Question: “I read with surprise your argument in the book ‘God on Trial’ why Jesus is not lord or son of God. But do you have a word in my Holy Bible that deny the uncontroversial wonder when God clearly declared Jesus as his son at his baptisms“…the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. And a voice from heaven, saying, ‘this is my beloved son in him I am well pleased” Matthew 3: 16-17?

Answer: Thanks for your request! Personally I don’t have that kind of word to denounce God’s voice but there is Jesus words in the Bible that certainly do the work. As it is bound to be the nature of falsehood it will always contradicts and nullifies itself, so be it in the case of almost every biblical statement, there is a discriminator. No single verse exits in the Bible claims god or son of god for Jesus without another one denying it!The verse of your choice, “…the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. And a voice from heaven, saying, ‘this is my beloved son in him I am well pleased” Matthew 3: 16-17. Is one among hundreds of superstitions written by the Bible writers to portray Jesus as extraordinary being which is not acceptable by Islam as even evidenced by the Bible.We need to tell you that not only at the incident of Jesus’ baptism you quoted did God voice was heard by the people to show the status of Jesus but also towards his last minutes on earth. John 12: 28-30 read: Jesus said, “Father glorify thy name. Then, came there a voice from heaven saying, ‘I have glorified it and will glorify it again.’ The people, that stood by and heard it, said that it thundered; other said an angel spake to him. Jesus answered and said. ‘This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.”That is to say during the time of Jesus, people heard the voice of his father-the Biblical God! But how credible is this? If Jesus is said to be God Incarnate himself, and he was on earth with the people right there but he opened not his mouth before there came out the words from heaven, then it means Jesus is neither God nor part of God. Now, to this fact, Jesus himself once tried to introduce true God attributes to the Israelites was quoted to have said: “And the Father himself which sent me hath borne witness of me, Ye have neither heard his voice at anytime, nor seen his shape”  John 5: 37.  With this Jesus assertion, it nullifies both incidents where people were reported to have heard the ‘voice of God.’ If it is not God’s voice then it must be Satan’s or voice of the liars, falsehood, and mere conjecture of the Bible writers. And if Jesus is claimed to be the image of his father or god himself or like him, then the word, ‘nor seen his shape’ scatters that claim again!Muslims are not bothered about superstitions written as the Bible, it is for the Christians. We have our Quran intact that does not muddle up anything about Christ but placed him in the right position without false super-story. It is left to the Christians to pick between Jesus truth and falsehood of the scribes. It is either Jesus was telling frank truth, or the Bible writers are emotionally fraudulent or vice versa. Your choice destroys the other!Allah asks the Christians: “O people of the book! Why do you confound truth with falsehood and hide the truth knowingly” Q 3: 71. And wants them to know: “Surely, the Messiah (‘Jesus’) will never disdain to be a servant of Allah, nor will the angels near unto Allah, and whoso disdain to worship Him and feel proud, He will gather them all unto Himself” Q4: 172. You need to reflect and summit to the whole truth!May Allah make the acceptance of truth easy for you!