The True Message of Jesus Christ
Date:
Channel: Bilal Philips
File Size: 20.68MB
Episode Notes
What was the true message of Jesus A.S? Has it been distorted into what it is in this day and age? What was Jesus AS conveying? Who was he, really? Let’s take a journey in exploring the truth and clarifying the falsehood.
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AI Generated Summary ©
The speakers discuss the history and meaning of the Bible, including its use in various circumstances, including religion and the use of the word God. They also touch upon the confusion surrounding the Bible's use of "thank you" and its use in backwards verses. The discussion explores the origin and use of the Bible, including its use in religious texts and its use in backwards verses, and highlights the importance of submission as a message.AI Generated Transcript ©
The true message of Jesus, as the title implies that there is a false message out there.
And for us to determine what in fact
is the true message we must look at the evidence is the authentic and reliable evidence is that can support any claim to be the true message of Jesus
hamdu Lillah
wa salatu salam ala rasulillah.
All praise due to Alon Milan's peace and blessings be on the last messenger of Allah.
The true message of Jesus
as the title
implies, that there is a false message out there.
And for us to determine
what in fact,
is the true message
we must look at the evidence is
the authentic and reliable evidence is that can support
any claim
to be the true message of Jesus.
We need to examine
what I may perceive as the false message.
And it's evidence
as well as
the evidence which I will present to support the truth.
And for any Christian
who truly wants to know
what in fact,
Did Jesus convey who in fact, was he?
Then,
I invite each and every one of you
to put aside emotion,
because emotions,
blind,
one cannot see
the realities. When one is overcome by emotion.
emotion,
by its very nature
is
important. We are emotional beings.
We love We hate.
But
emotions don't follow knowledge.
And they precede knowledge,
then we end up loving and hating the wrong things.
Often,
not all times, but often enough, we end up loving and hating the wrong things.
So I invite
our Christian guests
because this, of course is of most importance to them.
To put aside emotions today
and look at the facts
to get a clear understanding
of the message which Jesus brought,
and
who, in fact, was Jesus?
There are two basic ways that we can produce evidence. There are from two basic sources
either from the historical record what historians have gathered
or
From revealed scriptures.
These are the main two sources.
That is for those who believe in God. Of course, if the person doesn't believe in God, then revealed scriptures may not have any real significance to them.
They will say, it's only the historical record.
When we go and look into the historical record for evidence,
there is virtually nothing
available.
From the time of Jesus,
may God's peace be upon him.
A biblical scholar by the name of Archie France wrote,
no first century inscription mentions him, and no object or building has survived, which has a specific link to him.
In fact, the historical record
is so absence of information concerning Jesus
that there are among Western historians,
those who claim he never existed,
that he was a faithful made up.
So then where do we go?
To find out about Jesus, for those who believe in God.
The only place left is the scriptural evidence.
And the main two scriptures
revealed scriptures
of
what is what are recognized as world religions.
The main two scriptures
are the Bible
and the Quran,
which speak about Jesus.
These are the main two scriptures that we can look into, to find evidence as to what was the message of Jesus
and who was the person, Jesus Christ.
Now if we start with the Bible,
what we find
from the evidence gathered by biblical scholars, not by Muslim scholars,
but by biblical scholars researching the Bible,
they have come to the conclusion
that much of it
is of doubtful authenticity.
We find a group of scholars in the UK
theologians,
university professors in theology
Christians,
gathering
a compiled ation
of writings on Jesus into a text which was called the myth of God incarnate. It was edited by Professor john hick.
In it in the preface,
the compiler wrote,
it is accepted
that the books of the Bible were written by a variety of human beings in a variety of circumstances, and cannot be accorded a verbal divine authority.
He wrote this after saying in the 19th century, Western Christianity made two major new adjustments in response to important enlargements of human knowledge. The first
was the acceptance of evolution, because there was a struggle between evolutionists biologists, and the Christian church.
And basically, the Christian church
lost in the struggle.
So the vast majority of Christians accept
devolution, that was one major change. The second major change was that from the analysis over more than 200 years,
it was concluded by their leading authorities that the Bible was not the word of God. This is what this means cannot be accorded a verbal divine authority means it wasn't the Word of God. There are human beings who wrote it, they said, hear,
in a variety of circumstances,
at a variety of different points in time by a variety of different individuals. That is the reality.
In Newsweek magazine, some years back,
in an article entitled, oh Lord, who wrote the prayer,
oh, Lord, who wrote the prayer,
a group of theologians in the US.
They, after analyzing these are theologians, from all of the major sects of Protestantism, and Catholicism.
They gathered together and they formed a group which they call the Jesus seminary,
the Jesus seminary,
and they wrote
a text,
which
they refer to as
the five Gospels.
In this text,
they mentioned the well known for.
And what they did was they color coded the text into different colors.
One color, represented
the text, which they were certain,
or reasonably certain, that Jesus actually said.
Then
the next level of color coding was texts, which were
possibly what Jesus said.
Then, what was highly unlikely that he said,
and then that which was absolutely certain, he didn't say, so they gave it different grades with different colors.
The fifth gospel was the Gospel of Thomas,
which had been discovered in 1945, in Egypt.
In the Nag Hammadi,
written in Coptic, a translation,
which had confirmation from documents of the first and second century,
bits and pieces, which had existed in Greek.
Prior to that people didn't know what these documents were related to.
And it was after the discovery of that Coptic translation that they realized that these were bits and pieces of the Gospel of Thomas.
Anyway, the point is, this group, the Jesus seminary,
they concluded,
after analyzing the Lord's Prayer, what is known in Christianity as the Lord's Prayer, it begins Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven, so on and so forth. Give us this day our daily bread and etc. This is the standard prayer for Christians.
Similar to Al Fatiha for Muslims, Muslims recite the first chapter of the Quran in their daily prayers. So for Christians, the Lord's Prayer is
the most central prayer shared by all Christians. And in the biblical context in the Gospels. It is Jesus who is telling his companions this prayer that they should make anyway, the Jesus
seminary, after analyzing the Lord's Prayer, concluded that the only words of the Lord's Prayer, which could be accurately attributed
to Jesus, meaning, it's highly likely that this is what Jesus said, the only word
turned out to be one word, which was father.
One word of the whole prayer,
which Christians have been saying for centuries, believing that Jesus actually taught this.
Now the meaning of the Lord's Prayer is good.
It has a good meaning.
And actually, from the Islamic perspective from Islam, there really isn't anything contradictory.
Though the issue of God being the father,
human beings being his children, is something which one may raise objection to,
unless it is used in a metaphorical context.
And it's understood that that's how it was used anyway.
So the meaning was fine.
But
the reality
in terms of scriptural authenticity, was that
it couldn't be attributed to Jesus.
And when you go through that text, the five Gospels and look in the four gospels
as to what could be accurately attributed to Jesus, according to what they said, it would be enough to fill one column of a newspaper, you know, the newspaper, the average page is divided up into a series of columns, that would only be enough to fill a single column A little more than a single column.
Meaning that the vast majority of what is found in the gospels cannot be accurately attributed to Jesus.
The gospels themselves.
According to Dr. JK Elliot, of the Department of theology and religious studies at Leeds University in the UK, he stated in an article entitled checking the Bible's roots.
More than 5000 manuscripts contain all our parts of the New Testament, in its original language.
It has been estimated that no to agree in all particulars.
It has been estimated that no to agree in all particulars.
Meaning that you have 5000 manuscripts.
And from that 5000, it is not possible to establish a single authoritative text
not possible to establish a single authoritative text as a result. And this is modern research. He wrote that in the latter part of the 80s.
Modern research shows that the well known Bibles that are in people's hands today, the King James Version being the most popular, this version, like all of the versions that came after it, relied only on a few manuscripts. They didn't use all of the manuscripts.
they relied only on those which went along with church dogma.
So,
when, for example,
it was decided
that
a revised version of the King James was to be made.
The author's scholars Christian scholars who got together, they wrote in the introduction,
the scribes describing the King James Version, saying, the discovery of many manuscripts more ancient than those upon which the King James version was based.
It manifests that these defects
are so many and so serious as to call for revision of the English translation,
errors, mistakes, so many and so serious that it required a new translation.
And in the process, what they did
is they deleted
texts
and they added texts.
And with each revision, they added more and deleted more. So, the text has gone through a series of revisions. However, as stated earlier by Elliott,
all of these revisions are based only on a few manuscripts, not 5000, but only a few. So as such, whatever they come up with, will have questions on its authenticity, the well known verse,
which is used to show that Jesus canceled the law of Moses. The law which required that adulterers and adulterous is the stoned to death.
That when Jesus came across a woman who was to be stoned, he supposedly said, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.
Let him who is without sin amongst you be the first to throw a stone at her. So of course, the people were about to throw the stones, they all stopped, because of course they were all sinners.
And this became the logic behind
not punishing in this fashion.
And later it became in any fashion. People who commit adultery
because Who are you to judge them
when you are yourself sinners.
And then the finger could be pointed at the Muslims who still uphold the principle of stoning to death. The adulterer adulterous
that they are
hateful individuals spiteful harsh individuals.
They don't follow the religion of love and compassion.
However,
the fact of the matter
is that this verse was among the verses deleted from the King James Version. Why? Because they said that it could not be found in any of the early manuscripts.
It couldn't be found in any of the early manuscripts meaning that it was interpolated, it was added by copyist later on,
to create this new religion, which we now know as Christianity.
Another verse, which is pivotal in the
Christian theology,
is the verse which supposedly addressed Trinity, where Jesus was supposed to have said, there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
There are three that their record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
This was the evidence in the scripture and the King James Version, it's still their King James Version.
In first, john five. Number seven.
This verse
is not contained in any Greek manuscript written earlier than the 15th century.
When the first translation was made,
it was added at that time,
it cannot be found. It was in that same period that it was added into the Greek manuscripts of the Bible, or Aramaic make manuscripts. It was added in that in the 15th century, earlier than the 15th century, that verse, a pivotal verse for the trinitarians, could not be found in any of the early manuscripts. Not in some, but in any.
So with that kind of background,
one has to question the reliability of the Bible
as evidence to determine what the message of Jesus was, and who he was, who was he.
Furthermore,
to add
more fuel to the fire,
when we look at the authors
of the Old Testament, as well as the New Testament,
what we find, according to Christian sources, that believe
that the five books of Moses first five books, referred to as the Pentateuch.
And this is what is referred to as the Torah
that these five books could not have been written by Moses. For Orthodox Jews. They believe that these five books were written 974 generations before the creation of the world.
They believe that the five books first five books of Moses was created 974 generations before the creation of the world. And God dictated it to Moses during the 40 days that he was on Mount Sinai, that is their belief.
Well,
from a Muslim perspective, the true Torah
was in the LAO helma food
was already written in the heavens, like the Quran, and all of the books of Revelation.
And
it was the word of God, as was the gospel, the Quran, and all of the books of Revelation. However,
for Christian sources, they don't hold that belief. They believe that it was written by Moses. However,
in the text itself,
there are verses which indicate that this could not possibly have been written by Moses. In Deuteronomy 34, verses five to eight it states there. So Moses, the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, and He buried him in the valley of the land of Moab, opposite wspr. But no man knows the place of his burial to this day. Moses was 120 years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of more than 30 days, and then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended.
did Moses write those words? Absolutely not.
It is inconceivable that he would have written those words.
Furthermore,
biblical scholars of the 19th century in analyzing the text of the Old Testament, they came to conclude that actually, there was more than one writing
by a variety of different authors.
Some of the documents they refer to as j and some they refer to as E
Because of the fact that Jehovah was used for God, in one set of writings, and when these same writings were repeated, ELO him was used for God. So they could see they're two different authors here. And modern linguistic analysis by Professor Richard Friedman. He said that the five books of Moses are a mixture of Hebrew from the ninth, eighth, seventh and sixth centuries before the time of Christ. Whereas according to their calculations, Moses was alive in the 13th century
before Christ 700 years previous.
So, big question marks. Furthermore, the other books of the Bible
like judges, Ruth, First Samuel, First Kings, Esther, job, Jonah, etc. All of these, the scholars say we don't know who the authors were.
Furthermore, the Catholic Bible has an additional seven books
which the Protestant Bible rejects calls it the Apocrypha.
So the Old Testament has great question marks regarding it. And the Gospels themselves. The same,
as I mentioned earlier,
issues about manuscripts is sufficient to raise major doubts. Of course, the language of Jesus was Aramaic, according to the understanding of scholars, historians, etc. Because it was the popular language at that period of time. And it remained actually the most popular language all the way up until the seventh century. And it was only with the spread of Islam, that Aramaic was overshadowed by Arabic, the Aramaic speaking peoples of the Middle East, whether in Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, these people shifted their major language over into Arabic, even the Talmud of the Jews. The ancient Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud are both written in Aramaic. So it's well known.
This was the language of Jesus. However, the oldest of the gospel documents are written in what language they're written in.
Greek,
Greek, which later became the dominant language of Greece, and in knowledgeable people of Rome and parts of Turkey, etc. Those who are converting to Christianity, as promoted by Paul,
were from Greek speaking backgrounds. So Greek became the dominant language of Christians from the first century onwards.
So who then wrote the Gospels?
With regards to mark, he is not mentioned among the disciples of Jesus in the first place. Nobody really knows who he is. Some said he was
a Christian author. Some said he was a scribe, and companion of Paul, some said a variety of other things. Anyway, point is, who Mark was.
God alone knows. And when you go to the other gospels, which are named after disciples, Matthew, Luke, and john, these three other gospels, Matthew, Luke, and john doe, named after disciples, Christian scholars, admits
openly that these were written not by the disciples, but by others who use these names in order to promote
to promote these books in the early centuries.
It's not surprising that when one goes into the texts,
after seeing this level of inauthenticity, that the texts of both the Old Testament and the New Testament are filled with errors
Among the Gospels in particular, filled with contradictions, we're in one
chapter of the Bible it says one thing and other chapter says another thing. One Gospel says one thing another gospel says another thing that is common.
If we swing over to the Quran, the other scripture, what we find is that
we have a text
which is unique
in religious texts, one, which does not have other versions.
research done.
On manuscripts gathered over 42,000 manuscripts were gathered in the University of Munich, in Germany. The Germans were the leading orientalist, studying
Islamic or Muslim manuscripts and writings back in the 1800s and early 1900s. So they gathered over 42,000 manuscripts, correlate to them, analyze them, and came to the conclusion that they are from one single text. They did find a few copying mistakes, but they were few and far between. and they didn't imply or indicate a different text.
This is the
one which has been preserved.
So much so that orientalist like Richard a Nicholson Professor Richard Nicholson said, we have in the Quran materials of unique and incontestable authority for tracing the origin and early development of Islam. Such materials as do not exist in the case of Buddhism or Christianity, or any other ancient religion. And many such statements, similar statements from Western authorities, so
on to the person of Jesus, who was he, according to the Quran, he was a messenger of a law, as a law said.
And remember, when Jesus son of Mary said, Oh children of Israel, I am the messenger of Allah sent you confirming the Torah which came before me. That's what is stated in the requirement.
We can find support for it. In Matthew 21, verse 11. And the crowd said, this is a prophet. This is the Prophet Jesus of Nazareth of Galilee. And in Mark six, four, we find and Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, among his own kin, and in his own house. And in john 17, verse three, Jesus is quoted as saying, and this is life eternal, that they might know the, the one and only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.
Why would I quote from the Gospels after pointing out its inauthenticity? Because of the fact that
the general inauthenticity of the text doesn't mean that it doesn't contain anything authentic. Muslims do believe
in the truth of the Gospels in the Torah,
and the all of the earlier books, only that they have been changed, but how do we know what is truth amongst them? When we compare it to the Quran, we find that there is support for it in the Koran, then we can be certain this much is true from the Gospels or the Torah with regards to Jesus being a man. Of course, the Quran refers to him as Jesus, son of Mary, and he's the only one who is referred to in the Quran in this way.
The only prophets mentioned in this way is Jesus, Jesus, the son of Mary,
to affirm his humanity, that he was a human being.
And even in the gospels, in spite of their distortions, we still find statements there. In john 14, verse 28, the father is greater than I.
In john 20, verse 17, I ascend on to my Father and your Father, on to my God, and your God.
And we also find in Timothy, First Timothy two verse five, four, there is one God and one mediator between
In garden men, the man, Jesus Christ, the man, Jesus Christ. So that is who Jesus was. He was a man and a messenger of God.
As regards his immaculate conception that he was born without a father, that is affirmed in the Quran.
And far more detailed evidence is then in the Bible itself.
However,
Jesus
performed miracles, which led those who look back at his miracles,
and consider him to be God. It led them to conclude that these were evidences of him being God. However, virtually every one of the miracles attributed to Jesus can be found done by prophets of the Old Testament.
And the various statements
attributed to Jesus. Like that found in the book of revelations, verse eight, is Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and ending saith the LORD, which is and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty such statements, Christian scholars of color corrected themselves, confirming that this was not the statement of Jesus but of God.
And other statements attributed to Jesus, where it they indicate that he existed before
being in this world like Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was I am, we can find similar statements found in the Old Testament, as in Proverbs, where Prophet Solomon says, ages ago, I was set up at the first before the beginning of the earth. So these type of metaphorical statements cannot be used as evidence that Jesus was God, even the phrase Son of God, which Jesus never uses to describe himself, and others use it, we find this term used to describe
many of the prophets of the Old Testament. And even Adam is mentioned in the gospels as the Son of God. Other statements like
Jesus being one with the Father, being in the father, he said the same thing to his followers, that as I am in the Father, you are in me. So if being in the father meant he and the father were one, that it meant that his disciples were also one with him and with God.
The argument that he accepted worship,
as found in John's 937 38.
Jesus said to him, You have seen him and it is he who speaks to you. He said, Lord, I believe, and he worshipped him. This is the one verse which may be used to argue that people around Jesus worshipped him, or at least that individual did and Jesus accepted it. However, in the American Bible, scholars who put it together put in a footnote for verse 38, which said that the man worship Jesus, they said, This verse omitted, in important early manuscripts may be an addition for baptismal liturgy.
It's origin is not from the early manuscripts.
And other statements like In the beginning was the word found in john.
These are not actually statements of Jesus, which scholars themselves admit. So
if we move on to the message of Jesus,
what was Jesus's method message?
We have to say that fundamentally his message was one of submission.
As is recorded in Matthew 722, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father