IS THE BIBLE GOD"S WORD? by Ahmed Deedat

Chapter One: What They Say

Christians Confess

Dr. W. Graham Scroggie of the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, one of the most prestigious Christian Evangelical Mission in the world, answering the question "Is the Bible the Word of God?" (also the title of his book), under the heading: It is Human, Yet Devine. He says on page 17:

"Yes, the Bible is human, though some, out of zeal which is not according to knowledge, have denied this. Those books have passed through the minds of men, are written in the language of men, were penned by the hands of men, and bear in their style the characteristics of men."

In short Mr. Deedat is trying to say that the Bible was created by men. If that's the case was not the Quran passed through by memory (the minds of men), written in Arabic (the language of men), penned by the scribes (hands of men) and bear in their style the characteristics of it's revealer (characteristics of men) an indication that the Quran was also created by men? I doubt Dr. Scroggie is saying that the actual author of the Bible are men for it contradicts 2 Tim 3:16 which states that "All Scripture is God breathed". Deedat's theory would dangerously substantiate Surah II:79 if applied to the Quran. This is the FIRST expose of Mr. Deedat's illogical theories.

Another erudite Christian, Kenneth Cragg, the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, says on page 277 of his book, "The Call of the Minaret":

"Not so the New Testament … There is condensation and editing, there is choice, reproduction and witness. The Gospels have come through the mind of the church behind the authors. They represent experience and history."

Experience and history of what? Of God's relationship with men. The Bible is written by more than 40 authors, over a period of 1,500 years, and for those who have read it completely will find for themselves that these authors are writing on the same theme. God's plan of salvation for mankind through a Saviour, the Lord Christ Jesus. This itself is a miraculous feat that no other "biographical or historical" book can ever posses. For example, there are many books written of Princess Diana's life but none of them could come into agreement on certain events, each author had a different approach thus a different theme, as a result in order to have an accurate picture of who Princess Diana really is one has to decide which book's claims are correct and which are not. Furthermore, people who tried to find faults in the Bible end up agreeing on the credibility of the Bible (such is the case of Josh McDowell before he became a Christian) or for some of the reluctant few unashamedly devise illogical theories to deceive the ignorant.

If words have any meaning, do we need to add another word of comment to prove our case? No! But the professional propagandists, after letting the cat out of the bag, still have the face to try to make their readers believe that they have proved beyond the shadow of any doubt that the Bible is the "irrefragable Word of God". Their semantic gymnastics – equivocating and playing with words – is amazing!

Surah V:99 states "Allah knoweth what ye proclaim and what ye hide". Do these writers really mean what Deedat is trying to portray of them here? I doubt it. If they actually believe that the Bible is men's words and not God's then why are they still Christians? That's because Deedat has misrepresented them. One can easily misrepresent authors by quoting selective portions of their writings and interpret them the way one wants to.

Both these Doctors of Religion are telling us in the clearest language humanly possible that the Bible is the handiwork of man, all the while pretending that they are proving to the contrary. An old Arab saying goes: "IF SUCH ARE THE PRIESTS, GOD BLESS THE CONGREGATION."

Actually the Quran supports the Bible as God's Word, in Sura 3:84 states "We believe in Allah and what has been revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and that which was vouchsafed unto Moses and Jesus and the Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinctions between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered." If what has been revealed to the Muslims is similar to what has been revealed to the Jews and the Christians then the Quran itself is endorsing that the Bible is God's Word. Therefore if the Quran states the Bible is God's Word then how can Deedat say otherwise?

With this sort of drivel, the hot-gospeller and the Bible thumper is "inspired" to harry the "heathen". A theological student – a not yet qualified young evangelist – from the University of Whitewatersrand, became a frequent visitor to the Newtown Mosque in Johannesburg, with the "noble" thought of "witnessing" to the members of its congregation. When I was introduced to him, (and having learned his purpose), I invited him to lunch at my brother's residence – a stone's throw from the Mosque. While discussing the authenticity of the Bible over the dinner table and sensing his stubborn dogmatism, I put out a feeler: "Your Professor Geyser, (The Head of the Department of Theology) does not believe the Bible to be the Word of God." Without the slightest surprise he answered, "I know". Now I personally had no knowledge of the Professor's conviction which raged around him about the "Divinity of Christ". He had taken issue with the orthodox believers on this point some years ago. I continued further, saying, "Your lecturer does not believe the Bible as being God's Word". The young evangelist, responded again "I Know" but he continued this time with the words "but I believe that it is the Word of God!" There is no real remedy for such people. Even Jesus bewailed this sickness:"…seeing they see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand." (Matt 13:13). Al-Quran, the Holy Book of God, also condems this mulish mentality: "Deaf, dumb and blind, they will not return (to the path)." (Sura 2:18).

Sura VI:116 "Perfected is the Word of thy Lord in truth and justice. There is naught that can change His words. He is the Hearer, the Knower". Is Deedat trying to imply that God cannot protect His Word from being changed? So how be it can the Bible not be God's Word then? Again Deedat contradicts the Quran.

These pages are now addressed to those sincerely humble souls who are genuinely interested in seeking the Light of God, and who wish to be guided by it. As for the other, with a sickness in their souls, the facts presented herein can only increase the disease of their hearts.

Sura VI:117-118: "If thou obeyedst most of those on earth they would mislead thee far from Allah's way. They follow naught but an opinion, and they do but guess. Lo! Thy Lord, He knoweth best who erreth from His way; and He knoweth best (who are) the rightly guided." As we expound further into Deedat's book "The Choice" the sincerely humble souls will discover for themselves the erroneous and often blasphemous opinions and guesses of "the greatest Muslim Apologist". The Quran forbids anyone to use devious tactics to mislead the innocent away from God's Way and Truth. Perhaps from this response to Deedat's errors those who are genuinely seeking the Light of God might find the Way and the Truth. John 14:6 "Jesus answered, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me."




Chapter Two: The Muslims' Standpoint

Presumptious Christians

Whether Catholic, Protestant or a "Cultist" of the thousand and one sects and denominations of Christianity, never will you find a missionary who will not prima facie, presuppose that his potential convert accepts his "Holy Bible" as the book of final authority on every religious opinion? The only answer the prospective proselyte has is to quote verses from the Bible which are contradictory to the missionary's or debate their interpretations.

Is Mr Deedat aware that Muslims are to safeguard the Scriptures (meaning the Quran, Torah and Injeel)? Surah V:48 states "And unto thee (Muhammad) have We revealed the Scriptures with the truth, confirming whatever Scripture was before it, and a watcher over it." Therefore if ever a Muslim were to say the Holy Bible is corrupted they're actually accusing themselves that they have failed their duty to Allah for not safeguarding the Scriptures.

Three Grades of Evidence

We Muslims have no hesitation in acknowledging that in the Bible, there are three different kinds of witnessing recognizable without any need of specialized training. There are:

1. You will be able to recognize in the Bible what may be described as "The Word of God."

2. You will be able to discern what can be described as the "Words of a Prophet of God."

3. And you will most readily observe that the bulk of the Bible is the records of eye witnesses, or people writhing from hearsay. As such they are the "words of a Historian."

Note the first person pronoun singular (underlined) in the above references, and without any difficulty you will agree that the statements seem to have the sound of being God's Word.

If according to Deedat the words "I" and "me" signify that these are God's Word then Deedat must also agree that the "I" and "me" in Jesus's words below signify that Jesus is indeed God:

a) "Jesus answered, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

b) "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matt 11:28)

c) "I and the Father are one." (John 10:30)

The Second type:

a) "Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani?" (Matt 27:46)

b) "And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord:" (Mark 12:29)

c) "And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God." (Mark 10:18)

Even a child will be able to affirm that Jesus "cried", Jesus "answered" and Jesus "said" are the words of the one to whom they are attributed, i.e. the Words of a Prophet of God.

If according to Deedat the verbs "cried", "answered" and "said" signify that these are the Words of a Prophet of God" then Deedat must also agree that the verb "caused" in one of the verses in the Quran below signify that the "We" are prophets and "Jesus" is God:

a) "And We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow in their footsteps," (Surah V:46)

Do Muslims use Deedat's "Three Grades of Evidence" to interpret Surah V:46 that way? Certainly not! They would deem Deedat's methods as blasphemous. Even a Muslim child will be able to affirm that Deedat's methods of reasoning are ridiculous.

The Third type:

"And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he (Jesus) came, if haply he (Jesus) might find anything thereon: and when he (Jesus) came to it, he (Jesus) found nothing but leaves …" (Mark 11:13)

The bulk of the Bible is a witnessing of this Third kind. These are the words of a third person. Note the underlined pronouns. They are not the Words of God or of His prophet, but the Words of a Historian.

If according to Deedat the pronoun "he" signifies that these are the Words of a Historian then Deedat must also agree that the same pronoun "he" in one of the verses in the Quran below signify that this is not the Words of God

a) "Then Allah sent a raven scratching up the ground, to show him how to hide his brother's naked corpse. He said: Woe unto me! Am I not able to be as this raven and so hide my brother's naked corpse? And he became repentant." (Surah V:31)

If Muslims ever apply Deedat's "Three Grades of Evidence" on the Quran to verify whether it is the Word of God then they would end up with the same conclusion as Deedat did with the Holy Bible. Muslims ought to be aware that Deedat's methods of disproving the Bible as God's Word will also disprove their Quran.

For the Muslim, it is quite easy to distinguish the above types of evidence, because he also has them in his own faith. But of the followers of the different religion, he is the most fortunate in this that his various records are contained in separate Books!

One: The first kind – The Word of God – is found in a Book called The Holy Quran

Two: The second kind – The Words of a Prophet of God, (Muhammad) are recorded in the Books of Tradition called The Hadith.

Three: Evidence of the third kind abounds in different volume of Islamic history, written by some of high integrity and learning, and others of lesser trustworthiness, but the Muslim advisedly keeps his Books in separate volumes!

One: The first kind – The Word of God - Surah V:48 which I mentioned earlier had already given proof that the Torah and the Bible have been accepted by the Quran as God's Word. So if the Quran says that the Bible is God's word can they argue against it?

Two: The second kind – The Words of a Prophet of God – What does a prophet do? He prophesies. And where do these prophesies come from? From God! (Deut 18:21-22) So if you split the words of a prophet into another book then are you not saying that this prophet is not from God? In Christianity, there are no separate books for prophets outside the Bible. The Bible contains many of the sayings of the prophets that were revealed to them by God. Therefore the words of these prophets are actually God's Word. All Scripture is God breathed. (2 Tim 3:16).

Three: When a Muslim friend of mine read the Bible for the first time he felt as if he was reading a story book. Yes, the Bible is a story of a historical account of God's interaction with mankind, of man's downfall and God's plan for man's salvation. When people write historical accounts they are based upon facts and a way to authenticate these writings are to check the facts themselves. To date, historians and archeologists have yet to disprove the Bible. No other religious book have undergone so much historical scrutiny as that of the Bible. And the Bible is proven correct every time.
 

The Muslim keeps the above types of evidence jealously apart, in their proper gradations of authority. He never equates them. On the other hand, the "Holy Bible" contains a motley type of literature, which composes the embarrassing kind, the sordid, and the obscene – all under the same cover – A Christian is forced to concede equal spiritual import and authority to all, and is thus unfortunate in this regard.

The Christian keeps one type of evidence jealously apart from any other literature – The Bible. There is no other book apart from it therefore there is no need for "proper gradation of authority". The motley type of literature is an assurance to us that God has always been revealing His Word to us through His people since the time of Moses to John. It is a miracle that from Genesis to Revelation the Bible centers on the same theme. It is not unfortunate for the Christians that the Bible contains what some people ignorantly accuse as "sordid" or "obscene" literature for the Bible contains the truth of man's depravity and sinfulness. Yes, even God's people have sinned. For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God (Romans 3:23). That's why the salvation of mankind is dependant on Jesus Christ (John 1:29) for our good works will not save us (Eph 2:8-9). It is unfortunate that some disregard this fact.

Chapter Three: The Multiple Bible Version

Seperating The Wheat From The Chaff

Before we scrutinize the various versions, let us clarify our own belief regarding the Books of God. When we say that we believe in the Taurat, the Zaboor, the Injeel and the Quran, what do we really mean? We already know that the Holy Quran is the infallible Word of God, revealed to our Holy Prohpet Hazrat Muhammed Mustapha word for word, through the agency of the Archangel Jibraeel (Gabriel) and perfectly preserved and protected from human tampering for the past fourteen hundred years! Even hostile critics of Islam have grudgingly vouched for the purity of the Holy Quran: "There is probably in the world no other book which has remained twelve centuries (now fourteen) with so pure a text." (Sir William Muir).

The Taurat we Muslims believe is not the Torah of the Jews and the Christians, though the words – one Arabic, the other Hebrew – are the same. We believe that whatever the Holy Prophet Moses preached to his people, was the revelation from God Almighty, but that Moses was not the author of those "books" attributed to him by the Jews and the Christians.
 

Likewise we believe that the Zaboor was the revelation of God granted to Hazrat Dawood (David) bu that the present Psalms associated with his name are not that revelation. The Christians themselves do not insist that David is the sole author of "his" Psalms.

What about the Injeel? Injeel means the "Gospel" or "good news" which Jesus Christ preached during his short ministry. The "Gospel" writers often mention that Jesus going about and preaching the Gospel (the Injeel).
 

The "gospel" is a frequently used word, but what Gospel did Jesus preach? Of the 27 books of the New Testament, only a small fraction can be accepted as the words of Jesus. The Christians boast about the Gospels according to St. Matthew, according to St. Mark, according to St. Luke and according to St. John, but there is not a single Gospel "according" to (St.) Jesus himself! We sincerely believe that everything Christ preached was from God. That was the Injeel, the good news and the guidance of God for the Children of Israel,. In his life-time Jesus never wrote a single word, nor did he instruct anyone to do so. What passes off as the Gospels today are the works of anonymous hands!

Firstly, in my earlier quote of Surah V:48 it is the duty of the Muslims to safeguard the Scriptures including those prior to the Quran. Therefore should ever a Muslim accuse the Jews and the Christians that the Taurat, the Zaboor and the Injeel are corrupted then they have failed their duty to Allah to safeguard them.

Secondly, Deedat himself have said that the Quran is perfectly preserved for 14 centuries now. If Allah is capable of preserving the Quran then why is Allah not capable of preserving the Taurat, Zaboor and the Injeel? Such inconsistency is unheard of in the Bible (Matt 24:35, Rev 22:19).

Thirdly, The Quran itself confirms that the Taurat and the Injeel during the time of Muhammad are still possessed by the Jews and the Christians. Here's what stated in the Quran:

Surah V:43 "How come they unto thee for judgment when they have the Torah, wherein Allah hath delivered judgment for them?"

Surah V:47 "Let the People of the Gospel judge by that which Allah hath revealed therein."

Surah VII:157 "Those who follow the messenger, the prophet who can neither read nor write, whom they will find described in the Torah and the Gospel which are with them."

Therefore if the Quran itself clearly indicates that the Jews and the Christians during Muhammad's time already posses the Taurat and the Injeel then how be it then that Muslims accuse the Jews and the Christians of nothing possessing the Taurat and the Injeel? Furthermore, the Dead Sea Scrolls which existed way before Muhammad (dated between 100 BC to 100 AD) has proven the authenticity of the Torah or Old Testament we have today.

The question before us is: "Do you accept the Bible as God's Word?" The question is really in the form of a challenge. The questioner is not simply seeking enlightenment. The question is posed in the spirit of a debate. We have every right to demand in a similar vein – "Which Bible are you talking about?", we may ask. "Why, there is only one Bible!" he mutters.

How many English versions of the Quran? Plenty, and most of them aren't translated by a committee but by individuals such as the Pickthall version that I'm currently using. Like I mentioned earlier, even if the Muslims apply Deedat's erroneous logic on their Quran they'll be getting the same negative results. Therefore, just because there are many versions doesn't mean that the Bible is not God's Word.

The Catholic Bible

Holding the Douay Roman Catholic version of the Bible aloft in my hand I ask "Do you accept this as the Word of God?" For reasons best known to themselves, the Catholic Truth Society have published their Version of the Bible in a very short, stump form. This Version is a very add proposition of the numerous versions in the market today. The Christian questioner is taken aback. "What Bible is that?" he asks. "Why I thought you said that there was only one Bible!" I remind him. "Yes" he murmurs hesitantly, "but what version is that?" "Why, would that make any difference?" I enquire. Of course it does, and the professional preacher knows that it does. He is only bluffing with his "one Bible" claim.

What version of the English Quran is Deedat using? Is it Pickthall? If no then are there two Qurans here, his and mine? Then what about the rest of the other English versions of the Quran that are available in the market? Seems to me by applying Deedat's erroneous logic there's more than one version of the Quran. The reason why there are different English versions of the Bible is because it is written in the English vocabulary of that time. Try reading the King James version and compare it with today's English and you'll know what I mean.

(Next: Chapter Four)

< Back to menu