Gospel Prism

To make life easier for Christians and for the Western world, why don’t we just call God, ‘Allah’? What’s in a name any way? Can’t we just call God ‘Allah’ and in our minds, focus on the God of the Bible? Isn’t it just a name any way?

One Catholic bishop in the Netherlands, Tiny Muskens, makes this case:

Shouldn’t we all say from now on we will name God Allah? … What does God care what we call him?…In the heart of the Eucharist, God is called Allah over there (Indonesia), so why can’t we start doing that together?

Notice that there is a presupposition here that the bishop makes: Allah and the God the Bible are the same God.

As I have been reading Martin Luther’s biography, I know that if he were to have read this statement from this Catholic bishop, he would probably say such statements from the Roman church are the very reason he pinned those theses on the church door in Wittenburg.