Did Jesus Redeem Mankind? — Page 136
? 129 his own statements, he took himself to be the Son of God in the sense in which David (peace be on him) had called Israelites gods and sons of God. Similarly, the Bible has used the expressions, God, and sons of God, in respect of different people on several occasions. The Messiah (peace be on him) was, therefore, the Son of God in the same sense as the word, God, and sons of God, carried in the case of these people. The Christians generally mislead people into believing that the words, God and son of God, have been used in respect of the Messiah in a different sense. But the reference from John clearly stresses the point that he was not to call himself “Son of God" in the same sense as others had been described God or sons of God. If the term carried any other sense, the explanation offered by the Messiah (peace be on him) becomes nullified. The Messiah says that he did call himself Son of God but that did not make him a claimant to godhead for the simple reason that others before had been termed gods and sons of God. If it is said that the Messiah's claim was in a different sense, his whole argument fails. The Jews could have put it to him that the people of yore had been called sons of God in a sense different from the sense his claim implied. But the quotation of the above reference by the Messiah (peace be on him) shows clearly that he agreed that he claimed to be the Son of God in the sense in which the men of preceding generations had been described.