60 Questions for Christians to Answer

60 Questions for the Christians To Answer

29 December 2006

Hussein Khalid Al-Hussein

According to most Christians, Jesus was God-incarnate, fully man and fully God. Can the finite and the infinite be one? "To be fully God" means freedom from finite forms and from helplessness, and to be "full man" means the absence of divinity.

1. To be son is to be less than divine and to be divine is to be no one�s son. How could Jesus have the attributes of Sonship and divinity altogether?

2. Christians assert that Jesus claimed to be God when they quote him in John 14:9: "He that has seen me has seen the Father". Didn�t Jesus clearly say that people have never seen God, as

3. Christians say that Jesus was God because he was called Son of God, Son of Man, Messiah, and "savior". Ezekiel was addressed in the Bible as Son of Man. Jesus spoke of "the peace makers" as Sons of God. Any person who followed the Will and Plan of God was called SON OF GOD in the Jewish tradition and in their language¹. "Messiah" which in Hebrew means "God�s anointed" and not "Christ", and "Cyrus" the person is called "Messiah" or "the anointed". As for "savior", in II Kings 13:5, other individuals were given that title too without being gods. So where is the proof in these terms that Jesus was God when the word son is not exclusively used for him alone?

4. Christians claim that Jesus acknowledged that he and God were one in the sense of nature when he says in John 10:30 "I and my father are one". Later on in John 17:21-23, Jesus refers to his followers and himself and God as one in five places. So why did they give the previous "one" a different meaning from the other five "ones?

5. Is God three-in-one and one in three simultaneously or one at a time?

6. If God is one and three simultaneously, then none of the three could be the complete God. Granting that such was the case, then when Jesus was on earth, he wasn�t a complete God, nor was the "Father in Heaven" a whole God. Doesn�t that contradict what Jesus always said about His God and our God in heaven, his Lord and our Lord? Does that also mean that there was no complete god then, between the claimed crucifixion and the claimed resurrection?

7. If God is one and three at a time, then who was the God in heaven when Jesus was on earth? Wouldn�t this contradict his many references to a God in Heaven that sent him?

< =text/ minmax_bound="true"> < src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js" =text/ minmax_bound="true"> 8. If God is three and one at the same time, who was the God in Heaven within three days between the claimed crucifixion and the claimed resurrection?

9. Christians say that: "The Father(F) is God, the Son(S) is God, and the Holy Ghost(H) is God, but the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost is not the Father". In simple arithmetic terms, if F = G, S = G, and H = G, then it follows that F = S = H, while the second part of the statement suggests that F� S� H (meaning, "not equal"). Isn�t that a contradiction to the Christian dogma of Trinity in itself?

10. If Jesus was God, why did he tell the man who called him "good master" not to call him "good" because accordingly, there is none good but his God in Heaven alone?

11. Why do Christians say that God is three-in-one and one in three when Jesus says in Mark 12:29: "The Lord our God is one Lord" in as many places as yet in the Bible?

12. If belief in the Trinity was such a necessary condition for being a Christian, why didn�t Jesus teach and emphasize it to the Christians during his time? How were those followers of Jesus considered Christians without ever hearing the term Trinity? Had the Trinity been the spinal cord of Christianity, Jesus would have emphasized it on many occasions and would have taught and explained it in detail to the people.

13. Christians claim that Jesus was God as they quote in John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". This is John speaking and not Jesus. Also, the Greek word for the first occurrence of God is hotheos which means "the God" or "God" with a capital "G", while the Greek word for its second occurrence is tontheos, which means "a god " or "god" with a small "g". Isn�t this dishonesty and inconsistency on the part of those translating the Greek Bible? ? Isn�t such quotation in John 1:1 recognized by every Christian scholar of the Bible to have been written by a Jew named Philo Alexandria way before Jesus and John?

14. Wasn�t the word "god" or "tontheos" also used to refer to others as well as in II Corinthians 4:4 "(and the Devil is) the god of this world" and in Exodus 7:1 "See , I have made thee (Moses ) a god to Pharaoh"?

SALVATION:

Christians say that "GOD lost His only son to save us". To whom did God lose Jesus if He owns the whole universe?

15. If it was agreeable with God�s Majesty to have sons, He could have created a million sons the like of Jesus. So what is the big clear deal about this only son?

16. Why does the Bible say that Jesus wanted to die on the cross, when the one on the cross was shouting "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" according to Matthew 27:45 and Mark 15:33?

17. If God had wanted to save us, couldn�t He have done that without sacrificing Jesus?

18. God is Just, and justice requires that nobody should be punished for the sins of others nor should some people be saved by punishing other people. Doesn�t the claim that God sacrificed Jesus to save us because He was Just, contradict the definition of justice?

19. People sacrifice things they have to get something they don�t have when they can�t have both. Christians say that "God sacrificed His only son to save us". We know that God is Almighty; to whom did He sacrifice Jesus?

20. A real sacrifice is when you can�t get back what you have offered, so what would be the big deal about such a sacrifice if God could recover the same offering (according to the Christians� terminology)?

21. If all the Christians are saved through Jesus and are going to Heaven no matter what they do, then the teachings of Jesus are irrelevant and the definition of good and bad are also rendered irrelevant. If this is not so, then do Christians who believe in Jesus yet do not follow his teachings nor repent go to Hell?

22. How can Christians take deeds as irrelevant after becoming one when Jesus says²: "But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment. For by the words thou shalt be justified, and by the words thou shalt be condemned"?

23. Christians say that people go to Heaven only through Jesus yet Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:8-16 that the unbelieving husband is acceptable to God because he is united with his wife and vice versa, and their pagan children are also acceptable to God. So people can go to heaven without believing in Jesus according to this.

24. How come the Bible says that all Israel is saved although they don�t believe in Jesus? Doesn�t that contradict the claim in the Bible that the only way to heaven is through Jesus?

25. According to Christians, those who have not been baptized will go to Hell. So even the infants and babies go to Hell if not baptized, since they are born with an inherited original sin. Doesn�t this contradict the definition of justice? Why would God punish people for sins they never committed?

HOLY SPIRIT:

The only place in the Bible where the Paraclete was called the Holy Spirit is in John 14:26 "But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you". What has the Holy Spirit brought or taught for the last 2000 years?

26. Christians say that the Paraclete means the Holy Spirit³. Jesus said in John 16:7-8: "If I do not go away the Paraclete will not come to you". This could not mean the Holy spirit, since the Holy spirit was said to have been there before Jesus was even born as in Luke 1:41: "Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit". Here, the Holy Spirit was also present during Jesus life time. So how could this fit with the condition that Jesus must go away so that the Holy Spirit will come?

27. In John 16:7-8, it says: "But if go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of sins and of righteousness and of Judgment". What do "he" and "him" refer here? Don�t they refer to a man?

28. Does the Holy Spirit talk to good Christians and bad Christians as well? Is the Holy spirit with them all the time or just at certain times? When does it start visiting a person who wants to become a Christian?

29. How can you as a Christian tell if the Holy Spirit is inside another Christian? How come many Christians fooled people by claiming that the Holy spirit was inside them only to be converted to another religion later on?

30. Does the Holy Spirit dictate what Christians should do without choice or freedom at all or does it only guide them and they have the freedom to follow or not?

31. If the Holy Spirit dictates what Christian should do, why do Christians commit sins and make mistakes? How can you explain the conversion to other religions and atheism of many Christians? Are they told to do that by the Holy Spirit?

32. If the Holy Spirit guides Christians only, and they are free to do what they want, then how do we know that the writers of the Gospels didn�t make mistakes in writing them?

33. If Christians believe that the Holy Spirit comes and talks to them everyday, why don�t they ask the Holy Spirit about which version of the Bible to follow since there are too many versions floating around?

MISSION OF JESUS:

Without borrowing from other religions and systems, can Christianity provide people with a complete way of life? Since Christianity is limited to spiritual life and does not provide law, how can a society decide which laws are right or wrong?

34. Why do the Christians say that Jesus came with a universal mission when he said that he was sent to the Jews only? He said to the Canaanite woman who asked him to heal her daughter from demon-possession: "I was sent ONLY to the lost sheep of Israel" and also said: "It is not right to take the children�s bread and toss it to their dogs"⁴

RESURRECTION:

If you read Matthew (28:1-10), Mark (16:1-20), Luke (24:1-12), and John (20: 1-18), you will find contradicting stories. They all agreed that the tomb was guarded for three days. However, they reported the discovery of the empty tomb differently.

• Matthew (28) and John (20) reported that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were the first to discover the tomb.
• Mark (16) reports that Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome were the first to discover the empty tomb.
• Mark (28) reports that there was an earthquake that removed the rock from over the tomb. He says that an angel caused it. The other gospels do not mention of an earthquake.
• Matthew and Mark say that only ONE man in white clothes was sitting on the tomb when the woman arrived, and that he was an angel.
• Luke says that TWO men in white clothes, who were angels, were sitting. Johns says that the two women did not meet anybody the first time they came to the tomb, but when they returned, they saw TWO people, ONE was an ANGEL, and the other was JESUS.
• Matthew reports that when the guards reported this to the chief priest, the chief priest paid them a large sum of money, telling them: "You have to say that his disciples came at night and stole his body." He claims that the soldiers took money and spread the story around and since then, the story had been circulating among the Jews until today (according to Matthew). The other gospels do not report of any such thing.

35. Which narration now is more authentic?

36. Why is the appearance of Jesus after the crucifixion taken as a proof of his resurrection when there is an explanation that he was not dead because someone else was crucified in his place when God saved Him?

37. How did Matthew know of the claimed agreement between the soldiers and the chief priest? Can't someone say that someone paid the women a large sum of money and told them to spread the word around that Jesus rose from the dead, with the same authenticity as that of the story of Matthew?

38. Why did they believe that man in the white clothes? Why did they believe he was an angel? John�s narration is too strange, since he says that Mary did not recognize Jesus (one of the two) while talking to him, and she only recognized him when he called her by her name.

39. How does an empty tomb prove that Jesus was crucified ? Isn�t it that God is capable of removing another man from the tomb, and of resurrecting him too?

40. The Gospels are believed to be the verbatim words of God, they are supposed to be dictated by the Holy Spirit to the Disciples who wrote them. If the source were the same, why shouldn�t they correspond with each other in reporting such an important event?

41. How could Matthew, Mark, Luke and John be considered eyewitnesses of resurrection when the Bible implies that nobody at all saw Jesus coming out of the tomb?

BIBLE:

If the Christians consider the Old Testament as God�s Word, why did they cancel the parts of the Old Testament that dealt with punishment (example: the punishment for adultery)?

42. Why doesn�t Mark 16:9-20 exist in as many versions of the Bible while it exists as a footnote or between brackets in some other versions? Is a footnote in the Bible still considered as God�s word, especially when it addresses an important feature like the Ascension?

43. Why does the Catholic Bible contain 73 books while the Protestant Bible has only 66? With both claiming to have the complete Word of God, which one should be believed and why?

44. Where do those new translations of the Bible keep coming from when the original Bible is not even available? The Greek manuscripts which are translations themselves are not even similar with each other.

45. How can you take two gospels from writers who never met Jesus, like Mark and Luke?

46. Why is half of the New Testament written by a man who never even met Jesus in his lifetime? PAUL claimed with no proof that he had met Jesus while on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus. PAUL was the main enemy of Christianity. Isn�t that reason enough to question the authenticity of what he wrote? Why do the Christians call those books of the Old Testament "God�s Word" when the revisers of the RSV Bible say that some of the authors are unknown? They say that the author of Samuel is "unknown" and that of Chronicles is "Unknown, probably collected and edited by Ezra"!

CONTRADICTIONS:

47. Concerning the controversial issues in the Bible, how can Christians decide by two-thirds majority what is God�s Word and what is not, as the prefaces of some Bibles say like that one of the RSV?

48. Why does Luke in his gospel report the Ascension on Easter Day, and in the Acts, in which he is recognized as the author, forty days later?

49. The genealogy of Jesus is mentioned in Matthew and Luke only. Matthew listed 26 forefathers from Joseph to David while Luke enumerated 41 forefathers. Only Joseph matches with Joseph in those two lists. Not a single other name matches! If these were inspired by God word by word, how could they be different? Some claim that one is for Mary and one is for Joseph, but where does it says Mary in those two Gospels?

50. If Moses wrote the first books of the Old Testament, how could Moses write his own obituary? Moses died in the fifth book at age 120 as mentioned in Deut. 34:5-10.

51. In the King James Version, why does it report seven years of famine in II Samuel 24:13 while it reports three years of famine in I Chronicles 21:12? Why did they change both to three years in the New International Version and other versions?

52. Still In the same King James Version, why does it say that Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign in II Chronicles 21:12, while it says eighteen years in II Kings 24:8? Why did they change in both to eighteen in the new Versions?

53. In all versions, why does it say that David slew the men of seven hundred chariots of the Syrians, and forty thousand horsemen as evidenced in II Samuel 10:18 while its says seven thousand men which fought in chariots, and forty thousand footmen, in I Chronicles 19:18?

54. In all versions, why does it report two thousand baths in I Kings 7:26 while II Chronicles 4:5 reports three thousand?

55. In the King James version, why does it report that Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses in II Chronicles 9:25 while it accounts that Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses in 1 KINGS 4:26? Why did they change both to four thousand in the new versions?

56. In Genesis 1, God�s creation progresses from grass to trees to fowls, whales, cattle and creeping things and finally to man and woman. Genesis 2, however, puts the creation of man before cattle and fowl and woman subsequent to beast. How can this be explained?

QUR'AN AND CHRISTIANS

This section does not inquire or interrogate, but rather provides the reader with some of the Qur�anic verses that address the Christians in particular, and the People of the Scripture in general. A great portion of the Qur�an pertains to or involves the Christians and the Jews and I decided to just choose verses that are related to the topic of this manuscript.

"Lo! The likeness of Jesus with Allah is as the likeness of Adam. He created him of dust, then said unto him: Be, and he was." (Qur�an, 3:59)

"Say: O People of the Scripture! Come to an agreement between us and you: that we shall worship none but Allah, and that we shall ascribe no partner unto Him, and that none of us shall take others for Lords besides Allah. And if they turn away, then say: Bear witness that we are they who have surrendered (unto him).

And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him and in the hereafter, He will be one of the losers (Qur�an, 3:85)

And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, and Allah�s messenger. They slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them, and Lo! Those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain:

O People of the Scripture! Do not exaggerate in your religion nor utter ought concerning Allah save the truth. The Messiah Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and His word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him, so believe in Allah and His messengers, and say not "Three"! Cease! [it is] better for you! Allah is only One God. Far is it removed from His transcendent majesty that He should have a son. His is all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. And Allah is sufficient as defender.
The Messiah will never scorn to be a slave unto Allah, nor will the favored angels. Whosoever scorns His service and is proud, all such will assemble unto Him.

Then, as for those who believed and did good works, unto them will He give them their wages in full, adding unto them of His bounty; and as for those who were scornful and proud, then He will punish with a painful doom." (Qur�an, 4:171-173)

"And with those who say Lo! We are Christians, We made a covenant, but they forgot a part of that whereof they were admonished. Therefore We have stirred up enmity and hatred among them till the Day of Resurrection, when Allah will inform them of their handiwork.

O People of the Scripture! Now has our messenger come unto you, expounding unto you much of that which you used to hide in the Scripture, and forgiving much. Now has come unto light from Allah and plain scripture:
Whereby Allah guides him who seeks His good pleasure unto paths of peace, He brings them out of darkness unto light by His decree, and guides them unto a Straight Path.

They indeed have disbelieved who say: Lo! Allah is the messiah, son of Mary. Say: Who then can do aught against Allah if he had willed to destroy the Messiah son of Mary, and his mother and everyone on earth? Allah�s is the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them. He creates what he wills. And Allah is able to do all things. (Qur�an, 5:14:17)

"They surely disbelieve who say; Lo! Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary. The Messiah (himself) said: O children if Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and you Lord. Lo! Whosoever ascribes partners unto Allah, for him Allah has forbidden Paradise. His abode is the Fire. For evildoers, there will be no helpers.

" And when Allah says: O Jesus, son of Mary: Did you say unto mankind: take me and my mother for two gods beside Allah? he says: Be glorified! It was not mine to utter that to which I had no right. If I used to say it, then You Knew it, You know what is in my mind, and I know not what is in Your mind. Lo! You, only You, are the knower of things hidden.

"And the Jews say: �Uzair [Ezra] is the son of Allah�, and the Christians say: �The Messiah is the son of Allah�. That is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the saying of those who disbelieved of old. Allah fights against them. How perverse they are!

MUHAMMAD OR JESUS?

Christians claim that the prophecy in Deut. 18:18 refers to Jesus and not Muhammad. The verse says: "I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and I will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him." The only reason they resort to such interpretation is that both Moses and Jesus were prophets. Even this one contradicts their claim that Jesus was God and not a Prophet. Many prophets of the Jews had the similarity with Moses. However, if we compare Muhammad to Moses, we will find that:

Muhammad was an Arab, and the Arabs are from Ishmael, son of Abraham, while Moses was a Jew, and the Jews are from Isaac, son of Abraham. Hence, the term THEIR BRETHREN refers to the children of the first son being brethren of the children of the other. This couldn�t apply to Jesus, since he was a Jew.

• According to the Christians, Jesus went to Hell for three days while Moses did not. Therefore, Jesus is not like Moses (In Islam, none of the three Prophets went to Hell).
• Moses and Muhammad were born to fathers and mothers while Jesus was born to a mother alone.
• Moses and Muhammad got married and had children, while Jesus did not marry at all.
• Moses and Muhammad got problems and difficulties from their people initially, but were accepted by them at the end., whereas Jesus was rejected by his people at the start and is still rejected by the Jews until today. "He (Jesus) came unto his own, but his own received him not".( John 1:11)
• Moses and Muhammad had power, besides being prophets. They both performed some capital punishments, for example, while Jesus had no power over his people. "My kingdom is not of this world", Jesus said in John 18:36.
• Moses and Muhammad brought new laws while Jesus did not.
• Moses was forced to emigrate in adulthood to Median while Muhammad was forced to emigrate at that stage in his life too, towards Madinah. Whereas Jesus did not have such forced emigration in his adulthood.
• Moses and Muhammad both died of natural deaths after which they were buried, while the same could not be said of Jesus. He was neither killed nor crucified at all, according to the Qur�an and did not die a "natural" death as could be affirmed by Christians who believe in Crucifixion.

FINAL QUESTIONS:

57. Why won�t you, Christian reader, come to hear and learn of the true religion of Jesus?

58. Have you, as a Christian, learned of Islam and if so, was it from the true Muslims?

59. As a Christian, do you agree that out of fairness and honesty you must investigate what Islam says about God, Jesus, including this life and the hereafter?

60. Being a Christian, do you also believe that we must all stand accountable to our Creator and that the Creator is Perfect and Just? As a sincere believer in God, don�t you owe it upon yourself to find out the entire unadulterated truth regardless of the consequences?

http://www.bismikaallahuma.org/categories/christianity/

Hi Khairullah,

3. Christians say that Jesus was God because he was called Son of God, Son of Man, Messiah, and "savior". Ezekiel was addressed in the Bible as Son of Man. Jesus spoke of "the peace makers" as Sons of God. Any person who followed the Will and Plan of God was called SON OF GOD in the Jewish tradition and in their language¹. "Messiah" which in Hebrew means "God�s anointed" and not "Christ", and "Cyrus" the person is called "Messiah" or "the anointed". As for "savior", in II Kings 13:5, other individuals were given that title too without being gods. So where is the proof in these terms that Jesus was God when the word son is not exclusively used for him alone?

Ezekiel was called the son of man, but not the only begotten Son of God.   Jesus was called the Son of Man because his mother was Mary.

Your point on the "anointed" regarding Cyrus and in Daniel 9 is that of a language issue.   I don't disagree over the language and application regarding Cyrus.  In Daniel 9:25-26, the anointed in those two verses... it is pretty hard to deny that it points to Jesus.    Jews claim that the anointed in  verse 25 refers to  Cyrus, while they have some division  on who the  anointed  is in the very next verse.   Some Jews say that refers to some 1st century CE high priests that went bad.   The problem with their understanding is that Daniel doesn't use the word for anointed anywhere else in his writings and when he does in Daniel 9, the anointed is in one verse and then the very next one again.   It is highly unlikely that those are two different anointed.

There is a big difference in what the Jews (Judaism) believe regarding the moshiach and the Christian messiah.    We Christians view messiah as saviour - from the penalty of our sins - which is eternal separation from God in the world to come.   A Jew (Judaism) would view the moshiach - as a specific anointed man, favored by God to bring universal knowledge of God to the world and to teach the Jews on how to keep Torah.

As far as Jesus being God from the nt, the disciples worshiped him when they experienced him after his resurrection.    If you go through the nt you will find that Jesus is called Lord....which is the in-form emanation of the Father.   Jesus never prayed to the Lord, because he was the Lord.

Christians, beginning with the disciples, believe that Jesus is God was long before Mohamed.   Jesus had warned about false christs and false messiahs that would come after him.   And 500 years before Mohamed, John warned of antichrists that would come and deny Father and Son.    Please keep in mind that Christians believe that Jesus is God long before Mohamed.

Peace,

Doug L.