“Here is the great mystery of our religion: Christ came as a human. The Spirit proved that he pleased God, and he was seen by angels. Christ was preached to the nations. People in this world put their faith in him, and he was taken up to glory” (1 Tim 3:16 CEV).
The deity of Christ is probably the most disputed and attacked doctrine of the bible. Muslims insist that Jesus was not the son of God but merely a prophet, and unique by virtue of his virgin birth. Jehovah’s Witnesses say that Jesus was a god, not The God. The various other Christian cults also all deny the deity of Jesus. Liberals are on an endless quest to find “the historical Jesus” and to “de-mythologise” him. And atheists think they can deny Jesus out of existence altogether.
Muslim teachers don’t understand the Bible
Contrary to the many Muslim apologists, all of whom insist that Jesus never once claimed to be God, a simple reading of the gospels will show their claim to be ignorance and wishful thinking. But they have to say this because the Qur’an only has Jesus as a prophet. And in the Qur’an, Allah states that he has no son and pronounces a curse on all who say he does. It is understandable that they do not wish to disagree with their holy book, and nobody has a problem with that. If they profess Islam, then they must do what Muslims do and believe what Muslims believe. If they didn’t, they would be unfaithful to their religion.
But so many Muslim apologists go much further than that and claim that Jesus never said he was God. They speak with an assumed and assured authority about a holy book which isn’t theirs. They claim to know all about the central figure in the Bible – Jesus Christ. And they cherry-pick verses from the Bible which they vainly think bolster their claims; but these verses are taken out of their context and do not mean what these Muslims would have them to mean.
Muslims have no right to do anything with the Bible unless they are seeking to be right with the God of the Bible. Just like all critics of God and the Bible, they approach it with a mind already made up. That’s because the Qur’an says that it is the confirmation of the previous revelations (i.e. the Old and New Testaments). So, instead of placing themselves in submission to God’s words, they approach it with the intention of disproving and even ridiculing it, despite that the Qur’an accepts it as revelation from God. For example: “To thee We sent the Scripture In truth, confirming The scripture that came before it, and guarding it in safety…” (Sura 2:48). “And this is a Book which We have sent down, Bringing blessings, and confirming (The revelations) which came Before….” (Sura 6:92).
They can’t learn anything from the Bible because they disbelieve before they’ve even turned the cover; they cannot and will not hear what God might say to them because their only reason for opening its pages is to tear them apart. They know nothing about God or the Bible, but in their spiritual blindness, they think they know it all. Even the best Muslim apologists reveal a wrong understanding of the bible and promote wrong theology. But this is to be expected because their sources are all from enemies of the gospel, and they don’t read the works of scholars who believe that the bible, despite its seeming discrepancies, is the preserved word of God. Instead of doing honest and legitimate research by reading the defences of the Bible and not just the criticisms of it, they only take those books which support their preconceived unbelieving views and reject all else. So of course, they’re going to see the Bible as a hotch-potch of errors which can’t be relied on.
Faith with knowledge
And for all that we’re all trying to prove or disprove the Bible, we cannot come to Christ by proving him to be true or by forming a good argument. God’s criterion is faith. Yes, the Bible is true, Jesus did exist and he is God; he was raised from the dead and he did ascend to heaven – the Bible is not a book of fiction and myths; it has not been spin-doctored by the disciples or anybody else. The Bible is a record of eyewitnesses to God and His divine Son, Jesus Christ; it is historically true, and archaeology, among other disciplines and sciences, demonstrates that and gives good reason to believe it. But the Bible doesn’t require a person to have or acquire academic knowledge before they can come to God; it says: “Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see… But without faith no one can please God. We must believe that God is real and rewards everyone who searches for him” (Hebrews 11:1, 6).
The simplest of people can come to God through belief in Jesus as the Son of God and Saviour, and consequently, have more knowledge than the greatest pagan philosopher or atheistic scientist or clever Muslim apologist. The apostle Paul wrote: “The message about the cross doesn’t make any sense to lost people. But for those of us who are being saved, it is God’s power at work” (1 Cor 1:18).
So don’t be afraid of enemies who want to rob you of your salvation – God will judge them. If you wish to be saved, put your faith, your trust, your hope, in Jesus Christ, and he will do the rest – and you will have peace in your soul because you will have peace with God. Jesus said: “I give you peace, the kind of peace only I can give. It isn’t like the peace this world can give. So don’t be worried or afraid” (Jn 14:27).
Jesus Claimed Deity and Equality with God
Although Jesus did not come to demonstrate his deity, he nevertheless did make this claim on several occasions, but his primary focus was not to glorify himself but the Father, who had sent him to redeem fallen humanity. In prayer to the Father, Jesus prayed, “I have brought glory to you here on earth by doing everything you gave me to do. Now, Father, give me back the glory I had with you before the world was created. You have given me some followers from this world, and I have shown them what you are like. They were yours, but you gave them to me, and they have obeyed you” (Jn 17:4-6).
The apostle Paul expands on this, saying of Jesus: “Christ was truly God. But he did not try to remain equal with God. Instead he gave up everythingand became a slave, when he became like one of us. Christ was humble. He obeyed God and even died on a cross” (Phil 2:5-8).
Jesus didn’t claim deity, because he came as a man to die in humanity’s place so that he could reconcile us to God (2 Cor 5:19). But when he returns, the deniers will become believers; but by then it is too late for repentance and they will be lost forever.
Jesus equated himself with the Father
However, when Jesus healed the lame man at the pool at Bethesda, the Jewish religious leaders persecuted him because he healed the man on the Sabbath. His response, and then theirs to him, is very enlightening: “Now the leaders wanted to kill Jesus for two reasons. First, he had broken the law of the Sabbath. But even worse, he had said God was his Father, which made him equal with God” (John 5:18).
Jesus knew what he was saying and what his claims signified. Likewise, the Jews, who knew the law thoroughly, also knew what he was claiming. By calling himself the Son of God, he claimed deity. This is evident from the following verses in which he claimed the attributes of God: power to raise the dead and to give life to whomever he chooses (Jn 5:21, 25-26, 28); and authority to judge each and every person who ever lived (Jn 5:22, 27, 29), so that the Father and the Son may receive equal honour (Jn 5:23).
When he says “….the Son cannot do anything on his own. He can do only what he sees the Father doing, and he does exactly what he sees the Father do” (Jn 5:19), he is not saying he is less than God. He indicated that despite his equality with God as second Person of the Trinity, he subordinated himself to the Father in order to complete the mission for which he had been sent (Phi 2:1-11). He shows his equality with God – which means he is God, as the Jews correctly concluded – and that he is separate from the Father. John earlier stated it succinctly: “In the beginning was the one who is called the Word. The Word was with God and was truly God. From the very beginning the Word was with God…The Word became a human being and lived here with us” (John 1:1, 14).
It is also significant that Jesus made this same claim after his arrest and interrogation by the Jews. Matthew tells us: “But Jesus did not answer. So the high priest said, ‘With the living God looking on, you must tell the truth. Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?’ ‘That is what you say!’ Jesus answered. ‘But I tell all of you, ‘Soon you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right side of God All-Powerful and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ The high priest then tore his robe and said, ‘This man claims to be God! We don’t need any more witnesses! You have heard what he said. What do you think?’ They answered, ‘He is guilty and deserves to die!’ Then they spit in his face and hit him with their fists. Others slapped him” (Matt 26:63-67).
So again, Jesus claimed equality with God, not only by claiming the title “Son of God” but also “Son of Man”, a reference to Daniel 7:9-14. And he was consequently sentenced to death for blasphemy. These titles signify his equality with God (Son of God) and his subordination to God (Son of Man).
Jesus claimed to be the God of the Old Testament
On another occasion when Jesus was speaking with the Jews, in response to what Jesus said about Abraham, they said, “‘I tell you for certain that even before Abraham was, I was, and I am.’ The people picked up stones to kill Jesus, but he hid and left the temple” (Jn 8:57-59).
No wonder the Jews were beside themselves! Jesus was identifying himself with Jehovah who spoke to Moses from the burning bush. When God was telling Moses what he wanted him to do, Moses said to God, “God said to Moses: ‘I am the eternal God. So tell them that the Lord, whose name is ‘I Am,’ has sent you. This is my name forever, and it is the name that people must use from now on” (Exodus 3:13-15).
Jehovah/Jesus and Allah are not the same God
So, the God of the Bible is not the God of Islam. And the Jesus of the Bible is not the Jesus of Islam. Islam is not the final revelation of God; Christianity is. Islam is not even a revelation of God of any kind – it is a false religion. Despite its claims, Islam is not connected to Christianity in any way. Christianity and Islam are two separate religions with two different Gods and two totally different ways of relating to God. A Muslim cannot be a Christian unless he first renounces Islam. And if a Christian adopts Islam, he at the same time renounces Christ and the Gospel and loses salvation, condemning himself to eternal destruction. Christianity and Islam are diametrically opposed to and incompatible with each other and can never worship together; if they do, they cease to be either Christian or Muslim.
Christianity and Islam can never be reconciled. Christian teaching about Jesus is anathema to Islam, so all those Christians, such as the Pope who prays with Muslims, and others who try to find common ground between the two religions, and who say that Allah is the God of Islam and Christianity, are deceivers and false teachers, and will bring all who listen to and believe them, into the same hell to which they are destined. Here we have Jesus as being the final revelation of God – he is not just a prophet or the final prophet – he is the final revelation itself. He is the end, the goal, the purpose, the fulfillment, of all prophecy. The next revelation from heaven will be when Jesus returns in great power and glory to put all things right, make an end of this sinful world, and judge all mankind.
The first chapter of Hebrews reveals very clearly, unequivocally, and unapologetically, that Jesus is the Son, begotten of the Father, Creator of heaven and earth, and is so because he is God. He is not the Father and the Father is not the Son; BUT both are God; as it says in the passage: “God says about his Son, ‘You are God, and you will rule as king for ever. I, your God have chosen you’” (1:8-9). And though the Father and the Son are both equal and of the same substance, the Son willingly subordinates himself to the Father: “God never said to any of the angels, ‘Sit at my right side until I make your enemies into a footstool for you” (1:13).
For example, where the passage says of Jesus that he is “the express image of his person” (Heb 1:3) i.e. of the Father, the definition of “express image” in Strong’s Concordance is: “The phrase expresses the fact that the Son ‘is both personally distinct from, and yet literally equal to, Him of whose essence He is the imprint.’ The Son of God is not merely his ‘image’…He is the ‘image’ or impress of His substance, or essence. It is the fact of complete similarity which this word stresses” (entry 5481 in Strong’s Greek Dictionary).
Humans can only Know about God what God has Chosen to Reveal of Himself
Infidels love to mock Christians for believing that God can be Three-yet-One, a trinity of Persons but one God. And the concept to them is open to challenge because it seems impossible according to all known laws and principles of physics and any other discipline or science. But God is not bound by the physical laws which bind us. He created the vast universe yet is greater than it, he stands outside it; he holds it in his hand; he transcends it; he is not bound by its laws. He is God!! He is the Creator!! He is the source of all things, of all being. We finite creatures can never comprehend the being of God – he is unique and words can never come near to describing him. All we know about God is what he has revealed to us. We can never know any more about him than this. And we don’t need to. To try and analyse and explain his triune being is futile – we just need to believe what God has revealed about himself.
So, when Jesus does identify and equate himself with the Father, he always reveals a triune Godhead: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one” (1 John 5:7 KJV).
Thus, he cannot be Allah because Allah identifies himself as a unity; and he insists he has no son. “And they say, ‘The Most Merciful has begotten a son.’ You have come up with something monstrous. At which the heavens almost rupture, and the earth splits, and the mountains fall and crumble. Because they attribute a son to the Most Merciful. It is not fitting for the Most Merciful to have a son” (Qur’an in English, surah 19:88-92).
References
Itani, Talal, translator, 2014, Qur’an in English, pub. ClearQur’an.com (for Kindle)
Strong, J. Greek Dictionary of the New Testament (Ref: 5481) in “The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible”, 2001 Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN
Scripture quotations are from the Contemporary Englich Version (CEV) copyright American Bible Society 1991, 1995.