GodTube Questions for Islam #4: Does the Qur’an Understand the Christian Language of the Trinity?

John C. Rankin (December 17, 2010)

In response to issues raised in the prior three videos, here is my fourth question for Islam. And to be fair, how well do we Christians understand it?

The “perfection” of the Qur’an is an article of Muslim faith. Yet, in its continual witness that Allah has “no partners,” it reacted to some heretical/unbiblical Christian sects of that time, as they believed in three separate deities — father, mother (Mary) and son. I reject such an understanding.

The “Trinity” is post-biblical language describing the biblical reality of the early worshiping church.

The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of A.D. 381 sums it up well in speaking of “one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,” of “one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God,” and of “the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life.”

As I pointed out in the prior blog post, the Hebrew of Yahweh Elohim means that the one true Creator is greater than the human measuring terms of space, time and number.

Since Yahweh Elohim is greater than number, the crucial starting point here is that questions about human number miss the mark. Yahweh Elohim is so great that his eternal Oneness is able to be revealed in the Father (Creator), the Son (Redeemer) and the Holy Spirit (Sanctifier). He is not limited to the human concept of the number 1.

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