Adam B. Coleman, Proud Father & Imperfect Man

A Muslim told me that Jesus prayed to God, therefore, He cannot be God. I asked him, “What exactly do you understand prayer to mean?” He said, “Prayer is submitting your will to God.” I said, “Well, to us, prayer is also communication with God. It is how we communicate with our Father. So, when Jesus prayed, He was communicating with the Father.” He asked, “How can He be communicating with the Father if He is God?” I replied, “The Bible presents Jesus as truly God and truly human. In His humanity, He depended on God. The Bible also says God is the God of all flesh. When Jesus took on human flesh, He lived a genuinely human life and depended on the Father in His humanity.” He said, “This is nonsense! Why can’t God just be one?” I said, “God IS one! You are the one struggling to understand the hypostatic union.” 😂 He then asked, “So how can God die? God cannot die!” I said, “Exactly! God is eternal and cannot cease to exist. Jesus died according to His human nature. His divine nature was neither destroyed nor ceased to exist when He died.” He replied, “God cannot die! If Jesus is God, how can He die? That’s a contradiction in the Bible!” At this point, I decided to take a little detour. I asked, “According to Islam, the Quran is the eternal word of Allah, meaning it has no beginning or end. Am I correct?” He said, “Yes.” I continued, “But when we open a physical copy of the Quran, it has a publication history, a place where it was produced, and it is made of paper, ink and glue. It can physically be destroyed, correct?” He immediately said, “It cannot be destroyed! Allah’s word is eternal!” I said, “I know you believe Allah’s word is eternal, but the physical Quran, the actual book, can be destroyed, can’t it?” He said, “Yes, but even if the Quran is destroyed, many Muslims have memorised it, unlike your Bible, which Christians don’t even know!” 😂 I said, “I think you are either not understanding my point or deliberately choosing not to understand it.” He insisted that he was just explaining that even if the Quran was destroyed, Muslims had memorised it. I said, “Okay, so how can Allah’s eternal word be destroyed?” He replied, “Because it is a book, and books can be destroyed, but Allah’s word cannot be destroyed because it has been memorised.” I said, “EXACTLY! Now we are getting somewhere!” In the same way, Jesus is referred to as the Word of God. John 1:14 tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The eternal Word took on a perishable human nature. The Word Himself did not cease to exist, but the human body He assumed could experience suffering and death. Just as you distinguish between the eternal word of Allah and the physical Quran, you should at least understand the distinction I am making between Christ’s divine nature and His human nature. But unfortunately, the explanation flew over his head! 😂😂