# “Jesus Didn’t Preach Christianity, but Islam!” - British Christian Converts to Islam

- Language: en
- Published: 2026-08-26
- Canonical: https://blog.towardseternity.com/en/blog/jesus-didnt-preach-christianity-but-islam-british-christian-converts-to-islam
- Source video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvBNViZG0Mk
- Channel: Towards Eternity

This is the cleaned transcript of the source video. The speech is unaltered.

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How was your life in regards to faith? What were you believing in? What type of problems did you see in Christianity and in the Bible that ultimately led you to Islam? I had a very interesting spiritual experience one day which led me to... ...seek out a spiritual path. And I chose Christianity. There were problems I noticed when I started to read the Bible. Jesus didn't preach Christianity. He didn't preach the incarnation. He didn't preach the Trinity. He didn't preach the atonement. And this is the scandal. Christians generally don't know about what their own scholars are saying about this. Assalamu alaikum brother Paul Williams. As Towards Eternity, we're very happy to have you with us.

Thank you very much, great to be here, thank you. I want to start with who is Paul Williams, can you tell us briefly about your life? Oh wow, very briefly. I was born in Essex, a county east of London, some years ago. At the moment I produce content on Blogging Theology, which is looking at the Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, from a more scholarly, academic perspective. I grew up in a nominally Christian home. I studied theology, Christian theology, at university, and I studied philosophy as well at university as a Christian. But ultimately I did embrace Islam, Alhamdulillah, and here I am today. Before Islam how was your life in regards to faith?

What were you believing in? In my early 20s, I became a "born-again" Christian. I wasn't a nominal Christian as an adult at all. I took my faith very seriously, and I had a very interesting spiritual experience one day, which led me to seek out a spiritual path, and I chose Christianity because that was the religion of my background. Nominal Christianity. So I became a Christian and I went to church. Evangelical. I went to church all the time and believed Jesus was God. I believed in the Trinity and the incarnation. And read the Bible very carefully. And this went on for some years. But before Christianity, you were an atheist? That's right, yeah.

Before Christianity I was an atheist in my late teens. And then in my early 20s, I remember one morning Sunday morning I was cycling back from an all night party in London where I lived. And I saw a beautiful church in Islington, not far from here, and I decided just to go in because I was just curious. And I just looked, sat in the back, and suddenly I felt this powerful force, which I experienced as love very very strongly coming towards me. And I didn't want this. It was kind of almost, "No, thank you!" And I knew if I stayed for long, I'd break down. It was just so powerful. So I literally left. I didn't identify it with Jesus or anything. It was just, wow.

And so I went back the following week of course, hoping for a repeat experience. But nothing happened. But I decided that this was a spiritual experience and it set me on the journey to faith, and spiritual life. And because of my nominal Christian background, I decided to go to a church, of course. I didn't know anything about Islam. So ultimately I became a Christian. There were problems I noticed when I started to read the Bible. But it was the only show in town. But ultimately I discovered Islam or God guided me to Islam. Provided solutions to some of the problems I had as a Christian and so I changed faith.

So what type of problems did you see in Christianity and in the Bible that ultimately led you to Islam? I'll try and speak now in terms of what scholarship says, what historians have discovered. It seems to me that Jesus didn't preach Christianity. He didn't come to found a church. For example, none of the Gospels apart from one speak of Jesus talking about the church at all. The earliest Gospels don't have Jesus speaking of church at all. And he doesn't preach Christianity. What he preaches is God. He preaches tawhid (oneness of God). And he's against hypocrisy, he preaches niyyah (intention), sincerity, and the love of God and love of neighbor and so on.

So it's kind of like a renewal movement, it's this spiritual renewal movement within Judaism. So Jesus' "faith", if you like, we would call that Judaism, or the faith of the Israelites. He didn't preach the incarnation. He didn't preach the Trinity. He didn't preach the atonement. According to the vast majority of historians. The problem for Christianity is in the idea that God became a man in Jesus. This is a late idea. It's not there in Jesus' ministry. It's only found actually in the Gospel of John. This is the last Gospel to be written. In the earlier Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Mark's the earliest, there's no incarnation at all.

And that's the least historical Gospel of all and that is the Gospel of John. Only in one place in the Gospels does Jesus walk around saying "I am the light of the world." Or, "before Abraham was, I am." Or, "I am the resurrection of the life." Or, "I am the light of the world." All these "I am" statements are only found in one Gospel, the last Gospel of John. If you look at the early Gospels, Jesus never speaks like this. He speaks about God. He speaks about repentance. God is someone other than Jesus. He's not the message, God is the message. He's the messenger, he's the prophet for sure. But he's not God. In John, it gets a bit more difficult and more complicated.

Jesus comes across as a somewhat divine figure. "In the beginning was the Word," the Gospel begins. "And the Word was with God and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelled among us," et cetera. Now, all of this is very late. And if Jesus actually went around saying these amazing things that John claims he did, why did no one else report that? So we have an earlier Gospel, the Gospel of Luke for example. In the entire Gospel of Luke, Jesus never speaks like that. He never speaks about himself so much. It's about God. He just doesn't call himself God. He's just a prophet, and he never says "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life".

So the bad news is, the Gospel of John is used by Christians more than any other Gospel to preach. For example, the American evangelist who I saw in London some years ago. He'd say "Jesus says 'I am the light of the world'." And his scholars will say "No, he probably didn't say that. That's not historical." And this is the scandal. Christians generally don't know about what their own scholars are saying about this. That's worrying, because how can you trust them now if they contain made-up stories? There are made-up stories in the Gospels. So this can shake your faith.

And if Jesus didn't preach the Trinity, if he didn't believe he was the incarnate Son of God I would've found that threatening as a Christian. But that wasn't the problem. The problem was you know, the early historical Jesus for example, or the reliability of the Gospels. And that's not based on skepticism. That's based on "But what is the evidence?" And the evidence often is not there for their reliability. And that was a problem. While finding these inconsistencies in Christianity, I want to know what you were thinking about Islam. Did you have any prejudices? Very much so. I, um... As a Christian I was becoming quite Islamophobic. After 9/11 the fears about Muslims and so on.

And I decided though that I would find out for myself the truth about Islam by actually talking to Muslims. I didn't know any Muslims. So I walked into my local mosque, Regent's Park Mosque, and spoke to Muslims there. I read the Quran in English. And I discovered real Islam. And that suddenly surprised me because it opened up a true way of understanding the concept of God than I had as a Christian. I didn't realize there was another option. I didn't realize that Islam also held Jesus and his mother in high esteem. A whole chapter of the Quran is named after Mariam. Or Mary in English. So that was my, you know. What other answers did you find in Islam that you couldn't find in Christianity?

Can you give us more details? Some answers to some profound questions that still baffle Christian theologians and bishops of a highest order. For example, the problem of suffering, the problem of evil in the world. Christians basically have this idea that God is very, very loving. Then you think, "Why are people dying of cancer?" "What about earthquakes?" I've actually heard the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby talking about this. And he has no answers. I find that frustrating because if only... I mean, I don't mind if he nicks it from the Qur'an. I mean, there are answers in Islam to these. Real answers to do with the nature of our life on earth and the character of God.

And the life being a test and a trial, and the afterlife and the rewards. So many answers. But Christians don't use any of this material. I mean, I wouldn't mind if they just borrowed it, you know? But also other answers to problems about who is Jesus. Who was Jesus, according to Western scholars? "He thought he was a prophet." Okay well, that's what the Qur'an teaches. What else? "He thought he was the Messiah." The Qur'an teaches that. "He did not think he was God." The Quran teaches that. He did not teach the Trinity. He did not teach the incarnation. He did not teach the... He did not found a church actually, according to historians.

And Muslims don't believe he founded the Catholic church. So there's incredible convergence between the latest Western scholarship is saying about Jesus and what the Quran is also saying about Jesus. And I think that's a miracle of the Quran which is often not spoken of. We talk about the miracles of the Quran, of course there are many. This is all, for me, this is another one. What other evidences can you give that refute the core beliefs of Christianity? Let's deal with the atonement first. And I'm gonna give one version of how it's understood by Christians. Many Christians will tell you Jesus was God, okay? And he died for your sins. I think, hmm, that's interesting.

So you're telling me that God died for my sins? I have a problem. According to the Bible, it says "God is immortal." And yet you believe that Jesus died for my sins. They say, "Oh wow wow, okay, God didn't die." "But the human being died. The man Jesus died for your sins." Ah, but that's interesting. So you're telling me that you believe in human sacrifice? And that's the way to be a... reconciled to God. That's atonement. "Well, that's not really human sacrifice." What it is, because Jesus was a human being, he was a sacrifice for your sin. That's what you just said. Jesus didn't go around preaching human sacrifice. He preached the God who was merciful and loving. So that'd be one problem.

The other, the problem with the Trinity. There are two problems. One is, Jesus never taught it. It wasn't believed by his disciples. That's a big problem for me. Secondly, they say that God is one, but the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. So there are three, but they are one. And I'm saying, "Wait wait wait, back up." So how can the Father be fully God the Son be fully God and the Holy Spirit be fully God, and yet there'd be one God? You've just said there are three Gods. The idea of the Trinity evolved very slowly over several centuries. So first you had the idea there was God, God the Father, And then the issue was, who is Jesus in relation to God?

And in the second century particularly you had the idea that Jesus and God were somehow in relationship that God was God, but somehow Jesus was divine in some sense. But it was really in the third century, at the Council of Nicaea in Turkey. Only at the Council of Nicaea was it officially decided by the bishops under Constantine the Emperor that the Son and the Father were co-equal. They were... They had the same substance. Or, in Greek, "homoousion". "Homo" meaning "the same", and "ousia" meaning "substance". So the Son and the Father were the same substance. In other words, Jesus was God. People often say Nicaea was about the Trinity, it wasn't.

The Council of Nicaea doesn't mention the Trinity. That came later in the Council of Chalcedon and Constantinople. At Nicaea they talked about the relationship between the Son and the Father. And the only Trinitarian verse in the Bible, because there was one, is fake! It was added in later, and we know this. It's 1 John 5-7. If you look in your modern Bibles, most modern Bibles have now taken it out. But this says "There are three that bear witness in Heaven. The Father, the Word, and the Spirit." Meaning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But this is a made-up verse that everyone now apart from fundamentalists agrees was added to the Bible.

If you remove that Trinity verse, which all scholars do, there's nothing in the Bible that speaks about the Trinity. You said that the Gospel writers are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Who are they? Do we have any historical records of these people or are they anonymous? The four Gospels are anonymous as you correctly say. You get the Gospel of Matthew for example. The first one in the New Testament. The first book of the New Testament. It never says that it's by... who it's by. Christians I speak to don't agree with me on that. So I say, "Okay I'll wait." "Give me a passage in any of the Gospels where it says a name of a person who wrote them." "Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It does, it does.

It says in the John's Gospel." "Fine, I'll wait. Here's your Bible. Show me where it says it." So I wait. I usually give them two minutes because I got things to do with my life, you know? And I always know, because it's a game of chess, that they're gonna come back and say... And they change the subject. They just change the subject because it doesn't say in John anywhere a named person who wrote it. It's simply not there. But they believe it is, because that's what they've been told. Despite having such baseless scriptures and belief sytems, why do so many people still continue to follow Christianity? Well that's easy. Because they have no idea that this is a problem.

Many Christians are educated people. They might have a degree in chemisty, accountancy, media studies, whatever, you know? They're not stupid. Far from it. But the way the churches teach the faith to them, they don't teach them an advanced understanding of their own scriptures. Now, the priests and pastors and ministers who teach them or preach at them are trained in universities. They know, say, the Gospel of John is the least historical of the four Gospels. They know that because they've been taught it. So how come the people in the pew don't know? And many reasons have been given. Bart Ehrman, the American academic has discussed this. Some priests don't wanna lose their jobs.

They don't wanna teach their faithful, "By the way, your Bible, it's not as what you might think it is." Or they don't want to upset their Christian people. They don't want to disturb them. Or maybe they don't know how to communicate it. Or maybe they're just running away. But whatever the reason is, they're not doing it. Usually, at all. So for me, this is the scandal of Christianity. Or maybe they do know, and they're living this kind of... like I did as a Christian for a long time. This kind of, you believe, but you have big doubts. And you just carry on anyway, because what else is there to do?

If Christianity is not true, then why do some Christians find peace when they become more serious about their faith? Christianity is mostly true. What do I mean by that? I mean, Christians believe in one God. I know we've spoken about the Trinity, but they believe in one God, they think. They believe in angels. They believe in the Day of Judgment. They believe God created the Heavens and Earth. They believe that God sent Moses and all the prophets etc., etc. It's like an iceberg, you know? There's a massive, under the waterline thing that they believe, which we also believe as Muslims. It's just a bit on top. I mean, it's not a small bit. It's important bit Umm...

about the Trinity and incarnation and atonement which we don't agree on. So it's not as if Christianity is all false. So, it's more complicated than that. And I think many Christians, when they pray to God, just pray to the Father. Actually I've heard many Christians say that. They're not quite sure about Jesus. They might officially believe he's God, but in practice they pray to God the Father. So they're functionally unitarian. By which I mean they believe in the Oneness of God rather than Jesus. They behave, quite often, like people who are more in line with Islam in practice. So I think many of them find peace because there really is peace.

I mean, if we believe, as I do, that God is merciful and He does try to guide people even from other religions towards the truth, even within that faith, away from Shirk (polytheism) for example, I believe that. Because I believe God cares about people. In the Quran, we know that Jesus alayhissalam gave the good news of coming of the last Prophet (saw). In your reading of the Bible, have you ever come across an information like this? Yes. Often in the earlier Gospels, not in John, the least historical. In the earlier Gospels, you get Jesus talking about the son of man who is to come. Not himself. He's talking about in the third person, there's someone else.

Now Christians often say "Oh, Jesus is talking about himself there." But it's a bit odd. Jesus talks about himself, then he switches to the third person and speaks about one, like, a son of man who is to come. People like Bart Ehrman and others, the American New Testament scholars have said Jesus is talking about someone else who is to come. The word "Muhammad" is not mentioned in the Greek of the New Testament, absolutely. And because these Gospels have been corrupted and changed, but we can still see strong hints that Jesus was speaking about someone else and that was historical.

And even in John actually, Chapter 14 and so on, we see hint of someone else also being spoken, other than Jesus, who was to come. So the fingerprints are there. Even in the Gospels we have now. What was the main thing that convinced you that Islam is 100% the truth? The thing that I discovered which totally impressed me unexpectedly was the life and teaching of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). You know, when we talk about great historical figures on television and Western literature... You know, they go from Plato, and Ceasar, Julius Ceasar, and they talk about Alexander the Great, and then they'll jump to Napoleon Boneparte. They never mention the Prophet Muhammad (saw). They never mention him!

And I'm thinking, "This is extraordinary!" He comes from the same part of the world that Jesus did, that Moses did, and he's ignored. And if you look at his Sira, his life, which is well authenticated, it is not myth, we know he really existed. The most extraordinary human being. About this man, the teaching there, it felt very familiar to what I read in the Gospels. In Luke, for example, or in Matthew. There's a lot of true stuff in the Gospels still, I think. So when I saw the teaching of Muhammad (pbuh), I recognized the hallmarks of an authentic spiritual teacher. And that was the problem for me in accepting Islam, because I saw the connection between Jesus and Muhammad (saw).

If Jesus was a prophet, so was Muhammad (saw). If Moses was a prophet, certainly Muhammad (saw) was because they're the same, they're interchangable. They're both heads of nations, they were generals, they were law-givers, they were spiritual guides, they were fathers. Except, the difference is, Moses was sent to Israel and Muhammad (saw) was sent to all of mankind. What impressed you the most about our Prophet (saw)? One thing that really impressed me, amongst many things was the day that He and His companions and the ummah rode into Mecca. When they finally claimed Mecca back and they conquered Mecca. And the way He treated his enemies.

Many people in the West would have very negative views of Islam. They're all, "Oh, I'm sure that Muhammad (saw) slaughtered his enemies or something." What did Joseph do when he was like, the second most powerful man in Egypt? And he had his brothers who had betrayed him and sold him into slavery and left him for dead. How did he treat these nasty people? He forgave them. He showed them mercy. And this was the example that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) explicitly referred to when He conquered Mecca from the Pagans. From the position of power, total power, He could've destroyed them and He didn't. He showed them mercy. This is...

It says something about the character of the Prophet (saw) and I just wish the West knew about that. The Muslim world knows about it. But the West doesn't. And it is infinitely the poorer for not knowing that. What was your purpose in life before Islam and what is it after Islam? Well I've always been... My purpose in life before Islam is still the same now in a way. To seek the truth, wherever it is found. I don't think I need to go beyond Islam but I'm still searching for the truth within Islam. I'm still trying to learn. But before that, I was still searching but now I've kind of arrived home. But I'm still seeking within that ever-greater knowledge and understanding.

In the world we see an increase in atheism. And many people are also leaving Christianity, especially in the UK and Europe. When you look at the current situation, do you see the same trend with Islam as well? I had a... an academic, Professor Linda Woodhead, she's a professor at King's College here in London. She's a leading expert on religions in Britain, a sociologist of religion. And she was commenting on the census that had just been published a couple of months ago. Religion in Britain is declining and it has been on very steep decline for a number of decades now. And the trajectory is to continue the decline. But the one religon that isn't declining in Britain is Islam.

I was in Birmingham a couple of days ago. I was talking to this guy. Asrar Rashid. He's the author of this book "Islam Answers Atheism" which I really recommend by the way. Birmingham is Britain's.. probably Britain's second city. He said to me, "About 40% of people in Birmingham are Muslims now." That's very high percentage. The first generation of Muslims arrived, what? In the 1950s, 1960s? They weren't necessarily practicing Muslims. They had children, obviously. So I said to him, about Professor Linda Woodhead, you know, religion's on the decline, secularism, materialism. What about Muslim youth in Britain, in Birmingham? In Britain's second city? Are they praying? Are they fasting?

"Oh yeah, they're more religious than their parents." So what we're seeing in England when it comes to Muslims is, not only are the youth holding to their faith, and they're praying five times a day, and they're increasingly religious, more than their own parents. And now that is incredible. And someone told me who knows Germany, because I thought "Wow, isn't England amazing?" Oh no, it is like that in Germany, It is like that in other places as well. In Europe, Muslims are not losing their faith. But the younger ones are holding onto it. And that is good for the future.

What would you like to say to encourage people who are watching this video, and are considering Islam but are hesitant about it? Someone I know who was a Church of England priest, you know, he was a priest for some time in a church here in London. And he said when he embraced Islam, he discovered a level, a depth of friendship and brotherhood that he'd never experienced as a Christian. And I've discovered that too. In Christian churches, you're kind of friendly, but the kind of depth of brotherhood amongst Muslims is something else. You know you're not gonna be on your own if you embrace Islam, you're gonna have this global family basically. But also, you know, what does Islam offer?

Well, a chance to have connection and relationship with our Creator. And that we have a purpose in being here. We're not here just to acquire material goods. We're very materialistic in Britain and in America. We're not focused, really, on what really matters. There's a guy, he's basically a coach to entrepreneurs, businessmen. He's not a Muslim. He has a LinkedIn post that he put up yesterday. He says that getting yourself healthy is a fight against modern living. And what he means is, modern living, at least in the Western world, has contributed, he says, to staggering rates of obesity and mental illness.

The way we're living now, mainly in the West, but it's being exported, is actually causing us lethal diseases like obesity. I was in Bahrain last year. It's the number one cause of death in that country, it's obesity. They're now experiencing this consumer culture which comes from America and Britain. And mental illness as well. Now, what's it got to do with Islam? Fasting is really important. It's just on a physical level. It helps to rejuvenate your body, it makes you better to cope with disease, it makes you fitter and healthier. It affects your mental health. So fasting is part of the sunnah of the Prophet. You know, Mondays and Thursdays He fasted. This is really healthy.

Muslims have been doing this for centuries! The idea of mental illness. We are obsessed with Dunya. We're obsessed with Tiktok. Obsessed with material goods. Islam gives you a deeper, satisfying relationship with what really matters, which is with our Creator. And also the knowledge that this life is brief. And that our true purpose lies beyond this life, in the next life. Islam is, what we call a deen is, a complete way of life. It includes the mental, the physical, the diet, the spiritual, the economic, the political. It doesn't separate religion out to the private realm. This is the supreme answer to humanity's needs.

You know, we're not going down that path at the moment at least in many parts. For someone who wants to learn about Islam, how would you recommend him to research it? Is it enough to write "What is Islam?" on Google? I don't recommend you use Google because you may get some good results, you're gonna get a lot of bad results as well. And how are you gonna know what's a good result and a bad result if you don't know about the subject? So... What I do recommend however, because I like books, this particular book. There are many books I could recommend but this one's good. By Jonathan Brown, called Misquoting Muhammad The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting The Prophet's Legacy.

And this is an excellent introduction to the whole subject of Islam, and the Quran, is it authentic?, the history and life of the Prophet (saw) hadiths, how we interpret the Qur'an the four schools, you name it, it's all in here. Lastly, what would you like to say to a Christian who is watching you right now? I'll say that Jesus, if you look at the Gospels, did not say he was God. He preaches God in the Gospels. God is someone other than Jesus. Jesus himself says in the Gospels. A man comes to Jesus and says to him, "Good teacher! What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus says, according to Mark, "Why do you call me good?

There is no one good, but God alone." That's in the earliest Gospel. Jesus denied he was God, he points to God. Islam is with Jesus on this. So, come back to the original Jesus. You will find him in Islam. You will not find him in what you call Christianity.