If you’ve had the pleasure to speak with Muslims about who is Jesus Christ, you’ll hear them say things like “we love Jesus”, “we have an entire Surah about his mother Mary” or “Jesus was a prophet”. This is typically the response you’ll receive on the deity of Christ.
They’ll respond with specific questions to attack the biblical position of who is Christ. This article will answer some of the questions posed by our lost Muslim friends.
Muslims reject Jesus Christ as God is because of the term “The Son of God”, they think Christians believe that Christ was produced by sexual relations because the Bible uses the term “The Son of God”. This of course is preposterous, the confusion stems from reading Surah 6:101 which says:
Sahih International: [He is] Originator of the heavens and the earth. How could He have a son when He does not have a companion and He created all things? And He is, of all things, Knowing. — Surah 6:101
Muslims actually think the term “the Son of God” means we’re talking about a biological son the same way us humans are born. This is completely wrong, Christians do not believe that.
Muslims think Christians believe God had sexual relations with His “wife” and produced Jesus Christ! This is in-fact an erroneous misrepresentation of the biblical belief of Christianity. Let’s answer some of their arguments.
Muslim Argument #1 You worship a man who was a baby in the womb of his mother and the mother used to clean your god, and breastfeed him when he cried out of hunger!
Christian Response: Muslims cannot grasp that The Word (Jesus) is God (John 1:1) was made flesh (John 1:14) through the virgin birth of Mary (Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 7:14; Jeremiah 31:22; Matthew 1:23; Luke 1:35).
Jesus Christ while He is God was “made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:5-8). He is truly a Man “yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Christians have always held to the doctrine that Christ is both fully God and fully Man (called the hypostatic union). God became a Man and as a human He experienced the same as we do including birth. As a Man He became hungry, ate, slept etc. While never losing His deity.
The Bible never speaks of Mary “cleaning” or “breastfeeding” Christ as a baby. We do know that human baby’s do need these things to grow, therefore, if Christ was truly Man He also would have went through the process of human growth just as we. There’s no shame in this as God created women to care, nourish and comfort. These are necessary for human growth.
There’s nothing here which takes away from the Lord Jesus as God just because He experienced what we humans do. This makes Christ unique because He can relate to us, Allah cannot relate to humans and remains distant in every way. But the Christians God has compassion and love, our God wants a relationship with us.
Muslim Argument #2 How can Jesus be God when he said the following clear statement in the Bible John 8:40 “but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.”
Christian Response: If context means anything our Muslim friends would see in this same chapter the Lord Jesus in speaking with the Jews declares His deity. The context is Christ is speaking to the Jews in the temple telling them if they keep His saying they will never see death.
John 8:51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.
The Jews at this time accuse Jesus Christ of being possessed by a devil, which is tantamount to blaspheming the Holy Spirit. They go onto ask if Christ thinks Himself to be greater than Abraham and the prophets, and ask the Lord Jesus to give a testimony to His claims.
John 8:52-53 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself?
The Lord Jesus answers telling them He’s not honouring Himself, but His Father does honour Him who is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He then tells them the Jews don’t know Him (God) but if Christ would say He also didn’t know the Father He would be lying which He cannot do; because He keeps the Father’s words.
John 8:54-55 Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.
Here’s the crucial part in which the Muslim argument fails miserably. The Lord Jesus says Abraham was looking forward to see Christ. And He did which means that Christ is saying in the Old Testament He was there and Abraham saw Him. We know that Abraham saw the LORD God, and here we have the Lord Jesus saying Abraham saw Him.
John 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw [it], and was glad.
The Jews couldn’t understand this they knew Abraham lived many hundreds of years before their time, yet Christ is saying Abraham saw Him, how can that be?
John 8:57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
Here’s the main point, Christ then says to the Jews.
John 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
This caused the Jews to want to stone (kill) Christ, why, what’s the significance of saying “Before Abraham was, I am.”? Well the Jews knew He was claiming deity, Jesus Christ was saying He’s the same I AM THAT I AM found in the book of Exodus 3:14 who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush which says: “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”
John 8:59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
This caused the Jews to be infuriated therefore they wanted to kill Him. Our Muslim friends are using 1 verse to try to dispute the deity of Christ and in doing so they went to a very powerful chapter which proves that Jesus Christ is God.
Muslim Argument #3 The Bible says that at times of weakness angels strengthened Jesus. God, however, does not need to be strengthened. Humans need to be strengthened; God does not because God is All-Powerful. If Jesus had to be strengthened, he must not be God. ‘An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him – in the garden of Gethsemane’ (Luke 22:43) ‘Then the devil left him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him’ (Mark. 1:13) ‘And he was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to him.’ (Mark 1:13)
Christian Response: Its truly amazing how Muslims fail to realise that Christians believe Christ has 2 natures, He’s God (John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 1:8-12), and He’s truly Man (Hebrews 3:3; Hebrews 7:24; Hebrews 10:12). When ever Christ is being considered we must always remember as a Man Christ became hungry, tired and slept. He said things like “I can of mine own self do nothing” (John 5:30) or “for my Father is greater than I” (John 14:28). Yet we’re told that Jesus Christ “created all things” (Colossians 1:16), “created all things by Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 3:9).
Muslims shoot themselves in the foot when they claim Jesus is not God. In their own Quran “Jesus” also called Isa by Muslims can create the same as Allah. We read the Jesus created birds of clay when he designed them and breathed on them. It also says Jesus spoke to people while He was in the cradle etc. The Quran actually plagiarized many teachings from other books.
The mention of Jesus speaking from the cradle as a baby was taken from the apocrypha, more specifically the Gospel of Thomas. The apocrypha is not inspired by God, therefore, we reject the Apocryphal Accounts, but it shows how the Quran did take stories from books such as the Talmud, Targums, Apocrypha as well as from the Torah and New Testament (Gospels).
Sahih International: [The Day] when Allah will say, “O Jesus, Son of Mary, remember My favor upon you and upon your mother when I supported you with the Pure Spirit and you spoke to the people in the cradle and in maturity; and [remember] when I taught you writing and wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel; and when you designed from clay [what was] like the form of a bird with My permission, then you breathed into it, and it became a bird with My permission; and you healed the blind and the leper with My permission; and when you brought forth the dead with My permission; and when I restrained the Children of Israel from [killing] you when you came to them with clear proofs and those who disbelieved among them said, “This is not but obvious magic.” — Surah 5:110
The Quran takes the account from the The Infancy Gospel of Thomas.
“Then he took from the bank of the stream some soft clay and formed out of it twelve sparrows; and there were other boys playing with him. But a certain Jew seeing the things which he was doing, namely, his forming clay into the figures of sparrows on the Sabbath day, went presently away and told his father Joseph, Behold, your boy is playing by the river side, and has taken clay and formed it into twelve sparrows, and profanes the Sabbath. Then Joseph came to the place where he was, and when he saw him, called to him, and said, Why do you that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day? Then Jesus clapping together the palms of his hands, called to the sparrows, and said to them: Go, fly away; and while you live remember me. So the sparrows fled away, making a noise. The Jews seeing this, were astonished and went away and told their chief persons what a strange miracle they had seen wrought by Jesus.” — The Infancy Gospel of Thomas
Conclusion is we can determine that Muslims are completely wrong about the deity of Christ Jesus, the Bible proves He is God, we also can prove from the Quran itself that their version of “Jesus” can create life out nothing (clay birds). We also see how the Quran plagiarized teachings from other books. Our dear Muslim friends, Muhammad is a false prophet, the Quran is a false book and Allah is a false God. The Lord Jesus Christ has His arms open ready to welcome you, if you come to Him you will be saved and have everlasting life.
Whatsoever Things Are True 