Muslim Theology and the Word.

God is obviously not unable. He is infinite and supreme. However, why would God the supreme take on a inferior form?

Why do you limit God and say what God can and cannot do???

The story of the man and his son who were watching an ant colony comes to mind. In short the man said to his son the only way we could communicate to the ants is for one of us to become one them and live amongst them.

So in Christian tradition God had to take the form of a sinless man.

Now, if this is what they want to believe then I see no problem.

Originally posted by es_bih If God becomes man, then dies on the cross... then he has limited himsef there has he not?

Originally posted by gcle2003 Don't both Islam and Christianity hold that dying is not ceasing to exist? For everybody?

Originally posted by gcle2003 Don't both Islam and Christianity hold that dying is not ceasing to exist? For everybody?

Originally posted by Akolouthos Originally posted by es_bih If God becomes man, then dies on the cross... then he has limited himsef there has he not?   Not in his love for his creation.   And you forget that God did not die on the Cross. In his humanity, Christ suffered, indeed to the point of death; in his divinity, death could not swallow him up. You may critique the notion of the hypostatic union, but to state that the Passion and Crucifixion limits God is completely untenable.   -Akolouthos

So then somehow there was God the Human and God the Divine at the same time...

I am not sure that I follow

As I hinted at in the previous post, I lagged behind and haven't posted in a thread I opened about premonitions and miracles lately. I will hopefully get to that shortly. In it I'll provide my scientific understanding of the principles of natural laws that Jesus and other prophets have used in their pursuit of and use in what we call 'miracles'.

Originally posted by Seko Originally posted by gcle2003 Don't both Islam and Christianity hold that dying is not ceasing to exist? For everybody?   Dying is the body's cessation to exist. The Ruh or soul continues to the next life.

Look, the bottom line is you cannot reconcile the Trinity with Islam, because at a fundamental level Islam rejects any notion of trinity, any notion of Jesus (pbuh) being other than a man, and condemns any person who does.
This is a very basic part of Islam, and there is no room for interpretation.

In blasphemy indeed are those that say that Allah is Christ the son of Mary. Say: "Who then hath the least power against Allah, if His will were to destroy Christ the son of Mary, his mother, and all every - one that is on the earth? For to Allah belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between. He createth what He pleaseth. For Allah hath power over all things." [5:17]

So, yes Janus, this does mean that in Islamic belief Jesus cannot be God in a mask.

As to the above post, if I understand you correctly Seko then I have always thought a very similar thing. That when God performs a miracle, that miracle is performed within the bounds of the established laws.
I think Ako, that in the Islamic viewpoint the entire world, including miracles, is less supernatural than in Christianity. But then nature, is more supernatural. If that makes any sense at all. I personally would never say I believed in supernatural beings, because I don't consider beings that I do believe in (like Jin) to be outside of nature

In blasphemy indeed are those that say that Allah is Christ the son of Mary.

But see this is why the Trinity is the greatest mystery of the faith, because it is a seeming contradiction of itself. Because see you can use the Trinity to agree with that statement, since it is not Christ the son of Mary who is "God", it is the Word who appears on this world in Christ's flesh. I don't know I feel like I'm just running around in circles but I can't help it since it's difficult to get around the fact that Gods aspects are separate and united in the indivisible Godhead.

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Actually this is a continuation of one of my most prevalent thoughts on Christ's nature, that I'd like people such as Akolouthos who are versed in Christian doctrine to help me out on. Is it an error to commit Christ's human form to a mere "flesh-puppet" does this violate the Hypostatic Union? I had always thought that Christ, God and the Holy Spirit shared a "soul" (well not exactly a soul but a divinity I guess). So does that mean that Jesus the man required a separate "human soul" to be fully human or that he fulfills that role by being made out of the "same clay as Adam". I have never thought it to be the former, so it must be the latter and thus the body of Christ must be essentially an "empty vessel"? Or am I just reinventing an old heretical view that I'm unaware of?

I don't exactly know what is the goal of this post.

I don't know either, really, basically I like discussing theology and want to learn more about it, I'm trying to create a scenario where the Islamic concept of God does not conflict with the Christian concept of God to discover whether it's possible for both religions to be mutually inclusive of each other in some sense. Also I think that there is a lot of misunderstanding of critical Christian dogma in much of the muslim world and that this creates a prejudice that is detrimental to religious dialogue. I dislike answers without reasoning and questioning behind it. Weren't there great muslims clerics that debated the nature of God or did everyone just agree that we take the Quran at face value and refuse to believe any of it is metaphor, analogy or allegory and everything is literal?