Saturday, October 3, 2020

Jesus is God, not merely a human prophet, and the crucifixion is historical fact

     According to Qur'an, 112:3, "He (God) neither begets nor is begotten".  Odd, as Christians believe Jesus is the only (John 3:16) begotten Son of God (Acts 13:33, Hebrews 1:5, Hebrews 5:5).  Now, Islam claims to be a continuation of Christianity, but, since it denies this (My guess is that Muhammad didn't know what Christians meant by that phrase, Christians believe Jesus is the Son of God, but not the same way that you reading this and I typing this are sons of our respective biological fathers). 

    I think that Muslims are wrong about who they think Jesus is (and wrong about the "prophet" Muhammad.  I do not mean to offend well over a billion people, but the evidence that he was a divinely appointed prophet, just isn't there.  For one, no serious historian doubts the crucifixion (which makes Surah 4:157 very problematic)  even if they may doubt the resurrection.  Yet, over a billion people deny an historical fact. 

    Here's the thing:  Jesus's contemporaries certainly believed that he was crucified.  (Antiquities 18:3:3).  So, whom am I going to believe?  Someone several hundred years after the fact, or someone that was at least born (and writing) in the same century?  Islam is not a continuation of Christianity, and it doesn't correct Christianity.  I'm willing to concede that Muslims and Christians worship the same God (there's no other God to worship, and, also, Middle Eastern Christians call God "Allah"), but their Isa, is not my Jesus (YasÅ«). 

    If you live in an Islamic country, without access to a Bible (if you have Christian friends and you live in Jordan, you should be good) please download TOR, and read it here.  http://bible4u2lvhacg4b3to2e2veqpwmrc2c3tjf2wuuqiz332vlwmr4xbad.onion/en/bible?lang_ref=en&bible_ref=DRA&book_ref=Gen&chapter_ref=1, that is the Douay Rheims version, but, be warned, I am pretty sure that the site is hosted by a Protestant,but this is a Catholic version.  I am going to give you a list of verses to lookup, but, keep in mind, the DR has a different numbering than most modern Bibles, so there's that.  Anyway, in the modern numbering, check out:

    Matthew 27:64, 28,  Mark16:6, 16:14, Luke 24:5, 2 Timothy 2:8, also, important to remember that he appeared to his followers AFTER rising from the dead.  The Quran conveniently ignores this, so it doesn't have to try to explain it away.  Here are some verses, Luke 24:34, (and here's one for, at the time, a non-follower Acts 9:4), 1 Corinthians 15:5-8).  Here's the thing though, whilst the Quran does acknowledge that God does forgive sins (Quran 3: 15–16, Quran 4: 3),but, does not think that blood sacrifice is necessary  (Qur'an, sura 22, ayat 37)  For the Christian, that is EXACTLY what is required.  1 Corinthians 15:14.  Judaism has the the idea of blood sacrifice as well (see the Book of Leviticus), so Christians are hardly alone on this. 

    As for my own views on this, I think many Muslims are misinformed about WHAT Christians believe.  They have been told things that are a misrepresentation of Christian belief.  I think many Muslims may be good, holy people, that try to serve God.  But they are wrong about Jesus.

 

          By the way, least I forget, the Bible does explicitly call Jesus God.  See, Philippians 2:6, John 1:1-4, and John 8:58.  The whole reason that Jesus's death is a big deal is because he is the one mediator between God and man, because he IS God and man.  (1 Timothy 2:5).