Was the Bible Corrupted?

The Bible teaches that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ's death for sin and resurrection alone. The Quran teaches that Jesus did not die on the cross. Therefore, Islam MUST claim that the holy books before the Quran were somewhat corrupted. But when you ask the questions of when, where, who, and how the previous holy books were corrupted, Muslims have no answer. 

I tell them that there was indeed corruption. But it happened in the Catholic church when they sold indulgences to forgive sin. It happens today when Catholics and Orthodox pray to Mary. The Bible says we should only pray to God. But to say that the TEXT of the Bible has been corrupted has no historical basis.

I tell them that this claim, especially without historical evidence, is very dangerous. We Christians do not claim that the Torah of Moses or the Psalms of David were corrupted. They are part of our Bible.

I tell them we have more manuscript evidence for the New Testament than any other book in history... by far. These manuscripts contain the same message in the original language of Greek that I find in the English Bible on my phone.

I remind them that Islam teaches that the corruption of the previous holy books did not happen until after the time of the Apostles. Yet if they study history, they will find that the Apostles took the Bible to Spain, India, and Africa during their lifetimes. How could someone collect all Bibles from 3 continents and change them to say what the Bible says now? This is historically impossible.

We know that the gospel is the power of God for salvation, not just believing in inerrancy. However, faith comes by hearing, and Muslims are more likely to give the gospel a fair hearing if they are persuaded that the source of the gospel (the Bible) is reliable. Pray for such Holy Spirit-inspired persuasion and ask a Muslim you know, "What did you learn that caused you to believe that the Bible was corrupted?"

Ministry in Dubai

The past two trips in September and January have begun in the city of Dubai. The United Arab Emirates is home to 9.5 million people but only 1.2 million are Emiratis. They are 99% Muslim but comfort and materialism may be more of a barrier to the gospel than Islam for most Emiratis. However, most would face at least moderate persecution if they openly followed Christ, especially if they shared their faith with Muslim friends and family members.

There are churches for the expat majority in UAE. Many Asian expats visit churches with Christian friends out of sheer loneliness. Then they hear the gospel and God saves them! There are also Arab churches for Christian Arabs who live and work in the Emirates. However, there is not as much ministry happening among the local Emiratis themselves. Some say that it is even difficult to get to know Emiratis unless you work with them. I'm asking the Lord to help me to identify and learn from those who are ministering to Emiratis, both online and face-to-face. I'm asking the Lord to show me what my little part to play might be in the Emirati church. Perhaps it is biblical counseling, house church coaching, family ministry, evangelism coaching, or a little of each of these. Would you ask with me?

Sudanese Arabs

Sudanese are either Arab (70%) or African (30%), generally speaking. While there are some churches for most of the African people groups, there are virtually none for approximately 35 million Sudanese Arabs. While I'm sure there are brothers exclusively focused on evangelism & church planting among Sudanese Arabs... I don't know of any. Would you ask God now to send more workers into that harvest field? Would you ask Him to raise up workers from within the harvest through targeted social media engagement?

I've known a former M from a Sudanese Arab tribe for 3 years. He has been a believer for several years, has 5 kids, and lives in Cairo so I get to see him on most trips and we zoom between trips. We talk about family, kids' schooling, evangelism to Ms, the war in Sudan, his house church, and the 2 other HCs he influences.

But the conversation in January was a difficult one. He and another brother in his church said that the situation for Sudanese refugees has become so dire that the 3 churches are not meeting because the believers have to work longer hours. They said that all of the humanitarian organizations are corrupt and that the aid doesn't get to refugees. They said that their gospel conversations have stopped because they can't visit homes if they don't bring a food basket. Would you ask God to give me both humility and discernment as I engage in this conversation and others like it?

I hope you find this Greek/English Bible to be as helpful in your study as I have.