Question: Why Don't the Muslims believe that Jesus is the Son of God?

Answer: Muslims do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God because the Koran says this –

“He (God) begets not, nor was He begotten.” – (112.3)

“And to warn those who say, Allah has begotten a son. No knowledge have they of such a thing, nor had their fathers. Mighty is the word that comes out of their mouths. They utter nothing but a lie. (18.4-5).”

The Muslims think that because we use the word “begotten” that Christians believe that God procreates and that He somehow had sexual relations with Mary to produce Jesus which is a great blasphemy and something that Christians have never believed. So it is vitally important for the Christian to be able to explain to a Muslim how Jesus is the Son of God in a way they can understand, and at the same time refute this horrible misunderstanding.

First of all, the words “begotten” and “conceived” are used in reference to Jesus’ beginning as a human being simply because there are no words to describe a supernatural birth. This is to the glory of God because there has never been a supernatural birth like Jesus’ birth before and this is why there are no words to describe it, so we have to use words like begotten and conceived. Unfortunately, to the Muslim mind they are very misleading.

The Koran describes Jesus’ beginning as a human this way –

“And Mary the daughter of Imran, who guarded her chastity; and We breathed into (her body) of our Spirit; and she testified to the truth of the words of her Lord and of His books, and was one of the devout (servants).” (66.12)

Any Christian would agree with this description.

I received a letter from a Muslim who said, “Jesus (Praise be unto Him) was created just as Adam (Praise be unto Him) was created without a father.” This statement is correct; Jesus' life as a man began supernaturally by God, like Adam - but with a crucial differenace as we shall see.

Adam is also called the son of God in the Bible (Luke 3:38) because his life began directly by God with no human intervention. Likewise Jesus, who is called the last Adam in the New Testament, is the Son of God because His life as a man also began supernaturally by God through no human agency. But there is a very great distinction between Adam’s beginning as a human and Jesus. To understand this we must return to the Torah, specifically Genesis, chapter 2, verse 7 – “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

Adam was given life by the “breath.” In the Hebrew language in which the Torah was written, the word “breath” is neshamah and its meaning is related to God’s breath, or man’s breath and the spirit of man. The Hebrew word for God’s Spirit is Ruach, and this word is not used in reference to Adam’s beginning. Although Ruach is sometimes used in reference to man’s spirit, we have to look at the usage in the text to see whether it is referring to God’s Spirit or a man’s.

So in the creation account we are shown that Adam’s soul was given life by the breath of God, not the spirit of God, the Ruach, God’s Holy Spirit. This distinguishes the first Adam from the last Adam. Jesus was given life as a man by the Holy Spirit, which is also taught in the Koran – “We breathed into her of Our Spirit.” Therefore, Jesus’ life force as a human is God’s Spirit.

Jesus is the only “begotten” Son because His life is the only life to have originated directly from God’s Holy Spirit. Anyone who is “birthed” or “begotten” must come from a pre-existing substance. Adam was “begotten” from the pre-existing substance of the earth, Jesus the last Adam was “begotten” or birthed from the pre-existing substance of God’s Spirit; therefore Jesus’ life force is God’s Holy Spirit. “And so it is written, the first Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening (Greek, zoopoieo-life-giving) Spirit (I Corinthians 15:45). Only God has the ability to give life.

The Koran says that Jesus is a spirit from God and He is called Ruh (spirit) Allah (God). (Allah is the Arabic word for God); and as we have been shown that Spirit is God’s Holy Spirit.

Jesus said, “As the Father has life in Himself, so He has given to the Son to have life in Himself” (John 5:26). To have life in oneself is a quality that only God can have. Jesus and God the Father are One Spirit as Jesus said, “I and My Father are One” (John 10:30).

Jesus said God the Father is Spirit (singular). (John 4:24). God is One Spirit, whenever we have more than one spirit we have more than one God and that is polytheism. (“God is one” – Galatians 3:20.) Jesus said that the Holy Spirit is “The Spirit of the Father” (Matthew 10:20) and the Holy Spirit is referred to throughout the Old and New Testaments as the “Spirit of God.”

God’s glory is His Spirit and we see in Koran 66.12, that Jesus was given life as a man by God’s Holy Spirit. Therefore His life force is God’s Spirit and Jesus is also joined to God by the Holy Spirit “to strengthen Him,” 2.87. God is never disconnected from His own Spirit, therefore making Himself one with the Messiah Jesus, and confirming the Messianic prophecy from Isaiah – “I have put My Spirit upon Him” - Isaiah 42:1. In the Torah we read that when God created the world, “The Spirit of God” moved upon the waters and the world was created.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2).

The early Jews before Jesus believed that the Spirit of God in the creation account is the Spirit of Messiah. “I and My Father are One.”

Copyright 2021 by H.D. Shively

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