2/28/13 Sayeed, about 65
Today I met with a man named Sayeed
for our second follow-up conversation since I first reached out to him on the
sidewalk about two weeks ago. He is a
visiting college professor from Iran, where he is also a well-known author and
guest lecturer in certain technical fields.
He has pored over and marked up the Gospel booklet I gave him with all
sorts of notes in the margins, and wanted to meet again to discuss his questions
about Christianity. Our questions have
centered around the concept of the Trinity, which he has tried to wrap his head
around. If you can imagine praying faithfully
five times every day for over 50 years, chanting phrases about how there is
only one God, and how He alone is worthy of worship, you might then understand
why Sayeed views Jesus’ claims of deity with suspicion and contempt. Our concept of the Trinity is indeed hard to
understand and even harder to explain as we search for different analogies to illustrate
it, like the three different forms of water, or the sun, sunlight, and warmth
of the sun, or St. Patrick’s three-leafed clover. But for me, the best way I can explain it is
to focus on the perfect unity between the Father, Son, and Spirit. I told Sayeed
“If three people had absolute, perfect
agreement of wills, would they really be three or one?” I believe Jesus spoke of this perfect unity
in passages like John 14:23-24: “Anyone
who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come
to them and make our home with them. Anyone
who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my
own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
Although the word “Trinity” isn’t found in the Bible, the concept is
found throughout, beginning with God’s plural statement in Genesis of “Let us
make man in our image” to New Testament instances where Father, Son, and Spirit
all appear together in the same passage, or Jesus’ many claims of divinity. It is an essential aspect of the biblical Jesus,
and separates orthodox Christian beliefs from that of cults such as the Jehovah’s
Witnesses or the unbiblical teachings of Islam, both of which have no worthy
sacrifice for our sins and require good works to try to make up the difference. Sayeed seems like a nice man, but he too is a
sinner who needs none other than repentance and faith in the only Son of God for
the forgiveness of his sins. Please pray
for him. Of course his salvation is most important, but I can’t help but think
about the tremendous platform he would have for the Gospel back in Iran!
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