The following was authored by the late Christian theologian and apologist Dr. Labib Mikhail. I post it here for the benefit of the readers.

5. The confessions of Jesus’ disciples.

There is another fact to which I want to call your attention. When the Son of God left His glory in heaven and took the form of a servant, He did not say that He was God explicitly because He came to die, not to be glorified. He said to His disciples:

For even the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

His Deity was hidden in His humanity, but He caused those who were with Him to declare His Deity. All of them were Jews who believed in monotheism.

• Nathaniel shouted, “You are the Son of God” (John 1:49).
• Peter by a special revelation from the Father cried out, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Matthew 16:16).

“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven’” (Matthew 16:17).

• Thomas, seeing Christ after His resurrection, and seeing the wounds in His hands and side, was completely certain that Jesus was the crucified and resurrected Christ; overcome with joy, he cried out,

My Lord and my God (John 20:28).

That was not an exclamation, it was a confession.

All these confessions clearly indicate that Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son of God.

6. The divine attributes of Jesus Christ.

We all agree that God has three personal attributes.

He is omnipresent – that means he is everywhere present.

He is omniscient – that means He is absolutely perfect in knowledge.

He is omnipotent – that means that He can bring to pass everything which He wills.

Jesus Christ claimed all these attributes.

He claimed that He was omnipresent when He said,

No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is the son of man who is in heaven (John 3:13).

While he was on earth He was also in heaven.

He also said,

For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20 – NKJ).

He claimed that He was omniscient when He said,

… No one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and to whom the Son wills to reveal (Matthew 11:27 – NKJ).

That is a knowledge above our comprehension, a knowledge no one can claim.

Jesus knew that He would be crucified. From the time of Peter’s confession to Jesus, saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God… from that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day” (Matthew 16:21 – NKJ).

The gospels are full of incidents that show that Jesus Christ is omniscient.

He claimed that he was omnipotent when He said:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one (John 10:27-30 – NKJ).

This oneness of the Father and the Son is not in purpose but in power and essence.

Jesus as the Son of Man was given all power in heaven and on earth. He said,

All power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18).

When Jesus said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you,” (Mark 2:5) the scribes who were sitting there reasoned in their hearts:

Why does this man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk?’ But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins” – He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go your way to your house.” And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!” (Mark 2:6-12 – NKJ).

It is of great interest to acknowledge that after His resurrection and ascension to heaven, Jesus declared explicitly that He is God.

He said to John:

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last (Revelation 1:11).

The Quran declares in Surat Al-Hadid 57:3 that only God is the First and the Last. It says:

He is the First and the Last.

If Jesus says that He is the First and the Last, then He is God the Son.

In the same book of Revelation, that most profound prophetic book, Jesus declared that He is the judge of mankind:

And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be (Revelation 22:12).

Again He declared in the gospel of John:

For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him (John 5:22,23 – NKJ).

The Quran declares in Surat Al-Fatihah 1:1,4, that God is the ruler of the day of judgment. It says:

In the name of Allah,… owner of the day of judgment.

The Quran also declares:

And [Jesus] shall be a sign [for the coming of] the hour of judgment” (Surat Al-Zukhruf 43:61).

7. The declarations of Jesus Christ and His apostles. 

When the chief priests and the Jewish elders questioned the authority of Jesus Christ, He said to them:

Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.” And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him (Matthew 21:33-39 – NKJ).

The important verse in this parable is, “Then last of all he sent his son.”

The Son of God was the last messenger to come and to be crucified. No one is to come after him to establish a new religion.

We have to realize that Judaism by its offerings, prophecies, types and symbols was the foundation for Christianity. In Christ all the offerings, prophecies, types and symbols were fulfilled. There is no room for any other religion after Christ.

Moreover, God sent Moses who was a true great prophet. By him God gave His law to the Jewish people. Then in due time God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, who was much greater than Moses:

Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus; who was faithful to Him who appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honour than the house (Hebrews 3:1-3).

It is unlikely that God would send a lesser person after He sent His only Son.

At the last Passover supper, before His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples to wait for His coming. He never told them to wait or expect any other prophet after Him, for He was the last messenger of God to mankind. It is useless to search the Bible for prophecies concerning the coming of Muhammad, for there are no such prophecies at all.

Jesus said to his disciples before His crucifixion:

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (John 14:1-3)

These are clear words that Jesus will come to take His own at His second coming. His own should not look for the coming of anyone else, they should wait only for His coming.

The apostle Peter spoke to the men of Israel, after he healed the man born lame in the name of Jesus Christ, saying:

The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I know that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you (Acts 3:13-20).

The one who will come again is Jesus Christ. There is no need for another one.

The apostle John wrote:

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure (I John 3:2,3).

The only hope for true believers in Jesus Christ is His second coming. It is called the blessed hope.

The apostle Paul recorded:

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works (Titus 2:11-14).

The true Christians are commanded to look for “that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.”

There is no place for another prophet to come and establish a new religion. The blessed hope is the second coming of Jesus Christ.

The writer of the book of Hebrews says:

God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through 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 at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:1-3 – NKJ).

Here we have to notice some facts.

First: That Jesus Christ is God’s Last Messenger. God spoke to us by Him in these last days.

Second: That Jesus Christ is more than the prophets. He is the Eternal Son of God. God has in these last days spoken to us by His son.

Third: That Jesus is the heir of all things. The Quran declares that God alone is the heir of all things.

It is We who inherit the earth, and all beings thereon: to Us will they all be returned (Surat Maryam 19:40).

And if Jesus Christ is the heir of all things, then He is God the Son.

Fourth: That Jesus is the Creator and the Upholder of all things.

Through whom also He made the worlds; who being… the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power.

Fifth: That Jesus is the Redeemer of mankind.

He had by Himself purged our sins.

This is Jesus Christ, the Son of Man and the Son of God as revealed in the Bible, on the basis of His everlasting existence, His sinless life, the Biblical revelation of the Triune God, the redemption of mankind, and His claims. We Christians believe, and rightly so, that Jesus Christ is God’s son manifested in the flesh, and God’s Last Messenger to the world.

He is coming again, and He is coming soon, and every eye shall see that He has on his robe a name written: “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (Revelation 19:16).

In that day, the words of the apostle Paul will be fulfilled:

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10,11).

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