Yesterday we started a series of Christian responses to the accusations of Muslims against our faith. Islam is the Johnny-come-lately religion and is telling us that the religion that has been around for 2,000 years, and whose Scriptures began with the Jews, has been wrong. They tell us that their scriptures are superior to those of the Christians and Jews. They claim that the Bible has been corrupted, the Old Testament by the Jews and the New Testament by the Christians.

They have a very interesting problem when they try to defend their scriptures. I am so glad I don’t have to defend the issues of Islam. It would be a difficult chore, and I could not have peace in my heart while doing so. For example, they claim that their god is the same as the God of the Bible. We looked at this issue yesterday, and we saw that the two are to be contrasted, not compared.

They say that their god first gave his scriptures to the Jews, and then to the Christians, but they corrupted them so he had to give the final testament to Muhammad. It supposedly corrects all of the corruption that the Jews and Christians introduced into their Scriptures.

Muslims believe that God’s Word is inspired.

Surah 21:7 “Before thee, also, the messengers We sent were but men, to whom We granted inspiration: If ye realize this not, ask of those who possess the Message.

Muhammad told the Muslims that if they didn’t believe that the Scriptures given before were inspired, they were to ask those who possessed the message, that is, the Christians and Jews. The Scriptures had come to man through the supernatural work of God, ensuring that they were recorded without error.

If one believes in inspiration, it would be pointless if one didn’t also believe in preservation. Why would God go to the effort to reveal His Word in perfection, if He didn’t also preserve it? Preservation must follow inspiration or inspiration is a waste of time and effort.

Muslims do believe in a form of preservation, they speak of the Scriptures being guarded from corruption.

Surah 15:9 “We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it from corruption.”
Surah 5:48 “To thee We sent the Scripture in truth, confirming the scripture that came before it, and guarding it in safety.”

The Qur’an says that Allah will guard the Scriptures from corruption, and then they tell us that the Christians and Jews corrupted them. Can you see the contradiction in this? If the Jews and Christians could corrupt the Old and the New Testament, and if Allah said he would keep them pure, then Allah is not capable of doing what he said he would do. I have a question for Muslims, if Allah could not keep the scriptures he gave to the Jews and Christians pure, how is he able to keep those he gave to Muhammad pure? I ask Muslims if a Jew, a Christian, or anyone else can corrupt the Qur’an, and they reply absolutely not. I then ask them how is it that this Allah, your god who gave the Qur’an around the year 620 is able to keep the Qur’an from corruption, but was unable to keep the Old and New Testaments from corruption? Remember, the Qur’an tells us that the Old and New Testaments are the word of Allah, given by him through inspiration. Did Allah exercise or eat his Wheaties so that he became stronger and could keep the Qur’an pure? Apparently he failed at his first two attempts, so what made him better on the third?

The fact is, Muhammad never suggested that the Bible was corrupted. This is a modern teaching which was introduced by the Muslim clerics because Muslims today can read both the Qur’an and the Bible. When they do, they find that the two messages do not agree. In fact they are in opposition one to the other. Muhammad apparently thought that what he was giving his followers was consistent with the message of the Bible, but it certainly is not.

Both the Bible and the Qur’an tells us that Jesus was born of a virgin but the stories are different. The Qur’an has Jesus born in the desert under a palm tree, not in Bethlehem in a manger. There are many contradictions in the Qur’an that show it does not give the same message as the Bible.

When Muslims tell us the Bible is corrupt, they are not able to give any proof of this being so. The only thing they have to go on is their imams telling them that the Qur’an was given to correct the Bible.

There is only one place in the Qur’an that Muslims can turn to in support of this theory.

Surah 3:78 “There is among them a section to distort the book with their tongues as they read. You would think it is part of the book.”

The book spoken of here is the Bible. If you pay attention to what this verse says, you will notice that it does not say the Bible is corrupted, it says that they changed it as they read it, and that you would think that what rolled off their tongues was part of the book. They did not distort the book with their pens, but with their tongues. He is not saying they corrupted the Bible, but that they quoted in wrong to make the hearers believe that it said something it did not say.

Before I give you this next verse, I want to emphasize that I do not support Islam in anyway. As you know, our ministry is about exposing Islam for what it is, a false religion. Having said that, there is a verse in the Qur’an that I agree with 100%.

Surah 5:68 “O People of the Book! ye have no ground to stand upon unless ye stand fast by the Law, the Gospel, and all the revelation that has come to you from your Lord. It is the revelation that cometh to thee from thy Lord that increases in most of their obstinate rebellion and blasphemy.”

He is saying to Christians that they have nothing to stand upon unless they stand upon the Law, the Gospel, and all the revelation form their Lord. I, as all Christians should, agree with this 100%. As Christians we have no other authority upon which to stand. I cannot stand upon what some preacher or some saint from the past has said, I must compare everything to the Word of God, and stand upon what the Word says.

Here is my question to my Muslim friends when they say the Bible has been corrupted; Why is Muhammad telling the Christians of his time to stand upon the Book if it was corrupted? How could a man of God do such a thing? This only makes sense if Muhammad believed that what he was giving carried the same message.

Tomorrow we will continue giving a defense to the accusations of Muslims against Christians.