By Tim Bootsveld

I love talking with Muslims. Unlike many Canadians, their spiritual lives are not an amorphous mass of constantly shifting beliefs. Muslims truly believe what they believe, and they are willing to defend their beliefs.

When talking with Muslims, Christians will at some point end up talking about the Trinity. It is one of the major stumbling blocks that prevents Muslims from accepting the Gospel. The Christian Scriptures reveal one God who is also three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) acting in concert in all things, but especially in creation and the redemption of sin-corrupted human beings. To the Islamic ear, however, three divine persons sounds like three different gods—polytheism—and Mohammad believed himself specially called to excise polytheism from the world.

But though Muslims may not realize it, rejecting the Christian claim that God is three Persons in one God may be based on reasoning methods that Islam itself rejects—methods that could amount to Muslims committing Islam`s unforgivable sin. Knowing this should increase your confidence when talking with Muslims. When they make objections to the Trinity, you can be prepared to warn them of the danger in which they’ve placed themselves!

Islam`s problematic objection to the Trinity

So, how can Islam’s objection to the Trinity amount to committing the unforgivable sin? Consider the approach presented on the Islam Basics website:

Rationally considered, the dogma of the Trinity is untenable. It is not just beyond reason, it is repugnant to reason. As we said earlier, the belief in three Divine Persons is incompatible with the Oneness of God. If there are three distinct and separate persons, then there must be three distinct and separate substances, for every person is inseparable from its own substance. Now if the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, then unless the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three distinct Nothings, they must be three distinct substances, and consequently three distinct Gods.

The Muslim argument is a polysyllogism, making it prone to the weaknesses of syllogistic logic:

Major premise: Every person has its own substance.
Minor premise: Christians claim there are three divine persons.

Minor premise: Each divine person must have its own substance.

Minor premise: Three substances cannot be one substance.

Conclusion: Christians must believe in three gods.

Three divine persons, each with its own substance, certainly sounds like polytheism. But why would a Christian agree to the universal nature of the major premise that “every person is inseparable from its own substance”. Admittedly, this proposition rings true for humans. The postman, the fireman, the baker, the teacher are all separate persons who do not share substance with another person. The same is true for barbers, bus drivers, dentists, doctors, grocers, shoemakers, cleaners, and trash collectors—in short, all the people in your neighborhood are separate persons who do not share their substance with any other person. And running into so many persons who each have their own substance, as humans do, certainly encourages the mind to think that this is the only way a person can exist.

From our experience with other humans we are perfectly within our rights to conclude that “every human person has their own substance”. But now comes a big flaw in Muslim reasoning. Humans are only a subset of the persons category. And since the category “person” extends beyond humanity, our experience with humans only allows us to conclude that some persons have their own substance. Again, since the category “person” includes many who are not human at all (the list of non-human persons must include demons and  angels, as well as God), we cannot logically rule out the possibility that some persons may very well share their substance with other persons. In other words, until we perfectly understand every possible mode of existence of persons the possibility that some persons share the same substance is an open question that our experience with humanity alone cannot answer.

Yet the possibility of persons who share their substance with other persons is dismissed out of hand by the “Islam Basics” website, as well as most of the everyday Muslims you will meet. There is no proof offered for their conclusion; it is simply assumed from their human experience.  Dr. James White calls this “the Unitarian assumption.” And as we shall see, the use of it to dismiss the Trinity may possibly rise to the level of an unforgivable sin.

Islam’s Unforgiveable Sin

In Islam, “shirk” is the sin of idolatry. It is the deification of anyone or anything other than Allah. Shirk is so great an evil that the Quran tells us that Allah will not forgive the person who engages in it:

Truly God forgives not that any partner be ascribed unto Him, but forgives what is less than that for whomsoever He will. Whosoever ascribes partners unto God has surely gone far astray (The Study Quran, 4:116)

The Study Quran helpfully says (in commenting on the nearly identical verse 4:48) that the “partner” referenced in the verse is anything that is acknowledged to be on the same level as Allah, i.e., having authority and influence enough to determine reality.

Shirk, and rejecting the Trinity

Consider what happens If we reject the Christian Trinity as irrational. We are taking an observation from the human realm concerning the nature of human persons and universalising it to all persons, declaring that all persons must have their own substance. Even God`s nature must bow to this universalization. Such logic requires us to believe God could not possibly exist in a way that transcends human experience. Under such reasoning, the Trinitarian nature of God is impossible because we have forced God to be like us. In other words, we are refusing to acknowledge any God that is not formed in our image.

If this is the path we take to reject the claim that God is trinitarian in nature, then we have set ourselves up as equals with God, taking upon ourselves the authority to determine who God is! Surely, you can see what just happened? Not only has man dragged God down to the level of his understanding, he has claimed his understanding is equal to that of the Divine, that mentally, at least, he is like God! The smell of shirk hangs thick on such reasoning!

A call to true Islam

The word “Islam” means submission—taking your rightful place under God as His subject. This includes using methods of reason that allow God to dictate to us who He is. When your discussions with your Muslim friends turn to the Trinity, remind them that their experience is not authoritative over God. They are subject to God, under his authority. Let them know that by insisting upon a God who comports with their experience they risk elevating themselves to God’s level and are thereby risk committing the unforgivable sin of Shirk.

It is a given in Christianity and Islam that we are to submit ourselves to God. And submitting to God is exactly what Christians do when we accept God’s self-revelation in the Bible that He is trinitarian in nature. Christians are submitting ourselves to God when we allow God to be God, and acknowledge His revelation is authoritative, even when it speaks of matters beyond our own experience. Remember, it is out of the pages of the Bible, His revelation to us, that we conclude God is one in being and at the same time three persons—that He is trinitarian.

Christian, call your Muslim friends to true Islam—to true submission to God. Call them to submit even their reasoning to God. It may be that in doing so they find fresh eyes to see the beatific vision that is the trinitarian God.

Christians need to stand strong. You can help them.

How Would You Handle This Conversation?

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