Expert: Thurman C. Petty, Jr. - 1/15/2012

Question
We often hear it said that Christians and Jews (and possibly Muslims as well, but that's another subject) worship the same God. If this is true, should not both all their walks with Him be equal and appropriate? I'm reminded of Moses' father in law, Balaam & Melchizedek in the Hebrew Scriptures; they were clearly not of Moses' exact faith but were followers of "the most high God". Seems to me that if the answer is yes we should all get along better and support each other's faiths. If the answer is no, then there is no correlation between the two testaments and therefore the prophetic utterings in one have nothing to do with the other. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Answer
Dear Joel,

In a word: Yes. But perhaps I need to give you more information than that.

The question should be, not so much do they worship the same God, but how they worship Him. And even though they might say they worship the same God, do they really?

There are thousands of “faiths” in the world.

If we limit it to Jews and Christians we have several sects of Jews: Orthodox (actually, Pharisees), Conservative, and Liberal. I’m sure there are more than that, but the Conservative Jews I’ve talked to think of those divisions. Jews believe that the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) are God’s word to man. Above all else, the Pentateuch, the first 5 books written by Moses, as the Law.

And we have hundreds of denominations of Christians, all claiming to worship the same God and claiming that the Bible is their holy book.

Some Christians believe that when Jesus died on the cross he did away with the Old Testament, and now we should only study the New Testament. The problem with this is that the entire New Testament is based on, and freely quotes from, the Old Testament.

Some Christians believe that Jesus is God, the Son of the Father—making two Persons Who work so closely that to everyone else, They appear to be One. Others don’t accept Jesus as divine.

Most Christians say they believe in the 10 commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) as the authoritative guide for human life. While the largest church—the Roman Catholic—has changed it to fit their teachings: Catholics use images in their worship, while the 2nd commandment (Exodus 20:4-6) condemns the use of images. So the church deleted that commandment altogether.

The 4th commandment (their 3rd) requires the keeping holy of the 7th day of the week (Saturday) in honor of God’s creation of the world in 6 days, and His resting on the 7th. But the Catholic church changed that commandment and proclaimed that the Christian world worship on Sunday, the first day of the week. While there are hundreds of Biblical references in both Old and New Testaments to God’s people keeping the 7th day Sabbath, there are none that even suggest that the day would be changed to the first day of the week. But almost all denominations have followed the Catholic Church in keeping Sunday.

Would that be worshiping the same God? Or do we have a different God who allows drastic changes in His law and worship styles?

There are many other examples that leave us wondering as well.

Many wars have been fought and millions of people have died because Protestants in the past have refused to accept the Pope as the head of the Christian church. Of course, in recent years many Protestants are drifting back to what Catholics call the “Mother” church.

I don’t really know what to tell you more than this. Sad to say, it seems that more wars throughout history have been fought over religion than over any other thing. And from what I see, it’s not over yet.

However, the Old and New Testaments are not only coordinated, but they are one and the same word of God. The writers of the New Testament looked at what we call the Old Testament as their Scriptures, their Bible. They didn’t even know—never even thought of—that what they wrote would become part of scripture...the Bible.

The prophecies of the Old Testament are echoed and expanded in the New. The first 3 chapters of the Old Testament, (Genesis 1-3) about the creation of the world and the entrance of sin, are beautifully tied to the last 3 chapters of the New Testament (Rev. 20-22) where sin is destroyed and the earth is made over new. All sin and its effects will be wiped away, and the earth and its restored peoples will exist in happiness for all eternity.

I recommend that you read the Bible for yourself. Accept Jesus as your own personal Savior. Plan to be part of the group of survivors who will live in the new earth.

If you’d like to have help sorting it out, I recommend the following resources:

Mail order Bible lessons: Amazing Facts Bible Lessons, PO Box 1058, Roseville, CA 95678
Telephone questions answered: 3ABN 1-800-752-3226 (pastoral dept., ext. 1)
On-line: Bibleinfo.com; Itiswritten.com (Bible studies/Discover Bible Guides)
Television networks: HOPE Channel (Direct TV #368); 3ABN (Dish Network #9710)

I welcome your questions over my personal e-mail.

Thurman C. Petty, Jr.
PettyPress@gmail.com
www.PettyPress.com (43 Bible lessons; 20 Books; more)