Is Jesus God?

Have you ever met a man with such personal magnetism that he is always the center of attention? Possibly his personality or intelligence--but something about him is enigmatic. Well, that’s the way it was two thousand years ago with Jesus Christ. But it wasn’t merely Jesus’ personality that captivated his followers. Those who witnessed his words and life tell us that even though he was human, he was remarkably different from all other men.

Eyewitnesses tell us that Jesus was a man who grew physically, ate, slept, felt pain, and eventually died (as claimed by some people). Their written accounts also describe Jesus as walking on water, calming storms, healing the blind and lame, and even raising the dead. Furthermore, they tell us that Jesus appeared alive to them after they watched him "die" on the cross.

Jesus’ greatness was obvious to all those who saw and heard him. But, whereas most great people simply fade into history books, Jesus of Nazareth is still the focus of numerous books and media controversy.

According to Jesus, you and I are special, part of God’s great plan for us, with him as the carrier of God's message. These and other "claims" like them stunned everyone who heard them uttered; that caused him to be viewed as a threat by both the Roman authorities and the Jewish hierarchy. Although he was an "outsider" with no credentials or political power base, within three years, Jesus changed the world for the next 20 centuries.

Although some have wondered if Jesus really existed, even most non-Christian scholars acknowledge him as a real person. The great non-Christian historian, H. G. Wells, speaks ranked Jesus as the most influential person ever. Other great leaders have left an impact-but nothing like that "unknown" carpenter from Nazareth. What was it about Jesus Christ that made the difference? Was he merely a great man, or something more? Some believe he was merely a great moral teacher; others believe he was simply the leader of the world’s greatest religion. But many, including former skeptics, believe something far more. 

To come to conclusion, Scholars' research have indicated that Jesus Christ is a person. However, the research did not view Jesus as he is supposed to be viewed. I will provide the Islamic view about Jesus Christ as follows:

Jesus is human.

- Jesus is not God.

- Jesus' miracles that he raises the dead and healing the blind and lame are true and have happened, but that doesn't make him God. As a messenger of God, he was supported by God and so God has "provided" him with miracles so people can believe he was send by God himself.

- Jesus has never claimed to be God. People might have either misunderstood or falsified his sayings.

No offense intended, I am just providing you with the Islamic perspective on Jesus Christ as a prophet and a messenger of God. 

P.S. The topic is taken from a research post and edited in a way as to delete anything offensive towards Jesus.

arabhamid

I only read it in the 5 Books of Moses that the Jews are God's chosen people and that promises like these count forever is what I read in the New Testament. (I only posted this information here, because you asked me where I got that from.)

But please let me tell you some stories to explain why I don't consider historical events to be some kind of evidence that God doesn't like a certain people:

In a concentrationcamp there was a young boy who was to be executed by hanging. However the gallow was made for an adult man rather than for a child and thus he didn't die as soon as expected, but he rather just hung there, floundered and suffered. Among the prisoners who witnessed this was a religious Jew and when one of his fellow inmated angrily asked him "So! Where's your God now?", he answered "There he hangs!"

Another story I know is about a man who was a very well-known doctor a lot of centuries ago. He was so popular that one day he even got visited by the pope and thus they asked him to wear finer clothes than the stuff he usually wore in his hospital for the arrival of the pope. However the man just answered:"If I wear these things every day I meet Christ the Lord, then they shall be well enough for his representative on Earth aswell." By "Christ the Lord" he meant his patients who after all had to suffer from horrible sicknesses.

Apart from that God helped the Jews to get out of Egypt, he was with his prophets when they got tortured or even murdered for spreading the messages of God, he was with the first Christians who after all were persecuted and in the New Testament it's even written that God is with those who get persecuted for his sake. I even remember one passage of the bible (unfortunately I forgot where to find it) that goes like this-or at least it's something like that: "God, where were you, when I had trouble and when I needed you? As long as I was fine I could see your traces next to mine in the sand, but after I got in trouble I only saw one track!" "You only saw one track, because I carried you throughout that period of time!"

I think that stories like these have the message that God is with those who suffer rather than the opposite.

"But in the Old Testament it's clearly said that the Jews are God's chosen people." "Other than that the bible-as far as I know it-doesn't say that this bond between God and the Jews was only temporary."

If you look at the actions of some of the Jews today, e.g. Jewish soldiers, Jewish government, Natanyahu and Sharon and their commited crimes, do you still think these people can still remain the chosen ones? 

I think there is no chosen people anymore today. As situation changed a status of people changes as well. There are bad Jews like good Jews, bad muslims like good muslims and bad christians as well as good ones, you cant categorize any people anymore .

about the same topic of whether Jesus is God and how Islam sees this topic, you can read my blog too.

Miss Fabul
ous

I think you can believe in what you want. I mean: Some people even believe in some animals being the incarnation of their God.

About the Jews as the chosen people: I only quoted what I read. Of course that doesn't mean that according to this all Jews will automatically go to heaven. I don't think so!

By the way I thank you for your kind offer. Maybe I'll read it later.

Well, calling Jesus a prophet makes some Christians mad the way Baha'i saying Muhammad was not the last prophet makes some Muslims mad, I guess.  For these people, Islam challenges the legitimacy of Christian beliefs, just by existing. So they get angry, I guess out of insecurity.  This is on top of the xenophobic influences at work that make some Christians see Islam as a hostile monolith.  

Most western Christians (I don't know about how, say, Algerian Christians feel) do not see Jews as embodying an existential challenge to their existence, quite the opposite in fact (though this may just be a temporary thaw in the schizophrenic history of Christian Jewish relations), nor is there really a widespread perception of Jews as a monolithic force or as a material threat.  They are secure.  So when some punk young Jewish people do some stupid hateful things, it is much easier for Christians now to be able to, well, act like Christians, and love the people who hate them, and be able to make distinctions between the unsavory actions of a few and the basic goodness of a group of people.  

The "chosen people" thing is something I have always heard described as a burden rather than a blessing, though it has a long and contentious history.  I've never known a Jewish person who claimed that their particular relationship with God morally superior other people, though I'm sure it happens.  Monotheistic religions tend to encourage chauvanism.  

It's interesting to see how some religions have developed ideas about how God protects them, based on their historical success.  Times of resurgence shape the dominant theology differently from times of suffering.  I personally, reject the notion that God influences events in the (dis)favor of anyone, or that success is a measure of holiness.  Instead, I believe that God offers an influence in how we allow events to affect us and how we deal the world.  For example, I would never ever believe in a God that took a side in any military conflict or battle, but if a soldier, from the winning side or the losing side, was affected by the battle and changed his behavior for the good of those around him, I would see God in that.  I don't believe in a God that cures cancer or blindness (well, with a possible exception for Jesus, I guess) but rather, I believe in a God that comes to someone who in their recovery from illness desires to heal the world in the same way. 

One thing I think this argument has a problem with is that there is this idea here that Jesus was either a God or a Prophet.  He could have been just one of many pretend Messiahs, or an avatar of Vishnu come to trick people, or a misinterpreted Bodhisattva, or whatever. It doesn't have to be a binary Christian-Muslim argument. 

Hi Arabhamid, I'm doing well, thanks :)

that is not right, it doesn't make us man, who said that!

I guess it's roughly the same proportion as the Christians who shout at Muslims for saying Jesus was a prophet.  Most Muslims, I think, don't care one way or the other about Baha'i, because they are confident in their religion, but the Baha'i have sadly faced some pretty nasty persecutions over the years.

The thing is, in Islam, Muhammad is the Seal of the Prophets, right?  Most Muslims would agree that this is a very important part of their faith, that Muhammad was the last Prophet.  Baha'i believe that there were prophets after Muhammad.  Hence, conflict, even though the Baha'i also claim to honor Muhammad as a beloved prophet.  

It's this same idea that makes some Christians have issues with Islam and Judaism and other belief systems.  Muhammad said that Jesus was not God.  That means, whatever other nice things he said about Jesus, he is still saying that what many Christians believed their whole lives is wrong. Some Christians get upset about this and react in stupid, yet sadly human, ways.  

Why that, Islam came believing in Christianity and prophets.

in the other hand, Jews don't, atheists don't believe in all that, and they're not blamed.

It's not just a problem Islam has, the existence of any other religion makes some monotheist people upset because it challenges their beliefs.  The distrust and prejudice Islam is suffering in the West right now is just another incident in a long, sad string of tragedies, of "others" being discriminated against.

Unfortunately, even now Jews and atheists do not escape hardship even in the USA.  Jews suffer from far more hate crimes than any other religious group in the USA, and atheists are the least trusted minority group in the USA, less than Muslims.   So it's hard out there for everyone.  We are not a perfect society. 

That is because lack of knowledge, if they read history and goegraphy, they would know that Islam and Christianity (Muslims and Christians) lived in peace under Islam.

I don't think they even have to do that.  For a lot of the people I think you are talking about, if they just met an average Muslim and got to know him/her a little, it would go a long way towards solving ignorance.  And that's happening.  In the USA, especially, Muslims are assimilating very well and are Americans in every sense of the word. 

But you asked, why do they do what they do.  "Lack of knowledge" is a pretty good answer, right? :)

We don't have Christians here, just few thousands.

But they have feelings, right? ;) I just wanted to say that I was only making a point about Western Christians.  My answer on Christian-Muslim-Jewish relations would be different if I was an Egyptian Coptic Christian, probably.  

They claim that God chose them amoung all nations to be closed from him, and others are not more than ordinary people.

and they link that more to their Root (Israelites) than their believes.

I think there is more debate about that within Judaism than you seem to think, but I'm not in any way a Jewish scholar, so I can't really talk about this knowledgeably.  

It can be, when people follow God's laws, God would bless their deeds and help them, and we can see the result on the ground, which can go for long period of time. God is always with rightrouse people who spread justice and his word throw poeple.

I agree with you that acting in a righteous way will consistently bring benefits in this world, and that acting in a bad way will consistently be bad for people.  I just have serious issues with the extent that God has influence in how actual events turn out.  I don't like the idea of God "testing" people.  I think that nature tests us, and God offers us help.  I am certainly less "righteous" than a starving child in Africa, yet I have a lot more wealth than he does, this could not be so if material blessings came from God.  

I'd be very interested to talk to you about what you mean when you say God stands with righteous people, though.  This is a question I struggle with myself.  

"It doesn't have to be a binary Christian-Muslim argument. "

.

How that ?

I just mean that there are lots of ways to view Jesus, not just a "Christian" way and a "Muslim" way.  i hope what I've just written made some sense.  Looking forward to your reply.

I suppose the majority of you may not know who Choga Regina Egbeme is, do you? She grew up as the daughter of a Muslim man in a country where the majority of the population was-and still is-Islamic. I don't know where exactly she grew up, but I guess it must have been somewhere in Africa, because she wasn't only taught about Jesus the way the Koran tells about him, but she also grew up believing that Jesus Christ had been black. Anyway: As I said she grew up among Muslims and it took some time till she first entered in contact with Christians-who considered it to be weird to hear what this girl has been told about Jesus Christ's colour. When she went home and told her mother about this meeting,-after all this experience must have been something special for her, regarding the culture in which she grew up-the latter said that actually it doesn't matter what you believe concerning Jesus. The most important about this man was (according to her) what he did.

My source is Choga Regina Egbeme's book Hinter goldenen Gittern. Ich wurde im Harem geboren. or in French Je suis nee au harem-which unfortunately isn't available in English according to what I've heard.

dr.mo

"but we are not talking about is Jesus(pbuh) black or white"

That's not what I meant! By telling you that I only wanted to say that instead of having endless and resultless discussions about whether or not Jesus was the Son of God or even his incarnation (i.e. Jesus Christ's heritage) we should rather care about the things he told us.

I just didn't write it as precisely as that, due to a lack of time. I'm, sorry!

P.S. To make you Muslims at least make some efforts to understand why some Christians still insist on Jesus being God, I'll give you some better quotes:

-John 10,30: “Me and the father are one." In John 8,59 he also says that he was "before Abraham".

-Finally I'd like to tell you something written in  John 20,28. Namely the scene in which Thomas calls Jesus his "master and God" and Jesus does not correct him by saying that he was not God.

dr.mo

It's okay!

Have a nice day!

Jesus is our Savior and you all have to respect Him!!!

No one can comment about Jesus, Moise, etc. Each of us trusts in somebody who is our Lord. No all of us are belonging to the same religion so PLEASE be considerate and respectful. God please forgive them because they do not know what are doing. AMEN.