A non-Christian friend was giving me his view on theology. When discussing the topic of the Trinity, he felt it was made up from astrology and that when the Bible refers to the "Son of God" that it's talking about the sun in the sky. He used Malachi 4:2 and Psalm 84:11 to support his view. Can you help in my response back to him?
For all his intelligence and training, your friend has overlooked a very basic truth of Scripture: the Bible wasn’t originally written in English. The Old Testament was written in an ancient form of Hebrew (and some Aramaic), while the New Testament was written in Koine Greek. In both of these languages, the word for “son” and “sun” are completely different words and not similar at all, neither in spelling or in sound. Only in English do these two words sound the same.
Hebrew:
Sun = shemesh
Son = ben
Greek:
Sun = huios
Son = helios
Therefore, since the text of Scripture was preserved in written form (not in an oral form) and since the words “son” and “sun” are not homonyms except in English (and the Bible was not written in English), then we can be sure there is no confusion as to the meaning of the phrase “Son of God." When the Bible says the "Son of God” we can be sure the authors meant Son (not sun). So, the Bible testifies that Jesus is the incarnate God Who entered the world in the form of a human being (i.e., as God’s Son).
