Are these two men below actually describing the same God? Apprising Ministries would have to believe you will see it becomes quite obvious that they are not.

The following is from a 1991 debate Islam And Christianity on The John Ankerberg Show.

The first quote comes from a Muslim by the name of Dr. Jamal Badawi, Chairman of the Islamic Information Foundation in Halifax, Nova Scotia:

First, God is one in essence and in person. This excludes the presence of equal divine persons in the same Godhead. Neither tritheism not trinity, however, explained, is compatible with the pure Islamic monotheism.

Two, God alone is worthy of worship and unqualified devotion. None is to be worshiped instead of Him or along side with Him as “co-equal,” nor is God to be worshiped through any creature whether religious institution, clergy or even the greatest of the prophets.

The third condition in Islam for monotheism is that any shortcoming, man-like weakness and limitation is not befitting to the glory of God. This excludes any notion of God incarnate and any other quality or action which is ungod-like of unsuitable for the majesty of God.

This next quote is from Dr. Gleason Archer, professor of Semitic Languages and Old Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois:

Now, the God who is presented in the Holy Scripture is not simply a sterile monad. He is a Trinitarian God who is observable immediately in Genesis, the first book, the first chapter and the first three verses, because in the first verse we are told that God, Elohim, created the heavens and the earth. And then in the second verse, we are told that the Ruach Elohim, the Spirit of God, brooded over the waters in the initial stage of the earth’s development. And then in the third verse we are told that God said, “Let there be light”. And this, of course, evokes the creative Word of God, which is explained in the Gospel of John, the first chapter in the first verses: “In the beginning was the Word [the Logos], and the Logos was with God and the Logos was God. All things came into being through the Logos.”

Now, it is true that in Deuteronomy, Chapter 6, verse 4, we have that fine statement which is basic to the faith of Israel, and I think basic also to Islam and Christianity: “Shema Yisrael Yahweh Eloheinu Yahweh echad—Hear, O Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is One.” The term used for one, by the way, is echad, which is like the Arabic ahab, meaning one. But it is interestingly used in Genesis 2:24 of what happens with man and wife because married. They, too, shall become one flesh, [basar echad]. Well, of course, this does not mean that there is just a husband or just a wife, but the two of them are one. In verse 26 of Genesis 1, we read in connection with God’s creation of man, “Let us make man in our image.”

Now, this could not possibly refer to angels joining with God in the matter of furnishing a model for man. It does seem to imply a plurality on the part of the one God. Now, of course, it is true that in later times, certainly in Koranic times, the first person plural pronoun “we” was frequently used in a majestic way. Allah is quoted very often in this fashion. But the thing that is important to observe is that in no ancient language in the B.C. period do you find such a usage. If a person means “I,” he says “I,” he does not say “we.” Therefore, on historic linguistic grounds we are forced to say that there is an implication of plurality in the Godhead in this account of man’s creation.

(Islam And Christianity, DVD, Program One)

See also:

KEEPING YOU APPRISED OF: ISLAM

What Does Islam Teach About God and is He Like the God of the Bible?

RICK WARREN: PURPOSE DRIVEN TO ASK FOR ALLAH’S FORGIVENESS