Answer
Salam (Peace),
Thank you for contacting About Islam with your question. Please find the second and final part of the answer to your question below. Find the first part at the link here.
You mention your version of the Bible, and I note the same person has translated the Old Testament from a manuscript different to the accepted Massoretic text.
This raises another issue, that of how Jesus (PBUH) is to be found in the Old Testament.
My understanding is that Christians are required to believe in the Old Testament. At least one Christian scholar claims Jesus (PBUH) is represented in the Old Testament by Jehovah.
I find this amazing. There is no ‘J’ in German or in Hebrew. It should be a ‘Y’, and similarly for ‘V’ it should be a ‘W’.
So, we would get YaHoWa. The vowel marks are to be taken from the pronunciation of Adonis/Adanai and so the ‘O’ could be a ‘U’ and hence we would get: Ya Huwa which every Arabic speaker would recognize as “O He”, meaning—O God.
Even if we look for a reference to Jesus (PBUH) in the Old or New Testament, we find in the Gospel that John the Baptist is asked:
[Are you the Christ? Are you Elijah? Are you that Prophet?] (John 1:20-21)
John the Baptist answers, No!
The Bible refers the reader to where God says:
[I will raise up one like unto you O Moses from among your brethren (…)] (Deuteronomy 18:18)
Now, everyone agrees Moses was a prophet. So, if Jesus is like Moses, is he a prophet as well or not? Here, the Christians are saying Jesus is a prophet.
Muslims actually disagree with this interpretation as the original question was in three parts, since John the Baptist had already denied being the Christ: “are you that Prophet?” must refer to a different person than Christ.
Muslims believe this to be Muhammad e.g. from the brothers (brethren) of the Jews: Isaac and Ismail (peace be upon them all).
God is God and man is man, Muslims do not believe in a God-man or a man-God. God does not exist in our space-time dimensions, this would limit God. We do not agree God is everywhere nor in us. But He is with us through His knowledge, which is over all things.
He created time and since He knows all things; the past, present, and future are all known to Him. There is no knowledge outside of His knowledge. He is closer to us than our jugular veins through His knowledge.
Muhammad (PBUH) asked a Bedouin woman: “Where is God?” She pointed upwards and he said: “She has Eman”, which equates to certitude rather than faith, as the Western understanding of faith can convey an element of doubt. Nothing happens except by God’s Grace and Permission.
Muslims only believe of God what He has chosen to reveal of Himself through His prophets. We can neither attribute anything to Him that He didn’t say, nor can we take away what He did say. This is missing in Christianity, as God, Himself, actually says very little in the Bible (see any Red Letter Bible for example) and the writer or the Church does the talking.
God tells us He can forgive all sins, but the one sin He will not forgive is shirk–associating others with Him—unless one gives up this association with God. Shirk suggests that He is not sufficient unto Himself but requires something outside of Himself, and this constitutes the greatest sin in Islam.
One comment on the “Trinity”, you mentioned the Pope said: “It’s a mystery”. Doesn’t the Bible say to ”prove all things” Thess. 5:21, not to take things on trust? Shouldn’t one do their own research in order to come to their understanding?
Without such research, this has shades of: “We found our forefathers doing it […]”, in other words, it is similar to blind faith. On a personal note, I went away from Christianity in the 1960s when the Church didn’t respond to the problems of the day, it was some eight years before I found Islam.
I hope this helps answer your question.
Salam and please keep in touch.
Please continue feeding your curiosity, and find more info in the following links:
Jesus: Is He God in Human Form?
Did Jesus Die to Bring Eternal Life To Man?