The Trinity and Other Religions

There is no other view of God like that of Christianity!  The concept of God as a triune being, the Trinity, has been a source of stumbling for many.

Islam, which was created about 600 years after Christ, was formed as a rebuttal to the Trinity.  Allah is one person only and is not a begetter of any (Jesus, according to Scripture, is God’s only begotten Son, John 3:16).  In Muhammad’s scheme, Jesus is a major prophet of Allah, but He is not God (and is, for that matter, somewhat inferior to Muhammad, the final prophet of Allah).

There is no singular representative of Hinduism’s view of God.  Some Hindus believe that there is one personal God who reveals Himself through a number, a big number, of versions of Himself (Vishnu, Krishna and Shiva being three main ones).  Others believe God is an “it,” an underlying force that unifies the universe, but somehow beyond personality.

Even so-called Christian movements have gotten this wrong.  Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus is the highest created being of God, but not God.  Mormons believe that the Father was once a man and became God, as did Jesus, and as we may.  Unitarians also believe that Jesus is not God, that the Godhead is only one person.  The Jesus Only or Oneness movement believes there is one person in the Godhead who represents Himself in three roles, thus only appearing to be three separate personalities.  This makes each of these movements worthy of the label “heretics,” meaning outside the pale of orthodox Christianity and thus not truly Christian.

As we will see, however, in the next several articles, this is the only view of God that makes sense of our universe and makes sense out of us.  This view of God was only possible by His revelation to us, especially in the person of the Lord Jesus Himself.  The Biblical view of God as Trinity is a keystone of defending the truth of Christianity in the market place of religions.