The Bible and Islam: Posted Comments(that weren't posted)

Strange title for a blog entry, isn't it? Well, there's a reason for it. See, lately, we've been getting what are basically "spam comments" from Muslims in Oman. Seems that they are finding the Gadfly by googling "Bible Islam Post Comment". So, the title is kind of contrived in order to provide the keywords they are googling for. If they are hitting this, they are not bothering someone else...hopefully.

The comments are pro-Qur'an, anti Bible. Now, because these people are most likely simply trying to inundate the blogosphere with Koranic error, I don't take it personally. And if I'm right, they probably won't even check back to see if their comments are posted.

Still, because of the gravity of the issue, I thought it might be timely as well as wise to at least publish what they had to say and why it doesn't work. After all, if they put their ideas out there, they should be willing to have them put up to scrutiny.

Both comments (neither of which I posted) were basically an advertisement for a pro-Islamic site. As far as I can tell, it isn't a new site and as a matter of fact, I think I've seen it out there before.

So without further ado, I'll post their comments:

From "ha" in Masqat Oman:

"What are we supposed to believe about the Holy Bible? Is it still the same? Do we believe everything in it? What does Quran say about the Bible?" (link eliminated)

From "Islam", also from Masqat Oman:

"Jesus? - Did He Really Die on the Cross? (Evidence says, NO!.)
Bible - Is It the Word of God? (Experts say, NO!.)
Trinity- Did Jesus or anyone teach this? (Bible says, NO!.)
"Only Begotten Son of God"? Was this Jesus? (Bible, says - NO!).
Are children born in original sin? (Bible says, "Yes!" - but Jesus says, "NO!")

All this & more - internets site to compare İslam & Christianity: (link eliminated)"

The first comment asks four questions:

1. "What are we supposed to believe about the Holy Bible?"
2. "Is it still the same?"
3. "Do we believe everything in it?"
4. "What does Quran say about the Bible?"

The first and third are kind of related, the second and fourth kind of stand out more. I'll address those first.

One charge that Muslims make about the Bible is that it has been corrupted. Somewhere along the line, they would argue, someone got hold of all the Bibles and changed them. They would say, therefore, that what we have now is not accurate. This is not a new argument. I've heard it from atheists, liberal theologians before hearing it from Muslims. So, nothing new here.

What they, as others, have missed is that we know what we have has not been changed. The old "transmission error" argument was very popular until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. So, someone argues that someone altered the text of a bible somewhere? What difference does that make? We have manuscripts that validate the translations we have today. As a matter of fact, by the time you consider all the manuscripts and fragments, we have close to 24,000 manuscripts to verify the accuracy of the English translations we use today. Yes, it's possible someone somewhere could produce a corrupted version of the scriptures. As a matter of fact, it's been done by the Jehovah's Witnesses (most noticably). It's called the "New World Translation". However, the existence of that translation doesn't effect the accuracy of the KJV, NASB, or NIV one iota.

The question "What does the Quran say about the Bible" sounds like a lead-in to an attack on the veracity of the Bible. However, let's consider the following from the Quran from Christian Apologetics Research Ministry:

The Qu'ran
says the Bible is not corrupt

The Muslims repeatedly claim that the Bible has been corrupted and that the Qu'ran is the only trustworthy scripture in existence. This is why Muslims often attack the Bible. But this cannot be acording to the Quran. The Quran says that the books of Moses, the Psalms, and the gospel wereall given by God.

• TORAH - "We gave Moses the Book and followed him
  up with a succession of messengers," (Sura 2:87).
  
• PSALMS - "We have sent thee inspiration, as We sent it
  to Noah and the Messengers after him: we sent inspiration to Abraham,
  Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, to Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, and
  solomon, and to David We gave the Psalms," (4:163).
  
• GOSPEL - "It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth, the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sentdown the Law (of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the criterion (of judgment between right and wrong)," (3:3).
  
  Also, "And in their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Law that had come before him: We
  sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him: a guidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah," (5:46).
  

We see that the Qu'ran states that the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel were all given by God. With this we Christians heartily agree. But, the Muslims claim that the Bible is corrupted and full of contradictions. If that is so, then it would seem they do not believe the Qu'ran since the Qu'ran says that the Word of God cannot be altered:

• "Rejected were the messengers before thee: with patience and constancy they bore their rejection and their wrongs, until Our aid did reach them: there is none that can alter the words (and decrees) of Allah. Already hast thou received some account of those messengers," (6:34).


• "The word of thy Lord doth find its fulfillment in truth and in justice: None can change His words: for He is the one who heareth and knoweth all," (6:115).


• "For them are glad tidings, in the life of the present and in the Hereafter; no change can there be in the words of Allah. This is indeed the supreme felicity," (10:64).

When Muhammed (570 - 632) was alive, he claimed to receive the revelation of the Qu'ran from Allah. This means that at that time, the Bible which was in existence, could not have been corrupted because the Qu'ran states that God's word cannot be corrupted. The question I have for the Muslims is "When and where was the Bible corrupted, since the Qu'ran says that the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel are from Allah and Allah's words cannot be changed?"

__________________
The Quranic quotes used in this paper can be found online at http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/."

End of CARM article....

Alright then, what are we to believe about the scriptures...and do we believe all of it? Quite simple. The Bible is God's Word. We believe all of it. And by the way, we don't need the Quran to tell us we can believe it. It testifies on it's own to be true, and no, that is not a circular argument.

If a Muslim wants to tell you that the Bible is "corrupted", then they are at odds with the Quran. If they aren't accurate, they have to have been wrong when they were written, in which case Mohammed and the Quran are both wrong for affirming 'The Book"!

So not only is it true that this Islamic dog "doesn't hunt", it doesn't even have teeth!

Next time, we'll take a look at the second comment submitted to this blog which would raise questions about the deity of Christ, His death and resurrection as well as the trinity. And of course, who knows? We just might get another comment from Oman.

We can only hope!

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Update (7/11/09). Here's a link to part two, which I added not long after this article.