Ashraf Schneider – The God of Abraham – Part 1-1

			Assalamu alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Peace, blessings and mercy be upon y'all. Welcome back
to my page. In the video today we are going to be exploring who God is and what the three major
Abrahamic faiths believe God is like and why. While this video in the series will focus on the
inherent similarities between the God of the Jews, the God of the Christians, and the God of the
Muslims, the next video in the series will in turn, unpack and investigate why the Trinitarian
notion, which has become popular in contemporary Christianity veers away from the strictly Unitarian
traditions of Judaism, Islam, and even early Christianity. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
		

			First, let's meet God as described in the Torah, the Bible and the Quran. Just like there are
various branches of Christianity, for example, Episcopalian, charismatic, Dutch Reformed, etc. There
are various different branches or traditions within both Judaism and even Islam. What we need to
remember at all times, is that these deviations are man made inventions, distinctions drawn after
the relevant revelations, and not decreed by God. In any of the three major Abrahamic faiths, it is
not God who decided that faith be practiced. According to one of the following X number of streams,
man came and segregated the broader religious community into those who thought like one another, and
		

			essentially formed cliques. So it is our responsibility in seeking God to look beyond the manmade
divisions at all levels, and to return to the source text to establish what it is that the different
factions can agree upon. And what is true, according to God, untainted by the temptations and
tendencies of man, to want to categorize, organize and draw distinctions between what he perceives
to be different one from another, where I'm going with this is simple. There are many ways or
streams of practicing Judaism, for example, Hasidic Judaism, Orthodox Judaism, conservative Judaism,
etc. All these different self categorizations applied by those who practice that they do not
		

			undermine the essential quality of the identity of God as one as singular, as wholly deserving of
worship. Though the different sects may differ in other matters. The Jewish understanding of God as
one is, to quote Dr. Lawrence v. Brown, relatively concrete. Throughout Judaism, the oneness of God
remains the primary attribute of the Creator, followed by many others, including justice, love,
mercy, omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, sovereignty, truth, wisdom, self existence, goodness,
holiness, eternity, and the even trickier concept of infinity. Furthermore, Jews consider God
fundamentally incomprehensible, for God's attributes transcend those of his creation. In other
		

			words, Jews believe that we have been created as subservient and subordinate to the mighty creator,
and can as a result, not comprehend the true nature of God, for it surpasses the limits of our
worldly understanding. It is then our duty to stand in or other gods so much greater than ourselves
that he defies complete comprehension, or experience within the confines of our own physical world.
A number of these same attributes carry over to the especially early Christian conception or
understanding of God. While early Christians remained fundamentally Unitarian, as encouraged by
Jesus Christ himself. It was only in later years that the so called mysticism of the Trinity to
		

			create, and so transfigured the popular conception of God in the Christian faith, trying to decipher
the concept of a God who's three, but one baffles the mind, especially when you consider the three
who are supposed to make up the one of fundamentally and characteristically incompatible with one
another. To use a simple example, if God is accepted by Jews, Christians, both early and
contemporary, and Muslims alike, to be without beginning and without end. How could a mortal man be
equal to or a part of an eternal God? If God is fundamentally immortal? He cannot also be mortal,
Kenny. It's a logical paradox, as in our previous series, Son of God, I find it best to look to what
		

			Jesus himself had to say about his own identity, in this case, that he had no divinity of his own.
If Jesus was part of the Divine or a partner in divinity, then his statement would be fundamentally
untrue, would it not? So, essentially, you're left with another logical paradox. If Jesus is part of
a Triune God, he must have his own claim to divinity. But if he is a part of a Triune God, he must
also be as God and His wisdom or declare to be in the new century.
		

			versions translation of James chapter three verse 17, fair and honest or more to the point, the
wisdom that comes from heaven does not pretend to be what it is not. So, if Jesus is part of God and
his infinite wisdom, he cannot pretend to be what he is not. In other words, if Jesus is part of a
Triune God, he must be both truthful and divine. But according to the man himself, he has no claim
to divinity. For references, please see below. Which begs the question, Is Jesus honest? Or is he
the one? And how can he be considered God? If, as is evinced by his own statement, he cannot be
both. This may seem confusing at first. And that's because it is, in order to accept that Jesus is
		

			part of a Triune God, one must blatantly defy the assertion made in Titus chapter one, verse two,
that God never lies. But we'll further explore how the concept of the Trinity came to be, and how it
compares and contrasts with the beliefs of the other Abrahamic faiths, and even its own early
practitioners beliefs in part two of this video series for now, suffice it to say that the
Trinitarian concept of God flies in the face of the conception of God as one in the majority of
Abrahamic faiths, that is to say, in Judaism, and Islam, so who is God in Islam? In Islam, God is He
has power over all things, he who encompasses all things in his knowledge, the one to whom belongs
		

			whatever is in the heavens, and whatever is on the earth, for he is ever self sufficient and
praiseworthy. God is thus fundamentally conceived of as all knowing, all powerful, and self
sufficient. anything or anyone who does not meet these three primary criteria can thus be discounted
from any claim to divinity, which makes sense, as we know God is without equal, while Muslims thus
accept and even celebrate Jesus, peace and blessings be upon him as a messenger of God, we do not
believe that Jesus can be God for the simple reason that he is not all knowing he is not all
powerful, and he was not self sufficient. Makes sense. Ultimately, then, the Jewish, early
		

			Unitarian, Christian, and Islamic conceptions of God have far more in common than contemporary
mainstream media would have you believe. However, if you'd still like to know more about how
contemporary Trinitarian Christianity compares and contrasts with the conception of God in Judaism,
and Islam, I encourage you to subscribe to my page and to my YouTube channel, and turn on the post
notification that you can be alerted as soon as I publish part two of this video series, which we'll
explore the history and paradoxical nature of the concept of a tenancy in more detail. Until then,
as always, if you have any questions about any of the content I've shared with you today, please
		

			feel free to contact me via my page and I'll be more than happy to share some additional resources
with you. Alternatively, I'm always happy to engage in constructive and mutually respectful
conversation in the comment section, or in my DMs. Until next time, Zack Alethia.