All posts by Alastair Tucker

Atonement

Substitutionary Atonement: The Only Basis For Salvation

1). INTRODUCTION
The doctrine of substitutionary atonement, was NOT an invention of Paul, the principle is enshrined in the life and teaching of Jesus Himself:
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. … [15] as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father. I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR THE SHEEP. [16] But I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd. [17] This is why the Father loves Me, because I AM LAYING DOWN MY LIFE so I may take it up again. [18] No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from My Father.” (John 10:11, 15-18)
“For this is My blood that establishes the covenant; IT IS SHED FOR MANY for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28)
Paul’s teaching is firmly rooted in Jesus’s own:
“For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ DIED FOR THE UNGODLY. [7] For rarely will someone die for a just person — though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. [8] But God proves His own love for us in that WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS, CHRIST DIED FOR US! [9] Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath. [10] For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life! … [18] So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is life-giving justification for everyone.” (Romans 5:6-10,18)
2). NO-ONE CAN DIE FOR THE SINS OF ANOTHER
Before a Muslim raises the red herring diversion into personal accountability, that is NO obstacle to the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. In short, I am held to account, but the fact is Christ took my account (of guilt) upon Himself and wiped it clean, so when my account is judged it’s on the basis that my guilt was borne by Him and the penalty of death for sins paid by Him. So, when a Muslims appeal to:
“Look, every life belongs to Me. The life of the father is like the life of the son — both belong to Me. The person who sins is the one who will die” (Ezekiel 18:4)
“The person who sins is the one who will die. A son won’t suffer punishment for the father’s iniquity, and a father won’t suffer punishment for the son’s iniquity. The righteousness of the righteous person will be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked person will be on him.” (Ezekiel 18:20)
they are confusing and conflating different doctrines. The principle of personal accountability is not in focus here, what is being showcased is that the principle of substitutionary sacrifice can assuage the wrath of God and satisfy the demands of divine justice.
“AI Overview
The Bible verse stating “no one can die for the sins of another” primarily refers to individual accountability under the law, where one person’s guilt cannot be legally or spiritually transferred to another human. The key verses often cited are Deuteronomy 24:16, Ezekiel 18:20, and Jeremiah 31:30, which establish that “the soul who sins is the one who will die”
Reconciling this legal principle with the Christian doctrine of Jesus dying for sins involves several theological perspectives:
Sinless Divine Nature vs. Sinful Human: The Torah states that no sinner can die for another’s sins because the substitute would need to die for their own sins. Christians believe Jesus was sinless, making his sacrifice unique and not violating the law of personal responsibility, as he had no sin of his own to die for.
Voluntary Substitution: Some interpretations argue that while no one can be forced to bear the penalty of another, a sinless individual can voluntarily sacrifice themselves as a substitute to atone for others.
Atonement and Sacrifice: The Old Testament allowed for animal sacrifices, which were sinless substitutes that foreshadowed the atonement, indicating that the death of a sinless entity can cover the sins of the guilty.
Different Types of Death: Some theologians distinguish between spiritual death (separation from God due to personal sin) and physical death, arguing that Ezekiel 18 refers to each person dying spiritually for their own sin, while Jesus’s physical death was a substitutional offering that allowed for atonement.
Contextual Distinctions:
Ezekiel 18:20 and Deuteronomy 24:16 were written to establish individual responsibility in contrast to the belief that children inherited the guilt or curse of their fathers’ sins. 1 Corinthians 15:3 and Romans 5:8 address the redemptive purpose of Jesus’s death, which Christians believe satisfies the requirement for a perfect sacrifice. Ultimately, the reconciliation is often that while human law (Old Testament) dictates personal responsibility for sin, the divine, sinless nature of Jesus allowed him to act as an exception, serving as a mediator who voluntarily paid the penalty for humanity” [AI]
3). VICARIOUS LIABILITY AND THE IMPUTATION OF SINS
[From REASONABLE FAITH Q&A: #650 September 29, 2019]
□ “Question: Dr. Craig, In your work on the atonement, you noted that vicarious liability is a useful analog in modern criminal justice systems to what occurred when our sin was imputed to Jesus. If this is approximately what occurred and if it is true that the imputation of our sin did not remove our sin then it seems as if the sin was replicated and then doubled. This would pose a problem because it would make two parties liable to punishment.
Is it possible to understand that our sin was replicated so that it could be punished in Jesus and forgiven where it existed in us? I think we would need to explain how the doubling of sin would not simultaneously double the liability to punishment as, if we are to use the analogy, we may well face the objection that replication of sin does nothing to help but, rather, it makes the problem more severe.
Bill United States
■ Dr Craig’s Answer: When I first began to correspond with Prof. Eric Descheemaeker of the University of Edinburgh School of Law about legal questions pertinent to the doctrine of the atonement, he shared with me that although it was easy to think of examples in the law where a wrongdoer’s guilt is replicated in an innocent person, he could not think of any examples in which a wrongdoer’s guilt is transferred to an innocent person (and thereby removed from the wrongdoer). It was at that moment that the light came on for me! It hit me forcefully that the classic doctrine of the imputation of sins is not about the transfer of guilt from one party to another but precisely about the replication of guilt of one party in another.
This fact is most clearly seen in the doctrine of Original Sin, according to which Adam’s sin is imputed to us his progeny. The replication of Adam’s guilt in me obviously does nothing whatsoever to remove Adam’s guilt from him. Adam remains sinful and in need of God’s forgiveness and moral cleansing.
Similarly, according to the Protestant Reformers’ doctrine of the atonement, my guilt is replicated in Christ, not transferred from me to him. Otherwise, we would believe in salvation by imputation, not by penal substitution. No one to my knowledge has defended a doctrine of the atonement according to which the expiation of sins comes via imputation; such is not in any case the Reformers’ doctrine. Sin and guilt are expiated via punishment, namely, Christ’s bearing the punishment which is the just desert of my sins.
So the analogy between vicarious liability in the law and the imputation of sins is very tight. Indeed, these seem to be practically the same notion described in legal terms on the one hand and in theological terms on the other. What that implies is that if there is a problem for the doctrine of the atonement arising from vicarious liability, then it arises from the theological notion of the imputation of our sins to Christ. The problem lies in the doctrine itself, not in the legal analogy to it.
So the serious problem that your question raises, I think, is whether Christ’s being substitutionally punished in my place can really satisfy the demands of divine justice. On this question I refer you to my article “Is Penal Substitution Unsatisfactory?” Philosophia Christi 21/1 (2019): 155-168. There I make two points in response: (1) With respect to vicarious liability in the law, there are cases in which the punishment of only the vicariously liable party satisfies the state’s demand for justice. The wrongdoer himself goes unpunished while the demands of justice are met by the superior party to whom his guilt is imputed. The case of the atonement seems very apt in this respect because Christ’s suffering and death is traditionally thought to be of infinite value in virtue of his divinity and so swamps all human sin infinitely. (2) Contemporary atonement theorists have appealed to what they call inclusionary, as opposed to exclusionary, views of Christ’s atonement. The idea here is that Christ is not merely some third party, a sort of whipping boy punished instead of us; rather we are somehow united with Christ, so that his punishment is our punishment. I try to make sense of this view by taking Christ to serve as a proxy for us before God. Thus, I am punished by proxy.
On the basis of Christ’s satisfying the demands of divine justice, God can then turn to us and offer us a full pardon for our sins, which we are free to accept or reject. The guilt of him who freely accepts God’s pardon is expunged, and he becomes, as it were, a new man in Christ; whereas the foolish man who rejects God’s pardon remains under the sentence of death and so must bear his just deserts.”
4). DISCUSSION
This is why the question of Jesus being fully divine and fully human matters. As WLC notes:
“Christ’s suffering and death is traditionally thought to be of infinite value in virtue of his divinity and so swamps all human sin infinitely.”
If there is one reality we need to grasp it is simply this. The ONLY way Jesus atoning death can pay for the infinite offence of sins to an infinite and holy God, is for that sacrifice to be that of infinite value once and for all. No finite mortal life can satisfy the demands of God’s perfect justice. As the writer of Hebrews noted:
“He entered the most holy place ONCE FOR ALL all, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained ETERNAL REDEMPTION” (Hebrews 9:12).
□ Question: What alone can atone for the infinite offence of sin to an infinite holy God?
“AI Overview
Based on Christian theology, only the infinite atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ can atone for the infinite offense of sin against an infinitely holy God. Finite human beings are incapable of making such a payment.
The problem: Infinite offense
The infinite worth of God. The severity of an offense is based on the honor of the one offended. Since sin is a rebellion against God—a being of infinite holiness, glory, and worth—it is an infinite offense that demands an infinite penalty.
Humanity’s finite nature. Human beings are finite and fallen. Their efforts, including religious duties or good deeds, are insufficient to bridge the infinite gap created by sin. An eternity in hell, as the penalty for sin, is an infinite payment, but it would be spent by a finite being and is seen by some traditions as mere vengeance, not a corrective solution.
The solution: The infinite God-man
Christian theology asserts that only a sacrifice of infinite worth could satisfy the demands of justice for this infinite offense.
The God-man. Jesus Christ, as both fully God and fully man, is the only being capable of making an infinite payment.
As God, his divine nature gives his sacrifice infinite value, allowing him to absorb the infinite wrath of God against sin.
As man, he can stand as a representative substitute for humanity, identifying with those he came to save.
The one-time, perfect sacrifice. The Old Testament system of animal sacrifices could only temporarily cover sins. Christ’s death on the cross was a “once for all” event, a perfect sacrifice that satisfied God’s justice forever. The resurrection serves as proof that this payment was accepted.
A full and complete payment. On the cross, Jesus cried out, “It is finished,” which in the original language meant “Paid in full,” signaling that the debt for sin had been completely satisfied.
How atonement is applied
For this atonement to be effective for an individual, Christian teaching holds that it must be accepted through faith and repentance.
Repentance involves a sincere effort to turn away from wrongdoing.
Faith is the belief in Christ’s power to forgive and transform.Forgiveness is offered by God’s mercy as a gift, not something earned by human works.
For believers, this understanding brings humility, gratitude, and freedom from guilt” [AI]
For more, see Posts:
□ WHY THE MEDIATOR MUST BE GOD 21 September 2025
www.facebook.com/share/p/1D6dmAtxNd/
□ THE DOCTRINE OF SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT 13 January 2024
www.facebook.com/share/p/NwRYe7tanYYB5imV/?mibextid=oFDknk
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Crucifixion

Jesus’s Physical Resurrection As Vital Validation And Vindication — Not Cancellation Of The Sacrifice 

JESUS’S PHYSICAL RESURRECTION AS VITAL VALIDATION AND VINDICATION — NOT CANCELLATION OF THE SACRIFICE
1). INTRODUCTION
In orthodox Christian theology, the resurrection of Jesus is not considered a “sacrifice taken back” because the resurrection is the validation of the sacrifice, not its cancellation. The sacrifice was not merely about dying, but about voluntarily suffering to conquer death on behalf of humanity.
Here is why the resurrection is not seen as a taking back of the sacrifice, as mistakenly alleged by Watchtower theology:
• Validation of the Sacrifice: The resurrection acts as proof that God the Father accepted the sacrifice of Jesus as full payment for sin. Without the resurrection, the death would have been in vain, indicating the sacrifice was insufficient.
• The Nature of the “New Body”: Jesus did not return to his old, mortal life. He was resurrected in a new, glorified, incorruptible body. The sacrifice of his human life was permanent, but it was replaced by a new form of existence.
• Conquering Death, Not Avoiding It: The goal was not for Jesus to remain dead, but to endure death and defeat it. The resurrection proves that Jesus has power over death and has “won the keys” to death from the devil.
• The Scars Remained: The resurrected Jesus still bore the wounds of his crucifixion. These scars are viewed as an “everlasting trophy” of his victory, demonstrating that the sacrifice of the cross is eternally remembered and honored.
They are also proof that forever associates His resurrection with His Atoning death, and at a stroke condemn JW heresy that the post mortem appearances were merely itinerant appearances similar to OT theophanies for the purpose of communication. Jesus’s resurrection involved a transformative change, and the fact of the empty tomb is further proof of the continuity of Jesus’s life.
• Atonement Happened on the Cross: The sacrifice was accomplished in the suffering and death, not in staying dead. The theological view is that once the punishment is paid, it is just for the person to be raised.
Ultimately, the resurrection is seen as the necessary second half of the story, transforming a tragic death into a victory for humanity.
2). JESUS’S RESURRECTION AS A VINDICATION OF HIS CLAIMS
The resurrection is the supreme vindication of Jesus because it acts as God’s public reversal of his condemnation, confirming his divine identity, sinless nature, and the truth of his teachings. It proves he is the Son of God, overturning the shame of the cross and demonstrating victory over sin and death.
Key Aspects of the Resurrection as Vindication
• Approval of His Claims: By raising Jesus, God endorsed his claims to be the Messiah and the Son of God, which were rejected by human authorities.
• Divine Approval over Human Judgment: The resurrection reverses the human verdict that deemed Jesus a criminal, proving he was actually righteous and innocent.
• Victory Over Death: It validates his authority as the “resurrection and the life,” showing that death could not hold him.
• Prophetic Fulfillment: It fulfills Old Testament prophecies regarding the Messiah, confirming his role as the promised savior.
• Basis for Faith: The resurrection provides the ultimate, undeniable evidence that Jesus’ teachings are true, forming the foundation of Christian hope.
In essence, the resurrection is God’s “Yes” to Jesus after the world said “No”.
The New Testament presents the resurrection of Jesus as a physical, bodily event, emphasizing that his tomb was empty and his resurrected body was tangible, though glorified. Below are key proof texts, categorized by their description of the resurrected body.
(i). Direct Claims of Physicality
These verses emphasize that the risen Jesus was not merely a spirit or ghost, but possessed a physical body that could be touched and seen.
• Luke 24:39: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have”.
• John 20:27: Jesus instructs Thomas to “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing”.
• Luke 24:42-43: Jesus eats a piece of broiled fish in front of his disciples to prove his physicality.
• John 2:19-22: Jesus prophesies, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” which the Gospel explicitly clarifies refers to “the temple of his body”.
(ii). The Empty Tomb and Burial Items
The state of the tomb provides physical evidence that the body did not disappear spiritually but was physically transformed or resurrected.
• John 20:6-7: Peter finds the linen wrappings lying there, with the face cloth folded in a place by itself, suggesting the body passed out of them rather than being stolen.
• Matthew 28:5-6: The angel declares, “He is not here, for He has risen,” indicating the physical absence of the body.
(iii). Post-Resurrection Actions
• Matthew 28:9: The women at the tomb “took hold of His feet and worshiped Him,” confirming He was physically present.
• John 21:12-13: Jesus cooks breakfast for His disciples on the shore, further showing His physical, recognizable presence.
(iv). Theological Affirmations of Bodily Resurrection
• 1 Corinthians 15:3-8: Paul lists the eyewitnesses of the resurrection, a creedal statement that the early church used to verify the physical appearances of Jesus.
• 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23: Jesus is described as the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep,” implying that the resurrection of believers will follow the same bodily pattern as His.
• Philippians 3:21: Paul writes that Christ “will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body,” affirming that Jesus now possesses a physical, albeit transformed, body.
(v). Prophetic and Apostolic Preaching
• Acts 2:31: Peter declares that David spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, “that He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption”.
• Acts 10:40-41: Peter explains that God raised Jesus on the third day and made Him visible “to us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead”. Peter appeals to the physical elements of eating and drinking as proofs of a physical resurrection.
3). JESUS PROPHESIES HIS OWN PHYSICAL RESURRECTION
Jesus prophesied that He would be physically raised from the dead, emphasizing the resurrection of His own body rather than just a spiritual survival. He often used metaphors or direct predictions to explain this, telling His disciples that He would suffer, be killed, and rise on the third day. ¹
Key Prophecies of Physical Resurrection
• Matthew 17:22-23 “And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: [23] And they shall KILL HIM, and the third day he shall be RAISED AGAIN. And they were exceeding sorry.”
• Matthew 20:18-19 “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, [19] And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to CRUCIFY him: and the THIRD DAY he shall RISE AGAIN.”
• “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19-22): This is a direct reference to his own body as the temple that would be rebuilt.
• The power to lay down His life and take it up again (John 19:17-18) “This is why the Father loves Me, because I am laying down My life so I may take it up again. [18] No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from My Father” (John 10:17-18). (See Section 5)
• Prediction of Suffering, Death, and Rising: Jesus specifically predicted that the “Son of Man” would be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, condemned to death, delivered to the Gentiles for mocking, scourging, and crucifixion, and then rise again on the third day (Matthew 16:21, 20:17-19; Luke 9:22, 18:31-34).
• The Sign of Jonah: Jesus stated that just as Jonah was in the belly of a huge fish for three days and nights, He would be in the heart of the earth for three days and nights (Matthew 12:40).
• His End Time prediction of once again enjoying fruit of the vine:
“But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29). Cf Revelation 19:9, where the angel announced to John:
“Then he said to me, “Write: Those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb are fortunate!” He also said to me, “These words of God are true” (Revelation 19:9).
Yes, just as Jesus was and is, we shall also be able to eat and drink in the resurrection, though not necessary to support or sustain life.
4). THE EVIDENCE FOR PHYSICAL RESURRECTION
Evidence of the Messiah’s physical resurrection is provided in multiple ways.
Following his death, Jesus provided physical, tangible evidence that he had indeed risen, rather than appearing as a disembodied spirit:
• Empty Tomb: The tomb was found empty, and the grave clothes were left behind, indicating the body had left.
• Physical Body: Jesus showed his disciples his hands and feet, specifically stating, “a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39).
• Touching and Eating: The women at the tomb “took hold of his feet and worshiped him,” confirming he was physically present (Matthew 28:9).
Jesus invited the disciples to touch him and even ate food in their presence to prove his bodily resurrection (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:27).
Significance
The physical resurrection is considered foundational to Christian doctrine, with the Apostle Paul arguing that if Christ has not been physically raised, faith is in vain (1 Cor. 15:17). It is viewed as the guarantee of the future resurrection of believers (Romans 8:11).
5). THE MEANING OF JOHN 10:18
In John 10:18, “exousia” refers to the inherent, rightful authority and voluntary power Jesus possesses to lay down his life and take it up again, rather than being forced by others. It signifies his divine, sovereign right to control his own death and resurrection, grounded in the mission given by the Father. And emphasis on this power, authority, right would be meaningless if it meant resureection only in a spiritual sense. Laying down and taking up again are reciprocating actions of the same substance.
• Definition: Exousia (Greek: ἐξουσία) means authority, right, privilege, or the power of choice.
• Context in John 10:18: Jesus states, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have exousia (authority) to lay it down, and I have exousia (authority) to take it up again”.
• Voluntary Sacrifice: Unlike dunamis (innate, enabling power), exousia here highlights that Jesus’s death was a deliberate, pre conceived and conscious choice, not a victimhood scenario.
• Authority Over Life and Death: The term affirms that Jesus, as the Son of God, holds authority over His own physical existence.
• Divine Command: The exercise of this authority is aligned with the command He received from the Father.
6). THE MEANING OF 1 PETER 3:18
JW’s have appealed to this verse as proof that the resurrection had only a spiritual dimension, but upon even cursory inspection this is a transparent misreading of the text and its context. What the passage says:
“For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God, after being put to death in the fleshly realm but made alive in the spiritual realm. [19] In that state He also went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison … [22] Now that He has gone into heaven, He is at God’s right hand WITH ANGELS, AUTHORITIES, AND POWERS SUBJECT TO HIM.” (1 Peter 3:18-19, 22)
Notice that Peter is NOT here describing Jesus in His resurrection, he is describing His intermediate state upon His physical death, and what He was doing in those 3 days while His body lay in the tomb (v 19). This is confirmed by the fact that verses 18 and 19 are past tense, compare with verse 22 which describes His present tense place and position — and yes notice JW’s angels are subject to Him, which makes Him of a different substance — confirming Hebrews 1:6 et seq, where He is set apart and above angels.
7). THE MEANING OF 1 CORINTHIANS 13:15-17
One has to ask why if the resurrection wasn’t physical, then why does Paul stress this aspect of it?
“But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; [14] and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is without foundation, and so is your faith. [15] In addition, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified about God that He raised up Christ — whom He did not raise up if in fact the dead are not raised. [16] For if the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised. [17] And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” (1 Corinthians 15:13-17)
Let this commentary of Guzick elaborate:
“Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead: Why did Paul so carefully prove the resurrection of Jesus? It wasn’t because the Corinthian Christians did not believe Jesus rose from the dead. In fact, he makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 15:11 that they did believe it: so we preach and so you believed. Then why was it important?
i. The Corinthian Christians did not deny Jesus’ resurrection — what they denied was our resurrection.
They were influenced either by Greek philosophy (which considered the resurrection undesirable, thinking the state of “pure spirit” superior), or by the thinking of the Sadducees (which thought the world beyond to be just wishful thinking). The bottom line is that the Corinthian Christians believed we lived forever, but not in resurrected bodies.
ii. Remember that resurrection is not merely life after death; it is the continuation of life after death in glorified bodies, which are our present bodies in a glorified state.
b. How do some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? The Corinthian Christians just did not think carefully. Some of them denied the reality of resurrection, while believing in a resurrected Jesus. Paul shows how the resurrection of Jesus not only proves His own resurrection, but it proves the principle of resurrection.
c. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen: If these few Corinthians were right about the resurrection, then Jesus was still dead!
2. (1 Corinthians 15:14-19) What if there is no resurrection?
And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up — if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
a. If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in vain: If there is no resurrection, then Jesus is not risen, and Paul and the other apostles have preached in vain. There is no real, resurrected Jesus whom they serve.
b. Worse, if Christ is not risen, then we are found false witnesses of God. If there is no principle of resurrection, and if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then the apostles are liars.
c. Worse yet, if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! We can follow Paul’s logic point-by-point:
• If there is no principle of resurrection, then Jesus did not rise from the dead.
• If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then death has power over Him and defeated Him.
• If death has power over Jesus, He is not God.
• If Jesus is not God, He cannot offer a complete sacrifice for sins.
• If Jesus cannot offer a complete sacrifice for sins, our sins are not completely paid for before God.
• If my sins are not completely paid for before God, then I am still in my sins.
• Therefore, if Jesus is not risen, He is unable to save.
d. Worse still, if Christ is not risen, then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If there is no principle of resurrection, then the dead in Christ are gone forever.
e. Worst of all, if Christ is not risen, then in this life only we have hope in Christ, and we are of all men the most pitiable. If there is no principle of resurrection, then the whole Christian life is a pitiful joke! If we don’t have something beyond this life to look forward to, why hassle with the problems in being a Christian?
i. It is true that being a Christian solves many problems; but it also brings many others. Paul, (like the preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes) saw little ultimate value in life if there is only this life to live.
ii. It is true that knowing Jesus and loving Jesus can make this life better, but sometimes it will make this life worse. When we understand what Paul meant when he wrote, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable,” then we understand what a difficult life Paul lived. Paul thought, “with all I have endured for Jesus Christ, if there is not a resurrection and a heavenly reward beyond this life, I am a fool to be pitied.” Can we, in our super-comfortable age, say the same thing? Trapp says Paul can write this “Because none out of hell ever suffered more than the saints have done.”
iii. Paul only applies this principle to Christians. He writes, we are of all men the most pitiable. For the unbeliever, this life alone gives them any chance at pleasure, and whatever happiness they can find now is all the happiness they will ever know. How different for the Christian!
f. See how important the truth of the resurrection is! This is not some side doctrine, to be believed if one likes it. If you do not believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead in a resurrection body the way the Bible says He did, then you have no right to call yourself a Christian. This is an essential doctrine of the Christian faith.
i. “Everything depends on our retaining a firm hold on this doctrine in particular; for if this one totters and no longer counts, all the others will lose their value and validity.” (Martin Luther)
ii. “If Jesus rose, then this gospel is what it professes to be; if He rose not from the dead, then it is all deceit and delusion.” (Spurgeon)
g. When you know what rests on the resurrection, you know why if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
i. The divinity of Jesus rests on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 1:4).
ii. The sovereignty of Jesus rests on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 14:9).
iii. Our justification rests on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 4:25).
iv. Our regeneration rests on the resurrection of Jesus (1 Peter 1:3).
v. Our ultimate resurrection rests on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 8:11).
vi. “The fact is, that the silver thread of resurrection runs through all the blessings, from regeneration onward to our eternal glory, and binds them together.” (Spurgeon) [Guzick]
8). CHRIST WAS RESURRECTED NOT RESUSCITATED
Christ’s resurrection was a transformation into an immortal, glorified body, not a mere resuscitation or return to mortal life. Unlike instances of resuscitation (e.g., Lazarus), where individuals were brought back to life only to die again, Jesus conquered death permanently. His risen body was physical yet transformed, appearing and disappearing, and not subject to further decay or death.
The JW objection to the bodily resurrection of Christ appears to result from a misunderstanding and/or deliberate misrepresentation of what the resurrection actually involved. It was NOT revival of a corpse — akin to the resurrection of Lazarus for example, it was far more profound and significant.
Key Differences Between Resurrection and Resuscitation:
• Nature of the Body: Resuscitation brings a corpse back to its former, mortal state. Resurrection involves a transformation into a new, imperishable, and spiritual body that is still physical but not bound by earthly limitations.
• Finality of Death: Resuscitated individuals (such as those raised by Elijah, Elisha, or Jesus) eventually died again. Jesus died once and is resurrected to live forever, having conquered death.
• The Nature of the Event: Resuscitation is a temporary reprieve from death, whereas Resurrection is an act of divine sovereignty, creating a new existence.
• Physical Evidence: The empty tomb, the grave clothes left behind, and the inability of some disciples to immediately recognize Jesus suggest a new, glorified form rather than just a revived physical body.
Essentially, resurrection is not merely reviving a corpse but entering a new, eternal mode of existence.
9). THE PROOF OF THE EMPTY TOMB
The evidence of the empty tomb is more than mere circumstantial proof for the Resurrection.
The empty tomb of Jesus is the foundational, physical evidence of the resurrection, signifying victory over death, sin, and the grave. It validates Jesus’s divinity and promises of eternal life, offering hope, redemption, and assurance of God’s faithfulness to believers. It transforms fear into faith and confirms Jesus’s victory.
Key Aspects of Significance
• Proof of Resurrection: The primary evidence that Jesus did not remain dead but rose bodily from the grave.
• Victory Over Death & Sin: It marks the triumph of life over death and the accomplishment of salvation.
• Validation of Claims: It proves Jesus is the Son of God, validating his teachings and prophetic claims.
• Hope for Believers: It signifies that death is not the end, providing assurance of resurrection and eternal life for followers.
• Historical Evidence: The well-known site and absence of a body in early reports support the historical, physical reality of the resurrection.
• Transformation: The event encourages Christians to live with grace, and provides strength to overcome fear and doubt.
Heretical beliefs and deniers of the death and resurrection have a hard time explaining away the empty tomb. For Muslims, an empty tomb would be a mere symbol, a metaphor for the action of Allah raising Jesus to himself. For JW’s, an empty tomb requires a supernatural act of God to magically vaporise the corpse, a shameful act as fantastic as it is a blasphemous destroying of the evidence, without a shred of Biblical support or precedent. ²
The best fit and most faithful interpretation of the evidence of the empty tomb, is that it happened literally and exactly as recorded in the Gospel narrative and as predicted by prophecy, both OT (Job 19:25-27; Psalm 16:10, 49:15; Isaiah 53:10; Hosea 6:2; Jonah 1:17 ) and Jesus Himself. (Matthew 26:32, Mark 14:28)
“But after I have been resurrected, I will go ahead of you to Galilee” (Matthew 26:32), does not sound like, and is not envisaging a merely spiritual happening, however much JW’s attempt to hijack and twist the narrative.
10). CONCLUSIONS
Did the historical Jesus live and die?
Absolutely.
Did Jesus die on the cross?
Absolutely.
Was Jesus’ body buried in a tomb before it went missing?
Absolutely.
Did Jesus resurrect and interact with both crowds of people and his beloved disciples?
The Bible says yes — and we get to choose whether or not we believe it.
And the existence of so much heretical denial for the physical resurrection, is further proof of the enormity of it. Satan only attacks where it counts for something. He knows the physical resurrection alone is sufficient for Jesus victory over death. If he can neutralise that fact, Satan robs us of our victory in Christ.
Hence we find Islamic denial of the entire event or the need for it and JW’s denial of the bodily resurrection. These heresies demonstrate this is no small point or an academic debating point a theological nicety, it goes to the heart of the basis for our redemption. As Paul observes: “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.”
In short, the resurrection is the ultimate proof that God accepted Jesus’s sacrifice to atone for sins and conquer death. Without it, death is not defeated, and believers are still under condemnation, rendering their preaching and hope void.
Why the Resurrection is the Crucial Linchpin:
• Vindication of Sacrifice: The resurrection acts as the divine “receipt” that Jesus’s death on the cross was sufficient to pay for all sins. Without it, his death is just another martyrdom.
• Proof of Power over Sin/Death: The resurrection confirms that Jesus is not just a teacher but God, with power to overcome the ultimate consequences of sin (death). If he stayed dead, he lacked the power to save others from it.
• Justification: While his death paid for sins, the resurrection brings justification—a right standing with God.
• Hope of Resurrection: Because Christ rose, followers have the assurance of their own resurrection to eternal life. Without it, Christians are “of all men most to be pitied” and have no hope after death.
• False Witness: If the resurrection did not happen, those preaching it are deemed false witnesses of God.
In essence, the resurrection transforms the cross from a tragedy into a victory; without it, the core message of Christianity collapses.
Make no mistake: Christ died physically and He was raised physically. Nothing less can suffice. Accept no substitute. Amen
¹ See this Post for a schedule of all 36 recorded occasions Jesus prophesied His death:
□ TODAY’S MUSLIM CHALLENGE: EXPLAIN HOW YOU RECOGNISE JESUS AS A PROPHET WHEN YOU DENY EVERY PROPHECY HE EVER MADE OF HIS OWN DEATH AND RESURRECTION? 21 June 2023
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Alastair Tucker, Jesus Christ

Ten Proofs Why Jesus Is God

TEN PROOFS WHY JESUS IS GOD
1). INTRODUCTION
At a crucial point in his ministry, Jesus asked his disciples,“Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15). The answer to this question is more important than any other question or challenge anyone can face in life.
Nevertheless, today, just as in Jesus’ day, when Christians ask people the question “who do you say Jesus is?” there are various answers given concerning his identity. But what does the New Testament tell us about who Jesus is?
Understanding the deity of Jesus is fundamental in unlocking the door to eternal life and to defending the truth of the Christian faith.
All major religions and cults are united about one thing. They all reject the doctrine of the deity of Christ. That fact alone should tell us something. Some of these objections are a result of rationalism (“reason” is supreme, not God) over revelation or a misunderstanding of what the doctrine teaches. Another more common objection results from revisionist history, which claims that Christ’s deity was invented at the Council of Nicaea in the 4th century and not something believed by the early church.¹
The reason Christians believe in the deity of Jesus is that we are forced to come to this conclusion by the clear teaching of Scripture. It is important to get Jesus’ identity because if we deny the deity of Jesus then we do not have the Father (1 John 2:23; cf. John 5:23). Worse than that we are dead in our sins.
Here are 10 Scriptural proofs for the deity of Jesus Christ.
2). THE BIBLE TEACHES THAT THERE IS ONLY ONE TRUE GOD
# JESUS’ DIVINITY DOES NOT MAKE HIM ANOTHER GOD. IT IS THE FOUNDATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY.
This is vital to understand because many objectors to the deity of Jesus misunderstand and misrepresent what Christians believe about the Trinity. Christians believe what the Bible teaches — that there is only one true and living God (Deuteronomy 6:4; cf. Mark 12:29 & 1 Corinthians 8:6). However, we must not confuse monotheism (belief in one God) with Unitarianism (the belief that the being of God is shared by one person). Jesus’ divinity is part of the doctrine of the Trinity, which states that within the one Being that is God, there exists eternally three co-equal and co-eternal persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each is a distinct person, yet each is identified as God: the Father (1 Corinthians 8:6), the Son (John 1:1–3; Romans 9:5), and the Spirit (Acts 5:3–4). We must also remember that it wasn’t the Father or the Spirit who became incarnate; it was the Son (John 1:14) and He was born under the Law (Galatians 4:4). This is why, in His humanity, Jesus prays to the Father (Matthew 26:39, 42).
The doctrine of the Trinity is revealed throughout the Bible, but what is largely inferred in the Old Testament becomes explicit in the New through the incarnation of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. God did not change between the Old and New Testaments, being a Unitarian God in the Old and a Trinitarian God in the New. God has always been Triune, the only thing that changed was revelation became completed only with the New Testament; specifically revelation of the divinity of Jesus, while foreshadowed in the Old Testament, is only completed in the New Testament.
The Old Testament clearly teaches that there is a plurality in the Godhead. This fact which was accepted by the ancient Jewish church and early Rabbinic thought.² For the purposes of this post it is sufficient to state that the Hebrew Bible clearly teaches the Messiah would be God. (eg Isaiah 7:14; 9:6-7; Jeremiah 23:5-6; Micah 5:2; Zechariah 2:10-11)
3). THE BIBLE TEACHES THAT JESUS PRE-EXISTED CREATION
The New Testament in several passages clearly teaches that Jesus existed in eternity past before his birth in Bethlehem.
Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” In John 1:1 we read the same words, “In the beginning.”8 John informs us in John 1:1 that in the beginning was the Word (logos) and that the Word was not only with God but was God. This Word is the one who brought all things into being at creation (John 1:3). John 1:1 teaches that the Word is eternal, the Word has had an eternal relationship with the Father, and the Word as to His nature is deity. The clincher is John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Jesus applied God’s title “I am” to Himself and identifies as God who appeared to Abraham in Genesis 18:
“Your father Abraham was overjoyed that he would see My day; he saw it and rejoiced.” The Jews replied, “You aren’t 50 years old yet, and You’ve seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:56‭-‬58)
In his prayer in John 17 Jesus both refers to his pre-existence and uses terminology that can only be used about deity:
“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with THE GLORY THAT I HAD WITH YOU BEFORE THE WORLD EXISTED.” (John 17:3-5)
“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for YOU LOVED ME BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.” (John 17:24)
To have eternal life is to know two persons: both the Father and Jesus (see John 14:6-7; John 16:3). But notice, Jesus is distinguished from the Father because Jesus is the one speaking to the Father. The personal pronouns (me, your, you) clearly show that this is one person speaking to another, (elsewhere collectively as “we” and “our” when Jesus addressed the disciples, as in John 14:23). In John 17, the Son is speaking of the glory He has shared with the Father before the world was; the words “in your own presence” refer to their sharing of divine glory. John 17:3–5 is not an example of the “human side” praying to the “divine side” but of a divine, yet incarnate (John 1:14) person, the Son, communicating with a divine, but non-corporeal person, the Father in heaven.
Paul’s words in Philippians 2:5–8 teach not only the deity of Jesus but also the distinct personhood of the Son prior to His incarnation. In this passage, Paul exhorts the Philippians to have the same attitude as Christ Jesus who “existed in the form of God.” These words come before the verbs emptied, taking, and becoming and point to the pre-existence of the one “existing in the form of God.” Moreover, Jesus did not regard the equality He had with God the Father, in eternity past, something to be held on to. Instead He “made himself nothing” by doing two things: taking the form of a bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men. Having entered into human existence He humbled himself to death on the Cross. Because of this, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord” (Philippians 2:10–11); it is only God who is to be worshipped as Lord (see Isaiah 45:23).
4). JESUS IS CREATOR NOT CREATURE
Jehovah’s Witnesses (and Muslims) hang on to Paul’s statement in Colossians 1:15 that the “firstborn of all creation” teaches that Jesus was a created being. However, this JW false teaching resembles the view of the ancient Colossian heresy that Paul had to combat. It’s another example of mistakenly trying to make a doctrine from a single verse, when no core doctrines are ever established in isolated verses, and it ignores a fundamental rule of interpretation that Scripture must harmonise.
The Colossian false teachers advocated the idea that Jesus was the first of many other created mediators between God and men. By using the specific Greek word prōtotokos, “firstborn,” Paul rules out the idea of Jesus as a created being. “Firstborn” does not mean “first created.” Rather, Paul uses a term that was based on the ancient designation of the authority, or pre-eminence, metaphorically given to the firstborn (Genesis 49:3–4; Exodus 4:22). In the same way, David, the youngest of Jesse, was named “firstborn” (Psalm 89:20–27) who ruled Israel. Manasseh was born to Joseph first, but Ephraim, his younger brother, was “firstborn” due to his position as given by Jacob/Israel (Genesis 48:13–20, Jeremiah 31:9).
# BY DESCRIBING JESUS AS THE “FIRSTBORN OVER ALL CREATION,” PAUL IS SAYING THAT HE IS THE ABSOLUTE RULER OVER ALL CREATION.
If Paul had wanted to describe Jesus as a created being, he could have used the Greek word ‘protoktistos’, which means “first created.” So why didn’t he use it? Because Paul did not believe Jesus was created. By describing Jesus as the “firstborn over all creation,” Paul is saying that he is the absolute ruler over all creation.
The evidence that Jesus is supreme over all creation is found in Colossians 1:16. Here, Paul absolutely rules out the idea that Jesus is a created being because he presents Jesus as the Creator of the entire universe which exists by his creative power (John 1:1–3; Hebrews 1:2, 8–10). The reason Jesus can “create all things” is that “in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). The Greek word for “Godhead,” theotēs, refers to “the state of being God.” It is only God who can create (Isaiah 42:5, 44:24, 45:18).
Commentary on Colossians 1:15 to note:
“.. among the Hebrews and other nations, firstborn, heir, and lord, were synonymous terms.” (Benson)
“He that “created all things that are in heaven and that are in earth,” was not himself created. That the apostle did not mean to represent him as a creature, is also manifest from the reason which he assigns why he is called the first-born. “He is the image of God, and the first-born of every creature, for – ὅτι hoti – by him were all things created.” That is, he sustains the elevated rank of the first-born, or a high eminence over the creation, because by him “all things were created in heaven and in earth.” (Barnes)
5). JESUS SELF IDENTIFIES AS GOD
At the Feast of Tabernacles/Booths in his encounter with the Pharisees (John 8:13), Jesus told them, “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). The Jewish people reacted to Jesus’ statement by asking him, “Who are you?” (John 8:25).
Jesus told the Jews exactly who he is: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). This “I am” (ego eimi) statement was Jesus’ clearest example of His proclamation, “I am Yahweh,” from its background in the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 41:4; 43:10–13, 25; 46:4; 48:12; cf. John 13:19).
These are the very words (ego eimi) ) that caused the Roman soldiers to fall to the ground after they came to arrest Jesus (John 18:6). Jesus’ explicit identification of himself with Yahweh of the Old Testament is why the Jewish leaders wanted to stone Him for blasphemy (see John 5:18; 10:33).
6). THE APOSTLES IDENTIFIED JESUS AS DIVINE (AND GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR THEIR WITNESS)
Both Jesus and His apostles identified Jesus as divine. The Apostle Peter described Jesus as “our God and Savior” (2 Peter 1:1; cf. Titus 2:13) and called on believers to “honor Christ the Lord as holy” (1 Peter 3:15). Jesus’ own half-brother James, who was an unbeliever at first (John 7:5), described him as “the Lord of glory” (James 2:1; cf. 1 Corinthians 2:8; Psalm 24:7–8). What mere man or prophet could or was ever described in this way?
The Apostle John also attributed titles to Jesus that were used only of God by describing him as the “Alpha and Omega” and the “First and the Last” (Revelation 22:13; 1:8, 17–18; cf. Isaiah 44:6).
The writer of Hebrews also gives insight into the identity of Jesus In Hebrews 1, Jesus (the Son) is identified as superior to any prophet (vv. 1–2), above the angels (v. 5), worthy of our worship (vv. 6–8; cf. Psalm 45:6–7), and the creator of all things who is unchangeable (vv. 2–3, 10; cf. Psalm 102:25). Hebrews further states that Jesus is “seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2; cf. Acts 2:30).
7). THE JEWS RECOGNISED JESUS CLAIM TO DIVINITY
The clearest evidence for the deity of Jesus is the Jewish leaders’ reaction to Jesus’ words and actions. (This is where Jews are at least more honest than Muslims with their blank denials that Jesus ever displayed any claims to deity). In Mark 2, Jesus not only heals a paralytic but also forgives his sins (Mark 2:5). This is the reason that the scribes cry blasphemy, for it is God alone who can forgive sins. (Mark 2:7)
Time and again, the charge of blasphemy is brought against Jesus:
“Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.” (John 10:32‭-‬33)
In his trial before the Sanhedrin Jesus is once again charged with blasphemy because of his response to the high priest’s question: “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” (Mark 14:61) Jesus responded, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:62). Then the high priest tore his clothes, charged Jesus with blasphemy, and condemned him to death (Mark 14:64). Why did the high priest respond that way? Because Jesus quoted from Psalm 110:1 and Daniel 7:13–14 and applied the words to himself. In Daniel 7 the divine Son of Man comes before the Ancient of Days, and all peoples and nations serve him. The Pharisees recognize Jesus’ divine claim here and charge him with blasphemy, intending to put him to death.
For more on Mark 14;62 see Post:
□ THE DEITY OF CHRIST PART 2 — FOUR WAYS JESUS SAID HE IS GOD IN ONE SENTENCE 3 July 2023
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8). THE EARLY CHURCH PRAYED TO JESUS
Prayer (a particular form of worship), is something that should be addressed to God alone, but Jesus calls his disciples to pray to him (John 14:13–14; 16:26). When Stephen is being stoned to death, he calls out to the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit (Acts 7:59).
The term for “calling on” (epikaloumenon) recalls the appeal of Peter to the people in Acts 2:21 to “call on” (epikaleshtai – Strongs G1941) the Lord to be saved. Paul uses the same word to describe the Corinthians as those who “call upon [epikaleo] the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:2). In the Old Testament, people “called on” on the name of Yahweh (Joel 2:32). The Corinthians were people who addressed Jesus as Lord in prayer.
According to Paul, New Testament Christians were everywhere praying to Jesus.
“Paul. . . to the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours.” (1 Corinthians 1:1–2).
It appears that Paul includes himself among those who called upon the name of Jesus. These prayers directed to Jesus were universal. And the present tense of “call” suggests that the prayers were on-going.
Again in Romans we find: “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). What is that name if not Jesus?
The very last prayer in the New Testament is addressed to Jesus by the Apostle John: “Even so come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20). If it were wrong to petition Christ, John the inspired writer might have said, “Father, may the Son come.” But instead he gave us these words to also cry out to Jesus: “Even so, come!”
And in John 14:14 Jesus claims that He will answer our petitions. Jesus here says that He would answer prayer when we asked him anything in His name. So Jesus authorizes us to address Him in prayer when we come in His name—in His own authority, and in His will. And He promised that He would answer. Muslims who alone hears and answers prayers?
Prayers to Jesus are permitted and encouraged by Christ’s teaching in John 14:14, and by any passage in which Jesus says that we are to pray in His name. When Jesus told us to pray in His name, He wasn’t asking us to use a particular phrase at the end of each of our prayers, though the expression “in Jesus’ name, Amen” is certainly appropriate, and God-honoring. Jesus was actually asking us to come to God (any person of the Trinity) in His authority. We have the right to come to God and receive grace and help because of who Christ is, what He did for us, and what He promised. Indeed it is ONLY because of Christ that we have access to God at all.
“Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) Those words apply just as much to our prayers as to our eternal destiny.
In John 10, Jesus claims that He knows His followers, His “sheep,” and that He calls them all by name. If our Shepherd calls us by our name (a most comforting thought), then why shouldn’t we also call upon Him by His name? At the very least, this passage indicates that real Christians have a personal, one-on-one, intimate relationship with Jesus. This enables us to talk to Jesus and listen for His voice.
Again, can we be at “at home” with Jesus and not be able to talk to Him directly?
“Jesus answered, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” (John 14:23)
And lest anyone suppose that praying to God as a man is a New Testament novelty, there is Old Testament precedent. Abraham did it when confronted by God who appeared to him as three men:
“My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant” (Genesis 18:3 KJV)
9). THE EARLY CHURCH WORSHIPPED JESUS
Jesus accepted and never refused worship from people (Matthew 2:2, 14:33, 28:9). One of the greatest examples of this comes from the lips of Thomas when he exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). If Jesus was not divine, then Thomas made a serious error; but Jesus made no effort to correct Thomas in his worshipful accolade. On the contrary He marked it as a point of blessing to all who believe. Yet Peter (Acts 10:25–26), Paul and Barnabus (Acts 14:14–15), and the angel in Revelation (Revelation 22:8,9) all corrected others for trying to worship them, something Jesus never did.
The confession of deity here is unmistakable, clearly demonstrating that worship belongs only to God (Revelation 22:9) because Jesus accepted Thomas’s worship of him (John 20:29). Again Jesus accepts John’s worship in Revelation 1:17-18.
Also in Revelation, the elders and every creature in heaven and upon earth ascribe universal worship to “him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb” (Revelation 5:11–14; cf. John 1:29).
10). JESUS MADE CLAIMS THAT NO ORDINARY HUMAN BEING COULD EVER MAKE.
Jesus not only identified as God, but He also indicated His deity through His words and actions. Jesus said that to enter the Kingdom of Heaven we must first acknowledge and call him Lord (kurios, Romans 10:9; cf. Matthew 7:21). Just saying that Jesus is Lord does not get you into the Kingdom, but to enter the Kingdom you must confess Him as Lord. The entrance into God’s Kingdom, according to Jesus, is dependent upon a person’s knowledge of Him and His reciprocating knowledge of the person (Matthew 7:23).
Many times Jesus self identifies as our Lord and applies the title “Lord” to Himself. None more so than in the phrase “the Lord of the Sabbath” which is found in Matthew 12:8, Mark 2:28, and Luke 6:5. In all three instances Jesus is referring to Himself as the Lord of the Sabbath or, as Mark records it, “The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28). In these verses, Jesus is proclaiming that He is the One who exercises authority even over the rules and regulations that govern the Sabbath day.
As such, Jesus was proclaiming to the world, especially to the legalistic Pharisees, that He was greater than the Law and above the laws of the Mosaic Covenant because, as God in flesh, He is the Author of those laws.
Jesus even promised rest to all those who come to Him (Matthew 11:28). Could Moses have ever made a claim like this? No! How could a human being give anyone rest from the Law? Jesus also claimed, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). God never gave any man or prophet all authority in heaven and on earth, but this same authority was given to the Son of Man in Daniel 7:13–14 (see also Matthew 26:64).
Other examples:
“Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say? (Luke 6:46)
“You call Me Teacher and Lord. This is well said, for I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” (John 13:13‭-‬14)
11). JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD
Muslims often point out that the words “Son of God” are not an exclusive title for Jesus. For example, in the Old Testament Israel was called God’s son (Exodus 4:22–23; Hosea 11:1), the king was called God’s son (Psalm 2:7), and the angels were called God’s sons (Job 38:7). Even in the New Testament, Adam and believers are referred to as son/s of God (Luke 3:38; Romans 8:14).
There is, however, a fundamental difference between an adopted son and the relational Son of God, the latter being a deity by nature. More than anyone else who has walked this earth, Jesus the Messiah is uniquely entitled to be called the Son of God (John 1:49, 11:27) – “the unique One, who is himself God” (monogenēs theos – see John 1:18 NLT). [2]
In the way He describes His Oneness with the Father, His exact likeness and His obedience in transmitting and doing only what His Father does, Jesus is reinforcing that unique father/son filial relationship.
The Father in like fashion also gives us a unique endorsement of His Son. Twice Matthew records at defining moments, God the Father in heaven saying of Jesus “This is My beloved Son” (Matthew 3:17 and 17:5).
Whatever Jesus said about Himself was so provocative that it led the Jewish leaders to call for his death for blasphemy.
In Jesus’ trial before Pilate, the Jewish leaders clearly understood that Jesus’ use of this term was not just generic, for they wanted him put to death: “We have a law, and according to that law He ought to die because He has made Himself the Son of God” (John 19:7; cf. John 10:36).
According to the Law, it was blasphemy to use God’s name (Leviticus 24:16). Therefore, by referring to himself as “the Son of God”, Jesus was claiming to share “the rights and authority of God himself (cf. [John] 1:34; 5:19–30).”
Muslims who say that Jesus never claimed to be God or the Son of God, must answer why He was crucified on the charge of blasphemy. Whatever Jesus said and the way He conducted Himself, must have been sufficiently provocative enough for the Jewish leaders to call for capital punishment on that charge of blasphemy.
Mark’s account is unambiguously clear and bears repeating:
“But He kept silent and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked Him, saying to Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus said, “I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the BLASPHEMY! What do you think?” And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death.” (Mark 14:61‭-‬64)
See Footnote ³ for a comprehensive list of verses for Jesus as The Son of God.
CONCLUSIONS
The debate about the identity and status of Jesus is not some mere debating point or matter of semantics. It has profound significance — its deeply personal because Jesus made it so. It is not anything we can be indifferent to. The point of all this is that failure to believe in Jesus as the Son of God brings judgement because we are already dead in our sins (see John 3:18, Ephesians 2:1), but believing in Jesus as the Son of God who died for sins, brings eternal life (see John 3:15–17, 6:40, 20:31).
Although there may be many questions and objections raised to Jesus’ deity, the New Testament, in particular the Gospel accounts clearly provides eye-witness testimony to the words, actions, and teachings of Jesus that prove His deity beyond doubt.
Make no mistake: “Another Jesus” (2 Corinthians 11:4), a false Messiah based upon apocryphal gnostic sources, such as presented by Islam, cannot save you. Quite simply, if we do not get the identity of Jesus right, we will die in our sins (John 8:24).
Notice the substantive determining issue is NOT what Jesus taught, but who He is. Muslims your destiny is determined by how you will answer Jesus question which we must all answer — “Who do you say that I am?”
Footnotes:
¹ This claim is clearly contradicted not only by the Scripture but by the statements of the early Church. For example, the early church Father Ignatius Bishop of Antioch (AD 35–108, who was a disciple of John the Apostle) taught the divinity of Jesus: “There is one Physician who is possessed both of flesh and spirit; both made and not made; God existing in flesh; true life in death; both of Mary and of God; first possible and then impossible, even Jesus Christ our Lord. . . . But our Physician is the only true God, the unbegotten and unapproachable, the Lord of all, the Father and Begetter of the only-begotten Son. We have also as a Physician the Lord our God, Jesus the Christ, the only-begotten Son and Word, before time began, but who afterwards became also man, of Mary the virgin.” The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians (Chapter VII “Beware of False Teachers,”
www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-ephesians-longer.html).
² See post: □ THE TRINITY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT AND EARLY JEWISH WRITINGS 16 May 2023
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³ Jesus as The Son of God references:
□ Firstly, the angel Gabriel in announcing the birth of Jesus to Mary:
“And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35)
□ Then Jesus specifically referred to Himself as ‘The Son of God’ on at least 2 occasions:
“Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.” (John 9:35‭-‬38)
Again in the next chapter of John:
“Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?” (John 10:36)
And a third example where Martha the sister of Lazarus uses the title Son of God of Him and Jesus did not rebuke or correct her, on the contrary He affirmed it by declaring He had the power over life and death and is THE LIFE AND RESURRECTION which power belongs to God the giver of life alone:
“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.” (John 11:25‭-‬27)
□ Peter’s confession blessed by Jesus
“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But you,” He asked them, “who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!” And Jesus responded, “Simon son of Jonah, you are blessed because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 16:13‭-‬17)
□ Psalm 2:7:
“I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.”
□ Quoted by the writer of Hebrews in 1:5 (See also Hebrews 5:5 below)
“For to which of the angels did He ever say, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”? And again, “I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME”?”
□ Matthew 3:17:
“and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
□ Matthew 17:5:
“While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”
□ “Son of God” references in the Gospel of Mark:
“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (Mark 1:1)
“And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11)
“and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” (Mark 1:24)
“Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, “You are the Son of God!” (Mark 3:11)
“and he shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” (Mark 5:7)
“Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:38)
“Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son,the Beloved; listen to him!” (Mark 9:7)
“He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ (Mark 12:6)
“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Mark 13:32)
“He said, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.” (Mark 14:36)
“But he was silent and did not answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” (Mark 14:61)
“Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!” (Mark 15:39)
□ John 1:14:
“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
□ 1 John 4:10:
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
□ John 14:13:
“Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
□ John 5:19:
“Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”
□ John 5:22-23:
“The Father, in fact, judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all people will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”
□ John 5:26
“For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself;”
□ Luke 8:28:
“Seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him, and said in a loud voice, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me.”
□ Acts 13:33:
“that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘YOU ARE MY SON; TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.’ ”
□ Hebrews 5:5:
“So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.” ”
□ Luke 3:22:
“and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”
□ 2 Peter 1:17
“For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”-”
□ Luke 9:35:
“Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!””
□ Romans 1:4:
“who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,”
□ Matthew 2:15:
“He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON.”
□ Luke 20:13 -14:
“The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the tenant farmers saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him, so the inheritance will be ours!’ ” (See also Matthew 21:33-41)
□ Hebrews 1:8 (quoting Psalm 45:6-7):
“But of the Son He says, “YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM.”
□ 1 John 5:9:
“If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son.”
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Alastair Tucker, Alleged Bible Corruption: Makes Jesus A Liar And Mocks His Words, Refuting Islam

Alleged Bible Corruption: Makes Jesus A Liar And Mocks His Words.

ALLEGED BIBLE CORRUPTION: MAKES JESUS A LIAR AND MOCKS HIS WORDS.
This Post is the re-airing of an overdue response to those who peddle lies about Bible corruption.
Not to put too fine a pont on it, but whenever Muslims say the Bible is corrupted, they mock God and insult Jesus and yet again call Him a liar.
Throughout Scripture God reminds us of His faithfulness and truthfulness:
“My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David” (Psalms 89:34‭-‬35).
There are many places where we find God’s personal guarantees of truthfulness. In the hope that Muslims might respect at least the words spoken by Jesus, we shall focus on a sample of verses from the mouth of Jesus, demonstrating that the Bible is not and can never be corrupted.
□ “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35) (cf Luke 21:33)
“My words will never pass away” … Where do we find Jesus words, including this statement? Only in the pages of Scripture. Written soon after the event by those who were witnesses or had access to the witnesses. No possibility at all then of any corruption here. We have Jesus own personal guarantee that what we have access to now is exactly what He spoke, is authentic, accurate, imperishable and inviolate.
□ “If He called those whom the word of God came to ‘gods’ — and the Scripture cannot be broken — [36] do you say, ‘You are blaspheming’ to the One the Father set apart and sent into the world, because I said: I am the Son of God?” (John 10:35‭-‬36).
“The Scripture cannot be broken” … Jesus makes a point of rejecting the suggestion that the Word of God can be “broken.” By this, Jesus means that the verses He quoted could not be dismissed as an error. They could not be written off as a mistake — this is the doctrine of inerrancy, which says that Scripture is perfectly accurate in everything it intends to say. Jesus, in this moment, not only implies inerrancy, He grounds His argument in it. Again no room for corruption here. Inerrancy automatically rules out corruption.
□ “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
“I am … the truth” … Jesus declares He is the embodiment of truth. In truth He and all He spoke and all He predicted, including multiple mentions of His death and resurrection, presupposes, are predicated upon and had, by definition to be, founded in the written record of all of it being likewise the truth, faithfully recorded and preserved. He could NEVER have made such a claim on any less a predicate. No point at all making such an absolute claim if He wasn’t being faithfully recorded and represented in the Gospel accounts.
□ “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth” (John 17:17).
God’s word is truth. Period. No argument. There is no place and no scope for corruption in truth, which stands inviolable. And God’s word includes everything in the settled canon of Scripture. By this single verse alone Jesus affirms the truth of the Bible in its entirety. You challenge its accuracy and you make Jesus a liar right here. And anyone who does will answer to Him for it.
Finally, to those who would challenge the accuracy or timeliness of the New Testament, including authorship, it really makes no difference, because of this promise Jesus gave His disciples which would in turn ensure faithful and complete transmission of all that Jesus told them:
□ “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit — the Father will send Him in My name — will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you” (John 14:26).
“… will remind you of everything I have told you”.
The Holy Spirit is the seal of accuracy upon the Scriptures. The same Holy Spirit who had inspired the first pages of Scripture, who had given the record of the Law, of which not a word would pass away (Matthew 5:18), and all the hundreds of prophecies that pointed to the Messiah and would be fulfilled by Him, that same Holy Spirit would bring 20:20 recall to those who would be custodians of Jesus teaching. Again absolutely no scope for corruption, still less the absurd Muslim notion of a “lost gospel” of Jesus.
□ THE PROMISE AND THE OATH
Another bulwark against corruption is found in Hebrews:
” … that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.” (Hebrews 6:18) see also Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Titus 1:2.
The two immutable things are the promise and the oath.
Note the commentary:
“On the supposition that the “promise” was disregarded – if such a supposition may be made still there would be the security of the “oath” – and thus the assurance of salvation was two-fold. It seems to me, therefore, that the apostle refers to the “promise” and to the “oath” of God, as constituting the two grounds of security for the salvation of his people. Those things were both unchangeable, and when his word and oath are once passed, what he promises is secure.
In which it was impossible for God to lie – That is, it would be contrary to his nature; it is not for a moment to be supposed; compare Titus 1:2, “God – that cannot lie.” The impossibility is a “moral” impossibility, and the use of the word here explains the sense in which the words “impossible, cannot,” etc., are often used in the Scriptures. The meaning here is, that such was the love of God for truth; such his holiness of character, that he “could” not speak falsely.
We might have a strong consolation ¹ – The strongest of which the mind can conceive. The consolation of a Christian is not in his own strength; his hope of heaven is not in any reliance on his own powers. His comfort is, that God has “promised” eternal life to his people, and that He cannot prove false to his word; Titus 1:2.” (Barnes)
And another:
“God came through for Abraham, even sealing His promise with an oath. In fact, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself. This oath showed that God’s promises (like His character) are unchanging. Abraham’s trust in this was the gateway to the fulfillment of the promise.”
“The absolute reliability of God’s promise should impress us” (Spurgeon)
d. Strong consolation: God isn’t content to give us mere consolation. He wants to give us strong consolation. Spurgeon described some characteristics of strong consolation:
▪︎Strong consolation does not depend upon bodily health.
▪︎Strong consolation does not depend upon the excitement of public services and Christian fellowship.
▪︎ Strong consolation can’t be shaken by human reasoning.
▪︎ Strong consolation is stronger than our guilty conscience.” (Guzik)
CONCLUSIONS
Where do we find God’s promises, His Covenants and oaths which He swore by Himself, where do we find the immutable, incorruptible, inerrant truth? We find all this only in the Bible.
Muslims, do you want to persist with this baseless Bible corruption nonsense? Go right ahead. Accuse God of perjury, of lying and portray Him as weak and incompetent for being unable to record, translate or preserve His word. Make Jesus a liar, mock His words, and in due course answer to Him for every careless word spoken.
You can be sure that when Jesus took so much care and spelled out so clearly that His words and the Bible cannot be messed with, anyone who attempts to do just that is setting themselves up to face God’s wrath and judgment.
God has both promised and sworn an oath to His truthfulness and faithfulness. The promise and the oath are a double-lock guarantee that His word — the only place where we find His promises — is both immutable and incorruptible.
At both ends of the Bible God gives a dire warning to anyone who attempts to add to, or detract from, His Word. Yet again, the predicate is that God’s Word is complete and settled. As indeed the Psalmist affirms:
□ “Lord, Your word is forever; it is firmly fixed in heaven.” (Psalms 119:89 HCSB)
□ “You must not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it, so that you may keep the commands of the Lord your God I am giving you.” (Deuteronomy 4:2 HCSB) (see also Deuteronomy 12:32).
□ “I testify to everyone who hears the prophetic words of this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. [19] And if anyone takes away from the words of this prophetic book, God will take away his share of the tree of life and the holy city, written in this book.” (Revelation 22:18-19 HCSB)
Muslims can never say they’ve not been warned.
FOOTNOTE:
“Strong consolation” this is the opposite of “strong delusion” (2 Thessalonians 10-12) which is sent to those who disbelieve and set their face against the Gospel ie includes all MusIims who continue to reject the truth even after repeatedly being shown it. God gives you over to your idolatry (Romans 1:24-31).
Further reading:
□ HOW TO TURN NUMBERS 23:19 INTO THE CONDEMNATION OF ISLAM 18 June 2023
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Alastair Tucker, The Truth About Islam And The Slave Trade

The Truth About Islam And The Slave Trade

THE TRUTH ABOUT ISLAM AND THE SLAVE TRADE
1). INTRODUCTION
Mention the slave trade and Muslims will quickly jump to the Bible to defend Islamic slavery, just as they jump to it in defence of Islamic violence. As ever when it suits them the Bible is an authority which Muslims appeal to, and when it doesn’t support Islam which is most of the time, it’s corrupt.
To explain why the Biblical concept of “slavery” is actually ‘voluntary indentured servitude’ with break clauses every 7 years, and why accusations of sexism and Old Testament “genocide” are false, watch the excellent video explanation given by Abdu Murray (see link below).

I challenge any Muslim to produce evidence for slavery today being authorised in any non-Islamic State. The fact is it’s Islam that to this day widely practices aspects of slavery which subjugate women. Make no mistake, child marriages, fgm, multiple wives, child grooming gangs, and honour killings where even rape vitims are stoned to death to save “family honour” are the legacy of a brutal era of slavery. In Islam women are routinely treated as the property of the husband’s, women can be taken captive and held as sex slaves and the Quran and Sharia law endorses and upholds all of this. And of course, Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and Isis make no secret of adopting slave practices and pleading the Quran as justification.¹
The idea of reform included the Turkish government recently making its second bid to introduce a law granting amnesty to child rapists in Turkey if they marry their victim, provoking outrage across the country.
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkey-marry-rapist-bill-child-marriage-a9296681.html
In short slavery under Islam is incomparable to the Bible’s treatment of both slaves and women. How Sharia degrades women is beyond the scope of this post but will be covered separately in a future post
2). HISTORICAL SURVEY — HOW ARABS CAME TO BE IN NORTH AFRICA
Arab slavery had already begun in Africa more than 700 years before the European transatlantic slave trade. (It was from Islam of the pagan Arabians that the captive slave trade was established).
The slave trade began when the Arabs invaded North Africa for the first time in the 7th century AD. The first Arab entry into Africa was through Egypt.
An Arab military general named General Amir Aben Alas invaded Egypt in December 639 AD.
Amir had successfully conquered Egypt and went ahead and conquered other places such as Tunisia and western Libya.
Once these areas had been completely conquered by the Arabs, they imposed tributes of 360 slaves in all regions they occupied and controlled.
With this Islamic slave trade in Africa, North Africans were Islamized by their Arab slave masters.
Today, many Africans pose as Muslims without knowing how the owners of such a religion brutally enslaved their black African ancestors for over 700 years.
Its a little known fact that the Islamic slave trade was bigger and more brutal than the well documented transatlantic one that we all learn about in school. Watch “The Hidden Islamic Slave Trade & Colorism,” by Tony Gurule & Dr. Jay Smith: t.co/El5C6IaoP7 and https://vimeo.com/246339930
In 1899, Winston Churchill wrote about the Islamic slave trade: “…all [of the Arab tribes in The Sudan], without exception, were hunters of men. To the great slave markets of Jeddah a continual stream of negro captives has flowed for hundreds of years. The invention of gunpowder and the adoption by the Arabs of firearms facilitated the traffic…Thus the situation in the Sudan for several centuries may be summed up as follows: The dominant race of Arab invaders was increasingly spreading its blood, religion, customs, and language among the black aboriginal population, and at the same time it harried and enslaved them…The warlike Arab tribes fought and brawled among themselves in ceaseless feud and strife. The negroes trembled in apprehension of capture, or rose locally against their oppressors.” ²
Muslims ask why if slavery was so prevalent in Arab Muslim states were there so few descendants compared to the Americas?
This is a very good question. There were a number of factors all of which impacted on mortality of Arab slave populations and prove their far more inhumane treatment in comparison to the African American slave trade.
According to Bernard Lewis ³ the growth of internal slave populations through natural increase was insufficient to maintain numbers right through to modern times, which contrasts markedly with rapidly rising slave populations in the New World. He writes that:
□ “Liberation by freemen of their own offspring born by slave mothers was “the primary drain”.
□ Liberation of slaves as an act of piety, was a contributing factor.
□ Other factors include: Castration: A fair proportion of male slaves were imported as eunuchs. Levy states that according to the Quran and Islamic traditions, such emasculation was objectionable. Jurists such as al-Baydawi considered castration to be mutilation, stipulating law enforcement to prevent it. However, in practice, emasculation was frequent. In eighteenth century Mecca, the majority of eunuchs were in the service of the mosques. Moreover, the process of castration (which included penectomy) carried a high risk of death.
□ Liberation of military slaves: Military slaves that rose through the ranks were usually liberated at some stage in their careers.
□ Restrictions on procreation: Among the menial, domestic, and manual worker slaves, casual sex was not permitted and marriage was not encouraged.
□ High death toll: There was a high death toll among all classes of slaves. Slaves usually came from remote places and, lacking immunities, died in large numbers. Segal ⁴ notes that recent slaves, weakened by their initial captivity and debilitating journey, would have been easy victim to climate changes and infection. Children were especially at risk, and the Islamic market demand for children was much greater than the American one.
□ Many black slaves lived in conditions conducive to malnutrition and disease, with effects on their own life expectancy, the fertility of women, and the infant mortality rate. As late as the 19th century, Western travellers in North Africa and Egypt noted the high death rate among imported black slaves.
□ Another factor was the Zanj Rebellion against the plantation economy of ninth-century southern Iraq. Due to fears of a similar uprising among slave gangs occurring elsewhere, Muslims came to realize that large concentrations of slaves were not a suitable organization of labour and that slaves were best employed in smaller concentrations. As such, large-scale employment of slaves for manual labour became the exception rather than the norm, and the medieval Islamic world did not need to import vast numbers of slaves.”
Islam has a track record of destroying history and artefacts that is negative to Islam (the so called Golden Age was a myth – what survived from it was in spite of Islamic rule not because of it), so no surprise at all that nothing was recorded by them of their worst slave trade practices.
John Dewar Gleissner in “Prison & Slavery – A Surprising Comparison” notes:
“Terrible Aspects of Slavery in the Arab World. The Arabs’ treatment of black Africans can aptly be termed an African Holocaust. Arabs killed more Africans in transit, especially when crossing the Sahara Desert, than Europeans and Americans, and over more centuries, both before and after the years of the Atlantic slave trade. Arab Muslims began extracting millions of black African slaves centuries before Christian nations did. Arab slave traders removed slaves from Africa for about 13 centuries, compared to three centuries of the Atlantic slave trade. African slaves transported by Arabs across the Sahara Desert died more often than slaves making the Middle Passage to the New World by ship. Slaves invariably died within five years if they worked in the Ottoman Empire’s Sahara salt mines. Black Africans did not enjoy immunity to many of the diseases found in the Arab world, which also resulted in high death rates.
Slaveholders in the Muslim world often castrated black African male slaves to serve as harem guards. This is a prime reason there are not many communities of blacks living in the non-African Muslim world today, despite the millions of black African slaves sold into the Muslim world. Many African boys did not survive their castration surgery. As late as 1903, there were still 194 African eunuchs in service to the Ottoman ruling family.
African women were enslaved by Arabs more than African men. Few black slave children survived in the Muslim world. In 1860, when 3,000 black female slaves were set free in Zanzibar, only 5% of them had children. Because under Islamic law a concubine bearing the child of the master could become a wife and her children would then share in the inheritance, Middle Eastern wives and children of masters had a strong incentive to interfere with the sex lives of female slaves and cause brutal abortions. Islamic jurisprudence historically allowed abortions in the first four months of pregnancy, long before the West allowed it. Islamic tradition supports the view that the soul enters the fetus at 120 days. If a concubine had the only son, the threat to the wife was even greater. The Koran allowed Muslim men to have as many concubines as they could afford, in addition to four wives.
The Arab history of anti-black racism predates European anti-black racism by several centuries. The early Islamic empire exhibited all the characteristics of anti-black racism, and blacks suffered the lowest form of bondage. By 869 AD, black African slaves in southern Iraq, the despised Zanj, launched an extended slave revolt that threatened Baghdad until 883 A.D. The main reasons we have not heard more about the horrors of slavery in the Muslim world are that Muslims did not express moral outrage against slavery and wrote no abolitionist literature against the institution of slavery. Dr. Thomas Sowell characterizes the moral indignation against New World slavery, and the lack of any such indignation against the Muslim or non-Western world, as “selective moral indignation.” The moral outrage against slavery was and is, in the grand historical context, a European-inspired cause gaining significant traction only in the 1760s. Europeans took photographs of chained black African slaves in Arab slave-trading vessels on the East Coast of Africa in the 1880s. Slavery persisted openly in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries in the latter half of the twentieth century, 100 years after slavery was abolished in the United States. As late as 1960, African Muslims still sold slaves when they arrived on pilgrimages, as a way to finance their pilgrimages. Arab nations lagged far behind the rest of the world in abolishing slavery: Saudi Arabia and Yemen in 1962, United Arab Emirates in 1963, Oman in 1970 and Mauritania officially in 1981. Today, according to U.S. State Department figures, Muslim nations condone international human trafficking more than Western countries do.
David Livingstone observed in Africa the horrendous slave trading practices of Arab and pagan slave traders, decades after Great Britain had begun to suppress the international slave trade, and almost a century after Lord Mansfield, with the stroke of a pen, freed slaves in England. The Ottoman Empire resisted British efforts to suppress slavery and the slave trade. Over the course of 70 years, 2,000 British sailors died to free 160,000 slaves. While Islam urged improved treatment of slaves in some ways, the rapid expansion of the Muslim empire rapidly increased the number of slaves, leading to crueler treatment. Africa and the Middle East never developed the moral abolitionist fervor seen in Western nations. Slavery is now most prominent in Africa.
From the time of the Crusades until the early 1800’s, Barbary pirates or corsairs from Muslim North Africa raided European coasts and waters, selling captive Europeans as slaves in North African ports and Istanbul. Barbary corsairs attacked shipping in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, raiding the coasts of Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Britain, Ireland, and Africa for slaves. Some Mediterranean islands and coasts in Spain and Italy were abandoned due to the threat of Barbary slave raiding. The United States initially paid tribute to the Barbary pirates to obtain the return of American captives. After building ships, the United States fought the First and Second Barbary Wars to stop this slave trading and piracy. In fact, the desire to defend American shipping and sailors from Barbary piracy gave re-birth to the U.S. Navy. The Marine Hymn refers to the Battle of Derne on “the shores of Tripoli.” The traditional Mameluke sword worn by Marine officers today is based on the one given Marine First Lt. Presley O’Bannon by Prince Hamet of Tripoli.” ⁵
A quote from Booker T Washington: ⁶
“The ten million Negroes inhabiting this country, who themselves or whose ancestors went through the school of American slavery, are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually,morally, and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe.”
3). ISLAMIC SLAVERY IN INDIA
Frighteningly high numbers of Hindus were massacred in India by Muslim rulers. A Sikh writer declares that the assault amounted to “the biggest holocaust in World history” ⁷ :
With the invasion of India by Mahmud Ghazni about 1000 AD, began the Muslim invasions into the Indian subcontinent and they lasted for several centuries. Nadir Shah made a mountain of the skulls of the Hindus he killed in Delhi alone. Babur raised towers of Hindu skulls at Khanua when he defeated Rana Sanga in 1527 and later he repeated the same horrors after capturing the fort of Chanderi. Akbar ordered a general massacre of 30,000 Rajputs after he captured Chithorgarh in 1568. The Bahamani Sultans had an annual agenda of killing a minimum of 100,000 Hindus every year.
The Belgian Indologist Dr. Koenrad Elst ⁸ wrote that:
“There is no official estimate of the total death toll of Hindus at the hands of Islam. A first glance at important testimonies by Muslim chroniclers suggests that, over 13 centuries and a territory as vast as the Subcontinent, Muslim Holy Warriors easily killed more Hindus than the 6 million of the Holocaust. Ferishtha lists several occasions when the Bahmani sultans in central India (1347-1528) killed a hundred thousand Hindus, which they set as a minimum goal whenever they felt like “punishing” the Hindus; and they were only a third-rank provincial dynasty. The biggest slaughters took place during the raids of Mahmud Ghaznavi (ca 1000 CE); during the actual conquest of North India by Mohammed Ghori and his lieutenants (1192 ff.); and under the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526)…. The Moghuls (1526-1857), even Babar and Aurangzeb, were fairly restrained tyrants by comparison. Prof. K.S. Lal once estimated that the Indian population declined by 50 million under the Sultanate, but that would be hard to substantiate; research into the magnitude of the damage Islam did to India is yet to start in right earnest.”
He continues:
“Apart from actual killing, millions of Hindus disappeared by way of enslavement. After every conquest by a Muslim invader, slave markets in Bagdad and Samarkand were flooded with Hindus. Slaves were likely to die of hardship, e.g. the mountain range Hindu Koh, “Indian mountain”, was renamed Hindu Kush, “Hindu-killer”, when one cold night in the reign of Timur Lenk (1398-99), a hundred thousand Hindu slaves died there while on transport to Central Asia. Though Timur conquered Delhi from another Muslim ruler, he recorded in his journal that he made sure his pillaging soldiers spared the Muslim quarter, while in the Hindu areas, they took “twenty slaves each”.”
4). CONCLUSIONS
One might have thought that historical facts such as these cited in this post, would have provoked human-rights activists to put the Muslim empires into the same category as the later European ones. Not a word of it. The Islamic slave trade has always had a free pass from the liberal western press, not to mention being whitewashed by Islam’s own sources.
Slavery has been an integral part of Islamic practice from the start. It is scripturally endorsed, embedded in shari’a law, and has been practiced from the seventh century until today. The slave trade was notably carried on by Arab merchants across the Sahara and brought Africans to North Africa. Liberals rightly condemn the European slave trade and its impact on North America; they – again rightly – act to eliminate modern slavery through trafficking – which is estimated to involve some 40.3 million people worldwide by 2016. It is almost unheard of, nevertheless, for people on the left also to speak of the Islamic (mainly Arab) slave trade.
The educational website History World, for instance, has a substantial account entitled “History of Slavery”, in which it describes the use of slaves in Babylon, Greece, Rome, the European Middle Ages, and the Portuguese and triangular (chiefly the Transatlantic) slave trades. Yet it only mentions Islamic slavery in passing, despite its having lasted far longer than the European and American versions. Here one of three short paragraphs the site devotes to the subject, all of which appear to argue that supposedly Muslim slavery was not altogether a bad thing:
“Slavery is an accepted part of life in Arabia during the time of Muhammad, in the 7th century, and the Quran offers no arguments against the practice. It merely states, particularly in relation to female slaves, that they must be well treated.” ⁹
This post hasn’t had space to fully review the three centuries of the Barbary Slavers, where North African Muslims who went out as pirates into the Mediterranean to capture ships from European countries and take crews and passengers as slaves to be sold in the markets of Tunis, Algiers and other towns. Barbary pirates ventured as far as England and Ireland, where they would raid coastal villages, and carry residents off. Professor Robert Davis writes ¹⁰
“The fishermen and coastal dwellers of 17th-century Britain lived in terror of being kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery in North Africa. Hundreds of thousands across Europe met wretched deaths on the Barbary Coast in this way”.
This piracy continued for 300 years and even as late as the early 19th century, the US Navy with Sweden and Sicily, fought two wars against the Barbary States, finally bringing the piracy to an end.¹¹
Research for this post has proved once again that history does not lie in spite of the best efforts of Islam and Nazism to rewrite and/or whitewash it.
Sources and further research:

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkey-marry-rapist-bill-child-marriage-a9296681.html
“The Hidden Islamic Slave Trade & Colorism,” by Tony Gurule & Dr. Jay Smith: t.co/El5C6IaoP7 and https://vimeo.com/246339930
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Muslim_world
www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-Arab-owners-usually-castrated-African-male-slaves
Efraim Karsh, “Islamic Imperialism: A History” Yale University Press 2006
Footnotes:
¹ Slavery in 21st-century jihadism en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_21st-century_jihadism
² Winston Churchill. The River War, Vol. II, London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899, pp. 248—50.
³ Bernard Lewis historian (1916-2018). en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Lewis
⁴ Ronald Segal (1932 – ) “Islam’s Black Slaves: the Other Black Diaspora” 2001 https://www.amazon.com/ISLAMS-BLACK-SLAVES-Ronald-Segal/dp/0374527970
⁵ John Dewar Gleissner (1952? – ) “Prison & Slavery – A Surprising Comparison” 2010 outskirtspress.com/prisonandslavery
⁶ Booker T Washington (1856-1915) Author and Presidential adviser.
⁷ www.sikhnet.com/news/islamic-india-biggest-holocaust-world-history
⁸ Koenrad Elst (1959 – ) “Was There an Islamic “Genocide” of Hindus?” www.academia.edu/16578319/Was_There_an_Islamic_Genocide_of_Hindus
⁹ www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistoriesResponsive.asp?historyid=ac41
¹⁰ Prof. Robert Davis (1948 -) “Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters – White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800” (Palgrave Press) 2003
www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_01.shtml
¹¹ en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Wars
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Alastair Tucker, Quran, The Quran And Its Errors: Internal Contradictions, Scientific And Historical Mistakes

The Quran And Its Errors: Internal Contradictions, Scientific And Historical Mistakes

THE QURAN AND ITS ERRORS: INTERNAL CONTRADICTIONS, SCIENTIFIC AND HISTORICAL MISTAKES
1). INTRODUCTION
We constantly see Muslims praising the ‘miracle of the Quran’. The most recent I saw was Wilmer Caviliza.
As I said to him, the only miracle about the Quran is how anyone could believe its divinely inspired. Its so full of factual errors, fallacious nonsense and self refuting contradictions it’s derisible.
Just for starters …
Here are samples of how schizophrenic the Quran can be:
2). QURAN CONTRADICTIONS
Here are a sample of internal contradictions to be found in the Quran. There are many more — see memes for a schedule.
□ What does Allah do with apostates?
• Punishes them:
“But if any turn away and reject Allah,- Allah will punish him with a mighty Punishment” (Surah 88:23-24).
• Does not care:
“There was indeed in them an excellent example for you to follow,- for those whose hope is in Allah and in the Last Day. But if any turn away, truly Allah is Free of all Wants, Worthy of all Praise” (Surah 60:6).
□ Is there compulsion in Islam?
• No:
“Unto you your religion and unto me my religion” (Surah109:6).
• Yes:
“I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them” (Surah 8:12).
□ Will Allah reward the good deeds of non-Muslims?
• No:
“It is not for such as join gods with Allah, to visit or maintain the mosques of Allah while they witness against their own souls to infidelity. The works of such bear no fruit: In Fire shall they dwell” (Surah 9:17).
• Yes:
“And whoso doeth good an atom’s weight will see it then” (Surah 99:7).
□ Who sends disbelievers astray?
• Allah:
“Allah leaves stray whom He wills and guides whom He wills” (Surah 35:8).
• Satan:
“Who whispereth in the hearts of mankind” (Surah 114:5)
□ Keeping oaths
• It matters:
“truly righteous is he who … fulfill their promise when they have made one” (Surah 2:177) and ” … whoever breaks his oath, breaks it to his own loss; and whoever fulfills the covenant that HE has made with ALLAH, HE will, surely, give him a great reward” (Surah 48:10).
• It doesn’t matter:
“Allah does not call you to account for what is vain in your oaths” (Surah 2:225) and “(This is a declaration of) immunity by Allah and His Apostle towards those of the idolaters with whom you made an agreement” (Surah 9:1).
□ Having up to four wives
• It’s fair:
“If you deem it best for the orphans, you may marry their mothers – you may marry two, three, or four. If you fear lest you become unfair, then you shall be content with only one, or with what you already have” (Surah 4:3).
• It’s unfair:
“You can never be equitable in dealing with more than one wife, no matter how hard you try” (Surah 4:129)
□ Could Allah have a son?
• Yes:
“If Allah desire to take a son to Himself, He will surely choose those He pleases from what He has created” (Surah 39:4)
• No:
“The Initiator of the heavens and the earth. How can He have a son, when He never had a mate?” (Surah 6:101)
3). QURAN SCIENTIFIC ERRORS
□ Human reproduction errors
Here are four fundamental mistakes:
1. Allah did not mention the role of the women egg in human reproduction and appears to have no knowledge of it. This is not the only verse that fails to mention the important role of the female egg (86:6) makes the same mistake. The Quran says the reproduction is caused simply by the male semen. Women are just ovens! The human ovum is very small, though visible to the human eye, and only discovered 1827. It’s role is very important. It is the ovum that decides which sperm goes in and not the first sperm. But Allah only knows what 7th century Muhammad knows.
2. The lump turns into bones!!! Bones develop within the lump. Some apologists so desperate they reinvented this translation to fix this big problem!! Notice how they out in brackets (from) it is not actually in the text!!
3. Then the bones get covered with flesh. As if to emphasis the mistake in step before, the Quran goes on to show its lack of knowledge by suggesting after the bones…flesh covers it.
4. The Quran states, incorrectly, that sperm originates from a spot between the backbone and the ribs, (Surah 86:6-7). However, science has demonstrated that sperm comes from the testicles whilst semen issues from different glands behind and below our bladder.
4). MORE QURAN SCIENTIFIC INACCURACIES
□ Flat earth
The Quran is laden with verses which hint towards the impression of a “flat” earth. (Surah 13:3, 15:19, 50:7, 51:48, 71:19, 20:53) and many more write that the earth is “spread out”, “Laid out”, or “like a carpet”. Yet due to modern scientific discovery we know that the earth is actually in the shape of a circular sphere.
Just to further elaborate on this point, ever notice how the Islamic Salat indirectly hints at the idea of a flat earth? Muslims all around the world are instructed to pray towards the Kabba 5 times a day. This would only make sense if we lived on a flat earth. If, however, Islam endorsed the belief in a spherical planet, we would get the dilemma of wherever you are facing the Kaaba you also have your back to it.
□ All things were made in pairs
Within the Quran, Surah 51:49, it writes that all things were created in pairs. Yet, today we know of something called Asexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction by which offsprings arise from a single organism. It serves as the chief means by which single celled organisms are formed. Such examples include the Archaea, bacteria, various plants and fungi.
□ Shooting stars are missiles to drive out demons
The Quran teaches that stars are fires set up in the sky to guard Heaven against demons. The demons want to hear what God is saying so they try to sneak up to heaven. If they are found, the guardians of heaven will hurl stars at them to chase them off: (Surah 15:16-18, 37:6-10, 67:5 and 72:8-9).
The dilemma, however, is that the Quran is confusing “stars” with “shooting stars”. Stars, as we know, are actually suns. Shooting stars on the other hand, are meteorites, or galactic debris. If we are to take the Quran seriously, then each time we see a “shooting star” we are to assume that it is actually a sun that is blasting across the sky in the pursue of a demon.
□ The sun settles in a muddy spring
In Surah 18:86, the Quran describes the sun as setting into a muddy spring. Yet we know due to modern scientific discovery that the setting of the sun is caused by the circular and rotational properties of our planet. There exists no place where the sun physically “sets”.
5). QURAN HISTORICAL ERRORS
□ Samaria
In Surah 20:85-88, 95 we read about the story of the Prophet Moses and the Israelite rebellion in their worship of the golden calf. The interesting thing within this passage, is that a Samaritan was accused of leading the people of Allah astray.
The story of Moses and the golden calf is dated to have occurred around 1400 BC. Yet the Samaritans did NOT exist until 530 years AFTER Moses. Samaria was founded by King Omri during the year 870 BC. The Samaritans did not exist until after the exile of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the resettlement of the area under King Sargon II in 722 B.C.
So the question arises: How could a Samaritan lead the people of Moses astray when Samaritans did not exist during the time of Moses?
□ The practice of Crucifixion
According to Surah 12:41, the Quran writes that during the time of Joseph (in the Old Testament), death by crucifixion was actually something that existed and was being performed. Not only that, but the Quran writes in Surah 7:124, 26:49 and 20:71 that Pharaoh threatened the magicians who believed in Moses with crucifixion.
The major problem with these statements from the Quran is that there is no archeological or historical evidence that the Egyptians used crucifixion as a form of punishment in the time of Joseph, or in the time of Moses (circa 1400 BC). Crucifixion only becomes a punishment much later in history — first used by the Persians in 6th Century BC.
□ Alexander the Great
In Surah 18:83-98 we read about a man named Dhul-Qarnayn. Now, it is very rare to find an Islamic scholar who will not state that this points to Alexander the Great. Here are just some of those people: Baydawi, p. 399, al-Jalalan, p. 251, al-Tabari, p. 339, al-Zamakhshari, part 2 of al-Kash-shaf, p. 743.
The problem, however, is that the Quran describes Alexander as being a “righteous and God fearing man”. That Allah is the one who guided him and that he led people into the fold of the Islamic faith.
However, when we even do a little research on the true and historical Alexander (born 356 BC), we see that he was an idolater, claiming to be the son of the Egyptian God Amun. Very few would even consider him to be even remotely close to a righteous human being. There is also not a shred of evidence to associate him with anything Islamic which was still at least 1000 years in the future.
□ Mary mother of Jesus
In many places, the Quran mentions Mary as the sister of Moses and Aaron and the daughter of Imran. The Quran has confused Jesus’s mother with Aaron’s sister because both of them carry the same name, though there are several centuries between them.
The Quran indicates that Mary (Christ’s mother) had a brother whose name was Aaron (chapter 19:28) and a father whose name is Imran (chapter 66:12). Their mother was called “the wife of Imran” (chapter 3:35) which eliminates any doubt that it confuses Mary, mother of Jesus, with Mary, sister of Aaron.
□ The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ:
We can unashamedly call out this as an egregious historical error. ¹
In Surah 4:157, the Quran blandly tells us that Christ was never killed nor crucified. But that it was made to appear so. Rather, Allah raised Christ unto himself. While there us no consensus of who was crucified and the Quran fails to clarify the point, one traditional interpretation of this verse is that Allah replaced Jesus with Judas on the cross, hence any historical substantiation of this event would fall short on disproving the Islamic position, for they do not doubt that the crucifixion took place, but that it was Judas who took on Christ’s form.
Yet when we look to the historical record, we see that it too, also successfully dismantles this speculation, because 10 out of the 12 apostles were martyred for believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus. History shows that that they firmly believed that it was Jesus himself who was executed and raised from the dead.
In The Historical Jesus: Lecture Transcript and Course Guidebook, 2000, Ehrman says:
“ONE OF THE MOST CERTAIN FACTS OF HISTORY IS THAT JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED ON ORDERS OF THE ROMAN PREFECT OF JUDEA, PONTIUS PILATE”. (P. 162)
Atheist Professor of Early Christianity and the University of Gottinggen Gerd Ludemann says:
“JESUS’ DEATH AS A CONSEQUENCE OF CRUCIFIXION IS INDISPUTABLE”. IN THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST: A HISTORICAL INQUIRY, 2004, P 50
We have at least 11 sources for the crucifixion of Jesus: Pre-Mark Passion Narrative, Q, John, Paul, Hebrews, 1 Peter 2:24, Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Martyr, Josephus Flavius, & Cornelius Tacitus. Pre-Mark and Q are very early dating to within years of the actual crucifixion. There is not a single reliable source that says no crucifixion took place or that it was anyone other than Jesus.
6). CONCLUSIONS
The above is only a sample of the sort of errors and contradictions which firmly establish that the Quran cannot be a divinely inspired book. These errors are unmistakable human errors which we would expect to find in a man made book consistent with the parochial knowledge of that period.
Contrasts with the Bible show what a truly divinely inspired book looks like. Not a single error of fact whether scientific, historical or geographical can be found in it. Every new archaeological discovery in the region only serves to support it. The same goes for the manuscript record which establishes how remarkably well preserved the Bible is.
For more Quran howlers see:
wikiislam.net/wiki/Scientific_Errors_in_the_Quran
¹ See post: □ ISLAM’S NEMESIS: THE HERESY OF SURAH 4:157 25 June 2023
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Alastair Tucker, Why Christians Sing In Worship And Muslims Don't

Why Christians Sing In Worship And Muslims Don’t

WHY CHRISTIANS SING IN WORSHIP AND MUSLIMS DON’T
I). INTRODUCTION
It’s a theme seldom aired in debate with Muslims, but song as a part of worship is one of the starkest contrasts between Christians and Muslims and a striking illustration of why we don’t worship the same God.
# Have you ever wondered why God desires for his people to sing?
# What role should singing play in the life of a Christian?
# What is it about worshiping through song that is so important to God?
# You may not know it, but God has already answered these questions in the Bible. The seven reasons below in Section 3). answer these questions and declare the more important truth about singing in the life of an individual Christian and the church as a corporate body.
In answering these questions it will become apparent why Muslims do not sing as a part of worship.
2). GOD’S PEOPLE SING
The people of God sing. After escaping from the Egyptians and crossing the Red Sea, the people of Israel sang a song to the Lord (Exodus 15). Singing was part of Israel’s formal worship in both tabernacle and temple (1 Chronicles 6:31-32, 16:42). The Psalms bear rich testimony that in joy and sorrow, in praise and lament, the faithful raise their voices in song to God. Hymn singing was practiced by Jesus and his disciples even in the solemnity of the Last Supper. (Matthew 26:30).
“Now all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves regardless of their divisions. When the priests came out of the holy place, the Levitical singers dressed in fine linen and carrying cymbals, harps, and lyres were standing east of the altar, and with them were 120 priests blowing trumpets. The Levitical singers were descendants of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun and their sons and relatives. The trumpeters and singers joined together to praise and thank the Lord with one voice. They raised their voices, accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and musical instruments, in praise to the Lord : For He is good; His faithful love endures forever. The temple, the Lord ’s temple, was filled with a cloud. And because of the cloud, the priests were not able to continue ministering, for the glory of the Lord filled God’s temple.” (2 Chronicles 5:11‭-‬14)
See also Nehemiah’s description of the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem. (Nehamiah 12:27-43)
Is God glorified by worship with music singing and making a joyful noise? Does He respond to heartfelt exuberance? Imagine the sound a combined 120 trumpets along with cymbals harps and lures and a full chorus is going to make and you have an idea that God responds to corporate worship as if with one voice in unity of purpose.
This scene paints a picture and provides a model of how temple worship should be.
God’s people have sung hymns in honor of the Almighty since the time of Moses and before (Exodus 15:1). David sang the “new song” God gave him and taught others to sing “a hymn of praise to our God” (Psalm 40:3). Jesus and His disciples sang a hymn together at the Last Supper (Mark 14:26). The early church sang hymns as part of their regular gatherings (1 Corinthians 14:26). Paul and Silas, with their feet in stocks in a Philippian jail, were “praying and singing hymns to God” (Acts 16:25).
There is a direct connection between being filled with the Spirit and singing: “Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:18 -19)
Let’s not mince our words or be shy of saying so — a Spirit-filled Christian is a singing Christian! Music is the natural overflow of a heart in fellowship with the Lord. The songs the church sings are not to be simply a musical exercise; they must be in the heart and not just in the mouth. The hymns the Spirit prompts are a means by which believers edify, encourage, and teach each other (Colossians 3:16).
This is worship “in the spirit” the first half of what Jesus was speaking of when He told the Samaritan woman by the well:
“But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23‭-‬24)
What true worship is not and cannot be is mere lip service:
“These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commands of men.” (Matthew 15:8‭-‬9)
Jesus was quoting Isaiah 29:13 which goes even further:
“The Lord said: Because these people approach Me with their mouths to honor Me with lip-service — yet their hearts are far from Me, and their worship consists of man-made rules learned by rote” (Isaiah 29:13).
Read it again … “Their worship consists of man-made rules learned by rote”.
Hmm now which religion is it that prides itself in learning by rote? 🤔
Again which religion is it that makes music taboo and frowns on any sort of musical accompaniment in worship? That would be Islam.
Music is a gift of God and part of the created order. From its inception, “when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy” (Job 38:7), to its consummation, when “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them” will sing to the Lamb on the throne (Revelation. 5:13), creation is musical. “All nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres.” Human music-making participates in the music of creation and reflects the order, beauty, and diversity of God s creation.
Stepping back for a moment, how did Jesus tell us we are to love God?
When asked by a Pharisee “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest? ” He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command.” (Matthew 22.36-37)
3). SEVEN BIBLICAL REASONS WHY SINGING MATTERS
(i). Singing is an act of obedience.
Singing isn’t an option in Scripture. It’s a command.
Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
Ephesians 5:18-19: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart…”
God’s people are more than just invited to sing – we are commanded to sing. When we sing, we’re doing what God asks of us!
(ii). Singing taps into the Word.
Paul lays out this exhortation to let God’s Word dwell in us richly, and then, he tells us how to live out that command. The first, of course, is teaching. But the second, is singing.“Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly…singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…”
Singing is one of the two chief ways that the Word of God dwells in us richly.
The command to worship comes with a promise: as we sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs together, we are promised that the Word of Christ will dwell in us richly – which is what we should crave as believers.
Our singing is more than a warm-up for the sermon or a filler in the service. Colossians 3:16 is clearly laying out for us that: Singing stands alongside of preaching as one of the two great ways that God has ordained for His Word to dwell RICHLY in each one of us!
C.J. Mahaney calls church singing “Take Home Theology,” because the best songs we sing together end up serving you as a 3 minute, easily memorised, deeply biblical summary of important truths from Scripture. Take for example, “In Christ Alone.” There, in easily memorable form, we’ve got a thorough theology of the cross of Jesus Christ with clear and practical applications that we can use for our lives for the ensuing week!
(iii). Singing edifies the church, challenges unbelievers and welcome strangers.
Firstly, we build up fellow believers when we sing:
“addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…” (Ephesians 5.19)
When we do what the Bible says and sing together as a church family, we are hearing confessions of faith all around! We are hearing hundreds join with us and sing, “In Christ alone, MY hope is found!” Where else can we hear hundreds of testimonies of faith simultaneously all around us?!
Also know that as you sing, you’re welcoming strangers and helping unbelievers. Rousing songs of worship can simultaneously challenge, encourage and inspire the unbeliever. In Psalm 105:1-2, the Lord is calling the Israelites to be a light unto the nations, and to do this He tells them: “Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; tell of all his wondrous works!”
Think of the impact on someone who doesn’t know Christ to hear those hundreds of testimonies, those hundreds of confessions of faith as we sing together! This is why Pastor Tim Keller says: “Good corporate worship will naturally be evangelistic.”
(iv). Singing is a declaration of spiritual warfare.
Praise as a weapon is a theme visible in Scripture. The Psalmist declares:
“Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.” (Psalms 8:2) God will empower even the weakest and most vulnerable who will praise Him.
Again in Colossians chapter 3, Paul challenges the Colossians to literally put sin to death in their lives – to kill sin. He follows that with: “Let the message about the Messiah dwell richly among you, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3.16). And so all the commands to love and peace and forgiveness and teaching and SINGING, are therefore, sound Bible principles that shape the attitudes and habits of the believer that will kill sin!
We see the same thing in Ephesians 5, the command to address one another in song comes right on the heels of “[make] the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16).
And the more you think about this, it makes total sense: What posture must be more hated by the evil one than the posture of a believer who is singing? I can’t think of any stance you can take that identifies you with Christ and against Satan more than the eyes, heart, mind and voice lifted to heaven in song!
It’s very hard to lie, be greedy or to be tempted by something inappropriate when, you’re “singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (Ephesians 5:19). Simply, a heart that’s doing that will not easily give in to temptation.
A singing heart is a heart at war with the work of the evil one and the power of sin.
And this truth is nowhere better illustrated than by the complete absence of song in Islam. Not only absence of it but hostility towards it. Hence why Muslims will scorn and attack Christians for employing “instruments of the devil” to try and portray our worship as satanic! It is no coincidence that Islam’s founder Muhammad hated music and forbade it. Music is haram for Muslims. It is associated with the sins of intoxication and fornication as a snare to be avoided.
We find this Hadith quoted by those who are opposed to music:
Bukhari, Volume 7, Book 69, Number 494v: Narrated Abu ‘Amir or Abu Malik Al-Ash’ari: that he heard the Prophet saying, “From among my followers there will be some people who will consider illegal sexual intercourse, the wearing of silk, the drinking of alcoholic drinks and the use of musical instruments, as lawful. And there will be some people who will stay near the side of a mountain and in the evening their shepherd will come to them with their sheep and ask them for something, but they will say to him, ‘Return to us tomorrow.’ Allah will destroy them during the night and will let the mountain fall on them, and He will transform the rest of them into monkeys and pigs and they will remain so till the Day of Resurrection.”
(v). Singing is spiritually strengthening for trials.
Often times, we think only of singing when we’re happy and times are good, but singing bringing strength for trial comes out in Acts 16. Paul and Silas are unjustly imprisoned for the sake of the Gospel, and what do they do while they’re in prison? They sing! (Acts 16:25)
And this truth is confirmed in the lives of persecuted believers throughout history. Hear the words of one pastor who was imprisoned for his faith:
“…When we were in prison we sang almost every day because Christ was alive in us…they put chains on our hands and feet. They chained us to add to our grief. Yet we discovered that chains are splendid musical instruments! When we clanged them together in rhythm, we could sing, ‘This is the day (clink, clank), this is the day (clink, clank), which the Lord has made (clink, clank), which the Lord has made (clink, clank).”
Our persecuted brethren display the truth we see in Acts 16 with Paul & Silas. Singing strengthens you and helps you persevere in the face of trial. If it can strengthen them in the face of these trials – what can it do for you?
Even in suffering, SING!
(vi). Singing is a God-designed pathway to joy.
Here is a sample of what the Psalms say about singing:
# Psalms 5:11: “Let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.”
# Psalms 9:2: “I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.”
# Psalms 51:14: “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.”
# Psalms 59:16: “I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.”
# Psalms 63:7: “For you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.”
For the doubters, here’s a clincher from James 5:13: “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.”
A study of Scripture reveals that sometimes singing gives birth to joy and sometimes joy gives birth to singing. But persistently in Scripture, joy and singing are bound together. You can’t study one of those two biblical themes without encountering the other.
If you struggle for joy – SING! If you are joyful – SING! In God’s perfect design and in His perfect understanding of the human condition He has bound joy and singing together for His people.
The first 6 reasons get summed up with this:
(vii). Singing is glorifying God.
Truly obedience, deep roots in the Word, building up others, making war against Satan and sin, persevering, finding joy in God – all of these things bring glory to God – each person’s chief goal and chief purpose in life.
Colossians 3 & Ephesians 5 bring this out simply but powerfully telling us to sing “to God” and “to the Lord” because He is the object of our praise. Ephesians 5:19: “singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.” It is to HIM and about HIM that we sing!
Singing has such a unique way of bringing your heart, soul, mind, and strength together to focus entirely and completely on God. In an age of distraction – singing grabs the attention of all our senses and focuses us on God.
In Revelation 7:9-10 we see a glimpse of eternity with a great multitude of people from every tribe, peoples, and languages singing before the Lamb, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
4). CONCLUSIONS
Eternity awaits. The choirs of the heavenly host will tell us when we are home.
Muslims think about how much you are missing. Satan hates the sight and sound of praises to our Lord. Its no coincidence that Islam employs no music or song in worship. Music and song are diametrically opposed to the controlling spirit of Islam. Singing releases the spirit which Muslims suppress or even deny exists. How can you hope to join the chorus of worship in the next life when song is a stranger to you in this?
Will you on that day be one of the great multitude that no one could number, singing the song of the Lamb, singing His praises? I hope you’ll be there, singing the song of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Honouring by lips is zero worship. True worship is from the heart and full of joyful expression. Its essence is a heart that treasures God above all things. What James said bears repeating: “Is any one [among you] cheerful? Let him sing” (James 5:13).
Was Paul wrong to say: “I will sing with my spirit, and I will sing with my mind” (1 Corinthians 14:15). And, again, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16).
Make no mistake we cannot fulfill the command of Jesus to worship “in spirit” unless we give full rein and expression to the joy of knowing Him as our Lord and Saviour. Just as we shall worship Him in heaven so we should be doing here and now on earth.
I wish all my brothers and sisters in Christ a blessed day. May worship songs be in your heart and on your lips. To our Muslim friends I invite you to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). Amen.
Sing now. Sing forever. Singing matters. Let’s sing together.
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Alastair Tucker, Why Muslims Demand A Single Verse For Jesus Deity, Why Muslims Demand A Single Verse For Jesus Deity

Why Muslims Demand A Single Verse For Jesus Deity

WHY MUSLIMS DEMAND A SINGLE VERSE FOR JESUS DEITY
On another thread Firash Hameed keeps demanding a statement for — and keeps claiming that in the absence of — a single verse where Jesus claimed to be God this proves He isn’t and so Christians are wrong to worship Him as such.
He isn’t the first Muslim to do so and he won’t be the last. Indeed they are doing this on a daily basis.
I think it’s worth sharing my reply to him (for which I’ve not yet seen any further response).
“But to put to bed his red herring diversion, in a sense Firash Hameed you are right there is no single verse where Jesus said “I am God” and for very good reasons.
The Pharisees tried to trap Jesus with the very same challenge:
“When daylight came, the elders of the people, both the chief priests and the scribes, convened and brought Him before their Sanhedrin. They said, “If You are the Messiah, tell us.” But He said to them, “If I do tell you, you will not believe. And if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the Power of God.” They all asked, “Are You, then, the Son of God? ” And He said to them, “You say that I am.” “Why do we need any more testimony,” they said, “since we’ve heard it ourselves from His mouth?” (Luke 22:66‭-‬71 HCSB)
Here is your answer Firash, “If I do tell you, you will not believe”. In other words even if there was a single verse.which proved the.point, given the weight of testimony He already gave which leaves you as it did the Pharisees unmoved and cynically unbelieving, one more verse is not going to make any difference!
Or what about this?
“Then the Jews surrounded Him and asked, “How long are You going to keep us in suspense? If You are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” “I DID TELL YOU AND YOU DON’T BELIEVE,” Jesus answered them. “THE WORKS THAT I DO IN MY FATHER’S NAME TESTIFY ABOUT ME. BUT YOU DON’T BELIEVE BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT MY SHEEP. My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish — ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” (John 10:24‭-‬30 HCSB)
Read about yourself again here too and think about what Jesus just said. “I DID TELL YOU AND YOU DON’T BELIEVE”.
Exactly what I and all my Christian colleagues here are doing continuously — we have told you, shown you all the cumulative evidence for Jesus’s self identity and yet you demand a single verse! What arrogance!
Now notice how they react …
“Again the Jews picked up rocks to stone Him. Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. Which of these works are you stoning Me for? ” “We aren’t stoning You for a good work,” the Jews answered, “BUT FOR BLASPHEMY, BECAUSE YOU — being a man — MAKE YOURSELF GOD.” (John 10:31-‬33 HCSB)
Aha! Now we are getting close this is the point where you and the Jews part company! They weren’t afraid to acknowledge that Jesus was doing good works — what they were afraid of was His claiming to be God in so doing. They were actually at least that much more honest because they saw the evidence and heard His teaching and forgiving sins — a prerogative of God alone — they just weren’t prepared to believe Him. (Though in reality many Jews did and not only His disciples). Its Muslims who can’t even admit that Jesus was making Himself equal to God. Yours is the far greater sin because we have the 20:20 vision of hindsight which those Pharisees did not — for at these moments Jesus had not yet vindicated all the claims He made for Himself by His resurrection. His three dozen explicit and implicit predictions of it had not yet been fulfilled.
You are without excuse of any sort. They were expecting a Messiah, Jesus didnt match their expectations of one for reasons I can explain another time.
You on the other hand are in complete denial. Denial of Jesus as God and in denial that He ever claimed to be. The JEWS TESTIFY AGAINST YOU EVEN BEFORE WE GET TO WHAT JESUS DID.
Lastly, there are very good reasons why Jesus would not and did not make an outright statement such as “I am God” or “worship Me” and for any critically thinking person it’s very obvious.
I am not rehearsing the reasons for that here because they are fully covered in this post. Go and read it if you are seriously searching and want convincing but as with your kind the Pharisees you aren’t because you — like they — have too much too lose by admitting the truth.
□ THE DEITY OF CHRIST PART 1 — WHY JESUS NEVER SAID “I AM GOD” 3 July 2023
m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1240552380157775&id=100026090748056&mibextid=Nif5oz”
Let’s see how the Muslims are going to respond and what diversions are coming next … 🙄
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Alastair Tucker, Prayer Posture Is Irrelevant — Its The Position Of Our Hearts In Relation To God That Counts

Prayer Posture Is Irrelevant — Its The Position Of Our Hearts In Relation To God That Counts With Him

PRAYER POSTURE IS IRRELEVANT — ITS THE POSITION OF OUR HEARTS IN RELATION TO GOD THAT COUNTS WITH HIM
Muslims get obsessed about prayer posture and prostration. But in the greatest prayer in all Scripture — that of Jesus high priestly prayer to the Father on the night of His arrest in the setting of the Last Supper ¹ this is how Jesus began:
“Jesus spoke these words, LIFTED UP HIS EYES TO HEAVEN, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You” (John 17:1 NKJV)
This is how one commentary describes it:
“Jesus lifted up His eyes when He prayed. This is a posture that we don’t usually associate with deep prayer. We tend to bow our head and close our eyes. This shows us that we should never confuse the non-essential customs of prayer with the essential aspects of prayer.” (Guzik)
Moreover, while Jesus prayed this prayer in the company of His disciples, He urges us to make our prayers a private matter between ourselves and God in a quiet one to one setting. Note His advice on prayer and how to pray and how not to pray:
“Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. I assure you: They’ve got their reward! But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:5‭-‬6 HCSB)
Notice Jesus gives no advice on what posture to assume. Having shut the door the rest is between us and God. But on what to pray, we do not need vain repetition:
“When you pray, don’t babble like the idolaters, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words.” (Matthew 6:7 HCSB)
God already knows our needs before we ask Him, it’s our readiness to come before Him and lay our burdens before Him that matters to God:
“… Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him.” (Matthew 6:7‭-‬8 HCSB)
While Jesus had in mind the Pharisees in Matthew 6:5 His words apply just as much to Muhammadians who are their latter-day counterpart.²
Muslims love to be seen and heard entering mosques to prayers. The Adhan (Azan) call to prayers let’s everyone know within miles of every mosque and its an imposition and intrusion on the peace of non Muslims. And prayers are often conducted in public spaces on roads and walkways as a show of piety.
Footnotes:
¹ We have to go all the way back to John 13 for the setting. John 17 is the culmination of a continuous sequential narrative which covers a lot of ground with the Last Supper the centrepiece. Unlike the prayers later in Gethsemane where Jesus prayed alone, here Jesus speaks for His disciples to hear Him.
² See Post:
□ WHY THE PHARISEES WERE THE PROTO-ISLAMISTS OF JESUS DAY 15 June 2023
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No Salvation in Islam

No Salvation in Islam

NO BLOOD ATONEMENT OR COVENANTS IN ISLAM, MEANS NO SALVATION
1). INTRODUCTION
A Muslim on another thread asked "what does Christianity offer that Islam doesn't have?"
I replied:
"We have assurance of salvation. There is no atonement in Islam. No atonement means no salvation. The New Covenant age of grace was sealed in Jesus blood. It supercedes all that came before it. Muslims haven't a clue what it signifies and Islam has nothing like it.
To personalise it we have Jesus and Islam doesn't. Unless you believe on His name you are dead in your sins.
We have the truth. And truth is personified in Jesus and enshrined in God's word. Anything else is a lie. Including anyone preaching "another Jesus" such as found in gnosticism and Islam.
We have the cross of redemption. Islam doesn't. Without the Cross there is only condemnation.
There is an empty grave that holds no body, for behold He is risen and is alive and seated at the right hand of the Father and He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Any other religion including Islam has only graves of the dead holding corrupted flesh turned to dust.
A Christian worships the living God. Islam worships the dead which is idolatry. Necromancy is anathema to God.
Jesus always wins. He is the truth. And truth can never be overcome or defeated least of all by Islam's sword of tyranny.
Thats just for starters off the top of my head. Is it enough for you?"
I am not aware that he replied.
Let's examine two related aspects of what makes Christianity uniquely the path to life in more detail, - blood atonement and blood covenants.
2). BLOOD ATONEMENT
The very words are enough to make demons shudder. As the meme below is captioned "in the Bible you cannot escape it. But in the Quran you cannot find it, which is a fatal omission for all Muslims."
That's not to say the Quran makes no mention of slaughter, far from it. It wallows in shedding blood with all its gory references to cutting off heads, amputating hands and feet. It entreats every Muslim to fight and glorifies war; it has to be the most bloodthirsty compilation of exhortations to violence ever produced in the name of religion. Make no mistake the demon god of Islam is magnified and appeased by shedding other people's blood in his cause.
Surah 8:67: “It is not for any Prophet to have captives until he hath made slaughter in the land.” (Pickthall)
Ibn Ishaq, who was one of the earliest biographers of Muhammad, clarified the meaning behind the chilling words of Allah in the above Quran verse. Ibn Ishaq: 327:
"Allah said, “A prophet must slaughter before collecting captives. A slaughtered enemy is driven from the land. Muhammad, you craved the desires of this world, its goods and the ransom captives would bring. But Allah desires killing them to manifest the religion.”
“Allah desires killing to manifest the religion.” sums up what Islam is about.
Which makes the Quran's omission of blood atonement even more striking. It bears repeating: forgiveness is based upon atonement and there is no atonement in Islam.
If the Bible teaches us anything its that forgiveness is based upon atonement. The Bible’s central theme is Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for the redemption of mankind. The blood of Christ runs throughout the entire Bible, symbolically. It is seen in the animals killed in Eden to provide garments for Adam and Eve, the ram that took Isaac’s place on the altar of Moriah, the Passover lamb, the institution of the sacrificial system, the scarlet cord of Rahab, and the thousands of years of sacrifices performed at the tabernacle and temple. The scarlet thread runs all the way up to John the Baptist’s declaration, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) and to the foot of the cross, where Jesus finally says, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
“Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22), and that’s why its impossible to overstate the significance or the symbolism of the scarlet thread in the Bible.
For more on the doctrine of atonement see these posts:
□ THE DOCTRINE OF SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT 12 December 2021
m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=313632027433140&id=100063590342443
□ THE BLOTTING OUT OF SINS 25 July 2021
www.facebook.com/100063590342443/posts/213656150764062/
3). NO ATONEMENT IN ISLAM
What about Islam? Well its no surprise to discover there is no atonement in Islam. As Craig Winn puts it:
"Just as the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls disprove Allah’s assertion that the Jews corrupted their scriptures, the clay tablets of Ur, Babylon, and Nineveh prove that Muhammad lied when he tried to reshape Abraham into a compatriot of Nimrod. And this lie is not without consequence. If Abraham was not as Allah claims, the Quran disintegrates. Abraham is the lone, thin string that connects Islam to the Bible. And without the Bible, all that is rational and religious in the Quran evaporates, and Islam with it.Abraham’s story is repeated thirty times in the Quran in fifteen different surahs.
And yet the purpose of sacrificing his son is left unexplained. Tabari II:84 “When Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac, Satan said, ‘By Allah, if I cannot deceive the people with this, I shall never be able to do it.’” Satan not only swears by Allah, he says that the bogus connection between Abraham and Islam is his best way to fool mankind. He was right! It’s also interesting that the deception would be over sacrifice. Judaism, Christianity, and all rational civilizations use sacrifice as the means to promote justice and maintain spiritual or societal order. Commit a crime and you will be required to sacrifice your money, your freedom, or your life. If crime is without cost, anarchy reigns.
In Judaism, the sacrificial rite for the forgiveness of sin was rich in symbolism. It was based upon the “Mercy Seat” of the Arc of the Covenant. And it was connected prophetically to the blood of an unblemished lamb or dove. It’s all explained in the Torah. In Christianity, Christ became the perfect lamb and sacrificed himself on our behalf. But in Islam, there is no sacrifice. While the Sunnah perpetuates Qusayy ‘s senseless slaughter, it’s for appeasement, not atonement. There is no symbolism, no prophetic implication, no retribution, no justice and no moral reason, as forgiveness is capricious in Islam. And that’s why totalitarian governments use draconian measures to maintain order. Muhammad was an amoral thief empowered by situational scriptures, so he failed to appreciate the necessity of sacrifice and he never understood the Biblical concept of sacrificial atonement. It’s why the “ransom of great sacrifice” mentioned in the Quran is left unexplained." (Craig Winn- Prophet of Doom)
And this lack of explanation or provision for atonement is paralleled by the Quran's omission of blood covenants. Covenants in the Quran are only taken by Allah and they are not sealed in blood.
4). BLOOD COVENANTS
As another meme below comments "Muslims can't recognise the New Covenant until and unless they accept the crucifixion."
The New Covenant as with those made by God before it, was sealed in blood. In this case the precious blood of the Messiah "the Lamb of God" already noted.
When God called Abraham out of his hometown and away from all things familiar, He gave Abraham some promises. A covenant is a kind of promise, a contract, a binding agreement between two parties. Genesis 15 reiterates the covenant God had made with Abraham at his calling. Except this time, God graciously reassures His promise with a visual of His presence. He asks Abraham to find and kill a heifer, a ram, a goat, a dove, and a pigeon. Then, Abraham was to cut them in half (except the birds) and lay the pieces in two rows, leaving a path through the centre (Genesis 15:9-10).
In ancient Near Eastern royal land grant treaties, this type of ritual was done to “seal” the promises made. Through this blood covenant, God was confirming primarily three promises He had made to Abraham:
(i) The promise of heirs, (ii) The promise of land, and (iii) The promise of blessings (Genesis 12:2-3).
A blood covenant communicated a self-maledictory oath. The parties involved would walk the path between the slaughtered animals so to say, “May this be done to me if I do not keep my oath” (See Jeremiah 34:18-19).
However, there was an important difference in the blood oath that God made with Abraham in Genesis 15. When the evening came, God appeared in the form of a “smoking fire pot and flaming torch [that] passed between the pieces” (Genesis 15:17). But Abraham had fallen “into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him” (verse 12). Thus, God alone passed through the pieces of dead animals, and the covenant was sealed by God alone.
In the end, nothing depended on Abraham. Everything depended on God, who promised to be faithful to His covenant. “When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself” (Hebrews 6:13-18). Abraham and his descendants could trust, count on, and believe in everything God promised. And this is how we know to this day the Bible and only the Bible can be trusted. It has God's covenant promises which cannot be broken never have and never will be broken
This specific blood covenant in Genesis is known as the Abrahamic Covenant. The blood involved in this covenant, as with any blood covenant, signifies the life from which the blood comes (Leviticus 17:11).
The Mosaic Covenant was also a blood covenant: "Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you concerning all these words.” (Exodus 24:8)
It required blood to be sprinkled on the tabernacle, “the scroll and all the people” (Hebrews 9:19-21). “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). In the Mosaic Covenant, the blood of animals served as a covering, or atonement, for the sins of the people. The animal’s life was given in place of the sinner’s life. In the Abrahamic Covenant, God, in essence, was declaring He would give His life if His promises were broken. There could be no greater encouragement to believers, since God is eternal and can no more break an oath than He can die.
5). WHY A BETTER COVENANT WAS NEEDED
In the Old Testament, God had in His great forbearance "passed over sins" (as in the Passover), just as He had previously overlooked ignorance. But under the New Covanant, sin would be dealt with once and for all. Note how God changed His commands accordingly:
“Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30).
"[Jesus] whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins" (Romans 3:25).
Because Israel’s sins were merely “passed over,” Jesus’ atonement had to work retroactively to cleanse the sins of the OT saints:
"For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant" (Hebrews 9:13-15).
It is only through Christ that our sins are cleansed and purified so that we can confidently enter into the presence of God (Hebrews 10:19-22). By contrast, OT forgiveness was only a matter of God passing over sins, not purifying them:
"Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered" (Psalm 32:1).
"Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance?" (Micah 7:18).
The OT saints would only experience a “passing over transgression,” but they were also promised a New Covenant through which God would “remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31:34).
All of these things were only “copies,” or “shadows,” of the better covenant to come (Hebrews 9:23). The lives of animals could never remove sin; the life of an animal is not a sufficient substitute for a human life (Hebrews 10:4). The blood of bulls and goats was a temporary appeasement until the final, ultimate blood covenant was made by Jesus Christ Himself – the God Man (Hebrews 9:24-28). The New Covenant was in His blood (Luke 22:20).
The Old Testament shadows and antitypes became realities in Christ, who fulfilled all of the Old Testament blood covenants with His own blood. Christians can uniquely be confident that the gift of eternal life that God gives through Jesus is the true promise to people of faith. As the apostle Paul explains, the covenant was established with Abraham and his “Seed”—singular. Paul interprets this as the singular person of Christ (Galatians 3:15-16). Therefore, all who are “in Christ” are spiritual heirs of the promises made to Abraham (Galatians 3:29).
How do we know we can trust Christ's promises? Because He sealed them in His blood. To put it simply, a blood covenant is a promise made by God that He will choose a people for Himself and bless them. The covenant was originally for Abraham’s physical descendants but was later extended, spiritually, to all those who, like Abraham, believe God (Galatians 3:7; cf. Genesis 15:6). God’s promise of eternal blessing is given only on the basis of faith in the saving blood of His Son, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:12).
For more on how Covenants prove the Bible as God's word and expose the Quran which is not, see this post:
□ DIVINE COVENANTS PROVE THE BIBLE AND EXPOSE THE QURAN 27 Aug 2021
www.facebook.com/100063590342443/posts/237362678393409/
6). CONCLUSIONS
So when a Muslim asks what Christainity offers that Islam doesn't have, basically it's everything that God ever provided for our needs to overcome our inherited sinful nature, which we are incapable of doing for ourselves.
God first shed the blood of animals to provide a better covering for Adam and Eve's nakedness (Genesis 3:7 & 3:21).
God performed the rites of the Abrahamic Covenant while Abraham was in "a deep sleep" (Genesis 15:12).
And when it came to the New Covenant, Jesus freely and unconditionally shed His blood upon the cross that once and for all freed us from the penalty and the curse of sin. He didn't even wait for us to admit our need for His forgiveness:
"But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!" Romans 5:8).
But while Jesus sacrifice is all sufficient, it has to be accepted, He has to be allowed to cleanse justify and transform us.
This is the bottom line: The Cross removes the curse of sin and death that has reigned since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden. What it doesn’t do is remove the penalty of sin which is death to those who reject the crucifixion and resurrection. If you reject Christ, you will die in your sins. And Islam can NEVER substitute this cold fact of reality.
Make no mistake: Islam guarantees hell to its followers. Only Jesus can guarantee eternal life