A Quiz on Christianity? #2

This is the second in our responses to a video posted by a Muslim on YouTube asking us to examine our faith based upon the

Bible, which we are most glad to do. So far, however, we have found that our Muslim friend does not quite understand the book that he is attempting to use to create doubt in the part of Christians who are reading these particular questions.

We worked through question 7. We now pick up with question number 8, which says,

The word Trinity and the words Triune God are mentioned in the Bible how many times?

Well, of course, they are not mentioned in the Bible. But notice in the answer to question number 8, it says,

This, of course, is not in any way, shape, or form contradictory to the teaching of the doctrine of the

Trinity. In fact, it is foundational to it. Our Muslim friends do not understand what we believe about the doctrine of the

Trinity, partly because their own religion does not understand it, and a false definition of the

Trinity is enshrined within their own scriptures, which causes a great problem because of the fact that even if the

Trinity was not true, God would have been able to accurately recognize it and identify it by 600 years after the time of Christ, since Muhammad could not accurately identify it.

That certainly causes a major problem. But as there is so much confusion, especially in YouTube and amongst the

Muslims, about the doctrine of the Trinity, let's at least define what we're talking about. Let's look at this basic definition.

Within the one being that is God, there exists eternally three co -equal and co -eternal persons, namely the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Please note those two terms.

Within the one being that is God, there exists eternally three co -equal and co -eternal persons.

Being is not person. Person is not being. We are not saying 1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 3.

You may have heard some confused individuals or maybe even some false teachers saying that, but that is not the historical doctrine of the

Trinity at all. Instead, make sure to recognize a very vital distinction.

Being and person are different things. Being is what makes something what it is.

Person is what makes someone who they are. There is one being of God, infinite and eternal.

That's what makes God God. But that being is shared by three eternal co -equal divine persons, the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so when a Christian looks to the scriptures, they see that the biblical foundations of the

Trinity are laid out very clearly therein. The first foundation, monotheism.

There is only one being of God. The opposite of monotheism is polytheism, not

Trinitarianism. The opposite of Trinitarianism or a negation of Trinitarianism is Unitarianism, the insistence that the being of God can only be shared by one person.

Muslims are Unitarians, but Christians are not polytheists.

So the first foundation of the Trinity is monotheism. The second foundation of the Trinity revealed in scripture is the existence of three divine persons, the

Father, the Son, and the Spirit. They are not one person. Jesus was not a ventriloquist at his baptism.

The Father and the Son speak to one another in the New Testament. The Father and the

Son send the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks in the book of Acts. We are talking about three divine persons, but each is identified with one divine name,

Yahweh. So you have the third foundation, the co -equality and co -eternality of those individuals.

That is the deity of Christ, the personality, and deity of the Holy Spirit of God. And so you can look at it graphically.

You have three foundations. Monotheism is the bedrock of the doctrine of the

Trinity. But then you have the three divine persons, and you have the equality of those persons. Deny any one of these foundations, and you end up with some of the many errors that have existed down through the centuries.

It is very important to have an accurate understanding of what the doctrine of the Trinity actually is.

So we see that in reality, the answer provided by our Muslim friend here completely misunderstands the doctrine that he is attempting to deny.

Because all Jesus' words in Mark 12, 29 do is affirm one of the three foundations of the

Trinity. That is the Shema, Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.

That does not tell us that one Lord means Unitarianism. We believe there is only one true being of God.

The Muslim is going to have to be significantly more accurate in his argumentation to convince the

Christian that what we believed for hundreds of years before Muhammad began preaching in Mecca is in fact untrue.

Next question that is asked is, Christianity is similar to Islam in regards to the fact that women are supposed to dress modestly and cover their hair.

Well, there is no question that women are to dress modestly. But the citation taken from 1

Timothy 2, 9 is in reference to women in the church, and some would argue is directly culturally relevant due to the existence of certain pagan practices in that particular day that required the head coverings.

There are Christian groups, of course, where the women wear head coverings in church. I'm not exactly certain what the point of this argument is supposed to be other than trying to create some sort of connection between the two religions, maybe as a response to someone not liking the idea of women dressing the way they do in very strong Islamic countries.

Question number 10, according to the Bible, women are not allowed to speak in the church. Well, speak in the church in the sense of preaching and teaching with authority, as Paul refers to in 1

Corinthians 14. I certainly would agree with that. Most liberal Christians do not, but that certainly is in a specific context, the context being authoritative teaching and preaching.

That ties together, of course, with the fact that the same Apostle Paul gave us the means of recognizing who the elders in the congregation would be, and those elders are always men.

They are male, the qualifications are those of males, and that is clearly his teaching at that particular point.

Then we are asked a question that comes directly from Ahmad Didat. We have seen this, in fact, just recently posted a video where Ahmad Didat addresses this issue.

Question number 11, on what day was God circumcised? Well, obviously the question is meant to cause the reader to be jarred by this, but once again, this is because the

Muslim does not believe that Allah can enter into his own creation. And it is an amazing thing that Christians do believe that the one true

God, eternal God, who created all things, would in fact enter into his own creation for the purpose of glorifying himself through the redemption of a peculiar people in Christ Jesus.

That is truly an amazing statement. Christianity should not back away from or blush at the statement that we believe that God is so focused upon his own glory that all of creation, including the ministry of Jesus Christ, entering into human flesh, giving himself upon the cross of Calvary, it is all focused upon his own self -glorification.

The gospel is a God -centered thing, and it is an amazing statement to make.

But yes, the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus Christ truly became flesh, and since he became flesh as one of the sons of Israel, then he would have been circumcised on the eighth day.

Then question number 12 asks, which of the following pictures most closely resembles

God? Well, of course, we have no idea what Jesus looked like. And even representations such as these don't exactly look like a first -century

Jewish person to me. But this ignores the reality that the

Father did not become flesh. The Spirit did not become flesh. It is only the Son who becomes flesh.

And so you can see the misuse of terminology here that again goes back to an ignorance of the actual meaning of the doctrine of the

Trinity. And so the answer that is given to this question illustrates this.

And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me, you have never heard his voice nor seen his form.

Yeah, that's the Father, not the Son. John chapter 1, verse 18 tells us that it is the unique God, the monogamous

Theos, it is the Son who has made the Father known. And how did he do that?

He is that eternal Logos who became flesh, John 1, verse 14, in the person of Jesus Christ.