Author of Contradict – They Can't All Be True.
I found a bumper sticker that says, “Practice what he preached,” with an image of a person who I assume to be Jesus of Nazareth. Below the imperative statement, many religious symbols are displayed. Just what does this mean, and is it correct?
Here’s the long version of my reply to this sticker’s message:
Here’s the short reply to this sticker’s message:
Which video do think is better?
I made a reference in the last blog post in this series that mentioned that the Qur’an claims that the prophets of the Old Testament were prophets of Allah and that the Injeel (The Gospel of Jesus) is also from Allah. I received a comment asking to provide the citations in the Qur’an in case Muslims deny that the Qur’an teaches this.
The following is a Muslim run website that lists the verses in English that mention the Injeel (The Gospel): http://www.quranfromallah.com/Topics/Quran-Gospel.html
The first verse listed is a key verse, Surah 3:3, which reads, “It is He Who has sent down the Book (the Quran) to you (Muhammad SAW) with truth, confirming what came before it. And he sent down the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel).” I’d suggest remembering this Qur’an citation.
This verse directly says Allah sent the Qur’an to confirm the Torah and the Gospel. If the Qur’an is to confirm the Gospels, then it shouldn’t contradict the Bible, but since it does contradict the Bible, Muslims claim that the Qur’an was sent to “correct” the Bible, to “correct” the corruption that has occurred in the Bible. The Qur’an however doesn’t say that Allah sent the Qur’an to “correct” what came before, but to “confirm” what had already been given.
We’ll need to ask Muslims some questions. Who corrupted the Bible? When was it corrupted? Why was it corrupted? What part of the Bible has been corrupted? Muslims do not have answers to these questions! I have only met one Muslim who has given an answer to me. He told me that the apostle Paul corrupted the Bible, because Paul was not a true believer. He was a pagan. I shared with the Muslim that this is impossible. Paul was a contemporary with Jesus and Jesus’ apostles. If he was changing or corrupting God’s Word, the other apostles would have stopped it. I also shared that the apostle John definitely outlived Paul. John would have been able to correct any of Paul’s distortions after Paul’s death, if he actually did corrupt them. The Muslim responded, “I don’t know anything about John. I don’t want to speak about what I don’t know.”
Have you ever heard of Rastafarianism? Is it just a religion that advocates smoking marijuana, or is there much more to it? Here’s a video some students of mine made for Rastafarianism:
With every Contradict bumper sticker shipment, a double-sided page of explanation is also shipped. The goal with Contradict Movement is to have as many Contradict stickers on cars, or laptops, as there are Co-exist stickers. Beyond the sheer numbers, the goal is to also have the Contradict stickers represented by Christians who know and can share the information contained in the page of explanation. This page of explanations is downloadable at http://www.contradictmovement.org for printing and sharing and Contradict stickers may be ordered at the site too. Here is the basic explanation of Contradict, and please note that it supports religious freedom and calls for a certain type of tolerance and respect:
What does this Contradict sticker mean?
Tolerance and co-existence are both great! In fact, they are necessary. If we are to live together in peace without hating each other, or worse physically harming each other, over differences in race, culture, sexual orientation, political views, and even religious beliefs, we all must have tolerance for one another. However, we must recognize that every belief can’t be equally valid. If two beliefs directly contradict each other, both of them cannot be true, no matter how tolerant we become. This means it is false to say that every religion is true, or that every religion leads to God. If people make such claims they are showing that they have not taken the time to study the world’s religions, because a brief reading of the sacred texts of only a handful of religions quickly reveals contradictions on fundamental levels.
Religious Contradictions
Reincarnation (Hinduism and Buddhism) contradicts the belief that this life is the only life before eternity (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam).
Pantheism (Hinduism) contradicts the belief that there is only one transcendent God (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam), and both of these beliefs contradict the belief that there is no God (Theravada Buddhism and Atheism).
Salvation from sin (Christianity) contradicts the belief that there is no sin to be saved from but simply pain that can be escaped through enlightenment (Buddhism).
Jesus is the incarnate, Son of God (Christianity), contradicts the teaching that he is just a prophet (Islam) or that he was a false prophet (Judaism).
Jesus died as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world and rose from the grave contradicts the belief that Jesus ascended into heaven while never dying on a cross, or facing death of any kind (Islam).
All religions that suggest that the merits of an individual can free a person from humanities ultimate problem of death contradict Christianity’s teaching that “we are saved by grace through faith in Christ, which is a gift, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8).
In light of these contradictions, all religions can’t be true. They could all potentially be false, but they can’t all be true.
How can one know which religion is true, if any?
To discern if a belief is true, it needs to be testable. The scientific method can’t test most of the claims found in the world’s religions, but science is not our only means of verifying the legitimacy of truth claims. In the case of judging religious truth claims, historical-forensic evidence needs to be utilized. No other religion than Christianity has at its center, a historical event that can be evaluated in such a manner to prove or disprove the religious truth claims. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that if Christ did not rise from the grave that his faith is futile and his testimony about Jesus would be a lie. If someone could prove that Jesus did not rise from the grave, then the resurrection would be considered a false claim and the Christian faith should be rejected. On the flip side, if Jesus rose from the grave, it confirms that Jesus’ claim to be “the way, the truth, and the life, the only way to Father” (John 14:6) is true! If he did not rise from the grave, then Jesus was a liar and Christians ought to be pitied above all men.
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Is there evidence that Jesus rose from the grave?
The good news for Christians and all of humanity is that the New Testament is the best attested ancient manuscript in terms of the number of copies it has, the dates of the copies to their original writings, and the accuracy of the copies. In addition to this, the original Gospels were written by eyewitnesses, or written by people who wrote using eyewitness testimony. This also means the authors were writing too close to the death and resurrection of Jesus for myths to have crept into the accounts. Other witnesses, both friend and foe, would have known if the Gospel writers were telling lies and they would have revealed the Gospels to be false. However, we have no such competing accounts from contemporaries. We do on the other hand have non-Christian authors writing in the first and second centuries who affirm the claims of the Gospels, and no one in the first century was ever able to produce the bones of Jesus to disprove the empty tomb one Sunday morning. The Jewish and Roman leaders and authorities had the motif and the means to disprove the resurrection, but they could not. The best they could do was to persecute Christians as an attempt to stop the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The apostolic circle in which the claim of Jesus’ resurrection originated never recanted their testimony in the face of martyrdom as they continued to proclaim the risen Christ all the way to their deaths.
Exclusive Claims and Teachings Concerning Salvation within the Bible
Mark 16:16 “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
John 3:36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”
John 14:6 “Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Ephesians 2:8-10 “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Acts 2:37-39 “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
Jesus is the Savior of all people. He is the Savior of the Buddhist, the Hindu, The Muslim, the Jew, the Satanist, the Atheist, the homosexual, the heterosexual, the republican, and the democrat – all people. To all who have received him, to all who have called upon his name, he has given the right to be called children of God! (John 1:12) Repent and be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins. (Matt. 28:19 and Acts 2:38)
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Andy Wrasman 