China's Muslim's Resurrection From the Dead

In the Muslim Community of Northwest China there are at least a few Muslims who believe that “Islam and Christianity are similar.” But some Christians there believe that there is a life and death difference between Islam and Christianity. Because in First John 5:12 the Injeel Scriptures state: “He who has the son has life and he who does not have the 'Son of GOD' does not have life.”

Significantly that verse was probably the very first verse that I memorized when I invited the Risen Christ into my life while I was serving in the U.S. Navy in Okinawa in 1954. I had just returned from R and R (Rest and Recreation) from Hong Kong, China, when I made my life changing decision to receive GOD's gift of His CHRIST.

Therefore, the point I feel compelled to make is this. When I invited the Living Messiah into my life and his presence changed some negative activities in my life such as my bad habit of swearing virtually immediately.

Yet, I knew nothing about the person I had invited into my life. But I did understand that he had died for me on a cross in Jerusalem. And I understood that three days after his death, he had been raised by GOD from death so that he was now able to be spiritually present with me and could change my life for the better.

But as far as knowing that it was the Son of GOD whom I had invited into my life to forgive me and to change me, I had only heard of Jesus. But though I had not even heard of the Son of GOD, I was still changed. So my important point is this.

Yes, I now possessed new life from GOD. But it was not because I used the terminology of Son of GOD for the person whom I had invited into my life. Rather, it was because I wanted to head my life in a new direction. I was choosing to make the man named Jesus, whom GOD had sent into the world, to be the new leader of my life and lead me away from making so many selfish choices. But as far as him being the Son of God, I did not have a clue.

But when I later found out that the terminology that the Bible often uses for him as Son of GOD, there was nothing in my background that gave me any difficulty with the terminology of a Son of GOD. But I only later learned that there was a term called Trinity so that GOD could still be One and yet have a Son and a Spirit.

But the point is this. Theses issues of how GOD can still be One and yet have a Son are issues which professional or amateur theologians study and draw conclusions about. But in total contrast, the resurrection of God's Messiah is something that the conclusions about are not arrived at by study. But rather the resurrection of GOD's Messiah was a one-time event that either occurred or did not occur. And I am totally convinced that the evidence is overwhelming that Christ's resurrection did occur.

I find the different accounts of the resurrection in the four biographies in the Bible and in other Bible books also very satisfying. Plus, I also see the statement in the Qur'an's Al-Im'ran 3:55 being very reassuring with ALLAH's Himself saying that He Himself would both cause Isa to die (mutawafiik in Arabic) along with His own sacred promise to raise him to new life as very compelling. The two statements by ALLAH are quite in agreement with the New Testament accounts of the Messiah's death and being raise alive by ALLAH. And Al-Im'ran's 3:55 account of his death and being raised alive also correct the confusion about understanding what the Qur'an's AN-Nisa 4:157 and 158 verses were obviously intended to mean.

So, since it is definite that the Qur'an does confirm the fact of the Messiah's death and then being raised alive three days later, it is only to clarify how the person with a Muslim background has difficulty in accepting Isa as the Son of GOD that I now desire to clarify since One John 5:12 states that He who does not have the Son of GOD does not have life.

From both my own experience of not knowing that it was the Son of GOD whom I had invited into my life and seeing what the Scriptures teach about the validity of accepting GOD's Risen Messiah, that it appears certain that Muslims who have invited Jesus/Isa/Messiah into their lives have definitely started the flow of their Messiah's new life into their own lives without it being necessary to accept the term Son of GOD. Rather, the necessary ingredient is to recognize him as Risen and accessible to be invited into the person's life. So the vital issue is to have the flow of new resurrected life in the person and not necessarily identifying the Risen Messiah with the term Son of GOD. Because it is quite reasonable that with the Muslim's background it would be difficult to be comfortable with the term Son of God. So it's the Living Christ now being in the person's life that is the source of the new life. It is not that he is required to use the terminology of Son of GOD to describe him. Because it is the Risen Messiah who knows who he is and who he is not and it is not up to the person who must make that distinction. For I myself only know that he was risen which the Muslim can now also be certain of because of ALLAH's own statement of this fact as verified in Al-Im'ram 3:55. Regarding the friendly Northwest China Muslim stating that Islam and Christianity are similar, I am comfortable with discussing Islam but I am uncomfortable with discussing Christianity. Because that word Christianity gives the idea of wanting a Muslim to quit Islam and join Christianity in order to have new life from the Risen Messiah. And I am absolutely convinced that a change in the religious membership from Islam to Christianity is not at all the will of ALLAH. Rather than life or death being directly linked to either Islam or Christianity, the source of new life is not in a lifeless religious system. But the true source of new life is a bonding with the person who is now the source of the new life, ALLAH's Risen Messiah. He had such a powerful relationship and connection with ALLAH that he is reverentially spoken of as ALLAH's only spiritual son.

The Real Deal

Here is how I think that our exalted ALLAH who Himself is minutely aware of everything that has ever occurred in the entire Universe, weighs and determines whether a sincere Muslim believer can be certain of possessing new life from ALLAH or not possessing new life from Him. And a key factor that must be taken into consideration is the great difference and disparity between how Christians view the term GOD's Son and the manner in which Muslims view the use of the term GOD's Son. And it is not that one religion is right and the other is wrong. But it is in realizing that each group has started from a different starting point, to evaluate the term GOD's Son.

When the Prophet Muhammad first publically began proclaiming on the Arab peninsula the sacred eternal truth that GOD is One, the courageous Prophet was going against the strong heritage of polytheism in Mecca that was intricately woven into the worship of more than one god by all the people of Meccca. Therefore, just as intricately woven into the Prophets warnings and proclamations and into the fabric of the Qur'an, was that a belief in and worship of more than one GOD was definitely wrong. So everything in Islam contained a strong protest against and resistance to anything in Christianity and especially in Catholicism, which had a grip on the minds of the people in the Arabian Peninsula. So any teaching or belief that had the slightest hint of ALLAH being involved in a sort of family arrangement of ALLAH having a son Jesus or a wife Mary, through whom he potentially fathered a son, then that teaching was immediately classified as false. As a result, for the Catholic Church to encourage the Catholics in that Church to boldly and openly praise Mary/Maryam as being the Mother of GOD or in Arabic – Um ALLAH, it is no wonder at all that it is woven into the fabric of Islam and into each Muslim's mind and into the Qur'an, that anything close to speaking of ALLAH as having a son, or GOD not being one but three, as in trinity, and ALLAH having a mother, would be teachings that serious Muslims or even unserious Muslims would see as forbidden for Muslims.

But now that many, many in Islam realize that due to the clear teaching in Al-Im'ran 3:55 which is a needed corrective to the misunderstanding of the true meaning of An-Nisa 4:157, that the Qur'an's Messiah truly is now Risen and truly did die, there is now an urgent need for more clarification regarding acceptable terminology. There must be clarification regarding the use of the term Son of GOD as to whether belief in the Messiah being GOD's Son is necessary for a Muslim to receive eternal life through GOD's Messiah.

For the heritage of the Christians there has not been a multiple GOD concept to overcome such as there has been for the family of gods and idol worshipping pre Muslim Arabs who had in their background what was being falsely taught and practiced in Mecca. Christians have not had the background of multiple god worship to deal with in their past and present. That is unless you factor in the current worship of weapons, the worship of deceit and the worship of greed and materialism in addition to the worship of GOD as extra gods as their now is in Christianity.

So I will emphasize that GOD is well aware of what the Muslims have in their background. So this awareness encourages ALLAH to be comfortable with Muslims using different terminology for the Qur'an's Risen Messiah than the same terminology that is commonly used by those who don't have a Muslim background.

Therefore, when it states in First John 5:12 – “He who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son of GOD does not have life,” here is the explanation. It is not the politically correct terminology that a person must use to identify the Messiah that he has invited into his life that makes the key difference. It is whether a person has made his or her choice to bond with the one whom ALLAH raised from death and is now accessible to us. That bonding with the now resurrected man is what makes the difference. Because our bonding together with him determines whether the new life with which ALLAH flooded his deceased Messiah which gave him new life from death, is now flowing from his new life into us and into every Muslim and non Muslim who chooses to bond with him. Because from everything I read in the Scriptures, a Christian can play word games and say I believe Jesus is the Son of GOD, and choose not to bond with him in his heart so he is still without new life. Therefore, there is no new life form ALLAH's risen Messiah flowing into the person who has actually chosen to not have the new resurrected life of ALLAH's now Risen Messiah flowing into him or her.

So a Chinese Muslim, or a Saudi Muslim or an Eskimo Muslim or an Egyptian Christian or a Tea Party Christian does posses new life on the basis of using or not using the terminology of Son of GOD. No! All of the five designations I have just listed only receive ALLAH's eternal life into their own lives only on the basis of choosing from the deepest part of our hearts to respond to ALLAH's request to allow His life to flow through His Risen Messiah and the Qur'an's Risen Isa to us.

ALLAH's Request To Us Is:

Therefore, do we put our trust in Son of GOD terminology? Or do we place our trust in the Qur'an's now living anointed man who empowered those born blind to see? But ALLAH also empowered him to give to those who had died, new life. Is that new life giving man, the man with whom we choose to bond, who is the same man who calmed the sea? Or do we choose to obtain new life from lifeless terminology?