Can We Trust the Koranic View of Jesus: A Debate
Over the weekend I watched a debate between Reverend Anthony Rogers and Dr. Shabir Ally on the topic, “Can We Trust the Koranic View of Jesus?”. Dr. Ally gave his 16-minute opening statement first, after which Rev. Rogers gave his opening statement. These were followed by 8-minute rebuttals, 4-minute counter-rebuttals, and 2 minutes each for closing statements.
To my surprise, Dr. Ally’s one and only opening argument for why we can trust the Koranic view of Jesus was because there are mathematical marvels in the Koran. These marvels are too remarkable to be mere coincidences, he argued, so we must conclude that the Koran is from God. And if the Koran is from God, then surely it is trustworthy in all that it teaches, including its view of Jesus.
Dr. Shabir Ally’s Argument
To demonstrate his point, Dr. Ally gave a few examples of numerical patterns that exist in the Koran. For example, the number 7 and the number 19 both hold an important place in the Koran because Surah 15:87 mentions the number 7 and Surah 74:30 mentions the number 19. Additionally, the name Jesus appears in the Koran the same number of times as the name Moses appears. If we take note of where each name occurs, we find that the 7th appearance of the name Jesus coincides with the 19th appearance of the name Moses, and the 19th appearance of the name Jesus coincides with the 7th appearance of the name Moses. And on he went, sharing a few more mathematical coincidences.
Rev. Anthony Rogers’ Arguments
It was then Rev. Rogers’ turn to give his opening statement. He shared two reasons the Koranic view of Jesus is not trustworthy, and then he replied to Dr. Ally’s mathematical marvels argument. First, Rev. Rogers made the argument that Allah is not trustworthy because, according to Islam, he allowed all of his books before the Koran to be corrupted. In the Koran, Allah claims to have sent down the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospels, and yet (according to Muslims) he did not preserve them from corruption; therefore, we should not trust his fourth book, the Koran.
Second, Rev. Rogers argued that the Koran puts 7th-century Arab words, names, and titles into the mouths of 1st-century Jews when it speaks of Jesus and the events surrounding his death. Since the Koran didn’t get these details right, he argued, we cannot trust it on others matters related to Jesus.
Finally, Rev. Rogers offered a little mathematical dance of his own to make the point that interesting numerical patterns can be found in any book, or even in Rev. Rogers’ own name, and therefore they are inadequate to show that a book is from God.
The two debaters then spend the remaining time responding to their opponents’ arguments and defending the arguments made in their opening statements.
My Response
As these two men debated, I thought about how I would answered this question of whether the Koranic view of Jesus is trustworthy and which issues I would focus on if I were given a limited amount of time to make my case. Here are my thoughts.
Argument 1: The Islamic Dilemma
First, I would use the following syllogism to show that the Koran is altogether untrustworthy because it both affirms and contradicts the Gospels.
1. The Koran affirms the divine inspiration, authority, and preservation of the Gospels (3:3-4; 5:47; 5:68; 6:115; 18:27)
2. The Koran contradicts the Gospels on major historical and theological issues (5:116; 4:157; 5:72)
3. Therefore, the Koran cannot be trusted
Explained another way, since the Koran affirms the divine inspiration, ongoing authority, and perfect preservation of the Gospels, and yet it also contradicts the Gospels on major teachings, then
• If the Gospels are NOT reliable, then the Koran is false because the Koran
teaches that the Gospels are reliable.
• If the Gospels ARE reliable, the Koran is still false because the Koran teaches
contradictory, mutually-exclusive facts about key issues.
• Either way, the Koran is false and cannot be trusted.
Some may respond that the verses which affirm the Gospels may have been abrogated, but there are no later verses in the Koran which claim corruption of the Gospels. There are Koran verses claiming that the Gospels were misused and misinterpreted, but there are none which state that the Gospels were permanently corrupted or lost to history. Further, if the Gospels were reliable at any time during the life of Muhammad, as Koran clearly states they were (5:47; 5:68), then they are reliable today because our modern Bibles are translated from manuscripts which pre-date Muhammad and the Koran.
Argument 2: A Scientific Disaster
Second, I would show that the Koran is untrustworthy because with regard to information that is known for certain and can be tested, we see that it is an absolute disaster of a book.
For example, regarding the development of an embryo, the Koran teaches that people start out as an extract of clay. Then we become a sperm-drop. God then makes the sperm-drop into a clinging clot, and he makes the clinging clot into a lump. From the lump, he forms our bones, and after all the bones are created, God covers them with flesh. Finally, the human is developed into another creation. (Surah 23:12-14).
While much of this language describing the development of an embryo is so vague as to be useless, the parts that are comprehensible are plain wrong. The most obvious example is that the bones of a human are not created first and then covered with flesh later. Rather, a single embryological layer, called the mesoderm, differentiates into bones and flesh at the same time.
Here are a few more examples of Koranic teachings which show that it is unreliable:
• Koran 18:83-86 reports that Dhul-Qarnayn traveled so far that he found the place where the sun sets. According to the Koran, the sun sets in a spring of dark mud.
• Koran 37:6-10 says that shooting stars are missiles that Allah uses to shoot demons who come too close to heaven in order to spy on the assembly of angels.
• Koran 86:6-7 teaches that sperm is created in between the backbone and the ribs.
The Koran itself says that if it is not from God, then we should expect to find in it “much discrepancy”, and that is exactly what we find: much discrepancy between what is taught in the Koran and what can be observed, tested, and verified in the real world.
Argument 3: The Best of Deceivers
Third, I would show that throughout the Koran, Allah is a deceitful schemer who cannot be trusted in his words or in his actions.
For example, Surah 3:54 says, “And they (the unbelievers) deceived, and Allah deceived. And Allah is the best deceiver.”
And Surah 8:30 says, “And when those who became infidels deceive you to detain you or to kill you or to expel you. And they deceive, and Allah deceives. And Allah is the best deceiver.”
Not only does the Koran repeatedly claim that Allah is the best deceiver, but this is demonstrated in its teaching that Jesus was not actually killed or crucified, but rather Allah made it appear as if he was.
Koran 4:157 says, “And [for] their saying, "Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah." And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain.”
All empirical evidence from the first two centuries indicates that Jesus was killed by crucifixion. In fact, virtually every scholar of every religion and worldview who has studied the evidence agrees on this. Jesus’ crucifixion is attested by numerous first- and second-century non-Christians, including Josephus, Mara-bar Serapion, Tacitus, and Lucian of Samosata, as well as Christians Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Papias, Polycarp, Ignatius, and Clement.
In fact, Jesus’ death by crucifixion is so well-documented that it continues to be virtually undisputed even among non-Christian scholars today, including Bart Ehrman, Gerd Ludemann, Paula Frederiksen, and John Dominic Crossan. Despite his desire to find any way possible to discredit the historical understanding of Jesus, Crossan has written, “Jesus’ death by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate is as sure as anything historical can ever be. For if no follower of Jesus had written anything for one hundred years after his crucifixion, we would still know about him from two authors not among his supporters. Their names are Flavius Josephus and Cornelius Tacitus.”
Because of the evidence, Jesus’ death by crucifixion had been overwhelmingly affirmed for nearly 600 years when a caravan trader named Muhammad said he saw a spiritual being, which he initially believed was a demon, who told him that Jesus was not actually killed or crucified, and suddenly the world is supposed to believe him, without any evidence whatsoever? I don’t think so. Perhaps this is one of the reasons Islam must rely on threats of violence, shaming, and death in order to keep its adherents.
Even more concerning is the Koran’s explanation for why the world initially got it wrong: they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them. In other words, Allah made it appear that Jesus was crucified when in fact it was someone else (4:157-159). According to this explanation, Allah’s deception was so compelling that even Jesus’ mother, his followers, and all of Jerusalem believed it was Jesus of Nazareth who was killed by crucifixion. This requires Allah to be one very effective deceiver who is responsible for the existence of Christianity and the damnation of billions of souls if it is lie. Yet that is exactly what Allah claimed to be: the best of deceivers! How, then, are we to trust anything in his book? The answer, of course, is that we can’t.
Mathematical Marvels: A Response to Shabir Ally
The reality is that mathematical patterns are found everywhere. They are found in the Koran, they are found in the Bible, and they are found throughout our universe, even without taking verses out of context in order to embellish their numerical significance, as Dr. Ally has done in Koran 74:30 and 15:87. As Muslim scholar Bilal Phillips has stated, “It may be concluded that the theory of nineteen as a miraculous numerical code for the Quran has no basis in the Quran itself and the few instances where nineteen and its multiples do occur are merely coincidences which have been blown out of proportion.”
Additionally, the presence of numerical patterns does not prove that something is from God. Such patterns might more likely provide evidence that the author was a hobby mathematician who incorporated patterns, or even codes, into his writing. Or, it could be yet another reminder that we live in a world in which mathematical patterns appear everywhere – even in the most pitiable of books.
Further, are we really to believe that an all-powerful God would demonstrate his authorship of this otherwise disastrous book by embedding within it some esoteric code, perceptible only to a select few for centuries after it was revealed? Why not do something accessible to ordinary humans whose attention he seeks to capture, like healing diseases, fulfilling centuries-old prophecies, and raising people from the dead? Now that would be convincing!
Conclusion
Whether we evaluate the Koran on the basis of its claims about the Gospels, its scientific explanations, or its own claims about the character and trustworthiness of its own author, we see that the Koran is not a reliable book. This book which asks its readers to disregard all historical evidence on the deity, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the same book which is demonstrably untrustworthy on many other fronts, including science, logic, and morality. We cannot determine a book’s authorship or its reliability merely through seeking out contrived mathematical patterns; we have to evaluate the Koran on other grounds in order to arrive at any conclusions regarding its reliability. By many far superior standards, the Koran is an unreliable mess which simply cannot be trusted.
