This episode contrasts Christianity with Islam in the themes of sin, salvation and ultimate goals. Muslims believe that all people are born without a propensity to sin (original sin) but are corrupted by the world when they engage in idolatry. Salvation then is renouncing idolatry by embracing Islam, the goal of which is submission to Allah. Christianity by contrast insists all mankind is born predisposed against God and the knowledge of God, and pursues a life of idolatry as a result of his rejection of the knowledge of God. (Romans 1:18-25) In salvation, the Christian repents of self-idolatry, putting his faith in Christ as the sin substitute who bore his sin and gave him His righteousness. He receives a new heart in regeneration, one that delights in the knowledge of God, as the Holy Spirit progressively conforms him into the image [knowledge] of Christ. Both Christianity and Islam renounce idolatry and promote total submission to God, but the starting points and end goals are very different, largely based on acceptance/rejection of original sin and the knowability of God Himself.
The Unknowable God of Islam
This episode unpacks the implications of Islamic agnosticism. Since Allah is wholly other, and even descriptions of His attributes in the Quran don't point to His essence (notwithstanding Sunni repackaging of Tahwid), Muslims are called to worship an unknowable god. Consequently the Quran is a guide for Muslims containing descriptions of what God does divorced from what He is. The 99 names of Allah, for instance, reveals sometimes contradictory attributes of God based on what He does, but this is not a problem since Allah's "wholly other" essence is not informed by His attributes. The episode also cites the Sufi mystical alternative, which seeks to get around the agnostic problem in Islam.
Islam on a Collision Course with Itself: the Quran
The God of Islam is so radically transcendent that nothing in the created order points to His essence. In the words of Surah 112, "there is none like unto Him," and this core doctrine of Tahwid insists on one eternal indivisible God who has no partners. This fundamental doctrine of Islam nevertheless contradicts the orthodox belief of Sunni Muslims, that the Quran itself is also eternal. If the speech of God in the Quran is also eternal and not created, then Tahwid is compromised and contradicted, the singular eternal indivisible God has a partner (shirk), His own eternal speech recorded in the Quran. Tawhid impales itself on an eternal Quran based on Allah's inflexible "oneness." Ironically, the answer to this intractable problem in Islam is the Christian God: God the Father and God the Son are both eternal. The Son is the eternal Word of God, the Logos who is one in essence with God the Father, yet a distinct person in the godhead. Orthodox Sunni Islam is self-contradictory: 1) The Quran is eternal, 2) Tahwid is true, and 3) Allah's attributes in the Quran describe His essence, contradicting Tahwid.
An Opening Primer on Allah
This and the next 10 episodes contrast the god of Islam with that of Christianity. The program begins with an excerpt from the popular biography of Mohammed by Ibn Ishaq, describing his initial encounter with the angel Gabriel. Mohammed purportedly received divine revelation that was later written in the Quran. Divided into 114 surahs, or chapters, the Quran presents a description of Allah (god) that differs significantly from the Christian God. Surah 112 captures the differences, affirming that Allah "begetteth not" and there is "none like unto him." The former description posits that no distinct persons exist in the "godhead," and even the word "godhead" is inappropriate. Christianity of course affirms the Trinity, and that Christ is a distinct person in the godhead. The second description, that there is "none like unto him" contends that Allah is so radically transcendent that nothing in the created order describes his essence. Christianity also affirms a transcendent God, but nevertheless insists that creation points to His essence, Romans 1:20 noting "for since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made.."
The Spirit Makes Fellowship Possible
This episode addresses some of the "positive" attributes of the Holy Spirit, all of which presume the personhood of the Spirit. As stated in previous episodes, Jews and Christians disagree over the Spirit as a distinct person in the godhead. The last program emphasized that salvation depends on the personal attributes of the Spirit. Fellowship of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:14) is the natural bond that develops among all believers who are born of the Spirit and placed into the body of Christ by that very same Spirit. They connect based on the Spirit's work of conforming them into the image of Christ, and consequently genuine fellowship of the Spirit is possible: "one body and one Spirit..one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." (Ephesians 4:4-5) This mutual partaking of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) and the "fellowship of the Spirit" makes possible the "mind of Christ" that eagerly and unselfishly gives based on this overflowing Spirit. (Philippians 2:1-2) The fellowship of the Spirit connects the millions of Holy Spirit-dwelt temples as they aim for the mind of Christ. John similarly concludes in 1 John 1:7: "as we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another.." The "fellowship of the Spirit' then is clearly a manifestation of the personality of the Holy Spirit.
The Personhood of the Triune God Really Matters
This episode spells out the superior age of the Spirit inaugurated by Christ, and it is all predicated on the personality of the Holy Spirit which Jews deny. Christ contrasted the best of the prior age in the person of John the Baptist with "the least in the kingdom of God." The least among partakers of the New Covenant in Christ are greater than the best of the Old covenant. (Matthew 11:11) Christ inaugurated the New Covenant in His blood, and the Holy Spirit applies the Covenant to the world, convicting people of sin, righteousness and judgment leading to repentance and faith in Christ. (John 16:8-11)(1 Corinthians 12:3) When one is subsequently born again, he partakes of the divine nature, becoming a temple of the very personal Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:4) Conviction, repentance, faith and regeneration all involve the PERSONAL role of the Holy Spirit. It naturally follows that rejection of the PERSON and role of the Holy Spirit, who applies the New Covenant of Christ to the unregenerate, results in condemnation. No one comes to the Father except through Christ (John 14:6), and no one calls Jesus Lord except through the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:3 Salvation then presumes the personal involvement of each member of the Trinity aimed at reconciling the world back to that Triune God. Isaiah 48:16 says "the Lord God has sent Me [the Messiah}, and His Spirit." The singular essence and salvific purpose of the godhead consequently requires that rejection of either the Son or the Spirit MEANS rejection of the Father who sent them. For this reason, Christians and Jews (who reject Christ and the Holy Spirit) do not believe in the same God.
The Holy Spirit is Clearly a Person
This episode expounds on the testimony of the personhood of the Holy Spirit from the New Testament. While Jews affirm the deity of the Holy Spirit, they deny that the Spirit is a distinct person of the godhead, mostly claiming that references to the Holy Spirit are simply manifestations of God. But this "manifestation" rubric doesn't adequately do justice to the clear personal qualities attributed to the Holy Spirit, who can be lied to (Acts 5:3), tested (Acts 5:9), resisted (Acts 7:51), insulted (Hebrews 10:29), grieved (Ephesians 4:30), and blasphemed (Matthew 12:32). Rejection of the distinct personhood of the Holy Spirit therefore means that Jews do not believe in the same God as Christians.
The Trinity Revealed in the Old Testament
In addition to rehashing several Old Testament passages on the personhood of the Holy Spirit, this episode cites three passages from Isaiah where every member of the godhead is present in the same verse. Isaiah 42:1 declares "I [God the Father] have put my Spirit[God the Holy Spirit] upon Him[God the Son]." A godhead without distinctions makes no sense, and Isaiah 48:16 also bears this out, "And the Lord God has sent Me, and His Spirit." The "Me" refers to the Messiah, the suffering Servant, who together with the Holy Spirit, are sent by God the Father. Finally, in a passage quoted by Christ Himself (Isaiah 61:1) (Luke 4:18-19), Isaiah declares, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.." All three persons of the Trinity are present, and the Christian doctrine of 3 persons comprising one God finds its roots solidly in the Old Testament.
The Personhood of the Holy Spirit
This episode surveys references in the Old Testament to the Holy Spirit, ultimately arguing that many can not be explained by appealing to the personification of God's creative activity. Instead of finding distinctive persons in the Godhead, Jews typically understand references to God's Spirit as poetic expressions of God's working in creation, as seen in Gen 1:2 , where the Spirit of God hovering over the waters signals the beginning of creation week. The personification argument is however unconvincingly in light of several verses that ascribe indisputable qualities of personhood to the Spirit's activity. The Spirit grieves (Isaiah 63:10) and instructs (Nehemiah 9:20), and Micah even queries if He is "impatient." (Micah 2:7) Some verses draw distinctions within the Godhead: prophets speak the words of the Lord that are sent "by His Spirit." (Zechariah 7:12) Interpreting the "Spirit" of God as merely the personification of God's power or creative activity doesn't square with descriptions of personhood and the Spirit's apparent distinct presence within the godhead. The Biblical evidence of the personhood of the Holy Spirit is of course very relevant to the question, whether Jews and Christians "believe" in the same god.
When the Son Becomes Judge
This episode unpacks John 5:22-24, in which all judgment has been given to the Son by God the Father. And verse 23 specifically says that God sent the Son. Jews who reject Christ as God's Son and Messiah therefore reject the Father's sending of the Son. The consequences couldn't be more dire, since God the Father has given all judgment to the Son. According to John 3:36, "whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them." This rejecting of the Father's sending of the Son invalidates any Jew's claim that he has the Father as his God: "No one who denies the Son, has the Father.." (1 John 5:23) Moreover, the wrath and judgment of the Son remain on all who reject the Son: "Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled.." (Psalm 2:12) Jews and Christians therefore do not believe in the same God.