The fact that God makes and keeps promises is foundational to the Bible. The Old Testament is full of examples where God says he will do something in the future, which is then later fulfilled. In the context of sharing the Gospel with our Muslim friends, Genesis 3:15 is a good example. God promised that a Saviour would come and defeat Satan, and the New Testament is a record of God fulfilling this promise through the death and resurrection of Jesus. There are many other prophesies about Christ that were recorded in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New . Micah 5:2 for example, foretells where Jesus was to be born, Psalms 22 and Isaiah 53 contain many details about the Crucifixion of Jesus, and Psalms 16:10 predicts that he would rise from the dead1.
Someone making the claim that the Bible has become corrupted, however, is inadvertently stating more about the character of God than of the Bible, because, as was pointed out in a previous article2, a changed Bible raises questions over either the power of God or his love and care for us.
Claiming the Bible has become corrupt also fails to understand that God is a God who makes and keeps promises and, without access to the God’s original promise there is no way of assessing if God has indeed kept his word, fulfilling his promise.
In the Quran, Allah is known as one who makes and keeps promises. Quran 39.20 states that he “never breaks a promise”. Even forgiveness is “promised” in verses like Quran 2.268, although, always in payment of good works, and in Quran 9.111 God promises guaranteed entrance into heaven if one dies actively engaged in Jihad. These promises in the Quran are made in the context of looking forward to judgement.
One area where the Quran mentions God’s promises in the previous Scriptures is the coming of Muhammad . In the Quran Allah states: “They are the ones who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whose description they find in their Torah and the Gospel.” Quran 7.157
At this point, we could raise the following question with our Muslim friends: If God took the trouble to make the coming of a future prophet known in the previous Scriptures, why would he allow these promises to become corrupt?
The question of when the scriptures became corrupt is also relevant here. Quran 7.157 clearly states that in the time of Muhammad , his ‘coming’ was evident, which forces the view that the scriptures were corrupted after the 7th century. (See “before Muhammad, After Muhammad”)
Related to this is Quran 2.146, which some Muslims claim refers to the fact that the coming of Muhammad was exceptionally clear, in fact “as clear as they recognise their own sons”. (Note however, the context of 2:146 seems to be referring to the direction of prayer rather than Muhammad )
See notes on Deuteronomy 18:15-18, Acts 3:20-22, Isaiah 21:13-17, Song of Solomon 5:9-16, John 1:19-21, John 14:15-17 and John 16:12-14 for verses that Muslims claim speak of the coming of Muhammad3.
When Muslims appeal to the Bible to support the message of Islam, they often claim that the Bible still “contains” the words of God. In other words, the Bible is corrupted, but still contains portions that have not become corrupted. How do you know what is corrupt and what isn’t? They claim that where the Bible agrees with Islam it is incorrupt, but where it disagrees it has become corrupt.
This approach, however, ignores the overwhelming textual support for the Bible’s careful transmission as mentioned in previous article s and doesn’t explain why verses they claim speak of Muhammad4 fit clearly into the wider context in the Bible . For example, read John 14:16 and John 16:17 in the context of verses such as John 1:33, Joel 2:28-32, Ezekiel 36:33-36 and Acts 2. For Scripture to become so corrupt and yet retain such coherence across revelations is very unlikely.
This is a good opportunity to show your Muslim friends the assurance that we have when it comes to God’s promises for us. Interestingly, although the Quran ‘promises’ forgiveness and paradise, these are all conditional and dependent on their performance as a Muslim. Therefore when you ask a Muslim friend if they know what will happen to them after they die, they will always say they do not. This is a great opportunity to show the amazing assurance of salvation in the Christian faith, which is not based on anything we have done but on what Christ has done for us.