Topic 2:

The real identity of Jesus Christ

The first topic tonight looked at the sources for the view of Jesus in our respective religions. I am asserting that the Bible in the four Gospels has the best historical records for the life of Jesus when compared to any other book. The Qur'an's historical testimony to the life of Jesus is much less relevant because it is removed from the time of the actual events of Jesus' life by 600 years, and the view it presents of Jesus is not in agreement with the best historical evidence that is available. Now both of these sets of writings, the Qur'an and the Gospels, present Jesus as a prophet. The Qur'an presents Jesus as just a human prophet. The Gospels, though, present Him as a human prophet and much more. They present Him as the eternal Son of God who had taken on a human nature and body in addition to His eternal spiritual nature and being. And while veiling that eternal nature He lived a normal human life on this earth until the time of His death on the cross, His resurrection from the dead, and then His ascension into heaven. Many Muslims assert that this is a view that Christians developed over time and then changed the words of their scripture to reflect the change in their thinking about Jesus. Their authority for this view is not actual evidence that Christians have done this, but rather unproved theories of literary development, and their belief that the Qur'an's view of Jesus is revelation. While I understand and accept the value of believing and accepting revelation, we must test what we view is revelation to see if it squares with historical facts.

A. Apocryphal sources

When we examine the Qur'an's view of the identity of Jesus using legitimate source criticism, we find that rather than the view we find in the four Gospels, its view resembles thinking current in Arabia in the 600's. For instance, the account of Jesus making a bird from clay and the account of Jesus speaking from a cradle are found in religious novels called apocryphal gospels that were written in the four centuries before Muhammad was born--one particularly called the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy. These novels were not preserving legitimate historical evidence that the other gospels omitted. They are fanciful, undocumented stories that were created at best for entertainment and devotional value, at worst to justify some heretical doctrine, and none are known for historical accuracy. In fact, their inaccuracies were noted at the time and that was much of why they were rejected by the majority of Christians. Unfortunately, these stories were better known in some parts of the ancient world than the real Scriptures. Arabia was one of these places. The real Gospels were not translated into Arabic until a century after Muhammad lived. None of the apocryphal books upon which the Qur'anic stories are based ever had a serious claim as being regarded as Scripture. They were known to be unhistorical at the time. Rather than providing alternative historical evidence of the life of Jesus they were attempts at supplementing or revising the existing sources to suit later tastes.

B. Early heretical sects

Another source of historical evidence that has bearing on the Qur'an's accounts of Jesus are early sects that held different views of Jesus than the majority of early Christians. Muslims have asserted that some of these early groups denied the deity of Jesus and held to a strict monotheism like Islam. Groups such as the Nasoreans, the Ebionites, or other early Jewish Christian groups are mentioned. They go on to assert that these groups were the authentic followers of Jesus who were suppressed by the unorthodox groups led by Paul. The problem with these assertions is that if you study these early sects in detail, you find that none of them taught a religion like Islam. Even the groups that held that Jesus was just a man also held that He became the divine Son of God. All except one also believed He died on the cross and rose from the dead. That one group was not a Jewish group either, but a Gnostic one, the Basilidians, and they refused to believe in the crucifixion of Jesus because it didn't fit with their gnostic theology about Jesus, not because they had actual historical evidence that someone else died on the cross. And, when you look at the scriptures they used to justify their views, they used the Old Testament as it exists today, together with gospels that were based on the four Gospels in the New Testament. None of them claimed to have the one true gospel that preceded the Biblical ones. And none of them claimed that the Old Testament scriptures of the Jews were corrupted. Rather, They themselves corrupted the existing gospels which we have in their uncorrupted forms in the Bible. Also, the churches based in Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome, as well as those mentioned in the New Testament had no political power with which to suppress or persecute these other groups. Paul had no power to suppress groups he thought were wrong. He could only preach against them. And, according to the best historical records, Paul's preaching had the approval of all of the other apostles of Jesus.

C. The evidence Muslims need to produce

If Muslims really want to prove that the view of Jesus in the four gospels is wrong and the Qur'an's view is right, they need to do more than just criticize the existing Gospels. Muslims need to produce the following evidence: 1) the actual Injil in an uncorrupted form that the Qur'an talks about as agreeing in content with the Qur'an, along with historical evidence that establishes its trustworthiness over and against the Biblical Gospels. Or, if they can't produce that and believe the current Gospels in some way contain the Injil, they need to present: 2) Manuscript evidence that the current gospels were originally like the Qur'an's Injil, and 3) Firm historical evidence of a religious movement centered on the teaching of Jesus in the time of Jesus and immediately after, that resembles Islam in all its essential doctrines, and 4) Show how the Qur'an has sufficient authority to be used as a standard by which to measure the Gospels. That is what it would take to truly establish Muslim assertions concerning the Injil. Ladies and Gentlemen, Muslims have not been able to produce that kind of evidence for 1400 years. If they can now with the advances in knowledge we have today, then please present it tonight so that the Christians here may be properly corrected. If that is not possible because it requires more research, than Mr. Ally, please do that research and put it up on your website. Until then, Muslims need to heed the reliably reported words of Jesus in the Gospels of the New Testament.

• Listen to the words of God the Father spoken from heaven concerning Jesus: "Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well-pleased." (Mark 1:11) "This is My beloved Son, Listen to him!" (Mark 9:7)
   
• Listen to an Angel of God announcing the virgin conception of Jesus: "And she shall bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21) "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call his name Immanuel,'which means 'God with us.'" (Matthew 1:23)
   
• Listen to Jesus' own words to His disciples: "For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45) "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me." (John 14:6) To skeptical religious leaders: "But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins," He said to the paralytic, "I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home." And he rose and immediately took up the pallet and went out in the sight of all..." (Mark 2:9-12) To an open-minded religious teacher "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (Jn 3:16)

Ladies and Gentlemen, please heed the words of Jesus. He claimed to be much more than a prophet. He claimed and demonstrated that He is the eternal Son of God, the only Savior given to mankind. Thank you.