John 1

[wel_mel_2]

Bismillah: Assalamo Alikum.

I only have a moment, but let me make a couple of points to your good questions.
1. Jesus was like a man, but not a man
. He could raise the dead, walk on water, stop a storm, etc. Those are things that God does, not prophets
. He is in a totally different class of man, but he bled, too. The alpha and the omega, being two things simultaneously.

Two things wrong you have mentioned in the above point:


1- Jesus is not a man, and


2- That he was a different class of man because the miracles he had performed.


The first point can be refuted easily by a simple quotation from your Bible where Peter (<i>the right hand of Jesus</i>) declared plainly to the children of Israel that Jesus was indeed a man and that his miracles were actually done by God alone and not by some kind of special power that Jesus himself possess.






"Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, <b>a man </b>approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, <b>which God did by him</b> in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know" Acts 2:22


I also wanted to remind you of greater miracles that were performed by other than Jesus in the same Bible and yet you have not considered them as <i>'totally different class of men'</i>


Elijah raised the dead (I Kings 17:20-23)


Elishah raised the dead (II Kings 4:30-36)


Elishah's dead bone raised the dead (II Kings 13:20-22)


Moses create a live snake (Exodus 4:2-4)


Elishah caused the blind to see (II Kings 6:15-24)


Elisha healed the lepers (II Kings 5:10-14)


Elisha fed a hundred persons with few loafs (II Kings 4:42-44)


So not only people and prophets did perform great miracles, but they’ve even proved that the miracles of Jesus were not unique at all. The thing that you don’t know is that even during Jesus’ time, lots of people used to perform miracles. For example among them are Jewish holy men like Hanina ben Dosa and Honi the circle drawer, there were also pagans miracle workers in the time of Jesus, like Apollonius who could heal the sick, cast out devils and even raise the dead. There were also pagan demigods like Hercules who could also bring back the dead. So if you are willing to accept Jesus as a miracle worker, we have no objection, but you should know that his miracles were not unique and were not perform by his own power. (<b>God did by him, said Peter in Acts 2:22</b>)

2. If we accept the scripture, then we must accept the narrative, too. Scripture is full of three things: Instruction, Description and Prediction. It is critically important to be aware of all three, lest description become accepted as instruction, and one does the exact opposite of what one was instructed to do, as is common. According to scripture, Jesus was foretold, and he fits the narrative. He is God's Isaac.

I agree that he was foretold, although his name was not mentioned even once in any of these prophecies, but for the sake of argument I would not object that Jesus was prophesied in the OT, however in none of these prophecies he was called God's Isaac or God the creator etc. the prophecies mainly were speaking about the coming Messiah.

3. Jesus himself says that when he leaves that another is coming, namely the Holy Spirit. He introduces the trinity, not the church. More interestingly, in my mind, is that the Spirit has a more powerful role than Jesus.

This is yet another debatable issue, let us first focus on our main topic, whether God died as described in the gospel according to John or that something went wrong in this gospel.


Salam


Wael.