Often people from an Islamic background or culture have very similar questions or objections when they consider Jesus and Christianity. We will help to address those questions with reasonable answers. Our goal is not to debate or criticize other beliefs but to provide useful information to help you in your journey to life.
#1 Has the Bible been changed or corrupted?
This is a key question, since reliable knowledge about Jesus should come from those who knew him. Since ancient times judges have relied on multiple witnesses to establish the truth. The Bible says that two or three witnesses are important to establish the facts. (Hebrews 10:28) God provided not just two but four “gospels” describing the life of Jesus by four different authors, providing us with four eyewitness accounts. Matthew and John were disciples who walked with Jesus. Mark and Luke interviewed disciples and other eye witnesses. All 27 New Testament documents were written only 20-60 years after Jesus.
You may have heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947, copied before the time of Christ.. These again confirmed our present scriptures as being super accurate. One of the key finds was a copy of the book of Isaiah who lived 700BC. It says, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” (Isaiah 40:8) If God promises to protect His word, don’t you think He is able to do that? Would it not be blasphemy to say that God was unable to keep His promise?
Jesus spoke about the Bible that existed in his day, ““Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” Matthew 5:17-18 Truly Jesus came not to begin a new religion, but to bring people back to God, not to abolish the truth God had already revealed in scripture, but to fulfill many prophecies that had been made about Him.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
2 Timothy 3:16
When Islam began, 600 years after Jesus Christ, the Bible in its current form had already been accepted as true, but few people had access to it because it had to be hand copied and this made it very costly. Not many people could read.
Did you know that there are entire Greek Bibles written only 300 years after Christ that still exist today? One is called the Codex Sinaiticus, kept in the Brittish Library. Another is in the Vatican Library, called the Codex Vaticanus. There are also nearly 25,000 ancient hand written copies of portions of the New Testament still in existence today, some written as early as 100AD. Experts have compared all these and found that what we use today is 99.5% accurate to the original. No change.
#2 Why are there so many different Bibles?
The Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Any Bible you read will be a careful translation from those original languages. Some translations are more literal, being careful to translate word for word. Others are more of a paraphrase, translating entire sentences and thoughts in a way that would be most easily understood. There are also Bibles where stories are summarized and put into simple language for children. All of these are useful.
Language changes over time. The once popular King James Version in English was translated in 1611 AD using the common language of that day. But after 400 years English readers today find it sounds foreign, like a Shakespeare play. Similarly, new translations have been made in many other languages as well, but the essential truths of scripture remain the same.
#3 How could God have a son?
First, we need to clarify that when the Bible says that Jesus is the Son of God, it does not mean that God had sexual relations with anyone. God is spirit. (John 4:24) Jesus was born of a virgin. Why? Because our sinful nature is hereditary. Jesus had to be sinless to be able to pay for our sins. Jesus is the only one in all of history who was born of a virgin. This was to fulfill a prophecy by Isaiah, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us)”. (Matthew 1:23 quoting Isaiah 9:6-7)
Why would God, 700 years in advance, tell people this son would be God with us? Isaiah says, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) God was determined to live among us, by sending His Son to reveal His nature. In Jesus, He became like us.
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
Hebrews 1:1-6
#4 Do Christians believe in three Gods?
No. We believe in one God who has revealed Himself in three persons. What does that mean? It means that when God tells us to worship His Son, it is OK because He is God. It means that the Son reveals and completely represents the Father. It means that Jesus tells His disciples that it is to their advantage that He go away, so that He can send the Helper, then He promises His disciples to always be with them, and the Father sends His Spirit to live in them. (John 16:7) Confusing? Incomprehensible? Yes. We don’t understand how one God could exist in three persons, but there is much about God that we don’t understand. There are no analogies. Some say water is an example because it can be liquid, solid, or gas. But at the baptism of Jesus, the Holy Spirit descends in a bodily form from heaven, and the Father’s voice speaks from heaven. All persons are active simultaneously, interacting. (Matthew 3:13-17)
This is actually the only view of God that makes sense. If God were one person, alone, then He could not be love. At least He could not love anyone until He created other beings. This would mean that God needed to create in order to be complete. But that is not the God of the Bible, He is complete in Himself.
#5 Did Jesus die on the cross?
We see a pattern in the Old Testament. Abel offers the sacrifice of a lamb and God accepted it. Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac as a test, but then God provided a ram caught by its horns in a bush nearby to offer instead. God told Moses to have the families of Israel sacrifice a lamb and put the blood on their doorway so that the angel of death would not hurt them when he came to kill the Egyptian firstborn sons. Then John the Baptist comes announcing that the Messiah has come and says of Jesus, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Jesus Himself predicted many times that He would die for the sins of the world and die on a cross. (For example, John 3:13-16, 13:31-38) It was not unexpected. He was not taken by surprise. Jesus did not lie.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
Isaiah 53:7-9 (700 BC)
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
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