Quran has a wrong understanding of the doctrine of trinity

Surah 5:72-73 Some  people may think I’m splitting hairs. However, I’ve actually documented this in  some of my articles and I have another  article under way,  Lord willing, where I’m going to actually  provide more quotations from Christians  before, during and after the time of  Muhammad who are going to say the  following: that it is improper to say  that God is Jesus because it’s more  proper to say that Jesus is God. Someone say I just said a mouthful  and it seems like I’m splitting hairs. Actually I’m not. Because when Christians say Jesus is God,  they mean that he’s fully God in essence. But he’s not the only person of the  Godhead nor does he exhaust the Godhead. However, to say that God is Jesus would  imply that he is the only person in the  Godhead and that he does exhaust the  Godhead. This is not an argument that  I just come up with; this is an argument  that Christians have been making even  before the time of Muhammad. For example,  Neal Anderson was a convert to Islam. In  his book, he quotes a historian Creed which  says Jesus is God but God is not Jesus.  Christ is God but God is not Christ. This was stated right around the time of  Muhammad’s birth and people after the  time of Muhammad, in their debates  against Muslims, would actually point  this out. When your Quran makes this  assertion, it’s wrong because that’s not  what we say. 

Let’s look at Surah 5:72 “They  are unbelievers who say Allah is the  Messiah, the son of Mary.” We have  writings from Muslim  polemicists trying to respond to the  Christians who say “that’s a mistake” and  this will come out, Lord willing, it is  forthcoming in one of my articles where  I quote the Muslim saying “the Christians  are saying the Quran is wrong in saying  this” but then he goes about to try to  prove “even though you may not say  it in those exact words,  you still imply it nonetheless”. So this  is not a modern Christian criticism of  the Quran; you can find arguments raised  by Christians historically during the  medieval period against the formulation  of the Quran in describing what we  believe concerning the deity of Christ.

The problem with this statement is  obvious if you just continue reading the passage  Surah 5:72. Because in the  Quran to say that Allah is the Christ  basically means that we Christians  believe that Jesus is identical with the  God who sent him. Let’s  continue reading the passage. It says: for  the Messiah said “Children of Israel,  serve Allah my Lord and your Lord.” Allah is identified as  the one that Jesus calls his Lord, which  in Christian theology would be God the  Father. So in the Quran, Christians are  being accused of believing that Jesus is  identical with the God who sent him. Do  you believe that? No, in Christian theology, the God who  sent Jesus is the Father and  trinitarianism affirms that Jesus is not  the Father. Here the Quran itself shows  that this formulation is mistaken  because that’s not what we say. Surah 5:73 again  misrepresents not just the deity of  Christ but what we believe as  Trinitarians. By the way, I have to  warn our audience, especially the  non-muslims reading Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s translation.  Abdullah Yusuf Ali butchers the Arabic. In his translation, it reads pretty  much “They are blasphemers who say Allah  is one of three in a Trinity.” That’s his translation – “Allah is one of  three in the Trinity.”  If that’s what  the Quran said, that it would be  accurate in that Allah here again would  be equated with the God that sent Jesus and would be the Father. And we do believe  that God the Father is one of three in a  Trinity. But that’s not what the Arabic  Quran says. The literal translation is: They’re unbelievers who say Allah is the  “third of three”. Let me quickly break down why this is a  problematic assertion.

Number one. If by  Allah, you mean the God who sent Jesus (in  Christian theology that’s the Father), in  Christian theology, the Father is not the  third of three; he’s the first of three. If, however, by Allah you mean the Godhead, the Godhead is the Trinity and no Trinitarian says the Trinity is the third  of three. Either way, this is a mistaken  formulation. Interestingly, the very same  context and the same very same chapter  tells us what “third of three” means. You  don’t need to guess. Muhammad or the  authors of the Quran mistakenly assumed  that we believe that Allah, Mary and  Jesus are three gods. So when it says  that Allah is  the third of three, in the  context of the Sura itself, that means  the third of three gods consisting of  Allah, Mary and Jesus. The proof is Surah 5:75 and Surah 5:116 When Allah said “Oh Jesus son of Mary, did  you say unto men ‘take me and my mother  as two gods besides Allah?’”. Now  it makes sense why early in the chapter  Christians are accused of saying Allah is the third of three because later on  we’re told that Christians supposedly  believed Allah, Mary and Jesus are three  gods. 

Historically, throughout the centuries,  can we find any statement from any  Christian theologian or any Creed that  says that the Trinity is three gods  consisting of God, Mary and their  offspring Jesus? I can’t even think of anyone who  makes that claim. It’s so bad Muslims because actually have to say  there was this hypothetical group that  Muhammad was responding to that we have  no record of. Their existence was wiped out  and we don’t even know that they existed. The reason this is  so silly is, if this is the Quran, the book that’s gonna be read  throughout the world, obviously he’s  gonna respond to the main doctrine, he’s gonna refute Christians like us. Let’s assume for argument’s sake they’re  correct. These statements are just to  heterodox groups.  Why  doesn’t the Quran ever address, define  accurately, condemn what orthodox  Christians believe? The Quran is so  concerned with the doctrine of the  Trinity as something contrary to God. Then why don’t we find any single verse  of the Quran accurately defining what  the Trinity is and saying it’s false? Why is Allah so busy  dealing with an insignificant group that’s out there in the margins  but never addresses what the majority of  Christians believe at that time and even  before Muhammad.