A. CLARIFYING MISUNDERSTANDINGS The blasphemous idea of Christians worshipping three gods comes from a wrong understanding of the Trinity. In the fifth century AD there was a Christian cult called Maryanya which spread the false belief that Jesus and his mother Mary would be two separate gods besides God. The Quran was right to speak out against such impiety. Surah 5 Maidah, verse 116: And behold! Allah will say: O Jesus, the son of Mary, didst thou say unto men, Worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of Allah? He will say: Glory to Thee! Never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, Thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thou knowest what is in my heart, though I know not what is in Thine. For Thou knowest in full all that is hidden. To say, as the minority cult of the Maryanyas did, that Mary was the mother of God through whom He produced a physical son, and both were to be taken as separate gods besides God, is absurd! This ludicrous and heathen concept of the Trinity is completely condemned by both Islam and Christianity! The Quran rejects it in clear terms in Surah 4, Al Nisa, verse 171. The triads of gods worshipped by pagans are always three separate gods, not one God. In addition to this big difference to the Biblical concept of Trinity, non-Christian Trinitarian beliefs are mostly three gods at the top of a list of many other gods. The Trinity has also been misunderstood to mean that God is three persons and only one person at the same time and in the same sense. Neither are there three substances in one substance. 2. EXPLORING THE TRUE CONCEPT OF TRINITY A. Biblical facts as basis for Trinity While the word Trinity does not appear in the Bible the concept of it is quiet clearly taught throughout its pages. Similarly, the Muslim Creed, known as Kalimah does not occur in the Quran. The whole sentence is put together from two different Surahs. Muslims call Allah El Adl, meaning the Just, El Wajid, meaning The Inventor or Maker, Edh Dhur, meaning The Harmful, etc. based on the list of the 99 names of God. However these words are nowhere found in the Quran but Muslims still accept these attributes as belonging to God. (see The Muslim doctrine of God, by S.M. Zwemer, American tract Society, 1905, pages 39-45) Let us now examine the verses in the Bible upon which the teaching of the Trinity is built. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deu 6:4-5) Firstly we need to look at the definition of the word one. The idea is not, Jehovah (later translated as LORD) our God is one (the only) God, but one Jehovah...(it) simply states that it is to Him alone that the name Jehovah rightfully belongs, that He is the one absolute God, to whom no other Elohim can be compared. This is also the meaning of the same expression in Zechariah 14: 9, Jehovah will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Jehovah, and His name one where the words added and His name one, can only signify that in the future Jehovah would be acknowledged as the one absolute God, as King over all the earth (Keil-Delitsch Commentary) The word used for one is the ordinary Hebrew numeral. God is all on his own. He has no relations. As far as his Godhead is concerned he is alone, unique.... Some passages use plural forms for God. One form of the name for God, Elohim, is itself plural. This is remarkable in view of the Old Testament emphasis on the unity of God. It cannot be explained as a plural of majesty; this was entirely unknown to the Hebrews. It has been seen as on a level with the words for water and heaven, which both also happen to be in the plural in Hebrew. Water can be thought of in individual raindrops or in terms of the mass of water in the ocean. The plural in this case points to diversity in unity. Some believe that the same is true of the plural Elohim. But there are also passages where God speaks of himself in the plural. We find them in particular in the first chapters of Genesis. God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness... and, The Lord God said, Now the man has become like one of us... But we find it also in Isaiahs vision: And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? (Lion Bible, article on The Trinity in the Bible by Klaas Runia) The following verses teach also that Jehovah, God the Holy Trinity is His own community built upon a loving relationship as the essence of reality. It brings forth a perfect and beautiful unity: In the beginning God (elohim, plural, the Father) created (bara singular verb) the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, (God the Son who is known as His word in Joh 1:1 through whom he created all things according to Col 1:16) Let there be light, and there was light. (Gen 1:1-3) ...hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there. And now the Lord GOD has sent me and his Spirit. (Isa 48:16) Ultimately, these verses find their fulfilment in Jesus (Joh 10:36, Luk 4:1,14,18). I will tell of the kindness of the LORD, the deeds for which he is to be praised, according to all the LORD has done for us - yes, the many good things he has done for the house of Israel, according to his compassion and many kindness. He said, Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to me; and so he became their Saviour. In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them. (Isa 63:7-10) There are a number of verses in the New Testament that call Jesus and the Holy Spirit God, besides God the Father. (Joh 8:58, compare with Exo 3:14; Act 5:3-4 etc.) In the light of this truth the following verses are understood to be speaking about the Trinity: And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. (Mat 3:16-17) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name (singular!) of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,... (Mat 28:19) May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Cor 13:13) Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied. (1 Pet 1:1-2) In Acts 2:38, 8:16, 19:4 people are baptized in the name of Jesus only. Since Jesus is now included in a way he was not in Johns baptism (19:4), the abbreviated form is used in the beginning to emphasize the distinctive quality of the new baptism. For more verses speaking about the Trinity when one considers the Biblical context see, Ephesians 4:4-6, 5:18-20, 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, Romans 8:9-11.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 07:38:09 +0000
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