Does God Have a Son?
WHEN Moslems insist, in the words of the Koran (5:76-79), that “there is no God but one God,” Christians heartily agree, for the Bible itself declares, at 1 Corinthians 8:6, that “there is actually to us one God the Father, out of whom all things are.” In the Koran God is “Allah,” for in Arabic the word Allah means “the God.” The Bible gives us his name, saying “Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.”—Mark 12:29.
But when Christians use the expression “the Son of God,” Moslems vehemently protest, “God has no son.” They quote the Koran, which says, at Suras 4:169; 6:101; 19:36: “God is only one God! Far be it from His glory that He should have a son!” “How, when He hath no consort, should He have a son?” “It beseemeth not God to beget a son.”
Of course, it would be foolish for anyone to limit the power of God by saying, ‘God cannot have a son.’ Truthfully, the Koran proclaims, “Verily, God is Almighty.” (2:19) He is the Creator of the universe, of heaven and earth and of the creatures in them. As God said to Abraham, that man of faith recognized by both Christians and Moslems, “Is anything too extraordinary for Jehovah?” A person who really is in submission to the Omnipotent God must agree with the prophet who said, “With God all things are possible.”—Gen. 18:14; Matt. 19:26.
No Moslem denies that it is God who created humans and endowed them with power to have sons. Yes, God created Adam with power to have sons. Now, was it a blind man who invented and made the first camera? Or was it a deaf man who first thought of and fashioned the telephone? No, reasons Sir Isaac Newton, the English mathematician, physicist and astronomer. He said, “Was the eye contrived without skill in optics, or the ear without knowledge of sounds?” In support of the obvious answer the Bible says: “Understand, you who are unreasoning among the people; and as for you stupid ones, when will you have any insight? The One planting the ear, can he not hear? Or the One forming the eye, can he not look?” (Ps. 94:8, 9) The One who gave man power to have sons, can He not have a son? “Verily, God is Almighty.” The logical answer is an indisputable Yes, and that is why Abraham believed when God told him that he would have a son. With just elementary insight a reasoning person must agree: God can have a son.
ADAM, “THE SON OF GOD”
The word “son” means “a human male considered with reference to his parents or either of them; a male descendant.” Every male child or person has to be the son of someone who as father produced or generated his life. Thus, because Abdallah begot or generated the life of the one who became the prophet Mohammed, Mohammed is said to be “the son of Abdallah.” Now, what about the first forefather of Mohammed and of us all, the first man Adam—who was his father? Adam had no human father, but still he had to be the son of someone. Of whom? God was his father. Hence Adam must have been the son of God. Correctly, the Book containing the most ancient history of the human race says, at Luke 3:38, that Adam was “the son of God.”
Long before the creation of his human son Adam, God already had countless spirit sons, angels, all of whom got their life from the Father without sexual reproduction and birth. Jehovah asked Job: “Who is this that is obscuring counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins, please, like an able-bodied man, and let me question you, and you inform me. Where did you happen to be when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you do know understanding. Who set its measurements, in case you know, or who stretched out upon it the measuring line? Into what have its socket pedestals been sunk down, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars joyfully cried out together, and all the sons of God began shouting in applause?” (Job 38:1-7) Thus the Bible says Jehovah God has many sons, both angelic and human. (Gen. 6:4; Job 1:6; Luke 3:38) Would you deny it? “Have you come to know because at that time you were being born, and because in number your days are many?”—Job 38:21.
More than 1,500 years before the son of Abdallah was born at Mecca, about 570 C.E., the Bible recorded that God has a Son who is preeminent among all other sons of God. Now, suppose there is a dispute in your town about a person’s line of descent, some persons saying he is the son of So-and-So but others vehemently denying. The matter is referred for settlement. “Yes, he is the son of So-and-So,” says a very old man who is respected because he kept the village records before any of the disputants were born. “No,” asserts a councilor whose grandfather was the old historian’s playmate, “So-and-So had no son.” Whose testimony would you accept as authoritative? The councilor’s, just because he now happens to be a man of influence or perhaps because he is a relative of yours? Certainly not! You would rather believe the word and written evidence of the old historian, wouldn’t you? Sensibly! The Bible predates all other books; we should accept its answer to the question, Does God have a Son?
WHAT IS HIS NAME?
God has many sons, you agree. But is there an outstanding one we might properly call the Son of God? And why? If you are disturbed or disappointed, do not be prejudiced if the book you consider holy does not specifically give the name of the true Allah or the name of his Son. On these vital questions the Holy Bible can challenge all other holy books with the question: “Who has gathered the wind in the hollow of both hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in a mantle? Who has made all the ends of the earth to rise? What is his name and what the name of his son, in case you know?”—Prov. 30:4.
This preeminent Son is the one of whom the Koran says God decreed “His name shall be, Messiah Jesus the son of Mary, illustrious in this world, and in the next.” (3:40) Yes, as a human he was the son of Mary, but who was the father responsible for Mary’s pregnancy, so that the child would be his son? Some stumble here by taking a carnal viewpoint. They imagine there was only one way for Mary to conceive and that was by having sexual relations, and ‘God is not a man to have sexual relations with a woman.’ But even the Koran teaches that Jesus was conceived by an act of the divine will.
Whose act resulted in the life of Adam, the son of God? God’s. Hence Sura 3:52 says: “Verily, Jesus is as Adam in the sight of God.” Neither of them had a human father. Hence, inasmuch as Adam was a son of God, so is Jesus.
But Jesus did not first become a son of God when he was born of the chaste virgin Mary. He was foremost among the spirit sons of God who shouted for joy at the creation of the earth, as we read at Proverbs 8:22-31. (John 1:2, 3) After Adam was created Adam sinned and lost his sonship. “But when the full limit of the time arrived, God sent forth his Son, who came to be out of a woman.” (Gal. 4:4) Note that the one God sent forth was his Son, whom the Koran says that God “conveyed into Mary.” So the one who until then had been a spirit Son of God now became his human Son. “When he commenced his work, [Jesus] was about thirty years old, being the son, as the opinion was, of Joseph,” but at his baptism God’s voice “came out of heaven: ‘You are my Son, the beloved.’” (Luke 3:21-23) He proved himself a man of faultless integrity down to the day of his death as a man. The Koran (3:48) says: “God said, ‘O Jesus! verily I will cause thee to die, and will take thee up to myself and deliver thee.’” So, three days after his death this “Son, who sprang from the seed of David according to the flesh, . . . with power was declared God’s Son according to the spirit of holiness by means of resurrection from the dead—yes, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 1:3, 4) Yes, a spirit Son again, but now because of his proved, faultless integrity Jesus Christ was appointed by Jehovah as his Vindicator and the Chief Agent of life toward mankind.
JESUS, “THE” SON OF GOD
Does God have a Son? The Book, the oldest history book on earth, the truthful Word of God, the Holy Bible, says Yes! In its authentic record, named witnesses identify this preeminent Son as Jesus Christ. Solomon wrote down Jesus’ prehuman autobiography as a spirit son. (Prov. 8:22-31) Isaiah prophesied God would use a virgin to produce him as a human son. (Isa. 7:14) Gabriel told Mary to call his name Jesus. (Luke 1:26-33) Simeon and Anna glorified God on account of this miraculous birth. (Luke 2:25-38) Thirty years later John the Baptist actually heard God acknowledge Jesus as his Son. (Matt. 3:17; John 1:29-34) James and Peter testified that with a third companion they heard God repeat, “This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved; listen to him.” (Matt. 17:5) Caiaphas pronounced Jesus guilty because he admitted on oath that he is the Son of God. (Mark 14:61-64) Jesus’ bosom friend John wrote a whole book to prove that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and John was a witness of these things. (John 20:31) In symbolic drama Abraham showed how God would let his Son die. (Gal. 3:16) Jesus’ mother and two other women named Mary saw him die as the innocent Lamb of God. (John 19:25) Paul wrote that he knew of five hundred witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection. (1 Cor. 15:6) Stephen in vision caught sight of God’s glory and of the resurrected Jesus at God’s right hand (Acts 7:55), where David said he would wait until God’s time to send him forth as a King ruling in the midst of his enemies. (Ps. 110:1, 2) All of this was written down by ancient historians of truthful events. Five hundred years afterward, if certain writers denied that Jesus is the Son of God, should we set aside the overwhelming testimony of credible witnesses whose names are given by named writers of the Holy Bible? Never! Why, that Jesus is the Son of God was admitted by the Roman soldiers who impaled him and by the demons themselves! And these were his enemies!
BEFRIEND THE SON OF GOD NOW ENTHRONED
But that was long ago. Concerning the Son of God in our day, David foretold that Jehovah would say: “‘I, even I, have installed my king upon [heavenly] Zion, my holy mountain.’ Let me refer to the decree of Jehovah; He has said to me [Jesus Christ]: ‘You are my son; I, today, I have become your father. Ask of me, that I may give nations as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your own possession. You will break them with an iron scepter, as though a potter’s vessel you will dash them to pieces.’ And now, O kings, exercise insight; let yourselves be corrected, O judges of the earth. Serve Jehovah with fear and be joyful with trembling. Kiss the son, that He may not become incensed and you may not perish from the way, for his anger flares up easily. Happy are all those taking refuge in him.”—Ps. 2:6-12.
Enemy or friend, which will you be when the Son wields his “iron scepter”? Will you choose to be dashed to pieces just because your forefathers embraced a certain religion, or because you are of a certain tribe or race? Those who accept and follow Jesus become his friends. They kiss the Son by submitting to his kingdom. They are in line for blessings in Paradise. You, yes, you can be one!
That Jesus is the Son of God is a truth as unassailable as a rock-mass. Will you build on it wisely? His friends in Africa, in Arabia, in the East and in the West, in 194 lands so far, are thus building and taking refuge in him. The hope of eternal life through the Son makes these friends happy. (John 3:16-18) His enemies stubbornly stumble on God’s Son as on a stone of stumbling and a rock-mass of offense. But they are due to be pulverized when the Son obeys his Father’s command at Psalm 110. Do not you stumble over this Stone and be crushed by it. (Luke 20:18) Why make God angry with you so that you perish from the way? (Ps. 2:12) Exercise insight and live!
Make an impartial examination of the Bible. Study it carefully, with the aid of Bible literature and the teaching organization of Jehovah’s witnesses. Flee out of Babylon the Great, that worldwide empire that includes the false religions both inside and outside of Christendom.
In the name of God, Jehovah, the Compassionate, the Merciful, the Father of Jesus Christ, turn now ‘from the authority of the darkness to the kingdom of the Son of his love.’—Col. 1:13.
“For there has been a child born to us, there has been a son given to us; and the princely rule will come to be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. To the abundance of the princely rule and to peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom in order to establish it firmly and to sustain it by means of justice and by means of righteousness, from now on and to time indefinite.”—Isa. 9:6, 7.