alleged Bible corruption and the Messiah is coming

Submitted by Lactantius Jr (United Kingdom), Dec 10, 2010 at 19:48

Dear Anne

Thank you for the way you have written, you're "right on the money," or "spot-on" as we say on this side of the Atlantic.

First off, it's important to say that whilst I quote the Qur'an extensively, I do so not because it's authoritative for me, it isn't, I quote it because it is authoritative for the Muslim, for whom it is the ultimate source of Allah's word.

The Qur'an gives massive support to the Bible, and in the Qur'an, Allah says he is the author of both the Qur'an and the Bile.

"Truly, this Qur'an has been sent down by the Lord of the Worlds. The trustworthy spirit brought it down to your heart (prophet) so that you could bring warning in a clear Arabic tongue. "

Surah 26:192-195

"Step by step, he has sent the Scriptures down to you (prophet) with the truth, confirming what went before. He sent down the Torah and the Gospel."

Surah 3:3

Christians are told to look into their own Scriptures to find Allah's revelation for them,

"So let the followers of the Gospel judge according to what Allah has sent down in it. Those who do not judge according to what Allah has revealed are lawbreakers."

Surah 5:47

and even Muhammad himself at one point, is exhorted to test the truthfullness of his own message, against the contents of the previous Divine revelations to Jews and Christians:-

"If thou wert in doubt as to what we have revealed unto thee, then ask those who have been reading the Book from before thee, the truth hath indeed come to thee from thy Lord, so be in no wise of those in doubt."

Surah 10:94

It's also very important to emphasise that Allah says no-one can change or alter his words, Allah is said to preserve the Qur'an Surah's 15:9; 85:21-22; and the words of Allah are said to be unalterable:-

"there is none that can alter the words and decrees of Allah Qur'an, Surah 6:34 and "----------none can change his words-----------" Surah 18:27

see also:- Surah's 6:115, 10:64 and 50:29

There are many, many Qur'anic references to the Bible, and the Qur'an gives them such noble titles as:-

"the book of Allah" " the word of Allah"

"a light and guidance to man" "a decision for all matters"

"a guidance and a mercy" "the lucid book"

"the illumination (al-furqan)" "a guidance and warning to those who fear Allah"

"the gospel with its guidance and light confirming the preceding law"

Typical of every mention of the Torah and Gospel, there is no word about textual corruption, and I quote just some of the relevant Qur'anic Surah's dealing with this, 2:97, 2:285; 3:3,7,23,48,65,84,93,184,199; 4:44,47,51,136,162-164 5:15,46,68-69; 6:91&92,154; 10:37; 11:17; 16:43; 17:2; 20:133; 21:7; 23:49; 26:196; 32:23; 35:31; 41:45; 46:10-12; 54:43; 57:25&27; and 87:18-19 all confirm, rather than repudiate or "complete" the Torah and Gospel, with the texts often being referred to as "inspired."

The Qur'an uses, for example, the following Arabic words, "musadiqalima mahum" (confirming what is with them) "musadiqalima baina yadih" (confirming what is between their hands) "musadiqalima makum" (confirming that which is with them)

The Qur'an claims to be a book which is complete, a book fully detailed and an explanation of everything, where nothing is omitted (Cf. Surahs 6:38; 6:114; 6:126; 10:37, 12:11; 16:89).

Consequently, since the Qur'an claims not to have omitted anything, we would expect to find a plain verse in it explicitly saying that the text of the Torah and/or Gospel is/are falsified, however, we find no such verse in the entire Qur'an.

Muhammad in fact, said the Bible was OK, as Keith Thompson conclusively demonstrates as follows.

"Muhammad, in numerous places, claimed that the Christian texts of the 7th century were the word of God. Now, if we can establish that Muhammad claimed that Allah took responsibility for the New Testament that Christians read today, we prove that Allah is not the God of Moses, Abraham, and the apostles. Muhamamd refuted his own religion and exposed his own god as false by claiming that the Christian Scriptures of the 7th century were genuine and from Allah. For we know what Christians and Jews were reading in the 7th century. It was the Bible that we have today. This is a fact of History which I will seek to demonstrate.

In Surah 7:157 of the Quran Muhammad stated:

"Those who follow the messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write, whom they will find described in the Torah and the Gospel (which are) with them..."

This verse is very crucial. Muhammad claimed that Allah said you can find Muhammad in the Torah and Gospel that is with them. Meaning people in the 7th century had records from God in their hands that were good enough to salvage prophecy from. For how could prophecy be in any book that was not from God? The Gospel that was with the Christians in the 7th century was the New Testament.

In fact, the Muslim translators of the Quran, Al-Hilali and Khan, realized this to be true when they added the following parenthetical remark in their translation of this verse:

"Those who follow the Messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write (i.e. Muhammad SAW) whom they find written with them in the Taurat (Torah) (Deut. xviii, 15) and the Injil (Gospel) (John xiv, 16)"

Hilali-Khan even says it is the Gospel of John of the 7th century! That's the same Gospel of John that Christians have today. According to our full Bibles of the 4th century Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, the Bible that we have today is the same one as then. The same John, the same Matthew, Mark, Luke etc... These early full Bibles prove that since Muhammad granted that the 7th century scriptures are good enough to contain prophecies, he does the same for the Bible of today. The 4th century full Bibles are the same as the 7th century Bibles. In response to this Muslims often say, 'It can't be the four Gospels because "Injil" just means Gospel in the singular and not Gospels.' This demonstrates a basic error on the part of the Muslim. As the Arabic "Injil" derived from the Greek then Syriac language. Although the word "Injil" is not plural but singular, the Syriac Christians called the four Gospels the Gospel (Injil) of Christ. In studying the etymology of the word "Injil", I discovered that the Encyclopaedia of Islam by M. Mukarram Ahmed and Muzaffar Husain Syed has some interesting insight. They say:

"For the study of the prophet 'Isa's life and works the four books of the New Testament, called in the Quran Gospels or Evangel (Injil) are the books of St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke and St. John." (M. Mukarram Ahmed, Muzaffar Husain Syed, Encyclopaedia of Islam [Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., 2005], p. 193)

They noted that the New Testament books are the Injil that contain the details of Jesus' life. As Abbas Sundiata remarks:

"Similarly, the word "Injil" is not Qur'anic or Arabic. It was borrowed from the word which early Syrian Christians used to describe the New Testament. Consequently only Christians can define the word. The Qur'anic references to these words can therefore only be in their Jewish or Christian contexts-rather than references to some to some phantom books which no longer exist." (Abbas Sundiata, Look Behind the Facade [Xulon Press, 2006], p. 70)

Thus when Muhammad says the Injil of the 7th century is with them (Christians) and that it contains prophecies about him, he is referring to the New Testament and admitting the Gospels are reliable. The same Gospels we have today. Muslims might say, 'the New Testament is corrupt.' However this view is harmful to the Muslim. For how can a corrupt text that is not from God contain prophecies of Muhammad? The Muslim might say, 'only the prophecies of Muhammad and things that agree with the Qur'an are accurate in the text of the New Testament and the rest is corrupt.' However merely asserting something like that is inadequate in scholarly dialogue or writings. If the Muslim is going to assert that the only thing that isn't corrupt in the entire New Testament are the prophecies of Muhammad and the things that agree with the Qur'an, they must demonstrate that by investigating the manuscript tradition. Indeed it is a tough task to try and demonstrate that everything that contradicts the Qur'an is not in the earliest manuscripts. Realistically only God can do prophecy. The Christian and the Muslim ought to know this. And since the New Testament is not some corrupt texts with only a few accurate lines about some awaited Arabian prophet, or things that agree with the Qur'an, the Gospels must be from God based on Muhammad's own admissions regarding the Injil. We have already seen that Surah 7:157 shows that the Injil of the 7th century was good enough to contain prophecies of Muhammad. The fact that the term Injil came from the name of the Syriac New Testament. This means that it is likely Muhammad was referencing the 7th century New Testament as God's word. Muhammad even commanded Christians to follow the Injil that was with them in the 7th century. This assumes that Christians had the original Injil from God in the 7th century. However we know from history what Christians used and still use as scripture: The New Testament.

Say: "People of the Book, you do not stand on anything, until you perform the Torah and the Gospel [Injil], and what was sent down to you from your Lord." ... Surah 5:68

[Say (O Muhammad SAW)] "Shall I seek a judge other than Allah while it is He Who has sent down unto you the Book (The Qur'an), explained in detail." Those unto whom We gave the Scripture [the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)] know that it is revealed from your Lord in truth. So be not you of those who doubt. Surah 6:114

For a full discussion of the Injil and what Islam says about the Jewish and Christian scriptures see the following articles:

In fact here is proof that 7th century Christians read the multiple Gospel accounts in Arabia. As opposed to some lost document that Allah gave Jesus:

Narrated 'Aisha: The Prophet returned to Khadija while his heart was beating rapidly. She took him to Waraqa bin Naufal who was a Christian convert and used to read the Gospels in Arabic Waraqa asked (the Prophet), "What do you see?" When he told him, Waraqa said, "That is the same angel whom Allah sent to the Prophet) Moses. Should I live till you receive the Divine Message, I will support you strongly." (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 55, Number 605)

This is most likely the Injil that Muhammad was referencing. The New Testament books. If you reject the testimony of Waraqa having multiple Gospels in the time of Muhammad that would account for the Christian injil, as opposed to some lone Gospel that was lost, then you also have to reject his testimony of who the being was that approached Muhammad."

http://www.answering-islam.org/authors/thompson/paradise.html

It wasn't until some 430 years after Muhammas'as death, that Muslims first said the Bible had been corrupted, when in 1064 AD, Ibn-Khazem, FIRST charged that the Bible had been corrupted and falsified. This charge was to defend Islam against Christianity because Ibn-Khazem came upon differences and contradiction between the Bible and the Quran. Believing, by faith that the Quran was true, the Bible must then be false. He said, "Since the Quran must be true it must be the conflicting Gospel texts that are false. But Muhammad tells us to respect the Gospel. Therefore, the present text must have been falsified by the Christians after the time of Muhammad." His argument was not based on any evidence or historical facts but only on his personal faith, reasoning and desire to safeguard the Quran. This led him to teach that, "The Christians lost the revealed Gospel except for a few traces which God has left intact as argument against them." http://www.answering-islam.org/Bible/jrwhy.html The next time you hear a Muslim saying the Bible gas been corrupted or changed Anne, ask them why it isn't good enough for them, when it is good enough for Allah, and was good enough for Muhammad? Thank you Anne for quoting Isaiah 7:14, which we will soon be hearing read during Christmas services in our churches, and I respond by quoting another passage from Isaiah, the one about "the suffering servant," saying that when the dead sea scrolls were found between 1947 and 1956, amongst them was a scroll containing what is found in the 66 chapters of the book of Isaiah we have in our Bibles. This 'Great Scroll of Isaiah' is about 1,000 years older than any previously known copy of Isaiah, and is dated at between about 200 years before Christ Jesus was born, and about 68 years after He was born. This 'Great Isaiah Scroll' is almost identical to the most recent manuscript version of the Masoretic text (the source for most translations of the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament), from about 900 years after Christ Jesus was born, and this provides phenomenal evidence for the credibility of the accuracy of Biblical transmission, with scholars having discovered a handful of spelling and tense-oriented scribal errors, but nothing of significance. Here is Isaiah 53:1-12 from the Contemporary English Version, and it is titled "What God's Servant Did For Us" "Has anyone believed us or seen the mighty power of the LORD in action? Like a young plant or a root that sprouts in dry ground, the servant grew up obeying the LORD. He wasn't some handsome king. Nothing about the way He looked made Him attractive to us. He was hated and rejected; His life was filled with sorrow and terrible suffering. No one wanted to look at Him. We despised Him and said, 'He is a nobody!' He suffered and endured great pain for us, but we thought His suffering was punishment from God. He was wounded and crushed because of ours sins; by taking our punishment, He made us completely well. All of us were like sheep that had wandered off. We had each gone our own way; but the LORD gave Him the punishment we deserved. He was painfully abused, but He did not complain. He was silent like a lamb being led to the butcher, as quiet as a sheep having its wool cut off. He was condemned to death without a fair trial. Who could have imagined what would happen to Him? His life was taken away because of the sinful thing my people had done. He wasn't dishonest or violent, but He was buried in a tomb of cruel and rich people. The LORD decided His servant would suffer as a sacrifice to take away the sin and guilt of others. Now the servant will live to see His own descendants. He did everything the LORD had planned. By suffering, the servant will learn the true meaning of obeying the LORD. Although He is innocent, He will take the punishment for the sins of others, so that many of them will no longer be guilty. The LORD will reward Him with honour and power for sacrificing His life. Others thought He was a sinner, but He suffered for ours sins and asked God to forgive us." Halleluia, what a saviour He is!! Indeed He is the promised Jewish Messiah, and during this season of advent, it is important to affirm that Jesus the Messiah is coming again, the New Testament mentioning His second coming over 300 times, Scripture clearly speaking to sceptics who deny His second coming in these words, "But first you must realise that in the last days some people won't think about anything except their own selfish desires. They will make fun of you and say, 'Didn't your Lord promise to come back? Yet the first leaders have already died, and the world hasn't changed a bit'....................................The Lord isn't slow in keeping His promises, as some people think He is. In fact, God is patient, because He wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost." 2 Peter 3:3,4,8&9 At the Messiah's second coming, He won't be the Babe of Bethlehem, He will be the judge on that day when justice will be done, "For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead." Acts 17:31 "For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ" 2 Corinthians 5:10 We all have a problem, a massive problem, we're sinners and we need a saviour, and that's Jesus the Messiah's job, because He came into the world to save sinners, and He is able to save completely all those who come to God through Him, but there's a warning that those who reject God's "rescue plan" will face Jesus the Messiah as unforgiven sinners, and receive the due punishment for our rebellion and rejection of God's rescue plan. We're all going to live for ever, please choose your address, and please, "choose this day whom you will serve," Joshua 24:15 With kind regards and best wishes Lactantius Jr

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