(Nov2012: Religion & Cults: Apologetic Paper: 'The War on Jesus Christ')
I. INTRODUCTION
Christianity, Judaism and
Islam are known to be the only three religions recognized as monotheism. Yet
the identity of Jesus Christ and His associated work of salvation on the Cross have
always been the divisive points that separate Christianity from Judaism and
Islamic beliefs of monotheism, and rendered it to be polytheism in those eyes
of Muslims. The core value of Christianity is the belief that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God, and He is the Second Person in the Trinity, and He is indeed God
incarnated and Word becoming flesh, living on earth for about thirty-three
years, dying on the cross for the sin of the mankind, resurrected on the third
day after His death and then ascending onto heaven after forty days of mingling
around with His disciples, and He is to come a Second Time on the Day of
Judgment and Restoration.
Muslims deny the divinity
of Christ Jesus, seeing him only as one of the prophets preceding the Last Prophet
of Allah, Muhammad. They refuse to believe that Jesus was crucified and
resurrected and He is the Savior and the Lord for all mankind. Jesus’ name has
been appeared in Quran for twenty-five times, much more than the name Muhammad
is mentioned (only four times). A belief in Jesus (known as Isa in Quran) and
all the prophets in precedence to him, and the Seal of prophet after him is a
compulsory requirement in Islamic faith. Yet Muslims’ understanding of Jesus is
greatly deviated from biblical images we find in the Word of God.
Section II below shows the
war between Islamic and biblical faith on the person of Jesus Christ, and an
apologetic conclusion is drawn in each section defending who Jesus really is
and what He has truly accomplished for the salvation of mankind.
II. THE WAR ON JESUS
CHRIST
(BETWEEN ISLAMIC AND BIBLICAL FAITH)
There are mainly three issues
discussed below about the war on Jesus Christ, divided into the following three
sections of arguments, which are: Jesus as God’s incarnation and revelation,
Jesus as the Son of God (divinity and trinity) and Jesus as the crucified and
risen Christ (the Savior and Lord of the world).
A. JESUS AS GOD’S
INCARNATION AND REVELATION
a) Islamic belief
Quran says that Jesus is
the son of Mary, and she conceives in her virginity after the archangel Gabriel
has dictated to her the decree from Allah. Muslims see Mary’s impregnation as a
supernatural act of Allah (by the Spirit referred as Gabriel), but they deny strongly
that He is God incarnated, or the Word revealed to men in flesh.
The concept of God’s
incarnation is a foreign and horrible thought to Muslims as Islam believes in
twin doctrines of tanzih (separateness) and mukhalafah (otherness), that Allah
is a remote and sovereign entity separating Himself from all of His creation,
inclusive of all men[1].
Therefore it is totally unbelievable and blasphemed for them to perceive the
idea that Jesus is the Son of God, who is God becoming flesh revealing Himself
to His people the very nature and person of Godhead. For them it is completely
and absolutely impossible that God will ever dwell among the mortalities.
Quran is understood by
Muslims to be the eternal heavenly revelation received by the Prophet Muhammad
within a period of twenty-three years, and it is considered undoubtedly as the
authentic and final Word of God. Prior to Quran, there are said to have three
main books given to His people, which are the Law given through Moses, the
Psalm given through David and the Gospel (Injil) given through Jesus. Quran
supersedes all these books in its status and authority as the Word from Allah, and
is the final and seal of God’s revelation. Muslims thus refuse to believe that
God reveals Himself through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. They do believe
that Allah wants to make His will known to His people, and that is the reason
He has sent His prophets throughout all generations and has finally given them
the heavenly book, the Quran. But Muslims do not believe that Allah would ever
intend to reveal Himself and make Himself known physically and personally to
His people.
b)
Biblical belief
The Bible clearly, consistently
and decisively says that Jesus is God’s incarnation and He is the visible and
physical revelation of God. The Bible says in John 1:1, ‘In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ The apostle John
tells us that Jesus is indeed the Word, and He is God of eternity since the
beginning, even before the Creation of the world. John 1:3 further informs us
that God creates all things through Jesus, and is corresponded to the narrative
records found in Genesis 1, where God creates the world with the Word spoken,
‘Let there be…’. Whatever God has
proclaimed with His word, it is created and established, and the world comes
into being.
The ‘Word’ John refers to,
comes into the world but is rejected by the world He has created. He is the
Word ever existed in heaven before all creation, and He is the Bread from
heaven that gives life to many who choose to believe in Him. The Bible portrays
God both to have the nature of transcendence and immanence. He is sovereign God
who is above all creations, yet He is also God who dwells among His people,
with the divine presence of Jesus as the Son of man, and subsequently the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit in those who receive Him as the Lord and Savior.
c) Apologetic Views
We strongly believe in the
biblical truth that Jesus is the incarnation of God, the Word becoming flesh
based on two evidences. Firstly, those inner evidences found in the Bible
itself show a consistent pattern pointing towards an event of incarnation. Isaiah
7:14 tells us a virgin birth where the child shall be called ‘Immanuel’ (God
with us). Isaiah 9: 6 indicates to us that a child is born and that child is
referred to as the Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. Ezekiel
37:26-27 talks about the Sanctuary of God will be found among His people
forever, where the Sanctuary is interpreted to be the body of Messiah, a
community that He has established on earth through His death and resurrection.
Micah 5:2 prophesizes a ruler of Israel
is to be born in the small town of Bethlehem
Secondly, we discover that
Quran agrees with Bible in a way that it acknowledges Jesus as the Word of God in
three incidences. Quran 3:45 asserts that the ‘good news of a word from Allah’
to Mary ‘shall become the known Messiah, Jesus son of Mary’. The ‘word’ from
Allah shall become flesh, known as the Messiah. Quran 4:171 further affirms
that ‘the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of God, and His word
which he conveyed unto Mary.’ Quran thus acknowledges that Jesus is a
messenger, and He is the Word of Allah. Quran 3:39 indicates that John brings us
good news which confirms a word from God. Jesus is said to be God’s ‘word’. He
is more than a messenger, but He is the Word itself. He is the Word of God and
He is indeed God revealed as Word to mankind. Though prophets of Allah could be
addressed as ‘word’ of Allah, but Jesus’ birth is not of a normal birth, His
birth is different from all the prophets of Allah recognized by the Muslims. He
is the ‘Word’ incarnated, the word of Allah revealed physically.
Quran also echoes the
biblical truth of God’s creation by saying that God decrees matters with the
word ‘Be’ spoken[2]. It is
equivalent to our understanding that Allah creates the world by the Word, Jesus
Christ. In his argument of whether Jesus is a prophet or God, the Islamic
apologist Prof. Dr. Kh. Hasbullah Bakry Sh has actually said that, ‘the birth
of Jesus Christ was the result of God’s Word ‘kun fayakun’ (come into
existence, and it comes into existence), which birth was laid upon Mary with
the Spirit of God.’[3]
Thus Islamic belief misses
out the very essence of the activity of God proclaimed throughout the centuries
by all His prophets. He is more than the Word of Allah. He is the Word
incarnated, and lives on earth as man, speaking, living and demonstrating the
life and power of the Almighty God. He teaches about the truth of the Kingdom,
He demonstrates the extraordinary power that comes from Heaven and He lives an
exemplary life with Kingdom oriented mindset, submission to God unto His death
on the Cross.
B. JESUS AS THE SON OF
GOD: DIVINITY AND TRINITY
a) Islamic belief
Jesus is viewed by Muslims
as one of the five greatest prophets (Adam, Noah, Abraham Moses and Jesus)[4]
before the coming of the last Prophet Muhammad, sent by Allah to make known His
decrees and commands. Yet He is recognized as a prophet specifically assigned
by Allah to instruct the people of Israelites. He is seen by Muslims as possessing
the same likeness of Adam to Allah, a historical prophet, a forerunner for the
prophet Muhammad, and he confirms Musan Law and endorses the Injil (Quran 61:6),
and shows the world the original ‘Christianity’ without the mask put by the
Bible or diverted teachings of Christians. He especially serves as a witness to
later Pauline’s faulty teachings about the Christ[5].
Muslims’ perspectives
towards the divinity and the doctrine of Trinity are entirely different from
the concepts conceived by Christians. For Islamic followers, they know that
Quran has stated clearly in 23:90 that Allah has no son and there is no other
God beside Allah. Jesus has spoken forth in his infancy that he is a prophet of
Allah given with the Book, and he is only a slave of Allah (Quran 19:27-35). He
is called the ‘Word of God’, the ‘Messiah’, ‘a Spirit from God’ and commonly
referred by Muslim as ‘the Spirit of God’ but He is never called ‘the Son of
God’ which convey a physical sense of existence of divinity, and he is
forbidden to be worshipped as ‘god’ (Quran 4:169)[6].
Whatever miraculous power he possessed is endowed and allowed by Allah.
The creed of Trinity found
in Christianity faith is a stumbling block to Muslims as their mind will tend
to understand that Christians indeed are worshipping three gods: The Father,
the Mother and the Son[7].
Since Jesus is called the Son of God, Muslims thereby deduce that Christians
believe that God the Father has taken a wife to Himself and given birth to a
Son Jesus Christ, and thus validated the doctrine of Trinity proclaimed and
taught since the fourth century. To them, the concept of Jesus being the Son of
God is definitely a corrupted teaching of Jews and Christians.
The doctrine of Trinity
has caused Muslims to misunderstand Christians further, thinking that the later
have put Allah (God the Father), Jesus (the Son of God) and Gabriel (The Holy
Spirit) together as three persons of Godhood. Thus these Christians are
considered as blasphemers of Allah and worshiper of multiple-gods. They are
seen as committing serious offence of shirk, because they have associated
something with God that is not God[8].
Because Christians have sinned against Allah, they are classified by Quran as
unbelievers[9].
b) Biblical belief
Andy Bannister discovers
through Scriptures that Jesus has never admitted Himself to be one of the
prophets of God, a title given to Him by Muslims[10].
In many occasions found in the four Gospels, He instils the thought that He is
not of the earth, and He comes from the Father, and He possesses the agenda of
Kingdom in His mind and doings. Jesus is constantly conscious of who He is,
even when He walks on earth as a man. He never equals Himself to be in the line
of prophets, and He never endorses the thought that He has any successive voice
or there will be a greater prophet coming after Him. The ‘paraclete’ He refers
to is His Spirit and the Spirit of the Father, and never to be understood like
Muslims, as ‘Ahmad’ the prophet to come. Acts 1:8 fulfils His prophecy of the
coming ‘Holy Spirit’, and vindicates what He has said and promised is true.
Jesus makes clear that He
is the Son of Man, which speaks of His eternal Kingship with incomparable
authority given to Him by the Father, and also speaks of His mission on earth as
the suffering Servant of God. He introduces Himself as the Son of God or the
Son, proclaiming an inseverable relationship that He has with the heavenly
Father. About 30 times He refers Himself in the Gospel of John as ‘the Son of
God’ or ‘the Son’, and 107 times He calls God ‘the Father’ or ‘My Father’[11].
He extols and affirms Simon Peter’s insight when Peter recognizes Him as the
Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16) or the Messiah/the Christ
(Mark 8:29). In the parable of the vineyard (Matthew 21:33-42), He relates
Himself to be the only son (the Son of God) among the servants (prophets) sent
by the vineyard owner (God the Father) to the tenants to collect the harvest of
the fruits. Jesus places Himself above all the prophets sent by God. He is not
among them but instead is above all of them. The title of Messiah also
indicates that He is the coming King who will restore the glory of God and the
people of Israel
All the above statements
claim that Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and He is truly divine in nature.
His identity is foretold by the prophets of all generations, proclaimed by God
the Father (Luke 9:35; Matthew 17:5), declared by Jesus Himself, agreed by His
disciples of His days, verified by Pauline’s epistles, and witnessed and
professed by all Christians throughout the Church history.
The doctrine of Trinity is
not an explicit and direct teaching found in the Bible itself. It is so called ‘invented’
and ‘established’ by the Nicene Creed in the 4th century. Yet in
certain passages of the Bible, we see the expression of Trinity vividly. First
we could discover the fact from the Genesis account of Creation. We are told
that God creates the heaven and earth with the word ‘let it be…’spoken, and the
Spirit of God is said to hover over the deep waters. This Genesis account of
Creation portrays the unison work of the trinity since the beginning of the
world. In the book of John we are frequently told by Jesus about the close relationship
between the Father, the Son and the Spirit. Some passages in Synoptic Gospels reveal
to us the picture of trinity, i.e. the scene when Jesus is baptised by John the
Baptist in the River
of Jordan
c) The Apologetic Views
Muslims renounces the
correctness and conciseness of the teachings and records found in the New
Testament about the divinity of Christ and His work on the Cross because they
consider the Scripture held by Jews and Christians is corrupted due to those
cultural influences of Greek and paganism. To them, the books of NT resemble
those traditional writings of their prophets and are different with the way
Quran presents the Word of God[12].
NT is therefore considered to be greatly deviated from the original Injil or
Gospel preached by Jesus the Nazareth
Yet Miller points out that
Quran itself has never doubted about the authenticity of the Book (the
Scripture) held by the then Christians and Jews[13]
(Refer Quran 4: 47 and 10:94, where Christians and Jews are told to believe in
Quran confirming their own Scripture, and they are to clear their doubts
towards Quran in asking those who read the Book before). If Scripture used by
Jews and Christians is the authoritative reference for Quran, then whatever is
said in Scripture could not be partially wrong and partially true as claimed by
Muslims. If Scripture is true, it is completely reliable and whatever it says
about the identity and works of Jesus Christ is true as well.
Miller further argues that
the Quran declares in many places that all the prophets are aware that they are
sent by Allah with the same purpose and the same message (33:7-8; 23:51-52;
42:13; 5:46; 61:6; 3:35-41; 19:2-15; 3:42-53; 19:16-36). Therefore Quran is
saying that the messages proclaimed by all the prophets shall be in consistent
and in line with one another. If Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus the great
prophets and all the prophets ever existed before Jesus have concurred that
Jesus Christ is the coming Messiah, the Great King, the Savior of the nations
and the Christ, then the revelation proclaimed by Muhammad is indeed in a great
contradictory to the truth proclaimed by those previous prophets of him. This
will indeed prove that he is not to be considered in the line of prophets sent
by God. Since Muhammad cannot be considered as the prophet of God, then
whatever he has proclaimed is not to be received as the authentic Word of God.
C. JESUS AS THE CRUCIFIED
AND RISEN CHRIST: THE
LORD AND SAVIOR OF THE WORLD
a) Islamic belief
Islam does not teach on
the original sin of mankind which we have inherited from our ancestor Adam
since his fall. Instead Islam focuses its teaching on human’s sins which are those
wilful acts that go against the will and instructions of Allah. Men have no
Savior other than themselves who have to observe the instructions given in the
Qur’an and the traditional Hadith in order for them to live rightly and please
Allah. They have to abide in the five pillars of their Islamic faith, i.e.
faith, prayer, alms giving, fasting and pilgrimage, in order to demonstrate their
submission towards Allah.
Muslims thus believe in merit of work that
will save them, though Allah has His absolute power to decide whether one is to
be pardoned from judgment or to be condemned. No Muslim is ever assured of his personal
salvation. Allah will give His final verdict in accordance with His will whether
one is rewarded or punished. Therefore in Islamic belief, the thought of a
Savior is totally alien and strange.
It is widely accepted by
Muslims that Quran 4: 157-158 denies the claim
of Jews that they have killed (crucified) Jesus the Messiah, and their claim is
nothing but a mere conjecture. Muslims do not believe that Jesus is the one who
is crucified on the Cross. Instead they believe that it is either Judas or
Simon the Cyrene
b)
Biblical beliefs
Bible teaches that man has
sinned against God through his deliberate act of rebellion, and every one of us
thus is in need personally of a Savior. Jesus Christ is born as a common man like
us, but He is sinless and without blemish. He dies on the Cross in obedience to
the will of the father, and His poured out blood has taken away the sin of the
world, so that men can be reconciled to God and be restored to their original
image in God.
The core belief in
Christianity is a concept of Savior who is crucified and is resurrected on the
third day after His death. Those who call on the name of Jesus Christ and
accepted Him as the Savior and the Lord shall be saved from the eternal
condemnation. There is no way man could try his own way with his own effort to
be saved from the punishment of sin. Only through faith in Jesus Christ shall
he overcome sin and death.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 15
declares that the faith of Christians will be considered futile if Christ is
not risen from death. Men will still live in their sin and entangled in their
sinful state if Christ is not resurrected. If Christ is not crucified and
resurrected, the whole belief of Christianity is nothing but a lie. The faith
of Christianity stands and falls on the fact of a risen Christ.
c) Apologetic Views
In an interview with
Muslims, it is admitted by a Muslim scholar saying that, ‘the Arabic of the
Quran can in fact be translated in a way that is coherent with the Christian
belief that Jesus died on the Cross, but no Muslims reads the Arabic that way.’[14]
Thus we could induce from this saying that the understanding of Muslims towards
crucifixion of Jesus Christ is biased, because they are always convinced that
they are without any need for an atonement of sin by a Savior, and thus nullify
the need of crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.
Dave Miller has pointed
out the contradictory manner found in Muslim world towards Christians and their
beliefs in Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, arguing that while Quran
frequently addresses the term ‘Christians’ in an approving manner, it denies at
the same time the very tenet ‘Christians’ have believed and insisted[15].
The stand of Quran is thus inconsistent and self-contradict.
The Bible tells us that there are many eyes
witnesses for both the events of crucifixion and resurrection of Christ Jesus.
The lives of the disciples have been tremendously transformed after they have
witnessed the resurrected Christ. The early Christians were fervent about their
faith and they are even willing to be martyred because they have chosen to
believe in the resurrected power of Christ. Their blood has indeed spoken of
the undeniable truth found in Jesus Christ.
III.
CONCLUSION
The purpose of the three
aspects of argument presented above about the war on the person of Jesus Christ
is to find ways to penetrate the core-belief of professed Muslims, enable us to
present gospel in a more relevant way to them. We need to know the Muslims’
thought about the Christianity before we could design ways to share to them the
good news of Jesus Christ.
It is to be understood
that Muslims make a striking contrast between Jesus in Quran and Jesus in the
Gospels. The former is recognized by them as real Jesus while the later is
accepted by them only to a certain limited degree[16].
They do have high regard and honor towards Jesus as a prophet sent by God, and
they believe in whatever the Quran says about the person of Jesus.
Muslims might not think
that they need a Savior, but surely they will be desperately in need of God’s
love and grace to enable them to be overcomers of their sins. They definitely
need God who is near and is able to communicate intimately with them, the God
who is the revelation of His Word. In order to convince them of who Jesus
really is, it is not enough just to bring out the truth we find in the Bible,
but we need to help them to discover the real Isa (Jesus) revealed in the Quran.
This will put off their defensive mask and eventually they will be more willing
to open themselves to our sharing. If we start with the ‘Isa’ in the Quran, we will
eventually find ways to close the big gap of differences between Islamic and Biblical
beliefs. For Quran does speak of Jesus as the Word, the servant of Allah, and a
‘Spirit of God’.
BIBLOGRAPHY
Bannister, Andy. The
Quest for the lost Jesus: Part 1: Asking questions, Seeking
Bowker, John. Voices of Islam. Oxford
Goldsmith, Martin.
Islam and Christian Witness.London:
Hodder and Stoughton
1982.
Turner, Ryan. Islam and the Crucifixion of Jesus.
http://carm.org/islam-crucifixion-of-jesus.
(Access date: 20Nov2012)
Miller, Dave. The Quran and Christ’s Crucifixion and
Resurrection.
http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=8&article=1517.
(Access date: 20Nov2012)
Miller, William M.
A Christian’s Response to Islam. Phillipsburg
Reformed Publishing Co., 1980.
Muhammad ‘Ata Ur-Rahim. Jesus Prophet of Islam. Singapore
Publications Pte Ltd, 1991.
Prof. Dr. Kh.
Hasbullah Bakry Sh. Jesus Christ in the
Qur’an Muhammad in the
Bible: Is Jesus Prophet or
God. KL: S. Abdul Majeed
& Co., 1990.
Sonship in the Gospel of John.
http://www.theopedia.com/Sonship_in_the_Gospel_of_John.
(Access date: 19Nov2012)
The Descriptive Titles of Jesus in Quran, http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/229/
(Access date: 19Nov2012)
Zebiri, Kate. Muslims and Christians Face to Face. Oxford
1997.
[1] Martin Goldsmith, Islam and Christian Witness (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1982),
89.
[2] The Descriptive Titles of Jesus in Quran, http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/229/.
[3] Prof. Dr. Kh. Hasbullah Bakry Sh, Jesus Christ in the Qur’an Muhammad in the
Bible: Is Jesus Prophet or God? (KL: S. Abdul Majeed & Co., 1990), 17.
[4] William M. Miller, A Christian’s Response to Islam (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and
Reformed Publishing Co., 1980), 47.
[5] Muhammad ‘Ata Ur-Rahim, Jesus Prophet of Islam (Singapore: Omar
Brothers Publications Pte Ltd, 1991), 1-5.
[6] Miller, A Christian’s Response to Islam, 49.
[7] Goldsmith, Islam and Christian Witness, 59.
[8] John Bowker, Voices of Islam (Oxford: OneWorld Publications, 1995), 92.
[9] Bakry Sh, Jesus Christ in the Qur’an Muhammad in the Bible: Is Jesus Prophet or
God, 18.
[10] Andy Bannister, The Quest for the
lost Jesus: Part 1: Asking questions, Seeking answers (http://www.answering-islam.org/Andy/quest1.html,
2001).
[11] Sonship in the Gospel of John,
http://www.theopedia.com/Sonship_in_the_Gospel_of_John
[13] Miller, A Christian’s Response to Islam, 71.
[14] Bowker, Voices of Islam, 93.
[15] Dave Miller, PhD, The Quran and Christ’s Crucifixion and Resurrection,
http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=8&article=1517.
[16] Kate Zebiri, Muslims and Christians Face to Face (Oxford: Oneworld Publications,
1997), 59.
No comments:
Post a Comment