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Hi, Pam —
Christ said nothing of the sort;
regarding any future prophets. Regarding
Himself, in the Book of Revelation,
He says:
8 I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the Beginning and the End, the
One who was and is and is to come.
(Revelation 1:8)
He did however warn us that many
false prophets would come after Him:
- St. John warns us in one of his
epistles that anyone who would
come denying that God came in
the Flesh, would be of the Spirit
of the Anti-Christ. (1 John 4:1-3)
- St. Paul warns us in the book
of Galatians that those who come
with a different Gospel are anathema. (Galatians 1:8)
- He also writes in 2 Corinthians
11:14 that Satan comes as an Angel
of Light and his servants as ministers
of righteousness, in order to
deceive the world.
So either the text you are referring
to in the Quran is an invention of
Muhammad, or it was inspired by someone
other than God.
Just so you understand, Islam is
a morphing of two early Christian
heresies.
- The first being the Judaizers who
believed in a legalistic observation
of law in addition to Jesus.
- The second being Arianism that
believed Jesus was not God but
a created being not equal to the
Father.
Muhammad took a little from each
of these cults in forming his theology.
He rejected the Divinity of Christ
and His Sonship of God. He embraced
the legalism of the Judaizers, including
most of their dietary laws.
Muhammad's understanding of God is
almost Nominalistic although Nominalism wouldn't
become philosophy for centuries.
What I mean is, in Muhammad's
mind, God was strictly this Supreme
Transcendent being and Man had to
strive to earn and keep God's
conditional love.
This, of course, is heresy and is
quite the contrast from the God of
the Judeo-Christian Tradition. Yes,
we believe God is transcendent and
all-powerful, but we also know that
God revealed Himself and condescended (has come
down to meet us) as well. His
Love is unconditional. We cannot
earn it, nor can we lose it. We can
only choose to accept it or reject
it.
Given then Muhammad's view
of God, it is easy to see how he
(Muhammad) embraced the legalism of the Judaizers and the Arian heresy.
- The legalism satisfied his notion
of having to earn God's
favor.
- The Arianism suited his desire
to pant God as strictly transcendent.
Therefore, he was able to reduce
Jesus to a prophet and teacher. Of
course, this latter point also made
it possible for Muhammad to elevate
himself to the status of last and
greatest Prophet.
- After all, if Jesus remained the
Son of God and God Incarnate, why
would we need Muhammad?
For that reason, relegating Jesus
to a prophet sent to the Jews was
also very good for Muhammad's
career aspirations.
I hope this helps,
John DiMascio
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