The difference between Allah of the Muslims and God of the Christians in their godhead
Q7. Host: Would you tell us about the difference between Allah of the Muslims and God of the Christians in their godhead?
Answer
Dr. Labib: First of all I have to say that we cannot know God by our own intellectual powers. In fact when mankind tried to imagine God with their mind, according to [Romans chapter 1], we see that they created deities for themselves. And what kind of deities? They worshipped the sun, they worshipped the cow, the frog, the fly. The human mind was totally blinded by Satan. And because of that, mankind created different deities that are not at all the true God. Now, to know the true God, God must reveal himself to us. How did He reveal himself to us? He revealed himself to us through the Bible. And I want to say here in very clear and plain words, if you don't know the Bible, the inspiration of the Bible, the truthfulness of the Bible, you are in trouble my dear friends. Because the Bible is the only book, and I repeat, it is the only book that will tell you about the true God. The only book! You have to go and get yourself a Bible, and read it for yourself, and try to discover God, the true God on the pages of the Bible.
Now, what kind of a God do we have? Allah in Islam is an absolute oneness. But God in Christianity is a triune God. Which one is a true God? Well, for God to be self-sufficient, He must be a triune God. Why do I say that? Because in order for God to practice His attributes, He must be a triune God. He is a loving God, a talking God, he is a healing God. Then to practice these attributes He must be a triune God, because before eternity, before time, whom did God love if He was the absolute one? To whom did He talk if He was an absolute one? Whom did He love, if He was an absolute one? Well, He must be, to be self-sufficient, He must be a triune God. Again, to redeem mankind, he must be a triune God. And we being from the book of [Genesis], "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." And the word 'God' in [Genesis 1:1] is Elohim, and it is a plural name that signifies plurality in oneness. And when we read the first chapter in Genesis, we see, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the spirit of God," so we have Eloheim, the designer of the creation, we have the spirit of God, and then we read, and God said, "Let it be light, and it was light." Who was it who said, "Let it be light?" When we come to the book of [John chapter 1], "in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, everything was made by him." So the one who said, "Let it be light," was Jesus Christ the word of God. So we have Elohim in His full deity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit by himself. We have the Son of God, the Creator, who said, "Let it be light, and it was light." And then, when we come to the very same chapter, we read the words, "let us make man in our own image." Let us? Who said that? In singular we read, "And God said". And then in plural, "Let us..." Oneness in plurality. There is no question. If the Bible says that we have to accept it. Why do I say that? Because God is a mystery. He is a mystery in His existence. He is a mystery in His knowledge. He is a mystery in His love. He is a mystery in His wisdom. We cannot comprehend God in our mind, He is not small enough to contain Him in our mind, but He is big enough to demand our worship. And this is in the first chapter in the book of Genesis. And when we come to the [chapter 3 of the book of Genesis], after man failed into sin, God said, "Behold, the man became as one of us." God in singular? One of us in plural. It is oneness in plurality, plurality in oneness. Very clear. Is it beyond our understanding? Yes, and who can comprehend God? Who are we to comprehend the Creator of heaven and earth? But He revealed Himself to us, in that way that we can see the plurality and the oneness in one God, that means that God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are coequal and coexistent. This we have to understand. For God to be self-sufficient, He must be a triune God. For God to redeem mankind, He must be a triune God. And you can imagine the whole scene there. In eternity past, before the creation of man, the triune God has a council. And we read in the Bible that God counseled and counseling needs more than one person. And what was the counselor? That counsel came to discuss the fall of man. God the Son said, "I am going to redeem man. I created him, I will redeem him." Listen, when Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, He was the creator of all man, He was the law-giver, who said that the wages of sin is death; He was the judge, and He was the redeemer. And it's amazing, because He was the redeemer by His own choice. And there is no greater love!
We read about a woman who volunteered to give her kidney to somebody, and we say, "Oh, amazing. That woman was great!" Why? Because she gave one of her kidneys to someone who needed a kidney. If someone gives a part of his liver we write a big article. This man, or that man gave a part of his liver to someone, and we praise those people for their sacrifice. God did not give a kidney, or a part of the liver. God the Son said, "I am going to die for the man I created, to show him my love; to show him the love of the triune God." And this is why we read, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." So God loved, that He gave. And God the Son gave Himself, and then God the Holy Spirit transmitted this love to our heart, to accept, receive, and enjoy. For God to be a triune God is the most important belief. And we are not ashamed. Some times, the Muslims would say, "Look, you are pagans." We are not pagans! No, we are not! We are people who believe in a triune God, and that triune God is self-sufficient; that triune God had a plan to save mankind, and because of that plan, when we come to the book of [Matthew chapter 28], we read that the commission of Jesus Christ to His apostles, "Go and make disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Conclusion: Jesus confessed the triune God. Baptized them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Now, let us come to the Koran. When we come to the Koran, we will notice something very, very interesting. Allah of the Koran swears by his creatures. It's a known fact that the lesser will swear by the greater, and not vise versa. Now in the Koran Allah swore. Swore by whom? He swore by the moon, he swore by the son, he swore by Mecca, he swore by the Koran, he swore by the fig tree, he swore by the olive tree. What does that mean? Well, I said one time to a Muslim friend, "Listen, suppose there is a court case, and I am a witness. And the judge will say to me, "Stand here, and swear to tell the truth, nothing but the truth." I said, "Your honor, all right, I swear by the fig tree, by the olive tree, by the son, and the moon, to tell the truth." What would the judge say? "Are you crazy? What are the fig tree, olive tree, son and moon? You swear by God!" But in the Koran we read again, and again, and again, that Allah swore by Mecca, swore by the angel, swore by the Koran, swore by the fig tree, and the Muslim would not think that this makes god lesser than his creation. But in the Bible, we have a triune God who swore by Himself, because no one is greater than Him. And when we go again into the Quran, we'll see that Mohammed associated with, got himself with god in such a way that would make you amazed. And like the story of Zeinab and Zeid, the Quran says that when Allah and his messenger Mohammed made a decision, the Muslim has no choice but to submit to this decision. Who gave Mohammed the right to make decisions with God? How could he put himself in the very same range of God himself? There is no one who can counsel God but God! And this is why we read about the Lord Jesus Christ, that unto us a son is given, and one of His names is Counselor, because you see, He is equal to God, so He can counsel with the Father. But for Mohammed to counsel with Allah, I think this is too much. We have to think twice before we come to a conclusion. I would say again and again, that through the whole Bible we see a triune God. From the book of Genesis, through the book of Revelation we see a triune God. In the [first chapter of the book of Revelations], we have the greeting of the triune God to the seven churches, greeting from God the Father, greeting from the Holy Spirit. [The seven spirits that apply to the Holy Spirit in His first attribute, are mentioned in the book of [Isaiah chapter 11]. And Jesus Christ who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. We have the Father, we have the Holy Spirit, and we have the Son.
When Paul came to the conclusion of his second epistle to the Corinthians, he said, "Now, the grace of Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit." Well, we didn't invent the belief in a triune God, the whole Bible is that way. The whole Bible says that there is a triune God, even when the angel Gabriel came to announce the birth of Jesus Christ, he said to Mary, "Mary, you have found favor with God." And when she said, "How will I be pregnant? I am not married," he said, "The Holy Spirit will come." Then he said, "The one who will be born of you, will be called 'the Son of God." You see, the story is clear, here is God, who gave favor with Mary; here is the Holy Spirit who will come upon Mary; here is the Son coming, born of virgin Mary, He will be called the 'Son of God'. We have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And we continue. I think that if we looked through the whole Bible I could take more than an hour or two, to get all the verses together, from the Old Testament, and the New Testament. In the Old Testament, in [chapter 30 of the book of Proverbs], Agor is asking this question, "Who ascended to heaven and descended? What is his name, and what is his son's name?" You know, this is in the Old Testament, and this is very plain, that there is a Father, and there is a Son. So we are not people who are pagans. We do follow the authenticity of the Bible. We follow the inspired word of God, and because of that, we believe in a triune God. We are not ashamed of that. We declare it in black and white. The Father is called the God in the Bible. The Son is called God in the Bible. The Holy Spirit is called God in the Bible. They are co-existent, and co-equal from eternity, and that is very plain in the Bible.
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