In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.
Hello, and welcome. To my Christian brothers and sisters, and to my Muslim friends seeking the truth, I am so glad you are here with me today. We share a deep, honest desire: to know God, to please Him, and to hear His true voice.
The Search for Solid Ground
Every person who truly loves God wants to build their life on a solid rock. We want to know that the words we read, the prayers we say, and the commands we follow are truly from our Creator. For a long time, I struggled with hard questions about faith. I was told to just accept things, to lower my head, and to ignore the doubts in my mind.
But locking your mind in a dark room is not true faith. True faith loves the light. I grew deeply frustrated with the idea that we are not allowed to ask questions. God gave us a mind to think, to weigh evidence, and to seek the truth logically. Today, we are going to use the minds God gave us to look at a very important topic: the preservation of God's word.
Many of my dear Muslim friends sincerely believe that the Quran is perfectly kept, but that the older books the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel have been changed and corrupted by men.
We hear this claim often. But let us stop and pull this idea apart slowly. Let us ask the hard questions: Where? How? Who? Why? When?
Breaking Down the Claim
We need to look at the beliefs that are often taught side by side.
- First, there is the belief that the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel were given by God.
- Second, there is the belief that God's words cannot be changed.
- Third, there is the claim that these older books were changed.
- Fourth, there is the claim that only the newest book, the Quran, was protected.
Let us look at this with logic, not just habit or emotion.
If we agree that the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel are the word of God, and we agree that the Quran is also viewed as the word of God, we face a serious problem. If you say the first three books were corrupted, you are making a bold statement: you are saying that some of God’s word can be ruined by men.
If some of God’s word can be ruined, why should anyone believe the newest book is perfectly safe?
Let us look closely at what this means for who God is. If God gave a book to Moses, and men changed it... and God gave a book to David, and men changed it... and God gave a book to Jesus, and men changed it... what does that tell us about God?
- Is God weak? Did God lack the power to protect His own words in the past? Did He somehow grow stronger over time, so that He could finally protect His last book? No, God is all-powerful. He does not change or grow stronger.
- Is God unfair? Imagine a God who allows wicked men to change His holy book. Then, innocent people read that ruined book, believing it is from God. They follow it with all their heart. Does God then send them to hell for following a book He failed to protect? That would make God completely unjust and uncaring. But we know God is perfectly just.
So, we have a major problem. You cannot say God is perfectly strong and just, while also saying He allowed His holy words to be lost and allowed millions of people to be tricked.
The Four Logical Choices
My friends, we must look reality in the eye. When it comes to the books of God, there are only four logical choices you can make.
Choice Number One: The newest book is kept perfectly, but the older books are ruined.
As we just saw, this choice insults God. It makes Him look either too weak to protect His early words or too cruel to care if people are misled.
Choice Number Two: All the books are ruined.
If this is true, then no one has the truth. We should all stop reading all of them. But we know God loves us and speaks to us, so this cannot be true.
Choice Number Three: The newest book is perfectly kept, and the older books are perfectly kept, too.
If God is strong enough to protect one book, He is strong enough to protect them all. This means you must read the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel. But here we find a wall: the newest book openly disagrees with the older books. It tells a different story about who Jesus is and what He did. God is not a God of confusion. He does not send a new message that destroys the foundation of His old message. If they disagree, they cannot both be true.
Choice Number Four: The older books the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel are perfectly kept, and they remain the unchanged word of God.
If this is true, then the truth has been with us all along.
The Bible tells us clearly in the book of Isaiah, chapter 40, verse 8:
"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever."
God is completely capable of protecting His word from the very beginning.
Where is the Evidence?
I told you earlier we must ask: When? Who? How?
When were the Torah and the Gospel changed?
If they were changed before the time of the Quran, then why does the Quran itself tell people in the 7th century to look at the Torah and the Gospel for guidance? You do not tell someone to find light in a broken lamp.
If they were changed after the time of the Quran, then we have a huge historical problem. By the 7th century, the Bible had already been copied thousands of times. It was spread across the whole world. It was in Egypt, in Rome, in India, in Ethiopia. It was translated into many languages.
Who could possibly travel across the entire world, collect every single copy of the Bible in every language, change them all to say the exact same wrong thing, and put them all back without anyone writing down that this happened? It is impossible.
A Look at History
Let us step out of theory and look at the hard facts of history.
When we look at the preservation of the Bible, we are not just guessing. We have proof you can see and touch. In 1947, a young boy found jars hidden in caves near the Dead Sea. Inside these jars were ancient copies of the Old Testament books, like the book of Isaiah. These scrolls were written hundreds of years before Jesus Christ was even born.
When scientists and scholars translated these ancient scrolls, what did they find? Did they find a totally different religion? No. They found the exact same words that we read in our Bibles today. God preserved His word.
For the New Testament, the Gospel, we have over 5,000 ancient Greek manuscripts. We have pieces of the Gospel of John that date back to just decades after the apostle John lived. When we compare a manuscript found in Egypt with a manuscript found in Europe, they match. The message of God's love, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and His resurrection are completely identical.
Now, look at the history of the Quran. Islamic history itself tells us that during the time of the third Caliph, Uthman, there were many different versions of the Quran being read by different groups of Muslims. Because they were arguing over these differences, Uthman ordered that one version be kept, and he commanded that all the other versions be burned in a fire.
If a book is perfectly preserved by God without human help, why did a human ruler need to burn the evidence of different versions?
The Call to Truth
I share this not to attack, but to invite you out of the dark room. We must not be afraid of history. We must not accept easy answers that fall apart when we simply ask, "Why?"
If you are a Muslim watching this, I know you love God. I know you want to honor Him. But to honor Him, we must protect His character. We cannot say He allowed His holy prophets, Moses and David and Jesus, to deliver messages that simply faded away into lies. God is greater than that.
I challenge you today: do not just repeat what you have been told. Read the Gospel. Read the life of Jesus Christ. If God protected His word, it is there waiting for you. You will find a God who is completely just, perfectly powerful, and who loves you enough to come down and save you.
God bless you all.