The doctrine of the Trinity is foundational to the Christian faith. Belief in the Triune God of Scripture is a touchstone; it determines what is true Christian belief from heretical cults. In short one cannot be a Christian without believing in One God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
This doctrine cannot be avoided and Muslims challenge us head on in their denial of it. So a thorough understanding of it is crucial for a:
1). True appreciation of what God is like, how He relates to us, and how we should relate to Him and
2). How we make the case for and defence of the doctrine in our interactions with Muslims and others;
3). How we answer the strawman attacks of Islam that Christians are polytheists.
The doctrine raises many difficult questions. How can God be both one and three at the same time? Is the Trinity a contradiction? If Jesus is God, why do the Gospels record instances where He prayed to God?
While we cannot fully understand everything about the Trinity (or anything else about God), it is possible to answer questions like these and come to a solid grasp of what it means for God to be three in one. We can with confidence demonstrate that the doctrine of a God in 3 persons is robust, intellectually coherent and logically sound. It stands up to detailed scrutiny.
□ One God, Three Persons
The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. These definitions express three crucial truths: (1) the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, (2) each Person is fully God, (3) there is only one God.
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons. The Bible speaks of the Father as God (Philippians 1:2), Jesus as God (Titus 2:13), and the Holy Spirit as God (Acts 5:3–4). Are these just three different ways of looking at God, or simply ways of referring to three different roles that God plays? The answer must be no, because the Bible also indicates that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons.
For example, since the Father sent the Son into the world (John 3:16), he cannot be the same person as the Son. Jesus prayed to the Father (John 17 and many other places) again proves they cannot be the same person. Likewise, after the Son returned to the Father (John 16:10), the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit into the world (John 14:26; Acts 2:33). Therefore, the Holy Spirit must be distinct from the Father and the Son. Jesus made a crucial distinction between them when He said: “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the one to come.” (Matthew 12:32)
In the baptism of Jesus, we see the Father speaking from heaven and the Spirit descending from heaven in the form of a dove as Jesus comes out of the water (Mark 1:10–11). John 1:1 affirms that Jesus is God and, at the same time, that he was “with God,” thereby indicating that Jesus is a distinct Person from God the Father (see also John 1:18). And in John 16:13–15, we see that although there is a close unity between the three persons, the Holy Spirit is also distinct from the Father and the Son.
The fact that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons means, in other words, that the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. Jesus is God, but he is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, but he is not the Son or the Father. They are different Persons, not three different ways of looking at God.
The personhood of each member of the Trinity means that each Person has a distinct center of consciousness. Thus, they relate to each other personally — the Father regards himself as “I” while he regards the Son and Holy Spirit as “you.” Likewise, the Son regards himself as “I,” but the Father and the Holy Spirit as “you.”
Often it is objected, “If Jesus is God, then he must have prayed to himself while he was on earth.” But the answer to this objection lies in simply applying what we have already seen. While Jesus and the Father are both God, they are different Persons. Thus, Jesus prayed to God the Father without praying to himself. In fact, it is precisely the continuing dialogue between the Father and the Son (Matthew 3:17; 17:5; John 5:19; 11:41–42; 17:1ff) that furnishes the best evidence that they are distinct Persons with distinct centers of consciousness.
Sometimes the Personhood of the Father and Son is appreciated, but the Personhood of the Holy Spirit is neglected. Sometimes the Spirit is treated more like a “force” than a Person. But the Holy Spirit is not an “it,” but a “he” (see John 14:26; 16:7–15; Acts 8:16). The fact that the Holy Spirit is a Person, not an impersonal force (like gravity), is also shown by the fact that he speaks (Hebrews 3:7), reasons (Acts 15:28), thinks and understands (1 Corinthians 2:10–11), wills (1 Corinthians 12:11), feels (Ephesians 4:30), and gives personal fellowship (2 Corinthians 13:14). These are all qualities of personhood.
In addition to these texts, the others we mentioned above make clear that the Personhood of the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Personhood of the Son and the Father. They are three real persons, not three roles God plays.
Another serious error people have made is to think that the Father became the Son, who then became the Holy Spirit. Contrary to this, the passages we have seen imply that God always was and always will be three Persons. There was never a time when one of the Persons of the Godhead did not exist. They are all co- eternal.
While the three members of the Trinity are distinct, this does not mean that any is inferior to the other. Instead, they are all identical in attributes. They are equal in power, love, mercy, justice, holiness, knowledge, and all other qualities. They possess the divine nature comprising things that make up God’s essence or character such as His perfection, His being all loving, His being eternal, His being all powerful. Each Person is fully God. If God is three Persons, does this mean that each Person is “one third” of God? Does the Trinity mean that God is divided into three parts?
The doctrine of the Trinity does not divide God into three parts. The Bible is clear that all three Persons are each one-hundred-percent God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each fully God. For example, Colossians 2:9 says of Christ, “in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.” We should not think of God as a “pie” cut into three pieces, each piece representing a Person. This would make each Person less than fully God and thus not God at all. Rather, “the being of each Person is equal to the whole being of God” (Grudem, Systematic Theology, 1994, page 255). The divine essence is not something that is divided between the three persons, but is fully in all three persons without being divided into “parts.”
Thus, the Son is not one-third of the being of God; he is all of the being of God. The Father is not one-third of the being of God; he is all of the being of God. And likewise with the Holy Spirit. Thus, as Wayne Grudem writes, “When we speak of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together we are not speaking of any greater being than when we speak of the Father alone, the Son alone, or the Holy Spirit alone” (Ibid., 252).
There is only one God. If each Person of the Trinity is distinct and yet fully God, then should we conclude that there is more than one God? Obviously we cannot, for Scripture is clear that there is only one God: “There is no other God besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:21–22; see also Isaiah 44:6–8; Exodus 15:11; Deuteronomy 4:35; 6:4–5; 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:2; 1 Kings 8:60).
Having seen that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, that they are each fully God, and that there is nonetheless only one God, we must conclude that all three Persons are the same God. In other words, there is one God who exists as three distinct Persons.
If there is one passage which most clearly brings all of this together, it is Matthew 28:19: “Make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” First, notice that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinguished as distinct Persons. We baptize into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Second, notice that each Person must be deity because they are all placed on the same level. In fact, would Jesus have us baptize in the name of a mere creature? Surely not. Therefore each of the Persons into whose name we are to be baptized must be deity. Third, notice that although the three divine Persons are distinct, we are baptized into their name (singular), not names (plural). The three Persons are distinct, yet only constitute one name. This can only be if they share one essence.
# Is the Trinity Contradictory?
This leads us to investigate more closely a very helpful definition of the Trinity mentioned earlier: God is one in essence, but three in Person. This formulation can show us why there are not three Gods, and why the Trinity is not a contradiction.
# The Law of Non-Contradiction
In order for something to be contradictory, it must violate the law of non-contradiction. This law states that A cannot be both A (what it is) and non-A (what it is not) at the same time and in the same relationship. In other words, you have contradicted yourself if you affirm and deny the same statement. For example, if I say that the moon is made entirely of cheese but then also say that the moon is not made entirely of cheese, I have contradicted myself.
Other statements may at first seem contradictory but are really not. Theologian R.C. Sproul cites as an example Dickens’s famous line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Obviously this is a contradiction if Dickens means that it was the best of times in the same way that it was the worst of times. But he avoids contradiction with this statement because he means that in one sense it was the best of times, but in another sense it was the worst of times.
Carrying this concept over to the Trinity, it is not a contradiction for God to be both three and one because he is not three and one in the SAME WAY. He is three in a different way than He is one. Thus, we are not speaking with a forked tongue — we are not saying that God is one and then denying that He is one by saying that He is three. This is very important: God is one and three at the same time, but NOT IN THE SAME WAY.
How is God one? He is one in essence. He is one in will and He is one in unity of purpose. How is God three? He is three in Person. Essence+will+purpose and person are not the same thing. God is one in a certain way (essence, will and purpose) and three in a different way (person). Since God is one in a different way than He is three, the Trinity is not a contradiction. There would only be a contradiction if we said that God is three in the same way that He is one.
So a closer look at the fact that God is one in essence but three in person has helped to show why the Trinity is not a contradiction. But how does it show us why there is only one God instead of three? It is very simple: All three Persons are one God because, as we saw above, they are all the same essence. “Essence” means the same thing as “being.” Thus, since God is only one essence; He is only one being, not three. This should make it clear why it is so important to understand that all three Persons are the same essence. For if we deny this, we have denied God’s unity and affirmed that there is more than one being of God (i.e., that there is more than one God).
What we have seen so far provides a good basic understanding of the Trinity. But it is possible to go deeper. If we can understand more precisely what is meant by essence and person, how these two terms differ, and how they relate, we will then have a more complete understanding of the Trinity.
# Essence and Person
■ Essence. What does essence mean? As I said earlier, it means the same thing as being. God’s essence is his being. To be even more precise, essence is what you are. It is the essential attributes that together make God the greatest conceivable being. At the risk of sounding too physical, essence can be understood as the “stuff” that you “consist of.” Of course we are speaking by analogy here, for we cannot understand this in a physical way about God. “God is spirit” (John 4:24). Further, we clearly should not think of God as “consisting of” anything other than divinity. The “substance” of God is God, not a bunch of “ingredients” that taken together yield deity. God is much more than just the sum of His parts.
■ Person. In regards to the Trinity, we use the term “Person” differently than we generally use it in everyday life. Therefore it is often difficult to have a concrete definition of Person as we use it in regards to the Trinity. What we do not mean by Person is an “independent individual” in the sense that both I and another human are separate, independent individuals who can exist apart from one another.
What we do mean by Person is something that regards himself as “I” and others as “You.” So the Father, for example, is a different Person from the Son because He regards the Son as a “You,” even though He regards himself as “I.” Thus, in regards to the Trinity, we can say that “Person” means a distinct subject which regards himself as an “I” and the other two as a “You.” These distinct subjects are not a division within the being of God, but “a form of personal existence other than a difference in being” (Grudem, 255; I believe that this is a helpful definition, but it should be recognized that Grudem himself is offering this as more of an explanation than definition of Person).
How do they relate? The relationship between essence and Person, then, is as follows. Within God’s one, undivided being is an “unfolding” into three personal distinctions. These personal distinctions are modes of existence within the divine being, but are not divisions of the divine being. They are personal forms of existence other than a difference in being. The late theologian Herman Bavinck has stated something very helpful at this point: “The persons are modes of existence within the being; accordingly, the Persons differ among themselves as the one mode of existence differs from the other, and — using a common illustration — as the open palm differs from a closed fist” (Bavinck, The Doctrine of God [Banner of Truth Trust, 1991], page 303).
Because each of these “forms of existence” are relational (and thus are Persons), they are each a distinct center of consciousness, with each center of consciousness regarding himself as “I” and the others as “you.” Nonetheless, these three Persons all “consist of” the same “stuff” (that is, the same “what” or essence). As theologian and apologist Norman Geisler has explained it, while essence is what you are, person is who you are. So God is one “what” but three “who’s.”
The divine essence is thus not something that exists “above” or “separate from” the three Persons, but the divine essence is the being of the three Persons. Neither should we think of the Persons as being defined by attributes added on to the being of God. Wayne Grudem explains,
“But if each person is fully God and has all of God’s being, then we also should not think that the personal distinctions are any kind of additional attributes added on to the being of God. . . . Rather, each person of the Trinity has all of the attributes of God, and no one Person has any attributes that are not possessed by the others. On the other hand, we must say that the Persons are real, that they are not just different ways of looking at the one being of God . . . the only way it seems possible to do this is to say that the distinction between the persons is not a difference of ‘being’ but a difference of ‘relationships.’ This is something far removed from our human experience, where every different human ‘person’ is a different being as well. Somehow God’s being is so much greater than ours that within his one undivided being there can be an unfolding into interpersonal relationships, so that there can be three distinct persons.” (253–254)
# Summary and Application
The Trinity is NOT belief in three gods. Though Muslims will try to assert that it is, when challenged to bring a single verse from the Bible to prove it they remain silent. There is only one God, and we must never stray from this. This one God exists as three Persons. The three Persons are not each part of God, but are each fully God and equally God. Within God’s one undivided being there is an “unfolding” into three interpersonal relationships such that there are three Persons.
The distinctions within the Godhead are not distinctions of His essence or His will or purpose, and neither are they something added onto His essence, but they are the unfolding of God’s one, undivided being into three interpersonal relationships such that there are three real Persons.
God is not one person who took three consecutive roles. That is the heresy of modalism. The Father did not become the Son and then the Holy Spirit. Instead, there have always been and always will be three distinct persons in the Godhead. The Trinity is not a contradiction because God is not three in the same way that He is one. God is one in essence, three in Person.
The Trinity is first of all important because God is important. To understand more fully what God is like is a way of honoring God. Further, we should allow the fact that God is triune to deepen our worship. We exist to worship God. And God seeks people to worship him “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). Therefore, we must always endeavor to deepen our worship of God — in truth as well as in our hearts.
The Trinity has a very significant application to prayer. The general pattern of prayer in the Bible is to pray to the Father through the Son and in the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:18). Our fellowship with God should be enhanced by consciously knowing that we are relating to a tri-personal God!
Awareness of the distinct role that each Person of the Trinity has in our salvation can especially serve to give us greater comfort and appreciation for God in our prayers, as well as helping us to be specific in directing our prayers. Nonetheless, while recognizing the distinct roles that each Person has, we should never think of their roles as so separate that the other Persons are not involved. Rather, everything that one Person is involved in, the other two are also involved in, one way or another.
# Dealing with Muslim Objections
In this section 7 of the most common Muslim objections to the deity of Christ which impact upon and are a direct attack on the Trinity doctrine, are answered.
■ Claim 1: God Doesn’t Change His Nature (Malachi 3:6)
□ Response: merely adding a human form to His divine form does not alter God’s nature. This is a category fallacy error of confusing two different attributes of God. His nature comprises things that make up His essence or character such as His perfection, His being all loving, His being eternal, His being all powerful. None of these attributes changes simply by becoming incarnate. Does spirit cease being spirit just by adding a suit of clothes? Adding a physical dimension to his form does not change His essence or nature.
■ Claim 2: GOD Almighty is Greater than Jesus. (John 14:28 )
□ Response: Another logical fallacy since “greater” carries different meanings and does not have to mean greater in substance or essence. An example would be a wife who admits that her husband is greater than her by virtue of his being head of the marriage and the household. Being in subjugation to her husband does not mean that the wife is any less human or less than equal in any essential attribute – yes including intelligence which has been proven scientifically to be the same as a man’s. (Thus proving Islam and Muhammad to be in error for treating women as having inferior intellects).
When Jesus said that The Father is greater than He this can refer to two things. Firstly speaking as a man and identifying with us He is stating the obvious. No ordinary man or woman can claim to be equal to God. But Jesus DOES claim equality with God on many occasions including explicitly in chapter 5 of John’s gospel. But admitting that the Father is greater than Him that still does not prevent Jesus from being God.
There is order and hierarchy within the Trinity. Order and hierarchy. The Father is Greater than the Son who is greater than the Holy Spirit. Thus the Father bestows all authority to exercise judgement upon the Son. (John 5.27) He bestows all creative powers upon the Son. (John 1.3 & Hebrews 1.2) He gives Him power over life and death (John 5.22)
In short ALL that the Father does the Son does in like manner:
“Then Jesus replied, “I assure you: The Son is not able to do anything on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does these things in the same way.” (John 5:19 HCSB)
Then we find the Spirit only speaking what He hears from the Son. (John 16.13)
Likewise in reverse we find the Spirit glorifies the Son (John 16.14) and the Son glorifies the Father (John 14.13). This is why Jesus did not overtly seek or demand worship for Himself while on earth which would have put Himself not the Father centre stage. Jesus always gave the glory to the Father (in that way acting as our example too).
# Philosophical Implications.
Jesus receiving from the Father and glorifying the Father rather than Himself does not rule out His deity. That is just a Muslim false premise.
Passages where Jesus is said to have received something from someone really pose no problem for Trinitarianism since you can have one of the divine Persons granting authority to another, or for one member of the Godhead to be in subjection to another (or to the others). After all, Christ is called God’s Son for a reason, since this relationship implies a subjection of some kind on the part of the Son to the Father. Yet, much like earthly fathers can be greater in authority than their sons without this implying that the sons are inferior beings, the divine Father giving authority to his divine Son in no way implies that the latter is not God or is an inferior Being.
Having greater authority doesn’t necessarily mean that the person is greater in essence, or that the one who is in subjection to another is inferior in nature to the other. To assume otherwise is to make a categorical mistake, a category fallacy, treating two distinct categories (nature and authority) as if they were one and same.
The following citation puts this in perspective:
“Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after DESTROYING every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For ‘God has put all things in subjection under his feet.’ But when it says, ‘all things are put in subjection,’ it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:24-28)
So in short the Father being greater in rank to the Son does not mean Jesus is not God.
■ Claim 3: Jesus said he doesn’t know when the Hour will come. Only GOD Knows. (Mark 13:32)
□ Response: See response to Claim 2. Within the above mentioned framework of the Trinity fits the fact that Jesus did not (arguably only because in His self imposed earthly human limitations He could not consciously access it) have the knowledge of the time of His return and in one other instance only He similarly does not know the seating arrangements at the Heavenly feast (Matthew 20.23 & Mark 10.40).
Some may prefer to think that Jesus does not know these details even in His glory. Fine. Whichever way you take it, this knowledge fits within the rank of Father to Son to Spirit within the Triune Godhead. The doctrine survives detailed examination.
■ Claim 4: Jesus said that “OUR God is One GOD” (Mark 12:29 )
□ Response: No Christian ever denied that God is one. This objection arises simply because of the Quranic straw man fallacy that Christians are polytheists. Neither Muhammad or his puppet god ever grasped this essential truth. There is ONE GOD in three persons. The Bible shows this throughout that God is multi-personal, indeed the Christian philosopher William Lane Craig has argued that God HAS to be multi-personal or He cannot have love as an essential attribute.
Only in Christianity can love pre exist the Creation. In every other faith or belief system love can ONLY be a product of life. The morally deficient god of Islam only acquired love after Creation because prior to that He was an absolute singularity and had no object to express love towards. This means that Allah is mutable and since God is by definition immutable, Allah cannot be God. This problem does not arise within the doctrine of the Christian Triune God where God in THREE persons is able to be loving towards the other persons of the Godhead.
■ Claim 5: Jesus also said “My GOD and your GOD” (John 20:17)
□ Response: In John 17 Jesus refers to His Father as God: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent,” (John 17:3).
Muslims cite John 17:3 as a proof text to deny the Trinity and claim that Jesus Christ is not God. They reason is that if Jesus were God, then He would not have called the Father, “the only true God.” If the Father is the only true God, then it must require that Jesus cannot be God.
First of all, it is not proper to make a theological doctrine out of one verse. Muslims tend to take one or two verses on a subject and use them to interpret all the others. Instead of getting a balanced position, they arrive at an interpretation that is in agreement with their theological position. This is called “proof-texting” and is something the Muslims do frequently.
Second, the context of Jesus’ comment was that He was speaking as a man to His God. Remember, Jesus is both God and man, second person of the Trinity, and the word made flesh (John 1:1, 14). Since He was both divine and man, as a man, He would naturally and properly say that His Father was the only True God. He was not denying His own divinity but affirming the Trueness of God as was done in the OT: ‘And now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou alone, Lord, art God.’ (Isaiah 37:20). The truth is that Jesus was a man born under the Law (Galatians 4:4); and as a man, He would be subject to God. Only in this case, Jesus was subject to the Father. That is why Jesus called the Father the only true God; but it is not a phrase that excludes Christ, for Christ Himself said, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58) and did not deny being called God by Thomas in John 20:28.
Third, John 17:3 must be examined in the light of the totality of scripture. We see that Jesus is called God in John 1:1, 14; 8:58; 20:28; Colossians 2:9; and Hebrews 1:8. Therefore, John 17:3 cannot be interpreted in a way that disagrees with other scriptures. Of course, some people simply state that John 17:3 cannot allow for Jesus being God, but the simple fact is that Jesus is called God by God and others (Hebrews 1.8). Therefore, the whole of scripture must be harmonized.
Fourth, this verse reflects the sonship of Jesus. The Father and the Son have a unique relationship. Jesus is the eternal Son. The terms Father and Son denote a relationship which is why God is called the God of the Son in 2 Corinthians 11:31.
Fifth, Jesus identifies Himself with the Father. Jesus is in the Father, and the Father is in Jesus (John 10:38). Jesus is one with the Father (John 10:30). They are not divided in essence. So, in one sense Jesus is in the Father; and if the Father is the only true God, then Jesus is the True God. Also, in 1 John 5:20, Jesus is called the only true God: “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” Jesus is not contradicting the word.
Sixth, if we are to be consistent using the Muslim logic that the Father is the only true God, then the following verses present a problem–if we use their logic.
“For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4).
Does this mean that the Father is not our Master and Lord? Of course not. Yet, Jesus is called our only Master and Lord.
“There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” (John 1:9-10).
Again in John 20.17 we find Jesus speaking of His Father as His God too.
“Don’t cling to Me,” Jesus told her, “for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to My brothers and tell them that I am ascending to My Father and your Father — to My God and your God.”
I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God — words of incomparable glory! Jesus had called God habitually His Father, and on one occasion, in His darkest moment, His God. (Matthew 27.46) But both are here united, expressing that complete relationship which embraces in its vast sweep at once Himself and His redeemed. Yet, note well Muslims, He says not, Our Father and our God. It’s expressly designed to distinguish between what God is to Him and to us – His Father essentially, ours but by adoption: our God essentially, His not so: His God only in connection with us: our God only in connection with Him.
■ Claim 6: No one can see God (1 John 4:20) but people saw Jesus.
□ Response: John 1.18 clarifies this:
“No one has ever seen God. The One and Only Son — the One who is at the Father’s side — He has revealed Him.” (John 1:18 HCSB)
God’s Son, WHO HIMSELF IS GOD, has made God known. How did he do this? By becoming flesh. John therefore affirms that GOD has appeared visibly and revealed himself to others when the Son took on human nature. (Cf. John 1:1-3, 10-11, 14)
Furthermore, the God whom no one has seen is the Father. Note the text again from the KJV:
“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”
This verse has to be read in conjunction with other passages from John such as:
“It is written in the Prophets: And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father comes to Me — not that anyone has seen the Father except the One who is from God. He has seen the Father.” (John 6:45-46 HCSB)
and …
When Jesus said that to have seen Him is to have seen the Father, He is not claiming to BE the Father but that He us the perfect likeness to and exact essence of the Father:
“Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time without your knowing Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (John 14:9 HCSB)
■ Claim 7: Jesus can do nothing by himself (John 5:19, John 5:30)
□ Response: This is actually proof of Jesus divinity but Muslims twist it in an attempt to prove the opposite.
Muslims appealing to these verses ignores the immediate context of the statements and misunderstands the doctrine of the Trinity. According to Trinitarian teaching the three eternal, Divine Persons of God do nothing independently, but work in perfect unity. Statements like the above only reinforce the core Trinitarian belief that the one blessed and holy God exists as three distinct Persons who always work in perfect accord, never acting independently from one another. This is one reason why the charge of Christians being polytheists can never be proven.
A careful analysis of the context of John 5 actually supports shows that Jesus wasn’t denying his perfect Deity. Christ was simply stating the obvious reality of the Trinity, that the Persons of the Godhead cannot act apart from one another. They can only and always work in perfect accord with each other.
Exegesis of John chapter 5 reveals this biblical truth.
“Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids–blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be healed?’ The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Get up, take up your bed, and walk.’ And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, ‘It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.”’ They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take up your bed and walk”?’ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.’ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘MY Father is working until now, AND I AM WORKING.’ This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” (John 5:1-18)
The Jews complain that Jesus was violating the Sabbath by healing a man on that day. Christ justifies his working on this particular day by pointing to the fact that God his Father doesn’t cease to work on the Sabbath, and since he is God’s Son he too has the right to work on that same day. In other words, Jesus is claiming to have the same divine right, the same divine prerogative, to work on the Sabbath like God does since he is his Son. Basically, Jesus is claiming to be equal to God by arguing that just as God is not bound to keep the Sabbath restrictions neither is the Son under any obligation to do so. The Son has the same sovereign right to work on the Sabbath day that his Father has. After all, Christ did call himself the very Lord, the Sovereign, of the Sabbath:
“I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:6-8)
Continuing in John chapter 5 we find:
“So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For WHATEVER the Father does, THAT THE SON DOES LIKEWISE. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, SO ALSO THE SON GIVES LIFE TO WHOM HE WILL.’” (John 5:19-21)
Here, Jesus explains what he means that he can do nothing on his own initiative. He cannot act independently from the Father since He is in perfect union with Him. Yet because Jesus is God in essence He is capable of doing everything that the Father Himself does, such as give life to whomever He desires. Since the Father does what God alone can do, for Christ to say He can do everything that the Father does means that Jesus is (or at least is claiming to be) God Almighty!
Even the claim that He can do nothing on His own is an astonishing statement in itself. Finite, imperfect creatures can never make such a claim since it is rather obvious that we humans do a lot of things that God wouldn’t do nor desires for us to do, i.e. lying, stealing, murder etc. Nor can any creature say he can only do whatever God does.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted THE SON ALSO TO HAVE LIFE IN HIMSELF.” (John 5:25-26)
In summary Jesus saying He can do nothing of Himself is a primary source of proof of the doctrine of the Trinity, where the three persons of the Godhead are in total unity of spirit will and purpose. It alone is sufficient to destroy the polytheist charge of Muslims.