Muslims are not the only ones who believe that Jesus
(pbuh) is mortal and not a god. The Jews also believe this, in
addition to the very first groups of Christianity such
as the Ebonites, the Cerinthians, the Basilidians, the Capocratians,
and the Hypisistarians. The Arians, Paulicians and Goths also
accepted Jesus (pbuh) as a prophet of God. Even in the modern
age there are churches in Asia, in Africa, the Unitarian church,
the Jehovah's witnesses, and even the majority of today's Anglican
Bishops do not worship Jesus (pbuh) as
God.
In the British newspaper the "Daily News"
25/6/84 under the heading "Shock survey of Anglican Bishops" We read
"More than half of England's Anglican Bishops
say that Christians are not obliged to believe that Jesus Christ
was God, according to a survey published today. The pole of 31
of England's 39 bishops shows that many of them think that Christ's
miracles, the virgin birth and the resurrection
might not have happened exactly as described in the Bible. Only
11 of the bishops insisted that Christians must regard Christ
as both God and man, while 19 said it was sufficient to regard
Jesus as 'God's supreme agent'"
But what is a messenger of God? Is he not "God's
supreme agent" ?. This is indeed what God Himself has
already told us in the noble Qur'an 1400 years ago, and exactly
what Jesus (pbuh) himself testified to in the Bible:
"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
John 17:3
Astounding, isn't it? With every passing day, the
most learned among the Christian community are slowly recognizing
the truth and drawing closer and closer to Islam. These are not
Muslims who issued this statement. These are not "liberal"
Christians. These are the most learned and most highly esteemed
men of the Anglican Church. These men have dedicated their whole
lives to the study of the religion of Jesus, and their study has
driven them to the truth which God had already revealed to them
in the Qur'an 1400 years ago: That Jesus was not God. That God
is not a Trinity. And that the stories of the ministry of Jesus
in the Bible have been extensively tampered with by the hands
of mankind.
"And when Allah said: O Jesus, son of Mary! Did you say unto mankind: Take me and my mother for two gods beside Allah? he said: Be You glorified. It was not mine to utter that to which I had no right. If I used to say it, then You knew it. You know what is in my [innermost] self but I know not what is in Yours. Truly! You, only You are the Knower of things hidden. I spoke unto them only that which You commanded me, (saying): Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord, and I was a witness over them while I dwelt among them, and when You took me You were the Watcher over them, and You are Witness over all things."
The noble Qur'an, Al-Maidah(5):116-118
The Church, as Heinz Zahrnt put it "put words
into the mouth of Jesus which he never spoke and attributed actions
to him which he never performed." One of those who has
shown that most of what the church says about Jesus is baseless
is Rudolph Augustein in his book "Jesus the Son of Man." Another very comprehensive study of this matter can be found in
the book "The Myth of God Incarnate" which was
written by seven theologian scholars in England in 1977 and edited
by John Hick. Their conclusion in this matter is that Jesus was "a man approved by God, for a special role within the
divine purpose, and..... the later conception of him as God incarnate
... is a mythological or poetic way of expressing his significance
for us." See also John Mackinnon Robertson's "Christianity
and Mythology" T.W Doane's "The Bible Myths and
their Parallels in Other Religions" (A good summary of
these studies is available in M.F. Ansarei, "Islam and
Christianity in the Modern World").
A University of Richmond professor, Dr. Robert Alley,
after considerable research into newly found ancient documents
concludes that
"....The (Biblical) passages where Jesus
talks about the Son of God are later additions.... what the church
said about him. Such a claim of deity for himself would not have
been consistent with his entire lifestyle as we can reconstruct.
For the first three decades after Jesus' death Christianity continued
as a sect within Judaism. The first three decades of the existence
of the church were within the synagogue. That would have been
beyond belief if they (the followers) had boldly proclaimed the
deity of Jesus."
Is there any confirmation of this in the Bible, yes!
If we were to read the Bible we would find that long after the
departure of Jesus, his faithful followers continued to "keep
up their daily attendance at the Temple" (Acts 2:46) It would
be beyond belief to imagine that had Jesus indeed preached to
his apostles that he was God, and if Jesus had indeed commanded
them to forsake the commandments, that they would then disregard
all of this and continue to worship in a Jewish synagogue on a
daily basis, let alone the great Temple itself. It is further
beyond belief that the Jews of the Temple would stand idly by
and allow them to do this if they were preaching the total cancellation
of the law of Moses and that Jesus was God.
Can any Trinitarian Christian, even in their wildest
fantasies, imagine that the Jews in an orthodox Jewish synagogue
would stand idly by while he took out his cross and
prayed to Jesus in the midst of their synagogue and was publicly
calling others to worship Jesus and forsake the commandments?
How much more preposterous to imagine that they would have nothing
to say to someone who did that in their most sacred of all synagogues,
the Temple, on a daily basis yet. This is further evidence in
support of the Qur'an, that Jesus only called his followers to
a continuation of the religion of Moses and not by
any means to the total cancellation and destruction of that law.
In the previous section, we read the following verses of the Bible:
Now we should begin to ask ourselves: If there was
no god before or after God Almighty, then how was
Jesus (pbuh) "begotten" as a god? The answer
is: he was not. He was a mortal man, not a god. We even have the
testimony of the majority of today's Anglican Bishops in defense of this basic truth. If we want the testimony of a
trustworthy witness then how much more trustworthy a witness shall
we ever find than the majority of the most learned and respected
conservative Christians of the Anglican Church?
The Bible only preaches that Jesus is God and that
God is a Trinity to those who do not know it's innermost details
and the truth of the history of the Church as these men have come
to know it. But let us move on in our study of the Biblical verses
so that we can see only a small sampling of the evidence that
has made the truth clear to these men.