Is there an Islamic response to John 3?

This is the chapter of the Bible I base my faith on. Does Islam have a response to this? I posted the chapter below, I could really use your insight. Thank you all so much! God bless you!

John 3

 1 There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. 2 After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. �Rabbi,� he said, �we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.�

 3 Jesus replied, �I tell you the truth, unless you are born again,^[a] you cannot see the Kingdom of God.�

 4 �What do you mean?� exclaimed Nicodemus. �How can an old man go back into his mother�s womb and be born again?�

 5 Jesus replied, �I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.^[b] 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.^[c] 7 So don�t be surprised when I say, �You^[d] must be born again.� 8 The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can�t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can�t explain how people are born of the Spirit.�

 9 �How are these things possible?� Nicodemus asked.

 10 Jesus replied, �You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don�t understand these things? 11 I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won�t believe our testimony. 12 But if you don�t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man^[e] has come down from heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.^[f]

 16 �For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

 18 �There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God�s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God�s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.^[g]�

Sarita wrote: John 316 �For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

This text that looks so nice says people who believe in Jesus (as the Son of the Trinity) will have eternal life.

But what about the people who do not believe in him (as the Son of the Trinity), among them the billions Muslims?

18 �There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God�s one and only Son.

Here we have the answer together with a contradiction: God did not sent Jesus to judge the world.
But it is exactly the contrary that he does: those who do not believe are already judged.

Edited by Cyril

THREE GRADES OF EVIDENCE

I have no hesitation in telling you that in Bible there are three different categories of witnessing apparent without any need of specialized training to discern these:

1. You will recognize in the Bible what may be described as "The Word of God."

2. You will also discern what can be described as the "Words/ saying of a Prophets of God."

3. And you will most readily observe that the bulk of the Bible is the records of eye witnesses or written from hearsay. As such they are the "Words what a historian would write" You want to take it leave it without much harm to faith in God.

You do not have to hunt for examples of these different types of evidences in the Bible. The following quotations will make the position crystal clear:

The FIRST Category:

(a) I will raise them up a prophet . . . and I will put my words in ... and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him." (Deuteronomy 18:18)

(b) I even, I am the Lord, and beside me there is no savior." (Isaiah 43:11)

(c) "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the end of the earth: for I am God, and there is non else." (Isaiah 45:22)

Note the first person pronoun singular (highlighted in green) in the above references, and without any difficulty you will agree that the statements seem to have the sound of being GOD'S WORD.

The SECOND Category:

(a) "Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani? . . ." (Matthew 27:46)

(b) "And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord:" (Mark 12:29)

(c) "And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God." (Mark 10:18).

Even a child will be able to affirm that: Jesus "cried" Jesus "answered" and Jesus "said" are the words of the one to whom they are attributed, i.e. the WORDS OF A PROPHET OF GOD.

The THIRD Category :

"And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he, (JESUS) came, if haply he (JESUS) might find anything thereon: and when he (JESUS) came to it, (Jesus) found nothing but leaves . . ." (Mark 11:13)

The bulk of the Bible is a witnessing of this THIRD kind. These are the words of a third person. Note the underlined pronouns. They are not the Words of God or of His prophet, but the WORDS OF A HISTORIAN.

For knowledgeable Muslim it is cinch to distinguish the above types of evidence, cus he also has them in his own faith but clearly separated from each other.

 Category ONE: THE WORD OF GOD � is the Book called The Holy Qur�an.

TWO: � THE WORDS OF THE PROPHET OF GOD, (Muhummed, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) are in the Books of Tradition called The Hadith.

THREE: Evidence of the third kind abounds in different volume of Islamic history, written by some of the highest integrity and learning.

The Prophet established the model of the first University in the world in his life time. From which sprung the keepers of truth that we have the minutest detail of His life whereas the Jesus life and its details are known for not more than 3 years of his ministry and then none consistent.

In Islamic system there is no way these categories can get mixed up, when quoted the speaker or writer must specify clearly. He never equates them in their level of authority.

On the other hand, the "Holy Bible"  is a motley reading, which contain the embarrassing kind, the sordid, and the obscene � all under the same cover � A Christian has no choice or doesn't care to concede equal spiritual import and authority to all, and is thus unfortunate in this regard. Then  coming to Islam for it's veracity checkout, sure  I will do it---Let's look at  it with the above yard stick 

Sarita wrote: This is the chapter of the Bible I base my faith on. Does Islam have a response to this? I posted the chapter below, I could really use your insight. Thank you all so much! God bless you!

I hope your foundation better be good one to withstand the test. You don�t want your faith failing you on the judgment day and leaving in lurch cus it was not on God�s words on prima facie evidence as we see it clearly.

Wont you agree  blue hi light sounds like Jesus stated and somebody recorded, in red somebody else said or recorded..

Can not find anything stated in first person by God Almighty in these passages.

Sarita wrote: 1 There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. 2 After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. �Rabbi,� he said, �we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.�

Normally I will sit on the side lines when I see Br. MBZ taking the lead on things related to Bible quandaries but I couldn�t keep my 2 cents.

The above passage fits into the HISTORIAN or THIRD PERSON  category .

 

Sarita wrote: 3 Jesus replied, �I tell you the truth, unless you are born again,[a] you cannot see the Kingdom of God.�

Sarita wrote: 4 �What do you mean?� exclaimed Nicodemus. �How can an old man go back into his mother�s womb and be born again?�

 The above passage fits into the HISTORIAN or THIRD PERSON  category .

5 Jesus replied, �I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.^[b] 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.^[c] 7 So don�t be surprised when I say, �You^[d] must be born again.� 8 The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can�t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can�t explain how people are born of the Spirit.�

 9 �How are these things possible?� Nicodemus asked.

 10 Jesus replied, �You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don�t understand these things? 11 I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won�t believe our testimony. 12 But if you don�t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man^[e] has come down from heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.^[f]

 16 �For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

 18 �There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God�s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God�s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.^[g]�

CONCLUSION: THESE PASSAGES DO NOT PASS THE MUSTER OF THE DIVINE REVELATION AND BE THE FOUNDATION OF FAITH AS FAR AS ISLAM IS CONCERNED. IMHO IF PAUL HAD NOT GONE WEST (ATHENS) BUT EAST, THINGS WOULD BE DIFFERENT. ALAS

Sarita you need to know very clearly from the get go, Islam is the faith of un compromising monotheism just like examples quoted in category 1 above.

And the standard prayer for Muslim has signs of God which are  absolutely definitive in purity of unity of God.

112:1 Say: He is Allah, the One and Only;

112:2 Allah, the Eternal, Absolute;

112:3 He begetteth not, nor is He begotten;

112:4 And there is none like unto Him.

Think it this way there are more than a billion Muslim in the world nobody has any negotiation authority to make any deviation from above. Yes there are deviant cults created at the behest of the imperialists and colonizers or some individual charlatan out to ruin some ignorant folks but then they fall outside the realm of blessed Islam.

35:8 >>>>>For Allah leaves to stray whom He wills, and guides whom He wills. So let not thy soul go out in (vainly) sighing after them: for Allah knows well all that they do! -

 

 

Which sounds more creditable:

The story of Jesus Christ

or

The story of Muhammad?

As Jesus said, you can tell the truthfulness of a prophet by his works.

I would add, you can tell the truthfulness of a religion by how it treats people.

The Jewish and Muslim religions have strict punishments for the slightest violations.

How does the religious punishments of Christianity compare to that of Judahism and Islam?

I realize that over the years individuals and committees have converted religious beliefs for person gain and bias, but reading the actual text - which religion is more in line with what YOU think God is like?

Remember, we all worship the same God, it is the messengers (including false messengers) that cause the problems!