A few months ago I attended a class called Islam 101 at a local Mosque. The purpose of attending was to get a first hand understanding of Islam – “straight from the horses mouth”, so to speak. It was a good experience. I learned a lot about the religion. I also meet a few friends, had a chance to share the Gospel with a number of Muslims at the mosque and have a couple of ongoing relationships from the class.
One of the guys I meet there recently sent me a link to a YouTube video called “Top Ten reasons that Jesus is not God.” I watched that video and have been having a dialog with him for the last several weeks about it. Before I get to the main point, though, I’d like to point out that the top reason that Jesus can not be God for many people, including Muslims, is that if Jesus is God, then they must submit to Him. The Bible says that ultimately, every knee will bow. But John 3:19 is clear that men love their sin more than the savior. Sadly, God’s wrath will remain on them when they die (John 3:36).
After having a discussion for a couple of weeks, my friend has pointed out what many Muslims believe… that the Bible has changed!
However, this brings up the age old questions, “if the Bible has changed”, then:
- who changed it?
- how did they change it? There are over 20,000 original manuscripts. How did they all get changed?
- why did they change it?
Muslims that I have talked too have never been able to answer any of these questions. The base thier trust in the Quran which contradicts the Bible on several points: the divinity of Christ and original sin nature of man to name a couple.
With these things in mind, recently I started reading the book of Romans. As I read, I thought to myself, if the Muslims are right then which verses would have had to be changed? Let’s just take one section of Romans 3 (from the NIV):
21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.
If we assume like the Muslims do that Christ is not divine, did not die for the atonement of sin, did not rise from the dead, etc, then what verses would be left unchanged? I don’t think any of these verses would remain. But, this is not the only section of scripture that would have to change. Look at 1 John 2:21-22, “Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son. 23No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.” Obviously, these verses would have had to change as well. Now one might argue that these were written around the same time and the authors were in cohoots with each other. So then consider the prophecy about Christ in Isaiah 9:6:
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
The prophet has spoken. Jesus will be God with us!
Christians have the Bible and the Bible is the innerant word of God. Anything that contradicts the truth must be false. Therefore, the Quran must be false along with any other book that contradicts the Bible!
The implications for this are huge. Since the Bible is true, Jesus is truly God, not merely a prophet as the Quran teaches. In addition, man is born into sin, not born without sin as the Quran teaches. That means that all mankind needs a savior. The one and only savior is Jesus Christ.
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.” 1 Timothy 2:5-6
I hope this is useful when witnessing to your Muslim friends.
For additional reference, I recommend Tim Brown’s blog entries (Part 1 and Part 2) on this subject.
amen