Muslims claim that both the Old and New Testament have been changed, and that the Bible is no longer trustworthy. They conclude that it was necessary for Allah to give another book, the Qur’an, in its place. So how can Christians best respond to these claims? I would reply with these five points.
I often reply to a Muslim friend with this illustration. Imagine that copies of a book written by Mr Mahmoud were given to every family in your town, including your family. All the copies were the same and each copy was a perfect reproduction of the original book. Later, someone suddenly claimed that the book had been changed and could no longer be trusted. Would you have accepted that claim when you had a reliable copy in your hands? Surely you would have said, ‘Wait a minute. I’ve got a copy of the original book at home and it hasn’t been changed.’
So it is with the Bible.
The original manuscripts were reproduced very carefully. Whenever a new copy was made, it was strictly checked. Many reproductions of the original manuscripts existed. If someone wanted to change the Bible they would have had to gather all the reproductions from each house – from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East – and then change them. Is that possible? No! Even if one copy had changed, people who owned the true copies would have noticed and condemned it.
Manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments dating back to several hundred years before the rise of Islam are displayed in well-known museums across the world (including London). Anyone can compare the Bible we have today with these manuscripts and see that it has not been corrupted. These all confirm the integrity of the text Christians use to this day.
Muhammad himself believed that the Bible that existed in his day was authentic. (Qu’ran, Surah 3:3, 4:162-163, 5:58-59, 6:154-157, 9:111, 21:7, 21:48-50, 35:31, 40:69-70, 46:12, 46:29-30).
I would ask my Muslim friend: When was the Bible changed? Before or after Muhammad? If it was changed beforehand, he is accusing Muhammad of being a false teacher. On the other hand, it could not have been changed afterwards because the Bible had been translated into many languages and widely distributed across the world by then.
When a Muslim says that the Bible has been changed, I strongly challenge him. I point out that he is unconsciously blaspheming by accusing God on two counts:
a) Firstly, that God is a liar by not keeping His promise to protect His Word (Psalm 119:89; Matthew 24:35)
b) Secondly, that God is not God since He was unable to preserve His holy Word. It would mean that man is greater than God – which is blasphemous.
* Hicham is a believer from a Muslim background, has studied Theology and Islamics and pastors a church in Europe. He’s the author of Your Questions Answered and provides online resources to help Muslims better understand Christ on his WEBSITE. His ministry also has a FACEBOOK page.
NB. This revised article was originally published in awmlink magazine and may be reproduced subject to EDITOR‘s approval and credit line. AWM is not responsible for the content of external sites linked to this article.
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