Few questions in the history of human spirituality carry more weight than this one: was Jesus (peace be upon him) God, or was he a Messenger sent by God? For billions of people navigating between Islam and Christianity — the two largest monotheistic faiths on earth — the answer determines everything. Islam, the fastest-growing religion in the world today, holds that ‘Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus son of Mary) was one of the mightiest prophets and messengers ever sent to mankind, deeply honoured and beloved, but never divine. This is not a dismissal of Jesus — quite the opposite. In Islam, denying that Jesus was a prophet sent by the Creator is itself a departure from faith. Muslims love and revere him deeply. But they say of him only what he said of himself, and what God revealed about him: that he was a servant and Messenger of Allah (God), not God incarnate. When we examine both the Quran and the Bible with honesty and open hearts, the evidence for this position is not ambiguous — it is overwhelmingly clear.
What Jesus and the Prophets Before Him Clearly Taught About God
The unifying message of every prophet from Adam to Moses to Jesus (peace be upon them all) was the same: worship God alone, without partners or equals. In the Quran, Surah Al-Imran (3:64) calls the People of the Book — Jews and Christians — to come to a common term: that we worship none but Allah. Surah Al-Ikhlas (112:1) states it with breathtaking clarity: Qul huwallahu ahad — “Say: He is Allah, the One and Only.” This is not a theological novelty of Islam; it is the very message Moses (peace be upon him) delivered in Deuteronomy 6:4 — “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord” — and the very words Jesus himself repeated in the Gospel of Mark (12:29). Not once in the entire Old Testament did any prophet speak of a dual or triune God. The concept of the Trinity was entirely absent from the teachings of all the prophets before Jesus, which means it was never part of the divine plan. When we look at what Jesus said about himself in the Bible, the picture becomes even clearer:
- Matthew 19:16–17: When addressed as “Good Master,” Jesus deflected: “There is none good except one, that is God” — actively separating himself from divine status.
- John 5:30: “I can of my own self do nothing… I seek not my own will but the will of the Father who has sent me.” God, by any definition, can do everything by Himself — Jesus’s own words rule out divinity.
- John 17:3: “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” — placing himself firmly in the role of a sent messenger, not the Sender.
- Matthew 26:39: Jesus fell on his face and prayed to God — the posture of a servant, the same position taken by all prophets before him.
- Acts 2:22: “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God” — not God become man, but a man approved of God.
- Acts 3:26: The Greek word used for Jesus in this passage is the same word meaning “servant” — servant Jesus, not God Jesus.
- Son of Man: Jesus is referred to as “Son of Man” eighty-three times in the Bible. Even Christians agree this is not literal. By that same logic, “Son of God” — a title applied in the Bible to Adam, David, and others — is equally a metaphor of honour and closeness to God, not biological or theological Sonship.
“I can of my own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” — Jesus Christ, Gospel of John 5:30
The Verses Used to Argue for Trinity — and Why They Do Not Hold Up
When pressed for scriptural evidence of the Trinity or the divinity of Jesus, three passages are most commonly cited: 1 John 5:7, John 1:1, and John 3:16. Each deserves honest scrutiny. The passage in 1 John 5:7 in the King James Version reads: “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” This sounds definitive — but it was removed entirely from the Revised Standard Version, the New International Version, and the New Revised Standard Version after thirty-two of the most eminent Christian scholars, backed by fifty-two Christian denominations, concluded it was not found in the original manuscripts. It was an addition, a corruption — removed not by Muslims, but by the top scholars of Christianity itself. Without this verse, there is not a single explicit, unambiguous statement in the entire Bible where Jesus says “I am God” or “worship me.” Regarding John 1:1 — “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” — scholars note that the two uses of “God” in this passage come from different Greek words: ho theos (the true God) and theos (a small-g god, meaning a prophet or divine figure), the same term Jesus applied to others in Exodus 7:1. Read correctly, it says the Word was a prophet of God — entirely consistent with Islam’s view of Jesus as the Word of God given to Mary. As for John 3:16, the word “begotten” has been removed from the Revised Standard Version and the NIV, since it was not supported by original texts. And the word “son” in the Bible’s Greek is synonymous with “servant” — the same word used in Acts 3:26 to describe “servant Jesus.”
“The Messiah (‘Isa, son of Maryam), was no more than a Messenger; many were the Messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a Siddeeqah [she believed in the words of Allah]. They both used to eat food. Look how We make the signs clear to them; yet look how they are deluded away from the truth.” — The Quran, Surah Al-Ma’idah 5:75
The question of whether Jesus is God is not ultimately settled by theological argumentation alone — it is settled by sincerity, reflection, and direct supplication to the Creator who made you. Every prophet from Moses to Jesus to Muhammad (peace be upon them all) pointed to the same God, called people to worship Him alone, and warned against elevating any human being — however extraordinary — to divine status. The Quran tells us that saying God has a son causes the heavens to nearly tear apart from the enormity of such a claim (Surah Maryam 19:88–91), not because God is distant or wrathful, but because His Oneness and Majesty are absolute. Islam is not the rejection of Jesus; it is the completion and preservation of his actual message: that there is one God, that Jesus was His honoured Messenger, and that all of mankind is invited — without intermediary — to turn directly to their Creator in worship and gratitude. If these verses and arguments have stirred something sincere within you, the most powerful step you can take is not a debate, but a private prayer — asking the One who made you to guide you to the truth, with an open heart willing to go wherever that truth leads.
