Many Muslims make the mistake of thinking that the message of the Gospel is simply what we find authored by the Apostles and their writers after Jesus’ death. Worse they accuse the Gospel writers of retrofitting events to match prophetic statements in the Old Testament. This is a result of bad education and misinformation of Muslim teachers.
The truth is that Gospel was already authored by God and its events sealed, long before the New Testament era. God, speaking hundreds of years earlier, said in Isaiah 43:
“I, even I, am the Lord , And besides Me there is no savior. I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, And there was no foreign god among you; Therefore you are My witnesses,” Says the Lord, “that I am God. Indeed before the day was, I am He; And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?” (Isaiah 43:11‭-‬13 NKJV)
And in Isaiah 46:
“Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’ Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.” (Isaiah 46:9‭-‬11 NKJV)
Or as the HCSB puts it:
“I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: My plan will take place, and I will do all My will. I call a bird of prey from the east, a man for My purpose from a far country. Yes, I have spoken; so I will also bring it about. I have planned it; I will also do it. Listen to me, you hardhearted, far removed from justice: I am bringing My justice near; it is not far away, and My salvation will not delay. I will put salvation in Zion, My splendor in Israel.” (Isaiah 46:10‭-‬13 HCSB)
This is the signature and seal of God Almighty, who is outside of time and space, who simultaneously, not only tells the end from the beginning and performs and makes sure it is fulfilled, but He occupies and controls events in all of that time in an instant.
“See, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to His temple, the Messenger of the covenant you desire — see, He is coming,” says the Lord of Hosts.” (Malachi 3:1 HCSB)
The truth is that the Gospel was written before Jesus was born. See Isaiah 52:7-10, Isaiah 55 1-13, Isaiah 61:1 for examples and many other places. It’s not a new book which Jesus came to deliver! The “book” of the Gospel is and always was in the Old Testament writings. The Gospel is in the Hebrew scripture of Moses, David and the Prophets and seers.
The New Testament is simply the record and witness of the fulfilment and explaining this mystery contained in the book of Old. As Augustine wrote “the new is in the old concealed the old is in the new revealed”
Psalm 40:7 “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me.”
It was written in the prophets, in the Psalms and in the Law and was sealed telling us of things to come. Just as Jesus said:
“Then He told them, “These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you — that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. He also said to them, “This is what is written: The Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:44‭-‬47 HCSB)
So when a Muslim asks where is the book of Jesus? they know not what they speak of. They speak according to ignorance they have inherited in a pious religiosity, the outward appearance and form of which impresses them but which has no substance. But what they are unaware of is that what we commonly call the Gospels is not just the Gospel itself but the necessary God ordained record of its fulfillment by Jesus Christ contained and promised in the Old.
“which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,” (Romans 1:2 NKJV)
So where do Muslims get their ideas from? Not from history but all from one man who didn’t know anything about it, was unable to read and relied on hearsay, on which he constructed his own childish misconception of these things. Not even he but his followers set forth these ignorant man-made ideas of which they have no certainty at all and which were formed 600 years after the facts by the desert pagan Mohammed. And then they wonder why what we have in the Biblical record of prophetic fulfilment doesn’t match the ignorance they hold. They take Muhammad’s ignorance and mistakes as their word of God.
But the truth is the Gospel was already written in the Old and in the Old contained — and in one sense all Jesus did was to come and fulfill it. Hence why He was always guided by an unseen timeline and hence why we find the words “because His hour had not yet come” (John 7:6; 7:30). And when He came He announced it was being fulfilled in Him. He didn’t write it for the simple reason it was already written — He didn’t come to bring a book — HE CAME TO DO IT, BE IT AND FULFILL IT.
-In Luke 4 Jesus quotes Isaiah 61:1-2 and declares those verses fulfilled before the congregation:
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21 And he began to say unto them, THIS DAY IS THIS SCRIPTURE FULFILLED IN YOUR EARS.”
-THE END FROM THE BEGINNING
Surah 4.157 should be an embarrassment to every Muslim with an ounce of intellect because it alone proves that the Quran can never be inspired by God.
If God had not intended Jesus should die He would have told us so BEFORE not half a millennium AFTER the events.
This is what sets God’s word apart from counterfeit non canonical writings. Fulfilled prophecy. God knows the end from the beginning. To get the authors’ of the Bible to weave prophecy (both near and far) into their inspired writings is easy for Him but impossible for His enemies.
This is where Islam destroys itself by re-writing the Gospel narrative after the events and the fulfillment of hundreds of prophecies from hundreds of years beforehand. To deny the crucifixion Muslims have to also deny all the prophetic words which reference it from the Old Testament.
One thing Muslims can be certain about is that if God had never intended that Jesus should die He would have told us so in advance. If you don’t accept that fundamental truth about how prophecy works then you have no conception of the Bible period.
This is what exposes the Quran as a lie. The Quran contradicts the nature, tradition, and logic as well as the SUBSTANCE of prophecy! Prophecy is linear!
Surah 4:157 is NOT only something that the True God (YHWH) never ever said, but that’s NOT even how He functions! Let’s look by recapping the word of testimony on those passages from Isaiah and others:

• “Behold, the former things have happened, and I declare new things. I tell you about them BEFORE [Not after!] they come up.” (Isaiah 42:9)
• “I declare the END FROM THE BEGINNING [Not the beginning from the end!], and from ancient times things that are not yet done.” (Isaiah 46:10)
  Yahweh will not do or perform anything prophetically without FIRST making his plans and purposes known to the holy prophets!
• “Surely the Lord Yahweh will do NOTHING, UNLESS he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7)
• “See, I [Jesus] have told you AHEAD OF TIME” (‭Matthew‬ ‭24‬:‭25‬).
  And,
• “From now on, I TELL YOU BEFORE IT HAPPENS, that when it happens, you may believe that I am he.” (‭John‬ ‭13‬:‭19‬)
• “Now I have told you BEFORE IT HAPPENS so that, when it happens, you may believe.” (‭John‬ ‭14:29‬)
  So the questions become ~
• “Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old?” (Isaiah‬ ‭45:21b‬)
  Or,
• “Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when Yahweh doesn’t command it?” (‭Lamentations‬ ‭3:37‬)
  God is not a God of confusion, ruse or deception. If Yahweh was going to deceive people into believing that Jesus died by crucifixion but really did not, He would have FIRST informed his prophets (before that time) what His plans were, not 600 years afterward! So that in fact it could NEVER have been a DECEPTION in the first place. The Quran, AS ALWAYS is false on the matter!
  “Yahweh of Armies has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand … For Yahweh of Armies has planned, and who can stop it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?” (‭Isaiah‬ ‭14‬:‭24, 27‬)

-SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD

“All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet.” (Matthew 1:22)
That a virgin would bring forth a son is astounding; that Jesus will certainly save His people is reassuring; that God would condescend to be with us is humbling. But there is another point that Matthew purposefully interjects into the inspired account of Jesus’ birth, and it is this:
“All this was done, that it might be fulfilled.”
When you think of Biblical prophecy, do you think of God DESCRIBING events that will later come to pass, or of God DECLARING that events will later come to pass? In other words, is prophecy simply God “looking down through the tunnel of time,” seeing what is going to happen, and reporting what He sees? Or is prophecy the declaration of God, based upon His almighty power and wisdom, of what He has foreordained to happen?
If we speculated that prophecy is merely description based on foresight, then we would expect Matthew to say something like this: “So God had spoken all these things by the prophet because they were going to happen later.” But Matthew actually says the opposite! ‘All this was done, that it might be fulfilled…” All these things happened, Matthew says, because God said they were going to happen!
From Matthew’s careful wording in this story, we learn that God’s word is more certain, more secure, more immovable than any event on earth. Reality itself must conform to the perfect purpose and plan of God. And this choice of words by Matthew is no mistake or anomaly. Matthew uses the exact same phrase—”that it might be fulfilled”—no less than ten times throughout his gospel!
Clearly, Matthew intends for us to see God’s omnipotence shaping reality with His Word. Is that the way you view the world around you today?

-CHALLENGE TO MUSLIMS:

Muslims who want to deny the Biblical record must not only find evidence that the events surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus did not take place (something they have never done and cannot do since such evidence does not exist); they also have the even harder task of denying the prophetic record of the Old Testament which established and SET IN STONE what was already decreed in advance by God.
Muslims since the challenge is impossible why don’t you start to question why the Quran rejects what is established fact? Ask yourselves who was defeated at the Cross? Ask yourselves why it is that Islam fits Satans agenda perfectly. Find reasons to reject the Quran which is condemned in every page by the authority which tests it.
Start asking yourselves, why it is that the Bible teaches us to test everything whereas the Quran discourages asking questions because it might lead some people to abandon their faith. Why is the god of Islam so insecure that he cannot stand criticism and cannot tolerate anyone ever using their freedom of conscience to leave Islam?