Jesus is the First and the Last (DSS, P98)

  Muhammad was ignorant of the Christian Scriptures, and so for the last 1,400 years, Muslims have continued to believe that Jesus never says He is God in the Bible.

  Here are a few of the Scriptural proofs that Jesus is God.

  YHWH speaks in the Old Testament, more than 700 years before Jesus came to earth...

  "I, Yahweh, Am the First, and with the Last — I Am He.” Isaiah 41:4

  "This is what the Lord says—Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies: "I am the First and the Last; there is no other God." Isaiah 44:6

Isaiah 44:6 from the Dead Sea Scrolls (c. 100BC)

  “Listen to Me, Jacob, and Israel, the one called by Me: I Am He; I am the First, I am also the Last." Isaiah 48:12
Isaiah 48:12 from the Dead Sea Scrolls

  Then Jesus says in the New Testament...

  “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave." Revelation 1:17-18

Revelation 1:3 to 2:1 in P98

  Here is verse 17 from this more than 1,800 year old papyrus with "I Am the First and the Last" highlighted in bold letters:

 [1:17] και οτε ει δ̣ο̣ν̣ αυτον ε[π]εσα [προς τους ποδας αυτου ως νεκρος και εθηκε̣ τ̣η̣ν̣ [δεξιαν αυτου επ εμε λεγων μη φοβ̣[ο]υ̣ ε̣γ̣ω̣ [ειμι ο πρωτος και ο εσχατος

  The transliterated phrase is "ego eimi ho protos kai ho eschatos."    

  Some six centuries later... who does Muhammad say GOD is in Sura 57:3 of the Quran?

  Quran Sura 57 - Al-Hadid [The Iron]

  1.  سَبَّحَ لِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأرْضِ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
  Abdullah Yusuf Ali: Whatever is in the heavens and on earth,- let it declare the Praises and Glory of Allah: for He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.

  2.  لَهُ مُلْكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأرْضِ يُحْيِي وَيُمِيتُ وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
  Abdullah Yusuf Ali: To Him belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth: It is He Who gives Life and Death; and He has Power over all things.

  3.  هُوَ الأوَّلُ وَالآخِرُ وَالظَّاهِرُ وَالْبَاطِنُ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
  Abdullah Yusuf Ali: He is the First and the Last, the Evident and the Immanent: and He has full knowledge of all things.

  Let's break it down so that it's even clearer...

  YHWH says He is the First and the Last and that He is the Only God.

  Jesus says HE is the First and the Last.

  The Quran says God is the First and the Last.

  Oh, boy. Are Muslims in a pickle or what?

  Please also note that these other things that Allah claims for himself are either already claimed by or attributed to JESUS in the Bible:

  "Abdullah Yusuf Ali: Whatever is in the heavens and on earth,- let it declare the Praises and Glory of Allah: for He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise."

  Jesus is praised and WORSHIPED repeatedly in the Bible. He NEVER stops anyone from worshiping Him. Wouldn't that be wrong for him to do if He were just a mere messenger? Yes, it would be. But Jesus is no mere messenger.

  In Heaven, everyone bows down to Jesus.

  "When [God] again brings His firstborn into the world, He says, And all God’s angels must worship Him [Jesus]." Hebrews 1:6

  "I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say: Blessing and honor and glory and dominion to the One seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever! The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped." Revelation 5:13-14

  Jesus alone shares in the glory of God, which glory God said He would share with NO ONE. Read the whole New Testament, or even just the Gospel of John, so that you will see Who Jesus really is, rather than rely on the word of a non-eyewitness who only came along 600 years later, who lived 2,000 kilometers away from where all these things took place, and who never met a single disciple of Jesus. 


  Or even the disciple of a disciple. 

  Or even the disciple of a disciple of a disciple of Jesus! 

  Muhammad never came anywhere near anyone who had ever known Jesus or one of His apostles. If even our courts of law reject such testimony because it is not based on eyewitness accounts, why should anyone in their right mind believe it?

  But let's return to Muhammad and his claims about Allah...

  Abdullah Yusuf Ali: To Him belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth: It is He Who gives Life and Death; and He has Power over all things.

  To Him belongs dominion of the heavens and the earth?

  That is Jesus:

  18 Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." Matt 28

  It is He Who gives Life and Death?

  That is Jesus:

  17 ... [Jesus] laid His right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last,

  18 and the Living One. I was dead, but look—I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades." Revelation 1

  Abdullah Yusuf Ali: He is the First and the Last, the Evident and the Immanent: and He has full knowledge of all things.

  Who is omnipotent and omnipresent?

  Who has full knowledge of all things?

  That is Jesus:

  "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20

  "... And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."  Matthew 28:20


  "These will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will conquer them because He is Lord of lords and King of kings.” Revelation 17:14.

  "For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you have been filled by Him, Who is the head over every ruler and authority." Colossians 2:9-10

  But Muhammad's problems don't end there:

  The Quran also mistakenly calls Mary, the mother of Jesus, the sister of Aaron, though they lived more than a thousand years apart

  It also mistakenly claims that Christians believe in three gods, not ONE as Jesus taught and as all of the New Testament Apostles, writers and disciples believed

  Now, I can understand how an Arab trader from Mecca in 630AD might not have known the Bible, but why is it that the supposedly all-seeing and all-knowing Allah did not know what the Bible teaches?

  We have only two options:

  1) Allah really does not know everything, or

  2) Muhammad is "Allah"

  Take your pick. Just remember... Only one of those options can be correct.

  But one thing we CAN be sure of is this:

  Jesus is GOD!





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