Christians believe that Jesus (pbuh) came to teach all of mankind the
religion of God and to show them the path to salvation. All mankind is
therefore required to follow his message and only those who believe in
the crucifixion and the redemption will be saved. They believe that
the Jews are also required to convert to Christianity since Jesus was
sent to them, therefore, they are the most qualified people to
recognize the word of God and the signs of Jesus (pbuh) to be found in
their own book. Most Jews, on the other hand, tell us that Jesus
(pbuh) was not a messenger of God, but rather a false prophet, a
sorcerer, an offspring of adulterers, and many other allegations. They
claim that there are no prophesies of Jesus (pbuh) in their book and
that he was not the promised Messiah/Christ (anointed one). Their
Messiah is yet to come. For this reason, they claim that they are not
required by God to follow Jesus (pbuh) and were justified in killing
him.
Muslims believe in both Moses and Jesus (pbut) as true prophets of
God. We believe that both Moses and Jesus as well as Noah, Abraham,
Jacob, and all the rest of the prophets of God were all truthful
messengers as well as faithful and faultless servants of Allah
Almighty. We also believe in the miracles of Jesus (pbuh), including
his miraculous birth. Muslims believe that each time a messenger of
God would pass away, mankind would begin to slowly fall back upon
their evil deeds until they had managed to corrupt His original
message. When this would happen, God Almighty would send a new prophet
to renew His original message to these people and return them to the
straight path. In this manner, the true message of Allah would always
be available to all those who searched for it until the day of
judgment. This can be seen in the Bible in such verses as Matthew
5:17-18 we read:
"Think not that I (Jesus) am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you,
Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise
pass from the law, till all be fulfilled, Fulfillment of Law of
Moses."
The Jews know God as "Elohiym" or "Yahweh." The Christians know Him as
"God," or "Father," or "Jehovah," etc.. Muslims know him as
"Allah" (and more than 99 other venerable names). Muslims believe that
Allah Almighty did not send down many messages to mankind but only
one: The religion of submission to His will, the uniqueness of
Himself, and the knowledge that He is the only one worthy of wor****p.
The details of the religion were molded to suite each individual
people, but the message was one message: "Allah is One. Wor****p Him
alone!" This is made apparent in the verse of Aal-Umran(3):84 which
states that which means:
"Say (O Muhammad): We believe in Allah, and that which is sent down
unto us, and that which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and
Isaac, and Jacob, and the sons of Jacob, and that which was vouchsafed
unto Moses and Jesus and the Prophets from their Lord. We make no
distinction between any of them and unto Him we have surrendered."
Also, in Al-Nisaa(5):138 we read that which means
"O you who believe! Believe in Allah and His messenger, and the
Scripture (Qur'an) which he has revealed unto His messenger, and the
Scripture which He revealed aforetime. Whosoever disbelieves in Allah
and His angels and His Scriptures and His messengers and the last day,
he verily has wandered far astray."
Muslims are told in the Qur'an that the unscrupulous few had managed
to pervert the words of God Almighty sent down to Jesus (pbuh) and the
previous prophets after the passing of their prophets. The well
meaning m***** were then misled by what was claimed to be 100% the
"inspiration" of God. The changes made by these people have resulted
in countless contradictions between the verses. As we shall soon see,
these contradictions and changes have been well recognized and
do***ented in the West for centuries now. However, their actions have
been excused because they are assumed to have been well meaning and
were only trying to clarify that which was obscure and so forth when
they changed the word of God (See chapter 2). Whatever their motives,
these apologists forget the command of Deuteronomy 4:2
"Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye
diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD
your God."
The liberties mankind has taken with God's previous scriptures is one
of the reasons why God sent down the Qur'an as His last message to
mankind and took it upon Himself this time to personally preserve it
for all time from corruption or modification
Professor Arthur J. Arberry writes:
"Apart from certain orthographical modifications of the originally
somewhat primitive method of writing, intended to render unambiguous
and easy the task of reading the recitation, the Koran (Qur'an) as
printed in the twentieth century is identical with the Koran as
authorized by Uthman more than 1300 years ago."
On the other hand, Mr. C.G. Tucker says:
"...Thus Gospels were produced which clearly reflected the conception
of the practical needs of the community for which they were written.
In them the traditional material was used, but there was no hesitation
in altering it or making additions to it, or in leaving out what did
not serve the writer's purpose."
"The history of the Christians in the light of modern knowledge," C.
G. Tucker, p. 320
Mr. C.J. Cadoux has the following to say in his book "The life of
Jesus" :
"In the four Gospels, therefore, the main do***ents to which we must
go if we are to fill-out at all that bare sketch which we can put
together from other sources, we find material of widely differing
quality as regards credibility. So far-reaching is the element of
uncertainty that it is tempting to 'down tools' at once, and to
declare the task hopeless. The historical inconsistencies and
improbabilities in parts of the Gospels form some of the arguments
advanced in favor of the Christ-myth theory. These are, however,
entirely outweighed- as we have shown- by other considerations. Still
the discrepancies and uncertainties that remain are serious- and
consequently many moderns who have no doubt whatever of Jesus' real
existence, regard as hopeless any attempt to dissolve out of the
historically-true from the legendary or mythical matter which the
Gospels contain, and to reconstruct the story of Jesus' mission out of
the more historical residue."
Reverend Dr. Davies says:
"But to come to realities, no serious modern scholar believes that the
speeches appearing in the New Testament are verbatim records of what
the speaker said. Even as conservative a scholar as Headlam has to
admit that the speeches are 'in a sense' - he does not say what sense
- the author's 'own composition.' ... Schmidel, in his article on Acts
in the Encyclopedia Biblica, says unreservedly that 'it is without
doubt that the author constructed [the speeches] in each case
according to his own conception of the situation.' Schweitzer thinks
the speeches in Acts may be 'based upon traditions of speeches ...
actually delivered, but in the form in which we have them they
doubtless belong to the author of Acts and are adapted to his
representation of the facts," Rev. Davies goes on to quote Thucydides
who admits that "..[assigning fictitious speeches to Biblical
characters] was the universal ancient custom."
"The First Christian," Reverend Dr. Davies, pp. 23-24
Prof. J.R. Drummelow says:
"A copyist would sometimes put in not what was in the text, but what
he thought ought to be in it. He would trust a fickle memory, or he
would make the text accord with the views of the school to which he
belonged. In addition to the versions and quotations from the
Christian Fathers, nearly four thousand Greek MSS of the Testament,
were known to exist. As a result , the variety of reading is
considerable."
"Commentary on the Holy Bible," page 16
Not long after my arrival in the United States, I had the pleasure of
meeting a Christian gentleman who shall henceforth be referred to only
as Mr. J. Unlike this lowly author, Mr. J. is a "professional"
Christian. He also has a history of strong evangelical activity, at
least with the Muslim students of our university. Mr. J made himself
known to us through written letters to us, calls to our Muslim
chaplain, and his appearance before us on other occasions wherein he
called upon us to believe in Jesus (pbuh) and to accept his sacrifice.
Mr. J. had sent our Muslim chaplain and myself books with many
allegations against the Qur'an and a general condemnation of it. A
series of friendly discussions ensued between us and we have since
come to know each other quite well and have managed to remain friendly
and outgoing towards one another even with our differing beliefs.
However, the fact that this author is not a professional religious
person or a professional preacher, but rather a simple science
student, has made it necessary to schedule these matters around other
more immediate scholarly concerns. It was first and foremost the will
of Allah, then the continuous efforts of Mr. J., his claims regarding
Islam, and his sincere efforts to convert me and grant me salvation
which compelled me to step up my research of the Bible and the Qur'an
and ultimately, publish this book. I therefore thank Allah Almighty
that he sent Mr. J. to me as a blessing from Himself for me, and
hopefully for many others.
Before this book was written, I had published a series of articles in
a local publication which had been progressing slowly from exhibiting
some of the more minor examples of human modification to the Bible,
such as the fact that the authors of the Bible are not who they claim
to be, and had been working up to more fundamental issues. Mr. J asked
us to publish his counter viewpoint in our publication and we
accepted.
Mr. J believed that the examples of contradictory statements in the
Bible which we had been jointly discussing did not in any way affect
the founding beliefs of Christianity (see examples in chapter two). He
provided me with literature by men such as Mr. F.F. Bruce stating such
things as
"....Does it matter whether the New Testament do***ents are reliable
or not? Is it so very im****tant that we should be able to accept them
as truly historical records?"
and also"......the story of Jesus as it has come down to us may be
myth or legend, but the teaching ascribed to him- whether he was
actually responsible for it or not - has a value all it's own," and so
forth.
Muslims know for a fact that Jesus (pbuh) was neither a myth nor a
legend but a true prophet of God, but we do feel that an inspired book
of God should contain no contradictions, historical or otherwise. For
this reason we do not believe that his book has reached us as it was
originally submitted by him.
Mr. J believes that such matters as knowing the true authors of the
books of the Bible are not crucial to a Christian's faith and
challenged us to prove that a Christian's basic faith is at all in
error and not the same message preached by Jesus 2000 years ago. In
compliance with his request, he was sent four very brief questions
concerning the founding beliefs of Christianity. He was then asked to
provide carefully researched and weighed answers to these questions.
These four questions are presented below. They have been slightly
modified in this book in order to ensure that they are as clear as
possible. The basic questions, however, remain the same:
IS THERE A TRINITY? If so then please present us with as many Biblical
references as you possibly can and briefly explain it's fundamental
concept. What I mean by this question is: Is God one, period? Or is
God three, period? Or is He some combination of one and three? Please
write down a brief but clear description of the nature of the Trinity
and the exact relation****p of each of it's three members to one-
another. Please do not move on until you have done so since your
definition shall have to stand up to the test of the Bible and be
endorsed rather than refuted by the Biblical verses we shall be
studying throughout this book.
Is the great and faithful messenger of Allah, Jesus the son of Mary
(peace be upon them both), the PHYSICAL SON OF ALLAH OR NOT? If he is,
then give us as many biblical references as you possibly can. If not
then why does the majority of Christendom believe that he is the
physical/begotten/sired son of Allah?
Did Jesus (pbuh) HIMSELF ever say in the Bible "I am a god!," or
"Wor****p me!"? If so then give us as many Biblical references as
possible. If not, then why does the majority of Christendom believe
that he is a god (not a mortal), and the son of? Jesus (pbuh) is
invoked daily as God to forgive sins, cast out devils, and generally
sought after in prayer. UPON WHO'S AUTHORITY do Christians believe
that Jesus (pbuh) is God? Jesus (pbuh) himself or others? Give as many
references as possible.
If it can be proven, through the Bible, that Jesus (pbuh) is not God,
nor the physical/begotten/sired son of God, neither is there any
Trinity, then will this prove that the unscrupulous few have corrupted
the word of God or not?
"Faith" is without a doubt one of the most basic and fundamental
ingredients in the doctrine of any religious belief. However, when you
wish someone to believe in a given fundamental doctrine which you
propose, it is first necessary to prove the validity of your assertion
before you can ask that person to "have faith." In other words, faith
is indeed im****tant, however, it can not precede the proof. Once the
proof has been established, only then can faith come into play. This
is indeed what prophet Jesus (pbuh) taught his followers during his
lifetime. Jesus (pbuh) did not simply show up before the Jews one day
and demand that the Pharisees, Sadducees, and everyone else accept him
without proof. Rather, he performed many miracles for them and at the
same time reasoned with them and used logic to convince them. The
Bible is full of examples of how Jesus (pbuh) would go out of his way
to explain things to his followers, reason with them and prove his
case to them.
Obviously, when we ask for proof that a given person taught a given
doctrine, the very first place to look for proof of this claim is the
words of that person himself. If I believe that Jesus (pbuh) taught a
given fundamental doctrine such as the Trinity, the "Son of God," the
"original sin," or the "atonement," then not only would I be justified
in expecting him to have mentioned it at least once throughout his
whole ministry, but I would expect him to have spoken of practically
nothing else. For this reason, the above four questions have been
proposed in order to arrive at the command of Jesus (pbuh). If Jesus
did indeed ever command that I should wor****p a Trinity or that I
should believe that he is God, then I would expect him to say so
clearly at least once in his whole life. If he says it at least once
then others shall be justified in repeating it a thousand times.
However, I want to first know ...
What did Jesus really say?
The Bible says:
"Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my
words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and
make our abode with him."
John 14:23
Jesus (peace be upon him) clearly outlines here that it is his words
that we must keep and that shall lead to the love of God. Naturally, I
wish to know what Jesus said so that I might follow his command, and
his alone. Every one else's words without exception shall then be
either accepted or rejected based upon their conformance to the words
of the great and pious messenger of Allah, Jesus the son of Mary. Does
this sound fair?
The Christian world has performed a very admirable job in providing us
with Bibles in practically every size, language, shape and color.
Among these Bibles are the series of Bibles titled the "Red letter
editions." These Bibles are set apart from more conventional Bibles in
that the words of Jesus are distinguished from the rest of the text by
writing them in red ink. This makes the process of locating the words
of Jesus and differentiating them from those of everyone else much
simpler for the reader. Our goal in this book is to find evidence in
the RED ink of where Jesus (pbuh) himself ever taught mankind any of
the fundamental concepts of the religion which has been attributed to
him and which is named "Christianity". We shall see in what follows
that whenever someone tries to validate such doctrines they always
attempt to do so with the words in the BLACK ink and never the ones in
RED ink.
Muslims are told in the Qur'an that Jesus (pbuh) was one of the most
pious and elect messengers of God Almighty for all time. However, we
are also told that he was not himself a god, nor the physical son of
God. We read in the Qur'an:
"And when Allah said: O Jesus, son of Mary! Did you say unto mankind:
Take me and my mother for two gods beside Allah?* he said: Be You
glorified. It was not mine to utter that to which I had no right. If I
used to say it, then You knew it. You know what is in my [innermost]
self but I know not what is in Yours. Truly! You, only You are the
Knower of things hidden. I spoke unto them only that which You
commanded me, (saying): Wor****p Allah, my Lord and your Lord, and I
was a witness over them while I dwelt among them, and when You took me
You were the Watcher over them, and You are Witness over all things."
The noble Qur'an, Al-Maidah(5):116-118
Obviously, both claims can not be true. Either Jesus (pbuh) did indeed
command mankind to wor****p him or he did not. Since my level of
knowledge of the words of the Bible obviously can not compare with
that of Mr. J., therefore, I was hoping that he could demonstrate to
me where Jesus actually said any of these things. Since the issues of
the Trinity, the Son of God, the original sin, and the atonement
comprise the most fundamental differences in belief between the
Islamic and Christian faith, therefore, I had hoped that in answering
these four very brief questions it might be possible to once and for
all arrive at the true command of Jesus. Mr. J's response follows:
see this site www.sultan.org
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