For many years Muslims have, since they first encountered developed Christian thought, pondered the relationship between the various aspects of dogmatic theology (sometimes called "Kalam"). Because the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) accurately reflects the system of theology found in the holy Scripture, its theology of Christ (Christology), for instance, neatly comports with its doctrine of Scripture. This is an example of what it means to show that the Bible has "the [mutual] consent of all the parts." This is not at all the case with Islam. Two important points concerning Islamic theology render it logically impossible [not two points only, many others exist too, but only two will be considered here], and thus idolatrous, creating a distortion of the Nature of the One True and Living God. At each point, these first-order deficiencies of Islam show up in a respective failure to provide the logical preconditions for making sense out of the world. These doctrinal culprits have names. The first Islamic gaff bears the appellation tanzih (say TAWN-zuh) and the second tawhid (TAU-heed). A. Tanzih. This doctrine emphasizes the absolute "other-ness" (what philosophical types call "transcendence") of God. In the Qur'an, one finds the saying that "God is altogether unlike any creature." Here Islam deviates radically from historic Christian and biblical theology, which would deny the word "altogether" found in the previous phrase. In the Bible, God transcends his creation in some respects (called His "incommunicable attributes" because He alone possesses these); but God also remains LIKE the creation in OTHER respects (His "communicable attributes"). For instance, the biblical doctrine of man has him (and her) made in Gods image. This requires then a kind of analogy of being (analogia entis for Latin junkies), however remote, between God and man. In this respect God is decisively NOT altogether unlike any creature. Thus, the erroneous doctrine of tanzih implies: Since God is wise, and is ALTOGETHER UNLIKE any creature, therefore, no creature is wise. This would imply, of course, that Mohammed was a fool -- an implication unacceptable to any Muslim. It would also make idiots of angels (a most unlikely prospect), and men like Solomon, and all the prophets. This proposition then Tanzih clearly incurs the biblical two thumbs down. Second, since God can read and write, tanzih implies that no creature can do so. This would, of course, render the Koran [Qur'an] quite impossible, or at the least, meaningless. It hardly makes sense for God to go through a good deal of trouble to communicate His Word to men in writing, if he has not enabled any of them to read. Third, the doctrine of tanzih implies that Man cannot be created in God's image, as implied earlier. In affirming BOTH that man is created in God's image, AND that God is altoghether unlike any creature, Islam shows itself as self-refuting, and merely man-made religion. The Gospel of Christ, on the other hand, affirms that the creation (esp. man) reflects God's communicable attributes, and in these ways God is LIKE men. God created man in His image, so that later [after the fall of man into sin], it would be possible for God to BECOME a man, in order to redeem us. Here, we see the clarity and consistency of the Gospel of Christ, set over against the foolishness of Islam at one major point where Islam entangles itself in a web of deceit. Now we move onto the doctrine of Tawhid. Islam teaches the absolute unity (Oneness) of God as a means of trying to set itself over against various forms of polytheism. But this clearly provides a case of "overcompensation," as is shown by a logical critique on the subject. Contrary to the doctrine of tanzih, here, God has created a cosmos that reflects "his eternal power and divine nature" (Rom. 1:19-20). This is why we sometimes refer to the cosmos (a greek word meaning "order") as the "universe." "Uni-" indicates the unity of the many things ("verse") we experience in this world. The world displays both unity and a diversity among its many parts. In philosophy, this simple fact gives rise to a problem called the One and the Many. How does one explain how it is that this unity and plurality work together to give us a single common experience of the world? How can the world (cosmos) be unified in all its diverse things out there? Nature can nature in all its variety (we have cats and dogs, cars and trucks, sand and mud, trees and flowers, etc.), still be uniform (so that the same laws of physics apply to all of them similarly) -- even on the moon ' The Christian answer is direct: God is One with respect to his divine nature, and many with respect to his personhood. This roughly states the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. This is, of course, not a contradiction. A contradiction must imply (or state) both A and not-A, in the SAME RESPECT, and at the same time. Christians hold that God is One (in respect A = his divine nature), and that God is many (in respect B = his personhood), so that the three divine Persons are One God. This in fact explains why nature shows BOTH uniformity and diversity: The Creator who made it is both One and many, and since the creation reflects his character, it also has a oneness and a "many-ness" about it, which (given the Christian worldview) resolves the problem of the One and the Many, which no pagan philosopher in the history of the world has been able to do. And Islam is no help here either. First, the Quranic doctrine of tanzih denies any analogy between the creation and Creator, then tawhid says that, even if there were such an analogy, nature would show no diversity at all -- the creation would be a monolithic "one" -- an absolute unity with no diversity. This would make the creation something (by way of illustration) like one big cement block, or one big stone. If the creation were in fact like these doctrines suggest, they would preclude human experience altogether, since "human" would not be distinguishable from any other adjective. Therefore, the fact that we experience anything at all is proof for the truth of the Christian worldview, and a standing denial of the folly of Islam -- together with the other false religions (like Roman Catholicism or Buddhism) which, in the end, cannot explain anything. Their basic presuppositions cannot provide the necessary preconditions (like the unity AND diversity of the cosmos) to make human experience intelligible. And any worldview (including all forms of Atheism or Agnosticism) which cannot render the world intelligible to us, is itself not a meaningful picture of what the world is, of how we know what we know, and of how we should live our lives. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is simply the TRUTH, which is why it ALONE explains all three aspects of human experience just mentioned -- with "the consent of all the parts." This is what is meant when Christians say, "Sola Scriptura!," and why the phrase properly ends with an exclamation point. And those who chant God is great do not know the half of what they say, for He is much greater than the Quran would have us believe. The contrary is impossible. |
