I put a question mark in the title because at one time this left me wondering if I was going to Hell or Paradise. I was taught that I had to believe he died for my sins and I had to look to him for forgiveness. I was not there so I could never be so sure that he did die on the cross. So many things were unanswered and no one had the answers, at least not consistently the same. I could not understand how when he hung there on the cross that he could doubt God was still there for him. What I learned about Jesus from the Bible and The Quran is that he was born with complete knowledge of the existence in the One Holy God. I can imagine the pain he would have felt but do not believe he would ever have questioned that God was there for him. Also he never defended himself at the trial and barely spoke at all when he was questioned. He was an honest man and would never have let truths go untold. Then I question the actions of the apostles whom had already put their lives in the line of danger, denying that they knew him before he was hung on the cross.
The Holy Quran, which I believe was a message to Muhammad, does not say specifically that he did not hang on the cross.
So peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised alive. Surat-u Maryam (19):33
It is clear here that Jesus did die and that he lived again after that.
This of course poses a question and the Qur'an itself clearly gives the following instructions whenever one is in doubt:
If thou were in doubt as to what We have revealed unto thee, then ask those who have been reading the Book from before thee (ask the People of the Book). Surat-u Yunus (10):94
This also brings up another instance where the Quran supports the book that most Muslims refuse even to look in, the Holy Bible. For sure there are mistakes in all of the Holy books, the Bible not excluded. But the seekers of truth will find it just as it was written. The word of God does not change and those seeking it not for profit in this world but for the glory of God will see it. The Quran on numerous occasions refers the Muslims back to the people of the book. The book that supposedly is full of lies according the educated religious Muslim elite of today.
Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took twelve disciples aside and said to them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man (the Messiah) will be betrayed to the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles (non-Jews) to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life.
Matthew 20:17-19
Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you, as you yourselves know. This man (Jesus) was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
Acts 2:22-24
The big question of all time, did he die? Well I was not there so I will have to rely on the books that I trust to give me that answer. I will show how that I found that answer in the Bible. Then I will clarify as it was clarified to me with the Quran.
I believe that if Isa (Jesus) left his dead body lying around someone would have kept it until this day. If he did die and has not come back to claim his body then where is it.
The Quran is not clear if Jesus died or was raised up bodily but gives strong evidence for the belief that Jesus did die, before being raised up to God. Notice the following Quranic verse:
And (remember) when Allah (The One God) said: "O Isa (Jesus), I will take thee and raise you to Myself..." -- Surat-u Ali-Imran (3): 55
The Arabic expression for "I will take thee" is "tawaffika" meaning "I will cause you to die." This expression is used again in verse Surat-ul Maida (5): 117 where Jesus says to God, "...but when you took me up..." Here again the Arabic literally means, "When you caused me to die."
There is another verse, which indicates that Jesus died before being raised to God. Jesus is quoted as saying:
"And Salam (peace) be upon me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive!" -- Surat-u Maryam (19): 33
This makes me think that maybe Isa (Jesus) died before being raised up into heaven. We still have the question about the cross.
Today I believe without a doubt that I have found salvation. I believe that those that truly know the nature of Jesus and really believe in something more than things that they can touch or analyze with a microscope have found the path. Those that follow the teachings of Jesus and others like him that taught peace and the worship of one God have found salvation.
I read in the Bible that Abraham was going to sacrifice his son to God. At the last minute God spared his sons life and substituted a lamb in its place. I was told that this lamb was a symbol of Jesus whom would take me and spare me from the Hell. Through prayers and study of the Bible I feel that an even deeper meaning lays in this story. The story tells me that it would come a time that God would do the same with a man that was to come at a later time. A man that would be so special in Gods eyes that he would be like a son. That man would be at the alter to be sacrificed and at the last minute he would be taken away from the suffering, much as the son of Abraham was replaced with a lamb. That man was the Holy Prophet Jesus whom was to be crucified but God saved him from this at the night of his sacrifice by raising him up to heaven before he died.
How could they kill Jesus? His life was not born of this physical world as most men. He had a spirit within him that lived more strongly than any other and could not be killed. Most Muslims teach that someone else was there in his place but the only true reference in the Quran is the following verse and it does not say that it was someone else on the cross. It only points out that he did not die from crucifixion. Jesus was not of the body but was created by the spirit. He was the Word inside of the flesh. The blind only see the world in front of their eyes so they were led to believe they had crucified Jesus but they did not even know him for what he truly was. What I see is a play on words that Satan has used to lead astray those whom do not choose to truly seek the pleasure of God. To die in a physical sense does not necessarily mean that the soul dies. "23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.", is referring to both a physical and a spiritual death. Jesus body may have ceased to function for sometime, as a human being but Jesus never died spiritually. Those that follow his teachings and worship one God and do the will of God will not perish either.
So many people can only see the world as it is in the physical sense. If they believed in God then they would know that life is in two forms, both physical and spiritual. But people cannot put the spiritual under the microscope or touch it so many do not believe in it at all. It was so easy to fool the people that wanted to crucify Jesus because they did not believe in God or the spiritual life.
That they (the Jews) said (in boast) "We killed Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, the Apostle of God" - But they killed him not nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not. Nay, God raised him up unto Himself; and God is exalted in Power, Wise;
Surat-un Nisaa (4):157
The answer lays in the last few words of this Surat, "God raised him up unto Himself; and God is exalted in Power". It shows here that it was not by a matter of substitution as many believe but by the will of God alone. The two-dimensional non-believer will say that his body was crucified so was he. But the mankind that God created is not of this body neither was that of Jesus. A man that does not believe in God and only sees this world will surely suffer the death of the body and soul. But Jesus was more than that. He had lived a life and survived the best of the best in leading man astray, Satan. God spared him the suffering of death and took him before the crucifixion sparing the agony.
Three days later he returned to his body that God had healed. Jesus was not crucified and the death of his body was only temporary by the will of God.