“THE DIVINE SONSHIP OF CHRIST”
“O people of the book! Commit no excess in your religion: Nor say of God ought but the Truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) an apostle of God and His word, which he bestowed on Mary, so believe in God and His messengers…”
Holy Qur’an 4:171
We briefly hinted, in the last chapter, that the divine sonship of Christ was due to the Christians a priori belief ‘that sin is originally inherited by men.’ and that ‘a blameless sacrificial lamb is the only remedy to that inherited sin.’ Now we will take a critical look at the validity of the Christian’s quasi-metaphysical postulate which says that Jesus is the only begotten son of God, the most high.
Before we go forward it will be good if we quote a Christian authority (e.g. Abd-al-Masih), and see what is the Christian standpoint with regard to the divine sonship of Christ. Therefore, we quote thus:
“For a Muslim it is unthinkable that God has a son who is equal to Him in power and glory”. (Abd-al-Masih)
This makes it crystal-clear that the Christian’s a prior assumption is that Jesus Christ is really the Son of God, and that he is equal with God in power and Glory. This is why the Christian is made to repeat, again and again, that: “Jesus is the only begotten son of God, and he (Jesus) is begotten and not made.” This Christian Catechism was derived from the book of John, which read thus:
“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.”
John 3:16 (KJV)
According to the Christian authorities, ‘this single verse (i.e. John 3:16) have been translated from its original Greek and Hebrew form into about one thousand one hundred (1100) different languages of the world.’ (See the Introduction to the New Testament: With Psalms and Proverbs, published and distributed by the Gideon’s International). What a stunning and astonishing achievement for show! Well, we are not going to accept the Christian dogma just because of this outstanding record. However, we will “prove all things; and hold fast (to) that which is good…” (I Thessalonians 5:21), and also, we are going to “… Abstain from all appearance of evil.” (I Thessalonians 5:22)
We are now going to embark on a rigorous and soul-shaking journey. Therefore, the reader ought to empty his mind of all forms of bias, bigotry, preconceived notions, a priori and(or) quasi-logical deductions. I will need the attention of the reader’s mind, his soul and his spirit in their free and natural tune. This is because we are going to tangle with solid, heart-breaking facts that will objectively wreck havoc on the Christian’s long-standing emotions, trust and belief toward the dogma of the ‘divine sonship of Christ’.
Without taking any deep survey of the contents of the Christian Bibles, I am sure you will come across tens (hundreds or thousands) of sons or daughters of God - for I assures you, as my teacher Ahmed Deedat (May God bless him in life and in death) said, ‘God has children (i.e. sons and daughters) by the tones in the Christian Bibles.’ I know you may want to know ‘where have all this God’s children been hidden in the Christian Bibles?’ That is a very simple work. Just take any one of the existing Bibles, and start flipping through the pages right from Genesis up to where you can afford to reach, and by the time that you are finished with it you will have an appreciable number of verses that either talk about ‘a son of God’, ‘a daughter of God’, or even ‘sons’ or ‘daughters’ of God. However, in order to ease your task, I will provide you with a couple of verses that talk of ‘sons’ and ‘daughters’ of God right inside the Christian Bibles. However, for you my fellow Muslim brother, you should know that these couple of verses are a vital preaching tool for you with which you can shake the foundation of the faith of any Christian that is ignorant of their existence. So why not try and discuss them with your Christian friend(s). Some of these references, staring from the Old Testament, are as follows.
a. “…The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose… when the sons of God came into the daughters of men, …”
Genesis 6:2-4
b. “Thus says the Lord, Israel is my First-Born son…‘Let my son go…’ ”
Exodus 4:22-23
c. “I (i.e. David) will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me: ‘you are My son, today I have begotten You.’ ”
Psalms 2:7
d. “…For I (God) am a father to Israel, and E’phraim is My first-Born.”
Jeremiah 31:9
e. “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”
Matthew 5:9
f. “…Adam, which was the son of God.”
Luke 3:38
g. “For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the children of God.”
Romans 8:14
h. “… Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them”
Job 1:6 and 2:1
j. “When the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy.”
Job 38:7
I think the above nine references suffice for our present discourse. We may now ask the Christian evangelists: “From where does all these sons and daughters of God comes from? Is it from the last Testament of God to mankind (i.e. the Holy Qur’an) - God forbid? Is it from the Avesta of the Zoroastrians? Or the Hindu’s Veda’? Or the Angas, and Upangas of the Jainists? Or the Tipitaka of the Buddhist? The Granth of the Sinkhist of India? The Tao Te Ching of the Taoists of China ? The Confucian Wu Ching and Ssu Shu, in China? Or the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki of the Shintoists of Japan?” My answer to that is : None at all. Rather, all of them emanated from the Christian’s holy Book. Furthermore, we will ask the Christians: “How can all these verses be reconciled with the Christian’s catechism of John 3:16?” But, you never know with the Christian protagonists: This is because the crafty and cunning Christian foxes have devised a simple way of avoiding this type of question(s) from a Muslim. They will quickly point to the questioner that: ‘Jesus Christ is the only begotten son of God, in that Jesus was begotten and not made.’ Then, we the Muslims are advised by the great Titan (i.e. Ahmed Deedat), that we should equally ask the Christians on, “What do they mean by the phrase ‘begotten and not made’?” With just that, you are assured that the Christian will then, either avoid the whole question (all together); or he will try to dribble his way out of the discussion by resorting to the use of an impossible number of words and phrases. (But my best bet is most of them will ‘keep their trap shut’ and start looking at you ‘like a mesmerised geese.’
For they do not know what to say, and they never will! Therefore, it is left for us (we the Muslims) to show the Christians the answer to the question. To this end, I will quote what my brother and our master, i.e. Dr Deedat, have to say and I quote:
‘ “Reason For objection”
‘The Muslim takes exception to the word “begotten”, because begetting is an animal act, belonging to the lower animal functions of sex. How can we attribute such a lowly capacity to God?’
(Ahmed Deedat, 1985.)
Therefore, since begetting is a sexual function of animals, it implies that “God cannot beget a son, and neither can he ‘sire’ a son (as an American once told Deedat in the course of a dialogue that he - Deedat - had with the American).” However, what if the Christian protagonists refuse to agree with the above answer, then our best bet is to ‘let the Bible speak (for itself).’
In Psalms 2:7 above, it was quoted that: “God (the Almighty) told the prophet David (AS)” that, “he (i.e. David, AS) is also a begotten son of God.” That makes two begotten sons of God, which means the Christian Bible have once again contradicted itself. But, in the Revised Standard Version (RSV) that ‘was revised by the thirty two scholars of the highest eminence, backed by fifty cooperating denominations’ - see the preface to the RSV, 1901, re-revised in 1946-52 and edited in 1971 - the Christian scholars were not unaware of this fact. So during their revision and editing of the Christian scriptures, they resolved and unceremoniously expunged the word “begotten” from the context of John 3:16 in their RSV. What is now left are just the wordings: ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only son…” Surprisingly, this gallantry of the DDs (Doctors of Divinity) and PDs (professors of Divinity) of Christendom was done so silently as if it is of no significance at all. Therefore, this implies that the term “begotten” is not a genuine Title of Jesus Christ, but that it was cooked (or hoaxed) by the crafty Christian monkeys during the course of Christian History. This implies that the statement of Dr Ahmed Deedat as quoted above is the gospel truth. Consequently, Jesus is in no way any different from the other many sons and daughters of God - as contained in the Christian Bibles.
As the saying goes: ‘once a thief, always a thief,’ so I will not be surprised to hear that there still exist a “doubting Thomas” that is still not at all (or not fully) satisfied by the above reputation of the exclusive title of Jesus that say he is the “Only son of God.” Well, since the Christians are not better than kids (or programmed machines) in their reasoning, let us enlighten the Christian world further by quoting the words of Jesus that proves, beyond any reasonable doubt, that he (i.e. Jesus) is not the only son of God. Furthermore, it will be good to understand that the Bible, like any other eastern book is full of eastern proverbs, similes, metaphors, allegories, parables, etc.; and that these figures of speech are only (fully) understood by the easterners, or students that are taught by the easterners. Therefore, let it be clear that, ‘in the language of the easterner, and in the idiom of the easterner’ the term “son of God” is a harmless expression that signifies a God – fearing person, a saint or a Religious person.’ Thus, we should not derive any weird meaning (or ambiguous meaning) out of this ‘harmless eastern expression’.
First, in the Gospel according to St John, a drama (or a scene) took place (within the inside parts of the temple of Solomon) between Jesus Christ and the Jews. The drama (or scene) went like this. (The reader should note that it is the writer who quoted the passage in the form of a play.)
The Scene
‘It was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem, (and) it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered round about him and said:
‘JEWS: “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.
‘JESUS: (he answered them,) “ I told you, and you do not
believe. The works that I do in my father’s name, they bear witness to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My Sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give them eternal life, and they shall not perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the father’s hand. I and the father are one.”
‘JEWS: (Took up stones again to stone him.)
‘JESUS: (Answered them,) “I have shown you many good
works from the father; for which of these do you stone me?”
‘JEWS: (Answered him,) “It is not for good work that we
stone you, but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
‘JESUS: (Answered them,) “Is it not written in your law, ‘I
said you are gods’? If he calls them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken), do you say of him whom the father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘you are blaspheming’ because I said, ‘I am the son of God’? If I am not doing the works of my father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the father is in me and I am in the father.”
‘JEWS: (Again they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.)’
John 10:23-39
“…Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most high.” (Psalms 82:6.) That was the exact scripture which Jesus referred to in the dialogue above. How strange?! What?! Calling human beings ‘the Children of God’ and ‘gods’?! These might be the reaction(s) of the westerner (or the westernised person), but the easterner, will simply laugh and point out that the terms ‘gods’, ‘Children of God’ and(or) ‘Son/Daughter of God’ are all metaphorical (and not literal) in meaning. Excellent! This was just what Jesus Christ was trying to remind his fellow Jews that were itching to stone him to death at the flimsiest excuse! Alas! Do you now realize that you have, for a long time, been taken for a ride; that all along you have vested and invested your emotion, trust and belief in concocted and fabricated human doctrines (and dogmas)?! Nevertheless, the Christian should know that all is not lost, for if he is ready to accept the truth (i.e. Islam) and throw away his long established (and long standing) prejudices and beliefs, then (s)he should know that the door of repentance is still wide open, and that Islam will give him(her) the warmest (and most suitable) welcome that was ever accorded his(her) person. If Christianity is no more, why not try Islam: the current religion for the present and the future?!
Well! For us to rest the matter, let us see what the Holy Qur’an has to say about the divine sonship of Jesus Christ, and also about those who hold that ominous belief. This is what Allah says:
1. “O people of the book (i.e. the Christians and the Jews)! Commit no excess in your religion. Nor say of God aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the Son of Mary was (no more than) an apostle of God and His word, which He bestowed on Mary a Spirit proceeding from Him. So believe in God and His messengers…”
Holy Qur’an 4:171
2. “Christ the son of Mary was no more than an apostle; many were the apostles that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both ate their (daily) food. See how God doth make His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they (i.e. the Christians) are deluded away from the truth!”
Holy Qur’an 5:75
3. “The Jews call Uzair (Ezra) a son of God, and the Christians call Christ the son of God. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old use to say. God’s curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the truth! They take their priests and their anchorites to be their Lords in derogation of God, and (they take as their Lord) Christ the son Mary; yet they were commanded to worship but one God: there is no god but He. Praise and glory to Him: (Far is He) from, having the partners they associate (with Him).”
Holy Qur’an 9:30-31
4. On the last day, the following dialogue will take place between God (the Almighty) and Jesus Christ. Thus, we read:
GOD: (‘And behold! God will say:) “O Jesus the Son
of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, ‘worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of God’?”
JESUS: (‘He will say:) “Glory to Thee ! Never could I
38
say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, Thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thou
knowest what is in my heart, though I knowest not what is in Thine. For Thou knows in full all that is hidden. Never said I aught to them except what Thou didst command me to say, to wit, ‘ worship God my Lord and your Lord’ (see John 20:17); and I was a witness over them whilst I dwelt among them; When Thou didst take me up Thou was the watcher over them, and Thou art a Witness to all things. If Thou dost punish them, they are Thy servants: If Thou dost forgive them, Thou art the Exalted in Power, the Wise.”
Holy Qur’an 5:119-121
Lastly, in the Bible, Jesus was reported to have made a statement that tallies much with the above Qur’anic viewpoint. The statement that was accredited to Jesus by the Biblical witnesses is as follows:
“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father (i.e. God) who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name, and cast out demons in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers (i.e. workers of iniquity or men of lawlessness).’ ”
Matthew 7:21-22
Then the one Trillion Naira questions are: Who are those calling Jesus their Lord today? Who are those that claim to be performing miracles, wonders and signs in the name of Jesus? What is it that they are doing that makes them to be workers of iniquity (or evildoers, or men of lawlessness as the case may be)? The only answer to all of the above questions is simple, i.e. ‘it is the Christians, of course’! And they worship others in derogation to God!
Jesus also said:
“While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name: those that Thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.”
John 17:12
This tally with Qur’an 5:119-121 quoted above.
“O people of the book! Commit no excess in your religion: Nor say of God ought but the Truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) an apostle of God and His word, which he bestowed on Mary, so believe in God and His messengers…”
Holy Qur’an 4:171
We briefly hinted, in the last chapter, that the divine sonship of Christ was due to the Christians a priori belief ‘that sin is originally inherited by men.’ and that ‘a blameless sacrificial lamb is the only remedy to that inherited sin.’ Now we will take a critical look at the validity of the Christian’s quasi-metaphysical postulate which says that Jesus is the only begotten son of God, the most high.
Before we go forward it will be good if we quote a Christian authority (e.g. Abd-al-Masih), and see what is the Christian standpoint with regard to the divine sonship of Christ. Therefore, we quote thus:
“For a Muslim it is unthinkable that God has a son who is equal to Him in power and glory”. (Abd-al-Masih)
This makes it crystal-clear that the Christian’s a prior assumption is that Jesus Christ is really the Son of God, and that he is equal with God in power and Glory. This is why the Christian is made to repeat, again and again, that: “Jesus is the only begotten son of God, and he (Jesus) is begotten and not made.” This Christian Catechism was derived from the book of John, which read thus:
“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.”
John 3:16 (KJV)
According to the Christian authorities, ‘this single verse (i.e. John 3:16) have been translated from its original Greek and Hebrew form into about one thousand one hundred (1100) different languages of the world.’ (See the Introduction to the New Testament: With Psalms and Proverbs, published and distributed by the Gideon’s International). What a stunning and astonishing achievement for show! Well, we are not going to accept the Christian dogma just because of this outstanding record. However, we will “prove all things; and hold fast (to) that which is good…” (I Thessalonians 5:21), and also, we are going to “… Abstain from all appearance of evil.” (I Thessalonians 5:22)
We are now going to embark on a rigorous and soul-shaking journey. Therefore, the reader ought to empty his mind of all forms of bias, bigotry, preconceived notions, a priori and(or) quasi-logical deductions. I will need the attention of the reader’s mind, his soul and his spirit in their free and natural tune. This is because we are going to tangle with solid, heart-breaking facts that will objectively wreck havoc on the Christian’s long-standing emotions, trust and belief toward the dogma of the ‘divine sonship of Christ’.
Without taking any deep survey of the contents of the Christian Bibles, I am sure you will come across tens (hundreds or thousands) of sons or daughters of God - for I assures you, as my teacher Ahmed Deedat (May God bless him in life and in death) said, ‘God has children (i.e. sons and daughters) by the tones in the Christian Bibles.’ I know you may want to know ‘where have all this God’s children been hidden in the Christian Bibles?’ That is a very simple work. Just take any one of the existing Bibles, and start flipping through the pages right from Genesis up to where you can afford to reach, and by the time that you are finished with it you will have an appreciable number of verses that either talk about ‘a son of God’, ‘a daughter of God’, or even ‘sons’ or ‘daughters’ of God. However, in order to ease your task, I will provide you with a couple of verses that talk of ‘sons’ and ‘daughters’ of God right inside the Christian Bibles. However, for you my fellow Muslim brother, you should know that these couple of verses are a vital preaching tool for you with which you can shake the foundation of the faith of any Christian that is ignorant of their existence. So why not try and discuss them with your Christian friend(s). Some of these references, staring from the Old Testament, are as follows.
a. “…The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose… when the sons of God came into the daughters of men, …”
Genesis 6:2-4
b. “Thus says the Lord, Israel is my First-Born son…‘Let my son go…’ ”
Exodus 4:22-23
c. “I (i.e. David) will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me: ‘you are My son, today I have begotten You.’ ”
Psalms 2:7
d. “…For I (God) am a father to Israel, and E’phraim is My first-Born.”
Jeremiah 31:9
e. “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”
Matthew 5:9
f. “…Adam, which was the son of God.”
Luke 3:38
g. “For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the children of God.”
Romans 8:14
h. “… Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them”
Job 1:6 and 2:1
j. “When the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy.”
Job 38:7
I think the above nine references suffice for our present discourse. We may now ask the Christian evangelists: “From where does all these sons and daughters of God comes from? Is it from the last Testament of God to mankind (i.e. the Holy Qur’an) - God forbid? Is it from the Avesta of the Zoroastrians? Or the Hindu’s Veda’? Or the Angas, and Upangas of the Jainists? Or the Tipitaka of the Buddhist? The Granth of the Sinkhist of India? The Tao Te Ching of the Taoists of China ? The Confucian Wu Ching and Ssu Shu, in China? Or the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki of the Shintoists of Japan?” My answer to that is : None at all. Rather, all of them emanated from the Christian’s holy Book. Furthermore, we will ask the Christians: “How can all these verses be reconciled with the Christian’s catechism of John 3:16?” But, you never know with the Christian protagonists: This is because the crafty and cunning Christian foxes have devised a simple way of avoiding this type of question(s) from a Muslim. They will quickly point to the questioner that: ‘Jesus Christ is the only begotten son of God, in that Jesus was begotten and not made.’ Then, we the Muslims are advised by the great Titan (i.e. Ahmed Deedat), that we should equally ask the Christians on, “What do they mean by the phrase ‘begotten and not made’?” With just that, you are assured that the Christian will then, either avoid the whole question (all together); or he will try to dribble his way out of the discussion by resorting to the use of an impossible number of words and phrases. (But my best bet is most of them will ‘keep their trap shut’ and start looking at you ‘like a mesmerised geese.’
For they do not know what to say, and they never will! Therefore, it is left for us (we the Muslims) to show the Christians the answer to the question. To this end, I will quote what my brother and our master, i.e. Dr Deedat, have to say and I quote:
‘ “Reason For objection”
‘The Muslim takes exception to the word “begotten”, because begetting is an animal act, belonging to the lower animal functions of sex. How can we attribute such a lowly capacity to God?’
(Ahmed Deedat, 1985.)
Therefore, since begetting is a sexual function of animals, it implies that “God cannot beget a son, and neither can he ‘sire’ a son (as an American once told Deedat in the course of a dialogue that he - Deedat - had with the American).” However, what if the Christian protagonists refuse to agree with the above answer, then our best bet is to ‘let the Bible speak (for itself).’
In Psalms 2:7 above, it was quoted that: “God (the Almighty) told the prophet David (AS)” that, “he (i.e. David, AS) is also a begotten son of God.” That makes two begotten sons of God, which means the Christian Bible have once again contradicted itself. But, in the Revised Standard Version (RSV) that ‘was revised by the thirty two scholars of the highest eminence, backed by fifty cooperating denominations’ - see the preface to the RSV, 1901, re-revised in 1946-52 and edited in 1971 - the Christian scholars were not unaware of this fact. So during their revision and editing of the Christian scriptures, they resolved and unceremoniously expunged the word “begotten” from the context of John 3:16 in their RSV. What is now left are just the wordings: ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only son…” Surprisingly, this gallantry of the DDs (Doctors of Divinity) and PDs (professors of Divinity) of Christendom was done so silently as if it is of no significance at all. Therefore, this implies that the term “begotten” is not a genuine Title of Jesus Christ, but that it was cooked (or hoaxed) by the crafty Christian monkeys during the course of Christian History. This implies that the statement of Dr Ahmed Deedat as quoted above is the gospel truth. Consequently, Jesus is in no way any different from the other many sons and daughters of God - as contained in the Christian Bibles.
As the saying goes: ‘once a thief, always a thief,’ so I will not be surprised to hear that there still exist a “doubting Thomas” that is still not at all (or not fully) satisfied by the above reputation of the exclusive title of Jesus that say he is the “Only son of God.” Well, since the Christians are not better than kids (or programmed machines) in their reasoning, let us enlighten the Christian world further by quoting the words of Jesus that proves, beyond any reasonable doubt, that he (i.e. Jesus) is not the only son of God. Furthermore, it will be good to understand that the Bible, like any other eastern book is full of eastern proverbs, similes, metaphors, allegories, parables, etc.; and that these figures of speech are only (fully) understood by the easterners, or students that are taught by the easterners. Therefore, let it be clear that, ‘in the language of the easterner, and in the idiom of the easterner’ the term “son of God” is a harmless expression that signifies a God – fearing person, a saint or a Religious person.’ Thus, we should not derive any weird meaning (or ambiguous meaning) out of this ‘harmless eastern expression’.
First, in the Gospel according to St John, a drama (or a scene) took place (within the inside parts of the temple of Solomon) between Jesus Christ and the Jews. The drama (or scene) went like this. (The reader should note that it is the writer who quoted the passage in the form of a play.)
The Scene
‘It was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem, (and) it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered round about him and said:
‘JEWS: “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.
‘JESUS: (he answered them,) “ I told you, and you do not
believe. The works that I do in my father’s name, they bear witness to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My Sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give them eternal life, and they shall not perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the father’s hand. I and the father are one.”
‘JEWS: (Took up stones again to stone him.)
‘JESUS: (Answered them,) “I have shown you many good
works from the father; for which of these do you stone me?”
‘JEWS: (Answered him,) “It is not for good work that we
stone you, but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
‘JESUS: (Answered them,) “Is it not written in your law, ‘I
said you are gods’? If he calls them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken), do you say of him whom the father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘you are blaspheming’ because I said, ‘I am the son of God’? If I am not doing the works of my father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the father is in me and I am in the father.”
‘JEWS: (Again they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.)’
John 10:23-39
“…Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most high.” (Psalms 82:6.) That was the exact scripture which Jesus referred to in the dialogue above. How strange?! What?! Calling human beings ‘the Children of God’ and ‘gods’?! These might be the reaction(s) of the westerner (or the westernised person), but the easterner, will simply laugh and point out that the terms ‘gods’, ‘Children of God’ and(or) ‘Son/Daughter of God’ are all metaphorical (and not literal) in meaning. Excellent! This was just what Jesus Christ was trying to remind his fellow Jews that were itching to stone him to death at the flimsiest excuse! Alas! Do you now realize that you have, for a long time, been taken for a ride; that all along you have vested and invested your emotion, trust and belief in concocted and fabricated human doctrines (and dogmas)?! Nevertheless, the Christian should know that all is not lost, for if he is ready to accept the truth (i.e. Islam) and throw away his long established (and long standing) prejudices and beliefs, then (s)he should know that the door of repentance is still wide open, and that Islam will give him(her) the warmest (and most suitable) welcome that was ever accorded his(her) person. If Christianity is no more, why not try Islam: the current religion for the present and the future?!
Well! For us to rest the matter, let us see what the Holy Qur’an has to say about the divine sonship of Jesus Christ, and also about those who hold that ominous belief. This is what Allah says:
1. “O people of the book (i.e. the Christians and the Jews)! Commit no excess in your religion. Nor say of God aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the Son of Mary was (no more than) an apostle of God and His word, which He bestowed on Mary a Spirit proceeding from Him. So believe in God and His messengers…”
Holy Qur’an 4:171
2. “Christ the son of Mary was no more than an apostle; many were the apostles that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both ate their (daily) food. See how God doth make His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they (i.e. the Christians) are deluded away from the truth!”
Holy Qur’an 5:75
3. “The Jews call Uzair (Ezra) a son of God, and the Christians call Christ the son of God. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old use to say. God’s curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the truth! They take their priests and their anchorites to be their Lords in derogation of God, and (they take as their Lord) Christ the son Mary; yet they were commanded to worship but one God: there is no god but He. Praise and glory to Him: (Far is He) from, having the partners they associate (with Him).”
Holy Qur’an 9:30-31
4. On the last day, the following dialogue will take place between God (the Almighty) and Jesus Christ. Thus, we read:
GOD: (‘And behold! God will say:) “O Jesus the Son
of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, ‘worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of God’?”
JESUS: (‘He will say:) “Glory to Thee ! Never could I
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say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, Thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thou
knowest what is in my heart, though I knowest not what is in Thine. For Thou knows in full all that is hidden. Never said I aught to them except what Thou didst command me to say, to wit, ‘ worship God my Lord and your Lord’ (see John 20:17); and I was a witness over them whilst I dwelt among them; When Thou didst take me up Thou was the watcher over them, and Thou art a Witness to all things. If Thou dost punish them, they are Thy servants: If Thou dost forgive them, Thou art the Exalted in Power, the Wise.”
Holy Qur’an 5:119-121
Lastly, in the Bible, Jesus was reported to have made a statement that tallies much with the above Qur’anic viewpoint. The statement that was accredited to Jesus by the Biblical witnesses is as follows:
“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father (i.e. God) who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name, and cast out demons in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers (i.e. workers of iniquity or men of lawlessness).’ ”
Matthew 7:21-22
Then the one Trillion Naira questions are: Who are those calling Jesus their Lord today? Who are those that claim to be performing miracles, wonders and signs in the name of Jesus? What is it that they are doing that makes them to be workers of iniquity (or evildoers, or men of lawlessness as the case may be)? The only answer to all of the above questions is simple, i.e. ‘it is the Christians, of course’! And they worship others in derogation to God!
Jesus also said:
“While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name: those that Thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.”
John 17:12
This tally with Qur’an 5:119-121 quoted above.
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