The Son of God

Imam Shabir Ally writes in an article, The Messiah: Jesus, Son of Mary, “Glory be to God. He does not father children. He created everyone we know from a man and a woman. But He created Adam from neither a man nor a woman. And He created Eve from a man, but not from a woman. Then, as if to complete the picture, God created Jesus from a woman but not from a man. God has demonstrated His power to create in every way.”

I like Imam Ally’s words, and I agree with him when he says, “Glory be to God. He does not father children.”  I do not know of any Christians who believe that God had sexual relations with Mary to produce Jesus the Messiah.  The Bible does not say this either. But the Bible clearly refers to Jesus, as well as many others, as sons of God or children of God.

Both Christians and Muslims refer to each other as brothers and sisters.  Who then is our common father, if not God? And Jesus, peace be upon him, taught us to pray, “Our Father which art in Heaven . . .”  Clearly the phrase son of God does not refer to Jesus alone, and it is not the same as God the son.

We read in the Gospel of John, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  (John 3:16 KJV) But we misunderstand the word begotten. It does not mean that God fathered a son. The Greek word for begotten is monogenēs, which means uniquely generated.  The same verse in the Spanish Bible correctly translates the Greek word monogenēs as unigénito, which also means uniquely generated.

Therefore, I reiterate Imam Ally’s observation:  Jesus is a unique son of God, because he was born of a virgin with no involvement from a man.  Adam was a unique son of God, because God created him directly as an adult male, with no involvement from neither a man nor a woman.  Eve was a unique daughter of God, because God created her, also as an adult, directly from Adam, with no involvement from a woman. The rest of us are children of God, because we are part of God’s creation.  

However we also become unique children of God when we experience spiritual re-birth that occurs when we become Christians and Muslims.  Surely most of us have observed that when a non-believer submits his or her life to God, we see an immediate change in their lives. That change is the spiritual re-birth that Jesus referred to when he said we must be born again, and this re-birth makes us unique children of God, because it distinguishes us from non-believers.  

Both Christians and Muslims recognize Jesus as the Messiah, and his position as Messiah also qualifies him as a unique son of God.  The Apostle John wrote to us who recognize Jesus as the Messiah and says, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.  (1 John 5:13)

Click here to view a video about this issue that you might also find insightful.

Why the name change? Please note that we have re-named our blog to, “A Divine Wink.” We made this change to recognize that our Christian brothers who speak English know our Divine King as God, and our Muslim brothers know our Divine King as Allah. Glory to God that Christians and Muslims submit ourselves to the same Divine King.

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