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| Is Jesus God? |
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| lucid9 |
| 07/05/03 at 11:40:08 |
| Both Islam and Christianity enormously respect Jesus, the son of Mary. Christians say that Jesus is "the way,...." Muslims say Jesus is the Prophet of God and God's special gift to mankind. They similarly believe that there is no salvation without belief in Jesus.. So both religions agree that Jesus is indespensible to faith and love him dearly. The difference between the faiths is that some Christians believe that Jesus is God, is divine, and one face of the holy trinity. Muslms scratch their heads when they hear this because (1) How is it possible for a human being -- a created object -- to be an active ingredient of the one who creates, i.e. God? Humans are created. God is not. One cannot be both at the same time. Muslims believe that God is Perfect. He is uncreated, will never die, and possesses all of the "good" attributes in uncountably infinite measure. For example, he is so infinitely merciful that one will never be able to enumerate his mercies. He is so infinitely knowledgable that one will never be able to enumerate his knowledge. In short God is perfect, and can never be imperfect. And since humans are imperfect, a perfect God can never take the imperfect form of a human. This may seem like me being pedantic, but just think -- how is it possible for the originator of creation to be: breastfed, circumcised, to be born, to grow angry, grow sad, cry, live and die (as Jesus pretty much was)? All of these human activities imply some sort of human limit. For example, one who is breastfed cannot feed themself in another wey. But God most certainly can feed himself. Etc. (Obviously, God does not need to be fed). This is why muslims have such incredible difficulty accepting the fact that a human could be God or that God could ever take the form of something unbefitting of him -- something imperfect like a human being. Now Christians like to say....ahah! How do you know what God can and cannot do! Surely God should be able to do whatever he feels like. Afterall, he is God, and his will is always done. Muslims reply: well....sort of. God does anything consistent with being God. You cannot expect God to do something unbecoming of him. God always acts in way consistent with his "definition:" -- that he is perfect. Its like saying a rock can always do whatever any inanimate object can do. But if it suddenly develops legs and walks off -- then it is no longer an inanimate object, it has violated its definition. It is now an animate object. If God suddenly starts acting like a human, then God will similarly have violated the definition of being God -- i.e. will no longer be God. Since we believe this is imposssible -- muslims say that God can never be anthropomorphised. In short: God can never do something which makes him not God! This may be a bit too philosphical for many. But consider the following well known conundrum. Can God create a stone so large that he cannot lift it? Obviously being almighty, God should be able to create anything. But if he were to create such a stone -- then it would imply that God is limited (not perfect), and thus not really Godly. The muslim answer to this question is: the whole question is nonsense. God can never be limited, you can never ask God to do something unbecoming of him. The question doesn't make sense. The recursive question is akin to asking: can God make himself a non-God?! Muslims say, obviously not! Christians on the other hand will say yes. But really why do Christians go to such lengths to say something like that? Does the message of Christianity really rely on God suddenly becoming emodied in human flesh, and possessing all the flaws of humankind? Muslims say not at all. The central mesaage of Christianity is: Believe and you will be forgiven. Curiously enough, this is the same message as Islam, although in islam it takes a much more relaxed form. Muslims say that instead of believing to be saved, to be saved you should simply not [color=Red] reject [/color]. Then you will be saved. If you are simply open to the idea that God sends prophets and books and do not stubbornly reject them, you will be saved. You might not know anything about these books and prophets, but as long as you are willing to hyothetically accept them -- you will be saved. For example, muslims don't know much about the earlier prophets, in say the China or India or Japan. But if someone comes to us and says "so and so was a prophet of God," we will accept that claim at face value, and only later reject that person if we research the matter further and find that such a person unequivically coould not have been a prophet. You might say that a muslim is simply one who believes in God, and believes in his kindness and goodness to send us messengers. We accept them all, whether we know them or not. We simply believe in God, and God has said that anybody believing in him and not rejecting his message and messengers will be saved. On the other hand Christans have a particular ideology which must be believed in, otherwise you are doomed to Hell. You [color=Red] must believe [/color] that Jesus is God, you [color=Red] must believe [/color]that he is part of the trinity, etc. To muslims this seems very rough, suppose you never heard of the trinity, suppose it doesn't make sense to you (and christians freely admit that logic cannot be used to understand it), then what? You're up a creek then. It is a lot more work being a Christian than a muslim and it is a lot harder. That is why muslims say Islam is the natural way, Islam is what you are born with. Islam is what you can discover by yourself. To be a muslim you just have to use your common sense. You don't have to indoctrinated. To be a Christian you must be indoctrinated -- you cannot simply discover it by yourself. I have rambled on here. But if any of this is not clear, then please feel free to tell me what didn't make sense to you. I am very sorry for the length of the post. |
| Re: Is Jesus God? |
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| samr |
| 08/11/03 at 14:37:53 |
| bsmlah salam I think that the cristians belive that he is a god just becas he didnt got a father Well ADAM (as) didnt even got a mother. So he is created in the same way dude.And i dont kunderstand that false relegen they say that thers only 1 god but they even say that jesus (as) is son of god now that is making me >:( ??? >:( [wlm] |
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