I love the Muslim people, but I do not love the religion of Islam. I also do not love the religion of Christianity. There are times when the Christian religion acts as an oppressor of its own people and of other peoples. That happens when churches build up systems, allowing the people to remain in ignorance of the Word of God (Jesus Christ), and continuing to emphasize the ‘religion’ of Christianity.
This is what Christianity should be all about, not what passes for Christianity in the world—churches and religious groups fighting each other blindly.
I invite my Muslim, my Christian and, yes, my Jewish brothers to know the Truth of God, that is, Jesus Christ, son of Mary, the Living One, the Word of God through whom all things were made in heaven, on earth and everywhere, and in whom all live and move and have their being. I invite you to get a copy of the Holy Bible, and read what Jesus Himself has said and done, and see for yourself who is and who is not a prophet of God.
I invite my Muslim, my Christian and, yes, my Jewish brothers to know the Truth of God, that is, Jesus Christ, son of Mary, the Living One, the Word of God through whom all things were made in heaven, on earth and everywhere, and in whom all live and move and have their being. I invite you to get a copy of the Holy Bible, and read what Jesus Himself has said and done, and see for yourself who is and who is not a prophet of God.
Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again.’
John 3:3
John 3:3
Originally posted February 5, 2007
4 comments:
This brings to mind the comments of Benedict 16, then Cardinal Ratzinger, on the Trinity:
"The Christian confession of faith in God as the Three-in-One, as He Who is simultaneously monas and trias, absolute unity and absolute fullness, signifies the conviction that divinity lies beyond our categories of unity and plurality ... Not only is unity something divine; plurality, too, is something primordial and has its inner ground in God Himself ... It corresponds to the creative fullness of God, Who Himself stands above plurality and unity, encompassing both ... God stands above singular and plural ... He bursts both categories ... To him who believes in God as triune, the highest unity is not the unity of inflexible monotony ... not the indivisibility of the atom ... the authentic acme of unity is the unity created by love." (Introduction to Christianity, pg. 179)
Interestingly, I recently read a Muslim speak of Allah in startlingly similar terms:
"Without possessing or manifesting an aspect of finitude, God cannot be regarded as infinite; without assuming a mode of delimitation He cannot
be nondelimited; without the relative, He cannot be Absolute. Without the innumerable manifestations of these apparent contradictions of His own uniqueness, without such multiplicity within unity, and unity within multiplicity, ‘He is not He’. The very infinitude of the inner richness of unicity overflows as the outward deployment of inexhaustible self-disclosures; this
process is described as the tajallÐ or ÛuhÙr (theophanic revelation/manifestation). It is a process wherein no repetition is possible (lÁ takrÁr fÐ al-tajallÐ); each phenomenon is unique in time, space and quality. In this complex and subtle conception of wujÙd, there is no contradiction between asserting the uniqueness of each phenomenon—each distinct locus for the manifestation of Being, each maÛhar for the ÛuhÙr or tajallÐ of the one and only Reality—and the all-encompassing unity of being which transcends all phenomena. Multiplicity is comprised within unity, and unity is displayed by multiplicity." (Reza Shah-Kazemi, "Civilizational Dialogue and Mysticism: The Holy Qur'an and the Metaphysics of Ibn al-Arabi")
Perhaps this provides an angle by which to approach the Trinity with Muslims.
http://a-heart-of-flesh.blogspot.com/2011/10/unity-and-multiplicity.html
Yes, Philip Jude, without having read either of the sources you cited, I believe we are saying the same thing. Thanks for bringing these quotes to the discussion.
From studying both Islamic and Judaic mystical writers, I have encountered expressions of plurality within the unity of the Divine Nature in those religious cultures, which seems to prove (to me at least) that the triadic imprint is on the root of the human soul, expressing itself in every religious culture from ancient Egypt to modern India, and everything in between.
As Patriarch Bartholomaios says, 'Christ is asleep in the boat of the other religions; we must try to awaken Him.'
The fact that perspective, space, and time are all triadic is interesting, too.
I / you / he
Past / present / future
Length / width / height
I could not resist adding:
I/me/mine
Perhaps our sinful tendency is also triadic, which could mean there is the potential of each individual to find a meaningful path to Christ.
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