The True Message of Jesus Christ

Peace · Jun 9, 2008

The True Message of Jesus Christ
By Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips
Ph.D. Theology, University of Wales U.K.

I am reading through this book, The true Message of Jesus Christ by Dr. Bilal Philips, which I find very interesting, and thought to share it with you

Peace · Jun 9, 2008

INTRODUCTION
Jesus Christ represents the common link between the two religions having the most followers on the earth today, Christianity and Islam. The following study of Jesus message and his person is based on this link. It is hoped that through this study, both Muslims and Christians will better understand the significance of Jesus and the importance of his message.
However, for us to accurately identify the true message of Jesus Christ, an objective point of view must be maintained throughout the course of our research. We should not allow our emotions to cloud our vision and thereby blind us from the truth. We must look at all of the issues rationally and separate the truth from falsehoodwith the help of the Almighty.
When we look at the variety of false religions and deviant beliefs around the world and the zeal with which their followers uphold these beliefs, it becomes quite evident that these people are not able to find the truth because of their blind commitment to their beliefs. Their tenacious adherence is usually not based on an intellectual understanding of the teachings, but on powerful cultural and emotional influences. Because they were brought up in a particular family or society, they firmly cling to the beliefs of that society, believing that they are upholding the truth.
The only way that we may find the truth about anything is to approach it systematically and logically. First, we weigh the evidence and then we judge it by the intelligence which God has given us. In the material world, it is fundamentally intelligence that distinguishes humans from animals, which act purely on instinct. After determining what the objective truth is, we must then commit ourselves to it emotionally. Yes, there is a place for emotional commitment, but emotional commitment must come after a reasoned comprehension of the issues. Emotional commitment is essential, because it is evidence of a true understanding. When one fully and properly understands the reality of the issue, one is then mentally and spiritually prepared to vigorously uphold that reality.
It is from this intellectual and spiritual point of view that the subject of Jesus message and his relevance to those who desire to follow God will be analyzed in the following pages.

Dr. Bilal Philips
Saudi Arabia, 1989

Peace · Jun 9, 2008

CHAPTER ONE:
THE SCRIPTURES

The topic The True Message of Jesus Christ is comprised of two basic parts: 1.The Message and 2.The Person of Jesus Christ. Each one is inseparable from the other. In order to understand Jesus message, we must know who he was. However, for us to understand who he was, it is also necessary to identify and comprehend his message.
There are two possible avenues which may be taken to look into the identity of Jesus Christ and the content of his message. One is based on the historical record compiled by modern historians from the writings and relics of that period and the other is based on the reports contained in the revealed Scriptures.
In reality, there is very little historical evidence available to inform us about who Jesus Christ was or to determine what his message was. The official historical documents of that time contain virtually no record of Jesus. A biblical scholar, R.T. France, writes, No 1st century inscription mentions him and no object or building has survived which has a specific link to him.[1] This fact has even led some Western historians to mistakenly claim that Jesus Christ never actually existed. Therefore, research has to be primarily based on the scriptures which address the person and the mission of Jesus Christ. The scriptures in question are those officially recognized by both Christianity and Islam. However, to accurately analyze the information contained in these religious texts, it is essential to first determine their validity. Are they reliable sources of documentary evidence, or humanly concocted tales and myths, or a mixture of both? Are the Bibles Old and New Testaments divinely revealed scriptures? Is the Quraan (Koran) authentic?
For the Bible and the Quraan to be the divine word of God, they must be free from inexplicable contradictions, and there should be no doubt about their content nor about their authors. If this is the case, the material contained in the Old and New Testaments and the Quraan can then be considered reliable sources of information concerning the message and the person of Jesus Christ.

1 Time, December 18, 1995, p. 46.

Peace · Jun 10, 2008

Authentic Manuscripts

It has been documented by many scholars from various branches and sects of Christianity that much of the material in the Bible is of doubtful authenticity.
In the preface of The Myth of God Incarnate, the editor wrote the following: In the nineteenth century, Western Christianity made two major new adjustments in response to important enlargements of human knowledge: it accepted that man is a part of nature and has emerged within the evolution of the forms of life on this earth; and it accepted that the books of the Bible were written by a variety of human beings in a variety of circumstances, and cannot be accorded a verbal divine authority.[1]
In the international news magazine, Newsweek [2], which carried an article entitled O Lord, Who Wrote Thy Prayer?, a group of theologians from the major Protestant sects, along with noted Roman Catholic Biblical scholars in the United States, after a detailed examination of the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament, concluded that the only words of the Lords prayer[3] that can be accurately attributed to Jesus Christ is father. That is, according to these learned church scholars, all the words that came after the beginning phrase, Our father, of the most fundamental Christian prayer, were added centuries later by church scribes who copied the early manuscripts of the Gospels[4]. U.S. News & World Report, further quotes the team of scholars as saying that over 80 percent of the words ascribed to Jesus in the Gospels may be apocryphal [5]. That includes Jesus Eucharistic[6] speech at the Last Supper (Take, eat. This is my body ...) and every word he is said to have uttered from the cross.[7]
Dr. J.K. Elliott, of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Leeds University, wrote an article published in The Times, London (10th Sept., 1987) entitled Checking the Bibles Roots. In it, he stated that: More than 5,000 manuscripts contain all or part of the New Testament in its original language. These range in date from the second century up to the invention of printing. It has been estimated that no two agree in all particulars. Inevitably, all handwritten documents are liable to contain accidental errors in copying. However, in living theological works it is not surprising that deliberate changes were introduced to avoid or alter statements that the copyist found unsound. There was also a tendency for copyists to add explanatory glosses[8]. Deliberate changes are more likely to have been introduced at an early stage before the canonical status of the New Testament was established.
The author went on to explain that no one manuscript contains the original, unaltered text in its entirety, and that, one cannot select any one of these manuscripts and rely exclusively on its text as if it contained the monopoly the original words of the original authors.
He further said: If one further argues that the original text has survived somewhere among the thousands of extant[9] manuscripts, then one is forced to read all these manuscripts, to assemble the differences between them in a systematic way, and then to assess, variant by variant, which manuscripts have the original [text] and which the secondary text. Such a prospect has Daunted[10] many biblical scholars who have been content to rely on the printed texts of earlier ages, in which the evidence of only a few favored manuscripts were used. Even many recent printed editions of the Greek New Testament, and modern translations based on these, usually follow this practice of building their text on a narrow base that is unlikely to be entirely original.

[1] The Myth of God Incarnate, p. ix.
[2] October 31, 1988, p. 44.
[3] Luke 11:2 and Matthew 6:9-10.
[4] The word gospel is derived from the Anglo-Saxon term god-spell, meaning good story, a rendering of the Latin evangelium and the Greek euangelion, meaning good news or good telling. (The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 5, p. 379).
[5] Apocryphal: not likely to be genuine; untrue or invented. (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, p. 45).
[6] The Eucharist is the bread and wine taken at the Christian ceremony based on Christs last supper. (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, p. 410.)
[7] July 1, 1991, p. 57.
[8] A gloss is an explanatory comment added to a text. (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, p. 528).
[9] Extant: surviving.
[10] Daunt: discourage; frighten.

Abdullah Jari · Jun 10, 2008

Dr Bilal Philips is an interesting Scholar he has a lot of interesting lectures.books

Peace · Jun 11, 2008

Versions of the English Bible

In the preface of the most widely used version of the Bible, the Revised Standard Version, the authors wrote the following:
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible is an authorized revision of the American Standard Version, published in 1901, which was a revision of the King James Version, published in 1611...
The King James Version had to compete with the Geneva Bible (1560) in popular use; but in the end it prevailed, and for more than two and a half centuries no other authorized translation of the Bible into English was made. The King James Version became the Authorized Version of the English-speaking peoples...Yet the King James Version has grave defects. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the development of Biblical studies and the discovery of many manuscripts more ancient than those upon which the King James Version was based, made it manifest that these defects are so many and so serious as to call for revision of the English translation. The task was undertaken, by authority of the Church of England, in 1870. The English Revised Version of the Bible was published in 1881-1885; and the American Standard Version, its variant embodying the preferences of the American scholars associated in the work, was published in 1901. [1]
The King James Version of the New Testament was based upon a Greek text that was marred by mistakes, containing the accumulated errors of fourteen centuries of manuscript copying. It was essentially the Greek text of the New Testament as edited by Beza, 1589, who closely followed that published by Erasmus, 1516-1535, which was based upon a few medieval manuscripts. The earliest and best of the eight manuscripts which Erasmus consulted was from the tenth century, and he made the least use of it because it differed most from the commonly received text; Beza had access to two manuscripts of great value, dating from the fifth and sixth centuries, but he made very little use of them because they differed from the text published by Erasmus. [2]
...The American Standard Version was copyrighted, to protect the text from unauthorized changes. In 1928 this copyright was acquired by the International Council of Religious Education, and thus passed into the ownership of the churches of the United States and Canada which were associated in this Council through their boards of education and publication. The Council appointed a committee of scholars to have charge of the text of the American Standard Version and to undertake inquiry as to whether further revision was necessary... [After two years] the decision was reached that there is need for a thorough revision of the version of 1901, which will stay as close to the Tyndale-King James tradition as it can...In 1937 the revision was authorized by vote of the Council. [3]
Thirty-two scholars have served as members of the Committee charged with making the revision, and they have secured the review and counsel of an Advisory Board of fifty representatives of the co-operating denominations...The Revised Standard Version of the New Testament was published in 1946. [4] The Revised Standard Version of the Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, was published on September 30, 1952, and has met with wide acceptance. [5]
In the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, a number of key verses from the King James Version of the Old and the New Testaments, which Biblical scholars concluded were added in later centuries, were removed from the text and placed in the footnotes. For example, the famous passagein the Gospel of John 8.7 about an adulteress who was about to be stoned. Jesus was supposed to have said: Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. The footnotes of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible (1952) state The most ancient authorities omit 7.53-8.11. [6] Since the Vatican manuscript no. 1209 and the Sinaitic manuscript codex from the 4th century do not contain these twelve verses, Biblical scholars have concluded that these words cannot be attributed to Jesus. Another example is the passage attributed to Jesus and used as evidence of reference to the Trinity in the Scriptures. In 1 John 5.7, Jesus was supposed to have said: There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. [7] The well-known Biblical scholar, Benjamin Wilson, writes that this text concerning the heavenly witness is not contained in any Greek manuscript which was written earlier than the 15th century! Consequently, in the Revised Standard Version, this verse was deleted from the text without even so much as a footnote. However, in order to keep the total number of verses in the Revised Standard Version the same as that of the King James Version, the revisers splitverse 6 into two verses.
The Second Edition of the translation of the New Testament (1971) profited from textual and linguistic studies published since the Revised Standard Version New Testament was first issued in 1946. [8] Consequently, some previously deleted passages were reinstated, and some accepted passages were deleted. Two passages, the longer ending of Mark (16.9-20) and the account of the woman caught in adultery (John 7.53-8.11), were restored to the text, separated from it by a blank space and accompanied by informative notes...With new manuscript support, two passages, Luke 22.19b-20 and 24.51b, were restored to the text, and one passage, Luke 22.43-44, was placed in the footnotes, as was a phrase in Luke 12.39. [9]

[1] The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version, p. iii
[2] Ibid., p. v.
[3] The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version, p. iii-iv.
[4] Ibid., p. iv.
[5] Ibid., p. vi
[6] The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version, p. 96.
[7] Holy Bible: (King James Version )
[8] The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version, p. vi.
[9] Ibid., p. vii.

Peace · Jun 18, 2008

Authorship

According to Biblical scholars, even the authorship of the Old Testament books and the Gospels themselves is in doubt.

Torah

The first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch)[1] are traditionally attributed to Prophet Moses,[2] however, there are many verses within these books which indicate that Prophet Moses could not possibly have written everything in them. For example, Deuteronomy 34.5-8 states: 5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, 6 and he buried him in the valley of the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows the place of his burial to this day. 7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. 8 And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended. It is quite obvious that someone else wrote these verses about Prophet Moses death.
Some Christian scholars have explained these discrepancies by suggesting that Moses had written his books, but that later prophets, as well as inspired scribes, had made the additions previously mentioned. Consequently, according to them, the text, in its entirety, remained an inspired scripture of God. However, this explanation did not stand up to scrutiny, because the style and literary characteristics of the interpolated verses are the same as the remainder of the text.
In the 19th century, Christian Bible scholars began to debate the meaning of doublets that appeared in the Torah. These are stories which appear twice, each time with different details. Among these are the two versions of the creation of the world, of the covenant between God and Abraham, of God changing Jacobs name to Israel and of Moses getting water from a rock.[3]
Defenders of Moses authorship said that the doublets were not contradictory, but instructive. Their intent was to teach us about the deeper, subtler meanings of the Torah. However, this claim was soon brushed aside by open-minded scholars who noted that, not only were some accounts clearly contradictory, but also that when the doublets were separated into two separate accounts, each account consistently used a different name for God. One would always refer to God as Yahweh / Jehovah, This document was called J. The other always referred to God as Elohim, and was called E.[4] There were various other literary characteristics found to be common to one document or the other. Modern linguistic analyses, according to Professor Richard Friedman,[5] indicate that the five books of Moses are a mixture of Hebrew from the ninth, eighth, seventh and sixth centuries B.C. Therefore, Moses, who was alive in the 13th century B.C., was further away from the Hebrew of the Bible than Shakespeare was from the English of today.
Further study of the Pentateuch led to the discovery that it was not made up of two major sources but of four. It was discovered that some stories were not only doublets but triplets. Additional literary characteristics were identified for these documents. The third source was called P (for priestly), and the fourth called D (for Deuteronomy).[6]
The extent to which less obvious additions were made to the original text is very difficult to determine. Consequently, a great shadow of doubt has been cast on the authorship of the books as a whole.
In the appendix of the Revised Standard Version entitled Books of the Bible, the following is written concerning the authorship of over one third of the remaining books of the Old Testament:

Books === Authors
Judges === Possibly Samuel
Ruth === Perhaps Samuel
First Samuel === Unknown
Second Samuel === Unknown
First Kings === Unknown
Second Kings === Unknown
First Chronicles === Unknown
Esther === Unknown
Job === Unknown
Ecclesiastes === Doubtful
Jonah === Unknown
Malachi === Nothing known

Apocrypha
More than half of the worlds Christians are Roman Catholics. Their version of the Bible was published in 1582 from Jeromes Latin Vulgate, and reproduced at Douay in 1609. The Old Testament of the RCV (Roman Catholic Version) contains seven more books than the King James Version recognized by the Protestant world. The extra books are referred to as the apocrypha (i.e., of doubtful authority) and were removed from the Bible in 1611 by Protestant Bible scholars.

[1] Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
[2] Orthodox Jews claim that the Torah, the Jewish name for the first five books, was created 974 generations before the creation of the world. According to them, God dictated the Torah during the 40 days Moses was on Mount Sinai, in such a final and irrevocable form that it is sinful to claim that Moses wrote even one letter of it by himself.
[3] Who Wrote the Bible, pp. 54-70.
[4] The late 19th century German scholar, Julius Wellhausen, was the first to identify the multiple sources for the five books.
[5] Richard Elliot Friedman is a professor in the University of California at San Diego. He earned his Doctorate in Hebrew Bible at Harvard University, and is the author of the controversial work, Who Wrote the Bible.
[6] The Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 1, p. 756, and vol. 3, p.617. See also The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 14, pp. 773-4.

Peace · Jun 19, 2008

The Gospels

Aramaic was the spoken language of the Jews of Palestine. Consequently, it is believed that Jesus and his disciples spoke and taught in Aramaic. [1] “The earliest oral tradition of Jesus’ deeds and sayings undoubtedly circulated in Aramaic. However, the four Gospels were written in an entirely different speech, common Greek, the spoken language of the civilized Mediterranean world, to serve the majority of the Church, which was becoming Hellenistic (Greek-speaking) instead of Palestinian. Traces of Aramaic survive in the Greek Gospels. For example, in Mark 5:41, “Taking her by the hand he said to her, ‘Tal’itha cu’mi’; which means ’Little girl, I say to you, arise.’ ” and Mark 15:34, “And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘E’lo-i, E’lo-i, la’ma sabachtha’ni?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ ” [2]
The New Testament Gospel of Mark, though considered by Church scholars to be the oldest of the Gospels, was not written by a disciple of Jesus. Biblical scholars concluded, based on the evidence contained in the Gospel, that Mark himself was not a disciple of Jesus. Furthermore, according to them, it is not even certain who Mark really was. The ancient Christian author, Eusebius (325 C.E.), reported that another ancient author, Papias (130 C.E.), was the first to attribute the Gospel to John Mark, a companion of Paul. [3] Others suggested that he may have been the scribe of Peter and yet others hold that he was probably someone else.

To be continued....

[1] Aramaic is a Semitic language which gradually supplanted Akkadian as the common tongue of the Near East in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. It later became the official language of the Persian Empire. Aramaic replaced Hebrew as the language of the Jews; portions of the Old Testament books of Daniel and Ezra are written in Aramaic, as are the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds. Its period of greatest influence extended from 300 BC until 650 CE, after which it was gradually supplanted by Arabic. (The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 1, p. 516)
[2] Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 3, p. 654.
[3] The Five Gospels, p. 20, and The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 14, p. 824. For references to various Marks in the New Testament, see the following: Acts 12:12, 25; 13:5; 15:36-41; Colossians 4:10; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon 24; and I Peter 5:13.

Peace · Jun 19, 2008

The same is the case with the other Gospels. Although Matthew, Luke and John are the names of disciples of Jesus, the authors of the Gospels bearing their names were not those famous disciples, but other individuals who used the disciples names to give their accounts credibility. In fact, all the Gospels originally circulated anonymously. Authoritative names were later assigned to them by unknown figures in the early church. [4]

Books === >Authors
Gospel of Matthew === >Unknown [5]
Gospel of Mark === > Unknown [6]
Gospel of Luke === > Unknown [7]
Gospel of John === > Unknown [8]
Acts === > The author of Luke [9]
I, II, III John === > The author of John [10]
J.B. Phillips, a prebendary [11] of the Chichester Cathedral, the Anglican Church of England, wrote the following preface for his translation of the Gospel according to St. Matthew: Early tradition ascribed this Gospel to the apostle Matthew, but scholars nowadays almost all reject this view. The author, whom we can conveniently call Matthew, has plainly drawn on the mysterious Q, [12] which may have been a collection of oral traditions. He has used Marks Gospel freely, though he has rearranged the order of events and has in several instances used different words for what is plainly the same story. [13] The Fourth Gospel (John) was opposed as heretical in the early church, and it knows none of the stories associated with John, son of Zebedee. [14] In the judgement of many scholars, it was produced by a school of disciples, probably in Syria in the last decade of the first century. [15]

[4] The Five Gospels, p. 20.
[5] Although there is a Matthew named among the various lists of Jesus disciples...the writer of Matthew is probably anonymous. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 14, p. 826.
[6] Though the author of Mark is probably unknown...The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 14, p. 824.
[7] The Muratorian Canon refers to Luke, the physician, Pauls companion; Irenaeus depicts Luke as a follower of Pauls gospel. Eusebius has Luke as an Antiochene physician who was with Paul in order to give the Gospel apostolic authority. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 14, p. 827.
[8] From internal evidence the Gospel was written by a beloved disciple whose name is unknown. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 14, p. 828.
[9] The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 14, p. 830.
[10] Ibid., vol. 14, p. 844.
[11] A priest who receives income from the revenue of a church, especially a cathedral. (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, p. 973.)
[12] There are about two hundred identical verses found in both Matthew and Luke (e.g. Matt 3:7-10 & Luke 3:7-9; Matt. 18:10-14 & Luke 15:3-7), with no equivalent in either Mark or John. As a way of explaining this striking agreement, a German scholar hypothesized that there once existed a source document, which he referred to as a Quelle (German for source). The abbreviation Q was later adopted as its name.
The existence of Q was once challenged by some scholars on the grounds that a sayings gospel was not really a gospel. The challengers argued that there were no ancient parallels to a gospel containing only sayings and parables and lacking stories about Jesus, especially the story about his trial and death. The discovery of the Gospel of Thomas changed all that. (The Five Gospels, p. 12.) Thomas contains one hundred and fourteen sayings and parables ascribed to Jesus; it has no narrative framework: no account of Jesus exorcisms, healings, trial, death, and resurrection; no birth or childhood stories; and no narrated account of his public ministry in Galilee and Judea. The Coptic translation of this document (written about 350 C.E.), found in 1945 at Nag Hammadi in Egypt, has enabled scholars to identify three Greek fragments (dated around 200 C.E.), discovered earlier, as pieces of three different copies of the same gospel. Thomas has forty-seven parallels to Mark, forty parallels to Q, seventeen to Matthew, four to Luke, and five to John. About sixty-five sayings or parts of sayings are unique to Thomas. (The Five Gospels, p.15).
[13] The Gospels in Modern English.
[14] Since the late 18th century, the first three Gospels have been called the Synoptic Gospels, because the texts, set side by side, show a similar treatment of the life and death of Jesus Christ. (The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 5, p. 379).
[15] The Five Gospels, p. 20.

Peace · Jun 23, 2008

Contradictions

Evidence for the unreliability of much of the material in the Bible can also be found in the many contradictions in the texts of the Old and New Testaments. The following are only a few examples:
The Old Testament

1. The authors of Samuel and Chronicles relate the same story about Prophet David taking a census of the Jews. However, in 2nd Samuel, it states that Prophet David acted on Gods instructions, while in 1st Chronicles, he acted on Satans instructions.
II SAMUEL 24

The Numbering
And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.

I CHRONICLES 21
The Numbering
And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
2. In describing the length of a plague prophesied by Gad [1], the author of 2nd Samuel listed it as seven years, while the author of 1st Chronicles listed it as three years.

II SAMUEL 24:13
The Plague
So Gad came to David and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursuethee?

I CHRONICLES 21:11
The Plague
11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Choose thee 12 Either three years famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee;

3. In 2nd Chronicles, Jehoiachin was described as being eight years old when he began to reign, while in 2nd Kings he is described as being eighteen years old.

II CHRONICLES 36:9
The Age
Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord

II KINGS 24:8
The Age
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And his mothers name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

4. The author of 2nd Samuel described the number of Syrians who died during a battle with Prophet David as being seven hundred, while the author of 1st Chronicles gave their number as seven thousand.

II SAMUEL 10:18
The Dead
And the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew the men of seven hundred chariots of the Syrians, and forty thousand horsemen, and smote Shobach the captain of their host, who died there.

I CHRONICLES 19:18
The Dead
But the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew of the Syrians seven thousand men which fought in chariots, and forty thousand footmen, and killed Shophach the captain of the host.

Although some may say that the adding or dropping of a 1 or a zero is not significant, as it is only a copying mistake, here that is not the case because the Jews spelled out their numbers in words and did not use numerals.
Such descrepancies cannot be accepted as part of a divinely revealed text. Moreover, they prove the fallability of the human authors and further prove that the texts of the Old Testament were not divinely preserved.

[1] And the Lord spoke to Gad, Davids seer, saying, I Chronicles, 21:9l. According to this text, Gad was the name of Prophet Davids personal fortuneteller

Peace · Jun 24, 2008

The New Testament

In the New Testament many similar contradictions may also be found. The following are but a few:
1.The Gospel accounts vary regarding who carried the cross on which Jesus was supposed to have been crucified. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, it was Simon of Cyrene, and in John, it was Jesus.

LUKE, 23:26 [1]
The Cross
As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him and made him carry it...

JOHN, 19:16
The Cross
Then he (Pilate) handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross himself, he went to what is called the Place of the Skull, ...

2. After Jesus’ “crucifixion”, the Gospel accounts differ as to who visited his tomb, when the visit took place, as well as the state of the tomb when it was visited. The Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John state that the visit took place before sunrise, while the Gospel of Mark states that it was after sunrise. In another three Gospels (Mark, Luke and John) the women found the stone door of the tomb rolled away, but in one (Matthew) the tomb was closed until an angel descended before them and rolled it away.

MARK, 16:1-2
The Visit
And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the Mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen

JOHN, 20:1 [2]
The Visit
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

MATTHEW, 28:1-2
The Visit
Now after the sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the sepulchre. 2And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.

3. The New Testament accounts vary regarding the fate of Judas Iscariot and the money he received for betraying Jesus. In Matthew, he hung himself, while in Acts, he fell in a field and died there.

MATTHEW, 27:3-6
The Fate of Judas
When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, ...And throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself.

ACTS, 1:18
The Fate of Judas
Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.

4. When the genealogy of Jesus from David in Matthew 1:6-16, is compared to that of Luke 3:23-31, there are major discrepancies. Firstly, Jesus in Matthew has 26 parents between himself and David, but in Luke he has 41. Secondly, the names in both lists vary radically after David, and only two names are the same: Joseph, and Zorobabel. Both lists start off with Joseph, strangely enough, as the father of Jesus, but in Matthew, the author records Jesus’ paternal grandfather as being Jacob, while in Luke he is Heli. If one were to accept the suggestion of some that one of the lists is actually the genealogy of Mary, it could not possibly account for any differences after their common ancestor David. Both lists meet again at Abraham and between David and Abraham most of the names are the same. However, in Matthew’s list, Hezron’s son’s name is Ram, the father of Ammin’adab, while in Luke’s list, Hezron’s son’s name is Arni, whose son’s name is Admin, the father of Ammin’adab. [3] Consequently, between David and Abraham there are 12 forefathers in Matthew’s list and 13 in Luke’s list.
These discrepancies and many others like them in the Gospels are clearly errors that cast a shadow of doubt on their authenticity as divinely revealed texts. Consequently, most Christian scholars today look at the Old and New Testament books as human accounts which they believe were inspired by God. However, even the claim that they were inspired by God is questionable as it implies that God inspired the authors to write mistakes and contradictions in His scriptures.
Having established that the authenticity of both the New and the Old Testament is questionable, it can then be said with certainty that the Bible cannot be used by itself as an authentic reference source for establishing who Jesus was, nor the content of his message.

[1] See also, Matthew 27:32 and Mark 15:21.
[2] See also, Luke 24:1-2.
[3] Also in Matthew’s list, Nahshon’s son’s name is Salmon, while in Luke’s list, Nahshon’s son’s name is Sala.

LittlePinky82 · Jun 25, 2008

Sounds very interesting. I think it sounds like a great lesson to everyone understanding both communities and that we have more in common than not. Where do you think the gnostic writings come in? Especially books like the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas?

Peace · Jun 26, 2008

The Quraan

On the other hand, the Quraanbelieved by Muslims to be the word of God revealed to Prophet Muhammad(e)was written down and memorized, from beginning to end, during the lifetime of the Prophet himself.
Within a year after his death, the first standard written text was produced.[1] And within 14 years after his death, authorized copies (the Uthmanic Text) made from the standard codex [2] were sent to the capitals of the Muslim state, and unauthorized copies were destroyed.[3]
Since the Prophets death in 632 CE, an increasing number of people in each successive generation have memorized the complete text of the Quraan from beginning to end. Today there exist tens of thousands of people around the world who recite the whole text, from memory, during the month of Ramadaan every year, as well as on other occasions.
One of the leading orientalists, Kenneth Cragg, said the following regarding the memorization and preservation of the Quraanic text, This phenomenon of Quranic recital means that the text has traversed the centuries in an unbroken living sequence of devotion. It cannot, therefore, be handled as an antiquarian thing, nor as a historical document out of a distant past.[4] Another orientalist scholar, William Graham, wrote: For countless millions of Muslims over more than fourteen centuries of Islamic history, scripture, al-kitab has been a book learned, read and passed on by vocal repetition and memorization. The written Quran may fix visibly the authoritative text of the Divine Word in a way unknown in history, but the authoritativeness of the Quranic book is only realized in its fullness and perfection when it is correctly recited. [5] Yet another, John Burton, stated: The method of transmitting the Quran from one generation to the next by having the young memorize the oral tradition of their elders had mitigated somewhat from the beginning the worst perils of relying solely on written records...[6] At the end of a voluminous work on the Quraans collection, Burton stated that the text of the Quraan available today is the text which has come down to us in the form in which it was organised and approved by the Prophet...What we have today in our hands is the mushaf [7] of Muhammad. [8]

Scriptural Criticism

The same principles of analysis which were applied to Bible manuscripts by Bible scholars and which exposed the flaws and changes, have been applied to Quraanic manuscripts gathered from around the world. Ancient manuscripts found in the Library of Congress in Washington, the Chester Beatty Museum in Dublin, Ireland, the London Museum, as well as Museums in Tashkent, Turkey and Egypt, from all periods of Islamic history, have been compared. The result of all such studies confirm that there has not been any change in the text from its original writing. For example, the Institute fur Koranforschung of the University of Munich, Germany, collected and collated over 42,000 complete or incomplete copies of the Quraan. After some fifty years of study, they reported that in terms of differences between the various copies, there were no variants, except occasional mistakes of copyists, which could easily be ascertained. The institute was destroyed by American bombs during the Second World War. [9]

[1] Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam, p. 278.
[2] A handwritten book of ancient texts (pl. codices).
[3] Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam, p. 279. See also The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 22, p. 8.
[4] The Mind of the Quran, p. 26.
[5] Beyond the Written Word, p. 80.
[6] An Introduction to the Hadith, p. 27.
[7] The Arabic term used to refer to the text of the Quraan.
[8] The Collection of the Quran, p. 239-40.
[9] Muhammad Rasullullah, p. 179.

Peace · Jul 1, 2008

Contradictions in the Quraan

The Quraan remains in itoriginal language, Arabic, and the Quraan challenges its readers in Chapter an-Nisaa, (4):82, to find any errors in it, if they do not believe it is really from God.
Will they not consider the Quraan carefully? Had it been from other than Allaah, they would have found many contradictions in it.
The few apparent contradictions commonly mentioned by those who attempt to reduce the Quraan to the level of the Bible are easily explained. For example, the first believer in the following two verses:

Chapter al Anaam (6):14
Say (O Muhammad): Shall I adopt as my lord someone other than Allaah, Creator of the heavens and earth, though it is He who feeds but is not fed? Say: Indeed I am commanded to be the first of those who submit themselves (to Allaah), and not to be among the idolators.

Chapter al-Araaf (7):143
...But when his Lord appeared to the mountain, it crumbled to dust, and Moses fell down unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he said, Glory be to You, I turn to you in repentance and I am the first of the believers.

The earlier verse refers to Prophet Muhammad, who was told to inform the pagans of his time that he could never accept their idolatry and would be the first of those in his time to submit to Allaah. In the second verse, Prophet Moses declares himself among the first in his time to submit to Allaah upon realizing that it was impossible to see Allaah. Each prophet was the first in his own era to submit to Allaah.
Similarly, the day with God mentioned in the following two verses:

Chapter as-Sajdah (32):5

He arranges (every) affair from the heavens to the earth, then it goes up to Him, in a day equivalent to a thousand years according to your reckoning.
Chapter al-Miraaj (70):4

The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a day equivalent to fifty thousand years.

The two verses refer to two completely different events. The first refers to the destiny that is sent down and reported back in a day governing a thousand years of human life.[1] The second refers to the ascent of the angels from the world to the highest of the heavens, which for them takes a day equivalent to 50,000 human years. [2 Allaah is not governed by time. He created time and made it relative to the creatures it governs. Consequently, according to the calculation of modern scientists, one year on Mars is equivalent to 687 earth days, while one year on Uranus is equal to 84 earth years. [3]
The Quraanic text is remarkably consistent in its thought and presentation. In the preface of one of the best orientalist translations of the Quraan, the translator, Arthur John Arberry, writes: There is a repertory of familiar themes running through the whole Koran; each Sura [4] elaborates or adumbrates [5] one or moreoften manyof these. Using the language of music, each Sura is a rhapsody composed of whole or fragmentary leitmotivs; [6] the analogy is reinforced by the subtly varied rhythmical flow of the discourse.[7]
Scientific references in the Quraanic text have proven to be consistently and inexplicibly accurate. In a lecture given at the French Academy of Medicine, in 1976, entitled Physiological and Embryological Data in the Quran, Dr. Maurice Bucaille said, There is no human work in existence that contains statements as far beyond the level of knowledge of its time as the Quran. Scientific opinions comparable to those in the Quran are the result of modern knowledge. [8]
Speaking about the authority of the Quraan, Professor Reynold A. Nicholson said, We have [in the Koran] materials of unique and incontestable authority for tracing the origin and early development of Islam, such materials as do not exist in the case of Buddhism or Christianity or any other ancient religion.[9]
Consequently, it is only the Quraan that represents an accurate means of determining who Jesus was and what his message was. Moreover, the Quraan can also be used to determine to what degree some of the revealed word of God exists within the Bible.
In the Quraan, God commands the believers to accept, as a part of their faith, the divine word revealed to Prophet Moses, known as the Torah; to Prophet David in the original Psalms; and to Jesus in the original Gospel. All Muslims are obliged to believe in all of the revealed scriptures. However, as stated in the Quraan, all scriptures revealed before the Quraan have not remained as they were revealed. People changed parts of them to suit their own desires.
Woe to those who write the scripture with their own hands and then say: This is from Allaah, to purchase with it [worldly gain] at a cheap price. Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earned by doing it. Quraan, (2):79

Furthermore, in the Old Testament, God is quoted in Jeremiah 8:8 as saying, How can you say, We are wise, and the law is with us? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. [10]

[1] Tafseer al-Qurtubee, vol. 8, pp. 5169-70.
[2] Fat-hul-Qadeer, vol. 4, p. 349.
[3] The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 27, pp. 551 & 571.
[4] Quraanic chapter.
[5] Indicate faintly or in outline.
[6] Recurring features.
[7] The Koran Interpreted, p. 28.
[8] The Quran and Modern Science, p. 6.
[9] Literary History of the Arabs, p. l43.
[10] Revised Standard Version.

Peace · Jul 2, 2008

CHAPTER TWO:
JESUS, THE PERSON

As has been shown in the previous chapter, the Biblical scriptures, both New and Old Testaments, are unreliable sources and cannot, therefore, be used as an authentic means of knowing the truth about the man called Jesus Christ or about his mission and message. However, a close examination of these scriptures in the light of Quraanic verses will reveal some of the truths about Jesus that have survived in the Bible.

A Messenger

Throughout the Quraan, Jesus is identified fundamentally as a Messenger of God. In Chapter as-Saff (61):6, God quotes Jesus as follows:

And [remember] when Jesus, son of Mary, said: O Children of Israel, I am the messenger of Allaah sent to you, confirming the Torah [which came] before me.

There are many verses in the New Testament supporting the messengership / prophethood of Jesus. The following are only a few: In Matthew 21:11, the people of his time are recorded as referring to Jesus as a prophet: And the crowds said, This is the prophet Jesus of Nazareth of Galilee. In Mark, 6:4, it is stated that Jesus referred to himself as a prophet: And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honour, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. In the following verses, Jesus is referred to as having been sent as a messenger is sent. In Matthew 10:40, Jesus was purported to have said: He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. In John 17:3, Jesus is also quoted as saying: And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. [1]

[1] See also, John 4:34, 5:30, 7:16 & 28, 11:42, 13:16, 14:24.

Peace · Jul 2, 2008

CHAPTER TWO:
JESUS, THE PERSON

As has been shown in the previous chapter, the Biblical scriptures, both New and Old Testaments, are unreliable sources and cannot, therefore, be used as an authentic means of knowing the truth about the man called Jesus Christ or about his mission and message. However, a close examination of these scriptures in the light of Quraanic verses will reveal some of the truths about Jesus that have survived in the Bible.

A Messenger

Throughout the Quraan, Jesus is identified fundamentally as a Messenger of God. In Chapter as-Saff (61):6, God quotes Jesus as follows:

And [remember] when Jesus, son of Mary, said: O Children of Israel, I am the messenger of Allaah sent to you, confirming the Torah [which came] before me.

There are many verses in the New Testament supporting the messengership / prophethood of Jesus. The following are only a few: In Matthew 21:11, the people of his time are recorded as referring to Jesus as a prophet: And the crowds said, This is the prophet Jesus of Nazareth of Galilee. In Mark, 6:4, it is stated that Jesus referred to himself as a prophet: And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honour, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. In the following verses, Jesus is referred to as having been sent as a messenger is sent. In Matthew 10:40, Jesus was purported to have said: He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. In John 17:3, Jesus is also quoted as saying: And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. [1]

[1] See also, John 4:34, 5:30, 7:16 & 28, 11:42, 13:16, 14:24.

Nehustan · Jul 5, 2008

Jesus was quite plain when it came to his message as a 'Rasul', i.e. law giver akin to Moses.

"Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Matthew 22:36-40

An obvious point is the use of the 3rd rather than the 1st in this statement.

Peace · Jul 5, 2008

A Man

The Quraanic revelation not only affirms Jesus prophethood, but it also clearly denies Jesus divinity. In Chapter al-Maaidah, (5): 75, God points out that Jesus ate food, which is a human act, obviously not befitting to God.
The Messiah, Son of Mary, was no more than a messenger and many messengers passed away before him. His mother was exceedingly truthful, and they both ate food. See how I have made the signs clear for them, yet see how they are deluded.

There are numerous accounts in the New Testament which also deny Jesus divinity.
For example, in Matthew 19:17, Jesus responded to one who addressed him as O good master, saying: Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God. If he rejected being called good, [1] and stated that only God is truly good, he clearly implies that he is not God.

In John 14:28, Jesus was saying: The Father is greater than I. By stating that the Father is greater than himself, Jesus distinguishes himself from God. Also in John 20:17, Jesus told Mary Magdalene to tell his followers: I ascend unto my Father and your Father; and to my God and your God. Jesus reference to God as my Father and your Father further emphasizes the distinction between himself and God. Furthermore, by referring to God as his God, he left no room for anyone to intelligently claim that he was God.

Even in some of the writings of Paul, which the Church has taken to be sacred, Jesus is referred to as a man, distinct and different from God. In 1st Timothy, 2:5, Paul writes: For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

There are also verses in the Quraan which confirm Prophet Muhammads humanity, in order to prevent his followers from elevating him to a divine or semi-divine status, as was done to Prophet Jesus. For example, in Chapter al-Kahf (18):110, Allaah instructs the Prophet Muhammad (e) to inform all who hear his message:
Say: Indeed, I am only a man like you to whom it has been revealed that your God is only one God.
In Chapter al-Araaf (7):187, Allaah also directed Prophet Muhammad (e) to acknowledge that the time of the Judgement is known only to God.
They ask you about the Final Hour: 'When will its apointed time be? Say: Knowledge of it is with my Lord. None can reveal its time besides Him.
In the Gospel according to Mark 13:31-32, Jesus is also reported to have denied having knowledge of when the final hour of this world would be, saying: Heaven and the earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass away, but of that day or hour no man knoweth, neither the angels in the heaven nor the Son but the Father. One of the attributes of God is omniscience, knowledge of all things. Therefore, his denial of knowledge of the Day of Judgement is also a denial of divinity, for one who does not know the time of the final hour cannot possibly be God. [2]

[1] Jesus here rejects being called perfectly good, because perfection belongs only to God. He was good, but, being the Son of man(Mat. 19:29)as he liked to call himselfhe was capable of error.

[2] It should be noted that, in spite of the Quraanic warnings and other statements of Prophet Muhammad himself, some Muslims have elevated him to semi-divine status by directing their prayers to or through him.

Peace · Jul 17, 2008

An Immaculate Conception

The Quraan confirms the Biblical story of Jesus virgin birth. However, in the Quranic account of Jesus birth, Mary was an unmarried maiden whose life was dedicated to the worship of God by her mother. While she was worshipping in a place of religious seclusion, angels came and informed her of her impending pregnancy.
When the angels said: O Mary, indeed Allaah gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary. He will be honored in this world and the next and will be of those close to Allaah. Quraan, (3):45

She said: O my Lord, how can I have a son when no man has touched me? He said: Even soAllaah creates what He wishes. When He decrees something, He only has to say to it: Be! and it is. Quraan, (3):47

However, the Quraan clarifies that Jesus virgin birth did not change the state of his humanity. His creation was like the creation of Adam, who had neither father nor mother.
Surely, the example of Jesus, in Allaahs sight, is like that of Aadam. He created him from dust and said: Be! and he was. Quraan, (3):59

oldcajun · Jul 17, 2008

The Good News Of The Kingdom Of God

The Good News of the Kingdom of God > The Gospel of the Kingdom

The True Message of Jesus Christ

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