Transcription
David Wood is not just any Christian. Once an atheist, he now holds a PhD and is one of the world's leading Christian apologists engaging Islam today. He is the one who God used to lead Nabil Keshi, a devoted Muslim to Christ, who later became his best friend.
Over the years, he has perfected what many consider one of the most powerful arguments against Islam known as the Islamic dilemma, directly challenging the foundation of the Quran and exposing why it cannot be true. How many of you heard of this argument called the Islamic dilemma? You heard of that? Oh, well, that's really good because if this were two years ago, it would have been like two hands. Um, so we got we got some more people. But a bunch of us sort of ran with the arguments um last year and a bunch of like God logic is running it, inspiring philosophy. Everyone is um going with the Islamic dilemma.
But this is uh awesome argument especially not all Christians are comfortable like criticizing Muhammad and exposing him as a false prophet and so on. They don't want to be offensive and so on. The Islamic dilemma is sort of a an argument that uh any Christian any Christian can use um in a discussion with Muslims and it's something that the Muslim will always lead you right into because if there's anything you point out about Christianity um whether you're talking about Jesus uh death, his resurrection, his divine nature, anything like that, the Muslim eventually has to say, as long as you can show from the Bible, the Muslim eventually has to say your book's been corrupted. And right there, he just opened the door for what we call the Islamic dilemma.
Pretty much every Muslim you ever run into believes that what the Quran says is that Allah initially inspired the Jewish and Christian scriptures, but that the Jewish and Christian scriptures were later corrupted by Jews and Christians. And so this is what almost every Muslim you'll ever run into believes. And it's not what the Quran says at all. The Quran affirms not only the initial inspiration of the Torah and the Gospel. It affirms their preservation and their continuing authority. And once you lay all that out, you put your Muslim friends in kind of a dilemma. Dilemma is where you got two options and you're in trouble either way you go.
So, uh, just give you a couple references for, uh, in case you want to, uh, bring these passages up. Just keep in mind this will be new information for your Muslim friends. Most Muslims do not read the Quran. They trust their scholars. They know certain passages that they recite in prayers and things like that. They just they don't know things like this about the Quran. But here's the idea. So, um, as far as the inspiration, that's what your average Muslim knows that the Quran is affirming about our scriptures. So you can go to uh surah 3 this surah just means chapter but chapter 3:es 3 to 4 says that Allah revealed the Quran and before that he revealed the Torah and the gospel as a guidance for mankind. So your average Muslim is familiar with that sort of thing. The initial inspiration they think the Quran somehow goes on to say that Jews and Christians corrupted our scriptures. Never says that. Never comes close to saying that. There are a couple verses they use. All you have to do is know either the historical background, what these verses are about, or read the verses in context. There's nothing in the Quran that even hints that our scriptures have been corrupted. On the contrary, uh, the main argument, the main argument in the Quran for why we Christians and Jews should believe in Muhammad and his revelation, the number one by far argument that the Quran gives or why we should accept Muhammad as a as a prophet is that he is affirming the scriptures that we have. Why would you Jews and Christians reject a guy who comes along and affirms your scriptures? That's very strange. If he's not affirming our scriptures and if he's just saying our scriptures have been corrupted, that is the number one argument.
How many of you have ever heard a Muslim come up to you and say, "Hey, you should believe in Muhammad." Say, "Why should I believe Muhammad?" Because he's affirming your Bible, man. It's like, I've never heard that. That's Allah's main argument in the Quran. It's his number one argument by far. Second, his second uh argument for why Jews and Christians should believe Muhammad is that Muhammad is prophesied in our scriptures. Our scriptures talk about Muhammad. So, our scriptures are somehow pointing forward to Muhammad and Muhammad is pointing back to our scriptures and giving them the thumbs up and that's why we should believe in him. Well, if you say our scriptures have been corrupted, none of that works anymore. If if he's not affirming our scriptures, well, we obviously wouldn't believe in him because he's affirming our scriptures. Or um if you're saying there are prophecies about him in corrupt scriptures, well, how would we know the prophecies about him aren't part of the corrupt scriptures? Why why would we believe in that? So the entire argument that the Quran gives for why Jews and Christians should believe Muhammad breaks down as soon as you say the Bible's been corrupted.
But you actually have specific verses talking about the preservation um not just of our scriptures in particular, but of any of Allah's scriptures. Surah 18:27. Chapter 18:27 says, "No one can change Allah's words." Says, "Recite what has been revealed to you of the book of your Lord. There is none who can change his words." And Muslims will look at that and say, "Well, that's just it means his words in the Quran." Well, it doesn't say his words in the Quran. It says no one can change his words. That's the reason you're supposed to trust the Quran is because no one can change Allah's words. Well, if all of his previous scriptures have been corrupted, he's got a pretty bad track record of being able to pres protect his words. My friend Anthony Rogers compares this to like suppose you needed heart surgery and you start examining like heart you start looking up heart surgeons and you got this heart surgeon. He's bragging that he's never lost a patient. He's the best best heart surgeon in the world. And then you check his background and every single patient he's ever had died on the operating room table. Like you going to trust this guy to perform surgery on you? Like no. Well, why are you going to trust the Quran when the reason it gives is that no one can change Allah's words and all of his previous scriptures have somehow been corrupted? would be not not the sort of guy you'd trust.
So, uh, you have verses like that that say no one can change Allah's words. You've got surah 7 verse 157 where uh talks about um Jews and Christians who read about Muhammad and it says and we find him mentioned in the Torah and the gospel that are written down with us. It's talking about written documents that we still have. And the Quran over and over again says it's um affirming uh affirming the preservation of our scriptures. And it's these are some of the clearest verses in the Quran. In Surah 2:85, Allah says to the Jews, he says, "If you don't believe in all of your book, not just parts of it, I will send you to hell." It's a very strange way to say, "Hey, your your book's been corrupted. Only believe in parts." I'm saying that because every Muslim you run into will tell you, "Yeah, just believe in the parts that line up with Islam." Well, Allah says in the book that you're telling me to believe in that if we just believe in parts, he'll send us to hell. So, what's going on there?
So you have all kinds of verses um like this in the Quran that are affirming the preservation of the scriptures. But what's interesting is um your your average Muslim also thinks that what Jews and Christians are supposed to do is we're supposed to convert to Islam and follow Muhammad and just go with the Quran because our scriptures have been corrupted. Not what the Quran orders Jews and Christians to do. Surah 5 verse 43. Surah 5:43 of the Quran. Jews come to Muhammad to settle a dispute. And Allah says in the Quran, "Why are they coming to you when they have the Torah? They don't need you. They've got the Torah." The historical background you find in the Hadith. Muslims don't just believe in the Quran. That's the speech of Allah. Muhammad's life and teachings, those are in the Hadith. But the historical backgrounds in the Hadith, Jews come to Jews come to Muhammad to settle a dispute. And they put Muhammad on this judgment cushion to signify that he's the judge. Muhammad said, "Uh, Jews, bring me the Torah." They bring out the Torah. He gets off the cushion, puts the Torah on the judgment cushion, and says, "I believe in you and in the one who revealed you." It's a very strange way of saying, "Hey, your book's been corrupted. You need to get rid of it. Just go with the Quran."
So, you have these kinds of you have you have these kinds of things. But, uh, chapter 5:43, Jews, don't come to Muhammad. You've got the Torah. A few verses later, chapter 5:47, Allah says to the Christians, "Let the people of the gospel judge by what Allah hath revealed therein. If any do fail to judge by the light of what Allah hath revealed, they are no better than those who rebelled." The next verse 48 says, "Allah sent Muhammad with the Quran confirming the scriptures that came before it and as a guardian over them." Say, "How's the Quran guarding the previous scriptures?" Well, you had Jews and Christians who didn't want to follow the scriptures. Allah says, "No, you're you're going to judge by your scriptures." Uh just a few verses later, verse 68, Allah tells Muhammad to say, "Oh people of the book, you have no ground to stand upon unless you stand fast by the Torah, the Gospel, and all the revelation that has come to you from your Lord. That's the Quran's message to Jews and Christians. And so, interestingly, the Torah and the Gospel, according to the Quran, aren't just authorities for Jews and Christians. They're also an authority for Muhammad himself as to whether he's actually receiving revelations from God. Allah says to Muhammad chapter 10 verse 94, Muhammad, if you are in doubt as to what we have revealed to you, ask those who are reading the book before you. So Muhammad, if you if you want to know if your revelations are from God, go check with the people of the book, Jews and Christians. Make sure your revelations line up with theirs. Doesn't make sense if we have corrupt scriptures.
So when you look at what the actual Quran says and not the sort of the myth that Muslims have built up over the years because they eventually found out what's in the Torah and the gospel and they found out it doesn't line up. So they had to say our book's been corrupted. Not what Allah says, not what Muhammad said. But when you put it all together, they end up with a dilemma because there's two possibilities here. Either Jews and Christians have the inspired, preserved, authoritative word of God or we don't. It's one or the other. If we have the inspired, preserved, authoritative word of God, Islam is false because it contradicts what we have on basic doctrine. See, death and resurrection of Jesus, his divine nature and so on. So if we have the inspired preserved authoritative word of God, Islam is false. If we don't have the inspired, preserved authoritative word of God, Islam is false because Islam affirms the inspiration, the preservation, and the authority of our scriptures. So if we have the word of God, Islam is false. If we don't have the word of God, Islam is false. Either way, Islam is false. Therefore, Islam is false. And notice something any Christian can use in any discussion with any Muslim. Just have to jot down a few notes, bring up a couple verses, and the Quran. We'll take it from there.
>> I was in Saudi Arabia last year and I asked my guide the same thing David just said. Uh particularly verse 5, verse 68. Oh you people of the book, you have no ground to stand on unless you obey the law and the gospel is given to you. I said to him, why is the Quran telling Christians and Jews to obey the Bible when the previous chapter of the Quran surah 4:157 says Jesus never died so he didn't resurrect from the dead? Why is it telling us to obey the Bible which says Jesus did die and rise from the dead when the Quran itself says he didn't die and rise from the dead? which are we supposed to believe? And he said after looking at verse 5 verse 68 or chapter 5 verse 68, he said it doesn't mean you're supposed to obey all of the Bible. That was his answer. And so I said, "If if Christianity were true, if Jesus really did rise from the dead, would you follow him?" And he said, "If it is really true," he said, "Yeah, if it's really true, if he really did die and rise from the dead," he said, Yes. I said, "We'll check into the evidence because it really did happen." But this argument, I find that Muslims have no clue. Have no clue. And David is kind of the one that perfected that argument.
>> Since Islam cannot stand on its own foundation, it cannot be true. Christianity reveals a real historical savior who entered history, fulfilled prophecy, lived without sin, and went to the cross to bear the wrath we deserve. Three days later, he rose from the dead, proving that everything he said is true and that he alone has authority to save. Every one of us will stand before God and no amount of effort, religion, or sincerity can remove our sin. Only Jesus Christ can. He calls you to repent, turn from your sin, and trust in him alone. Jesus is not one option among many. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And your eternity depends on what you do with him.