Editor’s note:  This is actually a series of questions and answers.

Question:

I came across this statement in Sura III in the Quran, but I cannot find the exact scripture. “Jesus was of virgin birth, And performed many miracles. But those to whom he came as Prophet rejected him, and plotted his death. Their plots failed, for God’s plan is above man’s plots. So it will be with Islam, the Truth from all eternity.”   I feel like Muhammad just admitted that Jesus rose from the dead, yet claimed he was just a prophet? Maybe I am reading out of context just how people do when trying to disprove the Bible.

Response:

I believe that the quote you found is a synapsis of several different verses (technically sura and ayat) in the Qu’ran.  No single quote from the Qu’ran says all these things.  The part about the virgin birth is probably taken from Sura 19:30-33.   In any case, you have it exactly correct.  Islam accepts Jesus as a prophet.  It also accepts that he came by a virgin birth, that he worked miracles, that he will come back and that he was raised from the dead.

However, they definitely do NOT accept that he was crucified.   In fact, from the verse your quote, you can see that they are claiming the plot to crucify Jesus failed.  This is obviously historical nonsense.   They say that this is a lie and that the Bible, which obviously says this happened, has been corrupted to say this.  In other words, Muslims believe that Luke, Matthew, Mark and John are false witnesses, which is remarkable because the Qu’ran says that the injil (the New Testament) is from Allah (sura 3:3 sura 5:46-47).

What is even more essential to the Qu’ran on Jesus is that he definitely is NOT God!!!!  Islam is very sure about this.   Associating deity with Jesus is the worst possible kind of sin in Islam, known as shirk.  The class this that I just taught on Saturday on John makes is so completely obvious that Jesus claimed to be God that the Muslim attempts to say differently is revealed for what it is–blatant evidence that the Quran is not inspired by God

So your interpretation of the statement is correct.  Muslims believe Jesus is a prophet.

Follow-up comment:

The argument that Jesus is simply JUST a prophet is nonsensical because if Jesus was just a prophet and claimed He was the Son of God, than he would have been lying during his entire life, making him not a prophet.

Response:

Exactly.  If he is “just a prophet” then he is a false prophet, which means that he is not a prophet.  If Jesus was not who he said he was, then he is a deceiver and not a good man at all.  This dichotomy is a major problem for Muslims which they avoid by making unsubstantiated claims about the corruption of the New Testament which they absolutely refuse to engage in with reasoned discussion.  This is their SOP (standard operating procedure).  In order to avoid the rather obvious contradiction in stating that Jesus was a prophet but then denying what he said, Muslims claim that the New Testament was corrupted.  The problem is that this would require a rather fantastic amount of corruption.  Have any changes happened to the Greek New Testament by copying?  The answer is yes.  However, what Muslims require is that the very story of the crucifixion of Jesus is a corruption.  This would require a corruption of the New Testament on a massive scale, as the death of Jesus on a cross is the principle event in all four gospels. Such a supposed corruption is completely impossible, as we have evidence from external writings of Romans (such as Tacitus), Jews (such as Josephus) and multiple Christians, all of whom report the crucifixion of Jesus from the late first and early second century. This premise of the Qu’ran that Jesus was a prophet, that the Injil (New Testament) is from Allah, but also that Jesus was not crucified and did not claim to be God is  absolutely ludicrous.  It is proof positive that the Qu’ran IS NOT INSPIRED.

John Oakes