Do Christians, Jews, Moslems and Mormons all believe in the same God? The short answer is no. Here is the longer answer. Let’s start with the Mormons — they are the easiest to define.
During the 19th century, French culture experienced a period of Egyptomania brought on by Napoleon’s army discovering the trilingual Rosetta Stone. The three inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone are in Hieroglyphics, Demotic (a cursive or “reformed” form of Egyptian hieroglyphics) and the Greek alphabet. It was the demotic or “reformed” which provided the key to Champollion’s 1824 decryption of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing which previously was not translatable.
It was the first Ancient Egyptian triliteral text recovered and once it was
deciphered by Champollion, it aroused widespread public interest both in France and its closest ally, the United States. As a consequence of the Revolutionary War and the Louisiana Purchase, France had become America’s closest ally and vice- versa. And the center of that interest in Egyptomania was in New York, the cultural capital of the United States.
The term Rosetta Stone came to refer to the essential clue to a new field of
Knowledge. Egyptian imagery pervaded Freemasonry and its imagery at this time such as the eye on the pyramid of the Great Seal of the United States and also appeared on the back of the United States one dollar bill.
Now into this mix at exactly this time, 1829, a young man in New York claimed an angel had directed him to a hill near his home where he “discovered” not a plain stone plate like the Rosetta Stone but Golden Plates written in of all things that same “reformed” Egyptian script Demotic and now the help of angels allowed him, Joseph Smith, to translate the Golden Plates into the Book of Mormon. Of course, he conveniently claimed to have returned the golden plates to the Angel Moroni so they were therefore no longer available for inspection. And since Christians, Jews and Moslems are all in agreement that their respective God did not write the Book of Mormon, consequently, Mormons worship their own deity.
Muslims or Moslems believe the Quran or Koran, the central religious text of Islam, to be the revelation directly from God (Allah) to Muhammad. The Quran is believed by Muslims to be God’s own divine speech. Since Christians, Jews and Mormons don’t believe any of this, Muslims believe in their own God, Allah.
Now we come to the Star Attraction. Is the God of the Old Testament the Jewish God the same deity as the God of the New Testament, the Christian God? The Old Testament calls God Yahweh or Jehovah and never refers to him as the Father. The New Testament calls God the Father and never refers to him as Yahweh or Jehovah. Furthermore Ephesians 2:15 states unequivocally that Christ “abolished the Jewish Law” and since the Jewish Law was given to the Hebrews by Yahweh himself then, by deduction, Christ abolished the Jewish God and replaced him with the Father.
And who is this God — the Father? Christ tells Christians to address God
appropriately as “the Father” — never as Yahweh or Jehovah. Mathew 6:9–13
“This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father Who Art in heaven’ and in Luke 11:1–4. “Jesus said to them, ‘when you pray, say: Father.’ ”
So who is this God called “the Father”? The Roman God Jupiter was the chief deity, the King of all the other Gods in the Roman Empire which ruled over Judaea at the time of Christ. Jupiter is a portmanteau of djous — “sky” + pater “Father” thus “Sky Father” or “Heavenly Father .” “Our Father who art in Heaven” — The Lord’s Prayer.
Baal or Beelzebub was the chief God of the ancient Semites. The majority of
observant Jews today follow Baal Shem Tov and proselytize to non-observant or typically less observant Jews to become followers of Baal Shem Tov. This is called the Baal Teshuva movement or “Return to Baal” movement. So-called Evangelical Christians conflate the two Gods. Baal translates as Master. In Mathew 6:24 Jesus says “No one can serve two masters” the Father and Baal too. Evangelicals never refer to God as the Father even though Christ was explicit in both Mark and Luke. Jesus said: “When you pray, say: ‘Father’”
Clearly, the Jewish God and the Christian God are two distinct and dissimilar deities. You cannot be an Evangelical follower of Baal and an observant Christian follower of the Father. You cannot serve the Father and Baal too.
