One thing Christians and Muslims agree on is that God is a unique being. There is no one like Him, in this universe, or any other universe He might hypothetically create. One might say someone or something is "like" God in some trivial way, but nothing, and no one, is like God overall. He is in His own category. Furthermore, we agree that while we can understand certain things about Him, God is, ultimately, beyond our comprehension.
One area in which we disagree is the doctrine of the Trinity. While it fails to properly understand the doctrine of the Trinity, the Qur'an emphatically condemns it, accusing Christians of "going to excess" in our religion if we so much as confess Christ as the Son of God (Qur'an 4:171). To claim Jesus is God is "shirk" in Islam.
Meanwhile, the Bible says "...in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). But for Muslims, this is a confusing concept. If Jesus is the incarnate God, this means God actually died. And so they ask us, can God die?
The answer to this requires us to first ask what, exactly, death is? In our modern, Western culture, we have been conditioned to view death, even subconsciously, as the inevitable and permanent cessation of existence, but that's actually a very atheistic way of looking at things. As a Christian, I believe "...it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27), and "...God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil." (Ecclesiastes 12:14).
Muslims would share a similar view. There is even a concept of "Barzakh" - a barrier between the worlds of the living and the dead, where the dead even request to be sent back so they may do good (Qur'an 23:99-100).
It's clear, therefore, that the two faiths utterly reject the idea that death is the cessation of existence, or even of consciousness. Thus, if a Muslim asks "can God die?" in that sense, a Christian must answer no, but that isn't what we believe happened to Jesus either. But then what exactly is death?
The Bible does not leave us floundering for an answer. In James 2:26, we read "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." This gives us a very clear definition of what death is. Death is when the body is without the spirit. Thus, when we ask "can God die?", we are asking "can God separate His body from His Spirit"?
At this point, it's helpful to ask certain other questions about God. For example, can God eat food? Because of our shared beliefs in God's omnipotence, the answer seems fairly simple on its surface. God can do all things, so of course a simple task which we, as humans, do on a nigh daily basis would be easy for Him. Right?
But Muhammad's misunderstanding of the Incarnation actually complicates the answer to that question. In Qur'an 5:73-75, we read "They surely disbelieve who say: Lo! Allah is the third of three; when there is no Allah save the One Allah. If they desist not from so saying a painful doom will fall on those of them who disbelieve. Will they not rather turn unto Allah and seek forgiveness of Him? For Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. The Messiah, son of Mary, was no other than a messenger, messengers (the like of whom) had passed away before him. And his mother was a saintly woman. And they both used to eat (earthly) food. See how We make the revelations clear for them, and see how they are turned away!"
For sake of helping Muslims understand Christianity, I'm going to deviate slightly from the topic at hand. When criticising any belief, it is essential to understand it, and so at this point, the Qur'an's straw man argument needs to be exposed and corrected. In short, The doctrine of the Trinity has never been, is not now, and will never be the belief that there are three gods. That is a severe misrepresentation of the doctrine. Furthermore, the Qur'an seems to imply that Mary is the third proposed god, meaning in Islamic theology, Christians supposedly believe Mary is a god, Jesus is a god, and Allah is the third of three gods. In reality, aside from Mary being a relatively insignificant figure in Scripture, the actual doctrine of the Trinity teaches that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all coequal, coessential members of the one God. That's why we say "Jesus is God", and not "Jesus is a god".
Having dealt with that misunderstanding on the Qur'an's part, notice the argument it uses. "And they both used to eat (earthly) food", it says. So, can God eat food? The logic of the Qur'an here seems to suggest not. How can "Jesus ate food" mean "Jesus is not God" unless God has some form of difficulty eating food?
A similar complication does exist within Christian theology. God can do all things, but He is a logical being. Thus, not even He can do something illogical, like making a one-ended stick. But food is a physical thing, and God is not. Therefore, God, as He is, actually cannot eat food.
With this in mind, the answer to both questions, both "can God eat food", and the original "can God die", is ultimately an emphatic "yes", but the path by which He might achieve these things is not so simple. God cannot just eat food, He must first manifest Himself in physical form.
While they do not believe God has actually done this, Muslims should have no issue with the idea that He can. Omnipotence is one of our shared beliefs. In Christianity, God can do all things (Job 42:2), nothing is impossible for Him (Luke 1:37), and He does whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3). In Islam, if Allah wills a thing to be, he simply says "be", and it is (Qur'an 2:117).
And so we see that the question "can God die?", rather than being an issue of ability, is actually one of motivation. And so all we need to do is establish that motivation in the case of God incarnate. And so we turn to John 10:17-18, where we read "“Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”"
From this, we see that the Son's' death is entirely within the will of the Father. No one, not the Romans, not the Jews, not the devil, took His life from Him apart from His will. But why did He choose this?
Much like any other homonym, "death" has more than one meaning. Throughout this article, we have specifically focused on the separation of the spirit from the body. This is sometimes referred to as being "cut off from the Earth" (Exodus 9:15), or "cut off from the land of the living" (Isaiah 53:8; Jeremiah 11:19). But one can also be "cut off" in other senses. One can be "cut off from their people" (e.g. Genesis 17:14), i.e. still being physically alive, but "dead" in another sense.
Ephesians 2:1-5 and Colossians 2:13 both describe a time when we, as Christians, were dead in our trespasses, sins, and uncircumcision of our flesh, but God made us alive together with Him, having forgiven us our sins. This does not mean Christians were ever physically dead or resurrected (though obviously, Lazarus is an exception). Rather, what it means is we were separated from God Himself. This paved the way for what Scripture calls the "second death": An eternity in Hellfire, never again to receive mercy or blessings from our Creator.
But Scripture makes it quite clear that this is not something God takes pleasure in. The death of the wicked is a necessary, yet undesirable thing. Whereas Allah does not love the unbeliever (e.g. Qur'an 2:276), "...God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8).
So, can God die? Because He is omnipotent, He can die if He wants to. Did God want to die? Because He loves you, my Muslim friends, yes! The beautiful truth is that God loves you so much that although you, because of your sin, deserve your part in the second death, He emptied Himself for a little while and endured the cross for you. But it's far more glorious than that! He didn't just die for your sin, then let bygones be bygones. He actually rose again, and it is by this confession that we receive the salvation He died to bring us. In Romans 10:9-13, we read "...if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”"
So there you have it! Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved. But because a Muslim typically does not understand the Incarnation, no doubt there will have been one question nagging at them throughout this explanation. There always seems to be this distinction between the Father and the Son. Jesus lays down His life because God commanded it. Jesus rose again because God raised Him up. But hear Christ's own words prior to His execution. In John 2:18-19, we read "So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”"
Who will raise up the destroyed temple in three days? "I will", says Jesus. He will raise the temple in three days. But what is this temple? Continue on to verse 23. "Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said."
So here, Jesus says "I will raise my body in three days". But who raised Jesus according to Paul? So, God raised Jesus, but it's actually Jesus who raised Jesus. So who does that make Jesus? God. According to none other than His own disciples - those He chose, those He taught, those He ate and drank with, those He guided - according to these men, Jesus is the incarnate God. Born of a virgin, nailed to a cross, laid to rest in a tomb, this is the God who raised Himself to life, having conquered death once and for all. And He wants to do the same for you. On the cross, they mocked Him, saying "He saved others, let Him save Himself!" Well now we cry aloud "He raised Himself, now let Him also raise you!" There is no salvation in Islam. Therefore, my Muslim friends, please, receive salvation from the God who could die, willed to die, and did die. For you.
AI usage
AI was used to create the header image for this article.