Since the name and shadow of Muhammad are nowhere in the Bible, the Muslim apologists desperately quoted several verses from the Bible and marked them as references to their prophet. It is ironic that the Muslims accused the Bible of being corrupted, but at the same time, keep forcing their prophet into the Bible. One of the supposed references is the verse below;
[Deuteronomy 18:18] I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
COMMENT: In this verse, God said to Moses that He will raise a prophet from among his brethren (Israelites), Muhammad is not an Israelite so he could not qualify this. This promised prophet will be like Moses in the sense that God put His words into his mouth, and made him as His speaker to Pharaoh to liberate the Israelites. Muhammad was not a speaker of God and did not liberate people, on the contrary, he owned slaves. This promised prophet fits Jesus because he had arisen from Israel’s bloodline, a brethren of Moses. Jesus acted as a God’s speaker to His people. And also he liberated the people from the bondage of sin and body deterioration. Kindly read;
[Luke 7:16] Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has visited His people!”
[John 12:49] “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak”
[John 14:10] Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me.
[John 8:35-36] A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
[Romans 8:2] And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.
: Luke 7:16 tells the reaction of the people after witnessing Jesus resurrected a dead young man. They referred Jesus as a raised prophet and visiting God. And in John 12:49 & John 14:10, Jesus tells us that the words he uttered are not his own but from the Father who dwells in him, therefore He’s a God’s speaker. While verses John 8:35-36 & Romans 8:2 tell us that Jesus liberated people from the power of sin.
If we go further to verses 20 to 22 of Deuteronomy chapter 18, we can read these;
[Deuteronomy 18:20] “But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.”
[Deuteronomy 18:21-22] You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’. “When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken.
COMMENT: Deuteronomy 18:20-22 gives us the yardsticks on how to identify a false prophet. One of them is the true prophet should not speak in the name of other gods. Muhammad clearly spoke in the name of other gods; Al-lat, and Al-Uzza, and Manat [Quran 53:19-20]. Therefore, Muhammad cannot be a prophet and should die for speaking the names of other gods.
To better understand who is this predicted prophet, let us read and examine Deuteronomy chapter 18, from verse 15 to 20;
(New International Version)
15The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.
16For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”
17The Lord said to me: “What they say is good.
18I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.
19I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.
20But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”
COMMENT: Verse 15 tells us that the promised prophet will come from Israelites, and not from Arabs the brethren of Muhammad. In verse 16, God gives a reason why He will raise a prophet, it is because the Israelites were afraid of Him in the form of fire and afraid of His thunderous voice. This is one of the reasons why God took a human form in the person of Jesus so that He could live with His people and they would no longer be afraid of Him, as well as, He could convey his message well to His people. Verse 19 says that this prophet will utter the words of God to the people. Muhammad did not talk to the people with the words of God.
Moreover, the apostles claimed that it was Jesus whom God referred to in Deuteronomy 18;
[Acts 3:22-23] Heaven must receive Jesus until the time when everything will be restored as God promised through his holy prophets long ago. “Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will send you a prophet, an Israelite like me. Listen to everything he tells you.
[Acts 7:37] Moses himself told the people of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people.
PROPHETHOOD should come from the descendants of Isaac, and not from Ishmael the ancestor of Arabs;
[Genesis 17:20-21] And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear unto you at this set time in the next year.
The Quran itself debunks the prophethood claim of Muhammad for it says the prophets and revelations should come from the descendants of Isaac and Jacob;
[Quran 29:27] And We gave to Him Isaac and Jacob and placed in his descendants prophethood and scripture. And We gave him his reward in this world, and indeed, he is in the Hereafter among the righteous.
SALVATION should come from the Jews, and not from Arabs the bloodline of Muhammad;
[John 4:21-22] Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews
[Luke 24:47] and in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.
[Romans 1:16] For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile..
♦Ahmed Deedat who advocated this claim (that Muhammad was the one referred to by Deuteronomy 18:18), cunningly replaced the word ”Brethren or countrymen” with the word ”Jews”, and presented this modified translation to his Muslim audience. His motive was to connect Muhammad to the Jewish race. But take note that those Jews brought by God to the holy land from Egypt were descendants of Jacob (also called Israel). The family of Jacob fled to Egypt, and when they became numerous, God brought them to Canaan (the promise land which later called ‘Israel’). God isolated the Israelites from other descendants of Abraham and chose them as His people. Why God isolated a goup of people, accompanied and made them holy? Because from them the holy one (the savior) will come out. Muhammad cannot be the prophet foretold in Deuteronomy 18:18 because he did not descend from Jacob bloodline but from Ishmael (one of the sons of Abraham), the progenitor of Arab. Furthermore, the words uttered by Muhammad are not from God. He talked and taught stupid and superstitious things, He even uttered Satanic verses (Quran 53:19-20). Likewise, Muhammad raped, tortured, and slaughtered more or less 800 Jews, a sign that he was not sent to save the Jews, but rather to destroy them. Deedat had luxury in telling lies to his Muslim audience because he knows Muslims are not familiar about the Scriptures.
∼ο∼
ALSO READ:
Muhammad died from poison and failed the prophethood test
One thought on “Is Muhammad the prophet foretold in Deuteronomy 18:18?”