Quranic testimony of the trinity of God

1. 67

   heavenbound5511posted 14 years ago

   I came across a closed forum on on the trinity of God and the Quran and I couldn't respond.
   These sites explain it really well
   http://www.answering-islam.org/Shamoun/ … rinity.htm
   http://www.arabicbible.com/islam/trinity-in-islam.htm
   http://www.arabicbible.com/islam/trinit.htm
   http://www.arabicbible.com/islam/christ … tm#TRINITY
   
   The late Muhammad Asad followed this tradition of Quranic distortion:
   
   FOLLOWERS of the Gospel! Do not overstep the bounds [of truth] in your religious beliefs, and do not say of God anything but the truth. The Christ Jesus, son of Mary, was but God's Apostle - [the fulfilment of] His promise which He had conveyed unto Mary - and a soul created by Him (wa ruhun minhu). Believe, then, in God and His apostles, and do not say, "[God is] a trinity". Desist [from this assertion] for your own good. God is but One God; utterly remote is He, in His glory, from having a son: unto Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth; and none is as worthy of trust as God. S. 4:171
   
   Here, Asad distorts the text in two ways. First, he rendered the Arabic expression ruhin minhu as "a soul created by Him" in order to mask the fact that Jesus is said to be a Spirit which proceeded from Allah. The text says nothing about Jesus being created. Second he renders the Arabic word thalathatun as trinity, much like Ali had done. The translation of the next passage is even worse than the above:
   
   Indeed, the truth deny they who say, "Behold, God is the third of a trinity" - seeing that there is no deity whatever save the One God. And unless they desist from this their assertion, grievous suffering is bound to befall such of them as are bent on denying the truth. S. 5:73
   
   As we clearly proved, historic Christianity has never taught that God (in this case the Father) is the third of a trinity! God is one eternal Being, and the Father is the first Person of the Trinity.
   
   Fifth, the Quran also distorts Christian beliefs regarding the Person of Christ when it accuses Christians of saying that God, or Allah, is the Christ. The historic Christian position is that Jesus is God, which is not the same as saying that God is Jesus. The former implies that Christ is fully God in essence; that he has the entire essential attributes of Deity and is all that God is, whereas the latter suggests that Christ is the only one that is God. In other words, saying that God is Jesus means that the entire Godhead is instantiated in Christ alone to the exclusion of the Father and the Holy Spirit, or that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are nothing more than manifestations of a single Divine Person. This latter understanding would imply that Christ is all three manifestations, which is a form of an ancient heresy known as Sabellianism which was condemned by the early Church.
   Must go to links above for for explanation

   replyreport