The Muslim Jesus was a Failed Prophet

[DeistPaladin]

This Johnny-come-lately argument for Islam doesn't mean that there is a problem with Islam itself. I think it's a derisive term with no significant value.

While my use of the term is derisive, I'm using this mocking term to make a point. From the perspective of the skeptic, it certainly seems that way. Muhammad comes along several centuries after Jesus to announce that God spoke to him and everyone's got it all wrong but he's here to set us straight.

Part of the reason the Christians at Nicaea needed the OT and had to come up with the Trinity nonsense is because the alternative was to embrace a "new" religion (or Johnny-come-lately). The Romans would never accept that because if a religion is "new", one wonders why no one had heard about it before? Where's God been all this time? Islam has this problem (as does Mormonism).

Islam compounds this problem by claiming that the established religions had gotten it all wrong. Where was God this whole time?

So having seen the Jews and Christians get everything wrong, what is God's solution? Another burning bush? No. Jesus flying down to land in Rome to set the Pope straight? No. Talk to some guy several centuries later who lives in another country who has no influence in either Rome or Constantinople and provide not a shred of evidence that this guy is a prophet? According to Islam's story...

Eventually, He wanted to correct all the past religions by sending another prophet who would be able to deliver His last and final message to all mankind, without any corruption this time.

A Pope would have been a better choice as a person to talk to? Or why just one man? Why not a booming voice from the sky like at Jesus' baptism or in Judges 1:1? Or hey, here's a wild idea, why not speak to more than just the Middle-East or Europe? How about China or India or the Americas?

And why isn't that possible? Is it because it implies that God is not omnipotent?

Which is more likely?
1. The above scenario really is true, that Allah watched his chosen people get it all wrong and did nothing. Then he watched the Christians get it all wrong and did nothing. Then he decides to speak to this one guy while he's alone in a cave and doesn't even give him any magical powers or anything to prove his story... or...
2. That Muhammad just said God spoke to him?

On a second scenario, I've also heard the Imams saying that all the previous prophets were also teaching Islam, starting from Abraham to Muhammad (peace be upon them), but it's just that the previous religions were a corruption of God's true religion (which is Islam). So, maybe Islam is the first and last religion, not just the last religion as many people think it is.

That's not just a second scenario. Every anti-establishment religion needs to make that claim. The Protestants do the same thing when arguing against Catholicism's claim of antiquity. The old religion can always appeal to tradition. The new religion must create a fantasy past by which they can claim that they're not rebelling but simply returning to what once was.

The problem with this fantasy is it's nothing but a dreamscape. There were a wild variety of Christianities prior to Nicaea, but none of them were compatible with Islam. If Jesus did preach an Islamic message, no one ever saw fit to record it nor were these hypothetical proto-Muslims ever numerous enough to get attention.

Also, Muslims don't need to say that Jesus was a "great" prophet, because all prophets are great anyways.

If Islam is true, Jesus was an epic failure as a prophet. And this failure was in spite of his magical powers to heal and cause clay birds to come to life. He flies off into the sky and apparently did such a poor job of communicating that his devoted followers started worshiping him as a god not more than a few years later.

As for Jesus being a failed prophet, it doesn't matter because he is still a prophet like all the other prophets.

It boggles my mind that Jesus' apparent failure despite all that he was given doesn't bother you.

Here's the scenario: Paul comes along a few years later and tells the followers of Jesus "Hey guys, we're supposed to worship him as a god." and his followers just say "OK"?

On the day of resurrection, Jesus will get angry at the Christians and he will say to them (something like), "What?! When did I say that I am the son of God? When did I tell you to worship me? I never said that. Instead, my followers invented a lie against me! You should've listened to my successor, Muhammad (pbuh), the last messenger of God." Then the Christians will be ashamed of themselves.

And you touch on another "Johnny-come-lately" problem.

Every religion uses special pleading (my god is true and yours is not) but Islam takes it to a new level. Muhammad not only claims to understand God better than the Christians. He says he knows Jesus and what Jesus said better than the Christians who actually knew him! And the only worldly place he could have heard about Jesus was from the Christians that Muhammad says got it wrong!

Think about that for a minute. If I'm going to pick a religion: Christianity or Islam, which one should I believe is true? Would the Church established allegedly by Jesus be more likely to know what Jesus said or would some guy who came along several centuries later in a completely different country know better?

And if God told Muhammad the truth about Jesus than we're back to the question of why God doesn't do the same with the Christians? It would have saved a lot of bloodshed.

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If He made everything right the first time, then everything would be perfect and the universe would be like a Heaven. And there wouldn't a lot of changes in the universe. And nobody would feel the need to pray to God or call Him if everything was perfect. So, maybe that's the reason why God allows imperfections to happen from time to time. And sometimes He even fixes them, if He wants to.

So God made an imperfect universe so people would worship him?

For a perfect god, he sure is insecure that he goes to such lengths to get validation from mortals.

So, is he a really big, strong, powerful being plagued by feelings of insecurity and inadequacy? Kind of touching in a strange way.

Maybe Allah needs a hug?