CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE FOR CHRIST’S DIVINITY

CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE FOR CHRIST’S DIVINITY

In spite of their various opinions about Jesus (PBUH), Christian sects believe that he is God incarnate,[1]supporting this claim with many passages from both the Old and the New Testaments, which speak of his Divinity. These passages, calling him Lord, God or the Son of God, convey that Allah (S.W) had incarnated in him, and that he had created some creations. They consider that his foretelling about the unknown and his raising of the dead is the greatest evidence of his Divinity.

An Introduction to the Discussion on Christian Evidence for Christ’s Divinity

It is important, before we start to discuss this evidence, to mention and consider these following few notes:

1) There is no passage in the entire Bible, Old or New Testaments, where Jesus (PBUH) himself declared divinity or that he asked people to worship him. Furthermore, not one of his contemporaries worshipped him. The Jews considered him as someone who claimed prophethood, some believed him, but the majority of them  rejected the entire idea.

There is no base in the Holy Bible for Jesus’ (PBUH) divinity. Regarding this, Deedat challenged the Swedish archbishop, in their televised debate saying: “I will put my head in a guillotine if you show me one verse where Jesus himself says ‘I am God’ or where he says ‘Worship me’.” 

In his book (The Secrets Key), Priest Fender explained why Jesus (PBUH) did not openly declare divinity in the New Testament.  He said:

“No one could understand this relationship and unity before his resurrection and ascension. If he did so, they would understand that he is God in a human body… the Jewish high priests wanted to catch him and stone him, the fact is that he did not declare his divinity except by puzzles and parables.” [2]

The fear from the Jews is an unacceptable reason for Allah (S.W) or even for Jesus (PBUH) to hide his identity. He used to face and condemn the Jews every now and then as is recorded in the Gospels. “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces, for ye neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in…. ye blind guides…. you fools and blind…. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, you serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape being sentenced to hell? (Matthew 23/13-34) Surprisingly, how and why did he hide his identity from humanity? Doing so creates misguidance and confusion.

2) Not one of Jesus’ (PBUH) disciples considered him God, for none of them worshipped him. In addition, the disciples and Jesus’ (PBUH) contemporaries did not think of him as more than a prophet. (I will explain later)  

3) The strongest evidence, which Christians present to prove Jesus’ (PBUH) divinity, is only in the Gospel according to John and in Paul’s Epistles, while the Synoptic do not contain a clear passage proving that.

The fact is that the non-existence of this evidence in the Synoptic was the reason that forced John - or the writer - to write a Gospel about Jesus’ (PBUH) Divinity. In this Gospel, we find that he wrote what the others did not write, and that this Gospel is full of metaphors and philosophy, which differs from Jesus’ (PBUH) simple environment and style, which made many commoners follow him.

 4) The non-existence of a clear passage, which proves Jesus’ (PBUH) Divinity in the Synoptic, was the reason that led Christians to fabricate and alter the Bible’s editions. An example for that is that they have added the only clear passage that declares the Trinity in the First Epistle of John (John 1, 5:7).

Another example is in Paul’s First Epistle to Timothy. The editor’s fabrication is so clear. It says, “great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh”.(Ti 1, 3:16)

This verse, and according to Chrispach, is a fabrication. He said,

“It is a fabrication, as the word ‘God’ does not exist in the original codex, instead it contains the third person subject pronoun ‘He’ or the demonstrative pronoun ‘That or which’ ”.

Explaining the reason, history and time for this fabrication, Priest James Anas says,

“What makes the reading with the word ‘which’ more accurate, is that the old theologians did not mention it among the many verses, which they produced while they were refuting Arius. The reason for that change in the New Greek Manuscripts is the similarity between the two words. They both look alike in writing; the only difference between them is a small hyphen or a little dot. Most probably, the writers added this little line to clarify the meaning, thus, changing the word from ‘which’ to ‘God’. Then it spread over many copies in the middle centuries; conflicting what was found in the ancient copies, which contain only the word ‘That’”.[3]  

If we read Paul’s above-mentioned verse correctly, apart from the editor’s intended fabrication, we will find that it talks about the appearance of godliness in a living body, but the new translations changed it to evidence for God’s incarnation in Jesus (PBUH).

The Catholic Jesuits edition, the Douay-Rhiems Bible, and the Murdock Bible deleted the fabrication and corrected the verse. It reads, “Great is the mystery of godliness: which was manifest in the flesh”.(Ti 1, 3:16), replacing the word ‘God’ with the accurate word, ‘which’. Consequently, changing the meaning and the evidence for God’s incarnation in Jesus (PBUH) had disappeared.

 

Another example of these fabrications is the translators’ alteration in the Epistle of Jude. In the most famous and popular Protestant Edition, the Revised King James Version, we find what would deceive and delude the reader.  It reads, “Now to him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savoir, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.” (Jud 1:24-25)

 

The fact is, that the verse mentions the ‘Savior God’ that would save people by Jesus’ (PBUH) mission and message, but not about Jesus himself. In the Catholic Jesuits' edition, and in the American Standard Version, we find the verse as follows: “to the only wise God our Savoir, through Jesus Christ our lord, be glory and majesty, dominion and power” (Jud 1: 25)

 

In the Protestant edition, they omit Jesus’ name to indicate that he is the Savior and not that he was the way to be saved. It calls Jesus (PBUH) ‘the only wise God’, but in the Catholic edition, the passage talks about Allah (S.W) ‘the only wise God our Savior’. Christians fabricated the verses when they could not find any evidence proving Jesus’ divinity (PBUH).

 

Dear brother, whoever searches for the truth, I invite you to join me in order to study scientifically, together and hand in hand, the Christians’ written evidence in which they claim that they prove Jesus’ Divinity (PBUH).

There are six categories of this evidence,

1. Verses that attribute divinity and lordship to Jesus (PBUH), which they call “God’s titles”
2. Verses mentioning his son-ship to God
3.  Verses mentioning God’s manifestation in him
4. Verses that attribute God’s characteristics to him
5. Verses that attribute God’s deeds to him
6. Jesus’ miracles as a proof of his Divinity