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I would like to thank the Church of Christ for inviting me tonight to make this presentation..
Before I begin tonight on the topic, I'd like to take a few moments to tell you what we Muslims believe in regards to God and Jesus Christ. We as Muslims believe in only one God, the same God as worshipped by Jews and Christians alike and that this one God has no partners, no associates. There are no co-Gods with God and only God should be worshipped. Therefore we shouldn't turn human beings, men, women, children into Gods and claim they are also your Gods too. Now this monotheistic concept which I just explained to you is not something new. All the prophets of God had the same message, whether it is Abraham, Isaac, Jesus or prophet Mohammed. Now in regards to Jesus Christ we believe that Jesus Christ is one of the mightiest messengers of God. We believe he is the Messiah; translated as Christ. We believe that he was born miraculously without any type of male intervention. Which many modern day Christians do not believe today. We believe he raised the dead by God's permission and he healed those who were born blind and the lepers also by God's permission. So, as such, we the Muslims and the Christians are going together.
The only real parting of the way is, when Christians tell us Jesus is the only begotten son..... begotten..... not made as they tell us in their Catechism and that he is one in a trinity. For there are three that bear record in heaven the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost and these three are one. This is the only real basic difference between the Muslim and the Christian in a nutshell.
Now, in regards to the Bible, what do we as Muslims believe in regards to the Bible. Our view of the Bible is not too different to how most Americans view the Bible today. We believe that the Bible as a whole is not the word of God; although fragments and parts of it is to be found the word of God. It is only a minority of opinion of people who really believe that every single word of the Bible is the Word of God. Every single word from the beginning to the end. So, this is really not something new even to our country and over here in America. Were it not for this I would be producing my evidence from within the covers of the Bible which you yourselves could check up right here, right now or within the comforts of your very own home.
So what we have here a copy of the holy Bible. This is the Roman Catholic, Rheams, Douay version of the Bible. Now this Bible here is actually an encyclopedia of 73 different books. So 73 different books are within this book right here of which the Roman Catholic Church believe is the holy Word of God and Nothing but.
My brother, David Beck, over here does not accept this book as a whole to be the work of God. This one over here, the King James Version, has 66 books in it, 7 less than this one over here. The Protestant Christians like my friend over here do not believe, they do not accept a whole 7 books from the Bible. They tell us it's not the word of God. They use such technical terms like "apocrapha" meaning doubtful. So they have thrown out these seven books from the Bible and they say "OK", now we got it all fixed up. Now it is God's word. You see we were trying to tell you, not everything in the Bible was the Word of God. So what we see here is that the Christians are also adopting an attitude similar to the Muslims. So from here on its just a matter of degrees between the Muslim and the Christian as to how much of the Bible is the word of God. So, OK, fine. But you say I accept Brother David Beck's "This Bible here is not the word of God." Now, this is the Bible which our brother takes oath on. The K J V of Bible, this is the one he believes to be the work of God. Now this bible here is based on a set of manuscripts that date back to about 800 yrs after Christ. It is called the Textus Receptus. Names are not important here, but it dates back to about 800 years after Christ. But now, ladies and gentlemen, we have access to the most ancient and the most reliable manuscripts and it's this Bible over here; the revised standard version of the Bible. This Bible here dates back to a set of manuscripts 2 to 3 hundred years after Christ; the Sinaiticus...... And the scholars tell us they are the most ancient and the most reliable manuscripts which we have today. This Bible was first produced by 32 of the scholars of the finest eminence. They produced this Bible and they are the ones who translated this Bible into English. And glowing reviews were paid to the revised standard version of the Bible, and I feel I would be failing in my duty tonight if I didn't read some of these attributes to you.
It says here that inside the Church of England they say it's the finest version which has been produced in the present century. The Times Literary Supplement tells us that this is a complete translation by scholars of the highest eminence. And the Life and Works tell us it is a well loved characteristics of the authorized version, combined with a new accuracy of translation. And the Times tell us, the most accurate and closest rendering to the original. Glowing tributes were paid to this Bible here. And these 32 scholars, they also paid glowing tributes to the KJV of the Bible. If you were to read the preface, the scholars tell us this, the KJV, has been termed the noblest monument of English prose. Its revisers in 1881 expressed its admiration for its simplicity, for its dignity, its power, its happy terms of expression. The music of its cadences and the felicity of its rhythm. It entered, as no other book has, into the making of the personal character and the public institution of the English speaking people. We owe to it an incalculable debt. Now I can't imagine such a wonderful comment being paid to any other book. But now, ladies and gentlemen, prepare for the shock. These same Christian scholars go on in the next paragraph. They tell us "yet the KJV has great defects which are so many and so serious as to call for a complete revision." Now you can't blame that on God, you see. Now you just might be wondering just what are some of these defects that we find in the KJV. Well , I am sure everyone here has heard the all purpose verse in the Bible, John 3:16. It tells us over there that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son." This is what we read inside the KJV of the Bible. And I've been asking my learned Christian friends, "What do you mean by this word 'begotten'"? And believe me no Christian today has been able to come up and tell me what they mean when they say Jesus is "begotten" not made. So you see God made us all but not Jesus Christ, he was begotten and I'm saying, "what does this word 'begotten' mean?" and no explanation comes forth. But we as Muslims, we take strong exception to this term "begotten." Because what this term refers to, it refers to the lower animal function of sex. When you meet a woman and you do that thing with her and out comes a kid, this is the act of begetting. You just begat a child. We should not ascribe a word like this to God Almighty. (First overhead...) So we see here that the Koran Corrects - is different from the Bible. It says in the Koran "It befits not the majesty of God that he should beget a son---v35" . But we see in the KJV, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son. So we have a conflict here, the Koran is telling you one thing, but the Bible is telling you another. And like our moderator said, this is a search for truth. Which one is the right way?
Now I am going to give you some advice. You see, we told you not everything in the Bible was
the work of God. Then you got burned. You had to throw out 7 whole books 1,500 years later.
Now the Koran is telling you don't say this word "begotten." God did not beget. So I am saying,
"Look you are going to get burned again." OK. The Koran is telling you this is not true. (next
overhead). We see that inside this Bible here, these 32 Christian scholars of the highest
eminence, backed by 50 Protestant cooperating denominations, they have thrown the word
"begotten" out of the Bible. It is no longer in this book. You can take a look over here. You can
read John 3:16, "God so loved the world that he gave his only son." The word begotten has been
thrown out. Why? To make us happy? Did we say look, we are not going to give you oil if you
throw that word "begotten" out of this Bible? Is that what we said? No. You see these 32
Christian scholars of the highest eminence backed by 50 Protestant, cooperating denominations,
they tell us that this word "begotten" it was an interpolation in the Bible. And I am asking what is
an interpolation?
These people use words which the masses of Christendom do not know. Interpolation. What this word means is that it is a fabrication. This is a mistake, an error which has crept up into the book, but it does not belong there. So if you have a KJV with you tonight underneath your arm, it has an interpolation in it. I was listening to one of my Christian brothers a long time ago. He was preaching at the pulpit and he was waving his Bible in the air, saying, "If one word, even one word of this holy word is found to be false, I will throw the book away. Throw it away, it is no good to humanity. And the Koran clearly showed you that the word 'begotten" this was not true. And we see inside the most reliable and the most ancient manuscripts that the word begotten has been thrown out. So you got burned twice here. We warned you. Look, if you just follow the divine advice, you would be safe. So it is not just one word that has been thrown out of the Bible. I'm sure probably everyone here tonight has heard the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11). For those of you who are not familiar with it, it goes something like this. There was a woman caught in the act of adultery and what happened was that the Jews brought this woman to Jesus and they said that this woman was caught in the act of adultery. And they wanted to give her the capital punishment, stoning to death in Arabia (Rujen?) for the act of adultery. So, now Jesus, what did he respond to them? He said, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." I'm sure you've all heard this, you know, in our Sunday sermon or in our Sunday School classes.
To these 32 Christian scholars of the highest eminence, backed by 50 Protestants denominations, they now tell us that the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery is also another interpolation. It's another fabrication which has crept up into the Bible and they have now thrown this out of this Bible here. (John. 8:1-11) has all been thrown out of the Bible. They say it is not the word of God. That other people have been writhing stories and it got crept up into the book, but it does not belong in the Bible. It was not to be found in the most ancient and most reliable manuscripts. So we see in this Bible here that John 8 begins with verse 12. What happened to those verses 1-11?
And how about the story of the ascension of Christ into heaven? There we se Mk. 16:9-20 a beautiful story of Christ ascending into heaven, but you know what? These same 32 Christian scholars of the highest eminence, backed by 50 Protestant denominations, they tell us that this story we read in Mark 16:9-20; it's all been thrown out.
And then I give you the holy Trinity, the Trinity can only be found in one place in the Bible..........1 John 5:7. That's really the only place you can find 'Trinity' stated in a very clear manner. But we have another problem here. (next overhead). We see that the Koran is telling you don't say God is 3 gods wrapped up into one. God is only one. There is not 3 gods. There is not 3 gods but is the work of Satan. Never buy that and we'll run you straight out of business. So, what could these Christian scholars do. You know, they all still gotta pay the bills and put food on the table. So they had to go back into the Bible and they had to insert these two portions back again into the text. Not because God almighty told them so, but because of the evangelists, the ministers, the Bible thumpers, they told them you have to do it. You can't miss them. They are huge warning labels and it says, 'Warning, these portions are not part of the most ancient, most reliable manuscripts, because the ministers they forced us to put it back in. So you will see huge warning labels there because some people are not grown enough.
The only salvation is Koran. If I gave you a glass of water and I told you there's a little bird droppings in that glass, would you drink that glass of water? I don't think anyone here tonight would drink that glass of water. But what if I would tell you there are chunks and chunks of bird droppings in that glass of water, would you then drink that water. Probably no one would do that. You'd probably say, 'There's more bird droppings that there is water in that glass and also it's gross. You wouldn't drink that glass of water with even a small bit of bird droppings in there, because you are concerned about your physical health. Why shouldn't we also show a similar concern for our spiritual health now?
The task our brother has to do tonight is overwhelming. He has to pick which Bible is the word of God. I quoted many verses tonight that were thrown out of the Bible. They are now longer the word of God.
I just want to use one of those for an example. John 5:4 and if you have a New International Version, RSV, Living, or Contemporary Version... that verse is no longer there. But it is present in this Bible right here. And it reads as follows, "For an angel went down at a certain season into the water or pool and troubled the waters, whosoever, the first, after the troubling of the waters, stepped in was made whole and whatever disease he had was healed. This is a verse which you read inside John 5:4; this Bible here, says this is a lie. It does not belong in the Bible.
This Bible here says this verse is true. This Bible here says this verse is not true. This Bible says no, you have false Bible. So we got this conflict going here, see, so what our brother must tell us tonight, is John 5:4 the word of God? Yes or no, yes or no, it can not be both. It can't be the word of God and not the word of God. If it's not, then this Bible here is a false Bible! The King James Version says that's true. Anybody that adds or subtracts from this book, I'm sure we've all read that verse inside Revelations, but if it is the word of God then this Bible here is a false Bible. You see then he must pick tonight which Bible is a true Bible and we wish him luck.
Now let us take a different look at things. As we read we see it says Gospel according to Matthew, according to Mark, according to Luke, according to John. And I am asking myself what is this "according to," "according to," business, cause when you write a book you say this is a book "by" such and such a person, like this book right here. This is a book "by" John Hayes, John Hayes wrote this book, so likewise when you come to the gospels, it should be gospel "by" Matthew, gospel "by" Luke - but we don't see that, we see "according to," "according to," "according to," and I'm asking what is this "according to" business. Because what these Christian scholars are trying to tell you is that these things were not written "by" those people.
One God don't say these things. God is only one and it says surely there are disbelieves, they that say Allah is 1/3 of a 3 in a trinity. But there is no god but one God. (Sura 5:7). So now you got burned the first time. We told you that not everything inside the Bible was the word of God. You got burned a second time with this word 'begotten'. Don't say God's begotten son. Don't use these type of words about God and sure enough, they've thrown this word 'begotten' out of the Bible.
Now we're dealing with the holy trinity. You see you were wrong twice. You're wrong twice. Now most people with common sense would take the advice of the Koran because they see how could a book written 1400 years ago predict such things and correct the Bible even today.
But unfortunately some people come tonight with the attitude of "I gotta stand my ground."
You know? And it's kinda like a mule on a road which refuses to budge. So these same 32
Christian scholars of the highest eminence, backed by 50 cooperative Protestant denominations,
they have now taken the holy trinity, first epistle of John 5:7 and thrown it out of the Bible. It's
no longer present in this Bible, right here. If you have a New International Version, RSV, or
Living Translation of the Bible, almost all modem versions, they have thrown out this holy Trinity
as a fabrication. It's another interpolation which has been imposed upon Christendom for 2000
years. They made you people believe this. That God is 3 Gods wrapped up in one, and now they
are telling you today that this is a fabrication and it's no longer in your Bible. So that was strike 3.
That was strike 3, right there. Koran told you it was wrong. Sure enough today we find that this
verse has been torn out of the Bible.
Now for those people who are here tonight, who are objectively looking for the truth, I believe they've got a rope here that they can grasp. You know this is something any objective seeker of truth must really take a look at. Now how about John 5:4, Acts 24:7, Matt 17:21?
All these verses have been thrown out of my Bible. They're not in by Bible. They are not inside almost every modem translation of the Bible. They've all been thrown out as a fabrication. Are these words not the word of God? Yes or No. But now wait a second, wait a second. You see at Bradley University, I used to work over there. I worked inside the Gym. I checked things and they had a big box of used books. So I pick up a book here. It's another copy of the RSV of the Bible. This is another copy right here. Look, they look almost like Siamese twins. This is a Revised Standard printed 1952. This is printed 1971 of the RSV. They are almost identical so I browse through this Bible. It is a free Bible. I just took it, so I look through this Bible. You remember those verses I just got done mentioning about the woman caught in the act of adultery and the ascension of Christ back into heaven? Well, those were all thrown out of this Bible right here, all. But when I pick up this Bible another RSV, I find all those are back again in there. Isn't that amazing? What was thrown Out is now back in the Bible, safe and sound. How come, how come what was thrown out is all back again, you know. If you read the preface you see what happened. The evangelists and Bible preachers, they protested against it. Take this Bible over here. They said no, no, no, no, no. You have to put those stories back in there. This is what we use to preach with. This is how we catch the fish. And they said look, these are not part of the Bible. The most ancient and the most reliable manuscripts they do not have these portions in these. These were later additions to the text. They were written by human beings. They are not the word of God. You are going to have to accept the facts. So these Christian preachers and evangelists, they said, we don't give a heck, we don't care what is the truth. You better put these portions back in because if you don't we are going to tell the entire masses of Christendom, never buy this Bible, right here. Never buy this Bible. These things were not written by those people (put up 3rd overhead) (next one) inside this right here. This is a study bible.
If you go to Bradley University you'll have to buy this bible at the book store. We read inside first page it says 'The gospel according to Matthew" over here by the little blue line it says 'this gospel is anonymous". It is written by an unknown Christian author, this is what it tells us here inside the footnote here. No names, no signatures on these gospels. These were later, later church traditions. I even saved my textbook key, Introduction to the Bible, by John Hayes. Very good book if you are just learning about the Old and New Testaments. (asks for next overhead) We see over there it says, Jesus in the gospels, chapter 18. It says all the gospels were written anonymously as none contain name of author within the body of the writing. So it is telling you here very clearly that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are not the authors. Later they ascribed these things to those books, but there are no names on these books, and in many cases it is even written in the third person, example Matthew 9:9 written in the third person, talks about Jesus meeting a man named Matthew, so who's writing this, it's not Jesus, it's not Matthew, it's someone else. So now this is just a church tradition that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John actually wrote these things, but no this is not true. They are anonymous gospels.
Now the next point which I'd like to bring up tonight is a very important point. If you get one thing out of this discussion tonight I hope it's this one point. See if you were to look inside the New Testament, nowhere over there did anyone ever claim that what they were writing is the holy word of God. They never, never, never made this claim. So I think on this point here we could all go home. They never claimed this thing was from God that they were writing. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John never said, "I'm writing the holy, holy, holy word of God here." All this is theory they never made this claim. But now Paul, Paul was a little bit different. Now Matthew, Mark, Luke and John never said, "I'm writing the holy word of God here." So I think on this point here we could all go home. They never claimed this thing is from God. What they are writing Matthew, Mark, Luke, John never said, "Oh, by the way, I'm writing the holy, holy word of God here," but Paul was a little bit different. Paul really believed he was being inspired by God and he came in contact with divine. He wrote them down and mailed them off to different people, but Matthew, Mark, Luke and John never claimed to be inspired. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John never made this claim. If we look inside Luke 1:1, we see, why did Luke write Luke, he says, basically he says, "I see every Tom, Dick and Harry is writing something about Jesus Christ, well you know what, I know something too. So I want to put things in order for you oh great Theophilus." He wanted to put things in an orderly account. He never claimed it was the word of God. Some people try to quote 2 Tim.3:16, "all scripture is given by the inspiration of God" etc. it goes on (overhead)....."All scripture" means Koran. All scripture needs to be proper context. Paul and Timothy only knew Old Testament in their whole life which they accepted to be the word of God. It is not referring to the New Testament. This is a very big misunderstanding which many people make. They think, "Oh this is talking about the New Testament," they are taking scripture out of context. So when Paul and Timothy are talking about "all scripture" here they are referring to the Old Testament, nothing more. It is impossible for them to be referring to the New Testament because many of those books hadn't been written yet, and they quoted from the Old Testament over and over again, if you read their letters, so they are referring to the Old testament. So we see over there that none of those people ever claimed that what they are writing was from God. They never made this claim. So when someone says to me how much of the New Testament is the word of God? I'll say none of the New Testament.....NONE, they never made that claim. It's possible there might be some of the word of God over there in Old Testament quotations.
Now another thing I'd like to bring up tonight and that is contradictions inside the Bible. But before I begin on this issue I want to show you a little trick which I learned. Anybody can throw two contradictions at you and you can reconcile them very easily. All you have to do is make up a little story. For example if someone tells you at 6 o'clock Fred went to New York and someone tells you at 6 o'clock Fred went to California, you see that's a contradictory statement. Which one is right? So what I could do here is say there's no contradiction what happened was.... at 6 o'clock Fred went to New York then the plane turned around and he went to California. See, there's no contradiction there? You see what I did was make up a little story to cover up that contradiction. Many people do this. Or if I said, "Jeff committed suicide by jumping off the Empire State Building." Or if I said, "Jeff committed suicide by blowing his brains out," you know, killing himself by shooting himself, you know, so which one is it? Did he kill himself by jumping off the Empire State Building? or by blowing his brains out? You see this is a contradictory statement. But I could say there's no contradiction there. You see he got on top of the building, he jumped off, and as he was jumping off he blew his brains out. So you see what I did? I sort of co-joined the two contradictions. It is a very clever trick and anybody can do it. You can give me any two contradictions and I can reconcile them just like that, but I am sure Brother David Beck here would never do something that underhanded. I am sure he is a very straightforward person from what I know of him. So let me just go over a few contradictions.
Basically how do we explain contradictions? If you think it is not a contradiction you should produce evidence where it talks about that and it is all resolved. But if people are just making up stories and using their little tricks here, then we pretty much know what they are doing.
We will have our brother explain to us. Now 2 Sam. 2:24 "came to David and said unto him 'shalt 7 years of famine come into thee in thy land?'" And 1 Chronicles 21:12 God came to David and said unto him "choose you either 3 years of famine or 7 years of famine." Now there is a little trick. You know I told you of the little trick of co-joining contradictions. This little trick, which is a little more dishonest, in this contradiction you just go into the Bible, find the contradiction, erase it and put in whatever number you want.
That is what some Bible Writers do. Inside the Living Translation they put a big three over there. Three years of famine. You see there is no contradiction. So that is very dishonest because you know the manuscripts. You know one says three, one says seven, but you go in there and you erase a number so you do have this kind of deception in which some people erase the numbers, and try to make things, you know, seem more correct.
Now I was trying to explain to somebody that not everything in the Bible is the word of God. Man has changed Bible. He said "No, this could never happen. When did this happen? Where did this happen? Who did it?"
SEE, THAT'S MY PROBLEM! I said it is happening today, 1998! People are changing the word of God, 1998. If they don't like something they will throw it out. In the debate with my Brother Quarrels I showed a beautiful example of people writing entire sentences in the Bible that do not belong there. So, you see, you do have that kind of deception.
One good example is this book here, The Contemporary English Version. If they do not like something they throw it out. If they like something they add it in. But, you know, later on in debate I can show you more of that. So let us go on to the next contradiction.
Inside 2 Chronicles 36 it says, Jehoiachin was 8 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 3 months and 10 days in Jerusalem. 2 Kings 24 says he was 18 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 3 months in Jerusalem. One says he was 8, the other says he was 18. Which was it? Some of our brothers in The New Living Bible saw the word 8 and took it out and put in the word 18. So you see no more contradiction! Its very hard to keep up with such people. You make a point to them, they say "O.K.," in next Bible they print the contradiction is gone.
If you have a New Living Word translation of the Bible you will see this.... so which is it, 8 or 18? These are just a few of the contradictions in the Bible.
Let me give you one real quick in the New Testament. Inside Matthew 27:5, Judas died by "hanging himself." He "hanged" himself. Acts 1:18; tells us he died by "falling headlong and his bowels gushed out." So, did he die by "hanging" or did he die by "falling headlong and his bowels gushed out?" You know, if I was a really slick person I could say "There is no contradiction there, here is what happened was that he was on the real high mountain and he hung himself and the rope broke and he went smashing down on the rocks on the bottom and his bowels gushed out." But, of course, that is not what the Bible says. But I am sure you wouldn't do something like that. But unfortunately there are some people who do that. Some people that are honest will tell you straight forward, "yeah, there are some discrepancies in the Bible. Some do that. Some say that. Some say, "there is no contradictions," so I am not exactly sure which way our Brother David Beck goes. Yes, many will be clear and tell you, Yes, there are mistakes in the Bible, small mistakes like that.
Now the next issue which I would like to bring up tonight. I think one of the criteria for a book to be the word of God, it should be something one would not be ashamed to read. Something not filthy. It should not be something that could harm you like a book of pornography. I am sure everyone here would agree that a book of pornography would not help anyone in any circumstance. It would be very hurtful to that person. But, if we read the bible I have to admit there are portions of the Bible I can not read it up here, because these portions of the Bible are so sexually explicit and pornographic I can not share them with you tonight. But, since Brother David Beck here is the one who is going to tell you the Bible is the word of God, I would like to challenge him to read these portions of the Bible to you. I am making specific reference to Ezekiel 23:l-20. I challenged my Brother Quarles over here to read this to their congregation. He couldn't do it. I haven't met a person who had the guts to read this to their congregation. Maybe Brother David Beck would read this tonight to us. And do us a favor and read it to us from the New International Version of the Bible. The New International Version makes it very clear. It's very clear English. The King James is kind of old and archaic and stuff like that. So you see you might miss it. So this is something I would challenge my brother to read because I say no decent person can read such things to their daughter, to their mother, or even to their wife if she is a good woman. You see there is just some things there which we can tell through our common sense is not the word of God.
Now there are the basic 5 things I brought up tonight and asked my brother.
1. which Bible is the word of God
2. I asked him, "we have seen a practical example of how the Koran corrects the Bible."
3. We don't know who wrote the Bible.
4. The new Testament never claimed to be the word of God.
5. Contradictions.
6. Pornography inside the Bible.
THANKS!
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