Glad News for Muslims

Samy Tanagho: Hello, welcome back my precious audience.

Some of my Muslim friends asked me, did you know that the Apostle Paul created the teaching that Jesus is God? I usually ask them, why should he do that? What did he have to profit?

It is recorded in history and in the New Testament that Paul used to persecute Christians. Acts chapter 9. He was an educated, powerful Jewish leader with tremendous authority to arrest, persecute and even kill Christians.

He lost all his authority and prestige for Jesus' sake. Paul became poor and suffered greatly even risking his life many times to help people know Jesus. We know that from the New Testament, please read 2 Corinthians chapter 11.

My friend, it is a fact acknowledged by all followers of Jesus Christ. That in addition to the four presentations of the Gospel, the New Testament, God's word also contains inspired teachings and letters written by apostles and disciples of Jesus to different groups of Christians and ultimately to all believers, to us.

The Apostle Paul said, for I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 23. Read also 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 13.

All the words written in the New Testament, my friend, are significant echoes of Jesus' teaching. They help us to grow morally and spiritually.

Peter makes known to us that the apostles were actual eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus. Peter declared, for we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 16.

The whole New Testament, my friend, was written soon after Jesus' death. AD 40 to AD 96. In about AD 42, Jesus' disciples were called Christians. Acts 11.

Some Muslims wonder where the name Christian came from. Well, the letters I A N in those days meant belonging to. So the followers of Jesus were called Christians because everybody knew that they belonged to Christ.

Okay, another issue Muslims have problems with is the different translations of the Bible. Muslim scholars consider only the Arabic Quran to be the actual word of God. Any translation of the Arabic Quran to a different language is not considered to be the actual word of God.

Muslim teachers insist that believers must learn Arabic and pray in Arabic because it is the language of God. However, all Christian scholars agree that praying in Arabic is not necessary because God understands all languages.

Some Muslim scholars point to the different translations of the Bible to prove that it could not be the word of God. We disagree. Why we disagree with them? Because we know that the most divine thing in the Bible is not certain words or expressions, but actually the meaning of these words. The divine inspiration is in the meaning, not in a specific language.

God does not require all people to study and excel in one language in order to understand His word. God does not desire us to be slaves to the letter but to understand and live His will.

You know, it's very, very difficult to understand the Arabic language of the Quran. I can tell you now, I studied the Quran and Islamic religion for four years in law school before I practiced law as a defense lawyer.

And I studied about 1,000 pages every year, and I can tell you the Arabic language of the Quran is very difficult, even for me as a defense lawyer in Egypt. I had to look to so many different Muslim scholars interpretation and comments on the Quran. Same thing for my wife. My wife was studying Islamic religion and Arabic language in Al Azhar Islamic University in Cairo.

She was a devout Muslim student of the Quran and the writing, you know, all in Arabic. The writing of the Muslim scholars about Muhammad, you know, in Arabic, the original Islamic commentaries. And she told me, I hated the Arabic language. It was very difficult.

So Egyptians don't use the old Arabic language that the Quran used. No, they use slangs and street language. Okay, let me go on.

Biblical scholar, David Chenk explains divine inspiration. He wrote, Divine inspiration does not mean divine dictation. Christians do not believe that the prophets who spoke or wrote the word of God were mindless tubes through which God's words flowed.

In all the biblical scriptures, the personality of the different writers is evident. God's inspiring activity does not cancel human involvement in the process. The imprint of human personality is part of the content of biblical revelation.

The Bible is a marvelous drama of God revealing himself to persons and the inspired prophets of God expressing that revelation in human language and thought forms. Okay?

It's also important to realize that the Old Testament was written in Hebrew with a few chapters in Aramaic and the New Testament was written in Greek. Converting those languages into English or any other language is referred to as a translation.

Followers of Christ recognize the credibility of a translation of the Bible as long as it retains the teaching and the meaning found in the original language.

With the passage of time, words change in meaning. Words continue to slowly fall in and out of use. New translations of the Bible have helped a variety of people to understand more clearly the word of God in their contemporary languages. It certainly helped me.

None of these new translations conflict with any doctrinal teaching. The differences between these translations are relatively insignificant.

And also, it is important to know that a typo in a copy of the Bible or an inaccurate translation of a word or a passage cannot be used as proof that the Bible is corrupted.

In the same way, a scratch in a Mercedes car does not mean the car is no longer a genuine Mercedes. We don't believe a book has to be perfectly intact to be considered the authentic word of God.

Okay? The Bible has only a few copyist errors. Insignificant variant readings and a couple of uncertain passages. However, its overall integrity cannot be challenged because it has been protected and handed down in its original form.

This is a well-documented fact. And also, I want you to allow me to tell you some facts about the Quran which I discovered from some of the most acknowledged Islamic sources.

During Muhammad's lifetime, the Quran was never written down or collected into a single text. After the death of Muhammad, Abu Bakr, Muhammad's immediate successor, asked Zayd ibn Thabit to collect the Quran. Zayd said, by Allah, if they had ordered me to shift one of the mountains, it wouldn't have been heavier for me than this ordering me to collect the Quran.

This is recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari, the most credible Islamic record about the life of Muhammad. I can give you all the references if you contacted me.

Zayd recorded that he had to acquire the writings of the Quran from various sources including individuals who knew it by memory and it was recorded on various materials, namely found on palm leaf stocks, thin white stones, animal skins, among others. Zayd's compiled manuscript was kept by Hafsah, one of Muhammad's widows.

So Zayd collected all these writings and put it in a manuscript and that manuscript was kept by Hafsah, one of Muhammad's widows. There were numerous other manuscripts in existence collected by close companions of Muhammad.

The most well-known include Abdullah ibn Mas'ud. It is recorded that when Muhammad mentioned the four greatest authorities of the Quran from whom it should be learned, he deliberately mentioned Ibn Mas'ud first.

It is well known that he compiled his own manuscript of the Quran while at Kufa, where it became the official text. He said no one knew the book better than him. I'm not going to give you the references. It's in my book, or you can contact me.

Abdullah ibn Sallam, that's another manuscript. Sallam is the second person Muhammad mentioned in the list of four authorities of the Quran.

Third manuscript, Ubayy ibn Ka'b, also named among the four. His text was the preferred text in Syria. During the reign of Uthman ibn Affan, Muhammad's third successor, word came to him that Muslims in various provinces were differing considerably in the reading of the Quran. Uthman ordered Zayd ibn Thabit and three others to make seven exact copies of the text which was with Hafsah and to send one copy to each province with the order to burn all other materials and manuscripts of the Quran in existence.

Uthman did not just order the other copies to be revised, but ordered them to be burned. The reason for this is that these various texts had significant differences between them and were different from Hafsah's copy.

Abdullah ibn Mas'ud at first strongly resisted Uthman's order and said that he had directly obtained 70 Surahs from Muhammad when Zayd was still a young child. Why should he now forsake what he had acquired?

And why Zayd's text be the standard and the most acknowledged text? I wonder on what grounds Uthman made the decision that Zayd's text was better than the others and made it the official text of the Quran which it remains today.

All the evidence proves that the text of Ibn Mas'ud was the best text of the Quran available, especially because Muhammad considered him to be the first of the four best authorities on the Quran. Another fact to note is that all other texts of the Quran had significant differences from Hafsah's text and agreed mostly with Ibn Mas'ud's text.

It is recorded in one of the most acknowledged Islamic sources that in the very early days of Islam, Abdullah ibn Mas'ud said, let none of you say, I have acquired the whole of the Quran. How does he know that all of it is when much of the Quran has disappeared? Rather, let him say, I have acquired what has survived.

You can read all the facts about the differences that existed between Abdullah Mas'ud's text and the others, including Hafsah's. These differences are presented in about 90 pages of Arthur Jeffery's collection in the various codices.

My Muslim friend, the most important proof that the Gospel is the divine word of God comes when it is prayerfully read. God's word will enlighten your mind and God will knock softly on the door of your heart. He will truly speak to you and change your life.

The Bible is not a Christian or Jewish book. It is God's word sent from God through His prophets to all people.

My friend, regardless of the opinion of friends or family, our own individual destiny lies in the balance. Our choice of a holy book should be carefully and prayerfully considered. God has given us minds to test such things. To refuse to use our God-given minds because of pressures from others would be fearing created beings more than the creator. So what kind of test is there to see if something is supernaturally inspired by God?

There are two major key tests. One, is it prophetic with accuracy? Two, is it reliable? Well, from hearing our programs, you will discover some of the many amazing specific prophecies in the holy scriptures of the Jews concerning Jesus' life, birth, ministry, crucifixion, death, and resurrection. These prophecies were written hundreds of years before Jesus' birth. Each one of them was fulfilled in the life of Jesus.

Well, second test, is it reliable? The evidence for reliability of the biblical manuscripts far exceeds the evidence for all other ancient writings. Researchers, Geisler and Nix, stated in contrast to the total number of over 5,000 New Testament manuscripts known today, other religious and historical books of the ancient world pale in significance.

The Bible is the word of God, my friend. When you read it with open mind and heart, the message of the Gospel will change your life and will make you a child of God, and you will experience God's forgiveness and God's presence, and you will know that heaven is your home and destiny. And God is your loving heavenly Father.

Guest (Male): I have a co-worker who's a Muslim. We talk here and there, but it's hard to answer some of his questions.

Samy Tanagho: Okay, we do have a fellow here in our church who is an Egyptian and he probably knows more about the Muslim faith than what they know. And he's written a book titled God Loves You, My Muslim Friend. Many Muslims have been converted after reading this book. I would highly recommend this book by Samy Tanagho on God Loves You, My Muslim Friend.

Guest (Male): This is a really, really good book because it focuses on the love of God for the Muslim, where he shows the biblical revelation of God in His relationship with us is that of Father and Child, where the Quranic revelation of God is Master and Slave. And the Gospel brings us into the family of God as children of God with a loving, gracious Heavenly Father. Not to mention the fact that the biblical story is true and the story of the Quran is not true.

Samy Tanagho: I have to tell you that God guided me to write the book, Glad News, God Loves You, My Muslim Friend, to answer questions Muslims usually ask about our Christian faith and to present Jesus in the most understandable, convincing and attractive way to Muslims. God used the Glad News book to help thousands of Muslims become followers of Christ. You can read many testimonies on our website. Please, buy as many Glad News books as you can. Keep one of them, give one to your pastor and others to the Muslims you will meet through divine appointments. I encourage you to believe that when you take actions and invest in our ministry, God will use your life to help so many Muslims spend eternity with Him. To order, call 714-514-2558. Again, 714-514-2558.

I would love to come to your church to further motivate your fellowship to love all people, including Muslims and to share Jesus effectively with them. You can call me 714-514-2558. Again, 714-514-2558.

And now you can listen to Glad News for Muslims wherever you hear your favorite podcast. If God puts it in your heart to enable us to share Jesus effectively with more Muslims, you can donate at our website.

Samy Tanagho: You've been listening to Glad News for Muslims with Samy Tanagho. For more information about the ministry, visit gladnewsministry.com. You can also call 714-514-2558 or write Samy, S.A.M.Y. at gladnewsministry.com. This program is sponsored by Calfrey Chapel Costa Mesa.