I received an attached file in my mailbox titled ‘Amazing’ on 17/4/14 and opening, it was an excerpt of the book of Isaiah 52: 13-15 and 53: 1-12 written in English and Hebrew with a cover note that read: “A PORTION OF THE BOOK OF PROPHET ISAIAH FOR PASSOVER. Passover 2014 runs from the evening of Monday April 14 until the evening of Tuesday April 22nd. The portion below was written down by the Prophet Isaiah, around 700BC- that is about 700 years before Yesu’a al-Masih came to Earth in fulfillment of this prophecy. If you reflect on the facts, this prophecy should amaze you!”

Yes! I was truly amazed when I read through the verses but amazement of cause may be excitement or disenchantment about a thing. It may be positive or negative amazement, and it may be great apprehension or admiration. As much as the portion seems convincing and genuine at face level, disenchantment comes when it was discovered to be muddled by falsehood and exaggeration! Here are what my amazement is all about on the portion.

My amazement struck at the kind of expression used to describe Jesus, the lord and god of Christians. The least belief, which is begotten son of God. How come is he being addressed as ‘servant’, a humble title known with Muslims? Isaiah 52:13 reads: “Look my servant shall deal prudently. He will be exalted and extolled and be very high”. 53:11 reads: “…My righteous servant shall deal prudently. He will justify many…” One wonders what interest the father of Christ found in the humility attributable to Muslims to have addressed Jesus as servant? And 53:3 stated: “…A man of sorrow and acquainted with grief”. This is facing the Quranic reality! All today’s superlative attributes and unfounded names given to Jesus is lost in the portion and that caused my amazement more so when Allah says: “There is none in the heavens and the earth, but comes unto the Gracious (Allah) as a slave” Q19:93.

And indeed I was amazed in reading the portion 53: 4 “…struck by God and afflicted…” “Yet it pleased JAWEH to bruise him; He has put him to grief”- verse 10. Am forced to ask, what kind of God rules in Christian’s kingdom, who for reason of forgiving his sinful creatures, chose the most cruel and crude way of striking, affecting and even finding pleasure in wounding and grieving his small co-god/son? Whereas judges, governors and head of states among men do pardon prisoners and convicted to death people without wounding anybody and or causing grieve to their own families. A true God can never be wicked to His creation in that regard! The Quran says: “…Allah has taken upon Himself to show mercy”Q6:54. And that made me amaze!

I was also amazed by the false report contained in the portion 53: 7-8: “He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth”. But when one opens to the book of Luke 22: 52-53, 67-70, one wonders if it was another Jesus who made those statements. Why must he not speak? And if he didn’t speak ‘anything’ on his assault, he had spoken enough sarcasms and curses when he was not troubled at all, that matched his oppressors’ action-Matthew 23: 13-39!

The following also amazed me! “…for he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people, he was stricken” 53:8. In the Good News Version of the Bible, this same verse reads: “…he was put to death for sins of our people…” Am amazed if ‘stricken’ and ‘death’ are the same! But my amazement was even compounded to learn that either ‘stricken’ or ‘death’ is not for the generality of mankind or the world as Christians used to claim, but for clique of ‘my people’ or ‘our people’. There is no doubt that in the Bible, this refers to Israel, - well emphasized by Jesus himself- (Matthew 10:5-6; 15: 24-26). Once Christians world over are not Israelis, I was amazed that they lay claim to what would never benefit them at the end. This is further explained in detail as “Atonement: A Doctrine Rumored from Assassination Attempt”, as found in the book: “God on Trial.” “And he bore the sin of many” Isaiah 53: 12. The question is why many, why not all? Allah says: “…And no soul acts but only against itself; nor does any bearer of burden bear the burden of another…”Q6:164.

And yet another false made me amaze when it was said in verse 9: “And they made his grave with the wicked. But with the rich at his death, because he had no violence, nor any deceit in his mouth”. But what shall we call Jesus’ action in the synagogue where he made scourge for people and beat hell out of his people- John 2: 15? What shall we say about Jesus’ invectives against the elders of his people in the public - Matthew 23: 13-33? And what shall we call his disrespect and derogatory remarks for his mother- John 2: 4? What about his statement of incitement to hatred –Luke 14:26. Is it not amazing to know all this, and yet say ‘he had done no violence’? Jesus indeed has query to answer- Q5: 116.

My amazement also stems from the statement: “…when you make his soul an offering for sin…for he shall bear their iniquities” 53: 10-11. In the face of what Holy Ghost put in the mouth of Paul: “For everyone shall bear his own burden. For whatever a man soweth that he shall reap” –Galatians 6: 5 & 7. And Revelation 2: 23: “I will give unto everyone of you according to your work”. There is no doubt that Jesus fully subscribed to this when he declared: “I can of mine own self do nothing…I seek not my own will, but the will of the father which hath sent me!” and to buttress this he bluntly refused and absolved himself from being the custodian and incapable to bear sin or allocate Paradise, home of salvation as requested by the mother of Zebedee for her two sons, when Jesus said: “…but to sit on my right hand and on my left (in Paradise) is not mine to give, but for whom it is prepared of my father” Matthew 20: 20-23. Did Allah not say: “The Day when no person shall have power to do anything for another and the Decision that Day will be wholly with Allah” Q82: 19.

The submission that Jesus is at par with other Prophets also amazed me as I read: “Therefore I shall divide him a portion with the great. And he will divide the spoil with the strong”- verse 12. This statement indeed made me amaze that despite all the clamor and reverence accorded to Jesus, his biblical father still didn’t consider him the greatest or strongest. And for that reason, he would be rewarded with the great and strong! Meaning that nothing is spectacular about Jesus’ life that surpasses other predecessor Prophets! This is another submission to the Quranic fact that states: “Say, we believe in Allah and what has been sent down to us, and what was sent down to Abraham, Ishmael, Jacob, and their offspring and what was given to Moses, Jesus and the Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between one another among them and to Him we have submitted” Q3: 84. And, “And Zachariah and John and Jesus and Elisa, each of them was among the righteous” Q6: 85. This is really amazing!

Yet I was greatly amazed with the statement: “Because he poured out his soul to death…” –verse 12. Because Jesus did not after all willingly pour out his soul but was strongly abhorred to death! He prayed and cried with tears to God not to let him die. - Matthew 26: 36-39. He ran into the bush in order not to be apprehended: “Then from that day forth they took counsel together to put him to death, Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews but went thence unto wilderness…” John 11: 54; and he resisted his arrest even with the purchase of swords! - Luke 22:38. Yet, on the cross, he wailed: “My God! My God!! Why hast thou forsaken me?”- Matthew 27:46. For any reasonable and sensible man, all this is amazingly at variance with the spurious claim, ‘he poured out his soul to death’!

And finally I was amazed that the writer wants us to believe Jesus died for the sins of the world in reference to this old 700 years prophecy of Prophet Isaiah before the birth of Jesus, but did not consider recent 570 years prophecy of Jesus for Prophet Muhammad found in the same Bible, which include: -‘the spirit of Truth’-John 16: 7-15; ‘That Prophet’- John 1: 19-23; ‘The Lord of the Vineyard’- Luke 20: 9-18 among others that are clear and more reliable. But in the face of the above discrepancies and contradictions between this portion of the book of Isaiah and what really happened to Jesus in the New Testament submission, one cannot say the prophecy is true but rather one of the writers’ interpolations that continues to carry the ‘face of God’s Word’ in the Bible!