Chapter Nineteen: Jesus, the Divine Word

From: Deceit and Divine Religion by Sadegh Khademi

Translated by: AI

The Christian Community and the Church’s View of Jesus

The Christian community and the Church recognize Jesus as the incarnation of God on earth and possessing divine status, insisting that Jesus is divine. The concept of incarnation refers to God’s speech and word to humanity. When this speech culminates in God assuming a physical form, it results in the ultimate encounter, a face-to-face meeting, intimacy, proximity, and the pinnacle of a direct relationship, thereby becoming the Word.

God becomes the Word both through revelation and mystical unveiling and through inspiration and infusion via the Holy Spirit. The Gospel of John states:

“In the beginning, before anything came into existence, the Word was, and the Word was with God. He has always been alive, and He Himself is God. The Word of God became human and lived among us on this earth. He was full of love, forgiveness, and truth. We witnessed His glory and majesty with our own eyes, the glory and majesty of the unique and unparalleled Son of our Heavenly Father, God.”

The Gospel of John, by presenting Jesus’ divine persona, is irreconcilable with the Synoptic Gospels, which speak of Jesus’ prophethood. It further elaborates:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into existence. In Him was life, and that life was the light of humanity. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, and we beheld His glory, the glory befitting the only begotten Son of the Father. John bore witness to Him, proclaiming, ‘This is He of whom I said, He who comes after me has surpassed me, for He was before me.’ From His fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

The Nature of the Word and the Meaning of the Son of God

The Word is a chosen form that conveys meaning and truth without being tainted by the contingencies of its context of application or requiring universal acceptance or approval from any group. Thus, the Word is free from culture, customs, traditions of the era, and customary leniencies.

In the Khosravani philosophy, Jesus is the Divine Word, meaning that God has manifested His meaning through Jesus’ appearance, and Jesus is a pure and sanctified manifestation, just as all phenomena are divine words and manifestations. In this sense, all are dependent on God and are His sons, just as a wayfarer is called “son of the path” (ibn al-sabil). Therefore, Jesus is the Son of God, meaning he is dependent on and a manifestation of God. However, the Church has subjected this lofty meaning to semantic distortions and inversions, particularly by failing to recognize that terms are established for the spirit of meaning, not for its concomitants or associations.

Divine words are the divine decrees that enter Jesus’ heart from the realm of meaning and divinity, conveying divine intentions. These are the commands, prohibitions, and life programs referred to as the innate religion.

Jesus is the Divine Word and a manifestation of God, not the divine essence. He is a framework that conveys theology, divine matters, and the true religion of God as meaning within the structure of prophethood and messianic mission, unaffected by human cultures, potential errors, or customary leniencies in application and transmission. In Christian terms, he can bring the Kingdom of God and His reign to earth, making that kingdom and divine religion accessible to humanity, freeing it from the yoke of sin and the bondage of transgression, enabling humanity to find servitude to God, His divine kingdom, and His religion, and to attain freedom and truth. The Gospel of John rightly states:

“Jesus said, ‘I am the way, and the life. No one can come to God except through me.’”

Indeed, Jesus is the embodiment of divine revelation, a beloved prophet favored by God, endowed with divine illumination, a divine human possessing God’s ethics and attributes. As stated in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.” However, this does not mean that Jesus is divine or possesses the essence of God. Jesus is the incarnation of divine revelation, but this revelation encompasses his entire spirit, heart, soul, and body, making him coexist with God’s will, aligned and in harmony with Him, living God’s decrees and religion as a necessity, not merely a misunderstanding of his physical form, nor implying that the divine essence is embodied in Jesus’ body. In John 17:21, Jesus speaks of his disciples:

“That they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in me, and I in You, that they also may be in us.”

Regardless of metaphorical expressions such as “Son of God” or “God the Son” and the incarnation of God—whose deviant meaning is borrowed from a pagan society and influenced by ancient Roman culture—“Son of God” means that Jesus is a manifestation and a collective mirror of God. Through Jesus as a messenger, divine revelation, and collective Word, one can know God and establish a healthy and correct relationship with Him, which leads to God’s pleasure, salvation, and redemption. As Jesus says in John 14:10:

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me performs these works.”

Using the term “Father” for God and “son” for His chosen servants as beloved and favored ones was customary in Jesus’ time.

Denial of Indwelling and Divine Incarnation

Jesus’ miracles are all evidence of his rightful, divine, and godly prophethood, not his divinity or godhood, especially not a godhood with an independent, distinct essence and personality, equal to God, which contradicts God’s attribute of being unique.

The Church interprets God in Christ as an indwelling and incarnational presence, where both God’s essence and Jesus’ human aspect remain distinct without interference, not through a mystical unity of existence that denies any essence to phenomena and considers God as the sole essence, uniquely independent, and exclusively self-sufficient, with no partner in any specific or particular sense.

Christians view Jesus as the visible embodiment of divine revelation. According to them, he is not a bearer of the message but the message itself and the revelation itself. The Gospel of Matthew quotes Jesus as saying:

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35)

Christians believe that God’s spirit resides in Jesus’ physical and human body. Faith in this manifestation brings salvation and redemption. In this way, God has made His ultimate argument with humanity.

Jesus is a sign and a symbol of the One God, possessing no independence, essence, or power of his own, and like all phenomena, he is not self-existent to be a partner to God the Father. Rather, he is a dependent manifestation of the One God and can be an eternal manifestation, which also implies perpetuity.

Jesus’ mission is to guide God’s servants to the One God, independent and possessing essence, where neither Jesus nor any phenomenon can stand alongside Him or be His son, sharing in His divinity or godhood. Instead, he was God’s servant, worshipping and praying to Him. Such a Jesus is not only mature but complete, experienced, seasoned, and attained to the truth.

Jesus’ Imamate in Infancy

Jesus attained imamate from infancy, valuing dialogue and discourse from the moment of his birth, not resorting to harsh confrontation or destructive curses to punish a people. Jesus did not initiate or participate in any wars, and unlike Moses, he did not kill anyone. However, the hostile Jews, seeing the growing inclination of people toward Jesus, did not grant him the opportunity to live among them, fight for his ideals, or defend himself against deniers. They swiftly silenced his message at the age of thirty-seven. Yet, the Church, in its history, has been responsible for the Crusades, religious wars, inquisitions, and the slaughter of thousands of innocents for the crime of free thought. This is while life and existence come from God, and no one but Him has authority or dominion over the life of phenomena. In this regard, not only does the Church have no pride, but its history necessitates shame and an apology to humanity.

Dialogue and Communion with God

God recounts Jesus’ communion with Him, his encounters with his disciples, the misguided of his people, and his gentle and compassionate dialogue with people in a pleasing and sweet manner:

(When God said, “O Jesus, son of Mary, remember My favor upon you and your mother when I supported you with the Holy Spirit, enabling you to speak to people in the cradle and in maturity; and when I taught you the Book, wisdom, the Torah, and the Gospel…”) (Qur’an, Al-Ma’ida 5:110)

Jesus was both the divine word and a communicator with people, not only drawing them to himself through the power of love and his inherent sweetness but also making them his companions and dialogue partners. He has access to the heavenly kingdom and can spread a table of blessings and sustenance from the heavens. The Gospel of John narrates about Jesus:

“Whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” (John 4:16)

As the divine words, Jesus conveyed God’s will, divine satisfaction, and His religion to the earth without withholding or restraint, following the divine religion and His Word himself. Thus, he is included among those of whom it is said, “God is pleased with them, and they are pleased with Him” (Qur’an, Al-Tawba 9:100).

From infancy, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, Jesus possessed the ability to converse, engage in dialogue, encounter, and teach, making people his companions and interlocutors. Thus, through divine revelation and illumination, he conveyed God’s speech and Word to humanity.

The Philosophy of Dialogue

Among Judeo-Christian philosophies is the philosophy of dialogue. One of its founders is Martin Buber (1878–1965), a Jewish philosopher. He considers all knowledge, even knowledge of God, to be contingent upon returning to the self and a self-existent matter, as well as dependent on reciprocal relationships and encounters. According to him, true life lies in encounter. In confrontation and encounter, two independent entities gain relation and connection, devoid of the notion of unity. Buber believes that a human can only relate to God as a singular individual. A true relationship with God is impossible unless true relationships with the world and humanity exist, for it is in these realities that a human comes into being and becomes complete and authentic. However, only God possesses independent existence, and phenomena are manifestations without essence or independence. Knowledge is possible through relation, connection, and intimacy of homogeneity.

Therefore, any confrontation or encounter between the divine essence and Jesus, the Jew who later became Jesus of humanity, is specifically and topically untenable. The only path to knowing God is through heartfelt love, spiritual passion, and the dissolution of personal identity and individuality, reaching unity of existence through pure annihilation and indeterminacy. In such unity, there is no perfection or authenticity for the one who attains it; rather, all truth belongs to God. The religion of human authenticity, where faith equates to humanity and humanity equates to faith in God, originates with Buber. In this view, the religion of human authenticity consists of the unity of human life in a divine direction that distinguishes right from wrong and truth from falsehood.

The spirit of dialogue in Jesus is also present in his Christian followers. If the Qur’an speaks of forgiveness and gracious overlooking with the People of the Book, rather than killing or waging war until sedition is eradicated, it is due to their dialogic disposition and the global security achieved through observing outward etiquette with them.

The Qur’an’s Overarching Policy

The Qur’an, in an irrevocable verse that outlines the overarching policy and primary principle of constructive interaction with the leaders of religions, even in a position of Islam’s dominance and superiority, states:

“Many of the People of the Book, after the truth became clear to them, wish, out of envy from their own selves, to turn you back into disbelievers after your faith. So forgive and overlook until God brings His command. Indeed, God is capable of all things.” (Qur’an, Al-Baqara 2:109)

The “command” here refers to God’s hidden grace, concealed favor, and appropriate management for His servants, which will manifest contextually and with the fulfillment of its conditions. By trusting in God’s oneness and agency, and with a conscientious reliance on God, the servant, free from anxiety and tension, surrenders to the Truth. With the wisdom of sagacity, he believes that appropriate management will be divinely inspired at the necessary moment. God advances His will either through a natural system or through sudden and unexpected decrees and judgments.

This verse speaks of the envy and jealousy of the leaders, their restlessness, and agitation. Jealousy stems from weakness of character and a frail inner self.

The High Priest of the Church

The Church regards Jesus as the High Priest, Prophet of God, and a teaching King. The priest is God’s exclusive and chosen representative to the people and vice versa, a mediator between the divine and the human.

Jesus is a Word containing this truth, and his mission is the clear expression of this meaning, not, as engineered by the Church, that his mission culminates in death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven while simultaneously being the Son of God with divinity, equal to God the Father, yet also a prophet of God, human, and worshipper of God the Father. In this case, he would be an immature son, and his religion and mission would lack rationality, inherently anti-intellectual, obstructing human growth and faith, and contrary to nature. Such a Jesus, propagated by Church leaders with hypocrisy and deceit, creates a divide between Jesus and the people, hindering their religiosity both theoretically for the enlightened and practically for the faithful.

Likewise, it is not the case that Jesus’ crucifixion brought forgiveness for human sins. The notion of redemption strips humans of natural choice, leading, in Nietzsche’s words, to despair and coldness through a fervent and passionate determinism.

The claim of the Holy Trinity and unity in essence with trinity in personality, accompanied by harmonious, compatible, and unified nature in an indwelling and incarnational manner, even with the aid of the Holy Spirit, is incomprehensible and lacks the spirit of wisdom. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit indicates that this notion is neither complex nor a hidden mystery beyond comprehension.

The least evident corruption of the three hypostases is dualism, polytheism, and fabricated belief, orchestrated by an organized system to infiltrate and undermine Christianity with false mystification.

The Fate of Polytheistic and Misguided Beliefs

The Qur’an narrates the fate of polytheistic beliefs as follows:

“Indeed, you and what you worship besides God are fuel for Hell; you will enter it. If these were gods, they would not enter it, but all will remain therein. For them, there is wailing, and they will not hear therein.” (Qur’an, Al-Anbiya 21:98–100)

What is meant by “what you worship besides God” refers to their imaginary and delusional objects of worship, which are ignorant and reprehensible, lacking truth. Since there is no correct knowledge in them, they are false. Falsehood has no permanence, is perishable, and brings regret.

The Trinity and redemption, alongside the New Testament’s account of Jesus’ life, have led some psychologists and philosophers to conduct psychiatric studies on the Jesus portrayed in the Gospels, examining mental health and proposing issues such as delusions of religious grandeur, blasphemous megalomania, religious paranoia, emotional disturbance, and deceit.

In the Trinity doctrine, the essence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, despite their triplicity, is co-essential, possessing unity and oneness. However, God’s essence, in its indescribable state, is uniquely singular, not merging with any other, nor uniting with what is considered another. A human, as a manifestation and phenomenon, only attains proximity to Him as a manifestational reflection, acquiring God’s perfections through manifestation without possessing an independent essence.

Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957), in his book The Murder of Christ, through psychoanalytic investigation of the last recorded statement of Jesus on the cross, “My God, why have you forsaken me?”, considers it a confession of a mistake: that he should not have subjected himself to the delusion of redemption for the healing of individuals lacking responsibility.

Jesus, a beloved prophet, was never devoid, detached, or separated from God for a moment. The Gospel writers and the post-Christian Church did not know Jesus’ divine persona, crafting such an inconsistent narrative and constructing an image of him that does not align with the true Jesus. Nietzsche took the correct approach by critiquing Christianity, not Jesus. He states:

“Christianity is a deception at every conceivable level: psychological, teleological, ethical, cosmological, and scientific.”

By correctly distinguishing Christianity from Jesus, some Western thinkers have regarded Jesus as the healthiest mind, endowed with mysticism, faith, and feeling. In their view, it is not Jesus the human who became God, but the God of the heavenly kingdom who became human, and God is capable and triumphant in all things.

This response overlooks the possibility that Jesus may entirely be a manifestation and dependent on the divine essence. In this case, the downward path of revelation that Jesus came from and the upward transformation that Moses partially underwent create a bidirectional process.

Today, the rationality and validity of the claim of the Trinity and Jesus’ divinity, equal to the Father’s essence while simultaneously being human, are not endorsed by enlightened Christian theologians committed to free scientific inquiry in religious studies. They do not consider the New Testament as directly attributable to Jesus or the Old Testament to Moses, let alone divine revelation, although the Catholic Church insists on the integrity and divine inspiration of both Testaments. Both Testaments and the teachings of Moses and Jesus were compiled through oral tradition and passed down from generation to generation, and history has not found a book written by Jesus himself.

With the advancement of science and the rapid growth of knowledge, the falsehood of deviant and authoritarian Christian beliefs has become evident. This was a key factor in the vehement and widespread protests against the Church, leading to the Protestant movement. The followers of the Protestant denomination and church number approximately 350 million.

Christianity has been speculative and myth-making in understanding Jesus’ divine and illuminated persona, and even after centuries of refinement and elevation, it has at best arrived at the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Given the above, the indefensible notion of Jesus’ divinity is, for the intellectual class, becoming a relic of history, destined for archival. If Christians abandon the claim of Jesus’ divinity, Christianity and Islam would find greater grounds for rapprochement and constructive engagement for the benefit of all people. In this case, the following noble verses, chosen as the conclusion of this book, can be rationally contemplated and serve as a lesson. These verses state that no phenomenon exists that is not submissive to God, and all, willingly or unwillingly, follow His path and the way of Islam, which is the path of love. They live in a collective divine system, and no one can escape it. Wherever they go, they are under God’s sovereignty and in His dominion:

“Do they seek a religion other than God’s, when all that is in the heavens and the earth have submitted to Him, willingly or unwillingly, and to Him they will be returned? Say, ‘We believe in God and what has been revealed to us, and what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and what was given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we submit.’ Whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will not be accepted from him, and in the Hereafter, he will be among the losers.” (Qur’an, Aal-E-Imran 3:83–85)