The Nugget:
Mark 12:28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?
Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
My Comment:
Once again, I see discussion on the Facebook group “Islam and Christianity Debate Group” is going strong. Today a Muslim poster cited Mark 12:29, 30 to show Jesus taught there is but One God, and asks the important question:
“So why are Christians preaching trinity?”
He then asserts, “Anything contrary to this declaration by Christ, in any place in the Bible, must be rejected as human interpolation. Period.”
Looks to me like our dear Muslim friends have never studied carefully my “24 Rules of Interpretation” found in the October 2010 archives to the right on this page. It is about time they did.
The Muslim poster goes on to say, “The 1st Epistle of John Chapter 5 verse 7 (1 John 5:7), the only text in the entire Bible which supports trinity, has now been REMOVED & EXPUNGED from a number of versions of the Bible!”
Another Christian poster who means well but is not always altogether grammatical in his English responded “The Lord is One is spirit but 3 in person. Don’t let your ignorance guide your judgment.”
The Muslim responded, “Give us any supportive Biblical quotation to that effect if you are being truthful.”
I stepped in to the discussion at this point with an answer.
My Answer
Jesus Christ is called God (John 1:1. John 20:28. Acts 7:59. Romans 9:5. Titus 2:13. Hebrews 1:8. 2 Peter 1:1. 1 John 5:20).
Jesus Christ is also identified as one of two persons called Jehovah in the Old Testament by writers in the New Testament (Mark 1:1-3, where Jesus is identified as the Lord whose way was prepared by John the Baptist His forerunner in fulfillment of Isaiah 40:3-5). There are many more similar identifications in the New Testament where what is spoken of Jehovah in the Old Testament is applied to Jesus Christ in the New Testament.
Jesus Christ Himself makes this identification in John 12:41 compared with Isaiah 6:1. See also John 8:56-58 where Jesus Christ asserted “Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad.” This is a reference to an event in the Old Testament found at Genesis 17:17, 19; 18:10, 14; 21:1, 2, 6.
Probably no one has any question about the fact that the Bible identifies the Father as God (Exodus 20:1, 2). See also 2 Corinthians 11:31; Ephesians 1:3; 4:6; 1 Peter 1:3.
The Holy Spirit is called God (Acts 5:3, 4).
Since in the Bible there are three persons, and only three, that are each called God, by good and necessary inference this proves that God exists eternally in Three Persons, and this both justifies and necessarily proves that God exists as a Trinity of Persons. These Three Persons are spoken of together by Jesus Christ Himself as the Persons of the Godhead, who are associated on an equality of being, and each possess the attributes and prerogatives of Deity (see Matthew 28:19, where Jesus so names them together).
Any one who will carefully examine the evidence found in the Bible must come to this conclusion. Any other conclusion is evidence of a failure to confront and accept the truth of this evidence, and therefore is utter falsehood, and is not being truthful.
