Conservonator,
I really do not care to ‘argue’ with you, but I do seek to place things in the context of truth.
On the one hand, you want to be able to affirm that Islam has ‘an element of truth’, which it certainly does. Yet with the same breath you want to deny anything it says as ‘rot’. If it contains truth, how do we judge what is true in it?
For me the answer would be scripture. Scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in rightiousness (2 Tim 3:16). I would also affirm fully that I am a person of the book.
The book itself is just a book, but what lies within it are the words of God passed on to men to make us ‘wise for salvation’ (2 Tim 3:15). Christ is the Word (John 1), and if we are his disciple, then we are in the Word.
You seem to be confusing the concept of wisdom from God and the wisdom of the world, by claiming that the wisdom of God lies in Christian tradition, Merely because a Christian (or an ordained Christian) speaks, does not make their words the wisdom of God. We are called upon to test all spirits, and even those who ‘prophesy in your (Christ’s) name, and in your name drive out demons and perform miracles” (Mat 7:22) may be told that they never were known to Christ.
The point I was making about Islam’s claims of Christian polytheism lie in the nature of lies.... a truth that has been distorted is no longer truth.
In regards to your comment on the Church, I would both agree and disagree. The Church is the body of all those who follow Christ. In this context it is absolutely true that without the body of Christ, men would slide into error.
If however, you mean the institution of the Church, I would strongly disagree. God is capable of raising up children for Abraham ‘out of these stones’ (Mt 3:9). He chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chooses the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Cor:27). He set his Messiah within a poor backward region, with ‘no beauty or majesty to attract us to him’ (Is 53:2).
To God alone belongs the glory and praise. The Church without God can do nothing, and with God even the lowliest man can do wonders. The honour does not belong to the man though, but to the great God to whom he is a servant. If this ‘Church’ fails to stay true to God’s way, then God can raise up from among these stones children of the promise.
Argue all you want, but arguments derived from a flawed concept of Scripture based on the distinctly unchristian tradition of sola scriptura hold little sway with me. You see, your interpretation of Scripture is filtered through your biases, goals, past, health, the weather and every other factor that can effect the subconscious mind or man. This is why we have a phone book full of "Bible Believing" churches: each man a pope of his own interior church. The truth is this: Scripture is the story of God's love for man and His plan of salvation. The Church was given to us that we may know the gospel to be true and to help us, like the Ethiopian eunuch, understand.
when you, like every other protestant turn your back on the Church that Christ created for His people, you are in a sense turning you back on Him, in effect saying: "thanks, but I prefer to do things my own way". Luckily for all of us, God is Love and His name is Mercy.
His Church will never fail, it is the pillar and ground of truth, against which the gates of hell will not prevail, if you believe Scripture.