Part 1 – Part 2
“And this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you? And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? And he says, I am not. Are you that prophet? And he answered, No”
(John 1:19-21 MKJV).
It is claimed by followers of Muhammad that he is the prophet prophesied by Moses:
“I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, one like you, and will put My words in his mouth. And he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. And it shall happen, whatever man will not listen to My Words which he shall speak in My Name, I will require it of him” (Deuteronomy 18:18-19).
The inheritance was not passed through Ishmael.
It is clear that Muhammad could not possibly be the prophet of whom Moses spoke, for several reasons.
1) Muhammad was not from among the brethren of Israel.
The inheritance of Abraham went to his son, Isaac, and through Isaac to Jacob (Israel). The inheritance was not passed through Ishmael, who is alleged to be Muhammad’s ancestor. Abraham inquired of God on His decision in the matter of Ishmael, and God told him:
“And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall father twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great nation. But I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time in the next year” (Genesis 17:20-21 MKJV).
Here is another important point to be made while comparing Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael was born as a result of Abraham and Sarah’s effort to have the son God had promised them. Sarah was too old to have children and reasoned in terms possible only for men. Consequently, they tried to help God keep His promise to them by giving Abraham Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid, that they might have a son by her. But God does not need man’s help. Indeed, man’s help is useless because God works in the impossible realm – impossible for men, that is, but not for Him.
In due time, God did give them the promised son by Sarah, though she was well past child-bearing age; it was a miraculous birth, to God’s glory. The fact that it is Sarah’s seed is just as important as that it was Abraham’s seed. God’s promise was not only to Abraham, but also to Sarah. While Isaac’s birth was miraculous, Ishmael’s was normal, as with almost every other man. Isaac alone, therefore, was the “son of promise” to Abraham and Sarah.
Muhammad taught things contrary to the Law of Moses by his own authority.
It is written:
“Nor are all of Abraham’s descendants the children of God. God said to Abraham, ‘It is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I promised you’” (Romans 9:7 GNB).
This was confirmed by Peter, the apostle of God, when he spoke to the Jews in Jerusalem after receiving the Spirit of God:
“You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your Seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.’ Having raised up His son Jesus, God sent Him to you first, to bless you in turning every one of you away from his iniquities” (Acts 3:25-26 MKJV).
Muhammad was not of the proper lineage, neither by blood nor by faith, the latter because he did not believe in the God of Abraham and Moses, Jesus Christ, and tried to abrogate His covenant with the Jews. Muhammad taught things contrary to the Law of Moses, by his own authority. For example, he annulled the Sabbath day, one of the Ten Commandments, which is impossible to do because God Himself sanctified the seventh day and gave it to men as a blessing.
Muhammad also claimed that his alleged forbearer, Ishmael, was a prophet, which is not true.
[19.54] And mention Ismail in the Book; surely he was truthful in (his) promise, and he was an apostle, a prophet.
Muhammad claimed to be God’s prophet. Here is what God has to say about his changing the Law of God and adding to His words, however:
“But the prophet who shall presume to speak a word in My Name which I have not commanded him to speak or who shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die” (Deuteronomy 18:20 MKJV).
He produced no signs and wonders that proved God was with him.
Did not Muhammad die before his time from sickness? But Moses died in fulness of age without his eyesight or strength deteriorated, and without suffering. Muhammad was a false prophet who tried to change the Law of God and died as a sinner, whereas the prophet like unto Moses will magnify the Law and will not die from disease or an ignominious death.
2) Muhammad did no signs and miracles, while Moses did many. This criterion for the prophet to come is emphasized in the last statement in the five books of Moses:
“And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, and in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel” (Deuteronomy 34:10-12 KJV).
Muhammad produced none of the signs and wonders that proved God was with him, unlike Moses whose words were backed up by God with miraculous happenings. By these signs God demonstrated that He had sent Moses and Aaron to speak to Pharaoh and to lead the children of Israel.
For example, when Korah and other rebels gathered against Moses and Aaron and would not repent of their wicked complaints and rebellion, Moses said:
“If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the LORD has not sent me. But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then you shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD” (Numbers 16:29-30 KJV).
Muhammad terrorized the people.
This happened in accordance with the words of Moses’ prophecy of that prophet to come:
“And it shall happen, whatever man will not listen to My Words which he shall speak in My name, I will require it of him” (Deuteronomy 18:19).
If anyone did not listen to Muhammad’s words, he, and not God, required it of that person by the force of his band of thugs and thieves if necessary. Muhammad, and not God, terrorized the people, just as other tyrants and murderers have done throughout history, though none so brazen in claiming to be the last prophet of God.
3) Muhammad allegedly heard from the angel Gabriel, and by his own admission, did not claim to speak face to face with God as Moses had (“whom the LORD knew face to face”). Not only did Muhammad not know God face to face, but the angel he thought he heard from was actually a devil. You can know and be certain this is true because angels of God do not attack people as Muhammad described he was attacked by the entity he encountered. This is all assuming Muhammad experienced anything, as he claimed. For all we know, he simply came up with a tall tale. There is no second witness, as God requires by Law and principle for our safety, to establish Muhammad’s story of having been visited. We are asked to take Muhammad’s word for it over God’s. And we all know, by the Koran’s record, how much his word was worth when it was to his advantage to break it. There are also those who know how good is God’s Word, and we are among them.
The messengers of God do not torment those to whom they are sent.
If we assume that Muhammad did indeed experience something, the violence of his encounter with “Gabriel” made him consider it to be an indication or confirmation that he was demon-possessed. True prophets, however, never come away from an encounter with an angel of God thinking they are possessed. Not once will you find this in Scripture because the messengers of God do not torment those to whom they are sent, and God’s angels are not sent to commune with the demon-possessed.
No one needs to convince a prophet of God that they met an angel, as Muhammad’s wife’s cousin had to convince and reassure Muhammad. There is clarity, not confusion and dependence on human rationale or imagination. This is another sure indication that what happened to Muhammad was not of God.
4) Surer yet are the fruits of Muhammad’s “prophetic” office. His campaign of subjugation, as recorded in his “inspired” Koranic testimony, is nothing less than tyranny through Law-breaking murders and thefts. It is not only a matter that Muhammad was not the prophet of whom Moses spoke, but by his actions it was demonstrated that he had nothing to do with God whatsoever and was an agent of Satan. He was a lustful son of destruction. Muhammad took many wives and enriched himself by his plunders, according to the records of his own followers. Moses did not take wives or plunder. How very different!
There are solid reasons why Muhammad could not be that prophet.
As some Muslims will point out, the Jews had the expectation that the prophet spoken of by Moses was someone different than the Christ:
“And this is the witness of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to him with the question, Who are you? He said quite openly and straightforwardly, I am not the Christ. And they said to him, What then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And his answer was, I am not” (John 1:19-21 BBE).
This does not mean, of course, that because Jesus was not that prophet, Muhammad must have been. Besides the fact that this is irrational, there are solid reasons why Muhammad could not be that prophet over and above what I have already listed.
5) Muhammad did not come pronouncing the only Name given to men whereby they must be saved, which is Jesus Christ and not Allah. Jesus Christ proved that He was God by overcoming death, which Muhammad denies ever happened. It is written in the Koran that Jesus did not die and was not resurrected. But when Peter tried to spare Christ the death of the cross, by which Jesus would overcome death for all men, the Lord said this to him:
“Go behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you do not think of the things of God, but the things of men” (Matthew 16:23 LITV).
Muhammad, by declaring that Christ was not crucified and raised from the dead, proclaimed the message of Satan, which denies mankind the forgiveness of sins by the blood of Christ and the union with God through His resurrection power. Amen.
Muhammad demoted Christ to the status of a prophet below himself.
6) When the prophet like Moses comes, it will be at the return of Christ to restore all things, as prophesied by Peter on the day the disciples received the Spirit of Christ (Pentecost):
“Therefore repent and convert so that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And He shall send Jesus Christ, Who before was proclaimed to you, Whom Heaven truly needs to receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God shall raise up a prophet to you from your brothers, one like me. You shall hear him in all things, whatever he may say to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people” (Acts 3:19-23 MKJV).
According to these words, the prophet like unto Moses comes when Christ returns to rule on earth and completes the restoration of all things. This obviously did not happen in Muhammad’s day. As pointed out, Muhammad did not preach Christ, and neither did peace or reconciliation follow, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Muhammad brought strife and confusion because he demoted Christ, if such were possible, from Lord of all to the status of a prophet below himself. In other words, Muhammad made himself greater than God; he was antiChrist.
Muhammad also did not reconcile the children of Israel with their God, as Moses did, but persecuted and killed them when they rejected him. On more than one occasion when God said He would destroy Israel for their idolatry and unbelief, Moses sought clemency and prayed for them. How different from the egomaniac Muhammad, who persecuted those who were more righteous than he, and slaughtered those who differed with him!
Islam has been raised up for the judgment of wicked doing.
This is the legacy Muhammad left his followers, who to this very day hate and seek to destroy the newly raised nation of Israel, which offers more rights and privileges to Muslim citizens than their own Muslim nations do! How can anyone seriously consider Muhammad to be the prophet like unto Moses? How could anyone be more unlike Moses?
Muhammad did not cause men to turn their swords into plowshares, but the other way around, which is according to the Word of the Lord through Joel:
“Get your plough-blades hammered into swords, and your vine-knives into spears: let the feeble say, I am strong. Come quickly, all you nations round about, and get yourselves together there: make your strong ones come down, O Lord. Let the nations be awake, and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there I will be seated as Judge of all the nations round about. Put in the blade, for the grain is ready: come, get you down, for the wine-crusher is full, the vessels are overflowing; for great is their evil-doing” (Joel 3:10-13 BBE).
Has not Islam raised a ruckus among the nations, seeking conquest by war from its beginning? Islam has been raised up for the judgment of wicked doing, an unrighteous instrument that will perish from the earth when God is finished His righteous work. This is according to His Word, which Muhammad and a billion Muslims cannot change:
“Egypt shall be a ruin, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, from violence done to the sons of Judah, whose innocent blood they poured out in their land. But Judah will dwell forever, and Jerusalem to generation and generation” (Joel 3:19-20 MKJV).
Let us make this perfectly clear: We are not saying that Jesus was “that prophet”; He was not. There were three mentioned by John: the Christ, Elijah, and that prophet (like unto Moses). All are different. If Jesus was the Christ, then, plainly, He was not the prophet; neither was He Elijah, whom He said came by John the Baptist. Neither would Elijah be that prophet. We have proven that Muhammad was not that prophet. Therefore it remains that the true identity of that prophet has been hidden until his appearing in the day of the Lord and His coming to reconcile all things. That day is now here.
Jesus was something Much More than a prophet, which Muslims deny.
A note from Victor:
Is it not remarkable that, on the one hand, when the Bible is preached or cited to Muslims, they declare It untrustworthy because allegedly tampered with and corrupted, while, on the other hand, they quote the Bible as a credible and authoritative source wherever it pleases them? This is classical hypocrisy and a contemptible disregard for Truth, of which they are invariably guilty.
Taking the Koran’s word over the Bible’s, Muslims say that Jesus is a mere prophet, but if that were so, they lose strength in their argument for Muhammad as that prophet spoken of by Moses because Jesus would then be the credible candidate. His credentials completely outweigh those of Muhammad in comparison to Moses. One, both Jesus and Moses were from among their brethren, the Israelites; two, both performed miracles; three, both were sent of God; four, what they spoke was required of those to whom they were sent; five, both honored the other; and six, both were in full agreement in every way.
Muhammad met none of these qualifications, not in the least, as Paul has ably pointed out with the facts and truth.
Muslims argue that Jesus could not have been that prophet prophesied by Moses because the Scriptures (which they say are unreliable) show that the Christ and that prophet are two different persons. They use common sense and plain language to argue against those who believe that Jesus was that prophet. But if Jesus was not that prophet because He was the Christ, then plainly He was not only a prophet but something Much More, which Muslims deny.
In their darkness and delusion, Muslims argue not to bring forth and establish truth but to uphold and to defend the ungodly, untenable positions of their religion, which is in full contradiction to the Bible and Its Author.
Victor Hafichuk