It truly is amazing how one can read the Bible, the Koran and the Vedas, and get a totally different understanding if one reads with a Humanistic mind or a Spiritual mind.
Before I became a Christian, I found both the Bible and the Koran to
be full of contradictions. The Bible was easier to read, even though it
is much thicker. The Bible contains stories, while the Koran is more a
collection of sayings, like the book of Proverbs.
After turning to Christ, I studied the apparent contradictions in the Bible, one by one, until I had complete confidence in the Bible. The final contradiction I studied was the years the kings of Judah and Israel reigned. There are two lists, in Kings and in Chronicles. These lists appear to be absolute contradictions. In my studies I found the book, “The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings” by Edwin Thiele. This book finally answered that contradiction.
When I read the Koran as a Humanist I did not get much benefit, as I
was left confused. Subsequent to becoming a Christian, I read about the
Koran; what Christian authors said about the Koran, and what Muslim
authors said about Jesus in the Koran. I listened to debates with such
charismatic Islamic debaters as Sheikh Ahmed Deedat.
Both Christian commentators on Islam, and Muslim authors criticizing
Christianity, use the same verses in the Koran. When dealing with a
controversial subject there is nothing like going to the source
material, in this case the Koran, to find out if some verses have not
been mentioned, and if so what they have to say.
The deity of Jesus is the foundation on which Christianity stands.
What follows here are extracts from the Koran. But first a caveat. Muslims consider the only true Koran to be in Arabic. Every Koran translation is not regarded as the Koran, but as an interpretation.
God is the same from eternity past to eternity future. In the Bible there is a basic principle in Biblical interpretation:
The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed: the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.
If the Koran is the “Last Testament” there must be agreement.
The Koran does clearly describe Jesus as Christians do: conceived of the Holy Spirit, born to the virgin Mary. Yet the Koran reasons as a Humanist would do, denying the Trinity. There are some things that our rational mind cannot understand. Quantum physics is counterintuitive and impossible to understand with a Humanistic rational understanding. Some things we have to accept without fully understanding. Eighty years ago quantum physics was dismissed as, “Beyond the realms of fantasy.” Today it is a part of our everyday lives, even if most of us are unaware of it.
The Trinity is one such subject. It is not mentioned directly in the
Bible, but it is inferred. Humans are triune beings. We have a body with
which we interact with this material world around us. We have a soul,
which is the “Me,” the emotions, the subconscious and thoughts (thoughts
have been shown to come before the electrochemical impulses in the
brain). Lastly there is the spirit, which is the conscience, our contact
with God and our intuition (e.g. when we know something, but do not
know where that knowledge came from). These are three distinct parts,
yet united in one being.
The Christian Trinity concept has God as omnipresent (everywhere at the same time) and the Holy Spirit is therefore also omnipresent as the Holy Spirit is God, like our soul and spirit are where we are. The Holy Spirit in the Koran is separate being from God (God), going up and down ladders, which I personally find very confusing. The Holy Spirit plays the same role in Jesus’ conception in Christianity and in Islam, but in Islam the Holy Spirit is not a part of God, but God’s force.
I have here written Spirit for the word>Rûh, Holy Spirit for Rûh-ul-Qudus and Gospel for Injeel. God has been translated as God, since Muslims consider God to be the One and Only God, so there should be no confusion. In the Koran, God speaking is always in plural, hence the plurals “We” and “Our” are God’s words.
The Christian Jesus in the Quran
Surat Al-Baqarah 2:87
And indeed, We gave Moses the Book and followed him up with a succession of Messengers. And We gave Jesus, the son of Mary, clear signs and confirmed him with the Holy Spirit and whenever there came to you a Messenger with what you yourselves desired not, did you grow arrogant? Some, you disbelieved and some, you killed.
Surat Al-Baqarah 2:253
And those Messengers, We preferred some to others; to some of them
God spoke; others He raised in rank; and to Jesus, the son of Mary, We
gave clear proof and evidence, and confirmed him with the Holy Spirit.
If God had willed, succeeding generations would not have fought against
each other, after clear verses of God had come to them, but they
differed – some of them believed and others disbelieved. If God had
willed, they would not have fought against one another, but God does
what He desires.
Surat Al-Anbiyâ 21:91
And remember she who guarded her virginity, We breathed into her of Our Spirit, and We appointed her and her son to be a sign unto all beings.
Surat At-Tahrîm 66:12
And Mary, Imran’s daughter who guarded her virginity; We breathed
into her through Our Spirit, and she testified to the truth of the Words
of her Lord, and His Scriptures, and she was of the obedient.
Surat Al-Maidah 5:46
And in their footsteps, We sent Jesus, son of Mary, confirming the
Torah that had come before him, and We gave him the Gospel, in which was
guidance and light and confirmation of the Torah that had come before
it, a guidance and an admonition for the pious.
Surat Al-Baqarah 3:3
It is He Who has sent down the Book to you with truth, confirming
what came before it, and he sent down the Torah and the Gospel.
Surat Al-Imran 3:45
Remember when the angels said: “Mary, truly, God gives you the glad
tidings of a Word from Him, his name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son
of Mary, held in honour in this world and in the Hereafter, and will be
one near to God.”
Surat Al-Imran 3:47
She said: “O my Lord! How shall I have a son when no man has touched
me?” He said: “So it will be for God creates what He wills. When He has
decreed something, He says to it only: ‘Be!’ and it is.”
Surat Al-Imran 3:48
And He (God) will teach him (Jesus) the Scripture and wisdom, the Torah and the Gospel.
Surat An-Nisa 4:158
But God raised him (Jesus) up (with his body and soul) unto Himself
(and he is in the heavens). And God is Ever All Powerful, All Wise.
Surat Maryam 19:33
Jesus is speaking here:
“And peace be upon me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive!”
Surat Az-Zukhruf 43:63
And when Jesus came with the clear signs he said, “I have come to you
with wisdom, and that I may make clear to you some of that whereon you
are at variance; so fear you God and obey me.”
Gnostic Texts
These verses are blending in Gnostic texts with Scripture within the
same sentence. These Gnostic text predate Muhammad, so they cannot be a
revelation, it must be from remembering something a Gnostic “Christian”
had previously told Muhammad.
Surat Al-Imran 3:49
And will make him (Jesus) a Messenger to the Children of Israel
saying: “I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, that I design
for you out of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, and breathe into
it, and it becomes a bird by God’s Leave; and I heal him who was born
blind, and the leper, and I bring the dead to life by God’s leave. And I
inform you of what you eat, and what you store in your houses. Surely,
therein is a sign for you, if you believe.”
Surat Al-Maidah 5:110
Remember when God will say (on the Day of Resurrection). “O Jesus, son of Mary! Remember My Favour to you and to your mother when I supported you with the Holy Spirit so that you spoke to the people in the cradle and in maturity; and when I taught you writing, wisdom, the Torah and the Gospel; and when you made out of the clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, by My Permission, and you breathed into it, and it became a bird by My Permission, and you healed those born blind, and the lepers by My Permission, and when you brought forth the dead by My Permission; and when I restrained the Children of Israel from you since you came unto them with clear proof, and the disbelievers among them said: This is nothing but magic.”