This Holiday Season I ask Christians to ask themselves: Who is really God? Is He God the Father? This is what Jesus as a practicing Jew believed. Jesus was a humble servant who prayed to God the Father.
Source/Credit: The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
By Imam Shamshad A. Nasir | December 21, 2013
This past year I’ve read many essays from pastors proclaiming Jesus is God, that he was God in the flesh 2,000 years ago, and that he was also -- at the same time -- God’s physical son who came to die as payment for our sins so that all who accept him as their Savior can go to heaven.
This is all very confusing and raises many questions, a few of which I humbly pose to Trinitarian Christians: Who do you focus on as God when you pray? Is it the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit? Do you pray to each one equally, unequally, or all together? Calling them “three-in-one” doesn’t make it so. The classical definition of Trinity -- “God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit” -- creates three separate “gods” in your mind. Saying they are all still “one” doesn’t change this. The language still defines them as three separate gods. And I’m guessing for most Christians, their focus on God comes mainly through Jesus.
Muslims believe Jesus was a true prophet sent by God to the Israelites as their messiah. Muslims do not consider Jesus to be God incarnate as a man and/or the literal Son of God who came to die an accursed death for anyone’s sins.
In fact, Paul knew these ideas came from Greek religion (see Acts 14:11 and www.POCM.info) and he merged them with Judaism to preach to the Greeks, Romans and Gentiles. The result is the Christianity we have to this day -- be it Catholic or Protestant -- which tells Christians Jesus is God and/or the Son of God who died for their sins. If Christians reject either or both of these beliefs, they lose their salvation. Paul understood this and stated (in 1 Cor.15:14) that: “If Christ is not risen, our preaching and our faith are in vain.”
This Holiday Season I ask Christians to ask themselves: Who is really God? Is He God the Father? This is what Jesus as a practicing Jew believed. Jesus was a humble servant who prayed to God the Father. Jesus never said (or seemed to know) he was God in the flesh come to die for our sins. What Jesus said was: “God is spirit so worship Him in spirit and truth. . . I am the Christ [i.e., the one anointed by God as his messiah ]. . .” (John 4:24-26)
Here are two more statements by Jesus that every Christian should reflect on: “. . . I desire not sacrifice, but mercy; I came not for the righteous, but for the sinners to repent.” (Matt. 9:13) And: “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” (John 17:3) It doesn’t get any clearer than that. Jesus says he came for sinners to repent, not for him to die for their sins. And Jesus says clearly the only true God is his spiritual Father, Who (in Matt. 15:24) sent him to “only gather the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel.”
It is Paul and his followers who deified Jesus. Christians must choose who they are going to believe and follow: God or Paul. God declares in Numbers 23:19 that He is not a man [because they lie and God doesn’t ], nor is He a son of man [i.e., a prophet ] that He repents. What does “repent” mean? Exodus 32:30-34 explains this with the story of the Israelites who, after escaping from slavery in Egypt, built and worshiped a golden calf. When Moses pleaded before God to be punished instead for their sin of idol worship, God tells Moses the innocent are not punished for the sins of the guilty -- it is the sinners who must repent in order to achieve atonement (at-one-ment) with God.
A common response by Christians who believe Jesus is God is to say that, since God can do anything, He chose to become a human being. Why is this so objectionable? The reason is simple: for God to be All-Powerful, All-Knowing, Ever-Living, and possess all the divine qualities we expect in the Supreme Being Who created the universe and everything in it, God cannot be “put in a box.” In Christianity, the box is called Jesus.
In Isaiah 43:10 God says that before Him there was no god formed, and there shall be none formed after Him. Since God has no beginning and no end, this can only mean that God is telling Isaiah that in the past no god was formed, and no god shall be formed in the future. Every Christian believes Jesus was formed in the womb of his mother, Mary, who bore him nine months later as a helpless infant totally dependent on his mother for his existence. The fact that Jesus was physically created weak, helpless and dependent on others means he cannot be God because God is none of those things.
If God is limited by physical dimensions, He becomes finite instead of infinite, created instead of uncreated, corporeal instead of non-corporeal. Only God lives forever and has no beginning or end. All else is His creation -- including Jesus. To expunge idolatry from the hearts of the Israelites, God forbade them to worship any created object or being or to make any image of Him. Christians who believe Jesus is God in the flesh and create images of him are breaking the first two of God’s Ten Commandments.
Islam says God is One. He has no partners, no equals, no children. There is no Trinity or worship of people in Islam. We only worship God, five times a day. His Final Law, the Holy Quran, answers every social, moral and spiritual need of mankind. Salvation comes through God’s Grace and Mercy. He has all power to forgive, without requiring the murder of His son or Himself as His son to pay Himself for your sins. It’s all a matter of focus. God can put His focus on you alone. Can you put your focus on God alone? As Muslims, that’s our focus. What’s yours?
-- Focus on God should not be split
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