Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus ( Best Seller)

Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity

Feb 11, 2014

by Nabeel Qureshi and Lee Strobel

(  A few paragraphs from a Book Review)

...M- Main Arguments

Throughout the book the reader is treated to a thorough education of Islam and the various sects therein.  This reviewer was also surprised to learn the difference between Eastern Muslim thought and Western thought when it comes to the issue of authority.  As Qureshi writes:

"People from Eastern Islamic cultures generally assess truth through lines of authority, not individual reasoning.  Of course, individuals do engage in critical reasoning in the East, but on average, it is relatively less valued and less prevalent than in the West.  Leaders have done the critical reasoning, and leaders know best.  Receiving input from multiple sources and then critically examining the data to distill a truth is an exercise for specialists, not the common man." [p. 79]

This proved to be a hurdle that the author had to jump before he was able to properly investigate the questions of Jesus' deity and the historicity of His resurrection from the dead.  This reviewer was very impressed with the author's ability to effortlessly weave issues of historical methodology and philosophical argumentation, such as inference to the best explanation, into his personal narrative.

Arguments and questions dealt with in the book are many:

• The historicity of Jesus' death on the cross
• Jesus' deity
• Jesus' resurrection from the dead
• Does the Trinity make sense?
• The reliability of the Quran vs. the Bible
• Does the atonement make sense?
• and more!

One of the many instructive points of the book for this reader was when the author explained why one cannot assume that the Quran is the Islamic equivalent to the Bible.  Qureshi writes:

"If you can imagine God's mystery and wisdom, His power, depth, and perfection, His divine mandates and prophecies, all synergistically inhabiting the physical pages of a book, vivifying it with the very essence of God, you will begin to understand how and why Muslims revere the Quran...For Muslims, the Quran is the closet thing to an incarnation of Allah, and it is the very best proof they provide to demonstrate the truth of Islam.  The best parallel in Christianity is Jesus himself, the Word made flesh, and his resurrection.  That is how central the Quran is to Islamic theology." [p. 228]... 

For the whole article of this book review, please click the link below.

Truthbomb Apologetics: B.O.M.B. Book Review- Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Mulsim Encounters Chrisitanity by Nabeel Qureshi

Interesting Analogy of Trinity

Shape of chords
...Chad shared his favorite analogy brielfy.  It is the musical analogy originally offered by theologian Jeremy S. 

Begbie.  Peter S. Williams explains it in his outstanding article Understanding the Trinity: 
"  A musical chord is essentially composed of three different notes (to be a chord all three notes must be present), namely the first, third and fifth notes of a given musical scale. For example, the chord of C major is composed of the notes C (the root of the chord), E (the third from the root) and G (the fifth from the root). Each individual note is ‘a sound’, and all three notes played together are likewise ‘a sound’. Hence a chord is essentially three sounds in one sound, or one sound essentially composed of three different sounds (each of which has an individual identity as well as a corporate identity). By analogy, God is three divine persons in one divine personal Being, or one divine personal Being essentially composed of three divine persons. Moreover, when middle C (the root of the chord) is played it ‘fills’ the entire ‘heard space’. When the E above middle C is played at the same time, that second note simultaneously ‘fills’ the whole of the ‘heard space’; yet one can still hear both notes distinctly. When the G above middle C is added as well, a complete chord exists; one sound composed of three distinct sounds: [1]

What could be more apt than to speak of the Trinity as a three-note-resonance of life, mutually indwelling, without mutual exclusion and yet without merger, each occupying the same ‘space,’ yet recognizably and irreducibly distinct, mutually enhancing and establishing each other? [2]

So the doctrine of the Trinity isn't self-contradictory, and there are some analogies that help us to conceptualize the Trinity." [3]

I agree with those who hold that the Trinity is unique and there is nothing that one can point to that is a strict analogy or parallel to it; however, I find the above analogy helpful in demonstrating that the Trinity is not self-contradictory or illogical.

What do you think of the analogy?  What is your favorite analogy of the Trinity?  Sound off in the comments below!

Click the link below for the original post
 My Favorite Analogy of the Trinity
You may also click this link for an interesting dialogue

•      Dialogue with a Sincere Seeker about "Trinity"

Where the picture came from? Click the link below.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/g%C3%B6del-escher-chopin
Familiar relationships between sets of musical notes, such as transposition between chords, directly translate into geometrical structures such as this Möbius strip — where each dot represents a whole class of equivalent two-note chords — or into more complex structures with many dimensions.

SHAPE OF CHORDS

Composers have an understanding of these geometries without realizing it, says music theorist Dmitri Tymoczko of Princeton University. “Musicians like Chopin had a very direct, intuitive understanding of these spaces at a time when mathematicians still didn’t know much about high-dimensional geometry,” he says.

Dialogue with a Sincere Seeker about "Trinity"

Sincere Seeker( SS ):
The more we discuss about Trinity God the more Qs( questions) seem to pop up in my head. Here is another one:

Jesus and Holy Spirit seem to exist solely for the human beings.

( { most ( )below are inserted by me with purple fonts}:

( Nope! It is not so.The Trinity exists in all the eternity but the revelation of three Persons in one God is gradually revealed to us. Even Jesus' disciples were fuzzy about the relationship of Trinity God. I don't blame them, Who wouldn't feel fuzzy about the term Trinity? It is not a human invention at all. Not until Jesus was resurrected and when the Holy Spirit brought them into the truth of Trinity God. Without the cleansing of our hearts by the blood of Jesus, the Holy Spirit couldn't dwell in human beings. The Jews who worship only One God, of course couldn't accept Jesus as God. That shows how amazing that 3000 Jewish men, not counting women and children, accepted Jesus as their God in the very beginning of the church history.)

How do you convince yourself that your jg ( Jewish god according to SS )would split into three parts( God didn't split into three parts like an atom, God exists in three Persons in all the eternity.) merely for the purpose of creating human beings,( I've never said that. Where did you get that? Merely for the purpose of creating human beings? Not at all. God the Son revealed Himself fully to become a God man to be born with a virgin birth. So the invisible God had revealed Himself totally visible in Jesus.) which you know well are only about the germs on a sand grain if the universe is the size of a beach. And humans only began to exist on earth one million years ago as in comparison with the universe's age of 13.7 billion years.

Your jg would be too obsessed enough to use two third of himself( it is not 2/3 of Himself. The Trinity is not consisted of 3 parts but of 3 total self sufficient Persons) dedicated to the few germs on a grain of sand. Don't you think?( Dear SS, yes, it is unthinkable and very amazing that our Creator God who created the whole universe would care about our tiny Globe and His created creatures on it, especially human beings. And God is willing to die for us to redeem us back to Him. And God's love is so amazing that He is willing to indwell in Bs(believers).Yet until today you are still rejecting Him and embracing "Nothing creates this universe".

Note:Son of God is using the most intimate term in human relationship to describe the most loving relationship between Jesus and God the Father.)
(The term "Son of God" refers not to procreation, but to a special relationship that Jesus has with God the Father As "the Message" Bible paraphrased to “This is my Son, marked by my love, focus of all my delight.” explained the meaning of " Son" very well.).

p.s. my new insight about Trinity God is one God because their loving relationship is such that they are inseparable. God is Love. Only on the cross that Jesus had separated from His Father because Jesus bore all our sins and God the Father walked away, the rest in eternity the 3 persons are in inseparable loving relationship that they only have one will, one mind and one heart. Perhaps in this light, we may understand why God said there is only One God.