THE INFERIORITY OF ISLAM (Part 2)

-{John 10}

-We are using our discipleship times on Wednesday evenings to look at how and why the Christian faith is the truth, the most excellent faith, in comparison to any other claim to truth that there is. I have started by comparing it to Islam, the fastest growing religion on the planet. Last week I gave a bit of a background to Islam and explained how its teachings on the subject of God differ from that of biblical Christianity.

-To sort of continue the comparison, tonight I want to look at Islam’s view of Christ versus the biblical view. A few weeks ago I had preached out of 1 John, and in it John says that the spirit of antichrist is working in the world. I explained how the word antichrist speaks of coming up with an alternative Christ--a fake Christ in comparison to the real deal. And that is what we find with these false religions. They have something to say about Jesus, but it’s wrong. They offer up a different Jesus--a false Jesus. And as the old commercial says: accept no substitutes.

-And Islam is no different. They have an alternative version of Jesus that contradicts the true claim. But if we can get a Muslim to truly see the real Jesus, God can use that to open their eyes to all His truths.

-Consider the story of Nabeel Qureshi. He was a Muslim who was confronted by the truths of Jesus. And what the Bible claimed about Jesus bothered his soul, but also awakened his soul. He had to wrestle with the identity of Jesus. In his book SEEKING ALLAH, FINDING JESUS he talks about a time that someone gave him the book MORE THAN A CARPENTER by Josh McDowell which is a small but effective apologetic book. This forced Nabeel to go to Scripture. And he describes being confronted by the truths about Christ.

But as I read through the Bible in conjunction with McDowell’s book, I realized that the gospels were coherent narratives, each serving as its own context. There was no need for any commentary in order to understand the gospels. Anyone can understand the Bible. Conversely, I could not just focus on individual verses to make a point about a gospel, as we often did with the Quran. I needed to read the whole gospel, understand the author’s intent and themes, and let the book speak for itself. Armed with this new perspective, I decided to read the gospel of John from the beginning before trying to interpret it. I sat back down on the ground and opened Abba’s Bible to John 1. What I found did not sit well with me.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” There it was. Full stop. I pored over these verses, reading them and rereading them. There was no other explanation. The verses were saying that God created the world by means of the Word, that the Word was coeternal with God, and that it was God Himself, yet in some sense separate from Him. It was obvious that “the Word” was Jesus, not just because John’s gospel was ostensibly about Jesus but also because the Quran calls Jesus the “Word of God.” Besides, verse 14 left little doubt: “And the Word became flesh, and Incredulous, I put the Bible down and began pacing the room once more, assembling the pieces in my mind. This was John’s first chapter, his prologue. Like an introduction in modern books, it gives us the lens through which to read the rest of the book. It was as if John were saying, “As you read this gospel, keep in mind that Jesus is coeternal with the Father, His partner in creating the world.” Here was the context I needed to resolve the tension in other parts of the gospel. Whatever difficulty I might have while reconciling verses, I had to keep John’s prologue in mind: Jesus is God.

-The concept of Jesus being both God and man is incomprehensible to the Muslim. According to their creed, there is no God but Allah. And according to their Quran, Allah begets not, nor is he begotten. So, an eternally begotten Son is out of the picture. And yet, the Bible makes this claim. Consider the passage that I had you turn to.

John 10:30–33 LSB

30 “I and the Father are one.” 31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” 33 The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself God.”

-Jesus had made the claim that He and the Father are one. While Muslims and others try to twist that claim into many different things, it was clear to everyone present what it was that Jesus was claiming. The Jews were going to stone Him for blasphemy because by making the claim that He did, Jesus was making Himself to be God. Joining that with John 1 that Nabeel had read, there is no doubt to the claims being made. And any claim otherwise is a complete contradiction to what Jesus claimed for Himself.

-And yet, that is where Muslims sit. Muslims believe that Jesus was one of the foremost prophets of Allah--but He was nothing more than a prophet. Allah had many prophets--like Noah, Abraham, Moses, David. And Jesus is just one more of them. Muhammed is the final and ultimate prophet.

-Muslims believe that Jesus was a sinless man who worked miracles. Allah used Jesus as a messenger for his day and was given great honor, but no more honor than any of the other prophets that Allah used. They believe that the Gospels were corrupted somewhere along the way, so that they teach falsehoods and make false claims about Jesus’ person and ministry.

-Their Quran says:

The Quran Sura 4

O People of the Scripture! Do not exaggerate in your religion nor utter aught concerning Allah save the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and His word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers, and say not "Three" - Cease! (it is) better for you! - Allah is only One Allah. Far is it removed from His Transcendent Majesty that He should have a son. His is all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. And Allah is sufficient as Defender.

-Muslims say that Jesus never claimed to be anything more. While He may have worked miracles, it did not make Him anything more than a messenger.

-And yet we Christians know and claim something quite different. We may throw out there numerous Scriptures that back our claims of the person of Jesus, yet Muslims twist them to mean something else. How do we handle that? Let’s consider some of the Scriptures that we believe, what Muslims claim, and how we might counter some of that. In fact, some of the verses that we would say proves Jesus’ deity, they say that they disprove Jesus’ deity.

-So, first consider the passage that I had you turn to. Jesus says I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE. Muslims claim that Jesus is merely claiming that Jesus and the Father are one in purpose. They have unity of goals in mind, nothing more. However, looking at the context, and as I pointed out, the Jews were ready to stone Him to death because His claim of oneness was a oneness of NATURE, and oneness of ESSENCE. Jesus was making the claim of deity. If He wasn’t, the Jews wouldn’t have tried to kill Him.

-And notice in context that Jesus didn’t try to correct their assumption that He was claiming to be God. Jesus didn’t say, “Oh wait. Don’t stone me. You misunderstood what I said. I was merely saying the Father and I are united in purpose.” No, Jesus dug in His heals and started arguing with them from the Scripture. And he says things like:

John 10:37–38 LSB

37 “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and continue knowing that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”

-And what was their reaction:

John 10:39 LSB

39 Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp.

-They were going to make good on their threat. And again, instead of countering the claim, Jesus supernaturally eludes them. But there are several Scripture verses that Muslims twist to try and make Jesus less than who He is.

John 14:28 LSB

28 “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

-Muslims say: look, Jesus right there says that the Father is greater, so that means He was denying being God. However, Jesus is not talking about the Father being greater in nature or essential being. Jesus is talking about position and role in His incarnation. As Ron Rhodes explains:

Reasoning from the Scriptures with Muslims 9. The Biblical View of Jesus, Part One

The Athanasian Creed affirms that Christ is “equal to the Father as touching his Godhood and inferior to the Father as touching his manhood.” The Father was seated upon the throne of highest majesty in heaven; the brightness of His glory was uneclipsed as He was surrounded by hosts of holy beings perpetually worshiping Him with uninterrupted praise. Far different it was with His incarnate Son—despised and rejected by men, surrounded by implacable enemies, and soon to be nailed to a criminal’s cross. It was from this lowly perspective that Jesus could say that the Father was “greater” than Him.

-Another verse that Muslims twist comes from the passage where Jesus is confronted by the young ruler. In Mark’s version:

Mark 10:17–18 LSB

17 And as He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and began asking Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.

-Muslims will twist this to mean: Well, only God is good, not Me. So, that means Jesus was making a distinction between He and God. However, Jesus was not saying that He wasn’t good, nor was He denying being God. What Jesus was doing was trying to force this young man to examine the implications of what he was saying. If you call Jesus good, and only God is good, what is it that you are saying? You would take the argument to its logical conclusion that Jesus is God.

-Another argument they make that is quite the stretch comes from Thomas’ exclamation upon seeing the resurrected Christ. John records:

John 20:28 LSB

28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

-Muslims claim that Thomas was merely expressing surprise. I guess they would say it is the modern equivalent of someone saying OMG. However, if that were the case, Jesus or someone would have rebuked Thomas for using the Lord’s name in vain. Rather, Thomas is commended for recognizing Jesus’ true identity:

John 20:29 LSB

29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are those who did not see, and yet believed.”

-Thomas believed what the implications of the resurrection truly meant: Jesus is Lord and Jesus is God.

-One final one for tonight. Muslims say that Jesus denies divinity because He constantly refers to Himself as the SON OF MAN, which means that He calls Himself human, so He can’t be anything else. There are a couple issues with this. First, just because Jesus might point out His humanity does not mean that He was denying His divinity. Jesus was human. But Jesus also was God. Jesus is one person with two natures. The two natures do not stop being what they are just because He has both.

-But the second issue is that His claim to being the SON OF MAN actually is a claim to being divine. When Jesus uses the title SON OF MAN, He is hearkening back to the prophet Daniel, and Jesus is claiming to be the fulfillment.

Daniel 7:13–14 LSB

13 “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And came near before Him. 14 “And to Him was given dominion, Glory, and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not be taken away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.

-That is Jesus. We will not accept any substitutes and we pray that Muslims will come to the full realization of who Jesus truly is...