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Church of God Message
WHICH HOLY BOOK IS THE WORD OF GOD
CHAPTER 5
WHICH RELIGION IS BACKED BY GOD
The criterion we have established to prove that the holy book of a religion is backed by the power of Almighty God is to find proof in the recorded pages of that book that God said He would do many great things in the past and brought them to pass precisely as prophesied without fail. This will also be a major proof that the holy book of that religion is the true word of God so that we can believe in its doctrines concerning salvation and how to live our lives to attain that salvation.
Let’s now look at how various religions stack up.
Islam and the Koran
Islam says that males who have done good deeds according to the criteria the Koran defines as good deeds go to paradise. All others will go to hell. But good deeds cannot guarantee you paradise. Allah can still choose if he wants to give you paradise or not, even though you may have done good deeds. So, going to paradise also depends on the mercy of Allah on the Muslim.
But we have no proof that such a paradise as promised by Allah exists. Nor do we have proof that the hell described as the fate of those who have not pleased Allah exists. These are mere promises for the future, not prophecies for the future.
The Koran contains no prophecies that came true in the past. Our criterion to evaluate the truth of the holy book of the religion is not one, two or three prophecies, but numerous prophecies that have already come true in the history of mankind. The Koran is totally silent on the subject.
There is a future prophecy in Islam of the coming of the 12th Imam Mahdi [meaning ‘the guided one’] to lead Muslims to victory over the Christian west. Then the antichrist will come and the Mahdi will fight the antichrist. Then Jesus Christ will return to earth to fight along with the Mahdi to defeat and kill the antichrist. Then the entire world will convert to Islam, and Jesus Christ, a Muslim Himself, will rule over the earth and then die.
This prophecy is not in the Koran but is contained in the Hadiths or sayings attributed to Mohammad by the companions of Mohammad. The authenticity of many of these sayings is doubtful. Still why should we believe this prophecy in Islam? The Hadiths or the Koran do not contain any prophecies about the past that came to pass exactly as foretold? Therefore, the coming of the 12th Imam is merely a statement about the future without incontrovertible proof that it has been given by Almighty God and backed by His power. There is no reason to believe in this prophecy. Hence the Koran and the Hadiths have miserably failed the test that they are backed by the power of the Almighty Creator God. The Allah of Islam is a liar, an imposter and counterfeiter. He fails to take up the challenge of the God of the Bible to foretell the future numerous times, which we then would be able to verify from history that it came to pass exactly as foretold in the Koran.
There is also no reason to believe in the promises of reward in paradise and punishment in hell in the Koran on blind faith. God of the Bible instead wants us to prove all things before actually believing in them. God says through the apostle Paul “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (I Thessalonians 5:21).
Hinduism and the Gita, Ramayana and Mahabharata
Now let’s look at Hinduism. Krishna of the Hindus claims to be the creator or sustainer of the universe. How are we to believe whether his claim is true, or he is simply another liar, imposter, a charlatan and counterfeiter trying to deceive humanity?
The Bhagavat Gita is a discourse between Krishna and Arjun just before a great battle. One can claim that its words have divine backing because Arjun and his side won that battle with the backing of Krishna who claimed to be the creator and sustainer of the universe. The Ramayana is similarly a story of the victory of Rama over Ravana. But such a story can be written by any winning side in a battle, providing its victory as proof of divine backing. One event coming true does not constitute irrefutable proof. For incontrovertible proof of backing of the Almighty God, there must be numerous predictions, stated in great detail and proof from history that they came to pass precisely as prophesied. The holy books of Hinduism are utterly lacking in such proof of the backing of Almighty God behind their words.
The three scriptures of the Hindus, the Gita, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana tell us that humans are born again and again as humans, or if they have done particularly evil deeds then as animals until they attain salvation.
These are mere statements we are required to believe on blind faith. There is no proof that any human being is born again and again as a human, or that the immortal soul of a dead human being is born into the body of an animal or another creature?
These statements about the future of mankind after death are simply unprovable.
The Hindu scriptures contain fantastic mythological tales of myriads of gods, fighting each other, showing off their powers by empowering human beings with special unbelievably fantastic powers to curse and vengefully use against other human beings to get even with them. Humans are also able to curse gods and the curses come true.
The gods cower in fear and obey when cursed by them. How ridiculous. You can read about such curses in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Then there are tales of birds and monkey armies protecting human beings. How much more foolish and unreal can it get than that? But the Hindus confer the status of ‘holy’ on the fantastic tales told in the Mahabharata and Ramayana of the exact same nature as the Greek, Roman and Egyptian myths, only more fantastic than them.
One can still see Hindu fakirs wasting their lives on the banks of the Ganges river around the city of Benares in torturous meditation, austerities such as sitting in front of fires in the summer, with the hope of gaining yogic powers and boons from one of the gods so that they can curse whoever offends them. They survive by begging. Outside of the fantastic tales in the Hindu scriptures, there is not even one single story in provable genuine history of any human ever having gained such yogic powers. If the Almighty God was backing up the Hindu scriptures, we should be able to see many of these almost naked begging fakirs with yogic powers today. Don’t waste your time trying to find such proof. If there was such proof, most of India would have flocked to that fakir in veneration.
Thus, the holy books of Hinduism have failed to prove by our criterion that they are backed by the power of Almighty God.
Sikhism and the Guru Granth
The holy book of the Sikhs, the Guru Granth also contains no prophecies of many great events that came to pass precisely as foretold to provide us incontrovertible proof that its words are backed by Almighty God. Therefore, its words are mere philosophies of men, and not inspired by the true Creator God. We are asked to simply believe on blind faith that the salvation promised in it is the truth. The Guru Granth of the Sikhs thus has also failed our test that its words are backed by the power of the Almighty Creator God.
Span of History Covered in the Holy Books
You will also notice that the span of human history covered by the holy books of various religions is very short. Human history covered by Islam can only be about 120 years, from the life of Mohammad and his companions who could have lived a maximum of about 60 years after he died. The history covered by the Gita and Mahabharata of the Hindus is just a few days of the battle. The Ramayana plays around with thousands of years, just as evolutionists can play around with time by mentioning that evolutionary events took place over millions and billions of years. We are asked to believe such foolish nonsense on blind faith, without a shred of evidence of prophecies that came true to support it. Sikhism covers a period of about 240 years beginning with the life of the first Guru Nanak and ending with the 10th Guru Gobind Singh. In contrast the Bible covers the history of mankind from the creation of man to about 4,000 years. But it also contains very detailed prophecies of great empires and what is going to happen during the following 2,000 years right down to our time and beyond.
What this means is that the holy books of all other religions except the Bible do not contain enough history which we can use to test whether the words of those holy books have been backed by the power of Almighty God. On the other hand, the Bible contains detailed history and prophecies which we can compare with secular history to see if its words came true to apply our test of the inspiration of its words by Almighty God.
We have thus seen that the three religions of the world: Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism have failed our test that their holy books are backed by the power of Almighty God.
Before proving whether the Bible is the word of God which has not been corrupted, we should first understand what the opinion of Jesus Christ, the prophets, the apostles and even God’s loyal angels was about the Bible.
Opinion of Jesus, Prophets and Apostles about the Bible
Can we be absolutely certain that God preserved His Word for us today? Jesus answers in Matthew 24:35: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” Jesus also said in John 17:17: “…your word is truth.” So, Jesus emphatically said that God’s word, the Old Testament in the Bible (which is what was available as scripture when Jesus Christ was alive) is the truth.
Jesus also said in Matthew 5:17-18: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily [or assuredly] I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle [the equivalent of a fullstop or a coma as punctuation marks] shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” “The law or the prophets” was a term applied for the Old Testament. Here Jesus was saying that everything written in the Old Testament, including punctuation marks, will be fulfilled. Therefore, it is the truth backed by Almighty God.
When Jesus was arrested before His crucifixion, He said in Matthew 26:54, 56: “But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?…But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook Him, and fled.” This shows that Jesus knew that the Jews possessed the correct Scriptures in the Temple and all synagogues, which were exact copies of the ones in the Temple.
This was confirmed in Luke 24:44-45, “And He said unto them, These are the words which I spoke unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning Me. Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures”
The law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms referred to the canonized Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus confirmed that they were the inspired word of God, containing many prophecies concerning Him, which were fulfilled.
The disciples were slow to understand the events concerning Jesus’ crucifixion and Resurrection. He said to them in Luke 24:25-27: “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:25-27).
Jesus also said in John 10:35: “If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken.”
Here Jesus was saying that the scriptures cannot be broken, meaning that the scriptures are infallible. By the time of Jesus, the Old Testament scriptures had been written and preserved for a time period varying from more than 1450 years when Moses delivered his first 5 books of the Bible to about 450 years since Malachi the prophet wrote his book. Jesus thus confirmed that the Old Testament had been faithfully preserved by the Jews till His time.
Here is what the prophet Daniel thought of the scriptures: “But I will show you that which is noted in the scripture of truth…” (Daniel 10:21). This was probably the archangel Gabriel talking to Daniel, and Daniel recorded what was revealed to him, because he knew it was the truth.
Thus, even the archangels of God call the scriptures truth. Certainly, Muslims cannot accuse the archangel Gabriel of lying. The archangel confirmed that the Old Testament scriptures written up to that time were the truth
The angels of God also keep the sayings of the Bible. The angel that was revealing parts of chapters 21 and 22 of the book of Revelation to the Apostle John said in Revelation 22:6-9: “6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. 7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book. 8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. 9 Then says he unto me, See you do it not: for I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.”
When the prophecies in the Book of Revelation were revealed to John, all other books of the Bible had already been written and the final compilation already done by John the Apostle. So when the angel said that he was a fellow servant like the prophets and kept the sayings of this book, he also signified that the canonization of books that John had done were also scripture. So the angel signified that the New Testament of the Bible had been completed, and he as an angel of God kept the sayings of the entire Bible as they were faithful and true. As the angel had signified to Daniel the prophet that the Old Testament scriptures were the truth, the angel was now signifying to John the apostle that the New Testament that he had finally canonized with the book of Revelation was the truth and even he as an angel of God lived by its words. Besides Jesus Christ, what greater testimony can we have than that of God’s angels that the entire Bible is the true word of God?
The apostle Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All scripture [meaning the Old Testament and the New Testament, as we will see how the Bible was canonized] is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” The literal translation in place of ‘inspiration of God’ is “God-breathed.” So according to Paul, the entire Bible is God breathed, or inspired by God.
In Romans 1:2 Paul calls the scriptures ‘holy.’
Peter the apostle shows in 2 Peter 1:20-21 that God had an active hand in the writing of the Bible. He said that “No prophecy [which means ‘inspired speaking or writing’] of Scripture ever came by the will of man. Instead, holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
Thus, from the words of Jesus, the prophets, the apostles and even God’s angels, the scriptures, the entire Holy Bible is the true, inspired and infallible word of God.
Next, we will examine the holy book of Judaism, the Old Testament of the Bible, and the holy book of Christianity, the entire Bible according to the criteria we have established to determine whether its words have the backing of the Almighty God or not.
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