Isa is Not Jesus

The Jesus of the Qur’an is not the same Jesus as the Jesus of the Bible. A discerning examination of the text reveals that Isa is not Jesus. The Muslim Jesus is a false messiah whose veracity has been stripped and handed over to a false prophet through a false gospel. The Bible is the only authoritative source for the truth about Jesus and any other portrayal of Him must align with it.

Muslims rely on scriptures where Jesus is called Son of Man as opposed to Son of God, or the Father is greater than I, to refute the Christian belief that Jesus is God. In truth, the title Son of Man (Mark 14:62) refers to Christ’s divinity by referencing Daniel 7:13–14. They believe in a historical Jesus but not the real Jesus, and see Him as nothing more than a prophet and deny His divinity. Muslims will point to John 5:19 as evidence that Jesus is subordinate to God. “Jesus gave them this answer: ‘I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.’”

Jesus is saying that His will and the Father’s will are the same. He does nothing against His Father’s will, and everything He does is in perfect unity with the will of God, because God cannot oppose Himself. The context of this verse is important because Jesus was accused of being demon possessed, and His response illustrates His oneness with the Father.

The Qur’an contradicts the gospels by denying that Jesus was the Son of God. Surah At-Tawbah 9:30 says that the Jews said, “Ezra is the son of God,” and the Christians said, “The Messiah is the son of God.” In 2 Esdras 2:42–48 (a Jewish apocalyptic text), Ezra has a vision of the Son of God in the midst of a great multitude of people. Muhammad misquoted the text.

Surah An-Nisa 4:156–157 states that Jesus was spared the cross and denies that the Jews orchestrated His death. Muslims teach that Allah put Jesus’s face on Judas, and Judas was crucified, and then Jesus travelled to India where He died at an old age, and that the church made up the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

THE BIBLE PREDICTED THAT THE MESSIAH WOULD DIE

The Bible predicted that the Messiah would die. Isaiah 53:8–9 says He would be cut off from the land of the living, and that He would be assigned a grave in His death, before having His life restored (Isaiah 53:11). The gospels documented the fulfilment of this prophecy seven hundred years later. David wrote Psalm 22, a detailed messianic prophecy containing striking details of Christ’s final moments, one thousand years before the crucifixion.

Jesus clearly conveyed His impending death in Matthew 16:21–23, Matthew 17:22–23, and again in Matthew 20:18–19 where He states, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn Him to death and will turn Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day He will be raised to life!” Luke 24:7 reaffirms this.

Christ’s willingness to go to the cross is counterintuitive to Muslim belief. Since He never resisted His arrest, being beaten, and crucified, Muslims presume He was weak and could not be God. However, Jesus did not strike back because He wasn’t defending Himself, He was defending salvation. Jesus displayed immeasurable strength through His restraint as Matthew 26:53 illustrates. “Do you think I cannot call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”

Surah Al-Isra 17:101 states that Moses was given nine clear signs to pass to Pharaoh. These are elaborated on in Surah Al-A’raf 7:130–133 and are similar to the plagues described in chapters seven through twelve of Exodus. But Exodus records ten plagues. The one the Qur’an omits is the last plague, which results in the death of Egypt’s firstborn from every house-hold (Exodus 12:12).

THIS WAS THE INCEPTION OF THE PASSOVER

This was the inception of the Passover, that spared the firstborn of the Israelite homes. The Israelites were instructed to slaughter year-old male lambs without defect and take some of the blood and put it on the sides and the tops of the doorframes of the houses where they ate the lambs (Exodus 12:5–7). God commanded, “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord–a lasting ordinance,” (Exodus 12:14).

The significance of this event has a huge impact on the Christian faith because Jesus was recognized as the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” (John 1:29). On the night He was betrayed, Jesus ate the Passover meal with His disciples, where He broke the bread and shared the cup of the new covenant. The next day, He sacrificed Himself as the firstborn, unblemished Son.

Christians commemorate the Last Supper through the ordinance of communion. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:26, “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” Jesus’s promise to return (John 14:3) is a central tenet of Christianity along with God’s promise to Abraham to bless all nations through him. God provided Abraham’s sacrificial lamb because of his faith, and it is through faith in Christ as the Lamb of God that believers are saved.

It is not surprising that the Qur’an leaves this important plague out since it is a direct foreshadowing of the atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross. Throughout Jewish history up to today, the Passover is an annual event that is central to Judaism. The Dead Sea Scrolls confirm this in fragments dated eight hundred years before Muhammad. This is strong evidence that the Torah is accurate and that Jesus wasn’t fabricating His purpose.

Both Jewish and Christian traditions testify that, for the last three thousand years, the scriptures about the Passover haven’t changed. And the Qur’an conspicuously pretends it didn’t happen. By changing the narrative Muhammad altered the truth. In doing so he raised the same question as the serpent in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1), “Did God really say?”

The Bible says those who teach a different gospel than that of Jesus are false teachers. Paul clearly stated, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we peached to you, let them be under God’s curse!” (Galatians 1:8). And Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away,” (Matthew 24:35).

Jesus was the Word through which everything came into being (John 1:1–4). In verse fourteen, he adds, “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth,” (John 1:14).  Jesus said, “I and the Father are one,” (John 10:30), and, “Before Abraham was born, I AM!” (John 8:58).  Thus, we see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit revealed as manifestations of God.

Furthermore, Jesus makes it clear that, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me,” (John 14:6). Christ would never have said this if another prophet was to come after Him who would be greater than Him or would provide a different salvation than that of the gospel.

It is nonsensical to conclude that Jesus could have been just a messenger of God or just a prophet, as Muslims claim. He has been called a good moral teacher by many religions who deny His deity. However, to assert that Jesus was just a good moral teacher, just a prophet, or just a messenger is incorrect; Christ never claimed to be any of those things. He never even claimed to be a religious leader. The Muslim Jesus is a counterfeit Jesus.

Paul states in 2 Corinthians 11:4, “For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit than the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” When the original masterpiece is of infinite value, counterfeits will be produced in search of any perceived worth, and your soul is the currency they demand.

The intrinsic value of Jesus Christ is that He is God. To deny that Jesus is God is to diminish His worth and His sufficiency as the unblemished Lamb. If Jesus never claimed to be God, He never would have been crucified. Perhaps this is why Muslims claim He never was. If you profess Christ, be sure of the Christ you profess!