APPENDIX
SIXTEEN--
One God in Three Persons On
the "Trinity" Muslims
have a hard time with this Bible Truth
We would
insist that the three manifestations of God are not altogether that mystifying,
nor incomprehensible. As we have pointed out, God being manifest as Father, Son,
and Spirit reveals himself as One God who shows himself to man as three divine
Persons. God, in all ages of man's history, is revealing himself through at least
one of the Divine Persons of the Godhead. The word "Trinity" is not
found in the Bible, though it is commonly used to speak of the Godhead revealed
in the Bible.
One of the things we can note from scriptural references is that there are some
limitations when it comes to God's residence here among, or with, human beings.
One passage that shows this is when Lord Jesus is telling his disciples about
the coming of the Holy Spirit. To understand this, one needs some frame of reference,
so we start here:
John 14:1-3 "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe
in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were
not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that
where I am, there ye may be also."
There obviously has to be some period of time between the time Christ left to
go prepare the mansions and when He will return to take His sheep to their mansions.
For those of us who understand the Dispensations, or periods of time in which
God moves in human history, this present period of time is called the Church Age.
Mohammed, as an imposter, interrupted this age in 630AD and claimed to have a
new revelation of the work of Allah with men. This is a counterfeit revelation
for one simple reason-- Mohammed pushed Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit,
into the trach bin and claimed they have no work with men.
During this present age, millions of souls are being regenerated, reborn spiritually,
to become children of God. One of the things that distinguishes Old Testament
(Bible) believers from New Testament (Bible) believers is how God the Holy Spirit
functions with believers. In the Old Testament, God dwelled AMONG His people in
either the Tabernacle or the Temple. When Jesus walked in Palestine, he was with
men in his physical person doing miracles and convincing men of faith that he
was their Messiah. In the New Testament Age of the Church, God, as the Holy Spirit
resides IN His children. We literally ARE His sanctuary or temple.
That said, here is where
Jesus promised to dispatch God the Holy Spirit to those who belong to Him:
John
14:16-18 "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter,
that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world
cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him;
for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless:
I will come to you."
It is important to notice here what Jesus Christ just said regarding the coming
of God the Holy Spirit: "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you".
That is a promise of God, and what it is indicating is that Jesus is saying is
that the presence of the Godhead in himself is also fulfilled in the presence
of God the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit comes he will continue the manifestation
of God among men.
Jesus (a little later) continues on:
John 16:7 "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient
for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto
you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you."
Here is a critical thing to notice; Jesus said he would leave this earth physically
before the Holy Spirit would come and manifest himself to man. This should be
a clarifying thought as to the nature of the members of the "Trinity"
or Godhead. Only one of them has chosen to be manifest on earth at any given time.
This does not say that the three persons of the Godhead limit one another, but
the Godhead has chosen to manifest itself in one divine Person at a time when
offering men salvation in each Dispensation of time. The reason for this is that
the Three Persons are One God, not three, as people claim who want to confuse
themselves on purpose. It
is hard for the Muslim to understand this, for Mohammed made Allah a very anthropomorphic
character, that is, Allah is made by Mohammed to behave very much as man behaves.
The God of the Bible manifests himself as One God in Three Persons, and this cannot
be reduced to physical earthly definitions. It is a mystery which God asks us
to believe. If the Muslim insists in an Allah who behaves like a man, then he
cannot have The God of the Bible, Father, Son, nor Holy Spirit, as his Savior
and friend. Allah, and the God of the Bible, are 100% alien to one another.
This also shows why God
the Father did miracles to manifest himself to Israel in the Old Testament, while
Jesus Christ did miracles to manifest himself to Israel in the New Testament.
The Holy Spirit empowers the believing Christian to do exploits and build the
Church of Jesus Christ in the present age. This age is when God is revealing himself
by his Spirit to the Gentiles, or all men on earth. In the future age of Messiah,
Jesus Christ again will be present physically to manifest his power to men.
Continuing the above
Bible text, Jesus Christ goes on to point out (at least one) role of the Holy
Spirit when He comes to earth:
John 16:8-11 "John 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove
the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they
believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me
no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. "
That is what He does.
He holds back sin, unrighteouness, and curiously, he holds back judgment. But
it is not curious when you understand what happens when He leaves the world.
Staying with the "one
will leave when the other comes" principle, the Holy Spirit is withdrawn when
Christ comes again to remove his Church. Here is where that happens, in the words
of Paul as God inspired him:
2 Thessalonians 2:5-6 "Remember ye not, that, when I was
yet with you, I told you these things? 6 And now ye know what withholdeth that
he might be revealed in his time."
There He is, the One
who holds back sin in the world. The restrainer. Continuing:
v.7-8 "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only
he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall
that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth,
and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:"
The "until he be taken out of the way" part is when
the Holy Spirit is taken off the earth, and every person who belongs to the Lord
is taken with Him. This event is called the Rapture. Here is not the time to go
into this in detail, but I should point out, as is indicated in this scripture,
that the next thing that happens is the revelation of the antichrist.
The Rapture is the kick-off
for the most awful period in human history, the Great Tribulation, when all the
horrifying judgments (that were also held in check by the Spirit) recorded in
the Book of Revelation will be delivered to the earth. This is so terrible for
one simple reason-- NO person of the Godhead is present with humanity in a ministry
of convincing men of sin, and righteousness, and judgment. The Godhead are at
work in the world, as the Bible teaches in The Revelation, but men do not have
the personal attention of the Godhead as they did in past Dispensations. Many
believers will die as Satan has extreme liberty to rule the earth.
Christians won't be here
for it. We will be enjoying our mansions at that point, waiting to return on white
horses with the Lord Jesus Christ at the Second Coming. For those of you that
will still be here, my condolences. It is not going to be pretty. Now,
the issue of who God is-- Allah, or the God of the Bible-- is a critical issue.
Jesus Christ is not the Madhi, or, some good old fellow who will come back, marry
a wife, and have a family. He is God with us, He is God who died for our sins
in our place, he is God who came back from death to give us eternal life, and
He is God the coming Judge of all man. Jesus Christ is one of Three Persons in
the Godhead taught in the Bible. This truth is only believed by faith. It is not
possible to explain God completely. All religions have their mysteries which cannot
be explained. Mohammed's mysteries were all about how special he was, how he and
Allah worked out Islam, and how you must believe that all Sharia law will make
you holy. The mysteries of the Bible have to do with who God is and how he saves
men and cares for them. If you will not accept the God of the Bible on HIS terms,
you cannot have ANYTHING he offers. This is why the "Jesus" of Islam
is a counterfeit and we reject him as an invention of a blasphemous prophet, Mohammed.
The only true Jesus Christ is the Jesus of the Bible.
READER:
I
want to hear from Bible believing readers who are familiar with Islam, the Koran,
Arabic, and Christian witness. What are your observations? SEND
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