What did Jesus really teach?
In this path
- 1Did Jesus ever say he was God?
- 2What did Jesus say is the first and greatest commandment?
- 3Is the Trinity in the Bible?
- 4Who wrote the Gospels?
- 5Were words added to the Bible to make Jesus look like God?
- 6Did Paul change the religion Jesus taught?
- 7Can someone else die for my sins?
- 8If I become Muslim, do I have to give up Jesus?
Related questions
God
- Is the Holy Spirit God? Who is he in Islam?No. The Holy Spirit is not God. Muslim scholars explain that the Qur'an uses this name for the angel Gabriel, an honoured creature who brought God's (﷾) revelation to the prophets.
- Why can there only be one God?There can only be one God, because two gods could not both be God. Two all-powerful beings would limit each other, and a god who can be limited is not God.
- Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God?Yes. Muslims worship the God (﷾) of Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus, and they worship Him as Jesus did.
Jesus
- What do Muslims believe about Jesus?Muslims love Jesus. They honour him as one of the greatest messengers of God (﷾), and belief in him is part of a Muslim's faith.
- What did Jesus mean by 'take up your cross and follow me'?He meant: carry your own burden, and follow my example. Jesus said that whoever does not take his cross and follow him is not worthy of him.
- Does 'I and the Father are one' (John 10:30) mean Jesus is God?No. Jesus says "I and my Father are one" while speaking of his sheep, meaning his followers.
- Does John 1:1, 'the Word was God', prove Jesus is God?No. John 1:1 first says the Word "was with God", so the Word is not the God (﷾) it was with.
- Is Jesus God?No. The Bible itself shows Jesus as a servant of God (﷾), not as God. In John's Gospel, after what it describes as the resurrection, he still spoke of "my God, and your God".
- Does Jesus saying 'Before Abraham was, I am' prove he is God?No. In John 8:58 Jesus says, "Before Abraham was, I am". Christians hear God's (﷾) name in "I am".
- Does Hebrews 1:8, 'Thy throne, O God', call Jesus God?No. Hebrews 1:8 quotes Psalm 45, a wedding song written for a king of Israel.
- Does Christianity rest on a human sacrifice?Yes, by its own account. Christians rightly condemn human sacrifice, such as the child sacrifices of the Inca and the Maya centuries ago.
- Does 'in the form of God' in Philippians 2:6 mean Jesus is God?No. The verse says "form", and form is not the same as being God. The Greek word, morphe, can mean an outward look.
- Was Jesus a prophet, and did he call himself one?Yes. Jesus called himself a prophet. On his way to Jerusalem he said, "it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem".
- If forgiveness needed the cross, why did God wait so long to send Jesus?God (﷾) did not need to wait, because He never needed a death in order to forgive.
- Did Jesus cancel the Law of Moses?No. Jesus said he came not to destroy the Law of Moses but to fulfil it.
- Does Matthew 28:19 prove the Trinity?No. The verse names the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost together. The Trinity is the Christian belief in one God in three persons.
The Bible
- Was 1 John 5:7 added to the Bible?Yes. The words "the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one" were added to 1 John long after it was written.
- Aren't most differences between old Bible copies too small to matter?Most are small, but that answer gives away the main point. It admits that men changed the Bible's text by hand, in every generation, for some 1,400 years.
- Was Jesus perfect?Yes. Muslims hold that Jesus was a sinless prophet of Allah (﷾). The Qur'an gives one picture of him in every verse: a holy son, blessed, kind to his mother, never arrogant, and a servant of Allah (﷾).
- Which verses have been removed from modern Bibles like the NIV?The NIV, a modern English Bible, leaves out hundreds of phrases and sixteen verses found in the King James Version (KJV).
- Do the New Testament Gospels agree on the day of the crucifixion they describe?No. The New Testament Gospels disagree about the day of the crucifixion they describe.
- Is the ending of Mark's Gospel (Mark 16:9-20) original?No. The oldest copies of Mark end at 16:8, with the women running from the empty tomb in fear.
- Is the Bible we have today the word of God?No. Muslims believe in the Torah God (﷾) gave to Moses and the Injil (the Gospel Jesus preached) that God (﷾) gave to Jesus.
Comparative Religion
- What are the main differences between Islam and Christianity?Islam and Christianity differ most on who Jesus was, whether he died on the cross for sins, and whether God's (﷾) Law still stands.
- Is the Muslim declaration of faith (the Shahada) in the Bible?In substance, yes. The Shahadah is the Islamic creed. It says there is no god but Allah (﷾) and that the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) is His Messenger.
- Doesn't Hebrews 9:22 say there is no forgiveness without blood being shed?It does, but the Law of Moses itself forgave sin without blood. The same verse says only that "almost all things", not all, were cleansed with blood under the Law.
- Can God forgive sins without the blood of Jesus?Yes, and the Gospels show it. Early in his ministry, Jesus told a paralysed man that his sins were forgiven.
- Are children born in sin? Does Islam believe in original sin?No. Islam teaches that every child is born pure. The Prophet (ﷺ) said that every child is born upon the fitra, the natural faith in one God (﷾).
- Is circumcision still required, and who abolished it?Jesus did not abolish circumcision. God (﷾) gave it to Abraham as "an everlasting covenant" for him and his descendants.
Where next
Whatever came before is forgiven
If you become Muslim, your past sins are wiped away. When Amr ibn al-As came to accept Islam, he held back his hand until he knew he would be forgiven, and the Prophet (ﷺ) asked him whether he did not know that Islam wipes out everything that came before it. The Qur'an promises more: for the one who repents, believes and does good, God changes his bad deeds into good ones.