The life of a believer is precious. The life of a prophet is more visibly precious still. To attack an unarmed believer because of his faith is persecution. To kill a prophet because he speaks the truth is an offence repeatedly condemned in Scripture.
The apparent contradiction between the Bible and the Qur’an is well known. The Gospels report that Jesus was arrested, crucified, killed, and afterwards seen alive. The Qur’an declares:
“They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them” (Qur’an 4:157).
Before attempting to reconcile these accounts, we must first ask what the Qur’anic statement actually denies.
Does the Second Clause Merely Describe the Method of Killing?
One interpretation treats the sentence as partly redundant:
The final chapters of the Gospel of John become much easier to understand if they are allowed to speak in their own sequence.
Jesus repeatedly tells the disciples that he must go away. His departure is not presented as an unfortunate loss but as something necessary. Unless he goes, the Paraclete will not come. More surprisingly, Jesus even insists that his departure is advantageous. The one who comes afterward will not represent a deterioration of his presence but an improvement upon it.
The story of the rich man and Lazarus is often read as a picture of final judgment. Yet the story itself does not describe final judgment at all. There is no resurrection of the dead, no gathering before the Judge, no examination of deeds, and no final verdict. Both men are dead, but the final judgment has not yet happened. They are in an intermediate condition.
One of the most remarkable features of Jesus' teaching is that it repeatedly overturns ordinary human reasoning. His sayings are not merely surprising; they appear to contradict the very logic by which people naturally live. Whoever wishes to save his life must lose it. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. The last shall be first. The grain of wheat must fall into the earth and die before it can bear fruit. These are not isolated aphorisms scattered throughout the Gospels. Together they reveal a single underlying principle—a law that governs the Kingdom of God.
God does not need to be reconciled to humanity. Humanity needs to be reconciled to life. God’s mercy is not triggered by payment; it precedes repentance.
Sin is not a crime against God but a departure from God. It does not injure the Creator; it destroys the creature. Sin enslaves, blinds, and diminishes. Its consequence is death because separation from life cannot produce life.
Death is not God’s punishment but sin’s destination.
One of the most persistent difficulties in Christian theology concerns Jesus' statements about the nearness of the end. Reading the Gospels plainly, one cannot escape the impression that Jesus spoke with tremendous urgency. The Kingdom was at hand. Judgment was approaching. The Son of Man was coming. The time to repent was now.
Many readers therefore arrive at an uncomfortable conclusion: if the end did not arrive when people expected it, then perhaps Jesus was mistaken.