Muhammadan Objections

116	OBJECTIONS TO SOME CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES

contrary to the testimony of the Word of God, and therefore should not be believed. Those who were present, like the apostle John, testify to Christ's crucifixion, while those who deny it were born hundreds of years afterwards and cannot therefore be accepted as witnesses. The punishment of the Jews for their terrible crime is evident to every one, and this is an additional proof that they are right in saying that they were guilty of crucifying Jesus¹.

[The following arguments on the Muhammadan side may be entered here, as they are in some measure answered in the reply to the preceding question. We therefore reply to them very briefly:—]

96. M. If what your New Testament says about the deity of Christ be correct, then why was Muhammad sent to reclaim men from error by bidding them not call Jesus the Son of God?

C. You here acknowledge that the New Testament does teach the Divine Sonship of Christ. As the Qur'an was sent to "confirm" the Gospel, and

[Footnote continued from previous page] the book called the Περιοδοι Αποστολων taught that Christ was not crucified, but some one else in His stead. Muhammad's denial of our Lord's crucifixion was based on Docetic error.
¹ The Rev. M. G. Goldsmith mentions as standing proofs from Church history those afforded by:—(1) The use of the sign of the cross; (2) The Lord's Supper; (3) The ancient creeds (Nicene, A.D. 325, &c.). Perhaps, however, Muslims can hardly grasp the value of these proofs. But the Bishop of Lahore thinks that the immensely strong evidential value of these things can be put clearly and briefly so as to be understood by Muhammadans. (See The Death of Christ, published by the C. M. S. in 1885.)

AS ALLEGED TO BE TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE

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as the Gospel has not been corrupted since Muhammad's time, you have logically no escape from admitting the doctrine to be true, if you believe in the Qur'an. You have not proved that Muhammad was sent by God, and you can hardly expect us to admit it without proof. The question you put is an argument against your own religion and Muhammad's claim, if he really did come to deny a doctrine taught in the Gospel, for that would be to lead men astray. But the Qur'an does not tell us that he came to bid men not call Jesus the Son of God, but rather to recall them to the faith of Abraham. Hence he was born not among Christians (believers in Christ, of whose coming Abraham received the promise) but among the heathen Arabs. The Qur'an denounces carnal ideas like those which led the Arabs to attribute daughters to God, but these are not what the Gospel inculcates when it calls Christ God's Son. (Vide § 114.)

97. M. At one time Christians did not believe in the deity of Christ.

C. That is not correct. In early times the Arians and other heretics arose and denied His perfect deity, but they were confuted by arguments drawn from the Bible, and also the old creeds of the various Christian Churches were adduced in proof that the Arian heresy was a new and false doctrine¹ .

¹ See Ottley, The Doctrine of the Incarnation; Athanasius, Orations against the Arians, &c.

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