ࡱ> f,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,~/0011,Root Entry F@f" `+ ,@2WordDocument2"^ObjectPoolE % % SummaryInformation(,  !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~,,,,,,,4/,,,,,Z2,,l/,;/,,,,,,,,-SummaryInformation))))))( F)CompObj))))))))))))))))j)CompObj)))))))))))))))))ObjInfo))))))))))))))))*//////// / / / / /////////////////// /!/"/#/$/%/&/'/(/)/*/+/,/-/.///25/6/7/8/9/:/,/?/@/A/B/C/D/E/F/G/J/K/L/M/N/O/P/Q/R/S/T/U/V/W/X/Z/[/\/]/^/_/`/a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h/i/j/k/m/x/o/p/q/r/s/t/u/v/w/y/z/{/|/}///2 222222 2 2 22222K22222222222222 2!2"2#2$2%2&2'2(2)2*2+2,2-2.2/202122232425262728292:2;2<2=2>2?2@2A2B2C2D2E2F2G2H2I2J2L2V2N2O2P2Q2R2S2T2U2W2X2,\2]2^2_2`2a2b2c2d2e2f2g2h2i2j2k2l2m2n2o2p2q2r2s2t2u2v2w2x2y2z2{2|2}2~222rdDocWord.Document.69qࡱࡱ> f,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,68 1.2.2.14 On steam, water, and ice  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969375  PAGEREF _Toc385969375 72 1.2.2.15 Who did the disciples call God?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969376  PAGEREF _Toc385969376 74 1.2.2.16 Trinitarian scholars admit it!  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969377  PAGEREF _Toc385969377 76 1.2.3 The 'Son of God'  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969378  PAGEREF _Toc385969378 80 1.2.3.1 Anglican bishops declare that Jesus is not God  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969379  PAGEREF _Toc385969379 82 1.2.3.2 How many Sons does God have?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969380  PAGEREF _Toc385969380 86 1.2.3.3 Because God was his Father?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969381  PAGEREF _Toc385969381 90 1.2.3.4 Because he performed miracles?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969382  PAGEREF _Toc385969382 91 1.2.3.5 Because he was filled with the Holy Ghost?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969383  PAGEREF _Toc385969383 93 1.2.3.6 Because he was the Image of God?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969384  PAGEREF _Toc385969384 94 1.2.3.7 Because he was from above?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969385  PAGEREF _Toc385969385 94 1.2.3.8 Because he was the Messiah/Christ and the Word?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969386  PAGEREF _Toc385969386 94 1.2.3.9 Because he was called Lord?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969387  PAGEREF _Toc385969387 98 1.2.3.10 Because God gave His only begotten Son?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969388  PAGEREF _Toc385969388 99 1.2.3.11 What about Unto us a child is born?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969389  PAGEREF _Toc385969389 100 1.2.3.12 How did Jesus people know him?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969390  PAGEREF _Toc385969390 103 1.2.3.13 Is God a man?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969391  PAGEREF _Toc385969391 105 1.2.3.14 Does God pray to Himself?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969392  PAGEREF _Toc385969392 105 1.2.3.15 Jesus is Gods servant  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969393  PAGEREF _Toc385969393 107 1.2.3.16 Does God have a God?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969394  PAGEREF _Toc385969394 109 1.2.3.17 Is God greater than Himself?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969395  PAGEREF _Toc385969395 110 1.2.3.18 More to think about  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969396  PAGEREF _Toc385969396 110 1.2.3.19 Was God ignorant and savage?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969397  PAGEREF _Toc385969397 110 1.2.3.20 But he must be God, or else we can not be saved  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969398  PAGEREF _Toc385969398 113 1.2.3.21 But he must be God, he was lifted up  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969399  PAGEREF _Toc385969399 123 1.2.3.22 But he must be God, he was the heir of Gods glory  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969400  PAGEREF _Toc385969400 124 1.2.3.23 But he must be God, he was crucified for blasphemy  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969401  PAGEREF _Toc385969401 125 1.2.4 'Worship me! '  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969402  PAGEREF _Toc385969402 127 1.2.4.1 Who can forgive sins?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969403  PAGEREF _Toc385969403 127 1.2.4.2 Jesus said I am so he must be God  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969404  PAGEREF _Toc385969404 128 1.2.4.3 But people worshipped Jesus and he did not object  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969405  PAGEREF _Toc385969405 131 1.2.4.4 But he doesnt need to say it  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969406  PAGEREF _Toc385969406 134 1.2.5 Historical origin of the 'Trinity' myth  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969407  PAGEREF _Toc385969407 137 1.2.6 The systematic destruction of the law of Jesus  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969408  PAGEREF _Toc385969408 160 1.2.7 Christianitys true founder, Paul, admits fabrication  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969409  PAGEREF _Toc385969409 165 1.2.8 Summary: What is a 'Trinity'?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969410  PAGEREF _Toc385969410 193 1.2.9 Conclusion  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969411  PAGEREF _Toc385969411 197 Chapter 2 Contradictions in the Bible  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969412  PAGEREF _Toc385969412 200 2.1 Christian scholars recognize tampering  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969413  PAGEREF _Toc385969413 200 2.1.1 Did Jesus (pbuh) himself write the Bible?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969414  PAGEREF _Toc385969414 200 2.1.2 Who were the authors of the books of the Bible?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969415  PAGEREF _Toc385969415 201 2.1.3 Is the Bible 100% faultless and untampered-with?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969416  PAGEREF _Toc385969416 203 2.1.4 So are all Christians evil and deceitful?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969417  PAGEREF _Toc385969417 204 2.1.5 Where then did our modern Bibles come from?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969418  PAGEREF _Toc385969418 205 2.1.6 Show me some examples of these grave defects  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969419  PAGEREF _Toc385969419 206 2.1.7 Well, the RSV is just one Bible  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969420  PAGEREF _Toc385969420 210 2.1.8 So, where did these discarded verses come from in the first place?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969421  PAGEREF _Toc385969421 210 2.1.9 How many books of the Bible are truly inspired?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969422  PAGEREF _Toc385969422 214 2.1.10 But the ancient copies are exact copies of one-another, right?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969423  PAGEREF _Toc385969423 214 2.1.11 How, then, did the Church handle this problem?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969424  PAGEREF _Toc385969424 224 2.1.12 Where did the King James Bible come from?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969425  PAGEREF _Toc385969425 227 2.1.13 How do they explain all of these centuries of tampering?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969426  PAGEREF _Toc385969426 234 2.1.14 So all fourteen thousand errors do not affect doctrine?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969427  PAGEREF _Toc385969427 236 2.1.15 82% of the words of Jesus not his?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969428  PAGEREF _Toc385969428 239 2.2 A small sampling of these contradictions  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969429  PAGEREF _Toc385969429 243 2.3 Did mankind tamper with the Old Testament?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969430  PAGEREF _Toc385969430 263 2.4 When is a book an inspired book?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969431  PAGEREF _Toc385969431 281 Chapter 3 Ancient paganism and the dangers of compromise  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969432  PAGEREF _Toc385969432 294 Chapter 4 Jesus' second coming and 'grace'  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969433  PAGEREF _Toc385969433 306 Chapter 5 Various miscellanea  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969434  PAGEREF _Toc385969434 309 5.1 A Biblical picture of God  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969435  PAGEREF _Toc385969435 309 5.2 My grandfather did it (or: Is King David going to Hell?)  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969436  PAGEREF _Toc385969436 313 5.3 Poison yourself or be damned  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969437  PAGEREF _Toc385969437 314 5.4 Who's will is stronger?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969438  PAGEREF _Toc385969438 315 5.5 Who bears the sin?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969439  PAGEREF _Toc385969439 316 5.6 Like Jesus prayed  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969440  PAGEREF _Toc385969440 321 5.7 Like Jesus' greeting  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969441  PAGEREF _Toc385969441 322 5.8 Thirty seven verses word for word?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969442  PAGEREF _Toc385969442 323 5.9 Melchizedek, A god greater than Jesus?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969443  PAGEREF _Toc385969443 328 5.10 The ultimate test of Jesus  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969444  PAGEREF _Toc385969444 331 5.11 Who was Immanuel?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969445  PAGEREF _Toc385969445 336 5.12 Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969446  PAGEREF _Toc385969446 338 5.13 Hiding the miracles  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969447  PAGEREF _Toc385969447 340 5.14 Was Christ a Christian?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969448  PAGEREF _Toc385969448 341 5.15 Will Judas judge Israel?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969449  PAGEREF _Toc385969449 344 5.16 Does God need an blood atonement?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969450  PAGEREF _Toc385969450 345 Chapter 6 Muhammad in the Bible  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969451  PAGEREF _Toc385969451 352 6.1 Three distinct prophesies  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969452  PAGEREF _Toc385969452 354 6.2 Foretells the story of the chapter of 'Al-Alak'  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969453  PAGEREF _Toc385969453 355 6.3 A Paraclete like Jesus  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969454  PAGEREF _Toc385969454 362 6.4 The emigration (The Hijra)  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969455  PAGEREF _Toc385969455 392 6.5 Isaiah's vision  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969456  PAGEREF _Toc385969456 395 6.6 Truthfulness of Muhammad (pbuh)  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969457  PAGEREF _Toc385969457 401 6.7 Moses foretells of Muhammads coming  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969458  PAGEREF _Toc385969458 402 6.8 Legitimacy of Hagar and Ishmael  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969459  PAGEREF _Toc385969459 409 6.9 A rod out of the stem of Jesse  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969460  PAGEREF _Toc385969460 428 6.10 Reference to Moses, Jesus, & Muhammad in that order  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969461  PAGEREF _Toc385969461 431 6.11 God did not kill Muhammad for speaking in His name  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969462  PAGEREF _Toc385969462 434 6.12 Glorifies Jesus (pbuh)  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969463  PAGEREF _Toc385969463 435 6.13 The rejected stone  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969464  PAGEREF _Toc385969464 437 6.14 Daniels prophesy  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969465  PAGEREF _Toc385969465 447 6.15 Other Prophesies  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969466  PAGEREF _Toc385969466 453 Chapter 7 The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gospel of Barnabas  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969467  PAGEREF _Toc385969467 456 Chapter 8 Jesus in the Qur'an  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969468  PAGEREF _Toc385969468 477 Chapter 9 The manners and morals of Muhammad  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969469  PAGEREF _Toc385969469 489 Chapter 10 The life of Muhammad  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969470  PAGEREF _Toc385969470 507 Chapter 11 What is Islam?  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969471  PAGEREF _Toc385969471 564 Chapter 12 Islamic faith: Some details  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969472  PAGEREF _Toc385969472 576 Chapter 13 The miracle and challenge of the Qur'an  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969473  PAGEREF _Toc385969473 597 Chapter 14 We an Arabic and Hebrew plural of respect  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969474  PAGEREF _Toc385969474 619 Chapter 15 Women in Christianity and Islam  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969475  PAGEREF _Toc385969475 623 Chapter 16 Summary  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969476  PAGEREF _Toc385969476 637 Chapter 17 Additional references  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969477  PAGEREF _Toc385969477 641 Index  GOTOBUTTON _Toc385969478  PAGEREF _Toc385969478 648  In the Name of GOD, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful Preface TC "Preface"\l 9  V erily! the likeness of Jesus with Allah(God) is as the likeness of Adam XE "Adam" . He created him of dust, then He said unto him: Be! and he was. (This is) the truth from your Lord (O Muhammad), so be not you of those who waver. And whosoever disputes with you concerning him, after the knowledge which has come unto you, say (unto him): Come! We will summon our sons and your sons, and our women and your women, and ourselves and yourselves, then we will pray humbly (to our Lord) and (solemnly) invoke the curse of Allah upon those who lie. Verily! This is the true narrative. There is no god save Allah, and verily! Allah is the Mighty, the Wise. And if they turn away, then Verily! Allah is Aware of the corrupters. Say: O People of the Scripture. Come to a word that is just between us and you: that we shall worship none but Allah, and that we shall ascribe no partners unto Him, and that we shall not take each other for lords beside Allah. And if they turn away, then say: Bear witness that we are they who have surrendered (unto Him) (literally: we are Muslims). The Quran, Aal-Umran(3):59-64. I have read in Moslem (sic) writings such deep and tender expressions of respect and reverence for Jesus that for the time I almost forgot, I was not reading the words of a Christian writer. How different, it is sad to say, has been the way in which Christians have spoken and written of Muhammad Let us put it down to its true cause, ignorance Reverend R. Maxwell King The lies which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man (Muhammad) are disgraceful to ourselves only Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History, Thomas Carlyle, p. 57 The use of false evidence to attack Islam was all but universal Islam and the West, Norman Daniel, p. 267 In the name of God(Allah), most compassionate, most merciful. I give all thanks to God(Allah) for His bounties and knowledge and that He has guided me to Islam. I also ask Allah Almighty that He bestow his peace and blessings upon Muhammad and grant him the highest rewards and exalted stations in Heaven. Further, I ask Allah Almighty that He grant His peace and blessings upon all of His prophets from the beginning of time, including Adam XE "Adam" , Noah, Abraham XE "Abraham" , Moses XE "Moses" , David, and Jesus, as well as all of the countless others, peace be upon them all, may their names be held in the highest honor for all time. I feel that this book is best described as my own humble attempt at the compilation and collection of the life long works of many famous and knowledgeable scholars and writers. My contribution to this book has probably been restricted to the collection of these works in one publication. So, as they say, I hereby give credit where credit is due. Among these authors are such luminaries as Shaik Rahmat-Allah ibn Khaleel al-Rahman al-Hindi, Shaik Shams al-Deen ibn Kayyem Al-Jawziah, Shaik Taqiuddin ibn Taymiyyah, Mr. Muhammad `Ata ur-Rahim, Shaik Ahmed Deedat, Mr. Akbarally Meherally, Dr. Jamal Badawi, Dr. Muhammad Ali Alkhuli, Mrs. Ulaft Aziz-us-Samad, Dr. Ahmad Dawood Al-Mizjaji, and Mr. M. A. Yusseff to name a few. To these individuals I dedicate this book. But first and foremost I dedicate this book to Allah Almighty and then to my mother who always taught me to have tolerance and an open mind, and to my father, who taught me to continually seek out knowledge as long as I may live. Muslims are encouraged to study and gain knowledge and to base their worship upon a combination of knowledge and faith, and not faith alone. A companion of the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) by the name of Abu-Darda once narrated: I heard the messenger of Allah (pbuh) say: If anyone travels on a road in search of knowledge, Allah/God will cause him to travel on one of the roads of Paradise. The angels will lower their wings in their great pleasure with one who seeks knowledge. The inhabitants of the heavens and the Earth and the fish XE "Fish"  in the deep waters will ask forgiveness for the learned person. The superiority of the learned person over the devout is like that of the moon, on the night when it is full, over the rest of the stars. The learned are the heirs of the Prophets, and the Prophets leave neither dinar nor dirham (kinds of currency), leaving only knowledge, and he who takes it takes an abundant portion. (narrated by Abu Dawood). Muslims are also encouraged to study other religions and to compare them to Islam. They are commanded to never be among those who accept Islam on blind faith or in conformance to the current trend in their society. Rather, they are commanded to make up their own minds and to enter into Islam with their eyes wide open, after they have thoroughly tested its validity as the command of God. There is no compulsion in religion XE "Compulsion in religion" . Guidance is henceforth distinct from misguidance The noble Quran, Al-Bakarah(2):256. It was because of the above reasons that, upon my arrival in the United States in 1992, I decided to spend my spare time researching Christianity. I did this in order to verify the affirmations of the noble Quran with regard to mankinds distortion of the Gospels and the Old Testament. If the Quran did indeed prove to have fabricated lies against the Bible then I would know that it was not the word of God. I therefore set about purchasing many different versions of the Bible such as the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), the King James Version (KJV or Authorized version), and so forth. I also purchased many Christian Biblical references as well as some Islamic references. Armed with this cache of information I set about my task and as the Bible puts it Prove all things XE "Prove all things" , hold fast that which is good. 1 Thessalonians 5:21. Before, during, and after all of this I was continually being approached to accept Jesus and be saved. At the same time, others were asking me various questions about Islam. Although these attempts to obtain my conversion were well intended and sincerely appreciated, still, their arguments were found wanting in that they were based in the most part upon a very serious lack of knowledge of even the most basic beliefs of Islam or at other times upon allegations which upon later joint study were found to be incorrect. Among these misconceptions is the popular Western belief that Islam is an Arab religion, and its adherents are all Mideasterners. This, however, is far from the truth. The Bible has collected for us the stories of many prophets of God throughout the ages, and while these prophets may differ from one-another in many aspects, there is one characteristic that remains common to all of them, namely, they too were all Mideasterners. Muslims believe in all of the prophets of the Bible. If we were to study the stories of the prophets of the Bible we would find that they all came from the general area of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and the surrounding regions. Muhammad (pbuh), the prophet of Islam, also came from this locale. He was born in the Arabian peninsula and that is where the message of Islam first came into the world. However, just as the religion of Moses XE "Moses"  was not an Arab religion simply because it came from Egypt, and just as Christianity was not an Arab religion simply because it came from Palestine, so too Islam is not an Arab religion but the final message of God to all humanity. In fact, Arabs make up less than 20% of the estimated 1.2 billion Muslims in the world today. In the Quran, we are told that the Gospel of Jesus (pbuh) underwent a series of major alterations after his departure until six hundred years later the changes to this gospel had become so severe as to necessitate Gods intervention. This is when the final message of God for all time, the message of Islam was sent down upon Muhammad (pbuh). This book attempts to study this claim in as much detail as humanly possible within my limited abilities in order to test the truthfulness of this assertion. Allah Almighty commands us in the noble Quran: Verily, God commands you to render your trusts back to those unto whom they are due; And when you judge between humanity, that you judge with justice: Verily, how excellent is the advice which He gives you! Verily, God is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. The noble Quran, Al-Nissa(4):58. In what follows I do not presume to claim that I am an unbiased witness. However, I have attempted to do my best to be as fair and just as the weakness of my humanity shall allow and to remember in all that I shall say in this matter the above command of Allah, the Just. The more one learns about Islam and Christianity, the more they begin to see the tremendous degree of similarity between the two religions. Both believe in a Omniscient, Omnipotent Creator of the heavens and the earth. The Christians call Him God the Father, the Muslims call Him Allah. Both believe in a long succession of prophets named in both the Bible as well as the Quran. These prophets include Noah, Moses XE "Moses" , Abraham XE "Abraham" , Jesus, and many others. Both believe in Heaven and Hell as well as a final judgment of God. Both religions believe that Jesus was the Messiah/Christ. Both religions believe in the miraculous birth of Jesus (pbuh) without a human father. Both religions believe in the many miracles of Jesus. However, for all their similarities, the differences between them are substantial. When I first began my research into these issues, I had attempted to locate a comprehensive reference which dealt with such issues as the Trinity XE "Trinity" , the incarnation XE "Incarnation" , the atonement, and the original sin. I was, however, surprised to find none. The information is out there, however, it is distributed throughout countless books, booklets, pamphlets and the like. Some of these references were written by Muslims, others by Christians. On the Christian side, I had found that Christian references are split into two basic groups which could probably be classified as motivational and scholarly texts. The motivational texts dealt mostly with the teaching of the established doctrines of Christianity and the instillation with the reader of a basic faith in these doctrines. These texts are the ones found in the possession of the majority of regular church goers. The second category of Christian references, the scholarly references, go to the next level of Biblical study. They usually deal with the intricate details of the Bible and the Christian faith, going beyond faith and inspiration alone in order to include a broader study of the Bible and other ancient Christian documents. These books are written mostly by those who have chosen to dedicate their entire existence to the detailed study of these documents in order to extract from them their most precious hidden secrets and the intricate details of the occurrences to be found therein. These references deal with such issues as when these books were written, who wrote them, why they did so, what was the political social and economic situation of the world in which they lived, how they dealt with all of these factors and how they were influenced by them. The authors of these references, and the references themselves, are usually found in Western institutions of higher learning such as the religion departments of many Western universities. At first I had expected my research to involve a slow and painful search through a sparse number of obscure ancient Christian documents. This did not prove to be the case. Once I began to look for the truth I was practically overwhelmed by a veritable avalanche of detailed Christian studies all leading to the same conclusion: That the Church has taken great liberties with the text of the Bible over the ages. They have freely changed words which they felt inappropriate to their established beliefs, adding verses which were not found in the original text in order to validate a given doctrine, and freely removing verses when they felt the need to do so. These Christian scholars have documented for us may of the details of these revisions to the text of the Bible. They show us how this trend did not end with the coming of Muhammad (pbuh) and the message of Islam in the seventh century, however, these adaptations, corrections, and modifications continued for many centuries after the death of Muhammad almost up to our present day. As we shall see later on in this book, only one single example of this tendency is the example of the most ancient copy of the Bible available to Christendom today, specifically, the Codex Sinaiticus XE "Sinaiticus, Codex"  XE "Codex Sinaiticus"  (of the fourth century AD). This document alone has been shown by Christian scholars to have undergone over 14,800 XE "14,800 errors"  corrections over the ages by at least nine different Christian correctors. Given that our modern Bibles have been distilled from such source documents as these, is it not befitting that we study the history of such preservation techniques of the Bible in order to arrive at the original unmodified word of Jesus (pbuh)? During my research, it slowly became apparent to me that the more eminent the Christian author was, the more painfully aware this author would be of the fact that our modern Bibles are the end result of countless unending revisions to the original text over the ages. Since many of these scholars were conservatives in the finest ancient tradition, therefore, they had usually tried their best to forgive those who had changed the Biblical text and to excuse their actions. However, having to continually make excuses for those who changed the word of God and to only think the best of these people and their motives can eventually tax the patience of even the most forgiving conservative and drive him to frustration. As we shall see in chapter 2.1, this was indeed the case with one of historys most eminent conservative Christian scholars, Dr. Lobegott Tischendorf XE "Tischendorf, Dr. Lobegott Friedrich Konstantin" . In the beginning I had striven to collect this information into a series of articles which were published on a very limited scale inside the university I was studying in at the time. After having completed these articles I decided to collect them into one handy reference with the core information having being collected from external sources but having been reorganized into what I believe to be a more intuitive and useful order. In some cases, I have found myself unable to improve upon the wording and layout of other authors, so I have shamelessly copied their words almost verbatim. However, I believe that such straight copying has been confined to less than 5% of the content of this book and has, by Allahs will, been clearly marked as appropriate. Once again, credit where credit is due. Many hundreds of books have been published by Christian scholars on the topic of the various contradictions which have resulted in the Bible as an end result of centuries of continuous revision and correction. It has been my experience, however, that most of these books have gone one of two different extremes, specifically, they either try to: Reconcile all discrepancies through abstraction and elaborate additional details not found in the Biblical text, and occasionally, when they are presented with two conflicting versions of one story in the Bible they simply choose the version they personally prefer and claim the other verses were a scribal error, or They claim that Jesus (pbuh) was no more than a legend and a myth, and that the Bible, the apostles, and even Jesus himself were only figments of someones imagination. This book, however, goes a different route, that of Islam and the noble Quran. In this book it is demonstrated that Jesus (pbuh) was indeed a true prophet of God but that his message was lost by those who came after him for various reasons. This book then goes on to strip away all of the layers of shrouding which mankind has placed about the original message of Jesus (pbuh) until all that is left is the original unchanged words of Jesus. However, in order to arrive at his original message it shall be necessary for us to be willing to place the words of Jesus (pbuh) above those of all of mankind without exception. If we are willing to do only this, then and only then shall we have truly opened our hearts and minds to him and accepted his message. Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John 14:23 I do not deceive myself. This book will never be the definitive answer to all questions. However, I hope that this book will at least get people interested enough that they may go out, read the Bible and the Quran carefully, and seek knowledge for themselves. If I manage to accomplish this then I have done my job. There are many other things I would like to say but I must keep the size of this book under some semblance of control. I have therefore spent most of my efforts speaking about comparative religion between Islam and Christianity in order to prove the truthfulness of the affirmations of the Quran and that it was indeed sent by the same God who sent Jesus (pbuh). If I could add one more chapter I would probably speak in a little more detail about the Dead Sea Scrolls since this has proven to be a truly intriguing endeavor. However, that task shall have to be left for another day (by the will of Allah). I would also like to point out that the referencing system employed in this book still needs some serious work in order to bring it in line with more accepted modern norms. However, that too will have to be left to another day. In any case, I believe that its current form is adequate for the time being, and by Allahs will, this issue will be dealt with in the near future. I would like to make a couple of matters clear from the outset so that there will be no misunderstanding as to my beliefs and/or intentions: 1) Muslims do not hate Christians nor harbor ill will against them. This is a common misconception in the West about Muslims. Muslims are told in the Quran: ..and nearest among them (mankind) in love to the believers (Muslims) will you find those who say 'we are Christians': because among these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant The noble Quran, Al-Maidah(5):82. The people of the book (Jews are Christians) are also singled out by God in the Quran to receive the following treatment: And argue not with the people of the book unless it be in [a way] which is better [than mere arguing], except with such of them that do wrong, and say [to them]: We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you, and our God and your God is One, and to Him we have submitted (literally: We are Muslims) The noble Quran, Al-Ankaboot(29):46. Muslims simply wish for Christians the exact same thing that Christians wish for Muslims: That we all be guided to the truth of God and His ultimate reward. By now it should be obvious that Islam is not, as the stereotype would have one believe, an underground terrorist group dedicated to the total destruction of civilized life as we know it. Because of all of the above, I have striven to avoid in this book all statements which might be misunderstood to be hateful, inflammatory, or disrespectful. However, the fundamental goals of this book make it necessary to exhibit many contradictory statements in the New and Old Testaments in order to prove the Qurans claim: that mankind took great liberties with Gods scriptures after the departure of their prophets and have changed His original message to them. Muslims are told that these tampering fingers have left many contradictions for those who would simply look for them. The Bible itself gives us the deciding criteria: For many bare false witness XE "False witness"  against him (Jesus), but their witness agreed not together. Mark 14:56. For this reason, I have attempted to keep my own comments to a minimum and allow the Bible to speak for itself as often as possible (see for example the table in chapter 2.2). Those people who have made up their minds beforehand that they will hate me for this and will not see the contradictions and the tampering fingerprints no matter how much evidence is presented are kindly asked to stop reading now. This book is not for them. Those readers who are willing to keep an open mind are invited to accompany us in our quest for the truth of God. 2) Some readers may misinterpret some of my statements to be disrespectful of God Almighty, His prophets, His scriptures, or the original apostles of Jesus. This too is unintentional. Any one of these matters is considered a sin of the highest order in Islam. The goal of this book is only to present the proof of that which Christian scholars the world over are now beginning to recognize as historical fact: That the alleged authors of the Bible are not the true authors, and as a result of this, they have written therein matters regarding God/Allah, His prophets, and their apostles that were not inspired by either God nor his prophets. All claims made in this book should be understood to be against these hidden authors and not God, His prophets, His original scriptures, or the original disciples. 3) As mentioned above, I am not a scholar of religion, an evangelist, nor have I any official diplomas in religious studies. I wrote this book in my spare time while pursuing graduate degrees in the field of Engineering within the United States. My own feeble contribution in no way compares to those of Islams more learned and knowledgeable scholars. However, I saw a void which in my opinion had yet to be filled, so I have done my best to fill it. There are many more comprehensive and detailed studies of this topic written in the Arabic language (e.g. Al-Jawab Assahih). However, until such a time as more of these great works can be translated into English, I hope that this book will serve as a temporary substitute. 4) When I speak about Islam in this book, I refer to the Islam taught by Muhammad (pbuh) and practiced by his followers, as preserved for us within the writings of hundreds of Islamic scholars and handed down to us through an unbroken chain of authenticated narrators in the many books of the Shareea, Seerah, and Hadeeth. This is the Islam which has been preserved in the Arabian peninsula (the home country of Muhammad pbuh) to this day. This Islam, the Islam of Muhammad (pbuh), does not attempt to promote specific humans, or groups thereof, to higher levels of divine authority and power than others, such as is preached by the leaders of the newly established so-called Nation of Islam group in the United States whose followers are told by Louis Farakhan, Elijah XE "Elijah"  Poole, and W. D. Fard, that Islam preaches the superiority of a certain race or color and other such innovations. True Islam also does not follow the beliefs of the leaders of the Shiite groups of some Eastern countries (such as Iran) which also attribute to specific human beings boundless supernatural powers and the ability to hand out passes to heaven and so forth. 5) How to read this book: As mentioned previously, this book has been written with the goal of being a little more comprehensive than most other such English publication which I have come across during my research. I have also done my utmost to ensure that it is as easy to read as possible. What I mean by this is not that I feel at all superior to these great scholars, only that the English publications I have thus far come across did not convey the overall picture of Islam, Christianity, and the relationship between them which I wished to see in one English reference. The inevitable result of making a book comprehensive is that it also becomes large. For this reason, an attempt has been made to divide this book into many sub-topics with each sub-topic spanning only a few pages, and thus, the book becomes easy to read a piece at a time. I strongly encourage the reader to read this book in the order in which it was written. This is because the chapters will, by the will of Allah, complement each other more completely if they are read in their written order. However, an attempt has also been made to make the chapters independent of one another for those readers who wish to jump directly to a specific topic of interest to them. For such readers a chart has been supplied to help them select the most relevant topic to them by asking the reader a few simple questions. Start at the top of the chart and work your way down by answering the questions and following the resultant directions. I would like to thank all of those who helped me to publish this book, including brother Ahmed Deedat, brother John Siedlidz, brother Ammar Amonette, brother Jamal Zarabozo, brother Jamal Badawi, brother Idris Palmer, brother Ali Al-Tamimi, brother Ismael Mujahid, brother Dawood Madan, brother Rafil Dhafir, brother Abdullah Firdous Abdulrazzak, brother Saad Al-Qasabi, brother Abdulaziz Al-Suhaibani, brother Mansor Matbouli, brother Abdulrahman Al-Ali, brother Sherif Muhammad, brother Reza Scholten, brother Farid Adlouni, brother Bassem Khafagi, brother Kamil Mufti, brother Nader Salah, brother Khalifa XE "Khalifa"  (you know who you are), and brother Ibraheem Pastuszak, who all contributed in one way or another in the completion of this book, either with suggestions on modifications or corrections, in countless hours proof-reading it, in providing reference material or contact information, or in various other aspects such as generally helping out with their comments and suggestions whenever possible. For all of the countless others who have assisted in this project but who I have forgotten to mention here, I ask your forgiveness for my oversight, your efforts are very deeply appreciated. I would also like to thank all of the above authors for their efforts which have made these matters clear for us. May Allah Almighty guide us all unto his whole truth. Amen. Mishaal ibn Abdullah May 1996 Goal of this book TC "Goal of this book"\l 9  A nd they say 'Allah Most Compassionate has begotten a son!'. Indeed you have put forth a thing most monstrous! The skies are ready to burst [at such a claim], and the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin. That they should ascribe a son to the Most Compassionate. But it is not befitting [the majesty of] the Most Compassionate that He should beget a son. Not one of the beings in the heavens and the earth but must come to the Most Compassionate as a servant. He has taken account of all of them and has numbered them all exactly. And every one of them will come to him singly on the day of judgment. On those who believe and work deeds of righteousness, will Allah Most Compassionate bestow love. Verily, We have made this [Quran] easy in your tongue [O Muhammad] that you might deliver glad tidings to those who seek refuge [in Allah] and warn with it a people who are contentious. And how many a generation before them have we destroyed! Can you find a single one of them or hear from them so much as a whisper? The Noble Quran, Maryam(19):88-98 The goal of this book is simple: To exhibit considerable tangible evidence that the Gospel of Jesus (pbuh) underwent a series of major revisions and alterations after his departure to the point that his original message to mankind was all but totally lost. Six hundred years later (Fourteen hundred years ago), the holy book of the Muslims, the Quran, was sent down upon the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) by God informing him of this fact. It has taken close to two thousand years for Christianity to recognize this as a known fact. Today, you would be hard pressed to find a single reputable scholar of Christianity who, to one degree or another, does not readily acknowledge this as a true accepted fact (A minority of the most adamant conservatives will always be the exception). The evidence is simply too overwhelming to ignore. When I speak of scholars of Christianity I mean those people who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of detailed historical facts regarding the history of the Bible through the unbiased logical study of the countless ancient documents of the Christian church, the Bible itself, and other methods. These people are found in abundance in the religion departments of the various Western universities. A scholar of Christianity by this definition does not include the televanglists, the evangelists, and so forth. It has required the bravery and sacrifice of countless such unwavering seekers of truth to bring us this information. In the past, such people were casually put to death without a second thought. Even today, many of them are being fired from their jobs and black-listed for openly speaking about such matters. If they are liars then their lies should be exposed and the light of truth should be sufficient authority to shame their tongues into silence. However, if there is some truth to what they say, then such selfless dedication and vigilance against those who would distort the word of God should not be allowed to go unrecognized. For this reason we shall study the details of their findings in this book. Let us begin by collecting the basic beliefs of Christians and Muslims side by side in the following table. All of the information shown in the table shall be discussed in detail throughout this book and all claims shall, by the will of Allah, be verified through the appropriate scripture (either the Bible or the Quran). Christian BeliefMuslim BeliefGodGod is three gods merged into one God. This one God is called a Trinity. However, to say that God is three is a blasphemy of the highest order. All three parts of the Trinity are coequal co-eternal and the same substance. For this reason, this doctrine is described as a mystery.God is one God in the most basic, simple, and elementary meaning of the word. He has no children, no parents nor any equal. In Islam God is known by the name Allah and more than 99 other venerated names, such as the Merciful, the Gracious, the All-Powerful, etc.JesusThe second member of the Triune God, the Son of the first part of the Triune God, and at the same time fully God in every respect.A very elect and highly esteemed messenger of God. No Muslim is a Muslim if he does not believe this.The Holy SpiritThe third member of the Triune God, but also fully God in every respect.He is the angel Gabriel XE "Gabriel" . The angel Gabriel is highly esteemed as the Trustworthy SpiritMary the mother of JesusA chaste and pious human woman who gave birth to Jesus Christ, the second member of the Trinity, the Son of God, and at the same time fully God Almighty in every respect.A chaste and pious human woman who was chosen, purified, and preferred over all of the women of creation to be the one to give birth to Gods elect messenger Jesus through the command of God without any father whatsoever.The WordPart of God which was with God but also fully God and then became Jesus the Son of God.Gods command Be! which resulted in Jesus conception in the womb of Mary without the need for a human father.Previous prophetsAll accepted, respected, and believed.All accepted, respected, and believed.The BibleAccepted as 100% the faultless word of GodMuslims believe in the books of the previous prophets including the Torah which was sent to Moses XE "Moses" , the Zaboor (Psalms) which were given to David, the Injeel (Gospel) which was given to Jesus, and the Quran which was given to Muhammad However, Muslims are told that the previous scriptures were tampered with by mankind and the Bible should only be accepted in as far as it is confirmed by the Quran. It is to be treated with respect, however any statements which clearly oppose those of the Quran are to be rejected as the work of mankind.MuhammadVarying beliefs. Some believe that he was a liar, some believe he was a lunatic, some believe he was the False Messiah, and yet others claim he was deceived by the Devil.The last messenger of God to all of humanity. He was known as The Truthful, the Trustworthy before he received his first revelation. He was sent by God as a mercy to all creation. He was a human being but performed a number of miracles during his lifetime by the will of God.The QuranVarying beliefs ranging from it being a copy of the Bible to it being the work of Muhammad (pbuh), to its being the work of Christians and Jews who were conspiring with Muhammad.The last book of God sent to mankind. It was given the distinction of being personally guarded by God from human tampering. It is on a literary level never before seen by mankind. No human to this day has ever been able to meet its challenge to write a work similar to it. It shall remain safe from the tampering of mankind till the day of Judgment as a guidance for all Humanity. Message of JesusThat he was sent by God (who was at the same time fully Jesus) in order to die on the cross XE "Cross"  and save all mankind from the sin of Adam XE "Adam" . Without this sacrifice all of humanity was destined to perish in the sin of Adam. After the crucifixion all that is required of humanity is faith without any works.That he was sent by God as a messenger to the Jews in order to return them to the pure and true religion of Moses XE "Moses" , and to relieve them of some of the regulations which had been placed upon them in ancient times. He taught them to have faith as well as works. Neither one can stand alone.Jesus giving life to the dead, healing the blind and the lepersAll accepted. He performed them because he was the Son of God and also at the same time fully God and the incarnation XE "Incarnation"  of God.All accepted. They were performed through the will of God just as Moses XE "Moses" , Noah, and all other prophets did so in ancient times through the will of God.The crucifixionJesus was given over to the Jews. He was spat on, cut, humiliated, kicked, striped, and finally hung up on the cross XE "Cross"  and killed very slowly and painfully.Jesus was not forsaken to the Jews to be abused and killed, however, it was made to appear so to them. God saved Jesus by raising him up unto Himself.The second coming XE "Jesus, Second coming of"  of Jesus.Accepted. Originally expected to happen during the lifetime of the first disciples, many predictions have been made later and he is still expected at any moment. He is currently anticipated to arrive around the turn of the century (2000 C.E.)Accepted. Jesus did not die but was raised up into heaven by God. He shall return to earth just before the Day of Judgment in order to kill the False Messiah and to establish peace and justice on earth. He will kill the pigs, break the cross XE "Cross" , and call all humanity to Islam.The original sinAll of humanity has inherited the sin of Adam XE "Adam" . Only the death of the sinless offspring of God could erase this sin. No one is born clean, no matter if his life is only for a single day. Only baptism and faith in the death of Jesus can save one from this destiny.There is no such thing. Humanity is created by God destined for heaven unless they chose to disobey Him and refuse His mercy. God can very trivially and effortlessly forgive the sins of all of Humanity no matter if they were to fill the lofty regions of the sky. Such a matter would be trivial and inconsequential for Him since He has already done much more than that such as creating everything we can ever see, hear or imagine. He loves to bestow His mercy and forgiveness on His creation and rewards the most trivial acts with the most tremendous rewards. In order to achieve Gods reward one must have faith as well as worksThe atonementThe sin of Adam XE "Adam"  was so great that God could not forgive it by simply willing it, rather it was necessary to erase it with the blood of a sinless innocent god named Jesus who was also fully God.Adam XE "Adam"  atoned for his sin by saying My Lord I have sinned and if you do not forgive me and have mercy upon me then I shall indeed have lost. So God forgave him. Similarly, all human beings have the door to forgiveness left open to them by God until the day they die. There are no intermediaries between mankind and God. If they sincerely repent to God, ask His forgiveness, and forsake their evil deeds before their hour comes then He shall forgive them and there is nothing more pleasing to Him than to forgive the sins of one who comes to Him in sincere repentance.The path to salvationIf you have faith in the atonement of Jesus for the sin of Adam XE "Adam"  which you have inherited then you shall be saved. You only need faith. No work is necessary.If you have faith in God, believe in His messengers, and obey His commands then He shall multiply every single good deed that you do many, many times and erase your evil deeds, until on the Day of Judgment His mercy shall cause your good deeds to far outweigh your evil deeds and grant you passage into an ecstasy and Paradise so great that we can not even imagine it, to abide there eternally. In the Hereafter there is only reward and no work. In this book it will be demonstrated (by Gods will), through the words of the Bible and some of historys most eminent conservative Biblical scholars and references only, how most of the founding beliefs of Christianity today were indeed inserted by mankind into the message of Jesus long after his departure. Jesus (pbuh) himself never had anything whatsoever to do with them. These beliefs include: The Trinity XE "Trinity" . The claim that Jesus (pbuh) is the Son of God in the later orthodox sense XE "Son of God" . The original sin of Adam XE "Adam"  which mankind is alleged to have inherited. The atonement, or death of Jesus (pbuh) on the cross XE "Cross"  in order to erase this sin of Adam XE "Adam" . The incarnation XE "Incarnation"  of God in the form of a human being, namely, Jesus (pbuh). It will further be demonstrated that the true message of Jesus (pbuh) was: That God is One. He is indivisible. He has no equal. God has no children nor parents. There is no other god in existence other than God Himself. Jesus (pbuh) was a human being. He was not God, but only an elect messenger of God. God does not hold anyone responsible for the sin of anyone else, nor does He forgive the sins of one man by sacrificing another. God does not give preference to a certain race, color, nation, lineage or anything else above any other. Only a persons individual actions and worship will distinguish them in the eyes of God. Gods justice refuses that any human being bear the sin of any other. God is a merciful god who bestows His forgiveness without a price or asking for any compensation. Entering into heaven requires both faith and work. Neither one can stand alone. Muslims are taught that throughout the ages, God sent messengers to all tribes and nations all over the earth beginning with Adam XE "Adam"  (pbuh), the first prophet of God as well as the father of humanity. Every time a messenger of God would pass away, his people would begin to fall back on their evil deeds until a few generations later they would have managed to have completely corrupted His original message to them. When Gods message was in danger of being completely obliterated by these people, He would chose from among them a new messenger to receive the original, uncorrupted message and convey it to them. Some of them would listen. Others would not. However, the message would always be available for those who wanted it. In this manner, God made sure that all of mankind would always have access to His true religion, no matter where or when they lived. It would then be up to them to seek out this knowledge. Muslims are further taught that each messenger was sent only to his own people. His message was then fine-tuned to suit them. Thus, the basic message would be the same for all messengers: God is one!, Worship Him alone! However, the details of each peoples worship would be molded to suit their lifestyle, state of knowledge, and so forth. This was also true for Jesus (pbuh). Jesus was sent specifically to the Jews, and only to the Jews. It shall be demonstrated how one of the most fundamental reasons which led up to the loss of his message was that those who came after him attempted to preach it to those for whom it was never intended, namely, the Gentiles. The Gentiles eventually managed to introduce into the message of Jesus many aspects of their own beliefs which ultimately led up to the loss of the message of Jesus. This book demonstrates how the diversion of the religion of Jesus (pbuh) from its original teachings progressed in the following stages: Jesus (pbuh) came to show the Jews how their religion had been changed from that preached to them by Moses XE "Moses"  and their previous prophets (pbut). Jesus (pbuh) called the Jews back to the true religion of God sent down upon their previous messengers. Jesus himself observed every single aspect of the religion of Moses XE "Moses"  (pbuh) steadfastly and uncompromisingly. He fasted as Moses (pbuh) fasted, he worshipped as Moses (pbuh) worshipped, he refrained from tasting a single pig, he believed in circumcision and himself was circumcised, he observed the Sabbath XE "Sabbath" , never having violated it. He did this up until the crucifixion. It was only after the crucifixion, according to the Bible, that he allegedly returned in visions to Paul in order to nullify the law he had spent his whole life upholding. The Bible actually bears witness that during his lifetime, Jesus commanded his followers to follow the religion of Moses (pbuh) and threatened severe retribution from God for all of his followers who would forsake a single aspect of this religion until the end of time (see below). Jesus (pbuh) departed from this earth and his apostles continued to follow his teachings religiously. They too followed the religion of Moses XE "Moses"  (pbuh) as Jesus (pbuh) had done before them and commanded them to do. For the first three decades after the departure of Jesus (pbuh), the followers of Jesus would merely be Jews who affirmed that Jesus (pbuh) was their promised Messiah. For the first three decades XE "Christianity, first three decades"  after the departure of Jesus (pbuh), his followers would continue to worship in the synagogues and Temple of the Jews and observe all of the aspects of the religion of Moses (pbuh) without exception. Shortly after the departure of Jesus (pbuh), a Jew named Saul of Tarsus XE "Saul of Tarsus"  persecutes Jesus followers every way he knows how. By his own admission, he does his utmost to utterly waste the Church and to wipe the religion of Jesus from the face of the earth and the minds of men. He has never met Jesus (pbuh) in person. Suddenly Saul claims to be receiving visions from Jesus (pbuh). The apostle Barnabas takes him under his wing, and through Barnabas he is accepted by the rest of the apostles. Barnabas then travels with him extensively until his reputation as a persecutor and killer of Christians is replaced with one of a true convert. Now Saul parts ways with the apostle of Jesus (pbuh), Barnabas, and decides to preach to the Gentiles. He claims that the apostles of Jesus (pbuh) are lazy, misguided, hypocrites. He claims that it was necessary for him to constantly guide the apostles out of their ignorance into the truth of God which he was receiving in his visions. He openly claims that he learned nothing from the apostles, and every single word he preached was from direct divine inspiration. The neighboring gentiles hated the Jews with such a passion that he found it all but impossible to convince them to accept the Judaism that Jesus (pbuh) practiced his whole life and taught his apostles to carry on after him until the end of time. Saul readily admits in the Bible in many places that he was willing to do anything without exception in order to convert the gentiles. He claims that everything has been made lawful for him. For this reason, Saul begins to compromise with the pagan gentiles and simplify the religion of Jesus for them in order to make it more appealing to them that they might convert. Saul continues to compromise with the gentiles and mold the religion of Jesus (pbuh) closer and closer to their established beliefs in order to gain their conversion. In the end, all that he requires of them is faith without work. The pagan gentiles he is preaching to worship many sons of almighty Jupiter or Zeus and other such gods. Among them are such as Attis XE "Attis" , Adonis XE "Adonis" , Dionysus XE "Dionysus" , etc. They believe that these pagan gods had died for their sins and been resurrected. Saul now explains to them that Jesus (pbuh) was not merely a normal human prophet but a Son of God XE "Son of God"  and that this Son of God died in atonement for the sins of all mankind. The Gentiles immediately see the parallels and the great degree of similarity with that which they already believe. All they have to do is change a few labels. In this manner, Saul manages to convince the Greeks (and other gentiles) to accept the religion of Jesus. This is because, unlike the Jews, the religion of the Greeks already accepts Trinities, and father gods and son gods, and the death of gods, and the resurrection of gods, and the incarnation XE "Incarnation"  of gods, and divine savior gods, and the eating of the flesh of gods, and the drinking of the blood of gods...etc. All of these concepts are old news to them. He becomes a great leader among them and is named Saint Paul. Saint Paul now writes extensively and gains more and more converts. Once his converts begin to exceed the number of converts to the more strict and demanding religion of the apostles of Jesus (pbuh), they begin to kill the followers of the apostles, persecute them, and burn their Gospels. The followers of Saint Paul are challenged to prove their claims of son of God XE "Son of God" , original sin, ..etc. through the scriptures and prove that Jesus (pbuh) or God had anything to do with them. They cannot. There are too many verses which declare that there is only ONE God in existence and that He does not hold mankind responsible for the sin of any man. Examples of these verses are available to this day (e.g. Isaiah 43:10-11, Ezekiel XE "Ezekiel"  18:19-20, Deuteronomy 24:16...etc.). Thus, it becomes necessary for them to recognize that God is a Trinity similar to the ancient Trinities of the Greeks and Romans so that they can have three Gods but claim that they only worship one. The ancient Trinities of Greek philosophy are redefined with new labels and applied to God Almighty in order to define this new doctrine of three gods in one. Once again, the Trinity could not be proven through the Bible, so the Church began to receive divine inspiration from God commanding them to clarify their Bible so that the Trinity XE "Trinity"  could be seen clearly (see for example section 1.2.2.5). These clarifications would only be discovered by the scholars of Christianity centuries later. They would later provide irrefutable proof of how, when, and by whom these clarifications were inserted into the Bible. In the twentieth century, Thirty two conservative biblical scholars of the highest eminence backed by fifty cooperating denominations would justly throw out 1 John 5:7 as a fabricated insertion of the church. Many other fabrications would be discovered by them. For the first four centuries CE Christianity is split into innumerable sects of countless divergent beliefs. Countless gospels of varying degrees of authenticity begin to spring up. These sects bitterly fight among one another with each one claiming that they alone possess the true religion of Jesus and the true Gospel. All of these sect vie for the backing of the Roman pagans in order to gain the upper hand over the other sects and silence them once and for all. In the fourth century CE., the followers of the Trinity XE "Trinity"  manage to enlist the aid of the pagan Roman empire. They wield the power of this pagan nation to cleanse the earth of the heretical and blasphemous followers of the apostles. They later launch campaigns of inquiry to convert them. Trinitarian beliefs are touted as the only truly correct religion of Jesus (pbuh). The writings of Paul are collected and today they form the majority of the books of the new testament. The books of the apostles are burned. They are all labeled apocryphal lies. The list of truly inspired books of the Bible that we have in our hands today was not officially sanctioned until the year 367C.E. The Bibles in the hands of the first three hundred years of Christians was very drastically different than the ones in our hands today. Within the span of a three centuries the Trinitarians manage to recognize that all of the books that were considered inspired and divine during the very first centuries CE were indeed all lies and apocrypha. Only those books that were considered apocryphal during these very first centuries CE are now recognized to be canonical, authentic, and divine. Those who are found concealing the original books of the apostles are now burned to death with their books. Pauls followers obtain copies of the Gospels of the apostles. They copy them but with drastic modifications to the doctrine found therein. They claim that the apostles wrote them. These books are attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The additions to these books will continue for many more centuries. Only centuries later will Christian scholars begin to see the evidence that the claimed authors did not write these books. Since the general populace of Christendom is perceived by the Church to be too backward and heathenistic to understand such sacred scriptures, therefore it becomes necessary for the Church to horde the Bible for their own personal use. Anyone who wishes to learn what the Bible says must come to the Church and ask them. The Church then through a combination of divine inspiration and verses of the Bible will tell them what they need to know. Six hundred years after Christ, Muhammad (pbuh) is born. He follows the religion of Abraham XE "Abraham"  (pbuh) which was handed down to him and all Arabs from the father of the Arabs, Ishmael XE "Ishmael" , the eldest son of prophet Abraham (pbut). Upon reaching the age of 40, God sends the angel Gabriel XE "Gabriel"  to Muhammad to teach him His final message, the message of Islam. He tells him that the people of the book have changed the religion of Jesus (pbuh) and have altered it from a religion of submission to one God to a religion where multiple gods are being worshipped. He is told that he will be the final messenger, and that his message is to be directed to all of mankind including the Jews and Christians. The Jews and Christians claim that Muhammad (pbuh) is a liar, a lunatic, deceived by the Devil, and a false prophet. They claim that he has just copied the Bible in order to write his Quran. Just as many Jews refused to accept Jesus (pbuh) as a true messenger of God, so too do many Jews and Christians refuse to believe Muhammad (pbuh). Muhammad (pbuh) passes away. The Trinitarians continue with their burning at the stake any Christian who opposes the Trinity XE "Trinity"  or openly speaks about the discrepancies in the Bible. They launch campaigns of inquiry to cleanse the earth of all remnants of believers in one (monotheistic) God. They slaughter the Jews at every opportunity. The sentences of death by these inquisitions become so unbounded in their nature that whole nations are sentenced to death. A single holy decree of the Trinitarian church in 1568 would later condemn three million men women and children of the Netherlands XE "Netherlands"  to the scaffold as heretics. In the end, over twelve million people were put to death through the authority of the Inquisitions XE "Inquisitions" . The Church loses its power to the scientists and is pushed into a dark corner. Without the threat of death hanging over their heads, many Christian scholars begin to publish countless books exhibiting detailed examples of contradicting verses and evidence of modification and tampering with the text of the Bible. The ancient manuscripts of the Christian society are studied in detail and slowly, the previous picture begins to come together. Countless excuses are made by the Church and those whos livelihood and power depend on these established beliefs. They now begin to give practically every single verse of the Bible abstract meanings. They tell their flock to have blind faith. They convince their flock that they can not understand the Bible without the interpretation and holy inspiration of the Church. They tell their flock that Jesus (pbuh) never means what he says and that every reference he makes to following the religion of Moses XE "Moses"  (pbuh) is not meant to be taken literally but was meant by Jesus (pbuh) to have hidden meanings totally in opposition to the obvious meanings. Only they can tell you what these hidden meanings of Jesus (pbuh) were. Copies of the original Gospels of the apostles of Jesus (pbuh) begin to surface. They are found, of all places, hidden away in the capital of Christianity, the Vatican itself. These Gospels (Such as the Gospel of Barnabas XE "Barnabas, Gospel of" ) confirm the teachings of the Quran. Copies of these Gospels have a tendency to disappear mysteriously. They are labels false Gospels and lies written by Muslims. Suddenly, in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls are discovered. For close to forty five years, they are hoarded in Israel and hidden from the masses. When they are finally forced out into the open, an amazing discovery is made. They too confirm the Quran! They foretell the coming of not one but TWO Messiahs. They claim that these two Messiahs XE "Dead Sea Scrolls, Dual Messiah prophesy"  will be announced by an eschatological prophet. The dual prophesy is very clear and prevalent throughout the scrolls. The scrolls claim that the first Messiah will be betrayed by one of his followers but will not be forsaken by God to die, rather, the one who betrayed him shall be taken in his place. The scrolls specifically state that no nail shall touch the Messiah. There is so much in the Dead Sea Scrolls that parallels the teachings of the Quran, however, once again it is all explained away with abstract meanings. We are told that the fact that the Jews who lived 100 years before Jesus (the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls) were expecting TWO Messiahs does not mean that they were expecting two different Messiahs, but rather, they must have been expecting a single Messiah with two different personalities. Thus, we are told, Jesus (pbuh) is BOTH Messiahs. On the other hand, the Jews explain that both prophesies refer to past or future occurrences and neither one could possibly refer to Jesus (pbuh) or Muhammad (pbuh). Muslims are told that when God created mankind, He gave them The Choice. They were told that they could either live their lives then die and fade out of the picture, like the animals do. Or they could elect to be held accountable for their actions. If they accepted the accountability, then the potential reward will be great. The potential retribution would be equally great. With mankinds acceptance of this accountability came their free will. God gave mankind a free will to chose to either worship Him or to disobey Him. Out of Gods infinite mercy, He then assisted mankind with many factors in order to guide them to His true path and the ultimate reward. Firstly, He sent the messengers. In this manner, no matter how much mankind tried to corrupt His religion, it would always be available to those who searched for it. Secondly, He supplied mankind with minds. He gave them these minds in order to be able to distinguish between right and wrong using their intellect. If they see someone worshipping fire, and they see that the fire can not hear their prayers nor answer their calls, then no matter how much these fire-worshippers spititualize their worship and tell them of the great miracles the fire has worked for them and how it has answered their prayers, and how it loves them, their intellect will refuse to believe these concoctions. Finally, God gave mankind an inborn sense called in Arabic Fitrah (instinct). This Fitrah is the small voice inside each one of us which tells us this doesnt feel right. When we pick up a gun for the first time in order to kill someone, we have to fight mightily in order to overcome our Fitrah which tells us that killing is wrong. In a similar manner, all mankind is born automatically knowing that God is one. They must really fight themselves for a long time and be continually persuaded by those who are around them to believe otherwise. This is how they end up worshipping fire, stones, statues, multiple gods, and other things. It is forced upon them in spite of their Fitrah as they grow up. This book goes back to the arguments of the original apostles. We will start with the Trinity and work our way backwards through history. We will see that there is absolutely no basis whatsoever for the Trinity XE "Trinity"  in the Bible. Once the Trinity has been disproved we will see how the rest of these fabricated beliefs will unravel one by one till we return to the original teaching of Jesus (pbuh). All of this will be done in chapter one. After that, it will be demonstrated how Muhammad (pbuh) was indeed prophesied by both Jesus (pbuh) and the previous prophets, as claimed in the Quran over 1400 years ago. I pray that you will find this information illuminating. Follow this chart from Christianity to Islam  TC "Follow this chart from Christianity to Islam"\l 9   EMBED ABCFlow  Table of Definitions and Abbreviations TC "Table of Definitions and Abbreviations\l 9  Allah: The supreme God of all creation. He is known as God or Father to the Christians, and as El or Yahweh to the Jews. Muhammad: The last messenger of God to all mankind. He was the seal of the prophets of God, who included prophets Abraham XE "Abraham" , Noah, Moses XE "Moses" , Jesus, and many others. Islam: The last message of God to all mankind. It was sent down upon prophet Muhammad (pbuh), recorded in broad outlines in the Quran, and described in detail in the Sunnah. Islam is an Arabic word which means Submission to God. Quran: The holy book of the Muslims. It consists of 100% the word of God and no words of the prophet Muhammad (pbuh), his companions, or any human being. Sunnah: The title given to the collection of recorded words and actions of the prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Most of what he said or did throughout his lifetime is recorded in the Sunnah. pbuh: Means Peace Be Upon Him. Used most often in reference to prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and also in reference to the many other prophets of Allah, such as Noah, Moses XE "Moses" , Abraham XE "Abraham" , Jesus, etc. pbut: Means Peace Be Upon Them. Same as above, but used in reference to more than one. s.a.w./s.a.s.: Same as pbuh. It is an abbreviation of the original Arabic words Salla Allahu alaihi Wa Sallam, which are translated as peace be upon him in English. Ibn: An Arabic word which means Son of. Bint/Ibna: An Arabic word which means Daughter of. Masjid: An Arabic word which means mosque. OT Old Testament. The portion of the Bible transmitted by the Jews. NT: New Testament. The portion of the Bible specific to the Christian faith. People of the Book: This is the term used in the noble Quran to refer to the Jews and Christians. It is also sometimes translated as People of the Scripture Chapter 1: Christian-Muslim Dialogue TC "Chapter 1 Christian-Muslim Dialogue"\l 1  C ome now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD Isaiah 1:18 Christians believe that Jesus (pbuh) came to teach all of mankind the religion of God and to show them the path to salvation. All mankind is therefore required to follow his message and only those who believe in the crucifixion and the redemption will be saved. They believe that the Jews are also required to convert to Christianity since Jesus was sent to them, therefore, they are the most qualified people to recognize the word of God and the signs of Jesus (pbuh) to be found in their own book. Most Jews, on the other hand, tell us that Jesus (pbuh) was not a messenger of God, but rather a false prophet, a sorcerer, an offspring of adulterers, and many other allegations. They claim that there are no prophesies of Jesus (pbuh) in their book and that he was not the promised Messiah/Christ (anointed one). Their Messiah is yet to come. For this reason, they claim that they are not required by God to follow Jesus (pbuh) and were justified in killing him. Muslims believe in both Moses XE "Moses"  and Jesus (pbut) as true prophets of God. We believe that both Moses and Jesus as well as Noah, Abraham XE "Abraham" , Jacob XE "Jacob" , and all the rest of the prophets of God were all truthful messengers as well as faithful and faultless servants of Allah Almighty. We also believe in the miracles of Jesus (pbuh), including his miraculous birth. Muslims believe that each time a messenger of God would pass away, mankind would begin to slowly fall back upon their evil deeds until they had managed to corrupt His original message. When this would happen, God Almighty would send a new prophet to renew His original message to these people and return them to the straight path. In this manner, the true message of Allah would always be available to all those who searched for it until the day of judgment. This can be seen in the Bible in such verses as Matthew 5:17-18 we read: Think not that I (Jesus) am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled XE "Jesus, Fulfillment of Law of Moses"  XE "Jesus, Fulfilment of Law of Moses" . The Jews know God as Elohiym or Yahweh. The Christians know Him as God, or Father, or Jehovah, etc.. Muslims know him as Allah (and more than 99 other venerable names). Muslims believe that Allah Almighty did not send down many messages to mankind but only one: The religion of submission to His will, the uniqueness of Himself, and the knowledge that He is the only one worthy of worship. The details of the religion were molded to suite each individual people, but the message was one message: Allah is One. Worship Him alone! This is made apparent in the verse of Aal-Umran(3):84 which states that which means: Say (O Muhammad): We believe in Allah, and that which is sent down unto us, and that which was revealed unto Abraham XE "Abraham" , and Ishmael XE "Ishmael" , and Isaac XE "Isaac" , and Jacob XE "Jacob" , and the sons of Jacob, and that which was vouchsafed unto Moses XE "Moses"  and Jesus and the Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them and unto Him we have surrendered. Also, in Al-Nisaa(5):138 we read that which means O you who believe! Believe in Allah and His messenger, and the Scripture (Qur'an) which he has revealed unto His messenger, and the Scripture which He revealed aforetime. Whosoever disbelieves in Allah and His angels and His Scriptures and His messengers and the last day, he verily has wandered far astray. Muslims are told in the Quran that the unscrupulous few had managed to pervert the words of God Almighty sent down to Jesus (pbuh) and the previous prophets after the passing of their prophets. The well meaning masses were then misled by what was claimed to be 100% the inspiration of God. The changes made by these people have resulted in countless contradictions between the verses. As we shall soon see, these contradictions and changes have been well recognized and documented in the West for centuries now. However, their actions have been excused because they are assumed to have been well meaning and were only trying to clarify that which was obscure and so forth when they changed the word of God (See chapter 2). Whatever their motives, these apologists forget the command of Deuteronomy 4:2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God. The liberties mankind has taken with Gods previous scriptures is one of the reasons why God sent down the Quran as His last message to mankind and took it upon Himself this time to personally preserve it for all time from corruption or modification Professor Arthur J. Arberry writes: Apart from certain orthographical modifications of the originally somewhat primitive method of writing, intended to render unambiguous and easy the task of reading the recitation, the Koran (Quran) as printed in the twentieth century is identical with the Koran as authorized by Uthman more than 1300 years ago. On the other hand, Mr. C.G. Tucker says: ...Thus Gospels were produced which clearly reflected the conception of the practical needs of the community for which they were written. In them the traditional material was used, but there was no hesitation in altering it or making additions to it, or in leaving out what did not serve the writers purpose. The history of the Christians in the light of modern knowledge, C. G. Tucker, p. 320 Rev. Professor David Jenkins, the fourth highest-ranking Bishop in the Church of England and the Bishop of Durham had the following admission to make: [some of the events in the early mission of Jesus] were not strictly true but were added to the story of Jesus by the early Christians to express their faith in him as a Messiah London Daily Mail, page 12, 15/July/1984 Rev. Professor Vernon Robbins of the Religious Studies Department of Candler School of Theology in Atlanta Georgia says: The words of the Bible are not themselves the word of God. They are human language that is presenting the word of God Popular Mechanics, Page 43, December 1996 Mr. C.J. Cadoux has the following to say in his book The life of Jesus : In the four Gospels, therefore, the main documents to which we must go if we are to fill-out at all that bare sketch which we can put together from other sources, we find material of widely differing quality as regards credibility. So far-reaching is the element of uncertainty that it is tempting to down tools at once, and to declare the task hopeless. The historical inconsistencies and improbabilities in parts of the Gospels form some of the arguments advanced in favor of the Christ-myth theory. These are, however, entirely outweighed- as we have shown- by other considerations. Still the discrepancies and uncertainties that remain are serious- and consequently many moderns who have no doubt whatever of Jesus real existence, regard as hopeless any attempt to dissolve out of the historically-true from the legendary or mythical matter which the Gospels contain, and to reconstruct the story of Jesus mission out of the more historical residue. Reverend Dr. Davies says: But to come to realities, no serious modern scholar believes that the speeches appearing in the New Testament are verbatim records of what the speaker said. Even as conservative a scholar as Headlam has to admit that the speeches are in a sense - he does not say what sense - the authors own composition. ... Schmidel, in his article on Acts in the Encyclopedia Biblica, says unreservedly that it is without doubt that the author constructed [the speeches] in each case according to his own conception of the situation. Schweitzer thinks the speeches in Acts may be based upon traditions of speeches ... actually delivered, but in the form in which we have them they doubtless belong to the author of Acts and are adapted to his representation of the facts, Rev. Davies goes on to quote Thucydides who admits that ..[assigning fictitious speeches to Biblical characters] was the universal ancient custom. The First Christian, Reverend Dr. Davies, pp. 23-24 Prof. J.R. Drummelow says: A copyist would sometimes put in not what was in the text, but what he thought ought to be in it. He would trust a fickle memory, or he would make the text accord with the views of the school to which he belonged. In addition to the versions and quotations from the Christian Fathers, nearly four thousand Greek MSS of the Testament, were known to exist. As a result , the variety of reading is considerable. Commentary on the Holy Bible, page 16 Not long after my arrival in the United States, I had the pleasure of meeting a Christian gentleman who shall henceforth be referred to only as Mr. J. Unlike this lowly author, Mr. J. is a professional Christian. He also has a history of strong evangelical activity, at least with the Muslim students of our university. Mr. J made himself known to us through written letters to us, calls to our Muslim chaplain, and his appearance before us on other occasions wherein he called upon us to believe in Jesus (pbuh) and to accept his sacrifice. Mr. J. had sent our Muslim chaplain and myself books with many allegations against the Quran and a general condemnation of it. A series of friendly discussions ensued between us and we have since come to know each other quite well and have managed to remain friendly and outgoing towards one another even with our differing beliefs. However, the fact that this author is not a professional religious person or a professional preacher, but rather a simple science student, has made it necessary to schedule these matters around other more immediate scholarly concerns. It was first and foremost the will of Allah, then the continuous efforts of Mr. J., his claims regarding Islam, and his sincere efforts to convert me and grant me salvation which compelled me to step up my research of the Bible and the Quran and ultimately, publish this book. I therefore thank Allah Almighty that he sent Mr. J. to me as a blessing from Himself for me, and hopefully for many others XE "Disguise" . Before this book was written, I had published a series of articles in a local publication which had been progressing slowly from exhibiting some of the more minor examples of human modification to the Bible, such as the fact that the authors of the Bible are not who they claim to be, and had been working up to more fundamental issues. Mr. J asked us to publish his counter viewpoint in our publication and we accepted. Mr. J believed that the examples of contradictory statements in the Bible which we had been jointly discussing did not in any way affect the founding beliefs of Christianity (see examples in chapter two). He provided me with literature by men such as Mr. F.F. Bruce stating such things as ....Does it matter whether the New Testament documents are reliable or not? Is it so very important that we should be able to accept them as truly historical records? and also......the story of Jesus as it has come down to us may be myth or legend, but the teaching ascribed to him- whether he was actually responsible for it or not - has a value all its own, and so forth. Muslims know for a fact that Jesus (pbuh) was neither a myth nor a legend but a true prophet of God, but we do feel that an inspired book of God should contain no contradictions, historical or otherwise. For this reason we do not believe that his book has reached us as it was originally submitted by him. Mr. J believes that such matters as knowing the true authors of the books of the Bible are not crucial to a Christians faith and challenged us to prove that a Christians basic faith is at all in error and not the same message preached by Jesus 2000 years ago. In compliance with his request, he was sent four very brief questions concerning the founding beliefs of Christianity. He was then asked to provide carefully researched and weighed answers to these questions. These four questions are presented below. They have been slightly modified in this book in order to ensure that they are as clear as possible. The basic questions, however, remain the same: IS THERE A TRINITY? If so then please present us with as many Biblical references as you possibly can and briefly explain its fundamental concept. What I mean by this question is: Is God one, period? Or is God three, period? Or is He some combination of one and three? Please write down a brief but clear description of the nature of the Trinity and the exact relationship of each of its three members to one-another. Please do not move on until you have done so since your definition shall have to stand up to the test of the Bible and be endorsed rather than refuted by the Biblical verses we shall be studying throughout this book. Is the great and faithful messenger of Allah, Jesus the son of Mary (peace be upon them both), the PHYSICAL SON OF ALLAH OR NOT? If he is, then give us as many biblical references as you possibly can. If not then why does the majority of Christendom believe that he is the physical/begotten/sired son of Allah? Did Jesus (pbuh) HIMSELF ever say in the Bible I am a god!, or Worship me!? If so then give us as many Biblical references as possible. If not, then why does the majority of Christendom believe that he is a god (not a mortal), and the son of God XE "Son of God" ? Jesus (pbuh) is invoked daily as God to forgive sins, cast out devils, and generally sought after in prayer. UPON WHOS AUTHORITY do Christians believe that Jesus (pbuh) is God? Jesus (pbuh) himself or others? Give as many references as possible. If it can be proven, through the Bible, that Jesus (pbuh) is not God, nor the physical/begotten/sired son of God XE "Son of God" , neither is there any Trinity XE "Trinity" , then will this prove that the unscrupulous few have corrupted the word of God or not? Faith is without a doubt one of the most basic and fundamental ingredients in the doctrine of any religious belief. However, when you wish someone to believe in a given fundamental doctrine which you propose, it is first necessary to prove the validity of your assertion before you can ask that person to have faith. In other words, faith is indeed important, however, it can not precede the proof. Once the proof has been established, only then can faith come into play. This is indeed what prophet Jesus (pbuh) taught his followers during his lifetime. Jesus (pbuh) did not simply show up before the Jews one day and demand that the Pharisees, Sadducees, and everyone else accept him without proof. Rather, he performed many miracles for them and at the same time reasoned with them and used logic to convince them. The Bible is full of examples of how Jesus (pbuh) would go out of his way to explain things to his followers, reason with them and prove his case to them. Obviously, when we ask for proof that a given person taught a given doctrine, the very first place to look for proof of this claim is the words of that person himself. If I believe that Jesus (pbuh) taught a given fundamental doctrine such as the Trinity, the Son of God, the original sin, or the atonement, then not only would I be justified in expecting him to have mentioned it at least once throughout his whole ministry, but I would expect him to have spoken of practically nothing else. For this reason, the above four questions have been proposed in order to arrive at the command of Jesus (pbuh). If Jesus did indeed ever command that I should worship a Trinity or that I should believe that he is God, then I would expect him to say so clearly at least once in his whole life. If he says it at least once then others shall be justified in repeating it a thousand times. However, I want to first know ... What did Jesus really say? The Bible says: Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John 14:23 And why do you call me (Jesus), Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Luke 6:46 Jesus (peace be upon him) clearly outlines here that it is his words that we must keep and that shall lead to the love of God. Naturally, I wish to know what Jesus said so that I might follow his command, and his alone. Every one elses words without exception shall then be either accepted or rejected based upon their conformance to the words of the great and pious messenger of Allah, Jesus the son of Mary. Does this sound fair? The Christian world has performed a very admirable job in providing us with Bibles in practically every size, language, shape and color. Among these Bibles are the series of Bibles titled the Red letter editions. These Bibles are set apart from more conventional Bibles in that the words of Jesus are distinguished from the rest of the text by writing them in red ink. This makes the process of locating the words of Jesus and differentiating them from those of everyone else much simpler for the reader. Our goal in this book is to find evidence in the RED ink of where Jesus (pbuh) himself ever taught mankind any of the fundamental concepts of the religion which has been attributed to him and which is named Christianity. We shall see in what follows that whenever someone tries to validate such doctrines they always attempt to do so with the words in the BLACK ink and never the ones in RED ink. Muslims are told in the Quran that Jesus (pbuh) was one of the most pious and elect messengers of God Almighty for all time. However, we are also told that he was not himself a god, nor the physical son of God XE "Son of God" . We read in the Quran: And when Allah said: O Jesus, son of Mary! Did you say unto mankind: Take me and my mother for two gods beside Allah? he said: Be You glorified. It was not mine to utter that to which I had no right. If I used to say it, then You knew it. You know what is in my [innermost] self but I know not what is in Yours. Truly! You, only You are the Knower of things hidden. I spoke unto them only that which You commanded me, (saying): Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord, and I was a witness over them while I dwelt among them, and when You took me You were the Watcher over them, and You are Witness over all things. The noble Quran, Al-Maidah(5):116-118 Obviously, both claims can not be true. Either Jesus (pbuh) did indeed command mankind to worship him or he did not. Since my level of knowledge of the words of the Bible obviously can not compare with that of Mr. J., therefore, I was hoping that he could demonstrate to me where Jesus actually said any of these things. Since the issues of the Trinity, the Son of God, the original sin, and the atonement comprise the most fundamental differences in belief between the Islamic and Christian faith, therefore, I had hoped that in answering these four very brief questions it might be possible to once and for all arrive at the true command of Jesus. Mr. Js response follows: 1.1 Christian perspective TC "1.1 Christian perspective"\l 2  It is my great privilege and pleasure to have been invited to address the readers [of this publication] on some of the most important distinctions between Christianity and Islam. Four questions have been proposed as a means of clarifying the Biblical perspective in relation to the series of articles on Jesus and Christianity that appeared last semester. As I see it, all four questions essentially come together in one basic question: Who is Jesus? The answer to that question, and the heart of the message that has been proclaimed by followers of Jesus since His advent, is that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:31). Addressing each of these questions may now help clarify this historic Christian conviction. 1. Is there a Trinity? The Biblical teaching of God's essential nature, summarized in the word Trinity XE "Trinity" , rests largely on our understanding of the identity of Jesus, a question I will take up in some length under question #3. At this point, perhaps a demonstration that the terminology for the doctrine of the Trinity is found throughout the New Testament: * therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit... (Matthew 28:19). * There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. (I Corinthians 12:4-6). * May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (II Corinthians 13:14). * But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. (Jude 20-21). The doctrine of the Trinity is perhaps best understood in terms of Christian salvation. Christians believe that God the Father wills that we be reconciled to Him from sin, and that He sent the Son, Who in His perfect XE "Perfection"  life and substitutionary death provides the basis of that reconciliation, and that the Father now, in Jesus' name, sends the Holy Spirit, Who applies the salvation of Jesus to the Christian believers, thus saving them and empowering them to live lives of victory over sin. Thus is the Christians experience and assurance of salvation in terms of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yet they absolutely believe that there is only one God. How do we put this together? This is where the word Trinity XE "Trinity"  comes in. It expresses this truth about God as it is found in the Bible. This is certainly not an exhaustive explanation, but it may help to demonstrate the significance of the doctrine in practical Christian life. 2. Is Jesus the physical (begotten/sired) son of God XE "Son of God" ? Jesus is presented in the New Testament as the Son of God by virtue of His unique eternal relationship with the Father and by means of His unique virgin XE "Virgin"  birth. We need to understand, then, how Jesus is the Son of God. The New Testament tells us how: This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:18-21). The question as stated implies that Jesus is somehow the result of a physical union between God and Mary, but this is not at all the case. Jesus' birth is a miraculous event through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Thus the Son's deity is incarnated, or made flesh; in this Jesus is the God-man Begotten is the old English word that, while in human terms means to have a child, the emphasis even there is that what a human father begets' shares in the essential nature of that father. It is in this sense that the King James translates the Greek word monogenes as begotten ; Jesus shares the essential nature of the Father, but rather through some physical act, but a supernatural one. 3. Did Jesus Himself ever say in the Bible I am God! or worship me!? What makes Jesus stand out from all other religious figures is the nature of His claims about Himself. He claims the prerogatives of God, the rightful object of a person's supreme allegiance, and receives with out censure the worship and obedience of those who believe. A number of examples may help to illustrate this: A. Forgiveness of sins In Mark 2:1-12, we read the account of Jesus healing a crippled man. What is so surprising, and so shocking to His original audience, is the statement that Jesus makes before healing the man. As Jesus sees a group of men bring the paralytic to Him, Mark records the scene: When Jesus saw their faith , he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone? Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins... He said to the paralytic, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. B. Titles Jesus in the Gospels appropriates two significant titles throughout His ministry: 1. The Son of Man This is the title that Jesus Himself uses most frequently. It is a Messianic title derived from the Old Testament book of Daniel. When we read the passage in Daniel, the implicit claim that Jesus is making about Himself becomes apparent: In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He (the son of man) was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14). 2. The Son of God At His trial Jesus affirmed this title: Again the high priest asked him, Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? I am, said Jesus. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven. (Mark 14:61-63). C. Jesus' direct claims At the climax of a lengthy argument, Jesus speaks of Himself: Your father Abraham XE "Abraham"  rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad. You are not yet fifty years old, the Jews said to him, and you have seen Abraham! I tell you the truth, Jesus answered, before Abraham was born, I am XE "I am" ! At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. (John 8:56-59). The shock of this claim are those two words I am. It is the same designation that God used for Himself in His call to Moses XE "Moses" : God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' (Exodus 3:14). D. Jesus receives worship Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, Jesus said, Do you believe in the Son of Man? Who is he, sir? the man asked. Tell me so that I may believe in him.. Jesus said, You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.. Then the man said, Lord. I believe, and he worshipped him. (John 9:35-38). Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him... (Matthew 28:16-17). E. Jesus accepts divine entitlement In what is a clear dialogue between Jesus and Doubting Thomas, we read: Then Jesus said to Thomas, Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.. Thomas said to him, My Lord and my God! Then Jesus held him, Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. (John 20:27-29). Does Jesus say, I am God? No, because that would have been misunderstood. Jesus is not the Father (as it would have been thought), Jesus is the Son. But He clearly claims an absolutely unique relationship with God whom Jesus calls 'Father. Jesus claims something about Himself that, through the various miracles, His statements as cited above, and the response He receives from other people, is slowly filled-out, and the meaning of His Sonship becomes clear. In the very opening of his Gospel, the Apostle John presents Jesus as the Word and provides perhaps the clearest explanation of the identity of Jesus, the meaning of the incarnation XE "Incarnation" , and a further glimpse into the reality of the Trinity: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word XE "Word, The"  was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-4; 14). 4. If it can be proven, through the Bible, that Jesus is not God, nor the physical/begotten/sired son of God XE "Son of God" , neither is there any trinity XE "Trinity" , then will this prove that the unscrupulous few have corrupted the word of God? The Christian message about Jesus revolves around three facts: the incarnation XE "Incarnation" , the crucifixion, and the resurrection. Prove from the Bible or otherwise that any one of these three things are not true, and like a three-legged stool the truth of the message would collapse. Most proofs against the traditional teachings of Christianity consist of pitting one passage of Scripture against another, and almost always taking such passages out of context. Context, I believe, always vindicates the understanding of God and of Jesus as I have here tried to briefly present. I would conclude, then, with an encouragement for the readers to read the Bible, particularly one of the Gospels, for themselves. There, I believe, the words and works of Jesus would provide a most convincing reason to embrace Him as Lord and Savior XE "Savior" , and find in Him the spiritual satisfaction that so many today seek after. 1.2 Muslim perspectiveTC "1.2 Muslim perspective" \l 2 (Note: the rest of chapter one is an expansion of the original response to Mr. Js letter) T hank you Mr. J for your most thought provoking letter. I would also like to thank you for the knowledge you have provided therein. In what is to follow I have striven to avoid objectionable or disrespectful wording. This is an academic exchange and not a slug-fest. I am however human. If one or two cases have slipped by me then I apologize in advance for them. They were not intentional. I also realize that this is quite a lengthy response for someone to read in one sitting. However, I ask the reader to try to do so and not to pass judgment until they have managed to receive a complete picture. Now, the response: The three faiths, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all purport to share one fundamental concept: belief in God as the Supreme Being, the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. Known as Tawhid in Islam, this concept of Oneness of God was stressed by MosesXE "Moses" (pbuh) in the Biblical passage Known as the ShemaXE "Shema", or the Jewish creed of faith: Hear, O Israel The Lord our God is one Lord Deuteronomy 6:4 It was repeated word-for-word approximately 1500 years later by Jesus (pbuh) when he said ...The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord. Mark 12:29 Muhammad (pbuh) came along approximately 600 years later, bringing the same message again: And your God is One God: there is no god but He The noble Qur'an, al-Bakarah(2):163 Christianity has digressed from the concept of the Oneness of God, however, into a vague and mysterious doctrine that was formulated during the fourth century CE (see historical details in section 1.2.5). This doctrine, which continues to be the source of controversy both within and outside the Christian religion, is known as the Doctrine of the Trinity. Simply put, the Christian doctrine of the Trinity states that God is the union of three divine persons - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - in one divine being. Christians must guard themselves from ever claiming that they worship three gods since this would be a heresy of the worst kind. Christians are commanded to always refer to them all as ONE God. This belief, as we shall soon see in coming chapters, was first put to words in the famous Creed of Nicea XE "Nicea, Conference of"  in 325C.E. Among other things, it says: Whoever wishes to be saved must, above all, keep the Catholic faith. For unless a person keeps this faith whole and entire he will undoubtedly be lost forever. This is what the Catholic faith teaches: we worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity. We distinguish among the persons, but we do not divide the substance. For the Father is a distinct person; the Son is a distinct person; and the Holy Spirit is a distinct person. Still the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have one divinity, equal glory, and coeternal majesty. What the Father is, the Son is, and the Holy Spirit is. The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, and the Holy Spirit is uncreated. The Father is boundless, the Son is boundless, and the Holy Spirit is boundless. The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, and the Holy Spirit is eternal. Nevertheless, there are not three eternal beings, but one eternal being. Thus there are not three uncreated beings, nor three boundless beings, but one uncreated being and one boundless being. Likewise, the Father is omnipotent, the Son is omnipotent, and the Holy Spirit is omnipotent. Yet there are not three omnipotent beings, but one omnipotent being. Thus the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. But there are not three gods, but one God. The Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Holy Spirit is Lord. There as not three lords, but one Lord. For according to Christian truth, we must profess that each of the persons individually is God; and according to Christian religion we are forbidden to say that there are three gods or lords. But the entire three persons are coeternal and coequal with one another.So that, as we have said, we worship complete unity in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity. This, then, is what he who wishes to be saved must believe about the Trinity.This is the Catholic faith. Everyone must believe it, firmly and steadfastly; otherwise He cannot be saved. Amen. Christian sects are many and varied. However, the majority of Christians the world over believe in the following four basic concepts: The Trinity, The divine Sonship of Jesus (pbuh), The original sin, and The death of the Son of GodXE "Son of God" on the crossXE "Cross" in atonement for the original sin of AdamXE "Adam". Everything else is pretty much relegated into the background. A Christian can be saved and enter heaven by simply believing in the above creeds. According to St. Paul, the previous law and commandments of God are worthless, this simple belief will guarantee for all comers eternal salvation. For example, St. Paul is quoted to have said: Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Romans 3:28. The words of Saint Paul are held by most of Christianity in the highest regard, and this is understandable since he is the primary author of the majority of the books of the New Testament XE "New Testament, Author of" . However, no matter what role St. Paul played in the definition and spread of Christianity, when displaying respect for the teachings of Paul, it is necessary not to lose sight of the fact that he is in no way equal to Jesus, nor should his command be placed before the command of Jesus if we were to find them to differ from one another. No one, not even Paul or the apostles of Jesus has this right, since they are all, after all, subordinate to Jesus Christ himself. However, were we to study the religion known today as Christianity, we would find that it is the interpretation of St. Paul of what he personally believed to be the religion of Jesus(pbuh). Christianity as it stands today has been reduced to an interpretation of the words of Jesus (pbuh) within the context of what Paul taught rather than the other way around which is the way it should be. We would expect Christianity to be the teachings of Jesus (pbuh) and that the words of Paul and everyone else would be accepted or rejected according to their conformity to these Jesuit teachings. However, we will notice in what follows that Jesus (pbuh) never in his lifetime mentioned an original sin, or an atonement. He never asked anyone to worship him, neither did he ever claim to be part of a TrinityXE "Trinity". His words and actions are those of a loyal messenger of God who faithfully and faultlessly followed the commands of his Lord and only told his followers to do the same and to worship God alone (John 4:21, John 4:23, Matthew 4:10, Luke 4:8 ...etc.). Just one of the countless examples of this placement of the words of Paul above the words of Jesus can be seen in the following analysis: Jesus (pbuh) is claimed to have been prepared for his sacrifice on the crossXE "Cross" from the beginning of time and was a willing victim (otherwise we would have to claim that God is a sadistic and torturous God who forced Jesus into such a savage end). However, whenever Jesus (pbuh) was asked about the path to eternal life he consistently told his followers to only keep the commandments and nothing more (Matthew 19:16-21, John 14:15, John 15:10). Not once did he himself ever mention an original sin or a redemption. Even when pressed for the path to PERFECTION he only told his followers to sell their belongings. He departed this earth leaving his followers with the very dire threat: For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilledXE "Jesus, Fulfillment of Law of Moses" XE "Jesus, Fulfilment of Law of Moses" . Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:18-19. This is confirmed in Luke: And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail. Luke 16:17 If ye love me (Jesus), keep my commandments. John 14:15 Obviously, heaven and earth have not yet passed. The fact that you are reading this book bears witness to this very simple fact. So Jesus (pbuh) is telling us that so long as creation exists, the commandments will be required from his followers. Anyone who will dare to say otherwise, until the end of time, will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus (pbuh) had foreseen mankinds attempt to distort and annul his commandments, the commandments of Moses (XE "Moses"pbuh), which he had taught his followers to keep and himself had kept faithfully till the crucifixion, and was warning his followers in no uncertain terms to be wary of all those who would attempt to do so. This command is confirmed in the noble Quran And when Jesus son of Mary said: O Children of Israel, verily I am the messenger of Allah unto you. Confirming that which was [sent down] before me of the Torah The noble Quran, Al-Saf(61):6 Not long after, Jesus departs. Now Saul of TarsusXE "Saul of Tarsus" (St. Paul), a man who never met Jesus (pbuh), a man who by his own admission persecuted the followers of Jesus (pbuh) by every means within his power and presided over their execution (see below), comes along. Suddenly one day St. Paul receives a vision from Jesus (pbuh), and his whole life is turned around. He now takes it upon himself through the authority of his visions to spread the word of Jesus to the whole world and to explain what Jesus really meant. Paul claims that the law of God through Moses XE "Moses"  (pbuh) is worthless, decaying and ready to vanish away and faith in the crucifixion is the only requirement for a Christian to enter heaven (Romans 3:28, Hebrews 8:13...etc.). Who do Christians listen to, Jesus or Paul? They listen to Paul. They take the words of Paul literally and then interpret the words of Jesus (pbuh) within the context of the words of Paul. No one takes the words of Jesus (pbuh) literally and explains the words of Paul within the context of Jesus words. According to this system of explaining the words of Jesus within the context of Pauls teachings, Jesus never actually means what he says but is constantly speaking in riddles which are not to be taken literally. Even when people attempt to cite the words of Jesus as confirming the teachings of Paul with regard to the original sin, the atonement, ...etc. they never bring clear and decisive words where Jesus actually confirms these things. Instead, they say such things as When Jesus spoke of the exodus he was really speaking of the atonement or so forth. Are we to believe that Paul is the only one who can say what is on his mind clearly and decisively while Jesus (pbuh) is not capable of articulating what he means clearly and decisively but requires interpreters to explain the true meaning of what he said, and to explain how, when he spoke of the commandments, he was not talking of the commandments but of a spiritual commandment and that they will now tell you what this spiritual commandment is that Jesus never managed to talk clearly about?. It is interesting to note that Jesus was not talking in riddles when he commanded his followers to keep the commandments but was talking of the actual physical commandments of MosesXE "Moses". This can be clearly seen by reading for instance Luke 18:20 where Jesus spells out in no uncertain terms what he means by keep the commandments. And I (Jesus) have come confirming that which was before me of the Torah, and to make lawful for you part of that which was forbidden upon you. And I have come to you with a sign from your Lord so seek refuge in Allah and obey me The noble Quran, Aal-Umran(3):50 In the past, I have searched for a logical answer to this puzzle by posing the following questions to respected Christian clergy: According to you, Jesus is supposed to have been prepared for the atonement from the beginning of time. He should know that it is coming. Whenever he was asked about the path to eternal life (i.e. Matthew 19:16-22 ..etc.) he consistently told his followers to only keep the commandments just as he had kept my fathers commandments ..etc. Even when he was pressed for more, he only told his followers that in order to be PERFECT they needed only to sell their belongings. Not once did he mention an atonement or and original sin. The commandments he spoke about were the commandments of MosesXE "Moses" and not some spiritual commandments. This can be seen in the text itself where Jesus (pbuh) explicitly spells out some of the commandments of Moses one by one. St. Paul, a disciple of a disciple, is the one who is followed by Christianity and not Jesus. Jesus teachings are explained within the context of Pauls teachings and not vice versa. Whenever this question would be presented to a respected member of the Christian clergy the response would always be the same: Well, dont take Jesus words literally. St. Paul has told us in Romans ..., or Yes, but St. Paul tells us in Galatians ...., or St. Paul tells us in Corinthians .. Yet my question remains: where did JESUS every say it? Where does the RED ink say it? Doesnt St. Pauls authority come from Jesus? I simply want a single clear statement from Jesus himself where he endorsed Pauls claims and then it would be possible to accept Pauls claim that he was indeed preaching the command of Jesus. If Jesus were only to say it once then I can accept Paul repeating it a thousand times. However, as we shall soon see, never, not even once in his whole lifetime did Jesus (pbuh) endorse the preachings of Paul. Getting back to the matter at hand, the reader will notice in Mr. Js response a surprising absence of certain very fundamental verses usually quoted by any Christian man or woman off the street in defense of the TrinityXE "Trinity" and other issues. The reader may further surmise that Mr. J might not be well versed enough in the Bible to have referred to these verses. This is far from the case. His occupation requires that he know those verses. The fact of the matter is that I have had an ongoing correspondence with Mr. J for a number of months now which he has now asked be publicized. In this correspondence, many of these fundamental verses were dealt with in detail and refuted for various reasons. This is why he did not quote them here. However, in order that all may benefit from this information we will quote these same verses that he has elected not to. We will also study the other verses he has presented. 1.2.1 Blind faith or Prove all thingsXE "Prove all things"?:TC "1.2.1 'Blind faith' or 'Prove all things'?" \l 3 B efore actually getting down to our response, let us first establish the ground rules. All Bibles in existence today tell us that Christians are taught by Jesus (pbuh) himself: And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. Mark 12:29-30. They are also told Prove all thingsXE "Prove all things"; hold fast that which is good 1 Thessalonians 5:21 and For God is not [the author] of confusionXE "Confusion, Author of" 1 Corinthians 14:33. So, contrary to the teachings of many, Jesus (pbuh) did not want his followers to believe everything they were told on blind faith. Rather, he wanted his followers to believe with all thy mind. He wanted us to THINK in order to protect his words from corruption. Let us comply with the teaching of Allahs elect messenger, Jesus (peace be upon him), and see where the truth and our minds will lead us: 1.2.2: The Trinity, or 1+1+1=1TC "1.2.2 The 'Trinity', or 1+1+1=1" \l 3 O people of the book! commit no excesses in your religion: nor say of Allah aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was [no more or less than] a messenger of Allah, and His word, which he bestowed upon Mary, and a spirit preceding from Him: so believe in Allah and his messengers. Say not Three: desist!, it is better for you, for Allah is one god, Glory be to Him, Far exalted is He above having a son. To Him belong all things in the heavens and the earth. And enough is Allah as a disposer of affairs. The noble Quran, Al-Nissah(4):171 Or have they (mankind) chosen gods from the earth who raise the dead If there were therein gods besides Allah then verily both (the heavens and the earth) would have gone to ruin. Glorified be Allah, the Lord of the throne from all they ascribe (unto Him) The noble Quran, Al-Anbia(21):21-22 Allah coineth a similitude: A man in relation to whom are several partners quarreling, and a man belonging wholly to one man. Are the two equal in similitude? Praise be to Allah, but most of them know not. The noble Quran, Al-Zumar(39):27. In other words, which would be more conducive of harmony: For an employee to have two bosses quarreling over him, or for each employee to have only one boss? Say (O Muhammad, to the disbelievers): If there were other gods along with Him, as they say, then they would have sought a way against the Lord of the Throne. Glorified is He, and High Exalted above what they say! The seven heavens and the earth and all that is therein praise Him, and there is not a thing but hymns his praise; but you understand not their praise. Lo! He is ever Clement, Forgiving. The noble Quran, Al-Israa(17):42-44. And say: Praise be to Allah, Who has not taken unto Himself a son, and Who has no partner in the Sovereignty, nor has He any ally through dependence. And magnify Him with all magnificence. The noble Quran, Al-Israa(17):111. Allah has not chosen any son, nor is there any God along with Him; else would each God have assuredly championed that which he created, and some of them would assuredly have overcome others. Glorified be Allah above all that they allege. Knower of the invisible and the visible! and exalted be He over all that they ascribe as partners (unto Him)! The noble Quran, Al-Muminoon(23):91-92. The concept of the TrinityXE "Trinity" as originally adopted by Christianity three centuries after the departure of Jesus (see historical details at the end of this chapter) and taught to Christians ever since is the merging of three entities into one similar entity while remaining three distinct entities. In other words: Three bodies fold, blend, or merge into one body so that they become one entity while at the same time exhibiting the characteristics of three distinct and separate entities. It is described as a mystery. As we just read, the first definition of the Trinity was put forth in the fourth century as follows: ...we worship one God in the trinity, and Trinity in Unity...for there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Ghost is all one... they are not three gods, but one God... the whole three persons are co-eternal and co-equal...he therefore that will be saved must thus think of the trinity... (excerpts from the Athanasian creed). When the Church speaks of worship, God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are claimed to be one being. This is because verses such as Isaiah 43:10-11 and countless others are very explicit in affirming that God Almighty is ONE. However, when they speak of the death of God it is Jesus (pbuh) who is claimed to have died and not God or the TrinityXE "Trinity". Now the three are separate. When God is described as having begotten a son it is not the Trinity nor Jesus (pbuh) which has begotten, but a distinctly separate being from the other two... there are many such examples. So how do we resolve this problem? Do we simply have blind faith or do we love the Lord thy God with all thy mind,?. If we chose the later course of action then we shall first need to specify what authority we shall accept in our recognition of the true divine nature of God Almighty. When God Almighty sends down a revelation, He addresses it to the common man, the carpenter, the blacksmith, the local merchant. God does not reveal His scriptures in a language that only the deep thinkers, the most learned scholars, and those with Ph.D.s in rocket science alone can understand. This is not to say that it is not necessary to consult people of authority in this scripture in times of difficulty regarding matters of secondary importance, however, if it were impossible for the common man to even recognize from his scripture who is God, or who do I worship? without extensive external influences from learned clergymen, then I am sure you will agree that not very many people shall ever be guided to the truth of this scripture and the basic message contained therein. The matter of who do I worship is without a doubt the hands-down most important, nay crucial, piece of information that must be provided a reader of a divine scripture before they can accept a single word of this scripture. This matter must be made exceedingly clear to them before they can accept a single commandment. If I wish to work for a company but I do not know who is(are) my boss(s) then how can I know what he(they) want me to do? How can I know which commands to follow and which not to? For the same reason, we would be justified in expecting that if we were to present a native of the jungles of Zimbabwe with a copy of a divine scripture in its original language, and we were to leave without saying a single word to him, then we would expect that at the very least, this person should be able to extract from this scripture the nature of the One who inspired this book. Therefore, let us begin by drawing a table and including in this table some commands of the Bible where we are explicitly commanded to recognize that God is one, and also all verses where it explicitly commands us to believe that He is three. Once the Bible commands me to believe that God is three in one then I shall not ask for an explanation or a justification. I do not need God to explain how He can be one and also three at the same time. All I want is for the Bible to command me to believe that this is so and then command me to have blind faith. Here is our table: Explicit StatementGod is ONEGod is THREE Now that we have built this table we are ready to proceed. Let us begin by filling in the first line. In the Bible we read: Know therefore this day, and consider [it] in thine heart, that the LORD he [is] God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: [there is] none else.XE "Monotheism" Deuteronomy 4:39. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name [is] Jealous, [is] a jealous God: Exodus 34:14 Ye [are] my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I [am] he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, [even] I, [am] the LORD; and beside me [there is] no savior. Isaiah 43:10-11. Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I [am] the first, and I [am] the last; and beside me [there is] no God. Isaiah 44:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that [there is] none beside me. I [am] the LORD, and [there is] none elseXE "Monot