Apologetics: Flippin’ Fatwa Friday – No. Muhammad Isn’t in The Bible.

One of the impromptu series of shorts that I’m doing on my YouTube channel is one addressing the claim that the Bible prophesies the coming of Muhammad. Now, for any of us who have read the Bible, the claim that the Bible prophesies Muhammad’s coming is absurd. The closest the Bible comes to saying anything about Muhammad (or really any other “prophet”) is in the numerous verses and passages warning about false teachers. However, the Muslims keep pushing on with this utter lie, so let’s take a look at some of the most popular scriptures that they take out of context.

#1: Deut 18:18

Deuteronomy 18:18 is one of the passages that is constantly taken out of context by Muslims. This passage says:

18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you [Moses] from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.

According to Muslims, Muhammad fits the bill. They claim that Muhammad was like Moses in that he spoke to God, led people, and established a sort of new covenant. As for the part about the person needed to be an Israelite, that’s irrelevant! After all, some translations of this verse say, “from among their brethren” instead of the vastly more specific “fellow Israelites.” Thus, since Ishmael, the father of the Arab people was Issac’s half-brother, it’s close enough, right?

Except it’s not.

The main issue here is that “from among their brethren” would have been understood by the Israelites as God specifying that the one to come must be an Israelite. Muhammad, however, was Arab, which, at best, made him a distant cousin of the Israelites through Ishmael. Because of that alone, he can’t be the one being spoken about, especially since nowhere in the Bible are the Ishmaelites considered brethren in any way.

Additionally, Muhammad fails to be a prophet like Moses in other ways. While he claimed to speak to Allah directly during the Night Journey, the vast majority of his revelations were received from Gabriel. Meanwhile, Moses never had any intermediary to give him messages from God. He spoke directly to Him. This means that Muhammad fails on two other accounts; he didn’t speak the words God directly put in his mouth, and it’s – at best – questionable if he ever spoke to God (or what he thought was God) face to face.

Even more damning is that while Moses performed miracles and signs and wonders, Muhammad did not. In fact, numerous times throughout the Quran, it denies that he ever performed any miracles. (On the off chance that it does say he performed a miracle such as the splitting of the moon, that’s yet another contradiction in the Quran.)

The final bit of evidence that Muhammad couldn’t be the prophet spoken about is the fact that in the same chapter of Deuteronomy, we find it saying this in verse 19-22:

19 And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

By this standard, Muhammad fails miserably, as according to numerous Islamic scholars, Muhammad recited the “Satanic Verses,” in which he told the people of Mecca that it was totally fine to pray to three goddesses already worshipped there for intercession with Allah. Later, when questioned about it, Muhammad replied that Satan had given him those verses. That’s also not even mentioning the various prophecies he made that never came true.

#2: John 14:16-17

Of all the worst places to try to arbitrarily shove Muhammad, the Gospel of John is easily the worst, as it’s the most overtly theological of all the Gospels.

According to Muslims, when Jesus talks about sending an advocate, that this advocate/”Spirit of Truth” is Muhammad. However, Jesus makes it very clear in John 14:26 that the advocate/”Spirit of Truth” is the Holy Spirit.

Because of this, the Muslims switch gears and say that the Holy Spirit is just another term for Gabriel. However, the issue with that is the Quran never supports this understanding. For example, in Surah 15:28-29 when Allah is creating Man, he says that he will breathe into it his spirit. If this spirit is to be understood as the Holy Spirit as found in the Bible, then it would seem that the Quran affirms the existence of the Holy Spirit (though it seems extremely disjointed in its understanding of it.) If this is Gabriel, however, then the question must be asked why Allah had a finite being help in creation.

Moreover, we can also look at how the Quran records Mary’s conception of Jesus. Once again, we see that Allah’s Spirit breathed into Mary to create Jesus. However, al-Tabari clarifies that this spirit was none other than Gabriel. Thus, if only Allah is capable of creation, then if his spirit is Gabriel, then Gabriel is Allah as he is an active participant in creating everything. Either the Spirit is Allah and not Gabriel, or the spirit is Gabriel, meaning that either Allah is Gabriel or there are multiple gods.

Even more damning is that the idea of Allah’s spirit doesn’t line up well with the Biblical understanding of the Holy Spirit. The Biblical understanding is that the Holy Spirit is God (as in the third person of the Trinity), and is referred to as personal, is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent, is a person, is the author of regeneration, is creator, is Israel’s redeemer, etc. In the Bible whenever an angel appears, they never identify themselves with the Holy Spirit. The authors of the Old and New Testaments certainly didn’t consider the angels to be the Holy Spirit, as they always clarify that the being is an angel of God. Thus, this arguments falls flat on its face.

#3: John 16:7

See #2, as John 16:7 is part of the Farewell/Upper Room Discourse that Jesus gave during the Last Supper, which spans chapters 13-17 of the Gospel of John.

#4: Daniel 7:13

This is a less commonly used passage, but some Muslims will say that this is referring to the Night Journey. However, unless they think that you should worship Muhammad (as it’s said that the one prophesied will be worshipped by “all nations and peoples of every language,”) then this isn’t referring to Muhammad’s coming. This is clearly talking about Jesus and was why He called Himself the “Son of Man.”

#5: Isaiah 42:1-11

To say that this passage refers to Muhammad is not only an example of isogesis, but is simply bad hermeneutics. Isaiah 42:1-11 is part of the four Servant Songs and when all of them are taken into consideration, they paint a startlingly clear picture of the life and death of Jesus. Because of that, to use this passage to support the idea that Muhammad was prophesied in the Bible is a painfully dishonest argument, as it ignores the broader context of the chapter.

Until next time,

M.J.