If you were more moral than the God of this universe would you still follow him (assuming this were even possible of course being more moral than the source of morality)? Understand I have no qualms of accepting Allah as the One true God if he could be demonstrated as the creator of this universe. It makes no difference to me. Facts are facts and must be accepted, to deny the obvious doesn’t help anyone and personally I would rather have the truth regardless of how pleasant of unpleasant it is. If the data pointed to Allah, then I would accept it as fact and simultaneously ask him to send me straight to hell on judgement day. To understand why first take a look at the following Bible verses.
22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men,[d] put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
Acts 2:22-24
32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.
Acts 2:32
The apostles believed that Jesus was crucified and that God had risen Him from the dead. There are four historical facts about the life of Jesus that the majority of scholars (atheist, Jewish and Christian alike) all accept. They are as follows.
He was crucified
“Jesus’ death by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate is as sure as anything historical can ever be. For if no follower of Jesus had written anything for one hundred years after his crucifixition, we would still know about him from two authors not among his supporters. Their names are Flavius Josephus and Cornelius Tacitus.” – John Dominic Crossan
Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, p. 145
“Some judgments are so probable as to be certain; for example, Jesus really existed, and he really was crucified, just as Julius Caesar really existed and was assassinated.” – Marcus Borg
Chapter 5: why was Jesus killed”, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions.
“Accordingly, interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge.”
American Medical Association 255, no.11
The apostles believed they encountered the Risen Christ
“After Jesus’ death, the disciples endured persecution, and a number of them experienced martyrdom. The strength of their conviction indicates that they were not just claiming Jesus had appeared to them after rising from the dead. They really believed it. They willingly endangered themselves by publicly proclaiming the risen Christ.”– Gerd Ludemann
Ludemann, G. 1996. What Really Happened? p. 80.
“I know in their own terms, what they saw was the raised Jesus. That’s what they say, and then all the historic evidence we have afterwards attests to their conviction that that’s what they saw. I’m not saying that they really did see the raised Jesus. I wasn’t there. I don’t know what they saw. But I do know as an historian, that they must have seen something.” – Reginald Fuller
Fuller, R. 1980. The Formation of the Resurrection Narratives.
The tomb was empty
“The historian … cannot justifiably deny the empty tomb … the evidence is firm and plausible enough to necessitate the conclusion that the tomb was indeed found empty.” – Michael Grant
Jesus: An Historian’s Review of the Gospels (1992)
“As a historian, I am struck by a certain consistency among otherwise independent witnesses in placing Mary Magdalene both at the cross and at the tomb on the third day. If this is not a historical datum but something that a Christian storyteller just made up and then passed along to others, how is it that this specific bit of information has found its way into accounts that otherwise did not make use of one another? Mary’s presence at the cross is found in Mark (and in Luke and Matthew, which used Mark) and also in John, which is independent of Mark. More significant still, all of our early Gospels—not just John and Mark (with Matthew and Luke as well) but also the Gospel of Peter, which appears to be independent of all of them—indicate that it was Mary Magdalene who discovered Jesus’ empty tomb. How did all of these independent accounts happen to name exactly the same person in this role? It seems hard to believe that this just happened by a way of a fluke of storytelling. It seems much more likely that, at least with the traditions involving the empty tomb, we are dealing with something actually rooted in history.” -Bart D. Ehrman
Peter, Paul & Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History & Legend
The Origin of the Christian faith
“In order to work, the Jesus tomb hypothesis has to claim that the disciples died for something they knew was a lie—in fact, something they themselves had fabricated. Further, it has to acknowledge that none of the disciples defected, even when faced with suffering and horrible deaths, including stoning and crucifix-ion. Is that likely?” -Darrell Bock & Daniel Wallace
Dethroning Jesus: Exposing Popular Culture’s Quest to Unseat the Biblical Christ. p. 201
“We have strong data on at least the martyrdoms of Peter, Paul, and James, the brother of Jesus, recorded by Josephus and Clement of Rome, both before the close of the First Century. Josephus, of course, was not a Christian, so we cannot argue that he wanted to make the Christians look good. Further, Roman historians like Tacitus and Suetonius, along with Roman governor Pliny the Younger also tell us that early Christians were persecuted and even killed. These were also non-Christian authors who were trying to disparage Christianity, not brag about believers. Then, just a few years later, others died for their faith, like Ignatius and Polycarp. Willing deaths show that the martyrs sincerely believed their own reports. So, just to preach Jesus in the early church context would expose the preacher to at least the possibility of death. Virtually no scholars would deny that this occurred. But please note that I generally base these points on the disciples’ willingness to die, because this keeps me from having to prove the actual point and their being willing is all you need to show they were sincere.” Alister McGrath The Resurrection
“These three great facts–the resurrection appearances, the empty tomb, and the origin of the Christian faith–all point unavoidably to one conclusion: The resurrection of Jesus. Today the rational man can hardly be blamed if he believes that on that first Easter morning a divine miracle occurred.” N.T. Wright The Resurrection of the Son of God.
Whoever God is, He left us some very powerful evidence that He raised Jesus back to life from the dead, so much so that both atheist and new testament scholars (quoted above) believe certain facts about the life of Jesus even over 2000 years later. These historical facts still convinces Christians like myself of His resurrection from the dead, so at a base level of reasoning it is God’s fault that I am Christian (His evidence is just that good!)… but lets assume that Allah is the god of the universe and let’s also assume that the Quran is the word of god.
And [for] their saying, “Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah .” And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain. Rather, God raised him up to Himself. God is Mighty and Wise. – Quran 4:157-158
The scholarly consensus overwhelmingly agrees to the facts above so we now have a dilemma. If Allah is God and the quran is his word and if he left compelling evidence that convinces people that Jesus died and rose from the dead to this day while simultaneously admitting that the evidence he left behind was to intentionally trick us what else are to conclude other then that Allah must be evil? Let’s unpack this.
The historical record clearly demonstrates to us that the disciples truly believed that God has raised Jesus from the dead. They were constantly in danger of losing their lives, beaten, scorned and hated for this belief and we know that some were martyred for this belief, not to mention the millions of Christians who have died over the last two millennia for this belief (and to this day in Nigeria, Turkey or the persecutions in Chine). We have former atheists to this very day who examine the resurrection and based on the evidence for the empty tomb, the crucifixion of Jesus, the convictions of the apostles belief that Jesus appeared to them alive after His death as well as the rise of early Christianity, become Christians. Anthony Flew, one of the greatest atheist philosophers of all time who became a deist shortly before his death based on the evidence of DNA quotes (thought he as far as we know died a deist and not a Christian),
“There is good evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, unlike other ancient miracle reports.”
Anthony Flew in My Pilgrimage from Atheism to Theism: An Exclusive Interview with Former British Atheist Professor Antony Flew.
My point is, if we concede that Allah is the One true God and if he tells us that he made it only appear that Jesus was killed, then we have to accept that he allowed his closest followers to believe that he truly died on the cross, rose from the grave and then allowed them to go and spread a lie, enduring extreme hardships, persecutions and death… fully aware that it was his mastreful deception that led them to preach a false message about himself and Jesus, allowing the conversion of multitudes that caused them to be thrown into fires, to lions, crucfied and stoned, but here the kicker.
Allah allows all of this to happen for 600 years, deceives the apostles and allows them to spread a false message he has been aware of the entire time, leaves behind compelling evidence that converts people to Christianity based on his masterful deception and then randomly picks a guy named Muhammad in a cave in the middle of nowhere and decides to give him the truth about what really happens and proceeds to lead him to write,
And for their saying, ‘We did slay the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah;’ whereas they slew him not, nor crucify him, but he was made to appear to them like one crucified; and those who differ therein are certainly in a state of doubt about it; they have no definite knowledge thereof, but only pursue a conjecture; and they did not convert this conjecture into certainty.
Quran chapter 4, verse 158
To be fair it is nice he EVENTUALLY told the truth but honestly his plan seems a little odd and perplexes me… Consider what Christians went through. Emperor Nero would literally round up the early Christians, feed them to lions and even strap them up on poles and light them on fire to illuminate his courtyard.
The originator of the name, Christ, was executed as a criminal by the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius; and though repressed, this destructive superstition erupted again, not only through Judea, which was the origin of this evil, but also through the city of Rome, to which all that is horrible and shameful floods together and is celebrated. Therefore, first those were seized who admitted their faith, and then, using the information they provided, a vast multitude were convicted, not so much for the crime of burning the city, but for hatred of the human race. And perishing they were additionally made into sports: they were killed by dogs by having the hides of beasts attached to them, or they were nailed to crosses or set aflame, and, when the daylight passed away, they were used as nighttime lamps. Nero gave his own gardens for this spectacle and performed a Circus game, in the habit of a charioteer mixing with the plebs or driving about the race-course. Even though they were clearly guilty and merited being made the most recent example of the consequences of crime, people began to pity these sufferers, because they were consumed not for the public good but on account of the fierceness of one man.
Tacitus Annals
Such immense suffering and Allah does not even think to correct the Christians who sincerely believed his masterful deception? Think about this for a moment. If Islam is true that means that God did such a great job of making it look like Jesus really was crucified and really died on the cross that it not only convinced the Jews and early Christians He was dead, it also means that Jesus would literally be perpetuating the lie!
A few points to consider
The Quran states that Allah wrote the New Testament (the Injil) as well as the books of the Old Testament
“We gave Moses the Book and followed him up with a succession of messengers,” (Sura 2:87).
“We have sent thee inspiration, as We sent it to Noah and the Messengers after him: we sent inspiration to Abraham, Isma’il, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, to Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, and Solomon, and to David We gave the Psalms,” (4:163).
“It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth, the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the criterion (of judgment between right and wrong),” (3:3).
“And in their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Law that had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him: a guidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah,” (5:46).
The Quran also states that no one can change what Allah has wrote in his holy books, meaning the Bible can not be corrupted, nor can the Quran and this is ACCORDING TO ALLAH.
“Rejected were the messengers before thee: with patience and constancy they bore their rejection and their wrongs, until Our aid did reach them: there is none that can alter the words (and decrees) of Allah. Already hast thou received some account of those messengers,” (6:34).
“The word of thy Lord doth find its fulfillment in truth and in justice: None can change His words: for He is the one who heareth and knoweth all,” (6:115).
“For them are glad tidings, in the life of the present and in the Hereafter; no change can there be in the words of Allah. This is indeed the supreme felicity,” (10:64).
Allah even tells Muhammed to check the gospels if he doubts he is receiving revelations from God
And if thou (Muhammad) art in doubt concerning that which We reveal unto thee, then question those who read the Scripture (that was) before thee. Verily the Truth from thy Lord hath come unto thee. So be not thou of the waverers. And be not thou of those who deny the revelations of Allah, for then wert thou of the losers. S. 10:94-95
The crucial point is according to Allah then I can reference the gospels and actually READ and KNOW the words of his prophet Jesus (Isa)
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.
Mark 8:31
Our earliest gospel source, kept and preserved from corruption according to Allah himself in Surah 6:34, 6:115 and 10:64 reports Jesus saying he was to be killed and then three days after rise from the dead.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
John 3:14
34 There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. 35 When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 36 And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. 37 Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is jesus, the king of the jews.
Matthew 27:32-37
Jesus no doubt was referencing his death by crucifixion. Part of the process is after nailing the victim to a cross, to then lift them up into a hole in the ground so it becomes placed in that fixed spot. Jesus himself, in the words of the gospel (remember according to the Quran are Allah’s incorruptible and unchangeable words), is telling us that He is going to be crucified and die on a cross and then going to rise from the dead. He then makes appearances to his followers (Mark 16:14, Luke 24:33-37, John 20:19-20, Matthew 28:16-17) after his supposed resurrection (remember I am assuming Islam is true in my reasoning process) and then tells them to spread this news to everyone about his death and resurrection.
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
36 As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” 37 But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 38 And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate before them.
44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for[c] the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Luke 24:36-49
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20
According to the Quran these would be Allah’s unchangable and inccoruptle words, but to make matters even worse, Allah converts the apostle Paul (Acts 9) to Christianity and leads him to spread this false message that his prophet Isa is apparently in agreement with!
11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children[c] of Israel. 16 For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
Acts 9:11-16
Since the Quran states that Allah made it appear that Jesus died on the cross and if the Quran is true, the resurrection belief promoted by Isa himself to his disciples is a facade, he essentially allows Christians to believe a lie about his prophet up to the point of suffering excruciatingly painful deaths. Look at what Jewish historian Josephus writing approximately in 93 A.D. says happened to Jesus’s brother the apostle James
Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned: but as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done;
Josephus Antiquities Book 20 chapter 9
And in Acts look what was happening to the other early Christians
54 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Acts 7:54-60
It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.
Acts 12:1-2
Let me reiterate what Roman historian Tacitus reports in the first century one more time
Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man’s cruelty, that they were being destroyed
Tacitus, The Annals, book 15 chapter 44
Allah’s deception towards Christians allowed the most cruel types of sufferings for 600 years. All of this suffering for the lie you created and then what does he do? He finally tells Muhammed the truth and then proceeds to command Muslims to start killing the very people who fell for his deception.
Surah 3:151: “We shall cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve (all non-Muslims) …”
Surah 2:191: “And kill them (non-Muslims) wherever you find them … kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers (non-Muslims).”
Surah 9:5: “Then kill the disbelievers (non-Muslims) wherever you find them, capture them and besiege them, and lie in wait for them in each and every ambush …”
Now hold on a moment. First Allah saves Jesus from crucifixion making it only appear he died (Quran 4:158), but then sends Jesus to tell the apostles he really died on the cross and rose from the dead, then allows Christians to spread what God knows is a false message that allows Christian to be killed for 600 years and then decides to FINALLY reveal the truth to some lone guy in a cave named Muhammad? And then he proceeds to tell Muhammad and Muslims to kill the very people he sent Jesus with powerful illusionary experiences that convinced them that he rose from the dead in the first place!?
“The evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion. It’s outstandingly different in quality and quantity.”
Anthony Flew (35)
“There is good evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, unlike other ancient miracle reports.”
Randal Ruaser
Jesus’ resurrection is unparalleled in terms of strong evidence.”
Michael Licona (37)
“The resurrection hypothesis passes all the standard criteria for being the best explanation.”
William Lane Craig (38)
https://jamesbishopblog.com/2015/06/29/jesus-really-did-appear-to-the-disciples-and-skeptics-after-his-death-40-quotes-by-scholars/
If Islam is true, then his masterful deception even convinces atheists to this day that Jesus rose from the dead!
When I finally examined the evidence fairly using the tools I learned as a detective, I found it difficult to deny, especially if I hoped to retain my respect for the way evidence is utilized to determine truth. I found the evidence for Christianity as convincing as any cold-case I’d ever investigated.
Former atheist Cold Case detective J Warner Wallace
And to this day ISIS Muslims obey Allah’s command to kill the very Christians that were deceived by him in the first place, so I must ask the question.
How could I (or anyone) follow a God that intentionally deceives a group of people and allows them suffer immensely for a convincing lie he is responsible for, who decides to reveal the actual truth to a guy in a cave with no powerful evidence to substantiate the claim, only to command the very guy with the truth about Jesus to begin beheading anyone who refuses to believe it when they are so utterly convinced by the evidence he manipulated that them in the first place?
This leads me to my last point. Allah can not be God as there must be a more superior morally Being that exists whom I am judging Allah’s moral decisions against. If God is the greatest possible Being there could be He therefore must be maximally good and maximally moral. Any God who does what Allah does can not be absolutely morally good as his creation is somehow more moral than he is. Objective morality can not exist without God and some things are objectively evil (like lying and deceiving Christians with a lie you told with false evidence that convinces them and then tell Muslims to kill them for believing the lie you told) so if I am weighing Allah’s actions against an absolute moral standard, that standard can not be the Muslim god Allah, but some other God who is the True Moral Standard. Therefore Allah must be a lesser being and not the most maximally great being as he is morally inferior to even his own creation which must mean he is not the creator. Therefore, Allah is either a product of Muhammad’s own imaginations or is simply a demon masquerading as God giving Muhammad false revelations. My minds default is to assume he is delusional and Allah is a moral reflection of Muhammad’s character so in my mind I am simply more moral than Muhammad and that there must be a God of some sort who I am using to judge Muhammad’s internalization’s (his abstract concept of god), but even if it were a spiritual being that Muhammad was getting his ideas from, the same standards apply as I am more moral than that spiritual being and that spiritual being can not be God for the exact same above mentioned reasons.
Wrapping it up, Allah can simply not be God since there is a better moral standard I am weighing him against which must come from a different Being whom is the actual Morally Perfect Standard that Allah falls short of and that Being must be where morality stems from and not Allah. Therefore Allah is not God. My final question to Muslims is this.
Why do you follow a God who, according to him, intentionally deceives me with powerful evidence for the truth of Christianity only to send me to hell for being convinced of his lie and then commands you to kill me?
But they (the Jews) were deceptive, and Allah was deceptive, for Allah is the best of deceivers (Wamakaroo wamakara Allahu waAllahu khayru al-makireena)! S. 3:54; cf. 8:30
Whatever your choice, I choose to follow the Moral Standard that tells me what Allah is doing is evil. If you listen to your conscience and evaluate Allah’s motives carefully you too will realize that he simply can not be the One True God.
I wish you well