Truth About The Crucifixion — Page 35
Galilee" (Matt. 26:32), does not cast any doubt on his deliverance from the cross. It is no wonder that a person who was nailed to the cross and had become unconscious so that he appeared to be dead, should, after regaining consciousness, feel that he had risen again. In this context, the expression "risen again" cannot mean coming back to life after suffering death. There is no doubt, however, that the deliverance of Jesus, in all the circumstances of his crucifixion, was a great miracle and was not a normal event. The Holy Quran affirms that neither the Jews, nor the Christians, had a firm belief that Jesus had died on the cross. God Almighty had created circumstances at the time of the crucifixion, wherefrom the Jews and the Christians assumed that Jesus had died on the cross, but they had no clear proof available to satisfy them that Jesus had died on the cross for certain. The evidence that has now become available establishes that God Almighty had delivered Jesus from death on the cross. God Almighty has caused the proofs and the reasons which had remained hidden, to be manifested in the days of the Promised Messiah, whereby it has been established, as clearly as the bright day, that Jesus did not die on the cross and that loved one of God was spiritually exalted. In this context the following pronouncement of the Promised Messiah as has great significance: "It was God's design that the shining weapon, and the truth disclosing reasoning, that should put an end to the doctrine of the cross, should be made manifest to the world by the Promised Messiah, inasmuch as the Holy Prophetsa had prophesied that the religion of the cross would not enter upon its decline, nor would its progress be restrained, till the Promised 27