A recently watched An interview with Reza Aslan on YouTube.In the video they were discussing His interpretation and understanding of who Jesus was and is. While God does not agree with his conclusions, he does have one thing right, neither Christianity nor Islam have the correct view of who Jesus is. You ask 100 different people who they think Jesus is and you will probably get 100 different answers. Everyone has their own idea and opinion, either formed on their own or based on what their religion says. What really matters in the end however is not who people think Jesus is, but what God says About who Jesus is.
So here they are so many different opinions about who Jesus is? One of the biggest reasons if not of the biggest reason there are so many different understandings of who Jesus is, is that people read Scripture and apply their own human understanding and logic to what God says rather than go to God and ask him what he means by what he said. God warns us against doing this time and time again."Do not lean on your own understanding, in all your ways listen to God and he will direct your path" "without the breath (words. speaking) of God, it is impossible to understand the Scriptures". We think Scripture contradicts itself, because we applied our own understanding to what God is saying. However, when we go to God and ask for his understanding, there is no contradiction in Scripture. When we listen to God's understanding, the Bible and the Quran are in perfect harmony.
So let's look at a couple of the verses that are often misunderstood and cause division rather than union and harmony and see what God says. In the Bible Matthew 1616 "Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God". The big hindrance here is the word "Son". Before I go into what God says, there is one thing the reader has to understand. The English version of the Bible is a translation. The original manuscript would have been in in Aramaic. Which got translated to Greek which got translated to Latin which got translated to English. Any time you translate from one language to another some of the meaning is lost. It's not that it's incorrect, but often words do not translate Word for Word, ideasthat can be easily expressed in one language, take much more description in another language. Also over time words change meanings. So even if you have the exact right word, because the meaning of that word has changed it no longer conveys the right idea. These things are exactly what has happened here in with the word "son". The Greek word that is translated "son" means male child or semblance. Semblance is not a word we use very much. Someone means :having the appearance of". It's often used when something appears to be one way but in reality things are different than they appear. Peter is not saying that Jesus is a physical child of Gods, Peter is saying that Jesus is the semblance or appearance of God in male human flesh. If we restate the verse the way God says he means it would say "thou art the Messiah, the living male flesh of Almighty God"
. Jesus was very much real male human flesh. But inside that human flesh, was not a human soul or spirit but Almighty God. God clothed himself in human flesh the same way we put on clothing. Jesus is in no way separate from God, he is God. God spoke and created human life in Mary, and it was God himself who live in dwelled and empowered that human flesh.This is why Jesus said "I and my Creator ( father) are the same one." "Destroy this temple (house of God) of God and in three days I will raise it up". It is also why the Pharisees Accused him of blasphemy. They understood that Jesus was claiming to be Almighty God. Not once did Jesus ever claim to be "the son of God". Jesus always claimed to be Almighty God.
So what about the Verse in the Quran "And for their saying, 'Verily we have slain the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, an Apostle of God.' Yet they slew him not, and they crucified him not, but they had only his likeness. And they who differed about him were in doubt concerning him: No sure knowledge had they about him, but followed only an opinion, and they did not really slay him, but God took him up to Himself. And God is Mighty, Wise!"
Once again it's not what God is actually saying, but mans wrong interpretation.. The word that is translated likeness is also translated semblance. It does not mean someone who looks like Him, but is once again referring to the human male flesh that God dwelled in. They did not slay Almighty God who dwelt in the human flesh, they only slayed the human flesh, the semblance or likeness that Almighty God took on Himself.
When understood from God's point of view, both the Bible and the Quran are in perfect union and harmony. Both say that it was almighty God himself who dwelled in human flesh. That the human flesh God dwelled in was crucified. The seeming contradiction completely disappears when we listen to God and go to him and ask him what he means by what he is saying, when we stop leaning on our faulty human understanding and listen to God's meaning and understanding.
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