How many times have Muslims claimed “Jesus is a Muslim”, the argument is that Christ supposedly lived His life as a Muslim. Let’s be clear from the beginning, Christians disagree, and we proclaim that Jesus Christ is NOT Isa who’s found in the Qur’an.
I find it telling that Muslims try their hardest to somehow link the Biblical Jesus Christ with the Qur’an. Like a parasite, Islam feeds off of its host (Christianity), and Islam tries to validate itself in this way. Shabir Ally a Canadian Muslim preacher and Imam said:
The early Jesus sounds a lot like a Muslim prophet, a human being, and a messenger of God, like the prophets of the Old Testament. Of course, that does not mean that in all respects, we can reconstruct the history and know that Jesus was like a Muslim, but this is close enough. It is definitely closer than some of the theologies that are out there that present Jesus as God himself or a second person of the Holy Trinity. In the end, I think I can confidently assert that Jesus was a Muslim.
All Muslims must agree that Muhammad is the perfect example of what a Muslim aspires to be. How is it Muhammad was so obsessed with doing things in threes, he would also make the same statement 3 times.
How to Perform Wudu Three Times
Wudu is the Islamic act of making oneself purified before prayer. There are specific steps a person must perform but we’re not concerned with the steps, what we want to know is why Muhammad washed each limb three times (ثَلاَثًا ثَلاَثًا)?
In the following Sahih Hadith from al-Tirmidhi we have the Chapter: What Has Been Related About Wudu Three times (For Each Limb).
Let’s also point out the deceptive translations also, how is it possible that we have 1 sentence in English and look at the Arabic text. There’s a whole paragraph where’s all of that text?! It’s a mystery all of that text has vanished into thin air! 😂
The question is why does Muhammad feel the need to wash each limb 3 times, why not 4 times, why not 2 times, why not 10 times? It’s funny that he feels the need to do it 3 times. And we’ll provide the proof that Muslims do the same every time they prepare themselves to pray. The highlighted Arabic portion of the text says (سلم تَوَضَّأَ ثَلاَثًا ثَلاَثًا)“He performed ablution three by three.”
Muhammad gave the story of Adam and Moses who argued with one another, arguing that Moses accused Adam for mankind being kicked out of Jannah (Paradise).
According to Bukhari Muhammad says three times“So Adam confuted Moses, Adam confuted Moses” Muhammad loves the Trinity to the point that he needs to repeat a statement three times. Again why not two times or twenty times, why must he say it three times? More proof that Muhammad loves the Trinity and, therefore, he needs to make a statement three times.
Here’s another Hadith in which Muhammad repeated himself three times (ثَلاَثَ مَرَّاتٍ) once again Muhammad shows his love for the Trinity. Once again notice the discrepancy in the length of text between both English and Arabic, why are they afraid of translating.
Gulping Drinks Three Times
Muhammad is overtaken by the Trinity breathing three times while taking three gulps when he drinks.[1] It’s funny that Islam teaches against the Trinity “say not Three” [4:171] [5:73].
How hypocritical that Muhammad felt the need to tell Muslims how he does everything in threes, Muhammad is a closet case, Christian.
Call To Prayer Three Times
Adhan is the Islamic call to public prayer prescribed at certain times of the day.[2] Notice the obsession even between the call to prayer Muhammad felt the need to say things three times.
Muhammad said if a Muslim asks Allah for paradise three times, he/she will be permitted into paradise. They can also seek refuge from being condemned to Hellfire by asking Allah to save them.
If Muslims are against the Trinity how is it that their prophet was constantly doing things in threes? Islam contradicts itself everywhere and shows that it’s a man-made religion.
Conclusion
Anyone who is honestly looking for truth by opening up Islamic sources such as Sunnah.com, just enter the words “three times” in the search. You’ll see how many things Muhammad did in threes, why not five times or two times? this shows the hypocrisy of Islam, their prophet secretly loves the Trinity but unfortunately, he had no idea what the Trinity is. You can read about that in the previous article Allah Is Wrong About The Trinity [4:171, 5:17].
This false god Allah has no idea what he’s talking about, he doesn’t know what the Trinity is and his “prophet” Muhammad is obsessed with the Trinity. For a religion that is so against the Trinity, why do they do all these rituals in three’s (Trinity)? Islam is a silly religion in which its followers are completely fooled by a crazy man called Muhammad.
Footnotes
[1] Anas (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to breathe three times in the course of a drink (he used to drink in three gulps). [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]. [Riyad as-Salihin 756]
[2] The adhan is the call given to announce that it is time for a particular obligatory Salah (ritual Prayer). Five times a day the adhan is raised from mosques throughout the world. It is a Sunnah (optional duty) that brings its own reward from Allah (God). islamonline.net (2022). The Adhan (The Call to Prayer). Retrieved from https://islamonline.net/en/the-adhan-the-call-to-prayer/
One of the polemic arguments Muslims pose to Christians is that Jesus Christ “prayed like a Muslim” if you’ve never heard this assertion you might become confused. Well, fret not because we’re going to prove without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ was not a Muslim.
The 1st argument is that Jesus Christ while praying fell on His face, Muslims believe this is evidence that Christ is a Muslim. They read the words “fell on his face” and automatically believe Jesus Christ and others found in the Bible prayed like Muslims.[1]
A few things to point out in this verse, when the Bible speaks of falling on their face it refers to a person laying face down on their stomach, not praying in the same prostration Muslims perform. Another point is in Matthew 26:39 and other verses Jesus Christ is calling God His Father, while Muslims are not allowed to call Allah father. Here are some verses in the Qur’ān which prove that Allah is father to no one.
When Christians pray we call God Father because through the new birth according to the Lord Jesus we’re made children of God (Matthew 5:9, Luke 20:36, John 11:52). The apostle Paul following in the steps of Christ also said we’re the children of God (Romans 8:16, Romans 8:21, Galatians 3:26), additionally, the apostle John also proclaimed that believers in Christ Jesus are children of God (1 John 3:10, 1 John 5:2).
Christians also pray in many ways, we also fall on our face (lay face down), get on our knees, look up to heaven and even pray sitting down. The importance is not on how you pray but just that you do pray. The fact that we call God Father distinguishes us from Muslims.
2nd point is Jesus Christ prayed “looking up to heaven” this destroys the claim that Christ was a Muslim as there are Hadiths which say your eyes will be snatched out if we look toward the sky during prayer.
If this Hadith is authentic, why weren’t the eyes of Jesus Christ snatched away when He prayed looking up to heaven? Many Christians including myself have on multiple occasions looked up to heaven while praying, and what do you know we still have our eyes.
Here we have 3 verses which speak of the Lord Jesus Christ looking up to heaven while He’s praying, Muslims don’t look to heaven when praying. This is solid evidence that Jesus was not a Muslim.
Conclusion
When we examine the Muslim claim against what the Bible says we see that all the lies of Islam die, without lies Islam dies. Jesus Christ called God Father, and the Qur’ān prohibits anyone from calling Allah, father. The Lord Jesus also gazed heavenward while praying this is something Muslims do not do while praying.
Footnotes
[1] The remainder of this article will examine passages from various books of the Bible and compare them to the way Muslims pray. The most recognisable posture in the Muslim prayer is touching the forehead to the ground. It is the apex of a person’s prayer and it is mentioned in the authentic traditions of Prophet Muhammad as the position in which a believer is as close to God as it is possible to be. “The nearest one comes to his Lord is when he is kowtowing.” Consider the following verses from the Bible. “And he (Jesus) went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed…” (Matthew 26:39) Aisha Stacey (2014, September 15). MUSLIM PRAYER POSTURES FOUND IN THE BIBLE. Retrieved from https://www.islamreligion.com/
One trend you’ll find among Muslims is pretending to be Christian, saying they “reverted” (converted) to Islam, in order to dupe people into believing in Islam. Once you start to examine if this is true you’ll soon realise that it’s a farce. Susie Brackenborough is one such person who’s written an article for Islamonline.net claiming to have been a follower of Christ only to leave and become a Muslim. Either she’s being deceptive or just really ignorant of what true Christianity is, you can be the judge.
I Couldn’t Actually Say Why I Was Christian?
Being a practicing Christian for almost 16 of my 22 years of life, it may seem strange as to why I have turned to Islam. Not so I say! I was asked one day to “prove Christianity and why you are a Christian and not a Muslim” by a Muslim friend at university. I thought that this was going to be an easy task, but I couldn’t actually say why I was Christian, only this is the way that I had been brought up by my family. My research needed extensive reading and questioning. I would say to everyone who reads this whether Muslim or not – ‘ASK YOURSELF WHY YOU BELIEVE WHAT YOU DO.’
There’s a huge red flag, Susie said she was a “Christian” for 16 years, yet she was only “Christian” by name being brought up by her family. This is not what constitutes being a Christian, being born into a family which professes to be Christian doesn’t make a person Christian. It’s like saying sleeping in an air hanger would make someone an aeroplane. It’s quite telling that someone who would make this statement knows absolutely nothing about Christianity.
To answer her question of why I believe what I do, is that the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the best historically attested event which stands against every criticism. There’s no one who has been able to debunk the Death and Resurrection of Christ.
The next few quotes from Susie prove she has no idea what Christianity teaches about Jesus Christ or any of the fundamental doctrines we hold.
So why wasn’t I satisfied with Christianity? Anybody who is going to really believe in something must know something about it. If I said to someone that a Porsche could go faster than a Skoda, for them to accept that fully they must have knowledge of what a Porsche and a Skoda are, otherwise if they accept what I say without knowledge they are living a life of ignorance and/or arrogance. Anybody who wanted to know the truth and why they agree to or follow a particular way would seek out why. So for me to accept Christianity I needed the knowledge about the fundamentals – the belief that Jesus (AS) was the son of God and that the Trinity existed are two fundamental points. It is not good enough just to accept this, as you believe what has been taught to you. For someone without knowledge about cars, the Porsche may indeed go faster than the Skoda in reality, but if I was a so called knowledgeable and respected person and I taught them that the Skoda is faster than the Porsche, then I would be believed by people who have not questioned what these two cars are really like and they take my word as they think that I have knowledge. But they would not be believing the truth.
She admits she lacks knowledge about the Lord Jesus or the Trinity, these are the 2 biggest points of contention when Christians engage with Muslims. The issue is that the Qur’ān gets both wrong here are past articles that explain how Islam gets it wrong.
We’re going to clear up Susie’s confusion starting with her first question.
The Son Of God And The Trinity … Is It Not Made Explicitly Clear In The Bible?
I believe that religion is not here to confuse us in any way and the message of Allah (SWT) is very clear; so my first question is – if Jesus (AS) is the son of God and the Trinity was what Christian people believe it to be, why is it not made explicitly clear in the Bible?
While the word Trinity is not in the Bible, the word Tawhid is not in the Qur’ān, but the teachings/concept of the Trinity is certainly in the Bible. In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 3 John the Baptist was asked by Jesus Christ to baptise Him. John shocked by the request immediately says “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (Matthew 3:14).
Jesus tells Him that it’s necessary to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15), John then baptises Him and we’re introduced to the Trinity.
Notice in one moment in time we have all 3 Persons of the Trinity present (1), Jesus Christ, in the water (2) the Spirit of God also known as the Holy Spirit (3) a voice from heaven which is God the Father. How can Susie claim to have been a Christian for 16 years have she never seen this passage before? There are others, but let’s go to the Qur’ān to further prove our point.
In the Qur’ān we have a Trinity a false one but 3 nonetheless who are creators. Muslims agree that Allah is the creator, but what do they say to the fact that Allah admits he’s not the only creator.
23:14 sūrat l-mu’minūn (The Believers)
This verse according to their own book claims that Allah is not the only creator, what do I mean by creator? Just to make it clear we’re not talking about someone making a painting or building a table etc. Muslims try to claim Allah is comparing himself to humans as “creators”. No! This is not what’s being spoken of here in this ayat. Allah is saying there are other creators (gods) but Allah is the best of all the other gods.
Additionally, the word l-khāliqīna as a genitive masculine noun showing possession. The genitive case focuses on the active participle “of” is what’s important, in this context Allah being the best of the creators.
23:14 Arabic grammar, syntax and morphology
So this means Susie’s god is not the only god according to the confession of Allah which makes Islam a polytheistic religion.
Was Jesus The Only Begotten Son Of God?
Was Jesus (AS) the only begotten son of God? No, quite clearly not. Long before Jesus (AS) was born, David (AS) said in Psalm 2:7, ‘I will declare the decree, the Lord hath said unto me, Thou are my Son; this day have I begotten thee.’ So, David (AS) is also God’s begotten son??!!!
David is not “the only begotten son of God” and neither was anyone else called the Only begotten Son of God as Jesus Christ is. Just for your own perusal, these are some translations of Psalm 2:7 and in none of these translations will you see the word “only”.
I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. (KJV)
“I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. (NKJV)
The king proclaims the LORD’s decree: “The LORD said to me, ‘You are my son. Today I have become your Father. (NLT)
I will proclaim the LORD’s decree: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father. (NIV)
I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. (ESV)
I will declare the LORD’s decree. He said to me, “You are my Son;[fn] today I have become your Father. (CSB)
Notice in none of the translations provided will you find the words “the only begotten son of God” in Psalm 2:7. But the Bible does say about Jesus Christ that He alone is the only begotten son of God. These are the relevant verses.
The Greek used for Jesus is τοῦ μονογενοῦς υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ let’s break it down. The word τοῦ is a variation of the article and is a genitive singular masculine which means (of the) showing possession. The following word μονογενοῦς is also an adjective genitive singular masculine word which means (only begotten). We then have υἱοῦ a noun genitive singular masculine and means (Son), lastly, we have θεοῦ which is in the genitive case and means God.
The two following verses also say Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, so where is Susie getting her information from? It’s certainly not from the Bible.
Seems like Susie either never read the Bible or she lied claiming that there were others called the only begotten Son of God. But we’ve just proven that her statement is untrue.
He’s not the Son of God?
What is this?!! Jesus (AS) himself made clear that he is not the son of God. For example, Matthew 5:48, ‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect.’ So God is everyone’s father. Luke 4:41, ‘And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered not to speak for they knew that he was Christ.’ Luke 9:20-21, Jesus (AS) said to his disciples, ‘But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, “The Christ of God! And he straightly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing.’ If Jesus (AS) was the son of God, then why should he tell his disciples not to tell anyone this if everyone is to know and learn and believe this? The only explanation is that they were wrong to call him this and he was telling them so.
Seems like Susie is going against the Qur’ān using Matthew 5:48 to say that God is everyone’s Father. According to her Qur’ān, it says Allah is not the father of anyone, we can find this in Surah 19:88-93; 112:3
Why did she say Allah is everyone’s father when the Qur’ān says he’s not father to anyone is it out of ignorance or deception? Also, Jesus said He came down from heaven and He’s the Son which speaks of the deity of Christ.
Susie makes the claim that Jesus was telling the disciples not to tell people He’s the Son of God, but that’s not true. Jesus was saying not to let people know because it was not His time to come as King even though He already was. Jesus knew He had to come as the Lamb of God who would give His life on the cross for the sins of the world, that was His main purpose for His first advent.
If the people knew He was the Christ (Messiah) they wouldn’t have crucified Him. And if He was not crucified then there would be no salvation for anyone. The second point is that if the disciples were wrong according to Susie, then Allah’s message was corrupted. Let’s not forget the Qur’ān says the followers of Jesus would be superior until the day of judgement. If the message of Jesus was corrupted then Allah failed in making the believers of Jesus superior until the day of judgement as 3:52-55 says.
In the words of Jesus Christ, He said that He’s the Son of God, read and laugh Abdoola. Why did she not read this verse, I thought she was a Christian for 16 years and she never read these verses?
Secondly the concept of the Trinity. Associating others with God, i.e. to believe in the Trinity has no foundation whatsoever in Islam. In Mark 12:29 Jesus (AS) himself said, The first of all Commandments is, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.’ 1 Corinthians 8:4 ‘there is none other God but one.’ The truth about this mater is that the word ‘Trinity’ is not Biblical at all. The Canon’s answer was as follows: ‘The New Testament writers did not create the doctrine of the Trinity. It is an attempt, admittedly human (how could it be otherwise?), to express in words something of the inexpressible.’ This just sums it up. A human attempt to describe something inexpressible because it doesn’t exist!! Perhaps the clearest indication we have that Jesus (AS) and God are not equal, and therefore not one and the same, comes from John 14:28 when Jesus (AS) is quoted as saying: “My Father is greater than I.” When someone referred to him as good master in Luke 18:19 Jesus (AS) responded, “Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God.” Furthermore, Jesus (AS) drew clear distinctions between himself and God when he is quoted to have said, John 8:42 “I proceeded forth and came from God, neither came I of myself but He sent me.’ Jesus (AS) gave clear evidence of his subordination to God, rather than his equality with God, when he said in Luke 22:42, “not my will but Thine be one” and in John 5:30, ” I seek not mine own will but the will of the Father which has sent me.” That Jesus (AS) would admit that he did not come into the world on his own initiative but was directed to do so, that he would acknowledge another being as greater than himself, that he would negate his own will in deference to affirming the will of another gives clear proof that Jesus (AS) is not the Supreme One and therefore Jesus (AS) is not equal to or even God.
It’s sad these arguments Brackenborough is spouting are the same weak arguments from dawah missionaries. Let us go through each to show how flawed Islam is.
Christians believe in 1 God (Deuteronomy 6:4) not 3 as Muslims set up Red Herrings and bring fallacious arguments, all Christians affirm belief in 1 God. All 3 Persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) are the 1 God as they are of the one essence of God. They are co-equal in Genesis the word Elohim (אֱלֹהִים) which is a plural word.
We’re in agreement that God created the world spoken of in the first verse of Genesis, in the second verse the Holy Spirit was also involved in the making of creation “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). Lastly in John 1:1 the Word (Jesus Christ) also created the world, the proof is in verse 3 “All things were made by him” that is all things were made by Jesus Christ. All 3 were involved in the creation of the world.
We substantiate that Jesus is the Word of Allah in the Qur’ān [4:171] “The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word”.
sūrat l-nisāa 4:171
There you go the Qur’ān says Jesus is the Word of Allah, Muhammad copied this from the Bible without knowing what the Word of God meant.
She mentioned 1 Corinthians 8:4, let’s point out her hypocrisy. This goes against the Muslim belief as they claim that Paul was a liar, saying he changed the teachings of Jesus Christ.[1] Yet here she’s taking one of Paul’s writings and saying she agrees with Paul that God is one. This is what Paul said, that is the height of hypocrisy.
Muslims say that Paul is the one who created Christianity and made up a lie about Jesus being God, but this Muslima is using Paul to claim what he’s teaching is correct.
John 14:28 “my Father is greater than I” Muslims love this quote but fail to understand it, Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, He became a real Man who was surrounded by people who were trying to kill Him. This verse is not speaking of the deity of Christ as being “lesser” than the Father.
The Father was in heaven, therefore, technically speaking the Father was in a greater position than the Son as He (the Father) is untouchable in heaven. While Jesus was on Earth as a real Man surrounded by enimies and subjected Himself to everything humans would be subjected to.
She then assumes in Luke 18:19 that Jesus Christ is saying He’s not good? Talk about not knowing the scriptures, if you read again Christ is asking the rich young ruler a question. In essence He’s asking the rich young ruler a rhetorical question “are you calling me God because only God is good”[2]
This verse actually goes against the Islamic claim and rejection of the deity of Christ, even though in their own Qur’ān Jesus can do things only Allah can do. First, Jesus is called pure in other words he’s Holy, in the Arberry translation he translates it “a boy most pure”.
In case there’s any doubt that this is what the verse says here’s the word for word syntax of this particular verse. Notice it says speaking of Isa “a son pure”.
So Jesus is pure and Holy, additionally he was able to speak from the cradle in the Qur’ān, no one else was able to accomplish this, the verse I’m referring to is Chapter 3 sūrat āl ʿim’rān. Not only is he pure, Holy and will speak from the cradle but he’s also called righteous.
Unfortunately, Muhammad is never spoken of in the same way as Jesus even in the Qur’ān. Let’s not forget that Jesus in the Qur’ān is the word of Allah, a spirit from Allah, Muslims cannot give an answer for 4:171 as Jesus is a spirit from Allah and his word. There’s also a verse that says Jesus heals the blind and lepers and is raising people from the dead.
That’s not all he also knows the unseen and can tell you what you hide in your house. This means Jesus has the same ability as Allah as in verse 2:33 Allah sees the unseen.
How is it Isa knows the unseen just like Allah, Isa can create life like Allah, he’s a word and spirit from Allah, and has the ability to speak from the cradle and is called Holy. These are all traits or attrubutes of God.
In John 8:42 Jesus Christ says He came from God, meaning He (Jesus) came from heaven, this corresponds to 4:171 in the Qur’ān which says Jesus is a spirit from Allah. Even though we don’t believe Isa is the true Jesus but Muhammad didn’t know what he was saying.
sūrat l-nisāa 4:171
The Qur’ān says Jesus is a spirit from Allah, and he is a word from Allah sent to Mary, some of the other Muslim translations read:
Sahih International “His word which He directed to Mary”
Pickthall “His word which He conveyed unto Mary”
Yusuf Ali “His Word, which He bestowed on Mary”
Shakir “His Word which He communicated to Marium”
Muhammad Sarwar “His Word, and a spirit from Him whom He conveyed to Mary.”
Mohsin Khan “His Word, which He bestowed on Maryam”
Arberry “His Word that He committed to Mary”
Here’s the verse in John where Christ says He came from God, providing evidence that Jesus Christ is eternal. No one else can make this same claim.
This ties in with another verses where the Lord Jesus said He came down from heaven. I wonder how Abdoools would respond to these words from Jesus Himself?
John 6:38 proves that Jesus preexisted His incarnation this is why He can say He existed before Abraham. It’s a hard pill for Muslims to swallow. She mentioned Luke 22:42 and misquoted it, the word is “done” not “one”. She assumes that because the Father sent the Son that this somehow discredits Jesus Christ being God.
Let’s think about this logically, if a father told his son to go to the store for him does this in anyway indicate that the son is no longer human because the father sent him? No! That would be insane and silly to claim such. This is what Muslims do, they think because Jesus was sent by the Father this means He’s not God. As we’ve just showed this has nothing to do with the deity of Christ.
She mentioned John 5:30 indicating that Christ sought the Father’s will. The will of the Father is not different from the will of the Son as they are the One God, they work in complete union together.
Therefore, it’s not strange for Christ to say He wants to do the will of the Father. Jesus Christ is not rebellious and never sinned and will do what He was sent to do. This verse corresponds with Luke 22:42.
The Bible is a collection of 66 Books
The Bible is a collection of 66 Books covering two thousand years of history written over nearly a thousand years. Inaccuracies and contradictions are likely to occur as it was not kept pure and the language changed. It could be said that the Bible is a book of ‘Chinese Whispers’ in that the message had been passed on, in some cases, from eyewitnesses to their associates. Original manuscripts can change as they are copied out. Existing original material is almost non-existent. No entire original documents have survived. The language is untranslatable as time has changed the language and so earlier languages of the Bible cannot fully be understood. All there are are copies of the Gospels written hundreds of years after the original writing.
It’s funny that Susie says the Bible has “inaccuracies and contradictions” yet her prophet said he believes in the Bible, which means Muhammad believes in the inaccuracies and contradictions according to her.
I would like her to answer when was the Bible corrupted, was it before Muhammad’s time or during his time? Her claim of corruption goes against Allah, as he said none can change his words, as the Torah and Injil according to the Qur’ān are Allah’s words.
Other verses which speak no one being able to change Allah’s words are surah 6:115, 10:64, which means Allah is incapable and not powerful enough to protect his books. Let’s not forget all of the contradictions found in the Qur’ān, I’ll link to some articles which lays this argument.
Just like every other Muslim Susie speaks of something she has no knowledge of, in order to change an ancient manuscript the process would be impossible as we would be able to detect where those “changes occurred”.
In order for this to happen they would have to gather all existing manuscripts in the entire world. Not an easy task as they were distributed to different churches (Antioch, Corinth, Ephesus, Thessalonica, Rome, Colosse) not to mention any other place not recorded.
We’re talking about thousands upon thousands of manuscripts. Then in order to change the text, a pumice stone would be used. Using a pumice stone would cause damage to the manuscript itself. Lastly, we would be able to make out what text was laid down before the pumice stone was used. It’s just not physically possible.[3]
The nail in the coffin is that the Qur’ān was the book not preserved, we have up to 40 different Arabic Qur’āns with different words and meanings. Plus there are missing verses in the Qur’ān like the breastfeeding verse eaten by a goat. Here’s the article speaking of the unpreserved Qur’ān.
Here’s the sum Susie Brackenborough has no clue what she’s talking about just like every Muslim. She has learned these nonsensical arguments and is parroting them. According to what we learned she was never a born-again Christian. While the word Trinity is not found in the bible the teaching is, but the word Tawhid is not found in the Qur’an.
The Lord Jesus is the ONLY Begotten Son of God and He is the Son of God. He’s called the Word of God found in both the Bible and Qur’an meaning He’s eternal. And the Bible has been preserved as we have plenty of manuscript evidence while the Qur’an has none! We’re calling Susie to come to Jesus Christ for salvation as He is the Living Word of God.
Footnotes
[1] Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: The first one to introduce the innovated view that ‘Ali was infallible and that he should have been the caliph on the basis of religious texts was the leader of these hypocrites, ‘Abdullah ibn Saba’, who was originally Jewish, then pretended to be Muslim and aimed to corrupt the Islamic religion as Paul had corrupted the Christian religion.
[2] Ironically, Jesus withholds the anticipated answer. Does Jesus sense that the questioner, like the Pharisee in the previous parable (18:11-12), is overconfident or disingenuous? “Why do you call me good?” responds Jesus. “No one is good — except God alone.” The Greek me (v. 19, “me”) in the rhetorical question is positioned emphatically at the front of the sentence, “Why do you call me good?” Plummer calls the ruler’s address of Jesus “extraordinary,” for in Judaism God or Torah are rightly called good, but not rabbis. Jesus does not affirm his goodness but implies that his goodness is the goodness of God, the source of all goodness, working in him: “The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees the Father doing” (John 5:19). Given Jesus’ servant posture and reticence regarding his messianic status, he directs the ruler unambiguously to God. “No one is good — except God alone” could also be translated “except the one God,” thus directing the ruler to the Shema (Deut 6:4). Edwards, James R. The Gospel According to Luke. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company/Apollos, 2015.
[3] To begin, we must emphasize that out of these 150,000 variants, 99 percent hold virtually no significance whatsoever. Many of these variants simply involve a missing letter in a word; some involve reversing the order of two words (such as “Christ Jesus” instead of “Jesus Christ”); some may involve the absence of one or more insignificant words. Really, when all the facts are put on the table, only about 50 of the variants have any real significance– and even then, no doctrine of the Christian faith or any moral commandment is effected by them. For more than ninety-nine percent of the cases the original text can be reconstructed to a practical certainty. Ron Rhodes (2022). Manuscript Evidence for the Bible’s Reliability. Retrieved from https://www.ronrhodes.org/manuscript-support-for-the-bible-s-relia
Islam is a world religion made up of proud Muslims, the norm is to boast in the fact that you’re “born into” a Muslim family. The other is people who “reverted” and took their shahada confessing in Allah and his messenger Muhammad which is tantamount to shirk (associating partners with Allah).
Last but not least they boast in numbers claiming Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, not to mention there are thousands of Muslims leaving Islam. The truth is Islam is not growing by conversion but by birth rate. Muslim men can have multiple wives (upwards of 4 at a time) and will have multiple children raising them as Muslims.
In the Qur’ān we’re told the only religion that will be accepted is Islam, this is found in Surah Ali ‘Imran. The truth tells us a different story, there’s a contradiction verse 2:62 says Christians, Jews and Sabaeans[1] will go to heaven. Notice the words in the present tense “those who are” is a continual state.
If Christians, Jews and Sabaeans will also go to heaven then how can Islam be the true religion? This proves that Allah not only accepts Islam but also accepts Christianity, Judaism and Sabaeans who worshipped “spiritual entities”. The next verse solidifies the contradiction, not only does Allah accept 3 different groups of people saying they will go to heaven.
Verse 3:85 says any other belief will be rejected that is not Islam. Is this the kind of god Muslims worship a god who contradicts himself over and over again? The truth is Allah doesn’t exist this is all the made-up stories of Muhammad who contradicted himself time and time again.
The true God Yahweh never contradicts Himself, this is one way how we can distinguish between Yahweh and Allah. You be the judge for yourself read the verses and come to your own conclusion.
Conclusion
How can these verses co-exist? Certain verses say the only religion is Islam yet Allah accepts Christians, Jews and Sabaeans; these are 3 groups who don’t believe in Allah nor his silly prophet who can’t even keep his story straight. All of the errors in the Qur’ān prove it’s not a book from god. Muslims we are calling you to come to the true God Jesus Christ the real God of Muhammad the false prophet.
I’d like to hear from Muslims on how they rectify this error in the Qur’ān.
Footnotes
[1] In a note on the port of Muhamrah (‘ Proceedings,’ 1891, p. 297), I see a remark on the Sabwans, and the expression of a desire for some information, For readers who will content themselves with some little information on the subject, the following extracts from my note-book may be of interest, and for those who wish to study the subject further, I attach a bibliography. Mir Abdul Latif Khin Shushtar?, a Persian author who wrote at the end of last century, says as follows in his ‘Tohfat ul ’Alem’: “Some unbelievers called Sab’ah live at Shushtar. Their religion is considered to be a mixture of the Christian and Jewish faiths. They are not the planet-worshippers mentioned in the Gor’an, for they do not worship the stars. They also are not idolaters, and are neither Christians nor Jews. One of their customs is to go every morning into the river up to their waist, look towards the sun and pray, wash themselves, and then go away. Most of these people are goldsmiths, and some are clever agriculturists, One of my relatives frequently conversed with them, and asked them questions as to their faith. They said that their prophet was John, the son of Zacharias, and that Jesus, the son of Mary, had been one of his principal disciples, One man gave out that Ibrahim Khalil Ullah (Abraham) was a son of John’s maternal aunt, and that he brought up and educated John, My relative questioned these people many times and wrote down everything they said, but their statements varied every time. This religion exists only in Khizistan, and not in any other part of Persia. Houtum-Schindler, A. (1891). Notes on the Sabæans. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography, 13(11), 663–669. https://doi.org/10.2307/1800947
Our Muslim friends are at it again, we enjoy showing them the truth time and time again perhaps one day they’ll learn that they don’t know as much as they think they do. Either way, we love Muslims and pray for their salvation. And that brings up something quite hilarious.
On their blog, it reads “A Quiet Place in Cyberspace Dedicated to the Search for Truth and Salvation”, this word comes from the Bible as Christians use it to explain the redemption Christ Jesus has procured for us. Why are Muslims using Christian terminology?
Salvation in Arabic is (خلاص), this word was placed in Google translate, note on the bottom left. It mentions that Christians believe in salvation through faith in Christ. In the Qur’ān the word salvation is not used, you’ll find words like successful, attainment, victory etc. Yusuf Ali primarily had translated words like (الْمُفْلِحِينَ) which means “prosperous” into “salvation”, this is a deceptive translation.
Also provided is the Arabic dictionary as you can see the word (خلاص) and its definition. Therefore, we highly recommend that qnBb changes its title to reflect what Islam teaches.
Don’t expect them to change it because they dabble in deception and want people to think there’s salvation in Islam when in reality there’s none. Even Muhammad didn’t know if he would make it to Jannah, but I digress that this is a topic for another time.
The “Evidence” 2 John 9–11 (Surah Ali ‘Imran 3:28)
This will turn out bad for the Abdools, I hope they’re prepared. In their weak attempt to attack Christianity Muslims grossly misinterpret scriptures in hopes to get people to believe in their false religion. The ignorance of Abdools is on another level!
The unknown author of this letter did not mince words regarding associating with unbelievers. A Christian was forbidden to greet such a person or to let him in his house.
During the last supper in the upper room before Judas Iscariot would leave the company to betray Jesus to the Pharisees, John was sitting close to Christ, he was an eyewitness of all that Jesus Christ did which leads to 1 John 1:1.
The disciple John was part of the inner circle along with Peter and James. The 3 were privy to when Christ revealed His glory on the top of the Mount of Transfiguration. John would have touched, heard, and seen the miracles of Christ personally.
Keywords (emphasis ours): “That which was from the beginning, … we have heard, … seen with our eyes, … we have looked upon, … our hands have handled, of the Word of life;”.
A clear reading of the Gospel of John along with 1st, 2nd 3rd John and Revelation, John provides evidence that the one named the beloved disciple, also known as the disciple whom Jesus loved, is also the author of the named books.
This known phrase “the disciple whom Jesus loved” materialises a total of 5 times in the Gospel of John. This disciple has a prominent role to the extent that Simon Peter asked “Lord, and what shall this man do?” in reference to the beloved disciple’s ministry in John chapter 21.
External evidence for the authorship of 1 John:
Quotes from the Epistle as being authored by John the Apostle are Irenaeus1 in his work against Heresies mentions John by name stating that he taught certain principles namely Jesus as the only begotten Son of God, in which the Father created all things.
Other notable mentions are Clement of Alexandria,2 Tertullian, Origen and his pupil Dionysius who argued for the authorship of Johannine works.
If they understood the background of 2 John they wouldn’t make this grave mistake. The background of 2 John is a continuation of 1 John. The context is Christians who were travelling from house to house, in which Christians would gather for worship and fellowship before the construction of Church buildings. The Apostle John was writing to warn of false teachers who were masquerading as Christians and bringing into the congregation erroneous doctrine.
This is the background of 2 John, with that context in view we can now turn to the passage qnBb brought into question.
2 John 9-11 explains how if an individual comes and teaches false doctrine (like Muhammad) is not welcomed. These false teachers don’t “abide in the doctrine of Christ”, and what is that doctrine? It’s that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God in the flesh, that He died for our sins and rose from the dead for our justification. That we can have salvation through the atoning death of the Lamb of God.
As well as the doctrine of the Trinity (Abdool trigger!), hence John writes stating whoever denies the fact that the Father and the Son collectively are the One True God. We are to not allow them to spread their cancerous doctrine in the assembly.3 Nowhere does it speak about not being friends with non-Christians. The Lord Jesus is called a friend of sinners (Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:34) as followers of Christ we are called to imitate Him.
If someone posing as a Muslim at a Masjid was spreading teachings contrary to Islam they wouldn’t be welcomed. This is the context of 2 John, he’s not telling Christians they cannot be friends with non-Christians. Now let’s bring this into the Qur’ān where Muslims are told not to be friends with non-Muslims. In Surah Al-Ma’idah the words from their god Allah says:
Believers are discouraged in Islam from taking unbelievers as friends, if they do Allah will not help them. And it gets worse. Allah commands Muslims to not be friends with people who don’t believe in Allah.
According to their Qur’ān Muslims are not allowed to take Jews or Christians as friends. It’s plain and simple, they try to add the word “war” etc. This verse mentions nothing about war, it has to do with a person’s BELIEF because they are not a Muslim, therefore, it’s not allowed to be friends with them.4 This is why the Qur’ān says if you do then you are one of them, in other words no longer a Muslim.
Here’s the Tafsir (emphasis ours):
(Let not the believers take) the believers ought not to take [the hypocrites:] ‘Abdullah Ibn Ubayy and his companions [and] (disbelievers) the Jews (for their friends) so as to become mighty and honourable (in preference to believers) who are sincere. (Whoso doeth that) seeking might and honour [by taking the hypocrites and disbelievers as friends] (hath no connection with Allah) has no honour, mercy or protection from Allah (unless (it be) that ye but guard yourselves against them) save yourselves from them, (taking (as it were) security) saving yourselves from them by speaking in a friendly way towards them with, while your hearts dislikes this. (Allah bideth you beware (only) of Himself) regarding the shunning of unlawful killing, unlawful sex, unlawful property, consuming intoxicants, false testimony and associating partners with Allah. (Unto Allah is the journeying) the return after death.5
Tafsir Ibn ‘Abbas
The donkeys at qnBb are unaware the homes spoken of by John are house churches. Christians gathered in different homes to worship and learn doctrine spoken of by the Lord Jesus passed on to His Apostles, and to the disciples. The 2nd Epistle of John is a letter warning the believers of the Gnostics who claimed “secret knowledge”, John was against their false teachings as they denied Christ came in the flesh.
The muta’h boys are arguing for heretical teaching. The Gnostics taught Jesus didn’t come in the flesh, that’s a direct rejection of the Qur’ān as this would deny that Isa came in the flesh. It’s hilarious they quote the church fathers as if they’re saying Christians cannot be friends with non-Christians.
The context is not to fellowship with those who teach erroneous doctrines masquerading as a Christian when they’re anything but. Cults such as Arianism, and Sabellianism are against orthodox Christianity.
It’s in this context the church fathers are read, when done so it’s clear to see they’re against cult teachings not people. Looking at the quotes in light of people like Jehovah’s Witnesses who teach Jesus is not God (Arianism), Oneness Pentecostals who say Jesus and the Father are the same Person (Sabellianism) or Mormons who teach Christ is one of many gods (polytheism).6
Tertullian: “Although we ought to be seeking at all times, where ought we to seek? Among the heretics, where all is foreign and opposed to our truth, with whom we are forbidden to associate?”
Ambrose of Milan: “Since it is written that we should avoid such people, how can we not assume that someone who associates with Arians is also an exponent of their heresy?”
Hilary of Arles: “Here you see an example of excommunication in the New Testament, both from table fellowship at home and from table fellowship in church.”
Irenaeus of Lyons: “By wishing that we do not even give them a welcome, John, the Lord’s disciple, made their condemnation even stronger.”
Clement of Alexandria: “John forbids us to greet such people or to offer them hospitality, which in the circumstances is not at all unkind. But he also warns us not to argue or dispute with people who are unable to handle the things of God, lest we should be taken away from the true doctrine by clever arguments which have the appearance of truth. Furthermore, I think that it is wrong to pray with such people, because during times of prayer there is a moment for greeting and sharing the peace.”
Didymus the Blind: “Anyone who dwells in the doctrine of the gospel and who acts according to its teaching will separate himself from those who think and act differently.”
The Abdools then said:
“… we saved the best for last. Basil “The Great” plainly stated that Christians cannot be “friends” with non-Christians. …”
Let’s be clear Christians follow Jesus Christ, not the church fathers or anyone else, qnBb mentions Basil “The Great” (emphasis ours):
“It is obvious that those who make friends of people who SPEAK FALSELY about God and who even eat with them do not love the Lord who made them and who feeds them. Instead of being content with that food they are led away into blasphemy against the one who feeds them.”
Basil “The Great”
I guess qnBb likes people speaking falsely about Allah their god. Perhaps they can take a few non-Muslims out to dinner who speak against Islam unless qnBb are hypocrites and won’t prove otherwise?
The “Evidence” 1 Corinthians 5:9–11
Thank you muta’h boys for a good laugh, it was fun! Muslim ignorance rears its ugly head again, 1 Corinthians 5:9–11 is speaking about someone who’s in fellowship in a local assembly. In other words, a Christian who is going around practising sin, as Christians we cannot tolerate sin among the fellowship of believers and the offending party is to be put out of assembly fellowship.
By doing so these sinful practices will not spread to the rest of the believers. As it’s said leaven corrupts and spreads like yeast in bread. The Lord Jesus said, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod” (Mark 8:15).
And in keeping in context with 1 Corinthians Paul the apostle said: “Your glorying [is] not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:6-8).
Garland, D. E. (2003). 1 Corinthians (Ser. Baker exegetical commentary on the new testament). Baker Academic. p. 184-185
Garland in his exegetical commentary on the New Testament draws from the text, that the Corinthians had a problem in the church. There was an incident of an individual who committed incest with his father’s wife, this sin was unacceptable but the believers in the Corinthian church didn’t confront the man, thereby being complacent. Paul rebukes them saying this should not have happened.7
Muhammad on the other hand committed all sorts of sexual sins, he had sex with a minor as a child paedophile (Sahih al-Bukhari 5133), any believing woman can give herself to the prophet for sex (Quran 33:50).
Muhammad contradicted himself because he said in the book of Jame’ Alsag’er (Imam Al-Soiuty), Hadith 2994: “Any woman, [if] she gives herself to a man to marry him without her father’s, or man of the house’s permission, she is a whore”
Jame’ Alsag’er (Imam Al-Soiuty), Hadith 2994
Comparing this to 33:50 we have to ask the question, how can the woman, who gives herself to marry a man be a whore, but the woman who gives herself to Muhammad be a good/pious woman? Challenge give one woman’s name who became a wife to Muhammad by giving herself to him. None of his wives gave herself to him as there’s no such thing as marriage in Islam. Proof Muhammad was a sexually immoral man.
Conclusion
The truth is that Muslims worship an immoral man called Muhammad which means “the praised one”, how can a sinful man be praised? As a Christian, the only One who gets praised is God alone. The black stone smoochers love sin and are hypocritical, these are traits from Satan himself because that’s who Allah is. We can only continue to provide evidence from their own sources, showing them how sinful their prophet is, a man who allowed sexual immorality, lying, killing, extortion and a whole slew of other sinful practices.
We’ll close out this article with the words of their “god” Allah, notice how Allah wants to spread terror into the hearts of unbelievers. That’s not all he wants Muslims to smite people on the neck and cut off their fingertips.
What god commands such wickedness? Allah must love chicken fingers, maybe we should get him a bucket of KFC? Come to Christ our Muslim friends, the Lord Jesus knocks will you invite Him in? (Revelation 3:20)
And Allah (Shameful and Perish He’ll be) doesn’t know best!
Footnotes
1 “Further, they teach that John, the disciple of the Lord, indicated the first Ogdoad, expressing themselves in these words: John, the disciple of the Lord, wishing to set forth the origin of all things, so as to explain how the Father produced the whole, lays down a certain principle,—that, namely, which was first-begotten by God, which Being he has termed both the only-begotten Son and God, in whom the Father, after a seminal manner, brought forth all things.” Irenaeus of Lyons, “Irenæus against Heresies, 1.8.5.” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 328.
2 ”Peter having preached the word publicly at Rome, and by the Spirit proclaimed the Gospel, those who were present, who were numerous, entreated Mark, inasmuch as he had attended him from an early period, and remembered what had been said, to write down what had been spoken. On his composing the Gospel, he handed it to those who had made the request to him; which coming to Peter’s knowledge, he neither hindered nor encouraged. But John, the last of all, seeing that what was corporeal was set forth in the Gospels, on the entreaty of his intimate friends, and inspired by the Spirit, composed a spiritual Gospel.” Clement of Alexandria, “Fragments of Clemens Alexandrinus,” in Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria (Entire), ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. William Wilson, vol. 2, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 580.
3 “Such hospitality was open to easy abuse, however. There was the false teacher, on the one hand, who yet posed as a Christian: should hospitality be extended to him? And there was the more obvious mountebank, the false prophet with false credentials, who was dominated less by the creed he had to offer than by the material profit and free board and lodging he hoped to gain. It is against this background that we must read the Second and Third Epistles of John, for in them the Elder issues instructions concerning whom to welcome and whom to refuse, and why. Genuine Christian missionaries, he writes, maybe recognized both by the message they bring and by the motive which inspires them. If they faithfully proclaim the doctrine of Christ (cf. 2 Jn. 7), and if they have set out not for filthy lucre but for the sake of His name (3 Jn. 7), then they should both be received and helped forward on their journey ‘as befits God’s service (3 Jn. 6, RSV)” Stott JRW. The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary. 2nd ed. (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press; 1988), p. 199
4 “Taking them as friends in general terms, taking them as helpers and supporters, and throwing in one’s lot with them. Allaah forbids all this, as He says (interpretation of the meaning): “O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians as awliya’ (friends, protectors, helpers, etc.), they are but awliya’ to one another…” [al-Maa’idah 5:51].” Islamqa.info (1998, September 10) APA citation. Clarification of the important rule: it is haraam to take kaafirs as close friends and protectors. Retrieved from https://islamqa.info/en/answers/2179/clarification-of-the-important-rule-it-is-haraam-to-take-kaafirs-as-close-friends-and-protectors
6 Gerald Bray., & Thomas C. Oden (2020). Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude, Volume XI (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2000).
7 Garland, D. E. (2003). 1 Corinthians (Ser. Baker exegetical commentary on the new testament). Baker Academic. p. 184-185
The Watchtower’s position is that Jesus Christ is the first created creature Jehovah made, they cite passages such as Colossians 1:15 and Revelation 3:14 to prove their point. But upon further look does this make sense according to what the Bible teaches? The Lord Jesus clearly stated that He existed before He came to Earth through the virgin birth.
When discussing the deity of Christ with Jehovah Witnesses they will bring up the word firstborn in Colossians 1:15-17 and this is how it reads in their New World Translation.
If we take a look at the Watchtower’s Kingdom Greek Interlinear (also found on their website) the deception becomes more clear. This same passage reads:
Why does the Watchtower insert the word “other” when it’s not found in the Greek text, if you read it with and without the word “other” you can see the significance of how the word “other” alters the text to fit with the WT’s view that Jesus is a created creature.
The word “other” is rendered in 2 different ways in the Greek. One is allos and the other is heteros.
ἄλλοςállos, al’-los; a primary word; “else,” i.e. different (in many applications):—more, one (another), (an-, some an-)other(-s, -wise).
ἕτεροςhéteros, het’-er-os; of uncertain affinity; (an-, the) other or different:—altered, else, next (day), one, (an-)other, some, strange.
Looking closely at the Greek text you will not find either one of these words in Colossians 1:15-17. Here’s the Greek text:
According to Colossians verse 15 Jesus Christ is the firstborn of every creature, JW’s claim the word firstborn means Jesus was “created”. If so then how do they interpret Jesus being the firstborn from the dead In verse 18?
The word firstborn in Greek is prōtotokos (πρωτότοκος) which can mean a literal birth, but the word is also used figuratively as well. The context of the passage dictates how the word firstborn is to be interpreted. The rest of the passage tells us that Jesus Christ created all things in heaven, in earth visible and invisible. The Lord Jesus is the one doing the creating, again in verse 18 it says that Jesus would have the preeminence (Superiority).
According to the Watchtower Jesus is the first created creature by Jehovah, if this is so then how did Jesus exist outside of time? Time is created by God and if Jesus is only a “creature” how can a creature exist outside of time, unless He’s God. Additionally, if Jesus was created before the heavens and earth, where did Jesus exist if there was no heaven for him to exist in?
By asking these questions we see how quickly the theology of Jehovah Witnesses doesn’t hold up. It’s not our intention to tear down JW’s but we’re challenging their beliefs in order to make them think. If they would put down the Watchtower magazine and read the Bible (not the NWT), then they might see how wrong the teachings of the Watchtower are.
Muslims claim they know what they’re saying when they try to refute the Godhead (Trinity), but they can’t, I like to challenge Muslims to respond to what’s written here if they are able? A blog called The Quran and Bible Blog the owner of the blog also called “Mr. Q” has put forth this challenge.
Yep, here we go again. Christians throw their hands in the air and say “you just don’t understand!” Hey Trinitarian, can you explain the trinity. Maybe use an analogy?
I’m going to answer this question with the analogy he asked for, let’s see if he’ll be able to refute this. All Christians believe in 1 God (Deuteronomy 6:4). The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are the 1 God collectively, fully and completely, the Trinity is found throughout creation.
Analogy: Time is composed of Past, Present, Future all 3 are time yet all 3 (Past, Present, Future) are distinct one from another but all three still remain as time.
It’s very disappointing when Christadelphians, a non-Christian cult visits a Muslim blog in order to refute the Trinity. Here’s a conversation between one of the Christadelphian pages here on WP and the owner of the said blog.
Christadelphians: Please do know and let others be aware that not all Christians do believe in the false human doctrine of the Trinity. quranandbibleblog: That is true, but the vast majority are Trinitarians. Christadelphians: Shamefully yes! mr.heathcliff: what are your arguments against the trinity, thanks Christadelphians: The Trinity is a false human teaching which entered Christianity, bringing division and a chaotic Christendom where many other dogma’s had to be created to have the trinity theory working. God clearly declared Jesus to be His only begotten beloved son, His sent one and authorised one.
It seems Muslims and Christadelphians have become bedfellows, strange that a group who claims to believe in the Bible would agree with Muslims who deny the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Notice the Christadelphian didn’t gave any biblical references to prove his point, he only gave his opinion. Lord willing, I’ll continue to write more on the Christadelphians cults teachings. If you’d like to read some articles on the erroneous doctrines of the Christadelphians in the meantime feel free to read these older post.
Let’s look at some passages in the Bible and wait for any Muslim to respond.
Trinity In the Old Testament
The Trinity is found in the Old Testament scriptures, in Genesis the very first verse in the Bible says “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) the word for God there in Hebrew is Elohim which is a plural word which means Gods. Remember in the beginning I mentioned “All Christians believe in 1 God”, I say this again because Muslims love to use straw-man arguments claiming Christinas believe in 3 gods; when we do not and shows a lack of knowledge and genuineness on their part. From the beginning this verse is telling us that God is complex in His unity with a plurality in the Godhead.
Another classic verse is when God said “Letusmake man in our image, after our likeness:” (Genesis 1:26). Note the words “us” and “our” this suggest a plurality. Again this is used later in Genesis 11:7 in the case of the tower of babel the LORD says “Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
Again we see the words “let us”, surely if God created communication He can convey the thought that God is complex in His unity.
Genesis chapter 18 says the LORD appeared to Abraham in the plains of Mamre, in this account God shows upp with 2 men and sits down with Abraham even having a meal which Sarah prepares.
Two of the men are sent to Sodom and Gomorrah to witness the lewd abominations they were committing. God planned on judging those cities for their sinful ways. But one of the men stood behind with Abraham which was the LORD Himself, and He prophesied to Abraham that Sarah will give birth to a son (Isaac). Sarah laughs because she knows that they were not able to bear children, especially now that they are old. But the man sitting before Abraham who reveals Himself as the LORD says:
The LORD and Abraham are face to face during this time discussing the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, as the LORD planned on destroying those cities. Abraham tries to intercede for the cities asking if God would spare Sodom and Gomorrah if any righteous men were found in those cities.
The two men who went ahead to Sodom turned out to be angels, “And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing [them] rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;” (Genesis 19:1).
The men of Sodom and Gomorrah wanted to have sex with the two men “Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.” (Genesis 19:5) Lot then tells the men of Sodom not to commit this sin and offered his two virgin daughters to the men of Sodom (Genesis 19:6-8).
After the men would not hear the words of Lot, the 2 angles pull Lot back into his home and proceeded to blind the wicked men of Sodom (Genesis 19:9-11). The angels then tell Lot to gather his sons in law and daughters, because God will destroy the city.
The interesting part is how God destroyed the city in verse Genesis 19:24 we read:
Notice there are 2 individuals here called LORD, one was on the earth and the other in heaven. If you read closely it says “Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;”
Can Muslims explain how this verse says the LORD rained down fire from the LORD out of heaven? There are other verses which can be brought up just from the Old Testament to prove the plurality in the Godhead, but for now this is sufficient enough evidence to prove Muslims and Christadelphians are in gross error and don’t know who God is.
Trinity In the New Testament
Moving unto verses in the New Testament that proves the Trinity, I draw your attention to a passage found in the synoptic Gospels concerning the baptism of Jesus Christ.
This passage clearly makes a distinction between 3 Persons, we have (1) Jesus in the water, (2) the Spirit of God descending in Luke saying “in a bodily shape”,(3) we have a voice from heaven which is obviously God the Father saying “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. This sounds like the Trinity to me.
A few critical questions need to be asked at this point. Is Jesus talking to Himself saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”? Obviously not because Jesus is in the water and the voice is coming from heaven, unless this was the first instance of “ventriloquism” which the Bible doesn’t teach this and therefore, there’s a clear distinction between Jesus Christ and the voice from heaven (God the Father).
The same question can be asked about the Spirit of God, is the Spirit of God, Jesus Christ? Again Christ is in the water and the Spirit of God is descending (coming down) upon Jesus Christ. That means Jesus is not coming down upon Himself, again we have a clear distinction of 2 Persons.
I’d like to hear how Muslims and Christadelphians would reconcile this passage? The Muslim will most likely say that the Bible is corrupted which is what they say when they don’t have an answer. But in saying this they prove Muhammad is a false prophet because according to the Hadith told Christians to judge by the Gospel, why would Muhammad direct Christians to judge by a book that’s supposedly “corrupted”?
Let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah hath revealed therein. If any do fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) those who rebel. — S 5:47
Muhammad even went as far to say that he believed in the Torah which was revealed by “Allah”.
Narrated Abdullah Ibn Umar: A group of Jews came and invited the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) to Quff. So he visited them in their school. They said: AbulQasim, one of our men has committed fornication with a woman; so pronounce judgment upon them. They placed a cushion for the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) who sat on it and said: Bring the Torah. It was then brought. He then withdrew the cushion from beneath him and placed the Torah on it saying: I believed in thee and in Him Who revealed thee. He then said: Bring me one who is learned among you. Then a young man was brought. The transmitter then mentioned the rest of the tradition of stoning similar to the one transmitted by Malik from Nafi'(No. 4431). — Sunan Abi Dawud 4449 Grade: Hasan (Al-Albani)
Non-Christian cults which are bed fellows with Muslims
It just goes to show that the enemies of Christ will become partners just to try to go against what Christians believe. We have Muslims jumping in bed with the Christadelphian cult, Jews and anyone else to form a coalition against Christians. But that’s ok, truth stands and prevails in the face of falsehood. Christians only need to stand on what Christ has done for us, and His death burial and resurrection has stood steadfast since the first century.
The resurrection of Christ has been under attack ever since the beginning when the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, the apostles had to endure harshness from unbelievers when preaching Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23), and we as believers today have to endure the same. May we continue to preach Christ to the lost, and keep Muslims and Christadelphians as well as all those who haven’t been saved.
There’s a preacher on YouTube by the name of Gabe the street preacher, he’s been around for some years posting videos preaching on different street corners. He tends to frequent churches, colleges, concerts, parades etc.
Gabe states that he’s Christian yet denies fundamental Christian doctrine, some of which are listed here from his own channel. Doctrines Gabe the street preacher denies are (1) The Trinity / Godhead (2) believes a person must be baptised “in the name of Jesus Christ” for salvation thereby denying the commandment of Christ in Matthew 28:19 (3) a person must “speak in new tongues” as evidence of salvation. (4) Thinks born again Christians can lose their salvation.
(1) Oneness Pentecostals deny the plurality in the Godhead, namely the Trinity because they think by holding to the Oneness of God they must reject the 3 Persons within the Triune God. It’s not known if Gabe the street preacher identifies as a “Oneness Pentecostal”? But he certainly holds to the teaching that God as 1 individual.
The same is true of Muslim and Unitarians they also deny the plurality or Persons within the 1 God. And when the following passages are read in context the belief that God is 1 individual fails apart.
Gabe holds to the teaching of Modalism (otherwise known as Sabellianism) which has been proven as a heretical teaching. The following verse proves there’s 1 God (Deuteronomy 6:4) but since the Bible has no contradictions how does a Modalist interpret verses which shows a distinction between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
In the classic case of the Trinity found in the Gospel of John we read:
Clearly the Word is a separate Person from “God” John 1:1 says “the Word was with God”, in order for the Word to be with God denotes two Persons are in view. If we read the Greek which is even more powerful it reads that the Word was πρὸς τὸν θεόν which means “face to face” with God. How does Gabe the street preacher interpret this scripture if he denies the Trinity?
Another problematic verse is the baptism of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Matthew:
In this account we have Jesus Christ in the water, Christ see’s the the Spirit of God coming down like a dove upon Him; and we have a voice from heaven. This is another proof text of the Trinity we have 3 Persons in view, the Lord Jesus in the water, the Holy Spirit coming down on Christ and the Father speaking from Heaven. How can verses like these be explained by a oneness person who denies the Trinity?
In a recent video Gabe went as far to make a claim that the Catholic church some how altered the text to insert the Trinity into the Bible. This claim lacks knowledge on a fundamental level, this is the same attack Muslims use against the Bible. It seems Gabe has more in common with Islam than Christianity. The reason why his argument is weak is because (1) the Catholic church was not in existence during the times of Christ (2) manuscripts were already being distributed throughout the world before the Catholic church was formed (3) in order for the Catholic church to “alter” the text of the Bible they would have to find every manuscript in the world and systematically alter the text without destroying the papyri by erasing/adding words.
We have over 5800 Greek New Testament manuscripts to date, with an impressive 2.6 million pages of biblical text. If Gabe the street preacher understood the silliness of his assumption he would see that it’s impossible for anyone to remove or add words into the text of the papyri.
This is not taking into account the Hebrew Tanakh (Old Testament) as well. All of which both the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts were distributed throughout the world. The Catholic church would have to gather each one in order to “change the text”. It’s an impossible feat just gathering them, on top of actually changing the text itself would require damaging the delicate papyri its written on.
Lastly, we have textual critics who have dedicated their lives to researching these manuscripts and none of which agree with Gabe. Also we must take into account that these manuscripts are written in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Syriac and Coptic. I’d love to hear from Gabe how he thinks it would be possible to complete such a task? We can rest assure that the manuscript evidence for our Bibles are solid and the text found within them sound.
Muslim Argument #1It seems you (Christians) don’t do a single good deed you totally depend on atone of sins. Mohammed gave 10 of his companions glad tiding for heaven and pray for them he spoke in humble so that we become humble, he left no notion so we didn’t become arrogant like Christians. No matter which angle you approach Islam it does not change the fact that Jesus Christ was a messenger and prophet of God try and refute that. When I was a Christian I never had the sickness towards Mohammed as you all do I always admire the acknowledgement of Jesus Christ in Islam theres no other religion accepts Christ apart from muslim. So stop this nonsense and study the bible thoroughly by your own intellect without any other intervention from anti Islam apologist.
Christian Response: Christians do perform good deeds but we don’t point to them as a way of justifying ourselves before God. Our “good deeds” do not merit salvation, but our good deeds are a byproduct or proof of our salvation. This is the point in the book of James, it’s not about proving anything to God but proving salvation before men.
How are Christians “arrogant” when they don’t point to themselves but Christ for justification as our Redeemer. Islam teaches good deeds can earn salvation that’s the hight of arrogance itself. Muslims say Muhammad “spoke humble” is this true? Here are the words of Muhammad you can decide for yourself if he was humble.
Its safe to say Muhammad was not humble in any way. Muslims claim to honour Jesus Christ as a prophet and nothing more, but there are too many passages in scripture which we would have to ignore for this claim to be true. (1) Christ forgave sins, in both Mark 2:7 and Luke 5:21 in which the Lord Jesus heals a man “sick of the palsy” and Christ forgives his sins. The Pharisees respond saying “Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” Great question!
Some verses which show in the Old Testament that the LORD God forgives sins, yet we see in the New Testament that Jesus Christ forgives sins.
If God can only forgive sins why do we see that Jesus Christ also forgiving sins? We’re forced to come to the logical conclusion that Jesus Christ is more than a mere prophet, He’s God in the flesh. Christians worship Christ as God there can’t be any higher honour given.
Muslim Argument #2 No 1 – Jesus Christ never used disgusting language towards any religious figures Mohammed instructed us never to disrespect religious figures.When we reject the Trinity it should not be taken as an insult because it’s a belief and dispute between Christians and Muslims. You are afraid of your faith being scrutinised otherwise you would not had done the comparison between two prophet born and raised in different era. Jesus Christ is accepted by Muslims and we believe he taught monotheism he is in the lineage of prophethood from Adam to Mohammed.Miracles are part of prophethood a sign given by God for those people at that time its not for us as we are unable to give any prove or evidence I don’t believe its scientifically proven our faith and belief Is our acknowledgement.
Christian Response: While its true Christ never used “disgusting language” He did call the religious Pharisees “hypocrites”, “whited sepulchres full of dead men’s bones”, “full of extortion and excess” etc. Was Christ using “disgusting language”? No. Whenever the teachings of Islam are examined Muslims get upset and resort to ad hominem’s; that’s a sign of someone holding a weak position.
Muhammad calls Jews and Christians the worst of creatures.
Muhammad destroyed all the pagan idols surrounding the Kaaba, “Vanish” means to be destroyed.
4443. It is related that ‘Abdullah ibn Mas’ud said, “The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, entered Makka and there were three hundred and sixty idols around the Ka’ba. He began to poke them with a stick in his hand, saying, ‘Truth has come and falsehood has vanished’ (17:81) and ‘The Truth has come. Falsehood cannot originate or regenerate.'(34:49)” (The Sahih Collection of Al-Bukhari, Chapter 68. Book of Tafsir:)
As for monotheism, Christians also affirm there’s only 1 God (Deuteronomy 6:4), we don’t believe in 3 gods. Therefore, bringing up monotheism as a talking point is a straw man. Trinitarianism has always believed in 1 God.
Another error is Islam teaches Adam was a prophet, from where do they get this idea? Neither the Torah, Nevi’im, Ketuvim or New Testament teach that Adam was a “prophet”. Adam was the first man created but he made no prophesies. Anyone who claimed to be a prophet had to pass the requirements God gave to us in testing if a person was a real prophet.
Muhammad never came in the name of Yahweh, and he brought the name of another god called Allah. Muhammad made no prophesies which came true, and in the Hadith Muhammad was poisoned and said his aorta was cut. Why mention his aorta? The Quran says that anyone who spoke falsely would die having his aorta cut, and this is how Muhammad died. So I guess Muhammad prophesied that he was a false prophet.
Muslim Argument #3 What makes a person Christian? Well the experience I had before and after my conversion you spend your entire time attacking Islam and Muslims. How I was a Christian I tell you something I was a Bible basher and it was my strength I converse with Muslims within my Christian boundaries not by interrogating or misquoting their scripture.
Christian Response: The Muslim doesn’t give a testimony of their “salvation” but resorts to personal attacks when they don’t have an answer. Giving rants about how they use to be a Bible basher and conversed with Muslims with Christian “boundaries”. The Quran indeed breeds “Bible bashers” because the Quran denies
Muslims hate when Islam is questioned, they’re taught to not use their brains to just follow blindly. Yasir Qadhi in the popular interview with Hijab, YQ says there’s a red line Muslims are not to cross when it comes to questioning Islam.
YQ also says that academia doesn’t adhere to this red line and have been asking pressing questions which their Ummah cannot answer. Muslims will even deny their own Muslim sources when quoting the Quran and Hadith’s because Islam can’t be defended for instance, Islam teaches men can have sexual relations with girls who have not reached the age in which they’ve had their menstrual cycle.
The Surah which follows is from Chapter (65) sūrat l-ṭalāq (The Divorce).
This Surah is explaining how Muslim men are to wait 3 months when divorcing to make sure she’s not pregnant. In order for someone to divorce they must first be married. When 2 people are married they come together to consummate (engage in sex) the marriage. Muslims also use the Tafsir (commentaries from Muslim scholars) and Hadith’s (sayings about Muhammad’s life) in order to know what the Quran teaches. Here’s the Tafsir’s which explains this particular Surah.
Lastly, let’s look at how Muhammad lived his life, because this gives us insight as to how Muslims are to live since they follow Muhammad. Here in the Hadith we’re told Muhammad married a girl at the age of 6 and had sexual intercourse with her at age 9.
In conclusion we see that the illogical fallacies Muslims use when engaging Christians on certain topics. When familiar with these arguments we can respond in a loving and truthful way.
Muslim Argument #1 “ilah ilah why have you forsaken me God killing himself. What a cruel Father brutally murdered Son over someone else disobedience. Do you really believe thats a merciful God? Would you let your son punished for your crime? Trinity is the most illogical ideology majority of Christians become atheist.We Muslim follow and honour Jesus Christ.Who was a prophet of God and ascend to heaven alive.”
Christian Response: To the Muslim, God is cruel because they don’t understand the grace God has given to us guilty sinners. He didn’t have to send His Son to be subjected to a gruesome death, to save us leaving us to a fate of eternal death without any hope. But because the True God loves His creation He made a way out of the condemnation.
Muslims point to what Christ said on the cross in Matthew 27:46 “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” or Mark 15:34 “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” (Aramaic for the phrase “my God”) insinuating that the Lord Jesus was referring to “Allah”. Is this the case? Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani is the Hebrew form, as in saying Elio, Elio, etc. This is the Syro-Chaldaic language (use by the Jews in the time of Christ) its referenced in Psalm 22; which means “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
They fabricate that the word Eloi to mean “Allah”. Muslims will try to find a word in the Bible which sounds similar to an Arabic word, in this case the Arabic word ilah> becomes Eli > which is reinterpreted by Muslims to mean Allah.
They fail to realise the New Testament was written in Koine Greek not Hebrew. ἠλίēlí, ay-lee’; of Hebrew origin; my God:—Eli. In Hebrew אֵלʼêl, ale; shortened for strength; as adjective, mighty; especially the Almighty (but used also of any deity):—God (god).
Do some digging on the Muslim site corpus.quran.com and come across the word ilah, you’ll see it doesn’t mean what they’re trying to convince Christians of. I looked up the word on the mentioned site and it states the word is used “147 times as the noun ilāh” but more specifically “my God” is not found. The closest you’ll get is ālihatī (my gods). And to top it off the word “Allah” means the god, it’s a name, its only a generic term.
The Muslims claim the Jews said they killed Jesus Christ but that He was not killed, they refer to Surah An-Nisa.
And [for] their saying, “Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah.” And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain. — Surah 4:157
The problem the Quran has is the Jews wouldn’t say they killed “the Messiah” as they don’t believe Christ is the Messiah. The second issue is the Jews were not in the position to carry out the crucifixion, it was the Romans who crucified the Lord Jesus, not the Jews. Crucifixion was the Roman’s way of carrying out capital punishment and they were specialist in what they did as professional killers. The Quran also gets that wrong.
In the Bible we read how the Romans cast lots for the vesture of Christ.
Psalm 22:18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
Matthew 27:35 And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.
Luke 23:34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.
John 19:23-24 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus,took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also [his] coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.
The Lord Jesus rose from the dead and therefore He’s alive. We see that Christ spoke of this (HIs resurrection) all throughout the Gospels. (Matthew 20:19, Mark 10:34, Luke 18:33, Luke 24:7). And He ascended into heaven shown in the book of Acts.
Acts 1:9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
If Muslims truly honoured Jesus Christ they would be called followers of Christ which means they would be called Christians. Also, they wouldn’t try to claim Christ was never crucified, by saying so they are calling Jesus Christ a liar because Christ Himself said He would be killed. Lastly, they would be bringing the Gospel message of Christ but they don’t, they follow Muhammad and not Jesus Christ.
Muslim Argument #2So tell me you don’t do good deeds? “Is that why crime rates are high in, out of all monotheistic faith you’re the odd one out. Incest becoming normal, fornication become norm.”
Christian Response: Muslim don’t know how many good deeds will get them into Jannah (Paradise), not even Muhammad knew if he would make it to Jannah. In the Quran it says:
… you have no power to help me against Allah. … Say: ‘I am not an innovation among the Messengers, and I know not what shall be done with me or with you. …
Surah 46:8-9
Also Abu Bakr, the first Muslim leader after Muhammad’s death, was unsure for his own eternal destiny?
…Whenever he was reminded of his position in Allah’s sight, he would say: ‘By Allah! I would not rest assured and feel safe from the deception of Allah (la amanu limakr Allah), even if I had one foot in paradise.’”
Khalid Muhammad Khalid, Successors of the Messenger, Abu Bakr Has Come, p. 99
Muhammad and Abu Bakr were unsure of their salvation? Muslims will also claim without giving proof from the scriptures concerning the above claim of “Incest becoming normal, fornication become norm” among Christians. Just because a person claims to be a Christian and commits such acts doesn’t prove they were a Christian to begin with. We know the Bible speaks against all forms of fornication (Matthew 5:32; Matthew 19:9; Acts 15:20; Acts 15:29; Romans 1:29; 1 Corinthians 6:13; 1 Corinthians 6:18; 1 Corinthians 10:8).
It seems the truth is Islam teaches fornication, there’s a practice in Islam called Mu’tah Marriage. It’s a temporary marriage two parties make an agreement to have sexual relations for a short period of time. It was also practised by men at the dawn of Islam during trips.
Abdullah Ibn ‘Abbas (r.a.a.) said: “Temporary marriage was at the beginning of Islam. A man comes by a town where he has no acquaintances, so he marries for a fixed time depending on his stay in the town, the woman looks after his provisions and prepares his food, until the verse was revealed: “Except to your wives or what your right hands possess.” Ibn ‘Abbas explained that any relationship beyond this is forbidden. [narrated by Tirmidhee]
Narrated Abdullah: We used to participate in the holy battles led by Allah’s Apostle and we had nothing (no wives) with us. So we said, “Shall we get ourselves castrated?” He forbade us that and then allowed us to marry women with a temporary contract AND RECITED TO US: — ‘O you who believe! Make not unlawful the good things which Allah has made lawful for you, but commit no transgression.’ (5.87) (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 7, Book 62, Number 13o)
Muslim Argument #3 I’ll give you clear response. ‘Atone of sins ‘cause of misconducts. All prophets brought one core belief of oneness of God depending on age and time of people of that time which majority of the message was corrupted. Mohammed is one of the successful messenger that his people followed him to every jot and title. Yahweh was not a specific name given to people when Moses asked God said I AM WHO I AM!
Christian Response: The Oneness of God is a huge teaching in Islam, but the argument says: “All prophets brought one core belief of oneness of God”, this is not true the Prophets in the Tanakh spoke about the people turning to God from their sins. The “Oneness of God” was not a major theme found in the scriptures.
The Bible speaks mainly about how the nation of Israel in the Tanakh continued to fail in worshipping God, they were committing Idolatry and other acts of sin. It also speaks of mankind’s standing before Almighty God as sinners in need of salvation. It also speaks about the One who would come to give Himself as a sacrifice (Atonement) for our sins that we may have forgiveness with God, theses are the main threads running through the scriptures; starting from Genesis—Revelation.
Some scriptures to consider are found in Genesis 22:1-18, Exodus 12, Psalms 22, Isaiah 53, also Zechariah 12:10, Hebrews 11:17-19. The whole reason God instituted the sacrificial system was to point to Christ as the Lamb of God first found in the book of Exodus when Moses told the Israelites to put the blood on the door post. Lastly, Christians have always said that God gave His name to Moses saying I AM THAT I AM in Exodus 3:14. The Muslim says that God’s name is I AM THAT I AM then why use Allah, which means “the god”? This shows Allah and Yahweh are not the same.
Muhammad died like a false prophet according to the Quran which would destroy the claim that he was a successful messenger.
And if he (Muhammad SAW) had forged a false saying concerning Us (Allah), We surely should have seized him by his right hand (or with power and might), And then certainly should have cut off his life artery (Aorta), — Surah 69:44-46
Muhammad ate poisoned meat and was suffering he said to his child bride Aisha.
Narrated ‘Aisha: The Prophet in his ailment in which he died, used to say, “O ‘Aisha! I still feel the pain caused by the food I ate at Khaibar, and at this time, I feel as if my aorta is being cut from that poison.” — Sahih Bukhari 5:59:713
We can only come to the logical conclusion that Muhammad was a false prophet because he died like one.
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.
When dealing with Muslim arguments we must keep in mind that context is key to understanding any verse, as they’re not to be taken in isolation of others verses. Muslims learn from early on to attack the Bible, Islamic apologist such as Ahmed Dedat, Dr. Zakir Naik, Shabir Ally have been leading the way and we as Christians need to know how to respond to such arguments.
Unfortunately, many Christians are not learning how to refute these arguments. It’s important to know what you believe and why you believe it. Below are some Muslims arguments and the response to those arguments.
(1) Muslim Argument: Jesus said: I came only for the lost sheep of Israel. (Jesus says, ”I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel”— Matthew 15:24) Christians say No, you came for all mankind.
Christian Response: Matthew 15:23 tells us that Jesus’ disciples came and urged Him to send her away. In the previous verses we see this was a woman of Canaan who came to Jesus asking for help because her daughter is grievously vexed with a devil (Matthew 15:22).
The Lord Jesus was quiet at first not saying a word and the disciples asked to send her away. This is when Christ says “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”. What did this mean exactly?
The plan of God was to first bring the good news to Israel, but this in no way disqualifies the Gentiles from salvation.Christ came to save sinners, which includes both Jew and Gentile but in keeping with the plan of God He makes it known that He did not come to the Gentiles He came to the nation of Israel first. The Lord Jesus was fulfilling all the Messianic Prophecies.
He knew that He was to be rejected of His own people (Israel). But Christ came to be the Saviour of the world which includes Gentiles.
Isaiah 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, [there is] no beauty that we should desire him.
Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
She was not upset by this response. Ceasing to use the title Son of David, as this title was typically used by Israelites not Gentiles. She worshipped the Lord saying, “Lord help me!” (Matthew 15:25) If she didn’t come to Him as a Jew to her Messiah, she would address Him her Creator.
(2) Muslim Argument: Jesus said: the only true God is the Father. (“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent,” (John 17:3).) Christians say No, your are also the true God.
Christian Response: A favourite verses of mine which proves the Deity of Christ as God. The Bible is originally written in Hebrew (Torah/Tanakh) and Greek (Injeel/Gospel). The Greek construction uses the copulative kai which conjoins the Father and Son in this verse as being the “the only true God”.
In other passages, we see that the Son is equal to God the Father (John 5:18), also in John verses (John 1:1-3) were told that Jesus was πρὸς τὸν θεόν face to face with the Father as infinitely far back as you can go Ἐν ἀρχῇ before creation existed, then it says καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγοςand God was the Word the Word being another name for Jesus Christ.
v2 tells us that He (Jesus) was with God (the Father) in the beginning, v3 says that all things were made by Jesus Christ, including the Muslim.
(3) Muslim Argument: Jesus said: I on my ownself can do nothing (“By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me”-.John 5:30) Christians say No, you can do everything.
Christian Response: How is it Muslims quote verses partially, on the surface it seems like it proves their point but it actually doesn’t. At first “I can of mine own self do nothing” seems to say that the Lord Jesus did not have the power to do anything by Himself. However, this is not the case. The thought is that Christ is so closely united with God the Father that He could not act by Himself. He could not do anything outside of God’s authority, if He did that would be an act of disobedience which would be sin. And the scriptures say that God cannot sin.
John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
There’s no possibility of unwillingness in Christ. He perfectly obeyed God the Father in the fullness of fellowship and harmony. This verse is often used by false teachers to support their claims that Jesus Christ was not God. They say that because He could not do anything of His own self, therefore, He was only a man, but the verse proves the opposite.
Men have the choice to do the things they want, whether, in accordance with the will of God or not. But because of who Christ is, the Lord Jesus couldn’t act in disobedience.It was not a physical impossibility but moral impossible. He has the power as God to do all things, but He wouldn’t do anything that was wrong. And it would have been sin for Him to have done anything that was not His Father’s will.
(4) Muslim Argument: Jesus said: the lord our God is ONE. (The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one”-Mark 12:29) Christians say No, The Lord our God is 3 in one.
Christian Response: We believe: There is one God, who exists as three co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial divine persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit God is sovereign and self-existent, and is perfectly omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, immutable, holy, righteous and loving. (John 1:1, Matthew 28:19, 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Ephesians 1:11, 1 John 1:5, 4:16)
Muslims don’t understand that Christians believe in 1 God, not 3 God’s. Nobody deny’s that God the Father is God. The issue is when talking about Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. As demonstrated John 1:1-3 says Jesus made all things, again in the book of Colossians it says speaking of Christ “all things were made by Him”.
Colossians 1:16-17 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Note: it says everything was created by Christ, both visible and invisible, things in heaven and earth. This is more proof of Jesus Christ as the Creator. In Hebrews there’s another passage which says:
Hebrews 1:10-12 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
Note: Jesus Christ is attributed as the One who “in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth” He also created the heavens which says “and the heavens are the works of thine hands:”. Only God created the heavens and the earth, and here it says Jesus did it. And it also says that Christ is immutable when it mentions the earth and heaven will pass away (wax old/perish) but He remains “but thou remainest” and He will always remain “but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.”
This passage in Hebrews is also a quote from Psalms 102 which says:
Psalm 102:25-27 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens [are] the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou [art] the same, and thy years shall have no end.
The same words spoken of Yahweh are later attributed to Jesus Christ.
(5) Muslim Argument: Jesus said: if you want eternal life then keep the commandments. (“Why ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. But to answer your question—if you want to receive eternal life, keep the commandments”-Matthew 19:17) Christians say No, if you want eternal life then believe that Jesus died for your sin.
Christian Response: This is one of the most misunderstood passages, many who deny the deity of Christ will claim Christ is saying He’s not good. By reading the context we know this is not the case. This passage is known as The Rich Young Ruler. This young man came to Jesus asking what must He do“what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?”
The young man was relying on his good works, like Muslims. The problem is that none of us are perfect and God requires perfection. The Bible says:
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Psalm 14:3 They are all gone aside, they are [all] together become filthy: [there is] none that doeth good, no, not one.
We all are in the same boat as guilty sinners, in the book of Isaiah it says that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” basically all our good deeds are like a menstrual rag in the sight of God.
The question from the rich young ruler showed his ignorance of the identity of Christ and the way of salvation. He called Jesus “Teacher” placing Him on the same level as other men. And spake of meriting eternal life as a debt rather than as a gift from God.
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
As for Jesus saying there is none good, the Lord examined him on 2 points. Asking “Why do you call Me good? There is no one good but One that is God” Jesus was not denying His own deity, but was providing the man with an opportunity to profess, “That’s why I call You good—You are God.”
Testing him on the way of salvation Jesus said: “But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments” The Lord wasn’t saying that it’s possible to be saved by keeping the commandments, rather, He was using the Law to bring forth conviction of sin in the rich young ruler’s heart. The man was still under the delusion he could be saved on the principle of doing. The Law was made as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.
Galatians 3:24-25 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster [to bring us] unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Therefore, the rich young ruler misunderstood, he thought just as Muslims do that it was possible to keep the commandments for eternal life, but it’s not. Only Jesus Christ was able to do it because He alone is sinless because He is God.
(6) Muslim Argument: Jesus said: I cry and pray God to save me from death and God hear my pray. (Psalms 86:1-17) Christians say No, God didn’t saved him.
Christian Response: This Psalm is entitled “a prayer of David;’ probably it was not penned upon any particular occasion, but was a prayer he often used himself, and recommended to others for their use, especially in a day of affliction. Many believe David wrote this prayer as a type of Christ, “who in the days of his flesh offered up strong cries,’ Hebrews 5:7. David, in this prayer.
Christians do claim that God saved Christ, the Psalmist David wrote concerning Christ being raised from the dead saying:
Psalm 16:9-11 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence [is] fulness of joy; at thy right hand [there are] pleasures for evermore.
This quote from Psalms is restated in the book of Acts from the apostle Peter when he said: “For David speaketh concerning him” (Act 2:25).
Acts 2:26-28 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
(7) Muslim Argument: Jesus said: my father is greater than I. (John 14:28, “The Father is greater than I.”) Christians say No, Father is not greater than Jesus. They both are the same.
Christian Response: lastly another greatly misunderstood verse. The Hypostatic Union informs us that Jesus Christ has 2 natures, He’s both fully God and fully Man. He created all things as God, yet when He became a Man in the incarnation (virgin birth) He took on our human nature, and as a man He got tired, ate food, slept etc.
At first there seems as if this verse John 14:28 contradicts everything Christ taught concerning His equality with God the Father. But there’s no contradiction, and the passage explains itself. When Jesus was here on earth He was surrounded by enemies, He was despised, hunted, persecuted and pursued. Men blasphemed Him, reviled Him, and spat on Him. He was surrounded by His enemies.
God the Father never suffered such rude treatment from men. He dwelt in heaven, far away from the wickedness of sinners.Therefore, the Father was “greater” than Jesus Christ at that time because He (Father) sat in heaven in a greater position. But in essence, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are equal sharing the same in being/nature/essence. All 3 are the 1 God in being.
Humans have the same in nature, they’re both humans with the same nature, but still are 2 distinct persons. As God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are 3 distinct persons but have the same nature/essence/being.
Jesus Christ was rejected of His people and this parable found in the book of Mark speaks of it.
Mark 12:1-9 And he began to speak unto them by parables. A [certain] man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about [it], and digged [a place for] the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. And they caught [him], and beat him, and sent [him] away empty. And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded [him] in the head, and sent [him] away shamefully handled. And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some. Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. And they took him, and killed [him], and cast [him] out of the vineyard. What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.
The parable speaks of the prophets (servants) who were sent by God to Israel (husbandmen) in delivering a message. But the people of Israel didn’t listen they “beat” them and “cast stones” at them and “they killed” those servants (prophets).
It says this man (God) had a Son (Jesus) and sent His Son to the husbandmen (Israel) saying “They will reverence my son” or respect my Son. But the husbandmen killed Him (Jesus).
When knowing the background and context of passages in scripture we can effectively answer the Muslim arguments brought about by Muslim apologist.
The “religion of peace” has been busy at work showing us how loving and peaceful Islam truly is, the latest incident involving Islamist radicals occurred 2 days ago, in which 3 people died from a knife attack at a church located in Nice France.
To take things further the “religion of peace” also “virtually beheaded” a elderly woman, in addition to a woman and man who also were killed. The country of France has raised its security level to its highest level. The man who committed these heinous crimes has been identified as Brahim Aioussaoi a 21 year old Tunisian who recently arrived in France. It seems he was able to obtain documentation from Italy through Red Cross.
I’ve noticed in speaking with Muslims that they’re quick to deny any individual as a “Muslim” if he/she commits such an act. Yet, if Muslims were honest with themselves they would admit that the Quran and Hadith’s call for violence. We can find scores of violence verses in which Muslims are told to fight against unbelievers, to subjugate people until they profess in Allah and Muhammad.
Here’s one: Muhsin Khan: Fight against those who (1) believe not in Allah, (2) nor in the Last Day, (3) nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger (4) and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. — Surah At-Tawbah 9:29
Here we see Muslims are commanded to (1) fight against those who (2) don’t believe in Allah. This can’t be in reference to a “war” because it’s contingent on the person’s “belief” or “non-belief” in Allah. This means Muslims are told to fight any non-Muslim because they don’t believe in Allah.
This makes perfect sense in light of what we’re seeing taking place in France. The attack at a church was against people who obviously don’t believe in Allah. Therefore, this man who committed this crime is following what Islam teaches.
This killing came 2 weeks after the beheading of a school teacher after he showed his students cartoons of “Prophet Mohammed”. Muslims are trying to shutdown freedom of speech through intimidation and violence, for 1400 years this has been the tactics employed by the “religion of peace”.
Our prayers go out to those who were killed and their families, killing is never justified no matter how offended one might be. Muslims and other non-Christian groups insult our faith all the time, but you’re not seeing Christians heading to the streets to slaughter people because of being offended.
The Lord Jesus told believers to love and pray for our enemies found in (Matthew 5:44), He said if we only love others who love us in return how is that true love (Matthew 5:46). Paul the apostle building upon the foundation of Christ said in the book of Romans if our enemy is hungry to feed them, and if they are thirsty give them something to drink (Romans 12:20). We as Christians are to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).
David’s son king Solomon wrote in the book of Proverbs this very same teaching which is were Paul speaks of in Romans. Solomon said: “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:”.
A huge contrast to what Islam teaches, in the Quran the teachings go from peaceful and progressively become violent. In the Bible we can’t deny the violence which took place in the Old Testament but our teachings are progressively peaceful. In the New Testament you will never find a command given to Christians to fight and kill people. On the contrary, we find the opposite in which Christians are commanded to Love our enemies. Praise the LORD that we have a God of infinite love.
Jehovah Witnesses claim “Jehovah God” refers to only the Father. They deny Jesus Christ is the “The Alpha and the Omega” in this article we will seek to identify if Christ is “The Alpha and the Omega” or not.
If we examine the context of the verses in Revelation we can come to a clear understanding who “The Alpha and the Omega” is. Reading the surrounding text is paramount in understanding a passage. Let’s focus on Revelation 1:8, I’ll include the text before and after highlighting the verse in focus.
v1 is speaking of this individual who’s (1) coming in the clouds, that’s the first point to keep in mind (2) every eye shall see Him, and (3) “and they [also] which pierced him:”
The question we have to ask are there other scriptures which speak of this individual coming in the clouds? We sure do let’s take a look.
On 4 separate occasions the Lord Jesus referred to Himself as the one coming in the clouds, the cloud rider which is a Yahweh reference.
Here we have 4 verses in-which the Lord Jesus says they will see the Son of man (Jesus Christ) coming in the clouds. Also it’s a well known fact Jesus Christ was pierced when He was on the cross.
Ok, so we’ve dealt with verse 7, let’s move onto verse 8. While reading from v7 to v8 there’s a continuous narrative, the one who’s coming in the clouds speaks and says “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”
Here the speaker says (1) I am Alpha and Omega (2) the beginning and the ending says who? The Lord in the Greek it’s κύριος used not the Tetragrammaton which is where we get the name Jehovah from. (3) which is and which was and which is to come.
Let’s work backwards “which is and which was and which is to come” as we established Jesus Christ is the one coming not the Father. Also which is speaks to the deity of Christ, which was points to the death of Christ and which is to come of course is referring to when Christ second coming in the future. And lastly, the same speaker says He’s the Alpha and Omega.
v9 is without a doubt speaking of Jesus Christ not the Father. (1) I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, (2) the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, (3) for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
John the apostle says he’s a companion or partaker in tribulation. Jesus Christ mentions that believers will have tribulation in this world.
Jesus Christ is called the King of kings and Lord of lords, the King of the kingdom is Christ; He’s the One who has established an everlasting kingdom sitting on the throne of David.
Jehovah Witnesses try to twist these verses to say that the Alpha and Omega is not Jesus Christ but “Jehovah.” JW’s always refer to the Father as “Jehovah” only therefore they try to diminish the deity of Christ. As it was just proven through methodically going through the verses we see plenty of proof that the Lord Jesus is the Alpha and Omega spoken of in Revelation.
There are groups out there which call themselves Christians while denying the One in which they would say they believe in. When the subject of Jesus Christ and His deity are spoken of among believers the orthodox belief from the very beginning has stated that Christ is equal to the Father therefore, He (Jesus Christ) is God (John 5:18, Philippians 2:6). While others affirm the same but take the position that the Father and Jesus are the same person. This debate between Trinitarians and oneness/unitarians concerning the Godhead/Triune God being 3 distinct persons has been ongoing for a long time. That’s a subject for another time, today I want to focus on the deity of Christ.
We’re plagued with groups who masquerade as Christians but really aren’t. The apostles warned us that these things would happen, individuals who claim to be followers of Christ but really believe devilish doctrine (2 Corinthians 11:13-15, Ephesians 5:11, 2 Timothy 3:5, 3:13, 4:3-4, 2 Peter 2:1, 1 John 2:26-27, 4:1-6, Jude 1:4). Even our Lord warned of the coming of such men who would look to draw away others from the truth.
Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
These groups aren’t Christian at all but are really cults (Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christadelphians, Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists) who use the same biblical terminology while holding completely different definitions. Today I want to focus on an argument the Jehovah’s Witnesses often bring up when confronted with the fact that Jesus is God. If any Christian states to a Jehovah’s Witness that Jesus Christ is God the Jehovah’s Witness will deny this and may bring up this scripture to refute Christ’s deity.
John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
They’ll say see Jesus says that “Jehovah” is the only true God, and upon first glance of this verse one may think that’s correct. But if we look at the construction of this verse what it’s really saying is that the Father and Jesus Christ is the only true God. In Greek, the copulative kai stands for “and”.
Kai is the conjunction in the construction of that verse. What is a “conjunction”? A conjunction is an act of joining or condition of being joined. Kai is the root word (Etymology) Apparently, a primary particle, having a copulative and sometimes also a cumulative force. Knowing this when we read the verse again we see that the only true God is the Father and Jesus Christ.
According to the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ theology, the Father alone is the only true God and they say Jesus Christ is a lesser “god” according to their New World Translation. If that’s true then we must ask this question. Is Jesus a true God or a false “god”? When we press this question the Jehovah’s Witness is stuck because if they say Jesus is a false “god” then they will be contradicting the scriptures. And if they say Jesus is the true God then they’re contradicting the Watchtower. Additionally, they also forget verses such as this one from John’s epistle.
1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
Even if you direct them to this verse in the NWT while the rendering of the verse reads a little differently you’ll still see that John is calling Jesus Christ the only true God and knowing Him is eternal life. Who else can give eternal life but God Himself?!
I hope this was helpful and encourage you to reach out to these people who are lost in cults, they have been led astray and are in danger of being lost in hell for all eternity. We have to approach these people in the love of Christ while still being rooted and grounded in the truth. If you bring these verses to a Jehovah’s Witness press the question “is Jesus Christ the true God or a false “god”?” Because we know there’s only one God, therefore, any “additional gods” would be false and I don’t think they’re prepared to claim such a blasphemous statement. If they say Jesus is “god-like” just ask again is Jesus the true God or false “god”?
They won’t have a straight answer and will try to divert your attention to other scriptures to avoid answering this question.
The most famous of Psalms has been quoted so many times among believers and unbelievers alike if that’s believable? Those who maybe never read a Bible before will know these words and have most likely heard them before. See last article Jesus Christ is God in Exodus 3:2
Psalm 23:1-6 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
SHEPHERDS
The word “shepherd” is mentioned throughout the Bible occurs 43 times in 40 verses in the KJV (depending on which version) and the other being “shepherds” occurs 38 times in 33 verses in the KJV (again depending on which version). David the son of Jesse was a shepherd before becoming king of Israel. Abel was the first shepherd mentioned in Genesis, Abraham keep sheep, we’re also told in the New Testament about the shepherds in the field in the gospel of Luke and that the Holy Spirit raises up overseers (elders) to shepherd the flock of God.
THE SHEPHERD
The LORD God refers to Himself as the Shepherd in the Old Testament, as the God who will look over His people, help guide them and protect them. There’s no denying that the LORD is the Shepherd for all believers, we are brought to the still waters and fed. He fights for us (Exodus 14:14-16, Deuteronomy 3:22, Romans 12:19) and delivers us from our enemies.
Psalm 80:1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.
Psalm 95:7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
Only the LORD of Host dwells between the cherubims as we are continually told in Old Testament scriptures when it speaks of Him filling the Tabernacle with His glory. And here in Psalm 80:1 we see the gentleness of our God with a soft touch He leads Israel as well as the rest of His flock (Gentile believers) pointing back to Psalm 23. What a wonderful God we serve.
Ezekiel 34:30-31 Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord GOD. And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD.
As believers, we also have the name of being “His sheep” and His people. Those who will follow our Lord through the green pastures no matter where He takes us.
THE GOOD SHEPHERD
How can we forget those wonderful passages from the Lord Jesus in the gospel of John. The Lord Jesus is teaching the people that the devil only comes to steal, kill and destroy; but Christ in His loving mercy shows is the contrast between those who don’t care for us because they are paid strangers doing a job, and Himself who would risk His life for us and He did He died on that rugged cross for us guilty sinners.
The Lord Jesus calls each one of us by name because He knows us intimately (John 10:3) but to the one who would try to climb in another way without going to Christ is a robber (John 10:1) that’s because salvation is only found by coming to Jesus Christ who is The Door of the sheepfold.
John 10:7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
The Lord Jesus continues to preach to the people explaining to them that all those who came before are thieves and a robbers. Just as we see today those people who would try to place themselves in a position of where Christ alone stands (John 10:8-9). Only God can give life no created creature who is lesser than God can give life, God gives life and spiritual life (eternal life), and it’s in this truth we see the Lord Jesus is God as He says in the next verse.
John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
He came to give abundant life which is beyond the reaches of death, all believers are privileged beyond our wildest dreams to have this, we have been given something we don’t deserve and never will. The gift of eternal life is for all those who would come to Christ for the forgiveness of sins. The Lord Jesus then applies one of the names (I AM) God mentions in the Old Testament.
John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
Just as God states in the Old Testament He is the Shepherd of His people always guiding them through this fallen world into glory. And the Lord Jesus is the same Almighty God as He makes this statement.
John 10:14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
THE CHIEF SHEPHERD
The apostle Peter also mentions in the general epistles how the Lord Jesus is the Chief Shepherd, this title can only be attributed to God alone. This was in teaching the assembly of believers about local church order how younger men should submit themselves to the elders. In this Peter addresses the elders telling them that it’s God’s flock and not to lord over God’s heritage.
1 Peter 5:1-4 The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
The Chief Shepherd mentioned is Christ Jesus, if the flock of God belongs to God and the Chief Shepherd of that flock is the Lord Jesus then Jesus Christ is God. I hope you’ve enjoyed this reading, God bless.
In the last article,we saw howJesus Christ is God in Luke 5:21. God has slowly revealed Himself to His people, He chose the nation of Israel for His inheritance. When we look at the patriarchs concerning Israel we know that in the seed of Abraham shall all the nations of the world be blessed (Genesis 22:18). Abraham’s seed was blessed by God Himself for the scriptures say.
The angel of the LORD
Genesis 22:15-17 And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
If you read the above verses in Genesis carefully you’ll notice something quite remarkable, Abraham was not blessed by a mere angel, this angel was unique. First, this angel is called “the angel of the LORD” whenever “the angel of the LORD” mentioned this angel does things no mere angel can, for instance, this angel swore by Himself saying “By myself have I sworn”.
We see this occur in other scriptures where it specifically says the LORD sworn by Himself. This is God speaking not some random angel for only God can make such proclamations of promise (Genesis 22:16, Isaiah 45:23). This particular angel blesses has changed the name of Abraham from Abram and Jacob to Israel etc.
Jeremiah 49:13 For I have sworn by myself, saith the LORD, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes.
I AM THAT I AM
We established that “the angel of the LORD” is more than an “angel”, to understand more deeply what the term angel means we need to look at the Hebrew. The word for “angel” in the Hebrew is mal’ak it’s a masculine noun. In our English language, we tend to think of an angel as an angelic being with wings and at times the word does mean that but the term is also used to indicate.
I. messenger, representative
A. messenger
B. angel
C. the theophanic angel
מֲלְאָךְmălʼâk, mal-awk’; from an unused root meaning to despatch as a deputy; a messenger; specifically, of God, i.e. an angel (also a prophet, priest or teacher):—ambassador, angel, king, messenger.
In the book of Exodus chapter 3 Moses after fleeing Egypt to escape persecution after slewing/killing the Egyptian (Exodus 2:12) he finds himself in Midian at Mt Horeb and the angel of the LORD appears to Moses. We all know that God appeared to Moses in the burning bush but let’s look at that closely.
Exodus 3:2 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
The scripture says “the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush”. Again this angel is more than a created angelic being I present to you that this is God Himself who made Himself known to Moses. Just two verses after it says that “God called” out to Moses.
Exodus 3:4 And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
He (God) then tells Moses to take off his shoes from his feet and goes on to proclaim “I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). There’s no mistake that God appeared to Moses but it also says that the angel of the LORD appeared to Moses, there’s only one conclusion when the scriptures speak of the “the angel of the LORD” this is God Himself. But if we jump into the New Testament we are told that no one has seen God (John 1:18, 1 John 4:12) therefore we still need more clarification.
Moses asked God to see His glory and God told Moses that if He saw Him he would die.
Exodus 33:18-20 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.
And in the book of 1 Timothy 6, it says that King of kings, and Lord of lords “dwells in the light which no man can approach unto”
1 Timothy 6:15-16 Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
But we clearly see that the LORD did, in fact, appear unto Abraham, Hagar, Jacob, Moses and others. The angel of the LORD is God because He has the same attributes of God.
I AM
In the context of John chapter 8, Jesus Christ arrives at the Mount of Olives and in the temple begins to teach the people, the scribes and Pharisees are looking for ways to trap the Lord Jesus by bringing a woman caught in the act of adultery (John 8:1-3) the crowd of people while holding stones are ready to kill the woman. The Pharisees start asking Him questions in hope that He would slip with His words and contradict the Law of Moses (John 8:4-6). The Lord Jesus then tells them (knowing they all in the crowd are sinners) “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (John 8:7)showing them their hypocrisy.
Afterwards, all the people knowing that each of them has sinned dropped the stones and departed. The Lord Jesus Christ then shows grace to this woman and forgives her of her sins “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” (John 8:10-11).
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
The Lord Jesus makes tells them He’s God by making this statement “I am the light of the world”, the reaction of the Pharisees is very telling as they get angry and say “Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true.” (John 8:13) they knew exactly what was being claimed that Jesus Christ is God. The scriptures say that God shows us light (Psalm 118:27) that God is light (1 John 1:5). Jesus Christ then tells them His testimony is true and that the Father bears witness of Him, that even in the Old Testament the testimony of 2 witnesses is true (John 8:14-19).
The Pharisees were confused at this as they still in unbelief ask the Lord “Where is thy Father?”. He then goes into the temple treasury to teach, He goes on to tell them they will die in their sins and He will return to Heaven and they cannot follow Him even telling them “I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world” (John 8:20-23).
The Lord gives them a message of urgency that if they don’t believe who He says He is then they will die in their sins.
John 8:24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free
The Lord Jesus continued to teach in the temple as there were believing Jews there and was encouraging them to continue in His word.
John 8:31-32 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
The unbelieving Jews hearing this began to go back and forth with Him saying “We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?” (John 8:33). Those unbelieving Jews didn’t understand that they were indeed in bondage to their sin as they and still to this day believe that following the Law of Moses will make them right with God, but it won’t for only the Lord Jessus was able to keep the Law perfectly. Jesus then tells them:
John 8:34-36 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
The Lord Jesus starts to draw distinctions between those who are children of Abraham and those looking to kill Him, also between the “Father” (God) and “their father” (devil) (John 8:34-36). This angered the unbelieving Jews as they responded saying “Abraham is our father” the Lord’s reply was “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham” (John 8:39)meaning they would be doing the same things as Abraham.
Then the Lord Jesus says they seek to kill Him that Abraham would have never looked to do such things. That these unbelieving Jews are doing the works of their father (devil). The Jews appeal to not having been born in fornication stating that God is their Father.
John 8:40-41 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
The Lord Jesus tells them if God was their Father, if they truly were children of God then they would love Christ because He came from the Father, but they cannot understand the truthful words our Lord is telling them (John 8:42-43) and here’s why.
John 8:44-46 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?
The unbelieving Jews are told by the Lord Jesus that they are children of the devil and previous to that statement He tells them they aren’t children of Abraham because if they were they wouldn’t be trying to kill Him. Not to be confused these unbelieving Jews were Jewish according to the flesh they had a fleshly connection but spiritually they weren’t Jews which matters most, and last but not least because of all of this they weren’t able to hear or understand the Lord’s words.
John 8:45, 47 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. … He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
At this point, the Jews are really riled up and blaspheme twice making a false claim about the Lord Jesus saying: “Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?” (John 8:48) and “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.” (John 8:52). They then ask if He was greater than Abraham (John 8:53). The pressure is building and at some point, something is going to give.
The Lord answers their question regarding who’s greater Abraham or the Lord of Glory Himself.
John 8:54-56 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. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.
The Lord Jesus Christ tells them plainly that Abraham rejoiced to see Him “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” The unbelieving Jews then make this statement and question, “Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?” (John 8:57) And here comes the climax of the chapter the Lord Jesus responds saying:
John 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
The crowd flies into a frenzy grabbing stones to kill Jesus because they knew exactly what He claimed. He was claiming to be God Himself, the same God which spoke to Moses out of the burning bush back in Exodus 3:14
In the Greek the word for “I am” is egō eimi (I exist)
ἐγώegṓ, eg-o’; a primary pronoun of the first person I (only expressed when emphatic):—I, me.
εἰμίeimí, i-mee’; the first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist (used only when emphatic):—am, have been, it is I, was.
Just as He said back at the burning bush I AM THAT I AM, the Lord Jesus is saying that He is the I am. The original Hebrew equivalent from Exodus is: hayah.
הָיָהhâyâh, haw-yaw; a primitive root; to exist, i.e. be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary):—beacon, altogether, be(-come), accomplished, committed, like), break, cause, come (to pass), do, faint, fall, follow, happen, have, last, pertain, quit (one-) self, require, use.
God Himself stepped into His own creation to save sinners.
The gospel of Luke records in chapter 5 the man brought to Jesus in a bed. The Lord Jesus Christ in His ministry here on earth performed many miracles, signs and works before the children of Israel. He, of course, was faced with the opposition from the Pharisees and many other religious leaders of Jerusalem. Today we are going to look at one of those miracles the Lord did in their sight.
Luke 5:17 And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.
Here the scene is set, the Lord Jesus is teaching and the “Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by” these men from the surrounding towns of Galilee, Judaea and Jerusalem and were well familiar with the Law of Moses. They’re concerned was not with the Lord’s teaching but with trying to figure out ways to trap Him. But concerning the people that were there fortunately for them “the power of the Lord was present to heal them”.
Luke 5:18 And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him.
The men spoken of here had great faith that the Lord would be able to heal this man bedridden with the palsy. They sought to lay him down before Christ and it’s at this point that their faith was put to the test.
Luke 5:19 And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.
Faith in action, how these men didn’t allow any obstacle to come in their way; just as we shouldn’t allow anything to come between us and the Lord. The house would have been so packed with people, one can only imagine the enormous crowd blocking the way to the Lord. But these men didn’t allow that to stop them they literary climb up on the roof and let the man down by an opening. Nothing was going to stop these men from standing before the Lord.
Luke 5:20 And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.
Christ Jesus affirms their faith, and here’s where we need to pay attention the most, the Lord Jesus says “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee”. A tremendous statement! A mere man cannot say this neither can an angel make such a statement. The Pharisees and doctors are among the people and hear this and the question was put forth.
Luke 5:21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?
“Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” indeed who can forgive sins but God and that’s the takeaway. The Lord Jesus is God because He did forgive sins, no other person can forgive only the Creator Himself can do such a miracle. Every one of us who have had our sins forgiven has heard these words (not audibly), but all believers were told those wonderful words which continues to ring in our ears and souls “thy sins are forgiven thee“. God’s word cannot be more clear that Jesus Christ is God just as the scriptures teach. We have a Creator who loves His creation so much that He wants a personal relationship with them.
And while that relationship was ruined because of the stain of sin, the Lord of Glory knew the only way to repair that broken fellowship was to bring us back to Himself by dying on the cross for wretched sinners. That fellowship is only made possible by the precious blood that was shed on Calvary for those who would receive the free gift of salvation. Indeed who can forgive sins but God alone?! Praise God that He did!!
You can also read the gospel of Mark 2:17 for the same account concerning the man sick of the palsy.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
This is the third post concerning the erroneous doctrine of the Christadelphians, we are going to visit each doctrine concerning this cult and prove why it’s ungodly and carnal. Here’s another belief from the group which states.
“For the temptations of Christ to have been in any way real, there had to exist the possibility that he could sin. If Christ is God, it is impossible that he could have sinned, for God is perfect by nature. Jesus pointed this out in Mt 19:17, marking the distinction between himself and God (only ONE is good…). If Christ was God, and therefore couldn’t sin, all his ‘temptations’ were faked, and his identification with mankind a cruel sham! And for those affirming the “fully God/fully man” idea, do you really see God locking Himself into a nature that could potentially sin? Finally, James explicitly states that God cannot be tempted by evil (1:13-15).” – The Christadelphians
First, let’s look at the quote from Matthew 19:17 this is when the Lord Jesus was approached by the rich young ruler and he asked a question saying: “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” Matthew 19:16 the context of these verses shows forth the truth of these verses.
The Deity of Christ
Our Lord’s deity was not diminished by His coming into the world. However, cults like the Christadelphians attempt to deny this truth. The purpose of this article is to consider Scriptures that they use (or, rather, abuse).
The “rich young ruler” addressed the Lord as “Good Master,” or “Good Teacher” and asked Him, “What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” The Lord replied, “Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but one, that is, God” (Matthew 19:16, 17). Some claim that here the Lord Jesus is saying that He is not God, however, the opposite is the case.
The man was mistaken on two counts. First, he thought that he could get eternal life by his own works “What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?”. Second, he only recognized Jesus as a good teacher, not as God. The Lord’s response points out the inconsistency of what the man was saying. If He is not God, the man cannot rightly call Him “good.” If He is “good,” He must be God. Thus, He is not denying that He is “good” or that He is God. He is showing the man that He is “good” because He is God. Contrary to it being a denial of His deity, it is an affirmation of it.
By fully understanding the context of the scriptures we understand that Jesus Christ is God and was asking the “rich young ruler” in the form of a question, are you confessing that I AM God? After which the Lord guided him through the commandments showing him that perfection is God’s requirements and because this man was trusting in his own works for salvation. The Lord had to show him that he’s not capable of keeping the law since he’s not perfect.
Only God alone is perfect and that in itself proves the Lord Jesus Christ as being God. Only He was perfect without sin just as (2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:22) Paul and Peter affirmed in their epistles. The Lord Jesus is the light of the world and has no darkness in Him (John 8:12, John 9:5, John 12:46).
1 John 1:5-7 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
The Christadelphians argue that because God cannot be tempted and because Christ was tempted therefore He’s not God? Is that really logical to think because something was attempted therefore that’s proof that Christ was not God? This kind of thinking is faulty and irrational. satan was not going to sit back and not try to thwart God’s plan of salvation and just because he tried to do so doesn’t in any way take away the fact that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
It was not possible for the Lord Jesus Christ to sin but satan is still going to try, the same is true with believers, we are purchased by the blood of Christ and belong to Him but satan is still going to try to tempt the child of God and cause us to stumble. And while that may be so we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and kept until that glorious day when we’re with the Lord. We can agree that God cannot be tempted and it’s impossible for Him to sin but that doesn’t mean the enemy is not going to try.
To the Christadelphian
To those who identify as being a Christadelphian, you have a responsibility to look into this for yourself. Don’t allow others to influence/indoctrinate you into false teaching which is leading you away from God’s truth. I hope that you’ll follow these postings as this is not an attack on you. We are reaching out to you because your precious soul is at risk of ending up in hell, separated from God for all eternity. The scriptures speak of the Bereans who were more noble than those in Thessalonica and searched the scriptures daily to make sure those things were so or true (Acts 17:11).
John 10:27-30 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.
Consider the majesty and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, He alone can lay claims to all of these and more because He is the great I AM. We hope and pray that God will open your eyes to the truth of His word that you may have eternal life. Remember Paul the apostle said that it’s possible for you to fall for “another Jesus” (2 Corinthians 11:4) which is a false Jesus and that’s who the Christadelphians fell for. A Jesus which has no power to save, we want you to come to know the true Lord Jesus of the Bible.
1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”
The Jehovah Witnesses are everywhere throughout the world preaching the “good news of the kingdom” There’s a good chance you’ve seen them sitting next to a cart filled with their publications of Watchtower and Awake magazines. I’ve been speaking with a couple of JW’s and asked one woman “is Christ your mediator?”, her reply was “yes of course”, I then asked “so the governing body is not your mediator?”; she replied “Christ is our mediator and the governing body is the faithful and discreet slave spoken of in Matthew”.
I disagree with her and will show you why Jehovah Witnesses is a cult. She either she was telling me this in ignorance or flat out lying. Let’s see what the Watchtower teaches about who Jesus Christ is the Mediator for? Is Jesus Christ the mediator for all or not?
According to the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society’s online library, under “Mediator Watch Tower Publications Index 1986–2019 Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 2” it states:
Those for Whom Christ Is Mediator. The apostle Paul declares that there is “one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all” — for both Jews and Gentiles. (1Ti 2:5, 6) He mediates the new covenant between God and those taken into the new covenant, the congregation of spiritual Israel. (Heb 8:10–13; 12:24; Eph 5:25–27) Christ became Mediator in order that the ones called “might receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance” (Heb 9:15); he assists, not the angels, but “Abraham’s seed.” (Heb 2:16) He assists those who are to be brought into the new covenant to be ‘adopted’ into Jehovah’s household of spiritual sons; these eventually will be in heaven as Christ’s brothers, becoming a part with him of the seed of Abraham. (Ro 8:15–17, 23–25; Ga 3:29) He has transmitted to them the promised holy spirit, with which spirit they are sealed and are given a token of what is to come, their heavenly inheritance. (2Co 5:5;Eph 1:13, 14) The total number of those who are finally and permanently sealed is revealed in Revelation 7:4–8 as 144,000. — Watchtower
The Watchtower teaches that those who are of the 144,000 anointed spoken of in Revelation are the only ones who benefit from Christ as their mediator. The Jehovah Witnesses believe that only the anointed “Christians” are the only ones who will be in heaven. The rest of Jehovah Witnesses do not go to Heaven but will remain on a paradise earth. The Watchtower teaches that there are 2 classes of Jehovah Witnesses, the anointed who will rule and reign with Christ in Heaven the 144,000. While the rest must remain here on a paradise earth.
This will happen after Armageddon when all the wicked are removed from the earth and the only people who’ll survive are Jehovah Witnesses. The “anointed class” of JW’s are looked upon as being the most spiritual because they have been chosen by God to go to Heaven. They won’t say this up front but the culture itself is what proves this to be true among JW’s. If you read the quote again it states.
Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for “all” BUT
He became the Mediator for those that “receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance” WHICH
Only applies to those who “eventually will be in heaven as Christ’s brothers” THEREFORE
Jesus is only the Mediator for the anointed, who in the theology of Jehovah Witnesses number only 144,000 people.
To sum it all up according to the Watchtower Jesus is only the Mediator of the 144,000 anointed class of Jehovah Witnesses. If you’re not part of the 144,000 sorry Jesus is not your Mediator according to them. You’re part of “the great crowd of Witnesses” who have to remain on earth.
Under “Questions From Readers The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom — 1989” we get a more clear cut answer as to who they believe Jesus is the Mediator for. If you read it says that “1 Timothy 2:5, 6 is not using the term “mediator” in the broad sense common in many languages”. Only the “anointed class” are part of the new covenant according to Watchtower. In the another page of “Questions From Readers 1979” it states that “Jesus is only the Mediator for anointed Christians”.
The club gets even more exclusive, they take it even further than saying it’s only for the 144,000 in which Jesus is their mediator but they also call themselves “spiritual Israel” that’s another name for the anointed class of Jehovah Witnesses.
So what does this all mean, if you’re a Jehovah Witness and are not of the anointed class then you don’t have Jesus as your Mediator. And there’s a very good reason why the Watchtower set this up this way. All cults strive for absolute power over their members. Many JW’s are unaware of this teaching from the Watchtower, even in their twisted version of the Bible (New World Translation) plainly states.
1 Timothy 2:5, 6 NWT For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all this is what is to be witnessed to in its own due time.
Now, what does God’s holy word have to say about this heretical teaching of the Watchtower? The Bible tells us that Jesus died for all not some but all mankind. The apostle Paul in his writings epistles said:
2 Corinthians 5:15–17 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
1 Timothy 2:5–6 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
John 11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
The Lord Jesus plainly said “he that believes in me though he were dead yet shall he live”. Never once did He mention that you must be part of the 144,000 in order to be brought into the new covenant. This means all true believers have Christ as their Mediator, there’s no “special class” of Christians.
When you dig deeper into why the Watchtower would place specific people in a “higher class” of Jehovah Witnesses starts to become clear. The Watchtower says that the great crowd of JW’s benefit from being in union with the anointed class. Basically speaking their salvation is contingent not on Jesus Christ but those people who are part of the anointed class.
And guess what the men who are part of the governing body are all part of this “anointed class” and “receive direct messages from Jehovah God”. These are the men who make the rules for all Jehovah Witnesses worldwide they are the ones who rule them with an iron fist. And this shows the reason why they’ve set up this unbiblical system in order to control people hence why it’s a high control cult.
Jehovah Witnesses are told that they must obey these men no matter what they say or else they are disfellowshipped, shunned and cut off from family members, friends even jobs. A person involved in this organization has much to lose when their whole life is the Watchtower. JW’s are not allowed to read any publications outside of Watchtower and it’s these men who disseminate information down to other members of the society. They use this verse out of context to rule over their members.
Matthew 24:45–46 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
This verse speaks on the men who would take oversight but as well take the leadership role in the home. In 1 Timothy 3 Paul begins with husbands, indicating that training and preparation begin in the home. “If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?” He must learn to correct and discipline with gravity and dignity (3:4) but remembering the instructions, “Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged” (Colossians 3:21).
Last but not least the 144,000 spoken of in the Bible are only Jewish believers in Jesus Christ who will preach the Gospel during the time of the great tribulation. These 144,000 are virgin men from every tribe of the nation of Israel.
Revelation 7:4–8 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.
Revelation 14:3–4 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
To the Jehovah Witnesses
God is holy and perfect and He requires holiness and perfection from us. Holiness is the inability to sin. It means moral perfection and it is something that God alone possesses. Holiness is an attribute of God’s perfect nature. Therefore, since there is no one greater than God, and God is the greatest good, God is necessarily the standard of what is good.
The Law is a reflection of the character of God. The reason it is wrong to lie, cheat, and steal, etc., is because God cannot do these things. Because He is holy, He is incapable of lying, cheating, etc. Therefore, the Law becomes the standard of righteousness. But we are incapable of keeping the Law because we are not holy. We are sinners. Once this is said, you must ask the person if he has ever sinned. You might want to explain that sin is breaking the Law of God. You ask the person if he has ever lied, cheated, stolen, or been angry unrighteously, etc. He will answer “yes” to one or all of these, and that is when you tell him that he has broken God’s Law and is a sinner. Furthermore, there is no law that has no punishment. A law without punishment is a slogan. The punishment for breaking God’s Law is eternal damnation.
John 3:18, 36 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. … He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
The Gospel is the good news that the judgment of God upon the person who has broken God’s Law can be removed in the person of Jesus. This is done because of Jesus, who is God the Son in flesh, He was able to perfectly keep the Law and offer a sacrifice to God the Father. His sacrifice is the death on the cross, which was the payment for the penalty of breaking the Law of God. He died there and three days later physically rose from the dead as proof that His words, deeds, and sacrifice were true. Therefore, if anyone wants to escape the righteous judgment of God, he must receive the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross. This is done by faith, by asking Jesus to forgive you of your sins.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only Mediator between God and man, come to Him and live!!!
Whatsoever Things Are True 