LESSON 39
ANSWERS TO ARGUMENTS AGAINST CHRISTIANITY, I1. "God cannot have a child; Jesus is disjunctively divine or human, but there is evidence he is human, so he is not divine." Relevant Qur'ânic passages are: "He is nothing more than a servant of God" (43:59). With no word for the adjective "divine" or for the abstraction "divinity", the Qur'ân states: "They are unbelievers who say, 'God is the Messiah, son of Mary'..." (5:72; cf. 5:17). "God said, 'Jesus son of Mary, did you tell the people, "Take me and my Mother as gods besides God"?'" (5:116; cf. 4:171). "They are unbelievers who say that God is a third of three. There is only one God." (5:73; cf. 4:171). "The Messiah son of Mary was only a messenger in a series of messengers and his mother was faithful. They both ate food" (5:75). This is the basic argument repeated in different words by all Muslim apologists to this day: Jesus cannot be God because it is evident that he is human. "God cannot take for himself a son. He is too glorious. If he decides a matter he only says, 'Be', and it is" (19:35; cf. 9:30, 10:68; 19:88; 112:4). Moreover, "How can he have a son when he has no wife?" (6:101; cf. 72:3). The last word on this topic, however, is the astonishing statement: "Say, 'If the Merciful One had a son, I would be the first to worship him'" (43:81).
Muslim arguments against the divinity of Christ almost universally show no comprehension of the Christian idea of his consubstantiality with the Father or of his distinct human and divine natures. The fundamental argument is evidence that he was human. For example, he prayed and was tempted, tired etc.; what would happen to the world if God died for three days? We agree that Jesus was fully human. This is in no way contradictory to his also having a divine nature. The question is not one of either/or, but of both/and.2. "God can only be one or three, not both." Muslims at first thought the Trinity was Allah, Jesus and Mary; later they learned the true Christian belief, but still object.
In fact, we affirm that God has only one substance, being or nature, one power, one life, one will, one knowledge, all identical with his nature, with no real distinction of one attribute from another or of attributes from his nature. The same one God created the world and continuously sustains it without any change in himself. Regarding the Trinity, we affirm that the Persons are really distinct relations within God: The Father is distinct from the Son as a speaker is distinct from his word; both are equal and eternal. The Father and the Son together as one breathe the Spirit; the Spirit is distinct from the them as breath is distinct from the breather; the Spirit proceeds from Father and the Son from eternity as an equal divine Person.3. "The Bible was tampered with and cannot be trusted" (See Lesson 13). This objection comprises several points:
a. Translations often differ as to the meaning of a passage, reflecting the many variants to the original texts listed in critical editions, which show that the authentic original reading is ambiguous and/or corrupt.
The conservation of thousands of varying manuscripts is not a source of confusion but provides the means of scientifically ascertaining the correct reading by means of textual criticism and outlining families of manuscripts. As a result, there are very few words in the New Testament about which there is serious doubt, and the differences of meaning in these cases are inconsequential. Comparison can be made with the situation of the Qur'ân, where `Uthmân is said to have burned all the variants. Fourteen different sets of vocalisation (the "fourteen readings") are still acceptable, even though only one set, that of Hafs ibn-Sulaymân ibn-al-Mughîra al-Asadî al-Kûfî, is found in printed Qur'âns today. It can be reasonably maintained that the New Testament is preserved with at least an equal degree of authenticity as the Qur'ân.b. The Christian Bible contains many books which Muslims never heard of through the Qur'ân, such as the historical books of the Old Testament, prophets not among those mentioned in the Qur'ân, and the Wisdom literature, to say nothing of the Deuterocanonical books. In the New Testament anything besides the Gospels cannot be considered, and Christians must explain how the one Gospel revealed to Jesus (according to the Qur'ân) became four.
The Gospel is essentially the Good News of Jesus Christ; in fact it is Jesus Christ himself revealing the Father. Phrases such as "the four Gospels" or the Gospel of Matthew" are misleading; it would be better to say, according to the liturgical expression: "the Gospel (good news) of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew". There are manuscripts for all the books of the Bible dating centuries before Muhammad. The burden is on Muslims to show why the Qur'ân is unaware of them.c. The Old Testament contains many scandalous stories about the patriarchs (whom the Qur'ân regards as prophets) and other prophets, who are supposed to have been sinless men of God.
Christians do not suppose that the prophets were sinless, but only that they faithfully communicated God's message.d. The Qur'ân contradicts the New Testament regarding certain facts, such as the crucifixion of Jesus.
Wherever the Qur'ân contradicts the Bible on facts of history, the Bible is the older record, and the burden is on Muslims to prove how the Qur'ân can be a more accurate source of information.e. The Gospel (as the rest of the Bible) was not written at the time of the events they describe, but underwent a period of oral transmission and development and reflect the outlook of later men such as Paul. Therefore they cannot claim to be the teaching of Jesus.
The fidelity of the evangelists in reporting the teaching of Jesus should be emphasised, even though we do not have in every case a transcript of his very words. This implies a whole different concept of revelation and inspiration, involving free human activity subordinate to and concurrent with divine direction and impulse. Yet, even as we eschew the fundamentalist extreme of literal inspiration, we must be careful also to avoid the rationalist extreme, popular in certain circles today, of driving a wedge between the understanding of the early Church as reflected in the Gospels and the teaching which Jesus actually delivered. Development of understanding implies continuity under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, not betrayal by the whims of men.f. The Qur'ân makes formal accusations of forgery and distortion (2:75; 2:78-9; 3:78; 4:46; 5:13-15).
In reply to this objection of tarîf, Muslims can be invited to consider the following points: 1) The Jews were very scrupulous about preserving the text of their Scriptures. In the Old Testament (Dt 4:2 and Prov 30:6) they were warned not to add or subtract from the Law that was given them. The reference of Jesus to fulfilment of the Law to the last yod or tittle (Mt 5:18) reflects the mentality of the Jews of his time. This tradition of respect for the letter of the text was carried on by the Massoretes of the 9th century, who devised a system of proofreading copies of Scripture by counting all the letters and noting the position of central words and letters. 2) A change in the text of Scripture at the time of Muhammad would be impossible, because Jews were scattered all over the world and would not be able to conspire uniformly to make certain changes for the benefit of Jews in Arabia. 3) The Qumran texts, found in caves near the Dead Sea beginning in 1947 and dating from before the time of Christ, show that the Old Testament texts of that time are substantially the same as the Massoretic text currently in use. 4) The Jews never effaced the Messianic texts which Christians applied to Jesus. If there were similar prophesies of Muhammad in the Scriptures, the burden is on the Muslims who assert this to prove that they have been removed.QUESTIONS
- Evaluate and reply to Muslim objections to the divinity of Jesus.
- Discuss Muslim understanding of the Trinity and show how the unity of God is reconcilable with a Trinity of Persons.
- Discuss those objections to the Bible that you hear from Muslims.
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