Response to Islam: Was Jesus Crucified?

Islam teaches that Jesus was a prophet from God, and the Messiah, but that He was not the Son of God, or a diety of any kind. Muslims also deny that Jesus was crucified and died for sinners, to set them free. The dialgue begins by the Muslim quoting a verse from the Qur’an:

“And their (Jews) boasting: ‘We killed Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, the Apostle of Allah,’ but they (Jews) killed him not, nor crucified him.” Surah 4:157

“…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 1:9

“Do you  still believe that he died on the cross?” The Muslim asks the Christian. “Yes, Christians believe he died and was then ressurected.”

People saw him dying on the cross, his disciples saw him and then when they went to the tomb and found it empty they were astonished! Then they ate and drank with him and were with him for 40 days before he ascended into heaven. In the dialogue, the Muslim asked the Christian if he gave more heresay to Jesus’ words, or the apostles. The Christian answered, “Jesus”, but failed to understand that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and that all of the Bible is a reliable source. The muslim goes on to quote Matthew 27:46 and Luke 22:43. In the latter verse, Jesus is praying to the Father as His disciples wait and He prayes in verse 42 saying, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” and then in verse 43 it continues “And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.” The muslim tells the Christian that an angel of the Lord was sent to comfort and reassure Jesus that God was going to answer his prayers. However, he  is reading into the verse. It never says anything about God answering His prayer. He simply sends an angel to strengthen Him. God the Father had a plan to fulfill, and Jesus, though his flesh cried out against it, knew it had to happen that way. Jesus said “….not my will father, but Thine be done.” The Father willed for Him to die on the cross, because it was His will to create a way for man to be saved. Jesus had to suffer a punishment (the punishment of death) that we owed, so that through Him we could be saved.

Several verses are brought up against sacrifice (Matthew 9:13, Matthew 12:7 Hosea 6:6…) to attempt to prove that God was opposed to sacrifice, and therefore would spare Jesus from that kind of death. However in Revalations 13:8 it refers to the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, showing us that God had a plan of salvation for mankind since the world began. That Jesus’ blood was shed for us since the foundation. “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” This was the first blood sacrifice as a covering for sin, a picture of what Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, would do when he died and was raised from the dead to take away our sins. Acts 2:23 states “… Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain … .”

The Christian brings up, in Luke where Jesus says that he would suffer and rise from the dead the third day (Luke 24:46). The muslim starts to grasp at other verses and twist them to fit His beliefs. He quotes Paul in 1 Corinthians as saying “…I die daily,” to show the Christian that the word dead, or die cannot be taken literally, and that it simply means to suffer. The muslim also brings up that the soldiers did not break Jesus’ legs. This was a fulfillment of a prophesy that His bones would not be broken, just like that Lamb that is sacrificed during the passover. “Can we rely on these soldiers for pronouncing him dead?” Why not? He says Jesus himself said he did not die. Matthew 12:40 tells us of Jesus speaking to the Pharisees saying “For as Jonah was three days in the belly of the whale, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The Muslim says that since Jonah was alive in the whale, Jesus was alive in the grave. Jesus never said that. He was comparing the three days and three nights in the earth, with Jonah’s time in the whale. It was a story the Jews were familiar with and He was using it as a comparison.

In the dialogue the Muslim quotes verses speaking of the ressurection of the Christians at the end. Not the ressurection of Jesus. Jesus’ ressurection from the dead was a special thing. So the verses quoted don’t even apply. The muslim also uses verses he doesn’t agree with to make his points. “And when they had spoken he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said onto them “Have ye here any meat?” The muslim uses this verse to prove that he was not ressurected because he wanted to eat, and ressurected bodies don’t eat. However in the same verse, he shows them the holes in his hands and feet from being crucified.

The Muslim tells the Christian that Paul was considered the be a babbler by the Jews, because he preached that Jesus was God and the Jews only believe in one God.
(John 1:1)  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word, is Jesus. He was considered to be God.

The Muslim picks and chooses verses he likes, and just twists them to fit his beliefs. The Bible makes it very clear that Jesus was crucified and died for our sins, that it was God’s plan from the beginning, and anyone can twist and stretch to make it fit right for them, but you can’t change God’s plan, and you can’t change the truth.