Elohim is the One Living God, but Elohim is not a federation or union of three separate gods. The Living God is a single God. There are no other gods than this One God. However the One God exists always as the Most High, the Angel and the Spirit. As soon as we define one of these Three as a “separate being” then we have destroyed the definition of Elohim. For a Muslim, as for Aristotle, the word “person” means “an individual being”. It is this underlying assumption about ‘being’ that we must address. In the Bible the being of God is Three Persons. Matthew 28:19 “…go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”
If we have followed the logic of the Scriptures we can see that the Most High, the Divine Mediator and the Spirit cannot act individually. To accomplish any of their works they utterly depend on each other precisely because they are together the single Living God.
Jesus deliberately does not use a formula like “I am God” presumably because it would be very misleading. His knowledge of life within Elohim does not really permit Him to say something like that. He is the Son of the Father; the One sent from the Father. It would sound completely wrong for Him to say of Himself individually that He was God. He is the One who always, eternally, at all times carries out the will of the Most High. Whenever Jesus speaks about His place within the Living God He speaks simply of His relationship with the Father. A Muslim worships a god who can make statements like “I am god” because allah is simply an individual who claims deity. This is not like the Living God. The Three Persons are together the One God.
The word “trinity” is not that important. It wouldn’t matter at all if we never used it again. We use it simply as a shorthand way of referring to the teaching of the Bible about Elohim.
The same answer needs to be born in mind as in question 2. The identity and role of the Spirit is expressed in the Bible in terms of the Spirit’s place within Elohim. So we find many examples of the work of the Spirit being the work of God, or the Spirit sharing features of the divine life… but we do not have an Islamic-like statement where the Spirit simply claims to be individually ‘god’. However, Acts 5:3-4 is as clear as anybody could want.
More generally, on the theme of the deity of the Spirit, the following passages are useful.
1 Samuel 10:6-7 “The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.” The newly anointed King Saul is told that God is with him because the Spirit of the LORD is with him. The Spirit’s presence is God’s presence. We find just the same thing in Psalm 139:7 “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?”
Psalm 51:11 “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.” David’s prayer has two aspects. First he prays that he would not be thrown out of the company of the LORD, yet from the other direction he asks that the LORD’s fellowship would not be withdrawn from him. To have the Holy Spirit’s company is to have the presence of the LORD.
Psalm 106:32-33 “By the waters of Meribah they angered the LORD, and trouble came to Moses because of them; for they rebelled against the Spirit of God, and rash words came from Moses’ lips.” If we compare these comments with the account in Numbers 20:12-13 we see that the Spirit of God is the LORD.
Numbers 20:12-13 “But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarrelled with the LORD and where he showed himself holy among them.”
Isaiah 63:7-16 “I will tell of the kindnesses 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 kindnesses. 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. Then his people recalled the days of old, the days of Moses and his people–where is he who brought them through the sea, with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he who set his Holy Spirit among them, who sent his glorious arm of power to be at Moses’ right hand, who divided the waters before them, to gain for himself everlasting renown, who led them through the depths? Like a horse in open country, they did not stumble; like cattle that go down to the plain, they were given rest by the Spirit of the LORD. This is how you guided your people to make for yourself a glorious name. Look down from heaven and see from your lofty throne, holy and glorious. Where are your zeal and your might? Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us. But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.”
This passage from Isaiah is worthy of deep meditation. The Three Persons of Elohim are set in their redeeming work, all emerging from the Father’s great love for His people. The whole prayer is addressed to the Father [specifically using that title]. Unusually the Divine Mediator is mentioned only once as the one who accomplished salvation. However, in this prayer the Spirit occupies a much more explicit role than is normal in Scripture. Here it is the Holy Spirit who is grieved by Israel’s rebellion, the One who indwelt the people in the wilderness and gave them Sabbath even in such circumstances.
We must always remember though that the role of the Spirit within Elohim does not conform to the expectations and assumptions of Islamic theology. It is important that we do not drag the Spirit into a front stage position alongside the Son in an attempt to demonstrate His divinity. This seems to violate the way in which the Scriptures speak of Him.
Allah treats sin much more lightly than the Living God. Far Allah sin doesn’t ultimately matter… not in the sense of causing a genuine injury to the divine life. Allah can simply arbitrarily decide to forgive a sin at no cost to his own justice or hatred of evil. The Living God cannot do that without violence to the divine hatred of sin. Sin cannot ever be simply ignored… just as a rotting disease cannot be simply ignored. Sin has to be fundamentally addressed so that humanity can be healed from it and so that the divine life is not destroyed by it. Islam does not see sin in this fundamental way. Sin is nothing less than an attempt to kill God.
Atonement is what is required to address sin. Atonement is required by the life of the Living God because it is the place where “wrath and mercy meet”; the place where the divine hatred of sin and the divine desire for forgiveness are both free to be true and real. Look at Hosea 11 for a wonderful example of the turmoil between forgiveness and wrath within the Living God. Only when the divine hatred of human sin is fully satisfied can Elohim allow us to approach. Blood sacrifice is when the life of the victim is deliberately poured out. Throughout the Bible, as Leviticus 17 shows, blood is the sign of a life poured out… and the sign of the sinner’s life poured out is what satisfies the divine hatred of sin. Nothing less than the death of the sinner is enough. According to Hebrews 10:1-10, animal blood can never atone for human sin. It was only ever a forward pointing sign. What was required was a sinless, human sacrifice… and sinful humanity could never provide such a thing. The Divine Angel became one of us, yet remained sinless… and so satisfied wrath and love in Himself.
The critical Trinitarian character of the Cross needs to be remembered. Sometimes, by way of shorthand, we may present the gospel as a chasm with humanity on one side, God on the other and the Cross bridging the chasm. Although such a diagram can be a helpful shorthand, it tends to miss the fact that it is the Living God who is on the Cross. The atonement of the Cross does not happen outside of Elohim, but within the divine life. It is not abstract justice or a universal abstract ‘law’ that needs to be satisfied at the Cross, but the heart of the divine life. When we contemplate the Cross, the whole creation watches in awe as a spectator as the Mighty Living God wrenches apart the divine life in order to make forgiveness possible. There has only been one moment from everlasting ages when the Divine Son has ever even contemplated not performing the will of the Father… and it was in Gethsemane as He faced the utter, absolute horror of the Cross. The horror of the Cross was not the physical pain, but the awareness that the very life of Elohim would be shaken by what must happen. The Living God IS the intimate fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If the Father forsakes the Son on the Cross… then how can the Living God survive such a shock to the divine life? As we contemplate these things we are drawn into the profound and awesome nature of this atonement. It required nothing less than this to atone for human sin.
The Ancient Jews did speak of it. Philo openly acknowledges the Father, Son and Spirit throughout his studies of Moses… and he lived before Jesus. Go to the Jews for Jesus website for more.
Death is not annihilation. Death, as Muslims believe, is experiencing the separation of the spirit and soul from the body. When a person dies they do not cease to exist. So, when we speak of the death of God on the Cross, we are saying that the Divine Son really and truly experienced the end of bodily life. The blood of God was truly poured out on the Cross. Of course, as Luke 23:43 tells us, as soon as God died, He returned to Paradise until the third day. There was never a single moment when the Son did not exist.
- Manuscript evidence (Ma’il, Kufic mss., dates, etc…)
- Collation Problems
- Contradictions and Errors in the Qur’an
- What then is the true ‘Word of God?’?
- How do we find the Historical Jesus?
- What does the Qur’an tell us about Jesus? [Suras 3 & 19]
- Jesus fits 1st c. (O.T.- Dead Sea Scr.- Gospels- Josephus) – Pharisees (Hillel & Shamai), not Saducees or Essenes, confronts Law, Temple, & King. of God
- ‘Isa’ fits 5-8th c. (Sectarian writings, Syriac mss.) [progression of Mary, Digression of Joseph]
- Nestorians (5th C.): Jesus = God-chosen human (sura 3:42-48, 51, 59; 4:171; 5:116-117;19:30, 34-35)
- Monarchists: God has no children (sura 4:171; 19:34)
- Docetists (1st C.): Jesus didn’t die (sura 4:156-158)
- Monophysites – Cholloridian (4th C.) Maryolatry: Mary in the Trinity (sura 5:116)
Four Criteria for Prophet-hood in the Bible:
- Does his message conform to previous revelation?
- Are his predictions verifiable?
- Is he in Isaac’s race?
- Does he use God’s personal name?:
Adonai (descriptive) = 340 times
Elohim (generic) = 2,000 times
Yahweh (personal) = 6,823 times
-Does Muhammad fulfil any of these criteria…Thus, is he a true prophet?
-The veneration for Muhammad today…do we have the alternative in Jesus?