Foreword
The Creator of existence sends prophets and messengers to mankind with the assignment of reminding them of the good moral values, and guiding them to the right path. God chooses these messengers from amongst the people for the exceptional personal qualities they possess. These ambassadors need to practice what they preach and set examples for the people they are sent to guide. If they were to do otherwise, then they would immediately loose all credibility before the very people they have been sent to lead, hence the choice of those with exceptional qualities that would equip them for the difficult task that lie ahead. Furthermore it is the possession of such qualities that people find admirable that attract the masses around the messengers of God. Lacking such qualities would make it very hard for the messengers of God to lead the masses, and if they were to commit indecent and wicked acts, then what hope would the others have?
Through practicing their teachings, the prophets aim to show others that they are the manifestation of their own teachings and this in turn shows the masses the truth of their message and encourage them to adhere to the teachings of the prophets. Although chosen from amongst mankind, the prophets have managed to amass a range of noble qualities, which are amongst the pre-requisites for such a post. They have such traits and levels of enlightenment that they would be practically unable to engage in any wrong or immoral act.
In work presented in this part, the author carries out a brief investigation into the Bible and presents his findings. They show that some of the most noble men, i.e. the Prophets, who have been chosen by God Almighty as His messengers to mankind, are attributed to have committed some of the most vile and immoral conducts known to man. Conducts for which one would today be ashamed of and prosecuted, are attributed to the Prophets in the Bible. Prophets are accused by the Bible to have committed unbelievable acts of deception, lying, fornication, rape, incest, coldblooded and well-calculated murder, and the list goes on. Some of the prophets and messengers of God to mankind are depicted in the Bible to be from amongst the most contemptible, and depraved individuals of the human race. They are portrayed to have committed vile crimes such as treachery and murder.
Even God does not escape unscathed in the Bible . false characteristics are attributed to Him, or He is accused of making His messengers to commit foul and wicked acts.
While some of the false slander and attributes against God and His messengers are presented in this brief work, the author very briefly rejects the false attributes and slanderous accusations given to God and His messengers.
These attributes only point the finger to the distortion and corruption that the Bible has been subjected to by unscrupulous individuals in the course of history. As such this renders the Bible as an unreliable source for the people to be able to refer to for their religious and spiritual needs, since it is far from the truth.
Proclaiming that the Bible is the truth and the word of God has had catastrophic consequences, the least of which being the disenchantment of many over the centuries, as they find the Bible to go against reason and thebehaviour
of its prophets immoral. As a result many have left or rejected Christianity and adhered other beliefs or religions, despite the colossal effort that is being made in missionary projects. On the other hand, some have been so appalled by what they find in the Bible and the Christian teachings that they ended up denying the concept of the One Creator and the existence of God altogether; the very issue the original undistorted Bible came to address.
The true teachings of the Bible are further undermined when individuals, taking lead from the conducts of the Prophets of God as depicted in the Bible, commit those vile acts with the excuse that the Prophets of God used to do them. In theirendeavour
to uphold thosebehaviours
, which are falsely attributed to some of the most noble human beings, they go on to claim that in reporting those conducts of the messengers of God, the Bible reflects the reality of the day, and that the prophets were humans like everyone else, prone and susceptible to, and feeble before various forces of temptation, ego and greed, and thus we too can commit those acts. Or if we commit them we are not to blame since we are after all humans and even the prophets of God indulged in them, as if a human being is only here to be ruled by the various forces of temptation and greed, and he has no will of his own.
This is one of the consequences of refusing to acknowledge that the Bible has undergone significant corruption and distortion. Instead of accepting that the Bible we have today is the distorted version of what was brought by Jesus and Moses peace be upon them, those who zealously want to uphold the Bible persistently insist on the false claim that the present Bible is the word of God, and therefore must be adhered to.
This study on the New and Old Testaments is very short compared to the vast amount of astonishing contradictory materials in the Bible. The author had stated that, given other responsibilities and schedules, time did not allow him to write more than this, although even a book on such a subject with several volumes is still few. The aim of the work is not to denigrate the Bible, so much as to point out that the Bible we have within our disposal today has been tampered with, aiming to distort the true message of Jesus peace be upon him, ensuring that its successor - the Holy Qur’an, the final revelation to mankind by the same God who had revealed the Bible - is discarded by the masses.
In this brief work, the author presents a ‘quick look’ at the issues of concern in the form of questions and answers, and in the brief answers that he gives, it is assumed that the reader is a rational individual who believes God never sends individuals as His messengers who through theirbehaviour
set the worst examples for others to follow.
The work in this part does not aim to specifically target the Christians, but those Muslims who were either educated in the west or have been the targets of Christian missionary programs and their beliefs. It aims to highlight some of the corruption that has taken place in the Bible over the past two millennia. Muslims believe that messengers of God would never commit such atrociousbehaviour
as depicted in today’s Christian Bible. Had the author intended to write a detailed book to show the Christians the invalidity of their fundamental beliefs today, the contradictions of those beliefs with the teachings of Jesus peace be upon him, the book would have taken a different shape and size.
{The Messenger believeth in what hath been revealed to him from his Lord, as do the men of faith. Each one (of them) believeth in Allah, His angels, His Books, and His Messengers. (They say) “We make no distinction between any one of His Messengers.” And they say: “We hear, and we obey, (we seek) Thy forgiveness, our Lord, and to Thee is the end of all journeys”}
Verses of the Bible found herein have been quoted from the Authorized King James Version; and that all emphases (in italics) on them are by the translator.
God According to the Bible
What kind of God do you think is the God of the Bible? God is made to have body and hair, and resides at a certain place, all of which are inapplicable attributes. He is made out to deceive people, and break His promise. With such characteristics and codes of conduct (falsely) attributed to the Creator of man, then what would man himself be like? Let’s look at some of the verses of the Bible in this respect, before proceeding to the section on the features of God’s messengers to man. Question: Does God have a human form?
Answer: No, certainly not! The question is simply not applicable to God. But in the Bible according to the book of Genesis, chapter one, verses twenty six and twenty seven (1: 26, 27), it says:
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
Q: Does God have hair and wears clothes?
A: No, certainly not! Again this is not applicable to God. Such beliefs are derived from and the result of influence of idolatry beliefs andidolworshipping
religions.
But Daniel 7: 9 says “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and [God] the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool...”
Q: Does God walk?
A: No, certainly not!
But genesis 3: 8 says:
“And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.” Q: Does God descend in the cloud and pass before a man? A: No, certainly not!
But Exodus 34: 5, 6 says:
“And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD... and the LORD passed by before him...”
Q: Does God choose a place where to stay? A: No, certainly not!
But Psalms 132:13 says:
“For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation.”
Q: Is God so ignorant that He does not know the houses of believers except by a token of the blood upon the houses? A: No, certainly not!
But Exodus 12: 12, 13 says:
“For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt; both man and beast, and against all gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.”
Q: Does God break His promises?
A: No, most certainly not! Breaking promises is shameful. But 1 Samuel 2: 30, 31 says:
“Wherefore the LORD God of Israelsaith
, l said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before mefor ever
; but now the LORDsaith
, Be it far from me. Behold, the days come, that I will cut offthine
arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man inthine
house.” God is exalted from this false accusation. For example, God is said to have promised Eli that his priesthood would be forever for him and his descendants, but He did not keep this promise.
Also in the same book, 1 Samuel 13: 13, 14 it says “...for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart...”
God is far exalted from such a false accusation, saying that He promised Saul that his kingdom would be forever, but later He broke His promise and gave the kingdom to another man!
Q: Is the foolishness of God wiser than that of men; and the weakness of God stronger than that of men?
A: No, most certainly not! God is neither foolish nor weak! Therefore, there isn't a question here of His foolishness being wiser than that of men. But I Corinthians 1: 25 says “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
Q: Does God repent for what He has done? A: No, most certainly not!
But 1 Samuel 15: 10, 11 says “Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying, Itrepenteth
me that I have set up Saul to be king...” And Exodus 32: 14 reads “And the LORD repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people.”
Q: Does God regret what He has done? A: No, most certainly not! But Genesis 6: 6, 7 says:
“And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth...”
Q: Does God wrestle with a man?
A: No, certainly not! As mentioned earlier such concepts are not remotely applicable to God.
But Genesis 32: 24-30 says “And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the daybreaketh
. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the placePeniel
: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” Q: Does God speak a lie while the serpent speaks the truth? A: No, most certainly not!
But Genesis 3: 3-5 says:
“But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Then this chapter continues to say that Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree, and makes other claims that are far beyond the attributes of God. Q: Does God come down from the heaven to disperse the people so that they should not understand one another's speech? Does He fear their unity?
A: No, certainly not! But Genesis 11: 1-9 says:
“And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech And they said, Go to, let us build us city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of menbuilded
. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one and they have all one language; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”
Q: Does God say something, then acts contrary to what He said? A: No, most certainly not!
But Genesis 6: 3 says that “And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.”
This was said at the time of the creation of a man. Let us see if God abided by His words? The Bible says that God acted contrary to His words, for men have lived for more than 120 years. For example, Genesis 9:28, 29 says that, “ Noah lived... nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.” Q: Is God an angel or vice versa?
A: No, God is certainly not an angel.
But this contradiction is seen in Genesis 16: 10-13 when it refers to the one who spoke to Hagar as the angel of the LORD, and Hagar addresses the speaker as God:
“And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child andshalt
bear a son, andshalt
call his name Ishmael..... And she Hagar called the name of the LORD thatspake
unto her, thou Godseest
me: for she said, Have I also here looked after thatseeth
me?”
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Author: Ayatullah Seyyed Muhammad Redha Shirazi
