The Confutation of Islam (Part 4),

Objection: in John 17:3.  Yeshua calls God the Father the one true God.  Not only is it absurd that God would pray to Himself, it is clear Yeshua was not a trintarian.

Answer:   There are several problems with this objection.  

First, the objection seems to target the concepts of the trinity & incarnation via a species of substitutionism.  We’ve covered that here:  The Confutation of Islam (Part 3) 

Second, Objector seems to think that Yeshua (as to Yeshua’s human nature) always spoke in agreement & in tandem with one another.   That isn’t necessarily the case.   If Yeshua (as a human being) believed a unitarian view of God, He would be mistaken.  Just because God is united to a person, it doesn’t therefore follow that that person, as to his human nature, was omniscient nor does that mean that person, as to his human nature, will never make mistakes.  Finite beings make mistakes.  

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Third, let’s look at the text itself:

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

Islam historically rejects traducianism.  In Islam, Mom & Dad provide the body via sexual reproduction.   God ensouls the body by creating it ex nihilo.    In that regard, the Bible in Zechariah 12:1 agrees. 

When understood correctly, there was a time in which Yeshua (as to his humanity) did not exist.   The Muslim who knows & understands his own faith tradition must agree.   

The text says: And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

If Yeshua, as to His total ontology is fully & exclusively human as both Muslims believe, then how is it that he was also gloried in God’s presence both before his own soul was created & before the cosmos was created?  

Is this a figurative glory? Is He talking about God’s thoughts about Him in eternity past in a time before there was a cosmos? 

How exactly does that response work given the terribly (seemingly) literal manner in which some Muslims interpret the Bible? Sometimes Muslims & Christian Dispensationalists sound a lot alike when it comes biblical interpretation.  On the one hand they emphasize / preference literal interpretation over figurative, but then they shift to figurative interpretation when it suits them. 

The text is a trintarian text.  In John 15, the Holy Spirit is the topic of discussion on the way to the garden.   He’s called “the Comforter,” and in John 17, the Holy Spirit is now paracleting Yeshua in the garden.  In chapter 15, Yeshua promises to send the Helper from the Father, & we learn about the Spirit’s spiration.  

What exactly is happening in John 17?  Yeshua, while being paracleted by the Holy Spirit harmonizes with the Spirit & petitions the Father to glorify His Son with the glory that He had with Him (the Father) from before anything other than God existed.  

It’s true that Yeshua called the Father the one true God, but that only proves that Yeshua called the Father the one true God.  It does not therefore follow that this title is exclusive to the Father.  Those are two separate issues.   

In addition, in John 15:26, Yeshua calls the Father the Kephale in relation to the Spirit of Truth.  The same title (Spirit pf Truth) appears in John 14:7 in reference to the Holy Spirit.   Yeshua also claims authority to send the Spirit of Truth, which is both a direct & indirect claim to the authority to send which qualifies as a claim to be Kephale Himself. 

In other words, the objection isolates John 17:3 & fails to account for the manner in which Yeshua entitles the Holy Spirit.  The Son, whom Yeshua requests the Father to glorify, is said to send the Spirit.  That’s a battle metaphor, ergo it conveys that the Sender has authority to send the Spirit of Truth.  

Which more believable God is triune & Yeshua is theandric or “The Trinity is an absurd concept & is not to found in the New Testament — besides the text has been corrupted; trust me!” — or the text of John 17 & John in general is articulating the doctrine of the Trinity & it doesn’t require mental & exegetical gymnastics &/o a conspiracy theory to understand the text correctly.  

God a (triune) spirit who is infinite, eternal, & unchangeable in being, wisdom, power, justice, holiness, goodness, & truth?

Concluding Remarks 

Islam seems to me to argue against Christianity very like many Christians who trend strongly toward emphasizing belief in particular doctrines about the person & work of Christ in order to be regenerate & justified.   That’s not at all the Gospel.  

When the Bible frames the issue relative to the question, “What must I do to be saved (eg justified) by God, it doesn’t address the problem people have in terms of whether or not their doctrinal beliefs rise to a particular level.  It frames the issue in terms of our propensity to justify ourselves to God via the works of our hands & the fruit of our labor.  

In other words, when it comes to a saving profession of faith, the Bible doesn’t require someone to believe in justification by faith in order to be justified by faith, nor does it require someone to believe God is triune, or anything else.  Humanity’s root problem is what I call our personal “Rooted Works Righteousness.”

Muslims are monotheists, & they too are God’s offspring.  We need to pray that they will come to know, understand, & apprehend the beauty of the Trinity & that they will one day, as a People — not just as individuals — come to know, understand, & apprehend that we must lay down our rooted works righteousness & cease striving with God, themselves, & others as if anyone can improve on God’s goodness & grace. 

May God bless us all, each & every one, & “Go & sin no more.”