BULLSEYE!
ACCURATE
BIBLE
KNOWLEDGE!
QUESTION:
“IF ALLAH HAD NO SON, THAT WOULD SIMPLY PROVE THAT HE IS NOT ALMIGHTY
GOD,
CORRECT?
ANSWER:
CORRECT!
EXPLANATION:
A
stumbling
block for the Muslim is that if there can only be one God, to which
Christians
agree, are we being deceptive when saying God the Father is God, God
the Son is
God and God the Holy Ghost is God?
When we
say
this, the Muslim then says “Aha! You’ve just said there are three Gods!”
When
explaining this to a Muslim the following example may help:
An apple
is made up of the three parts of skin, flesh and
core.
Q: Is the
skin the apple? A: Yes
Q: Is the
flesh the apple? A: Yes
Q: Is the
core the apple? A: Yes
Similarly,
God the Father is God, the Son of God is God and the Holy Ghost is God.
They are
just different forms of God – but all three forms are God.
They
consitute
what is called the Godhead (Rom 1:20).
The Bible
says they are the three persons of God, that is, the three
representations of
God. The Bible says
“For there
are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” (1 John
5:7)
Now a
description of who the Word is, is to be found in John’s gospel in two
verses
as follows:
In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.
John 1:1 and
And the
Word was made flesh (Jesus
Christ), and dwelt
among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the
Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1:14
Another
example may help to explain the Godhead of three persons, is using the
sun
in the sky, whereby the sun has three parts - light,
heat
and invisible rays.
And all
this
makes sense to the Muslim.
However,
should
a Muslim be able to understand all this, they still have much
difficulty
understanding how a son can be equal to a father?
By their
thinking, it makes no sense, as the child is smaller, weaker, has no
money, no
career, not as intelligent, has no wife and so on – how can he be equal
to the
father?
However
the
Bible explains this with the Bible definition of what a son is, and it
is a different
definition of a son as found in the world.
Now a
Muslim
knows that a lion gives birth to a lion, a horse gives birth to a horse
– and
this is the proper definition in Bible terms. Like produces like. Just
as God
is a Spirit (John 4:24), God the Father expresses (pushes out)
a son
from himself who must also be a Spirit. Like as expresso coffee machine
expresses out the coffee liquid from the bean.
Christ was
crucified by the Jews because he said he was the Son of God. Now as God
is a
Spirit (John 4:24) who lives in heaven, for Christ to say he was the
Son of God
could only mean one thing – that Christ was also the same Spirit in
heaven.
Like produced like.
Now this
definition is proved in scripture as we turn to the following verse,
where a
physical earthly son is said to issue from his father.
“And of
thy sons
that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget (give
birth to) …” (2 Kings 20:18).
What
inflamed the Jews was that Christ, was saying he had been issued from
his
Father in heaven who was a Spirit, that is, a mere man was making
himself out
to be God!
Furthermore,
the Jews knew that only God could forgive sins (Mark 2:7), and this was
blasphemy to them. Jesus was walking around forgiving sins!
That is,
Christ came out of the Father! Like produced like! A donkey gives birth
to a
donkey not a fish! God produces God! God issues forth from God!
Now the
scriptures prove that Christ is God, as God the Father talks to Christ
and
calls him God as follows:
“But unto
the Son he (God the
Father) saith, Thy throne, O God (God the Son, Jesus
Christ),
is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy
kingdom.
Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God (the
Father the Father), even thy God (God the Father),
hath
anointed thee (God the Son) with the oil of gladness above thy
fellows.
(Heb 1:8-9)
which was
prophesied in the Old Testament as follows:
“Thy
throne, O God, is for
ever
and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest
righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God,
hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” (Psalm
45:6-7)
With
patient meekness the above descriptions can go a long way in
helping the Muslim understand the Christian God, the God of Abraham,
Isaac and
Jacob, and his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Saviour of the world.
**** ****
Harley
Hitchcock
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
***************************
BULLSEYE!
ACCURATE
BIBLE
KNOWLEDGE!
QUESTION: “WHAT’S
ANOTHER WAY
WE CAN DESCRIBE JESUS CHRIST?”
ANSWER:
“THE
ATHANASIAN CREED”
***************************
“WHAT DOES IT MEAN
TO
BE SAVED?”
****************
“CONTACT US”
Australian
Bible
Ministries, PO
Box 5058 Mt. Gravatt East 4122 Qld, Australia
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com