The Question Muslims Can’t Answer

There are some beliefs Catholics share with Muslims, such as the importance of prayer and fasting.

Then there are beliefs we vehemently disagree on, such as Jesus being the Son of God.

Many Muslims assume that calling Jesus God’s son means that God must have had a wife. Because of this misconception, they can easily brush off the teaching of the Son of God as blasphemy.

But when correctly explained, the question of Divine Sonship cannot be refuted.

Here’s how to walk through it.

 

1. Start with the Book of Genesis
Genesis begins with God as the creator: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” But it also intimates all three persons of the Holy Trinity.

We read that the “Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.” As we move into passages from Wisdom, we know Jesus as the Word that spoke creation into existence: “Let there be light.”

So there, even in the Old Testament and at the beginning of all things, we have a hint of the Trinity.

2. Ask your Muslim friends what God was doing before creation
We agree with Muslims that God is Lord and creator. But He’s not Lord without subjects, nor is He creator with creatures.

So what was He before creation? I actually once heard about a Muslim who responded that at this point God was “nothing.” He was then pressed on what God was doing. Again, he responded, “Nothing.”

Really?

In Islam, one of the 99 names of Allah (God) is “Loving.” But what — or whom — was He loving before creation? A Muslim may respond with “He loved Himself.” But loving yourself isn’t really love, at least not in the full sense.

If God is eternal and eternally loving, then God must have loved another person. An eternal person. And that eternal person receives that love and then responds to it with love. And that exchange of love is so real that it’s a third person.

God the Father, from all eternity, loved God the Son. The Son receives that love and returns it back to the Father as the Holy Spirit. Three divine persons, equally loving.

Wow!

3. Ask them whether God needs us
They may say “yes.” There are some Muslims who believe that God actually needs us to worship Him.

But isn’t God self-sufficient through all of eternity? To say that God “needs” us actually diminishes His self-sufficiency — something no devout Muslim wants to say!

God existing and loving as a Trinity doesn’t need us, because He’s already a family of love. Three persons each fully possessing the one divine nature, co-equal and co-eternal.

Doesn’t this make our existence all the more wonderful? God didn’t need us, but He freely chose to create us as His children to freely love Him back. All of this simply because of His overflowing love that comes from the fellowship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

What could be more awesome than that?