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<Previous Next> Many of your scholars point to the Gospel of John, chapters 15 - 17, in the Bible as a proof text to validate the ministry of your prophet, Muhammad. You argue that Muhammad was the paraklete referred to by Jesus1 . Furthermore, you argue that Muhammad was the fulfillment of the Prophet foretold by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:2 of the Torah. On the other hand, you argue that the Bible has been corrupted by the Jews and the Christians and it is therefore, not a reliable document. The links below address your claims thoroughly.I would like to say, however, that in one respect, you are at least partially correct. The Bible has not been corrupted but may I suggest that it has been subtly misinterpreted and mistranslated. There is a school of thought within Christendom, to which I have alluded elsewhere on this site, that is called “replacement theology”. According to this school of thought the church replaces the Jew. In essence, replacement theology dictates that the Jew no longer has a role in G-ds “program”. Such thinking by Christians shoots the Christian world view in the foot and fundamentally speaking, it is wrong. This, I believe, has tainted your perception and understanding of what the Bible says. It, I believe, also, has impacted your appreciation for the reliability of the Bible as the very Word of G-D. You tend to distinguish Jews and Christians as a separate people. Sadly, these replacement theologians feed this stereotype whereas true Christianity would argue that there is only one true religion, Christianity, and there are either Jewish Christians or Jewish non-Christians.Among the Muslims with whom I’ve talked, when asked why the Quran is the Word of G-d, their primary argument is that the grandeur of the Arabic coming from a relatively uneducated man, Muhammad, is, in itself, miraculous. This argument is dealt with rather articulately in the following link4 which among other things compares the grandeur of the Quran with that of the Bible. With all due respect, however, Mormans make the same claim about their founder, Joseph Smith.Whereas “beauty” or “eloquence” is evaluated subjectively with each person having his or her own opinion, I would prefer to determine the authenticity of a books worth as representative of the very speech of the creator G-d by objective criteria. With objective criteria a fact is a fact. One who would deny a fact in order to hold tenaciously to a predetermined position, has, by doing so, rejected reality. Hence, his life is predicated upon a lie! Unlike the god of Islam who demands unquestioning submission, the Creator G-d of the Bible, out of His love for His creation, woos His creation with acts of love (the supreme one being the death of Jesus on the cross), and appeals to the gift He gave man… the ability to reason. G-d appeals to man through Isaiah the Prophet…"Come now, let us reason together," says the L-RD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool“. (Isaiah 1:18)
I hold to the authenticity of the Bible as the very Word of the Living Creator G-d for a number of reasons:
1. The thematic nature of the Bible - Unlike the Quran which has only one author and only one genre, that of discourse, the Bible is a compilation of the writings of over 30 authors most of whom did not know one another and who lived as many as several millenia apart from one another in history. Most but not all of these authors whether in the Older or Newer Covenant, were Jews. The genre are extremely divergent. Some of it is poetic. Some is historical narrative. Some of it is discourse. Some of it is prophetic and apocalyptic. Nevertheless, from cover to cover, the theme holds together as a single thread. It tells of the history man’s inability to stand blameless before a holy, perfect G-d. It tells of G-ds love for and compassion toward each and every person . It describes an amazing dilemma that only G-d in His infinite love, holiness and wisdom can solve… How can the Creator G-d demand justice from a man who deserves eternal condemnation and yet show him mercy and compassion at the same time? Throughout the Bible, G-ds answer to this dilemma is Jesus. The death that was due each of us was assigned to Jesus the Moshiach so that we can have eternal life. This was alluded to in the substitution atonement of the animal sacrifice instituted by Moses in the Torah. It was also alluded to when G-d called upon Abraham to sacrifice his son. David spoke of it in his psalms and Daniel actually predicted the time of His coming (see the link below)5.2. The Bible is corroborated by archeology - Unlike the Quran which is dominated by discourse, the Bible includes Historic narrative. In this regard, the Bible holds greater similarity to the Book of Mormon. Unlike the Bible’s historic narrative, however, the Book of Mormons historic narrative is not really historic narrative, but quite probably fiction thought up in the imagination of a very creative yet false prophet, Joseph Smith. The Bible is the only “holy” book that has been substantiated by archeologically. This does not “prove” the Bibles’ claim to divinity. But it does supply evidence. No other book has this kind of a witness testifying to its veracity! Allow me to site two examples. a. The story of the crossing of the Red Sea is a story familiar to Muslims. In this story, we hear of G-d miraculously parting the sea so that the Children of Israel could cross through on dry ground. After they’d crossed, we are told of the Egyptian army charging into the sea after them with chariots only to be drowned when G-d causes the sea to collapse on them. The location where this event took place and the evidence of its occurrence has been discovered. Look to the link below8. I find it interesting that the Muslim Government of Saudi Arabia is trying to keep this evidence from getting out. I suppose it’s because it lends credence to the reliability of the Bible as opposed to the Quran.b. Another astounding bit of archeology was discovery of the cylinders of Nabonidas in 1853. The Prophet Daniel gave an account of a series of events that happened during the reign of Belshazzar, the last king of Babylon. The only problem was that all historians up until 1853 knew that Nabonidas, not Belshazzar, was the last king of Babylon. Those who chose not to believe in the Bible used this presumption to support their argument that the Bible was “corrupt”. The only problem was that after the cylinders of Nabonidas were discovered they confirmed that while Nabonidas reigned as King of Babylon, his son, Belshazzar, was his co-regent. The link below is one of many links that refer to this archaeological discovery.c. Archaeological discoveries attesting to the reliability of the Bible are legion. Myriads of examples abound! Some web-sites that address this issue are included among the following links6 .3. The Jew - Here is where the proponents of replacement theology shoot themselves in the foot. The Bible emphatically points to the eternal survival of the Jewish people. The presumption that there is no longer a place for the Jew in history denies what is probably the strongest evidence that the Book they allege to be their source of true authority is in fact authoritative. Jeremiah 31:35-37 declares the following:This is what the L-RD says, He who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar-- the L-RD Almighty is His name. Only if these decrees vanish from my sight.” declares the L-RD, “will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before me.”This is what the L-RD says: Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done,” declares the L-RD.This passage attests to the perpetual survival of the Jew. As long as there will be a sun, moon, stars and waves of the sea, there will be Jews. Nothing will destroy the Jewish people! Neither the Crusades of the middle ages, the Russian pogroms, the Spanish Inquisition, or the Holocaust of Hitler’s Germany has succeeded in destroying the Jewish people. And nothing in the present or future will succeed either.What other group of people in the history of the world has been uprooted from its homeland and endured 2000 years of dispersion and persecution only to return to their homeland and speak the same language that they had spoken when they were first expelled?In the Jeremiah passage, we see that G-d preserves them in-spite of “all they (the people of Israel) had done“. G-ds preservation of and graciousness towards this people is not because they are good or Godly. It is simply because He promised that He would preserve them and be gracious towards them for the sake of their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and G-D KEEPS ALL HIS PROMISES. Deuteronomy 28 and 29 delineate blessings and curses that would befall the Jewish people as the result of obedience or disobedience, respectively, to the teachings (Torah) of G-d. Chapter 30 foretells a return from the Diaspora which was a scattering of the Jewish people out of the land to the four corners of the earth. Chapter 30 describes this return to the land as follows:1. When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the L-RD your G-D disperses you among the nations, 2. and when you and your children return to the L-RD your G-D and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, 3. then the L-RD your G-D will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where He scattered you. 4. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the L-RD your G-D will gather you and bring you back. 5. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 6. The L-RD your G-D will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. 7. The L-RD your G-D will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. 8. You will again obey the L-RD and follow all his commands I am giving you today. 9. Then the L-RD your G-D will make you most -prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The L-RD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers, 10. if you obey the L-RD your G-D and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the L-RD your G-D with all your heart and with all your soul.This passage has not yet been completely fulfilled. It refers to complete restoration of Israel’s fortunes, G-d having compassion upon Israel and a return of all the people to the land (vs. 3). These blessings are contingent upon Israel’s “return to the L-RD their G-d and complete obedience from the heart (vs. 2). It is obvious that Israel’s fortunes have not yet been completely restored. They have enemies on all sides. That is not exactly what one would call a complete restoration of fortunes. Nevertheless, they have been restored to the land as has been promised in vs. 5, and it is G-d who will be circumcising their hearts (vs. 6) because they will long for G-d and G-d will circumcise their hearts. Incidentally, consider vs. 7 to be a warning. “The L-RD your G-d will put these curses (from chapter 29) on your enemies who hate and persecute you.Similar passages abound. Take Isaiah 54:7 for instance. Speaking to Israel, G-d says…"For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back“.4. Prophecy - No other book that claims to be “Holy” is corroborated by answered prophecy. This point does not need to be belabored here. It is a well known fact that “Christians” point to answered prophecy as an evidence for the veracity of their claim that the Bible is the Word of God. Some discussion of prophecy is included in another link on this site. What is interesting, however, is that those who oppose biblical authority will attempt to show how the Bible has instances in which prophecy has not come true and “if it has not come true, it is therefore, unreliable”. Such arguments are routinely shut down because they are built upon a predetermined bias and bad hermeneutics in supporting that bias. The link below serves as a great illustration of this point.
1 http://answering-islam.org/Gilchrist/muhammad.html 2 http://answering-islam.org/Muhammad/Foretold/index.html 3 http://answering-islam.org/Quran/Miracle/index.html 4 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=daniel%209:20-27;&version=31 ; 5 http://www.arkdiscovery.com/red_sea_crossing.htm - Note: I cannot vouch for the accuracy of everything on this web-site, but this particular article is very reliable. 6 http://www.biblicalarcheology.net/
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