CHRISTIANITY through the lens of CHRISTIAN & MUSLIM SCHOLARS Part One

6.7 The Word Was God

“In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God.” (John 1:1, NLT)

Josh Mc Dowell writes:

“…There is little question that the “word” refers to Jesus, since verse 14 says, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” Taken at face value, verse 1 and 14 teach the deity of Christ: they state that the Word was “with God” was God, and became flesh.”[1]

Muslim Answer:

If we are going to rely on John 1:1 to show that Jesus posses divine attributes then it still does not show that he is, because according to logic, someone who is “with” another person surely cannot also be that other person. This understanding is confirmed by the fact that throughout the Gospels, Jesus emphasizes that he did not speak on his own words, that God told him what to say. As a Prophet, he only delivered the word of God, not that he was God. Here is an illustration from the Gospel of John itself:

“So Jesus told them, I'm not teaching my own ideas, but those of God who sent me. Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own.” (John 7:16-17, NLT)

Ahmeed Deedat, in his debate with Pastor Stanley Sjoberg says:

“Ask Christian scholars, where did John get the word from? Decades before John, a Greek philosopher, by the name of Philo[2] wrote this “In the beginning, the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God” (NLT) which John copy in his gospel, the gospel of St. John.”[3]

[1] Jesus: A Biblical Defense Of His Deity, 28-29

[2] Philo of Alexandria (30 BC.E-45 C.E). He was a Platonist and had a distinguished reputation as a rationalist philosopher. The Jews have always found Philo’s conception of God somewhat inauthentic. Christians, however, would found him enormous helpful. (Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 68-69)

[3] Is Jesus God? Debate 2 in Stockholm (VCAD)