Why I Embraced Islam Part Four Finally, in my investigation, it also became clear that I should be asking myself about the history and reliability of the Bible. I began to look at not only the message of the Bible, but also ask myself, What is the Bible? Most Christians will answer that the Bible is the Word of God. Naturally, I needed to justify my faith in this _script_ure being the Word of God. To show that the Bible is the Word of God , it is necessary to show that the words of God were dictated to man to be penned by human hands and that the book known today as the Bible is a conglomeration of these words of God. I found that many Christians, including me, believed that the Bible is the Word of God because it has been traditionally accepted as such. So I had to ask, When did that tradition begin? The Bible itself says, but test everything; hold fast what is good. (I Thess. 5:21) Jesus himself warns against following the man-made rather than the God-given when he quotes from the prophet Isaiah (God says In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine the precepts of men. (Mathew 15:9) I begin by examining the men whose hands penned these Words of God. In many cases, authorship of the books of the Bible is not definitively known. I am especially referring to all the books of the Old Testament and some of the books of the New Testament including the Gospels, Hebrews, the letters of John, and Revelations. When authorship is unknown or doubtful, it becomes impossible to judge the integrity of either author or book as being of divine revelation. Most scholars believe that all of the Old Testament had to be rewritten after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered and burnt down Jerusalem. Secondly, when reading the Bible, one encounters many errors and contradictions. [For some examples see verses: John 1:29 and Mathew 11:3; Mathew 21:2-7 and Mark 11:2-7; Mathew 27:28 and Mark 15:17; Mathew 27:55, Luke 23:49 and John 19:25; Mark 15:32 and Luke 23:39-43; Acts 9:7 and Acts 22:9; Mathew 10:2-5 and Luke 6:13-16; John 20:9 and Luke 24:6-7; Mark 2:25-26 and I Sam 21: 1-6; John 3:13 and II Kings 2:11-12 and Heb 11:5; John 5:31 and John 8:14; Mathew 27:5 and Acts 1:18; Mathew 1:2-16 and Luke 3:23-38; II Sam 24:1 and I Chron 21:1; I Kings 7:26 and II Chron 4:5, for 100% plagiarism see II Kings 19 and Isaiah 37.] Can the Words of God contain error? Certainly not! A true revelation from God is free from all error. Errors can only indicate manipulations made by man. In the Bible one also finds God's prophets degraded by acts of idolatry, incest, murder, adultery, etc. [II Samuel 11:2-27, Isaiah 20:2-3, Genesis 19:30-38, I Kings 11, Judges 16:1, Genesis 32:25-30, Ezekiel 4] Is it possible that God chose such weak individuals for such holy missions? Is it not more likely that God chose men of outstanding character to deliver His messages? Thirdly, since many Christians claim that their faith is _base_d on the supposed words of Jesus himself, peace be upon him (p.b.u.h), it is important to note that the synoptic Gospels were not written by eyewitnesses to the events they describe, They portray a second generation view of Jesus Christ (Christian Bible commentary). There also exists no record of Jesus' sayings (p.b.u.h) in their original language, the language Jesus (p.b.u.h) spoke. Fourthly, about the New Testament Epistles, I had to wonder, what makes one man's biography of another man or one pastor's letters to his congregations the Words of God ? One might answer that they wrote being filled with inspiration from the Holy Spirit, but we read in the New Testament that many of the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and then preached. Does that also make all of the words they preached Words of God ? When a pastor today is filled with the Holy Spirit and writes letters to his congregation, should his letters also be considered the Word of God ? More importantly, do any of these authors claim to be writing the Word of God ? Of all the books of the New Testament, only the author of Revelations claims to be writing divine revelation. He bore witness to the Word of God (Rev 1:2), and it is interesting to note that it is not known which John wrote the book. Revelations was also not fully accepted as canonical by the church until about 500 AD. One Gospel writer makes quite clear his reasons for writing: Simply because it seemed good to me to do so. (Luke 1:1-3) The Quran gives a strict warning: Woe to those who write the book with their own hand and then say 'This is from Allah.' (2:79) But, the writers of these books should not be blamed for such. No where did they claim to write the Word of God. Nor is there evidence that the early church considered their works the Word of God. In fact, hundreds of written works (gospels, letters, epistles, etc.) were circulated among the early churches. So how did some of these books come to be known as the Bible? In 325 AD, the pagan emperor Constantine summoned the bishops of the church and chaired what is known as the Council of Nicea. The Council declared the trinity to be official doctrine and to determine which of the written records of Jesus' teachings should be included in their holy book it was decided that all the different Gospels should be placed under a table in the Council Hall. Everyone then left the room and the door was locked. The bishops were asked to pray for the whole night that the correct versions of the gospels might come onto the top of the table..It was decided that all the Gospels remaining under the table should be burned. It became a capital offence to possess an unauthorized Gospel...over a million Christians were killed [by the church] in the years following the Council's decisions. Thus, we have the Bible we read today. The more I learned about the Bible, the more I knew that I could not rely on it to be the unadulterated Word of God. Yet, Islam itself indirectly claimed that what has been changed in the Bible is less than what has not been changed. The Quran discredits the People of the Book , the Jews and Christians for not following their _script_ures and for changing the meanings of their _script_ures. It became reasonable and appropriate to ask if Muslim _script_ure was any better. I examined the Holy Quran just as I examined the Bible. The Quran itself claims to be the Word of God as revealed by the Holy Spirit, the angel Gabriel, to the prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.h.) (2:2-4, 2:97, 3:3, etc.). The Quran names itself within its own pages (2:185). It is a book without contradictions and errors. If it had been from (any) other than Allah, they would have found within it much contradiction. (4:82) The book is without question the same today as when it was revealed as the earliest written copies are still available (in museums) for verification of this. The integrity of the earliest written copies was testified to by the hundreds (thousands?) of first generation Muslims who memorized verbatim all or part of the Quran during the lifetime of the prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.h). God says in the Quran (15:9) We have without doubt sent down the Message (the Quran); and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption). Its literary _style_ is incredible and incomparable as is testified within its own pages (2:23-24) and by every generation of Arabic speakers since its revelation. It contains scientific knowledge not yet known to man at the time of its revelation (examples: the sex of a child is determined by the sperm (75:37-40) and (53:45-6) and the sun is in motion on its own orbit (36:38-40) and (21:33)). It tells of events to occur in the future; some prophecies have already been fulfilled (example, 30:1-6). So what is the message of the Quran? The Holy Quran teaches man to have faith in God (Allah), One God, All-Mighty, All-Knowing, All-Wise, Sustainer and Creator of all. It teaches of aneternal life after this earthly death and that worship should be devoted only to the Creator and not to anything created. It instructs man in righteous living and shows how God blessed the nations who obeyed Him and destroyed the disbelieving nations. The Quran gives a very poignant warning that man must repent of worshipping any other than Allah if man hopes to find success in the next life. Allah forgives not the sin of setting up partners in worship with him, but He forgives whom he wills other sins than that, and whosoever sets up partners in worship with Allah has indeed strayed far away. (4:116) Because Muslims hold the Holy Quran to be the unadulterated Word of Allah, explicit following of its instruction is required of any who desire to obtain righteousness. Mohammed (p.b.u.h), the vessel though whom the Quran was revealed, was well known for his monotheistic beliefs, his hatred of idolatry, his integrity of character, and his excellent morality by both his followers and by his enemies. Perhaps the best testimonies of his outstanding character come from his enemies, who knew him to be truthful and trustworthy though they despised him for his rejection of their gods. The miracles Mohammed (p.b.u.h) performed may also be used as proof of his prophethood. Unlike the biographies of Jesus (p.b.u.h) and the early Christians, much of what the prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.h) did and said was well recorded. This brought out a very important point. Essentially, the Bible is comprised of three types of verses. Some verses are the Words of God (such as Isaiah 45:22 Look unto Me...for I am God and there is none else ). Some verses are the words of a prophet of God (Mark 10:18 And Jesus said unto him, 'Why callest thou me good?' ); and some verses are the words of a historian (the bulk of the text; for example, And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he (Jesus) came... Mark 11:13). The Muslim guards each of these three things separately. The Holy Quran is comprised of the Words of God, as revealed without addition or deletion. The
... read more »