Abraham:
The Father of 3 Religions?
Was Abraham
the father of the three major religions in the world- Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam? I would say that he was the father of only one modern religion, on
the basis of two reasons. First, the Jewish Tanakh, which is the Christian Old
Testament and mentioned in the Qur’an as the “Holy Scriptures,” is an
incomplete work. Even with the addition of the Talmud, the other collection of
writings that are central to Judaism, Judaism is an incomplete religion because
it both awaits its promised Messiah and does not explain how God can be quick
to forgive without leaving the guilty unpunished. Christianity piggy-backs off
of Judaism by acknowledging the writings of the Tanakh, the Old Testament, as
holy writings. Islam attempts to similarly piggy-back off of Christianity by
acknowledging both the Old Testament and the New Testament as holy writings-
calling them the “Holy Scriptures” and the “Gospels”- and by relegating Jesus
Christ, who the New Testament claims is the Tanakh/Old Testament’s promised
Messiah, to the status of a prophet.