Spirit of God

1 Corinthians 2:11–14

"For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words."

"Ruhullah", our Lord Jesus Christ is not only God's Word but also His Spirit. It gets more complicated because the main theological difference between Islam and Christianity is, while both religions affirm God is one, hence both are monotheistic, and yet one has a unitarian and the other a trinitarian nature of God. But first, consider that once again, the title Spirit of God is uniquely attributed to our Lord Jesus Christ in the Qur'an (Surah 4:171). He is Spirit of God in this sense, "Ruhun-Minhu" similar to Surah 58:22 where it is said that God strengthens true believers with "a Spirit from Him". Elsewhere in the Qur'an we read of the "Holy Spirit" or "Ruhul-Quds" (Surahs 2:87, 2:253, 16:102) and Muslim scholars attribute that the Holy Spirit is the angel Gabriel (Jibreel). Whoever it is, it is generally agreed that the Holy Spirit is greater than human and comes from heaven. It may be confusing due to such differences in attribution, but also remarkable in another sense, because our trinitarian understanding is that although The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit are different persons, God is one in substance. In this sense Jesus Christ is the Holy Spirit of God Himself. Okay, I will not go on to further expound on that as I may have committed heresy already regarding the Trinity. ;) But my point is the same, our Lord Jesus Christ is indeed very special in the Qur'an, more than our Muslim friends would want to admit. Case in point, British-Indian Muslim scholar Abdullah Yusuf Ali, to whom we owe the most widely known and used English translation of the Qur'an comments on Surah 58:22 that the "phrase used [Ruhun-Minhu which is attributed to Jesus Christ in Surah 4:171 though at the same time explicitly denies His deity, which is inconsistent] is stronger" than that for the Holy Spirit [Ruhul Quds]. It seems that the Islamic conception of a Spirit from God is greater than the Islamic Holy Spirit and that it is "the divine spirit, which we can no more define adequately than we can define in human language the nature and attributes of God" (Yusuf Ali). Thus, if "Jesus son of Mary", our Lord Jesus Christ is this Ruhullah, Ruhul-Minhu, He is God's Spirit, and God Himself in oneness with His ultimately incomprehensible essence! This closes my devotional section on how our Lord Jesus is revered in the Qur'an and my conclusion is thatbthe textual significance is even set to a higher plane to the extent that Islamic scholars are forced to contradict themselves in their interpretations. Because the Tawhid, the most important Muslim statement of faith (Shahada), almost like the Jewish Shema (Deut 6:4), says "Allah (God) is One (Al-'Ahad) and Single (Al-Wahid) flatly denies the trinity saying in Surah Al-Ikhlas (I used to recite this when I was young) that "God is not a father, and He is not a Son". I find it interesting as I read Living Life this morning on our Lord's exorcism in the Gerasenes/Gadarenes (Matt 8:23-34) that even the demons revere and recognise Him (v. 29, also, Acts 19:15, James 2:19). It seems the Qur'an does too! ;) I'm asking (on twitter) Dr. Nabeel Qureshi of Oxford because he faltered on this in a recent dialogue with Dr. Miroslav Volf of Yale on whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God. Dr. Qureshi could not strongly say that the worship of Allah is idolatry, although, he categorically denies that God is the same as Allah, which to me pretty simply, if Allah is a false God, it is idolatrous to worship him as our Muslim friends do. Let's see what he says. Next week, I will share my final thoughts on sharing with our Muslim friends. Finally, our Lord Jesus Christ is Messiah the Son of God, The Word of God, and God Himself! "Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one!" (Deut 6:4). Before creation, the Lord Jesus Christ is (John 8:58, Rev 3:8, John 1:1, 1 Peter 1:18-20). Hallelujah!

Genesis 1:2

"The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters."

P.S. Just to clarify my difficulty here, the trinity is admittedly a very complex doctrine but that is not to say it does not make sense. To review, it is a revealed truth in the bible not something we can rationally deduce. If the universe, and/or our minds are so complex that it baffles us, how much more the One who created it? It isn't something anyone can easily have a good analogy for, but for me an easy starting point is to show what it isn't rather than to explain what it is exactly, this is by knowing what the Church Fathers have identified as trinitarian heresies, (1) here's a funny sampler: http://j.mp/1CJPF0x :p (2) But seriously, here they are: http://j.mp/1ZThb7P But as the only acceptable definition in (1) here's (3) a good representation:

~23.01.2016