There is this apologist who appeared on YouTube about a year ago. His channel is called Islam Critiqued. He seems to have a very good grasp of the Old Testament and the Hebrew language. His knowledge is pretty impressive. I recommend his channel to everyone dealing with Islam.
I recommend watching the above video but if you don’t want to, let me summarize. In the ancient near east, worshipers of the false deity Baal would say that Baal comes on the clouds of heaven. In response to this, the people of ancient Israel said that only Yahweh comes on the clouds of heaven. He gives several verses that shows that Yahweh is the one that comes on the clouds of heaven. Let me just give a couple.
There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides across the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty.
– Deuteronomy 33:26
Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth, sing praise to the Lord, to him who rides across the highest heavens, the ancient heavens, who thunders with mighty voice.
– Psalm 68:32-33
Probably the most famous application of this verse is when Jesus Christ claims this in front of the Jewish High Priest with a specific reference to Daniel 7. What happens next?
The high priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” They all condemned him as worthy of death.
– Mark 14: 63-64
I once heard a Muslim say that coming on the clouds of heaven was simply a Messianic claim. What’s interesting about that is that it’s not blasphemous to claim to be the Messiah. It’s a bold claim, and certainly a controversial one, but not a blasphemous one. Besides, it’s obviously a divine claim.
There’s that famous mantra of Ahmed Deedat which goes something like this: “Where does Jesus say I am God or worship me?” This gets repeated by other B-grade apologists as the better Muslim apologists have chucked it. However, it is still popular among the average Muslim watching debates on YouTube.
If one lives in the ancient near east, the claim to come on the clouds of heaven is to make those exact claims. It may not hold any importance to the average person today but in the ancient world the Jews knew about this as much as they knew that there was one true God.
Thank you Islam Critiqued for this and many other great videos. Again, I recommend subscribing to this channel. This six minute video gives historic, cultural, and scriptural context to this statement of our Lord Jesus Christ. He claimed exactly what Deedat was asking for, though in first century terminology.
I should point out that Muslims should accept this interpretation. I know they’re bound by a seventh century non-Biblical document which denies the deity of Christ but if they’re going to say that Song of Solomon 5:16 is talking about Muhammad, they why don’t they accept this statement regarding the divinity of Christ. It has about a thousand times more contextual evidence than Song of Solomon 5:16 does. Come on Muslims? Why not?
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