I myself asked this question
many times, and since, I have been confronted with the statement that
the Bible has been corrupted. It is so easy to say to others that their
book has been corrupted. But have we ever asked ourselves why we are
saying that? What proof or proofs do we have to make such a statement?
Is this even consistent with what we believe about God? You know that
the Bible [Injil] is from God: who could or would dare to corrupt what
God has protected, preserved and safeguarded? How can God be the Great [Akbar],
the Able One [Al-Qader] and the Powerful [Al Qawie], and be unable to
protect His own inspired word? You know this is not just a question
about the Bible but a question about God. If God could not protect His
words in the Bible, how could He protect anything He says? Is not that
infidelity [Kufr] itself? I am sure you agree with me that we cannot say
that God is powerless or impotent, incapable of protecting His word.
The Bible affirms that the
word of God can not be corrupted or changed. Because it says: "And we
also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God,
which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as
it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe."
[1Thess. 2:13] In another verse in the Bible we read: "But even if we or
an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we
preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already
said, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel other
than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!" [Gal. 1:8-9] I
close these verses with this warning from the Bible: "I warn everyone
who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds
anything to them, God will add to him plagues described in this book.
And if anyone takes words away from this book or prophecy, God will take
away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which
are described in this book." [Rev. 22:18-19] These are the theological
issues. God Himself protects, guards, and preserves His word and the
Bible testifies to this fact.
I am married and have two
children. One is 16 years old and the other is 14. Can you imagine that
after all these years someone would tell me that these are not my
children? I do not have to prove they are my children, I have their
birth certificate that says so. I lived with them since they were born.
How does this person know they are not my kids? After 16 years this
person tells me that they are not my children! I know that his claim is
not true. After 600 years some one comes and says the Bible has been
corrupted! So I ask the question: you mean some of the followers of
Jesus died for the wrong cause? They knew Jesus Christ and lived with
Him, they knew exactly what He said. If anyone else had said something
other than the truth they would have known. As I read the Bible and saw
statements like "God is love"; "love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" [Matt. 22:37]; "But
I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you"
[Matt. 5:44]. Are these verses part of the corrupted Bible? What was
changed? Who changed it? When was it changed? And the question: why did
they corrupt it? These are all good questions that I have asked. No one
seemed to have the answer.
Now I was even more curious
and inquisitive. Is there any old Bible manuscript? What is the oldest
manuscript of the Bible? I was struck when I found that there are 5,300
known Greek manuscripts of the New Testament [Injil], plus over 10,000
Latin and at least 9,300 other early versions.
There are more than 24,000
partial and complete manuscript copies of the New Testament. These
manuscript copies are very ancient and they are available for inspection
now. There are also some 86,000 quotations from the early church fathers
and several thousand Lectionaries (church-service books containing
Scripture quotations used in the early centuries of Christianity). The
bottom line is the New Testament has an overwhelming amount of evidence
supporting its reliability. There are enough quotations from the early
church fathers that even if we did not have a single copy of the Bible,
scholars could still reconstruct all but 11 verses of the entire New
Testament from material written within 150 to 200 years from the time of
Christ. You know they can put the whole Bible together from all these
quotations. It is also the testimonies and witness of more than one
person about the Bible. So you can see it is impossible to change or
corrupt the Bible. Even if we say that some manuscripts have been
changed, what about the thousands of other manuscripts? The manuscripts
were not all in one language or in one place, so if they had changed
some of the Arabic [75 manuscripts], there were the Latin [10,000
manuscripts], the Ethiopic [2,000 manuscripts], the Syriac Pashetta [350
manuscripts], the Bohairic [100 manuscripts], and the Persian [2
manuscripts]. So you can see that this is quite unfeasible to do. I
really encourage you to read the Bible for yourself. I know many people
who read it and they believed that it is indeed the word of God.