The Quran’s View of Jesus and the Problem of Divinity
For Christians, the word of God became a human being who also has words. The problem of the uncreatedness of the Quran is also a problem in Christianity; if Jesus is God and he uttered words, are his words the word of God? If so are they crated or uncreated? When they are written in the pages of the new testament are these pages created or uncreated? Nevertheless the Qurʾān as the word of God is much different than the idea of the word of God becoming human. The human dies for the sins of the world, when we ask why Jesus in particular had to die for people’s sins, we are told that only God can die for the sins of the world. When we probe further, we realize that God did not and could not die. So, did God die or not? When we speak of Christ do we mean God Christ or human Christ or both? If we mean Christ as God that means God died, if we mean only the human that means God did not die for the sins of the world.
The Quran’s View of God: Man or Creator?
Additionally, if God wanted to die for the sins of the world that means He was pleased with those who carried out the task of killing Him. If He was not pleased with their actions that must mean that they overpowered God. God created death and life, when He died did death, a creation of God, overtake the creator? Did He resurrect Himself? Jesus ate food and naturally had to relieve himself, is this befitting of God? Jesus slept, but God never sleeps. Was God sleeping and awake at the same time? God sees everything but humans do not. Did God see and not see everything at the same time?
The Quran’s View of Jesus: Not God, but a Prophet
The Quran does not seek to erase Christianity, but it offers clarity about these fundamental issues in order to bring Christians back to the essence of Jesus’ teachings. All of these questions make it impossible for Jesus to be God. It makes much more sense to see him as a he was, a prophet of God who followed the line of other prophets before him. He was neither God nor the son of God, rather he was prophet. Jesus’ miracles were performed through God and not as God, just like Moses split the sea. Islam is not a new religion, rather it is a continuation of Christianity and Judaism in their original forms. They both originally called for worshipping one God alone without any partners.
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