A Muslim was asked, have you read the Bible? He replied, "Yes, I have read it." He was asked what do you think about it? He replied "I do not believe in it" when He was asked why? He replied " Because it is corrupted and changed by the hands of people."
One of the main barriers for Muslims about the Gospel is that, they believe that the Bible is changed. In this article we will discuss to our Muslim friends: Why The Bible has not been changed. We will look what does the Bible say about itself of being protected and will never change. Then we will look the reliability of the Bible by historical methods and archaeological evidences. After that we will do some study what does the Quran teaches about the Bible.
First of all lets look a bit on the relationship of Christianity and Islam.
Islam and Christianity
Islam and Christianity are two of the closest religions in the world. Both these religions rose up from the same culture, race, and geographical area, which is currently the Middle East. These two religions, both came out of the same language family, which is the Semitic family branch of languages and even the leaders of these two religions come from the same father, Abraham.
Both religions are monotheistic, meaning they believe in only one God, and they share many similar stories to include accounts of creation, Noah's flood, Abraham, calling, rescuing of Israelites from slavery to the Egyptians by Moses, and so on. Even Muslims believe that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. We will not go in details of what does Islam teach about Jesus. It was discussed in the previous article in details. In here we will start with our first step and see what does the Bible teaches about itself.
Evidences from the Bible
There are many verses in the Bible that promise that the word of God will not change or be lost. We will give a few examples from the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament states "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever" (Isaiah 40 verse 8). Also The New Testament "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away" (Mathew 24 verse 35).
It should also be noted that at the end of the Bible there is a warning given: "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll" (Revelation 22 verses 18-19).
Historical and Archeological evidences
The other tool that we can use to see if the Bible has been changed or not, is through historical methods and archaeological evidences. Let's see what is history and how it can help us to know if the Bible has been changed or not. History deals with the past events. Some of the important elements in historical records are, place, time and reasons for events. These three are very significant and important elements of history. Without these elements we cannot call anything a reliable record.
We will examine the argument that the Bible has been changed based on these three principles of history. Many times in my encounter with Muslims when they say the Bible has changed. I try to follow up the historical principles with them. Often I ask them to discuss why do you think the Bible has changed and please present your idea on historical bases. When they are asked, when was the Bible changed? Often they cannot answer and give a time that the Bible was changed. When they are asked where the Bible was changed? Was the Bible changed in Europe? In Asia? Africa? Again, there is no answer for this question.
So, when Muslims say the Bible was changed, they cannot say when was it changed and where was it changed. The Bible in a few centuries were spread almost to the whole ancient known world. If for example the Bible was changed in Egypt, we had Bibles in India. If it was changed in Rome we had Bibles in Syria. So it is impossible for people to gather the Bibles from all around ancient world and change them. Since this claim cannot be supported by the principles of history, therefore it is historically not accurate to say that the Bible has changed.
So far we went through the evidences that why the Bible is not changed by looking at the Bible itself and then by historical principles and elements. We will discuss the rest of the evidences that are archealogical and also what did Quran say about the Bible in the 7th century in my next article.
Mumim Faizy is a young Christian from the Middle East (Islamic world) and his interest research areas are philosophy and religious studies.
Mumim Faizy's previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mumin-faizy.html