False Prophets in History: Understanding God’s Plan Behind Jesus and Muhammad

Zak asks: “Hello Rabbi. Since everything that happens in the world is God’s will, how can we explain the fact that false prophets like Jesus and Muhammad arose, who created and spread false religions? Was that also God’s will? Thank you.”

* * *

Hello Zak, and thank you for your question.

Indeed, everything that happens in the world is under God’s will. 

To answer your question about false prophets, we need to remember that God gave human beings free will. Although God directs everything for ultimate good, people can choose to harm themselves or others, and Heaven grants that permission, because this world is a test. That means people like Jesus or Muhammad could spread falsehood in opposition to the Torah, since God gave them the freedom to choose evil, just as He gave others the freedom to be misled.

That is the simple explanation. On a deeper level, we know that even human choices are guided by Heaven. As our Sages said: “Merit is brought about through the meritorious, and liability through the guilty” (Bava Batra 119b).

A righteous person who seeks to do good will find that God arranges opportunities for kindness before him. By contrast, an evildoer who seeks to harm others will find that God places before him the very situation in which harm has been decreed. The thief does not need to steal, but if he chooses to, God may arrange for him to encounter someone who was destined to lose money. It’s important to understand that no one is ever forced to be an agent for harm — every person can always repent and change. However, God channels the choices of the wicked to fulfill His plan.

In truth, we are all messengers in this world — we simply choose whether to be good messengers or evil ones. Great righteous people would forgive anyone who wronged them, so that no one would suffer because of them. That is why we pray: “May no one be punished on my account.”

The Torah itself describes messengers who came with the intent to harm the Jewish people, and how God directed their actions for the greater good. Pharaoh chose to enslave Israel and rebel against God, so God hardened his heart further to demonstrate His great miracles in Egypt. As God told Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses) (Shemot 7:3): “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that I may multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.” And again (Shemot 11:9): “Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that My wonders may be multiplied in Egypt.”

The Book of Esther shows how Haman served as an agent to harm the Jews, only for his wickedness to be overturned into salvation, strengthening the nation's faith. Even those who come to harm are part of God’s plan, but that doesn’t imply that their deeds are good.

In fact, the Torah itself warns us about false prophets, and explains that God allows them to appear precisely to test our faith. As it says (Devarim 13:2–4): “If there arises among you a prophet or dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder comes to pass… saying, ‘Let us go after other gods which you have not known and serve them’ — you shall not listen to that prophet or dreamer. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”

It is striking that Jesus practiced sorcery, while Muhammad claimed to have had a dream in a cave. The Torah’s description of false prophets who produce signs or dreams seems to foreshadow exactly these two figures, over 3,300 years in advance. Their purpose, however, was only to test our loyalty to the Torah given at Sinai.

The Rambam adds a remarkable point. He writes that although Jesus and Muhammad caused great harm to the people of Israel, God used them to spread awareness of basic Torah ideas throughout the world. Concepts like Messiah and divine law reached distant nations through them. Thus, even their errors ultimately prepare the world for truth. Rambam writes (Laws of Kings, ch. 11): 

“Can there be a greater stumbling block than this? All the prophets spoke of the Messiah as Israel’s redeemer, who would gather the exiles, strengthen the commandments — and this man [Jesus] caused Israel to be destroyed by the sword, scattered the remnant, humiliated them, and changed the Torah, misleading most of the world to serve something other than God… Yet the thoughts of the Creator of the world are beyond our understanding, as it is written: ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.’

All these matters of Jesus the Nazarene, and of that Ishmaelite [Muhammad] who came after him, are only to prepare the way for the true King Messiah, and to ready the world to serve God together, as it is written: ‘For then I will turn to the peoples a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one accord’ (Zephaniah 3:9). Already the world is filled with talk of Messiah, Torah, and commandments… And when the true King Messiah arises and succeeds, all will realize that their ancestors inherited lies, and that their prophets and forefathers misled them.”