IS THE BIBLE GODS WORD?
IS THE BIBLE GODS WORD?
By Ahmed Deedat
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Chapter 1 - WHAT THEY SAY
Chapter 2 - THE MUSLIMS STANDPOINT
Chapter 3 - THE MULTIPLE BIBLE VERSIONS |
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Chapter 4 - FIFTY THOUSAND ERRORS (?)
Chapter 5 - DAMNING CONFESSIONS
Chapter 6 - THE BOOK CHRISTENED "THE NEW TESTAMENT |
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Chapter 7 - THE ACID TEST
Chapter 8 - MOST OBJECTIVE TESTIMONY
Chapter 9 - THE GENEALOGY OF JESUS |
CHAPTER ONE
WHAT THEY SAY
CHRISTIANS CONFESS
Dr. W. Graham Scroggie of the MOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE,
Chicago, one of the most prestigious Christian Evangelical Mission in the world, answering
the question "Is the Bible the Word of God?" (also the title of
his book), under the heading: IT IS HUMAN, YET DIVINE. He says on page 17:
Yes, the Bible is human, though
some, out of zeal which is not according to knowledge, 1 have denied this. Those books2
have passed through the minds of men, are written in the language of men,
were penned by the hands of men, and bear in their style the characteristics of
men." (Emphasis added).
Another erudite Christian scholar, Kenneth Cragg, the
Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, says on page 277 of his book, "The Call of the
Minaret":
Not so the New Testament3 . .
. There is condensation and editing; 4 there is choice, reproduction and witness. The Gospels have come
through the mind of the Church behind the authors. They represent experience
and history." 5
If words have any meaning, do we need to add
another word of comment to prove our case? No! But the professional propagandists,
after letting the cat out of the bag, still have the face to try to make their readers
believe that they have proved beyond the shadow of any doubt that the Bible is the
"irrefragable 6 Word of God." Their semantic gymnastics
equivocating, and playing with words is amazing!
1. Out of ignorance.
2. The Bible is not Just a Book. It is a selection and
compilation of many books.
3. As opposed to the Qur'an.
4. Another word for Interpolating.
5. Emphasis are mine.
6. Indisputable.
Both these Doctors of Religion are telling us in the
clearest language humanly possible that the Bible is the handiwork of man, all the while
pretending that the are proving to the contrary. An old Arab saying goes: "IF SUCH
ARE THE PRIESTS, GOD BLESS THE CONGREGATION."
With this sort of drive, the hot-gospeller and
the Bible-thumper is "inspired" to harry the "heathen." 1 A
theological student a not-yet-qualified young evangelist from the University
of Witwatersrand, became a frequent visitor to the Newtown Mosque in Johannesburg, with
the "noble" thought of "witnessing"2 to the members of its congregation. When I was introduced to him, (and having
learnt his purpose), I invited him to lunch at my brother's residence a
stone's-throw from the Mosque. While discussing the authenticity of the Bible over the
dinner table and sensing his stubborn dogmatism, I put out a feeler: "Your
Professor Geyser, (The Head of the Department of Theology) does not believe the Bible
to be the Word of God." Without the slightest surprise he answered, "I
know." Now I personally had no knowledge of the Professor's conviction about the
Bible. I had only assumed so from a controversy which raged around him about the
"Divinity of Christ." 3 He had taken issue with the orthodox believers on this
point some years ago. I continued further, saying, "Your lecturer does not
believe the Bible as being God's Word." The young evangelist, responded again,
"I know" but he continued this time-with the words, "but I believe
that it is the Word of God!" There is no real remedy for such people. Even Jesus
bewailed this sickness:
.. seeing they see not; and hearing they hear not,
neither do they understand." (Matthew 13:13)
Al-Qur'an, the Holy Book of God, also condemns this mulish
mentality:
These pages are now addressed to those sincerely humble
souls, who are genuinely interested in seeking the Light of God, and who wish to be guided
by it. As for the other, with a sickness in their souls, the facts presented herein can
only increase the disease of their hearts.
1. See "How Lost are the Heathen?" by the same MOODY
PRESS of Dr. Scroggie.
2. When the Christian talks of "witnessing" he means
propagating, proselytizng, converting.
3. This subject is dealt extensively in the book "CHRIST
IN ISLAM"
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.
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
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 witnessess 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:
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)
(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.
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.
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 Quran.
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.
CHAPTER
THREE
THE MULTIPLE BIBLE
VERSIONS
It will now be easy for us to analyze a Christian's claim
about his Holy Book.
SEPARATING THE WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF
Before we scrutinize the various versions, let us
clarify our own belief regarding the Books of God. When we say that we believe in the
Tauraat, the Zaboor, the Injeel and the Qur'an, what do we really
mean? We already know that the Holy Qur'an is the infallible Word of God, revealed to our
Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhummed Mustapha (Peace be upon him) word for word, through the
agency of the Archangel Jibraeel, (known as Gabriel in English), and perfectly preserved
and protected from human tampering for the past fourteen hundred years! 1 Even hostile critics of Islam have grudgingly vouched for the
purity of the Holy Qur'an: "THERE IS PROBABLY IN THE WORLD NO OTHER BOOK WHICH HAS
REMAINED TWELVE CENTURIES (now fourteen) WITH SO PURE A TEXT." (Sir
William Muir)
The Tauraat we Muslims believe in is not
the "Torah" of the Jews and the Christians, though the words one Arabic,
the other Hebrew are the same. We believe that whatever the Holy Prophet Moses
(Peace be upon him) preached to his people, was the revelation from God Almighty, but that
Moses was not the author of those "books" attributed to him by the Jews
and the Christians. 2
Likewise, we believe that the Zaboor was the
revelation of God granted to Hazrat Dawood (David) (Peace be upon him), but that the
present Psalms associated with his name are not that revelation. The Christians
themselves do not insist that David is the sole author of "his" Psalms.3
1. Whether Muslim or non-Muslim, you do not have lo accept this claim
on faith alone. You can verify the fact that Al-Qur'an is the Word of God.
See "AL-QURAN- The Miracle of Miracles";
2- More evidence later on "Moses not the author of the
Biblical "Torah."
3.. Later on youll read how Christian "Brains Trust"
confess "Author; Principally David, though there are other writers."
What about the Injeel? INJEEL means the
"Gospel" or "good news" which Jesus Christ preached during his short
ministry. The "Gospel" writers often mention that Jesus going about and
preaching the Gospel (the Injeel):
1. "And Jesus went . . . preaching the
gospel . . . and healing every disease among the people." (Matthew 9:35)
2. .. but whosoever shall lose his fife
for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it." (Mark 8:35)
3. "... preached the gospel. .
." (Luke 20:1)
The "gospel" is a frequently-used word, but what
Gospel did Jesus preach? Of the 27 books of the New Testament, only a small fraction can
be accepted as the words of Jesus. The Christians boast about the Gospels according to St.
Matthew, according to St. Mark, according to St. Luke and according to St. John, but there
is not a single Gospel "according" to (St.) Jesus himself! We
sincerely believe that everything Christ (May the peace and blessings of God be upon
him) preached was from God. That was the Injeel, the good news and the guidance of
God for the Children of Israel. In his life-time Jesus never wrote a single word, nor did
he instruct anyone to do so. What passes off as the "GOSPELS" today are the
works of anonymous hands!
The question before us is: "Do you accept that the
Bible is God's Word?" The question is really in the form of a challenge. The
questioner is not simply seeking enlightenment. The question is posed in the spirit of a
debate. We have every right to demand in a similar vein "Which Bible are you
talking about?", we may ask. "Why, there is only ONE Bible!" he mutters.
THE CATHOLIC BIBLE
Holding the "Douay" Roman Catholic
Version of the Bible aloft in my hand, I ask, "Do YOU accept THIS Bible
as the Word of God?" For reasons best known to themselves, the Catholic Truth Society
have published their Version of the Bible in a very short, stumpy form. This Version is a
very odd proportion of the numerous Versions in the market today. The Christian questioner
is taken aback. "What Bible is that?" he asks. "Why, I thought you said
that there was only ONE Bible!" I remind him. "Y-e-s," he murmurs
hesitantly, "but what Version is that?" "Why, would that make any
difference?" I enquire. Of course it does, and the professional preacher knows that
it does. He is only bluffing with his "ONE Bible" claim.
The Roman Catholic Bible was published at Rheims
in 1582, from Jerome's Latin Vulgate and reproduced at Douay in 1609. As such the RCV
(Roman Catholic Version) is the oldest Version that one can still buy today. Despite its
antiquity, the whole of the Protestant world, including the "cults"* condemn the RCV because it contains seven extra "books"
which they contemptuously refer to as the "apocrypha" i.e. of DOUBTFUL
AUTHORITY. Notwithstanding the dire warning contained in the Apocalypse, which is the last
book in the RCV (renamed as "Revelation" by the Protestants), it is
"revealed":
. . If any man shall add to these things
(or delete) God shall add unto him the plagues written in this Book."
(Revelation 22:18-19)
But who cares! They do not really believe! The Protestants
have bravely expunged seven whole books from their Book of God! The outcasts are:
The Book of Judith
The Book of Tobias
The Book of Baruch
The Buck of Esther, etc.
* This disparaging
title is given by the orthodox to Jehovah's Witnesses, the Seventh Day Adventists and a
thousand other sects and denominations with whom they do not see eye to eye.
THE PROTESTANT BIBLE
Sir Winston Churchill has some pertinent things to say
about the Authorised Version (AV) of the Protestant Bible, which is also widely known as
the "King James Version (KJV)".
THE AUTHORISED VERSION OF THE BIBLE WAS PUBLISHED IN
1611 BY THE WILL AND COMMAND OF HIS MAJESTY KING JAMES THE 1ST WHOSE
NAME IT BEARS TILL TODAY."
The Roman Catholics, believing as they do that the
Protestants have mutilated the Book of God, are yet aiding and abetting the Protestant
"crime" by forcing their native converts to purchase the Authorised Version (AV)
of the Bible, which is the only Bible available in some 1500 languages of the lesser
developed nations of the world. The Roman Catholics milk their cows, but the feeding is
left to the Protestants! The overwhelming majority of Christians both Catholics and
Protestant use the Authorised (AV) or the King James Version (KJV) as
it is alternatively called.
GLOWING TRIBUTES
First published, as Sir Winston says, in 1611, and then
revised in 1881 (RV), and now re-revised and brought up to date as the Revised Standard
Version (RSV) 1952, and now again re-re-revised in 1971 (still RSV for short). Let us
see what opinion Christendom has of this most revised Bible, the RSV:-
1. "THE FINEST VERSION WHICH HAS BEEN PRODUCED IN THE
PRESENT CENTURY." (Church of England Newspaper)
2. "A COMPLETELY FRESH TRANSLATION BY SCHOLARS OF THE
HIGHEST EMINENCE." (Times literary Supplement)
3. "THE WELL-LOVED CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AUTHORISED
VERSION COMBINED WITH A NEW ACCURACY OF TRANSLATION." (Life and Work)
4. "THE MOST ACCURATE AND CLOSE RENDERING OF THE
ORIGINAL" (The Times)
The publishers (Collins) themselves, in their notes on the
Bible at the end of their production, say on page 10: "THIS BIBLE (RSV), IS
THE PRODUCT OF THIRTY-TWO SCHOLARS, ASSISTED BY AN ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPRESENTING
FIFTY CO-OPERATING DENOMINATIONS." Why all this boasting? To make the gullible
public buy their product? All these testimonies convince the purchaser that he is backing
the right horse, with the purchaser little suspecting that he is being taken for a ride.
THE WORLD'S BEST SELLER"
But what about the Authorised Version of the Bible (AV),
the "World's Best Seller?" These Revisers, all good salesmen, have some very
pretty things to say about it. However, their page iii, paragraph six of the PREFACE of
the RSV reads;
THE KING JAMES VERSION (alternative description of
AV) HAS WITH GOOD REASON BEEN TERMED 'THE NOBLEST MONUMENT OF ENGLISH PROSE.
ITS REVISERS IN 1881 EXPRESSED ADMIRATION FOR 'ITS SIMPLICITY, ITS DIGNITY, ITS POWER,
ITS HAPPY TURNS OF EXPRESSION ... THE MUSIC OF ITS CADENCES, AND THE FELICITIES OF ITS
RHYTHM. IT ENTERED, AS NO OTHER BOOK HAS, INTO THE MAKING OF THE PERSONAL
CHARACTER AND THE PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES. WE OWE TO IT AN
INCALCULABLE DEBT."
Can you, dear reader, imagine a more magnificent tribute
being paid to the "Book of Books" than the above? I, for one, cannot. Let the
believing Christian, now steel himself for the un-kindest blow of all from his own beloved
Lawyers of Religion; for in the very same breath they say:
YET THE KING JAMES VERSION HAS GRAVE DEFECTS."
And, "THAT THESE DEFECTS ARE SO MANY AND SO SERIOUS AS TO CALL FOR REVISION .
. ." This is straight from the horse's mouth, i.e. the orthodox Christian scholars of
"the highest eminence." Another galaxy of Doctors of Divinity are now required
to produce an encyclopaedia explaining the cause of those GRAVE AND SERIOUS DEFECTS in
their Holy Writ and their reasons for eliminating them.
This is a photographic reproduction from
the R.S.V. 1971.
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