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JESUS AND THE COMFORTER
“Whenever Muslims seek
to prove that Muhammad is foretold in the New Testament, they
immediately appeal to the promise of Jesus that the "Comforter" would
follow him and claim that this Comforter was Muhammad (particularly as
in the Qur'an, Jesus is alleged to have foretold the coming of Muhammad
in Surah 61.6 in similar language). Whereas the Revised Standard Version
uses the word "Counsellor" rather than "Comforter", we shall use the
word "Comforter" throughout this chapter because it is more familiar to
the Muslims. The texts where the Comforter is mentioned by Jesus are:
"And I will pray the
Father, and he will give you another Comforter, to be with you for
ever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with
you, and will be in you." John 14.16-17.
"But the Comforter, the
Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you
all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to
you." John 14.26
"But when the Comforter
comes, whom I shall send you from the Father, even the Spirit of
Truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me." John
15.26
"Nevertheless I tell you
the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go
away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him
to you." John 16.7
It is generally
alleged by Muslims that the Greek word "paracletos" (meaning Comforter,
Counsellor, Advocate, etc., in effect, one who unites men to God) is not
the original word but that Jesus in fact foretold the coming of Muhammad
by name and that the translation of his name into Greek (or at least the
meaning of his name in Greek) is "periklutos", that is, the "praised
one." There is not a shred of evidence in favour of the assertion that
the original word was "periklutos." We have thousands of New Testament
manuscripts pre-dating Islam and not one of these contains the word "periklutos."
In view of the fact that Muslims are prone to levelling false
allegations that Christians are regularly changing the Bible, it is
rather intriguing to find that they have no scruples about doing this
themselves when it suits them to do so. In any event a cursory reading
of the texts where the word "paracletos" appears will show that this is
the only word that suits the context as I will show in one instance
later on in this chapter.
Some wiser Muslims
admit that "paracletos" is correct, but they claim in any event that
Muhammad was the Comforter whom Jesus was referring to. Let us briefly
examine some of the texts in a truly exegetical manner to discover
whether Muhammad is indeed the Comforter whose coming Jesus foretold. It
is quite obvious from the four texts quoted that Comforter, Holy Spirit,
and Spirit of Truth are interchangeable terms and that Jesus is speaking
of the same person in each instance. The one obvious fact that emerges
is that the Comforter is a spirit. (The fact that Jesus always speaks of
the Spirit in the masculine gender in no way suggests that the Comforter
must be a man as some of the publications in the Bibliography suggest.
God himself is always spoken of in both the Bible and the Qur'an in the
masculine gender and God is spirit — John 4.24. In the same way Jesus
always speaks of the Comforter as a spirit and not as a man).
If we apply sound
exegesis to John 14.16-17 we shall discover no less than eight reasons
why the Comforter cannot possibly be Muhammad.
1. "He will give YOU
another Comforter."
Jesus promised his
disciples that God would send the Comforter to them. He would send the
Spirit of Truth to Peter, and to John, and to the rest of the disciples
— not to Meccans. Medinans or Arabians.
2. "He will give you
ANOTHER Comforter."
If, as Muslims
allege, the original word was periklutos and that Christians changed it
into paracletos, then the sentence would have read, "He will give you
another praised one." This statement is both out of place in its context
and devoid of support elsewhere in the Bible. Jesus is never called the
"periklutos" in the Bible (the word appears nowhere in the Bible) so it
is grossly unlikely that he would have said "He will give you another
praised one" when he never used that title for himself. Worse still, as
the Muslims allege that he actually foretold the coming of Muhammad by
mentioning his name, the sentence in that case would have read "He will
give you another Muhammad." The further the Muslims try to press the
point, the more absurd it tends to become. John 16.12-13 makes it clear
that the word "paracletos" is obviously the correct one. The text reads:
"I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth."
In other words, I have been your Comforter, your paracletos, and have
many things to tell you, but I send the Spirit of Truth to you, another
Comforter, another paracletos.
In 1 John 2.1 we read
that Christians have an "advocate" with the Father, "Jesus Christ the
Righteous", and the word translated "advocate" is paracletos in the
Greek. So Jesus is our paracletos, our Comforter and advocate with the
Father, and he promised to give his disciples another Comforter. It is
therefore logical to find that Jesus promised another paracletos when he
himself was described as the paracletos of his followers, but it is
illogical to suggest that he would speak of "another periklutos" when
the word was never used to describe him in the first place.
3. "To be with you
FOREVER."
When Muhammad came he
did not stay with his people forever but died in 632 AD and his tomb is
in Medina where his body has lain for over 1300 years. Nevertheless
Jesus said that the Comforter, once he had come, would never leave his
disciples, but would be with them forever.
4. "The Spirit of
Truth whom the world CANNOT receive."
The Qur'an says that
Muhammad came as a universal messenger to men (Surah 34.28). If so,
Jesus was not referring to Muhammad for he said that the world cannot
receive the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth.
5. "You KNOW him."
It is quite obvious
from this statement that the disciples knew the Spirit of Truth. As
Muhammad was only born more than five hundred years later, it certainly
could not be him. The next clause brings out just how the disciples knew
him. At this stage we can see quite clearly that the Comforter is a
spirit who was in the disciples' presence already.
6. "He dwells WITH
you."
Where did the
Comforter dwell with them? From various verses, especially John 1.32, we
can see that the Spirit was in Jesus himself and so was with the
disciples.
7. "He will be IN
you."
Here the death-blow
is dealt to the theory that Muhammad is the Comforter, the Spirit of
Truth. As the Spirit was in Jesus, so he would be in the disciples as
well. The Greek word here is "en" and this means "right inside." So
Jesus was in fact saying "he will be right inside you."
8. The last reason is
really a re-emphasis of the first one. Do you notice how often Jesus
addresses his own disciples when he speaks of the sphere of influence of
the Comforter? "You know him ... he dwells with you ... he will be in
you." Quite clearly the disciples were to anticipate the coming of the
Comforter as a spirit who would come to them just after Jesus had left
them. No other interpretation can possibly be drawn from this text. Only
wishful thinking makes the Muslims allege that Muhammad was foretold by
Jesus, but a practical interpretation of the texts destroys this
possibility. . . .
What no eye has seen, nor
ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for
those who love him, God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For
what person knows a man's thoughts except the spirit of the man which
is in him? So no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit
of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the
spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed
on us by God. 1 Corinthians 2.9-13.
Paul makes it plain
that the Spirit had already been given and if it had not, it could not
have been to any advantage to the disciples to be without Jesus once he
had ascended to heaven.
So it is abundantly
proved that Muhammad is not the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, whose
coming Jesus foretold. Who is the Comforter then? He is the very Spirit
of the living God as can be seen from some of the quotations already
given. On the day when the Comforter duly came upon the disciples, his
coming was accompanied by a tremendous sound, "like the rush of a mighty
wind" (Acts 2.2). When the Jews heard this, they rushed together to see
what was happening. Peter declared to them all:
"This is what was spoken
by the prophet Joel: 'And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.' " Acts 2.16-17.
The Comforter, the
Spirit of God, had come down on the disciples as Jesus had promised and
was to be given to believing Christian men and women from every nation
under the sun. . . . The Comforter is also called "the Spirit of Christ"
(Romans 8. 9) and the reason is plain from what Jesus said:
1. "He will glorify
me" (John 16.14).
2. "He will bear
witness to me" (John 15.26).
3. "He will convince
the world concerning sin because they do not believe in me" (John 16.
8-9).
4. "He will take what
is mine and declare it to you" (John 16.14).
5. "He will bring to
your remembrance all that I have said to you" (John 14.26).
Quite obviously the
great work of the Comforter is to bring people to Jesus, to make them
see him as Saviour and Lord, and to draw them to him. The Comforter was
given so that the glory of Jesus might be revealed to men and in men. A
beautiful example of this is given by the Apostle John:
His disciples did not
understand this at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they
remembered that this had been written of him and done to him. John
12.16
Without the Spirit,
they had no understanding, but when they received the Spirit after Jesus
was glorified, then they remembered as Jesus said they would. John
illustrates this in this passage as well:
On the last day of the
feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, 'If any one
thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the
scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living
water'. Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in
him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because
Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7.37-39.
As soon as Jesus was
glorified the Spirit was given so that the glory of Jesus in heaven
might become real to men here on earth. As Peter said (Acts 2.33), once
Jesus was exalted at the right hand of God, the Spirit was freely given
to his disciples.
Again Peter said,
"The God of our fathers glorified Jesus" (Acts 3.13). We cannot see or
comprehend this glory of Jesus here on earth (and Jesus himself said, "I
do not receive glory from men" John 5.41), but he sent the Spirit so
that we might behold this glory by the eye of faith. As Jesus himself
said to his disciples of the Spirit:
"He will glorify me, for
he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father
has is mine, therefore I said that he will take what is mine and
declare it to you." John 16.14-15.
The Holy Spirit is
the Spirit of God and he is given to all true believers so that the
glory of Jesus in heaven may become real to men on earth. John makes it
plain how a man receives the Holy Spirit:
Now this he spoke about
the Spirit, which those who BELIEVED in him were to receive. John 7.39
To receive the
Comforter, the Spirit of God, one must believe in Jesus and surrender
body and soul to him. Without the Spirit no one sees or believes in the
glory of Christ, but for those who are his true followers and who are
sanctified by the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1.2), Peter says:
Without having seen him,
you love him, though you do not now see him, you believe in him and
rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith
you obtain the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1.8-9.
The distinction
between those who have received the Spirit and those who have not, those
who have beheld the glory of Christ and those who have not, comes out
very clearly as Peter continues to speak to his fellow-believers:
To you therefore who
believe, he is precious, but for those who do not believe, 'The very
stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner'.
1 Peter 2.7
The Bible says much
about the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, but the great and most
handsome work of the Spirit is summed up in Jesus' words:
"He WILL GLORIFY ME." John
16.14
Although the Spirit
had been at work in the world before the advent of Jesus Christ, and had
indeed filled many of the great prophets and men of old with a longing
for the coming Christ, he only finally united himself to men, and men to
God, and indeed true believers to one another after the resurrection and
ascension of Christ to heaven.
Jesus Christ spoke to
his own disciples of the coming of the Comforter because the Spirit was
sent down to comfort and regenerate all true believers in Jesus. This is
one of the most significant and consistent elements of the teaching of
Jesus about the Comforter. The prime purpose of the coming of the
Comforter . . . was to draw men to him so that those who are influenced
by the work of the Comforter will therefore become followers of Jesus.
It is further evidence against the theory that Muhammad was the
Comforter for, whereas the Comforter would not speak of himself but only
of Jesus, Muhammad drew attention away from Jesus to himself, describing
himself as the ultimate apostle of God to be followed and obeyed. The
Comforter was never to do a thing like this. Jesus made it plain that
the Comforter would draw the attention and faith of all men to himself
and would glorify him before the eyes of faith of true believers as the
Lord of glory in heaven.
After Jesus Christ
had ascended to heaven to be glorified at the right hand of God above
all the angels and departed saints, the Comforter came immediately upon
his disciples to make this glory real to them and through them to spread
it all over the world. For Jesus Christ is the very image of the
Father's glory. In him are all things united, whether in heaven or on
earth. He is the climax of God's plan for the fullness of time. He is
the beginning and the end of all God's gracious work in all ages — for
all the salvation and glory that God has prepared for those who love him
are vested in Jesus.
The Comforter came to
give us a foretaste of this glory. He came to make the resplendent glory
of Jesus real to those who follow him. As Moses encouraged his people to
look forward to the prophet who would be like him, who would mediate a
new covenant to save all who truly believe, so the Comforter encourages
Christ's followers in this age to look up to the risen, ascended, Lord
Jesus Christ who sits on the throne of God in eternal glory above the
heavens.
Far from Muhammad
being foretold in the Bible, every prophecy, every agent of God, every
true prophet and spirit, looks upward towards the radiance of the
Father's glory, the one who sits upon the throne, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ ascended to heaven — God took him to himself. For Jesus
alone is the Redeemer of the world. He alone is able, as a man, to enter
the holy presence of the Father's throne and fill it with his own
glorious majesty. So likewise he is able to reconcile sinful men to God
and will one day be seen again in all his splendour as he comes to call
his own — those who eagerly awaited his coming before his time and all
those who since his sojourn on this earth look forward to his return
from heaven — to be with him where he is to behold with awe the glory
which the Father gave him in his love for him before the foundation of
the world.
Moses rejoiced to see
his day when speaking of the prophet to come. The Comforter today still
rejoices to reveal his glory and majesty to those in whom he dwells. The
angels and departed saints await with longing for the day when he shall
be revealed to all the universe in all his magnificence — when all men
shall be raised from the dead to see the Son of man coming on the clouds
of heaven with power and great glory, a day when the Comforter's work
will be finally completed, a day when every knee shall bow and every
tongue confess that it is Jesus Christ who is Lord — to the everlasting
glory of God the Father — Amen!”
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