Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 169
169 The alleged Divinity of Jesus is sometimes supported on the ground that Jesus called himself the son of God or that he is so designated in some book. This is an idea which deserves to be laughed at. In the Bible many men are designated as the sons of God and to some even the epinhet God is applied. They all, therefore, belong to the same category aud one of them cannot become a God to the exclusion of all others. Even if the title son of God had not been used for any one besides Jesus, it would have been absurd. to interpret it literally and draw from it an argument for the divinity of Jesus, for such metaphors abound in the Word of God. But when the title on whose basis divinity is claimed for ^Tesus is freely applied to others in the Bible, it ceases to have the slightest force as an argument for his divinity, and if it has, it at the same time proves the divinity of all those to whom it is applied. In short, the plan suggested by the Christian belief should not be depended upon for salvation, for it fails to provide the true remedy for sin. On the other hand, it is itself a sin that a man should commit suicide thinking that others would be saved thereby. I can say on oath that Jesus did not offer' himself to be crucified, but he was in the hands of his enemies who subjected him to all sorts of cruelties. He prayed to God to save him from the accursed death on the cross and wept-the whole night long. Then,. was he hard because of his righteousness and his prayer was accepted and he was saved from death upon the cross, as appears from the Gospels themselves. It is, therefore, a false accusation against Jesus that he commit- ted suicide by designedly subjecting himself to death. Moreover reason itself condemns the theory that Peter should be cured of his headache by John's knocking out his brains. We do admit that Jesus was a servant of God and. one of the perfect ones whom God purified with His own hands, but he or any other prophet