Author : Sam Shamoun

THE NATURE OF GOD

Muslim Argument:
Christians believe that God is a Trinity. Yet, nowhere do we find the Trinity taught in the Bible. The clear biblical witness is that God is absolutely one, having no plurality (Cf. Deuteronomy 4:35, 39; 6:4; Psalm 86:10; Isaiah 43:10; 44:6, 8; 45:5-6, 18, 21-22; 46:9).

Christian Response:
In fact, both Jesus and Paul taught that God is absolutely one (Cf. Mark 12:29-30; John 17:3; 1 Corinthians 8:6a; 1 Timothy 2:5).

The Trinity entails the belief in only one God. Christians do not worship three Gods. Therefore biblical references indicating that there is only one God affirms, rather than denying, the Trinitarian belief.

The Bible teaches that although there is only one God, there are three Persons addressed as God: The Father (1 Peter 1:2), the Son (Matthew 1:23; John 20:28; Colossians 2:9; Titus 2:13), and the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3-4).

(Note: Jesus in John 17:3 refers to the Father as the only true God. This point needs further clarification since it seems to imply that Jesus is denying that he is truly God as well. It must be remembered that Christ at the Incarnation became a real human being without ceasing to be divine. As the God-man, the Father became his God. Therefore, we would expect Jesus to refer to his Father as the true God, since the Father cannot possibly be a false God.)

Muslim Argument:
The New Testament contradicts the Old Testament, since in the Old no mention is made of a plurality of Persons who are God.

Christian Response:
The Old Testament does in fact affirm the plurality of the Godhead in several places:
It addresses God with plural pronouns. (Cf. Gen.1:26-27, 3:22, 11:7; Isa. 6:8) This cannot simply be a plural of majesty, a majestic form of address, since biblical Hebrew did not have this linguistic feature.

It clearly refers to more than one Person in the Godhead (Cf. Gen. 19:24; Proverbs 30:4; Isa. 48:12-16; Zechariah 2:7-11, 3:1-2).

It refers to the Angel of Jehovah as being both distinct from God and fully God at the same time. (Cf. Gen. 31:10-13-cf.- 28:10-19; Exodus 3:1-4, 13-14; 23:20-22; Judges 2:1-5).
(Note- The Bible denies the worship of angels and angels never refer to themselves as God [Cf. Col. 2:18; Revelation 19:9-10, 22:8-9]. This strongly supports the fact that this specific Angel was not just simply God’s representative, but OT appearances of the preincarnate Christ)

It attributes the work of creation to the Spirit of God (Cf. Gen. 1:2; Job 26:13, 33:4; Psalm 104:30)

When referring to the unity of God in Deuteronomy 6:4, Moses used the Hebrew echad: Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Elohenu Yahweh Echad- Hear O Israel, the LORD our God the LORD is One.
The term, echad, is used to show a plurality within unity as in Gen. 1:3, 2:24 and Jeremiah 32:38-39. Had Moses wanted to imply the absolute singularity of the Godhead he could have easily used the Hebrew yachid as in Gen. 22:2. There, Isaac is called Abraham’s only Son.

Muslim Argument:
If the Old Testament does teach the plurality of God, then how is it that the Jews who have studied it for all these centuries never came to the conclusion that God is a Trinity?

Christian Response:
Whether the Jews have come to realize that the Old Testament teaches the fact of the Trinity is irrelevant. What is relevant is if whether the OT supports the Trinity, which we have proven that it does.

Furthermore, it is not entirely true that Jews have not embraced the teaching of the Trinity. Throughout the ages, thousands of Jews have embraced the reality that God is a tri-Personal Being, as opposed to being uni-Personal.

In fact, there are thousands of messianic Jews today, Jews who both believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that God is a Triune Being.