>John - you may not know this but Jesus is a "nobel prophet" to followers of Islam. In fact all heros of christianity are an important heros in Islamic teachings. Islam expresses the same hopes for humanity that (non-evenglelical) Christianity does.
>
I'm well aware that islam teaches Jesus was born of a virgin birth, but they think he didn't die on the cross, and that probably Judas was crucified instead. That undercuts the entire basis of Christianity. Christ was one of three things (from C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity"), Lord, liar or lunatic.

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg--or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

If you believe he wasn't who he said he was, you must place him in one of the latter two categories. I believe the first. Others are free to make their choice.

John