CHRISTIANITY through the lens of CHRISTIAN & MUSLIM SCHOLARS Part One

4.14 The present writer’s comment:

If Jesus really emptied himself of the use of his godly attributes and became a nobody like us, so does God the Father. He too would empty himself of his godly attributes. Why is it so? Because according to the Christian’s own Creeds:

“The Godhead of the Father, of The Son and of The Holy Spirit is all one… the glory equal, the majesty eternal… and in this Trinity no one is greater or less than another.” (The Athanasian Creed)

“Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly human…. Without change, without division, without separation … the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person.” (The Chalcedon Creed)

The Father will become a lesser figure because both of them according to the Creeds are one and are united with one another as God. Meaning Jesus equals Father while at the same time Jesus equals Man. So it would be [Father = Jesus = Man]. As Jesus who is equal to Father became a nobody when he became a man, The Father will be a nobody also because of their Oneness. But how could we utter this blasphemy against God The Almighty when God himself said through Prophet Malachi:

“I am the Lord, and I do not change.” (Malachi 3:6, NLT)

In answering another Christian question that, if he (God The Almighty), chooses to do so that is (becoming a Man), then to worship him in this condition is indeed to worship the Creator, and not in any way the created thing, Imam Abu Abd Rahman Robert Squires answers:

“You're "putting the cart before the horse" here, because Almighty God prior to the alleged incarnation had already clearly said that He is nothing like His creation. This proves that your assumption that "if" He chose to become man is an invalid assumption. As I clearly brought out in my response to Smith's "Tawhid", Christians DO worship the creation - whether they choose to admit it or not. The Old Testament, as well as the Qur'an, show that God is not to be associated with His creation and that NOTHING in His creation can represent Him. However, (St.) Paul - seemingly under the influence of Greek thought - calls Jesus the "image of God" (See 2 Corinthians 4:4, Romans 1:23 and Colossians 1:15). It was because of this statement and others like it that the overwhelming majority of Christians, i.e. the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox, approved of the veneration of images.

This went almost unabated up until the time of the beginning of the Protestant heresy. Orthodox Christians, such as (St.) John of Damascus, were correct in concluding that they worshipped an image of God, i.e. Jesus. Instead of looking at this conclusion in light of the Ten Commandments[1], and thus concluding that their initial conclusion was blasphemous and contrary to God's teachings, they instead used their conclusion as justification for producing further images, i.e. icons.

Their initial conclusion was correct, i.e. that they worshipped an image of God in the form of creation, but they failed to draw a correct conclusion from their first conclusion, i.e. that this was condemned by God and thus CLEARLY WRONG. But it's not just the Orthodox and Roman Catholics that deserve criticism here, since it's safe to say that all Christians picture "Jesus" as a MAN. Even if (just for argument's sake) God was "in" him, they're still worshipping something created (i.e. the MAN part). Often, when trying to dupe Muslims (or even Jews for that matter) into believing that there's nothing idolatrous about the Doctrine of the Incarnation or the Trinity, Christians often water down these doctrines.

Thus they come up with a more palatable "Christology" that just emphasizes that God was "in" Jesus, not that Jesus was God. Even Kenneth Cragg, one of the more respectable missionaries, is quite guilty of this. There are some New Testament verses that seemingly support this view, but at the same time they confirm that "Christ" and "God" are separate entities - "But the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works" (John 14:10) and "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19) and "For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9).”

“By using this approach, they seek to trick Muslims into idolatry little-by-little. But the versions, taken in context with other verses, don't even mean what Christians want them to mean. A quick look at John 15:4 and 17:21 shows that having Jesus "in" you doesn't make one "God" - or the disciples would have been "Divine". All of these verses are just actually proof that the (unknown) author who wrote them had no real concept of God's Transcendence and Absoluteness.

But anyway...the oldest excuse amongst idolaters is that they're not worshipping an idol, but only what it represents - a holy man that God was inside of or a particular "manifestation of God". They see them as vehicles that help them concentrate and get closer to Almighty God. Even the idol worshippers at the time of Muhammad, may God bless him and give him peace, believed in Almighty God. They only worshipped their idols so that they could get closer to Him (See Qur'an 39:3).”[2]

[1] Do not make idols of any kind, whether in the shape of birds or animals or fish. You must never worship or bow down to them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, who will not share your affection with any other God!” (Deuteronomy 5:8-9, NLT)

[2] A Muslim Response To A Christian Response Regarding Joseph Smith Paper On Tauhid, 3