A Test Of Wills
But no righteous man of God is without trial and tribulation. As the message of
Jesus began to gain wider acceptance, a small clique of hypocrites and evil men
began to plot against him. They were the priests and leaders of the Jews whose
position and wealth depended upon their place as the sole interpreters of
religion to the masses. They pursued him and his followers and eventually
captured him. Though they abused him, he never renounced his faith in the one
God.
So in their anger they plotted to crucify him on a Roman cross. But Jesus
slipped from their grip at the last moment, and all the while they thought they
had succeeded. They were sure they had killed him but God answered Jesus’
prayer and saved him from their schemes. Confusion overtook the mob and they
might have killed the man who betrayed Jesus instead.
In the related verse that follows, the Qur'an indicates that Jesus (as) neither died nor was killed, but he was raised to the presence of Allah
And (on account of) their saying, "We killed the Messiah, ‘Isa son of Maryam,
Messenger of Allah."They did not kill him and they did not crucify him but it
was made to seem so to them. Those who argue about him are in doubt about
it. They have no real knowledge of it, just conjecture. But they certainly did
not kill him. Allah raised him up to Himself. Allah is Almighty, All-Wise.
(Surah an-Nisa: Verse 157-158)
In any case, Jesus
escaped from their grasp. Then God removed Jesus from this world into another
dimension, to a place with Him, not to return until a later time. With their
teacher gone, the devoted followers of Jesus tried to maintain the purity and
simplicity of his teachings. But they were soon besieged and overtaken by a
flood of Roman and Greek influences, which eventually so buried and distorted
the message of Jesus that only a little of its truth now remains. Strange
doctrines of Jesus being a man-god, of God dying, of saint worship and of God
being made up of different parts came into vogue and were accepted by many of
those who took the name “Christians” centuries after Jesus.
References : Articles by Yahiya Emerick &
www.harunyahya.com
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