See my postings on the earlier story at http://www.christianpost.com/article/20071228/30662_Malaysia_Christians_Challenge_Ban_on_'Allah'.htm I explain the linguistic usage of Allah as the common language word for God used by Malay and Indonesian speaking peoples. Also I mention that Arabic speaking Christians have used Allah for centuries before the Koran was written. The oldest Bi...more

See my postings on the earlier story at http://www.christianpost.com/article/20071228/30662_Malaysia_Christians_Challenge_Ban_on_'Allah'.htm

I explain the linguistic usage of Allah as the common language word for God used by Malay and Indonesian speaking peoples. Also I mention that Arabic speaking Christians have used Allah for centuries before the Koran was written.
The oldest Bibles in Malay and Indonesian which were translated 400 years or so ago used "Allah" because they had no choice other than borrow a foreign language term; but why borrow when the word Allah exists already, just as Christians in the Englosh speaking word used the existing word God (which had been used by pagans in pre Christian times in some form or other).less

Maranatha, my previous answer indicates the answer to how they distinguish. They distinguish by what they believe about God (as they believe he has been revealed to them). Muslims don't believe Jesus is the son of God or that God is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am not saying that Muslims and Christians put their faith in the same God; that is not the point of my argument. I am ...more

Maranatha, my previous answer indicates the answer to how they distinguish. They distinguish by what they believe about God (as they believe he has been revealed to them). Muslims don't believe Jesus is the son of God or that God is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am not saying that Muslims and Christians put their faith in the same God; that is not the point of my argument. I am saying that Malay and Indonesian people perceive God (Allah) according to which revelation they believe, and therefore Christians particularly perceive God according to the revelation about Jesus Christ.
It seems to me that you wish to hang on to your previous understanding of "God" as the Christian God, and "Allah" as the Muslim God. I
f you were a native Indonesian or Malay Muslim who believed in the revelation to Mohammed as passed down in the Koran, you would submit to Allah. If you were a Malay or Indonesian who came to faith in Jesus Christ and converted from Islam, Hinduism or Animism, you would worship Allah (God) the Father of your saviour the Lord Jesus Christ; you would pray to Allah the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, because in Malay and Indonesian "Allah" is the word for God. What other choice would you have? None.
In Indonesian people address me as Bapak or Tuan, but in English they say Sir or Mr. I personally do not change even though the term of address changes. I am who I am by my nature, personality, physical appearance etc; not by how people address me. Even my name can be translated, but I remain who I am.
In the KJV of the Bible God's name is written as Jehovah. Other versions change that to LORD (which gets wrongly confused with Lord in the New Testament). Some would change Jehovah to Yahweh or YWHY. John can be rendered in other languages as Yahya, Yohannes, Yohann, Ivan, Iain and Juan. The name translates; the person remains the same.
It seems to me some bloggers are confusing a linguistic issue with a theological one.less

Maranatha, The God of the Bible has revealed himself through his covenant relationship with Israel and through Jesus the Christ. Joshua, Yeshua and Jesus are all names given to human beings, but we know each one by his individual history and by his individual character therefore we distinguish the God Christians worship from the God Muslims worship not by the term "God" but by the charac...more

Maranatha, The God of the Bible has revealed himself through his covenant relationship with Israel and through Jesus the Christ. Joshua, Yeshua and Jesus are all names given to human beings, but we know each one by his individual history and by his individual character therefore we distinguish the God Christians worship from the God Muslims worship not by the term "God" but by the character, nature, personhood and history with humanity which is revealed to us. Christians are not confused; nor are Muslims. We waste breath to argue about whether Allah can be used for God as if that takes something away from what Christians or Muslims believe about God. The Loran happens to be written in Arabic, a language which existed for centuries before teh Koran was written. Muslims do not have a monopoly on the term "Allah" (although obviously it is sacred to them) and the issue here is that Malay, Indonesian and Arabic speaking people all share the common name "Allah" for what English speaking people call "God". God is not defined by the specific word, but by who and what he reveals himself to be. To Muslims, that is one thing; to Christians that is another. For example Christians clearly believe he is holy, as do Muslims; but Christians also believe he deals redemptively with sin through Jesus, and Muslims do not. Muslims believe Jesus is a prophet to whom they should listen; Christians believe he is more than a prophet, and that he himslef spoke of his unique relationship to God as a son to a father. Much more could be said, but this illustrates my answer to you, Maranatha, that we can distinguish, and both Christians and Muslims do distinguish between God/Allah whom Christians worship and Allah to whom Muslims submit.
As to the other question about pagan roots of "God". It predates the Christian era in the English speaking world, before 900; ME, OE; c. D god, G Gott, ON goth, Goth guthless

I accidentally flagged yahyakehidupan's second blog. I meant to give a thumbs up

The point is quite plainly that "Allah" was not adopted by translators but used by Arabic speaking Christians since the first century, and therefore prior to the writing of the Koran. Both Malaysia and Indonesia have Arabic words in their common vocabulary, so since the arrival of Christianity in those countries, Christians have used the Arabic, Malay and Indonesian word for God. There ...more

The point is quite plainly that "Allah" was not adopted by translators but used by Arabic speaking Christians since the first century, and therefore prior to the writing of the Koran. Both Malaysia and Indonesia have Arabic words in their common vocabulary, so since the arrival of Christianity in those countries, Christians have used the Arabic, Malay and Indonesian word for God. There is no other word in Malay for God the Creator who made the covenant with Abraham. If the Malay Government would uphold this ban on Christians using "Allah" for God, it would be a human rights violation and a linguistic travesty. Secondly, American Christians who think it is wrong for other Christians to use their own word for God simply because it is Allah, the word used by Muslims, should consider that theur word "God" has pagan roots.less