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Is
the Qur’an the Word of God? Copyright
© 2010 by Aaron M. Goerner All
rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
publisher, except as provided by USA copyright law. Hi, My name is Aaron
and I am a Christian Pastor. Over the
years I have talked with hundreds of Muslims from around the world including:
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Oman,
Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, United
States, Yemen, and Zimbabwe. I have collected a
substantial correspondence and have decided to write this book so that you
might know why Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. The following contains a sample from the
book with real emails from Muslims and responses I have given. If you, your
neighbors, peers, or friends want to learn more about Christianity and Islam,
this is a good place to start. If, after
reading the book you are still not convinced of Christianity’s truth, I
give an email address at the end of the book so you can speak directly with
me. May God guide you and give you a
growing hunger and thirst to know Him and make Him known. Proverbs 4:7-9 Sincerely, Aaron
Jesus’ Death on the Cross and
the Qur’an 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you,
which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this
gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.
Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on
to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according
to the Scriptures. BACKGROUND Hundreds of millions of Muslims deny Jesus’ death
on the cross. This brings up the
important observation that Christianity is rooted in God’s work in
history. In fact, the central claims
of Christianity were and some are still open to historical
investigation. There is a
correspondence to what Christians believe and what God has done in the world. The
Christian scholar J. Gresham Machen wrote, “The primitive Church was concerned not merely
with what Jesus had said, but also, and primarily, with what Jesus had done.
The world was to be redeemed through the proclamation of an event. And with
the event went the meaning of the event; and the setting forth of the event
with the meaning of the event was doctrine. These two elements are always
combined in the Christian message. The narration of the facts is history; the
narration of the facts with the meaning of the facts is doctrine.
"Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and
buried"--that is history. "He loved me and gave Himself for
me"--that is doctrine. Such was the Christianity of the primitive Church”
(Christianity and Liberalism, 29). … God
makes Himself known not only in His Words but also in His works; God works in
history. There is a relationship
between what Christians believe about God and what God has done in flesh and blood
history and revolves around Jesus Christ.
Denying God’s work in history is a denial of God.[1] It is not rational to deny history and it is
godless to deny God’s work in history.
The Qur’an
claims, That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus
the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah";- but they killed him not, nor
crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ
therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture
to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:- Nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself; and Allah is
Exalted in Power, Wise;- (An-Nisa 4:157-158; translated by Yusuf Ali). … Islam’s
denial of Jesus’ death on the cross is a radical redefinition of
history. Observation, witness,
testimony, and human analysis have little or no role in learning about what
happened centuries ago at Golgotha.
The only thing that ultimately matters is that Muhammad claimed an
angel revealed to him something about the past contrary to what was observed
and recorded. This is all in spite of
the fact that Muhammad came hundreds of years after the event, lived hundreds
of miles away, and did not provide any evidence. Denying history has tragic consequences as
can be seen in our day with those who deny the Holocaust. EMAILS
FROM MUSLIMS:
My Christian Response: Please consider the facts behind
the historical event of Jesus’ death on the cross: The
Old Testament prophets testified to Jesus death and burial. For example, Isaiah
wrote almost 700 years before Jesus, Isaiah 53:7-9 Jesus
testified to His death on multiple occasions. Here are a few
examples: Matthew 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his
disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of
the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed
and on the third day be raised to life. Matthew 20:17-19 Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve
disciples aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son
of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law.
They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and
flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!” Matthew 26:1-2 Matthew 26:6-12 Here
are some eyewitnesses to the death of Jesus on the cross: Mary
Magdalene Mary
the mother of James and Joseph Mary
the mother of Jesus The
disciple whom Jesus loved (John 19:26) Here
is a list of names of people who participated in the burial of Jesus’
dead body: Joseph
of Arimathea Nicodemus
Mary
Magdalene Mary
the mother of James and Joseph Even
non-Christian sources wrote that Jesus died: Ø Josephus
(Jewish historian born around 37 AD and died 100 AD) refers to Jesus’
death (Antiquities 18.3.3). Ø Tacitus
(AD 55-120), a renowned historian of ancient Rome wrote around 115 A.D. that Christ
was “executed” by Pilate (Annals 15.44). The
law/Torah requires that a matter be established by two or three witnesses
(Deuteronomy 17:6-7). Therefore, the testimonies of Jesus, Old Testament
prophets, Jesus’ followers, non-Christian historians, etc. is true, legal
and believable compared to the testimony of Muhammad (or the Qur’an),
which was written nearly six hundred years after the event. To put it simply,
the Law of Moses makes it unlawful to believe the Qur’an. Here
is another reason why it is unlawful to believe the Qur’an. Muhammad’s
claim that the angel Gabriel spoke to him is an HISTORICAL CLAIM. What
historical evidence is there that the angel Gabriel spoke to Muhammad?
Is there eyewitness testimony, or is Muhammad the only witness to his claim
that Gabriel spoke to him? The Bible says such claims as Muhammad made
need to be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Unlike Moses and Jesus, Muhammad was the only witness to what he claimed
concerning the angel Gabriel. This means that believing Muhammad’s
claim is a violation of God’s Law and is especially sinful because he
contradicted the previously validated and lawful testimony of Moses and
Jesus. I have
read that the Qur’an requires four witnesses when a woman is accused of
adultery (Al-Maeda 4:15; Al-Noor 24:4; cf. 2:282). Of course, adultery
is a serious charge and witnesses should be required. And yet, Muhammad’s
claim that the Christian Scriptures are adulterated is an even more serious
claim. What testimony/witnesses did Muhammad give to support his
allegation that the Christian Scriptures are adulterated? Muhammad
lacks witnesses that the angel Gabriel spoke to him. Muhammad lacks
witnesses that the words he spoke are more authoritative than the Christian
Scriptures. Muhammad did not and could not produce superior testimony to
the historical fact of Jesus’ death on the cross and neither can
you. Even
though it claims certainty, An-Nisa 4:157 is an historical claim that is far
from historical certainty, 004.157 From
an historical point of view this claim is untrue. This claim was made
hundreds of years after the event and has no historical support from the 1st
century; none of Jesus’ followers wrote or testified that Jesus only
appeared to die on the cross. The Qur’an does not explain who
died on the cross, it does not explain whether the disciples of Jesus were
deceived, and does not explain why Allah has allowed the world to be
deceived (or did Allah deceive the world?) about this for hundreds of
years. It is Muslims who conjecture; Muslims who have no certain
knowledge; Muslims who are full of doubts about what actually happened during
the crucifixion. All Christians (Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and
Protestant) agree that Jesus died on the cross. To be sure, Christians
don’t agree about everything. There’s a lot we disagree
about. But one thing Christians all agree about is the death of Jesus
on the cross. Even non-Christian historians are in overwhelming
agreement about the historicity of Jesus’ death on the cross. Christianity
is a religion whose beliefs about God, sin, the meaning and purpose of life, good
works, God’s justice, and what happens after death are rooted in
historic events. What we believe about these things is not based upon imagination,
or philosophical speculation. Rather, our beliefs are rooted in what
God has done in the real world, The Hebrew-Christian faith did not grow out of lofty
philosophical speculation or profound mystical experiences. It arose out of
the historical experiences of Israel, old and new, in which God made Himself
known. This fact imparts to the Christian faith a specific content and objectivity
which set it apart from others....” (George Ladd, “The Knowledge
of God: The Saving Acts of God” in ed., Carl F. H. Henry, Basic
Christian Doctrines [New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962], 7-13). Christianity is an historical phenomenon, like the
Roman Empire, or the Kingdom of Prussia, or the United States of
America. And as an historical phenomenon it must be investigated on the
basis of historical evidence (J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and
Liberalism, 20). Central
to Christianity are the historic events of Jesus’ death on the cross,
His burial, and His bodily resurrection. If you disprove the historicity
of any of these three events then you disprove Christianity. On the
other hand, if you reject Christianity you are rejecting history. You
are rejecting what God has done in the real world through Jesus. Serious
problems arise when a person’s beliefs about the world don’t
correspond to the real world. The story is told of a certain
psychiatric patient who kept insisting that he was dead. Doctors tried
and tried to persuade him that he was alive and not dead with little
success. They spent many long hours trying to convince this man that he
was alive and they decided to prove this by explaining to him scientifically
that only dead people don’t bleed, only living people. After
seeing overhead charts, explanations of how the circulatory system works, and
performing experiments the psychiatric patient finally said, “Alright, I
guess only living people bleed.” As
soon as he said that, one of the doctors whipped out a pin and plunged it into
the psychiatric patient’s veins. The doctors started shouting, “You’re
bleeding. You’re bleeding!” What does that mean? The psychiatric
patient looked at his bleeding arm and exclaimed, “DEAD PEOPLE REALLY DO
BLEED!” In the
psychiatric patient’s mind: he was DEAD. But what was in his mind didn’t
at all correspond to reality. Islam
has a similar problem. Its claim that Jesus did not die on the cross
does not correspond to reality. It doesn’t correspond to history.
An
honest look at the facts leads to the conclusion that the Christian Scriptures
are superior to the Qur’an because of the superior evidence available
demonstrating the death of Jesus on the cross. I
invite you to embrace Christianity as the truth and only way of
salvation. Jesus said, “I told you that you would die in your
sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed
die in your sins” (John 8:24). Believe in Jesus, and be baptized
for the forgiveness of your sins and you can have certainty that you will
inherit eternal life. This certainty is rooted in what God has done in
the real world with respect to the death of Jesus on the cross, His burial,
resurrection, and ascension into heaven. TO READ THE REST OF THE BOOK PURCHASE Is the
Qur’an the Word of God? Monotheism
and the Doctrine of the Trinity Matthew 28:18-20 BACKGROUND At the core of Christianity is our belief about God
which can be summarized in the following seven points: 1. The Father is God 2. The Son is God 3. The Holy Spirit is God 4. The Father is not the Son 5. The Son is not the Holy Spirit 6. The Holy Spirit is not the Father 7. There is only one God Biblical
Christian monotheism is Trinitarian, [T]he Kur’an formally rejects any doctrine of the Trinity. It should however be pointed
out that the Trinity as understood and rejected is not the same as that which
is taught by Christian dogma, and defined by the councils which were held
before the revelation of the Kur’an. The Kur’anic Trinity seems to be a triad composed of Allah, of Mary his
consort and of Jesus their child (cf. V, 116); a concept which is reminiscent
on the one hand of the stellar triads of the pre-Islamic Pantheon, and on the
other hand of the cult of Maryverging on idolatry practised by certain
Christian sects of Arabia, the Mariamites and the Collyridians. It is
important to note that the formal denials of the Kur’an are directed towards
these views, which are “heretical” from
the point of view of Christian orthodoxy itself (Anawati, G.C. “ʿĪsā.”, in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, E. J. Brill, Leiden,
CD-ROM version). When
Christians say: (1) The Father is God; (2) The Son is God; and (3) The Holy
Spirit is God we are identifying Who God is. When
we say: (4) The Father is not the Son; (5) The Son is not the Holy Spirit;
and (6) The Holy Spirit is not the Father we are distinguishing the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. The seventh
and the final statement is the real kicker, “There is only one God”. The Greeks would say, “Zeus is god”,
“Apollos is god” and “Dionysius is god” and there are
three gods. Christianity says, the
Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God and yet there is
only one God. To
help clarify the above seven points, please consider the following diagram:
Now,
the question boils down to this: Is this what the Bible teaches? Since the Bible teaches this but we can’t
fully comprehend it – that is OK.
We must leave room for mystery in our theology. In
church history Saint Augustine (354-430) probably thought more about the
doctrine of the Trinity than any other uninspired writer, with the possible
exception of John Calvin. The story is
told that Augustine was once walking upon the shore of the ocean, while
greatly perplexed about the doctrine of the Trinity. As he meditated, he
observed a little boy with a sea shell, running to the water, filling his
shell, and then pouring it into a hole which he had made in the sand: “What
are you doing, my little man?” asked Augustine. “Oh,” replied the boy, “I am
trying to put the ocean in this hole.” Augustine had learned his lesson, and as he passed
on, said, “That is what I am trying to do; I see it now. Standing on the
shores of time I am trying to get into this little finite mind things which
are infinite.” It
should come as no surprise that the Christian belief in the Triune God
involves mysteries that transcend the human mind. Bassam Madany, a former
Arabic Broadcast minister, relates the 9th century theological controversy
in Baghdad regarding the Qur’an, There were some Muslim
theologians who were supported in their views by the ruling caliphs, who
propounded the doctrine that the Qur’an was created; that it came
into existence at the time of its revelation to Muhammad, (between A.D.
610-632) They believed that it was necessary to safeguard the unity of Allah,
by not allowing for the pre-existence of the Qur’an. However, an
influential theologian and expert in the Law, Imam Hanbal, refused to accept
this formulation and declared that the Qur’an was eternal. He was
persecuted and imprisoned by the caliph. As you well know, that event in your
history is known as “The Ordeal of the Qur’an.” Several
years later, it was the Hanbalite view that prevailed. To this day, it
continues to be the official teaching of Sunni Islam. Muslims believe that Allah is
eternal, but they confess that the Qur’an is also eternal. While
I do know that this is your own belief, I do not jump to the conclusion that
you confess the existence of two gods. I realize that there are mysteries in
all faiths that do transcend our capacity to comprehend. Should you not treat
me in the same way, and not charge me with believing in three gods? (“The
Trinity And Christian Missions To Muslims” in Reformation and
Revival; [Summer 2001], p.130) In my
correspondence with Muslims I often focus on the deity of Jesus, emphasize
that Christians are monotheists, and point out that the real question is whether
Christian Scriptures or the Qur’an presents us with the true God. EMAILS
FROM A MUSLIM:
a. In Surah Nisa chapter 4 verse 171 "Say not ‘Trinity’: desist: b. A similar message
is repeated in Surah Maidah chapter 5 verse 73 "They do blaspheme who say My Christian Response: One
of the key differences between Muslims and Christians is the identity of
Jesus. There are some titles, attributes, and deeds that belong only to
God. Jesus claimed these for Himself.
One such occasion was when He forgave sins (Matthew 9:1-8; Mark
2:2-12), Mark 2:2-12 On another
occasion Jesus claimed, “Before Abraham was born, I AM” thus
identifying Himself with Yahweh (John 8:58 with Exodus 3:14-15 and also Isaiah 41:4; 43:10, 13, 25; 46:4; 48:12; 51:12; 52:6). Christians
and Muslims disagree over Jesus’ death on the cross. But we can
take a step back and look at the legal basis for Jesus’ death which
is also evidence that Jesus claimed to be God. Jesus was
condemned to death by the highest court in Judaism for telling the truth
about His Person, Matthew 26:63-66 Under
oath, Jesus claimed from the Old Testament Scriptures (Psalm 110 and Daniel
7:9-14) to have the authority of God to Judge unbelieving Israel. The High
Priest declared Jesus worthy of death for speaking “blasphemy”
which in this case means Jesus was making a claim to divinity.
Regards, Aaron READ THE REST OF THE BOOK BY PURCHASING: Is
the Qur’an the Word of God? Price: $2.95
Thank you, |
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