Is Jesus the Lamb of God?

 

By Abdullah Raheem

 

 

John is the only gospel that portrays Jesus as "Lamb of God" but Jesus never applied the title for himself. Augustine developed the titles for the Roman Catholic Church; he also developed the "original sin". The apostles never claimed Jesus was God-incarnate, let alone God's lamb. There was a Jewish sect called the Ebionites who accepted Jesus as the Messiah, but they never said he was God's son.  

Jesus denied sacrifice (Matt. 9:13, 12:7, Hosea 6:6) and preached the Law of Moses (Matt. 5:17-20) which contradicts Atonement (Deu. 24:16, Psalms 40:6, Micah 6:7-8). Christians believe the exact opposite of the Bible (Proverbs. 21:18). 

John the Baptist is forced to call Jesus the "Lamb of God" (John 1:29), but John was a strict Essene; he never could’ve used this pagan title! Jesus is called "Lamb of God" because he took away the sins of mankind, yet the title is false because Jesus was not crucified (Psalms 20:6) so therefore he was not the Lamb of God. 

The Prophet Muhammad warned us: 

I heard the Prophet saying, "Do not exaggerate in praising me as the Christians praised the son of Mary, for I am only a Slave. So, call me the Slave of Allah and His Apostle." (Narrated 'Umar, Sahih Bukhari)

 

Basically, the Holy Prophet rejected all forms of extremism. The Holy Quran is clear and simple, God is worshipped alone and the Prophet is a Messenger and Slave.

 

Muhammad is the apostle of Allah, and those who are with him are strong against Unbelievers, (but) compassionate amongst each other. Thou wilt see them bow and prostrate themselves (in prayer), seeking Grace from Allah and (His) Good Pleasure. (Al-Quran 48:29)

 

All human beings are servants of God (1 Peter 2:16), so it’s blasphemy to worship Jesus. The Gospels record Jesus saying:
 

'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.' (Matthew 15:8-10) 
 

"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.".  (Luke 6:47-49) 
 

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Matthew 7:21-23)
 

The origin of “Lamb of God” is the Book of Revelations, which is completely unreliable.

"Four times the author identifies himself as John (1:1,4,9; 22:8).....In the third century, however, an African bishop named Dionysius compared the language, style and thought of the Apocalypse (Revelation) with that of the other writings of John and decided that the book could not been written by the apostle of John.  He suggested that the author was a certain John the Presbyter, whose name appears elsewhere in ancient writings.  Although many today follow Dionysius in his view of authorship, the external evidence seems overwhelmingly supportive of the traditional view.  (From the NIV Bible Commentary, page 1922)"

“…In determining the canon, both Tradition and Magisterium come into play, as is logical, since the books of the Bible cannot canonize themselves. For diverse reasons, some of the books of the New Testament were doubted in the first centuries of the Church…These included the Letter to the Hebrews, the Letter of James, the Book of Revelation, the Letters of 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Jude. In some cases, as in the Letter to the Hebrews and 2 and 3 John, there were questions of authenticity – some doubted that they were truly written by Saints Paul and John the apostle. [1] 

Yet, as a matter of fact, every book in the New Testament with the exception of the four great Epistles of St. Paul is at present more or less the subject of controversy, and interpolation are asserted even in these (Encyclopedia Britannica, 12^th edition, vol. 3, Chicago: E.B. Inc., 1922. p. 643) [2] 

The author Kersey Graves mentions in The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors that “Lamb of God” was very common:

 

Was Jesus Christ the "Lamb of God?" (John i. 9.) So was Chrishna styled "the Holy Lamb." The Mexicans, preferring a full- grown sheep, had their "Ram of God." The Celts had their "Heifer of God," and the Egyptians their Bull of God." All these terms are ludicrous emblems of Deity, representing him as a quadruped, as the title "Lamb of God" does Jesus Christ, a term no less ludicrous than the titles of the pagan Gods as cited above. [1]

 

The Church borrowed the pagan title and gave it to Jesus:

 

It needs to be better known that the true sign of Christianity for the earliest centuries of Church history was not a crucifix---a  cross bearing the figure of Jesus---but either a bare cross or one with a lamb fastened to it. In the entire iconography of the catacombs, no figure of a man on a cross appears for the first six or seven centuries of the era.  It will come as a surprise to many that the first known figure of a god on a cross is a likeness of the sun god Orpheus from some three centuries B.C.E. The crucifix on the amulet on the cover of The Jesus Mysteries, by Freke and Gandy, clearly depicts this image. Not until 692, in the reign of Emperor Justinian, was it decreed by the Church (through the Trullan Council) that the figure of the historical Jesus on the cross should supersede that of “the lamb, as in former times”. (Tom Harper, The Pagan Christ, pp. 45-46)

 

The Muslim scholar Lawrence Brown says:

 

“…Many may choose to reserve judgment based on nothing more than the simple fact that, once again, the Christian world itself does not agree on the meaning or significance of this concept of ‘lambness’. Others question the Bible translation and canonization while still others encounter difficulty coupling Old and New Testament ‘lamb of God’ references to form a reasonable chain of logic. And there should be no surprise – even John the Baptist, from whose mouth the term supposedly took origin, seemed to have trouble with the term. The Christian claim is that John the Baptist knew who Jesus was, and positively identified him as the ‘lamb of God’ in John 1:29. But if John the Baptist knew Jesus so well as to identify him with certainty in John 1:29, why, then did he question Jesus years later, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3). Amongst those who have difficulty rectifying Old and New Testament references are the Catholic clergy themselves. (The First and Final Commandment, p. 224)

 

According to the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament:

 

“amnos. Attested from classifcal times and used in the LXX, this word occurs four times in the NT, always with reference to Jesus as the innocent lamb who suffers vicariously for others (Jn. 1:29, 36; Acts 8:32; 1 Pet. 1:19). Since Judaism does not call the Redeemer a lamb, two derivations have been sought: first, in the that the servant of the Lord in Is. 53:17 (cf. Acts 3:13; 4:27) is compared to a lamb (cf. Acts 8:32), and second, in that Jesus was crucified at the Passover and thus came to be seen as the paschal lamb (1 Cor. 5:7). The Aramaic might also offer a basis with its use of the same word for both “lamb” and “boy or servant”. Thus the Baptist in Jn. 1:29, 36 might have been describing Jesus as the servant of God who takes away the sin of the world in vicarious self-offering. (Kittel, Gerhard and Gerhard Friedrich, p. 54)

 

The scholar Lawrence Brown comments:

 

“Finally, there is the now-familiar pattern of Jesus bearing the label of ‘amnos’ in the gospel of John and in none of the other gospels, which once again implies some degree of unimportance, or at the very least, lack of substantiation. Perhaps the terminology was judged by three out of four gospel writers not to be sufficient significance to warrant mention. Perhaps it was never said in the first place, or perhaps it was not stated with the meaning into which the Greek has been translated. Assuming the phrase was stated in the first place, had the original meaning been ‘servant of God’ instead of ‘lamb of God’, the other three gospel authors are to be applauded for having refused to corrupt the message into an abstract recipe of ‘lambness’. Alternatively, if the Bible is to be trusted as the word of God, a person is forced to conclude that God did not see fit to reveal or inspire this knowledge to three of the four gospel authors. (ibid, 225)

 

The Israelites used to sacrifice a lamb on the Day of Atonement, but Jesus was not a lamb. Jesus wasn’t even crucified! The Old Testament teaches that human sacrifice is wrong.

 

And after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, "How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same." You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. (Deuteronomy 12:30-31)

 

Human sacrifice is a pagan ritual which dates back thousands of years. Jesus could not have been a ‘human sacrifice’ because the practice was not Jewish, but pagan. The Jews believed they’d crucified Jesus to prove he was false (Deu. 13:5, 21:23), yet God saved Jesus from the cross (Psalms 20:6).

Blood sacrifice is the oldest and most universal act of piety. The offering of animals, including the human animal, dates back at least twenty thousand years, and, depending on how you read the scanty archaeological evidence, arguably back to the earliest appearance of humanity. Many religions recount the creation of man through the bloody sacrifice of a God-man--a divinity who is torn apart to sow the seeds of humanity. (Patrick Tierney, The Highest Altar: The Story of Human Sacrifice, Acharya’s Suns of God)

"The worship of suffering gods was to be found on all sides, and the belief in the torture of the victims in the rites of human sacrifice for the redemption from sin was very general. The gods Osiris, Attis, Adonis, Dionysos, Herakles, Prometheus, and others, had all suffered for mankind; and thus the Servant of Yahweh was also conceived as having to be wounded for' men's transgressions. But as I say, this conception had passed into the background in the days of Jesus" (The Paganism in Our Christiantiy, Arthur Weigall, 1928, p106)

 

Jesus was teaching his disciples in the outer court of the Temple and one of them said unto him: Master, it is said by the priests that without shedding of blood there is no remission. Can then the blood offering of the law take away sin? And Jesus answered: No blood offering, of beast or bird, or man, can take away sin, for how can the conscience be purged from sin by the shedding of innocent blood? Nay, it will increase the condemnation. (Gospel of the Nazorenes, online Source)

 

God hates human sacrifice:

The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin. (Deuteronomy 24:16)

The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. (Ezekiel 18:20)

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. (Isaiah 1:11)

Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:7-8) 

Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. (Psalms 40:6)
 

To do justice and judgment [is] more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. (Proverbs 21:3) 
 

But go ye and learn what [that] meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Matthew 9:13)

God can easily forgive sins, we don’t need human sacrifices:

"I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. (Isaiah 43:25)

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. (Psalms 103:8)

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness (Exodus 34:6) 

It’s pretty clear that Christianity contradicts the Bible, and the Bible refutes Christianity.
 

Jesus said that he had come to uphold the law and not to destroy it one jot or one tithe. Jesus was educated in the synagogue in Jerusalem from the age of twelve. He preached in the synagogue. He used to keep the synagogue clean. No Christian today can be found performing these actions. How many Christians have been even been circumcised in the manner that Jesus was? The services now held in today’s churches were developed long after Jesus had disappeared. Many of them come directly from the pagan Graeco-Roman mythological rites. The prayers they use are not the prayers which Jesus made. The hymns they sing are not the praises which Jesus sung. Due to the innovations of Paul and his followers, there is no revealed teaching left as to what to eat and what not to eat. Anyone given a “Christian education” today eats what he feels like. Yet Jesus and his true followers only ate kosher meat and were forbidden to eat pig’s flesh”. (Jesus, Prophet of Islam, 1992 edition, p. 199-200)

 

“…Christianity was not built on the Bible. Christianity began long before the Bible was written and developed independently of the Bible. Some of Christianity’s central doctrines are contrary to the Bible; herein lies the problem. (Shabir Ally, [1]

If Jesus died for the “sins of the world” as the lamb, why did the apostles continue to sacrifice lambs?

 

“…Also, note that some scholars such as Thomas McElwain consider the belief that Jesus has already paid the whole price for sin as a later belief, one unknown to any of the disciples of the first century. They argue that "the followers of Jesus Christ went on participating in the sacrificial system of the temple in Jerusalem until its destruction in AD 70" and "the apostolic church, for more than a generation after the ascension of Jesus, still offered the Old Testament sacrifices." [1]

 

The early Christians doubted Jesus was crucified, that’s why they continued to sacrifice lambs!

 

Jesus is recorded to have said:

 

No blood offering, of beast or bird, or man, can take away sin, for how can the conscience be purged from sin by the shedding of innocent blood? Nay, it will increase the condemnation. (Gospel of the Nazarenes, online Source)

 

There are multiple accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion: 

“The Christians have dozens of different versions, rather than one universally agreed view, regarding the crucifixion of the Messiah. This in itself is an eloquent testimony that the Christians were doubtful about the actual event. Some of them held the view that the one who was crucified was someone other than Jesus and that Jesus himself in fact remained standing somewhere nearby, laughing at their folly… Had the truth been fully known and well-established so many divergent views could not have gained currency”. (Towards Understanding the Quran, Vol 2, Sayyid Abul Ala Mawdudi, p. 108) 

We have to believe God saved Jesus from crucifixion: 

Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand. (Psalms 20:6)
 

"Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm." (1Chronicles 16:22) 
 

LORD God, do not reject your anointed one. Remember the great love promised to David your servant. (2Chronicles 6:42)
 

Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore. (Psalms 18:5)
 

The LORD [is] their strength, and he [is] the saving strength of his anointed.(Psalms 28:8)
 

Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.(Psalms 84:9)
 

Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; (Hebrews 5:7) 

The Greek word ‘Christ’ means the ‘anointed’. Jesus was anointed, so therefore he was saved from crucifixion.