My Thoughts On Islam

[Rayaan]

The biggest difference is that Jesus tells Allah that he never told the people to worship him or that he was the Son of God. I forget the exact verse but it's clear that Jesus was a forerunner to Muhammad, much the same way the Christian version of John the Baptist was to Jesus. I understand that Muslims regard Jesus as a "great prophet" but not as the divine Son of God.

At first glance, Islam seems slightly more rational that Christianity as it jettisons the babbling nonsense about "The Trinity", which I regard as a poorly contrived concept to try to reconcile pagan ideas of the intercessor savior with strict Jewish monotheism. Islam is at least consistent in its claim of monotheism. Indeed, I've heard some Muslim apologists claim that "Islam correct Christianity." One used the analogy of computer software that Judaism was "God 1.0", Christianity was "God 2.0" and Islam is "God 3.0".

Some questions I have on further examination is with regards to the claims Islam makes about Jesus. If the story of Islam is true, then Jesus preached a message of pure monotheism, foretold that a greater prophet was to come, he was framed by the Jews, he escaped crucifixion when someone took his place (kind of a "Tale of Two Cities" sort of twist) and was taken up into the sky to be in Heaven. A few years later, the heretic Paul convinced everyone to worship Jesus and Christianity was born.

Do I have the story straight?

Yes, those are correct pretty much.

I will just condense my thoughts on your OP for now, but I might elaborate on these points in a later post.

Unfortunately, DP, your contention that the Muslim story about Jesus makes "absolutely no sense from start to finish" is rather a very knee-jerk type of response, in my opinion. On the contrary, whoever does an in-depth and sincere comparison between the religions, will find that the Muslim view of Jesus is much more consistent and plausible than the story that the Christians tell about Jesus.

According to the Old Testament as well - just like in Islam - it is considered to be a blasphemy and a great sin to attribute Jesus as being God Himself or anything of that sort. To the Jews and Muslims, Jesus was only a Prophet of God, nothing else. And he didn't come to earth to perform any kind of a sacrifice on himself for anyone's sins.

Regarding the issue of Jesus blaspheming by calling himself the Son of God, that is not a blasphemy, but rather it was just deceptively made into a blasphemy by Jewish leaders who sought to kill him long before he even made that statement. They deviously crafted his words in a way as to convey a message that he didn't really mean. They wanted to kill Jesus, and that's why they were waiting to fault him for something so that they can use that as a justification for killing him. See the link below which supports this with many verses from the Bible itself.

(10) These Jews had already made up their minds to kill Jesus long before (Matthew 12:14; Mark 3:6; 11:18; Luke 4:28,29; 6:11; 19:47; John 5:18; 7:19,20; 8:37); now they were looking for a deceptive ’cause’ (Greek, Aitia, Strong’s #156; kategoria, Strong’s #2723, #2724) to lyingly accuse to him by deception (Greek, dolos, Strong’s #1388). (Matthew 12:10; 26:4; 14:1; Mark 3:2; 15:3; Luke 6:7; 11:54; 23:10; John 8:6; 5:16,18; 11:53 — see World English Bible translation for these verses). Both Matthew and Mark truthfully tell us that “they took counsel together that they might take Jesus by deceit (Greek, dolos), and kill him." (Matthew 26:4; see also Mark 14:1) Thus we can be rest assured that their “causes” to kill him are deceitful causes, and they were the liars in their cause to kill Jesus.

John 5:18 – The Jewish Leaders’ "Cause" to Kill Jesus

When the Jewish leaders accused Jesus for claiming to be the son of God (to use that as an excuse to kill him), it doesn't mean that their intentions were innocent.

Jesus then replied to the Jews, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said, you are gods'? If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came - and the Scripture cannot be broken - what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'?" (John 10:34–36)

So, what Jesus meant was that he was amongst the "sons of God" as mentioned in the Old Testament (which is, because the word of God came to him). The "sons of God" also used to be called "gods" because when Jesus tells the Jews, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said, you are gods'?", he is referring to the following verse found in the Book of Psalms:

"I said, Ye are gods, And all of you sons of the Most High. Nevertheless ye shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes." (Psalm 82:6-7).

And this:
"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God." (Romans 8:14)

So there is no actual blasphemy in what Jesus said to the Jews.

And partly because of these false rumors being spread about Jesus, in addition to Paul's insistence that the whole message of Christianity is specifically centered around the death and resurrection of Jesus as an atonement for sins (which has nothing to do with keeping the Jewish law apparently), God sent the Quran to Muhammad as a last and final revelation in order to separate the truth from the lies.

So one of the things that the Quran did was to rectify everyone who Jesus really was. And the Quran is not ignoring the Christians either, because the teachings of the book are for all people including Christians as the Quran says: "This is no less than a reminder to (all) the Worlds" (Surah 81:27).

There is also scholarly opinion that Christians themselves didn't worship Jesus as God nor the Son of God in Christianity's earliest generation (see below).

In the light of such reflection and conclusion the particular question, 'Did the first Christians worship Jesus?', can be seen to be much less relevant, less important and potentially misleading. It can be answered simply, or simplistically, even dismissively, with a mainly negative answer. No, by and large the first Christians did not worship Jesus as such. Worship language and practice at times do appear in the New Testament in reference to Christ. But on the whole, there is more reserve on the subject. Christ is the subject of praise and hymn-singing, the content of early Christian worship, more than the one to whom the worship and praise is offered.

- James Dunn, Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?, p.150

I have only scratched the surface, but all the points so far are in total harmony with what Islam teaches about Jesus, as I've demonstrated above.

And last but not least, when you said that you would rather choose Christianity over Islam, as you did here:

If I WERE to choose between Islam and Christianity, it comes down to who is right about Jesus. Why should I not go with the people who are part of the established church that Jesus supposedly founded? Why would I believe the man who came along six centuries later to say the only people he could have heard about Jesus from were the ones who got it all wrong? This is beyond special pleading.

you are essentially implying that the Christians are more likely to be correct about who Jesus was, which is that Jesus is God (or perhaps the son of God).

Just to make this clearer: Christians: Jesus is God vs. Muslims: Jesus is NOT God

Are you serious that you would choose the first option? I doubt it.