Referring to God as 'Allah'

Q. Many Christian missionaries to the Muslim world witness to Muslims using “Allah” for the Christian G-d. I say this is dangerous, what is your opinion?

A. What it comes down to is several things. What is the meaning of “allah” and what is the name associated with. Allah is the Arabic for “al” (the) and “ialah” (god). It is the Arabic equivalent to the Hebrew “eloah” which means the same thing. This appears in the Bible as the plural “elohim.” So, Allah can be used to describe the true G-d if you are in Muslim countries.

Paul used “theos” to describe the L-rd even though it was also used in Greek paganism for their gods. The Scriptures refer to the L-rd as “ba’al” and “el” also, which were Canaanite names for their deities. The problem is Allah has a unique history of its own and it predates Mohammed.

It all comes down to what you mean when you use it. If using it invokes a different idea than the G-d of the Scriptures in the mind of the hearer, than it shouldn’t be used and it adds to the confusion. If it doesn’t and the hearers understand that you are referring to the G-d of the Bible, there isn’t a problem. The Muslims don’t like Christians using the name either because of the confusion so it comes down to whatever the local custom is wherever these missionaries go. By the way, neither Allah or Eloah are names anyway, they are titles.