Christ, a Saviour for all Seasons, a Man for all Millennia’ now re-issued with slight

amendments in the context of the Islamic threat.)

Whatever secularists or other religious commentators say about Islam, I am utterly persuaded

that radical authentic Christianity alone provides the best basis for scrutinising and assessing

it. Since Islam’s barbaric ideology is driven by a corrupt theology, non-theological criteria

will never enable us effectively to challenge its claims. However unwelcome some might

find the discipline, we must get beyond cultural, historical, social and political criticism. In

short, we must go to the heart and ‘get theological’. This includes recognising that Islam’s

compassionate and merciful’ really teaches that he is fickle in excusing sin rather than

forgiving penitents on the basis of a just atonement (as in Christianity). A case in point is the

permission Allah gave to Muhammad to renege on his promise to his wife Hafsa not to

met by a generous provision of Grace, the Qur’an is all Law. Concerning the character of the

Qur’an itself, it cannot begin to compare with the contents and integrity of the Holy Bible. In

view of its Jewish, sub-Christian and pagan sources, what is good in it is not original and

what is original is not good.

In Islamic countries, Christian missionaries remind Muslims that the Qur’an has a lot to say

about Jesus. This fact, so it is argued, is an effective starting point in presenting the Christian

Faith to them. However, the same tactic is used by Muslim ‘missionaries’ in the West to

demonstrate how close the two religions really are. “We also believe in Jesus,” they say.

Thus modern multi-faith gurus argue that ‘Jesus’ or ‘Isa’ provides the basis for reconciliation

between the two monotheistic faiths.

While it is true that the Qur’an refers to Christ’s virgin birth, life, teaching, miracles, death,

resurrection, ascension and second coming, the ‘Qur’anic Christ’ is very different from the

‘Biblical Christ’. At this point, Muslims argue that both Jews and the early Christians - ‘the

People of the Book’ - changed or ‘twisted’ their original documents which, they say, taught

making invalid claims for Christ’s divinity and trinitarian status not found in their original

Scriptures. However, this foundational feature of Muslim anti-Christianity is a completely

supposedly genuine original MS of the Christian Scriptures different from the oldest extant

MSS of the New Testament (c. 350 AD). To illustrate: if (skilfully wielding a black marker

pen) a prankish schoolboy added glasses and a moustache to a print of the ‘Mona Lisa’,

claiming it was authentic, sceptics could easily prove it to be otherwise by appealing to the

of Muhammad (7th century AD), Jews and Christians still possessed their Bibles - the true

acquaintance had misrepresented their own copies of the Bible, a view for which evidence

certainly exists.

Turning to the Qur’an’s testimony to Christ, absolute Muslim hostility to soundlydocumented

Christian teaching is very evident. The following selection demonstrates the

unbridgeable chasm between the ‘Biblical Jesus’ and the ‘Qur’anic Jesus’:

‘People of the book, do not transgress the bounds of your religion. Speak nothing but

the truth about Allah. The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, was no more than Allah’s

apostle and His Word which He conveyed to Mary: a spirit from Him. So believe in

Allah and His apostles and do not say: ‘Three.’ Forbear, and it shall be better for you.

‘Unbelievers are those that say: ‘Allah is the Messiah, the Son of Mary.’ For the

Messiah himself said: ‘Children of Israel, serve Allah, my Lord and your Lord.’ ...

Unbelievers are those that say: ‘Allah is one of three.’ There is but one God. If they do

‘Then Allah will say: ‘Jesus, son of Mary, did you ever say to mankind: “Worship me

‘... the Christians say the Messiah is the son of Allah. Such are their assertions, by

which they imitate the infidels of old. Allah confound them! How perverse they are!

They worship ... the Messiah the son of Mary, as gods besides Allah; though they were

ordered to serve one God only. There is no god but Him. Exalted be He above those

whom they deify beside Him! ... It is He who has sent forth His apostle with guidance

and the true faith to make it triumphant over all religions, however much the idolaters

Thus starry-eyed multi-faith ecumenists can only pursue their delusion by betraying historic

Christian teaching. That said, further muddle in Muslim polemic requires comment since

there is some truth in the Qur’an’s anti-trinitarian denunciations. However, it actually tilts at

a man of straw. Whether or not he knew of it, the ‘trinity’ Muhammad scorned was not the

orthodox teaching of the Nicene Creed (325 AD) but the bizarre teaching of a ‘Christianised’

pagan sect known as the Mariamists. Treating Mary like a goddess, this cult taught a trinity

of ‘God, Mary and Jesus’. Such is not the teaching of Bible-believing Christians. In this

said, judging by the Qur’an’s clear denial of Christ’s deity, there is no reason to believe that

Muhammad would have been sympathetic to Nicene orthodoxy.

Regarding the person of Christ, Christian orthodoxy rightly affirms the consistency between

the virginal conception of Christ and His inclusion within the divine Trinity of Father, Son

and Holy Spirit. While an impeccable theological and logical case may be made for the

doctrine of the Trinity, it fundamentally depends on the truth of the incarnation, a miraculous

phenomenon which transcends logic. Since the Qur’an is emphatic in teaching the virgin

birth without logic, why can Muslims not accept the orthodox Trinity without logic? And if

they affirm the divine nature of the physical conception of Christ, why can they not affirm the

divine as well as human nature of the person thus conceived?

Whatever he learned from the Mariamists, some of Muhammad’s own language tends to

above). While the Mariamists did ‘transgress the bounds’ dictated by ‘the Book’ where Mary

was concerned, they arguably did not transgress where Jesus was concerned. Significantly,

some of Muhammad’s statements about Jesus are in harmony with the Bible without his

However, several of the above Qur’anic expressions are meaningless apart from the truth of

Word made flesh’, Jesus visibly expressed the Father’s nature: ‘No one has seen God at any

identity in which He shared the Father’s nature, a fact reflected in the biblical expression

‘only-begotten’. The ‘sonship’ of Jesus thus relates not to His birth through Mary but to an

Mariamist heresy arguably implied a physical union between Allah and Mary, against which

Muhammad rightly reacted. Over-reacting to such an idea, His horror at the thought of ‘Allah

having a son’ arose from his failure to see the metaphorical form of the legitimate biblical

language involved.

invokes an analogy of limited significance only. In short, the details of physical procreation

have no parallel in the use of the analogy between human and divine ‘begetting’ since

analogy does not mean identity. The significant parallel is that just as human beings

Father’ revealed Himself in Jesus ‘God the Son’. The Qur’anic prohibition ‘do not say:

‘Three.’ ... Allah is but one God’ exhibits confused and ill-informed thinking. Muslims are

right to reject the Mariamist trinity of ‘Allah, Mary and Jesus’ but wrong to reject the

authentic Christian Trinity of ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’. Yes, as Jews and Christians both

believe, God is but one God. However, His identity is not to be limited to the notion of the

there are three gods, just as a human ‘father, son and grandson’ forbids the conclusion that

three such distinct individuals involve more than one type of humanness. In short, in both

cases, they are ‘three persons with one nature’. Besides Old Testament anticipations of the

Christian Scriptures abound in ‘trinitarian’ testimony, notwithstanding the absence of the later

text is not found in the some Greek MSS, it is present in the Old Italic versions (Latin

translation from Greek, c.150 AD) which predate the oldest extant Greek MSS).

If Muhammad is quoting a verbatim Mariamist statement when he said “Unbelievers are those

that say: ‘Allah is the Messiah,’ ” their confusion contributed to his own over-reactionary

confusion. While ‘God is the Messiah’ hardly represents Christian orthodoxy, ‘the Messiah is

God’ certainly does. In Christian terms, the former could be seen to confuse ‘Father’ and

‘Son’, whereas the latter simply asserts that the divine Messiah possesses the same divine

nature as the Father. Such a distinction of persons within the Godhead is evident in the New

Testament, e. g. John 14: 8-10; Hebrews 1: 3. An illustration helps elucidate the last

mentioned. The Messiah ‘being the brightness of [the Father’s] glory and the express image

of His person’ reminds one of an image on a TV screen. While the source of the original

visual image is at the point of transmission, the image on the screen is distinct from the

transmitted source even though its own visual features are identical with those of the source.

Thus Jesus could say, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14: 9).

Next to its denials of Christ’s deity, the Qur’an is self-contradictory over His death. For

instance, two statements predict his crucifixion while a third denies it ever happened:

[The Jews] plotted, and Allah plotted. Allah is the supreme Plotter. He said: ‘Jesus, I

am about to cause you to die and lift you up to Me. I shall take you away from the

[Mary] made a sign to [her people], pointing to the child. But they replied: ‘How can

we speak with a babe in the cradle?’ ‘Whereupon he spoke and said: ‘I am the servant

of Allah. He has given me the Gospel and ordained me a prophet. ... He has exhorted

me to honour my mother and has purged me of vanity and wickedness. I was blessed

on the day I was born, and blessed I shall be on the day of my death; and may peace be

Mary. They declared: ‘We have put to death the Messiah Jesus the son of Mary, the

apostle of Allah.’ They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but they thought they

did. Those that disagreed about him were in doubt concerning his death, for what they

knew about it was sheer conjecture; they were not sure that they had slain him. Allah

lifted him up to His presence; He is mighty and wise. There is none among the People

of the Book but will believe in him before his death; and on the Day of Resurrection he

What is worse, Islam has no conception of personal forgiveness based on an atonement where

the demands of justice and mercy are equally met. Unlike Christians, Muslims have no

saviour in whom their tortured consciences may find forgiveness and peace. Lacking the

motive and experience of Christ’s love, Muslims cannot enjoy forgiving and being forgiven.

While Islam rightly protested against the Mariamist worship of Mary as a ‘goddess’ and the

consequent counterfeit trinity of ‘Allah, Mary and Jesus’, the Qur’an still employs

questionable language about her. While Mary’s virginal conception of Jesus is asserted, the

details of the narrative involve a good deal of fantasy. Compared with this, the Lucan

narrative possesses a powerful sense of authentic reality (see Luke 1: 26-38). Also, the

Qur’an mistakenly confuses Mary with Aaron’s sister Miriam:

‘And you shall recount in the Book the story of Mary: how she left her people and

betook herself to a solitary place to the east. We sent Our spirit in the semblance of a

full-grown man. And when she saw him she said: ‘May the Merciful defend me from

you! If you fear the Lord, leave me and go your way.’ ‘I am the messenger of your

Lord,’ he replied, ‘and have come to give you a holy son.’ ‘How shall I bear a child,’

she answered, ‘when I am a virgin, untouched by man?’ ‘Such is the will of your

Lord,’ he replied. ‘That is no difficult thing for Him. “He shall be a sign to mankind,”

says the Lord, “and a blessing from Ourself. This is Our decree.” Thereupon she

conceived him, and retired to a far-off place. And when she felt the throes of childbirth

she lay down by the trunk of a palm-tree, crying: ‘Oh, would that I had died and passed

into oblivion!’ ... ‘Carrying the child, she came to her people, who said to her: ‘This is

indeed a strange thing! Sister of Aaron, your father was never a whore-monger, nor

was your mother a harlot.’ She made a sign to them, pointing to the child. But they

replied: ‘How can we speak with a babe in the cradle?’ Whereupon he spoke and said:

‘I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Gospel and ordained me a prophet. ...

He has exhorted me to honour my mother and has purged me of vanity and wickedness.

I was blessed on the day I was born, and blessed I shall be on the day of my death; and

Despite its anti-Mariamist stance, the Qur’an arguably retains too much of the kind of

thinking that produced the excessive Mariamist adulation of Mary in the first place, even

casting doubt on the original purity of Christ. On the latter point, the above quotation

suggests that Jesus underwent some early process of purification from ‘vanity and

wickedness’. On the other hand, Mary is described as ‘pure’ and ‘saintly’ in a manner alien

to the New Testament:

‘And remember the angel’s words to Mary. He said: ‘Allah has chosen you. He has

made you pure and exalted you above all women. Mary, be obedient to your Lord; bow

‘The Messiah, the son of Mary, was no more than an apostle: other apostles passed

While the New Testament speaks of Mary as ‘highly favoured’ and ‘blessed’, she is not

described as sinlessly ‘pure’. On the contrary, in her ‘Magnificant’, she herself implicitly

her ‘saintliness’ depended on the same ‘grace of God’ enjoyed by all Christian believers, not

on some innate perfection, far less on a fallacious process of ‘canonisation’. Furthermore, her

defects are not hidden in the Gospels. Indeed, Mary’s recognition of her own fallibility

Did Mary not have to learn that, in the kingdom of God, our privileges are based on spiritual

shorn of Mariamist excess, it still retains support for the very tendency it seeks to combat.

Indeed, the Qur’an mirrors the same tendencies evident in the medieval Roman Catholic

Church which produced the very kind of idolisation of Mary (culminating in the immaculate

conception dogma of 1854) rightly rejected by the Reformed Church and Islam alike.

Commenting on Christ’s ‘rebuke’ of His mother at Cana, John Calvin wrote: ‘It is certain that

this saying of Christ openly warns men not to transfer to Mary what belongs to God, by

superstitiously exalting the honour of the maternal name in Mary. Christ therefore addresses

His mother like this so as to transmit a perpetual and general lesson to all ages, lest an

extravagant honour paid to His mother should obscure His divine glory. How necessary this

warning became, in consequence of the gross and abominable superstitions which followed

later, is known well enough. For Mary has been made Queen of Heaven, the Hope, the Life

and Salvation of the world; and in fact, their insane raving went so far that they just about

stripped Christ and adorned her with the spoils. ... As if she had not all the honour that

Having discussed the Muslim view of Mary, a brief look at women’s rights is in order.

with cruel subjugation. The Qur’an urges men who ‘fear disobedience’ from their women to

embarrassed by such violent humiliation, the UK ‘Islamic Vision’ version of the Qur’an

(IPCI, Birmingham) absurdly attempts to ‘soften’ if not explain it away. Muslim men are

allowed to ‘chastise’ difficult wives ‘lightly’ but ‘with a toothbrush, or some such thing’!

It is quite extraordinary that anyone should ever place Jesus and Muhammad in the same kind

of category. Writers and educators are guilty of gross deception in failing to distinguish the

two ‘leaders’. Dr Philip Schaff provides an accurate and authoritative assessment of

Muhammad in a portrait that is hardly flattering:

‘He was a better man in the period of his adversity and persecution at Mecca, than

during his prosperity and triumph at Medina. History records many examples of

characters rising from poverty and obscurity to greatness, and then decaying under the

sunshine of wealth and power. He degenerated, like Solomon, but did not repent, like

the preacher of ‘vanity of vanities’. He had a melancholic and nervous temperament,

liable to fantastic hallucinations and alternations of high excitement and deep

depression, bordering at times on despair and suicide. ... Towards his enemies he was

cruel and revengeful. ... Sir William Muir concedes his original honesty and zeal as a

reformer and warner, but assumes a gradual deterioration to the judicial blindness of a

self-deceived heart, and even a kind of Satanic inspiration in the later revelations. ... He

did not shrink from perfidy. He believed in the use of the sword as the best missionary,

and was utterly unscrupulous as to the means of success. He could take pleasure in

cruel and perfidious assassination, could gloat over the massacre of entire tribes, and

savagely consign the innocent babe to the fires of hell. ... Muhammad was a slave of

sensual passion. Aisha [his favourite wife], who knew him best in his private character

and habits, used to say: “The prophet loved three things, women, perfumes and food; he

had his heart’s desire of the first two, but not of the last.” The motives of his excess in

polygamy were his sensuality which grew with his years, and his desire for male

offspring. His followers excused or justified him [because of] the difficulties of his

prophetic office, which were so great that God gave him a compensation in sexual

enjoyment, and endowed him with greater capacity than thirty ordinary men. ... He had

at least fourteen legal wives, and a number of slave concubines besides. At his death he

left nine widows. He claimed special revelations which gave him greater liberty of

sexual indulgence than ordinary Muslims (who are restricted to four wives), and

exempted him from the prohibition of marrying near relatives. ... He married [Aisha]

when she was a girl of nine years [which makes him a paedophile in modern terms]. ...

To compare such a man with Jesus is preposterous and even blasphemous. Jesus was

the sinless Saviour of sinners; Mohammed was a sinner, and he knew and confessed it.

In the light of subsequent history, it is any wonder that Islam has its own distinctively dark,

oppressive, cruel and bloody track record? The teaching and example of its ‘leader’ could

hardly inspire anything different, even allowing for some otherwise commendable literary

features possessed by the Qur’an. If the lives of certain professing Christians sadly match the

life-style of Muhammad, it is not because they learned it from our Lord Jesus Christ. Their

own decadence arises from the same source as Muhammad’s - the unenlightened, unsanctified

and sinful human heart. When the divine and holy nature, saving work and transforming

influence of the Saviour of the world makes its impact on our lives, personal, domestic and

national life is ten elevated in a way that no other religion or ideology can match, especially

Islam. May we all thoughtfully and prayerfully study and absorb the contents of the New

Testament to demonstrate this verdict. The following presentation of Jesus Christ is offered

as a synopsis of the truth everyone desperately needs either to discover for the first time or to

recover before it is too late. Our comfort in this life and our salvation in the next depends

upon it. May God have mercy upon us all. Amen!

He was not simply a religious leader long ago. Since He is the self-revelation of God, He

existed before Bethlehem. When He was born on earth He had already existed from all

eternity. In fact, through Him everything was created. Indeed, everything still depends on

Him. The Bible teaches that He is the second person in the Godhead. To employ the simplest

of analogies, God the Father is the ‘architect’ of creation; God the Son - Jesus Christ - is the

‘site manager’; God the Holy Spirit supplies the ‘work force’. The Lord Jesus is the main

theme of the Bible. This single observation unlocks its true meaning and makes total sense of

what might otherwise remain mysterious. The Old Testament prophets foretold His coming.

Angels proclaimed His birth. Apostles declared His glory and mercy to a lost world.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God in a very special sense. While Christians are

described as children of God, they are children by grace and adoption. Christ is the Son by

nature. As children reveal something of their parents, Christ reveals the nature and character

of God the Father in a unique way. He is the ‘true offspring’ of the eternal God. Thus He is

‘God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not created, being of one nature

therefore truly expressed in the personality of Jesus Christ. In Him we see God the Father

from whom His divine nature was directly derived. Of course, this ‘family’ picture language

has limits: the virgin Mary was not Christ’s mother in the sense that God the Father was His

Father. She was merely the vehicle of Christ’s human nature. Whereas the Nicene Creed

implying a form of ‘cohabitation’. Such ideas distort the New Testament teaching. While

Mary is justly called ‘Blessed’, Christ through the Holy Spirit actually created His mother in

order that she might miraculously convey Him to mankind as ‘God-made-man’. Her role,

while necessary for the incarnation, was essentially one of subordination. Thus our attention

is to be fixed on Him not her. His uniquely tender and soul-soothing compassion exclusively

merits the focus of our faith.

Christ came to save us. He brought resources we do not possess. Through violating God’s

holy law we are guilty, hell-deserving sinners. Spiritually corrupted and impotent, we are

helpless to repay the debt we owe to God. Not willing that we should perish, God the Father

sent Christ as man to pay in our name and nature all that we owe. Sin deserves death and

damnation. It is an offence to the holiness and purity of our Creator. On the cross, Christ

suffered the wrath of God in our place. As the God-man, His agonizing death satisfied the

righteous demands of God the Father. Those who repent and trust in Christ are justified -

acquitted, pardoned and accepted as children of God. They are also renewed in their natures

by the Holy Spirit’s indwelling and sanctifying power. Having conquered sin by His death,

Christ conquered death by His resurrection. Believers in Christ are saved eternally from sin,

death and condemnation.

As the Father’s love-gift to an undeserving world, no one else can do what only Christ has

done. All other religious leaders were only human. They too were sinners. They are also

dead. It is multi-faith madness to suggest otherwise. Christ lives to seek and save the lost.

We all need Him. The Church proclaims Him to the whole world. He who wept over

Jerusalem still looks with love and mercy on a ruined world. He alone has the infinite

capacity and almighty grace to save us. All other religions are people reaching up to God. In

Christ, God is reaching down to us. Christ has no substitutes. He requires no assistance.

While the Church honours Mary, the ancient Prophets and the Apostles, Christ alone is the

mediator through whom we pray and worship. Others cannot help us. Christ is all we need.

He calls all people in every age and nation to come to Him. In Jesus, a restless world finds

rest, a guilty world finds pardon, a dying world finds life and a ruined world finds

redemption.

After His glorious resurrection, our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven. As Head of the

redeemed community, He pours out the Holy Spirit upon us. He personally saves, guides,

directs, keeps, strengthens and perfects His Church. In His physical absence from the world,

the Holy Spirit acts invisibly on His behalf. Christ has not delegated His headship to any

other person whether King, Queen, Pope or Archbishop. Christ the King and Saviour, having

established the Church through the ministry of the Apostles, now governs and guides us

through Ministers of the Word and Elders. [As expressed in Reformed churchmanship], these

are the New Testament ‘bishops’ or ‘overseers’ appointed by Christ our Head and chief

Shepherd. In every age, the perpetuation of true faith is guaranteed not by some mechanical

apostolic, sacramental and episcopal succession but by the ministry of faithful preachers of

the Gospel. Their mandate is to teach only the inspired, authoritative and all-sufficient Word

of God, the Bible. However sound and eloquent they might be, the words of men are to be

constantly tested by the Scriptures. By the ministry of word and sacrament, the Lord Jesus

makes His holy, loving and gracious presence known in our hearts. The water of baptism is

but a symbol of the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit. The water itself does not convey the

grace of God. Since Christ’s glorious body remains in heaven, the bread and wine of the

Holy Supper are symbols of that spiritual nourishment guaranteed by Christ's spiritual

presence in the hearts of His people.

The world has not seen the last of Jesus Christ. He will return to judge the world. Precisely

when is known only to the Father. As the humbled Son, Christ came first in weakness to

save. He returns with power and glory to judge. Those who reject Him will be damned

eternally in hell. Those who acknowledge, trust, love and serve Him will be happy forever in

heaven. They are God’s chosen children in whom He delights. Let us be sure to listen to

Christ’s gracious call while time permits. May we acknowledge Him, trust only in Him,

supremely love and serve Him all our days. Thus we shall rejoice throughout the remainder

of our earthly life and pilgrimage until we come at last to that everlasting rest to which Jesus

calls us in the Gospel. Amen!

Dr Alan C. Clifford, Pastor, Norwich Reformed Church (www.geocities.com/nrchurch)