muslims worship the same God is not just misleading—it’s spiritually dangerous. It may sound respectful, even tolerant, but it subtly denies the heart of the gospel.

    If you take away God’s Son, God’s Spirit, God’s Word, and God’s saving grace—you don’t just have “a different perspective on the same God.”
    You have a different god altogether.

    Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). That statement is not just exclusive—it’s definitive. A god who cannot be approached through the Son is not the Father. A worship system that denies the cross is not centered on the true and living God (see Mark 8:29-33).

    Conclusion: Chemo by Name Isn’t Enough

    If you jumped to the bottom of this article for the answer, here it is: Christians and Muslims do not worship the same God. In fact, any religion that is not Christianity does not worship the same God of Christianity. Real chemo contains real power. Real salvation comes from the real Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—who acts in history, speaks through Scripture, and saves by grace. Anything else may carry the name, but it cannot heal the soul.

  • Is Jesus YHWH?

    Is Jesus YHWH?

    Imagine a town that’s spent generations crossing a beautiful old stone bridge. It was built centuries ago—carefully engineered, deeply grounded, weathered but strong. But over time, the townspeople begin to forget why it was built the way it was. New generations don’t remember what each stone is for. Some even begin removing parts of the foundation–making room for bigger boats to pass under, widening the path to accommodate more people–and all along assuming that the upper structure will stand on its own. But soon the bridge begins to sag, then crack, and people are left wondering why what used to carry so much weight can no longer bear anything at all.

    This is what happens when Christians forget their theological roots—especially when it comes to who Jesus is.

    One of the most essential, and perhaps most misunderstood, claims of the New Testament is this: Jesus is YHWH. He is not merely a messenger from God or a reflection of God’s character. He is the LORD himself—the covenant God of Israel—come in the flesh. This is not an optional theological add-on. It’s the bedrock of Christian faith. And when that foundation is lost, we not only misread Scripture, we lose our ability to connect the promises of the Old Testament with the fulfillment in the New.

    So let’s walk carefully and clearly through this claim: what does it mean to say “Jesus is YHWH? How did the early church come to this conviction? And why must we hold to it today?

    What Do We Mean By “Jesus is YHWH?”

    Let’s be clear: when Christians say “Jesus is YHWH,” we do not mean that Jesus is the same person as the Father. We mean that Jesus shares the divine identity—that he is fully and truly God, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

    YHWH (sometimes written “Yahweh”) is the divine name revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Exod 3:14–15). It’s the covenant name of Israel’s God—the great “I AM.” When Christians say Jesus is YHWH, we are saying that he is not just a messenger of God, not just a great teacher or prophet, but the LORD himself in human flesh. This is at the very heart of Christian faith:

    “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh.” (John 1:1, 14)

    The New Testament Applies YHWH Texts to Jesus

    The New Testament doesn’t just call Jesus “God” in a vague sense—it regularly applies Old Testament YHWH passages directly to him. Consider:

    1. Hebrews 1:10–12 quotes Psalm 102:25, a psalm of worship to YHWH, and applies it to Jesus:

      “You, YHWH, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning…”

    2. Philippians 2:9–11 quotes Isaiah 45:23, where YHWH declares, “To me every knee shall bow,” and says this will happen before “Jesus”:

     “Every knee will bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

    3. Romans 10:13 says:

    “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, quoting Joel 2:32—which clearly refers to YHWH.

    4. John 12:41 comments on Isaiah’s vision of the Lord in Isaiah 6 (where angels cry “Holy, holy, holy is YHWH of hosts”) and says:

    “Isaiah said these things because he saw [Jesus’] glory and spoke of him.”

    The claim that Jesus is YHWH isn’t some theological sleight of hand–this is the apostles teaching us who Jesus really is.

    Jesus Takes the Divine Name

    In John 8, Jesus himself make a shocking claims using the divine name:

    “Before Abraham was, I AM.” (John 8:58)

    The crowd knew exactly what he was claiming—they picked up stones to kill him for blasphemy (John 8:59). In Jewish context, “I AM” (“ego eimi“) is a direct reference to Exodus 3:14. Jesus wasn’t just saying he was old—he was identifying himself with YHWH.

    But Isn’t Jesus the Son? How Can He Be YHWH?

    Christian theology has always affirmed the doctrine of the Trinity: one God in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is YHWH, the Son is YHWH, and the Spirit is YHWH. Not three gods, but one God, united in essence and purpose, eternally existing in three persons. There are many gods (“elohim” in Hebrew), but no other elohim is YHWH elohim. YHWH our elohim, is one elohim (Deut. 6:4)—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

    This isn’t something the church made up in the fourth century. It’s grounded in Scripture itself. The early church believed it, worshiped Jesus accordingly, and died confessing it.

    Why It Matters?

    If Jesus is not YHWH, then Christianity collapses.

    • Only YHWH can save. If Jesus is not God, he cannot be the Savior.
    • Only YHWH deserves worship. Yet the New Testament church worships Jesus.
    • Only YHWH is eternal and unchanging. And Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

    To deny that Jesus is YHWH is not to disagree on a side issue—it is to reject the Gospel itself.

    Conclusion

    It can be jarring to realize just how radical Christianity’s claim about Jesus really is. He is not just God’s representative—he is “God with us” (Matt 1:23). He is not just sent by the LORD—he is the LORD.

    The early church didn’t come to the conviction that Jesus is YHWH out of abstract speculation or political convenience. They came to it because the Scriptures demanded it, because the Spirit revealed it, and because the resurrection vindicated it. Jesus is not just the messenger—he is the Message made flesh. He is the I AM who spoke to Moses, the Lord whom Isaiah saw high and lifted up, the Shepherd of Israel, the Alpha and the Omega.

    To deny that Jesus is YHWH is not a small theological misstep—it’s a foundational collapse. And when that foundation erodes, the bridge that once carried the weight of God’s promises into our present moment begins to fail. The church’s ability to connect the God of Sinai with the Christ of the cross, the Psalms with the Gospels, the worship of Israel with the worship of the Church—all of it crumbles when we chip away at the stones our forefathers laid with sweat and blood and prayer.

    We don’t need to modernize the bridge. We need to remember why it was built the way it was—and trust that it is a path as narrow as it should be, as strong at it must be, and spans from death to life as promised.

    So yes, the church is a city on a hill for Christ, just as Israel was for YHWH—because they are not rivals or replacements, but one and the same. Jesus is YHWH in the flesh. And that’s not heresy–that’s Christianity.

    Because Jesus is not merely like YHWH.

    He is YHWH.

    And in him, the covenant holds fast.

  • From Servants and Citizens to Sonship

    From Servants and Citizens to Sonship

    “Sometimes, I allow myself to simply sit in silence.” That is a sentence you will rarely if ever hear me say, and my wife will strongly attest to that. However, this week when driving back from our EPC General Assembly, I finished an audio-book, couldn’t find one something else interesting, and just sat in silence for a while. And it is often in those moments that my brain becomes creative. Allow me to share something that I am still processing through, but occurred to me regarding the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32).

    We all know the parable well: the younger son demands his inheritance, squanders it on worldly pleasures, and then—after hitting rock bottom—returns to his father, hoping to be admitted as a servant. But upon arrival, his father embraces him, clothes him, and celebrates with the fattened calf. The mercy and forgiveness demonstrated here is unimaginable. But the older son, the one who remained and worked faithfully for his father, is upset—how could the father celebrate such a squandering failure of a son? When confronted with this, the father responds, “‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”

    Most commentators recognize three distinct figures in this parable. The first is the father, who represents God the Father, who forgives and redeems. The second is the older son, who represents the Jews/Pharisees, or perhaps the faithful Christians, who have remained with the Father, but cannot find joy when a sinner repents. The third is the prodigal, the one who squandered everything, representing either the Gentiles or a rebellious Christian, and comes to his senses. But these three figures are actually not the focus of this article—instead, I am thinking about the other two groups of people mentioned in the parable—have you ever noticed them?

    The Servants
    The first group I want to point out are the servants—these are the ones who prepare the feast, the ones whom the prodigal thought he could join upon his return. These servants might represent the angelic hosts—the servants of the Most High celebrating when a sinner is saved (Luke 15:7). This would certainly make sense. But I want to suggest that they might represent another group of people: the visible church. The visible church is all of those that are outwardly part of the Christian faith, but not so inwardly—they haven’t truly been adopted as sons, though they are present at all the family reunions. In this parable you have these servants hanging around, helping out, serving, claiming the Father as their master—but not the title of sons.

    Now consider the prodigal son: hoping to return as one of these servants. Friends, how many people do we know who have been steeped in sin—at their breaking point, wallowing in misery—look to the church as something that they are unqualified to embrace yet deeply knowing they need it? Thinking that their sin is too great for adoption into the family of God, too awful ever be truly forgiven. or, maybe they simply aren’t convinced that this family isn’t that special, not not sure it’s worth digging in deeper. Either way, this group finds themsleves on the outsides of church life—they may show up, they may watch online, but the idea of God’s mercy being enough to cover their sins is more than they could hope for, or maybe simply uneccesary. This community, this fellowship isn’t for them in its fullness.

    We all have these people in our churches. We all have members of the visible church, serving alongside us as times, participating in the party at times, but not yet adopted as sons. When a prodigal son returns to your flock, to your church body, how often do we approach those yet to be adopted, those yet to embrace God’s mercy, those struggling to see the full value of this family, and show them that Jesus’ blood is good enough, rich enough, worth enough to move them from outside the family to sonship and inheritance in Christ, just like that prodigal? That’s the first neglected group in the parable.

    The World
    The second group neglected in this parable is the “citizen” mentioned in verse 15. This is the man for whom the prodigal agreed to work when his wealth was depleted. He represents, I suggest, the world. Consider this: when a prodigal returns to the faith, why does the world he left think? What does the world think he left behind or sacrificed in the process? Does the world think he’s groveling back to be a slave, or that he is being embraced in the goodness of the Father? I guess the question is: Are we using this as an opportunity to go into the vacancy he left and tell the story of how the prodigal was restored beyond his wildest imagination by the great mercy of the Father? Do we tell them that the Father has robes, rings, and fattened calves for them too, if only they would abandon the filth in which they wallow?

    You see, we typically focus on the main characters, as we rightly should: the Father, the older son, and the prodigal son. But I think we sell ourselves (and the story) short if we stop there. Friends, if we miss the opportunity to lead the visible church into the invisible church (sonship), and we forgo the chance to bring the world to the Father, we have neglected to use a tremendously powerful example of the Gospel of Jesus–we’ve failed to apply the testimony of God’s goodness to their prospective spheres.

    Here’s the challenge: Let the prodigal son’s return be a tool with which we call servants and citizens to the Father, and to sonship through Jesus Christ.