The Oneness of God
There is a Universal Mind, Spirit, Intelligence, that is the origin of everything: It is First Cause. It is God. This Uni versal Life and Energy finds an outlet in and through all that is energized, and through everything that lives. There is One Life back of everything that lives. There is One Energy back of all that is energized. This Energy is in every thing. There is One Spirit back of all expression. That is the meaning of that mystical saying: "In Him we live, and move, and have our being." (Acts 17:28) -- Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind
It was not until Gentiles began to preach the Jewish Gospel to the Hellenized peoples of the Roman empire that the hesitation disappeared and the linguistic brake was lifted. Paul, and that true Hellenist, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, were satisfied with phrases such as the 'image of God', and the 'efful gence of God's splendour and the stamp of God's very being'. They would without doubt have recoiled from language such as that used by the Syrian Ignatius of Antioch in the first decade of the second century AD, who found no difficulty in alluding to Jesus as 'our God', and as 'the God who bestowed such wisdom upon you'.
Whether Jesus himself would have reacted with stupefaction, anger or grief, can never be known. One thing, however, is sure. When Christianity later set out to define the meaning of son of God in its Creed, the paraphrase it produced - 'God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, consubstantial with the Father' - drew its inspiration, not from the pure language and teaching of the Galilean Jesus, nor even from Paul the Diaspora Jew, but from a Gentile-Christian interpretation of the Gospel adapted to the mind of the totally alien world of pagan Hellenism. - Geza Vermes, Jesus the Jew
Concept of God in Islam
It is a known fact that every language has one or more terms that are used in reference to God and sometimes to lesser deities. This is not the case with Allah. Allah is the personal name of the One true God. Nothing else can be called Allah. The term has no plural or gender. This shows its uniqueness when compared with the word "god," which can be made plural, as in "gods," or made feminine, as in "goddess." It is interesting to notice that Allah is the personal name of God in Aramaic, the language of Jesus and a sister language of Arabic. The Institute of Islamic Information and Education
Note: According to Dr. Rocco A. Errico, one of the world's foremost experts in the ancient Aramaic language, the Aramaic word for God is Alaha, not Allah. Alaha comes from the Semitic root el and describes something or a presence that sustains and supports. Jesus, himself, most frequently used the term, abba, when communicating with God.
Centered in Your presence, dear God, I let go of every concern and my soul awakens to new blessings of Your love and grace.
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