Author: | Cody Cook | ISBN: | 1230000599658 |
Publisher: | Cody Cook | Publication: | January 22, 2015 |
Imprint: | Language: | English |
Author: | Cody Cook |
ISBN: | 1230000599658 |
Publisher: | Cody Cook |
Publication: | January 22, 2015 |
Imprint: | |
Language: | English |
This essay will focus on a handful of claims that conservative Muslim apologists often make about Christianity and the New Testament. It is the author's hope that this work will help the Christian reader to have a basic level understanding of how Muslims approach Jesus and the New Testament (and why this approach simply misses the mark), and that the Muslim reader will be challenged to consider the validity of the arguments which he probably hears most commonly against the Christian faith.
As a note on format, each section will begin with a short paraphrase of a common conservative Muslim argument and will then be followed by a Christian response. The claims being responded to are:
1. The Bible has been so corrupted that it can't be trusted.
2. The New Testament authors wrote at least four decades after Jesus, so they can't be trusted to be accurate historians.
3. In Mark 10:17-22, Jesus claims that he is not good, but that only God is good. Thus, Jesus was claiming that he is not God. In this same passage, Jesus also claims that the way to salvation is keeping the commandments, which goes against the Christian belief that salvation comes from Jesus' sacrifice.
4. Paul invented Christianity.
5. In the Bible, God declares: “Understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me” (Isaiah 43:10). This means that Jesus cannot be God since there is only one God.
6. The doctrine of the Trinity is polytheistic.
7. If we are saved by faith, as Christians teach, then we can sin as much as we want.
This essay will focus on a handful of claims that conservative Muslim apologists often make about Christianity and the New Testament. It is the author's hope that this work will help the Christian reader to have a basic level understanding of how Muslims approach Jesus and the New Testament (and why this approach simply misses the mark), and that the Muslim reader will be challenged to consider the validity of the arguments which he probably hears most commonly against the Christian faith.
As a note on format, each section will begin with a short paraphrase of a common conservative Muslim argument and will then be followed by a Christian response. The claims being responded to are:
1. The Bible has been so corrupted that it can't be trusted.
2. The New Testament authors wrote at least four decades after Jesus, so they can't be trusted to be accurate historians.
3. In Mark 10:17-22, Jesus claims that he is not good, but that only God is good. Thus, Jesus was claiming that he is not God. In this same passage, Jesus also claims that the way to salvation is keeping the commandments, which goes against the Christian belief that salvation comes from Jesus' sacrifice.
4. Paul invented Christianity.
5. In the Bible, God declares: “Understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me” (Isaiah 43:10). This means that Jesus cannot be God since there is only one God.
6. The doctrine of the Trinity is polytheistic.
7. If we are saved by faith, as Christians teach, then we can sin as much as we want.