The Unbridgeable Gap
April 2008, Bible Believers’ Bulletin
Here we continue a series of articles on the attempted ecumenical movement to get Christianity and Islam together. To do so, you have to throw out a Book (the Bible) that was written over a period of nearly 1,600 years, by forty authors on three different continents, and yet shows a remarkable unity between 66 books that never contradict one another. You have to throw out a Book that has never been proven wrong historically or scientifically, though it has been attacked by its critics for 2,000 years. You have to get rid of a Book that makes 48 historical prophecies on one man 400 to 1,500 years before He was born, and all of them come through “on the money.” The chances of something like that happening are 10157 power, more than all the electrons in the three universes the size of this one.
And in its place you accept what? A book (the Koran) that never existed except out of the mouth of one man who was subject to hallucinations, had a muddy mind, and believed in omens, charms, dreams, evil spirits (the djinn—“genies,” not “devils” as in the Bible), etc. Those are the kinds of things upon which the Koran is based.
Anything in the Koran that is actually true is what Mohammed took out of the Old Testament. For instance, the Koran copies the chapter and verse system of the Bible. It consists of 144 chapters and 6,226 verses. Each “Sura” (chapter), except the ninth, begins with a formula of Jewish origin, borrowed from the Old Testament: “In the name of Allah, the God of mercy,” or “In the name of Allah, the merciful and the beneficent.”
The Koran is held in superstitious veneration by Moslems, and until recently, it was considered too sacred to be translated and sold as a common book. Now compare that with the Bible, the New Testament in particular. Before 200 years of church history had passed, Christians had translated “the holy scriptures” (Rom. 1:2) in the three major languages of the Roman Empire: Greek, Latin, and Syriac. It was translated into Boharic, Sahidic, Coptic, Memphitic, Georgian, Gothic, and Slavic before Mohammed was born. In fact, Christians invented the “book” as we know it today, for as anyone knows, the Jews copied the Old Testament onto scrolls. Early Christians bound pages of Scriptures together in a book form called a codex to make personal work easier (see The History of the New Testament Church, Vol. I, and The Christian’s Handbook of Biblical Scholarship).
The Bible was the first book ever printed, and it has always been the world’s number one best seller because there is a universal demand for it. The only “demand” for the Koran is an artificial demand, just like the “demand” for Mao’s “Red Book” in China: get a copy or you’ll be jailed, tortured, or killed.
Mohammed is said to have prepared and dictated the Koran from time to time as he received revelations and progressed in his career. Of course he didn’t prepare anything for his readers because he couldn’t read or write. He dictated portions of the Koran to his hearers, leaving much to the suggestive action of public recital from the memory of somebody, or by copies taken down by his friends. That is some “preparation” and dictation.
The truth is that he “prepared” nothing. One of his biographers named Zayd (sometimes spelled Zaid) says that a year after Mohammed’s death that Abu Bakr, Mohammed’s father-in-law (or more accurately, ONE of his father-in-laws—he had nine widows) and his immediate successor, had scattered fragments of the Koran collected from palm leaves, tablets of stone, and “the breasts of men.” No regard was given to their chronological order or continuity of subjects. Nothing matched anything or was held together in any kind of logical train of thought, nor was anything in order.
Abu Bakr committed this copy to the custody of Haphsa, one of Mohammed’s widows. It remained the standard during the ten years of Omar’s Caliphate. The different readings, though, occasioned serious disputes. Zayd and several Quraysh were commissioned to secure the purity of the text in the Meccan dialect, and all previous copies were called in and burned. This destroyed all the evidence of any book that ever existed. You couldn’t verify anything in the Koran if your life depended on it.
Of course “Allah” didn’t show “Gabriel” any book, “Gabriel” didn’t show Mohammed any book, and Mohammed never showed anybody any book. All that happened was that Mohammed shot off his mouth about what he said some “angel” said to him. Nobody but Mohammed heard the “angel” open his mouth. Some people wrote down some things Mohammed said, and some didn’t. Some people remembered what Mohammed said, and some forgot. Mohammed himself couldn’t even remember everything he said “Gabriel” told him (see “Mohammed’s Believe It or Else,” available from the Bible Baptist Bookstore).
The result of all this depraved confusion is that the authors of the Koran are all unknown. If you made up a list of names of its authors, you would be just as accurate as anybody else who made up a different list, because none of the authors’ names appear in the Koran.
Again, compare that with the Bible. The writer of the first five books is Moses, according to Moses (Exod. 17:14, 24:4, 34:27; Num. 33:2; Deut. 31:19, 22), Christ (Matt. 8:4, 19:8; Mark 1:44, 7:10, 12:26; John 5:46, 7:19), and Paul (Rom. 10:5, 19; 1 Cor. 9:9). The writer of the Gospel of Luke is Luke. The writer of the Gospel of Matthew is Matthew the publican. The writer of the book of Isaiah is Isaiah, and the writer of the book of Jeremiah is Jeremiah.
- Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
- For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Do you know who the author of Suras 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 is in the Koran? Why, it is Mr. “X.” Do you know who wrote Suras 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19? It was “the little man who wasn’t there.” Well, who wrote Suras 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100? That’s easy—nobody.
Not once in 6,226 verses, in 114 chapters, does the name of the author of a single Sura or verse appear. The authors of the Koran are just like Allah—they have no name. “Allah” isn’t the name of God at all; it simply means “the god.” In the 99 “names” ascribed to God in the Koran, not one is the actual name of God. They are all attributes, like “the merciful and the beneficent.” “Allah” has no name; he is simply “the god.”
In the Bible he is called “the god of this world”. You can find his name recorded in the oldest written book in the world, which is actually a book with a theme, a plot, character development, and actual history; it is the book of Job. The book of Job is excluded from the Old Testament according to all the Moslem teachers: they don’t include Job as part of the Scriptures. You say, “Why?” Because “the god” (pronounced Allah in Arabic) shows up in the first chapter, and his name is Satan. That book was written more than 2,000 years before Mohammed was born.
- In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
That same unnamed god (2 Cor. 4:4) is also called “the prince of this world”. He is called “the anointed cherub that covereth”, but he is given no name there. He is simply called “the anointed [meshiach—messiah] cherub.” You don’t get his name unless you go over to Isaiah 14:12.
- Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
- Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
- How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
He is “the . . . cherub,” “the prince,” and “the god.” His name is given fifteen times in the first two chapters of Job: it is Satan. This accounts for why there is a whole religious book written with no author mentioned anywhere in it who wrote a line of it. The authors of the Koran are just like the one who told it to Mohammed; they are anonymous.
- ¶ Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
- And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
- And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
- Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
- And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
- ¶ Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.
- And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
- And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.
- And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
- And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.
- ¶ So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
And you expect us Christians to meet together with folks like that and talk over what we have in common, do you?