Muhammad will be the advocate of humanity at large and of sinful
believers on Judgment Day:
WHAT DO YOU THINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
John
14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and
he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.
In
this verse, Jesus promises that another “Comforter” will appear, and thus, we
must discuss some issues concerning this “Comforter.”
The Greek word paravklhtoß, ho parakletos, has been
translated as ‘Comforter.’ Parakletos
more precisely means ‘one who pleads another’s cause, an intercessor.’[1] The ho parakletos is a person in the Greek
language, not an incorporeal entity. In
the Greek language, every noun possesses gender; that is, it is masculine,
feminine or neutral. In the Gospel of
John, Chapters 14, 15 and 16 the ho parakletos is actually a person. All pronouns in Greek must agree in gender
with the word to which they refer and the pronoun “he” is used when referring
to the parakletos. The NT uses the word
pneuma, which means “breath” or “spirit,” the Greek equivalent of ruah, the
Hebrew word for “spirit” used in the OT.
Pneuma is a grammatically neutral word and is always represented by the
pronoun “it.”
All present day Bibles are compiled from “ancient
manuscripts,” the oldest dating back the fourth century C.E. No two ancient manuscripts are
identical.[2] All Bibles today are
produced by combining manuscripts with no single definitive reference. The Bible translators attempt to “choose” the
correct version. In other words, since
they do not know which “ancient manuscript” is the correct one, they decide for
us which “version” for a given verse to accept.
Take John 14:26 as an example.
John 14:26 is the only verse of the Bible which associates the
Parakletos with the Holy Spirit. But the
“ancient manuscripts” are not in agreement that the “Parakletos” is the ‘Holy
Spirit.’ For instance, the famous Codex
Syriacus, written around the fifth century C.E., and discovered in 1812 on
Mount Sinai, the text of 14:26 reads; “Paraclete, the Spirit”; and not
“Paraclete, the Holy Spirit.”
Why is it important?
It is significant because in biblical language a “spirit,” simply means
“a prophet.”
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits
whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the
world.”[3]
It is instructive to know that several biblical scholars
considered parakletos to be an ‘independent salvific (having the power to save)
figure,’ not the Holy Ghost.[4]
The question, then, is: was Jesus’ parakletos, Comforter,
a ‘Holy Ghost’ or a person - a prophet - to come after him? To answer the question, we must understand
the description of ho parakletos and see if it fits a ghost or a human being.
When we continue reading beyond chapter 14:16 and chapter
16:7, we find that Jesus predicts the specific details of the arrival and
identity of the parakletos. Therefore,
according to the context of John 14 & 16 we discover the following facts.
1. Jesus said
the parakletos is a human being:
John 16:13 “He will speak.”
John 16:7 “…for if I go not away, the Comforter will not
come unto you.”
It is impossible that the Comforter be the “Holy Ghost”
because the Holy Ghost was present long before Jesus and during his
ministry.[5]
John 16:13 Jesus referred to the paraclete as ‘he’ and
not ‘it’ seven times, no other verse in the Bible contains seven masculine
pronouns. Therefore, paraclete is a person,
not a ghost.
2. Jesus is
called a parakletos:
“And if any man sin, we have an advocate (parakletos)
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1 John 2:1)
Here we see that parakletos is a physical and human
intercessor.
3. The
Divinity of Jesus a later innovation
Jesus was not accepted as divine until the Council of
Nicea, 325 CE, but everyone, except Jews, agree he was a prophet of God, as
indicated by the Bible:
Matthew 21:11 “...This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth
of Galilee.”
Luke 24:19 “...Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet
mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.”
4. Jesus
prayed to God for another parakletos:
John 14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give
you another parakletos.”
5. Jesus
describes the function of the other Parakletos:
John 16:13 “He will guide you into all the truth.”
God says in the Quran of Muhammad:
“O mankind! The
Messenger has now come unto you with the truth from your Lord: believe, then,
for your own good!...” (Quran 4:170)
John 16:14 “He will glorify Me.”
The Quran brought by Muhammad glorifies Jesus:
“…who shall become known as the Christ Jesus, son of
Mary, of great honor in this world and in the life to come, and [shall be] of
those who are drawn near unto God.” (Quran 3:45)
Muhammad also glorified Jesus:
“Whoever testifies that none deserves worship except God,
who has no partner, and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, and that
Jesus is the servant of God, His Messenger, and His Word which He bestowed in
Mary, and a spirit created from Him, and that Paradise is true, and that Hell
is true, God will admit him into Paradise, according to his deeds.” (Saheeh
Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim)
John 16:8 “he will convince the world of its sin, and of God’s
righteousness, and of the coming judgment.”
The Quran announces:
“Indeed, they have disbelieved who say, ‘God is the
Christ, son of Mary’ - seeing that the Christ [himself] said, ‘O Children of
Israel! Worship God [alone], who is my
Lord as well as your Lord.’ ‘Indeed, whoever ascribes divinity to any being
beside God, unto him will God deny paradise, and his goal shall be the fire:
and there are not for the wrongdoers any helpers!’” (Quran 5:72)
John 16:13 “he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever
he shall hear, [that] shall he speak.”
The Quran says of Muhammad:
“Neither does he speak out of his own desire: that [which
he conveys to you] is but [a divine] inspiration with which he is being
inspired.” (Quran 53:3-4)
John 14:26 “and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you.”
The words of the Quran:
“…while the Messiah had said, ‘O Children of Israel,
worship God, my Lord and your Lord.’” (Quran 5:72)
…reminds people of the first and greatest command of
Jesus they have forgotten:
“The first of all the commandments is, ‘Hear, O Israel;
the Lord our God is one Lord.’” (Mark 12:29)
John 16:13 “and He will disclose to you what is to come.”
The Quran states:
“That is from the news of the unseen which We reveal, [O
Muhammad], to you…” (Quran 12:102)
Hudhaifa, a disciple of Prophet Muhammad, tells us:
“The Prophet once delivered a speech in front of us
wherein he left nothing but mentioned everything that would happen till the
Hour (of Judgment).” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)
John 14:16 “that he may abide with you for ever.”
…meaning his original teachings will remain forever. Muhammad was God’s last prophet to
humanity.[1] His teachings are perfectly preserved. He lives in the hearts and minds of his adoring followers
who worship God in his exact imitation.
No man, including Jesus or Muhammad, has an eternal life on earth. Parakletos is not an exception either. This cannot be an allusion to the Holy Ghost,
for present day creed of the Holy Ghost did not exist until the Council of
Chalcedon, in 451 CE, four and half centuries after Jesus.
John 14:17 “he will be the spirit of truth”
…meaning he will a true prophet, see 1 John 4: 1-3.
John 14:17 “the world neither sees him...”
Many people in the world today do not know Muhammad.
John 14:17 “...nor knows him”
Fewer people recognize the real Muhammad, God’s Prophet
of Mercy.
John 14:26 “the Advocate (parakletos)”
Muhammad will be the advocate of humanity at large and of sinful
believers on Judgment Day:
People will look for those who can intercede on their behalf to God to
reduce the distress and suffering on Day of Judgment. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus will
excuse themselves.
Then they will come to our Prophet and he will say, “I am the one who is
able.” So he will intercede for the
people in the Great Plain of Gathering, so judgment may be passed. This is the ‘Station of Praise’ God promises
Him in the Quran:
“…It may
be that your Lord will raise you to Station of Praise (the honor of intercession
on the Day of Resurrection)” (Quran 17:79)[2]
Prophet
Muhammad said:
“My
intercession will be for those of my nation who committed major sins.”
(Al-Tirmidhi)
“I shall
be the first intercessor in Paradise.” (Saheeh Muslim)
Some Muslim scholars suggest what Jesus actually said in
Aramaic represents more closely the Greek word periklytos which means the
‘admired one.’ In Arabic the word ‘Muhammad’ means the ‘praiseworthy, admired
one.’ In other words, periklytos is “Muhammad” in Greek. We have two strong reasons in its
support. First, due to several
documented cases of similar word substitution in the Bible, it is quite
possible that both words were contained in the original text but were dropped
by a copyist because of the ancient custom of writing words closely packed,
with no spaces in between. In such a
case the original reading would have been, “and He will give you another
comforter (parakletos), the admirable one (periklytos).” Second, we have the reliable testimony of at
least four Muslim authorities from different eras who ascribed ‘admired,
praised one’ as a possible meaning of the Greek or Syriac word to Christians
scholars.[3]
The following are some who attest that the Paraclete is
indeed an allusion to Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him:
The First Witness
Anselm Turmeda (1352/55-1425 CE), a priest and Christian
scholar, was a witness to the prophecy.
After accepting Islam he wrote a book, “Tuhfat al-arib fi al-radd ‘ala
Ahl al-Salib.”
The Second Witness
Abdul-Ahad Dawud, the former Rev. David Abdu Benjamin
Keldani, BD, a Roman Catholic priest of the Uniate-Chaldean sect.[4] After accepting Islam, he wrote the book,
‘Muhammad in the Bible.’ He writes in
this book:
“There is not the slightest doubt that by “Periqlyte,”
Prophet Muhammad, i.e. Ahmad, is intended.”
The Third Witness
A synopsis of the life of Muhammad Asad has already been
given above. Commenting on the verse:
“…an apostle who shall come after me, whose name shall be
Ahmad” (Quran 61:6)
…where Jesus predicts the coming of Muhammad, Asad
explains that the word Parakletos:
“…is almost certainly a corruption of Periklytos (‘the
Much-Praised’), an exact Greek translation of the Aramaic term or name
Mawhamana. (It is to be borne in mind
that Aramaic was the language used in Palestine at the time of, and for some
centuries after, Jesus and was thus undoubtedly the language in which the
original - now lost - texts of the Gospels were composed.) In view of the
phonetic closeness of Periklytos and Parakletos it is easy to understand how
the translator - or, more probably, a later scribe - confused these two
expressions. It is significant that both
the Aramaic Mawhamana and the Greek Periklytos have the same meaning as the two
names of the Last Prophet, Muhammad and Ahmad, both of which are derived from
the Hebrew verb hamida (‘he praised’) and the Hebrew noun hamd (‘praise’).”
The man was a teacher.
He taught the Law of Moses. He
was impressed to see Jesus answering the questions of hypocrites and heretics
with wisdom:
“One of the teachers of the law came and heard them
debating. Noticing that Jesus had given
them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most
important?’”
He felt it was his opportunity to ask Jesus, the Great
Teacher, what was the most important commandment, how he can be saved, enter
life and the Kingdom of God.
Now, we need to shed all our biases, everything we have
been taught in Sunday schools, and all the teachings of mortal men. All who love Jesus should let him talk:
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this:
‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”
A great answer to a great question: accept the Lord our
God is One, love Him, and worship Him to the best of your ability.
Jesus was not finished.
He had more to teach. Obviously
Jesus was teaching the man everything he needed to get into the Kingdom of
God. Jesus added:
“…The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
The Great Teacher further clarified:
“There is no commandment greater than these.”
The man who questioned Jesus repeated the commandments to
make sure he got them right:
Mark 12:32 “‘Well said, teacher,’ the man replied. ‘You are right in saying that God is one and
there is no other but him…’”
Jesus seeing the man had learned the greatest commandment
correctly gave him the good news:
Mark 12:34 “When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely,
he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’”
There are some significant lessons in this story:
First, Jesus taught the man more than he asked,
yet he did not say he is the son of God, or the Saviour sent to redeem mankind
of its sins. He did not say anything
remotely similar to what people are instructed to repeat to be ‘born again’ in
Christ, “You should individually receive me, accept me as the Son of God, your
personal Lord and Saviour who will die on the cross for your sins and will rise
from the dead. Let the Holy Spirit fill
you…”
Take what Jesus said and leave what people have added.
Second, salvation depends on this commandment. Jesus made it clear when another man
approached Jesus to learn from him (Mark 10:17-29). The man fell on his knees and said to Jesus:
Mark 10:17-18 “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit
eternal life?” Jesus replied: “Why do
you call me good? No one is good —
except God alone.”
Third, Jesus confirmed there is no commandment greater
than these. In case, someone might think
the greatest commandment changed afterwards, Jesus told us:
Matthew 5:17-19 “For assuredly, I say to you, till the
heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one title will by no mean pass from the
law till all is fulfilled. Whoever
therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so,
shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches
them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Fourth, anyone who loves Jesus and wants to enter life
must keep the greatest commandment of Jesus as he said:
John 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commandments.”
Matthew 19:17 “If you want to enter life, obey the
commandments.”
Fifth, a sincere Christian should accept what Jesus said
without twisting his words or finding hidden meaning in them. Jesus taught exactly what Moses taught some
2,000 years before him:
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our
God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
Jesus, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him,
taught the same eternal truth ALL the prophets of God taught to their people:
God is One, worship Him alone.
Deuteronomy 6:13 “Fear the Lord your God, serve Him only
and take your oaths in His name.”
Deuteronomy 5:7 “You shall have no other God besides Me.”
Isaiah 43:11 “I even, I am your Lord and besides Me,
there is no Savior.”
Hosea 13:4 “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of
the Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God
but me, no saviour except me.”
Psalms 95:6-7 “O come, let us bow down and worship, let
us kneel before the Lord, our Maker. For
we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His voice and He is our God.”
Jesus emphasized this teaching to Satan as well:
Matthew 4:10 “Away from me, Satan! For it is written:
Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.”
Sixth, the Quran confirms the greatest commandment of Jesus. The Quran teaches us exactly that God sent
all the prophets with the same teaching: to worship the One true God alone.
And your God is One God. There is no god but He, Most Gracious, Most
Merciful.” (Quran 2:163)
“And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him...” (Quran
17:23)
“Not an Apostle did We send before thee without this inspiration sent
by Us to him: that there is no God but I [AM]; therefore worship and serve Me.’”
(Quran 21:25)
Seventh, on the Day of Resurrection, the Quran tells us that God will
ask Jesus:
“5:119. And behold! "I AM" will say: "O Jesus the son of
Mary! Didst thou say unto men, worship me and my mother as gods in derogation
of "I AM"'?" He will say: "Glory to Thee! NEVER could I say
what I had no right (to say).’” (Quran 5:119)
Jesus will respond:
“He will say, ‘Limitless are You in Your glory! It was
not for me to say that to which I have no right. If I had said it, You would have known
it. You know what is within myself, and
I do not know what is within Yourself.
Verily, it is You alone who fully knows all the things that are beyond
the reach of a created being’s perception.
I said not to them except what you commanded me – to worship God, my
Lord and your Lord. And I was a witness
over them as long as I was among them; but when You took me up, You alone had
been their keeper:’ for You are witness unto everything. If You should punish them – indeed they are
Your servants; but if You forgive them – indeed it is You who is the Exalted in
Might, the Wise.” (Quran 5:116-118)
Divinity of Jesus? An Inquiry
The critical difference between Jesus’ teachings and
the Trinitarian formula lies in elevating Jesus to divine status—a status Jesus
denies in the gospels:
“Why do you call me good: No one is good but One, that
is, God.” (Matthew 9:17, Mark 10-18, and Luke 18:19)
“My Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28)
“I do nothing of myself, but as the Father taught me, I
speak these things.” (John 8:28)
“Most assuredly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of
himself …” (John 5:19)
“But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent me.”
(John 7:29)
“He who rejects me rejects Him who sent me.” (Luke 10:16)
“But now I go away to Him who sent me …” (John 16:5)
“Jesus answered them and said, ‘My doctrine is not mine,
but His who sent me.’” (John 7:16)
“For I have not spoken on my own authority; but the
Father who sent me gave me a command, what I should say and what I should
speak.” (John 12:49)[1]
What does Pauline theology say? That Jesus is a partner in divinity, God
incarnate. So whom should a person believe?
If Jesus, then let’s hear what else he might have to say:
“The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear O Israel,
The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Mark 12:29)
“But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the
angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13:32)
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you
shall serve.’” (Luke 4:8)
“My food is to do the will of Him who sent me …” (John
4:34)
“I can of myself do nothing … I do not seek my own will
but the will of the Father who sent me.” (John 5:30)
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will,
but the will of Him who sent me.” (John 6:38)
“My doctrine is not mine, but His who sent me.” (John
7:16)
“I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my
God and your God.” (John 20:17)
My italics in the above verses do not imply that Jesus
spoke with that emphasis, although nobody can claim with certainty that he
didn’t. Rather, the italics stress the fact that Jesus not only never claimed
divinity, but would be the first to deny it. In the words of Joel Carmichael,
“The idea of this new religion, with himself as its deity, was something he
[Jesus Christ] could never have had the slightest inkling of. As Charles
Guignebert put it, ‘It never even crossed his mind.’”[2]
So if Jesus never claimed divinity, then what was he
exactly? He answered that question
himself:
“A prophet is not without honour except in his own
country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” (Mark 6:4)
“But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour
except in his own country and in his own house.” (Matthew 13:57)
“It cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of
Jerusalem.” (Luke 13:33)
Those who knew him acknowledged, “This is Jesus, the
prophet from Nazareth of Galilee” (Matthew 21:11), and “A great prophet has
risen up among us …” (Luke 7:16). The disciples recognized Jesus as “a prophet
mighty in deed …” (Luke 24:19. Also see Matthew 14:5, 21:46, and John 6:14). If
these statements were inaccurate, why didn’t Jesus correct them? Why didn’t he define his divinity if, that
is, he truly was divine? When the woman
at the well stated, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet’” (John 4:19), why
didn’t he thank her for her lowly impression, but explain there was more to his
essence than prophethood?
Or was there?
Jesus Christ, a mere man?
Could it be? A good part of the
religiously introspective world wonders, “Why not?” Acts 2:22 records Jesus as “Jesus of
Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which
God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know.” Jesus himself is recorded as having said,
“But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard
from God …” (John 8:40). Strikingly, a similar quote is found in the Holy
Qur’an:
“He [Jesus] said: ‘I am indeed a servant of Allah: He has
given me Revelation and made me a prophet’” (Quran 19:30)
So was
Jesus a “servant of Allah (i.e., servant of God)?” According to the Bible, yes. Or, at least,
that is what we understand from Matthew 12:18: “Behold! My servant whom I have chosen …” Furthermore,
Acts of the Apostles traces the growth of the early church for the first thirty
years following Jesus’ ministry, but nowhere in Acts did Jesus’ disciples ever
call Jesus “God.” Rather, they referred
to Jesus as a man and God’s servant.[3]
In fact,
the only New Testament verse which supports the doctrine of the Incarnation is
1 Timothy 3:16.[4] However, with regard
to this verse (which states that “God was manifest in the flesh”), Gibbon
notes, “This strong expression might be justified by the language of St. Paul
(I Tim. iii. 16), but we are deceived by our modern bibles. The word ë (which)
was altered to qeèv (God) at Constantinople in the beginning of the sixth
century: the true reading, which is visible in the Latin and Syriac versions,
still exists in the reasoning of the Greek, as well as of the Latin fathers;
and this fraud, with that of the three witnesses of St. John, is admirably
detected by Sir Isaac Newton.”[5]
Fraud? Now there’s
a strong word. But if we look to more modern scholarship, it’s a word well
applied, for “some passages of the New Testament were modified to stress more
precisely that Jesus was himself divine.”[6]
The Bible was modified?
For doctrinal reasons? Hard to
find a more appropriate word than “fraud,” given the circumstances.
In a chapter entitled “Theologically Motivated
Alterations of the Text” in his book, Misquoting Jesus, Professor Ehrman
elaborates on the corruption of 1 Timothy 3:16, which was detected not only by
Sir Isaac Newton, but also by the eighteenth century scholar, Johann J.
Wettstein. In Ehrman’s words, “A later scribe had altered the original reading,
so that it no longer read “who” but “God” (made manifest in the flesh). In
other words, this later corrector changed the text in such a way as to stress
Christ’s divinity…. Our earliest and best manuscripts, however, speak of Christ
‘who’ was made manifest in the flesh, without calling Jesus, explicitly,
God.”[7]
Ehrman stresses that this corruption is evident in five
early Greek manuscripts. All the same it was the corrupted, and not the
“earliest and best,” biblical manuscripts which came to dominate both the
medieval manuscripts and the early English translations.[8] Consequently, from medieval times on, the
tenets of Christian faith have suffered the corrupting influence of a church
devoted more to theology than to reality.*
Ehrman adds: “As Wettstein continued his investigations,
he found other passages typically used to affirm the doctrine of the divinity
of Christ that in fact represented textual problems; when these problems are
resolved on text-critical grounds, in most instances references to Jesus’
divinity are taken away.”[9]
Given the above there should be little surprise that
twentieth-century Christianity has expanded to include those who deny the alleged
divinity of Jesus. A significant sign of this realization is the following
report of the London Daily News: “More than half of England’s Anglican bishops
say Christians are not obliged to believe that Jesus Christ was God, according
to a survey published today.”[10] It is
worth noting that it was not mere clergy that were polled but bishops, no doubt
leaving many parishioners scratching their heads and wondering who to believe,
if not their bishops!
Paul
said, "It is NOT I That Lives"
The
Way home or face The Fire
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