Dear Raymond:

Jesus WAS the scapegoat. He died for our sins. He is our scapegoat.

If this fella wants to assert that Jesus did not die on the Cross he needs to provide some evidence. There are those out there who are so desparate to have Jesus come down off the Cross alive because they are afraid that if He did die that they will have no choice but to be Christian.

You see, if Jesus did not die on the Cross and Resurrect from His own power on Easter Sunday, then Christianity is fake. If Christianity is fake these people would not feel so guilty and they would be able to do as they please with impunity.

There is little such debunking of other religions because other religions do not pose the threat to those who wish to do as they please and not be responsible to God. After all, the stakes is heaven or hell if Christianity is true.

There are two proofs that Jesus did die on the Cross:

1) There were eye-witnesses: Jesus mothers and St. John, and other followers, and also Roman soldiers and other spectators. If the Apostles were lying about his death there would have been many people to call them out for the lie. People in those days were very keen to expose false prophets. The Apostles could not ever get away with a lie about this.

2) Back in the 1980's the American Medical Association publish a forensic analysis in their Journal, JAMA (1986;255:1455-1463), about whether or not Jesus died on the Cross. The AMA is hardly a religious journal.

Their forensic investigation from the documentary evidence of the death of Jesus on the Cross from Biblical and extra-biblical sources was fascinating.

The article itself is long and is available for a fee. Their conclusion in the Summary Abstract from their website states:

Jesus of Nazareth underwent Jewish and Roman trials, was flogged, and was sentenced to death by crucifixion. The scourging produced deep stripelike lacerations and appreciable blood loss, and it probably set the stage for hypovolemic shock, as evidenced by the fact that Jesus was too weakened to carry the crossbar (patibulum) to Golgotha. At the site of crucifixion, his wrists were nailed to the patibulum and, after the patibulum was lifted onto the upright post (stipes), his feet were nailed to the stipes. The major pathophysiologic effect of crucifixion was an interference with normal respirations. Accordingly, death resulted primarily from hypovolemic shock and exhaustion asphyxia. Jesus' death was ensured by the thrust of a soldier's spear into his side. Modern medical interpretation of the historical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead when taken down from the cross.

On your second question about Islam: I am not sure what you are asking. If it is about the origins of Islam, Muhammad invented the Islam religion to try to unify the various factions of Bedouin Arabs. It was invented mostly for political and military reasons.

What Muhammad did was borrow a little from Israel (the Old Testament) and a little from the Catholic Church (New Testament), plus his own imagination to construct the Qur'an. Allegedly Muhammad received revelation by God through the angel Gabriel on many occasions between 610 and his death on June 8, 632. If Muhammad did receive any message from an angel, it was not Gabriel, it was an angel of the devil. Islam is false and Muhammed a false prophet as Islam contradicts what God revealed to Israel and through Christ. God does not contradict Himself.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary