Monday, October 18, 2010

The Testimony of the Quran to the Bible, part 2


On March 1 (yes, a long time ago!) I published part 1 of this booklet, which is designed to evangelize Muslims. If you have not read part one, you should do so here.

I have found that about 50% of Muslims take this booklet who are offered it, and since Paul internally critiques the false religions of those he evangelizes (Acts 17:23), such a methodology has clear Scriptural warrant. If you have a better resource to evangelize Muslims at your church, that is great. If you have nothing, you might want to consider this pamphlet. You can print them at the website here.
Anyway, here is part 2:

III. The Quran’s Declarations that the Bible is the Word of God are Confirmed by Overwhelming Evidence


As already noted, the Quran teaches that the Bible has been preserved free from corruption, and that it is the very Word of God. There is overwhelming evidence that the Quran is correct in affirming that the Bible comes from God. Three sorts of evidence will be briefly considered. [1]
First, the Bible is confirmed by many facts of science that were unknown or denied when it was written. The Bible affirms that the world is round (Is 40:22), the earth is suspended in empty space (Job 26:7) and rotates on its axis, producing sequences of day and night (Job 38:12-14), air has weight (Job 28:25), the ocean has currents (Ps 8:8; Is 43:16), the ocean floor has springs (Job 38:16), blood is essential for life (Lev 17:11), light travels and is moving, unlike darkness (Job 38:19), light can be parted into a spectrum, and light from the sun creates wind as it heats the earth (Job 38:24), the wind has circuits (Ec 1:6), and there are huge numbers of stars, far beyond what can be seen with the naked eye (Gen 22:17; Jer 31:37), which differ in brightness or magnitude (1 Cor 15:41). The Bible likewise presents the hydrological cycle (Job 26:8; 36:27-28; 37:11, 16; 38:25-30) and teaches the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics (Gen 2:2; Ps 105:25-27), among many other principles of modern science. The Bible also contains no scientific errors—or any other kinds of errors or contradictions, despite being penned by over forty different prophets over a period of some 1,500 years!
Second, the prophets who gave us the Bible confirmed their message by doing many miracles from God. For example, the prophet “Elijah . . . said . . . As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word” (1 Ki 17:1), and as a result, “it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And [Elijah] prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit” (Jam 5:17-18). When Joshua spoke “to the LORD . . . before the children of Israel, and he said . . . Sun, stand thou still . . . the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day” (Josh 10:12-13). Moses made the Red Sea dry up so that the Jews could go through on dry ground, and then had the waters come back and destroy the Egyptian army that was chasing them (Ex 14-15). Jesus Christ did tremendous miracles. He healed vast multitudes from all their diseases (Mt 12:15), proving the truth of His claims, because “the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, [and] the dead are raised up” (Mt 11:5). He took five loaves of bread and two fish and fed far over five thousand people, with twelve baskets full pieces of bread and fish left over (Mt 14:14-21). He raised many people from the dead, even, before many eyewitnesses, raising someone who had been decomposing for days (Jn 11). His enemies had to admit, “this man doeth many miracles” (Jn 11:47). Elijah, Joshua, Moses, other prophets in the Bible, and especially Jesus Christ did many other miracles, validating their message. The Quran also confirms that Jesus Christ, Moses, and other prophets did many miracles (5:110; 7:06-108, 116-119; 3:183-184).
Third, the Bible is absolutely unique in that it contains hundreds and hundreds of predictive prophecies. The God who gave humanity the Bible said that He would prove that He was the true God, and there was no other God, because He alone could predict the future (Is 41:21-24; 46:9-11). God challenges all false gods: “Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods . . . who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? . . . [T]he things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them” (Is 41:23; 44:7). The Bible has been validated by huge numbers of fulfilled prophecies, and not one Biblical prophecy has ever failed or been proven wrong. For example, around 700 B. C. the Biblical prophet Isaiah predicted that the Jews would leave the land of Canaan, go into exile in Babylon, and then be sent back by a king named Cyrus who would allow them to rebuild their temple (Isaiah 44:26-28). In 536 B. C., king Cyrus, the ruler over the land of Babylon, did exactly what Isaiah had predicted 150 years earlier. Can anyone besides God predict the actions and even the exact name of a world ruler 150 years in advance? The prophet Daniel predicted the rise and fall of the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, and Roman empires (Dan 2, 7), and predicts with perfect accuracy specific actions of an entire series of kings that interacted with Israel for centuries (Dan 11), including Cyrus II, Cambyses, Pseudo-Smerdis, Darius I Hystaspes, Xerxes I, Alexander the Great, Ptolemy I Soter, Seleucus I Nicator, Ptolemy II Philadelphius, Antiochus II Theos, Ptolemy III Euergetes, Seleucus Ceraunus, Antiochus the Great, Ptolemy Philopator, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and numbers of others. Many specific prophecies about Jesus Christ were made hundreds of years in advance. Over five hundred years before He was born, Biblical prophets predicted Christ’s birth in Bethlehem (Mic 5:2), His ministry in the region of Galilee (Is 9:2; Mt 4:13-16), His betrayal for thirty pieces of silver, that were later used to buy a potter’s field (Zech 11:12-13), many specific details about his life (Is 53), and even the exact year and day, March 30, A. D. 33, that He would officially present Himself as the Messiah by riding into Jerusalem upon a donkey (Dan 9:24-27; Zech 9:9; Mar 11:7-11; Lu 19:41-44)! Furthermore, we have discovered manuscript copies of the Biblical books that record these prophecies about Jesus Christ that were copied centuries before the prophecies were fulfilled. Nobody can argue that these predictions were added in after the events took place to create a false appearance of a prediction.
The evidence is overwhelming that the Bible is indeed the Word of God. Anyone who is intellectually honest must recognize that this is the case.

IV. Since the Bible is the Pure and Perfect Word of God, What Does it Tell us About Salvation from our Sins?

The Bible presents you with the wonderful truth that “ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 Jn 5:13) and are in fellowship with God. Having eternal life is not just something you can hope for, the Bible teaches, but something that you can have certainty about. There are four things that you need to know to be certain of eternal life.

1.) You are a sinner

God’s standard is “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Mt 5:48). God does not simply command you to do good things and hope that your good deeds outweigh your bad ones. He commands you to be perfect, as perfect, pure, holy, and sinless in your actions, thoughts, and nature as He is Himself. Sin is every failure to match up to that standard (1 Jn 3:4), and you have not even come close. This is why the Bible states: “[A]ll have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. . . . There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Rom 3:23, 10-12). In fact, you can say, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps 51:5), for God reveals to us that all people were born with a sinful nature. In fact, you sinned in the first man, Adam (Rom 5:12-19), and possess a “heart [that] is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer 17:9). Your sinful nature makes you “as an unclean thing, and all [your] righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Is 64:6). It only takes one sin to keep you out of God’s presence: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (Jam 2:10), but you have committed numberless sins, every one of which is written down in God’s books (Rev 20:11-15). The Lord Jesus Christ said that unjust anger is murder (Mt 5:21-22), and a single lustful thought is adultery (Mt 5:27-28), so you are a murderer and an adulterer. You have lied (Pro 6:16), been proud (Pr 6:16-19), bitter (Ro 3:14), unthankful (2 Tim 3:2), covetous (2 Tim 3:2), and hypocritical (Is 33:14). You have broken the greatest commandment of all, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Mt 22:37). You have broken the second greatest commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Mt 22:39). Indeed, until you have had all of your sins removed by God, you “cannot please God” (Rom 8:8) in any way, but are “defiled and unbelieving” with “nothing pure; but even [your] mind and conscience is defiled” (Tit 1:15). Because of your sins and your sinful nature, this very moment, “the wrath of God abideth” on you (Jn 3:36). You are “condemned already” (Jn 3:18). You “have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out” (Num 32:23).

2.) You Deserve a Penalty for Sin

God’s law says, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal 3:10). You have not continuously and perfectly obeyed, so you are cursed. Since “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23), you are subject to physical death, the separation of your spiritual part, your soul, from the body (Heb 9:27). You are also subject to spiritual death, the separation of a person from God. You are currently “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1), your “damnation is just” (Rom 3:8), and you are consequently headed for the second death, eternal separation from God in the lake of fire: “This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:14-15). In the lake of fire you will “drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and [you] shall be tormented with fire and brimstone . . . and the smoke of [your] torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and [you will] have no rest day nor night” (Rev 14:10-11).
The question arises: “How can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Mt 23:33).

3.) Jesus Christ Died To Pay For Your Sin

Jesus Christ is not just a prophet. He is “God manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim 3:16). Hundreds of years before He came into the world, Old Testament prophets predicted that He would be the everlasting God: “unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given . . . and his name shall be called . . . The mighty God” (Is 9:6); “But thou, Bethlehem . . . out of thee shall he come forth . . . that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Mic 5:2). The Bible teaches that there is one, and only one, God (Deut 6:4), but it also teaches that the one essence of God exists in three eternal Personal distinctions, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit (1 Jn 5:7). We may not be able to understand how God can be only one essence but yet be three Persons, but we have no right to reject what He teaches us in the Bible simply because it is hard for us to understand. God says, “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa 55:8-9). How dare we, as sinful, limited, feeble creatures, sit in judgment upon what God has revealed about Himself? Our responsibility is simply to receive what He has told us about His nature. God’s Word teaches that there is “but one God” (1 Cor 8:6), but at the same time it speaks of “One God and Father” (Eph 4:6), identifies Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as “Lord and . . . God” (Jn 20:28), and identifies the “Holy Ghost . . . [as] God” (Ac 5:3-4). Jesus Christ is called the “Son of God” many times in the Bible. His followers “worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God” (Mt 14:33). In fact, one of the reasons the Bible was given to us by God was “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (Jn 20:31). The fact that God is the Father and Jesus Christ is the Son of God does not by any means indicate that God, who is an infinite, everywhere-present Spirit (Jn 4:24) and therefore does not have a body (Lu 24:39) somehow had physical relations that led to a pregnancy and a son coming into the world. Such a repulsive idea is totally contrary to the Biblical presentation of the one God as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Biblical truth that is simply that the one true God exists in three eternal personal distinctions, and we must receive what He has said as true without trying to limit His nature with our sinful and incorrect reasoning.

The Son of God, Jesus Christ, who existed from eternity past with the Father and the Holy Spirit, united to His Divine Person a human nature when He was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary, so that, although He was still 100% God, He became 100% Man as well. He lived a sinless life and then died on the cross, where His Father “made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor 5:21). Nobody was secretly substituted for Jesus Christ, so that He did not die—He died a real death, paying the penalty for our sins. His death for the sins of the world and resurrection from the dead were predicted in the Old Testament hundreds of years before He was ever born. In 700 B. C., the prophet Isaiah predicted Jesus Christ’s sinless life, death as an offering for sin, burial, resurrection to life, and future rule over the earth when He returns from heaven: “[H]e was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin [note here He dies as a sin offering, but then in the next phrases He rises again, prolongs His days, justifies many, and rules the earth], he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail [suffering] of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa 53:8-12). The entire system of animal sacrifices God ordained in the Old Testament pointed forward to the death of Christ to pay for sin (Heb 10:1-14). The Lord Jesus Himself regularly spoke about His coming death and bodily resurrection while He was with His followers on earth: “they shall mock him, and shall scourge [whip] him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again” (Mr 10:34; Mt 20:19; Mr 8:31; Lu 18:33; 24:7). If He did not actually die and rise, not only would Jesus Christ not have been the Son of God, He would not have been a true prophet at all—He would have been a false teacher and a deceiver. The followers of Jesus Christ unanimously testified of His death, resurrection, return to heaven to sit at the right hand of God, and the certainty of His coming again in the future to rule the world. He was seen by many groups of people after He rose from the dead—once over 500 eyewitnesses saw Him at one time (1 Cor 15:6). The center of both the Old and New Testaments is Christ’s death for the sins of the world and His resurrection from the dead. Also, if Jesus Christ had not died, nobody could be saved from his sins, because both the Torah and the Gospel agree that “without [the] shedding of [Christ’s] blood is no remission [of sin],” (Heb 9:22-23) and “it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Lev 17:11). In light of the overwhelming evidence that the Bible is the Word of God, we must believe its testimony to the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension to heaven of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ the Son of God.

When Jesus died on the cross, God the Father laid your sins upon Him, and He suffered to pay your sin debt. God’s holy Law demands perfect righteousness for entry into heaven, but Christ died as your Substitute so that His death and shed blood could pay for your sin, and you could have His righteousness put to your account and be counted perfectly righteous in God’s sight for the Savior’s sake. You can be saved, not through your own works, but through His work; not by your attempts to obey the law, but His perfect obedience to it and death to satisfy it. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Gal 3:13). “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but [made alive] by the Spirit” (1 Pet 3:18). Since by “one offering he hath perfected for ever” those that are washed in His blood (Heb 10:14), there is nothing that you can do to save yourself, or to keep yourself saved—Jesus Christ has done it all. “Salvation is of the LORD” (Jon 2:9).

4.) You Must Turn From Your Sin to Trust in Jesus Christ to Save You

To have the Lord Jesus’ Christ’s blood wash away your sins, you must place your faith in Him. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16). A thousand years before He was born, king David wrote of Him: “Kiss the Son [submit to and be ruled by Him, Gen 41:40], lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him” (Ps 2:12). Saving faith in Jesus Christ involves:
a.) Repentance. “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Lu 13:3). “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (Ac 3:19). In repentance, you agree with God that you are as bad as the Bible says you are, you agree that you are headed to hell and justly deserve everlasting punishment for your sins, and you turn from your sins, including every false religious system that disagrees with anything written in the Bible, to submit unconditionally to God as your Lord and trust in Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus said, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life [wants to live his own way and will not turn to God’s way] shall lose it [in hell]; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:34-36).

b.) Faith, which is trust in the Lord Jesus and His death on the cross to save you from your sins. You must come to a specific point in your life where you see yourself as a lost, helpless sinner, you turn from your sins, and you trust solely in the Lord Jesus for eternal life. You cannot place your faith in Jesus Christ to save you if you think that any good deed you have done, are doing, or will do helps save you, or if you believe that any religious ritual you may perform has a particle to do with your salvation. God’s Word states, “For by grace [undeserved favor] are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:8-9) If salvation is “by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” (Rom 11:6). “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us” (Tit 3:5). “[A] man is justified [declared righteous on the basis of Jesus’ death and shed blood] by faith without the deeds of the law . . . to him that worketh not, but believeth on him [Christ] that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. . . . God [credits] righteousness without works . . . being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 3:28; 4:5-6; 5:1). The fact that righteous actions do not bring anyone eternal life explains why Jesus Christ promised sinners who trusted in Him, “Thy faith hath saved thee” (Lu 7:50; 18:42), but He never said that attempts at obedience could save anybody. Saving faith is also not just mental assent to facts, and nobody can say that he has always believed in Christ. You must, at a particular time, consciously forsake all confidence in your supposed goodness and your religious rituals and place your confidence in the Savior’s blood and righteousness alone. Then, when you stand before God, you will be “found in him [in union with Christ], not having [your] own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Phil 3:9).

If you will turn from your sin to trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, He will keep you saved; no one who has ever truly believed in Him can perish (Rom 8:28-39). You do not save yourself, and you do not keep yourself saved—the Lord Jesus Christ is a Savior who “is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (Heb 7:25). Once you are saved, you are always saved, both from sin’s penalty, eternal damnation, and from sin’s power. If you turn from all dependence upon any supposedly good works you have done, to rely on Jesus’ death and shed blood alone to save you, God promises: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Eze 36:26-27), since “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5:21). If you will repent and believe in Jesus Christ, He promises you everlasting life with Him in heaven upon His return or your death, and a holy life on earth now, freed from bondage to sin. You also will be able to have personal fellowship with the living God—He will not be some distant Being that wants nothing to do with you, but He will become your loving heavenly Father, and you will become His dear adopted child (Gal 4:6). You will be able to say to Him, “Our Father which art in heaven” (Mt 4:6). You will be able to say with all those who have been washed in the blood of Christ, “truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 Jn 1:3) and you will know “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost” (2 Cor 13:14). You will “joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement [reconciliation to God]” (Rom 5:11). You will be able to sing, with all those that belong to Him, “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” (Rev 1:5-6).

You need to repent and believe in Jesus Christ immediately to save you from your sin. Turn to Him today—tomorrow it may be too late. “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Pr 55:6-7). You can be certain of heaven forever—you can be freed from the power of sin—you can have intimate, personal fellowship with the living and loving God! The risen Savior, Jesus Christ, has promised: “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (Jn 6:37). Will you come in faith to Him right now?

V. Do the Bible and the Quran Contradict Each Other?

We have seen that the Quran teaches that the Bible is the pure, perfect Word of God. We have seen that the fact that the Bible is the Word of God is also supported by overwhelming evidence. We must now ask whether the Bible and the Quran contradict each other. Since (as we saw in section I) the Quran states that the Bible is the Word of God, and the Quran claims to confirm the truth of the Bible, if the Quran is true, it must agree with the Bible. If the Quran agrees with the Bible, it may be true, although it would not necessarily be true (as it is a simple fact that all books that do not contradict the Bible have not been given to humankind by God—otherwise cookbooks, phonebooks, all summary statements about Biblical teachings that are accurate, and every other work that does not contradict the Bible would be the Word of God). However, if the Quran contradicts teachings and statements in the Bible, the Quran must be false, because: 1.) If the Quran is true, the Bible must be true, for the Quran claims that the Bible is true. 2.) If the Bible is true, the Quran cannot be true, for they contradict each other. 3.) Therefore, the Quran cannot be true. We must ask, then: Do the Quran and the Bible contradict each other?

1a.) The Quran teaches that Jesus Christ was not crucified: “They said in boast, ‘We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary . . . but they slew him not nor crucified him” (4:157).
1b.) The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ’s crucifixion was a sacrificial death to remove sin’s penalty: It is “Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2) “in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph 1:7).

2a.) The Quran teaches that salvation is received if “those deeds that are good remove those that are evil” (11:114), so that “those whose balance of good deeds is heavy—they will be successful. But those whose balance is light, will be those who have lost their souls; in hell will they abide” (23:102-3).
2b.) The Bible teaches that “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 6:23) and that believers are “saved . . . not according to [their] works, but according to [God’s] own purpose and grace” (2 Tim 1:9).

3a.) The Quran teaches that “if anyone attack you, so attack him as he attacked you” (2:194).
3b.) The Bible teaches: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Mt 5:44).

4a.) The Quran teaches that only if one dies in jihad can one have anything like a certain hope of heaven: “And if you are slain, or die in the way of Allah, forgiveness and mercy from Allah are far better than all they could amass.” (3:157)
4b.) The Bible teaches that everyone who has come in faith to Christ and had His blood wash away his sins is certain of eternal life: “you that believe on the name of the Son of God . . . may know that ye have eternal life” (1 Jn 5:13). “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (Jn 10:28).

5a.) The Quran teaches that Allah can take things in his revealed word that are not very good and replace them with better truth, or cause the things that he has revealed that are not very good to be forgotten: “Nothing of our revelation do we abrogate or cause be forgotten, but we bring in its place one better or the like thereof. Do you not know that Allah is able to do all things?” (2:106)
5b.) The Bible teaches that “The law of the LORD is perfect” (Ps 19:7) and therefore “ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it” (Deut 4:2). It will never be replace or forgotten, for “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Mt 24:35).

6a.) The Quran never commands husbands to love their wives, but it does command husbands to beat them if they suspect they will do something wrong: “As for those [wives] from whom you fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and beat them” (4:34).
6b.) The Bible commands, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it” (Eph 5:25). Men must not beat their wives, but have the tender, self-sacrificial love for them that the Lord Jesus Christ showed in dying to save the ungodly and rebellious human race (Rom 5:8-10).

7a.) The Quran teaches the legitimacy of polygamy, the legitimacy of some adultery, and allows child molestation. Muhammad, who the Quran says had excellent morals (68:4) and is a “good example” (33:21), when he was in his mid-fifties, married a six year old girl named Aishah and consummated the marriage—or to be more plain, began to molest her sexually—when she was nine.[2] It is therefore not surprising that the Quran contains no condemnation of child molestation. On the contrary, it permits men to have and molest “wives . . . who have not yet menstruated” and even indicates that such little girls can be divorced, and then remarried after three months to another man who can likewise begin to molest them (65:4; cf. 33:49). Muhammad also had over a dozen wives and concubines—including his daughter-in-law, which the Quran states is “no sin” (33:37). The Quran allows Muslims to “marry of the women, who seem good to you, two or three or four” (4:3), supporting polygamy. (While other Muslims could only marry up to four women, Muhammad declared that Allah gave him a special exemption to marry as many women as he wanted, 33:50-51.) In addition to up to four wives, any Muslim man can have physical relations with as many slave girls as he desires, 4:3. The Quran similarly states, “And all married women are forbidden unto you, except those captives whom you own as slaves” (4:24; cf. 70:30), so adultery with women who are slaves is acceptable.
7b.) The Bible teaches that child molestation or marrying a child is an abomination (1 Cor 7:36; 6:9), and that God’s will is monogamy, for one man to be united to one woman in marriage for life (Gen 2:24; Mr 10:1-12). God states that “fornicators [those who engage in physical relations outside of marriage] . . . shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:9). God likewise states that He “hateth” divorce (Mal 2:16) and Jesus Christ prohibited all divorce, as well as remarriage before the death of a spouse (Mr 10:11-12). As recorded in the Bible, God commands: “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Ex 20:14)—no exception for slave girls. In fact, the Bible teaches that those enslaved in the Roman culture of New Testament times were equal in Christ to everyone else (Gal 3:28), and Scripture indicates that people who become Christians should rather set their slaves free (Phm 21) than take advantage of them to abuse them sexually. The Bible declares, “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Heb 13:4).

These are just a handful of the many contradictions between the Quran and the Bible. If the Quran is true, the Bible must be true, for the Quran claims that the Bible is true. If the Bible is true, the Quran cannot be true, for they contradict each other. Therefore the Quran cannot be true.

See this complete study--parts 1-3--by clicking here.

[1] For more evidence that the Bible is the Word of God, please read Bible Studies #1 & 4, as well as the work “The Book of Daniel: Proof that the Bible is the Word of God” by clicking here. Much of the material summarized below is explained in greater detail in these resources.
[2] http://www.answering-islam.org/Shamoun/prepubescent.htm—warning: the website may give more proof and detail than you want to know.

1 comment:

Thomas Ross said...

This post was linked to here:

http://www.liquida.com/focus/2010/10/20/quran-islam-afghanistan-west-bank/