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Despite the above, there are still those who have been conditioned to propose that “Allah” is the name of a pagan god! They ignore the fact that pagans generically use the word “god” in the same way that Christians, Jews, and Muslims use it, and it does not
change the fact that there is only one God.
Similarly, the word elohim was used in the Septuagint to refer to pagan gods, as well as to the Greek and Roman gods, in addition to the one true God of the Old and New Testaments. 37 Encyclopaedia Judaica clarifies this point: “The plural form elohim is used not only of pagan ‘gods’ (e.g., Ex. 12:12; 18:11; 20:3) but also of an individual pagan ‘god’ (Judg. 11:24; 2 Kings 1:2ff.) and even of a ‘goddess’ (1 Kings 11:5). In reference to Israel’s ‘God’ it is used extremely often—more than 2,000 times …”
Remembering that Elohim is the word from which the New
Testament theos is primarily derived, one finds that use of this biblical term for God flowed from the lips and pens of the pagans, as well as from the Jews and Christians. Does this mean that Elohim is a pagan god, or even an exclusively Jewish or Christian God? Obviously, the fact that different religions, pagan religions included, have utilized
“God,” “Elohim,” and “Allah” to identify their concept of the Supreme Being reflects nothing more than their adoption of a commonly recognized name for God. “Commonly recognized? Sounds strange to me,” some will say.
Such is also likely to be the case with the names Shim’own Kipha, Yehowchanan, Iakobos, and Matthaios—but how strange are these names really? Unknown to some, maybe, but strange? No. These are transliterations of the Hebrew and Greek from which the biblical
names Simon Peter, John, James, and Matthew are translated into English.
So which is really more strange—to invent and popularize new names in
preference to those identified in scripture, or to remain faithful to what are held to be holy texts?
To identify the Creator by the “God” label hatched from human creativity and incubated in Western culture, or by the name specified by the Almighty, as He declares Himself in scripture?
Undeniably, one who speaks of Yehowchanan, Iakobos and Allah will be greeted with a certain reserve in the West, but the concern of true believers has never been one of
popularity, but of truth of testimony in front of the Creator. A Creator whose proper name, according to Judaic, Christian and Muslim sources, is “Allah.”
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