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OBJECTIONS TO SOME CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES
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John vii. 16; viii. 28; xii. 49, 50; xiv. 10, 24). We Christians do not
believe that the Law and the Gospel were written down in heaven ages before the creation of the
world and then brought down piecemeal to the prophets and dictated to them word for word. Such a
doctrine might perhaps be described as contrary to Reason, but you Muslims at any rate could not
bring such an argument against us without condemning yourselves. It is true that the Bible does
contain a great deal of history, because our faith rests upon historical facts, not upon
fancies and assertions. But the history of the Israelites and the narratives given us of the lives
of prophets and apostles are capable of being proved true, and have been so proved wherever
means exist of testing them. We do not find in the Bible statements like some in the Qur'an, e.g.
that Haman was Pharaoh's wazir (cf. Surahs XXVIII., Al Qisas, 5; XXIX., Al 'Ankabut, 38;
XL., Al Mu’min, 25, 38), and that the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, was sister of Aaron (Surah
XIX., Maryam, 29) and daughter of 'Imran (Amram) (Surah III., Al 'Imran, 31, &c.), and hence
identical with Miriam the sister of Moses and Aaron1. God teaches by the history
contained in the Bible the reason for the coming of Christ
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AS ALLEGED TO BE TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE
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and the manner in which His way was prepared. There is good reason,
therefore, why so large a portion of the Bible should consist of history, telling us of God's
dealings with mankind, and revealing to us God's view of human history. In this way we learn to
judge our own conduct, and perceive that "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a
reproach to any people" (Prov. xiv. 34). The Epistles that bear the names of certain apostles
were written by them under Divine guidance (John xiv. 26), and hence, as "all1
Scripture is given by inspiration of God" (2 Tim. iii. 16), the Qur'an is justified in giving
the Bible the title of the "Word of God," and so are we. In our view of Inspiration, God
did not use merely the apostles' or prophets' mouths or hands, but made use of their whole being,
the wisdom which He had bestowed on them, their minds and hearts and souls and spirits as well as
their bodies, to convey His message to men. When we find, therefore, a human element in Scripture,
this by no means disproves its inspiration, since we do not hold an illogical view of inspiration
like that held by some, as for example the Hindus and the Sikhs. Nor do we hold the Muhammadan view
of Inspiration, which seems to us to be illogical too. If you consider all these facts I think you
will perceive that in accepting the Bible as the Word of God we
πασα γραφη θεοπνευστος και ωφελιμος προς διδασκαλιαν. As is well known, this verse is differently rendered by some.
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