Another question that needs to be asked is, “What would represent a claim to being divine?” For Jesus to view himself as divine would be to attribute to himself words, actions, names, offices, and functions from the Old Testament that would be blasphemous if he were not truly divine. The question that we need to ask, however, is this: Did Jesus claim to be divine? By this, we do not mean that Jesus went around Israel saying: “Hi, I am Jesus, and I am God.” The reason Jesus did not do this is that he came to reveal the Father (cf., Matthew 11:27 John 1:18, 14:9), and, in a monotheistic culture (Mark 12:29), he would not want people to think that he was saying he was the Father. It is clear that the gospel writers and the authors of the epistles believed Jesus was God (Matthew 1:23, 28:20 Luke 1:32, 2:11 John 1:1–3, 18 1 Corinthians 2:8, 8:6 Colossians 1:16, 2:9 Hebrews 1:1–3 James 2:1 1 Peter 3:15 2 Peter 1:1, 11). God has preserved the text of the Gospels in such a way that we can have confidence that what we are reading is what was written by the original authors. 4 If you want to know about the historical Jesus, then the places to look are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The original text can exist without the original manuscripts it can be preserved and rendered from the multitude of manuscripts we do have (through the process of textual criticism). Muslims may object to these reasons by stating, “You no longer have the original manuscripts!” But even though we do not have the original manuscripts, we do have the original text of Scripture, which is important as it is the text that is inspired and not the ink on the parchment. The canonical Gospels were recognized as authoritative Scripture (cf., 1 Timothy 5:18) within the first century, and the testimony of the patristic authors (e.g., Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria) bears this out.The four canonical Gospels were written at a time when there were still eyewitnesses alive who had seen these things happen (written by the apostles or a companion who had access to the information – cf., Luke 1:1–4 John 21:24).The four canonical Gospels are the earliest we have and the only ones that can be dated to the first century.2 Contrary to the claim of Muslims today, there are numerous reasons to believe that the Gospels are reliable and that what we are now reading in them is what the apostles wrote down: If the Qur’an was written six hundred years after the writing of the Gospels, did Allah not know it was corrupted in 632 AD? How can Muslims living in the 21st century produce a better argument against the Gospels than the author of the Qur’an if the author of the Qur’an is believed to be Allah? This means that Muslims should not reject what the Gospels say about the identity of Jesus. If the Gospels have been corrupted, then why would the Qur’an tell Christians to judge by them? Today, Muslim arguments against the reliability of the message of the Gospels are significantly more advanced than that of the Qur’an. The Qur’an also talks about the truthfulness of the Gospels (Surah 3:3–4).
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(Surah 5:47) There are numerous reasons to believe that the Gospels are reliable and that what we are now reading in them is what the apostles wrote down And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed - then it is those who are the defiantly disobedient.
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1 This is a strange claim since the Qur’an does not teach that the Gospels have been corrupted, but rather commands Christians and Muslims to judge by what is written in the Gospels: And let the People of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed therein. Nevertheless, often when Christians do show Muslims that Jesus claimed to be divine, their response is to argue that the Gospels have been corrupted and therefore we cannot trust what they say about Jesus.
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Muhammad is the messenger of God.” Although both statements in the shahada are in the Qur’an (Surah 37:35 and 48:29), they are not found in those exact words in that order as a formula for someone to become a Muslim. As, if we applied the same criteria, then we could ask them to show us in the Qur’an where it says that to become a Muslim you have to use the exact words of the shahada (1 st pillar of Islam): “There is no god but God. Of course, this is an inconsistent and irrational demand. When sharing the gospel with Muslims, it is not uncommon to hear the objection: “Where did Jesus say, ‘I am God worship me’?” This is because many Muslims have been trained (by Muslim apologists) to ask this question of Christians and demand that the answer must be in those exact words.