The Bible contains truth found nowhere else. Human reason may discover certain truths about God. But the revealed truth of the Bible exceeds these so as to defy comparison. One may exhaust the meaning of the contents of other books, but not that of the Bible. (Herschel Hobbs)
Thinking about the musings from Day 50: So…Which One Is The Best Book?…
I would submit to you that after reviewing the holy books of the belief systems of Polytheism/Animism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism/Daoism, one can conclude that there must be a more reliable holy book than any of these. The question is which one?
With only two books left, the time has come to dig deeper into the contents of both the Holy Bible, and the Quran.
After all, your soul depends on it.
In reality, there are approximately 4.5 billion who are followers of Judaism (14.6 million), Christianity (2.4 billion), and Islam, (1.9 billion). There are many similarities among them. The main ones are as follows:
1) All are monotheistic, or believe in a single god;
2) All can trace their lineage back to Abraham, who was first mentioned in Genesis, in the Old Testament, in the Holy Bible;
3) All can trace their founding through the sons of Abraham: Isaac, for the Jews and Christians, and Ishmael, for the Muslims;
4) All consider Jerusalem in present day Israel a ‘Holy City’;
5) Geographically, they all originated in the Middle East;
6) All recognize the importance of the prophets: Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus and;
7) All believe in angels and demons;
So on the surface, it appears that these 3 major belief systems have quite a few things in common. However, as I explained in Day 48: The Validity Of Islam., there are 9 areas where the Holy Bible and the Quran differ. They are as follows:
1) Is God to be feared or favored?
2) Was Mary in a remote place or in Bethlehem when Jesus was born?
3) Was Mary by a stream and under a palm tree or in a manger near an inn when Jesus was born?
4) Was Abraham a Muslim and not a Jew, or was Abraham the father of the Jews and not a Muslim?
5) Was Jesus, a messenger of Allah, or was Jesus one with God, forming one third of the ‘Holy Trinity’?
6) Is God, Allah, considered one God, or is God, God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Ghost, considered one God?
7) Is Allah above having a Son, or did God have a beloved Son?
8) Was Jesus not killed and crucified, or was Jesus killed and crucified? And;
9) So did Jesus and his disciples support Allah, or are those who deny Jesus as the Christ…the antichrist?
Is that it? Is that all the evidence that we have to go on to determine if one, or both of these books are to be considered as the most reliable holy book that humans have ever known?
I would submit to you that there is more evidence to consider before determining the reliability of either of these two holy books.
For starters, it would be a good idea to take one of the holy books and split it into two parts. In fact, the Holy Bible has already been split into two parts. For the followers of Judaism, they follow the holy book known as the Old Testament. The Old Testament contains the first five books of the Holy Bible, also known as the Torah. Those first five books are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. In addition, the Old Testament contains another 34 books, Joshua through Malachi. This is where the belief system of Judaism stops regarding their holy book. It stops at the Torah and Old Testament, or from Genesis to Malachi.
In addition to following the Old Testament, Christians also follow the New Testament. According to the King James Version, the New Testament contains another 27 books, Matthew to Revelation. The King James Version is the version that I use to pull bible verses from to conclude each daily reading with.
At the end of the day, I use the King James Version for basically two reasons:
1) It is most widely used version, coming out in 1769 and;
2) I am a sucker for ‘Old English’, even though I am not really that old, (just over 50 years old at the time of this writing), and I am not English.
The New Testament begins with the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and ends with Revelation.
At the end of the day, the main reason why someone who is a follower of Judaism would not read the New Testament is the fact that its main theme deals with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Only Christians, of course, believe the ‘Son of God’ portion regarding the events surrounding Jesus of Nazareth.
The Muslims at least in theory, should be somewhat familiar with several books from both the Old and New Testament of the Holy Bible. They are as follows:
1) The Tawrat, or Torah, revealed by their prophet, Moses;
2) The Zabur, or Psalms, revealed by their prophet, David and;
3) The Injil, or Gospels, revealed by their prophet, Jesus.
I guess to sum all of this up would be as follows:
The holy book for a follower of Judaism is the Old Testament.
The holy book for a follower of Christianity is the Old Testament and New Testament.
The holy book for a follower of Islam is the Torah, Psalms, Gospels, and the Quran.
At the end of the day, the Old Testament, New Testament and the Quran are not the same holy book.
So now that it is established that these holy books are not the same, which one is the most reliable?
Is there even more evidence between these two holy books that can help us to make an even more informed and sound decision as to which holy book is the most reliable of all the major belief systems of mankind?
That will be covered next time.
Do not feel discouraged if you frustrated because the holy books of the Jews, Christians and Muslims are not the same. Do not feel discouraged if you are still trying to understand which one is right for you. Instead, embrace the idea that as you are learning more about these holy books, you are learning for yourself the importance of gathering information to come to a sound decision. A sound decision that you can your soul can depend on.
22 Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” (Psalms 55:22 KJV)
Was today’s blog a little confusing at times? Was the content perhaps a little overwhelming? Did you feel lost not understanding some or most of the subject matter?
Those feelings are totally understandable and it is ok to have one or more of those feelings. Remember that you are reading Day 51: So…Which One Is The Best Book? – Part 2.
If you haven’t been in class since the first day of school…or when the project began…or when the contract was first signed, etc., these feelings make perfect and logistical sense.
Please feel free to go back to where all of this began: