Or, Islam's Self-Conscious Rejection of the Triune God
Scripture: Selected Scriptures
Date: June 29, 2014
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Sociologist argue that religion is a human construct. Scholars say that men create gods to meet a psychological need, either as a model to justify their own behavior or as a crutch to support their weakness. It is true that men invent idols as they imagine or want to imagine gods to be. But God’s Word says that the shaping is not one way only. Men make up gods but men also become like the gods they make.
Psalm 115 states it as clearly as can be.
Their [the nations, v.2] idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear;
noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them become like them;
so do all who trust in them.
(Psalm 115:4–8, ESV)
We become like our gods/God. Worship is a transforming activity. We cannot not be changed.
So men, and the cultures they make up, are shaped by what shape they believe their god is in. The true God made humans to imitate and those who refuse to worship Him will imitate something else in His place; it isn’t whether or not we will image a god but which God/god we will image.
No idol more directly challenges the God of the Bible than Allah. Islam is not only a good example of what happens when men worship a false god, it is the perfect illustration and attack against the Triune God. Many other religions are relativist because they believe in a plurality of gods (polytheism). If there are a bunch then it is hard to argue which one is better. Only three of the major world religions worship one god (monotheism): Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Of those three, two are unitarian monotheists (one god and one person). Only Christianity dares to present God in three Persons. It changes things.
Before we go any further, I am no expert on Islam, Allah, Muhammed, or the Qur’an. I don’t intend to, nor could I at this point if I wanted to, offer a complete treatment of Islam tonight. I want to explain the Trinity by showing the foil, the opposite of the Trinity, that highlights the glory of our God and heightens our affections for the Trinity. By seeing what the true God is not like and what worshippers of Allah become in worldview and walk it may help us not take for granted how rich our culture’s Trinitarian blessing is.
The first to thing to note about Islam is that it is more duty heavy than doctrine heavy. This is not actually surprising based on what Allah is like. He is the Almighty, he has servants, and the Almighty tells his servants what to do. He does not need to tell them more than they need to know in order to obey. In fact, the word Islam itself means submission.
There are “Five Pillars of Islam”:
The only confessional element is the first, the others belong with expected behavior. Allah does reveal himself but he mostly reveals what we need to do. The fundamental belief is that there is one god who must be obeyed.
Before seeing some specifics from the Qur’an, I was surprised (because I didn’t pay good attention when I was in history classes as a young student) to learn that Mohammed lived in the 7th century. Islam is only 14 centuries old, though Mohammed the prophet spoke as if Islam was connected to Jehovah. Not only was the Old Testament complete by the time Islam started, but Christ had already come and gone back to heaven, the New Testament was completely finished, the canon was closed, and the key church councils and creeds that defined Christianity against a variety of Trinitarian or Christological heresies had already been established.
The timeline explains why we will see so many references, both implicit and explicit, to the God of the New Testament who revealed Himself as one God, with one Name, “the name of Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). Islam is a reaction against our doctrine. It did not develop beside Christianity, let alone before it.
The Qur’an is divided into 114 surahs, a word that is equivalent to what we call chapters or section breaks. The Surah’s are arranged by size not by chronology, so the Qur’an begins with the longest surah and ends with the shortest. I say that because, similar to our Bibles, the location doesn’t automatically indicate priority.
Surah 112 - The Sincerity (or The Purity)
Say, “He is Allah, [who is] One,
Allah, the Eternal Refuge.
He neither begets nor is born,
Nor is there to Him any equivalent.”
(112:1-4 - Sahih International Translation)
The fact that this is called “The Purity” means that here is the self-declared center of Islam; here is Islam in its purest form. At least two of the four lines are direct shots at the Trinity.
The first two lines sound similar enough to the great Shema: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4, ESV). The exclusivity (“one”), the eternality (“Eternal”), and the security (“Refuge”) are comparable between Allah and Yahweh.1
But that “he neither begets nor is born” aims at the Father and Son. Because there is no one equivalent to Allah, none are worthy to be his partner.
O my dear son! Ascribe no partners unto Allah. Lo! to ascribe partners (unto Him) is a tremendous wrong. (Surah 31:13, Pickthall translation)
It is a “tremendous wrong” to talk about an equality of persons with Allah. “Ascribe no partners unto Allah.” It is only unbelievers, “those who reject Faith” what would talk about an equals.
Praise be Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth, and made the darkness and the light. Yet those who reject Faith hold (others) as equal, with their Guardian-Lord. (Surah 6:1, Yusuf Ali translation)
Those who reject the proper understanding of god (Allah) will not be forgiven. These men won’t submit, they are rebels against him.
O ye People of the Book! believe in what We have (now) revealed, confirming what was (already) with you, before We change the face and fame of some (of you) beyond all recognition, and turn them hindwards, or curse them as We cursed the Sabbath-breakers, for the decision of Allah Must be carried out. Allah forgives not that partners should be set up with Him; but He forgives anything else, to whom He pleases; to set up partners with Allah is to devise a sin Most heinous indeed. (Surah 4:47-48, Yusef Ali translation)
Note that Allah, through Mohammed, aims this warning directly at the “People of the Book,” Christians. There are many addresses to Bible-believers. With threat of disfigurement if not actual death, Mohammed warns about the unpardonable, “heinous” sin of setting up a partner.
In case there is any doubt up to this point, the Trinity is the target. Allah is not just against having human equals, but there being any sort of equality of persons within the godhead.
O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: Nor say of Allah aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) a messenger of Allah, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in Allah and His messengers. Say not “Trinity” [or “Three”]: desist: it will be better for you: for Allah is one Allah: Glory be to Him: (far exalted is He) above having a son. To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth. And enough is Allah as a Disposer of affairs. (Surah 4:171)
“Say not ‘Trinity’“. Allah is above having a son, he is above that sort of familial relationship.
They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a Trinity: for there is no god except One Allah. If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them. (Surah 5:73)
It is blasphemy so say that God is Three equal Persons. The word for it is shirk: “the fundamental sin of regarding anything as equal to Allah” dictionary.com. Punishment inevitably fall on any who will not renounce their irreverent excesses of Trinitarian thinking.
The following are observations of the behavior of those who follow the Qur’an and, as with any general remarks, there are certainly exceptions on the individual level. Confessions can be ignored (by Muslims, and by Christians, by those of any profession) and conduct can deteriorate from its first heights (or first love). We also believe that the Triune God gives common grace that allows unbelievers to enjoy certain things that they can’t explain.
But exceptions don’t disprove the principles. We are asking: what priorities and practices are most consistent with the theology? What do people who believe Islam generally see as good? What do they, by and large, believe to be right?
Islam is at war with the Trinity. It must either destroy, despise, or disregard many of the things Christians love. Theology proper affects whole rivers of civilization which is why Islam is against “the West” not just against Christians. The West is driven more by Trinitarian monotheism than unitarian monotheism.
Here are four worldview consequences of Muslim theology proper. Those who reflect Allah:
The ultimate relationship, if it could actually be called a relationship, is between God, the Almighty, and the ones he created and rules. Before creation there was no one else to love; god was not love (contrary to 1 John 4:8, 16). He did not create from an overflow of sovereign love but purely from his sovereign omnipotence. Those who are not god, or those functioning in the power position, must submit. There is no community, unless we count submission as the thing held in common.
I could have also stated it like this: those who reflect Allah Value Authority over Submission . There was no eternal Father with an eternal Son. That means not only that power is greater than love but also that no being could be equal in person but different in role. The pattern for husbands and wives is not one of equality but of superiority and inferiority. In every room, one must always be looking to identify the boss. There is always one “king of the hill” and never a dance.
Those persons who are not in power are tools. Women and children are not first to be saved but, at least in certain cases, the first to be sacrificed.
The primary example of this principle in Islamic theology is Jesus. The Qur’an demonstrates high esteem for Jesus as a prophet of Allah. It just gets Jesus wrong. The esteem is for an idol, making the esteem not very esteem-able by Bible standards.
Because power is the ultimate characteristic of Allah, anyone else of value must also demonstrate power. That means there is no place for sacrifice, no place for a substitutionary atonement, no way that loss could be gain, no way to talk about “the glory of the cross.”
And for their saying, “Surely we killed the Masih, Isa son of Maryam, (The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary) the Messenger of Allah.” And in no way did they kill him, and in no way did they crucify him, but a resemblance of him was presented to them (i.e. the matter was made obscure for them through mutual resemblance). And surely the ones who differed about him are indeed in doubt about him. (Or: it, “that”) In no way do they have any knowledge about him except the close following of surmise, and in no way did they kill him of a certainty. (Sura 4:157, Dr. Ghali translation)
Muslims “protect” Jesus by saying that, whatever happened to Jesus, He certainly was not crucified. It must have been Simon instead, or maybe Judas, or just a ghost. Jesus couldn’t have been great if He had been killed.
Christians believe the cross is His glory. We know, those of “us who are being saved,” that “the word of the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). We also know that Jesus claimed He would be recognized as God when He was lifted up on the cross.
Forgiveness is raw (and arbitrary) from Allah, it does not come because “God put forward [Christ] as a propitiation by his blood” (Romans 3:25).
There is no motive to sacrifice for someone else. You shouldn’t even share with your servant (or employee) good that Allah has given you.
And Allah hath favoured some of you above others in provision. Now those who are more favoured will by no means hand over their provision to those (slaves) whom their right hands possess, so that they may be equal with them in respect thereof. Is it then the grace of Allah that they deny? (Surah 16:71)
Conversion tactics are different. Islam: convert or die because God will punish you. Christianity: convert because God has died in Christ who bore your punishment.
This is the reason that women are treated so differently in Western countries than in Muslim countries. “How a man treats his wife is his theology” (Doug Wilson). How Allah treats his people is how husbands treat their wives.
Men are in charge of women by [right of] what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend [for maintenance] from their wealth. So righteous women are devoutly obedient, guarding in [the husband’s] absence what Allah would have them guard. But those [wives] from whom you fear arrogance - [first] advise them; [then if they persist], forsake them in bed; and [finally], strike them. But if they obey you [once more], seek no means against them. Indeed, Allah is ever Exalted and Grand. (Surah 4:34)
But from the beginning God created them equal.
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
(Genesis 1:27, ESV)
Both the man and the woman bear God’s image, even though they have different roles.
The Bible teaches that the husband is the head of the wife, yes, but he does not abandon her or beat her to make his point to a disobedient wife. He does seek to sanctify her, he does deal with her disobedience, but he does it like Christ does for the church. (Ephesians 5:25-27)
The woman may be weaker in one sense, but that does not make her less equal before God and, actually, it makes them more valuable for certain things.
husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. (1 Peter 3:7, ESV)
God does not despise the weak. His power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). He defends the widows and orphans (James 1:27).
There is one god and many servants. There is no value in having a variety of servants, the value is in the multiplicity who can do many things for their lord. The master only needs to hear one common answer, “Yes.” He does not need it to a tune.
Of course this affects music. Some Muslims believe that Mohammed prohibited the use of any music. The music that has come from Muslims largely disregards harmony, utilizing more chanting, with an emphasis on rhythm (so drums and gongs), and sometimes including wind instruments (capable of only one note at a time).
What is valued is “an impersonal and anonymous quality,” music that is distant and abstract so as not to confuse men with worldly things. Music for entertainment or enjoyment are prohibited even if worship music could be joyous.
We are always asking as a culture: What is okay? What isn’t okay? What should you do to someone who does something that isn’t okay? These questions will be answered by what God we worship.
Our theology proper affects how husbands, fathers, elders, and bosses exercise authority. Our theology proper affects how wives, children, sheep, and employees view the glory of their roles. Our theology proper affects our views on euthanasia, the poor, foreign politics.
There will not be peace between Muslims and Christians because Islam exists as a denial of Christianity and the Triune God.
I do not go through this because I hate Muslims but because they need the good news. They are created in the image of God and they may be saved by repenting from their idolatry and trusting in the God-Man, Jesus Christ, God’s Son.
Our God is omnipotent and love. He rules and redeems. He wants obedience for fellowship. He shares Himself with us and calls us His sons. He conquers by death. He calls us to be transformed into His image as we behold His glory.
The first and great commandment, and the second one like it, belong with who God is not just what He demands. Even in the great Shema: the first command is to love. The motivation to love Him and obey His commandments isn’t just because He will destroy the disobedient (though He will, Deuteronomy 6:15), but because He delivered His people and promised them good things that they didn’t deserve. His people “shall not go after other gods” because He alone offered them “a land flowing with milk and honey” (verse 3). ↩