7 Proofs of Jesusas Being a Human
Farhan Iqbal, Missionary, Canada
In part nine of this article series, it was discussed how Jesusas never demonstrated the power and attributes of God in his own being and with his personal will. Whatever he did was nothing more than what other prophets of God have done. This makes him a human being.
In this article, which is the final of this series, seven further proofs of the “humanness” of Jesusas will be discussed so that this fact can be established affirmatively. First, it is a clear and known fact that Jesusas used to eat food, just as all the other human prophets of God, and the Holy Quran also points out:
كَانَا يَاۡكُلٰنِ الطَّعَامَ
That is, “They both [i.e. Jesusas and his mother] used to eat food” (Surah al-Maida, Ch.5: V.76). Luke 24:42-43 affirms that Jesusas ate in the presence of his disciples. Since the eating of food suggests a need, and God is free from all needs, Jesusas Christ could not have been God.
Second, the divinity of Jesusas defies logic as it requires the brothers and sisters of Jesusas to also be gods based on deductive reasoning. The Greek philosopher Aristotle is considered the father of deductive reasoning and he wrote the following example to explain this reasoning:
– All men are mortal
– Socrates is a man
– Therefore, Socrates is mortal
In the case of Jesusas, it should follow like this in order to be logical:
– Mary had children Jesusas, son of Mary, is god
– Jesusas, son of Mary, is god
– Therefore, children of Mary are gods
Christians would not agree that the children of Mary are gods just like JesusChristas. Hence, based on this logic, which is also called syllogism, Jesusas cannot be God. The correct form of this logical argument is as follows:
– Mary had human children
– Jesusas is the son of Mary
– Therefore, Jesusas is human
The Promised Messiahas writes:
“Syllogism requires that when a god can be born from the womb of a created being, and not that a human is born from a human and a donkey is born from a donkey, then wherever a god is born from the womb of a woman, no created beings should be born from that womb. Instead, all the children born (from it) should be gods”. (Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 1, p. 442)
Third, the virgin birth of Jesusas is not sufficient evidence for his Divinity. If the premise of the argument from a Christian perspective is that Jesusas is God because of his virgin birth, then other beings who are born without a father should also be considered gods. The book of Hebrews mentions King Melchizedek of Salem and then says, “Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.” (Hebrews 7:3)
If the standard for the divinity of a person is virgin birth, why is King Melchizedek not believed to be the literal son of God just like Jesusas?
Fourth, belief in the divinity of Jesusas leads to the conclusion that God is unfair and miserly (God forbid). This is because He chose only one person to be His son. It is against the infinite grace and majesty of God that He selected only one individual for such a blessing, and no one else was given this honour.
The Promised Messiahas writes:
“This [belief] leads to disrespect and contempt of God, the Exalted. It accuses God of being a miser that He selected only one individual to be the manifestation of His powers, and He limited His blessings to Jesusas alone. Think about it! If there is only one individual in the dominion of a King, is this worthy of praise for the King or lack thereof?” (Malfuzat, Vol. 10, p. 223)
Fifth, Jesusas is not God because he was not free of weakness. One of the most essential attributes of God is that He is pure and free from all defects, weaknesses, and impurities. In the case of Jesusas, he says very clearly that he was not free from weaknesses. Once a person called him “Good Teacher” and Jesusas said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone”. (Luke 18:19)
Here, Jesusas very clearly says that God Alone is good in the truest sense and he himself does not want to be given such a title. This is a demonstration of the kind of humility that prophets of God always display. In light of this, the Promised Messiahas writes, “It is amazing that JesusChristas never said anywhere that he was free from every sin and weakness in the sight of God”. (Jang-e-Muqaddas, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 6, p. 224)
Sixth, if the life of Jesusas as presented in the Gospels is enough evidence to consider him the son of God in the literal sense, then all others with similar claims and similar lives must also be considered sons of God in the literal sense. In fact, not just those in the past, but those who make such claims in the future must also be seriously considered as candidates for being sons of God in the literal sense. This is not acceptable to any of the Christian apologists as they firmly propose that Jesusas is the only son of God. This in turn shows why Jesusas – like those other individuals – is not God.
The Promised Messiahas explains this when he says:
“All beliefs supported by reason are based on things seen as a whole, because they are inferred from universal principles, by induction. Hence, if a philosopher accepts the belief that Jesusas is God, and since arguments require universalism in order to be true, he is obliged to believe that hundreds of thousands of such gods came prior to him, and it is possible for them to come in the future as well, and this is obviously incorrect”. (Kitab-ul-Bariyya, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 13, p. 53)
Seventh, if Jesusas died on the cross, he is not God. This is simply because it is against the very nature of God to die, as the New Testament also affirms, “It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen.”(1 Timothy 6:16)
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiahas writes:
“Jesus even suffered death, despite being called ‘God’! Does God ever die? And if it was only a man who had died, then why do they claim that ‘the Son of God’ gave up his life for the sake of mankind?” (Fountain of Christianity, p. 20)
These seven reasons are just a few among many others that conclusively and definitively prove that Jesusas was a humble, human, servant of God, and not God.