Prove that Paul or Muhammad had a Revelation.

Ghazzali wrote: According to Jews, Christians and Muslims are hypocrites and liars�.why does a Jew believe Musa(pbuh) is a prophet?

The same reason why Christians and Muslims believe that Moses was a Prophet, no need to reinvent the wheel.

Ghazzali wrote: And it is relevant to the topic because then the same logic could possibly be used to prove that Isa(pbuh) and Muhammad(pbuh) were also prophets.

That is why the burden of proof falls on Muslims to prove that Muhammad was a prophet; a fact which both Jews and Christians disagree with. Moses, Jesus, (the greater Moses) his 12 Apostles and other prophets spoke about each other. They all knew that Moses and Jesus were prophets, even Muhammad. None of them however spoke about Muhammad let alone him being a prophet, not even Ishmael or his 12 sons. In the Quran ONLY Muhammad talks about his �so-called� revelation from God, no one else can even confirm it or even eye-witness it. It�s like saying Ishmael was the son that was about to be sacrificed by Abraham but the Quran never mentions Ishmael by name, which the Quran doesn�t. But, it does mention Isaac.

But, yet Muslims say his revelation is the last one. Why, because he says so with no divine backing to prove it, really?      

²¹ You may say to yourselves, �How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?� ²² If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed."

Let us deal with Paul first.  Before we delve into whether he passed the test of Deuteronomy 18, it is prudent to read the story of his life-changing experience on the road to Damascus.  In fact, there are multiple accounts of this encounter in the New Testament:

"As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, �Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?�

⁵ �Who are you, Lord?� Saul asked.

�I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,� he replied. ⁶ �Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.�

⁷ The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. ⁸ Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. ⁹ For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything." (Acts 9:3-9)

"�About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. ⁷ I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, �Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?�

⁸ ��Who are you, Lord?� I asked.

� �I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,� he replied. ⁹ My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.

¹⁰ ��What shall I do, Lord?� I asked.

� �Get up,� the Lord said, �and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.� ¹¹ My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me." (Acts 22:6-11)

"�On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. ¹³ About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. ¹⁴ We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic,a]">[a] �Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.�" (Acts 26:12-14)

The differences in these verses are self-evident.  One would think that the "inspired" authors of the New Testament would not have written contradictory accounts of the same story. 

Moving on, does Paul pass the test of Deuteronomy 18?  Did he speak in the name of the One God or in the name of "other gods"?  Did he proclaim anything that did not come to pass?  The answer can be found in the following verses:

"To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ�their Lord and ours:

³ Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 1:2-3)

"For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. ¹² It teaches us to say �No� to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, ¹³ while we wait for the blessed hope�the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good." (Titus 2:11-14)

Clearly, Paul spoke in the name of Jesus and worshiped him as "God", which is of course nothing new.  It is the central tenet of Christianity that Jesus was God incarnate.  But by speaking in the name of Jesus, Paul fails the test of Deuteronomy 18.

Finally, Paul also spoke about future events, as in the following:

"According to the Lord�s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18)

Clearly, Paul was stating that Jesus' return was imminent and that it would occur within the lifetime of some of the first generation of Christians.  This prophecy was also made in the First Epistle of John:

"Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour." (1 John 2:18)

Therefore, Paul failed the second part of the test of Deuteronomy 18.  Hence, according to the Bible, Paul was a false prophet.

In my next post, I will discuss whether Muhammad (pbuh) passed or failed the test of Deuteronomy 18, inshaAllah.

islamispeace wrote: Now that the issue regarding Deuteronomy 19 has hopefully been cleared up, we can investigate which person, Muhammad (pbuh) or Paul, met the Torah's test of a prophet or any person claiming to be the recipient of God's message.

Well, how can one even come close to being a messenger of God if he cannot follow a simple Law? Unless of course he thinks he is above the Law and can break them at will, I don�t think you want to go there with me on that one!

But let me remind you, the post is not on prophet hood but whether or not the revelations of these men were true. That will determine whether or not they were sent by God.

islamispeace wrote: The differences in these verses are self-evident.  One would think that the "inspired" authors of the New Testament would not have written contradictory accounts of the same story

Seriously, this is all you have when no enemy of Christianity (Roman or Jew), scholars or historian said otherwise until the 19^th Century, not even ancient Islam?

The only thing evident here is that you are entitled to an opinion and that no two people who see and explain the same thing the same.

islamispeace wrote: Clearly, Paul spoke in the name of Jesus and worshiped him as "God", which is of course nothing new

Another weak attempt by Islamispeace to assume what Paul is saying here. Throughout the Holy Scriptures including the fourteen books the Apostle Paul wrote in the New Testament, they all clearly differentiate God and Christ.

Henry Alford, in The Greek Testament, states: �I would submit that [a rendering that clearly differentiates God and Christ, at Titus 2:13] satisfies all the grammatical requirements of the sentence: that it is both structurally and contextually more probable, and more agreeable to the Apostle�s way of writing.��(Boston, 1877), Vol. III, p. 421.

�of the great God and of our Savior Christ Jesus� The Riverside New Testament, Boston and New York.

�of the great God and of our Saviour Christ Jesus� A New Translation of the Bible, by James Moffatt, New York and London.

�of the great God and of our Savior Jesus Christ� La Sainte Bible, by Louis Segond, Paris

�of the great God and of our Savior Christ Jesus� The New American Bible, New York and London.

In this place we find two nouns connected by καί (kai, �and�), the first noun being preceded by the definite article του̃ (tou, �of the�) and the second noun without the definite article. This indicates that when two distinct persons are connected by καί, if the first person is preceded by the definite article it is not necessary to repeat the definite article before the second person.

A detailed study of the construction in Tit 2:13 is found in The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel and Other Critical Essays, by Ezra Abbot, Boston, 1888, pp. 439-457

Again, Paul was talking about two distinct persons as shown throughout the rest of his writings. Nice try anyway.             

islamispeace wrote: 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18

This means that the first resurrection begun early in Christ�s presence, and it continues �during his presence.� So, he did return, first in the flesh, then spirit. How else was he able to talk to the Apostle Paul while on the road to Damascus? (1 Corinthians 15:23) What you also failed to grasp is that rather than occurring all at once, the first resurrection takes place over a period of time.

Everything Paul said came true. That is why no one contested what Paul and that small ban of Christians wrote, it was part of the then known history and nothing has changed. Of course NOW in this day and age modern-day skeptics wants to say otherwise.