On (Christian) Unitarianism and 1 Corinthians 8:6

edit: for some odd reason I had misspelt the individual’s name.

I have recently been engaged in a series of discussions concerning the issue of whether Jesus is God or something other than God, namely the Son of God. While your average Christian would see no contradiction in affirming both statements, the individual with whom I had the pleasure of discussing with seemed to have a vastly different understanding of what these terms meant. It was clear that to him, it denoted some inferiority in ontological being yet since I never actually asked him to expound on his understanding of this title, I won’t go into a discussion of it either. Now before I continue with the subject proper, I should mention that this post should be read in unison with these other two as well. Anyway, let us begin.

Allah, and Why I am not a Muslim

At this time, I would like to focus on the concept of God and how he is understood in Christianity and Islam but before that, I would like to present the reader with two scenarios, and once read, I would like for them to simply think about the contrast between the two. Now, if it follows that I have gone beyond what Islam teaches then I sincerely ask to be corrected. Please, I only wish to say what Islam says of itself so if it is that I have misrepresented it, don’t hesitate to inform me.

Re: Is Jesus God?

Here is an interesting article by one Mushafiq Sultan. The author seeks to prove from the Bible that Jesus is not God himself. What follows is a succession of half-quotes, blatant lies, faulty logic and all around contextual bastardization in a bid to show the Christian position to be incorrect. Now I realize that those were in fact some rather strong words but I am quite confident that by the time the reader finishes this article, they will have seen that I was actually quite reserved in my opinion of the article. Furthermore, no matter whether they believe Christianity to be true or not, they will agree with the statement that the Bible teaches the divinity of Christ. Now as it comes to evidence for the divinity of Jesus Christ, I have always known that eventually I would have to write such a post and in one respect sincerely dreaded the thought. There is just so much to cover and even in trying to cover just the “important things” I know quite well that I will fail in doing the subject any justice. So with that caveat, let me begin to explain from scripture why in fact Christians consider Jesus to be God.

For Ruwayda, Whenever I Find Her III

Surprisingly enough, Ms. Ruwayda has already provided me with another reply to address some of the points that I had brought up in my latest post. But before I continue I would like to make clear that if I came off as needlessly competitive and if it appeared that this discussion was little more than a game for me then I sincerely apologize. It was not at all my intention. I realize that I have made the claim more than once that Ms. Ruwayda had not refuted me yet this was in no way done out of pride but rather it was simply a statement of fact given that she had brought up certain points which as I have shown did nothing to present my argument as having been incorrect. Now this response on my part will most likely be fairly short (in comparison to my previous posts) given that this time, there is far less that she is objecting to.

For Ruwayda, Whenever I Find Her II

edit: Ms. Ruwayda has been kind enough to also provide her response to this article in the comments section below.

It seems that there has been a response to one of my previous posts coming from Ruwayda herself. I would encourage anyone with the time, to read it because it is well-written and touches upon some of the most important difficulties that Muslims have with the Christian doctrine. I will state once more before I proceed to prove it, that the doctrine of God taking upon himself the punishment of the sins of the world is perfectly logical and a display of the highest mercy and love. Furthermore, that she has once more misunderstood Christianity and that her very argument, as much as she would like to hope otherwise, actually works in favour of the Christian position when it is examined properly. Anyway, enough of this preamble, let us dip right into the matter.

Of Gods and Men

This post stems from the abundance of misinformation and subterfuge that is passed off as Christian doctrine around the internet by Muslim apologists. I would rather believe that they just sincerely lack the basest understanding of the Christian religion than to think that they, with full knowledge, lie and mislead their Muslim audience in such a fashion. I say this because I have yet to hear or read of any Muslim apologist that can state, for example, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the incarnation, the idea of the Christian liberty, etc. as Christians themselves believe these and then attack it with any semblance of logic to show that, as Christians believe these things to be, they are wholly unintelligible (Here’s looking at you Ahmed Deedat, Zakir Naik, Shabir Ally, Joshua Evans etc.) and just plainly wrong. What’s worse is that I find the same lack of understanding from Christian converts to Islam, to the point where I have to honestly wonder whether it was their lack of knowledge which led to their apostatizing (Hosea 4:6) or whether all their prior knowledge on these matters is somehow dissolved in the process of their recitation of the Shahada? Therefore this post is dedicated to help dispel some common myths on the matter of Christian doctrine.

Forgiveness, and Why I am not a Muslim

I have already spoken on the subject of love and how Islam, by it’s own admission (or more precisely, by the ramifications of its philosophy), generally considers Allah himself unworthy of the highest and most supreme form of love. Indeed it encourages a type of subpar worship towards God on the part of the Muslim and, in praising, absolutely denigrates God. Yet enough of that, this post has to do with the matter of forgiveness in Islam (and Christianity by relation). A common charge levied against Christianity by Muslims is that Islam paints a superior picture of God seeing as Allah does not require sacrifice but will rather simply forgive sins. I must admit that at face value Islam does seem to be the superior religion on this count yet can this belief be sustained after one has worked through the implications inherent in the concepts of sin, forgiveness, and the divine nature?

Love, Jesus, and the Qur’an

I just came across the following video and felt that I just had to share it seeing as the resemblance between it and some of my posts is uncanny. The speaker touches upon many things I have mentioned throughout this blog (even to the point of using the same examples that I had used). Anyway the video itself is rather short but very much to the point.

Re: Does the Bible recognize equality between men and women?

This is a response to an article by one Ruwayda Mustafah which can be found here. Therein the author makes the argument, and does her best to support this biblically, that according to the bible, women are ontologically inferior to men. I mean this to (hopefully) be a rather quick response to her most pertinent points seeing as, lo and behold, it’s midnight and here am I with nothing better to do than to blog; once again.

For Ruwayda, Whenever I Find Her

edit: Ms. Ruwayda has been kind enough to also provide her response to this article in the comments section below.

It’s exactly midnight and like all other good Christian boys I am deeply engaged in plotting the downfall of Islam one blog post at a time. That; was my attempt at humour (a lame attempt, but an attempt nonetheless). I don’t actively plot the downfall of anything; much less at midnight soon to be one in the morning. Anyway, this particular post is going to be a little different in that for one thing, I don’t at all know too well what I will be talking about and that—perhaps due to it being so late (and myself not thinking straight) or the fact that I’m listening to Coldplay’s “Fix You” (and hence myself not thinking straight)—I mean this post to be for Ruwayda (who left me a comment in the previous post) in particular. So Ruwayda, if I may be so familiar with you, this is for you.