My Lord and My God

Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (John 20:28-29, ESV)
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." (John 14:6, 7, ESV)
There is a lot of misinformation being propagate by the people whose god is the god of political correctness. I often hear teenage students tell me that in their socials class or other classes in their schools, they are being taught that the god of Islam, Judaism and Christianity are in fact one and the same god. This is also the view that is popular on news stations, both radio and television. But is that true?
There are several sites on the internet where you can find information about the god of Islam. Some of the sites push what is current Islamic teaching: Islam worships the same god as the god of Abraham, believes Jesus to have been a prophet, but the last revelation was from Mohammad. Other sites will show you clearly that archaeology, the bane of religious groups that want to claim things contrary to fact, proves that a moon god has been worshiped in Arabia and the Middle East for thousands of years and that is actually the god of Islam. Why the crescent moon on the flags of Islamic nations? For more information about the archaeological discoveries concerning Allah, go to http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/moongod.htm. Most people who have done any study on the subject know that the god of Islam is not the god of the Jews.
But is the god of the Jews the God of Christianity? Make no mistake, Jesus Christ was born a Jew and lived among the Jewish people. His ancestry is all Jewish, being of the tribe of Judah and the family of King David, prophesied to sit on David’s throne as the last king of Israel. Before He went to the cross, Jesus prophesied about the destruction of Jerusalem and the entire Jewish system. Why? In Matthew chapter 23, Jesus sings a lament for Jerusalem. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" (Matthew 23:37 -39, ESV). Jesus says that the house, the nation, will become desolate. Finished. Now when Jesus made this statement, “you will not see me again,” was He talking of Himself or God the Father or both? I believe He is talking about the very God we worship. When Jerusalem was destroyed, about forty years after Jesus returned to heaven, the temple, the worship, the things that the Jewish people held to be sacred, were all taken away.
The apostle Paul makes it even clearer. Remember Saul who persecuted the church so heavily and then saw Jesus on the road to Damascus? What did he think about the rejection of Jesus as God? “. . . though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” (I Timothy 1:13-17, ESV). Paul said he had been a blasphemer. He had acted against God. How did he do that? By not accepting Jesus as God, as the Messiah, the promised One. To reject Jesus is to reject God. Period. Then Paul honors the King of ages, who is Jesus, by stating that He is invisible and the only God! Paul does not see one god in heaven, the Father, and another god or prophet named Jesus Christ. Jesus is God. You cannot get more God than what you get with Jesus, if I may put it bluntly.
So the god of Islam and the god of Judaism are not the same God as the God of Jesus Christ, who is God. Christians are asked to defend the faith that was delivered to us. We are told to be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope that is in us, Jesus Christ, but to do so with humility and fear of God (I Peter 3:15). To try and placate those who are attempting to blur the lines between Jesus and other gods is to do even them a disservice, because we withhold the knowledge that will give them life, life in the Son. We must be aware of the fact that we may see days in our free countries where we will be persecuted for His, for Jesus’s sake, because we do not accept what the world says about the gods of other religions. But that is also how we will live life incarnadine, life lived in the color of blood, because His disciples have been told to take up their own cross and follow Him. To take up your cross means you may have to forfeit your earthly life, for His sake. Are we willing to do that?