Many Muslims seem to think that if a quote can be found by a Christian scholar against some Christian doctrine, then that doctrine must certainly be wrong.

Not so.

Western society (i.e. Western Europe and those populations mainly descended from Western Europe such as the USA) has been greatly influenced by Rationalism for past few hundred years. While this has had some good effects (e.g. advances in technology), there has been the bad effect that people look at everything "Rationally", i.e. without regard to the supernatural or spiritual side of things.

Sadly, this spirit has infected much of the church. This is so more so in seminaries (i.e. places that teach and study the Christian religion) than in the ordinary churches. Why? Because in some places (more so in Europe than in the USA) these seminaries have tried as hard as possible to be seen as "respectable educational institutions", and so have tried to do their study in the same way as other universities, i.e. totally "Rationally".

The result is that many scholars - yes, even Christian scholars - are taught to study the Bible "rationally". The supernatural is ruled out. The Bible is to be studied like any other book, and its history is to be studied like any other history. The idea that God might act in history is virtually ruled out from the beginning!

When this is the scholars' STARTING ASSUMPTION, of course it will be possible to find Christian scholars who make all sorts of claims against the Bible's reliability. (Such scholars would also claim the Qur'an was unreliable, by the way).

However, many (in fact, most) Christians believe such starting assmptions are wrong. We believe God can and does act in history: this belief is at the very core of Christianity!

So let's have none of this "The Christian scholar X says Y", because it proves nothing unless the scholar gives a reason for what he/she says.

Rebuttal of "What Did Jesus Really Say?"
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