Who is Jesus?

His Humanity and His Divinity

Dr. H. A. Morsi

• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781662448546
• eBook ISBN: 9781662448553
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad are the primary sources of information and are the windows through which the children of Abraham (in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) see God, learn, and reflect.

This book tries to separate fact from fiction in dealing with the birth, life, mission, and death of Jesus of Nazareth, the great prophet and Messiah.

Based on first-hand knowledge by arranging dozens of lectures, dialogues, and debates, the author skillfully navigates what historians said about Jesus, and what the New Testament and the Quran also said about Jesus. Most importantly, how did Jesus, his contemporaries, and his disciples view his mission on Earth? The book also tracks the new discoveries that came to light, within the last century, about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the Gospel of Thomas, the Jesus Seminar, and the Gospel of Jesus's wife.

The book documents the story of the Talpiot Tomb discovered in March 1980 outside Jerusalem. The tomb was proved to belong to the second temple period (538 BC–70 CE). The book also investigates the claim by James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici that this tomb contained the remains of Jesus and Mary Magdalene as well as the remains of a child that belonged to them!

Islam and Christianity

Where They Meet and Where They Part Ways

There is no denial that the two largest religions in our world today have serious theological disagreements that demand serious dialogues. The dialogues should seek better understandings, supported by authentic documentations from the Quran, the Bible, and history. The dialogues, for starter, should focus on the concept of God, the Trinity, Jesus, original sin, blood atonement, and salvation. Both religions believe in a supreme deity who created heaven and earth as well as created Adam and Eve, the parents of humanity. Whether our Creator is one God in nature and essence, or a God of three hypostases (persons) working as one, is at the core of all the other theological arguments.

What interests me most is the fact that Christianity seems to be a changing and revolving religion. It is also significant that most Christians are not aware that their revered articles of faith are not to be found on the lips of Jesus.

A good friend, who is a Methodist minister, always remind me not to paint all Christians with the same brush. He has a favorite saying, “There is spectrum in Christianity that goes from one extreme to the other.” Another friend, who is a Quaker, tells me that his personal faith allows him to reject any of the creeds if he disagrees with it. He also stated that his faith in Christianity is based on his relationship with Jesus, not on what he (Jesus) said or taught. Several of my Catholic friends call themselves, cafeteria Catholics, which means they take from Catholicism what they like and ignore what they do not like.

This approach to faith is certainly foreign to the Muslim’s ears. In Islam, all articles of faith had been enshrined in the Quran for more than fourteen hundred years. Since there is no hierarchy in Islam, there is no clergy or councils to make theological changes through theological concepts and doctrines. The Quran is keen to emphasize that the relationship between each individual and Allah is personal, direct, and can never be through intermediaries. The Quran also teaches that Allah is closer to each child of Adam than their own Jugular vein (Quran 50:16). Muslims are raised with special emphasis on pure monotheism, personal accountability, admitting mistakes, apologizing, and repenting. There is no teaching in the Quran that anyone, divine or human, will pay for your sins with their life or otherwise. Therefore, Muslims grow up accepting full responsibility and striving to follow God’s commandments every day of their life. Faith and trust in the love and mercy of the one and only true God, the Creator, is the central and primary article of faith. In Islam, praying, fasting, charity, and good deeds are important, but having faith in Allah and helping and loving your fellow humans are primary in God’s eyes. Prophet Muhammad emphasized: If you truly love Allah, love and help your fellow humans first.

In this chapter, I’ll try to summarize the points of agreement and disagreement between Islam and Christianity. My purpose is to offer education, thus create curiosity among the readers to stimulate and encourage better understandings and dialogues. I have no interest at all to ask anyone to change from one religion to the other. To me, faith is a God-given gift to be followed by personal choices.

Muslims feel offended when anyone call them Muhammadans. They are quick to point out that they do not worship Muhammad. They only worship the God of Muhammed, who is also the God of Jesus, Moses, and Abraham. The God of all prophets and mankind. A mortal sin in Islam is to ascribe divinity to anyone but the Creator. Such practice is called shirk, meaning to associate, worship, or equate persons, institutions, or other objects with the one and only God.

When I read the New Testament, I find the same on the lips of Jesus but not in the church creeds, the teachings of Paul, or the daily practice of most Christians.

Jesus certainly believed and emphasized one God: “Hear O’ Israel, the Lord our God is one” (Mark 12:29). He was echoing what Moses declared centuries earlier in the Torah in Deuteronomy 6:4. Jesus and Moses, as well as all the Israelite prophets, knew no other God but the God of Abraham, the God of Adam, the God of all humanity.

After the time of Jesus and his disciples, the center of the newly budding faith was moved from Jerusalem to Rome, and the early Christians were the subject of violence and persecution on the hands of the Romans. This persecution continued for more than two hundred years. By the time Constantine, the Roman Emperor, accepted Christianity and Christians, they began to recover and organize their religion. They faced a near impossible task. Original information and documents about Jesus and his movement in Jerusalem were almost non-existent. The effort to organize and move forward proved to be difficult and led to theological confrontations among the bishops of the newly-formed Holy Roman Catholic Church. A major factor that fueled the divisions is the fact that they were trying to attract converts from the Romans and Greeks, who were raised worshiping polytheistic pagan mythologies. It also appears that the new emerging religion was heavily influenced by the teachings of Paul, a man who never met the person, Jesus, or learned firsthand from him.

Paul, originally Saul of Tarsus, a Jewish Roman c...

Table of contents

• The Legacy of Abraham
• Adam and Eve
• The Birth of Jesus
• The Miracles of Jesus
• Who Was Mary Magdalene?
• Jesus
• The Mission of Jesus
• John the Baptist
• The Death of Jesus: Was the Cross Necessary?
• The Resurrection of Jesus
• Islam and Christianity