Was Viral Louis Farrakhan Video Fake News?

In a viral video, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan declared, “‘I know that my Redeemer liveth. I know—I’m not guessing—that my Jesus is alive.”

The Facebook snippet has more than 1.5 million views. On Charisma News, the video is the No. 1 story of the week, toppling over Harvey updates and other major breaking news.

“I thank God for guiding me,” Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan says in the video. “My next journey will have to answer the questions. I’m going to say it: ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth.’ I know—I’m not guessing—that my Jesus is alive. I know that my Redeemer liveth and because He lives, I know that I, too, will pass through the portal of death, yet death will not afflict me. So I say to the devil, ‘I know I gotta pay a price for what I’ve been teaching all these years,'” Farrakhan says in the video.

But is he declaring Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God and the only way to heaven, is Farrakhan’s redeemer? 

The short answer is no. The man he calls Jesus is not the same Jesus Christians worship.

According to the Nation of Islam website, “Jesus” is another name for The Master:

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad identified the Master as being the answer to the one that the world had been expecting for the past 2,000 years under the names Messiah, the second coming of Jesus, the Christ, Jehovah, God and the Son of Man. When the Honorable Elijah Muhammad asked Him to identify Himself He replied that He was the Mahdi. He signed His name in 1933 as Master Wallace Fard Muhammad to express the meaning of One Who had come in the Early Morning Dawn of the New Millennium to lay the base for a New World Order of Peace and Righteousness on the foundation of Truth and Justice; to put down tyrants and to change the world into a Heaven on Earth.

Mother Tynetta Muhammad, the wife of Nation of Islam founder summarizes the NOI religion like this:

Through God’s Divine Guidance, we are extending this Divine Work of moral and spiritual reform throughout the Western Hemisphere. God’s Light and Truth will prevail against the darkness and falsehood of all opposition. In spite of the controversy and clamor surrounding the Nation of Islam and its Divine Leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan, we are forging ahead in the Spirit of Almighty God, Allah, to unite with all of humanity in the Oneness of God, where all people of goodwill of every Race and of every Nation may participate in the Universal Expression of the Principles of Peace and the Brotherhood of man. This is the Beautiful Community of the Nation of Islam that is coming to birth in America on this Farthest Western Horizon in fulfillment of the Prophecy that God would meet with Muhammad for a second time and reveal to His servant What He Revealed. Thus the world is witnessing the Sun of Islam arising in the West. Praise the Holy Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

Her words—and subsequently the foundation of the religion—directly contradict John 14:6.

Though they may believe in Jesus as a person and a prophet, NOI are not saved and sanctified believers.