Beware of ISLAMIC CHERRY PICKING #Islam #Dawah #apologetics #presup #bible

Islamic Cherry-Picking and the Assumption of Unitarianism

Welcome back to another episode of Revealed Apologetics, I'm your host Eli Ayala, and today I'm going to be doing another response video. Here I have a Muslim doing dawah on the streets of, I don't know where this is taking place, but he's having a nice respectful conversation with a woman who appears to be asking a question about Christians.

Perhaps I would assume this person is a Christian, and so the Muslim offers his response. Now what I have identified in this clip is interesting, and it caused me to title this episode, this response video, as beware of Islamic cherry-picking, okay?

Cherry-picking is the practice of picking and choosing what you want from the Bible, right? You pick one thing and you highlight that, but then you obviously don't pick the other thing that you don't like, okay?

And this is precisely what is happening here, and this is typical of interactions like this, and so hopefully this will be useful for folks, and so let's jump right in. Let's jump right into it, and I will offer my thoughts here.

Alright, so let's kind of unpack this slowly now, then. This is interesting. So it is very clear in my brief interactions with Muslims and then watching content online, there seems to be a misunderstanding of what Christians believe about the nature of God.

And I know obviously in Christian and Muslim dialogue, the issue of the doctrine of the Trinity often comes up. It is clear, and hopefully folks caught it if you're thinking critically and you're listening carefully, you caught the misunderstanding in the form of the first question that was asked, okay?

This is very important because before you respond to a question, it's important to understand the foundation of the question, the assumptions. You guys follow my channel know that I focus greatly upon the importance of presuppositions and assumptions.

This is a perfect example of being able to hear a question and then examine the faulty assumptions that are baked into the question, okay? I wonder if you guys caught it. Let's play it from the beginning again, okay?

And then I'm gonna pause it and make some comments here.

Do you believe a Christian is going to find peace once they pass?

Jesus Christ. Did he believe in one God or three in one?

The Trinity, Monotheism, and Faulty Questions About Jesus

Okay, so see, Jesus Christ, did he believe in one God or three in one? Of course, if this woman is a Christian, then she's just ignorant of her own position. I don't know who this woman is, obviously, it's just a random clip.

But the Muslim gentleman asked the question, Jesus Christ, did he believe in one God or three in one? And the woman responds with one, okay? Again, this is, notice the faulty question, okay? If someone were to ask me, Jesus Christ, did he believe in one God or three in one?

The answer is yes, okay? Obviously, from a Christian perspective and from a consideration of what all of our scriptures say, Jesus did believe that there is one God. Jesus was not a polytheist. Jesus was not an atheist.

Jesus would have believed in one God. And of course, it is correct for a Christian who believes in the Trinity to say that the Father is the true God, okay? That is not inconsistent with Trinitarian, you know, Trinitarian theology, okay?

Jesus is correct in saying that the Father is the one true God, we are correct when we affirm the Father is the one true God, the Son is the one true God, the Holy Spirit is the one true God, because we are what?

We are monotheistic, okay? Now, when we say, when someone says, Jesus, did he believe in one God or three in one, okay, both of those categories for a Christian are encapsulated in the sort of monotheism that we hold to, okay?

Monotheism is the belief in one God. Christians are Trinitarian monotheist. Muslims are Unitarian monotheist. What is happening here in this clip is that the Muslim is simply assuming Unitarianism, okay?

And that is something that we will want to challenge, okay? As Christians, we do not grant that assumption. I will grant the assumption of monotheism. I do believe that the Bible teaches there is only one God, right?

Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. I believe that the Bible teaches that God is one. But what is the nature of that one God, okay? Is he Trinitarian one, or is he a Unitarian one, okay? Is Unitarian monotheism correct, or Trinitarian monotheism correct?

Well, obviously, as Christians, we're gonna hold to Trinitarian monotheism. Now, they're not getting into these discussions, a quick kind of on-the-street kind of interaction, but you need to, the listener needs to recognize, when someone assumes their position in such a way that when they ask the question, their assumptions are baked into the question that they are asking, okay?

You want to be really, really careful of that. We believe that Jesus is God because the Bible teaches it, broadly speaking, and the Bible teaches it more specifically with respect to the Gospel of John.

Here's another thing that I found interesting about this video. Let's continue on, okay? Let's just play it real quick.

Who did Jesus Christ refer to as the one true God? The Father. See, notice the.

Language here. Who did Jesus refer to as the one true God? His Creator, okay? That needs to be understood in a very particular and nuanced and biblical perspective, okay? For we believe, the Bible teaches, that Jesus, as the second person of the Trinity, is eternal.

Just as the Father is described as the first and the last, so too the Son is described as the first and the last, okay? We believe, especially in the very Gospel that is about to be quoted, okay? Let's play it back, and then we'll let the passage be quoted, and then we'll kind of interact a little bit, okay?

Listen up. Okay, so in John 17 3, so if I was talking to this Muslim, so we're allowed to quote the Gospel of John here? Okay, you're quoting John 17 3 to make your point. Can I quote the Gospel of John as well, okay?

What does the Gospel of John say, huh? Well, let's go there. The Gospel of John says, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God, okay? He was in the beginning with God, who's the He, the Word, okay, who is with and is God.

All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Are we allowed to quote those passages as well? Well, of course not. The Muslim is not going to accept that for obvious reasons. It disagrees with their theology. So here's where the cherry-picking comes in.

They will cherry-pick and say, look, but this is what John 73 says. Clearly this is not what Jesus believed. Jesus didn't believe that he was God. He said that the Father was the only true God, right?

So then they'll quote that, but then when you quote other parts of the Gospel of John that explicitly qualifies that passage when read in its broader context and contradicts what the Muslim believes, that doesn't count because the Bible has been corrupted.

Christians have tainted their scriptures, okay? I hope you see the huge double standard in that, okay? The Bible teaches clearly that Jesus—we believe the Trinity's true because the Bible teaches it. God the Father himself calls Jesus God, okay?

Now again, the Muslim is not going to accept this, but that shouldn't bother the Christian. I mean, look at Hebrews chapter 1, okay? I'm going to read verses 1 through—let's read—. I love this first chapter here.

We're gonna read 1 through 8, okay? Here, join me, okay? If you open your Bible, Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 8. Long ago, and in many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, okay?

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High, having become as much superior to angels, as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, You are my son, today I have begotten you.

Or again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, Let all God's angels worship him. Of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds, and his minister is a flame of fire.

But of the Son, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.

Okay? It is not difficult to demonstrate that the Bible clearly teaches the deity of Christ. Now, the Hebrews or any of the writings of Paul or anything along those lines, as a matter of fact, to my knowledge, many Muslims think that it is the Apostle Paul who brought in the doctrine of the deity of Christ.

But again, you don't even need the letters of Paul to demonstrate the deity of Christ. Okay? The deity of Christ can be demonstrated in the Gospel, especially the Gospel of John. Okay? And not just the Gospel of John, all of the Gospels.

Okay? Especially the Gospel of Mark, right? They often bring up the argument that Mark is the earliest of the Gospels, and so, you know, you'll hear someone like Shabir Ali use the argumentation that there's been development where Jesus is kind of described in this kind of, you know, somewhat kind of like regular way, he's just a man, and then it develops, and then you have the glorified picture of Jesus in the Gospel of John.

That's false! In the Gospel of Mark, you have the deity of Christ right there in the opening chapter. I mean, let's look there. Okay? We'll turn, let me go there right now. Let's go to Mark chapter 1.

Mark chapter 1, all right? Let's see here. Mark chapter 1 says, The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, before, I'm sorry, behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way?

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Notice what John's task is. His task is to prepare the way of the who? Who is being prepared, whose way is being prepared in Isaiah?

Well, it's Yahweh, and that passage is being applied to John the Baptist, preparing the way for one who is coming, right? It is the preparation of Jesus who is equated with Yahweh. That's right there in the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, as I pointed out in a previous video, okay?

So we believe the doctrine of the Trinity because that's what the Bible teaches, but you need to be careful for the assumption of Unitarianism, okay? So we need to understand a couple of things. Jesus Christ, okay, was he created or did he eternally exist, okay?

The answer is yes, okay? Jesus eternally existed because he is God. His human nature began to exist and was created, so with respect to his humanity, yes, obviously, no Christian is going to deny his human nature is not eternal like his divine nature.

This is why we need to understand, God is one being who exists as three persons, Jesus is one person who has two natures, both human and divine. This is relevant because in an interaction I had with a Muslim in the comments section of my most recent video, they brought up a couple of scripture passages that apparently disprove that Jesus believes himself to be God, all right?

And here are some of the passages this individual used, and I think it's kind of relevant here to kind of put some context. He said something to the effect, he said, there we go, he said John 8 42, where Jesus says, I have not come on my own, God sent me.

John 7 16, my teaching is not my own, it comes from the one who sent me. John 12 50, whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say. John 17 3, now this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you've sent, we've addressed this here.

John 5 30, by myself I can do nothing, I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me. John 7 17, we'll find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.

John 8 40, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Now when Jesus refers to God who sent him, okay, that is not Jesus denying his own deity. Rather, it is a distinction being made between the persons, okay?

In this context, in the Gospel of John, God is referring to the Father. How do we know this? Because it's mentioned in the context of John, okay? Jesus is praying to the Father, the Father is God. That is not to exclude Jesus's own divinity, okay?

Again, to think that that's what the text is teaching is to simply assume Unitarianism. Now, the Gospel of John is one of my favorite Gospels out of the four Gospels. I mean, I love the Bible, right? It's God's Word.

But the Gospel of John, you know, I'm familiar with. And as a Trinitarian, I've never read anything in the Gospel of John that made me go, oh my goodness. It says, Jesus says, I'm a man, I'm a man! He refers, the Bible calls him a man!

This doesn't bother Christians, because obviously, Christians believe that Jesus is a man. And obviously, there is a distinction between the person of Christ and the person of the Father. And so Jesus is not denying his divinity, rather the scriptures are making a distinction between the persons, okay?

That is not a problem for the Christian, unless you simply assume Unitarianism, okay? And of course, when you show all of these other scriptures, of course, the Muslim is going to make the argumentation that the scriptures have been corrupted.

And of course, the parts of the scripture that has not been corrupted are the parts that agree with the Qur 'an. And the parts that have been corrupted are the parts that disagree with the Qur 'an. But then you see another fatal move here, okay?

Because the Qur 'an teaches that we ought to, we, the people of the book, Jews and Christians, have the resources to test and confirm whether the Qur 'an, what it states is true. We're told to test and confirm, okay?

And so you can think in terms of the argument here, okay? Let's break it down in kind of a deductive argument. I like logical order. Let's kind of break this down here, okay? So when the Muslim asserts, yeah, you know, when you respond to something like this, and you bring in all of the Gospel of John to bear on the usage of John 17 .3 here, okay?

And they say, well, it's been corrupted. I believe this, this part is true, but these other parts is problems, okay? Then we could appeal to the Qur 'an's own assertion that people of the book ought to judge by what God has given them, okay?

So let's take a look at this here, okay? Premise one, if Allah commands the people of the book, that's Jews and Christians, to judge by the Injil, that's the Gospel, okay? Then the Injil available to them must be authentic and trustworthy, okay?

So if we're told to judge by these things, then that assumes that the Injil, whatever that is, whatever it's referring to, is a reliable source of information, okay? In Surah Al-Ma 'idah, chapter 5, verse 47 in the Qur 'an, Christians are instructed to judge by what Allah has revealed therein, the Injil.

A command from Allah to judge, okay? We're called to judge by the Injil, that assumes that it is reliable. It's reliable, it's uncorrupted, it is a source of divine guidance, okay? Think about it, it would be illogical for Allah to require adherence to a corrupted or untrustworthy source, okay?

So if Allah commands the people of the book to judge by the Injil, then the Injil available to them must be authentic and trustworthy. Premise two, Allah does command the people of the book to judge by the Injil, okay?

Surah Al-Ma 'idah, 5, verse 47 explicitly states, let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed therein, okay? So we are, as Christians, we are to follow and assess by the Injil they possess.

And so the Qur 'an assumes the authenticity of the Injil that Christians had at that time, okay? So premise two, Allah does command the people of the book to judge by the Injil. Premise three, Allah describes the Injil as containing guidance and light given by Him as a divine source of wisdom, okay?

Surah Al-Ma 'idah, 5, verse 46, describes the Injil given to Jesus as, and these are the words used, guidance and light, okay? And that seems to affirm its status as an untainted, divinely inspired source, okay?

So premise four, the Qur 'an does not explicitly claim the Injil has been corrupted, and it states that Allah is the guardian of His revelations, okay? And so while it is true that later claims in Islamic tradition bring about this idea of corruption, the Qur 'an itself does not state this for the Injil.

Instead, Surah Al-Hijr, I apologize, I'm not an Arabic speaker, but nevertheless, chapter 15, verse 9, mentions Allah's role as a protector of His message, which pretty much implies that His revelations, including the Injil, retain their integrity, okay?

And so therefore, according to the Qur 'an, the Injil that Christians had at that time of Muhammad was authentic and should be considered a valid source of divine guidance. But if that's true, then we have what is required to test the claims of the Qur 'an, and when we do do that, we see the inconsistency, okay?

So we can bring to bear the broader context of the Gospel of John when the Muslim quotes and cherry-picks one part of it. We can quote other parts. They say, well, the Bible's been corrupted, okay? Then we can go back to the fact that, well, if we are, as Christians, going to judge the Qur 'an and follow the rules or follow the command that the Qur 'an gives us to test, the people the book to test, then we have to assume that whatever they had back then was adequate.

And yes, we have, whatever Gospels, whatever Injil, whatever message was available to the people back then, we still have it today, and so we can still test. And when we test, the Qur 'an fails miserably, okay?

So beware of cherry-picking. Picking and choosing certain portions of the Scripture, make sure that you are thinking holistically at a worldview level. Don't let someone take a verse over here and use that, but then deny everything that disagrees with their position is inaccurate, right?

That's gonna be a problematic methodology to use. Make sure you understand what you believe as a Christian, what is the doctrine of the Trinity, how do we understand Jesus as both human and divine, okay?

What does that mean, okay? So that we could answer, because these are the sticking points between Christians and Muslims, okay? When you're speaking to a Muslim, the big points that are gonna come up are the Trinity, okay?

This obviously is in conflict with the Islamic doctrine of Tawhid, which is an absolute monotheism, a Unitarian monotheism. You're going to differ over the person and nature and work of Christ, the crucifixion of Jesus.

Muslims reject the idea that Jesus was crucified, and his nature. Is Jesus God? I mean, this is gonna be a big, you know, distinction between the two positions. So know your theology, know what the Scriptures teach, and be able to interact with assertions similar to this, and be able to evaluate the faulty assumptions that are baked into, you know, their assertions, their arguments, and the questions that are typically asked, okay?

Respectful Christian-Muslim Dialogue and Knowing Your Theology

Now just real quick, as a comment to this discussion, I mean, I mean, you listen here. It is a very respectful interaction. My interaction with Muslims have been nothing but respectful, thankfully. You know, I was present at the debate between David Wood and Muhammad Hijab, and I was able to meet Muhammad Hijab out in the parking lot for like, meh, like five or ten minutes, and we talked a little bit.

He would definitely not remember me, he talked to a lot of people that night, but in my interactions with Muhammad Hijab, he was very respectful, we had a good conversation, we shook hands, and I left, okay?

These interactions can be respectful, all right? Christians need to, as 1 Peter 3 15 tells us, that we are to set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts, always being ready to give a reason for the hope to anyone who asks us the reason for the hope that's within us, yet doing so with gentleness and respect.

We respect the person that we're speaking with, but we, as the Apostle Paul says, we want to be able to destroy these strongholds, right? We want to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, we want to destroy the arguments that are set up against the knowledge of God.

And so, this comes in the form of responding to misrepresentations of the Christian faith, okay? This is why this is so important to know your theology, for in knowing your theology, you'll be able to do half of the job of apologetics.

It's not all the philosophical stuff that you see a lot of apologists talk about, and myself, I've talked about that, you know, that kind of stuff as well, but most of the stuff is really correcting misunderstandings of what we actually believe, okay?

And so, that's what we need to be equipped to do, and we need to be able to do it in a way that is grounded in Scripture, grounded in the Christian worldview. All right, well, to conclude this brief video here, I have a big announcement coming up.

The future for Revealed Apologetics looks super exciting, and I can't wait to be able to let people know what's going down. I can't say anything now, but when I'm able to say and announce so on and so forth, I'll let folks know.

Just for now, I really appreciate all the support, and I'm looking forward to, I know it's been kind of sparse in my video releases, but things will pick up rather quickly soon, so I'll keep you guys updated on that, okay?

If you like these sorts of videos, please let me know. If you like the kind of video, and then my response, and things like that, I want to give you content that is useful to you, so you can give me suggestions, you can send me videos, these sorts of things, you can send that all to revealedapologetics at gmail .com, and I will take a look.

Yes, I do check my email, okay? And I want to put out content that is going to be most beneficial to my Christian brothers and sisters, so please let me know if this is useful to you. Also, if you're looking for a speaker at your conference, your church event, or whatever, as you guys know, I am also a traveling speaker, and that is a thing that can totally be set up on my website, revealedapologetics .com.

There is a fill-out form on the homepage, and you could reach out to me. We could set something up, all right? Well, that's it for this episode, guys. Take care. God bless. Bye-bye.