NOBODY REJECTS TRUE CHRISTIANITY
I’m convinced people, especially Muslims, don’t reject true Christianity, what they reject is the false characterisation of Christianity they are taught or a prejudiced misconception they have formed about it. So many arguments against us come down to the one presenting the argument either, having no idea what true Christians actually believe or who God is, or worse of deliberately misrepresenting it.
Which is why the words of church fathers like Hilary of Poitiers still ring true.¹ The heretic has been quoting single detached utterances and ignoring what follows or precedes it to make the Scriptures say what they don’t actually say. And so we need to filter arguments against us, which do not follow the rules of logical reasoning, textual criticism or sound hermeneutics.
Identify the heresy, fallacy or other shortcoming associated with the arguments made against us. Then study the Scriptures in the light of the church fathers. It will be seen that no objection Muslims has ever raised was not addressed in the Patristic literature and their weak arguments rejected.
What the Quran describes of the Trinity for instance is a caricature of what it actually comprises. Nowhere does Islam reject true Trinitarianism. Islam’s god, prophet and book have NEVER understood or articulated what the Trinity constitutes or means.
The doctrine of the Trinity as properly understood, remains untouched, intact and unscathed by 1400 years of Islamic heresy and misrepresentation of it. There is no Muslim yet who recognises the Christian God, neither the two hypostasis (natures) of perfect man and perfect God as found in Christ, nor the nature of the Trinity doctrine which is always misrepresented in Islam as Tritheism. And what they cannot understand they cannot argue against.
Because when we have a firm understanding of what Christianity as based upon and of who God is in Father Son and Spirit, we come to see the truth for what it is. Truth says that there is no good argument against us, nor any sound basis for rejecting Jesus Christ who died for us or for disbelieving in our Triune God. Anything else is idolatry and paganism, supportable only by fallacious and specious reasoning and historical inaccuracy.
Footnote:
¹ Hillary of Poitiers “On the Trinity” (Book IX)
Heresy lays hold of words spoken by Christ Incarnate, appropriate to His humility as Man, and assigns them to Him in His previous state; thus they make Him deny His true Godhead. But His utterances before the Incarnation, during His life on earth, and after His return to glory, must be carefully distinguished (§§ 5, 6).
Hilary now examines the aims and achievements of Christ Incarnate, and shows that His work for men was a Divine work, accomplished by Him for us only because He was throughout both God and Man, the two natures in Him being inseparable (§§ 7-14).
After reaching this conclusion from a general survey of Christ’s life on earth, he examines in the light of it the Arian arguments from isolated words. They assert that Christ refused to be called Good or Master. He refused neither title, and yet declared that both belong to God only (§§ 15-18).
And, indeed, He could not have associated Himself more closely than He did with the Father, while yet He kept His Person distinct (§ 19).
The Father Himself bears witness to the Son; and the sin and loss of the Jews is this, that, seeing the Father’s works done by Christ, they did not see in Him the Son (§§ 20, 21).
The honour and glory of Christ is inseparable from that of God (§§ 22, 23).
The Scribe did well to confess the Divine unity, but was still outside the Kingdom because He did not believe in Christ as God (§§ 24-27).
Next, the Arian argument from the words, This is life eternal, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent, is refuted by comparison with cognate passages (§§ 28-35).
For, indeed, if the Father be the only true God, the Son must also be the only true God (§ 36).
That Divine nature which is common to Father and Son is subject to no limitations, and the eternal generation can be illustrated by no analogy of created things (§ 37).
Christ took humanity, and, since the Father’s nature did not share in this, the unity was so far impaired. But humanity has been raised in Christ to God; and this could only be because His unity in the Divine nature with the Father was perfect. Otherwise the flesh which Christ took could not have entered into the Divine glory (§ 38).
There is but one glory of Father and of Son; the Son sought in the Incarnation not glory for the Word but for the flesh (§§ 39, 40).
The glory of Father and Son is one; in that unity the Son bestows, as well as receives, glory (§§ 41, 42), and this glory, common to Both, is evidence that the Divine nature also is common to Both (§ 42).
Source: www.newadvent.org/fathers/330209.htm
I’m convinced people, especially Muslims, don’t reject true Christianity, what they reject is the false characterisation of Christianity they are taught or a prejudiced misconception they have formed about it. So many arguments against us come down to the one presenting the argument either, having no idea what true Christians actually believe or who God is, or worse of deliberately misrepresenting it.
Which is why the words of church fathers like Hilary of Poitiers still ring true.¹ The heretic has been quoting single detached utterances and ignoring what follows or precedes it to make the Scriptures say what they don’t actually say. And so we need to filter arguments against us, which do not follow the rules of logical reasoning, textual criticism or sound hermeneutics.
Identify the heresy, fallacy or other shortcoming associated with the arguments made against us. Then study the Scriptures in the light of the church fathers. It will be seen that no objection Muslims has ever raised was not addressed in the Patristic literature and their weak arguments rejected.
What the Quran describes of the Trinity for instance is a caricature of what it actually comprises. Nowhere does Islam reject true Trinitarianism. Islam’s god, prophet and book have NEVER understood or articulated what the Trinity constitutes or means.
The doctrine of the Trinity as properly understood, remains untouched, intact and unscathed by 1400 years of Islamic heresy and misrepresentation of it. There is no Muslim yet who recognises the Christian God, neither the two hypostasis (natures) of perfect man and perfect God as found in Christ, nor the nature of the Trinity doctrine which is always misrepresented in Islam as Tritheism. And what they cannot understand they cannot argue against.
Because when we have a firm understanding of what Christianity as based upon and of who God is in Father Son and Spirit, we come to see the truth for what it is. Truth says that there is no good argument against us, nor any sound basis for rejecting Jesus Christ who died for us or for disbelieving in our Triune God. Anything else is idolatry and paganism, supportable only by fallacious and specious reasoning and historical inaccuracy.
Footnote:
¹ Hillary of Poitiers “On the Trinity” (Book IX)
Heresy lays hold of words spoken by Christ Incarnate, appropriate to His humility as Man, and assigns them to Him in His previous state; thus they make Him deny His true Godhead. But His utterances before the Incarnation, during His life on earth, and after His return to glory, must be carefully distinguished (§§ 5, 6).
Hilary now examines the aims and achievements of Christ Incarnate, and shows that His work for men was a Divine work, accomplished by Him for us only because He was throughout both God and Man, the two natures in Him being inseparable (§§ 7-14).
After reaching this conclusion from a general survey of Christ’s life on earth, he examines in the light of it the Arian arguments from isolated words. They assert that Christ refused to be called Good or Master. He refused neither title, and yet declared that both belong to God only (§§ 15-18).
And, indeed, He could not have associated Himself more closely than He did with the Father, while yet He kept His Person distinct (§ 19).
The Father Himself bears witness to the Son; and the sin and loss of the Jews is this, that, seeing the Father’s works done by Christ, they did not see in Him the Son (§§ 20, 21).
The honour and glory of Christ is inseparable from that of God (§§ 22, 23).
The Scribe did well to confess the Divine unity, but was still outside the Kingdom because He did not believe in Christ as God (§§ 24-27).
Next, the Arian argument from the words, This is life eternal, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent, is refuted by comparison with cognate passages (§§ 28-35).
For, indeed, if the Father be the only true God, the Son must also be the only true God (§ 36).
That Divine nature which is common to Father and Son is subject to no limitations, and the eternal generation can be illustrated by no analogy of created things (§ 37).
Christ took humanity, and, since the Father’s nature did not share in this, the unity was so far impaired. But humanity has been raised in Christ to God; and this could only be because His unity in the Divine nature with the Father was perfect. Otherwise the flesh which Christ took could not have entered into the Divine glory (§ 38).
There is but one glory of Father and of Son; the Son sought in the Incarnation not glory for the Word but for the flesh (§§ 39, 40).
The glory of Father and Son is one; in that unity the Son bestows, as well as receives, glory (§§ 41, 42), and this glory, common to Both, is evidence that the Divine nature also is common to Both (§ 42).
Source: www.newadvent.org/fathers/330209.htm