[agiopwer]

let me first say I converted from Christianity to Islam, so I went through many of the same theological debates and reconcilations in my mind.

Before taking a biblical or christian concept and trying to apply it or compare it to Islam, you must first look at the origins of it - this methodology helped me to weed out the things in christianity that I was suspicious of and that caused me to look at other religions in the first place.

So the concept of the lamb of God is found not in revelations, but in the book of John 1:29 - So first you have to question the Authorsip of this book. Of course the church has declared that John the Apostle wrote it, but before the council of Rome in 382ad, the major christian theologians debated weather Jonhn the Apostle wrote them because the author refers to himself in one book as John of Patmos, and in the Gospel of Jond as "the Beloved Dicsiple", and in another book as John the Evangilst. Polycarp sat at the feet of John the Apostle and he attributed The 3 epitles of John to him, but questioned revelations and the Gosple of John. Polycarp later conceded that they were all written by John the Apostle. Modern Biblical scholars doubt it was written by John the Apostle, but rather by a sect of christians who lived in Asia Minor and were somehow connected to John of Patmos - who may be John the Apostle. So, the Authorship is a little murky, but not a game stopping point.

Second - you have to look at when it was written - the dates range from 60AD all the way to 182AD - this means, that if Joghn wrote this, it happened at least 30 years after Jesus had left this world. So, this begs the question, Why did Jesus never say he was "lamb of God" while he was on earth?

Third - Lamb of God is a refrence to Judaisms sacrafice of lambs on Passover - and, if this was written by john the apostle, and as early as it was written, then it would be speaking to jews - so, we need to ask ourselves, what is the Jewish intent behind the Passover sacrafise. The Hebrew word for this is Korban Pashal - Muslims do the same thing durring Eid ul Adha commemorating Ibrahims intended sacrafise of his son, we call it Qurban. Now, during the time of John, which was pre-talmudic Judaism - every Male who had a family large enough to cosume a wild goat or lamb had to sacrafice one at the tmple in front of 30 witnesses. There were exceptions to this though, if you were poor, single, in state of purity. So, this means that not every Jew was obligated to perform the sacrafice, which means that God forgave them of their sins in other ways. This flys in the face of the christian logic that prior to Jesus laying down his life for mankind, every sin must be epiated with blood of a sacrafice - appearantly, the jews believed, as Muslims beleive today - that while doing Korban/Qurbani is one way to epiate your sins, there are also other ways, like say, just asking for forgiveness from the Most Merciful.

finally, fourth - you need to evaluate who is qualified to recieve divine guidance. For me, before I became muslim, I beleived this honor fell only to the Prophets, and while the Apostles may have been rightously guided, they did not have the authjority to bring forth new divine laws and revelations. If you evalute this factor for yourself you will get your answer immediatley, because each book of the Bible, weather apochraphyl or canonical was written by someone who was not Jesus , and 1/3 of the NT was written by a man who never even met Jesus , Paul.

So hopefully Ive helped you in your path for the truth, like I said, I was once where you are now, and when I was at that point, I had Muslims on the right saying "take shahadah now, now now" and christians on the left saying "ask Jesus for guidance to help you understand the riddle of christianity" - but what I didnt have was someone who could unbiasedly show me the facts and without adding in their personal beleif.