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All right, as we begin tonight in our study of the subject of Islam, I would like to begin with a word of prayer. So let's bow our heads and close our eyes. Our Father and our God, we thank you. We thank you for the opportunity to come into your house.
That you have called us here and that you have brought us to this place. And Lord God, that we have this time now to be exhorted by the truth. And Lord God, to look at our world and the things that go on in the world.
Particularly the various religious movements that are out there. And that we would have the opportunity to see what these other movements teach and believe. And be able to compare and contrast that with what is taught in the scriptures.
And Lord, we pray for knowledge and wisdom from your Holy Spirit. And I pray Lord, against error. And I pray Lord, that you would keep me from error. And Lord, that all things would be done for your glory and honor.
I pray for our church, that as we learn and grow together, that you would move us forward as a body. And that all things would be done for your glory. In Jesus name, Amen. Alright, tonight we are going to look at Islam.
We talked last week, we ended up just talking about a video last week. We did not really get in to the subject of Islam. We talked about some subjects that surround it. The issue of politics and how political influence is very influential in the Islamic movement.
Tonight we are going to actually dive into its history. Prior to September 11, 2001, most Americans had no understanding of the influence of Islamic culture around the world. Or even in the United States.
Since then, we have been exposed to much more of that culture than we ever had been before. Words like Sunni and Shiite, Madrasa and Sharia have become very common on the news and in print. And many people, in an attempt to understand this religion, have turned to reading Islamic literature, including the Quran, which is the Muslim holy book, to find the answers to their questions.
Tonight we are going to begin the journey of exploration into the teaching of Islam and demonstrate where it is distinctly different from Biblical Christianity. Now, I do not know how long it will take to get through this worksheet.
I am going to go slowly because I feel like it is worth us dealing with it in that way. It is not a good thing to just rush. And if you have questions, certainly you may ask them as we go along. I will answer if I know the answer.
And if I do not, I will not.
All right.
The first thing we are going to look at, we are going to ask the question, what is the history of Islam? Now, to better understand Islam, we have to begin by looking at another history. And number one on your worksheet, the blank there, is we need to look at the history of the Arab people.
A-R-A-B, the history of the Arab people. As most of you know, there has been a longstanding battle between the Arabs and the Jews. Now, what is this battle over? What is the battle over now? Over the land, right?
Who is the rightful owner of the land? And we know that Jews trace their ancestral history back to who?
Abraham.
So we will look at him. Look at Abraham. The Jews trace their ancestral history back to Abraham through whom? Abraham had a son whose name was Isaac. Abraham, Isaac. And then who was the next?
Jacob.
What was Jacob's other name?
Israel.
What does the name Israel mean?
Does anyone remember?
Struggles with God. Wrestles with God. That's right. So we have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. And then from Jacob you have what we commonly refer to as the 12 tribes of Israel.
Right?
So from Jacob you have the 12 tribes. And today, if you were to talk to a Jewish person, they may not know specifically what tribe they were from, but they would say that their ancestral history takes them back to Abraham through one of the 12 tribes, through Jacob, through Isaac, back to Abraham.
And that's the basic history of the Jewish people. However, the Arabs too seek to trace their lineage back to Abraham. They trace their lineage back to Abraham through Ishmael. Who was Ishmael? Ishmael was the son of Abraham through the handmaiden Hagar.
Alright?
Abraham had a son through the handmaiden whose name was Ishmael. Now, they trace their line all the way back through him. And they say Ishmael was our father. Thus, the promises of God which were made to Abraham, they say, belong to them.
Because they were Abraham's son. They were from, rather, the lineage of Abraham's son. So they would say that the Arab people descended from Ishmael. The Jews descended from Isaac. This is very important because this begets a war over who is truly the rightful owner of the promises of Abraham.
It goes even further that Arabs believe, particularly Muslim Arabs, we need to make that delineation because it is taught in the Muslim literature, that Ishmael is the son who was offered up as the sacrifice.
They believe that it was not Isaac who Abraham was told to offer up on Mount Moriah, but that it was Ishmael who Abraham was told to offer up on Mount Moriah. They say that the Jews hijacked the Scriptures.
And in hijacking the Scriptures, changed the story. And that the story originally said Ishmael is the one... Because what do you remember reading in that story in Genesis 22? Take thou son whom thou loveth.
And remember, it's the son you love. You remember that's the son that you're supposed to take up to the mountain. Take your son, your only son, whom you love, and sacrifice him. And they say, well, that was Ishmael.
That's the one Abraham loved. That was his first son. Sarah hated him. But Ishmael was loved by Abraham, and because Ishmael was loved by Abraham, he is taken and sacrificed or offered to God on the mountain.
Of course, God did not accept the offering, but instead stayed the hand of Abraham, held him back from making that sacrifice, replaced him with the ram. And we see there the great picture of substitutionary sacrifice.
The ram takes the place of the son. We all remember the story. So you can see how the two lineages, the two heritages would look back to this one man, Abraham. One would see him. He's our father. He loved us.
The sacrifice of Isaac. No, he's our father. He loved us. The sacrifice was Ishmael. And that is the divide, the initial divide. And again, they claim that the text of the Bible has been corrupted to place Isaac in the place of Ishmael as Abraham's favored son.
They also believe that Abraham and Ishmael built the Kaaba, K-A-A-B-A. It is a sacred religious site in Mecca. You've all heard of Mecca. You've heard of the pilgrimage to Mecca. They go to see the Kaaba.
Big black thing.
This was built.
Abraham and Isaac, they built this place together. I'm sorry, Abraham and Ishmael built this together. This is believed to be that. So we see that the Arab view of history focuses a great deal on Ishmael and his relationship with Abraham.
Now, something we need to simply make a very important distinction. The history of the Arab people is not the history of Islam. The history of the Arab people give rise to the history of Islam. But this history goes all the way back to well before the writing of Scripture.
You understand that? You understand that Abraham lived well before Moses and Moses is the first one to pin any part of the Scripture. So this story and all of the things that happened here happened well before Moses ever wrote.
However, Islam did not come on the scene until the seventh century.
Okay.
So to say that Islam goes back to Abraham is a fallacy. It's incorrect.
We need to make that absolutely clear. The only way they can say Islam goes back to Abraham is if they make the argument that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ishmael and all of them worshipped Allah according to the rules of Islam.
And that is what they said. They say Jesus was a Muslim. They say Ishmael was a Muslim. They say Abraham was a Muslim. And they worshipped Allah the same way they worship him today. So you need to understand that.
But the actual religion of Islam does not come on the scene until 622, the seventh century.
That's very important. And that's why you saw on your list it said the history of the Arab people. The next blank is you need to understand the history of Muhammad. M-U-H-A-M-M-E-D. And I will not be saying peace be upon him.
However, if you have a conversation with a Muslim, they will say every time they speak the name Muhammad, they will say peace be upon him. In fact, if you read Islamic literature, you will see this after the name of Muhammad.
It's not Puba. It stands for peace be upon him. And this will be in what they write. It's a shortened version of the standard. You are not allowed to say Muhammad. You have to say the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.
The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. And that becomes very much, it rolls off the lips just like it is with me. Just very quick. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. And you'll hear them talking.
You'll hear them say it very quickly. Just like that. Because it's so natural. They don't say Muhammad as we would say Jesus or Moses.
They don't do that.
OK, so we need to understand. We need to understand the history of Muhammad. This will help us understand better what is happening here. What is the question?
I'm just curious about their historical documentation of any of those. Do they have any? I understand they wouldn't have religious documentation because there's no one to come to. Do they have any historical documentation to back up their claims that maybe some offshoot wrote something actually back then that they interpret this way?
Not that I'm aware of. What they make the claim that the book of the Koran replaces or fixes any errors in scripture. So when the Koran says, and the Koran actually does say, Ishmael was offered up.
According to them.
Yes.
They believe the Torah was originally written correctly.
But then the Jews got hold of it.
It was corrupted. And that is what the Koran does. The Koran comes along as the fixing device. It comes along as the corrector. And anything that we see in the Torah or the Injil, which is the gospel, what they call the gospel, anything there that would disagree with the Koran, the Koran is there as the corrector.
It is there to fix that. So they wouldn't necessarily need a historical document because their holy book says this happened. So it wouldn't matter. Not that I have no idea if there is, and I don't think that there is.
Let's begin the history of Muhammad. Everybody with me on the worksheet?
We're good? Let's do this.
I've said this already, but let me just repeat it. Islam does not date back to the time of Abraham. In fact, it does not even date back to the time of Christ or the apostles. Islam did not begin until the preaching of a man named Muhammad in the 7th century.
Muhammad was born in 570 in a place called Mecca, which is in Saudi Arabia.
So he's born. Let's just put this up here. Muhammad is born 570.
Let's say AD 570.
And he's born in Mecca, which is in Saudi Arabia. In 610.
In 610, when he was 40 years old.
In 610, when he was 40 years old, Muhammad, while in a cave, received what he later described as his first of many visions from Allah. Now, so we're going to say the first visions. He received the first visions in 610.
Now, sometimes we get worked up about the word Allah because we think about Allah being a proper name. And it has become a proper name. But in Arabic, Allah just means God. It's the same way we use the word God.
They would say the word Allah. It's not a specific title. It's just the name God. However, you still would not, just like the Jews, would not use the name God or Lord irreverently. In fact, if you've ever seen some Jewish writing, you'll see this.
They'll write like that. They don't complete the word. They leave out the O because they're not supposed to write the name God or Lord. Yahweh. Yahweh is the four letter, what we call the tetragrammaton or the four letter name of God of the Old Testament.
Why do we, why do some people say Jehovah? Jehovah was when Yahweh and the word Adonai, which is another word for Lord, were superimposed on top of each other. And it became Yahovah rather than Yahweh.
Because there was Adonai, Yahweh, Adon, Yahovah. And the two were superimposed on one another and a new word was formed. OK, they just don't. These names are sacred and not to be used, particularly if you think about the Fourth Commandment or the Third Commandment.
Thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain. What do we always think about when we think about taking the Lord's name in vain? Somebody sitting in traffic and saying that no, no dirty word, right? That's what we think about when we think of somebody using the Lord's name in vain.
But that is not the way it was understood in the Old Testament time. Any use of the name of the Lord in an irreverent fashion to just say God would be inappropriate. It would be wrong. Thus, when they see the word Allah, to them it's the same way.
It's the sacred name. It's God. You don't talk about God as you talk about Larry Moe or I guess Curly. You don't talk about God in that same sense. You don't use the name of God that way. OK, but again, the word Allah is Arabic for God.
OK, now let us move. There's a lot to say and less and less time to say it.
Yes, he received in 610 when he was 40 years old, received what he later described as his first of many visions. In 612 he started accumulating converts. He began to preach in 612 and he began to accumulate followers, disciples, converts to Islam.
He and his converts, though many, were effectively run out of Mecca. And he was forced to flee to another city called Medina. I know you've probably heard that name before. So he goes from Mecca and he's forced to M-E-D-I-N-A, Medina.
What did you say? Somebody say something?
Nobody said anything appropriate, I'm sure. So he started accumulating converts. As he began to accumulate converts, though his converts were rising, there was an upheaval in Mecca. He was forced to go to Medina.
All right, so this is the history as it unfolds. Soon a great battle erupted between the followers of Muhammad and the people of Mecca. And the followers of Muhammad conquered the city, effectively reclaiming it for Islamic rule.
So it's back to Mecca.
So they were forced out to Medina. They grew their army, grew their power, and came back and took Mecca. I do not know. I don't know the answer to that question. It would have been probably a mixture, but I don't know what the majority would have done.
Yes, sir?
Didn't they sign a treaty saying that they wouldn't grow their army or do anything like that?
I believe so. I don't have the information on that particular situation, but I think that you're correct. He was just mentioning that there was a treaty signed that they wouldn't grow to a certain point, but yet they did anyway.
Yeah, yeah. After the conquest, Muhammad's power would extend over most of Arabia. And he would be known as not only a powerful religious leader, but also a powerful governmental leader as well. With the worship of Allah being strictly enforced, it became the law of the land that not only will we have control governmentally, we will have control religiously, somewhat of what I was referring to last week of how politics and religion go hand in hand in the system.
Muhammad was and still is considered by the Islamic people as being the greatest prophet God has ever given to mankind. The words Muhammad spoke were considered to be the prophetic utterances of God, and they would eventually form the Muslim holy book called the Koran.
The writings of the Koran would become the basis for the Islamic religion and is believed by Muslims to be the word of God. Now, something to consider. I mentioned this last week, but I want to mention it again since you're taking notes this week.
Muhammad was effectively illiterate, so he had his disciples write down his words. That is why the Koran has that name. The word Koran means the reading or the recitation. OK, so we have, as I said before, we have the history of the Arab people.
And then you have the history of the Islamic religion. They go hand in hand, but not until the seventh century. The argument that Islam dates back prior to Christ and that Islam was the religion of Abraham and Ishmael and all of the prophets and Jesus is to rewrite history.
It is historically anachronistic. You have to you have to rewrite the history books to make that so, because the religion of Muhammad does not come on the scene until the seventh century. Now, in regard to history, the issue surrounding Ishmael and Abraham is related to the religion of Islam only in the sense that the Islamic tradition sees Ishmael as the ancestor of the Arabic people of whom Muhammad was a part.
Muhammad was an Arab. The conflict between the Arabs and the Jews could possibly be traced back to Ishmael and Isaac. However, something you need to realize the modern conflict and you turn on the television and you see this about the Gaza Strip and the divide between the Palestinians and the Jews.
The modern conflict is really based on situations following World War One and the Jewish migration back to Palestine. OK, has there always been a division between Arabs and Jews? Yes, but the modern conflict has its roots in the following of the Jewish migration to Palestine after World War One.
The Jews had for the most part been dispersed and there was this coming back to Israel. And after, as I said, when this happened, it caused a lot of the problems that we see today. We must realize that the religion of Islam does not date back to Ishmael.
It does not even date back to biblical times. Islam as a religion is less than 1 ,500 years old. Everybody understand that? The religion of Islam is less than 1 ,500 years old. That is the history. Now we're going to move on, unless there are any questions.
Again, I may be able to answer them, I may not. But if you have any questions, ask. If not, we're going to move on to the major differences between Islam and Christianity.
I know some people have questions of Occupied Mecca. In my studies, various pagan tribes said their worship was centered around the Kaaba, which was already there in Mecca. And when Muhammad came in, he basically co-opted the object of their worship and took it as a part of the pillars of Islam as a pilgrimage to the Kaaba.
Yeah, and that still is a part of the pilgrimage. It happens. Yeah, I was going to say, there's a lot of pagan objects that get adopted by Christianity.
Let's look at the major differences between the religion of Islam and...
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
They would claim that the Old Testament that we have, much of it is irrelevant, because they do not see the history of Isaac's descendants as having relevance. It's the history of Ishmael that would have relevance.
So, much of what we have in the Old Testament and the prophets and these different things, they would say they were Islamic, they were Muslim. Even though Islam had not come until the 7th century, they said they followed the religion of Abraham, and they claimed Abraham was a Muslim.
But they were not looking for, as our Old Testament is full of, they were not looking for a Messiah.
Oh, no, and I would even go one further on that. References to Christ are often seen by Muslims as references to Muhammad, the coming of the last great prophet, Muhammad. I would have to give you some of those, possibly next week.
But there are specific references that we would say this is a reference to Christ, and they would say, no, this is a reference to the coming of Muhammad. And particularly, there are New Testament references to the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus said, I will go away and I will send to you another comforter, where we know Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit, they would say, no, the other comforter is Muhammad.
So, yes.
One of the big issues that comes up in this discussion is that, what is the name of the angel who appeared to Muhammad?
Gabriel. Yes.
Oh, you're asking? Okay, yes, yes.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
No, they said Gabriel appeared. It was Gabriel. Yeah, and who was the angel that appeared to Mary? It was Gabriel. It is not divided into books. It is divided into surahs and ayahs, which we would call chapters and verses.
Okay, it is one book, but it is surahs and ayahs. There are references to Esau, which is their name for Jesus. There are references to Esau, and there are references to Moses and other prophets. But as far as it being...
They have a different creation story?
Yeah, there's a lot of it that's much, much different than... Yeah, there are stories and things that are taken, but they are... Yes, yes, the prophets are mentioned. Yes, yes, so there would be mentioning...
I'm trying to follow what you're saying. Yes, there would be mentioning of prophets. There's mentioning of Jesus, Moses, and the others. So, yes, that is the case. But as far as direct quotes and things like that from the Bible, I'm not aware of any of those.
Is it possible to buy a copy of the Quran?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, in fact, you could probably get one for free.
You don't want to give them your name.
Yeah, but I would probably rather go buy it with cash than to put my name on anything.
You can buy them at any Barnes and Noble.
Yeah, you can buy a Quran.
Yeah.
Sure, yeah.
And we're going to talk about how the Quran is constructed and things like that. But yes, they reference much of what the Bible says, but in a much different way.
So they just retell the story? Is that kind of like what you're saying?
Yes, and like we'll see in a minute, it comes out in clear... It comes out in clear counter distinction from what the Bible says. What's time look like? What's time?
Seven ten.
Okay, we got 20 minutes. Let's look at the first one. Let's look at the doctrine of God. And that would be all that we do, because trying to get any further will be difficult. But again, the whole stuff, this whole thing, this whole series is about understanding the differences between what we believe and what is taught in these various religions.
And Islam, very important, obviously, because it is becoming ever more popular in the United States. We have ever more opportunities to interact with people from this religion. In fact, my wife mentioned this, though, that I hadn't thought about it before.
But I've seen so many more people that were wearing Islamic garb in the last year than I think I've ever seen in my whole life. I just see it more. Maybe it's because I've opened my eyes and didn't see it before, but it just seems like there's more than I've ever seen, even around...
Well, but we see it. You have to understand the doctrines of Islam. You have to understand five key things and the five things we're going to look at. If you want to go and just write them in your notes, we're going to look at the doctrine of God, the doctrine of Scripture, the understanding of the prophets, the understanding of judgment.
I'm sorry.
Number four is the doctrine of angels. I passed one. The doctrine of angels and the understanding of judgment. Those are the five things that we need to understand. So let's look tonight and let's focus on the doctrine of God.
At first glance, many people would think that the Islamic doctrine of God is similar to that of Christians and Jews. All agree that God is omniscient.
All knowing.
All agree that God is omnipotent.
All powerful.
All agree that God is omnipresent. That he is everywhere all the time. They all agree that God is one and there is none like him.
Okay?
So of that, we could say yes. And as such, they are all three monotheistic religions. However, the subtle similarity should not fool us into believing that we're all worshiping the same God. The differences between Allah and Yahweh are great indeed.
Probably the greatest difference between Allah and Yahweh is found in what is considered to be one of the most revered surahs. Remember, a surah is a chapter in the Quran. Surah 112. In Surah 112, we find these words.
Listen closely. Say he is Allah, the one and only. Allah, the eternal, absolute. He begetteth not, nor is he begotten. And there is none like unto him.
Let me say it again.
Say he is Allah, the one and only. Allah, the eternal, absolute. He begetteth not, nor is he begotten. And there is none like unto him. Please note in this all important text for the Muslim that a very important denial of the Christian faith is contained within.
It is almost as if this surah is written in a denying fashion. Because what has Christianity held to from its very inception? For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son. And the language of begetting is very clearly and closely associated with Yahweh.
That Yahweh begetteth the son. You understand? So now when we look back at Surah 112 and we hear it say Allah begetteth not. You see how that becomes the immediate division. They too cannot be the same.
If Allah begetteth not and the father beget the son, then the two cannot be the same. You see the first and most primary problem with Islam is the denial of the fact that Jesus Christ is the son of God.
I will tell you this. Islam agrees with Christianity about Jesus more than many other religions do. However, they deny the central tenet. They agree Jesus was sinless. They have no problem saying Jesus was sinless.
They agree Jesus was born of a virgin. They have no problem saying Jesus was born of a virgin. No problem. They believe Jesus was born of a virgin.
No problem.
Trust me.
They believe.
No problem. No problem born of a virgin. No problem being sinless. These are no problem. The problem is that he is the son of God.
That is a problem.
They even say he's the Messiah. Oh, yeah, Jesus is the Messiah, no problem. Esau is the Messiah, no problem.
How can you be born a virgin without God doing it?
Yes. Oh, no, God did it. He didn't beget him. You see, the argument is not that God, they say God caused Mary to become pregnant, but not through the process of begetting. Oh, they also deny that they do deny that Jesus died on the cross.
We're going to get to that when we get to the issue of judgment, because they say they say they crucified him. But yet they they did not. So we understand they say many things that we would agree with.
Jesus, born of a virgin, Jesus, sinless, Jesus is Messiah and all that. We'd say, yay. And then they turn around and say, but he's not the son of God. And then we'd say, no, we'd have a problem with that.
This is very important. The simple difference between the two religions is that Muslims have a Unitarian understanding of God. You need to grab that word. You need to put that word into your memory bank and you need to keep it there because, beloved, it is a wholly important word.
The word is Unitarian. Most of you have probably only heard the word Unitarian when it was attached to what word? Universalist, right? Universalist Unitarian. Know this. They do not have to go together.
A lot of people think Universalist Unitarian are the same, like it's almost like, you know, biscuits and gravy. You got to have them together. No, you don't have to have. But you got to have them together.
You don't have to have Unitarian Universalist. All Unitarianism is, is that God is one in essence and one in person, one in essence and one in person. Or if you want to erase this and put one in being and one in person.
All right, or the word used substance, even though that's kind of a difficult word to use, because you think of God as being non-substantive because God is spirit and you cannot touch the spirit. But we think of the substance of God is, is, is, is completely singular.
And they say the person of God is completely singular. What is Christianity, beloved? Is Trinitarian, right? Christianity is Trinitarian. Unitarian says God is one in being and one in person. Trinitarian says God is one in being three in person.
Who are the three persons? I want a child.
Thank you.
The father, the son, the Holy Spirit. That's exactly right. God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit. So we have to understand this is the primary divide about the doctrine of God is that the religion of Islam is Unitarian.
The religion of Christianity is Trinitarian. Now, are there Christians who are not Trinitarian? No, you call them what you want. No, I'm a straight up. I'm a that's what I was going to say. You can call them what you want.
The historic Orthodox Christianity is Trinitarian. That was the doctrine upon which the church was founded, that Jesus Christ is the eternally begotten son of the father, that he is not with beginning or ending the same way the father and is co-equally co-eternal with the father.
Likewise is the Holy Spirit. And to deny that is to deny the foundation of Christianity.
So.
So to say, yes, are there Christians who claim or are there people who are Unitarian who claim to be Christians?
But there are also many people out there who claim they can fly. It don't make it so.
Yes, yes.
But you have to understand that is not a big deal for them. The prophets being sinless is not a big deal. Yet to say a prophet had no sin.
Not a big deal. Not a big deal.
No, actually, no. But but you and I have to recheck that. But I don't believe they say Mohammed was sinless. I don't think that they do. But the idea of someone being sinless is not that big a deal because they don't have the same doctrine of holiness of God that we have.
And that's part of what we're going to understand as we talk about judgment. They do not see sin at the level that Christians understand sin. That's why they're able to say you can have your good outweigh your bad.
In Christianity, our view of sin, there's no way our good will ever outweigh our bad. There's no way. This is why that whole idea of judgment and there being our good and wait with the bad. That doesn't make sense to us because we know every moment of our lives spent apart from faith was nothing but an affront to God.
But they don't see it that way.
Yes. Oh, I go.
See, I usually say, if you just let me go long enough, I answer your question.
OK, let's see.
What else to say about. We talk about God, the doctrine of God. This is key. Unitarianism versus Trinitarianism, this is key in the difference between Islam and Trinitarianism. But I want to make this point, beloved.
This is also key in the difference between Christianity and Jehovah Witnesses. This is also key in the difference between Trinitarianism and Mormonism. This is also the key difference between Trinitarianism and what is called oneness Pentecostalism.
This is also the difference between Christianity and the Unitarian Universalist movement.
I just call me you, you know, what is it?
Church of God. Worldwide Church of God.
Yeah. W .W .C .G.
Dot com. So, yes, we have all of these. You will see you will hear this throughout this series. I will keep coming back to the doctrine of the Trinity and I will tell you this is. One of the primary doctrines that separates orthodoxy from heterodoxy or straight out heresy.
OK, heterodoxy is what we would call something like oneness Pentecostalism. It is it is heresy, but it's it there's there are some things that line up orthodox. There's some things that don't. And it's heterodoxy.
It's it's it's it's still wrong. It's still wrong. It's just. All right. So I guess my point and sort of come to church circling for a landing here, Unitarianism, Trinitarianism, this is huge. You need to.
I did this in my Sunday school class a few weeks ago. But you need to understand the doctrine of the Trinity. You need to be able to enunciate what you believe about who Jesus is, who the Holy Spirit is, not what the Holy Spirit is.
Heard a pastor the other day talk about what the Holy Spirit is. I wanted to kick it because the Holy Spirit is not a what it's a who he's a who. Ha. See, I just did it so easy. That's right. He's a who.
The Holy Spirit is a person. He's the third person of the Trinity. The Bible never describes the Holy Spirit as an it or a what always is a who and a him. Jesus said, when I go away, I will send to you another comforter.
The word there another is the word all of the Greek. It means another of the same kind of the same quality. The Holy Spirit comes and he walks beside us just as Jesus walked beside us when he was in the flesh.
The Holy Spirit is now Christ with us. He is within us. He is the one people I thought about Jesus in your heart. No, he's not. Jesus is right here. The father, the Holy Spirit is within you. Don't make that mistake because you confuse the Trinity there.
Seriously. You cannot separate them, but you must be able to make the distinction. You must be able to make a distinction. If theologians are known for nothing else, it is that we are clearly able to make distinctions.
Seriously, it is our prerogative to be clear with what we're saying and to be absolutely clear. And when we talk about the Trinity, it is easy to be clear. Somebody says, well, the Trinity is hard to understand.
Yeah, well, so is God's eternality. But nobody argues that. Nobody argues whether or not God always has been and always will be, because we understand the Bible is so clear on that teaching. Well, the Bible is just as clear that Christ and the Holy Spirit are both co-equal and eternal with God.
And it's so easily represented by scripture. So we go to the scripture and we say this is the foundation of the doctrine of the Trinity. If Jesus is called God and the Holy Spirit is called God and the father is called God and all three of these are called God, yet the Bible clearly tells us that God is only one God, then we must understand that that one God exists in three persons, the father and the son and the Holy Spirit.
And these three have a relationship. Thus, they're not all the same person. You see, there's a problem. There's a religion system called modalism. Modalism is unitarian. Modalism says, well, yes, he was God, the father in the Old Testament, he was Jesus in the New Testament, and now he's the Holy Spirit.
He's the same God, just in different modes of being. That is wrong. And that's the way you understand the Trinity. Please put it in the back of your mind and throw it away. Let it go out the junk department, wherever the junk department, your brain is put in that.
Let it go out, because that is not a proper way to explain the Trinity. That is modalism. That is saying God is one in essence and one in person. And that is not it, because we see an interaction between the father and the son.
The son prays to the father. The son has a relationship with the father. He says to the father in John 17, glorify me with that glory which we had together before the world was. How could they have glory together if they're the same person?
How can the Bible say in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God unless they are distinct in person, but the same in essence? And they are. Yes, I'm getting preaching.
That's going to stop me. Absolutely. The second person is eternal. That's yes, very much. And we we talk about the word became flesh. So existed prior to that as the word. Very much. And that's it. And that's important point.
People say, well, Jesus, how can he be eternal? He came along with Bethlehem.
No, the word is eternal.
I tell you what, Trinity, Trinitarianism, Trinitarianism. It's so vastly important. Saying that you are a Christian is tantamount to saying you're a Trinitarian, what you or your concern, what you believe about God is that God is one in essence and three in persons.
And what the Muslims believe about God, what the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, actually Mormonism doesn't count. It's polytheistic. I shouldn't even put that on there. We'll talk about that when we get there.
One is Pentecostalism, universalist Trinitarianism, this one and modalism altogether. They see God, one in essence, one in person. We do not. We do not teach that. We have to understand that distinction.
All right, we're in tonight there. Next week, we will begin on the doctrine of Scripture and we will see how not only do the Muslims say that the Bible has been corrupted, but they also say that the Quran was given as the corrector.
And how it's supposed to correct the scriptures. All right, let's begin with the end of the word of prayer. Father, we thank you for this opportunity to look at your word. We thank you for this opportunity to discuss the the fallacies that are out there, the false teachings that are out there and our understanding of how you have given us your word.
And it is so clear. And yet there are things in it, Lord, that cause us to have to wonder how how you exist. When you when the word says that that Jesus is the word. Became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory.
Lord, we understand what those words mean, but it's hard for us to truly understand all that there is to know about you. And we will never understand all that there is to know about you because, Lord, you're God and we are not.
We are creature and we will always be creature. But we thank you for instructing us through your spirit. We thank you for instructing us through your word. We thank you for this opportunity to examine the teachings that come out of this movement of Islam and to demonstrate how we are not worshiping the same God, for we worship God in three persons.
Blessed Trinity. And it is in the name of Christ through whom we are told to pray.
Amen.