There are six commonly asked
questions by Muslims.
1.“Hasn’t
the Bible been corrupted or changed?” 2. “Isn’t Muhammad mentioned in
the
Bible?”
3.
“Why do Christians worship Jesus?” 4. “Why didn’t the Jews believe in
Jesus
Christ?” 5. “Why would God become a man?” 6. “How can Jesus be God?
“How can
the Son be the Father?”
1.
Hasn’t
the Bible been corrupted or
changed
The
reason this question is asked is because when Muhammad, the founder of
Islam, was
preaching between 610 and 632 AD (AD means after Christ), he claimed
his new
Quran was identical to the Bible. After Muhammad’s death, Muslim
scholars came
into contact with the Bible for the first time. When they read the
Bible, they
discovered a huge problem in that the Bible and the Quran contradicted
each
other. They began to argue that the Bible had been changed and altered,
hence
the differences. However, this was not the case. The book of Isaiah,
written
around 700BC, was found in a cave near the Dead Sea. It had been
preserved.
Today’s King James Bible, also called the Authorized Bible, agrees word
for
word with it. In fact, all the books of the Old Testament were written
way
before Muhammad. The last one being Malachi around 420BC.
2.
“Isn’t
Muhammad mentioned in the Bible?”
No.
This has been wrongly taken from the book of John. Jesus
is speaking the following:
And
I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another
Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the
Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth
him not,
neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and
shall be in
you. John 14:16-17
But THE
COMFORTER, WHICH IS THE HOLY GHOST, whom the Father will send in my
name,
he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you. John 14:26
But when
the Comforter is come, whom I will
send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which
proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: John 15:26
The above
three scriptures should clear up any
misunderstandings that Muhammad is the comforter. He is not, as
the
Bible says that the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God, is the comforter.
3.
“Why
do Christians worship Jesus?”
Christians
worship Jesus because he is God. He is God who came to earth as a man
in the
flesh. He died. He rose bodily from the dead and he now sits at the
right hand
of God the Father in heaven.
But this
man (Jesus),
after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the
right
hand of God; Hebrews 10:12
“…we have redemption
through his (Jesus) blood,
even the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians
1:14)
4.
“Why
didn’t the Jews believe in Jesus
Christ?”
At
the time of Christ on earth, the Jews were being persecuted by the
Roman
empire. The promised Messiah and deliverer they were looking for, was a
military
man – a powerful warrior to overthrow the Romans. Furthermore, many of
the
priests and those in high places, would have lost their power, money
and
prestige if the ordinary person would worship Jesus. And they were
ready to. In
addition, it was not the mass of the people that crucified Jesus, but
the high
priests that stirred up the crowd.
But
the prophecy of the Old Testament said that Israel would reject Jesus.
It was
foretold.
5.
“Why
would God become a man?”
The
answer is very simple. As the Bible says God is love. God took pity on
us. He
does not want us to go to hell. So God became a man, lived a perfect
life and died
in our place as Jesus Christ on the cross.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son (Jesus Christ) into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.) (John 3:16-17)
6.
“How
can Jesus be God?” “How can the Son
be the Father?”
There
is only one God. There are not three Gods, and this God
is made
up of three persons or three personalities if you like.
It’s sort
of like an apple with three parts – the skin, the core and the flesh.
So
in heaven there is one God with three parts.
As
the scriptures say “For
there
are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word (Jesus
Christ), and the Holy Ghost: and these
three are one.” (1 John 5:7).
The
scriptures don’t lie. They say In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.
John 1:1.
In
heaven
Jesus Christ is called the Word. This means there
is one God in heaven made up of three persons – the Father is God, the
word is
God and the Holy Ghost is God. Now when Jesus is on the earth,
he is
called God, as God the Father says to Jesus “But
unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God,
is for ever and ever…) (Hebrews 1:8). God
says this to Jesus when he is on the
earth.
What
is the explanation for this?
“Wherefore
when he (Jesus
Christ) cometh into the world, he saith …
a body hast thou prepared me” (Hebrews 10:5). This means
Christ in
heaven, comes down to earth and is put into Mary, his mother’s body, by
the
Holy Ghost. You see, he doesn’t have an
earthly father. As the Bible says “Now
the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was
espoused (promised) to Joseph, before they came together,
she
was found with child of the Holy Ghost.” (Matthew 1:18). This
means
that the Word in heaven, Jesus Christ, God himself, is supernaturally
put into
Mary. There is no mention that he gives up being God either. There is
no change
in his identity. He is God in heaven and he is God in Mary.
Here
is an another explanation that will help you
understand.
Take
a Coffee Expresso machine. To start
with you have the coffee beans and that makes the liquid
coffee
in the cup right? Can we call this liquid coffee? Yes. Can we call the
beans
coffee? Yes. So the beans and the liquid can both be called coffee
right? Yes.
So
let us liken the Word (Jesus) in heaven to
the ‘coffee bean’. He is then expressed out of heaven
into
another form on earth as Jesus Christ the ‘liquid coffee’. As
the
scriptures say “God,
who at sundry times and in divers
manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in
these last
days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of
all
things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who (Jesus) being
the brightness of his (God the Father) glory, and THE
EXPRESS IMAGE
OF HIS (GOD) PERSON, and upholding all
things by the
word of his (Jesus) power, when he had by himself (Jesus)
purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;” (Hebrews
1:1-3)
So here we
have it. The Word (Jesus) is expressed
out of heaven like the ‘liquid coffee from the beans in a coffee
machine’. He
is God in heaven and he is God on earth.
As God is
a Spirit (John 4:24), to call Jesus
Christ the Son of God, means that Christ is also a Spirit. Like gives
birth to
like. Horses give birth to horses not tigers. Apples produce apples not
oranges
Secondly, “And
without controversy (without debate
or argument) great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest
in the
flesh (Jesus), justified in the Spirit, seen of angels,
preached
unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”
(1 Timothy 3:16 )
Can you
see this? God comes down to earth in the
flesh. He is Jesus Christ.
Here are
more proofs that Jesus is God.
1. Ask
anyone “Was Jesus a good man?” They will say
“Yes”.
Ask anyone
“Do good men lie?” They will say “Of
course not.”
Ask
anyone “Did Jesus Christ ever sin?” They will
say “No. The scriptures say
For
he (God)
hath
made him (Jesus) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; 2 Corinthians 5:21.
Furthermore,
Who (Jesus) did no sin,
neither was guile found in his (Jesus) mouth: 1 Peter 2:22.
Conclusion?
Jesus Christ was sinless and sinless
men don’t lie.
So
when Jesus speaks to Thomas and Thomas
answered and said unto him (Jesus), My Lord and my God.
John
20:28, Jesus
accepts this. If not, Jesus would be an imposter by lying wouldn’t he?
He does
not say to Thomas “Oh no I’m not God Thomas.” Why” Jesus is God!.
2.
When Jesus forgave sins, the scribes and the
Pharisees said “…who can forgive sins but God only?”
Mark
2:5-7
3.
Again the Jews accuse Jesus for making himself
God. For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and
because that
thou, being a man, makest thyself God. John 10:33. Why
would Jesus
do that if he wasn’t God? He wouldn’t as he doesn’t tells lies.
4.
Only God’s
blood was good enough to save
people (Acts 20:28)
“MORE
QUESTIONS FROM MUSLIMS”
(Part 2 of 2)
(STB 5 – “Rightly Divide the Bible”)
Australian
Bible Ministries, PO
Box 5058 Mt. Gravatt East, 4122 Qld, Australia
www.AustralianBibleinistries.com
