Reexamining the Trinity “proof” texts

We should consider whether the traditional trinity proof texts actually prove the trinity. I believe they do not.
Here is one of the most famous. 1 John 5:7, “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”
This text is the closest thing to a statement of a trinity in the Bible. But it bears no authority because the earliest Greek New Testament to contain it only dates to the 16th century. Absolutely none of the ancient Greek texts contain it. Scholars generally agree that it is a corruption that was added in. As such, it should not form the basis of doctrine.
Another major text is Matthew 28:19, "Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." People usually point to the fact that the word “name” is in the singular. However, it does not clearly define them all as God. To do something in someone’s name means to do something through their authority. For example, if the President, Congress and the Supreme Court each granted you authority to do something, you would say that you do it in the name (not names, that would make no sense, grammatically) of the President, Congress and the Supreme Court. While they are each important to the government of this country, they are distinct and of three different natures. They are not all three the President, Congress or the Supreme Court.
Many people argue that people have to be baptized according to this formula. One of the reasons it is important to use this formula is that it allows them to say that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are one indivisible unit. Consequently, if you only baptized into the name of one of them, then they would be divisible. The big problem for this view is that the apostles are never, even once, recorded as using this formula. They did not attach the same significance to it that modern Trinitarians do.
Acts 2:38, "And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
Acts 8:16, "for as yet it was fallen upon none of them: only they had been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus."
Acts 10:48, "And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days."
Acts 11:16, "And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit."
Acts 19:5, "And when they heard this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus."
Does baptizing in the name of Jesus make him God? 1 Corinthians 10:1-2, "For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea."
Another popular proof text for the Trinity is Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” They say this implies the Trinity because the word for “God” here is “אלהים” (pronounced Elohim), אלהים is a plural form.
But they forget Exodus 7:1, “And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and
Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.” The word here translated as “god” is also אלהים (Elohim). Logically, it is impossible to say אלהים (Elohim) always means Trinity, unless you believe Moses was a Trinity.
Following this text is Genesis 1:26, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Genesis 11: 7 is similar, “Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.” Hebrew scholars have always understood this as the majestic plural or royal we. This means that someone in great authority is often referenced using the plural.
I just gave an undeniable, Biblical example of this in the paragraph above where Moses is referred to as Elohim, a plural form, even though Moses is only one person. Royal proclamations have often used this. For another example in Semitic language religious texts, look in the Quran. Believing in multiple gods is the worst sin in Islam, but the Quran constantly uses “We” when quoting God.
Another text is John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This text provides ambiguous evidence for the trinity at best. The phrase that is translated as “the Word was with God” uses τον Θεον (ton theon) for God. This is the definite form. The phrase that is translated as “the Word was God” uses Θεος (theos) for God. This is the indefinite form. When a noun is in the indefinite form, it can be translated as an adjective. In fact, the actual phrase is “καὶ Θεὸς ἦν ὁ Λόγος (kai theos en ho logos)”. Word for word, in English, this is, “and god was the word.” This allows it to also be translated as “the Word was Godlike”. For example, the Revised English Bible renders it, “In the beginning the Word already was. The Word was in God's presence, and what God was, the Word was.”
One scholar explained it this way.
In a case like this we cannot do other than go to the Greek, which is theos en ho logos. Ho is the definite article, the, and it can be seen that there is a definite article with logos, but not with theos. When in Greek two nouns are joined by the verb “to be,” and when both have the definite article, then the one is fully intended to be identified with the other; but when one of them is without the article, it becomes more an adjective than a noun, and describes rather the class or sphere to which the other belongs.
An illustration from English will make this clear. If I say, “The preacher is the man,” I use the definite article before both preacher and man, and I thereby identify the preacher with some quite definite individual man whom I have in mind. But, if I say, “The preacher is man,” I have omitted the definite article before man, and what I mean is that the preacher must be classified as a man, he is in the sphere of manhood, he is a human being.
[In the last clause of John 1:1] John has no article before theos, God. The logos, therefore, is not identified as God or with God; the word theos has become adjectival and describes the sphere to which the logos belongs. We would, therefore, have to say that this means that the logos belongs to the same sphere as God; without being identified with God, the logos has the same kind of life and being as God. Here the NEB [New English Bible] finds the perfect translation: “What God was, the Word was.”
(William Barclay, Jesus as They Knew Him (Harper and Row, N.Y., 1962), pp. 21 and 22.)
Remember, Satan is the theos of this world. 2 Corinthians 4:4, "In whom the god (theos) of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." However, Satan is not ton theon.
Another one is John 8:58-59, “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am (εγὠ ειμί̓). Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.”
Look at how the key word is translated in John 14:9, "Jesus saith unto him, Have I been(ειμί̓) so long time with you...." In fact Jesus uses the phrase εγὠ ειμί̓ several times earlier in the same passage. John 8:12, "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am(εγὼ̓ ειμί̓) the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." John 8:28, "Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he(εγὠ ειμί̓), and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things."
The Hebrew word in Exodus 3: 14 is אהיה (hayah), which literally translates as “to be”. The word ειμί̓ (emi) can be translated in the present or past tense, as in John 14: 9. The Hebrew translation of the New Testament uses אני הייתי (I was) because it more closely fits the context of the passage, which is simply stating that Jesus existed before Abraham. To see why this would cause the Jews to stone him, let us look at the context.
John 8:39-44, "They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."
Here the Jews claim to be sons of Abraham and sons of God. Jesus said that, if they were sons of God, they would love him. Instead, they are the sons of the Devil.
John 8:52-58, "Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am."
Here the Jews felt further insulted by Jesus because Jesus said that he was greater than Abraham.
This closely parallels John 10:30-31, “I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.”
Most people stop there, but Jesus himself explains himself. The Jews claimed that Jesus was claiming to be God, but Jesus gives a different explanation. He defends the right of a person to be called the Son of God. John 10:32-36, “Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?”
If Jesus wanted people to know he was God, this would have been a perfect opportunity. But, Jesus did not defend himself by claiming to actually be God. Instead, Jesus merely defended the concept that people can be one with God. Let’s examine the phrase, Son of God.
Hebrews 1:8, “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.” This is a quote from Psalms 45:6-7, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." Here, the word for “God” in the Hebrew in Psalms is Elohim. Since this is the exact word God calls Moses in Exodus 7:1, this does not necessarily refer to the one true God.
Also, the larger context in Psalms says that the subject of the text was anointed to his position by God. Does this hold true for the way Hebrews discussed the Son?
Hebrews 1:1-9, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."
In the larger context, you can see that the topic of the text is God giving power to the Son, and anointing him to his position.
Notice what it says about Jesus being the Son, “I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son”.
Compare this to 1 Chronicles 28:6, "And he said unto me, Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts: for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father." In addition, 2 Samuel 7:13-14, "He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:"
This passage also provides some insight to the meaning of the phrase, “Son of God,” in passages like Matthew 16:15-16, “He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” In Hebrews, quoted above, it says, “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?”
In this conversation, in Matthew, we have a Jew speaking to another Jew and it is recorded in a book written by a Jew. Therefore, a Jewish understanding of this phrase is imperative. If one looks up the phrase “Son of God” in the Jewish Encyclopedia, one finds that it refers to a follower or representative of God. It never implies deity. You can look this up at http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13912-son-of-god.
Now let us look at Matthew 26:63-68, "But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death. Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands, Saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee?"
There are a few key features I wish to point out. First, the word translated “blasphemy” is βλασφημίαν. Strong’s defines it as “slander, detraction, speech injurious, to another's good name, impious and reproachful speech injurious to divine majesty.” In addition, the people mocked Jesus by saying, “thou Christ”, not thou God. This indicates that it was simply claiming to be the Messiah that angered them. In addition, Jesus referred to himself as the Son of man.
Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”
Daniel 7:13-14, "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."
John 17:1-3, "These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
Another text commonly used to prove the Trinity is Matthew 9:2-7, "And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house."
This particular text can have many ramifications, if Jesus is not God, which are way beyond the scope of this work. So, let us just look at a couple of facts and ask a question.
The first fact is that it is the scribes who claim that only God can forgive sins. Jesus doesn’t claim or confirm this. He only asserts that he has the right to tell the man that his sins are forgiven.
The second fact is John 20:21-23, "Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained."
When we examine the scriptures, are they necessarily saying that Jesus is God simply because he tells a man that his sins are forgiven? If that is so, then, logically, wouldn’t that make the disciples gods, according to John 20: 21-23?
Another one of the strongest Trinitarian texts is Isaiah 9:6, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."
The key phrases here are “mighty God” and “everlasting Father.” The Hebrew for “mighty God” is אל גבור (el gibbor). This is a very interesting phrase in that Trinitarians translate it as “mighty God”, but the Jews and non-Trinitarians translate it more along the lines of “mighty hero” or “mighty heroes.” This phrase also appears in the original Hebrew of Ezekiel 32:21, "The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword." The Hebrew that is translated here as “strong among the mighty” is אלי גבורים(eli gibbowrim), which is the plural form of el gibbor. Obviously, you cannot claim that Ezekiel 32: 21 should read “mighty gods,” since that would be pure pagan pantheism.
Another verse I will discuss here is 1 Timothy 3:16, "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."
The phrase, “God was manifested in the flesh”, appears in the King James translation because of the Greek manuscripts they used. Many of the other translations recognize the fact that this is most likely a late corruption. Many of the oldest texts have the word “who”, not “God”. For example, the Codex Sinaiticus reads, “And confessedly great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in flesh, was justified in spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, taken up in glory”. I specifically mention the Codex Sinaiticus because it is the oldest Bible in existence and you can read it for yourself at http://codexsinaiticus.org/.
Many Trinitarians try to argue that the New Testament authors referred to Jesus as Lord, a term used in the Old Testament for God.
Let’s examine something that Jesus said once.
John 10:34-36, "Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?" Why does Jesus say that God said to those who received the word of God, “You are gods”?
Let’s look at another text. Exodus 7:1, "And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet." Did God actually make Moses into a divinity? Of course not. Was God revealing that Moses had always been a divinity? Of course not. However, God imbued Moses with divine authority and said, “I make thee a god.” By the way, the word translated as “god” is Elohim in the Masoretic text and theos in the Septuagint, so it is correct to translate this verse as, “I have made thee a god.” Since we do not want to say that God actually transformed Moses into a divinity, or that Moses was always a divinity, we must form the principle that when God makes someone a god in Scripture, it does not mean that they become a divinity, or were always a divinity. It merely means that God has imbued them with divine authority. Moses functioned as God, but was not actually God. This brings harmony between this text and Isaiah 45, which says there is no other god besides God.
Angels, who represent God, are often referred to as God in the Old Testament. Here are examples.
Genesis 32:30, "And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."
Hosea 12:4, "Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us."
Judges 13:21-22, "The angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD. And Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, for we have seen God.""
Here we get a glimpse into the Old Testament mindset. Someone who was God’s representative could be referred to as God. And this is the background the apostles came from.
Acts 2:36, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." Here, Peter explicitly states that God made Jesus Lord, just as God made Moses a god. After this, we begin to see the apostles, mostly Paul, refer to Jesus as Lord.
The question is, did this mean that God imbued Jesus with the authority of Lord, or was Jesus really Lord all the time?
Fortunately, we have a couple of checks that we can use. The first is the fact that Peter said that God made Jesus Lord and Christ. If we examine the history of Jesus as Christ, then we can get some information on the history of Jesus as Lord.
Was Jesus always Christ, or did God make Jesus Christ? According to the 70 week prophecy in Daniel chapter 9, the Messiah would come around AD 27. Either Jesus was born in this year, or he became the Messiah in this year. The exact year of his birth is debatable, but all of the scholars put it approximately 30 years before AD 27. AD 27 was the year that Jesus was baptized and the Holy Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove. Since the word Messiah means “anointed” and the Messiah came the year that Jesus was baptized, we can safely say that God made Jesus the Messiah at his baptism, when he was anointed with the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not actually become the Messiah until this point. Since Jesus did not become the Messiah until God made him the Messiah, and Peter said that God made Jesus “both Lord and Christ”, this does provide strong evidence that Jesus did not become Lord until God made him Lord. This would make it a functional position, rather than ontological.
Clearly, Jesus did not become the Messiah until God made him the Messiah at the baptism. However, this doesn’t completely rule out the possibility that we should interpret God making Jesus Lord in a different light. If God did indeed make Jesus Lord, like He made Moses a god (a functional position, rather than ontological), then we should see the apostles speaking of the Lord Jesus separate from God. If Jesus was always Lord, then Jesus and God would be one and the same.
Did Paul actually see Jesus’s position of Lord as separate from being God, just as Moses’s position as god to
Pharaoh was separate from being God? 1 Corinthians 8:6, " But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." Here Paul explicitly states that there is one God, the Father, the source of all things. The Lord Jesus Christ is God’s servant, through whom God accomplishes His will.
Since Jesus was made Christ at a certain time and the apostles still referred to the Lord Jesus separately from God, it would seem that the most straightforward way to understand Peter’s statement that “God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” is the way with the most direct Scriptural support, namely, in a similar manner to God’s statement to Moses that “I have made thee a god.”
It is said that Jesus received worship from people. Here are some of those instances.
Matthew 2:2, "Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him."
Matthew 8:2, "And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean."
Matthew 9:18, "While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live."
Matthew 28:9, "And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him."
In each of the above texts the Greek word translated as worship is proskuneo. Can proskuneo be used in a way that should be used for God? Yes.
Revelation 22:8-9, "And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship (proskuneo) before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship (proskuneo) God."
However, we should look at what proskuneo actually means. It literally means to prostrate, bow down or make obeisance. The Septuagint was quoted numerous times by the New Testament authors and was heavily used by the early Christians. This provides us with a good opportunity to look at how Greek words used in the New Testament were understood by the early Christians for whom the New Testament was written. Here are some of the appearances of proskuneo in the Septuagint. The Hebrew word shachah, in the Masoretic text for each of these verses, also means the same thing.
Genesis 19:1, "And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed (proskuneo)(shachah) himself with his face toward the ground." Notice the same word is used to describe what Lot did as John did in Revelation, indicating that it was something more than simple proskuneo that the angel found objectionable.
Genesis 23:7, "And Abraham stood up, and bowed (proskuneo)(shachah) himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth."
Genesis 33:1,3, "And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids.... And he passed over before them, and bowed (proskuneo)(shachah) himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother."
Genesis 37:9-10, "And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance (proskuneo)(shachah) to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down (proskuneo)(shachah) ourselves to thee to the earth?"
Joshua 5:14, "And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship (proskuneo)(shachah), and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?"
The reason people say that Jesus accepted worship is that any time the original texts use proskuneo or shachah in connection with God, Jesus or a possible pre-existing Jesus the translator chose to use the word worship. The translators believed that Jesus was God, so they translated proskuneo as “worship” when it referred to Jesus, and bowed most of the time. Then people use those verses to prove that Jesus was worshipped.
The primary exception to the above is John 20:28, "And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God." The word translated as God is theos. Theos is sometimes used for someone who wields authority, but is not actually God. 2 Corinthians 4:4, "In whom the god (theos) of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." And remember that the Old Testament mindset made it acceptable to call God’s representatives God. And Thomas, only a few minutes before, doubted Jesus completely. To say that Thomas suddenly saw the living Messiah as God’s representative is very reasonable. To say that he was suddenly aware of the Trinity (which had never been discussed before) is more of a stretch.
There are three titles that are given to Jesus that are often used as indirect evidence that Jesus is God. These are Messiah, Son of God and King of Kings. Jesus is the only one that bears all three of these titles, however, he is not the only one to bear them.
Isaiah 45:1, "Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut."
Here, the Iranian leader, Cyrus, is called the LORD’s anointed. The Hebrew in the Masoretic text is mashiyach. The Greek word in the Septuagint is christos. This means that the Iranian leader, Cyrus, is actually called the LORD’s messiah, or the LORD’s christ.
Daniel 2:37, "Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory."
Here, the Iraqi leader, Nebuchadnezzar, is called king of kings because God gave him a kingdom, just as God gives Jesus the kingdom. Daniel 7:13-14, "I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."
Psalm 2:5-7, "Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill." I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you."
2 Samuel 7:13-14, "He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son."
These verses refer to the Jewish kings as sons of God. The author of Hebrews used these verses in establishing Jesus’s role as the Son of God.
Hebrews 1:5, "For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you"? Or again, "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son"?"
Much has been said about the complete uniqueness of Jesus’s position as Son of God, giving him a divine nature. Does the scripture really support this position if the New Testament authors had to quote previous references to Israeli kings in order to explain Jesus’s role as Son of God?
And, for any Muslims reading this, it is also clear that none of these texts state that God produced Jesus through procreation. Jesus was never a “walad” to God. The pagan religions were filled with tales of gods procreating. And some Christians have been known to see Jesus in a similar light. The Quran was right to say that it is an offence to God to suggest that Jesus was a “walad” to God. However, the Bible clearly explains his role as a son more like Solomon was a son to God in the quotations above. This is completely different from a “walad”, which the Quran condemns calling Jesus.

Biblical Evidence That God Is One Being, Not A Trinity

Evidence that God is One Being

Some doctrines in the Bible are minor and there is only minor evidence for them. But, critical doctrines are attested to by at least one clear, “Thus saith the Lord”. One of the most critical things for us to understand, if we wish to worship God, is what it is that we worship.
Of the three Abrahamic religious traditions, only Christians generally believe that God is a Trinity, rather than a single being. Jews and Muslims both consider this a terrible blasphemy. If God really is a Trinity, then the evidence in scripture should point to that. And, if God is only one, the evidence in scripture should point to that.
There are quite a few different views on exactly how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit form a Trinity. I will not attempt to examine the veracity of each of these. Rather, I will simply ask, “Is Jesus, in some manner, the eternal God who created everything in the universe? Or, did God bring Jesus into existence and give him power and authority?”
Let us begin with what Jesus said concerning God and his relationship to God.
Jesus said God is One: Mark 12:29-30, “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment”. Therefore, Jesus begins his declaration of the greatest commandment with the statement that God is one.
The Bible states that Jesus received life from God: John 5:26 “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.” There are two key features of this statement. The first is that the Son is given life.
The second key feature is that the life is described as “life in himself.” Does this indicate a Trinitarian or Anti-Trinitarian idea? Take a look at Colossians 1:15-17
“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” Take note that to be the image of something is to reflect the qualities of that thing, not to actually be that thing, similar to how Adam and Eve were made in the image of God.
Now, many people will latch onto the fact that this says that all things were created by him and they will say this means Jesus is God. But they forget 1 Corinthians 8:4-6, "As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him."
This passage explicitly states that there is one God, the Father. It refers to Jesus as Lord (a word often used as a sign of respect, not necessarily worship). It also says that all things are of the Father and by Jesus. This seems to indicate that all the power and life come from the one God, the Father. Jesus acts as a servant who is given authority and power, by which the will of God is carried out.
This is clarified in Ephesians 3:9, "And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:" interestingly, many of the Greek manuscripts do not support the “by Jesus Christ.” They show Ephesian 3: 9-11 to be, “to enlighten all men as to what is the dispensation of the mystery that has been hid from the ages in God, who created all things; that there might be made known now to the principalities and the authorities in the heavenly regions, through the church, the much-diversified wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages, which he established in Christ Jesus our Lord.” You can see an example of this at http://codexsinaiticus.org .
Jesus confirmed this relationship in Matthew 28:18, “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” In John 5:19-22, "Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." And in John 5:30, "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." And in John 6:38, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.”
In addition, Peter referred to this type of relationship. Acts 2:36, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ."
Not only did Jesus say that the Father was greater than him, he also said that the Father was his God. Look first in John 14:28, “Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.” Jesus denied having the same goodness as God (before you stop reading, I don’t mean that Jesus was sinful) in Mark 10:17-18, "And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God." And he referred to the Father as his God in John 20:17, “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”
Let’s return to Jesus’s conversation with the scribe. Mark 12:29-34, "And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question."
Jesus was not omniscient: Mark 13:32, “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.”
Here Jesus plainly states that his understanding of the future is limited because he does not know the day or the hour of his return. But God’s understanding is infinite according to Psalm 147:5, “Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.” I have heard it said that Jesus changed when he took on humanity. He lost his omniscience. But, God doesn’t change, according to James 1:17, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." And since Jesus is the image, or perfect reflection of, the Father, he also does not change, according to Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever."
Jesus referred to himself constantly as the Son of Man. There are two big implications for using this phrase. The first is that this is the same term that God used when He addressed the prophet Ezekiel, starting in Ezekiel 2:1, "And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee." This would connect him with the role of a prophet.
However, God is not a Son of Man: Numbers 23:19,
“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”
The book of Daniel clearly differentiates the Son of Man from the Ancient of Days (God). Daniel 7:13-14, "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."
Here, Jesus uses a phrase that at once both connects him with the line of the prophets, and it differentiates him from God. Notice also that the Son of Man in Daniel receives his dominion and glory from God.
James 1:13-14, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed."
Hebrews 4:15, "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."
Now, let’s spend some time in the book of Revelation and how it relates to the Trinity doctrine. Many Christians will quote from it to try and prove the Trinity, but I believe that a careful examination will reveal that it denies the Trinity.
Let’s start with the origin of the book. God (one person) gave Jesus (another person) the Revelation which Jesus would have known already if he was God: Revelation 1:1, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.”
Revelation 1 gets very interesting and is often used to prove that Jesus is God. Let’s look at verses 4, 5 and 8.
Revelation 1:4-5, “John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,”
Revelation 1:8, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”
Notice that verses 4, 5 say “Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come…And from Jesus Christ,” making them separate entities. Since the Alpha and Omega in verse 8 is identified as the one “which is, and which was, and which is to come”, it is a separate entity from Jesus Christ.
Revelation 1:10-13, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.”
Now this is often used to show that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega. However, it only states that John saw Jesus after he turned to see where the voice what coming from, leaving the possibility that it was not Jesus speaking.
Also, many of the oldest manuscripts don’t contain the phrase “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,” in verse 11. For an example of this look at http://codexsinaiticus.org. There you can see the oldest nearly complete Bible in the world. It simply reads: “I was in-spirit on the Lord's Day and heard behind me a voice great as that of a trumpet, saying: What thou seest write in a book”. This makes it questionable whether the speaker is the Alpha and Omega, regardless of whether or not it is Jesus speaking. I don’t believe major doctrines should be derived from questionable texts, especially if there are other texts that contradict said doctrine. For example, Revelation clearly states that the Lamb is not the one that sits on the throne. And it states that the one who sits on the throne is the Alpha and Omega.
Revelation 4:2, “And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.”
Revelation 5:1-2, “And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?’”
Revelation 5:6-7, “And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.”
Revelation 7:10, “And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”
Revelation 21:5-6, “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.”
A lot of people read Revelation 22:13 as a reference to Jesus as the Alpha and Omega. But let’s look at the whole context.
Revelation 22:8-16
(8) And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
(9) Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
(10) And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.
(11) He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
(12) And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
(13) I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
(14) Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
(15) For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
(16) I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
Now, either Jesus is the angel that told John not to worship him, or there is more than one speaker here. I believe scholars universally agree that there are multiple speakers. The question is, is Jesus the Alpha and Omega speaker. Verse 16 says, “I Jesus.” But notice that immediately after the Alpha and Omega phrase it says, “Blessed are they that do his commandments.” Whose commandments? God’s, of course. And it refers to God in the third person. So, either we have switched speakers (before the “I Jesus” in verse 16), or this Alpha and Omega is not God. And note a few verses earlier. Verse 9 is undeniably the angel speaking, who protests being worshiped. In verse 12 we either have the same angel saying that he is coming quickly or we have abruptly switched speakers and Jesus is speaking, which is what all red letter Bibles indicate. So we have abrupt switches between verses 11 and 12 and between 13 and 14. Now, the question is, is there any evidence for a break between verses 12 and 13? The sudden breaks immediately before and after it lend to the possibility, while remaining consistent with the rest of the text.
There still remains the question of Jesus being the First and the Last and if that makes him God. It says in
Revelation 1:17, “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last.”
God can certainly be rightfully called the First and the Last. But God is also called love. Does this mean that everyone that loves is God? No. People generally assume, however, that “the first and the last” must be a sign of divinity. Maybe we should let the Bible interpret itself.
Isaiah 41:4, “Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.”
The phrase, “the first and the last” is used several times in Isaiah and Revelation. However, this is the only time an explanation is given. In this verse we see that it does not always mean first and last in existence. Sometimes it refers to calling the generations to God. Does this description fit Jesus? Might this be what he meant in Revelation 1:17?
Here is a sampling of verses that clearly speak of God and Christ as separate beings. I know that most people will agree that “God” in these texts refers to the
Father. The question they always ignore is, if Jesus is also God, why say God and Christ? Why not God the Father and God the Son.
Mark 16:19, "So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God."
Luke 23:35, "And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God."
John 17:3, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
Acts 2:30, "Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;"
Acts 4:10, "Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole."
Romans 2:16, "In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel."
Romans 5:15, "But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many."
Romans 8:16-17, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."
Romans 8:34, "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us."
1 Corinthians 3:23, "And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's."
1 Corinthians 11:3, "But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God."
1 Corinthians 15:15, "Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not."
2 Corinthians 1:3, "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;"
2 Corinthians 4:4, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." Don’t forget Genesis 1:27, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
Galatians 4:7, "Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."
Ephesians 5:5, "For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."
Philippians 2:11, "And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Colossians 3:1, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God."
2 Thessalonians 2:16, "Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,"
1 Timothy 2:5, "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;"
Titus 2:13, "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;"
Hebrews 9:14, "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
Here are some other declarations that God is one.
Isaiah 45:18, "For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): "I am the LORD, and there is no other." (ESV)
Isaiah 45:21-22, "Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other." (ESV)

The Book of Revelation's prediction of the prophet Muhammad

Revelation’s Trumpets and the God of Ishmael

This study of the presence of Islam in the Bible is centered on the fifth and sixth trumpets in Revelation 9, the first four being in Revelation 8.
Before we get into that, we need to go back to the beginning of Islam. We need to go back to Abraham.
Genesis 15:1-21
(1) After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
(2) And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
(3) And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.
(4) And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
(5) And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
(6) And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
(7) And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
(8) And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?
(9) And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
(10) And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
(11) And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.
(12) And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
(13) And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
(14) And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
(15) And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
(16) But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
(17) And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
(18) In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
(19) The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
(20) And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
(21) And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
I chose to include the entire passage here because it is one that is not very familiar to most people. There are several things you should notice. First, the theme of this chapter is God’s promises to Abraham. In verse 12 a “horror of great darkness” falls on Abram. The sun does not finish setting until verse 17. This is not a natural darkness and it darkens the sun, which is still in the sky. And there is the smoking furnace. So we have three symbols, darkness covering the sun, smoke and a furnace, connected with the presence of God.
Now let’s look at the next link in this chain of events.
Genesis 17:19, “And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.”
God chose Isaac’s name. This is very significant because a name in the Bible wasn’t just used to differentiate one person from another. Names described the person. So, when God names a person, He is taking an unusually active interest in their life. These people are significantly important to God’s plan.
Let’s move on to the next link. God reconfirmed His covenant with the descendants of Isaac at Mt. Sinai. Let’s look at what they saw.
Exodus 19:18, “And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.”
Exodus 20:21, “And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.”
Jeremiah 11:4, "Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God:"
So here we have the smoke of a furnace and darkness connected with the presence of God. At this time, God has sent a prophet to lead the people away from their idolatrous ways and back to the worship of the one true God. The entire nation had fallen away from the truth. Moses himself, before he became the prophet of God, did not follow Him correctly and even murdered a man. But God taught Moses the truth and sent him to teach the people how to worship God.
Now, let’s back up to God’s conversation with Abraham.
Genesis 15:18-21
(18) In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
(19) The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
(20) And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
(21) And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
The descendants of Isaac inherited the land of Israel. But the territory promised to Abraham’s descendants is significantly larger. If you look at a map of the Middle East, you will see that the land “from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates” includes the countries that compromise both the Jewish and Arab ancestral homelands. God made a special covenant with Isaac’s descendants, but that does not mean Ishmael’s descendants (the Arabs) were brushed aside. Let’s see if the pattern holds.
Gen 16:6-13
(6) But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.
(7) And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
(8) And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai.
(9) And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.
(10) And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.
(11) And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
(12) And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.
(13) And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?
Here God chose Ishmael’s name and made promises concerning his descendants. This was reinforced after Isaac was born. By the way, there are only four people I know of whose parents were instructed by and angel what to name them. Isaac, Ishmael, John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. Ishmael was given a very, very rare honor.
Gen 17:19-20
(19) And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
(20) And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
Gen 21:12-21
(12) And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
(13) And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.
(14) And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
(15) And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
(16) And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.
(17) And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.
(18) Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.
(19) And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.
(20) And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.
(21) And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.
Here God saved Hagar and Ishmael a second time and promised to make his descendants a great nation, like Isaac’s descendants. In fact, God promised to make Ishmael the father of twelve princes, paralleling the twelve tribes of Israel.
Now, we will see if the parallel continues in Revelation 9. First, we need to establish the meaning of the smoke.

The God of the Smoke

Many theologians over the past few centuries have interpreted Revelation 9 as representing Islam. However, they have consistently interpreted it negatively, declaring Islam a false religion and Muhammad a false prophet. One of the key symbols they latch onto for this interpretation is the smoke. They pretty much universally interpret the smoke as the satanic deceptions of a false religion, or something similar. Here, we will examine the role of smoke in the Bible and let the Bible interpret itself.
Many people interpret prophecy differently from each other. Part of this is due to the fact that they pick and choose verses that support their position, while ignoring verses that contradict their interpretation.
The position I hold, regarding the smoke of Revelation 9, directly contradicts the standard interpretations. I believe they arrived at their interpretations by assuming that Islam was evil and interpreting the smoke in that light. I believe the smoke is actually one of the strongest evidences that Muhammad was led by God. I believe that this is the only interpretation the Bible supports when you examine the role of smoke in Scripture.
This is a pretty bold claim, so I am going to show you every single passage in the Bible (the King James translation, at least) where smoke appears. This is the surest way to see if I am cherry picking scripture, or letting the Bible interpret itself. We have already examined Genesis 15, and Exodus 19 and Revelation 9 is the topic of debate. Therefore, here is every appearance of smoke, outside of these chapters.
2 Samuel 22:7-10, “In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.”
Here smoke and darkness both appear connected with the presence of God.
Psalm 18:6-9, “In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.”
Here smoke and darkness both appear connected with the presence of God.
Joel 2:29-31, "In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on servants, both men and women. I will work wonders in the sky and on the earth. There will be blood, fire, and thick smoke. The sun will be changed into darkness, and the moon will be as red as blood. Then the great and fearful day of the LORD will come!"
Here the smoke and the sun changed to darkness are part of the signs God performs.
Acts 2:17-21, "God says: In the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will have special dreams. In those days I will pour out my Spirit on my servants, men and women, and they will prophesy. I will work wonders in the sky above. I will cause miraculous signs on the earth below. There will be blood, fire, and thick smoke. The sun will be changed into darkness, and the moon will be as red as blood. Then the great and glorious day of the Lord will come. And everyone who trusts in the Lord will be saved."
Here the smoke and the sun changed to darkness are part of the signs God performs.
Psalm 104:32, “He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.”
Here the smoke is connected with the presence of God.
Psalm 144:5, “Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.”
Here the smoke is connected with the presence of God.
Isaiah 6:1-4, “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.”
Here the smoke comes from the glory/presence of God.
Revelation 15:8, “And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.”
Here the smoke comes from the glory/presence of God.
Here are the rest. Feel free to look up and examine each of them. Isaiah 4:5, Revelation 8:4, Genesis 19:28, Deuteronomy 29:20, Psalm 37:20, Psalm 68:2, Psalm 74:1, Isaiah 9:17-20, Isaiah 14:30-31, Isaiah 34:8-10, Isaiah 42:1-4, Matthew 12:20, Hosea 13:3, Nahum 2:13, Revelation 14:11, Revelation 18:9, Revelation 18:18, Revelation 19:1-3, Psalm 102:1-3, Psalm 119:81-83, Isaiah 7:2-4, Isaiah 51:6, Isaiah 65:5, Joshua 8:20, 21, Judges 20:38-40, Job 41:1, 20, Proverbs 10:26, Song of Solomon 3:6.
I know that is a lot of texts, but I wanted to convince you that I am not picking and choosing verses to support the idea that, in prophecy, smoke is connected with God. The vast majority of times smoke appears it is connected with the presence of God or God’s judgment of the wicked. Notice also that 100 percent of the places where smoke and darkness appear together, they are connected with the presence of God.
In Revelation 9, the smoke is connected with the image of a furnace and with darkness. As you can see above, smoke and darkness consistently appear together to describe the presence of God.
There are only three places I know of in scripture where the furnace, smoke and the darkening of the sun all appear together. The first was when God made the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15.
Genesis 15: 12, “And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.”
Genesis 15: 17-18, “And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.”
The second was when God reestablished the promises with Abraham’s descendants at Mount Saini, which solidified Moses’s position as prophet, lawgiver, and national leader.
Exodus 19:18, “And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.”
Exodus 20:21, “And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.”
Jeremiah 11:4, "Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God:"
The third is in Revelation 9. The smoke of a great furnace covers the sun and creates darkness. Muhammad said that God sent Gabriel to speak to him. The way smoke is used in Scripture simply does not provide any support for the interpretation of smoke as being the deceptions of a false, satanic, religion. In addition, every time the furnace, smoke and darkness appear, God is in the smoke and darkness, providing information and instruction.
Since this is part of the vision of the seven trumpets, we should keep in mind the role of smoke in other parts of the same vision. Revelation 8:2-4, "And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand."
Here, we can clearly see that the smoke seen earlier in the same vision is associated with prayer. This would be an appropriate additional meaning for the smoke. At this time, the true followers of God were suffering persecution from the Christian authorities, so they were praying constantly. And, one of the most important pillars of Islam is regular prayers throughout the day.
Now, I would like to point out a few things. The book of Revelation is the book that Jesus received from God. Revelation 1:1, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John." This means that everything in this book are things that Jesus informed us about, that God revealed to him. If I am right about what Revelation says about Islam, then Jesus’s predictions of the future can certainly be said to describe Muhammad as one who is highly praised and one who constantly thanked God. These are the two meanings of the name Ahmed. According to the Quran, Jesus predicted that a prophet would follow him, called Ahmed.

The Fallen Star and the Key to the Bottomless Pit

Now, we will back up to the beginning of Revelation 9. Here we see a star fall from heaven and be given the key to the bottomless pit. Revelation 9:1-2, "And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit."
Let’s start with the first symbol, the star. What do stars represent, according to scripture?
Revelation 1:20, "The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches."
Here we can see that stars represent angels. It is worth noting that the words translated as “angel”, in both the Tanakh (Old Testament) and New Testament, literally mean “messenger.” Also, the word translated as “fall” in the King James Version, πεπτωκότα (peptōkota), is in the past tense, in the original Greek. Some English translations reflect this.
Do we find other occurrences of an angel/messenger descending from heaven to the earth, a key, and the bottomless pit?
Revelation 20:1-3, "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season."
There are differences, so these are obviously not talking about the same event. But the parallels are unmistakable. What can we learn from this passage? This angel is obviously working for God, as he chains up Satan and casts him into the bottomless pit. So, this would seem to indicate that the angel/messenger of chapter 9 is also working for God.
He has a key in his hand as he descends from heaven, so he must have received it in heaven. This would indicate that he received it from God. What does the Bible mean by the symbol of a key?
Matthew 16:19, "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Revelation 1:18, "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."
Isaiah 22:22, "And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open."
Revelation 3:7, "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;"
Keys, in prophecy, represent power or authority. Specifically, power and authority that ultimately comes from God. The angel in Revelation 20 is obviously working for God since he descends from heaven and binds Satan. Also, his key obviously comes from God since he has it with him as he descends from heaven.
Now there is a difference in the keys of the two angels/stars/messengers. The angel in Revelation 20 is given the key in heaven. The star/angel/messenger in Revelation 9 is given they key while he is already on the earth. Some people believe the key in chapter 9 is given by Satan. However, the circumstances make the opposite much more likely. First, the key in chapter 20 is obviously given by God since the angel already possesses it before he descends from heaven. There is no indication that the key in chapter 9 is given by a different source. Also, they key in both chapters is the key of the bottomless pit. Now, I will argue that the literal application of the bottomless pit is different in both chapters, but it breaks the internal logic of the visions to suggest that Satan possesses the key to his own prison in this chapter.
What does the bottomless pit represent? The word translated as “bottomless pit” in both Revelation 9 and 20 is αβυσσου (abyssou), which is where we get the word “abyss.”
Some people point out that the satanic beast powers are shown as ascending out of the bottomless pit. Revelation 11:7, "And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them." Revelation 17:8, "The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is." This could be taken to mean that powers that come out of the bottomless pit are evil.
However, this interpretation fails to take into consideration the fact that, while the phrase “bottomless pit” only appears in a few places in the English translations, the actual Greek word appears in numerous places. One very interesting place is Romans 10:7, "Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)" The word translated “deep” is αβυσσου (abyssou). This means that, when Jesus rose from the dead, he came up out of the abyss/deep/bottomless pit. Certainly, we can’t say that all powers that rise up from the bottomless pit are evil if Christ also rose up from the bottomless pit.
In the text above, the bottomless pit/abyss/deep undeniably refers to the state of death. How else is this word used? A couple of centuries before Jesus, Jewish scholars translated the Tanakh (Old Testament) into Greek. This Greek text is known as the Septuagint or LXX (in reference to the 70 scholars believed to have done the initial work). It is significant in the study of Revelation because it was heavily used by the early Christian church, so it is helpful in understanding what the authors of the New Testament meant by certain words and phrases.
Let’s look at Genesis 1:2 in the English translation of the Septuagint, "But the earth was unseen and unready, and darkness was upon the abyss, and spirit of God bore upon the water." Here you can see that the word, abyss, is used to describe the first state of the earth when it was unformed and empty.
When we look at the bottomless pit in Revelation 20, we see that this happens immediately after all the wicked are killed, resulting in an empty earth. Since we have an empty earth here and the word translated as “bottomless pit” in the King James is also used in the Septuagint in reference to the empty earth, we can conclude that that is the proper meaning of abyss/bottomless pit/deep in this verse.
The strong parallel between Revelation 20 and Revelation 9 provides strong support for interpreting abyss/bottomless pit in a similar fashion, as an empty wasteland. And this is an appropriate symbol since Islam came out of Arabia and the desert in Arabia is historically known as the “Empty Quarter.” The rest of the Mediterranean world generally did not pay much attention to Arabia. Until oil was discovered there, it has historically been seen as an inhospitable desert of little value. And, as the Muslims burst out of Arabia, they certainly seemed to come from nowhere.
Now, we come to the fallen star. If a star falls from heaven, it must begin in heaven. Some people have argued that this indicates Muhammad may have started in the truth, but later turned his back on God. Most of the argument for this comes from the fact that Muhammad organized the Muslims into armies and conducted war. This certainly seems to contradict the peaceful mission of Jesus. However, Jesus was the exception rather than the rule, when you actually read the entire Bible. Muhammad wasn’t just a religious leader. He became a political leader because the Muslims had to form a separate political group in order to survive persecution.
While I’m not arguing that Muhammad was perfect, I believe it would only be fair to judge him according to more similar people in the Bible. For example, Saul tried to kill David, so David fled the city. People loyal to David joined him and they formed their own group, separate from the tribes of Israel. During part of this period, David and his men sought political asylum with the Philistines. This is what the Bible says David did during that period.
1 Samuel 27:1-12
(1) And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand.
(2) And David arose, and he passed over with the six hundred men that were with him unto Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath.
(3) And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife.
(4) And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him.
(5) And David said unto Achish, If I have now found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there: for why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee?
(6) Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: wherefore Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day.
(7) And the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.
(8) And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt.
(9) And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and the apparel, and returned, and came to Achish.
(10) And Achish said, Whither have ye made a road to day? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites.
(11) And David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring tidings to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David, and so will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines.
(12) And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever.
Therefore, David formed a band of warriors and sought political asylum with the Philistines for his followers and his multiple wives. While there, he raided various towns, killing every man, woman and child, and enriching himself with their belongings. Then he would return and lie to the Philistines about what he had done. This is more violent than many of the things people use to say Muhammad was a false prophet. There are many other incidents like this in David’s life.
Now, you may argue that David was mistaken in doing this and he should have acted differently. And you may be correct, but the Bible never shows God openly criticizing David for his actions, except in one instance. This is what it says.
1 Kings 15:5, “Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.”
Acts 13:21-22, "And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will."
Acts 2:29-30, "Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;"
When one criticizes the violent verses in the Quran, he should judge them by the standard of the violent verses in the Bible. For example, Psalm 137:8-9, "O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones."
Alternatively, Hosea 13:16, "Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up."
Obviously, context is critical when examining any controversial verse. It is beyond the scope of this work to try to determine if Muhammad ever seriously strayed from God. But, my experience has been that, most of the time people make general accusations without citing specific instances. When they do cite specific instances and I am able to find strong evidence that they really happened (there are many stories with little or no evidence), and I examine the context of the events and culture he was dealing with, and I compare them to the examples in the Bible (not the sanitized versions people talk about in church), I have difficulty in proving to my own satisfaction that Muhammad ever completely turned his back on God.
I will give one example. One of the most famous violent verses is Quran 9:5, “slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush.” This sounds very violent, of course, which is why nearly everyone quotes it.
Let us look at the context. Quran 9: 1-4 "Freedom from obligation (is proclaimed) from Allah and His messenger toward those of the idolaters with whom ye made a treaty. Travel freely in the land four months, and know that ye cannot escape Allah and that Allah will confound the disbelievers (in His Guidance). And a proclamation from Allah and His messenger to all men on the day of the Greater Pilgrimage that Allah is free from obligation to the idolaters, and (so is) His messenger. So, if ye repent, it will be better for you; but if ye are averse, then know that ye cannot escape Allah. Give tidings (O Muhammad) of a painful doom to those who disbelieve, Excepting those of the idolaters with whom ye (Muslims) have a treaty, and who have since abated nothing of your right nor have supported anyone against you. (As for these), fulfil their treaty to them till their term. Lo! Allah loveth those who keep their duty (unto Him)."
It begins with a declaration that God is dissolving the treaties between the Muslims and the idolaters. The idolaters will then have four months before the Muslims will fight them. But, it adds an exception. Any treaties with idolaters who did not break their treaties will still be upheld. This puts this entire context of this passage in a defensive war only against those people who broke their peace treaties with the Muslims.
Let’s read a little more. Quran 9: 5-6, "Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. And if anyone of the idolaters seeketh thy protection (O Muhammad), then protect him so that he may hear the Word of Allah, and afterward convey him to his place of safety. That is because they are a folk who know not."
Therefore, immediately after the command to slay the idolaters it says to spare them if they repent and turn to God or even simply ask for protection.
That said, the interpretation of the falling star representing the fall of Muhammad seems to come from the King James Version, which translates it as “and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth”. However, the Greek is in the past tense, which means the star had already fallen. And the vision shows the star receive the key after this. This seems to indicate the star came from a fallen background, rather than fell during the vision.
Remember Moses. He came from a people who had fallen away from the worship of God. Many of them worshiped the pagan gods of the Egyptians. Moses himself was a fugitive from justice for murdering an Egyptian. It was in this fallen state that God called him to be a prophet.
Similarly, Muhammad came from a tribe that had fallen away from worshipping God. Hundreds of idols filled the Kaaba (a cubic shaped building that, according to the Quran, was originally built by Abraham for the worship of God). It was in this fallen state that God called Muhammad to bring his people back to the worship of the one true God.
This interpretation seems to fit the structure of the vision the best.

The Locusts

Revelation 9:3-4, “And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.”
The armies that emerge from the smoke are referred to as locusts. Interestingly enough, their actions directly contradict the wonton destruction of locusts. Locusts are feared because they consume all the vegetation. These locusts are commanded by God to not eat the vegetation, only the men that don’t have the seal of God in their foreheads.
Remember, the Little Horn power, representing the corrupt Christian Church, came into full power in 538 A.D. This was just a few decades before Muhammad was born (about 570 A.D.). The Little Horn power attacks the saints. Dan 7:21, 25, "I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them.... And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time."
So here, Satan has corrupted the Christian Church to the point that it attacks the saints (those that have the seal of God in their foreheads). But Islam does the opposite. It attacks those that don’t have the seal of God and follow the Little Horn power, controlled by Satan.
When the Israelites would disobey God, He would sometimes send the Midianites to punish them. The Midianites were descendants of Abraham through his wife Keturah. Genesis 25:1-2, “Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.”
The Midianites and the Ishmaelites seem to have maintained close relations and intermarried because their names become interchangeable.
Genesis 37:27, "Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content."
Genesis 37:36, "And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard."
The book of Judges uses the term “grasshoppers” (a cousin of the locusts) to describe their armies. Judges 6:1-5, "And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds. And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them; And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it."
Although these Midianites don’t seem to have worshiped God, some did. Moses’s father-in-law was a Midianite priest (and possibly descended from Ishmael as well, which would connect him with Muhammad’s ancestral line). He worshiped God. He offered sacrifices to God. He acted as a host to Moses, Aaron and all the elders of Israel. And he advised Moses on how to lead the people. In addition, the fact that he was a priest means that Abraham’s other descendants had an organized religion centered on the worship of the true God independent of Israel. Exodus 18:1-27 records this little known, but very informative event.
There is another thing that both provides evidence that Revelation is talking about. Look at Revelation 9:4, "And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads."
Edward Gibbon, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter LI Paragraph 10, recorded that Abu Bakr (the first Caliph after Muhammad’s death) instructed the Muslims like this, “When you fight the battles of the Lord, acquit yourselves like men, without turning your backs; but let not your victory be stained with the blood of women or children. Destroy no palm-trees, nor burn any fields of corn. Cut down no fruit-trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only such as you kill to eat. When you make any covenant or article, stand to it, and be as good as your word. As you go on, you will find some religious persons who live retired in monasteries, and propose to themselves to serve God that way: let them alone, and neither kill them nor destroy their monasteries: And you will find another sort of people, that belong to the synagogue of Satan, who have shaven crowns; be sure you cleave their skulls, and give them no quarter till they either turn Mahometans or pay tribute.”
If you don’t know, “Mahometan” is an archaic English term for Muslim, common in Gibbon’s time. The parallels are amazing. Revelation is a symbolic book, so much of it is fulfilled figuratively. But the fact that Revelation summarized certain key points of the actual speech makes it almost impossible to refute the fact that this chapter of Revelation is talking about Islam.
The other crucial point, for it reflects heavily on whether God or Satan is behind the rise of Islam, is what Abu Bakr says. He commands the Muslims to not kill the women or children, or harm those that are trying to follow God. He only tells them to attack the followers of Satan.
The summary at the end of the chapter clarifies part of the reason behind the rise of Islam. Revelation 9:20-21, "And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts”. Therefore, one purpose of the spread of Islam was to get men to repent of these things.
Compare this list of sins to the list of sins that will cause people to enter the Lake of Fire. Revelation 21:8, "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death”. The lists closely parallel each other. If Islam was a false religion controlled by Satan, why would its primary purpose of existence be to convince people to repent of sins that will cause them to be thrown into the Lake of Fire?

The First Woe

The prophet Joel sent a warning to the Israelites to turn from their way and repent, or God would send a great army to punish them. However, if the Israelites would turn from their wickedness, God would forgive them. The army Joel predicted was a pagan army from the north, whereas the Muslims were a God-fearing army from the east. However, Revelation 9 drew much of its imagery from this prophecy, which lends credence to the interpretation that God wanted to punish the Christian world for turning away from God.
Joel 2:1-13
(1) Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;
(2) A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.
(3) A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
(4) The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.
(5) Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.
(6) Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.
(7) They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:
(8) Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.
(9) They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
(10) The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:
(11) And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
(12) Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
(13) And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
It is useful to keep this imagery in mind when reading the description of the first and second woes.
The locusts’ attacks are divided into two periods, the rest of the fifth trumpet, and the sixth trumpet. Here we will look at the first period.
Revelation 9:5-12
(5) And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
(6) And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
(7) And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
(8) And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
(9) And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
(10) And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
(11) And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
(12) One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
During this period the Muslims attacked, but did not conquer, the Byzantine Empire. Their speed and ferocity in battle could easily be described as the stings of a scorpion.
“And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle…. and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.” The Arabs have a well-earned reputation for breeding and utilizing their warhorses. The locusts in the vision are described as both looking like horses and having wings that sound like, “many horses running to battle.” The vision does use the word “chariots”, which the Arabs did not use. However, it only uses “chariots” in describing the sound of the locusts’ wings.
“And on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men”. The locusts had human faces, indicating that they symbolize a human army. Moreover, the crowns like gold symbolize leadership and wealth.
“And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron.” The Arabs generally kept their hair long during this period, but this was not a sign of effeminateness or weakness. When they fought, they were fierce and strong, like a lion’s bite.
I read one interpretation that used Paul’s letter to the Corinthians to say that the long hair symbolizes shame. 1 Corinthians 11:14, "Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?" I disagree because the chapter starts out with symbols that reflect God’s covenant. In addition, the covenant contains a very big exception to the general rule that Paul mentions. In truth, I do not necessarily think that it is trying to say anything more than the length of the hair. However, if you want to assign a religious significance to it, I believe that the Nazirite vow is more accurately reflected here than the shame Paul describes.
The Nazirite vow was only taken by individuals, rather than an entire community. The question is can we see aspects of the vow in the lives of the early Islamic Arabs? Let us look at the key components of the Nazarite vow. Numbers 6:2-8, "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD: He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried. All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk. All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. All the days that he separateth himself unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body. He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration of his God is upon his head. All the days of his separation he is holy unto the LORD."
Nazarites would dedicate every aspect of their lives to God.
Islam encompasses many parts of the Muslim life.
Nazarites were not allowd to eat or drink anything that came from the grape vine.
Islam forbids drinking wine or any alcoholic drink.
Nazarites were forbidden to cut their hair.
The early Islamic Arabs wore long hair.
The Nazarites were forbidden to touch a dead body for any reason.
The Muslims must perform ritual washing after they touch a dead body.
As I said before, the description in Revelation 9 probably just refers to the length of the hair of the Arabs as they burst out of Arabia. However, if it does have more significance, I believe it would be something like this.
“And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.”
Although the events of the fifth trumpet start with Muhammad, the militancy is focused on the five-month period mentioned in verse 5 and repeated in verse 10. There are clues as to when this period begins. Verse 11 says, “And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.” The king represents a political power that has gained control of the Islamic world. Muhammad was the star/angel/messenger that opened the bottomless pit/Arabia. This king has gained the political authority over the Muslims that Muhammad once held, but it has not inherited the same spiritual authority.
The next phase (the sixth trumpet), specifies that the horsemen “slay the third part of men.” The fifth trumpet says that men will be tormented and wish for death. Since these phases are connected, they are fighting the same empire. As the Roman Empire broke up, there were three main parts. The Latin west, the Greek east and North Africa. The western regions fell to Germanic invaders who generally resisted Islamic invasion. Germanic invaders conquered North Africa. These were, in turn conquered by the Islamic invaders. But, the Greek (Byzantine) Eastern Empire held out against the invading tribes, and the initial Islamic expansion. This did not change until the Muslims were united under a single political force that would become the Ottoman Empire. It was the Ottomans who united the Muslims under one political authority.
Is there any other clue in the fifth trumpet that it is talking about the Ottomans in particular? The next part, which we will talk about in the next chapter, gives a clue about the interpretation of the tails. Revelation 9:19, "For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt." Since the next phase of the horsemen specifically describes the power in the tails, the “stings in their tails” is related. The Turkish tugh was the symbol of authority and power. The tugh was a staff with horse-tail hair at the end.
The text says that it is this political authority, “the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.” Both of these words mean “destroyer.” Most people automatically assume that this means it is an evil power (although the Ottoman sultans were known to kill off relatives to remove any potential rivals). We should look at how destroying angels were figured in the rest of the Bible.
Exodus 12:23, 29 "For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you…And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle."
2 Samuel 24:15-16, "So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men. And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite."
1 Chronicles 21:15-16, "And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces."
2 Kings 19:32-35, "Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses."
We can see here that, in the rest of the Bible, destroying angels clearly work for God, not Satan. Although the Ottomans were human and had their faults, the Bible does not describe destroying angels as Satanic powers. Remember, this is during the little horn period of Christianity. Mainstream Christianity was under the control of Satan and waged war against the saints during this time.
What about the 5 months? Taking the day for a year principle, we can see that the 5 months comes to 150 years. This began when you had the convergence of the Muslims being united under one political authority that waged war with, but did not destroy, the Eastern Roman Empire. Edward Gibbon stated that, “It was on July 27, A.D. 1299, that Othman first invaded the territory of Nicomedia; and the singular accuracy of the date seems to disclose some foresight of the rapid and destructive growth of the monster.” 150 years later takes us to 1449 when the last emperor, Constantine, had to be crowned with the permission of the Ottoman sultan. This marks the beginning of the Second Woe.

The Second Woe

Revelation 9: 13-21
(13) And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
(14) Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
(15) And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
(16) And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.
(17) And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
(18) By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
(19) For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
(20) And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
(21) Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
In 1449, the last Roman emperor had to get permission from the Ottoman sultan to be crowned, thus transferring power to the Ottomans. Now the horsemen in the vision go from stinging men to slaying men. “Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.”
Earlier, the horsemen were told to not hurt the trees or those who had the seal of God in their foreheads. How does the Bible connect the four angels and the seal of God?
Revelation 7:1-3, "And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads."
The circumstances are different in these two visions, so they are talking about two separate events. However, the similarity of the symbols does provide some insight into the interpretation.
“And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.” The death of the Eastern Roman Empire happened at the siege of Constantinople. This was one of the first major battles in history where cannons were used. One of the major ingredients of black powder is sulfur, also known as brimstone. So, “out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone” would be an accurate description of the battle that killed the last part of the Roman Empire.
What does the “hour, and a day, and a month, and a year” cover? The five month period began on July 27, 1299 and ended on July 27, 1449. An hour is 1/24th of a day. 1/24th of a 360 day prophetic year is 15 days. 15 days after July 27 is August 11. A day, a month and a year comes to 391 prophetic days/years. 391 years after August 11, 1449 is August 11, 1840. The 5 month period ended with the transfer of power away from Constantinople. On August 11, 1840 the Ottomans signed a treaty with England, Russia, Austria and Prussia which gave up its political independence, transferring power away from Istanbul (formerly known as Constantinople).
Some people have rightfully pointed out that nothing significant happened on July 27, 1449. The Greek allows the text to also be interpreted as, “prepared for the hour, a day, a month, and a year.” Therefore, you can interpret the hour as being part of the time period, or you can interpret the hour as the event of slaying the third part of men. Either way will lead you to the major political blow to the Ottoman Empire in 1840.