Radical Truth: Christianity

This Christmas help a Muslim understand who Jesus was: God With Us! From the Bible and the Qur'an:

Isaiah 7:14 - Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

Matthew 1:22-23 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

As I write this, we will celebrate tomorrow the 1,979th anniversary of the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion. For atheists, agnostics, and skeptics, the resurrection account cannot possibly be true. They hold this opinion for varied reasons, but probably the two most common are:

• An anti-supernatural presuppostion or bias against someone resurrecting from the dead. A purely naturalistic worldview does not allow for anti-natural or super-natural events to occur.

• The belief that Christianity is founded upon other pre-existing pagan myth belief systems which also had a god-man who was crucified and subsequently resurrected.

For Muslims, the rejection of the resurrection originates in the Qur'an, which denies that Jesus was crucified (Sura 4:157-158). If there was no crucifixion, if Jesus never died as the Qur'an asserts, then there is no need for a resurrection. if however there was a resurrection of Jesus from the dead, then the Qur'an is in error.

Did Jesus really die, and if so did he rise from the dead? How strong is the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus? To answer this question, I will use the minimal facts approach of Gary Habermas and Mike Licona.

• They are well attested historically
• They are accepted by the vast majority of scholars, including skeptics

Given this approach, what are the facts surrounging the resurrection of Jesus?

THE MINIMAL FACTS

1. Jesus died by crucifixion.
2. Jesus' disciples believe that he rose and appeared to them
3. The church persecutor Saul was suddenly changed.
4. James, the skeptic and brother of Jesus, was suddenly changed.
5. The tomb was empty

• Eyewitnesses: The centurion in charge of Jesus, the authorities who scourged him, his mother, other women who knew him, his disciples.
• Hostile extra-biblical witnesses: Thallus, Tacitus, Lucian of Samosata
• Other sources: "The Acts of Pilate", Flavius Josephus, The letter from Mara bar Serapion, The Jewish Talmud, and even skeptic and Jesus Seminar John Dominic Crossan

A common objection by modern day skeptics is to deny that Christianity was founded upon the teaching of Jesus Christ, but instead is a mere copycat of other more ancient religions. More specifically, these skeptics deny that Christ was crucified, and point to other crucifixion accounts contained in these other religious traditions. In this, Islam is in agreement. While acknowledging that Jesus was an historical figure, the Qur'an denies the crucifixion. The Qur'an states in Sura 4:157, "And because of their [Jews] saying 'We killed Messiah Isa (Jesus), son of Maryam, the Messenger of Allah - but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but it appeared so to them .. and those who differ therein are full of doubts. They have no knowledge, they follow nothing but conjecture. For surely they killed him not."

Was Jesus really crucified, or is this just a copycat legend borrowed from pre-Christian mystery religions? Was Jesus not really crucified as the Qur'an states? Is there any evidence outside the Bible itself to substantiate the crucifixion?

Eyewitnesses

• A centurion, an officer over 100 men, guarded Jesus as he died on the cross (Matt. 27:54)

• · The Roman soldiers who beat Jesus sat and watched Him die (Matt. 27: 27, 36)

• · Chief priests, scribes, and elders all watched Jesus die (Matt. 27:41)

• · Many unnamed women whom Jesus had known watched Him die (Matt. 27:55)

Thus, the death of Jesus was witnessed by a significant number of direct witnesses. This sort of eye-witness evidence would suffice in any court. But, is it possible that they only thought they saw Jesus die, when in reality it was somebody else?

Family

 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.  When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!”  Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home (John 19:25-27).

By entrusting the care of his mother Mary to the disciple John, Jesus as he died demonstrated a level of compassion no stranger or substitute could have shown.

Gospel Writers Themselves

The crucifixion is recorded independently by each of the four gospel writers. This is akin to four independent witnesses today giving testimony in court of the events they record

Extra-biblical witnesses

Thallos: - Hostile Witness

Thallos was an ancient historian who wrote a three-volume history around 55AD. He would have been alive at the time of the crucifixion and any eyewitness to the events. In volume 3, Thallos mentions the darkness that occurred at the death of Jesus, just as recorded in Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, and Luke 23:44. Thallus is quoted by Julius Africanus:

On the whole there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallos, in the third book of his history, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun.

Thallos certainly was no friend of Christians; he attempted to attribute the darkness to a solar eclipse, a natural phenomenon, rather than a miracle as scripture and tradition proclaimed. Julius Africanus later critiqued and rebuffed Thallos’ argument by noting that Jesus was crucified during Passover, which occurs during a full moon. A solar eclipse cannot occur during a full moon. Thus, the darkening of the sky must have been an para-normal, or can we say miraculous, event.

"The Acts of Pilate"

This apocryphal work includes the following in 4:12: "Pilate sent for the Jews and said to them, 'Did you see what happened?' But they answered, 'There was an eclipse of the sun in the usual way.'"

Thus, two different independent sources confirm that at the crucifixion of Jesus, the sky became unusually dark, just as the Bible records.

Cornelius Tacitus (55-120 A.D.): - Hostile Witness

This respected Roman historian had a disdain for Christians, calling them believers “in a most mischievous superstition.” Nevertheless, Tacitus confirms that this “sect” was formed from followers of “Christus,” who suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberias at the hands of Pontius Pilate.” The term “extreme penalty” refers to crucifixion, the most extreme form of punishment used during the Roman Empire.

Lucian of Samosata (115-200 A.D.): - Hostile witness

A well-known satirist and lecturer, Lucian refers to Christians as “poor wretches” and “foolish people” who “accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence.” He also calls them ones “who worship the man in Palestine who was crucified because he brought this new form of initiation into the world.” Lucian further mocks Christians for believing “that they are all brothers the moment they transgress and deny the Greek gods and begin worshipping that crucified sophist and living by his laws.”

Others ...

In his Antiquities of the Jews, the Greek historian Josephus (AD 37-100) records "When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified..."

Mara bar Serapion (~73AD) wrote a letter in Syriac to his son from prison. His letter included, "Or What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise King? It was just after that that their kingdom was abolished." Although he does not name Jesus specifically, the title King of the Jews was ascribed to Jesus, and Mara bar Serapion admits this Wise King was killed.

The Jewish Talmud, in Sanhedrin 43a, states, "On the even of Passover Yeshu was hanged." Yeshu is an alternate name for Jesus, and the term 'hanged' is an alternate reference to crucifixion - hanged on a tree (Luke 23:39 - criminals hanged with him)

Even John Dominic Crossan, skeptic and cofounder of the Jesus Seminar, writes, "That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be."

Thus, the crucifixion is one of the best attested historical facts. The Jesus of the Bible really was crucified, despite the insistence of some skeptics that the story is a mere copycat of earlier religions. And despite the assertion in the Qur'an denying the crucifixion.

For further study:

Habermas, Gary, The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence For The Life of Christ, College Press Publishing, 1996

Van Voorst, Robert E., Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence, William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000

Recently an article appeared in the Orange County (California) Register which highlighted a new initiative by Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church and author of The Purpose Driven Life. The article has received much press, and for good reason. I will be addressing this article with multiple posts of my own, to address a number of concerns raised by the article.

One concern is the notion mentioned that Warren believes Muslims and Christians worship the same God. I have been told Warren has stated that he was misquoted and has clarified his position. Nevertheless, this is a statement often made by those who have never studied comparatively the differences between Allah of the Quran and YHWH of the Bible.

Below I have listed 10 distinct areas of significant differences between the two.

1. ALLAH LEADS PEOPLE ASTRAY, YHWH LEADS IN THE PATH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
Allah:

• Sura 4:119--"I will mislead them, and I will create in them false desires;” 
• Sura 18:17-“Such are among the Signs of Allah: He whom Allah guides is rightly guided; but he whom Allah leaves to stray- for him wilt thou find no protector to lead him to the Right Way.” 
• Sura 14:3 – “Then Allah sendeth whom He will astray, and guideth whom He will.”  
• Sura 4:88 – “ ... For those whom Allah has thrown aside and led astray, never shall they find the Way."
• Sura 4:142 - "… Those who Allah causes to go astray and err will not find a way."

• 2Chr. 12:6 Then the princes of iIsrael and the king humbled themselves and said, “The LORD is righteous.” 
• Psa. 7:9 Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
  and may you establish the righteous—
  you who test the minds and hearts,*
  O righteous God! 
• Psa. 11:7 For the LORD is righteous;
  he loves righteous deeds;
  the upright shall behold his face. 

• Sura 4:78: If some good befalls them, they say, "This is from Allah"; but if evil, they say, "This is from thee" (O Prophet). Say: "All things are from Allah."

• Gen 1:31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
• Psa. 31:19 Oh, how abundant is your goodness,
• Zech. 9:17 For how great is his goodness, and how great his beauty!
  

From all the foregoing, one important consequence has to be drawn.

God is Utterly Unknowable

If God is a unique kind of being unlike any other being in any respect, more specifically, unlike anything known to man, it would have to follow by Ghazali's own principles that God is utterly unknowable. For, according to Ghazali, things are known by their likenesses, and what is utterly unlike what is known to man cannot be known. Furthermore, God would have to be unknowable, completely unknowable, not only to 'the man in the street', but to prophets and mystics as well. This is a conclusion that Ghazali states very explicitly and not infrequently. It is also a view that is often stated independently of its logical relation to God's utter uniqueness.

• Sura 2:195 - surely Allah loves the doers of good
• Sura 2:222 - For Allah loves those who turn to Him constantly and He loves those who keep themselves pure and clean
• Sura 3:76 - surely Allah loves those who guard (against evil).
• Sura 3:146 - And Allah loves those who are firm and steadfast
• Sura 3:159 - For Allah loves those who put their trust (in Him).
• Sura 5:13 - Allah loves those who are kind.
• Sura 28:77 for Allah loves not those who do mischief."
• Sura 30:45 For He loves not those who reject Faith.
  

• 1 John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
• 1John 4:10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
• Jer. 31:3 I have loved you with an everlasting love;
• John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son.
  

• Rom. 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"

• Sura 4:171 - "O People of the Book, do not exaggerate in your religion and do not speak against Allah and his word, which he cast to Mary ... and do not say "Three." Cease. It will be better for you. Sure Allah is only one god."
• Sura 112: Say, "He is Allah the one. Allah is absolute. He does not birth, neither was he birthed, and there is no equal to him."

• Sura 4:119--"I will mislead them, and I will create in them false desires;"
• Sura 18:17-"Such are among the Signs of Allah: He whom Allah guides is rightly guided; but he whom Allah leaves to stray- for him wilt thou find no protector to lead him to the Right Way."
• Sura 14:3 - "Then Allah sendeth whom He will astray, and guideth whom He will."
• Sura 4:88 - "For those whom Allah has thrown aside and led astray, never shall they find the Way."
• Sura 4:142 - "... Those who Allah causes to go astray and err will not find a way."
  

• 1Pet. 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God,
• 2Pet. 3:9 The Lord is ... not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
• 2Cor. 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
  

• Sura 51:56 "I have only created men that they might serve me."
• Sura 49:13 "The most honored of you in the sight of God is he who is the most righteous of you."
  

• John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God
• Rom. 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God
• 1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!

In light of the comparisons above, one cannot honestly say Muslims and Christians worship the same God.

"Can the Bible be trusted?" This question is asked daily by atheists, skeptics, agnostics, and a host of other critics of Christianity. Muslims take the question one step further, asserting that the Bible we have today is a corrupt version of the original given by God to mankind, and that only the Qur'an can be trusted as the true revelation.

How accurate is our Bible? Can we trust what is written within its pages? If the Bible is God's word, how can we know?

I want to build the following argument specifically for Muslims, but the argument will be useful for other situations also with little modification. Here is the argument I will support in the following article.

1. If the Qur'an is true then the Bible is false. Conversely, if the Bible is true, then the Qur'an is false.
2. A hallmark of divine inspiration is foreknowledge of future events.
3. Foreknowledge of future events can be found and proven in the Bible.
4. The Qur'an contains no evidence of such foreknowledge.
5. Therefore, the Bible is true and the Qur'an is false.

THE PRINCIPLE OF NON-CONTRADICTION

The principle of non-contradiction states that opposites cannot both be true simultaneously in the same sense. A piece of paper cannot be both black and white at the same time. A drinking glass cannot be both full of water and empty at the same time. One or the other can be true, but not both.

The Bible and the Qur'an contradict one another in many ways. The Bible says Jesus was crucified but the Qur'an denies this. The Bible says God chose to lower himself to human status in the person of Jesus but the Qur'an says such a notion is not befitting of God. The Qur'an says no person can atone for the sins of another, yet the Bible says this is precisely what Jesus did. In almost every area of theological significance, the Qur'an contradicts the Bible. Therefore both cannot be true at the same time. If the Qur'an is true, then the Bible is false. If the Bible is true, then the Qur'an is false. To say that both are true violates the principle of non-contradiction.

DIVINE INSPIRATION

One of the most compelling evidences for divine inspiration is prophetic foreknowledge of the future. Only God knows the future. Thus, any work that claims to be from God should include evidence for such a claim, and foreknowledge of the future would satisfy the requirement for evidence. What evidence of this sort can be found in either the Bible or the Qur'an?

DANIEL

Although not classified strictly as a book of the prophets, Daniel nonetheless contains evidence of foreknowledge of future events. To set the stage, both Jewish and Christian tradition asserts the book of Daniel was written during the sixth century B.C. during the time of the Babylonian captivity (605 - 535 B.C.). The evidence discussed below will support such a date for its writing. But due to the foreknowledge of the future in Daniel, skeptics have attempted to place the writing of Daniel in the second or first century B.C. and further assert that subsequent Jewish and Christian scholars have simply redacted Daniel back to the sixth century B.C. What is it about Daniel that skeptics find objectionable? We will look at two chapters of the book, chapters 2 and 5.

FUTURE KINGDOMS

In Daniel chapter 2, king Nebuchadnezzar has a dream and asks for his magicians to interpret the dream for him (Daniel 2: 1-11) and none is able. Daniel then tells the king what he dreamed about (vs. 31-35) and further explains to the king the meaning of the dream as revealed to him by the God of the Bible (vs. 36-45). Scholars both religious and secular agree the vision is of four significant kingdoms that are historically accurate: The Babylonian (625 - 539 BC) during which Daniel lived, the Medo-Persian (539 - 331 BC) during which Daniel likely lived through the early years, the Greek (331 - 63 BC) and the Roman (63 BC - 476 AD). Since Daniel lived in the sixth century BC, his knowledge of both the Babylonian and Medo-Persian empires is understandable since he likely lived during both kingdoms. But how could a sixth century BC author have known of the coming Greek or Roman empires hundreds years later? This is why critics question whether Daniel was indeed written in the sixth century. How can we know it was?

KING BELSHAZZAR?

Daniel chapter 5 talks of King Belshazzar and a vision he has. For centuries, skeptics questioned the authenticity of this man and thought him to mythological, and Daniel to be in error. The Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BC, and other historians said the king at that time was named Nabonidus, not Belshazzar. This seemed, for a long time, to be an error in the book of Daniel. Why did Herodotus, writing a mere 100 years later, insist that Nabonidus was king, not Belshazzar?

Daniel 5:5-9 relates a vision King Belshazzar has where a hand appears out of nowhere and writes some inscriptions on a wall. Belshazzar's wise men attempt to interpret the handwriting to no avail. Then Daniel is summoned. In verse 16, Belshazzar tells Daniel he will be the third most important man in the kingdom if he can interpret the writing. Why number three? If Belshazzar is king and number one, wouldn't Daniel be number two?

This was all a mystery until the 1870s, when a significant archeological discovery was made in Iraq. Both the Nabonidus Cylinder and the Nabonidus Chronicle, on display in the British Museum, help solve the mystery.

Herodotus the historian was correct; Nabonidus was the king of the Babylonian Empire after the death of Nebuchadnezzar. But according to the Nabonidus Chronicle, he spent the last 10 years of his empire not in Babylon but in the Arabian peninsula in conquests to build the kingdom. While in Arabia, he left his seat of authority to his son Belshazzar. In essence, Nabonidus and Belshazzar were co-regents in the kingdom, and thus Daniel would have been number three. Nabonidus and Belshazzar were numbers one and two respectively!

The Nabonidus Chronicle also confirms that Darius the Mede conquered Babylon in 539 BC while Belshazzar sat in the seat of authority, just as it is written in Daniel 5:30-31.

SIGNIFICANCE

Herodotus, the historian who wrote only 100 years later, knew nothing of Belshazzar, only of Nabonidus. Why?

Kings write out their conquests for their legacy to be remembered in the future. The Nabonidus Chronicle and Nabonidus Cylinder are examples of such writings. All the conquests that took place during the reign of Nabonidus were attributed to him. Belshazzar had not yet engaged in his own conquests, because his father would have taken the credit. Had Belshazzar waited until the death of Nabonidus and then conquered others, his accounts would have been written in the annals of history. But before that point arrived, Darius conquered Babylon and both Nabonidus and Belshazzar were killed. Belshazzar never had the chance to conquer on his own and have his own history recorded.

But how could Daniel have known this little fact if, as skeptics insist, he wrote the book of Daniel in the second or first century B.C.? Herodotus writing in the fifth century B.C. did not know of Belshazzar's co-regency with Nabonidus. Daniel did. Daniel had intimate knowledge of historical facts that fit perfectly with a sixth century author, and no other time, otherwise he would not have had this key bit of knowledge that was only confirmed by 1870s archeological digs.

The Bible is amazingly accurate.

And, if Daniel was indeed written in the sixth century B.C., then the visions of the four kingdoms recorded in chapter 2 were indeed divine foreknowledge! How did Daniel know of the Greek and Roman empires of the future? Because the Bible is God's inspired book.

The Qur'an has nothing to compare with the knowledge of future events found in the Bible. In fact, there is not one example in the Qur'an that rises to the level of specific and accurate knowledge of the future.

And this is only one example among many others in the Bible of knowledge of the future. The Bible is not simply a man made book, nor is it one that has undergone corruption. It is God's word, inspired by the One true God, creator of the universe. It is a book you can trust.

Here is yet another example where Muslims attempt to use a bible verse to disprove the deity of Jesus. They quote John 10:34-36, which reads: "Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, You are gods?' If he called them gods to whom the word of God came -- and scripture cannot be broken -- do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming' because I said 'I am the Son of God?'"

Here is the Muslim argument. Jesus claimed to be god, but so what? Other people in the past have also been called gods. Jesus making the claim is nothing new.

Here is the problem. These three verses quoted by Muslims to disprove the deity of Jesus are sandwiched between two other passages, immediately before and after verses 34-36 that prove just the opposite.

In verse 30, Jesus says, "I and the Father are one." Immediately the Jews pick up stones to stone him for claiming to be God. 

Jesus then makes the statemement above in verses 34-36, which Muslims say disprove Jesus' deity, after he had just told the Pharisees that He and God were one and the same, and for which they picked up stones to kill him for blasphemy.

Then, in verses 37-38, Jesus says "If I am not doing the works of mu Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you don't believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."

If Jesus says the Father is in him, and he is in the Father, how can that be anything other than claiming the He and the Father are one and the same: God alone!

Here is the problem Muslims have. They do not understand what Jesus was saying when they quote veses 34-36. Jesus was not denying his deity; he was affirming it! Essentially he said (paraphrasing), "Others have come who were called gods, so why do you call me a blasphemer when I say I am God? If they were called gods, it is much more appropriate for me to call myself God because  the Father consecrated me and sent me!" Essentially, Jesus was saying "I deserve the title, because that's who I am!"

If only Muslims would read the entire context of verses they quote, they would save themselves many embarassing moments.