"Let us go down and confuse their language."

robbiedaug

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Robbiedawg...
....If you hang around for a while, you'll find out that you're not walking in here with anything that doesn't get said every couple of months.
RDKirk,
I have just searched the forums using the search function. I couldn't find the name of Cain's wife in Nod.
You have 23,579 post and have been a member here for a while, what was her name, please? Seeing as it's "been said every couple of months"
 
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AdamjEdgar

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Robbiedaug,
firstly, it is a pointless venture to attempt to explain christianity and any of its beliefs to a muslim. They do no agree that Jesus is God, and therefore, you are completely wasting yours and everyone elses time and efforts continuing to use the "angry muslims will surround.." argument. Christianity and Islam are fundamentally opposed, and have been this way since Hagar and Ishmael were sent away from Abraham's house thousands of years ago.

Second, numerous responses here have explained the "Godhead" to you in the only terms available. The "Christian" Bible offers a very limited human explanation of something that in all honesty is beyond comprehension. No one will ever truly understand the nature of God until they meet him/her in heaven!

Third, i note a little statement on some of the responses here that misunderstands the holy spirit. This is easily explained in the story of Ananias and Saphira in Acts Chapter 5

"3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”

Do any readers of Acts 5 honesty think that one could tell a porky to a being that exists in our domain and hears everything we say and knows our thoughts? The point of this statement is very clear...the holy spirit absolutely is a person just as Jesus is (we already know that God the Father is a person too). The difficulty for us humans is in finding a satisfactory mortal human term to explain something that is timeless, intelligent, defies science, and can exist in domains/ realities outside of our own, finally, appears to be 3 persons but is 1 God!

My own view of God, and answer to your question does not even use the Bible...

Family!

I am a father, i have a wife, and we have kids...all of whom share my last name. Within the confines of a fallen sinful nature, my family acts as a single unit with common fundamental goals. Even extended family (ie grandparents down through the lineage) have a natural desire to support each other...you have surely heard the statement "blood is thicker than water"? therein lieth the secret. Grandparents often take on the rearing of Grandchildren, Greatgrandchildren etc. God is no different in sending Jesus to redeem us to himself.

Family is a very very VERY poor illustration of God, but its the best living example that I believe we have.

Finally, in answer to a specific part of your question...Jesus (the Son) said in John 3:19 "destroy this temple and "I" will rebuild it again in 3 days".

Jesus was not talking about a building, He was talking about himself...Jesus was not raised by the father or the holy spirit separately...Jesus raised Himself from the dead! How is this possible unless he was a timeless, all powerful, everlasting God! When the Bible says that Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father or the right hand of God, it is simply illustrating his position on the throne...it has nothing to do with earthly positioning where the right or left hand is a lower level of leadership (that is mans institution, not Gods). In the heavenly throne room, they are all equal...exactly how that manifests itself will only be truly known when we get to heaven and meet them in person. One thing we do know, Jesus (the mortal being with scars in his hands and side) is the one who we will see at the second coming just as the angels outlined in Acts 1:11
“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
 
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RDKirk

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Robbiedaug,
firstly, it is a pointless venture to attempt to explain christianity and any of its beliefs to a muslim. They do no agree that Jesus is God, and therefore, you are completely wasting yours and everyone elses time and efforts continuing to use the "angry muslims will surround.." argument. Christianity and Islam are fundamentally opposed, and have been this way since Hagar and Ishmael were sent away from Abraham's house thousands of years ago.

I would not say "pointless"...not entirely. I have a friend who has spent the last 20 years as a missionary to Muslims more-or-less undercover in a particular Muslim country. But in his case, he waits until Muslims come to him, rather than going out to them. Every now and then, a Muslim comes to him and says, "You are a Christian...I want you to tell me more about Jesus."

He then sits down with them and simply reads with them through the gospels, Acts, and Romans. He does nothing more than answer simple questions they have along the way. This may take weeks or months, depending on how often they return to read more. At the end of Romans, he then asks them, "What do you think of what we've read?" He reports that 100 percent of the time, if they have continued to read that far, they say, "I believe this. I want to be baptized."

Of course, those are cases in which the Holy Spirit is clearly driving the bus

Second, numerous responses here have explained the "Godhead" to you in the only terms available. The "Christian" Bible offers a very limited human explanation of something that in all honesty is beyond comprehension. No one will ever truly understand the nature of God until they meet him/her in heaven!

This is very true.
 
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The Liturgist

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HI all,
I've been listening to a Christian man on youtube who debates Muslims and Islam.
His channel is called Christian Prince Debates.
The guy knows his stuff in and out.

Today i heard a long debate between him and a Muslim guy.
The Muslims believe we Jesus followers worship THREE gods, God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit. They think this is laughable as they LOVE to challenge us about the Trinity.

The Trinity, i can explain, but i cannot figure out how to explain myself if i should be asked about when at the Tower of Babel God said, "Let us go down and confuse their language..."
Who is the "us", if God is one?

Also, it says “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness..."

In heaven, God should not have a human form.
In John, it says,
"1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.…"

So this means that Jesus was in Heaven with God, but also as a Spirit. Correct?
So again, i am a bit confused with how many.

The Trinity is easy to explain but when the Bible uses the word "Us", it confounds the idea of one God.

Can anyone help me understand what i could say to Muslims who should ask me to explain this "Us" business?

Thanks
Robbie

Two things to consider:

1. When the false Muslim deity speaks in the Quran, he always refers to himself and others in the third person. This is in marked contrast to the Christian Bible, where God speaks to us in the first or second person, but otherwise frequently speaks in the third person, which is possibly indicative of a Trinitarian context.

2. Your Trinitarian theology is deeply flawed and not in accordance with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church or any Nicene Christian church. The Holy Spirit is not “how we feel about Jesus” but one of three coequal and coeternal persons each with a distinct hypostasis, but united by the divine essence of the unoriginate Father of whom the uncreated son is Begotten, and from whom the uncreated Spirit proceeds. The Holy Spirit and the Son are both God, and can both be prayed to, as well as the Father, since one is still addressing the same God. And God is consubstantial with humanity because of the hypostatic union of the human and divine natures in the person of Jesus Christ.
 
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alertandawake

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I want to clarify something here, when one says "us" in a sentence, this does not automatically mean a reference to more than one individual. There is a concept called "majestic plural".

If I say to someone and I am on my own "can you make us a cup of coffee" even though I said the word "us", the reference was only to me, no one else.

The word "Elohim" for example, if you research that word, it could be used as a plural or singular. Depends on context.
 
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AdamjEdgar

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I want to clarify something here, when one says "us" in a sentence, this does not automatically mean a reference to more than one individual. There is a concept called "majestic plural".

If I say to someone and I am on my own "can you make us a cup of coffee" even though I said the word "us", the reference was only to me, no one else.

The word "Elohim" for example, if you research that word, it could be used as a plural or singular. Depends on context.

yes, however, in the example given in Genesis story of the tower of Babel, God (the three members of the Godhead) clearly all descended to the earth as a harmonious body and confused the language.
We know from Isaiah 44:24 that God does not delegate his authority or his power to anyone else

24Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by Myself spread out the earth, 25who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who confounds the wise and turns their knowledge into nonsense

The redeemer is clearly Jesus Christ as referenced very specifically in Galatians 3:13-14
13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” 14He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

So when the Lord in Genesis said...

Genesis 1: 26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness,

Genesis 3:22Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil.

Genesis 11:6 And the LORD said, “If they have begun to do this as one people speaking the same language, then nothing they devise will be beyond them. 7Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8So the LORD scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city"

that is very definitely referring to a Godhead with multiple persons who as a unified body, come down to the earth and confuses the language of the people.
 
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