All original text is quoted below, with errors left intact. My notes are under "Christian Response" below each section.
CHAPTER TWO
THE MUSLIMS'
STANDPOINT
PRESUMPTUOUS
CHRISTIANS
Whether
Catholic, Protestant or a "Cultist," of the thousand -and - one -
sects - and - denominations-of-Christianity, never will you find a missionary
who will not, prima facie, presuppose that his potential convert accepts
his "Holy Bible" as the book of final authority on every religious
opinion? The only answer the prospective proselyte has is to quote verses from
the Bible which are contradictory to the missionary's or debate their
interpretations.
Christian
Response
I find this fascinating,
as this is the core response for a Christian when dealing with one of the
“thousand – and – one – sects – and – denominations – of – Christianity”
mentioned above quite succinctly. Lets
be clear here, the definitions contained in these responses for “Christian” is
one who believes the Bible account, from cover to cover. While all denominations, sects, and cults
will say they would agree, all point to a third-party teaching or book to filter
their beliefs through. All, also, tend
to have “better” interpretations to certain sayings and verses that better fit
what they are teaching or are taught. We
will focus on God’s word, as filtered by the Holy Spirit.
THE
DOGGED QUESTION
When the Muslim
proves his point from the Christian's own Holy Scripture, and when the
professional priest, parson or predikant cannot refute the arguments — the
inevitable Christian evasion is — "DO YOU ACCEPT THE BIBLE AS GOD'S WORD?
On the face of it, the question seems to be an easy one, but a simple
"Yes" or "No" cannot be given as an answer. You see, one
has first to explain one's position. But the Christian will not give one the
opportunity. He gets impatient. "Answer — 'Yes or No!' " he insists.
The Jews did the same to Jesus two thousand years ago, except that surprisingly
he was not strait-jacketed, as is the fashion today!
The
reader will readily agree that things are not always either BLACK or WHITE.
Between these two extremes there are various shades of GREY. If you say
"Yes" to his question, then it would mean that you are prepared to
swallow everything HOOK, LINE and SINKER, from Genesis to Revelation
from his Bible. If you respond with a "No" he quickly unhooks himself
from the facts you have presented, and rallies support from his co-religionists
in the audience with; "You see, this man does not believe in the Bible!
What right has he to expound his case from our Book?" With this hydra-like
somersault he rests content that he has safely evaded the issue. What is the
Muballigh1to
do? He has to explain his position vis-a-vis the Bible, as he ought to
do.
1.
MUBALLIGH: The
Propagator of Islam
Christian
Response
For those who study
apologetics and understand both doctrine and the defense of truth, it is
clearly apparent that only a novice or beginner would ever want to start with
the “do you believe the Bible” question, as few today do. While it can be a useful context in some
cases, debating one of a different belief, such as Islam or Buddhism, it is not
a practical question, and here you can see the Muballigh is taught to use it
against the one asking.
THREE
GRADES OF EVIDENCE
We Muslims have no hesitation in
acknowledging that in the Bible, there are three different kinds of witnessing
recognizable without any need of specialized training. These are:
1. You
will be able to recognize in the Bible what may be described as "The
Word of God."
2. You
will also be able to discern what can be described as the "Words of a
Prophet of God."
3. And
you will most readily observe that the bulk of the Bible is the records of eye witnesses
or ear witnesses, or people writing from hearsay. As such they are the
"Words of a Historian"
You do
not have to hunt for examples of these different types of evidences in the
Bible. The following quotations will make the position crystal clear:
The
FIRST Type:
(a) I will raise them up a prophet . . . and I will put my words in ... and he shall speak
unto them all that I shall command
him." (Deuteronomy 18:18)
Christian
Response
The whole verse: “I will raise them up a Prophet from among
their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he
shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.” This verse refers to the coming of Christ, who
in being God would speak His words and do his will.
(b) I even, I
am the Lord, and beside me there is
no saviour." (Isaiah 43:11)
(c)
"Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the end of the earth: for I am
God, and there is non else." (Isaiah 45:22)
Note the
first person pronoun singular (highlighted in green) in the above references,
and without any difficulty you will agree that the statements seem to have the
sound of being GOD'S WORD.
Christian
Response
Here the implication is
these verses “seem” to have the “sound” of being God’s word. One can read the verse and as stated above
either accepting it as truth or not. To
pick and choose what verses to hold to contradicts the fact that “all scripture
is given by inspiration of God”. It does
not finish out with, “except those verses thought to not be true by Moslems,
JWs, Mormons, and all other religions, sects and cults.”
The
SECOND Type:
(a) "Jesus
cried with a loud voice, saying Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani?
. . ." (Matthew 27:46)
(b)
"And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear,
O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord:" (Mark 12:29)
(c)
"And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none
good but one, that is God." (Mark 10:18).
Even a
child will be able to affirm that: Jesus "cried" Jesus "answered"
and Jesus "said" are the words of the one to whom they are
attributed, i.e. the WORDS OF A PROPHET OF GOD.
Christian
Response
For those who are not
aware, it is important to note that Muhammad taught that Jesus was a prophet of
God, like Muhammad. As such, the
followers of Muhammad put full belief in what Jesus said, or that they think he
said, like they do the prophets of the Old Testament.
It is also important to
note that the three verses chosen above are all used by the cults and some
sects to show Jesus is not God. While
these verses do not prove that, believers use them quite readily as that proof.
The
THIRD Type:
"And
seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he, (JESUS) came, if haply he
(JESUS) might find anything thereon: and when he (JESUS) came to it,
(Jesus) found nothing but leaves . . ." (Mark 11:13)
The bulk
of the Bible is a witnessing of this THIRD kind. These are the words of
a third person. Note the underlined pronouns. They are not the Words of
God or of His prophet, but the WORDS OF A HISTORIAN.
For the
Muslim it is quite easy to distinguish the above types of evidence, because he
also has them in his own faith. But of the followers of the different
religions, he is the most fortunate in this that his various records are
contained in separate Books!
ONE: The first kind — THE WORD OF GOD — is
found in a Book called The Holy Qur’an.
TWO: The second kind — THE WORDS OF THE
PROPHET OF GOD, (Muhummed, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)
are recorded in the Books of Tradition called The Hadith.
THREE: Evidence of the third kind abounds in
different volume of Islamic history, written by some of high integrity and
learning, and others of lesser trustworthiness, but the Muslim advisedly keeps
his Books in separate volumes!
The
Muslim keeps the above three types of evidence Jealously apart, in their proper
gradations of authority. He never equates them. On the other hand, the
"Holy Bible" contains a motley type of literature, which composes the
embarrassing kind, the sordid, and the obscene — all under the same cover — A
Christian is forced to concede equal spiritual import and authority to all, and
is thus unfortunate in this regard.
Christian
Response
66 books written by
around 40 authors over a 1,000-year time frame, with the whole of the books
pointing to Jesus – that is the Christian Bible. There is no separation of who is talking, one
can sit down and read the story from cover to cover.
Here is the link to Chapter 3:
http://dochifi.blogspot.com/2014/09/is-bible-gods-word-chapter-3-multiple.html
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