Islam and the Gospel

www.thebereancall.org

Blessed be the God of Abraham (Ibrahim), whose words are perfect in truth and incorruptible! (Sura 6:115; 10:65; 6:34). Amen! He has provided a way for all seekers of truth to resolve the dilemma of Islam!

What is this dilemma?

It concerns the Bible's testimony of Isa (Yeshua of Nazareth), of the Qur'an's affirmation of that Scripture, and of Islamic teachings contrary to that same Scripture.

For the Qur'an attests to the truth of the testimony of the Gospels (the Injil), of the Law of Moses (Taurat) and of the biblical prophets, and the Qur'an claims guardianship of the Scripture that preceded its writing (Sura 5:46-48; 10:38; 5:68; 2:136; 2:1-4). Furthermore, the Qur'an forbids anyone, on pain of shameful punishment, from making distinctions between the authority of the apostles and prophets of God, or from choosing between God's words. No one is permitted to believe in part and reject a part. Those who presume to do so, it says, are infidels in reality (Sura 4:150-52; 2:89; 2:139; 42:15; 29:46-47).

How then can anyone deny the truth of the testimony of the Gospels, Moses and the prophets concerning Jesus? or to make the claim that men have corrupted the incorruptible Holy Word of God? To do so is to deny the Qur'an's own doctrines, and to admit to infidelity in the keeping of the Scriptures!

Besides this, incontrovertible textual evidence (such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and more than 14,000 extant ancient manuscripts of the New Testament, many of which predate the writing of the Qur'an) shows that the substance of the Bible's teaching has been transmitted into our time with great precision. "The Book" of Muhammad's time is unquestionably the Bible of today.

As the Qur'an plainly denies the possibility of the corruption of the words of the Scripture (Tahrif-i-Lafzi), the claim is therefore made by Muslim clerics that Christian doctrines which contradict those of Islam are due, rather, to Tahrif-i-Manawi, the corruption of the sense of Scripture, and that these Christian teachings are based on misinterpretations of God's Word.

This claim is easily tested.

Therefore, to all who would humble themselves to the will of the God of Abraham in truth, the following testimony of Holy Scripture is presented.

No seeker of truth should fear to resolve the dilemma of Islam, as the Qur'an, in (Sura 10:95), directs Muhammad and, by implication, all seekers of truth, to examine the authenticity of the Qur'an's teachings in the light of the Bible.

What the Bible says:

Jesus is, by nature, God's one and only Son.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth. (John 1:1,14)

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:16-18) "Only begotten" can be simply translated "one and only."

As God's sinless Son, come in virgin-born flesh, Jesus fulfilled the priestly office of Messiah, the Christ, by offering his life as an atoning payment for our sins. (The atoning sacrifice foretold in the book of the prophet Isaiah, 52:13-53:2.)

...he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:5-6).

The gospels' testimony could not be clearer: Jesus was crucified and died on the cross—accomplishing his sacrifice for our sins. (This death by crucifixion is graphically foretold in Psalm 22.)

Then he [Pilate] delivered him unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. And he bearing his cross went forth unto a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. (John 19:16-18)

When Jesus...had received the vinegar [sour wine], he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost [Spirit]. (John 19:30)

Then came the soldiers, and broke the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they broke not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. (John 19:32-34) (John's remarkable detail of the "blood and water" pouring from the spear wound on Jesus' side is conclusive evidence of a fatally ruptured heart, and proof positive of death to any modern student of anatomy!)

Jesus conquered death—after three days rising bodily from the grave—and appeared to all his disciples (who were among more than 500 eyewitnesses), lastly to Thomas, who doubted his resurrection.

And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in their midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then said he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless [unbelieving], but believing." And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. (John 20:26-28).

The risen Lord Jesus ascended to heaven and is now sat down at the right hand of the Father, but the Holy Spirit of the Lord has come, and is now with us, just as Jesus promised.

...I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." (John 14:16-17)

Jesus is the one whose teachings we should follow.

[He said,] "I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12) "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

Jesus is the creator.

He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name... (John 1:10-12)

The issues of the divine sonship of Jesus and His atoning death on the cross are crucial to the integrity of the Bible and the destiny of humanity: No mere man could offer himself as a taintless asham—a sin offering acceptable to God; and without an acceptable sin payment, sinful humanity would have no hope of being reconciled to their thrice-holy, all-transcendent Creator.

Yet on these issues, among others, Islam disagrees with the Bible's witness of Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Man, Son of God, Savior of the World!

As it is impossible for divine revelation to be in actual disagreement with itself, the dilemma of Islam is clear: Either the Bible and the Qur'an are both false, or the Bible is true, and the Qur'an is true only insofar as it agrees with the Bible; where the Qur'an is in disagreement with the Bible, it is false.

The Qur'an testifies to the truth of the Bible, yet the Bible says nothing of the Qur'an.

The Bible needs no authentication from any other source.

Among its many distinctives which set it utterly apart in authority, such as its unfailing prophecies, the very construction of the Bible self-reveals its divine origin. The Bible is not one book, but 66, written over a span of some 1,400 years, by some forty men of widely varying occupations. It was written on three different continents, in three different languages...yet when these texts are brought together there is complete agreement—not only in its central theme (God's redemptive activity in the lives of men), but on issues in the hundreds, it reveals one consistent view!

A scholar renowned for his great learning was once asked to cite the most important information he had ever learned. He answered, "Jesus loves me! This I know, for the Bible tells me so!" (The lyrics of a child's song.) Amen!

Open the Bible to John's Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And enter, humbly, as a child, into the presence of the Truth and the Glorious Light of the World!

—A.W.S.