QUESTIONS:
1.) Prophet Jesus (Pbuh) never claimed to be God at any time, on the contrary he said, my father is greater than I, My father is greater than all, I can of my own self do nothing.
ANSWER: First, I will tackle the Godhood of Jesus (marked as “A.”), and then I’ll touch next the issue on why Jesus said, “my father is greater than me” (marked as “B.”).
A.) Jesus literally did not say “I am God, worship me”, but there is so much evidence in the Old and New Testaments that Jesus is God. I will give you proofs;
JESUS TOOK THE NAME/TITLE USED BY GOD (OF ABRAHAM), “I AM HE/I AM WHO AM”:
[John 8:23-24] “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I AM HE, you will indeed die in your sins.”
[John 13:19] “I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I AM WHO I AM.
Compare these verses to [Isaiah 43:10 & Exodus 3:13-14];
[Exodus 3:13-14] “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.
[Isaiah 43:10] “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I AM HE. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.
JESUS IMPLIED THAT HE’S GOD:
[John 10:30] “I and the Father are one.” At this, the Jews again picked up stones to stone Him.
[John 13:13] “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.
[John 14:2-3] My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
[John 14:9-10] Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?
[Matthew 7:22-23] Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness’”.
[Matthew 28:18] Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to me”
[Mark 13:24-26] However, after the tribulation of those days, ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And He will send out the angels to gather His elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
[Mark 14:62] “I am,” said Jesus, “and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.”
[Luke 23:43] And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
JESUS WAS TREATED AS GOD BY HIS APOSTLES AND OTHER PEOPLE:
[John 1:18] No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
[John 11:32] When Mary came to Jesus and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
[John 20:27-28] Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
[Matthew 2:11] On coming to the house, they saw the Child with His mother Mary, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
[Matthew 8:2] Suddenly a leper came and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
[Luke 5:8] When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees. “Go away from me, Lord,” he said, “for I am a sinful man.
[Philippians 2:10] that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
[Revelation 21:6-7] And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.
JESUS WAS ANNOUNCED IN TANAKH AS THE COMING GOD:
[Malachi 3:1] And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts.
: This verse says that God will send a messenger prior to His coming, this person is fulfilled by John (the Baptist) who prepared the Lord’s way by baptizing the people with water [John 1:33-34]. After that, the Lord will come to His Temple, and at the same time, He will be the messenger of the covenant that the people will delight. Jesus introduced this covenant to his disciples [Luke 22:20 & Matthew 26:28].
[Micah 5:2] “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”
: Notice the last words of this statement, the coming ruler or king exists from ancient times, so He is God. Jesus claims that He exists even before the Creation (Isaiah 48:16, John 17:5, & John 17:24).
[Isaiah 9:6] For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
: This verse clearly informs that the son to be born is God and the Everlasting Father.
THE SENDING OF A SPIRIT BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD:
[Isaiah 48:16] “Come near unto me, hear this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, has sent me”
: The speaker of this verse is clearly God for He was there before the time took place, but in the second sentence, He said He is sent by the Lord God and His Spirit. This is the Spirit that descended to the Earth and took a human flesh. Jesus said, He came down from Heaven and sent by Father [John 6:38 & John 8:18]
THE KINGDOM OF GOD OR JESUS:
The Coming of the Messiah/Christ/King
Christ is derived from the Greek word Christos which means the Anointed, it is equivalent to Messiah a Hebrew word. Anointing is a ritual act of pouring or smearing with oil over a person’s head or body. This was used as a form of medicine by Jews thought to avert sickness and dangerous spirits. This was also used by Jews for ceremonial blessings such as the coronation of a King. The Old Testament states a lot about the coming of the Messiah. Jesus claims He is the Messiah predicted in the Old Testament [John 4:25-26], so, He is the Christ or King. The following are verses in Tanakh about the promised Messiah, King, or Christ;
[Micah 5:2] As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, seemingly insignificant among the clans of Judah – from you a King will emerge who will rule over Israel on my behalf, one whose origins are in the distant past
[Zechariah 9:9] Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
[Isaiah 52:7] How lovely on the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who announces peace And brings good news of happiness, Who announces salvation, And says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
: Notice the last words of this verse, “Your God reigns!” .So it is God Himself who will come and reign as King
God is a King in the Old Testament
[Isaiah 43:15] “I am the LORD, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King
[Isaiah 44:6] “This is what the LORD says– Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God
Jesus is a King in the New Testament
[John 18:37] “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
[Mark 15:2] Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “it is as you say.”
In the Old Testament, God says He has Kingdom
[Isaiah 66:1] Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest?
[Jeremiah 10:10] But the LORD is the only true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King! The whole earth trembles at his anger. The nations cannot stand up to his wrath.
In the New Testament, Jesus says He has Kingdom
[John 18:36] Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
[Luke 22:30] that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
[Luke 23:42] Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom, ”Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you shall be with me in paradise.”
Analysis of the Kingship
Jesus says He has kingdom not of this world and He came from heaven [John 6:38], therefore, He is the king in Heaven. If He is the king in Heaven, it means He holds the highest position in Heaven, so He is God.. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one”, so there is no conflict of their Godhood. God is one nature, but He has the capability to spread His spirit [Joel 2:28]. Just like an electricity, one nature, but it has the capability to light Billions of households. For Jesus to claim He is the king in Heaven is no different from claiming He is God.
The Kingdom is the Church
[Matthew 9:35] Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.
[Matthew 5:10] “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The Kingdom established by Christ on Earth is the Catholic Church
[Matthew 16:18] And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
: Simon Peter was the first head or pope of the Catholic Church.
B.) NOW, to your question that, “Jesus said, my father is greater than I, My father is greater than all, I can of my own self do nothing”.
Read: If Jesus is God, why he said the Father is greater than I?
2.) And remember that Jesus(pbuh) said, and on that day(Day of Judgement, they will say unto me(Christians), Lord, Lord, did we not do profess in thy name? and do mighty works in thy name? and cast out devils in thy name? I will say unto them, depart from me I never knew you. He isn’t gonna say it for the Muslim or the Hindu or the Jew. He will say it to the people who speak in his name.
ANSWER: First, I lay down the complete statements that you mentioned. They are from [Matthew 7:21-23];
21 Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness’”.
: In verse 21, Jesus is referring to the Christians by words, who do not follow the will of God. In verse 22, Jesus is referring to the Godly Christians who were endowed with divine power, but became corrupted. And in verse 23, Jesus revealed who are these people He mentioned, they are lawbreakers, that’s why He won’t allow them to enter into His kingdom. If some Christians cannot enter into Heaven, how much more to the people who don’t believe the Father and the Son? Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the Antichrist _denying the Father and the Son [1 John 2:22].
3.) And more, he says, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Isreal. Are you an israeli ? Or even nearer to that, like sons of ishmael, an arab ? The answer is know.
ANSWER: Because of the faithfulness of Abraham, God blessed him and made a covenant with him. Through Abraham, all people shall be blessed [Genesis 12:3]. He promised descendants to Abraham as numerous as the stars or sand [Genesis 22:17], God kept this covenant through Jacob (a descendant of Abraham) whom later called Israel by Him. And this is the reason why Israel became God’s choice. At the time of Abraham, there were no nations yet aside from Middle East, so we could not say why our nation was not chosen. In fact we are products of this blessing, since we are part of the numerous descendants of Abraham today, the Earth has now 7.5 Billions of people.
The ultimate plan of God is to redeem the lost sheep, and who are these lost sheep? they are all of us, since all of us sinned. Consider this;
[Isaiah 53:6] All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him .
The Salvation through Christ is from the Jews and then for all generations. Consider these verses;
[Isiah 51:8] “For the moth will eat them like a garment, And the grub will eat them like wool But My righteousness will be forever, And My salvation to all generations.”
[John 4:22] You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Jesus was sent for all the people, kindly read below what was His last message to His disciples before ascending to Heaven;
[Matthew 28:19] Therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
4.) At the end, I tell you, isaiah 29:12 says, Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I cannot read.” That is Muhammed. Thank you so much my brother, I respect your religion, and I think I also deserve it from you that you should respect mine even if you disagree.
ANSWER: First, I wanna say sorry for offending you Brother, I didn’t mean it, I am only revealing the truth. I respect a group that is not spreading lies and misleading people. I hope, we will not cover their lies (esp. when they are endangering our spiritual lives) for the sake of respect. I did this because I care for you, this is for your own good, that you may know that Jesus is the true God. He said the greatest love that you can give to your loved one is to give up your life to them. And that’s what He did for us, He died on the cross in loving us. He promote love and peace. Love your enemy as he said. The one who doesn’t believe the Father and the Son is the Anti-Christ. The Anti-Christ is Satan. Satan is the father of lies and he deceived many according to the Bible. On the other side, Allah is the best of deceivers according to Koran [3:54]. He plotted against Jews and Christians. He does not recognize the Father and Son. He tortured and corrupted Muhammad. He promote killing and fornication. Guess who he really is.
NOW, let us proceed to the verse you quoted from [Isaiah 29:12]. Brother, Islamic leaders are lying. To better understand this claim, I posted Isaiah chapter 29, from verse 9 to 12. Here they are;
[Isaiah 29:9-12]
9 If you confuse yourselves, you will be confused. If you blind yourselves, you will be blinded. You are drunk, but not from wine. You stagger, but not from liquor.
10 The LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He will shut your eyes. (Your eyes are the prophets.) He will cover your heads. (Your heads are the seers.)
11 To you all these visions will be like words in a book that is closed and sealed. You give this book to someone who can read, saying, “Please read this.” He answers, “I can’t read it. It’s sealed.”
12 Then you give the book to someone who can’t read, saying, “Please read this.” He answers, “I can’t read.”
: These statements of God are addressed to the unbelieving Jews who disregarded His Scriptures (this is comparable to Muslims of today that even of the evidences in front of them, still they refuse to believe on God’s original Scripture, but instead believe on man-made book [Isaiah 29:13].
In verse 9, God tells the Jews that, since they blind themselves towards His Scripture despite of the evidences, He will make them mentally blinded in actual. God will daze or confuse their minds as if they are drunk.
In verses 10-12, God says He will shut the understanding of the prophets so that people can’t understand His Scriptures, like a sealed book that no one can read its contents, they even pass the book among them (literate and illiterate alike) for reading, but no one can read and understand it.
Now Let us compare [Isaiah 29:11-12] with [Sahi Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 1, Number 3]
[Sahi Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 1, Number 3]
The angel came to him and asked him to read. The Prophet replied, “I do not know how to read. The Prophet added, “The angel caught me (forcefully) and pressed me so hard that I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read and I replied, ‘I do not know how to read.’ Thereupon he caught me again and pressed me a second time till I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read but again I replied, ‘I do not know how to read (or what shall I read)?’ Thereupon he caught me for the third time and pressed me, and then released me and said, ‘Read in the name of your Lord, who has created (all that exists) has created man from a clot. Read!
VERSUS
[Isaiah 29:11-12] is only a description on what will happen if God close His Revelation or Scripture. The people will not understand it, since God will make their wisdom vanished
In [Isaiah 29:14], God does not say He will look for an illiterate non-Jew and have His Revelation understood by him. Likewise in these verses, the presenter of the Scripture to the readers are the people themselves who pass the Scripture to one another. These verses are not talking about Muhammad.
While [Sahi Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 1, Number 3] is a scene of the so-called angel Gabriel revealing the word of Allah to Muhammad. In this passage, the presenter of the Revelation is the angel. Moreover, this angel applied force on Muhammad to have his revelation read. So this passage is far different from [Isaiah 29:11-12] where there is no force applied specifically.
Muslims keep accusing the Bible that it is corrupted, but on the other hand, they keep inserting Muhammad into the Bible. That’s the wonder of Islam.
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ALSO READ: My Answers to Muslim Accusations Against Christianity #2
