Should Christians believe in Jesus as Prophet? Can Jews believe in Jesus as Prophet? Yes, yes and yes.
Should all believers expect his prophesied Second Coming? Yes. Should we prepare for it? YES. This book is addressed to believers in the One God who belong to
the tradition of Abraham: Muslims, Christians and Jews. We are one community. Our religions share much more in common belief than the dogmas which differentiate
us.This fact may surprise many members of these faiths, for powerful forces have been at work throughout history to divide us. The first foundation of
belief held by all monotheistic believers is that there is but one God.
No dissenting votes: all Muslims, Christians and Jews worship the one and same Deity. The second central
belief of our shared tradition is a common lineage of Prophets, men who by the grace of God revealed messages of truth concerning God's dominion over our
world and lives. These beliefs are called the Abrahamic tradition because the Prophets whom we recognize in common founded their revelations on the simple
message of Abraham, which was that there is but one God. Though the common ground between Islam, Christianity and Judaism is fundamental, sadly enough it is the
differences between the three religions which define our perceptions of each other. The three faiths diverge at the very moment of the culmination of the prophetic process.
The Jews believe that their prophetic lineage of many centuries ends before Jesus. Most Jews who were contemporaries of Jesus did not accept him as either Prophet
or Messiah. Those who recognized the true nature of Jesus accepted him as the fulfillment of Judaic tradition. These believers began the Christian faith, and ended
their prophetic lineage with Jesus. Muslims, in turn, recognize the Judaic Prophets, and believe that the lineage culminated in the Prophet Jesus and was completed by the Prophet Mohammed.
The Prophetic heritage is the firm anchor of belief for believers in the Torah and the Koran, but seems to have lost its relevance for much of Christianity. How did this
occur? As the message of Christianity spread beyond the Holy Land during its early epoch, the exposure to countervailing philosophies gradually splintered Jesus' disciples into many competing factions.
Early Christianity quarreled over questions such as the inclusion of non-Jews and the encroaching influences of Greek philosophy and Roman paganism. Great schisms
divided the believers over controversial dogmas such as the deification of Jesus and the Holy Trinity.
Christian historians tell us that early testaments of Jesus' message were edited to
conform to new dogmas arbitrated by the officialdom of the Roman Empire. Doubters in the Middle Eastern heartland of Christianity who still maintained the One God
tradition preached by the man Jesus were themselves banished from the new Roman orthodoxy as heretics.
In addition to the deliberate remolding of Christian scriptures to conform with
dogmatic innovations, the translation of the Gospels into many languages further diluted the authenticity of those accounts. Nuances of meaning were inevitably
twisted to confirm cultural perspective and the new beliefs were lost or destroyed over the centuries, the message of Jesus was transformed surely and deliberately from its simple origins.
For quite valid reasons, therefore, great controversy has developed in Christianity over the authenticity of its scriptures. It is understandable that a common question
for Christians in the 2Oth century has been "Who was Jesus?" The questions are of fundamental concern to any believer, as the validity of the scripture of each the
Prophetic traditions is central to belief.
It was during the early Christian epoch that the Prophet Mohammed was granted his
revelation. Muslims believe that the purpose of his message was to confirm the belief in the One God and to codify a system of behavior for mankind. Mohammed's
message therefore completed the prophetic revelations of the Abrahamic traditions. The actual word of God is thus recorded in the Holy Koran, without dispute, and preserved without change until this day.
Many Christians are surprised to discover that revelations about Jesus are a core element of Muslim belief. Because the Koranic text has not been altered or edited
from its first inscription, historians consider it as an authentic historical document. The Muslim scripture has actually preserved the original traditions of Jesus from the
revisionists who either edited or destroyed the earliest Christian texts.
The revelations about Jesus in the Holy Koran are therefore of great interest to all
believers if the Abrahamic tradition. As Muslims believe that Islam is the revealed message which fulfills that long prophetichistory, it should not be surprising to
Christians or Jews that Muslims accept the role of Jesus as prime factor of God's plan for mankind.
For Christians confused in the scholarly doubts about the authenticity of their own
scriptures, they will therefore discover in the Koran a revealing historical document. The Koran dates dates from the early Christian epoch, it is uncontested in its
historical authenticity, and it is sourced from the same rarefied environs. The Koranic teaching about Jesus essentially documents the beliefs of the early Christians in the Middle East.
To the kind reader who takes a moment of his busy life to consider the message of this book, your effort will be rewarded. There are so many forces at work to divide
the community of believers. How sad it is that our shared history has left us with battle lines drawn between us, with our perspectives on each other clouded by
suspicions. This state of affairs is even more tragic when we consider that we are all People of the Book, believers in one God.
We should draw closer together by emphasizing our joint beliefs. A blessing will surely be granted by God to those disciples who allow Jesus to illuminate the common ground shared by our divided communities.
Before proceeding further, we should first note for our reader the Muslim belief of how to read God's revelation. Cleanse your heart and your hands before receiving His
sacred message. Our modern so-called advanced societies are regrettably losing the sense of the sacred.
Muslims believe that the Koran should ideally be read in the language in which it was
received, which is Arabic. The original commentary that this text was drawn from was also presented in Arabic for Muslim readers. As English has assumed a role s a
dominant international language, we have approved this briefer adaptation in English in order to communicate with our Christian and Jewish fellow believers. The language
style which we utilize in the scriptural translations quoted in this series is contemporary english, in order to render them more accessible for our readers.
The method of discourse here will be to quote the relevant scriptural reference, and then proceed to a commentary. Each quotation from the Koran is preceded by the
English translation of the relevant chapter's Arabic name. Each translated verse is numbered for reference according to the original Arabic sequence recorded in the Islamic scripture.
This series are based on the book "The Final Mission" which provides documentation and commentary about Islamic scriptures references to the Prophet of Jesus. The
text has been expressed in an analytic style and syntax intended to be easily accessible to a wide diversity of readers.
