Jesus is sad and ashamed
We live in a world divided, individuality rises supreme, and trust, love, and compassion have been replaced by greed, lust, and suffering.
This is a look at how Christianity has played its role in making the world what is today and completely changed the message that Jesus brought.
Jesus and its message of monotheism have been replaced, and it took weird shapes and forms, and now we live where some use it to make Israel great in pursuit of salvation (Christians Evangelicals mostly), some use it to all about making money, and gifts (prosperity bible) and some use it for defining Christian Nationalism and in the process make America become exceptionals and Israel the chosen one.
Jesus message
Jesus is a miraculous and powerful prophet, sends in line to other great prophets before him, and is the last Prophet sent to Jews.
Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (along with 124,000 other prophets ) were sent the same message though instructions or laws changed; according to the time, condition, and context.
There is no dichotomy in their messages; which we all have come to arrive at; there is unity and cohesion that can bind most of us all together.
“We believe in Allah and what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and his descendants; and what was given to Moses, Jesus, and other prophets from their Lord — we make no distinction between any of them, and to Him, we fully submit” ( Quran:3:84)
When one of the Jewish teachers of the law approaches Jesus and asks him which of the commandments is the most important:
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. [Mark 12:28–34]
This message is simple and in line with the Prophets before him and joins followers of Prophet Jesus back to the same God, but people being people have ripped Jesus of his real self, and identify; some take it as a savior; and expect salvation through trust and believe in him; while other claim him to be divine and God.
Some history,
Christianity was never meant to be proclaimed as a religion for the whole world; and was opened up by Paul to Gentiles; while Jesus said he was sent to the lost sheep of
Then Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep — the people of Israel.”
“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, ” declares the LORD.
3 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Similarly, Paul attributed the idea of Original sin, the Trinity, and the Divinity of God, and later on, Constantine adopted Christianity as the state religion and the whole of the Roman Empire converted; I agree with Bart Ehrman here
“If Jesus had not been declared God by his followers, his followers would’ve remained a sect within Judaism — a small Jewish sect, and if that was the case it would not have attracted a large number of Gentiles. If they hadn’t attracted a large number of Gentiles, there wouldn’t have been this steady rate of conversion over the first three centuries to Christianity; it would’ve been a small Jewish sect.
If Christianity had not become a sizable minority in the empire, the Roman emperor Constantine almost certainly would not have converted, but then there wouldn’t have been the masses of conversions after Constantine, and Christianity would not have become the state religion of Rome. If that hadn’t happened, it would never have become the dominant religious, cultural, political, social, and economic force that it became so we wouldn’t have even had the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation, or modernity as we know it. … It all hinges on this claim the early Christians had that Jesus was God.”
Salvation
Salvation should not be the goal of a person of faith, it's a by-product of our actions based on right faith.
On an individual level, Human endeavor should be to reach truth and find God, (and intellect plays a big role), once it reaches the truth it is all about his action, intention, and pursuit of righteousness and standing firm on it.
On a group or societal level, the main objective of all prophets is to establish Justice, where there is a balance between everything, in relationship with God, people, and families, and harmony with the nature and ecosystem.
Verily Man is in loss, Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy. ( Quran:103)
So on the day of judgment, we will be judged based on our beliefs and faith; rather than actions; minus or addition of good deeds based on how we treated others ( it’s quite possible that if we mistreated others or do not provide others due right our good deeds will be subtracted and added to others accounts); judgment on those actions in consideration to intention, and even after that God blessing is required for salvation.
Also since God is all powerful and knowing, it will know exactly that for a certain person, what were the circumstances under which that action was performed while were the abilities it possessed, and the intentions that those were committed under.
Problem with Faith based on Salvation
If God comes in human form and dies on the cross for a sin committed by Adam. With this belief, actions become secondary or unimportant and everything is about trust and belief in Jesus.
This idea of a religion, though sounds unharmful, and a person today would say “it's a personal choice”, but it has far bigger consequences and has caused more harm than good.
On a personal level, since actions are not important; Alcohol, Pork, Sex, and Gambling are allowed ( in all Christian countries) and we know this thing cause problems and harm, both personally as well as in family life ( child abuse, wife abuse etc), Pope himself recently allowed homosexuality ( though God destroyed a society Sodom and Gomorrah because of this)
Logically speaking, when a faith person uses intellect and questions the narrative of Christianity, it will fail on a lot of accounts,
if Prophet Adam makes a mistake then why I am responsible for it?
Why did Jesus a God not come before all other prophets? and why did all other prophets preach monotheism, which is different from what a crucified Prophet did?
If someone kills 100 people and still believes in Jesus as a savior ( and does not get caught and punished in this world ) why he should be saved and not punished hereafter for the crimes? compared to one who lived a pious life, this would count as justice?
If Jesus is the savior then it does not make sense to create the world and Evil and Good, even on the day of resurrections; and human mind and soul and suffering, what is the point of creating all those other human beings who do not believe in Jesus as savior; since God is all knowledgeable it can determine who will accept his message and who will not.
For a common person, Father, Son, God, Holy Spirit, 3 in 1 and 1 in 3 ; is illogical, and when few cannot answer these logical fallacies people lose faith, few dare to look into other religions, but most intertwined with Church and family and community pressure continue on wrong path and later few loose all hope and determine they cannot reach the truth and there is no God or even there is we cannot determine that.
Act of forgiveness, which itself is a divine right, and should be based on the acts and not faith, and it is the essence of God's mercy and compassion; is transferred to the Pope and Priest, who misuse it to gain authority and power and we can argue, potentially is one of the main reason of reformation movement, which means division in religious sentiment and and feeling of despise toward religion.
Reformation, when the religious authority of the Pope got declined and thinkers and philosophers started to derive new knowledge and relationship of humans to themselves and this universe; God took a back seat and most of the intellect was driven with a feeling of resentment towards religions and its negative impact that were witnessed throughout Europe.
This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it. — John Adams
You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principle enemy of moral progress in the world. — Bertrand Russell
With Western powers gaining power after this explosion of knowledge and exported across different regions, which is Human-centric driven by materialistic goals and ambitions, and devoid of human dignity and compassion; over time has deduced man into a mere evolved animal; making nihilistic because it has turned itself away from a major source of knowledge (religious text) and biggest truth to our existence ( God)
We can see how Wrong beliefs will cause a lot of pain and suffering both on an individual level, family level, and society at large because it opens the floodgate to any interpretation of the text; causing others harm in the process, and some groups of people exploit these and gain power and authority to drive their objective, but eventually it caused harm to religion ( as people move away from it)
Christian Zionism, ‘I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’ (Genesis 12:3 NIV);
Christian Zionists (mostly Evangelical) use this verse to support Israel and say whatever Israel does is Okay since ( if they stop them) God will curse them; we can clearly see how the Bible is weaponized and is used to persecute local population of the area, and even Palestinian Christians are writing letters to these Western Christians to not take Bible literally.
Even red heifers are being prepared in Texas which will be used to purify the priest serving in the third temple ( which Jews planned to rebuild at the current location of the Wailing Wall and Masjid Al-Aqsa)
“Now, the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ‘This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never come. You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, that he may take it outside the camp, and it shall be slaughtered before him … its offal shall be burned … for the water of purification; it is for purifying from sin.’” (Numbers 19:1–5)
Christians should reach out to these Evangelical Christians and educate them; certain sets of verses cannot take over the whole theology and even go against the basic teaching of love, ethics, and compassion that Jesus preached;
The promise of God to Abraham is with the family of Abraham and it is not to a secular country: Israel; Followers of Islam are part of that promise, since Muhammad PBUH was born of lineage to Abraham another son Ishmael and blessed does not mean more land ( or resource in a materialistic sense) but honor, dignity and respect. These wrong interpretations are eventually used by the Capitalist elite to drive their purposes. It's one of the main reasons for not getting peace in the region since this wrong interpretation wants a greater Israel but not a peaceful one.
While Evangelical Statement in Support of Israel
https://erlc.com/resource-library/statements/israel/
Historical Jesus
Also if one is looking to understand or study the historical or real Jesus, the Quran does provide history from his miraculous birth; to how he can cure people and how he was crucified.
I will leave a link here and here if a Christian is interested to know more about a person they love and so admire.
Essence of Religion
People have weaknesses of greed, selfishness, fear, and prejudice, which push people to make wrong and irrational decisions; also these weaknesses compel them to do injustice when making any groups ( family, community, society)
So prophets were sent to help connect the population back to one monotheistic God; that is not to worship any entity, people, scholar, church, not own self, but only one and all Loving, Powerful, and just God.
The most important thing for religion is to give guidelines and establish Justice in society, so people do not become slaves of each other but instead vicegerent of one true God.
Humble suggestion
In my humble understanding, Christianity has made a model (which says God is Jesus, trinity, original sin, etc) and trying to fit bible verses in the model, since everything cannot fit they keep stumbling, some groups will pick some verse and politicized it e.g. some will use it to become unique or better than others.
I would suggest if we simply picked monotheism as a model and read every bible verse, most of them would make sense and it would cause less harm. This can also revive Christianity closer to what Jesus preached.
For Example, when the Bible says it's required to believe in Jesus, it can simply mean belief in his message ( not necessarily worship him), or when it says
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son
So to be a Muslim these are the words one has to say ( after internalizing and believing in the message it presents) “There is no God worthy of worship except Allah ( God) and Muhammad is his prophet and last messenger”;
there are similar verses in the Quran like “Say, [O Muḥammad], “If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your relatives, wealth which you have obtained, commerce wherein you fear decline, and dwellings with which you are pleased are more beloved to you than Allāh and His Messenger and jihād [i.e., striving] in His cause, then wait until Allāh executes His command. And Allāh does not guide the defiantly disobedient people.”
Muslims believe in Muhammad and his message and God; belief is not equal to worship and the verse still holds legit that Jesus is not God but salvation could be through him which means believing in his message; Son we can argue it is not an actual Son but this verse could mean like someone you love; can be used to show the relationship of respect; also depends what is the actual word in Hebrew and what society in that time use for language and context for certain words.
Similarly “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” (Isaiah 64:6 NIV), for which most Christians would say action cannot be the basis of salvation since Bible says those are considered filthy rags..
There is a similar verse in the Quran;
39:64–66 Say: “O you ignorant people, do you bid me to worship someone other than God, Surely you have been commanded, as those before you were: “If you associate (anyone with God), wasted will be all your deeds, arid you will perish.” So, you should worship only God, arid be among the grateful
So Isaiah 64 referred to above are talking about those actions that are based on wrong faith; like so for example, if someone does a billion-dollar charity but either he intended to get fame or did it to satisfy his ego (people have a narrow concept of what is right) that charity has no value if it's not based of the right faith.
Jesus is Sad and Ashamed
this verse troubles me because Jesus will be questioned on the day of resurrection, that is why people consider him God and he will respond.
22. And on Judgment Day Allah will say, “O Jesus, son of Mary! Did you ever ask the people to worship you and your mother as gods besides Allah?” He will answer, “Glory be to You! How could I ever say what I had no right to say? If I had said such a thing, you would have certainly known it. You know what is hidden within me, but I do not know what is within You. Indeed, You ˹alone˺ are the Knower of all unseen. [Surah Al-Ma’idah; 5:116]
I, love Jesus as a Prophet, and he will be put to trial, for the fact that his followers have invented ideas and theology that he did not preach and this will cause him to be ashamed on the day of Judgment.
So I would urge every Christian to give deep thought to the person they love the most, or the one who cares for their well-being and teaches them God's words.
Please do not associate wrong teaching with his name and please honor him by giving his identity back to him; by making him a Prophet rather than what he is not.
I will leave a couple of links and videos for comparative scholars ( and Bart Ehrman’s) , who can better explain, through the bible itself that Jesus considered himself a Prophet and preached that
So anybody looking to find answers and explanations; to verse interpretation ( which claims to consider Jesus' divinity) and how that fits in the model of monotheism; might find it helpful.
Jesus Never Claimed to be God
“Jesus Christ (pbuh) never claimed that he is God” — Dr Zakir Naik
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3Z-XFq8F_w
Is Jesus God? Ahmed Deedat v/s Dr. Anis Shorrosh IPCI 01/03
Jesus (AS) In Islam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSBOBtHp0Ls
https://thedeenshow.com/90-verses-that-say-jesus-is-not-god-nor-the-literal-son-of-god/
https://jesus-is-muslim.net/en/jesus-is-muslim/jesus/did-jesus-really-say-i-am-god/
