All posts by Alastair Tucker

Muslim and Pharisee Similarities

Muslim and Pharisee Similarities

WHY THE PHARISEES WERE THE PROTO-ISLAMISTS OF JESUS DAY
1). INTRODUCTION
To begin we need an understanding of who Jesus is, according to the Gospel.
An ideal starting point for this Post is this verse from John’s gospel, one of the most profound yet understated declarations of Jesus deity:
“No one has ever seen God. The One and Only Son — the One who is at the Father’s side [KJV “who is in the bosom of the Father”] — He has revealed Him” (John 1:18 HCSB).
To grasp something of its meaning, note what some commentaries say:
“No human eyes have seen Him; but Christ had a knowledge of God which might be expressed to our apprehension by saying that He saw Him. He knew Him intimately and completely, and was therefore fitted to make a fuller manifestation of Him. (See John 5:37; John 6:46; 1 John 4:12; Exodus 33:20; John 14:9). This passage is not meant to deny that men had witnessed “manifestations” of God, as when He appeared to Abraham in Genesis 18, or Moses and the prophets (compare Numbers 12:8; Isaiah 6:1-13); but it is meant that no one has seen the essence of God, or has “fully known God.” The prophets delivered what they “heard” God speak; Jesus what he knew of God as his equal, and as understanding fully nature.
“The only-begotten Son: – See the notes at John 1:14 which states:
[Only-begotten “monogenēs” Strongs G3441 and G1096; only born that is sole: – only (begotten child). This term is never applied by John to any but Jesus Christ. It is applied by him five times to the Saviour, John 1:14, John 1:18; John 3:16, John 3:18; 1 John 4:9. It means literally an only child. Then, as an only child is especially dear to a parent, it means one that is especially beloved. Compare Genesis 22:2, Genesis 22:12, Genesis 22:16; Jeremiah 6:26; Zechariah 12:10. On both these accounts it is bestowed on the Savior.
i). As He was eminently the Son of God, sustaining a special relation to Him in His divine nature, exalted above all human beings and angels, and thus worthy to be called, by way of eminence, His only Son. Saints are called His “sons” or children, because they are born of His Spirit, or are like Him; but the Lord Jesus is exalted far above all, and deserves eminently to be called His only-begotten Son.
ii). He was especially dear to God, and therefore this appellation, implying tender affection, is bestowed upon him].
Verse 18 shows John’s sense of the meaning of that phrase, as denoting an intimate and full knowledge of God.
“In the bosom of the Father” – This expression is taken from the custom among the Orientals of reclining at their meals. See the notes at Matthew 23:6. It denotes intimacy, friendship, affection. Here it means that Jesus had a knowledge of God such as one friend has of another – knowledge of his character, designs, and nature which no other one possesses, and which renders him, therefore, qualified above all others to make him known.
“Hath declared him: – Hath fully revealed him or made him known. Compare Hebrews 1:1, Hebrews 1:4. This verse proves that Jesus had a knowledge of God above that which any of the ancient prophets had, and that the fullest revelations of his character are to be expected in the gospel. By his Word and Spirit he can enlighten and guide us, and lead us to the true knowledge of God; and there is no true and full knowledge of God which is not obtained through his Son. Compare John 14:6; 1 John 2:22-23. (Barnes Notes)
“which is in the bosom of the Father”, denotes unity of nature, and essence, in the Father and Son; their distinct personality; strong love, and affection between them; the Son’s acquaintance with his Father’s secrets; his being at that time, as the Son of God, in the bosom of his Father, when here on earth, as the son of man; and which qualified Him to make the declaration of Him:
“he hath declared him” He has clearly and fully declared His nature, perfections, purposes, promises, counsels, covenant, word, and works; His thoughts and schemes of grace; His love and favour to the sons of men; His mind and will concerning the salvation of His people: He has made, and delivered a fuller revelation of these things, than ever was yet; and to which no other revelation in the present state of things will be added. Somewhat like this the Jews ¹ say of the Messiah,
“there is none that can declare the name of His Father, and that knows Him; but this is hid from the eyes of the multitude, until He comes, “and He shall declare him” (Gill’s Exposition).
From this single verse of Scripture we can understand that Jesus, as He is revealed in the Bible, is the fullest, clearest, most enlightened, truest, and expressive picture we have of God. The post continues on the basis of this premise.
2). THE MUSLIM – CHRISTIAN DEBATE
When a Muslim and a Christian, who have been discussing whether they are worshiping the same God, look at God as represented by Jesus, He Jesus settles the matter in short order: “No,” says the Muslim, “that’s not who I am talking about.”
But that is who the Christian is talking about. As we’ve seen, John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known.” Jesus makes known the invisible God for us to see. In John 14:8, Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” To this Jesus responded, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’” And Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:6, “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
In other words, Jesus is the touchstone that settles the issue of who is worshipping the true God and who is not. (See also Luke 20:17-18). If a worshipper of God does not see in Jesus Christ the person of his or her God, he does not worship God. This is the resounding testimony of Jesus and the apostles as we see in the following texts.
▪︎ Mark 9:37, “Whoever receives Me, receives not Me but him who sent Me.” (See also Matthew 10: 40; Luke 9:48; John 13:20).

▪︎John 5:23, “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”
▪︎ 1 John 2:23, “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.”
▪︎ Luke 12:9, “The one who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.”
▪︎ John 12:44-46, “The one who believes in Me believes not in Me, but in Him who sent Me. [45] And the one who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.”
▪︎ John 15:23, “Whoever hates Me hates My Father also.”
▪︎ 2 John 1:9, “Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”
No Muslim will accept any of the above testimony. Given the gulf between the Bible and Quran it’s a very short debate. We do not worship the same God.
Now let’s turn the clock back 2000 years to when Jesus was on earth.
2). THE PHARISEE – JESUS FOLLOWER DEBATE
If we take this question back two thousand years and turn a Muslim-Christian question into a Pharisee-Jesus-follower question, the exact same thing emerges. Were the Pharisees worshipping the same God that the followers of Jesus were worshipping? That’s not to imply that every Pharisee was the same. For example, Nicodemus (John 3:1ff.) did not seem to be of the same spirit with most (though even he found the new birth incomprehensible at first). In asking this question, we are simply referring to the Pharisee sect in general as Jesus saw them and addressed collectively. Did these Pharisees worship the same God as the followers of Jesus?
This question is even more striking than the Muslim-Christian question, because Pharisees and followers of Jesus had the same Holy Book, the Tanach — the Old Testament. That means that they used the same name for God – Hashem or Yahweh and told the same stories about God and followed the same rituals in relating to God. Why would the question even come up about whether the Pharisees and the followers of Jesus worshipped the same God?
The answer is simple: Because Jesus brought it up.
When Jesus addressed the Jewish leaders of his day (Pharisees, lawyers, elders, Sadducees, chief priests), his resounding conclusion was they do not even know God. And, not knowing God, their lived-out religion (the kind Jesus is concerned with) is not “out of gratitude,” nor is it a “proper response to grace.”
Take this withering condemnation Jesus gives of them in John 8:
“I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill Me because My word is not welcome among you. [38] I SPEAK WHAT I HAVE SEEN IN THE PRESENCE OF THE FATHER; therefore, you do what you have heard from your father.” [39] “Our father is Abraham! ” they replied. “If you were Abraham’s children,” Jesus told them, “you would do what Abraham did. [40] But now you are trying to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this! [41] You’re doing what your father does.” “We weren’t born of sexual immorality,” they said. “We have one Father — God.” [42] Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, because I came from God and I am here. For I didn’t come on My own, but He sent Me. [43] Why don’t you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to My word. [44] YOU ARE OF YOUR FATHER THE DEVIL, AND YOU WANT TO CARRY OUT YOUR FATHER’S DESIRES. He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of liars. [46] Who among you can convict Me of sin? If I tell the truth, why don’t you believe Me? [47] THE ONE WHO IS FROM GOD LISTENS TO GOD’S WORDS. THIS IS WHY YOU DON’T LISTEN, BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT FROM GOD” (John 8:37‭-‬44‭, ‬46‭-‬47 HCSB)
When Jesus asked the Jewish leaders in verse 46, “If I tell the truth, why don’t believe me?” His answer was, “The one who is from God listens to God’s words. This is why you don’t listen, because you are not from God” (or as the NKJV puts it: “He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God” (John 8:47)
This is the claim of Jesus to be the picture of God. “I am from God and I am speaking the words of God. You are not seeing or hearing God, therefore you are not of God.” Indeed Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, because I came from God and I am here. For I didn’t come on My own, but He sent Me” (John 8:42).
That is, they do not have God as their Father, but rather the devil. Jesus said, “If God were your Father, you would love me . . . . You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires” (John 8:42-44). This is the root reason why the Jewish leaders do not come to Christ. Their will is governed not by gratitude to God, giving a “proper response to grace,” but by their father’s will, and it is not the love of God. “You refuse to come to me that you may have life. . . . I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me” (John 5:40-43).
They simply do not know the true God: “You have not known him” (John 8:55).
Jesus is the picture of God that the Pharisees did not recognize. The reason they didn’t is because they wanted a Messiah who would confirm their love of the praise of men for their own achievements (John 5:43-44) and reward their self righteousness. The reasons why they didn’t recognise Jesus had nothing to do with His not claiming and proving Himself, (they regarded who He was claiming equality with as blasphemy), and all to do with their inbuilt pride and preconceptions.
For more on why the Jews for the most part failed to recognise Jesus, see this Post:
□ WHY THE JEWS EXPECTED A DIFFERENT MESSIAH
4 November 2021
m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=286549766808033&id=100063590342443
The follower of this self-exalting religion, just as with Islam, may sincerely be thankful to God for some of his or her outward moral purity – “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers” (Luke 18:11). But his or her confidence before God is what he or she is (regardless of who made them that way). Whether one should call this religion a “self-help moralism” is an open question. But that it is a religion that trusts in its own morality and exalts self is clear. What Jesus thought of it is also clear:
▪︎ They accused Jesus of being demonic (Matthew 12:24).
▪︎ They do not know how to understand the law (Matthew 12:2-7).
▪︎ They sought to destroy Jesus (Matthew 12:14).
▪︎ They are “an evil and adulterous generation” (Matthew 16:4).
▪︎ They break the commandments with their traditions (Matthew 15:6).
▪︎ They worship vainly and their heart is far from God (Matthew 15:8-9).
▪︎ They are not planted by the Father (Matthew 15:12).
▪︎ Their teaching is leaven to be avoided (Matthew 16:12).
▪︎ They do not bear the fruit of the kingdom and will lose it (Matthew 21:43-45).
▪︎ They are children of hell (Matthew 23:15, 33).
▪︎ They neglect the weightier matters of the law (Matthew 23:23).
▪︎ They are full of greed and self-indulgence (Matthew 23:25, 27).
▪︎ Outwardly they appear righteous, but are lawless within (Matthew 23:28).
▪︎ They were lovers of money (Luke 16:14).
3). PARALLELS BETWEEN PHARISEES AND MUSLIMS
The Pharisees and Sadducees never believed Jesus Christ to be God Almighty, they believed that Jesus Christ was a mere man. They even accused Him of having a demon to be able to perform His exorcisms (Mark 3:22).
Likewise Muslims allege the Trinity is a Satanic concept and they reject Jesus as anything more than a prophet.
Pharisees were always looking for an opportunity to trap Jesus, just as Muslims try to with His followers.
Pharisees like Muslims today were always seeking a sign from Jesus even when He had just healed a blind and mute demoniac (Matthew 12:38) and again when they asked for a sign from heaven (Matthew 16:1). Instructive to all Christian apologists Jesus refused and referred them to the prophetic sign of Jonah.
□ Both Sects use deception
The Pharisees sent spies, pretending to be righteous, just as we find Muslims pretending to be Christian in order to attack us:
“So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on His words, in order to deliver Him to the power and the authority of the governor” (Luke 20:20).
□ Both sects demand a sign
The Pharisees wanted a simple statement from Jesus that he was the Messiah, (John 10:24), just as Muslims demand a statement from Him saying “I am God worship Me”.
Jesus reply is as good for both sects, neither will accept the evidence of His signs, because neither are “His sheep”.
“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.” [25] “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. [26] But you don’t believe because you are not My sheep” (John 10:24‭-‬26)
□ Both sects have an identity crisis about Jesus.
Because they cannot accept His true identity, MusIims like the Pharisees have an identity crisis about who He is. In both cases resulting in antagonistic view of Him. One key difference though, while the Jews recognised that Jesus was making Himself equal with God, Muslims cannot even recognise that much, or rather they dare not admit it. This schizophrenic ambivalence of Muslims towards Jesus is even carried into the Quran. Surah 4:171 bestows the divine titles of The Word (Kalimatullah) and Spirit (Ruhullah) of Allah upon Isa, and yet contradicts itself elsewhere by limiting him to mere servant and messenger (Surah 5:75; 43:59).
□ Pride a stumbling block for both sects.
Pharisees pride was a stumbling block to them just is it for Muslims. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were experts in two things. They were diligent in following the traditions and customs and rules that they had added to the Word of God, especially in public. (Following the things the Bible actually said was somewhat optional.) And they were diligent in judging and condemning all those who did not measure up to their regulations. They exercised judgment by fear and guilt. Islam does the same.
The irony is that though they had memorized the first five books of the Bible and at least outwardly tried to present themselves as complying with all that God had commanded, they completely missed the point. Just as Muslims boasting of memorising the Quran misses the point.
The root of their problem, as we so often find in our day, was in their pride. They were relying on their own efforts and righteousness to gain acceptance from God without realizing how far short of His perfection they fell.
□ Both sects display and seek God’s approval by self righteousness
Jesus condemned Pharisees for their overt self righteous displays,
“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!” (Matthew 6:5)
Likewise 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 demonstration.
□ In both cases this is antithetical to Jesus teaching on prayer:
“And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. [6] But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. [7] And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matthew 6:5‭-‬7)
□ Both sects adopt iconic dress.
Pharisees adopted iconic dress styles to make themselves look distinguished as Jesus observed:
“They do everything to be observed by others: They enlarge their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels” (Matthew 23:5)
Muslims dress code adopts similar iconic marks of recognition, a beard for men a hijab for women, it gets them noticed. These are marks of superiority.
Muslims like the Pharisees, believe that if you do certain things, you become righteous (like praying facing east growing a beard, covering your face etc). This righteousness by works cannot save you, it only helps to cover up the unrighteousness in your heart.
One of the more egregious examples of frankly superstitious rituals adopted by Islam is that of “Durood Shareef” the incantation of PBUH. See Footnote ¹ for why they do it.
□ Both sects display hypocrisy
Jesus exposed the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in Matthew 23:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. [28] Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23:27‭-‬28)
Paul also called out the hypocrisy:
The Jews of Romans 2:17-24 claimed to be successful moralists. They taught morality, but did not teach themselves (verse 21). They preached against stealing, but engaged in stealing (verse 21). They opposed adultery, but committed adultery (verse 22). They denounced idolatry, but committed idolatry (verse 22). They boasted in the law, but dishonored the law (verse 23). And in all this, they caused the Gentiles to blaspheme God (verse 24).
We can observe similar hypocrisy in Islam. Whether its accusing the Bible of corruption yet appealing to to it to validate their prophet and Islamic violence, or mocking the west (synonymous with Christianity) for licentious llifestyles eg gambling wine and women, to say such things do not occur in Muslim States would be far from reality. Saudi Arabia for instance has a culture of gambling. They enjoy so much pleasure, gambling abroad and more recently at home. While gambling for money is strictly forbidden in this conservative kingdom, and officially has no casinos, equestrian and gaming centers activities such as ‘belote’ (a trick-taking card game) are massively popular in Saudi Arabia. Horse racing is a massively popular sport attracting huge gambling interest. People play belote with friends, with their families, in cafés and online. And although gambling for prize money is forbidden, casino hotels have rapidly developed and significant prize money is at stake. Expedia claims there are in excess of 2400 such establishments! Check out some here: www.expedia.co.in/Destinations-In-Saudi-Arabia-Casino-Hotel.0-0-d157-tCasinoHotel.Hotel-Filter-Destinations
Isaiah 47:10 – “For you have trusted in your wickedness; You have said, ‘No one sees me’; Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; And you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’”
Yes, Saudis commit sins and live in pleasures and lusts, yet they think that since it is all hidden and forbidden, that somehow it’s OK. But God sees them. Their cities are sinning in “secret”. This is just one example of many of the hypocrisy of Islam.
4). ISLAM ON JESUS TODAY
Just as the Pharisees sought to have Jesus killed, there is only one major religion today who would drive stakes into Jesus’ hands and feet and crucify Jesus.
If the Jesus of the Bible were alive today in a Muslim country with his message that He is the Christ the Son of the Living God He would be killed for blasphemy just as the Jews did.
Muslims according to the Quran would crucify Jesus today as a blasphemer.
They hate Jesus and mock him calling His words a lie and a blasphemy and claiming His word to be corrupted.
This “religion of peace” does this to Jesus’ followers today when they repeat Jesus’ words. They hate Jesus’ words and when His followers repeat them they throw them in prison, torture them, kill them.
Their unholy book even specifies crucifixion for repeating Jesus’ words, which contradict the words of their prophet, teaching truth and love instead of lies and hate – thus spreading mischief in the land (i.e. showing their prophet was wrong).
John 3: 13-21
[13] And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. …
[14] And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
[15] That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
[16] For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
[17] For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
[18] He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
[19] And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
[20] For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
[21] But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
5). CONCLUSIONS
This is the Jesus Muslims can’t believe in, the Son of God whom you mock and call a liar. Just as the Pharisees did before you.
The upshot of all this, and the lesson we must take from history repeating itself with Islam’s adoption of Pharisaic principles is simply this. We should always reach for the New Testament Gospel accounts to see the picture of Jesus. And they are also a true reflection of how the Spirit of opposition, the source for which is Satan, produces the same antichrist mentality in both Pharisees and Muslims.
The Gospel is the only guidance we need. It settles the matter. No other source provides a comprehensive guide to how we should and should not behave. And when we read the Gospel accounts ask the Holy Spirit to convict us of any Pharisaic spirit in us (yes we are all at risk of falling into this trap), He will make clear that Muslims and Christians are not worshipping the same God, just as Pharisees and followers of Jesus of His day were not worshipping the same God.
One thing is for sure, and this is the bottom line, we should be imitators of Christ and not the Pharisees. Christ is our only role model for life as well as our only strength and source of salvation which can secure eternal life. Amen.
Footnote
¹ PBUH as in its written short form or the full “Peace Be Upon Him” when spoken, is primarily said in connection with the prophet’s name.
Why do Muslims do it? Well check out a few Muslim blogs and you can find listed a whole range of reasons why it’s essential.
Here we have what seems to be a comprehensive list of 40 reasons. Really worth reading them all to the end. It’s quite entertaining …
1. For every Durood Shareef that you recite, ten sins are forgiven, ten good deeds are entered into your sheet of actions and ten positions are upgraded.

2. Allah showers ten blessings on the man who recites a Durood.
3. The first man who will meet Muhammed on the Day of Judgement will be that person who had recited the Durood maximum number of times in his lifetime.

4. Those who recite Durood in maximum number will be nearest and dearest to Muhammad in the next world.

5. If any one is involved in a difficulty then he must recite countless number of Durood Shareefs.

6. Reciting Durood Shareef eradicates poverty and hunger.
7. If the Sawaab (meaning: benefit also spelt as Thawaab) of the Durood Shareef is dedicated to another person, then that person will receive the Sawaab, while the Sawaab of the reciter will not be lessened.

8. Reciting excessive Durood Shareef brings purity.
9. Reciting maximum number of Durood Shareef is full compensation of all sins.
10. Any one who recites excessive Durood Shareef in this world will be safe and sound in the next world.

11. When a prayer is made to Allah it is never accepted unless praise of Allah Ta’ala and Durood Shareef on Muhammad is first of all recited.

12. Those who recite Durood quite often will see Divine Light on the dark Day of Judgement.
13. Three persons will be under the cool shade and the favours of Allah Ta’ala on the Doom’s Day. One who kept Muhammad’s Sunnah alive, one who removed difficulty of a fellow being and one who recited maximum number of Durood Shareef in his lifetime.

14. When you forget anything and your memory fails to recollect it, then recite Durood, you will remember the forgotten thing.

15. Reciting Durood in this world is rewarding in the next.
16. The reciter of 10 Duroods in the morning and 10 in the evening will receive the help of Muhammad on the Day of Judgement.

17. One who recites Durood Shareef near the shrine of Muhammad is heard by him there and then alone.

18. Any one who recites Durood is just as one who purchased a slave and freed him.

19. Muhammad said that he himself recites blessings on one who recites Durood on him.

20. Any one who wants to meet his Allah with a happy face must recite countless number of Durood Shareef.

21. Reward equivalent to a big mountain (Uhad) is given to one who recites one Durood.

22. All people will be presented to Muhammad with their habits, natures and distinct manner, so it is obligatory for a man to recite maximum number of Durood.

23. Allah is Great and Almighty to forgive all sins of the reciter during the day and night when he recites Durood Shareef.

24. If any one meets in a tragedy, he should recite Durood Shareef in countless numbers.

25. Reciting Durood is like giving something in charity.

26. Reciting maximum number of Durood kills all hardships.

27. Recite Durood Shareef in countless number on Friday, as it is presented to me (Muhammad).

28. Bad deeds of 200 years (equivalent) are obliterated if a man recites 100 Durood on Friday.

29. Anyone who recites Durood will overcome all their troubles.

30. If the name of Muhammad is mentioned and one who hears it but does not recite Durood Shareef, understand that he has forgotten the path to Paradise.

31. “I pray for all those who recite Durood on me”, said Muhammad.

32. If any one recites Durood Shareef from any place, any part of the world from any distance, it actually reaches Muhammad immediately. Allah Ta’ala has appointed several Angels who are given exclusive duty to collect all Durood Shareef and present the same before Muhammad immediately.

33. Angels of Allah shower 70 blessings on a man who recites Durood once.

34. Whenever you hear the call of prayers (Azaan) you should recite Durood.

35. Wherever you are, from any quarter of the world, you must recite Durood as it reaches Muhammad.

36. Ablution is not complete if Durood is not recited on it.

37. Muhammad said to his wife that any one who hears the name of Muhammad and does not recite Durood on him will not see the beautiful face of Muhammad on the Day of the Judgement.

38. Sayyiduna Ali (radi Allahu anhu) reports that Rasoolullah said, “The real miser is he in whose presence I am mentioned and then he fails to recite “Durood” on me”.

39. If a person recites 1,000 Durood Shareef daily, he will never die unless he himself sees his place in Heaven with his own eyes.
40. The Durood Shareef that is recited by the person is written with a Golden Pen on a Silver tablet by the Angels. The Angels then present this Durood Shareef to Sayyiduna Rasoolullah and proclaim, “O Habeeb of Allah! The son of such and such a person has presented this gift in your majestic court”.
Source:
free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=9605445.0
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salawat
For more see post:
□ 40 REASONS WHY “DUROOD SHAREEF” MAKES ISLAM IDOLATROUS
29 May 2021
www.facebook.com/100063590342443/posts/172148884914789/

Quran Fails Basic Tests

Quran Fails Basic Tests

THE QURAN FAILS BASIC TESTS OF AUTHENTICITY
1). INTRODUCTION
When Muslims say “The Quran is revealed knowledge from God”, they’re just making a claim that is unwitnessed, unheralded and uncorroborated. These supposed revelations and “prophet” do not pass even basic tests for authenticity of the sort which uphold the divine inspiration for the Bible. Consider the following:
▪︎ No record of prophetic fulfilment.
▪︎ No witness testimony.
▪︎ No miraculous healing.
▪︎ No historical support.
# There is for example not a shred of evidence for the Muslim Isa; the very name Isa is corrupt as this Post demonstrates:
□ CORRUPTION OF THE NAME JESUS IN THE QURAN 23 May 2021
www.facebook.com/100063590342443/posts/167701865359491/
# There is no Covenant theology in the Quran as this post shows:
□ DIVINE COVENANTS PROVE THE BIBLE AND EXPOSE THE QURAN 27 Aug 2021
www.facebook.com/100063590342443/posts/237362678393409/
# There is not a shred of evidence for a lost “gospel of Jesus”
# There is not a shred of evidence for an uncrucified Messiah as this post shows:
□ ISLAM’S NEMESIS: THE HERESY OF SURAH 4:157 30 Aug 2021
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# The Quran is rife with errors of fact. For example it claims the Psalms (Zabur) were “given” to David, which is factually wrong on numerous grounds as this post shows:
□ HOW MANY QURAN ERRORS DO YOU NEED PROOF OF MUSLIMS? 17 Oct 2021
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Again historically awry, the Quran claims the Promised Land is Egypt, see this Post for the proof:
□ THE QURAN AND ITS ERRORS: ISRAEL’S PROMISED LAND IS EGYPT!? 1 January 2021
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The claim for ‘nazil’ revelation of the Quran, comes from one source alone, the man to which it was supposedly revealed, Muhammad.
There are no outside witnesses, heralding in advance or at the time who can corroborate Muhammad’s testimony; nor are miracles provided to substantiate his claims.
In fact, the evidences for the authority of God’s revelation, which the Bible emphatically produces are completely absent in the Quran, such as:
▪︎ That the revelation of God must speak in the name of God, Yahweh not in the name of a foreign god as Allah is.
▪︎ That the message must go out from Zion as Isaiah says: “For instruction will go out of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3b); “Out of Zion” appears at least 17 times in the Bible. No mention of anything Islamic in the Bible, including then non existent Mecca.
▪︎ The message must conform to revelation which has gone before.
▪︎ That it must make predictions which are verifiable.
▪︎ That the revelation must be accompanied by signs and wonders in order to give it authority as having come from God.
Because all these are missing in the case of the Muhammad and the Quran, for those of us who are Christians, it is obviously the Quran and not as Muslims claim, the Bible, which turns out to be the most humanly flawed and corrupt of documents.
2). QURAN FAILS BIBLICAL STANDARDS FOR WITNESS TESTIMONY
A knockout blow against Islam is the fact it does not and cannot be substantiated by basic rules of witness testimony which the Bible enshrines.
Indeed, the Bible instructs everyone to withhold judgement unless there is sufficient corroborative evidence. We can observe this biblical principle in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. We have come to call this the principle of “the testimony of two or more witnesses.”
In Deuteronomy 13:1-5, God tells the Jews that they are not to believe someone who claims to be a prophet unless he comes with the correct knowledge of God as God had been revealed to them through the Prophet Moses, whose claim to represent God was affirmed by the miracles he performed before them and the Egyptians. (See, for example, Exodus 4:1-9.) Deuteronomy goes on to say that someone who claims to be a prophet must be right 100% of the time he prophecies – if anything he says is going to come to pass does not come to pass, he is not to be believed (Deuteronomy 18:18-22). If this principle were applied today, no one would believe a newspaper’s horoscope column, a psychic hotline “friend,” a fortune teller, Nostradamus, or anyone else whose track record is not 100%. The biblical prophet, then, should not be believed merely because he proclaims his prophetic gift, but only if that claim is substantiated by at least two witnesses: its correspondence to what God told Moses and its 100% track record.
In the very next chapter of Deuteronomy, a general principle is given affirming the two witness idea that is to govern all the civil and criminal courts of the Jews.
We read that one witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Jesus upheld the same principle (Matthew 18:16).
Paul likewise: “This is the third time I am coming to you. Every fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses” (2 Corinthians 13:1)
The Quran absolutely fails these tests.
3). THE QURAN’S PLAGIARIZED SOURCES (see Footnote ¹ for a comprehensive list)
In addition to its drawing heavily from Old Testament Biblical narrative and recasting of the Patriarchs as Muslim, the Quran is a book of copied myths, fables and fairy tales.It contains a revised counterfeit of 6th century polytheism, composed of previously existing pagan beliefs, practices and fairy tales. Many of these legends are repeated many times.
# Example:
Probably the most notorious example of plagiarism is Surah 5.32. Here is the original saying from hundreds of years before the Quran:
“For this reason was man created alone, to teach thee that whosever destroys a single soul of Israel [of Israel is absent in some texts], scripture imputes (guilt) to him as though he had Destroyed a Complete World; and whosever preserves a single soul of Israel, scripture ascribes (merit) to him as though he had Preserved a Complete World [since all mankind originated from one man].”
Source: Babylonian Talmud, Mishnah Sanhedrin 37a
That’s only for starters. It gets worse.
5:32 is the most ripped-out-of-context verse of the Quran by Western commentators. Muslims (and even news organizations) often refer to this verse in order to show that Islam teaches murder is wrong and saving lives is the prescribed action for all people. President Obama notoriously gave it credence by partially quoting it in his first overseas presidential address in Cairo in 2009.
But this is absolutely not what this verse says. In fact, it says almost the exact opposite: that Muslims can kill those who are their enemies! The only way you can conclude, as Muslim apologists have, is to ignore the verses that immediately follow 5:32, as well as to ignore part of the verse itself.
Here is Surah 5:32 in its context, with all words included:
“On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person – unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land – it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our apostles with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land.”
Salient points:
(i). It explicitly states that this was a commandment to the Children of Israel, i.e. the Jews! This is not a commandment to all people, and it certainly should not be misused as if this is Allah’s command to Muhammad’s people.
(ii). Even if this were a command to the Muslims, there’s still an escape clause: “unless it be for murder or spreading mischief in the land.” If someone is “spreading mischief”, he can still be killed. Now let’s think for a moment. The would-be Times Square bomber considers Americans to be spreading mischief in Palestine and around the world (practically all Muslims I know think this, even the ones who are American citizens). Accordingly, even if this verse were to apply to someone like Faisal Shahzad, he would still be justified in his slaughter.
As if this weren’t obvious enough from the verse itself, the Quran further expounds this point in the very next verse. Surah 5:33 says:
“The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Apostle, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is:execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.”
This verse is referring to the Muslims, not the Jews anymore, as we can tell in the shift from past tense to present tense. And here, the punishment for mischief is clearly prescribed: execution, crucifixion, mutilation, or at the least, exile. This is the command given to the Muslims. Quite clearly, it does not teach what the Muslims proclaim it teaches; in fact, it teaches almost the exact opposite.
For a supposedly divinely authored and inspired “holy” book, don’t you find it a little strange Muslims that Muhammad is pulling stuff from historic uninspired manmade sources and passing it off as “Revelatory” and “Holy”?
Muslims need to ask themselves why so much of Islamic scripture and ritual is borrowed from pre-existing sources. There is virtually nothing original in Islam and certainly nothing worthy of being labelled “Revelation.” Furthermore, something which in its original form is from non canonical gnostic, not sacred sources, cannot magically be transformed into Holy Writ. This is fallacious special pleading at its worst.
4). CONCLUSIONS
A book that is 95% unoriginal can never be a miracle. A book that plagiarized all bar 5 of the characters it contains can never be called a revelation. A book that is drawn from uninspired non Canonical sources can never be elevated to holy writ.
On these 3 basic grounds alone the Quran fails the attributes Muslims claim for it.
The Quran cannot be the Word of God.
# God does not need to copy. The Quran is mostly plagiarism.
# God’s Word is coherent progressive and sequential. The Quran is an incoherent repetitive jumble without any chronology, narrative or sequence.
# God’s Word is supported by multiple witness testimony. For a start the Bible is not one book, but a collection of 66 books written by 40 authors over a period of 1,500 years. Yet the Bible has a consistent message from beginning to end: how to restore the relationship that man had with God in the creation. The Quran is one man’s unwitnessed and uncorroborated testimony. In fact it has zero evidence base of testimony, still less multiple witnesses, because it’s written at least half a millennium after the events which it purports to correct.
# God’s Word does not need to change its tone or it’s commands. The Quran is antithetical to the Bible on all core doctrines, and its abrogations over a few years reflect the changing circumstances of its fickle human origin.
# God’s Word is self attesting through fulfilled prophecies, the testimonies of changed lives and recorded history and archaeology. The Quran has no such qualities. It is without prophecies, is not merely historically inaccurate but has schoolboy howler errors of fact and contains the scientifically impossible which again prove it’s man made origin.
# The Word of God has the highest moral paradigm (the Ten Commandments as amplified by the Sermon on the Mount). The Ten Commandments are nowhere in the Quran and were broken systematically and comprehensively by its only supposed prophet and replaced by rules which can only be described as demonic.
# The Word of God is instruction, comfort, and inspiration for sound living, peace, love and eternal life. Its both a mirror of reflection on human weakness as much as a window of revelation on God’s plan of redemption. The Quran is a manual for totalitarianism enforced by war hate and death for apostasy.
Footnote:
¹ THE QURAN’S COPIED FAIRYTALES & FABLES
Pre-Islamic Sources for material in the Quran. While the devout Muslim believes with all of his heart that the rituals and doctrines of Islam are entirely heavenly in origin and thus cannot have any earthly sources,
Middle East scholars have demonstrated beyond all doubt that every ritual and belief in Islam can be traced back to pre-Islamic Arabian culture.
In other words Muhammad did not preach anything new. Everything he taught had been believed and practiced in Arabia long before he was ever born.
Even the idea of “only one God” was borrowed from the Jews and the Christians.
# ARABIAN SOURCES
• The Quran repeats fanciful Arabian fables as if they were true. • “Arabic legends about the fabulous jinns fill its pages” (G.G. Pfander, Balance of Truth, pp. 283). • “The story of the she-camel who leapt out of a rock and became a prophet was known long before Muhammad” (Surahs 7:73-77,85; 91:14; 54:29). • The story of an entire village of people who were turned into apes because they broke the sabbath by fishing was a popular legend in Muhammad’s day (Surahs 2:65; 7:163-166). • The gushing 12 springs story found in Surah 2:60 comes from pre-Islamic legends. •In what is called the “Rip Van Winkle” story, seven men and their animals slept for 309 years in a cave and then woke up perfectly fine (Surah 18:9-26)! This legend is found in Greek and Christian fables as well as Arabian lore. • The fable of the pieces of four dead, cut-up birds getting up and flying was well known in Muhammad’s time (Surah 2:260). • It is also clear that Muhammad used such pre-Islamic literature as the Saba Moallaqat of Imra’ul Cays in his composition of Surahs 21:96; 29:31,46; 37:59; 54:1, and 93:1.
# JEWISH SOURCES
Many of the stories in the Quran come from the Jewish Talmud, the Midrash, and many apocryphal works. This was pointed out by Abraham Geiger in 1833, and further documented by another Jewish scholar, Dr. Abraham Katsh, of New York University, in 1954 (The Concise Dictionary of Islam, p. 229; Jomier, The Bible and the Quran — Henry Regency Co., Chicago, 1959, 59ff; Sell, Studies, pp. 163ff.; Guillaume, Islam, p. 13).
Here is a selection:
1. The source of Surah 3:35-37 is the fanciful book called The Protevangelion’s James the Lesser. 2. The source of Surah 87:19 is the Testament of Abraham. 3. The source of Surah 27:17-44 is the Second Targum of Esther. 4. The fantastic tale that God made a man “die for a hundred years” with no ill effects on his food, drink, or donkey was a Jewish fable (Surah 2:259ff.). 5. The idea that Moses was resurrected and other material came from the Jewish Talmud (Surahs 2:55, 56, 67). 6. The story in Surah 5:30,31 can also be found in pre-Islamic works from Pirke Rabbi Eleazer, the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziah and the Targum of Jerusalem. 7. The tale of Abraham being delivered from Nimrod’s fire came from the Midrash Rabbah (see Surahs 21:51-71; 29:16, 17; 37:97,98). It must be also pointed out that Nimrod and Abraham did not live at the same time. Muhammad was always mixing people together in the Quran who did not live at the same time. 8. The non-biblical details of the visit of the Queen of Sheba (Saba) in Sura 27:20-44 came from the Second Targum of the Book of Esther. 9. The source of Surah 2:102 is no doubt the Midrash Yalkut (chapter 44). 10. The story found in Surah 7:171 of God lifting up Mount Sinai and holding it over the heads of the Jews as a threat to squash them if they rejected the law came from the Jewish book Abodah Sarah. 11. The story of the making of the golden calf in the wilderness, in which the image jumped out of the fire fully formed and actually mooed (Surahs 7:148; 20:88), came from Pirke Rabbi Eleazer. 12. The seven heavens and hells described in the Quran came from the Zohar and the Hagigah. 13. Muhammad utilized the Testament of Abraham to teach that a scale or balance will be used on the day of judgment to weigh good and bad deeds in order to determine whether one goes to heaven or hell (Suras 42:17; 101:6-9).
# HERETICAL “CHRISTIAN” SOURCES
One of the most documented and damaging facts about the Quran is that Muhammad used heretical “Christian” Gnostic gospels and their fables for material in the Quran.
Encyclopedia Britannica comments: “The gospel was known to him chiefly through apocryphal and heretical sources” (15:648). This has been demonstrated many times by various scholars (Richard Bell, Introduction to the Quran, pp. 163ff. See also: Bell, The Origin of Islam in Its Christian Environment, pp. 110ff, 139ff; Sell, Studies, pp. 216ff. See also Tisdall and Pfander). • For example, in Surah 3:49, the baby Isa speaks from the cradle! Later on, the Quran has Isa making clay birds come alive.
# ISA SPEAKING FROM THE CRADLE
“He shall preach to men in his cradle and in the prime of manhood, and shall lead a righteous life”. (Surah 3:46). Another reference to this is Surah 19:28-34: “O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not a wicked man nor was thy mother a harlot. Then she pointed to him. They said: How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle? He said: “I am indeed a servant of Allah. He has given me the Book and has made me a prophet. And has made me blessed wheresoever I may be, and has enjoined upon me prayer and almsgiving so long as I remain alive, And (has made me) dutiful toward her who bore me, and hath not made me arrogant, unblest. Peace on me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive! Such was Isa, son of Mary: (this is) a statement of the truth concerning which they doubt.”
This came from the Injilu’t Tufuliyyah better known as the Arabic “Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ”. It is a 2nd century Arabic apocryphal fable from Egypt. This is the source for the referenced verse in the Quran.
Here is the similar passage from the Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ: “… Jesus spake when he was in the cradle, and said to his mother: “Mary, I am Jesus the Son of God, the Word, which thou didst bring forth according to the declaration of the angel Gabriel, and My Father hath sent me for the salvation of the world.”
Comparing the two verses, it’s another obvious plagiarism of Muhammad’s. Muhammad revised what he had heard, to bring it into accord with his own beliefs and teachings.”
# ISA TURNING CLAY BIRDS INTO LIVING BIRDS
He will say: “I bring you a sign from your Lord. From clay I will make for you the likeness of a bird. I shall breath into it and, by God’s leave, it shall become a living bird.” (Surah 3:49)
Both of these events, the speaking in the cradle and the birds from clay are mentioned again in Surah 5:110:
“When Allah saith: O Isa, son of Mary! Remember My favour unto thee and unto thy mother; how I strengthened thee with the holy Spirit, so that thou spakest unto mankind in the cradle as in maturity; and how I taught thee the Scripture and Wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel; and how thou didst shape of clay as it were the likeness of a bird by My permission, and didst blow upon it and it was a bird by My permission, and thou didst heal him who was born blind and the leper by My permission; and how thou didst raise the dead by My permission; and how I restrained the Children of Israel from (harming) thee when thou camest unto them with clear proofs, and those of them who disbelieved exclaimed: This is naught else than mere magic”
This comes from “The Gospel of Thomas the Israelite” – A known and documented book of fables.
“Here is the similar passage: The child Jesus, when 5 years of age, was playing on the road by a dirty stream of running water; and having brought it all together into ditches, immediately made it pure and clean; by saying a single word. Then having moistened some earth, he made of it twelve sparrows. And it was the Sabbath day when he did these things. There were many other children playing with him. Now a Jew, seeing what Jesus did, that he was playing on the Sabbath day, went his way to (Jesus’) father Joseph. He said, “Behold, your son is at the stream of dirty water, and having taken up some mud, has made of it twelve sparrows, thus desecrating the Sabbath. On this Joseph went to the spot, and cried out, “Why did you do these things on the Sabbath day which it is not lawful to do?” Jesus then clapped his hands at the sparrows and cried aloud to them, “Go off!” So they, clucking, flew away. The Jews seeing it were astonished, and went and told their rulers what they had seen Jesus do.”
Again, note the similarities. Another Heretical Christian fable, another story circulated by the people living in the Mideast. And, another fable that made it’s way into the Quran.”
# SABEAN SOURCES
Muhammad incorporated parts of the religion of the Sabeans into Islam (Encyclopedia of Islam (ed. Eliade), pp. 303ff.; International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, pp. 1:219ff.). He adopted such pagan rituals as: ▪︎The Haj pilgrimage and worshipping at the Kaaba with all its incidental rituals. ▪︎Praying five times a day towards Mecca (Muhammad chose five of the same times the Sabeans prayed, which incidentally is an example where Muhammad overrode the Quran which nowhere mentions 5 daily prayers; it is only found in the Hadith). ▪︎Fasting for part of a day for an entire month.
# EASTERN RELIGIOUS SOURCES
Muhammad derived some of his ideas from Eastern religions such as Zoroastrianism and Hinduism. All of these things were in existence long before Muhammad was born. The Quran records the following things which are ascribed to Muhammad but in reality were previously known stories now attributed to him for the first time (Sell, Studies, pp. 219ff.). ▪︎The story of a flying trip through seven heavens. ▪︎The Houris of paradise. ▪︎Azazil and other spirits coming up from Hades. ▪︎ The “light” of Muhammad. ▪︎The bridge of Sirat. ▪︎Paradise with its wine, women, and song (from the Persians). ▪︎The king of death. ▪︎The peacock story. ▪︎ Pilgrimage is found in both Hinduism and lslam, Hajj to Mecca in Islam, while Kumbh Mela and Tirtha Yatra in Hinduism. ▪︎ Muslims performs 7 circuits around the Kaaba during Hajj which is called Tawaf. Hindus also perform one or more circuits around the centre (Garbhagriha) of a Temple (one to twenty-one, which is called as Parikrama (known in Sanscrit as pradakśiṇā). Both rituals are commonly called circumambulation. ▪︎ In the Hindu marriage rite of Saptapadi, the married couple circumnavigate the fire seven times. ▪︎ In the Islamic ritual of Tawaf, Muslim circumnavigation of the Kaaba incorporates, religious phrases repeated during the circumambulation. Some of the rituals that Muslims follow during the Hajj are the same as the rites observed by Hindus in their worship of Shiva. Note these striking similarities:
(1) Both Hindu and Muslim male devotees are required to shave their heads during their pilgrimage.
(2) And similar to their Hindu counterparts, male Muslim pilgrims are also required to dress in a garment consisting of two sheets of white cloth. This type of garment is known as Dhoti in Hinduism.
(3) Just as the worshippers of Shiva observe a rite in which they walk around their object of reverence seven times, Muslim pilgrims also walk around the Kaaba seven times.
(4) Both their objects of reverence are Black Stones. In Hinduism, the Black Stone is known as Shiva lingam.
(5) While Hindus drink water from the Ganga River as part of the sacred rites in their worship of Shiva, Muslims drink from the Well of Zamzam during the Hajj.
(6) Additionally, the Crescent moon, which is associated with the Hindu deity Shiva, is also a symbol for Islam. In the Hindu portrayal of the Shiva symbol, the crescent moon is always painted across his forehead. Moreover, in every portrayal of Shiva, there is always a depiction of a snake curled around his neck. Weirdly, in pre-Islamic times, Allah is supposed to have sent a snake to guard the treasures of the Kaaba.
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Bible Doctrines

Bible Doctrines

THEMES ABOUT SIN, RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HOLINESS.
1). INTRODUCTION
The Muslim Anas Anas tries to argue on another thread that by virtue of Genesis 6:9 Noah was righteous and blameless before God and thus Paul is wrong in Romans 3:10 to say “no-one is righteous.”
What all Muslims fail to do is read Scripture in its context, to recognise that Scripture interprets Scripture and that Scripture must harmonise. And in this case they also ignore its cross references:
In the first place Paul is declaring nothing new but is echoing the Psalmist and the writer of Ecclesiastes, and acknowledges that when he says “As it is written” – here are his sources:
“The fool says in his heart, “God does not exist.” They are corrupt; they do vile deeds. There is no one who does good. [2] The Lord looks down from heaven on the human race to see if there is one who is wise, one who seeks God. [3] All have turned away; all alike have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one” (Psalms 14:1‭-‬3 HCSB – see also Psalm 53).
“There is certainly no righteous man on the earth who does good and never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20 HCSB).
“What then? Are we any better? Not at all! For we have previously charged that BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES ARE ALL UNDER SIN, [10] AS IT IS WRITTEN: THERE IS NO ONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE. [11] There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. [12] All have turned away; all alike have become useless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one. [20] For no one will be justified in His sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law. [21] But now, apart from the law, God’s righteousness has been revealed — attested by the Law and the Prophets [22] — that is, God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe, since there is no distinction. [23] For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. [24] They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. [25] God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. [26] God presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:9‭-‬12‭, ‬20‭-‬26 HCSB).
In the second place Noah was not without sin. None of God’s prophets were, except the only One who can save us, Jesus Christ.
2). GOD USED WEAK FALLIBLE SINNERS TO DISPLAY HIS POWER & PERFECTION
Consider the following:
Jacob was a cheater 😳 Peter denied his crucifixion and denied knowing Jesus ✌🏻 David covetousness led him to have Uriah killed 🤺 Noah got drunk🍷 Elisha lied 💬 Jonah ran from God 🏃 Saul consulted the witch of Endor 🧙‍ Solomon’s polygamy led him away from God 💑 Balaam was cruel to animals 🐎 Paul was a murderer 🤺 Peter denied Miriam was a gossiper 🗣 Elijah was depressed 😢 Gideon made an ephod and led Israel into idolatry 🧥 Abraham lied 👴🏻 David had an affair with Bathsheba 😍 Moses murdered an Egyptian 🤺 Nathan spoke for Himself not God 💬
So whenever the Bible speaks of people who were righteous we have to dig deeper. As we shall see in the next section, ultimately righteousness always leads to, and can only be accounted for by, the Cross.
3). COULD GOD HAVE FORGIVEN US WITHOUT THE ATONEMENT OF JESUS?
Muslims and other sceptics might argue: “Well, didn’t He forgive the Israelites before the cross?”
Answer: Yes, but only superficially and contingently.
The New Testament consistently teaches that OT forgiveness was not the same as the forgiveness that came through the Cross:
“For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” (Hebrews 10:1-4)
Instead of the eradication of sin, the Old Testament forgiveness merely covered over sin:
“[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). Instead, 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).
Because their sins hadn’t been eradicated, even the deceased OT saints could not come into the presence of a God whose righteousness had not yet been satisfied by the Cross:
“And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11:39-40)
Consequently, after Jesus proclaimed that “It is finished” and the veil of the Temple was torn in two, symbolizing the fact that the way into presence of God was now opened, there was a great earthquake to reinforce this lesson:
“And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.” (Matthew 27:51-53)
4). HOW WAS JESUS DEATH ABLE TO BE APPLIED RETROSPECTIVELY?
Because the Gospel was preached retrospectively:
“For this reason the gospel was also preached to those who are now dead, so that, although they might be judged by men in the fleshly realm, they might live by God in the spiritual realm.” (1 Peter 4:6 HCSB)
Not to be confused with:
“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. In that state He also went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison.” (1 Peter 3:18‭-‬19 HCSB)
First, (I Peter 3:18-19) to the evil angels in the “bottomless pit” (7 mentions in Book of Revelation). The Greek term here is kerusso, to herald, proclaim, as a town crier. Jesus would have been proclaiming His paying the world’s sin debt.
Second, (I Peter 4:6) Jesus preached to the righteous Old Testament souls who were waiting for access to Heaven. His shed blood freed them from their waiting place.
Greek- euaggelizo, we call it evangelize, to announce good news, glad tidings.
Note from Luke the Isaiah passage that Jesus declared fulfilled:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim FREEDOM TO THE CAPTIVES and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed,” (Luke 4:18 HCSB)
Now see the sequence of fulfilment:
“He replied to them, “Go and report to John the things you have seen and heard: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with skin diseases are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news.” (Luke 7:22 HCSB)
What isn’t mentioned in Luke 7:22?
No mention of the release of captives. He hadn’t accomplished that yet … because it wasn’t time for the cross at that point.
Other relevant supportive texts:
“I assure you: An hour is coming, and is now here, WHEN THE DEAD WILL HEAR THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD, AND THOSE WHO HEAR WILL LIVE. Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come out — those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:25‭, ‬28‭-‬29 HCSB)
“The tombs were also opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And they came out of the tombs after His resurrection, entered the holy city, and appeared to many.” (Matthew 27:52‭-‬53 HCSB)
“For it says: When He ascended on high, He took prisoners into captivity; He gave gifts to people. But what does “He ascended” mean except that He descended to the lower parts of the earth? The One who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.” (Ephesians 4:8‭-‬10 HCSB)
Also check out this post for more:
□ GOD WILL BY NO MEANS LEAVE THE GUILTY UNPUNISHED: THE APPARANT CONTRADICTION OF EXODUS 34:7 10 May 2021
www.facebook.com/100063590342443/posts/158327186296959/
Pursuit of self righteousness by good deeds is doomed to fail. God’s standard is perfection and anything less is vanity. Can you attain perfection? Nobody can!
5). WHAT DID JESUS MEAN WHEN HE TOLD US TO BE PERFECT?
Answer: To put it bluntly, perfectionism is a hoax. We cannot be perfect! Yet many well-meaning people continue to strive for this unattainable goal. They want to exceed expectations at work, at home, at church, in sports, in hobbies, in physical appearance—and the list goes on. They have somehow convinced themselves that to be acceptable requires them to measure up to a personal or societal standard of perfection. A perfectionist mindset brings stress and can only lead to discontent and frustration. Perfectionism often involves raising the bar to absurd heights and striving in our own efforts for something that only God can do.
The point of the gospel is that we are unable to save ourselves. We all “fall short”; we all “miss the mark” (Romans 3:23). Sinners need a Savior, and that’s why Jesus came. When we trust in Him, He forgives our shortcomings, imperfections, and iniquities. We can stop striving for an arbitrary, worldly “perfection” and rest in the Perfect One (Matthew 11:28).
Martha, who was “worried and upset about many things,” probably struggled with perfectionism as she served the Lord (Luke 10:40-41). As she prepared the dinner and set the table, she wanted everything to be just right. The problem was that she was setting a higher standard for herself than Jesus was setting for her. “Only one thing is needed,” Jesus told her. Then He pointed her to Mary’s example of peace and rest (Luke 10:42).
It is true that the Bible calls us to be “perfect as [our] heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). The Greek word for “perfect” here is telios. It means “brought to its end, completed, or perfect.” So, to be “perfect” in this sense is not how perfectionists so often imagine it. Rather, it is to be completed in Christ. Philippians 1:6 says that completion is the work of God. He created us, saved us, and is faithful to perfect us.
This is not to say that we have no responsibility to grow in our faith (2 Peter 3:18). We must cooperate with God’s work in us (His perfection of us)—see Philippians 2:12. This is what pursuit of righteousness means. We are called to live godly lives and to submit to God. But the focus of the Bible’s commands is not on others’ perception of us, as is so often the idol of the perfectionist. Instead, the focus is on our heart’s posture toward God.
“Just then someone came up and asked Him, “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life? ” “Why do you ask Me about what is good?” He said to him. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” “Which ones? ” he asked Him. Jesus answered: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as yourself. “I have kept all these,” the young man told Him. “What do I still lack? ” “If you want to be perfect,” Jesus said to him, “go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. THEN COME, FOLLOW ME.” When the young man heard that command, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples, “I assure you: It will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven! Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were utterly astonished and asked, “Then who can be saved? ” But Jesus looked at them and said, “WITH MEN THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE, BUT WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE” (Matthew 19:16‭-‬26 HCSB).
I would go further and say ONLY with God are all things possible, including being made perfect (righteous).
See this Post for more:
□ WHAT JESUS TEACHING ON BEING GOOD AND PERFECT MEANS FOR US (MATTHEW 19:16-26) 22 Aug 2021
www.facebook.com/100063590342443/posts/233884235407920/
6). THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS?
The short answer is: we are righteous because God counts Jesus’ goodness instead of our sins when we have faith in Jesus. We are becoming holy as we obey God more and more in our lives.
▪︎ Being righteous
Being righteous is being acceptable to God. Noah is the first person in the Bible to be called righteous: “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). Here we see the two aspects of being righteous: doing the right thing (being blameless) and having a relationship with God (walked with God).
In the Old Testament this is often connected to the law of God. In Psalm 1, the description of the righteous says “his delight is in the law of the LORD”. The law is about what you should do. But doing that is a delight, because it is the law of the Lord. So again, doing the right thing and having the right relationship go hand in hand.
In the final analysis, being righteous is dependent on faith. Paul strongly emphasizes this in Romans 3-5, and quotes Genesis 15:6 about Abraham to prove his point: “And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” So as Paul uses the term, being righteous IS NOT BASED ON WHAT WE DO, BUT SOMETHING WE RECEIVE WHEN WE BELIEVE IN GOD’S PROMISES. Through faith in Jesus we receive forgiveness of sins and are acceptable to God.
▪︎ Being holy
Being holy means being set apart for God. It can be used for objects (a holy altar), time (a holy day), or persons (a holy priest). All believers are set apart for God, and are therefore made holy (or sanctified, which has the same meaning). We see this for example in 1 Corinthians 6:11: “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
At the same time, there is also a sense in which being made holy is not a one time event, but a continuing process. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely”. As we are living with God, we are growing in faith. More and more we are changed into the likeness of Jesus. More and more we display the fruit of the Holy Spirit. In that way, we are made holy. This process will only be complete when we are with God in heaven.
▪︎ What we are and what we become
So one way to distinguish between being righteous and being holy (perfected) is to say that we are righteous, and are becoming holy. We are righteous through faith in Christ, and we are becoming holy (perfected or sanctified) as we grow in faith in Christ. We have been declared righteous because of something that happened outside us: Christ died for our sins. This is God’s work for us. We are not contributing anything to that. We just receive God’s blessing of righteousness when we believe. We are becoming holy because something is happening in us: we are becoming more and more like Christ. This is the work of God’s Holy Spirit in us. It is still God’s work, but we are fully involved, we are living it out.
7). CONCLUSIONS
We are sinners in need of redemption. Christ alone can achieve that for us. By His atonement, we exchange our sins for His righteousness. From that moment we are like Noah declared righteous before God, because like Noah we are “walking with God” in our daily relationship with the Risen Christ; even though like Noah who got drunk, we are guilty of drunkenness and many other sins of the flesh.
So in summary, righteousness equates to our justification while being perfected is the lifelong process of sanctification, becoming holier by the work of the Holy Spirit acting upon our lives. Being made righteous is the one time event of being clothed in Christ’s righteousness, the moment we yield our lives to Him. Holiness is a work in progress which none fully achieves in our fallen sinful state, its a journey with its destination only reached in the resurrection.
Being made righteous is our deposit and guarantee upon our becoming perfected. Amen.
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Evidence for the Crucifixion and Resurrection

Evidence for the Crucifixion and Resurrection

DEBUNKING THE MUSLIM RED HERRING OF AN OPEN TOMB TO SUPPORT THE “SWOON THEORY” EXPLANATION FOR THE RESURRECTION
On another thread the Muslim Akinola Ade said: “Jesus was placed in an open chamber, if he was buried underground in a six feet like today, he’ll surely die, but there’s no assurance he died right from the cross, so there’s possiblity he survived and recovered not #resurrection.”
To which I responded:
“Akinola Ade do you know that Jesus body was wrapped in burial cloth by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus? That action alone is enough to suffocate a healthy fully alive person to death! Your desperation is frankly shocking and, if it wasn’t such a serious matter, your objections are frankly laughable.
Check out this source that, while it’s main purpose is to establish that the Shroud of Turin is not authentic, serves to illustrate my point:
□ THE MATERIAL AND METHOD OF WRAPPING THE BODY
“Combining the accounts of the historical record of the New Testament teaches us that several pieces of cloth were used to wrap the body of Christ and they were in the form of “strips,” and “wrappings,” or “linen bandages” SUCH AS WERE USED IN THE PREPARATION OF MUMMIES.
Note the word “wrappings” is plural in the following passage:
John 19:39-42 “And Nicodemus came also, who had first come to Him by night; bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. [40] And so they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. [41] Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid. [42] Therefore on account of the Jewish day of preparation, because the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”
“Linen wrapping” is the Greek word sidon meaning fine linen cloth used for swathing dead bodies or as a single garment or wrap as in the passage here:
Mark 14:51-52 “And a certain young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him. [52] But he left the linen sheet behind, and escaped naked.”
“Linen wrappings” is the Greek word othoniois (plural of othonion) meaning “a piece of fine linen, a linen cloth.”
John 19:39-42 “And Nicodemus came also, who had first come to Him by night; bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. [40] And so they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. [41] Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid. [42] Therefore on account of the Jewish day of preparation, because the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”
Matthew and Luke use the Greek word entulisso meaning “to wrap up,” or “to fold,” or “roll or coil about.”
Matthew 27:59 “And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth”
Luke 23:53 “And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain.”
Mark uses the Greek word eneileo meaning “to roll in,” or “wind in.”
Mark 15:46 “And Joseph bought a linen cloth, took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.”
John uses the Greek word deo meaning “to bind,” or “tie with the results of imprisonment.”
John 19:40 “And so they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.”
The Gospel accounts are all in agreement that the body was wrapped or enfolded. It is important to compare these accounts with John 11:42-44.
John 11:42-44 “And I knew that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the people standing around I said it, that they may believe that Thou didst send Me.” [43] And when He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” [44] He who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings; and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
This was the Jewish custom. Even though when Christ was buried they had to hurry because of time, Joseph along with Nicodemus (and probably some servants since Joseph was a rich man) would have followed the Jewish custom of washing the body and wrapping it in mummy-like fashion with the spices between the folds of the wrappings.
Edersheim, the great biblical scholar and historian, wrote in his monumental work, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah:
It seems as if the `clean linen cloth’ in which the Body had been wrapped, was now torn into `cloths’ or swathes, into which the Body, limb by limb, was now `bound,’ no doubt, between layers of myrrh and aloes, the Head being wrapped in a napkin (Vol. 2, p. 618).
In a footnote to the above statement Edersheim further explained:
The Synoptists record, that the Body of Jesus was `wrapped’ in a `linen cloth’; St. John tells us that it was `bound’ with the aloes and myrrh of Nicodemus into `swathes’ or `cloths,’ even as they were found afterwards in the empty tomb, and by their side `the napkin,’ or soudarion, for the head. I have tried to combine the account of the Synoptists and that of St John into a continuous narrative (p. 618).
It is evident that the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, give us the general statement of the burial. But John (who with Peter went to the empty tomb and saw the results) gives us the details of what was done with the linen cloth.
The evidence of Scripture makes it clear that Jesus was wrapped in cloth when taken down from the cross. That cloth was torn into strips, and then Jesus was bound with these linen strips, but He was not wrapped with a single piece of cloth like the Shroud.
“The words regarding the cloth clearly indicate it. The verbs used warrant it, and the specific choice of words makes it inescapable” (Answers to Tough Questions, McDowell and Stewart, p. 166).
The biblical authors of the Gospel accounts of the burial of the Lord never used two Greek words, kalutto (1 Kings 19:13) and periballo (Gen. 38:14). These words were used of garments such as the Shroud. Their failure to use these words is very significant and provide further evidence against the Shroud.”
Source: bible.org/article/shroud-turin-and-resurrection-christ
Please explain how a flogged and crucified body that has suffered massive blood loss, wrapped in burial cloth, as described above, survives for 3 days in a tomb and then miraculously revives and unwraps itself and still has the strength to remove the stone? I will wait.”
CONCLUSIONS
From the above it is plainly obvious that being placed in an “open tomb” rather than buried 6 feet underground, is a non point and a red herring. Because wrapping in burial cloth both immobilises as well as asphyxiates anyone with life left in them, such that the tomb and its dimensions becomes an immaterial moot point.
By this little publicised fact alone, (see how little emphasis is made of it in the following analysis) therefore we can easily dismiss another Muslim theory to explain away the resurrection.
□ POSTSCRIPT
~ The Apparent Death (or Swoon) Theory ~
This theory, which emerged in the late 1700s and evolved through various liberal German theologians, posits that Jesus did not die on the cross, but only appeared to die. A modern version of this theory was popularized in The Passover Plot, a 1960s book by Hugh Schonfield.
▪︎ Details of the Theory
This theory states that Jesus merely fainted on the cross, from pain, shock, and loss of blood. He was removed from the cross, alive but unconscious, and placed in the tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish leadership. Jesus supposedly revived at some point, in part because of the coolness of the tomb. Despite not having access to desperately needed medical care and nourishment, Jesus then supposedly managed to unwrap His dressings by Himself and then, in the total darkness of the tomb, locate and roll away the mammoth stone that sealed the tomb entrance. And then, still unnoticed by the guards, Jesus supposedly walked a significant distance, on feet punctured by the cross nails, to rejoin His disciples and declare Himself the risen Lord.
▪︎ Response
Serious scholars don’t support this theory because it fails to account for the known facts. Evidence, both historical and medical, argues against the possibility of survival. We have at least ten reasons to be confident that Jesus did, in fact, die on the cross:
The nature of His injuries. He was brutally whipped, beaten, and crowned with deep thorns, all of which resulted in enormous blood loss and tissue damage. He collapsed while carrying His cross beam (approximate weight to be believed around 100 pounds) to the crucifixion site. The nature of crucifixion virtually guarantees death from asphyxiation. In an attempt to bolster their view, skeptics cite the historian Josephus, who describes an extremely rare case in which one person survived crucifixion, overlooking the fact that his account describes three crucifixion victims who were alive when taken down, but two of which died shortly thereafter, despite receiving excellent Roman medical care. The piercing of Jesus’ side, from which came “blood and water” (John 19:34), indicating serum separated from clotted blood, gives medical evidence that Jesus had already died. Jesus said He was in the act of dying while on the cross: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). The Roman soldiers, well trained executioners, were charged with making sure He was dead before taken off the cross. When they went to break Jesus’ legs, to hasten His death, they found Him already dead. Pilate summoned the centurion to make sure Jesus was, indeed, dead before surrendering the body to Joseph for burial. Jesus’ body was wrapped in about a hundred pounds of cloth and spices, and placed in a tomb that was sealed with a massive stone. From inside the tomb, Jesus would have had no way to leverage the stone to roll it away, let alone push it back enough to slip past it. Medical experts who have studied the circumstances surrounding the end of Jesus’ life have concluded that He did actually die on the cross, most likely from a combination of factors: hypovolemic shock, exhaustion asphyxia, and even acute heart failure. Non-Christian historians from the 1st and 2nd centuries, such as Tacitus and Josephus, recorded Jesus’s death in their writings.The earliest Christian writers after the time of Christ, such as Polycarp and Ignatius, verify that Jesus died on the cross.
In his article, A Lawyer Examines The Swoon Theory, Texas attorney Joseph “Rick” Reinckens satirically unpacks this theory. Just a snippet:
“Jesus has been whipped, beaten and stabbed, is hemorrhaging, and hasn’t had any food or drink for at least three days. Does He just push the stone open enough to squeeze through? No, He pushes the stone door COMPLETELY out of the way!!!”
The theory asserts that Jesus got past the guards undetected — and then somehow traveled seven miles to Emmaus, to rejoin His disciples. Again, let’s look at Jesus’ physical condition, to decide if this sounds feasible:
Jesus would have had nothing to eat or drink for more than two days, as it has been over 48 hours since the Passover meal. Jesus would have been severely dehydrated from losing massive amount of blood and fluids. Jesus’ entire body would have been a pulpy mess, because of the severe beatings and scourging by the Roman guards. The gaping wound in His side, from being pierced by the Roman guard’s sword, would have likely perforated a lung and/or Jesus’ heart. Jesus crumpled under the weight of the crossbeam as He made His way to the crucifixion site. Yet now He manages to roll aside a tomb stone that scholars estimate weighed more than 400 pounds?
If Jesus had managed to get Himself to His disciples, are we to believe that they viewed Him, in His near-death state, to be their triumphant, risen Lord? And consider this: if Jesus had survived the crucifixion, why would His disciples create the idea of His resurrection? Would they not have thumbed their noses at Rome more by simply stating that Rome’s best efforts at torture were no limit to Jesus, the man and Messiah from Galilee?
If it crossed your mind that Jesus could have healed Himself in the tomb — as historical records tell us that He healed so many others — ask yourself why He would do so. If He didn’t die, His own predictions about Himself were untrue. If He didn’t die, His promises to us are, as Paul states, worthless. Would any of us follow Jesus if we thought Him a liar and fake? I certainly wouldn’t.
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Divine Titles

Divine Titles

JESUS CHRIST: THE LION OF JUDAH AND THE LAMB OF GOD
1). INTRODUCTION
The Lion of Judah is a particular motif seen in the Old Testament.
Lions are frequently symbols of leadership, as the lion is considered the king of the animals. In Genesis, long before the Israelite monarchy is established, Jacob blesses Judah on his deathbed, saying he is a ”lion’s whelp,” or cub. Because of this blessing, the tribe of Judah adopted the symbol of the lion to represent itself.
The blessing Jacob gives to Judah in Genesis 49 reflects this symbolism. Jacob explains the comfort that Judah will have, using the imagery of a lion stretching out and not being roused by others. He refers to the rulership that Judah will have, saying the ”scepter shall not depart” from him. Jacob finally completes this symbology with a depiction of what the lion, or Judah, looks like. His eyes are ”darker than wine” and his teeth are ”whiter than milk.” When you see pictures of lions, these colors are prominent. The lion is also wearing a purple robe that is soaked in the ”blood of grapes.” The color purple is symbolic of royalty, so Jacob’s use of this image further emphasizes the idea that Judah’s descendants will be kings.
Through the tribe of Judah, the lion symbol came to represent the blessing, majesty, and even divine protection of the Jews. It is not surprising, then, that the lion symbol continued to be used even after the destruction of Jerusalem, the capital of Judah’s nation, in 586 BCE. In 1949, a year after the establishment of the modern state of Israel, the lion became part of the emblem for the capital city of Jerusalem, recalling the city’s historical importance.
2). WE WERE BORN TO ADMIRE CHRIST
Muslims make a claim that we were all born Muslim. Muhammad made an even more ludicrous claim when he said: “All the earth is a mosque apart from the graveyards and bathrooms.” (Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 317; Ibn Maajah, 745; classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Ibn Maajah, 606).
There is no truth in these claims of course. But there is a certain truth that we were born for something. The One we were born for is the very antithesis of Islam. The One we were born to love and admire, is none other than Jesus Christ. We were born to be the Father’s gift to the Son (John 17:6).
The human heart was made to stand in awe of ultimate excellence—you were made to admire Jesus Christ the Son of God—Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, King of kings, and Lord of lords—and if your heart is not much taken up with Him, then you don’t need to look any further to know the deepest source of your frustration and dissatisfaction with life. Without Jesus there are only tears (Revelation 5:4)
What makes Christ stand out as absolutely unique is this: beauty or excellence consists in the right proportion of diverse and paradoxical qualities. For example:
■ We admire him for His glory, but even more because His glory is mingled with humility ;
■ We admire Him for His transcendence, but even more because His transcendence is accompanied by condescension;
■ We admire Him for His uncompromising justice, but even more because it is tempered with mercy; we admire Him for His majesty, but even more because it is a majesty in meekness;
■ We admire Him because of His equality with God, but even more because as God’s equal and the perfect man, He nevertheless has a deep reverence for God;
■ We admire Him because of how worthy He was of all good, but even more because this was accompanied by an amazing patience to suffer evil;
■ We admire Him because of His sovereign dominion over the world, but even more because this dominion was clothed with a spirit of obedience and submission;
■ We love the way He stumped the proud scribes with His wisdom, and we love it even more because He could be simple enough to like children and spend time with them;and we admire Him because He could still the storm, but even more because He refused to use that power to strike the Samaritans with lightning and He refused to abuse it to prevent His arrest or get Himself down from the cross.
The list could go on and on. Muslims need to see that beauty and excellency in person is not a simple thing? It is not about a one dimensional uncompromising prideful boasting of strength. It is complex and multifaceted. It is a coming together in one person of the perfect balance and proportion of extremely diverse qualities. And that’s what makes Jesus Christ so unique, so irresistibly admirable and excellent. Nowhere else is this diversity better expressed than in the contrasts of His titles, the Lamb of God and the Lion of Judah.
3). MAJESTY AND MEEKNESS PERSONIFIED: THE LAMB OF GOD AND THE LION OF JUDAH
“Here is My Servant whom I have chosen, My beloved in whom My soul delights; I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not argue or shout, and no one will hear His voice in the streets. He will not break a bruised reed, and He will not put out a smoldering wick, until He has led justice to victory. The nations will put their hope in His name.” (Matthew 12:18‭-‬21 HCSB) c.f. Isaiah 42:1-4
The Father’s very soul exults with joy over the servant-like meekness and compassion of his Son.
When a reed is bent and about to break, the Servant will tenderly hold it upright until it heals. When a wick is smoldering and has scarcely any heat left, the Servant will not pinch it off, but cup his hand around it and blow gently until it burns again.
Thus the Father cries, “Behold, my Servant in whom my soul delights!” The worth and beauty of the Son come not just from his majesty, nor just from his meekness, but from the way these mingle in perfect proportion.
When the angel cries out in Revelation 5:2, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” the answer comes back, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals” (Revelation 5:5).
God loves the strength of the Lion of Judah. This is why he is worthy in God’s eyes to open the scrolls of history and unfold the last days.
But the picture is not complete. How did the Lion conquer? The next verse describes his appearance: “And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6). Jesus is worthy of the Father’s delight not only as the Lion of Judah, but also as the slain Lamb.
This is the peculiar glory of Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Son — the stunning mingling of majesty and meekness. It’s what Muslims fail to recognise. Strength in weakness is a peculiarly unique, and paradoxical manifestation of God’s glory and a preferred way He uses to glorify Himself. The Jews mocking Jesus at the crucifixion failed to recognise it too, just as Muslims today fail to and fall into the same trap:
“Those who passed by were yelling insults at Him, shaking their heads and saying, “The One who would demolish the sanctuary and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross! ” In the same way the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked Him and said, “He saved others, but He cannot save Himself! He is the King of Israel! Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He has put His trust in God; let God rescue Him now — if He wants Him! For He said, ‘I am God’s Son.’ ” In the same way even the criminals who were crucified with Him kept taunting Him.” (Matthew 27:39‭-‬44 HCSB)
4) SUMMARY
□ Question: “Who/what is the Lion of the tribe of Judah?”
Answer: The Lion of the tribe of Judah is a symbol found in Genesis and Revelation. In Genesis, Jacob blesses his son Judah, referring to him and his future tribe as a lion’s cub and a lion (Genesis 49:9). In Revelation, this symbol is seen again when the Lion of the tribe of Judah is declared to have triumphed and is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals (Revelation 5:5). Jesus is the One who is worthy to open the scroll (see John 5:22). Therefore, Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
In Genesis, as Jacob blesses his children, he promises Judah that his brothers will praise him and that they will bow down to him. Jacob also tells Judah, “You are a lion’s cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?” (Genesis 49:9). Jacob says that in the future the scepter and ruler’s staff will not depart from Judah “until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be His” (Genesis 49:10). This messianic prophecy points forward to the second coming of the Lord Jesus, the descendant of Judah who will rule the earth (Revelation 19:11–16).
Based on Jacob’s blessing, the lion is a symbol of the tribe of Judah, which is known as the kingly tribe (King David was of the tribe of Judah). Lions symbolize power, fierceness, and majesty. Lions are the king of the beasts, and the Lion of the tribe of Judah is the king of everything. In the Old Testament, God is sometimes described as being like a lion. In Isaiah 31:4, just “as a lion growls, a great lion over its prey—and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against it, it is not frightened by their shouts . . . so the LORD Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.” The Lord is not afraid of His enemies. He protects His people and does not allow them to be conquered. In Hosea, God is angry at Israel because they became proud and forgot Him. God says, “I will be like a lion to them. . . . like a lion I will devour them. . . . You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your helper” (Hosea 13:7–8). It is better to experience the help and protection of the Lion than to deny His kingship and face His fierceness.
In Revelation 5, Jesus is the long-awaited Lion of the tribe of Judah. John weeps because no one was found worthy to open the scroll of God’s judgment or even to look inside it. Then one of the elders says to John, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals” (Revelation 5:4–5). Both of the genealogies in Matthew and Luke record that Jesus is a descendant of the tribe of Judah. When Jesus is revealed as the promised Lion of the tribe of Judah, it reveals His deity. He is the true king and the One to whom belongs the long-awaited obedience of nations. Yet it is not His fierceness or the force of His power that makes Him worthy. The Lion has triumphed because He became a Lamb (Revelation 5:6–10; cf. John 1:29). Jesus Christ is worthy because He lived a perfect, sinless life and in shedding His blood defeated sin and death. His death and resurrection have resulted in a protection for His people and an eternal kingdom that will honor and worship God. Ruling this kingdom will be Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

Jesus Christ the Only Law Giver

Jesus Christ the Only Law Giver

JESUS CHRIST THE ONLY LAW GIVER
1). INTRODUCTION
The Muslim Ibrahim Dantata said on another thread: “Yeshua did not give laws as he is just subordinate prophet to Mosaic law, But Moses and Muhammad do gives law as both they were law given prophets, John 5:30-31 its against Your delusional claims that “Yeshua did give laws as he and the father,,,”
This post is going to debunk the delusions of the above comment. But first just for the record here is what John 5:30-31 says:
“I can do nothing on My own. I judge only as I hear, and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. [31] “If I testify about Myself, My testimony is not valid.” (John 5:30‭-‬31 HCSB)
What Ibrahim ignores in his comment and selective reference from John 5, is how Jesus then goes on to validate His testimony, but we shan’t ignore it, this post has to first address exactly how multiple testimony validated exactly who Jesus was (the absence of such testimony condemns Islam), before we can address the primary blasphemous claim that He was a “subordinate prophet not a lawgiver”.
2). JESUS CHRIST THE SON OF GOD – A FOURFOLD AUTHENTICATION
This is the framework set out in the second half of John chapter 5 which all Muslims, not only Ibrahim, ignore to their peril:
(a) Jesus does His Father’s work (John 5.19-20).
(b) He does His Father’s will (John 5.22-30).
(c) He shares the Father’s worth (John 5.22-23, 26-30).
(d) He speaks the Father’s word (John 5.24-25).
(e) He has a fourfold witness.
I hate having to mention them in the same sentence, but since our Muslim friend has, I am left no choice. When comparing the figures of Jesus and Muhammad, how stark is the contrast between them in terms of witnesses. It is as stark as the contrast between them in the authority they held, how they lived and the example they set and the doctrine they taught.
On the one hand by his own admission Muhammad had no witnesses, and his first reaction to being assaulted at Hira was to become traumatised and suicidal, believing that he had been possessed ¹. For which rather than offer validation, the Quran is lamely forced to issue blank denials, and worse provides no testimony to validate him as a prophet of God, and being not all sufficient, resorts to a baseless appeal to the Bible as prophesying him.
#Make_no_mistake: the pagan worshipping Muhammad never heard from God, was never commanded by God, was never corroborated and never received any laws from God. Period.
Jesus by contrast, is not only the giver of the Law but He fulfilled it perfectly. Unlike Islam’s only claimed prophet, Jesus can also claim witnesses from four different sources in the very same chapter our Muslim polemicist refers to. These are set out in the second half of chapter 5 of John’s gospel. Here is a summary.
Jesus’ fourfold witness, John 5.31-47:
(i). First we have the witness of the prophet (John 5.31-35, John 10.39-42).
In John 5.30 Jesus had already said … “I can of My own Self do nothing …”. Simply put, Jesus does nothing independent of God, because He came as the Son of God to do the will of God. But He also realized that the Jews were not about to take Him at His own word. In fact, they had a right to expect competent testimony from others who could prove Jesus’ claim to be Who He is. Jesus never exempted Himself from the Biblical foundation for matters to be settled upon the testimony of multiple witnesses.²
Now John the Baptist had become popular very quickly, and he was widely known and accepted as a prophet. In fact, he can be referred to as the last of the Old Testament-style prophets. He had become a local phenomenon, but he had no ego or personal ambitions. In fact, he turned his own followers over to Jesus …”the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1.29). He testified of the supremacy of Jesus as the only cure for the sin problem. He knew that Jesus was on a spiritual mission that somehow involved the salvation of mankind from a lost eternity, and he knew, and testified, that Jesus was the Son of God, (John 1.33-34). He was a good and trustworthy witness. But John was not the only witness for of course there are many Old Testament prophecies heralding the coming Messiah, from Moses onwards. Sufficient for this purpose are the words Jesus spoke at John 5.38-47:
“You don’t have His word living in you, because you don’t believe the One He sent. [39] You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about Me. [40] And you are not willing to come to Me so that you may have life. [41] “I do not accept glory from men, [42] but I know you — that you have no love for God within you. [43] I have come in My Father’s name, yet you don’t accept Me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. [44] How can you believe? While accepting glory from one another, you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God. [45] Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. [46] For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me. [47] But if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:38‭-‬47 HCSB)
(ii). Secondly we see the proof of His works (John 5.36; John 10.36-38; John 14:10-11).
Jesus had His own works to prove He was Who He said He was, starting with His turning the water into wine, raising the dead including His own resurrection, right up to His eventual physical return to glory. But his miracles don’t just result in healing, they prove Jesus’ true heritage; they give His spiritual qualifications; at the same time as physical healing He forgives sins and gives spiritual healing; thus his miracles identify Him as The Son of God, with unlimited power and boundless love!
Jesus saw His works as a testimony to His identity as these verses demonstrate:
“If I am not doing My Father’s works, don’t believe Me. [38] But if I am doing them and you don’t believe Me, believe the works. This way you will know and understand that the Father is in Me and I in the Father”(John 10:37‭-‬38 HCSB).
“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on My own. The Father who lives in Me does His works. [11] Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves” (John 14:10‭-‬11 HCSB).
(iii). Next we have the witness of the Father Himself (John 5.37-38).
“The Father who sent Me has Himself testified about Me” (John 5:37a HCSB)
and
Matthew 3.16 -17…”This is My Beloved Son, in whom I Am well pleased!”
and
Matthew 17:5 (repeating Deuteronomy 18:15), spoken in the presence of the glorified Moses:
“While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said: This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him. LISTEN TO HIM!” (Matthew 17:5 HCSB).
This is clear, isn’t it? But here is the irony…Jesus Is the Son of God in the flesh; and the voice of God, confirming Who He is; and the Jews and Pharisees of His day, (a straight read across to latter-day Muslims), not only refusing to believe, but falsely accusing the Very One they claimed to worship and to serve. How’s that for spiritual ignorance?
(iv). Finally, we have the prophecy of the word of God itself (John 5.38-40)
We see in these next few verses, three things that need to be noted …
(a) First, there is the main Figure of scripture, and that is, of course, Jesus Himself, (5.39). Page after page, starting in Genesis, bears witness to Jesus. He may not be mentioned by name but He’s there, and we need to connect with Him through that written word. If not, then we might as well chuck our bibles out because they don’t mean a thing without our acceptance, belief and obedience!
(b) Secondly, we see the main focus of scripture, (John 5.39-40)…eternal life! The second birth! Moving from the state of being adrift and cut off to the state of salvation, rich and free! From a state of spiritual sickness to a state of spiritual health!
“You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about Me. [40] And you are not willing to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:39‭-‬40 HCSB)
Scripture can be studied through a microscope and still the meaning can elude us. Those Jews knew how many letters were in all the Hebrew Law, and yet they wouldn’t allow that same word to generate faith in their hearts. They knew the word of God, but they were completely ignorant of the God of the word! In fact, just like a lot of people today, those Jews were determined to disbelieve, no matter how much evidence was presented. And that brings us to the last detail of this section…
(c) Thirdly, human failure, John 5.40-47; the will nots’, the have nots’ and the believe nots’.
…you will not come, (John 5.40);
…you will not honour, (John5.41);
…you do not have the love of God, (John 5.42);
…you do not receive, (John 5.43); and
…you do not believe, (John 5.44, 46 and 47).
It’s a sad reflection of human nature that we prefer rebellion and denial to truth and obedience. We prefer to do things in our strength by our own devices and strivings. In place of God we have substituted our own rules for life. We worship idols rather than the True God. It is no surprise therefore that when Muhammad appears in the AD 600’s he attempts to supplant the Word of God with the words of the Quran, removing the doctrine of Grace, Enlightenment and Forgiveness of the gospels and replacing it with the dark satanic verses of paganism, bondage, fear and warmongering, that is Islam. It should be no surprise that it caught on. Jesus predicted that “if another comes in his own name him you will receive” (John 5.43). It’s as close a reference to Muhammad as Jesus gets but it is never a commendation or endorsement.
The disbelief of the Jews of Jesus’s day and of the generations since, is its own testimony and affirmation of the Truth of what Jesus taught and prophesied.
3). CHRIST THE LAWGIVER
“For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King. He will save us” (Isaiah 33:22 HCSB).
Against the preceding background, we are now able to consider Christ in another of His divine functions. It is one that naturally results from His position as Creator, for the One who creates must certainly have authority to guide and control. Referring back to John 5 briefly in verses 22-23 the words of Christ declare that “the Father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son; that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father.” As Christ is the manifestation of the Father in creation, so is He the manifestation of the Father in giving and executing the law. A few texts of Scripture will suffice to prove this.
In Numbers 21:4-6 we have the partial record of an incident that took place while the Children of Israel were in the wilderness, as follows:
“Then they set out from Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea to bypass the land of Edom, but the people became impatient because of the journey. [5] The people spoke against God and Moses: “Why have you led us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food! ” [6] Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit them so that many Israelites died” (Numbers 21:4‭-‬6 HCSB).
The people spoke against God and against Moses. They found fault with their Leader and paid a heavy price. This is why snakes destroyed them. Now compare the words of the apostle Paul concerning this same event:
“Let us not test Christ as some of them did and were destroyed by snakes” (1 Corinthians 10:9 HCSB).
What does this prove? Who was being tested and questioned? The Leader against whom they were murmuring was Christ. This is further proved by the fact that when Moses cast in his lot with Israel, refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt:
“For he [Moses] considered the reproach because of the Messiah to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, since his attention was on the reward” (Hebrews 11:26 HCSB)
[The fathers] all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4 HCSB).
So, then, Christ was the Leader of Israel from Egypt.
The third chapter of Hebrews makes clear the same fact. Here we are told to consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful in all His house, not as a servant, but as a Son over His own house.
“Therefore, holy brothers and companions in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession; [2] He was faithful to the One who appointed Him, just as Moses was in all God’s household. [3] For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house. [4] Now every house is built by someone, but the One who built everything is God. [5] Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s household, as a testimony to what would be said in the future. [6] But Christ was faithful as a Son over His household. And we are that household if we hold on to the courage and the confidence of our hope” (Hebrews 3:1‭-‬6 HCSB).
In these verses we are told that Jesus, as builder of the house is superior to, and deseving of greater glory than Moses who was merely the custodian of it. We are His house if we hold fast our confidence to the end.
“For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start. [15] As it is said: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. [16] For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it really all who came out of Egypt under Moses? [17] And who was He provoked with for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?” (Hebrews 3:14‭-‬17 HCSB)
Here again Christ is set forth as the Leader and Commander of Israel in their forty years’ sojourn in the wilderness.
The same thing is shown in Joshua 5:13-15, where we find that the man who Joshua saw by Jericho, having a sword drawn in his hand is a theophany of the preincarnate Christ:
“When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in His hand. Joshua approached Him and asked, “Are You for us or for our enemies?” [14] “Neither,” He replied. “I have now come as commander of the Lord’s army.” Then Joshua bowed with his face to the ground in worship and asked Him, “What does my Lord want to say to His servant?” [15] The commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so” (Joshua 5:13‭-‬15 HCSB)
Time and again in the Old Testament it’s undeniable that Christ was the real Leader of Israel, although invisible. Moses, the visible leader of Israel perceived He who is invisible;
“By faith he left Egypt behind, not being afraid of the king’s anger, for Moses persevered as one who sees Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27 HCSB)
Only the above can explain:
“Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 of Israel’s elders, [10] and they SAW THE GOD OF ISRAEL. Beneath His feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire stone, as clear as the sky itself. [11] God did not harm the Israelite nobles; THEY SAW HIM, AND THEY ATE AND DRANK. [12] The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay there so that I MAY GIVE YOU THE STONE TABLETS WITH THE LAW AND COMMANDMENTS I HAVE WRITTEN FOR THEIR INSTRUCTION” (Exodus 24:9‭-‬12 HCSB).
This can ONLY be describing another pre incarnate appearance of Christ. Earlier in Exodus we find:
“Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke because the Lord came down on it in fire. Its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently. [19] As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder. [20] The Lord came down on Mount Sinai at the top of the mountain. Then the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and he went up” (Exodus 19:18‭-‬20 HCSB).
“Then God spoke all these words: [2] I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. [3] Do not have other gods besides Me. [4] Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. [5] You must not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the fathers’ sin, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, [6] but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commands” (Exodus 20:1‭-‬6 HCSB).
Who spoke these words? The One who brought them from Egypt. And who was the Leader of Israel from Egypt? It was Christ. Then who spoke the law from Mt. Sinai? It was Christ, the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His Person, who is the manifestation of God to man. It was the Creator of all created things and the One to whom all judgment has been committed.³
This point may be proved in another way. When the Lord comes, it will be with a shout (1 Thessalonians 4:16), which will pierce the tombs and arouse the dead (John 5:28-29).
The prophet Jeremiah said:
“As for you, you are to prophesy all these things to them, and say to them: The Lord roars from heaven; He raises His voice from His holy dwelling. He roars loudly over His grazing land; He calls out with a shout, like those who tread grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. [33] Those slain by the Lord on that day will be spread from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned, gathered, or buried. They will be like manure on the surface of the ground” (Jeremiah 25:30‭, ‬33 HCSB).
Now compare this with Revelation 19:11-21, where Christ as the Leader of the armies of heaven, the Word of God, King of kings, and Lord of lords, goes forth to tread the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, destroying all the wicked, we find that it is Christ who roars from His habitation against all the inhabitants of the earth, when He has His controversy with the nations. Joel adds another point, when he says:
“The Lord will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will shake. But the Lord will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the Israelites” (Joel 3:16 HCSB).
From these sample texts, amongst others, we learn that in connection with the coming of the Lord to deliver His people, He speaks with a voice that shakes the earth and the heavens:
“The earth staggers like a drunkard and sways like a hut. Earth’s rebellion weighs it down, and it falls, never to rise again. [21] On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven above and kings of the earth below. [22] They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit. They will be confined to a dungeon; after many days they will be punished. [23] The moon will be put to shame and the sun disgraced, because the Lord of Hosts will reign as king on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, and He will display His glory in the presence of His elders” (Isaiah 24:20‭-‬23 HCSB).
“But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed” (2 Peter 3:10 HCSB).
“Make sure that you do not reject the One who speaks. For if they did not escape when they rejected Him who warned them on earth, even less will we if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven. [26] His voice shook the earth at that time, but now He has promised, Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also heaven” (Hebrews 12:25‭-‬26 HCSB).
The time when the Voice speaking on earth shook the earth was when the law was spoken from Sinai (Exodus 19:18-20; Hebrews 12:18- 20), an event that for awfulness has never had a parallel and never will have until the Lord comes with all the angels of heaven to save His people. But note: The same voice that then shook the earth will, in the coming time, shake not only earth, but heaven also, and we have seen that it is the voice of Christ that will sound with such volume as to shake heaven and earth when He has His controversy with the nations. Therefore it is demonstrated that it was the voice of Christ that was heard from Sinai, proclaiming the Ten Commandments.
This is no more than would naturally be concluded from what we can learn concerning Christ as Creator and the Maker (and Lord – see Section 4) of the Sabbath.
Indeed, the fact that Christ is a part of the Godhead, possessing all the attributes of Divinity, being the equal of the Father in all respects, as Creator and Lawgiver, is the only force there is in the atonement. It is this, and this alone which makes redemption a possibility. Christ died “that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18), but if He lacked one iota of being equal to God, He could not bring us to Him. Divinity means having the attributes of Deity. If Christ were not Divine, then we should have only a human sacrifice. It matters not, even if it were granted that Christ was the highest created intelligence in the universe; in that case He would be a subject, owing allegiance to the law, without ability to do any more than His own duty. He could have no righteousness to impart to others. There is an infinite distance between the highest angel ever created and God; therefore, the highest angel could not lift fallen man up and make him partaker of the Divine nature. Angels can minister; but only God can redeem. Thanks be to God that we are saved “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and who is, therefore, able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.
4). THE LORD OF THE SABBATH IS MAKER OF IT AND THE LAW
□ “What does it mean that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath? (Caps for emphasis)
The phrase “the Lord of the Sabbath” 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. Unable to keep the Law, however, the Pharisees had instituted a complex and confusing system of Sabbath laws of their own that was oppressive and legalistic. They had set up strict laws regarding how to observe the Sabbath, which included 39 categories of forbidden activities. In essence, these religious leaders had made themselves lords of the Sabbath, thus making themselves lords over the people.
As Creator, Christ was the original Lord of the Sabbath (John 1:3; Hebrews 1:10). He had the authority to overrule the Pharisees’ traditions and regulations because He had created the Sabbath—and the Creator is always greater than the creation. Furthermore, Jesus claimed the authority to correctly interpret the meaning of the Sabbath and all the laws pertaining to it. Because Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, He is free to do on it and with it whatever He pleases.
AS LORD OF THE SABBATH, JESUS HAD THE RIGHT, POWER, AND AUTHORITY TO DISPENSE IT IN ANY WAY HE PLEASED. The Lord of the Sabbath had come, and with His death and resurrection He became the fulfillment of our “Sabbath rest.” The salvation we have in Christ has made the old law of the Sabbath no longer needed or binding. When Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27), Jesus was attesting to the fact that, just as the Sabbath day was originally instituted to give man rest from his labors, so did He come to provide us rest from laboring to achieve our own salvation by our works. Because of His sacrifice on the cross, we can now forever cease laboring to attain God’s favor and rest in His mercy and grace.”
Source: www.gotquestions.org/Lord-of-the-Sabbath.html
5). CONCLUSIONS
This post has demonstrated that Christ is the Leader and Commander of Israel, who appeared to Moses and Joshua amongst others and who gave the law to Moses (Exodus 24:9-12). But that was just the start, for look how He reappears incarnate in the New Testament …
What manifestation of love is this? The Innocent suffered for the guilty; the Just for the unjust; the Creator for the creature; the Maker of the law for the transgressor against the law; the King for his rebellious subjects.
Since God spared not His own Son but freely delivered Him up for us all — Since Christ voluntarily gave Himself for us — how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? Infinite Love could find no greater manifestation of itself. Well may the Lord say, “What could have been done more to My vineyard that I have not done in it?” (Isaiah 5:4)
Notes
¹ Following his encounter, Muhammad thought he was demon possessed. This according to Sahih Bukhari 9:111 where it states that he was twitching with terror, asking what was wrong with him whilst demanding to be covered, fearing that something BAD may happen to him.
Also from Ibn Ishaq’s “Sirat Rasul Allah” Muhammad didn’t think this was Gabriel at first, but that he was demon possessed. (pp. 106-107). It was only until people convinced him that he was met by an angel of the Lord that he slowly came to believe that he was called to prophethood.
As a matter of fact, even people during Muhammad’s time believed that he was demon possessed and was met, NOT by Gabriel, but by a demon. How embarrassing that the Quran even had to issue denials on his behalf :
Surah 81:22-25: “No, your compatriot [Muhammad] is not mad. He saw him [Gabriel] on the clear horizon. He does not grudge the secrets of the unseen, nor is this the utterance of an accursed devil.”
Surah 69:41, 42: “It [the Quran] is no poet’s speech: scant is your faith! It is no soothsayer’s divination: how little you reflect! It is revelation from the Lord of the Universe.”
Christians are not surprised that Muhammad displayed demonic signs. Paul warns of false apostles:
“For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no great thing if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their destiny will be according to their works.” (2 Corinthians 11:13‭-‬15 HCSB)
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!” (Galatians 1:8‭-‬9 HCSB)
² See this Post for more on the Biblical principle of multiple attestation found nowhere in Islam:
□ THE BIBLE TESTIFIES TO GOD BEING MULTI-PERSONAL, APPEARING IN DIFFERENT FORMS AND REQUIRING MULTIPLE WITNESSES 24 March 2021
www.facebook.com/100063590342443/posts/131355072327504/
³ See this Post for more on preincarnate appearances of God including appearing as a man:
□ GOD HAS ALWAYS APPEARED IN HUMAN FORM SINCE THE DAYS OF CREATION 16 May 2021
www.facebook.com/100063590342443/posts/162844549178556/

Bible condemns Islam

Bible condemns Islam

THE BIBLE WARNINGS AGAINST HERESY CONDEMN ISLAM
1). INTRODUCTION
Muslims have you ever stopped to wonder this? Accept for the moment that the Bible is the true word of God. Set aside your prejudices and preconceptions that its corrupted, misinterpreted or misunderstood by Christians. Just take it as a given fact, that Jesus death on the cross and His resurrection defeated Satan.
Now Satan is not going to roll over and accept defeat right? All the while he is at large in the world and ruler of it, he is going to find ways to stop people getting to heaven. And since our only route to heaven is through Jesus and the atonement of the Cross (Matthew 26:26-28, Mark 10:45, John 14:6), Satan has to block that avenue.
But more than that, Satan is trying to usurp God. Ever since he was cast down from heaven he is the envier, enemy and accuser of God and of God’s people. He wants to be worshipped (Isaiah 14:14; Matthew 4:8-10), so needs an identity that can deceive people into thinking he is God. He needs a disguise and he needs his servants to appear in disguise, for he is not so stupid as to play himself – though the church of Satan does worship him overtly – to attract the masses, he needs to appear more orthodox and mainstream with at least a superficial “pedigree” of legitimacy.
Enter Islam. Islam fits Satan’s purposes perfectly. It denies the crucifixion our only hope of salvation. It also denies the divinity of Jesus and vehemently opposes the Triune God of Scripture. For Satan being a singularity (albeit with a third of the fallen angels as his army), cannot replicate God’s multiple personality. Also Satan demands blind allegiance and submission as Islam’s god does. He discourages and does not accept questions or being tested for he can’t stand up to scrutiny. So he becomes the ultimate in obscurity, making himself inscrutibly unknowable. Just as Islam’s Allah does. He is proud and boastful and covets everything that belongs to God. Just as Allah does. He glorifies death since death is his domain. Hence we find shedding blood, killing and being killed, in appeasement of Allah, the ultimate honour for a Muslim and a straight pass to a sensually alluring Paradise, where God is nowhere.
All that is in polar opposite contra-distinction to Christ who conquered death, redeemed us by shedding His own blood and glorifies God and God’s people with eternal life in God’s presence.
2). THE MUSLIM DILEMMA
Muslims how can you be sure that Islam is from God? How can you be sure that Allah isn’t Satan and that what assaulted Muhammad at Hira wasn’t a demon disguised as an angel?
If you’re still in suspended judgment mode consider what the Bible says. Given that there is no mention of Islam, Muhammad or Allah in all of Scripture how can you test your faith against Biblical precepts?
After all, the Bible warns us of Satan appearing as an angel of light and his servants disguised as servants of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).
We can very simply test Islam against some foundational Biblical principles of which the following is only a selection.
3). BIBLE WARNINGS
The Bible may not mention Muhammad by name but it does warn us of false prophets along with these warnings and strictures for living by and establishing the truth:
● Not going after, following or worshipping “other gods” (Deuteronomy 13:1-4, 18:20).
● Angels appearing and preaching “another gospel” and pronounces a curse on anyone following them (Galatians 1:8-9).
● Not taking up the sword for all who do will die by it (Matthew 26:52).
● Not denying the Cross of Christ which is Satanic (Matthew 16:23).
● Being easily seduced by the many who will come in Jesus name claiming to be the Christ (Matthew 24:23-24; Mark 13:21-22; Luke 21:8) or “another Jesus” (2 Corinthians 11:4).
● Against being “carried away by varied and strange teachings” (Hebrews 13:9) or being captivated by “philosophy, empty deceptions based on traditions and worldly principles, rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8).
● Against falling back into Old Covenant legalism or being subject to rules of not “handling tasting or touching” based on the rules of men (Mark 7:19; Colossians 2:20-22; Hebrews 8:13).
● Having nothing to do with worldly myths and fables “fit only for old women” (1 Timothy 4:7); not following “cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:16) and “paying no heed to (Jewish) myths and the commands of men who reject the truth” (Titus 1:14).
● Against being “enticed by fleshly desires and sensuality” being “promised freedom by those who are slaves of corruption” (2 Peter 2:17-22).
● Against denying the divinity of Christ for the one who does is a liar and the antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son (1 John 2:22-23).
● To be discerning and “not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).
● How to recognise the Spirit of God (Holy Spirit) “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist” (1 John 4:2-3).
● For a charge to be brought or settled it requires the testimony of two or three witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15; Matthew 18:16; 2 Corinthians 13:1)
● Against adding to or taking away from God’s word (Deuteronomy 4:2, 12:32; Revelation 22:18-19)
4). COMMENTS
Muslims how many of the above 15 criteria does Islam meet?
Let’s mention a few. Islam fails the multiple attestion/witness rule. Just for starters, Muhammad had no witnesses to his cave encounters nor any of his claimed signs. There is zero witness testimony to support the claims of Surah 4:157.
Islam follows “other gods” ie the pagan Allah (previously Hubal) and Muhammad his equal and mediator for Muslims.
The ‘Isa’ of Islam is “another Jesus” as warned about by Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:4. He is always referenced “son of Mary” never the Son of God and is a mere prophet to Israel only, without His universal Biblical titles of priest and king. Although acknowledged as “Al-Masih” (Messiah), Islam does not recognise that He is God.
Islam fails the spiritual discernment tests of 1 John 2 and 4 for it does deny Christ’s divinity and unity with the Father. Moreover it discourages asking questions as a matter of principle. Islam is not an enquring faith it is a blind faith.
Islam does what 2 Peter 2:17-22 says not to do being “enticed by fleshly desires and sensuality” which sums up the lure of Islam’s illusory carnal paradise.
The Quran is rife with embarrassing accusations of Muhammad’s contemporaries that he was a plagiariser and bringer of the fairy tales of the ancients; “mere fables of the men of old” (Surah 16:24 Pickthall); “And they say `these are fables of the ancient; and he has got them written down and they are read out to him morning and evening'” (Surah 25:5 Sherali). See also Surah 6:25; 8:31; 10:38; 11:13, 35; 27:68; 46:8-9, 17; 52:33; 68:15; 83:13.
… all of which is in stark contrast to, and falls foul of 1 Timothy 4:7, 2 Peter 1:16 and Titus 1:14 amongst others.
Islam is a religion of violence and the sword (princially Surah 9:5, see also 2:193 & 216, 4:89, 5:33, 8.67, 47:4 and many others), all contrary to Matthew 26:52.
Islam imposes legalism par excellence burdening Muslims with rules for everything from what can be eaten, to dress code to form and times of prayer and ablution etiquette. This is contrary to the New Covenant based on grace not law, whereby Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law on our behalf and is thus contrary to Mark 7:19; Colossians 2:20-22, Hebrews 8:13 amongst others.
Above all, Islam denies the crucifixion in direct opposition to the Gospel narrative the entire New Testament, hundreds of OT prophecies and not least Matthew 16.23.
5). CONCLUSIONS
Given the premise of our starting position for this post, namely that the Cross defeated Satan how is Islam shaping up as Satan’s thinly disguised attempt to overwrite it Muslims?
Even from this incomplete review, when you look at the tenets of Islam it should by now be obvious that this wholesale opposition to Biblical principles is not mere “correcting” of wrong interpretation or corrupt Bible doctrines, it is ANTITHETICAL TO GOD’S WORD on every level. It is REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY, with not so much theological content, and an emphasis rather on rules for secular life and totalitarian political hegemony. Hitler’s manifesto Mein Kampf, still a best seller in the Arabic world does much the same, and makes the same enemies of God’s people, while being a lot more coherent and transparent.
Who opposes God? Satan does. Islam is the religion of Satan. Case closed.

The Bible Canon

The Bible Canon

HOW THE BIBLE CANON WAS SETTLED
1). INTRODUCTION
The theme of this post is to address the canonicity of the Bible, a topic that is too much neglected given the frequency of attacks on it from Muslims and others.
The question of canonicity addresses what documents belong in the Bible and why. The “canon” refers to the books that are contained within the Bible; those which are the word of God. Amongst the questions to be addressed are:
▪︎ How do we know which books belong in the Bible?
▪︎ How do we know that the 66 books we have are the correct ones?
▪︎ How do we know we’re not missing something?
▪︎ And who decided what would be included in the Bible and what would not?
Some have called the issue of canonicity the “Achilles heel” of Christianity. It’s often the point of attack from Muslims and other unbelievers. At some point, most Christians will be challenged here. Related, Roman Catholic proponents take issue with canonicity. They propose that holding to the canonicity of the 66 books of Scripture alone is “blind faith,” irrational, opposed to evidence, and arbitrary. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, an honest study of biblical canonicity will only build one’s necessary faith in the integrity of the God-breathed 66-books of the Bible. At the same time, it will prove that later books such as the Quran cannot be from God.
A popular myth needs correction from the outset. No men, church council, or spiritual leaders ever gathered to collectively determine what would and would not be included in the Bible. No council decided which books to keep and toss. No human being defined the list of biblical books. And that does not make the biblical canon less reliable, but more secure.
2). CANONICITY: A THEOLOGICAL ISSUE
The canon debate is primarily a theological issue, not a historical one. What should, and should not, be in the Bible is a matter of inspiration and revelation, not church councils and magisterium.
The question of the canon begins with understanding the nature of Scripture. We cannot understand what should be in the Bible until we understand what the Bible is. The canon of Scripture depends on the attributes of Scripture. A document must have certain attributes before it can be considered as canon. It’s the same way, for example, in professional baseball. Who gets to play major league baseball is determined by who possesses certain attributes and fulfils certain criteria necessary to the sport.
So it is with what is, and is not, in the Bible. That’s why our discussion of canon begins with a study of revelation and inspiration.
3). CANONCITY IS THE “CONSEQUENCE OF INSPIRATION”
Scripture is special revelation from God. It is otherwise undisclosed to, and unattainable by, man; that is, until God reveals. Humanity received God’s revelation through the act of verbal plenary inspiration, whereby God the Holy Spirit superintended the human authors to write exactly what He wished upon the original manuscripts. The result was the 66 books of God-breathed revelation. Since God is a God of truth, these 66 books are without error. They are truth. They are complete. This is what directs our understanding of what must be in the Bible; what constitutes the word of God.
Canonicity of the biblical text is the necessary consequence of the Holy Spirit’s work of verbal plenary inspiration. Whatever God inspired is consequently canonical. Because God gave revelation, it is thereby the word of God, or, canonical. Thus, the canonicity of a document depends entirely on the source and nature of the document, and not the outside opinion of man. Is the document the product of verbal plenary inspiration? If so, it is canonical.
The 66 books are God-breathed special revelation. So then, they are canonical by God’s doing, not man’s determination. The Bible is canonical whether or not anyone recognizes or acknowledges it. Inspiration establishes canonicity. The construction of the canon was the act of God, independent of man: God inspired the books of Scripture. In doing so, the canon was created.
4). A FLAWED APPROACH TO CANONICITY
So, how does imperfect man recognize what is and is not inspired and canonical?
The question has now changed from, “How was the canon formed, historically?” to “How can we, as Christians, know that these books are the right ones?”
One way to answer this question is to see how it should not be done. Enter the Vatican. The Roman Catholic religion takes a flawed approach to this question. Rome teaches that the canon exists because the church has infallibly decreed which books are Scripture. Thus, the magisterium determines the canon absolutely. The authority to do so lies, they teach, in who the pope is. For Rome, the pope is the successor of the apostle Peter, vicar of Christ, and head of the church. Thus, the authority to pronounce canonicity is vested uniquely by the pope and by the bishops who assume that they are in communion with the correct and true teachings of the faith. Add to that, when Rome speaks ex cathedra, she claims to speak infallibly. So, in her eyes, Rome does more than recognize canonicity; she determines it.
Though this is a flawed approach, Rome does get one thing right: the response of the church matters. We should care what the church has historically believed. However, by her numerous aberrant teachings, including denial of the true gospel and Christ as head of the church, Rome declares herself a false church (cf. Galatians 1:8-9). This has been the position of the true church, historically.
Rome undermines the authority of Scripture by teaching that canonicity is determined by the magisterium. In effect then, the authority of Scripture is beneath the authority of Rome. Though she teaches that God’s authority is vested in the magisterium, legitimizing her canonical determination, this must be rejected on the grounds that Rome has deviated from the true church. Thus, Rome’s say on the canon cannot be considered or recognised.
5). MAN RECOGNIZES THE CANON, BUT DOES NOT DETERMINE IT
God himself is the highest authority as to the nature of His word. Men and magisteria are not God. Therefore, they are not qualified nor instrumental in determining canonicity. Since God is the highest authority, He is the one who testifies to the authenticity of His word.
Since Scripture is the word of God, it is the highest authority, and thus alone qualified to declare its own canonicity. Scripture is self-authenticating in that sense.
If we assume to use anything outside of the canon (e.g. church council, magisterium, men) as determinative of what is and is not the canon, then we have wrongfully put that thing in authority over God. But God and His word are the highest authority. The thing of highest authority must adjudicate what is and is not the canon. This means that God determines what is God’s word and is not. The canon itself must be self-authenticating. Certain Bible passages give us clues to this fact:
“I assure you: Anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the door but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. [2] The one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. [3] The doorkeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. [4] When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they recognize his voice. [5] They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t recognize the voice of strangers.” (John 10:1‭-‬5 HCSB)
The true sheep know the voice of the shepherd.
“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.” [25] “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. [26] But you don’t believe because you are not My sheep. [27] My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me. [28] I give them eternal life, and they will never perish — ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand.” (John 10:24‭-‬28 HCSB)
The voice of the Shepherd is authoritative, powerful, and effective. His voice is recognized by those who know Him. The sheep do not need external authentication to discern the Shepherd’s voice. They only need His voice to discern His voice. We might think of it this way: what is the best way to recognize your spouse’s voice in a sea of people? To have someone you don’t know tell you, “This is your spouse’s voice”? To read a document that explains what your spouse’s voice sounds like? The best way to discern your spouse’s voice amongst other voices is to listen out for until you hear your spouse’s voice. Likewise, the best way to discern God’s word is to listen until you hear God’s word. By nature of being the Chief Shepherd’s sheep, He assures that they are able, and will, hear His voice. His voice is Scripture (cf. 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Hebrews 1:1-2). Again, Scripture is self-authenticating. Thus the canon declares itself canonical.
6). MISSING PIECES TO THE CANON?
Is it possible, however, that the canon is incomplete? What if we found another letter by an Apostle and we could verify that it was genuine? After all, 2 Kings 22 demonstrates that the Bible has been lost before, so, parts of it could be lost now, right? Should we expect to find new books which belong in the canon?
Presupposing God’s care for His Church, it’s reasonable to affirm that He would not likely inspire a book/letter, then forget or neglect to bring it into the possession of His Church. Anything that has been lost for 2000 years was not intended by God to be foundational for the edification of The Church. We would simply recognize that God did not intend for it to be a permanent foundation for the Church, so we could not add it to the canon. #FACT: Canonical books cannot be lost. In the case of 2 Kings 22, the book of the law wasn’t really “lost”, it was neglected.
The Bible was in the Temple, yet sinfully abandoned due to Israel’s apostasy. Certain letters during the first century have been lost, but we have no record of them ever being considered part of Scripture. In such cases, they were lost in God’s providence because they were not canonical. God is that good to outfit His church with His word. These truths more than prove there is no such thing as the ludicrous Muslim claim of a “lost gospel of Jesus”.
7). CANONICITY & THE DIVINE QUALITY OF SCRIPTURE
Though there is no higher authority for determining the canon than the canon itself, we can observe criteria inherent to biblical canonicity.
The divine qualities present in Scripture testify to its canonicity. John Calvin wrote:
“It is easy to see that the sacred Scriptures, which so far surpass all gifts and graces of human endeavor, breathe something divine” (Institutes, 1.8.1. p. 82).
Again, “Scripture exhibits fully as clear evidence of its own truth as white and black things do of their color, or sweet and bitter things do of their taste” (Institutes, 1.8.1. p. 76).
8). WHICH DIVINE QUALITIES OF SCRIPTURE TESTIFY TO ITS CANONICITY?
First, Scripture has an unmatched excellency to it.
“The law of the Lord is perfect” (Psalms 19:7).
“How sweet are your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth” (Psalms 119:103).
“Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul observes them” (Psalms 119:129).
Second, Scripture possesses unique power.
“The word of God is living and active; sharper than any two-edged sword…able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
Scripture has the power to expose sin and guilt (2 Kings 22:11-13, Acts 2:34-37, Hebrews 4:12-13), give joy to the heart (Nehemiah 8:8-12, Psalms 119:111), bring wisdom (Psalms 119:98, 2 Timothy 3:16), give understanding (Psalms 119:144), comfort (Psalms 119:50), convert the unconverted (Psalms19:7, James 1:18, 1 Peter 1:23), and sanctify the converted (John 17:17, 1 Peter 2:2).
Third, Scripture possesses extraordinary unity. God cannot lie (Psalms 89:35, Titus 1:2) or change (Hebrews 13:8), so His word must confirm itself (consistent and never contradicting). Despite 66 separate books, inspired through 40 different authors from varying demographics, over a time span of at least 1500 years, the Bible tells one cohesive story of God’s redemptive plan. These divine qualities speak to the divine origin of Scripture, and its canonicity.
9). CANONICITY & THE APOSTOLIC ROLE
Canonicity is also observed in the role that the apostles played as human instruments in inspiration. Apostles were commissioned by the authority of Christ and entrusted with both composing and delivering the gospel to the world. The Holy Spirit guided them into truth, empowering them to testify inerrantly in Scripture (John 14:26, 15:26-27, 16:13).
10). CANOCITY & THE CHURCH’S EMBRACING OF THE CANON
Since the Shepherd’s voice is unmistakably discernable by His sheep, it follows that there will be a visible embracing of the canon in church history. This is exactly what is observed. That the true church—regenerate people through faith in the biblical Christ—recognize and affirm the canon testifies to the self-authenticating nature of Scripture. The church is not authoritatively determining which books belong in the canon. Jesus said that the church consists of sheep who hear, not Shepherds who determine. The church is more like a thermometer than a thermostat. They both tell you something about the temperature of the room. But one determines the temperature while the other responds to it. In the same way, the church does not determine the canon, it responds to it. As the canon developed, the church heard her Shepherd’s voice, and has unanimously recognized the canon. It also provided a chain of custody for it.
But what about all those disagreements over what should and should not be in the Bible? Why would God allow specious books to confuse the church? First, there are relatively few disagreements historically. Even more, the disagreements are a commentary on sinful man and the deception of Satan. But also, in the providence of.God, the counterfeit books were a blessing to the early church. They forced the church to hear the Shepherd’s voice. God’s people had to clarify what God has already done, namely, canonize his verbal plenary inspired word.
11). REGENERATION ESSENTIAL TO RECOGNITION
Only Holy-Spirit-indwelt people are able to recognize the canon. In regeneration, sinners are awakened to discern the things of the Spirit (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:14-16); what would otherwise be “foolishness” to unregenerate man. Thus, the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit is the means by which we perceive canonicity. This becomes the test of canonicity: the Holy Spirit’s testimony to the canonical nature of His own word. The Spirit overcomes the effects of sin and produces belief within us consequent of regeneration/the new birth. The Holy Spirit opens eyes to perceive objective qualities that are present in the text. Consequently, the true Church recognizes the canon.
12). GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY & THE CANON
God is the living God; active and sovereignly involved in life. He wishes for His people to discern what He has made canonical. God intends for His word to be known by His people (Romans 15:4, 2 Timothy 3:16-17). More than intention, God is sovereign in accomplishing His purposes (Psalms 135:6, Daniel 4:35, Acts 17:25-28, Ephesians 1:11, Hebrews 1:3). He will not fail to accomplish what He wishes (Psalms 115:3). Therefore, He will certainly both produce the canon and ensure that His people correctly recognize it. God is our Shepherd and we do not lack. How did, and does, God do that? God providentially guided the true Church to recognize what He had inspired. The recognition of the canon was the act of God, through regenerate man: God illumined regenerate individuals by the Holy Spirit to recognize what He had inspired. In doing so, the canon was recognized.
13). A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANON RECOGNITION
▪︎ Old Testament
Jesus affirmed the first-century Jewish canon, which is identical to our Old Testament canon. The New Testament contains no hint that the Jews had an incorrect canon. The subject of canon is never under dispute as far as the Old Testament is concerned. Jesus, Paul, Peter, Apollos, and Stephen, for example, appeal to the Old Testament as canonical. Further, Jesus endorses the three-fold structure of the Old Testament that the Jews observed (the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms; Luke 24:44).
▪︎ New Testament
By the close of the first century, God had completed the canon. The church immediately recognized the canonical character of New Testament letters (2 Peter 3:16). As time passed, the greater church heard her Shepherd’s voice. Between 70-170 AD, the authority of the apostles was considered equal to the Old Testament. The gospels and Paul’s letters were accepted as part of the canon. It seems that every New Testament book except for 2 Peter was recognized. Due to geographical separation, difficulty communicating in the ancient world, persecution, and Satanic opposition, we would expect recognition of the 27 books to take time. Over the next few centuries, there was little debate over the New Testament canon. All 27 books were recognized as the word of God.
During the fourth century, Athanasius completed the task started by Eusebius with recognizing the canon. Codex Sinaiticus existed, which contained all 27 books of the NT, indicating widespread recognition of the canon. That we know of, the Council of Laodicea (363 AD) became the earliest council to recognize the canon.
□ Summary
The divine qualities of Scripture, the apostolic involvement in inspiration, and the church’s embracing of the canon speak volumes as to the canonical nature of the Bible. Each of the attributes implies the other two attributes. If a book bears divine qualities, it follows that it contains apostolic teaching, which implies that the church should properly recognize it by the power of the Spirit. And, if the church receives it, then that implies that the book contains divine qualities and that it contains apostolic teaching. In other words, the 66 books of Scripture declare objectively their own canonicity.
So, what council determined what would be in the bible? Because of God’s act of inspiration, the only council which determined what would be in the canon and what would not, was the counsel of God. God inspired the canon by His Holy Spirit. In God’s providence, regenerate man recognizes the canon by the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
14). WAS THE CANON CLOSED?
We can discern the answer to this question by observing characteristics about the Old and New Testaments. The OT concludes, leaves us wondering what is next. The NT concludes, leaves us at praising God. Where is the Seed (Genesis 3:15) who will crush the serpent? Who’s the one to reign forever on the throne of David? Is mankind doomed to repeat an endless cycle of animal sacrifices for all eternity? It leaves mankind looking forward to more, to expect the arrival of the Messiah at some point.
But the NT leaves us only looking forward to the triumphant return of Christ. The New Testament is God’s final word. Jesus is the final messenger and complete revelation of God. Only the Apostles were commissioned to authoritatively testify about Christ.
“Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. [2] In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. God has appointed Him heir of all things and made the universe through Him.” (Hebrews 1:1‭-‬2 HCSB)
God’s redemptive story is complete. Revelation is the perfect ending. In it, God ties up the “loose ends” from Genesis on.
The early church believed the canon was closed. The Muratorian fragment rejected the popular work “Shepherd of Hermas” because it was written “very recently, in our own times.” So as early as the second century, the church did not consider the canon to be open. The early church recognized the close of the canon with the death of the Apostles.
When was it closed? God closed the canon with the conclusion of inspiration. The cessation of inspiration closes the canon.
15). BONUS QUESTION: WHAT ABOUT THE APOCRYPHA?
The Apocrypha is a collection of books and writings that were written during the intertestamental period. Rome considers them canonical. However, as Wayne Grudem wrote, “It was not until 1546, at the Council of Trent, that the Roman Catholic Church officially declared the Apocrypha to be part of the canon (with the exception of 1 and 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh)” (Systematic Theology, 59).
Even so, the church does not consider them to be Scripture. Why? The first-century Jews did not consider them inspired. The New Testament never affirms or cites the Apocrypha as Scripture. The dominant position of the early church was that these writings were not authoritative. The testimony of the Holy Spirit from within the regenerate/church, has universally concluded that the Apocrypha is not inspired/God-breathed.
16). CONCLUSIONS
Because we know how the Canon of Scripture was chosen, (by inspiration of God) and how it concluded (when Apostolic inspiration ended), we have complete assurance that nothing that was intended to be included is missing and that nothing that is included is not rightfully there.
The last chapter of the last book of Scripture contains a sombre warning:
“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)
By all this we know, there is no further revelation from God that supercedes or follows the completed canon. The New Testament is God’s final word to humanity, and Jesus Christ His final revelation. There is no more. And we should not expect anything else. For God in closing the Canon left nothing unfinished, left no loose ends and gave no hint that He had left anything unsaid, or that there would be anything to follow it. The only matters left to follow are the fulfilment of remaining End Times prophecies including the Second Coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in power and glory. Amen.
Anything that claims to follow it, claims to alter, correct or supercede it is heresy. By this fact alone, we know that only Satan could have inspired the Quran or the Book of Mormon.

Sceptics who became Christians

Sceptics who became Christians

THEY BECAME WITNESSES TO THE TRUTH OF IT, HAVING SET OUT TO DISPROVE THE RESURRECTION
Here in no particular order are nine examples of respected sceptics who set out to disprove/systematically investigate Christianity, yet as a result through their research actually became Christians.
1). Sir William Mitchell Ramsay (1851-1939)
He was a highly respected archaeologist (so much so that he was knighted) from Scotland. He set out to prove the historical inaccuracies of the book of Acts. Ramsay thought this book was the most ridiculous of all the New Testament. 15 years he spent researching and digging, only to end up being convinced of the incredible accuracy of the book, converted to Christianity, and called Luke (who wrote Acts) one of the greatest historians to ever live. He wrote several books on the subject, which have yet to be refuted. His work caused an outcry from atheists because they had been eagerly awaiting his results in disproving the validity of Acts.
2). Lee Strobel (1952 -)
He was a journalist for the Chicago Tribune who set out to disprove Christianity, but ended up becoming a Christian and created the famous “Case for…” series. Strobel, former legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, cross-examined a dozen experts with doctorates who are specialists in the areas of old manuscripts, textual criticism, and biblical studies. He challenges them with questions like How reliable is the New Testament? Does evidence for Jesus exist outside the Bible? Is there any reason to believe the resurrection was an actual event?
His book “The Case for Christ” was made into a film in 2017 directed by Jon Gunn and written by Brian Bird, based on the true story and inspired by the 1998 book of the same name by Lee Strobel. The film stars Mike Vogel, Erika Christensen, Faye Dunaway and Robert Forster, and follows an atheist journalist who looks to disprove his wife’s Christian faith.
3). Josh McDowell (1939 -)
He set out to write a paper in college to expose Christianity as a myth, but ended up being so convinced that he became a Christian evangelist himself and wrote the influential book “Evidence that Demands a Verdict” which in 2006, was ranked 13th in Christianity Today’s list of most influential evangelical books published since World War II.
4). Andre Kole (1936 – )
He was a giant in the world of magic, creating tricks for the greatest magicians in the world including making the statue of liberty disappear for David Copperfield. He was commissioned to study the miracles of the bible to expose them as magic tricks and thus disprove its legitimacy. Through this investigation, Andre Kole became a Christian and has since dedicated himself to spreading the Gospel via the art of magic, performing in more countries than any other magician in history. He is noted for using his magical knowledge to debunk frauds and hoaxes.
□ THOSE WHO CHALLENGE GOD USUALLY PAY A HIGH PRICE.
People who have set out to challenge God have usually ended up paying a high price for it or finding their opposition rebounding on themselves.
In AD 303, the Roman Emperor Diocletian issued an edict to stop Christians from worshipping Jesus Christ and to destroy their Scriptures. Every official in the empire was ordered to raze the churches to the ground and burn every Bible found in their districts (Stanley Greenslade, Cambridge History of the Bible). A mere ten years later, Diocletian’s successor, Constantine, issued the Edict of Milan in AD 313, granting religious tolerance to all views. He also ordered fifty Bibles to be published at government expense (Eusebius).
In 1778 the French infidel Voltaire boasted that in 100 years Christianity would cease to exist, but within 50 years the Geneva Bible Society used his press and house to publish Bibles (Geisler and Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible, 1986, pp. 123, 124).
Robert Ingersoll once boasted, “Within 15 years I’ll have the Bible lodged in a morgue.” But Ingersoll was the one who died, and the Bible remains alive and well and is the most printed book in all history.
In 1965 the Beatle John Lennon boasted that the “Fab Four” Beatles were now more famous than Jesus. 15 years later, at the age of 40, Lennon was assassinated on the streets of New York. While the work of the Beatles is widely recognised, its influence was transient. I suggest many more people in the world today know who Jesus is, than have ever heard of John Lennon or the Beatles.
Probably Islam’s most famous apologist, Ahmed Deedat was silenced by God in the most dramatic fashion, after he prayed to have muted whoever was the liar in his debate with Dr Anis Shorrosh in 1985. He was invoking the ‘mubahala’ challenge, supposedly instituted by Muhammad to resolve debates as enshrined in Surah 3:61 (invoking god’s curse upon the liars). Within a year of issuing the challenge, Muhammad’s game of Islamic roulette backfired upon him, and he died childless in lingering pain and shame from poison. It seems he incurred God’s judgment too.
After blaspheming God on Good Friday 1995, in 1996 Deedat suffered a rare type of stroke affecting the brain stem that left him mentally aware but totally paralyzed, unable to move, speak, or swallow on his own, requiring total care like a baby: feeding, bathing, diapers. He couldn’t scratch his own nose, yet was fully aware of his condition.
He lay locked in a body like that, aware but unable to move or speak, for nine years until he finally died in 2005.
By contrast, Peter and Paul died far more quickly, executed by Romans, the enemies of God, martyred for their witness but not silenced by God. Their witness lives on in their epistles.
One has to wonder if Muslims are so sure of themselves why don’t more invoke the mubahala challenge?
answering-islam.org/Responses/Deedat/downfall.htm
Returning to the list of those who set out to disprove Christianity here are the remaining examples 5 through 9:
5). Gilbert West (1703-1756)
Gilbert West was included in Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. As a student at Oxford, West set out to debunk the Bible’s account of Christ’s resurrection. Instead, having proved to himself that Christ did rise from the dead, he was converted. West published his conclusions in the book ‘Observations on the History and Evidences of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ’ (1747). On the fly-leaf he had the following printed: “Blame not before thou hast examined the truth.”
West concluded his book with these words:
“If Christ had not risen, and proved himself by many infallible tokens to have risen from the dead, the Apostles and Disciples could have had no inducement to believe in him, that is to acknowledge him for the Messiah, the Anointed of God; on the contrary, they must have taken him for an impostor, and under that persuasion could never have become preachers of the Gospel, without becoming euthusiasts or impostors, in either of which characters it is impossible they should have succeeded, to the degree which we are assured they did, considering their natural insufficiency, the strong opposition of all the world to the doctrines of Christianity, and their own high pretensions to miraculous powers, about which they could neither have been deceived themselves, nor have deceived others.
Supposing therefore that Christ did not rise from the Dead, it is certain, according to all human probability, there could never have been any such thing at all as Christianity, or it must have been stifled soon after its birth. This is a fact about which there is no dispute, but Christians and Infidels disagree in accounting for this fact. Christians affirm their religion to be of divine origin, and to have grown up and prevailed under the miraculous assistance and protection of God; and this they not only affirm, and offer to prove by the same kind of evidence, by which all remote facts are proved, but think it may very fairly be inferred form the wonderful circumstances of its growth and increase, and its present existence. Infidels, on the other hand, assert Christianity to be an imposture, invented and carried on by men. In the maintenance of which assertion, their great argument against the credibility of the Resurrection, and the other miraculous proofs of the divine origin of the Gospel, founded in their being miraculous, that is, out of the ordinary course of nature, will be of no service to them, since they will still find a miracle in their way, namely, the amazing birth, growth, and increase of Christianity. Which facts, though they should not be able to account for them, they cannot however deny. In order therefore to destroy the evidence drawn from them by Christians, they must prove them not to have been miraculous, by shewing how they could have been effected in the natural course of human affairs, by such weak instruments as Christ and his Apostles (taking them to be what they are pleased to call them, enthusiasts or impostors) and by such means as they were possessed of and employed.” (Observations on the History and Evidences of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, pp. 442-445).
6). George Lyttelton (1709-1773)
George Lyttelton was an English statesman, author, and poet who was educated at Eton and Oxford. Among other things he published a History of Henry II.
As a young man he set out to prove that Paul was not converted as the Bible states. Instead, he wrote a book containing evidence that Paul was indeed converted and that his conversion is evidence that Jesus rose from the dead. The book was titled ‘Observations on the Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul’ (1747). Lyttleton observed that from an earthly perspective Paul had absolutely nothing to gain and everything to lose by testifying that he had seen the risen Christ. Giving up his position and prestige as a Jewish religious leader, he joined the despised Christian sect and was hounded, mocked, and persecuted for the rest of his life, finally paying the ultimate price for his Christian faith, death by beheading.
Lyttlelton began his book with these words:
“In a late conversation we had together upon the subject of the Christian religion, I told you, that besides all the proofs of it which may be drawn from the prophecies of the Old Testament, from the necessary connection it has with the whole system of the Jewish religion, from the miracles of Christ, and from the evidence given of his Resurrection by al the other Apostles, I thought the conversion and the apostleship of St. Paul alone, duly considered, was of itself a demonstration sufficient to prove Christianity to be a divine Revelation. As you seemed to think that so compendious a proof might be of use to convince those unbelievers that will not attend to a longer series of arguments, I have thrown together the reasons upon which I suppose that proposition” (page 4).
The famous British lexicographer Samuel Johnson said “infidelity has never been able to fabricate a specious answer” to Lyttelton’s book.
7). Albert Henry Ross (Frank Morison) (1881-1950)
Albert Ross was a lawyer, journalist, and novelist who grew up in Stratford-on-Avon, England. He was deeply affected by the skepticism of the times, particularly the attacks on the Bible by theological liberalism and Darwinism. After becoming a lawyer he set out to write a book to disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Instead, he was converted and wrote a book in defense of the resurrection entitled “Who moved the stone?” — became a classic which is still in print today. He wrote the book under the name of Frank Morison.
8). Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853)
Simon Greenleaf, Professor of Law at Harvard University, was one of the most celebrated legal minds in American history. His Treatise on the Law of Evidence “is still considered the greatest single authority on evidence in the entire literature of legal procedure.”
As a law professor, he determined to expose the “myth” of the resurrection of Christ once and for all, but his thorough examination forced him to conclude, instead, that Jesus did rise from the dead. In 1846 he published An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts of Justice.
Thus, one of the most celebrated minds in the legal profession of the past two centuries took the resurrection of Christ to trial, diligently examined the evidence, and judged it to be an established fact of history! And this was in spite of the fact that he began his investigation as a skeptic.
One of Greenleaf’s points is that nothing but the resurrection itself can explain the dramatic change in Christ’s disciples and their willingness to suffer and die for their testimony.
Consider this excerpt:
“Their master had recently perished as a malefactor, by the sentence of a public tribunal. His religion sought to overthrow the religions of the whole world. The laws of every country were against the teachings of His disciples. The interests and passions of all the rulers and great men in the world were against them. The fashion of the world was against them. Propagating this new faith, even in the most inoffensive and peaceful manner, they could expect nothing but contempt, opposition, revilings, bitter persecutions, stripes, imprisonments, torments, and cruel deaths. Yet this faith they zealously did propagate; and all these miseries they endured undismayed, nay, rejoicing. As one after another was put to a miserable death, the survivors only prosecuted their work with increased vigor and resolution. The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an example of the like heroic constancy, patience, and unblenching courage. They had every possible motive to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they asserted; and these motives were pressed upon their attention with the most melancholy and terrific frequency. It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact. … If then their testimony was not true, there was no possible motive for its fabrication.”
(Greenleaf, ‘An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence’).
9. J Warner Wallace (1961 – )
Here is a slight exception to the others forementioned, because Wallace didn’t set out to disprove Christianity as such, rather he employed his cold case detective skills to dispassionately and methodically examine the facts, in order to establish the truth.
Wallace was not just an atheist. He was a cold case homicide detective, who made a living deciphering and following evidence to its logical and best conclusions. He was thus ideally qualified to undertake the task he was to set himself. One day his wife asked him to a church service. The sermon that day challenged him. The pastor made the statement that Jesus was “the smartest man who had ever lived” and that all of western culture is grounded on the moral teaching of Jesus. The pastor said that just two sermons of Jesus effectively changed the world.
Hearing that pastor’s statement about Jesus prompted Wallace to buy a Bible and determine for himself how Jesus rated as a moral thinker.
Wallace noticed as he read the Bible that it “had the texture of eyewitness statements” to it. The fact that the Gospels don’t agreed with each other was a profound observation for him, because he knew from experience that witness statements never agree with each other. All witness statements have variations to them.
At a crime scene, the first instruction he gives to the officers who are there is to separate the witnesses. If the witnesses aren’t separated, they will talk, and their testimonies will begin to sound the same. He doesn’t want to give them time to harmonize their testimonies so the variations are preserved for him to figure out.
Wallace says the variations create “the most robust puzzle” to put back together. The fact that Gospels accounts vary from each other “had the ring of truth” to them. It intrigued him.
He examined the Gospels as he would examine eyewitness statements to a crime. The more he examined them, the more they appeared to be reliable as eyewitness testimonies. The accounts of people seeing Jesus risen from the dead “changed everything” for Wallace. From the “robust puzzle” of the varying accounts, a picture emerged that (for Wallace) rang true – true enough anyway not to dismiss it out of hand.
‘You Can Believe Because of the Evidence, Not in Spite of It’. Wallace was an angry atheist for 35 years until he walked through the doors of Saddleback Church. There his life was radically changed by Jesus. Today, he is one of the most thoughtful and winsome apologists for the Gospel, and author of best selling ‘Cold Case Christianity’.
□ CONCLUSIONS
For most people, I think (like me), believing in Christianity is not a matter of a killer knockout argument; nor is it simply being impressed by sincere testimonies. It’s a matter of weighing all of the evidence and finding it, as a whole, compelling. It is the cumulative case that combines the evidence with transformed lives, that in the end becomes irresistible.
So the fact that many people from different generations have set out to disprove Christianity only to be persuaded to its truth, does not by itself prove anything. The fact that many people have attempted to wipe out Christians, ban the Bible, challenged God and lost, also does not by itself prove anything. But, taken together with the primary source testimony evidence itself of multiple witnesses, it presents a compelling overall case that has at the very least to give us pause for thought. If the Bible is true, these signs are exactly what we would expect to find, in just the same way as historical evidence and artefactual discoveries do.
Muslims here is a challenge in the light of the above: if Christianity is so absurd, how come so many people who have set out to write books disproving the resurrection have ended up having life changing encounters with Jesus that has reversed the purpose of their books? Conversely if Islam is true why are so few willing to take the mubahala challenge?
In fact, as this short video concludes only slightly tongue in cheek, “if you’re in a hurry to meet Jesus try to write a book to disprove the resurrection” …
Thanks to David Stevenson for the link and inspiration for this post.
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Why the Jews rejected the Messiah

Why the Jews rejected the Messiah

WHY THE JEWS EXPECTED A DIFFERENT MESSIAH
1). INTRODUCTION
Christians often wonder why so many Jews didn’t recognize that Jesus was the Messiah. As one put it, “How could they miss it when it’s so obvious?” Muslims of course are quick to exploit the differences, but they will never acknowledge that even the disbelieving Jews recognised that Jesus was exercising an authority which made Him equal to God.
There are a number of reasons, but the short answer is that Jesus simply wasn’t what the Jews of His day expected. In fact, Jesus surprised even godly Jews like John the Baptist.
The purpose of this post is not to explain how Christ fulfilled (or failed to fulfill) all Messianic expectations of the Second Temple period, but instead it focuses on the common perspectives of the Jewish people within the time period, that go some way to explain why they rejected Him. And for avoidance of doubt, the post in no way seeks to excuse their rejection of Him.
To do this, we first need to understand the divsion and sectarianism within Second Temple era Judaism.
2). SETTING THE SCENE
The term “Messiah” emerges from the Hebrew ‘masiah’, or ‘moshiach’ which is generally translated “anointed” or “anointed one”. In the Jewish Tanakh this term is used both of the King (Psalm 2:2) and the High Priest (Leviticus 8:10-12). Hold that thought – two titles of office. Based on that traditional usage, scholars argue that the Messiah was often viewed as a king-priest or warrior-judge. Following the loss of the Monarchy, scholars believe that the concept of Messiah—in this sense a kingly figure—would arise and restore the nation of Israel, sometimes with the use of superhuman characteristics.
Along the priestly lines, the Messianic figure was often viewed as a restorer of the true priesthood of the worship of Yahweh, being a righteous and holy messenger of God. Even within the definition of the term ‘Messiah’, one begins to see the broad diversity in the understanding of the term, a diversity that is reflected quite clearly in summarizing the broad range of Jewish beliefs in the late Second Temple Period of the first century of the Common Era.¹
Basic Jewish religious tradition in the Second Temple Period revolved around several key beliefs. Judaism was a strictly monotheistic religion that placed great emphasis on their status as the chosen people of Yahweh through the covenants of Abraham and Moses. The religion of Judaism was not like that of others in the Greco-Roman context, concerning itself with festivals and holy days, but instead encompassed all facets of life, making it rather unique within the context of the ancient world. While many Jews had no real political or religious affiliation, evidence suggests the existence of several distinct groups within the Jewish religious scene. The largest class consisted of the priests and Levites—those members of the “tribe of Levi” designated in the Torah as the religious leaders of Israel.
There existed several distinct religious sects within Judaism as well, each with their respective theological concerns and emphasis’ as well as their Messianic expectations. These included the Pharisees, who excelled in following the Law of Moses; the Sadducees, who generally possessed a greater amount of political influence as a result of their historical past as Chief priests; the Herodians, a term used to define those who supported the Herodian dynasty; the Zealots, those Jews who opposed (often violently) the rule of Palestine by the Romans; and the Essenes, a group viewed generally as apocalyptic. For many Second Temple Jews the figure of the Messiah would be a political king or ruler of the nation of Israel. The immediate context of occupation of the land of Israel by the Roman Empire provides a basis for this expectation, as does the historical context of the Maccabean Revolt and Hasmonean Dynasty of kings from 142 to 37 BCE. The Davidic promise, that a descendant of David would sit on the throne of Israel forever, from 2 Samuel added to this expectation of a political Messiah who would throw off Roman tyranny and establish a new kingdom of Israel.
As one might expect in the context of varied Jewish sects, assorted respective Jewish beliefs concerning the Messiah were derived from differing interpretations of Jewish Tanakh. Indeed, some scholars argue that there were many Jews who didn’t hold to any form of Messianic expectations at all by the First Century CE. Yet of the Jewish groups that have been identified by scholars, the groups with perhaps the most interesting expectations for the Messiah were the Apocalyptic groups of the Dead Sea and Qumran area, often argued to be the sect of the Essenes mentioned in the historical works of Josephus and Philo.The scholarship concerning these various groups does much to indicate the religious diversity of Second Temple Judaism, underscoring the fact that there was no single unified expectation for the Messiah.
So against this somewhat diverse background, we can turn to consider how Jesus did not measure up to expectations.
3). FOUR WAYS IN WHICH JESUS WAS MISUNDERSTOOD
We can identify four ways in which Jesus differed from the stereotypical Jewish hope for the messiah, and why these differences make Him so much better than their expectations
(i). JESUS’S KINGDOM WAS NOT OF THIS WORLD.
Keep in mind that the titles “Messiah” and “Christ” and “Messiah” are synonymous. They both mean “anointed one.”
God interrupted David’s dynasty when the kings stopped submitting to God as the King of kings. But the prophets who announced the exile that ended their reign also announced that God would bring the exiles back and would send a new king descended from David. This king would rule forever:
“For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on His shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. [7] The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.” (Isaiah 9:6‭-‬7 HCSB)
The Jews were expecting an immediate reign on earth.
By Jesus’s day, the exiles had long ago returned, but the promised messiah hadn’t appeared. Instead, Rome ruled them. Because of this, most Jews expected a messiah to lead a revolt against Rome and establish an earthly kingdom at once. In fact, others had already declared themselves messiahs and had revolted in vain.
• Jesus fulfilled some prophecies about the messiah in his first coming.
Jesus identified himself as the Messiah (John 4:25-26). He was descended from David and was born in Bethlehem. He also performed signs that were expected in the age of the messiah’s rule, such as giving sight to the blind and healing the lame, and he sent word to John the Baptist that this was evidence he was the Messiah (Isaiah 35:5-6; Matthew 11:4-5; Luke 5:24; 18:42). He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey colt as the people welcomed him as Messiah in fulfillment of prophecy (Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:4-9).
Because of this, Jesus’s disciples expected him to establish an earthly kingdom immediately. That’s why, even at the moment of His departure, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). It’s also why John the Baptist was confused when Jesus didn’t rescue him from prison (Matthew 11:2-3).
• But Jesus did not fulfill all prophecies about the messiah in his first coming.
Jesus did not establish a kingdom on earth at his first coming. Instead, he said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). He also withdrew when people tried to force Him to be king. In addition, He explained that the kingdom of God was going to be a different type of kingdom:
“Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God will come, He answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with something observable; [21] no one will say, ‘Look here! ’ or ‘There! ’ For you see, the kingdom of God is among you.” (Luke 17:20‭-‬21 HCSB)
While He did not fulfil all that was expected, that does not mean He couldn’t be the Messiah. Make no mistake Jesus is returning and will fulfill remaining Messianic prophecies in the future End Times and beyond. The fact that prophecies have dual or phased fulfilment some of which still remain outstanding does not invalidate those aspects that have. With their devotion to the Word it does surprise me that the Jews were blindsided by their inability to grasp this fundamental truth.
• So then, how will Jesus fulfill the prophecies about ruling forever?
This is what we never hear enough and I want to declare today and every day, namely, Jesus Christ is the ruler of all the kings and presidents and chiefs and premiers and governors and prime ministers. He is that NOW not just at His future return.
When Jesus rose from the dead, God exalted Him and gave him a “name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee might bow,” and that includes all the rulers and kings of the earth. Jesus is alive today presiding from heaven over the rulers of the earth.
Now this is a breathtaking thought. It is something that most people today do not believe or even think about. How many rulers are aware that its only by God’s sovereign grace that they rule at all? Even those who oppose or deny Him, God is still using to fulfill His sovereign plan. This is at the heart of biblical truth. Jesus Christ is alive, and reigning over all the kings of the earth, whether it be the events of the Middle East, the Korean peninsula or of refugee movements in Europe and Central America. We need to understand what this means.
First, Jesus rules at the Father’s right hand now (Ephesians 1:20-21). But there’s more to come. Jesus said He will return “on the clouds of heaven” and will gather his servants “from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Daniel 7:13-14; Matthew 24:30-31). Later, God will make a new heaven and earth, and the new Jerusalem will descend on it (Revelation 21:1-2). The “throne of God and of the Lamb” will be there and Jesus’s servants will reign with him “forever and ever” (Revelation 22:3-5).
(ii). JESUS WAS BOTH MESSIAH AND THE PROPHET LIKE MOSES.
In the first century AD, Jews desired the fulfillment of prophecies about both a messiah and a prophet like Moses. That is why when Jesus began teaching and performing miraculous signs, “some of the people said, ‘This really is the Prophet.’ Others said, ‘This is the Christ’” (John 7:40-41).
The expectation of a prophet like Moses comes from this prophecy:
“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must LISTEN TO HIM. [16] This is what you requested from the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let us not continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God or see this great fire any longer, so that we will not die! ’ [17] Then the Lord said to me, ‘They have spoken well. [19] I will hold accountable whoever does not listen to My words that he speaks in My name.” (Deuteronomy 18:15‭-‬17‭, ‬19 HCSB)
Jesus gave many signs that he was the prophet like Moses. For example, Moses turned water to blood and Jesus turned water to wine. Like Moses, Jesus commanded the sea and it obeyed. With Moses, the people ate manna that miraculously appeared in the wilderness; with Jesus, the people ate bread and fish that miraculously multiplied in the wilderness.
An unambiguous affirmation is found In Matthew that Jesus is that prophet:
“While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said: This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him. LISTEN TO HIM!” (Matthew 17:5 HCSB)
The Father’s words “Listen to Him” are an echo of Deuteronomy 18:15, moreover they are spoken before a vision with the glorified Moses and Jesus present, along with Elijah. Its not only Jews but Muslims too who are in complete denial of this truth.
But, some Jewish leaders desired neither a messiah nor a prophet.
The Jewish leadership consisted of members from two competing Jewish sects: the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Sadducees were aristocratic and wealthy priests who wanted good relations with Rome so they could stay in power. They hoped for neither a messiah nor a resurrection, partly because they held the five books of Moses in higher regard than other OT books, such as the writings of the prophets.
Jesus presented problems for priests. First, Moses had had authority over even the high priest. Therefore, if a prophet like Moses appeared, the Sadducees would have to give up their authority and status. This was apparent when Jesus drove money changers and sellers out of the temple, thus challenging the priests’ authority to run the temple as they they saw fit (Mark 11:15-18).
Second, they wanted to prevent anyone claiming to be a messiah (king) from gaining followers lest Rome quell not only the rebellion but also the Sadducees’ power.
Many Jewish leaders expected a messiah submissive to them in spiritual matters.
The rest of the Jewish leaders were Pharisees. They wanted a warrior king who would lead a revolt against Rome, but who also would be submissive to them in spiritual matters. They taught that the messiah and prophet were two different people.
Why was it important to Pharisees that the messiah and prophet be different?
The Pharisees had a set of rules that they used to interpret how the law of Moses should be applied. For example, their rules described what could and couldn’t be done on the Sabbath. The problem for them was that Moses had been the ultimate authority for how to apply the law, so a prophet like Moses might threaten their authority. Indeed, that’s exactly what happened.
• Jesus rejected the Pharisees’ authority to interpret the law of Moses.
When Jesus healed people, the Pharisees told him to stop doing so on the Sabbath. Jesus told them their reasoning was bad, and He continued healing. He also pointed out that they rejected God’s commands in favor of their rules, which He disparaged as mere “tradition of men” (Mark 7:8-13). That Jesus rejected their traditions about how to apply the law incensed the Pharisees and convinced most of them that He couldn’t be the messiah.
However, in contrast to their spiritual leaders, the people were much more willing to accept Jesus claims. The crowds embraced Jesus as both messiah and prophet.
Unlike the Jewish leaders, the crowds were fine with the messiah also being the prophet like Moses. That’s why they declared him “the Prophet who is to come into the world” and then attempted to make him king (John 6:13-14). But ruling on earth wasn’t part of Jesus’s immediate plan.
Still, when large crowds started following Jesus because of his miracles, this only fueled the Jewish leaders insecurity; here John sums up how they feared they would lose their power:
“So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do since this man does many signs? [48] If we let Him continue in this way, everyone will believe in Him! Then the Romans will come and remove both our place and our nation.” [49] One of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! [50] You’re not considering that it is to your advantage that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish.” [51] He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, [52] and not for the nation only, but also to unite the scattered children of God. [53] So from that day on they plotted to kill Him” (John 11:47‭-‬53 HCSB)
The Sadducees on the other hand, didn’t care that Jesus rejected the Pharisees’ traditions—they did too. But they cared a lot about losing their waning political power.
(iii). THE MESSIAH WAS THE SUFFERING SERVANT
Isaiah prophesied about a righteous, suffering servant. But no one thought the messiah and the suffering servant could be the same person. Why? Because the messiah was supposed to rule forever, while the suffering servant had to die:
“They made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man at His death, although He had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully” (Isaiah 53:9 HCSB)
Its actually not hard to see the problem. The Jews didn’t see how the messiah whom they thought would save Israel from Rome and establish an everlasting kingdom could also be the suffering servant who dies. The connection was just too much of a stretch. That is why when Jesus told His disciples that He would suffer, be killed, and on the third day be raised, Peter rebuked him and said this would never happen (Matthew 16:21-22).
That also is why when Jesus told the crowd He would be lifted up from the earth, they surmised that He was speaking of death and replied, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up?” (John 12:34).
But careful reading of Isaiah gave clues that the suffering servant was indeed the messiah.
Four Servant Songs proclaim the coming of a righteous, suffering servant: Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-12; 50:4-9; and 52:13-53:12. They hint of similarities between the suffering servant and the messiah, for both would
▪ Be anointed by God’s Spirit (Isaiah 11:2; 42:1); ▪ Bring justice (Isaiah 9:7; 42:1; Jeremiah 23:5); ▪ Be righteous (Isaiah 42:6; 53:11; Jeremiah 23:5); ▪ Make others righteous (Isaiah 53:11; 61:3; Jeremiah 33:15-16); ▪ Bring peace (Isaiah 9:6-7; 53:5; Ezekiel 34:24-25); ▪ Participate in bringing Israel back to God (Isaiah 49:5; Jeremiah 23:3-5); and ▪ Be part of a new covenant (Isaiah 42:6; Ezekiel 34:24-25).
Jesus fulfilled prophecies about the suffering servant. More than that He is the only One in all history who could do so. This one verse alone destroys the latterday fad that the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 is speaking of Israel:
“They made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man at His death, although He had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully.” (Isaiah 53:9 HCSB)
That Jesus was crucified with the wicked and was meant to have been buried with them was clearly the intention. It took the intervention of the rich and influential member of the Sanhadrin, Joseph of Arimathea, an erstwhile closet disciple to secure an honorable burial. That Jesus body was laid in a rich man’s tomb clearly fulfills this prophecy about the suffering servant (Isaiah 53:8-9 cf. Luke 23:32-33,50-53). But the next verses reveal something remarkable:
“Yet the Lord was pleased to crush Him severely. When You make Him a restitution offering, He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, and by His hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished. [11] He will see it out of His anguish, and He will be satisfied with His knowledge. My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will carry their iniquities. [12] Therefore I will give Him the many as a portion, and He will receive the mighty as spoil, because He submitted Himself to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet He bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.” (Isaiah 53:10‭-‬12 HCSB)
This passage says that though the servant died, he shall prolong his days! in other words, the suffering servant will be restored to life. Moreover, because Jesus conquered death as the suffering servant, he reigns as Messiah forever. And the facts that Jesus bore the sins of many and intercedes for the rebels (Luke 23:34), read almost like a throwaway conclusion. Yet they are exact depictions of the crucifixion narrative.
(iv). THE PROPHET WAS ALSO THE SUFFERING SERVANT.
Moses was a type of Jesus. Jesus was not merely a prophet speaking God’s words, He was the Word who was God (John 1:1).
Isaiah’s prophecies about the suffering servant show the servant had similarities to but was far superior to Moses. The Lord God gave the first covenant through Moses, but He gave the suffering servant as the New Covenant (Isaiah 42:6-7). The suffering servant fulfilled everything the sacrificial system put in place by Moses could not fully do (Isaiah 53:5-6). He was the light for the nations that Israel failed to become under the law of Moses (Isaiah 49:6). And as suffering servant, Jesus died, arose, and atoned for people’s sin as Moses wanted to do but could not (Exodus 32:30; Isaiah 53:12).
□ CONCLUSIONS
The Jews expected the promised messiah to lead a revolt on earth, but Jesus said His kingdom was not of this world. They thought that the messiah, the prophet like Moses, and the suffering servant were three different people, but Jesus demonstrated He is all three. Because He is the suffering servant who died and rose again, he is Messiah King who will reign forever in the new heaven and earth. As the suffering servant, Jesus fulfilled all to which Moses and the sacrificial system pointed. And because the suffering servant bore our iniquities, we can become God’s children and live in his kingdom with him eternally.
That’s good news and it’s far better than anything the Jews had envisioned or still look for.
Footnote:
¹ While the term “Second Temple” period generally refers to the time period from the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple by Zerubbabal (c. 520-515 BCE) to its destruction by the Romans under Titus in 70 CE, for the purposes of this post the term will be used for Judaism under Roman occupation, that is from 63 BCE to 70 CE.