Unsurprisingly, the Most Popular Verse in the Entire Bible
Exposes Muhammad as a False Prophet and Antichrist
Paul Williams posted a meme of John 3:16 along with 17:3 to disprove the Trinity . Therefore, we are going to show how these texts not only affirm the Trinity if properly interpreted, but also prove that Muhammad was an agent of Satan sent to deceive people away from embracing the divinely revealed truth of the Trinity.
We begin by looking at the immediate context of John 3:16:
“‘No one has ascended to heaven except He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man who is in heaven. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but may have eternal life.’ For God so loved the world that He GAVE His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned. But he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the verdict, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that it may be revealed that his deeds have been done in God… He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness of what He has seen and heard, yet no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without measure to Him. The Father loves the Son, and has placed all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life. He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. John 3:13-21, 31-36
In this section, the blessed Apostle describes Jesus as the unique Son of God who reigns supreme above all things, with everything being placed under his sovereign control by the Father. More on this point later.
John also refers to Christ as the Light and the Son whom the prophet Isaiah foretold would someday be given, thereby identifying Christ as the Mighty God himself whom the prophet said would be born as a child in order to reign on David’s throne forever:
“Nevertheless there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time He contemptuously treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them the light has shined… For unto us a child is born, unto us A SON IS GIVEN, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, MIGHTY GOD (El Gibbor), Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:1-2, 6-7
The Evangelist even has Jesus performing the very functions that Isaiah said God himself would do, such as descending from heaven itself for the express purpose of personally saving mankind since God couldn’t find anyone else who could do so:
“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God. Strengthen the weak hands, and support the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, fear not. Your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; He will come and save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame man shall leap as a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For in the wilderness waters shall break out and streams in the desert.” Isaiah 35:1-6
“Declare and set forth your case; let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient times? Who has told it from that time? Have not I, the Lord? And there is no God besides Me, a righteous God and Savior; there is no other besides Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is no other.” Isaiah 45:21-22
“… Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was NO MAN and was astonished that there was NO INTERCESSOR; therefore, HIS OWN ARM brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness sustained Him. For He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay: fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; to the islands He will make recompense. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and His glory from the rising of the sun; when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. The Redeemer shall come to Zion and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob, says the Lord.” Isaiah 59:15b-20
“‘Who is this who comes from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah? This one who is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength?’ ‘It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.’ ‘Why is Your apparel red, and Your garments like him who treads in the wine vat?’ ‘I have trodden the winepress ALONE; and from the peoples there was NO ONE with Me. For I will tread them in My anger, and trample them in My fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will stain all My raiment. For the day of vengeance is in My heart, and My year of redemption has come. I looked and there was NO ONE to help, and I was astonished, and there was NO ONE to uphold; therefore, MY OWN ARM brought salvation to Me; and My fury upheld Me.” Isaiah 63:1-6
“Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might shake at Your presence,” Isaiah 64:1
This puts Williams in a bit of a dilemma. Since Isaiah says that the reason why God himself will personally come down someday to save the entire earth is because there was/is no one else capable of saving the world, this therefore proves that Jesus cannot be a mere creature. On the contrary, the Son must be God in essence in order for the Father to entrust him with the task of being the Savior of the whole world:
“Many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to remain with them. And He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His word. They said to the woman, ‘Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this Man is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.’” John 4:39-42
“If anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.” John 12:47
“And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” 1 John 4:14
There is simply no way around this fact.
This now brings us to the context of John 17:3:
“When Jesus spoke these words, He lifted His eyes toward heaven and said: ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may also glorify You. As You have given Him authority over all flesh, He will give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory which I had with You before the world existed… Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, that they may see My glory which You have given Me. For You loved Me before the creation of the world.’” John 17:1-5, 24
Here, Jesus claims to be God’s eternally beloved Son who personally existed alongside the Father in the same divine glory from before the creation of the world, and who can therefore demand to be glorified by the Father in the same way that the Son glorifies him!
To say that these are truly shocking assertions would be a wild understatement, especially when we take into consideration the OT’s explicit testimony that Yahweh does not share his glory with anyone else:
“For My own sake, even for My own sake, I will do it; for how can My name be polluted? And I will not give My glory to another.” Isaiah 48:11
Christ further claims to possess absolute authority over all flesh and to have the power to grant everlasting life to every individual that the Father gives to him. The Lord even goes as far as to identify himself as the One who shall raise all the dead at the last day and hour by the power of his sovereign voice!
“‘For I came down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who has sent Me, that of all whom He has given Me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.’ The Jews then murmured about Him, because He said, ‘I am the bread which came down from heaven.’ They said, ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, “I have come down from heaven”?’ Jesus therefore answered them, ‘Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who has sent Me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.’” John 6:38-44
And:
“For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He will… Truly, truly I say to you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given to the Son to have life in Himself… Do not marvel at this. For the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear HIS [the Son’s] voice and come out—those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” John 5:21, 25, 28-29
What makes this rather interesting is that the Quran itself bears witness to the fact that these are claims which only God can make, since it plainly teaches that God alone gives life to the dead and raises them up at the last hour:
That is because Allah, He is the Truth, and it is He Who gives life to the dead, and it is He Who is Able to do all things. And surely, the Hour is coming, there is no doubt about it, and certainly, Allah will resurrect those who are in the graves. S. 22:6-7 Hilali-Khan
Even the very title “the Truth” is attributed to Christ!
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, THE TRUTH, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” John 14:6
Thus, the only way that the Son could give everlasting life to everyone that the Father gives him, which happens to be a multitude so numerous that they cannot be counted,
“Then I looked. And there was a great multitude which no one could count, from all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out with a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, AND TO THE LAMB!’ All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying: ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.’ Then one of the elders asked me, “Who are these clothed in white robes, and where did they come from?’ I said to him, “Sir, you know.’ He said to me, ‘These are those who came out of great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. “They shall neither hunger any more, nor shall they thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them,” nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and “He will lead them to springs of living water.” “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”’” Revelation 7:9-17
And the only way that he could be able to resurrect the dead at the last day by the sound of his glorious and majestic voice is if he happens to be one with the true God in power, glory and essence.
In other words, Jesus has to be essentially coequal with the only true God for him to be able to perform all these divine tasks that the Father has assigned to him.
In fact, this is precisely the reason why the Father has entrusted all these divine assignments to his beloved Son to begin with, i.e., the Father knows that the Son is essentially one with him and therefore perfectly capable of carrying out all these divine works.
Now all of this ends up exposing Muhammad as a false prophet and an antichrist who happens to be under the glorious feet of the Lord Jesus:
“Who is a liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? Whoever denies the Father and the Son is the antichrist. No one who denies the Son has the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father.” 1 John 2:22-23
This is because Muhammad denied that his god was Jesus’ father, and further denied that Christ is the divine Son sent to save the world from all of its sins:
The Jews say, Ezra is the son of God: And the Christians say Christ is the son of God. They say this (only) with their mouths: They imitate the saying of those who were unbelievers in former times. May God curse them (literally: fight against them)! How can they be so infatuated? S. 9:30 Sale – cf. Q. 5:18; 6:101; 19:88-93; 21:26; 39:4; 72:3
And since our Lord plainly taught that all things have been entrusted to him, and that all flesh is under his sovereign authority,
“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He came from God and was going to God,” John 13:3
“All that the Father has is Mine. Therefore I said that He will take what is Mine and will declare it to you.” John 16:15 – cf. 17:2, 10
Muhammad is therefore subject to Christ (as are all Muslims), and will eventually bow down before the glorious feet of the Lord Jesus as the risen Lord passes judgment upon him, and upon all those who have refused to honor him as God’s beloved and unique Son:
“The Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all men should honor the Son, JUST AS they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” John 5:22-23
“Therefore God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11
And seeing that Williams is the one who appealed to John 3:16 and 17:3, he has no one else to thank but himself for all the problems his post has now raised for his Islamic beliefs.
All biblical references taken from the Modern English Version (MEV) of the Holy Bible.