ONE of the GREATEST CONTROVERSIES which DIVIDES Islam and Christianity is that of the nature of Jesus as the WORD OF GOD. Can God visit mankind in the form of the FLESH (Man)? If the speech of Allah can become a BOOK which will testify/speak on the day of resurrection and intercede for those who read and acted upon it, what prevents the Word of God from becoming FLESH who intercedes for us (Romans 8:34)?
Apparently the Qur’an will appear in one form or another:
Al-Bukhaari said in his book Khalq Af‘aal al-‘Ibaad (474):
‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated from the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him): “The Qur’an will appear in the form of a MAN on the Day of Resurrection and will intercede for its companions.”
Abu Umaamah al-Baahili says,
“I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) say: “Read the Quran, for it will come on the Day of Resurrection interceding for its companions.”
– Muslim (804)
It seems the Qur’an will have a personality: Another Sahabbi, ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) says that the Prophet ( peace be upon him) said: “… the Quran will say: I kept him from sleeping during the night; let me intercede for him. And they will be allowed to intercede.”
[Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Jaami‘, 7329]
The chapters of the Qur’an, Soorat al-Baqarah and Aal ‘Imraan, will be like TWO FLOCKS OF BIRDS in ranks pleading for one who recited them.” (Narrated by Muslim, 805).
It does appear therefore that the word of Allah will appear in one form or another.
The nature of Jesus as the Word of God is a matter of eternity in hell or heaven so it is important for Muslims and Christians to consider it seriously. Who has got this issue right: the Gospel or the Qur’an? But how can we test who is right and who is deceptive on this issue? Fortunately, the prophets of old do clarify this issue, as will be shown after reading the scripture in John about the Word of God.
The book of John is the one beloved Muslim use to claim that Muhammad was the Spirit of Truth”/”Helper” (parakletos) to come. In particular, one of Islam’s important scholar, Ibn Ishaq, (died around 767 AD), who wrote the oldest biography (called the “Sira” or “Sirat” of the prophet of Islam), quotes John 15:23-16:1 and says that it is taken from the Gospel (Injeel) of Jesus Al Masih, “which the Apostle John wrote down for Jesus’s followers.” [The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah pp.103-104].
So what does this book of John say about the Word of God?
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. The Word BECAME FLESH and made his dwelling AMONG US . We have SEEN his GLORY, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-3, 10, 14).
The context here is that Jesus Christ is the Word which became flesh (Man). The Word in essence is God. God became Man rather than that Man became God. God is spirit but the idea of God taking on other forms is not new to the Gospels. In the Torah didn’t God appear to Abraham and Sarah and Lot at different times and they both prepared FOOD for the LORD who had appeared to them as an angel (Genesis 18:1-8 and Genesis 19:1,3)? Did he not appear to Moses as a burning bush in Exodus 3:2?
In Islam however, Isa is Kalimat Allah “word OF God” and the Qur’an alters the divinity of Jesus in the sense that Isa of the 7th century Qur’an is merely a prophet/Messenger who is “a confirmer of a word FROM God” (QS 3:39) or “an apostle of Allah, and His Word that He cast toward Mary and a spirit from Him.” (4:171) who is CREATED (QS 3:45-48). In Islam the word is not God as is expressed in John 1:1-3 (or Isaiah 9:6) where the Word/Son IS God and CREATOR.
Muslims firmly insist that Muhammad is prophesied in Isaiah 29 and 42) so it would be the highest order of hypocriticy for Muslims to suddenly dismiss the book of Isaiah as unreliable!
700 years before John, God announces through the prophet Isaiah that He (God) will come to earth in the flesh and he (his glory) will be revealed to mankind (all flesh).
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert A highway FOR OUR GOD. Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth; THE GLORY OF THE LORD shall be REVEALED, And all flesh shall SEE IT together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:3-5).
From this verse—without a shadow of doubt—God himself was coming to the earth and would be SEEN in a human body (flesh) by all flesh (men). Jesus is the the brightness of God’s GLORY (Hebrews 1:3). But who was to prepare the way for ‘the Lord’/’our God’?
“Behold, I send My messenger, and he shall clear the way before Me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, will SUDDENLY come to His TEMPLE, and the messenger of the COVENANT, whom ye delight in, behold, he cometh, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 3:1)
There are two messangers in this verse: First, the messanger that prepares the way (John the Baptist). The second messanger is “the messanger of the covenant”. This is not John the Baptist because John did not deliver a message about a covenant. Jesus is the messenger of the new covenant of GRACE:
“And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the (covenant) LAW was given through Moses, but GRACE and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:16-17).
As stated previously, Malachi 3:1 says God would come to his TEMPLE.
‘Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this TEMPLE, and in three days I will raise it up.” Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this TEMPLE, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the TEMPLE of His BODY’ (John 2:19-21).
So the temple YHVH refers to is the body of Yeshua. This gives us:
“Behold! I (YHVH) send my messanger (John) and he (John) shall prepare the way before Me. And shall suddenly come into his (YHVH’s) temple (Yeshua’s body) the Lord (YHVH) whom you seek; and the messanger of the covenant (Yeshua) which you delight: behold, he (Yeshua) shall come”, saith YHVH of hosts.
What did Jesus say of John the Baptist?
“For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ (Matthew 11:10).
In announcing the news of Jesus’s birth the angel says:
‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, And they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, GOD WITH US.’ (Matthew 1:23 (see Isaiah 9:6)
What did John the Baptist—the messenger preparing the way for Jesus say when the Jews sent priests and Levites to ask if he was the Christ?
He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the Lord ,” ’AS THE PROPHET ISAIAH SAID.” (John 1:23).
John the Baptist’s mission, as prophesied in Micah 3:1, was to make way for Jesus, the Lord—for God, who would come in the flesh.
“By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has COME IN THE FLESH is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And THIS IS THE SPIRIT OF THE ANTICHRIST, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” (I John 4:2-3)
What is common between Islam and most heritic cults like Jehovah Witness and the Mormons? They deny John 1:1—that Jesus is the Word of God and IS God. Islam IS ANTICHRIST as it denies, as prophesied in Isaiah, that God would come in the flesh, in the form of the God-man—Jesus Christ. Allah of the Qur’an is an IMITATION of the true God of the Torah and Gospel (QS 29:46). The Qur’an is not the criterion (QS 25:1) which Muslims believe “corrects” the previous scriptures but rather the Qur’an is an abomination which OPPOSES the will, promises and covenants of the true God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Allah has no written historical records or oral tradition of his existence before 610, except as the pagan god, Hubal (“He who is Baal”) worshipped at the centre of pagan worship in Mecca. Hubal was the Allah of the Kaaba.
1. Islam: the religion of Baal worship [start at the 19th minute mark] https://youtu.be/bsVjBnv-zFs
2. Allah’s true identity exposed: https://youtu.be/rvxkx0BnAA8