Proclaiming the Trinity on a 14 Bus

On Monday morning, I found myself in a public disputation with a Muslim on the top deck of a 14 Bus. I merely share this because it was an odd event - and I have no moral or punchline as I type this. I boarded the bus on the Fulham Road, went upstairs and sat down, and I heard a man at the back of the bus explain why Islam was great and how decadent London was, he talked a bit about Jesus - and then he started on about the Trinity. He wasn't talking to anyone in particular. He was just preaching. Not shouting. Talking. Incessantly.

One thought was that I understood how it might feel as a non-Christian when a Christian starts to preach in a confined space. I resented it, I winced at some bits that sounded anti-semitic, and I found him to be very self-satisfied and self-righteous. As he spoke, I wondered if he had any idea how he was coming across, and how offensive and alienating it sounded. And then wondered how often I - or something who believed the same things as me - sounded the same.

When I judged that I had about ten minutes of my journey left, I turned and began to talk to him. Some passengers were bemused, some amused, others sighed heavily. But I felt it worth challenging his claims on Christ and especially the Trinity. Muslims hate the Trinity. The problem is that most Christians find the Trinity difficult and rather embarrassing.

It does, in fact, hold the key to the difference between the faiths. Christians can only understand grace because the persons of God submit to each other's wills. The Son obeyed the Father. The Spirit shows us the Son, etc. I think he was a little surprised to hear a fairly robust defence coming back at him. But he wasn't terribly interested in dialogue. I tried asking him how 'Allah' could forgive. On what grounds? Only a Christian God can do so because that God can take the sin upon himself - because of his triune nature. I didn't understand his answer, but things degenerated.

He got off the bus at Piccadilly - clearly hating the commercialism of the place, but no doubt delighted that he is afforded wonderful liberty in free speech because Britain is an historically Christian country. I wonder how far I would get proclaiming the Trinity on a bus in Tehran. Anyway, we all went back to reading our newspapers and the moment passed. Make of that what you will.