o Qur’an
o Book of Mormon
o New World Translation
o Science and Health and the Key to the Scriptures
o Hindu Vedas
QUR’AN
o ‘We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly Guard it (from corruption).’ -Sura 15:9
o ‘Nay, this is a Glorious Quran, (inscribed) in a Tablet Preserved!’ -Surah 85:21-22
o ‘And if ye be in doubt as to that which We have sent down to Our servant, then produce a Sura like it, and summon your witnesses, beside God, if ye are men of truth: but if ye do it not, and never shall ye do it, then fear the Fire prepared for the infidels…’ 2:23-24
o ‘This Book have we sent down to thee that by their Lord’s permission thou mayest bring men out of darkness into light, into the path of the Mighty, the Glorious’ -14:1
o The Qur'an is one leg of two which form the basis of Islam. The second leg is the Sunnah of the Prophet (saas). What makes the Qur'an different from the Sunnah is primarily its form. Unlike the Sunnah, the Qur'an is quite literally the Word of Allah, whereas the Sunnah was inspired by Allah but the wording and actions are the Prophet's. The Qur'an has not been expressed using any human's words. Its wording is letter for letter fixed by no one but Allah.
-USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/
BOOK OF MORMON
o “…we heard a voice from out of the bright light above us, saying, 'These plates have been revealed by the power of God, and they have been translated by the power of God. The translation of them which you have seen is correct, and I command you to bear record of what you now see and hear.”
(History of the Church, by Joseph Smith, Vol. 1, pp. 54-55)
NEW WORLD TRANSLATION
o ‘Society president F.W. Franz (who headed the secret committee of seven translators of the NWT) testified in a court case on November 23, 1954 in Scotland that the ‘translations and interpretations came from God, invisibly communicated to the publicity department by angels of various ranks who controll[ed] the translators’
-Cited by Gruss, Apostles of Denial. Op. cit., pp. 32-33, 219; (Gruss saw and read the transcript himself.)
SCIENCE AND HEALTH
"Another essential is a love for Science and Health with a Key to the Scriptures and for it's author, Mary Baker Eddy....She [Eddy] wrote: 'I should blush to write of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" as I have, were it of human origin, and were I, apart from God, its author.'"
Christian Science Sentinel | Oct 23, 2006, pg 21. (Emphasis mine)
ALL THESE BOOKS CLAIM TO BE INSPIRED BY GOD.
WHAT MAKES THE BIBLE DIFFERENT?
1) Circulation
2) Continuity
3) Prophesy
4) Changed lives
CIRCULATION
According to the United Bible Societies’ 1998 Scripture Distribution Report, in that year alone member organizations were responsible for distributing 20.8 million complete Bibles and another 20.1 million testaments. When portions of Scripture (i.e., complete books of the Bible) and selections (short extracts on particular themes) are also included, the total distribution of copies of the Bible or portions thereof in 1998 reaches a staggering 585 million- and these numbers only include Bibles distributed by the United Bible Societies!
-Translation
[Few] books see translation figures rise into the teens. According to the United Bible Societies, the Bible (or portions of it) has been translated into more than 2,200 languages!’ representing communication for ‘over 90 percent of the world’s population.
-Uniqueness through Persecution
Diocletian’s edict:
‘In March of the nineteenth year of Diocletian’s reign, when the festival of the Savior’s passion [Easter] was approaching, an imperial edict was announced everywhere ordering that the churches be demolished and the Scripture destroyed by fire. Any [Christians] who held high places would lose them, while those in households would be imprisoned if they continue to profess Christianity. Such was the first decree against us.’ -Eusebius
(Chp. The First Martyrs in Asia Minor)…
‘…A certain man was brought into a public place and ordered to sacrifice. When he refused, he was hoisted up naked and lashed with whips until he should give in. Since even this failed to bend him, they mixed salt with vinegar and poured it over the lacerations of his body where the bones were already protruding. When he scorned these agonies too, a lit brazier was applied, and the rest of his body was roasted by the fire as if meat for eating- not all at once, lest he find to quick a release, but little by little. Still he clung immovably to his purpose and expired triumphantly in the middle of his tortures.’ –Eusebius 8.6.303
“The noted French infidel Voltaire, who died in 1778, declared that in one hundred years from his time Christianity would be swept from existence and passed into history.
Only fifty years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society used Voltaire’s press and house to produce stacks of Bible.” -Geisler and Nix
CONTINUITY (Unity despite its diversity)
1. Written over a period of around 1500 years (1400 B.C. – A.D. 100)
2. On 3 different continents (Asia, Africa, Europe)
3. Composed of 66 different books
4. By some 40 different authors from every walk of life
• Kings, military leaders, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, tax collectors, poets, musicians, statesmen, scholars, and shepherds. For example:
o Moses, a political leader and judge, trained in universities of Egypt
o David, a king, poet, musician, shepherd, and warrior
o Amos, a herdsman
o Joshua, a military general
o Nehemiah, a cupbearer to a pagan king
o Daniel, a prime minister
o Solomon, a king and philosopher
o Luke, a physician and historian
o Peter, a fisherman
o Matthew, a tax collector
o Paul, a rabbi
o Mark, Peter’s secretary
5. In 3 languages (Hebrew, Greek, and some Aramaic)
6. Hundreds of different topics
7. In a variety of different literary styles (history, poetry, didactic, parable, allegory, apocalyptic, epic, romance, personal correspondence, memoirs, satire, biography, autobiography, law, and prophesy)
8. …and different perspectives
• A Shepard’s (David in Psalm 23)
• Prophetic (book of Kings)
• Priestly (book of Chronicles)
• Historical ((Luke-Acts)
• Pastoral (Pauline epistles)
9. …Different emotions (By Paul, for example…)
• Great sorrow over Israel (Romans 9:2)
• Great anger over error of Galatians (Galatians 3:1)
• Loneliness (2 Timothy 4:9-16)
• Depression (2 Corinthians 1:8)
• Joy (Philippians 1:4)
10. Some authors in isolation from one another (first 4 points) (last 5 points)
• Ezekiel and John wrote in exile
• Esther wrote from foreign lands
• Hebrews was written in the East
• 2 Timothy was written in Rome
• Moses wrote in the wilderness
• Jeremiah wrote in a dungeon
• Daniel wrote on a hillside and in a palace
• Paul wrote in prison
• Luke wrote while traveling
There is continuity in a central theme: the person of Jesus Christ…with a single unfolding drama: the story of redemption.
THE STORY OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT:
‘The Law provides the foundation for Christ, the historical books show “the preparation for Christ, the poetical works aspire to Christ, and the prophesies display an expectation of Christ.
THE CONTINUATION OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE NEW TESTAMENT:
The Gospels record the historical manifestation of Christ, the Acts relate the propagation of Christ, the Epistles give the interpretation of Christ, and in Revelation is found the consummation of Christ.’
PROPHESY
There are over 1817 predictive prophesies in the Bible (1239 in the OT, 578 in the NT).
o Messianic Predictions (191 of these, all literally fulfilled in His lifetime)
Below are only 19 of the 191 Messianic prophesies.
1. Birth (Gen 3:15 → Matt 1, Luke 2, Gal 4:4)
2. Virgin Birth -700 years in advance- (Is 7:14)
3. Place of Birth (Micah 5:2 → Matt 2:1-6)
4. Ancestry through Abraham (Gen 12:1-3 → Matt 1:1)
5. Of the House of David (2 Sam 7:14 → Matt 1:1)
6. Of the tribe of Judah (Gen 49:10 → Luke 3:23, 34)
7. Cleanser of the Temple (Mal 3:1-3 → Matt 21:12)
8. Heralding His Coming (Is 40:3 → Matt 3:1-3)
9. Anointed by the Holy Spirit (Is 11:2 → Matt 3:16-17)
10. He will Preach to the Poor and Brokenhearted (Is 61 → Luke 4:17-20)
11. He would perform miracles (Is 35:5-6 → Matt 9:35)
12. Rejection by His people (Ps 118:22)
13. Suffering and Death (Isaiah 53:2-12 → Matt 26-27; Mark 15-16; Luke 22-23; John 18-19)
14. The piercing of His hands and feet (Ps 22:16 → Luke 23:33)
15. The piercing of His side (Zech 12:10 → John 19:34)
16. The casting of lots for His garments (Ps 22:18 → John 19:23-24)
17. That Christ would die in 33 A.D. (Daniel 9:4-26)
18. Christ’s Resurrection (Ps 2:7/Ps 16:10) Paul used these in Acts 17, Peter used Psalm 2 in Acts 2:30-31.
19. The Ascension of Christ (Ps 110:1 → Matt 22:43-44; Acts 2:34-45)
Mathematicians have calculated the probability of sixteen predictions being fulfilled in one man (e.g. Jesus) at 1 in 1045 (1 followed by 45 zeros – 1 to the quattuordecillionth power
1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
o Non-messianic Predictions
1. Daniel 2:37-42 (The succession of 4 world empires: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome); a prophesy so concise and accurate that negative critics claimed it was written after the fact)
2. Isaiah 44:28-45:1 (The king of Persia, Cyrus, is identified 150 years before he was born)
3. Isaiah? (The return of Israel to the land, which happened in 1948)
4. Ezekiel 44:2; Matthew 21 (Ezekiel predicted the Golden Gate would be closed one day and not reopened until the Messiah returned). This happened in 1543 when Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent closed the gate and walled it up because the road was no longer being used for traffic. It remains sealed to this day)
5. Ezekiel 26:3-14 (Predicts the destruction of Tyre, hundreds of years in advance). An important sea port in the Eastern Mediterranean, it was one of the greatest cities in the ancient world (Geisler, BECA. 614). Partially fulfilled by Nebuchadnezzar, but literally and fully fulfilled by Alexander the Great when he took ‘the stones, dust, and timber from the ruined mainland city’ and built a causeway to the Island, where not only was the city never rebuilt, but the island is literally used today as a ‘place to spread fishing nets’ (Geisler, BECA. 614)
6. Jeremiah 49:16-17 (Predicts the desolation of Edom, an impregnable fortress inside of a rock). This was fulfilled in A.D. 636 by muslims, and is deserted to this day.
7. Ezekiel 36:33-35 (Flourishing in the deserts of Israel). I’ve seen this myself!
Prophesy sets the Bible apart from all literature…
o The Bible is absolutely unique in presenting these prophesies, which it records in specific detail, beginning more than 3000 years ago.
o About 30 percent of the Bible is devoted to prophesy.
o Compare that to the absence of prophesy in the Qur’an, the Hindu Vedas, the Baghavad Gita, the Ramayana, the sayings of Buddha or Confucius, the Book of Mormon, Science and Health, etc…
-Dave Hunt, A Woman Rides the Beast; pg19-20.
And don’t forget this evidence…
CHANGED LIVES
Works Cited:
1- McDowell, Josh. Evidence for Christianity. 25-26
2- McDowell, Josh. Evidence for Christianity. 27
3- Geisler, Norman. Systematic Theology, V1. 555.
4- (same as above)
5- McDowell, Josh. Evidence for Christianity. 21
6- (same as above)
7- (same as above)
8- McDowell, Josh. Evidence for Christianity. 20
9- (same as above)
10- (same as above)
11- (same as above)
12- McDowell, Josh. Evidence for Christianity. 23
13- Zacharias, Ravi, and Norman Geisler. Who Made God? 119
14- Zacharias, Ravi, and Norman Geisler. Who Made God? 119
15- Geisler, Norman. Systematic Theology, V1. 555.
16- McDowell, Josh. Evidence for Christianity. 21
17- McDowell, Josh. Evidence for Christianity. 23-24
18- Geisler, Norman. Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics. 609-610.
19- Eusebius, HC, 8.2.4 (Persecution)
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