Christianity,  Theology/Bible

“Son of God” an Offense to Muslims?

Collin Hansen has an important article in CT on the translation of the phrase “Son of God” in Arabic Bibles. He reports that many Muslims have come to faith in Christ as a result of Arabic Bible translations that avoid the phrase “Son of God.” He also reports that a number of evangelical scholars and missionaries disagree with the aversion towards the ancient Trinitarian moniker (e.g., Jack Collins, Darrell Bock, Vern Poyrthress, and Scott Horrell). I think Robert Yarbrough, however, underscores what is the fundamental difference between Christianity and Islam and on this point. He says,

“We are really dealing, at some point, with the whole notion of imago dei and not just a single technical point of Jesus being called ‘God’s Son. This is a key point where the nature of God vis-à-vis creation is just categorically different in the two religions. In one, God is utterly transcendent and unknowable and without peer or parallel of any kind in creation. He is, quite simply, inscrutable; we cannot call him ‘Father’ and so forth. The God of Abraham and of David and of Jesus is not like this. The ‘Son of God’ language in the New Testament is the tip of an iceberg.”

Read the rest here.

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