"No God But One" - Session 4 Recap

On Tuesday April 25th, 2017 we met for our fourth session to study Nabeel's book No God But One. We started off by reviewing last week's quiz, taking a third quiz, and then beginning the second part of the book examining whether we can know if Christianity or Islam is true. We spent this week assessing the central truth claims of Christianity - that Jesus died by crucifixion, was resurrected, and
was God.

The class was recorded and the video is available here. A written recap summary of the session is provided below.

Our next meeting will be next week, May 2nd, 2017. Hope to see you all there!

Can We Know Whether Islam or Christianity Is True?

The first part of our study focused on a general comparison and contrast of Christianity and Islam. The second part focuses on investigating whether Christianity or Islam is true.

The central truth claims of each faith to be assessed are as follows. The Christian truth claims derive from the gospel message in Romans 10:9. The Muslim truth claims come from the shahada.

Christianity

1. Jesus died by crucifixion, and
2. Jesus was resurrected, and
3. Jesus was God.

Islam

1. The Quran is the Word of God, or
2. Muhammad is a messenger of God.

Notice the use of "and" in the Christian truth claims compared to the "or" in the Muslim claims. To make a case for Christianity each of the claims must be shown to be true. To make a case for Islam only one or the other needs to be shown true. In theory the case for Islam is easier than the case for Christianity (1 truth claim to defend compared to 3).

It is important to note that the teachings of Islam are explicitly antithetical to the Christian truth claims stated. Islam denies that Jesus died, that he was resurrected, and that he was God. So if any of these are true, it undermines Islam.

Did Jesus Die on the Cross?

The Quran says, “And their [sic] saying, ‘indeed we killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, messenger of Allah.’ But they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them. And those who disagree about it are in doubt about it. There is not anything of knowledge in this for them except the pursuit of conjecture. They did not kill him, for certain.” (4.157)

The minority of Muslims say Jesus just appeared to die but did not. The majority of Muslims believe Jesus' image was placed on another person who was crucifed in Jesus' place. But what do the records of history say?

It is hard to understate the scholarly disagreement with the Islamic position on Jesus' crucifixion. Virtually no non-Muslim scholar agrees with the Islamic position. Even non-Christian scholars insist that Jesus died by crucifixion.

The two common Muslim explanations are the Theistic Swoon Theory (that God miraculously kept Jesus alive on the cross) and the Substitution Theory (that Jesus' image was miraculously placed on someone else).

These theories fail for two main reasons: (1) they suggest miracles when other natural explanations will suffice and (2) the Quran as a historical document on Jesus life is not reliable.

In principal an objective person should accept a more probable, natural explanation over a supernatural one. If my car is making odd noises I should not first conclude there are demons in my car before suspecting a natural, mechanical issue. Similarly, we should not conclude that a miracle better explains Jesus' crucifixion when it is more plausible to simply conclude that Jesus died.

The two Muslim theories are ultimately rooted in the Quran as the primary historical document. But, as we saw, the Quran contains many known, unreliable sources on Jesus' life such as the gnostic gospels. Additionally, the Quran was written over 600 years after the time of Jesus and more than 600 miles from where Jesus lived!

Did Jesus Rise From the Dead?

Christianity stands or falls on whether the historical event of Jesus resurrection occurred or not (1 Cor 15:4). Making the case for the resurrection utilizes the two-step Minimal Facts Approach: (1) state the minimal historical facts that virtually all scholars agree on and are well evidenced, then (2) evaluate the best explanation of the facts.

So what are the minimal facts to be explained? (These can vary depending on the scholar presenting the argument)

• Fact 1: Jesus died by crucifixion.
• Fact 2: Jesus’ followers truly believed the risen Jesus appeared to them.
• Fact 3: People who were not Jesus’ followers truly believed the risen Jesus appeared to them (e.g. Saul of Tarsus and James the brother of Jesus).

For brevity I won't provide all the evidence for these facts but I'll just state that they are non-controversial and have a majority scholarly consensus (from Christian and non-Christians alike). For more details check out our study of Case for the Resurrection of Jesus.

 

The common Muslim response is to try and undermine Biblical records as a source of evidence for the facts. Muslims believe that the true message of Jesus was corrupted very early in Christian history. The theory is that somehow, during the time of the disciples themselves, the early church was infiltrated and its message corrupted. Most Muslims blame Paul as the corrupter.

We talked a bit about Paul to evaluate the assertion that he hijacked Christianity. But the Achilles heel of this theory is that Paul had no motive. He gained no substantial power (especially compared to his prior position as a Jewish leader) and in fact received persecution and ultimately death for his belief. The evidence strongly suggests that Paul was sincere in his faith and not a deceiver.

Regarding Paul, Muslims face a dilemma: either they state that Paul hijacked Christianity and so the Quran is incorrect or else they affirm the Quran and deny that Paul hijacked Christianity. In 3.55 the Quran promises to Jesus that Jesus will be cleansed “from those who disbelieve, and I will make those who follow you superior to those who disbelieve, until the day of resurrection." If this Quranic promise is true how could Paul (a disbeliever) become superior to the faithful disciples?

But even without Paul's writings, a successful minimal facts case can still be made to show the Jesus really did rise from the dead.

Did Jesus Claim to be God?

We breezed through this last section in the interest of time and simply mentioned a few key points.

• The Gospel of John is rife with descriptions of Jesus as God.
• If someone denies John's gospel because it was written too late in time, the earliest gospel, Mark's, is also centered on showing the Jesus is Yahweh.
• There's no denying that the first disciples preached Jesus as God and the best explanation of this fact is that they got the idea from Jesus himself claiming to be God!

The Islamic view of Jesus as a mere prophet who never claimed to be God is utterly incompatible with the view of the earliest Christian proclamation and, worse yet, is categorically against the earliest records of history.

Assessing the Case for Christianity and Islam’s Efforts to Account for Christian Origins

Three points are to be made here.

• First, according to the Islamic teaching Jesus was an entirely incompetent Messiah and abject failure if his closest disciples went away believing him to be God, the exact opposite of Tawhid!
• Second, according to the Quran and Muslim explanations, if Allah performed a miracle on Jesus at the crucifixion then Allah is responsible for initiating the deception of modern Christianity and sending billions of Christians to damnation (Quran 5.72).
• Third, in summary, Christians have good historical reason to believe their faith.

Therefore, an objective observer will need to hear a much stronger case for Islam in order to accept it. That will be the focus of our meeting next week.

Next Time

Next time we will answer the questions, "Is Muhammad a Prophet of God?" and "Is the Quran the Word of God?".

Our next meeting will be Tuesday May 2nd, 2017, 6:30-8pm in the Fellowship Hall (basement) of Mt. Zion UMC. Hope to see you there!