Paraclete/John/Islamic Prophecies

Long before I actually started studying Islam, I encountered the claims of Muslims regarding the alleged prophecies of Muhammad in the Christian scriptures, especially in regards to John chapters 14 and 16, in the subject of the Holy Spirit, the Parakletas.

At that time, I even remember recording a phone message, we used to have phone messages you could call in and listen to a phone message for Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons or so on and so forth. I remember recording a phone message specifically for Muslims on that particular subject because I found it so utterly amazing that an argument could actually be put forward that the text of John actually read the way that Muslim apologists were saying.

Well, of course, since then, I have commented many times, for example, in response to Ahmad Didat, we've done entire dividing line programs, we've gone through every step of his argument, refuting it point by point by point.

Today I received an email from a young Islamic apologist and as I was looking at some of his material, he made reference to another individual and so I took the time to look at what he was saying and there it was again, the Parakletas, the argument about John.

I want to spend just a few moments to once again remind people what the text actually says. Once again, as always, the Muslim picks one portion of the text, one portion here, sometimes ignoring material in the same sentence that contradicts the statements that they are actually making and as a result, grossly misrepresents the text of the New Testament.

John 14–16 and the Promise of Another Paraclete

When we look at John chapters 14 and 16, we see the context as Jesus is returning to the Father. He is telling his disciples about this. This is that last period of ministry that the Lord has with his disciples leading up to his high priestly prayer and then the betrayal by Judas.

And we are told, for example, in John 14 -14, we will be able to pray to Jesus that he will send another Parakletas and as we will see, this particular Muslim says this is alas rather than heteros. He is true.

That sentence is very right. It means another of the same kind. Now he misinterprets that but Jesus says he will send another comforter who is not different in the sense of having a different role than he has had but he will send another comforter and then immediately he identifies who this is.

The spirit of truth who will be with believers forever. Now Muhammad just simply doesn't fit these descriptions. Think about how you would try to make Muhammad fit these descriptions. There were 600 years before anyone came so that means the disciples to whom this was promised never received this and many generations of their followers never received this promise if this was Muhammad which of course it was not.

This is the spirit of truth who will be with believers forever. Then we are told in John 14 17 that he is not seen by the world. The world certainly saw Muhammad I think but he abides with believers and he abides in all believers and of course Muhammad does not abide in believers.

The father and the son make their abode with believers by the spirit in John 14 23. The spirit teaches and brings to remembrance all that Jesus said and given that there are only 25 references to the name of Jesus in the Quran and there is nothing in the Quran that actually gives us any kind of meaningful summary about Jesus' teaching because Muhammad didn't know what Jesus' teaching was then again that doesn't fit with what Muhammad did.

The paracletos is sent by Jesus in John 15 26. Are you going to say that Jesus sent Muhammad or did Allah send Muhammad? So Jesus sends him, he proceeds from the father, that's the divine nature of the Holy Spirit of God.

The spirit functions for the disciples just as Jesus did, is sent by him, John 16 7. The spirit convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment in John 16 8 and it convicts the world concerning sin because the world does not believe in Jesus and yet don't Muslims say that Jesus wasn't actually sent to the world?

He was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, misunderstanding Jesus' words there most definitely. Then the spirit of truth guides believers into all truth. He does not speak of his own initiative which of course Muhammad did and he discloses what is yet to come in the form of prophecy in John 16 13 and then we are told John 16 14 that he will glorify Jesus and of course given that Muhammad did not glorify Jesus but instead detracted from Jesus, Jesus had been revealed to be the son of God, he had been crucified, risen from the dead, this is the way in which God testified the truthfulness of Jesus, Muhammad denied all these things, so Muhammad certainly does not in any way glorify Jesus and so when we just look at all of what the text says and I have never heard, not once have I ever heard a Muslim walk through the text verse by verse and make an argument that this all fits Muhammad because he can't do it, it's just not possible.

Therefore we see what the text is actually saying. Now let's take a look at the specific claims that I saw online today and respond to them. The article that I'm reviewing is by a gentleman by the name of Gary Miller, his Islamic name is Abdul Ahad Omar and his discussion of the term paraclete, he writes there is a lot of argument over the meaning of this word paraclete, for now we can leave that aside, let me just mention in passing there really isn't any argument about what paraclete means, Muslims have tried to raise issues but there really isn't a question about its meaning or its textual veracity in the New Testament.

I continue, what is a paraclete? It does not matter, the first letter of John shows that Jesus was a paraclete, he is called a paraclete and we have Jesus promising another paraclete is going to be sent.

We lose a lot by this word another in English because it is ambiguous but the Greeks had a word for it, when they meant another of the same kind they said allos, actually it's allos, when they meant another of a different kind they said heteros, actually it's heteros.

The important thing there is that when Jesus who was himself a paraclete said God will send you another paraclete, he used the word allos not heteros. Christians want to say that this other paraclete that has been sent was different from Jesus, it was not a man, it was a spirit, what Jesus said was God will send you another one like me, another man.

Now there is an end quote provided there but there's no open quote provided to begin with but I just noticed it in passing. Muslims believe that Muhammad is the fulfillment of this prophecy by Jesus, the Quran says this man is mentioned in the scriptures of the Jews and the Christians.

Christians came to expect the return of Jesus because of the Jewish misunderstanding, Messiah and son of man have been given special significance by the Jews even though many people were called by this same name in the Bible.

The Jews came to expect a victorious leader, when Jesus did not turn out to be quite what many expected they hatched the idea that he would return someday and fulfill all these prophecies. Now there are a number of errors in this presentation, son of man for example has a very specific meaning for Jesus, the idea that just because other people like anointed might be used in the Old Testament someone else doesn't mean there's a specific and special use of Jesus.

But the primary error here, the very glaring error is the assertion what Jesus said was God will send you another one like me that is another man. That is a complete gratuitous leap to say that when the same sentence says the spirit of truth who will be in you that you can just get rid of that and go well what it really means is I'm going to force a loss to not refer to a personal comforter, one who will draw you near to the father, one who will reveal truth to you, one who will keep you, all those things that Jesus does and the spirit does and that's why they're the same kind of comforter.

Now I'm going to ignore all that and I'm going to make it so that this promise to the disciples is empty. In fact it's going to be empty for disciples for 600 years and that I'm going to force them as the meaning of this word to be another man like me and I'm not going to bother to explain to you where I derive any of this from I'm just going to throw it out there.

Why? Because the Quran says so, that's why. This is Islamic anachronistic eisegesis reading back into the text a meaning that very clearly those who originally wrote it those who originally heard it first would never have understood and that's what happens once again when you turn the Quran into the final authority something written 600 years later you have to disrupt destroy the text of the New Testament yet once again another Islamic attempt fails upon examination.