How Would Jesus View Muslims?

Many Christians believe that Muslims worship a false god.  Would Jesus agree?

We can get some insight into what Jesus’ views would be by looking at His interaction with the Samaritans.  In his book, Grace and Truth, by Dr. Rick Love, Executive Director for Peace Catalyst International, an evangelical Christian organization, he writes, “The relationship between Christians and Muslims today parallels the racial and religious tensions between Jews and Samaritans in New Testament times.  Both Jews and Samaritans were monotheists.  Both Jews and Samaritans worshiped the God of Abraham.  Yet the Samaritans were seen as heretics - syncretistic in faith, ethnically inferior, and excluded from the true worship of God.” 

According to Judith Fein, in a BBC article published on August 29, 2018, today’s population of Samaritans is just over 800 people.  Many Christians today would regard Samaritans as heretics, just as the Jews erroneously did in New Testament times.  

Here are some pertinent facts: 

Samaritans only recognize the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Holy Bible) as Divine Scripture.  However there are passages in the Samaritan Pentateuch that differ from the Jewish version.  This includes the ten commandments, where the tenth commandment in the Samaritan Scripture requires that religious sacrifices must be made on Mount Gerizim. Thus the Samaritan woman’s observation during her conversation with Jesus, in which she distinguished between the places where Jews worshiped–Jerusalem and Samaritans–Mount Gerizim.

In the Gospel of John chapter 4, we read about this encounter with the Samaritan woman at a well in Samaria.  Jesus asked her for a drink of water.  During their conversation, Jesus criticized Samaritans for their worship practices, but He never accused them of worshiping a false god.  Given the way Jesus harshly criticized the Pharisees, He certainly would have been critical of the Samaritan woman for worshiping a false god, had He believed that to be the case.  As a matter of fact, Jesus instructs her, “A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24 NIV)  If Jesus believed she worshiped a false god, He most certainly would have included such an important instruction, in addition to versus 23 and 24.  Jesus was gracious to this Samaritan woman, and as a result, “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.”  (John 4:39 NIV)

Moreover, Jesus praised the good Samaritan for showing us what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves, and never criticized him for worshiping a false god either.  It is safe to say that Jesus believed that the Samaritans worshiped the true God.  Given these similarities between Samaritans and Muslims, it is also safe to recognize that Muslims worship the true God as well.

Finally, Christians who assert that Muslims worship a false god forget there are Jews who assert that Christians worship a false god as well, especially with respect to the trinity and the deity of Christ. However, most Christians do not assert that Jews worship a false god, and most Muslims do not assert that Christians and Jews worship a false god.  In fact, the Holy Quran refers to Christians and Jews as people of the book–that would be people of the Holy Bible.  The title of this blog certainly applies.  God still winks at the ignorance that separates good, God-fearing people–Christians, Muslims, and Jews who take their faith in God seriously.

In future posts to this blog, I will address some of the differences between Muslim and Christian beliefs, and I will further defend my belief that Muslims worship the true God.

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