Who spoke the truth, Jesus or John the Baptist ?

Baptist Contradicts Jesus

In New Testament times, we find that the Jews were still expecting the

fulfilment of the prophecy of 'ONE LIKE MOSES'; refer John 1:19-25. When

Jesus claimed to be the Messiah of the Jews, the Jews began to enquire as to

where was Elias? The Jews had a parallel prophecy that before the coming of the Messiah, Elias must come first in his second coming. Jesus confirms this Jewish belief:

". . . . . . ELIAS TRULY SHALL FIRST COME, AND RESTORE ALL THINGS. BUT

I SAY UNTO YOU, THAT ELIAS IS COME ALREADY, AND THEY KNEW HIM

NOT, . . . . . . THEN THE DISCIPLES UNDERSTOOD THAT HE SPAKE UNTO

THEM OF JOHN THE BAPTIST." (Matthew 17:11-13).

According to the New Testament the Jews were not the ones to swallow the

words of any would-be Messiah. In their investigations they underwent

intense difficulties in order to find their true Messiah. And this the Gospel of

John confirms: "AND THIS IS THE RECORD OF JOHN," (the Baptist) "WHEN

THE JEWS SENT PRIESTS AND LEVITES FROM JERUSALEM TO ASK HIM,

WHO ART THOU? AND HE CONFESSED AND DENIED NOT; BUT CONFESSED,

I AM NOT THE CHRIST." (This was only natural because there can't be two

Messiahs at the same time. If Jesus was the Christ then John couldn't be

the Christ!) "AND THEY ASKED HIM, WHAT THEN? ART THOU ELIAS? AND HE

SAITH, I AM NOT." (Here John the Baptist contradicts Jesus! Jesus says

that John is "Elias" and John denies that he is what Jesus ascribes him to

be). One of the TWO (Jesus or John), God forbid! is definitely not speaking

the TRUTH! On the testimony of Jesus himself, John the Baptist was the

greatest of the Israelite prophets: "VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, AMONG THEM

THAT ARE BORN OF WOMEN THERE HAS NOT RISEN A GREATER THAN JOHN

THE BAPTIST: . . . . . ." (Matthew 11:11).

We Muslims know John the Baptist as Hazrut YAHYAA Alai-his-salaam

(peace be upon him). We revere him as a true prophet of Allah. The Holy

Prophet Jesus known to us as Hazrut ISAA Alai-his-salaam (peace be upon

him), is also esteemed as one of the mightiest

messenger of the Almighty. How can we Muslims impute lies to either of

them? We leave this problem between Jesus and John for the Christians to

solve, for their "sacred scriptures" abound in discrepancies which they have

been glossing over as the "dark sayings of Jesus". We Muslims are

really interested in the last question posed to John the Baptist by the

Jewish elite - "ART THOU THAT PROPHET? AND HE ANSWERED, NO." (John

1:21).

Three Questions!

Please note that three different and distinct questions were posed to John

the Baptist and to which he gave three emphatic "NO's" as answers. To

recapitulate:-

But the learned men of Christendom somehow only see two questions

implied here. To make doubly clear that the Jews definitely had T-H-R-E-E

separate prophecies in their minds when they were interrogating John the

Baptist, let us read the remonstrance of the Jews in the verses following -

"AND THEY ASKED HIM, AND SAID UNTO HIM, WHY BAPTIZEST THOU THEN,

IF THOU BE

The Jews were waiting for the fulfilment of THREE distinct prophecies: One,

the coming of CHRIST. Two, the coming of ELIAS, and Three, the coming of

THAT PROPHET.