The Koran vs. the Bible

Introduction

The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, beginning, all scripture is given by inspiration of God 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 Quran says in Sewer 2, 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 and full faith have they in the life to come? These are guided by their Lord, and with these it shall be well. Two collections of writings, both claiming the same thing. Both claim to be from God, to be guidance from God for mankind, to be blessings to mankind if they will follow the things contained in those writings.

Can they both be true? Is the Bible in claiming to be from God, the guidance for man and a blessing to man, is it true in that claim, or is the Quran true in claiming to be sent from heaven for the guidance of mankind? We are now entering into a very important aspect of our series of lessons regarding Muslims, Jews, and Christians searching in the face of conflict. There are a lot of things that over the last year and a half or so regarding the national and international events which have obviously displayed a conflict among people who claim to be Muslims, Jews, and Christians, that a lot of people are doing. Some people are trying to excuse and ignore the differences as though they do not matter, which is really a sort of uh head in the thin kind of approach that will not work.

Other people have the extreme reaction of thinking that their way is right, and as a result, I must physically destroy the other person, which we all understand to be not right and not the best solution. What we’re tempted to do over the this series of lessons is to challenge all of us to look at some historical information, some background information, to understand the roots of Judaism and the nation of Israel, to understand the roots of the religion of Islam, and then to begin to make a comparison, which we do now in this lesson, between the claims and the teachings of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, especially between Islam and Christianity. And to then begin to make some choices and to make some decisions, to select some things, to reject some things, and realize that there is a true way, and we must find that way.

And if I believe a way that’s true, then I must make a choice about that, and I must know why I believe that. And I must know why I reject other things, which I believe to be not true and not from God. What we’re going to do this morning is basically compare the Quran and the Bible.

And does a collection of writings, by what we see in it and what we see about it, do we see the signature of God in it? Are there things about a certain book that cannot be true if mankind wrote them that’s true of this book? That there is something about this book that says that it must be from a divine source. And what about the Bible and the Quran? Which one of these came from God? Well, if such writings are of God, there’s going to be some characteristic about them that bears his mark. And though hopefully what we’re doing today is merely stimulating you to further study and further investigation, I hope that you begin to see today where the weight of the evidence is. And I do encourage you to continue to investigate and search and to examine and to see what you believe and why you believe that and why you disbelieve other things.

1. How Would You Know Writings Are From God?

Does the Quran have the characteristics of being from God, or does the Bible have the characteristics? How would a person begin to do that? How would you know that a collection of writings are from God? Well, here’s a very good test that we find in the Old Testament in the book of Deuteronomy. Moses wrote this, Moses said this as God directed him. In verse 21, it says, 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 presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.

That’s a very simple test. Human beings are limited. We do not know the future. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me this afternoon. I’ve got a little bit of an idea that what is probably going to happen, but I really don’t know what’s going to happen just this afternoon, let alone next week, let alone ten years from now, let alone a hundred years from now. Only God can know the future and know it completely and perfectly far off into eternity. And the writing here says that if a man says he’s from God and he prophesies, he proclaims about something that will happen in the future, and that thing does not come to pass, he is not one you’re to heed, he is not one you’re to fear, because he has not proven himself to be a prophet of God.

2. Old Testament Prophecies About Nations Came True

But of course, the opposite is true. If a man does claim to be speaking for God and he speaks something which does come to pass, and it’s clear that he spoke it here, and there is a period of time, and then it happens, then that man is speaking for God. Very simple test, very effective one. But what happens when we scrutinize the Bible in light of this test? What happens when we scrutinize the Quran in light of this test? Predictive prophecy is an important aspect of this because really predictive prophecy is the signature of God when it comes to writings. Again, we’re going to make a quick swipe over this, and I encourage you to study it more. But as you examine the Old Testament, the writings that Hebrew people, that Israelite people believe are from God, and they hold as a collection of books as their people, as a people, we see that it contains specific prophecies about many nations which came true.

The Old Testament speaks about Israel itself and Assyria and Egypt and Babylon and Persia. And as time unfolds, and you read not only Bible history, but you also read other records of human beings, you see records of human beings, you see that sure enough, what was prophesied in the Old Testament about Assyria and about Israel and about Babylon, these things came true. Here is one very powerful example down in the book of Isaiah, chapter 44, where Isaiah says in verse 28, 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 was a prophet in the land of Judah before Judah was overtaken by Babylonian forces.

And it was many years later, after Babylon conquered Judah and Jerusalem, many decades later, that another powerful world empire came on the scene called the Persian Empire. And they seized and conquered the lands of the Babylonians, including the captive people that they had, including the Israelites, the people of Judea that they had, and they commanded them to go back to their homeland, and there was one Persian ruler by the name of Cyrus, who ordered the Jews, if they so choose, would choose to do so, to go back to their homeland and rebuild the temple. What’s interesting is that Isaiah prophesied that this would take place. And even named the ruler Cyrus, before Persia was a world empire, before Cyrus was even born. Now I encourage you to examine statements like this in the Old Testament.

That speak of some person or some event or some nation and what would happen far off and in the future, and as you see it unfold in history, you see that it takes place just like that. And you see that these writers of the Old Testament, the prophets of the Old Testament, like Moses, like Isaiah, like Jeremiah, that these were men who were speaking the message of God, because as prophets, what they spoke came true. And their words are to be heated. What we have in the Old Testament is a collection of writings and prophecies which bear the signature of God. Statements made sometimes centuries in advance, which were fulfilled. The Old Testament bears the characteristics of being from God. And indeed, Jewish people who hold to the Old Testament, or at least some of them claim that it’s from God, they do have in their history a collection of writings that bear the signature of God.

3. Prophecies Involving the Messiah

But one of the most impressive things about the prophecies of the Old Testament are those involving one called the Messiah. The Old Testament spoke of a day when all people, not just Jews, but Gentiles also, would be accepted as the people of God. But you see something happening in the unfolding of the Bible, and that is the Jewish people are an important people in God’s plan, but they were a means to an end. God was using them to carry out his plan to send the Messiah, who would be the savior of not just Jewish people, but all people. Because God loves and wants to save and claim every person. And this would all be brought about by this one called the Messiah, which is in the Greek the Christ.

And what you read in the Old Testament, the most impressive prophecies of all, are statements describing not only what this Messiah would do, which you know he would have some control over, you know, where he would go and travel and preach and certain things he would perform and certain things he would say, but also prophecies about things that would be done to him, which he would have no control over. You know, I could predict that, you know, this afternoon I’m going to go over to the beach and walk along the beach and watch the ocean and look at the sea gulf. And I have pretty much control over that. You know, if on the way over there I get hit in the side of my car by another vehicle, you know, that’s something I can’t control.

And even if I went down the road with the window rolled out and saying, Somebody hit me, please, that probably wouldn’t happen. I don’t have control over that. Those things just happened. There are statements made about the Messiah, which if he was merely a human being, he would have no control over. There are two things for sure that we human beings have no control over. One is our birth. Micah 5 says in verse 2, but you, Bethlehem, Ephratha, though you were a little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth me to me, the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. The Messiah would be this anointed one who would be a ruler over the people of God.

And here the prophet said that he would come from Bethlehem. And when you come to the second collection of writings in the Bible, the New Testament, you see it recorded that one called Jesus was born in this obscure village called Bethlehem. The Messiah was prophesied to be born in Bethlehem. And if you are merely a human being, you have no control over where you’re born. But this was predicted of the Messiah. And Jesus fulfilled it. The other thing that we don’t have control over, apart from suicide, is our death. And there are many statements in the Old Testament, including this one in Psalm 22 that speaks of the death of the Messiah. In Psalm 22, this is a psalm written by David, who was a type, a uh a model of the Messiah to come.

So it’s written in the first person. But it’s strikingly parallel to the experiences of one called Jesus. Verse 6, he says, But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All those who see me ridicule me. They shoot out the lip. They shake the head, saying, He trusted in the Lord. Let him rescue him. Let him deliver him since he delights in him. I am poured out like water, he writes in verse 15. And all my bones are out of joint. There’s a stretching. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potture, and my tongue clings to my jaws, and you have brought me to the death. He says in verse 16, for dogs have surrounded me.

The congregation of the wicked has enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look at me and look and stare at me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. David of Israel lived one thousand years before the birth of one called Jesus. Crucifixion was not a common form of execution in the days of David. The Syrians began to use it. And then the Romans really liked it and perfected it. Where they would stretch out the body, the bones would be out of joint, they would pierce the hands and the feet, pierce a man to the cross. And he slowly, his life would eke out of him, and thirst would be a characteristic experience.

And when you read about the crucifixion of Jesus, you see his enemies surrounding him, you see them mocking him, hurling insults at him. It’s hauntingly parallel, this Psalm 22, to the experience of Jesus, the one who was crucified on the cross. How in the world could one write of such an experience a thousand years before, and it happened just exactly all those many years later. Amazing to tell. And there are others in the Old Testament, prophecies of the Messiah that when you read the history of the New Testament and the experiences of Jesus, not just things he did and he said, but things that happened to him, that if he was merely a human being, he would have no control over these things. Jesus couldn’t have manipulated people to put him to death.

And as he was dying there, how could he manipulate them just to say the right things? And then how could he manipulate them to take his garments and cast lights for him like the soldiers did at the foot of the cross? Not reasonable to conclude those things. It’s reasonable to conclude that there was a divine hand in this, and that God spoke of this through the prophets, and that it came true. And there are many other things. So there was a prophet who had prepared the way for Jesus, and we see John the Baptist does that. There were miracles that would associate his coming and his work. His ministry in Galilee specifically, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem the week that he was put to death, being betrayed by a companion in Judas, sold for 30 pieces of silver.

And not only names in the Old Testament, he would be betrayed, he would be betrayed by a companion, but it names the Christ. He would be abandoned by his followers, and that he would be resurrected to life. He would come back to life. You see, when you take together the Old New Testament, you see an amazing collection of writings that cannot be explained by human work. Such fulfilled predictions show that God inspired the Old Testament. He moved in these men to write these things, and that the predictions match exactly this Jesus of the New Testament who proved himself to be by these events the true Messiah of the Old Testament, the Christ of which the prophets spoke. And so what we have in the Bible is a collection of writings that bear the fingerprints of God.

4. What If the Prophecies Were Manufactured After Jesus?

They have his signature on them. For God only could make such predictions that would come true. Well, what about two things? And I want you to remember these things when we come to the Quran. First of all, what if in these two collections of writings we have the prophecies and the fulfillment about Jesus in the New Testament? What if the Old Testament prophecies were really manufactured after Jesus’ life and death? No one could have predicted the tragic event last yesterday. Exactly when it happened and how it happened. But you know, there are going to be, there are stories written now about what happened. You know, what if next week somebody came along and said, uh, well, here’s a story somebody wrote, and it’s just like what happened on Saturday.

And they claimed that they wrote it a year ago. Or really they wrote it next week. You see, they wrote it days after it happened, and they just claimed that it happened before. They wrote it before. Is that what we have in the Bible? We have these Old Testament prophecies like Isaiah and Jeremiah, and we have these statements in the Psalms. But really, what happened was after Jesus died, and after these exact things happened to him, somebody came along and they pinned these things. And they said, Oh, these were written a thousand years ago. Is that what happened? That’s an important question. We’ve already known that David lived about a thousand years before Jesus. Isaiah lived about 700 years before Jesus. And really the best evidence points to that.

Bless grant that that cannot be proven. That’s really biblical, biblical records and biblical historical account. If you take nothing that’s found in the Bible, how can we know that the writings of the Old Testament were actually written many years before Jesus ever came on the earth? For there’s evidence even outside the Bible to point to that. Could they have been written after the fact? That’s a possibility. But is it believable? There’s something called the Septuagint, which is important to this question. And Grow Your Encyclopedia. The Septuagint, commonly designated the number 70 in Roman numerals, is the oldest Greek version of the Old Testament of the Bible. The Bible was, the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, small parts in Aramaic. But then there was a Greek translation of it.

Now think about that. Before you translate something, it has to be written. It has to be written down and be used for a while, and then somebody comes along and translates it into another language. And this happened with the Old Testament. The title 7 referred to the tradition, that it was the work of seven translators. Not a tradition that it was made. They don’t know how many translators make it. The tradition is it’s probably 70, and that’s why they call it the Septuagint, which means 70. The translation was made, this is historical fact, from the Hebrew Bible by Hellenistic Jews living in Egypt during the period 275 to 100 at Alexandria. Now think about that. 200 BC, the Septuagint was made. 200 years before Jesus was born.

See what this is telling us? Is that the dates of such Old Testament prophecies like Psalm 28, what we read in Micah 5? These Old Testament prophecies may be disputed about was it 500 years or 300 years or a thousand years before Jesus? But they could not have been any later than 200 years before Jesus. The best evidence points to way before 200 years. But even if you reject any biblical evidence, any honest person looking back in time has to say that the writings of the Old Testament were written down, they were read, and they were circulated, because by 200 BC, they were making translations of the Jewish writings. 200 years before Jesus. How do you explain that? You see what happens here? Is that even secular history tells us that the Old Testament writings were frozen in history?

5. Did Jesus’ Followers Manufacture This History?

We know for sure we can put a deep stake right there at 200 B.C. that the Old Testament writings were complete. Well they were complete much before that. And then 200 years later. After they’re documented, they come true. They were written down, they were circulated, they were translated at least 200 years before Jesus. How could people write of such detailed things and they come true 200 years beforeway time. The Old Testament writings did it with hundreds of years, lee Jesus came along. Here’s another question. What if? What if the prophecies occurred? Yeah, they wrote these things down. David wrote these things down, and Micah wrote these things down, and Isaiah wrote these things way, yeah, way, way back there. But these writings of the Next. Jesus’ followers, maybe they manufactured this history to match him.

That Jesus really wasn’t born in Bethlehem. He really wasn’t crucified. He really didn’t do miracles. He really didn’t fulfill these prophecies of the Old Testament. But he was a good teacher, an impressive individual, and his followers were so taken with him that after he died, they began to write his history, and they wrote that, well, he did this, he did that, he did this, which the prophets, prophets prophesied. You know, what if I sit down one day and I decide to write a history of Jerry Frost, and I write down that Jerry Frost in his 70th year climbed Mount Everest. Didn’t do that, did you?

Okay. Well, I just make that up. I mean, he didn’t do that. But I’m taken with him, and I start writing all these fantastic things about his life. Is that what happened in the New Testament? These followers manufactured this history. Well, you know, to do that, they would have to do it well after Jesus died. Matter of fact, they’d have to do it way after Jesus died. Because if you’re going to promote a legend, you’ve got to get out of that time period. If I told you, if I pulled out a collection of writings, and these writings said that during the Gulf War, that the Iraqi forces overtook Kuwait, overtook Saudi Arabia, invaded Palestine, and drew the modern and pushed the modern state of Israel out of Palestine, and they conquered the whole Middle East.

What would you think about that? You’d laugh. Because you were living during the Gulf War just about a decade ago, most everybody here. And you knew that that’s not what happened. He invaded Kuwait. He was pushed back by Allied forces. I couldn’t fool you on that, could I? Because you were living then. You’d know better. When did this teaching that Jesus was born in Bethlehem? That he was crucified, his garments that cast lots for him, and he was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, and that he did these miracles, and he rose the third day. When were all these things proclaimed? A hundred years after he died, after everybody was gone that lived when he lived. And Acts 2nd chapter verse 22. Men of Israel on the day of Pentecost, 49 days after Jesus rose from the dead.

Peter preached, 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 also know. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God. You have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. The first audiences who heard the gospel of Jesus and all about who he was and what he did, the very first audiences were people who were living during the days of Jesus. Many of them had heard Jesus and seen Jesus do these things, or knew people who heard Jesus and witnessed Jesus do these things. Peter says in verse 24, whom God raised up, having loosened the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.

This Jesus, God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses, says Peter here. He says in verse 36, therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. And we see the outcome. And verse 41, and those who gladly received his word were baptized. And that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. This was a persuasive speech. And this proclamation that Jesus was from God, that he did miracles, that he died on the cross unfairly, that he was raised from the dead. This message was proclaimed 49 days after Jesus’ resurrection. And it was proclaimed in the same city in which he was crucified and which he resurrected. And it was proclaimed to the audience that many of them were around at the Passover when Jesus was executed.

This began to be preached immediately after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Paul, in speaking to the Roman governor of the Herod line, Herodian line, King Agrippa, says this in Acts 26 and verse 26, after he lays out the gospel of Jesus, he says, For the king before whom I also speak freely knows these things. Agrippa had heard about this Jesus, for I’m convinced that none of these things escaped his attention, since this was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe. Then Agrippa said to Paul, You almost persuade me to become a Christian. You see, the early disciples’ account of Jesus, which matched the Old Testament prophecies, were not dreamed up 50 years after his death. They weren’t made up a hundred years after his death, and they were not tried, they were not attempted to be put upon people who didn’t live in Jesus’ day and hadn’t seen Jesus or they hadn’t known anybody who’d seen Jesus.

The message about Jesus and how he fulfilled Old Testament prophecies and the facts about his life, they began to be proclaimed days after he was up on this earth, and to people who could have easily verified whether they were legitimate or not. They preached about events which were public, to which there were witnesses that could be talked to. They preached about things a matter of weeks after they occurred, and they preached to people who were there living at that time. How in the world can you promote a lie? How in the world can you successfully convince people of something that happened that didn’t, that was so public, so immediate. Unless it’s true. See, you can manufacture a big tale long after it happened. But you cannot manufacture a legend or a tale to people who were there, who were living, who saw, who knew people who saw.

The sins of mankind, how that he resurrected from the grave, even though historians may say that they won’t agree with it that he’s this man, this Messiah, they will say that when you look at the records and you read the writings of the Romans, and even Jewish historians, you see that indeed this movement began in the early first century, with Jesus being crucified about 30 to 33 AD. The evidence is clear when you look back in time. This preaching, this specific preaching about Jesus fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies, began in the early first century. How could they have gotten away with it? How could they have taught such things if they were not true? And even on occasion, 3,000 people believed it. The Old Testament and the New Testament bear the marks of God being behind them, of inspiring them for our direction and our salvation.

6. What About Predictive Prophecies and the Quran?

The mission of Christianity is based upon events surrounding Jesus, which occurred at a given place and a given time before the public, and it was proclaimed to the people who knew the events well. What about the Quran? Does it bear the same kind of characteristic? What about predictive prophecies and the Quran? Well, there are some statements in the Quran that Muslim people claim to be prophecies. Again, as I said about the Old New Testament, I would encourage you to further study these, but I want to give you some samples for consideration. First is this one in Surah 30, verse 1 to 4. The Greeks, which Muslims say that it’s really talking about the Romans here, have been defeated in a hard by. But after their defeat, they shall defeat their foes.

In a few years, nine, first and last is the affair with God, and on that day shall the faithful rejoice. Now, I’m going to give a lot of room here for a Muslim interpretation of this statement. Because there’s some vagueness to it. But Muslims teach that this is in reference to the Romans, who by the time of the days of Muhammad, in the early 7th century, were a waning empire, west and eastern part of the empire. And they were weakened militarily, and they were fading. And the Persians encountered them in the 620s, actually, a series of battles beginning in 622. Muhammad was still living then. And that Muhammad prophesied, as the Quran records here, that though the Romans were waning in their power, that when they engaged the Persians in the Middle East, that they were victorious over the Persians.

They would be victorious over the Persians. Well, sure enough, in history, we read of a series of battles that took place between the Eastern Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and the Persians, and indeed the Byzantine or the Eastern Roman Empire prevailed in those battles. But is this a prophecy of divine origin? Understand that Muhammad was born in 570 AD, and we’ve noted that he died in 632 A.D.

And we’re told by Muslim teaching that this prediction of the Romans would defeat the Persians, it was made during his lifetime because it took place beginning in 622. It was fulfilled before he died. And somewhere in his lifetime, as he was receiving revelations from God. Remember, the revelations went from 610 to 632, a 22-year period. And somewhere in this period right here, from about 610 to 632, he made this prophecy. And before he died, the Romans indeed defeated the Persians. We know that. But here’s a problem. When was the Quran put in written form and form into a volume for people to read?