Because Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all trace their spiritual lineage to Abraham, it would be easy to assume they all worship the same God.
However, while these three major, monotheistic religions share a similar heritage, they differ in significant ways, especially in their explanation of God.
Nabeel Qureshi, a former Muslim-turned Christian apologist, writes that saying followers of Islam and Christianity worship the same
A core belief in Christianity is that Jesus is God. Muslims (as well as Jews) do not believe this. Christians and Jews also believe God is our Father, but Muslims do not.
All three religions teach that God is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and merciful. But for Jews and Muslims, God’s mercy is dependent on us, our actions. The opposite is true in Christianity. For Christians, it hinges on Jesus and how his sacrifice on the Cross redeems us.
Very significantly, the Islamic concept of Allah and the Jewish idea of Yahweh both deny belief in the Trinity – that God is three-in-one: the Father, Son, and Spirit.
“The Christian God…is not just different from the Muslim God; He is fundamentally incompatible,” Qureshi writes. “Christians worship a Triune God: a Father who loves unconditionally, an incarnate Son who is willing to die for us so that we may be forgiven, and an immanent Holy Spirit who lives in us. This is not what the Muslim God is.”
Unlike Islam, Christianity and Judaism do share a significant historic and theological link. Whether the two faiths worship the same God is debated. Some argue that Jews believe only certain aspects of the same God as revealed to them, but theologically part ways over Jesus. This is no small difference. The Apostle Paul even laments Israel’s rejection of Jesus as God in Romans 9-11. And the Bible states that “no one comes to the Father except through the Son” (John 14:6).
Though Jews deny Jesus is God and do not believe in the Trinity as Christians understand it, Christianity is connected to the Jewish faith. As such, “Christians must always be humbled by the fact that we have been grafted onto the promises first made to Israel,” Dr. Albert Mohler writes.
All that being said, believers need to remember that we are called to love others,