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Does the Qur'ân Say that Mary Was Worshipped As Part of The Trinity?

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HumbleSiPilot77

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The Christian missionaries have engaged in bitter polemics since the advent of Islam. One of their common allegations is that they claim that in Sura' Al-Mâidah (5):119, the Qur'ân made a "mistake" in claiming that the Trinity consists of God, Jesus and Mary. The said verse is as follows:


"And behold! God will say: 'O Jesus the son of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, ‘Take me and my mother for two gods beside Allâh?' He will say: 'Glory to Thee! Never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, Thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thou knowest what is in my heart, though I know not what is in Thine. For Thou knowest in full all that is hidden.'" (Qur'ân, 5:116)

Upon careful observation, one would indeed see that God have indeed spoken the Truth:

The mentioning of the "Trinity" appears in the Holy Qur'ân in verse [4.171] People of the Book, do not exaggerate your religion. Do not say
about Allah except the truth. Indeed, the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, is only a Messenger (and Prophet) of Allah, and His Word (Be) which He gave to Mary, and a (created) spirit by Him. So believe in Allah and His Messengers and do not say: 'Trinity. "
the name of Mary is not mentioned as "the third Person ..
Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches can be found filled with carved or molten images and/or statues of Jesus Christ and his mother Mary, in various sizes and shapes.
Most of these statues or images are placed in the prominent places of the prayer halls of these Christian Churches for venerating and worshipping of these entities. One would also notice that the majority of the attending congregates would kneel, worship, venerate and pray before these images as their reverent rituals and inherited traditions. Many devoted believers would place lighted candles in front of these statues or images before worshipping or paying their homage.
These Catholic congregates who venerate Lord Jesus as their God and call Virgin Mary as the "Mother of God", do form the bulk of the Christians community. It has been so since the inception of the Roman Catholic Church. The Protestants, who separated from the Roman Catholics, nearly ten centuries after the advent of Islam, do not have the statues of Mother Mary in their Churches, although at one time Mary did play a pivotal role.
As for the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Holy Trinity, no Christian Church has so far instituted its venerating representation, image or semblance for their Churchgoers.

Mary's exalted position also earned her the titles Mother of God and Coredemptrix, suggesting that she played an active role in the redemption of mankind along with her son. The Mother of God title was applied early in church history, based on the notion that Jesus was fully God as well as human. This was established as a doctrine in the 4th century. In the Eastern churches this doctrine played a major devotional role and became a favorite subject for icon painters. During the Reformation era it was accepted by both Catholic and Protestant scholars, though Mary's role in Protestant theology has declined markedly since then.

It is clear that for all practical purpose and in reality, when the issue is of worshipping, venerating, deifying and/or idolizing is concerned, it is Mary - the theotokos (Mother of God), and not the Holy Ghost, which has that kind of rank and status. Briefly, in terms of veneration, the idols of Jesus and Mary are treated as deities. The Holy Ghost is not venerated as a deity in the manner that Jesus' and Mary's idols were treated. The quoted verse from the Holy Qur’an questions such Divine Rank and Status that have been assigned by the followers of Jesus to him and his mother.

The quoted verse does not speak of the Church developing the enigmatic doctrine of Trinity in the fourth century. It is in fact accepted that the doctrine of Trinity evolved and took its final shape nearly 350 years of CE. Bart D. Ehrman observes that

Christianity in the second and third centuries was in a remarkable state of flux. To be sure, at no point in its history has the religion constituted a monolith. But the diverse manifestations of its first three hundred years - whether in terms of social structures, religious practices, or ideologies - have never been replicated.

Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the realm of theology. In the second and third centuries there were, of course, Christians who believed in only one God; others, however, claimed that there were two Gods; yet others subscribed to 30, or 365, or more. Some Christians accepted the Hebrew Scriptures as a revelation of the one true God, the sacred possession of all believers; others claimed that the scriptures had been inspired by an evil deity. Some Christians believed that God had created the world and was soon going to redeem it; others said that God neither had created the world nor had ever had any dealings with it. Some Christians believed that Christ was somehow both a man and God; others said that he was a man, but not God; others claimed that he was God but not a man; others insisted that he was a man who had been temporarily inhabited by God. Some Christians believed that Christ's death had brought about the salvation of the world; others claimed that his death had no bearing on salvation; yet others alleged that he had never even died.

So, in conclusion, there is no point calling the modern-day Trinitarian Christianity as 'true' Christianity and all others as 'false' since the evolution of this doctrine itself is very late. The early Christianity themselves had bizarre beliefs about their doctrine as well as their Scriptures.

From: http://bismikaallahuma.org/Quran/Commentary/mary.htm
 

thereselittleflower

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Bushmaster

Catholics and Orthodox do not worship images, we do not worship Mary, we do not elevate her to the level of divinity.

You have mixed truth with error in your post. .All those who you call "Christians" in the early centuries who did not believe the teachings of the Church were actually called heretics . . those who did not believe in the Trinity, the Divinity of Jesus, that He is fully human and fully divine (hence the title Theotokos, Mother of God, God-Bearer) given to Mary to describe who JESUS is, not who Mary is . .

There were numerous attacks on beliefs of the Church in the first few centuries. Yet you have labelled all those who held these heretical beliefs as Christians . .no, they were not Christians . .they were heretics.




Peace in Him!
 
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HumbleSiPilot77

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thereselittleflower said:
Bushmaster

Catholics and Orthodox do not worship images, we do not worship Mary, we do not elevate her to the level of divinity.

You have mixed truth with error in your post. .All those who you call "Christians" in the early centuries who did not believe the teachings of the Church were actually called heretics . . those who did not believe in the Trinity, the Divinity of Jesus, that He is fully human and fully divine (hence the title Theotokos, Mother of God, God-Bearer) given to Mary to describe who JESUS is, not who Mary is . .

There were numerous attacks on beliefs of the Church in the first few centuries. Yet you have labelled all those who held these heretical beliefs as Christians . .no, they were not Christians . .they were heretics.




Peace in Him!

Dear thereselittleflower,

I am a Christian and I do NOT agree with this article a bit, this article is a bogus article written by muslims to explain away the fallacy and errors in the Quran and cover it up. My purpose to post this article was to show all Christians how muslims think and determine the errors in this article.

So I would like to say it is not my post but I am after a very good solid response to it.
 
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thereselittleflower

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OK! Gotcha! I was worried for a moment because I didn't think you thought this way. . . :)

I didn't understand your reason for posting it.

Have you considered going to OBOB for some really good, sound rebuttals of this?

I don't have the time to go in depth right now, or I would .. but there is a lot out there it rebut this effectively. And lots of people at OBOB who can do a wonderful job at it.

Peace in Him!
 
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HumbleSiPilot77

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thereselittleflower said:
I don't have the time to go in depth right now, or I would .. but there is a lot out there it rebut this effectively. And lots of people at OBOB who can do a wonderful job at it.

When you have time, take a look into it, if you don't mind. There are historical and factual errors in the article and this article and similars are only the way out muhammadans use to get out of trouble. The article itself is trouble...

What is OBOB by the way?
 
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thereselittleflower

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Bushmaster said:
When you have time, take a look into it, if you don't mind. There are historical and factual errors in the article and this article and similars are only the way out muhammadans use to get out of trouble. The article itself is trouble...

What is OBOB by the way?
I'm sorry Bushmaster

OBOB is One Bread One Body forum in the congretations subforum here at CF . . it is the Catholic forum here . . there are a lot of knowledgeable people there. :)


Peace in Him!
 
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bloodofthelamb12

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To all my Catholic brethren,
I do not wish to offend, but prayer is a form of worship. And if I'm not mistaken, prayer is offered up to Mary and numerous other saints by members of the Catholic church. This practice, if I may say so (please forgive me, for I truly do not wish to offend), seems more in line with the Spiritism of the Far East than to the teachings of Paul or the Apostles. And while yes, I may be radically out of line in my thinking here, isn't traveling halfway across the planet to see a "piece of the true cross" or the "empty tomb" simply the worship of images?

If I am wrong, I welcome correction; however, I do not see how I could be...

May God bless you in all your ways and throughout your days, Amen.
BYE!
 
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thereselittleflower

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bloodofthelamb12 said:
To all my Catholic brethren,
I do not wish to offend, but prayer is a form of worship. And if I'm not mistaken, prayer is offered up to Mary and numerous other saints by members of the Catholic church. This practice, if I may say so (please forgive me, for I truly do not wish to offend), seems more in line with the Spiritism of the Far East than to the teachings of Paul or the Apostles. And while yes, I may be radically out of line in my thinking here, isn't traveling halfway across the planet to see a "piece of the true cross" or the "empty tomb" simply the worship of images?

If I am wrong, I welcome correction; however, I do not see how I could be...

May God bless you in all your ways and throughout your days, Amen.
BYE!
Hi bloodofthelamb

No, you haven't offended me, as I used to think this way too. :) I am converting to Catholicism as a result of really investigating why I believed what I believed and held it up to the magnifying glass of Early Church History . . it has been quite a journey. :)

But in regards to what you are saying about prayer being worship . . that is a fairly recent concept among even Protetants and it has to do with the way the English language has evolved.

Pray is an Old English word, a now archaic word, that we still use today.

It's original meaing was simply to ask someone for something, and people would say "I pray thee help me with this . . " The word had no special significance of worship.

It gradually took on a special meaning of worship among Protestants, but it never did among Catholics. For Catholics, the word "pray" still takes its broader Old English meaning . .Even though for Protestants it takes a moe strict and limited meaning equated with worship.

What you are doing is taking your understanding of a word, and applying it to someone else's understanding and usage of that word without regard to HOW they use that same word in comparison to how you use it. And that leads to misunderstandings and error.


Would you go to a different culture and expect them to mean the same thing you do by words you might use in common? I wouldn't. You have to learn first what a word means to them, then understand how they use it in that light, not in light of how YOU use it.


The same thing with Catholics . . our spiritual cultures differ, and this is evidenced in how we use the same words, but sometimes differently.


It would be just as wrong of me to say to you that when you pray to God you are not worshipping Him because that sense is not present in the Old English usage of the word "pray" . . because for you, it does mean worship.


So, it is very important that you don't take the word "pray" as you understand it and apply it to our practice.

It is VERY important that you take OUR usage of the word "pray" as WE understand it and apply it to OUR practice . . then you will see that it is NOT worship, because we don't mean the same thing you do by the word "pray".


I hope you can see where the error in your thoughts process is about "prayers" offered up to Mary and the Saints actually is now.

When we "pray" to Mary and the Saints, we are saying, in effect, ""I pray thee" (I ask you), pray to God for me about this (intercede for me about this)"

We are doing the same thing that you do when you ask someone to intercede for you! You are not worshipping the person you are asking to pray for you, are you? You are merely making a request, are you not? If you lived in the time of Old English, you would say to that person "I pray thee . .. " This is the exact same thing we Catholics do when they ask Mary or the Saints to pray for us, to intercede for us before the very throne of God in heaven. :)

In no way do we have the intent or thought of worshipping them, Worship is due to God and God alone. For us, prayer is no worship. :)



Does this help?
 
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LittleLambofJesus

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Bubba1301

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We have to also understand that the "branch" of Christianity that Mohamed was exposed to was a radical, distorted, and heretical vision of Christianity. This can be seen through the writings in the Qur'an as well as other historical recordings from the same time period. It was this distorted vision of Christianity that Mohamed came to understand as what Christianity was and what he eventually came to hate - and later encouraged his followers to kill Christians.
 
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thereselittleflower

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LittleLambofJesus

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Umm . . why did you bump up a 3 year old thread?

:scratch: .. aren't there enough Mary threads?


.
Yep. I didn't look at how old it was LOL. YIKES!!!!! The Muslims of course debunk the Apostle Paul and book of Revelation. When debating them they always ask why I bring up that book. :)

2 Chronicles 31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke the sacred pillars in pieces, cut down the wooden images, and threw down the high places and the altars -- from all Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh -- until they had utterly destroyed them all.

Reve 18:12 "merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble; 13 "and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men.
 
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Rion

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This is another issue I've had with praying to Mary or the Saints. By doing so, we give a group a reason to mock and deny God and Jesus. I realize it's not worship, but I just wonder if the RCC should tone down veneration a bit, as otherwise it could act as a stumbling block .
 
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Tyndale

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Hi bloodofthelamb

No, you haven't offended me, as I used to think this way too. :) I am converting to Catholicism as a result of really investigating why I believed what I believed and held it up to the magnifying glass of Early Church History . . it has been quite a journey. :)

and a lot of Papal Bulls too. The Prophecy is Closed, the word of god is closed, it needs nothing else.

Rev 22 v 18+19 If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
 
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Tyndale

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Hi bloodofthelamb

No, you haven't offended me, as I used to think this way too. :) I am converting to Catholicism as a result of really investigating why I believed what I believed and held it up to the magnifying glass of Early Church History . . it has been quite a journey. :)

The word of God is closed, nothing else was needed. There is only one message that needed explaining, it was salvation.

Rev 22 v 18+19 If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
 
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