Comparison: Bible vs. Koran

Introduction

I know you believe as I do right now that it’s a great blessing to be in this gathering today to think on these things and to do these uh activities that remind us of who God is and what God has done for us and the great relationship we have with Him and with one another. And I am so grateful for this gathering, and I’m uh thankful to those who are visiting with us today for this worship assembly, and also to hear this lesson. And I’m very grateful for those who participate in this series this weekend, and if you have, then you are prepared for these next two lessons to get the most from it and to understand the difference between Jesus and Mohammed and the Bible and the Quran.

I’m so grateful for your interest and for your attitude, and it’s been a certainly a great blessing this weekend to be with all of you.

And is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. The Bible claims to be the word of God given to man, revealed from the mind and heart of God for man’s benefit and spiritual completion. The Quran says in the second surah no doubt is there about this book. It is a guidance to the God fearing, and who believe in what hath been sent down to thee and in what hath been sent down before thee in full faith have they in the life to come. These are guided by their Lord, and with these it shall be well. Two books. Both claim to be from God. Both claim to be the guidance from God and to God.

Can they both be true? We’ve come to the point in this series about understanding and responding to Islam that we’ve done the work necessary to begin to make a fair comparison and even contrast between the central important things of Islam and the central important things of Christianity. And this morning we’re going to look at the Bible and the Quran. Because at the core of both of these faiths is the idea that God has communicated through writing. And they’re not completely unique, but the faith of Islam and Christianity do share this in common. Not all religions have had this at their core, that God has communicated sacred writings to be followed. But that is true of Islam, and that is true of Christianity that both claim that.

Which means that if God has done that, then those writings would bear the characteristics of God. That there would be proof that there would be traits about these writings that would indicate that only God could produce these things. And so, regarding the Bible and regarding the Quran, is the source divine? Does it bear the signature of God? And I would have you to think not just signature, but also fingerprints. Because signature is something that you leave behind to give your endorsement of something where you purposefully put the signature down to proclaim, yes, this has my approval, this has my agreement. But also there are fingerprints. And you leave those, whether you intend to or not. They’re evidence that you’ve been there. Does the Quran have the fingerprints of God on it?

1. A Test the Bible Itself Proposes: Predictive Prophecy

Does the Bible have the fingerprints of God on it? This step is so important because finding the roadmap through this life and to God for eternity, that is of immeasurable value. And it’s also urgent. Because time is swiftly passing. Eternity is approaching very soon. Well, what about the Bible? Is the Bible from God? I would have you to consider this morning a test. A test that the Bible itself proposes. Moses writes in Deuteronomy 18, beginning in verse 21, and if you say in your heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken.

The prophet has spoken it presumptuously.

This is stated in the negative. What Moses is saying, though, is if a prophet makes a prediction and it does not come true, he’s not speaking for God. But we understand the opposite that if a man speaks of the future and predicts the future and he prophesies accurately, and it comes true, and it’s proven thus that he is speaking for God. Because you see, human beings can’t predict the future. You may fill out a bracket here in the next couple weeks for the NCAA basketball tournament if you’re a basketball fan. How many times, if you filled out a bracket in a matter of just a few weeks, you looked at it and you saw how wrong that you were. It’s even hard to predict just in a few days what the final four teams are going to be.

But when you come into the Old Testament, you find that there are predictions made, not about something that will happen in a matter of days or weeks, not even about things that will happen in a matter of years, but in a matter of decades, if not centuries. Because what we have in the Old Testament is predictive prophecy. And if you have predictive prophecy, it is beyond the shadow of a doubt the signature of God. Because human beings cannot know the future. We can make guesses about the future. You may analyze the stock market and think that, you know, in the next six months, you know, Exxon is going to go up. You may predict that in the next six months that GM is going to go down.

And you may be right about that. But you’re making a prediction based upon evidence about something short term. But when a person is able to pinpoint something that will happen far off into the future, and it happened exactly when and how that person predicts it, that ability is only reserved for God.

And we have those in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, there are specific prophecies, especially about nations which came true. Like the nation of Israel or Egypt or Assyria or Babylon or Persia. Here’s an example. One of many. Isaiah 44, verse 28. The prophet says, Who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and he shall perform all my pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, You shall be built into the temple, your foundation shall be laid. Isaiah predicts that one day a ruler will come along who will be an instrument of God, a servant of God. His name is going to be Cyrus. And he is going to give an edict for Jerusalem to be built, to the temple to be restored. And it came true. What’s remarkable is that Isaiah made this prediction before Cyrus was even born.

2. The Prophecies About the Messiah

He made this prediction before Persia was even a world power. He made this prediction when Babylon was on the rise, not Persia. How could he do that? It’s the signature of God. And what we have in the Old Testament, and that’s just one example of many, are prophecies made years in advance, sometimes centuries in advance, which came true. And this proves that the Old Testament bears the characteristics of God. There’s a certain kind of predictive prophecy, though, I want you to look more closely with me at, and that’s the prophecies that have to do with really the main thrust of the Old Testament. And that is that God is indicating through the writings of the Old Testament, through the writings of Moses and David and Isaiah and Jeremiah and others, that one day God would offer to his people, the Israelites, as well as to the Gentiles, a new light, salvation, deliverance.

And this would come about through one who would be known as the Messiah or the anointed one, which in the Greek was the expression Christ. That he would be a servant of God, a Savior of the people of God, a deliverer, a ruler, and that he would come and bring about a new age where all people could become the people of God and know salvation. And these are a month, these are the most important and the most impressive prophecies of the Bible. Those about the Messiah. Now you can control some things about your life. You can predict that where you’ll be living in ten years. And there’s a good chance you could be accurate in that. You can predict what kind of occupation. If you’re a young person, you may predict, you know, I’m going to be this or I’m going to be that, and there’s a good chance that you’re going to be a lawyer or you’re going to be an accountant.

But there’s some things about our life we can’t predict. Like where we’re going to be born. We read in Micah, the prophet. But you, Bethlehem of Ephatrah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be the ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. This is a messianic prophecy that there is the ruler who is coming. And he is not going to be merely human. He is going to be eternal in his nature. And he’s going to be born in an obscure village in Judah, in Bethlehem. You know how the Bible responds to this prophecy. That when you come to the New Testament, you read that in Bethlehem Jesus was born.

A fulfillment of that prophecy. You can’t control the events of one’s birth. You also can’t control the events of one’s death. Bob referred this morning before the Lord’s Supper to Isaiah, the 53rd chapter, where we read, speaking of the servant who would come and be the great instrument of God, that he’s despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, verse 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. But more than about his suffering and punishment, Isaiah writes, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

And then regarding his death, Isaiah writes in verse 9, and they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death, because he had done no violence nor was deceit in his mouth. Not only is Isaiah predict that this servant would come and be treated with great brutality, but this suffering that he would endure would be as a substitute. He would take the punishment that we deserve. He would bear our sins. And he would do this with great humility. He would not strike back when he was smitten. I mean, there’s really something odd. His death is going to be connected to the wicked and to the rich. And then you come to the New Testament. And you read that this Jesus was pure and righteous.

That even his enemies could not find fault with him. But yet he was treated in the most brutal way, the most torturous way. But it was a fulfillment to go through that experience to pay for our sins. And after he died, when he died on the cross, he was crucified between two men who were criminals, who were thieves, who were known for their wickedness. He had no control over that, where he would be crucified and who would be beside of him. And then after he is dead, they removed the body from the cross. And a wealthy man who had been a secret disciple of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea, who had a brand new tomb, came and asked for the body, and this wealthy man came and buried him in that tomb.

Can’t control your birth, you can’t control your death. But there are detailed prophecies about those very things regarding the Christ. And Jesus fulfilled those things. In a lesson like this, I can only give you samples, but samples that should make you think. Pause. And for sure study more. Because we see in the Old Testament, dozens and dozens of prophecies about the Christ, the Messiah, which are fulfilled in the one called Jesus of Nazareth. Predictions about how a prophet would go in front of him and prepare people for his teaching and his ministry, how that he would do miracles, how that he would work in the Galilean area. He would provide a light there. That he would enter into Jerusalem triumphantly, but we know how it ended.

A day later, he is put to death outside Jerusalem. That regarding his demise, that one of his companions, his disciple, betrayed him, that he was sold for 30 pieces of silver, that in his greatest hour, his followers, though they vowed not to, abandoned him. And how that he was pierced, he was hung. He was lifted up. All expressions in the prophets, which is interesting because when the prophets made those predictions, crucifixion was not a common form of execution. It came much later. And then how that he would not remain in the grave. How that he would be resurrected. There are a lot of pieces there. Much like a puzzle. When you take a puzzle, you know, a 500-piece puzzle, and you dump the box out onto the table, and all those pieces are just strewn around.

There does not appear to be any kind of connection at first glance. They’re just pieces. And you can pick a piece up, and it’s hard to make out exactly what it is. Well, here’s one that looks like there’s a tree there. Here it looks like there’s a, you know, a, you know, a part of a stream or something, but you still don’t get it. But then you begin to work and you put the pieces together. And you see the pieces. It’s a composite. It makes up a unified picture. When you put the pieces of the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament together, the picture you get is of Jesus. That Jesus is the Christ. He fulfilled those predictions. He fulfilled them specifically in right on time in just the right way.

And one can say, well, he read those things and he went and did those things. But remember, there were things that were predicted about the Messiah that a mere man could not control, like the events of his birth and the events of his death, and who would be associated with his death, the wicked and the rich. It’s impressive. Taken together the documents of the Old Testament and the New Testament show that we have a volume here of writings based upon the predictions and the fulfillment that only God could produce because only God knows the future. Human beings can’t predict the future. They can’t know the future. And these predictions match, proving not only that these writings here are of God, but what they teach, that Jesus is the Christ, the predicted Messiah, Savior of the world.

3. Were the Old Testament Writings Changed to Match Jesus?

But there are two questions we need to ask. In looking at this carefully.

That Isaiah wrote some things about the Messiah in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but then this Jesus character came along, and then some people changed the writings of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They changed those things in Micah. They changed those things to match Jesus. Is that possible? Good question. It’s like if I came to you with a book. And this book is about September 11th, 2001. And all the disturbing events of that day. And it’s in great detail. And you’re like, well, yeah. And then I flip over and I show you that it claims to be written in 1950. Well, one of the first responses you would have would be, that can’t be true. That it was written in 1950. What’s happened is that somebody’s written this after 2001 and they slap the date on it and claimed it’s 50 years before.

Is that what happened with the old New Testament?

Well, consider this. How that the best evidence shows that the writings of David, like in the Psalms where he writes about the Messiah, were about a thousand years before the birth of Christ. The best evidence shows that Isaiah wrote, like Isaiah 53, 700 years before Jesus. However, somebody comes along and they say, no, couldn’t be. There’s no way Isaiah could get that specific. There’s no way David could get that specific. There’s no way Micah could be that detailed. Could they have been written after the fact? I would have you to consider something called the Septuagint. The Greeks, by the end of the Old Testament, were on the rise. In the period between the close of the Old Testament and the opening of the New Testament, the Greek civilization had come to dominate the Mediterranean world.

The Greeks were really into learning. And so, in Alexandria, Egypt, where there was a large group of Jewish scholars who lived, the Greek authorities and the Greek scholars authorized that these Hebrew scholars take their scriptures, take the writings of Moses and take the writings of David and Isaiah, and have them translated from the Hebrew language into the Greek language. Because they were interested in learning about anybody’s culture. The Greeks were so thirsty in their pursuit of knowledge. And you can look this up in any encyclopedia. The Septuagint, commonly designated 70, is the oldest Greek version of the Old Testament of the Old Testament of the Bible. The title 70, referring to the tradition that it was the work of 70 translators or 72 in some traditions.

But the tradition, the only the only thing that’s tradition here is how many were used. It is a fact that the translation was made from the Hebrew Bible by Hellenistic Jews during the period 275 to 100 at Alexandria. It took them a while to do it. It’s a lot of work. But look what this is telling us. 275 to 100 at Alexandria. Now, this quote directly from this encyclopedia doesn’t say BC, but look at the numbers. They run from up to down, don’t they? And you know that that’s BC. What takes place here? Well, consider this. That at least 200 years before Jesus was born. What were people doing? They were translating the Old Testament into other languages. You can’t translate something until it was written.

So what we have here, regardless of the fact that the best evidence indicates the Psalms were written a thousand, Isaiah wrote 700 years before. Besides that, any person who just does a little scratching of research will learn a fact. And that is, at least by 200, the writings of the Old Testament, including the writings of David and Isaiah and Mike and Ezekiel, the writings of the Old Testament were written down because they were already being translated into other languages. And you know what you do when you write something down? You freeze it in time. Be careful what you write. Because it can come back to haunt you. Especially if you write it and you disperse it and share it. But the writings of the Old Testament were frozen in time, and they lay there, and people read them and they translated them and they poured over them in time past, years past, centuries past.

4. Did the Disciples Make Up the Jesus Story?

And then Jesus was born. And here comes a man who fulfills these prophecies exactly. Facts are these. The Old Testament prophecies were documented, circulated, even translated at least 200 years before Jesus. Because they began to work on them in 175. I’m sorry, in 275. I mean, this is indisputable that the Old Testament was already in place way before Jesus was born. What do you make of that? Jesus fulfilled these things. They weren’t doctored. But then here’s a second question somebody may ask. Well, what if the prophecies actually were made? That what we have in Isaiah, actually he wrote that hundreds of years before. Well we have in Micah and what we have in Ezekiel and Zachariah. Those things were written hundreds years before Jesus, but here’s what really happened.

Jesus came along, and he may have fulfilled some of these things, but what really happened is after Jesus died, that his followers were so taken with him that when they recorded his life, that they doctored it. They created a legend. They created a picture of Jesus so that what they wrote about his life actually did match the prophecies of the Old Testament. It’s a good question. Did these men wait and when the time was right, create material that made it look like Jesus was the Christ? We read in Acts chapter 7, the day of Pentecost. The day of Pentecost took place seven weeks after the death of Jesus. Because the feast, the Jewish Feast of Pentecost takes place 49 days after the feast of the Passover, where Jesus was put to death.

Seven weeks after that, Peter and the other apostles of Jesus stand up in Jerusalem, the very city where outside those walls Jesus was put to death. The very city where outside those walls Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph’s Mermathea, and they proclaimed these things. They were all with one accord in one place. And we read it through the Jerusalem crowd that Peter says, Men of Israel hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves know, you see, they knew Jesus. They’d heard of Jesus, they saw Jesus. He had been in their midst, teaching and working. Him being delivered by the determined counsel of purpose and foreknowledge of God, you’ve taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death.

Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. In his conclusion, Peter says, Therefore, let all the house of Israel know, assuredly, that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. According to the New Testament, within weeks after the resurrection of Jesus, his disciples were standing in the very place where he was killed, to some of the very same people who were witnesses to those events and proclaiming this Jesus was not just merely a good guy with good morals, with interesting teaching. He is the fulfillment of the plan of God. He is a fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies. He is the Lord and Christ. And what a controversial message, because these people had killed Jesus.

But they had the courage to proclaim this because it was the eternal truth. He fulfilled these prophecies, and they boldly proclaimed it. And we see in Acts the third chapter, days later. Peter is also preaching again in the temple area, and he says, Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, which would include David and Isaiah and Micah and Zachariah, as many as have spoken have also foretold these days. You are sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed, which is one of the earliest messianic prophecies. To you first, God having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning every one of you away from your iniquities.

How soon, after the life and death of Jesus, did his disciples begin to proclaim he was a fulfillment of prophecy, that he was the Christ. Acts says immediately, within weeks.

Because you were here February 1, 2011, and there was no tornado that hit Orlando and did that damage. You’d think me strange. But if somebody walked into Orlando 300 years later, or a hundred years later, and they had this book, there might be somebody who stopped and said, Oh, really? There was a tornado here a hundred years ago, seventy years ago, and it killed 500 people on February 1st, 2000, 2011? And because people weren’t living then, they may pause and say, Well, maybe there’s something to this. Now they can investigate and learn from other sources. No, that’s not what happened. But here’s the point. You can’t pawn off a lie. You can’t pawn off a legend or a myth at the same place in the same time with the same people where it’s supposed to take place.

You’ve got to wait. You’ve got to have a spance of time. And then you can say, oh, guess what happened 50 years ago or 100 years ago or 500 years ago? Then people, because they weren’t there, they would have to say, well, maybe it did happen, and they would have to investigate. You would have a chance to pass it off. But when did the disciples of Jesus begin to preach, he fulfilled the Messianic prophecies immediately. And we don’t have to just rely on the New Testament to tell us that. There was a man by the name of Josephus who was of Jewish descent, who was captured by the Romans when the Romans mowed through Palestine. And he became a Jewish historian for the Romans. A Jewish historian for the Romans.

He was not a Christian. But he’s giving a very full and detailed record of what happened with the Jewish nation, including what had been happening in the first century. And as he writes in 96 AD in the antiquities, he says this. Now there was about this time, speaking of the early first century, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as received the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him.

For he appeared to them alive again in the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day. Now, understand something. Josephus is not a Christian. And really, in spite of how you might read this, Josephus is not trying to promote the idea that Jesus was the Savior of the world. What he’s trying to do is present what happened in the early first century. And the facts are these.

The facts are these.

They were preaching it immediately, which brings us back to that question. Did the disciples make up the Jesus story to make it match the prophecies? Preaching that Jesus was the Christ occurred right away to the very audience that were witness to his death and his life. The disciples didn’t make this up to fulfill the prophecies. Because they couldn’t have gotten away with it. People were there and knew what happened. This legend would not have gotten off the ground at this time. Now, 200 years later, maybe. But at this time, there’s no way.

5. What About the Quran’s Prophecies?

The legend will fizzle. It is not logical to believe, based on the facts of the events, that the writings of the Old Testament were altered after Jesus. It is not logical to conclude that the disciples, much time later, made up the Jesus myth that he was the Christ. Because evidence in and outside the Bible prove that immediately they began to preach this message, and lo and behold, thousands accepted it. Even those who had been guilty of asking for Jesus’ execution. What about the Quran? If predictive prophecy is just an indisputable way to prove that a book of a book is from God, what about the Quran? The Quran claims to have. Muslims claim that in the Quran there are prophecies. Not very many. Actually, few in number.

Let’s look at a couple. Sewer 30 says. The Greeks, Romans, and this is actually a reference to the Byzantine Empire, which was a Greek culture, but it was the Eastern Roman Empire. Have been defeated in a land hard by. But after their defeat, they shall defeat their folks in a few years. Nine. First and last is the affair with God, and on that day shall the faithful rejoice. Muslims say that this is a prediction made by Muhammad in his lifetime that the Byzantine Empire, the Eastern Empire of the Romans, would defeat the Persians, their old enemy. And that this happened in about nine years. Let’s go back to what we’ve learned about Mohammed in the Quran. Muhammad’s born in 570. He dies in 632. This prophecy about the Eastern Romans defeating the Persians was made in his lifetime.

Now we know that according to Muslim tradition, he began to receive the revelations in 610 A.D. So this prediction was made between 610 and 632. And that it was in a matter of nine years that it took place. So in Mohammed’s lifetime, Mohammed made the prediction about the victory of the Byzantine Empire over the Persians. And then it happened. But when was the Quran formed?

The Quran was formed after his death, wasn’t it? That his followers, and possibly Muhammad himself, had written down bits and pieces of his revelations on bark and on animal skin and on stone. These were collected, and over a period of a few years, they were put into the Quran. Here’s what we’ve got. The prophecy is made, the event happened, and then it’s written down. You see the sequence. Prophecy made, then it happened, and then it’s written down. It’s not made and then written down, and then it’s frozen there for 10 years, 20 years, 100 years, 200 years, 800 years, and then it happens. No. It happens, it’s predicted. Years pass, fulfillment, and then it’s written down to be examined. Here’s another. Surah 48. Now has God in truth made good to his apostle Muhammad the dream in which he said, You shall surely enter the sacred mosque, if God will in full security a speedy victory.

This is the prediction, according to Muslim tradition that Muhammad would lead his forces into Mecca, claim the Kaaba, and restore true worship to Allah. But when did that happen? According to Muslim tradition, the prophecies made, it happened in his lifetime. But then the Quran is formed. The prophecy is made, the event takes place, takes place, and then it’s put down in written form. There are some other prophecies. They’re not found in the Quran, they’re found in the Hadith. Well, there’s that point there, so yeah, here we go. I shouldn’t say conquest of Mecca, but that’s okay. According to the Hadith, during his lifetime, these traditional sayings of Muhammad that were collected, that he made some prophecies. He made some prophecies about who would be converted. He made some prophecies about who would be caliph after him.

He made prophecies about victories that the Islamic forces would have. And there were multiple predictions that he made. However, these are found in the Hadiths. The Hadiths were collected. The hadith was collected between 870 and put in a volume between 870 and 875 AD. See the pattern. Muhammad makes a prediction. It supposedly comes true. And then years later, it’s put down in written form where anybody and everybody can examine it. There is a major difference between that and biblical prophecy. Major difference. Bible prophecy is recorded many years before. You’ve only sampled a few this morning. There are more that I encourage you to look for them. The events take place long after it’s written down. When you write something down, people can examine it. They can translate it.

And it sat there for decades, really centuries, and then the prophecies were fulfilled. In Muslim prophecies, there’s not much time between the prediction and the event. And then after the event takes place, then it’s recorded. Muslims believe in their tradition that during his lifetime he made these predictions and they came true. But there is no way to examine it objectively until it’s written down. And it was written down after these events took place. Where’s the proof? Where’s the evidence that these predictions were from God? Can they be just can they be verified for being from God? But it’s interesting. While the Bible is filled with prophecy, the Quran and the Hadith, they’re not.

6. A Subjective Test and Minuscule Historical Information

Because the main Muslim apologetic or defense of the truthfulness of the Quran is the fact that when you read the Quran in the Arabic, that the style of the writing, the eloquence of the writing, the powerful impact of the writing is proof. How do you know a pecan pie is really good? You taste it. That’s the argument. That if you taste the Quran in the Arabic, you will know this must be from God. That it’s non-contradictory, it’s eloquent, it’s unmatched in human literature. It’s enlightening.

Everybody has different taste buds, in other words. Somebody might say of Shakespeare’s writings. They’re enlightening. They’re unparalleled. Nobody writes like Shakespeare. It’s powerful. And that’s all true. I mean, when I was young, I didn’t think that about Shakespeare. But the older I get and the more life experience you have, Shakespeare is eloquent and powerful and has so much truth to it. But is it from God? You see, that’s a very subjective test. That I know this is from God because when I read it, I just know it. Because that’s the way it feels and tastes. But that’s so subjective. And somebody could say that of any kind of writing that is just really, really quality writing. And then there’s this. When you read the Bible, it is abundant with details.

References to events and the rulers and the nations and the places and even time periods. The Old Testament and the New Testament has an extensive historical framework. There is a running narrative through Old and New Testaments. When you read the Bible, it is just laced with history. It is a history experience. Several years ago, when my daughter was in middle school, she had, in her geography class, she had a quiz coming up on Egypt. She was studying ancient people. And she had a quiz about the geography of Egypt, you know, the Nile and the Delta and all those kinds of things. And in prepping for this quiz, we said, Oh, the map you made in Bible class. We ran and got this relief map she’d made, where you take flour, you know, and water and salt.

And in Bible class, they were studying the Exodus, and they had made a relief map of Egypt and Sinai and all that, and they labeled it and everything in Bible class. And we took that, and she used that to study for her social studies quiz on the land of Egypt. When you read the Bible, it is just filled with historical detail. By the way, detail that’s constantly confirmed by archaeology. But the Quran. Minuscule historical information. As we said yesterday, if you picked up the Quran and it was laying on the table and you went through it, you’d be so hard-pressed to figure out who, when, where writing taking place. The historical context of the Quran was added later by Muslim scholars. You have to read Muslim scholars years, really hundreds of years later, that say, this is what Muhammad is saying, this is when he’s saying it.

This is the circumstance in which he’s saying it. The only way to understand the historical context of the Quran is to allow a Muslim scholar hundreds of years later to explain that to you. In and of itself, there is no historical context. My question is this can you have confidence in a collection of writings which claim to be historical, but lacks the historical framework. Our souls are too valuable. Eternity is too long. And our relationship before God is of the utmost importance. Not to have solid ground on which to stand. We have to be sure that the guidebook we’re using is from God. There has to be proof. If there’s not proof, you can’t depend on it as guidance from God. This is the idea that Paul is driving at, and he’s making the arguments that Jesus is the Christ from the prophecies.

Conclusion

He’s in custody. He’s before Roman authorities. He’s before a Roman authority that authority that knew the Jewish history. Paul in Acts chapter 26 says, Therefore, having obtained help from God to this day, I stand witnessing both the small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come. That the Christ would suffer, that he would be the first to rise from the dead and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles. Paul is proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ, and the proof is this was made in prophetic predictions centuries before. This is God talking to us. He’s accused of being mad by one of the governors. But he said, I’m not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason.

To know God and to be saved and forgiven and have the hope of heaven is the most joyful experience ever. But it starts with thinking and knowing. Emotion alone is not enough. And that’s why this whole weekend we’ve made the plea to investigate, to understand, to test. Because that’s what the apostles did. And that’s what they called all people to do regarding all things. Because Paul then continues before Agrippa, and he says, For the king before whom I also speak freely knows these things. He knew Agrippa knew about Jesus. For I am convinced that none of these things escapes his attention since this thing was not done in a corner. Christ intended for his message, his life to be looked at under the light. And for people to see that it is true and that it is reasonable.

That to believe he fulfilled the prophecies is the only conclusion to make of a thinking person who is earnestly seeking God, who then finds the great joy of knowing God through the Christ. The Bible versus the Quran. The guidebook we turn to that we believe and use to know our Creator and serve him has to be verified. I propose to you the evidence is not there for the Quran. But if you will do the searching and do it with an open and honest heart, the Bible will verify itself to you. And you can come to know the very will of God.

Anyone who might be in this audience who has come to the conclusion that Jesus is the Christ, and you know that he is the only way that you can be right with God, and he is the way for you to be forgiven of all your sins. Will you do what they did in the New Testament? We read this morning in the Bible class hour about you can be a son of God through faith and through baptism into Christ. And today, if you’ll confess your belief in Jesus being the Christ, we can assist you in being baptized into Christ, where you put on Christ. And regardless of what you’ve done, and regardless of who you are, you can belong to the family of God. Have the assurance of your forgiveness and the hope of eternal life with God in heaven.

If you’re prepared to make that commitment, I want you to be let it be known as you we stand together by coming to the front.