Jesus The Muslim Prophet

        

Buy the book from Amazon

This book has been adopted for a course on the “Faces of Jesus in Global Christianity” at Wesley Theological Seminary

The Prophethood of Jesus in the Qur’an and History Versus the Divinty of The Christ in Christianity:

• The human Jesus of the Qur’an
• Scriptural evidence that Jesus was not divine
• Paul’s deification of Jesus and invention of Christianity
• Historical problems in the Christian “sonship of God”
• The problematic doctrine of Trinity
• The original meaning of “son of man”

Jesus introduced himself as a prophet of Islam and the awaited Messiah. Like the many Muslim prophets before him, his core message was to call people to worship God. He also tried to reform the practice of Judaism which had been corrupted over the centuries and brought the good news about the coming of Prophet Muhammad. Jesus spoke about one God. He never taught that he or anybody else was or could be divine. He even called himself “son of man” to pre-empt the attempts to make him divine after him. It was Paul who started and promoted the concept that Jesus was man and god. He put Jesus’ divinity at the heart of his theology, creating a religion, Christianity, that Jesus would not have recognized.

The deification of Jesus was developed further by later theologians, leading to a Jesus that cannot be distinguished from God. This is the Jesus of the last of the four Gospels, John. The different Jesuses that early Christianity created can be seen by comparing the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke with John, Paul’s writings, and other New Testament books. Putting all twenty seven books in one volume cannot hide the fact that they do not promote one Jesus. In fact, inconsistency can be clearly seen even within most of these books, including each of the four Gospels.

This book contrasts the human Jesus of the Qur’an with the divine Jesus of Christian sources. It shows that the Qur’anic Jesus is the one that fits in history. This focused study is for both the general reader and the expert. This easy-to-read and enjoyable book is for anyone interested in the question of the nature of Jesus in various scriptures and historical sources.

---

---

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Part I: The Muslim Jesus

1. Muslim Messenger and Prophet

Islam

Jesus the Prophet

Jesus the Messenger

The Human Nature of the Prophets

“Prophet” Jesus in the Gospels

Jesus’ Mission

2. The Human Historical Messiah

The Human Jewish Messiah

The Divine Christ

The Human Masih of the Qur’an

Part II: “Son of Mary” Not “Son of God”

3. The Non-Divine Jewish “Sonship of God”

4. The Christian “Sonship of God”

Christian Sons of God

The Unique Son of God

The Eternal Son of John

When Did Jesus’ Sonship of God become Special?

Sonship of God, Messiahship, and Miracle Working

Sonship of God and Blasphemy

5. The Qur’an’s Rejection of the “Sonship of God”

The Oneness of God

No Offspring of God

Jesus’ False “Sonship of God”

6. Son of Man

The Unhistorical Link Between “Son of Man” and “Messiah”

Jesus’ Use of the Term “Son of Man”

Part III: A Divine Theology for a Non-Divine Jesus

7. Pauline Christianity

Paul’s Unhistorical Jesus

The Doctrine of the Atonement

Johannine Theology: The Ultimate Fruit of Pauline Christianity

The Heterogeneous Scriptural Sources of Christianity

8. The Trinity

The Development of the Doctrine of the Trinity

The Fallacy of the Trinity

9. Jesus: A Man Created by God and a God Created by Humans

Appendix A. The Qur’anic Verses that Refute Jesus’ Divinity

References

Index of Qur’anic Verses

Index of Biblical Passages

Index of Names and Subjects