# Why is it just plain wrong to argue that Xianity and Islam do not share the same God? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 10, 2003, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-just-plain-wrong-to-argue-that-xianity-and-islam-do-not-share-the-same-god/154160 "2003-02-10T18:49:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-just-plain-wrong-to-argue-that-xianity-and-islam-do-not-share-the-same-god/154160/81 "2003-02-13T02:26:43Z")
ZEV, you’re such a sweet guy. For my part, let me clarify: I’m only very very mildly hurt – hardly a scratch – to hear from someone that I respect that my beliefs are idolatrous. Precisely to the same degree, I imagine, that you would be. But I know you believe as you do in good faith (and through faith), and can do no other, and so it doesn’t really bother me much. I can’t ask you do anything other than be respectful of my beliefs, as you invariably are, so it’s all good. Like I said, I don’t really think we disagree. And I respect you enormously, and you have nothing whatsoever to apologize for. As far as whether I believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost – of course I do. I’m a garden-variety, middle-of-the-road American Protestant, and therefore a Trinitarian. That’s why (one of the reasons) that I’m a Christian and not a Jew. 🙂 Warmly – Jodi ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-just-plain-wrong-to-argue-that-xianity-and-islam-do-not-share-the-same-god/154160/82 "2003-02-13T03:30:27Z")
**Zev** , any attempt to explicate the concept of the Trinity falls short of what we understand to be the truth about God, and I truly hesitate to say the slightest word on the subject. But I have two or three things to bring forward as regards this, and I hope that you’ll bear with me in discussing them. First is the [Definition of the Union of the Divine and Human Natures in the Person of Christ](http://www.holycross-raleigh.org/bcp/864.html), written by the bishops of the united Christian church(es) in 451 AD. This is the closest the totality of Trinititarian Christianity comes to saying definitively what the nature of God as seen in Jesus Christ is; anything other than this is a writing from times when the church was divided, or the respected but not official views of a great (or not so great) theologian. It’s laden with Greek philosophy and not at all amenable to classical Jewish thought, but it strikes me as something that may convey a part of what we do believe. > [@](#): > > Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance (homoousios) with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer (Theotokos); one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or > separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the Fathers has handed down to us. Second, in an attempt to convey to you as a Jewish man what the traditional teaching on the Deity of Christ is, may I commend to you the efforts of two Christian Jews to convey to other Jews their grasp of how Christ was the fulfillment of God’s promise: [Peter’s Pentecost discourse](http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?passage=ac+2&version=nrs&showtools=0) in Acts 2 and 3, and the [url-“[http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?passage=heb+1&version=nrs&showtools=0](http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?passage=heb+1&version=nrs&showtools=0)”]Letter to the Hebrews. I hasten to add that this is not any attempt to convert so much as it is to convey a sense of the unity between Christianity and Judaism that has been the understanding of (most thoughtful) Christians since the beginning of our separate faith. These are rather long, and I am not attempting to bring them into evidence here, merely offering them as a means where you can, perhaps and if you so choose, get a handle on how Christians can feel that their beliefs are the fulfillment of the promises in the Tanakh, and not a nigh-onto-polytheistic perversion of Judaism’s beliefs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-just-plain-wrong-to-argue-that-xianity-and-islam-do-not-share-the-same-god/154160.md?page=4)