Who Exactly is God? Shabir Ally & Samuel Green

Thanks Shabir for the debate. I thought it was a positive time with progress made. There is a lot that could be said but here are a few followup comments:

1. Shabir referred to the scholar Bruce Chilton and said that Chilton claims that in the Gospel according to Mark the “Son of Man” does not refer to Jesus but to a future figure. But consider Mark 10:45:

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)

Jesus must be referring himself because the Son of Man here gives his life as a ransom for others. It cannot refer to anyone else. I have not read what Chilton has written on the subject but we need to be careful of saying “scholars say”. We must consider the evidence they give and this takes time.

2. I pointed out that for a God that is only absolute oneness this God becomes a “what” not a “who”, is unknowable, and is confused with creation. Shabir said that this was a problem for all monotheistic religions. But this is not the case because the Trinity has both oneness and diversity. Thus the Trinity is “who” by definition and not a “what”; is knowable because the attributes are an expression of distinction and the doctrine of the image of God means some of God’s attributes are communicable; and there is no confusion with creation again because of an acknowledged distinction with God.

3. Regarding how three can be in one I offer this explanation:

Personal existence is not simple. For the Christian God personally dwells in us by his Spirit. God is present in our thoughts and mind. For the Muslim Allah is closer to us than our jugular vein and our own soul can speak to us (Qur’an 50:16). This shows how personal existence is not simple. Or consider spirit possession. Spirits have a degree of transcendence and a different type of spatial existence to humans. Here one or more spirits indwell one human, that is, there are many in one.

These examples are not presented as illustrations of the Trinity. God is unique. Instead they are meant to show that in both Christianity and Islam how persons exist is not straight forward. Therefore we cannot assume that one being can only have one person. Sometimes there are multiple persons in one being. Here is my booklet on the Steps Towards the Trinity