No God but One: Allah or Jesus?: A Former Muslim Investigates the Evidence for Islam and Christianity

by Nabeel Qureshi

As we saw in the previous chapter, the Quran explicitly says that Allah remains behind a veil, so Muslims conceive of God as a being who does not enter this world. Christians do not believe this, though, because their Scriptures teach exactly the opposite: The Bible repeatedly shows God coming among his people. Starting with the third chapter of Genesis, the very beginning of the Bible, we find God walking in the garden where Adam and Eve were (Gen. 3:8). In Genesis 18, God appears to Abraham as a man and talks with him. In Exodus 34:5–6, God stood with Moses and walked in front of him. In Exodus 24:9–11, Aaron, Moses, and seventy-two elders all saw God at the same time and even dined with him. In an even more tangible experience, Jacob wrestled with God in Genesis 32:24–28. In Exodus 13:21, when the Hebrews needed guidance in the desert, God personally led them as a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night. In another, rather important account, God commanded the Hebrews to make him a tabernacle, a place where he would descend and “dwell among them” (Ex. 25:8–9 NIV). After they built it, God filled the tabernacle with his glory (Ex. 40:34). These many appearances of God on earth are often called theophanies. Another theophany in the Torah, Exodus 3:4, actually has parallels in the Quran. In this passage, God calls to Moses from a burning bush. The bush was burning on account of the very presence of God, which is why God says, “Take off your sandals, for the pla...