May 23rd 2010 is a lucky day in two reasons. I had a chance to share some thoughts with 2 Jehovah's witness missionaries and I used the below text from http://towerwatch.net/Witnessing/101_questions.htm site exactly as it is given and had my questions compiled accordingly. I was quite successful despite the impediments in my speech. And I was promised by the two preachers to come back. I hope so. They will come not with empty handed. I expect that they will be accompanied by someone.
The Event went well with Dr Zakir Naik and the QA session was great and many questions which covered all the subject areas in comparative religion. The Entire Football stadium (Sugathadasa Stadium) was packed and crown is estimated to be 50K+.
The event will be rebroadcast by Peace TV and the Video Tapes and CD's will be available soon Insha Allah.
Keep In touch with this site 'http://www.peacethroughreligion.info/' the organizers of this great event.
قَالَ رَبِّ ٱشۡرَحۡ لِى صَدۡرِى (٢٥
وَيَسِّرۡ لِىٓ أَمۡرِى (٢٦)
وَٱحۡلُلۡ عُقۡدَةً۬ مِّن لِّسَانِى (٢٧)
يَفۡقَهُواْ قَوۡلِى (٢٨
Oh Allah, Make me brave,
And make my task easy for me,
And remove the impediments from my speech,
That they may understand what I have to say.
101 questions for Jehavoh's Witnesses 'Sheik Ahmed Deedat'
The Purpose of this Booklet
Many Muslims receive regular visits from Jehovah's Witnesses. The
two religious groups are in constant doorstep dialogues. This booklet
is an aid to the act of dialogue. 101 Questions to Ask Jehovah's
Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses are trained to deal with Muslims. In their
handbook entitled Reasoning from the Scriptures they are taught what
they should say to Muslims (see especially pages 23 and 24; 1989
edition). On page 24, for example, Jehovah's Witnesses are
instructed to use the following strategy:
When the Muslim says what Islam teaches, ask him to show you the
point in the Qur'an. (Wait while he searches for it). When he cannot
find it, he may be more willing to let you speak.
This and other tactful strategies gives Jehovah's Witnesses an unfair
advantage in dealing with some Muslims who are not equipped to
explain their faith. The purpose of this booklet is to correct the
imbalance. I feel that just as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society
has taken the pains to teach Jehovah's Witnesses on how to
overcome Muslims in discussion, the Islamic
Information Centre should likewise equip Muslims so that they should
be at least equal to the task. Then we pray that God will let the
discussions bear fruit. Through such discussions the truth, we pray,
will become evident.
Another point. Jehovah's Witnesses come fully equipped with reading
materials to give Muslims. And Muslims often accept such materials.
As a result, long after the Witnesses are gone, their influence and
teachings remain in the homes of Muslims. To be fair, Muslims ought
to likewise present some reading materials to their visitors. Perhaps
this booklet would serve as a beginning.
I doubt, however, that Jehovah's Witnesses would accept this booklet.
My experience has taught me that Jehovah's Witnesses would not accept anyone else's literature. This I find rather unfortunate. How
does one learn anything new with a closed mind? Our visitors may
feel that they already have
the truth and therefore need to search no more. But I think a closed
attitude is a wrong one. Nevertheless, I hope that some of the
Jehovah's Witnesses will prove me wrong by accepting this booklet. I
hope they will also go one step further in composing a reply to the
points I make here. I appreciate feedback.
So I expect, then, that this booklet will help Muslims feel more
confident that they too have something to offer anyone who is
prepared to examine things. Some of Jehovah's Witnesses may still
be prepared to study a different view, because they read in their Bible
the following passage:
Make sure of all things; hold fast to what is fine (1 Thessalonians
5:21).
They are instructed in that verse to check things out and then to hold
on to what proves good. Notice that it cannot work the other way. You
cannot
hold on to what is good unless you first test it out for yourself.
B
Why this Sort of Booklet?
There are many booklets that explain Islam. Some of these are really
excellent materials. However, the Muslim who is involved in a
dialogue at his doorstep finds himself confronted with questions those
booklets are not meant to answer.
This booklet will teach Muslims how to ask the right questions instead
of struggling to find answers. It is a matter of reverse psychology.
Respond to a question by asking another one. If Muslims can learn
this technique they will be in a better position to explain themselves when they are faced with persistent questions from their
visitors.
Let us make it clear that the purpose of this booklet is not to attack or
belittle the faith of the Jehovah's Witnesses. It is only a response to
writings already published by Jehovah's Witnesses and given to lots
of Muslims. One such writing is a booklet entitled
The Time for True
Submission to God, published 1982, in which they urge Muslims to
become Jehovah's Witnesses.
Another such piece is a book entitled
Mankind's Search for God,
containing a section on Islam. In that chapter the true nature of Islam
is distorted, but I don't intend to deal with that in this booklet. It is
enough to note here that this book too has been left in many Muslim
homes. Here I only intend to help readers to deal with such situations.
Yet another example is a colourful brochure written specifically for
Muslim readership. It even takes on a Muslim appearance with a
picture of a mihrab (an architectural design favoured by Muslims).
In short, Jehovah's Witnesses have gone to great lengths to convey
their religion to Muslims. The time is now ripe for Muslims to repay
that kindness by offering them the chance to understand the religion
of God. The series of questions in here are designed to help the
Witnesses to think more deeply about some of the matters they may
have taken for granted. The idea is to ask the right questions to help
them reach the right conclusions.
This booklet does not encourage a hostile attitude in dealing with
people. The idea is not to bombard them with hard facts or dazzle
them with puzzling questions, but rather to lead them gently to the
truth.
Most of the questions in this booklet may be asked of any Bible
teacher, not just Jehovah's Witnesses. However, this booklet is
designed specifically for use with Jehovah's Witnesses.
Although most of the points relating to the Bible apply to almost any
Bible, the points are being made specifically for the benefit of
Jehovah's Witnesses, and all the Bible quotations are taken from the
Jehovah's Witnesses' own Bible. The reason I make this distinction is that the Jehovah's Witnesses have their own distinctive set of beliefs
and this requires a different approach in dealing with them.
Other Christians, for example do not need to hear from Muslims that
the Bible contains mistakes. They may already know that for
themselves. Now, if you go out of your way to show people what they
already know they may take offence to it.
With other Christians, therefore, the general approach should be to
emphasize common beliefs and to explore differences in an extremely
gentle fashion. Better still, you would leave aside differences and
show a person the true teachings from God right in the Qur'an, God's
final revealed Book.
However, such an approach does not work with the Jehovah's
Witnesses. They are too overly confident that their belief is the only
correct one. Any attempt to lead them to something else fails unless
you can first get their attention and help them to rethink their present
position.
Jehovah's Witnesses feel that their belief system is rock solid
because of two reasons. Firstly, because it is based on the Bible
which is the inerrant Word of Jehovah. Secondly, because Jehovah
guides them to the correct interpretation of that book. So, we may as
well start by discussing that book if we hope to get anywhere with
them.
C
How to Begin an Exciting Series of Dialogues with Jehovah's
Witnesses
If you're like me, you see Jehovah's Witnesses all the time busy in
their door-to-door preaching work. On the other hand, if you're not like
me perhaps they knock on your door too. I have been denied such
visiting rights.
I have no grudge against them. I love the Jehovah's Witnesses as
fellow human beings. We are one family, all descendants of our ancestor Adam. I feel they are, despite their hard work, heading in the
wrong direction. I would like the opportunity to share with them my
understanding of the truth, but I am deprived of this opportunity. Some
of them have in the past suggested that if I wish to teach them
anything I should go to their place just as they go around teaching
other people. I took this as an encouragement, but when I asked for
their address they wouldn't give any. They said I must find it as they
go out and look for the homes of the people.
I admire the Jehovah's Witnesses for their sincerity and hard work for
the sake of their beliefs. I also feel the same sort of compassion for
them which the Caliph Umar felt for a Christian monk. He came
across a monk in his cell showing all the signs of hardship that go with
his monastic way of life. Umar (R.A.) shed tears when he saw this.
When he was asked why he wept, Umar (R.A.) explained that
according to the Qur'an some people will come on the Day of
Judgement laden with good works and yet meet a dreadful end
because they were on the wrong path. Compassion for this man
made Umar (R.A.) weep.
I feel the same compassion, and the same need to help Jehovah's
Witnesses learn the truth. Since they do not visit me anymore, I can
only hope that if I share my information with you then you will be able
to pass it on to where it is intended.
For starters, if you hope to make proper use of this booklet, you need
to develop the kind of compassion I described above. Even if you
don't have it, just assume that you have it and it will come naturally.
That's the power of positive reinforcement. Assume a virtue and you
will acquire it.
Now, with that correct attitude, begin to ask these questions of
Jehovah's Witnesses and give them a chance to convince themselves
that Islam is the truth.
D
How to Lead a Conversation in the Right Direction Jehovah's Witnesses receive some of the best possible training on
the use of psychological techniques in dealing with their prospects.
They will come to you trained and prepared to succeed in every
meeting. But you, with the help of this booklet, can change all that.
The secret is to take control of the conversation. Let me show you
how.
Jehovah's Witnesses will start by saying that they are speaking to
people about the possibility of world peace, or some such matter of
general interest. Then they will ask your opinion about the matter. But
don't be fooled. Your visitors are not conducting an opinion survey.
They are leading you in conversation the way they are trained.
If you are to get anywhere with them you have to be willing to seize
control of the conversation. What you must do is reply with a question.
That's right! A question. That will certainly break the conversation out
of the mould which the Jehovah's Witnesses expect it to fit into, and
help you to proceed on the track you are now being trained to follow.
When they ask for your opinion and give you time to speak they are
preparing you to listen to them. Psychologically, once you have
spoken you will feel that just as they listened to you with patience you
must now return the courtesy. You will then have to listen to them
telling you what the Word of God says about the matter. By this time,
your position appears weak. You gave your opinion and they reply
with God's teachings. Let's see how we can reverse this situation.
The first step is for you to realise that you don't have to give your
opinion when they ask for it. So say something like this:
I am glad you asked. But I think the answer should come from God.
Do you know where we can find God's answer to our problems?
There! That's how you do it. With only a few words you've turned the
situation around. Instead of giving your opinion you have established
that their attempt to seek your opinion was a misguided one.
Furthermore, you've put a question to them. They must now tell you
where God's answer is to be found.
If they say, "The Holy Bible," or whatever else they choose to call their Bible, you are ready to ask a whole series of questions about the
Bible. Now you can really teach them something.
If, on the other hand, they turn the question back to you, you have an
option. Let me assure you at this point that you have nothing to lose
no matter which option you choose. For example, if you decide to not
answer the question you can turn the question back to them by saying
something like this:
Well, I was hoping you would be able to come up with an answer,
especially since you specialize in speaking to people on this subject.
If that doesn't get them to speak, don't forget that you can always ask
them politely to leave you alone. You may say something like this:
Since you don't seem to have an answer for me, I would like to thank
you for coming. Please come again when you have the answer. Bye
for now.
At this point you may begin closing the door to show your firm resolve
to end the conversation. As I have said, you lose nothing with this
option. You gain! You maintained control and felt confident. You felt
no anger, no frustration. Privately, you were having fun putting these
proven techniques to work.
On the other hand, they lose. They lost time to visit you and
accomplish nothing. They also lost some of the confidence they were
charged up with when they left their kingdom hall.
And you haven't run out of options yet. When they ask you where you
think God's answer can be found you may reply, "The Glorious
Qur'an," if you feel confident that you can explain yourself further.
Bear in mind that you can always learn more or obtain more written
materials from your Da'wah Centre if necessary. Read, for example,
Common Questions People Ask About Islam, or Science in the
Qur'an. These will help equip you for the challenge.
Now, go ahead. Do your job of spreading Allah's message, and drop
me a line to let me know how much success you are having. E
Keep Your Cool
If you are going to really do this job right you have to stay cool.
Keeping your cool is an attitude that can be developed. It starts with
realising that you cannot guide the people you are trying to convince.
That remains for Allah to do. Your job is only to convey the message.
You may often find this task frustrating. But stick with it. Sometimes
you will find it hard to understand why your visitors cannot understand
your message. But persevere. Read below what Allah says:
See how We make the revelations clear to them, and see
how they are turned away! (Qur'an 5:75)
You see? Even the Words of Allah, plain as they are, will not convince
everyone. Much less the humble attempts we make. If you keep this
in mind you will save yourself a lot of frustration and be in a better
position to apply the techniques described in this booklet.
Now, the questions given here are to be used in a particular way for
maximum success. Don't use them as sledgehammers to clobber
your opponents. Use them as fly-swats to sting them a little and wake
them up. In other words, use them gently. Give your visitors time to
adjust to the new information you are offering them. You will open up
new horizons in their thinking with the questions you ask them. Be
patient with them while they take time to overcome information-shock.
At first they will resist any information coming from you as being from
the devil. After all, how could you know anything more about the Bible
than they and their Bible teachers? So rather than give them the
information in the form of statements of your own, ask them a
question to stimulate their thoughts. For example, instead of saying "A
is true," say, "Suppose someone says that A is true. How would you
react to that?" This shifts the focus away from you and allows your
visitors to think only about the question. As they struggle to come up with an answer they will convince themselves of what you wanted
them to learn.
Your disposition toward them is very important. You must show them
that you have compassion for them, and you really want to help them.
You must avoid every chance to ridicule them or their faith. So, do not
take on the attitude of a prosecutor obviously trying to tie them up in
verbal knots or to prove them guilty. Take the attitude of a
sympathetic news reporter who is sincerely trying to understand the
case for fair reporting.
Here is how this works. They say, "A is true." They are accustomed to
hearing their opponents saying, "No, A cannot be true." But you are
not their average prospect. You must rise above the situation by
saying something like this, "If you say A is true, that leads me to
conclude that B is also true since A implies B. Do you also believe B?"
Now, if they are unable say, "Yes!" quickly, know that they are
struggling to make sense of their own contradictions. There are many
examples of A and B in the questions that follow.
Here is another pattern. Say, for example, "Previously you told me C
and I understood you. Now that you are saying D, I would also like to
understand, but since C and D are opposites I cannot believe them
both. How do you explain this?" Let them deal with the contradictions
in their own mind. What you are doing here is helping them to save
face by allowing them to think for themselves. Don't tell them they
are wrong. Show them how to believe in their own minds that they are
wrong.
They may agree with you and yet not admit it. Don't worry about that.
Remember that they always come in pairs. If one of them shows
inclination to agree with you, the other one will report him back at their
kingdom hall as one who is now wavering in his faith. Even if they
both agree with you neither of them dares to make the first move to
reveal it for fear of what the other may think. So both will appear to
maintain their position, but you ought to be satisfied that you did your
best in presenting the truth. Rest assured that Allah has imbued these
persons each with a conscience. When they lie in bed at night they
may remember your words and secretly affirm true faith before they fall asleep.
Again, keep your discussions cool. When you ask the following
questions ask them politely. The tone of your voice should reflect
courtesy. Let me explain it this way. Imagine for a mo
ment that you are a police officer. You have just arrested a dangerous
criminal. Now, in your inner voice hear yourself saying to him, "Drop
your weapon." Do you hear the force of your voice? That's a
condescending voice — the voice of a powerful individual speaking to
a powerless person.
Now for an exercise involving the right use of voice for your situation.
Imagine yourself at the airport. You are ready to board your flight. But
you don't know which way to find your gate number 39. So you
approach a clerk and ask her politely, "Can you please tell me where I
can find gate number 39?" Do you hear the sound of that question?
That's the tone you should try to maintain when asking the questions
in this booklet. Practice that tone of voice with this question: "What if I
show you a verse in the Bible which claims to be not inspired?" Do the
same with all the other questions. May Allah help you and me, and all
those who call to His way.
101 Questions
to Ask Visiting
Jehovah's Witnesses
Five Questions to Get You Started
1
Is 100% of the Bible inspired by God?
Their Answer:
They will say, "Yes! All scripture is inspired of God." They will also
quote from the Bible where it says exactly that in Paul's 2nd Letter to Timothy, chapter 3, verse 16 . They may then smile happily because
they showed you the answer straight from the Bible.
The Truth:
The verse they show you is quoted without regard for its real
meaning.
Few people really ever think before they quote. If they find something
that seems close to what they believe there is no stopping them from
quoting it. Let us see now what the passage really means.
To really understand the passage we
have to know who wrote it, what he meant by it, and what he
expected his first readers to understand by it.
Who wrote it? Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Paul wrote that
passage in a letter to his student Timothy.
What did Paul mean by `all scripture'? Did he mean `the whole Bible'?
Many people assume so. But Paul did not say that. He did not say,
"the entire Bible is inspired." He said "All scripture is inspired." So,
back to our question. What did Paul mean by "all scripture"?
Some people may say, "But `all scripture' means `all scripture,' don't
you understand?" Say, "Should I understand that the Hindu Scripture,
the Buddhist Scripture, the Muslim Scripture, the Christian Scripture
and all other scripture is inspired by God?"
They will say, "No, because Paul would not have meant all that." But
that makes us ask again, "What exactly did Paul mean?"
If at this point they say, "The whole
Bible," this takes us back to the beginning of this discussion. Just say,
"I feel that we are going around in a circle here. I have already shown
that Paul never said, "The whole Bible."
Now you may need to help them understand that the verse they
showed you was read out of context. By taking the verse in isolation, they give it a different meaning than what the author had intended. To
see the proper context, let us read the verse again, this time starting
with the verse that comes before it. Here are verses 15 and 16:
15
. . . from infancy you have known the holy writings, which are able
to make you wise for salvation through the faith in connection with
Christ Jesus.
16
All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching . . . (2
Timothy 3:15-16)
Except where noted, all Bible
quotations in this study are from the New World Translation of the
Holy Scriptures; this is the Bible used by Jehovah's Witnesses.
Explain to them that if they look at the previous verse (i.e. 2 Timothy
3:15) they will realise that Paul was speaking to his student Timothy
about the scriptures which Timothy knew from his infancy. It was
definitely not the whole Bible. The whole Bible was not yet complete.
The Bible is made up of basically two sections. The first is called the
Old Testament, and the second is called the New Testament. Many
books of the New Testament section were written after Paul's death.
Paul was not telling Timothy that Timothy knew from infancy about
books which are not yet written, was he?
To show how many books Paul was not referring to here, ask your
visitors to look at the Table of Books of the Bible which is shown in
their Bible to
wards the back. In their usual pocket edition published 1984, this
appears on pages 1546 to 1547. Now look with them at page 1547
which displays a list of the Christian Greek Scriptures. In that chart the
approximate dates when these books were written are shown in the
4th column. The approximate date given for the writing of 2 Timothy is
the year 65 C.E. (i.e. A.D. but contemporary users prefer C.E. instead
of A.D.). Now we can see that many books were written much later
than that. Consider this list of Books of the New Testament together
with their approximate year of authorship as given on the same chart: Revelation 96 C.E. (A.D.)
John 98 C.E. (A.D.)
1 John 98 C.E. (A.D.)
2 John 98 C.E. (A.D.)
3 John 98 C.E. (A.D.)
Obviously, Paul was not telling Timothy to hold on to the above books
which did not exist at the time.
Furthermore many other books were
written too close to the year 65 C.E. for Timothy to have been familiar
with them since his infancy. I leave this for you to explore with your
visitors.
That scripture Paul was telling Timothy about was the Old Testament,
which Jehovah's Witnesses call the Hebrew-Aramaic Scriptures.
These ancient scriptures in the oldest form in which they exist today
are written in the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Chaldee languages.
A problem, however, is that Timothy was familiar with that book not in
its original languages, but in its Greek language translation (the
translation of the Old Testament into the Greek language is called the
Septuagint Version). That Greek translation was prepared about three
hundred years before Christ to enable those who could not read
Hebrew to still benefit from the scriptures. This is the version which
the early Christians like Timothy were reading. And Paul was telling
him to hold on to that book.
But is that a problem? Yes! A double problem. First, the translation
disagrees with the original in many points. Which should we take as
the inspired book — the original or the translation? This presents a
dilemma. If the Hebrew original is inspired then the Greek translation
is wrong. But if the Greek is wrong then Paul is wrong to call it
inspired — unless Paul thinks that a book is still inspired even if it
contains mistakes. A second problem is that the Septuagint Greek version contains
seven more books than the Hebrew version. These seven books are
included in the Catholic Bible but not in the Jehovah's Witnesses'
Bible. But they were included in the Scriptures which Timothy knew
from childhood. And Paul said all of it is inspired.
If Paul is right here, then Jehovah's Witnesses are wrong. But if
Jehovah's Witnesses are right, then Paul's words are wrong even
though they are found in the Jehovah's Witnesses' Bible.
The truth is that neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament is
100% from God. But if you believe Paul, then you have to understand
that Paul was saying only that the Greek Septuagint Old Testament is
inspired. Paul did not say more than this, and it would be wrong to say
you believe in the man and then put words into his mouth.
Many of Jehovah's Witnesses unknowingly do exactly that. They
believe so much in Watchtower teachings that they assume those
teachings must be found in the Bible. Unfortunately, the Bible often
disagrees with Watchtower teachings. What we are discussing here is
one example of this. Although the Watchtower teaches that the Bible
is 100% inspired, the Bible says only that its Old Testament is
inspired. The Bible does not say that its entire New Testament section
is inspired. If Jehovah's Witnesses chose to believe what they believe,
they must realise that it is a man-made teaching.
The Bible does not teach that the entire New Testament is inspired.
And that is a very significant part of the Bible.
Nor does the Bible teach that the Hebrew text of the Old Testament is
inspired. Paul's statement quoted above only proves that the Greek
Version is inspired. But Jehovah's Witnesses do not follow the Greek
Version because they realise it would make no sense to disregard the
original and follow a translation. So they rightly choose the Hebrew
text. But this choice disagrees with what Paul says in their Bible!
Help them out of this confusion. Tell them about Islam with love.
The Qur'an says that the entire Qur'an is from Allah (see surah 3:7).
2
What if I show you a verse in the Bible that claims to be not
inspired?
Their answer:
There is no such verse.
The Truth:
There are many such verses. Here is an example which will become
clear after you read the following two statements found in the Bible in
Paul's letter to the Corinthians:
"To the married people I give instructions, yet not I but the Lord . . ." (1
Corinthians 7:10).
"But to the others I say, yes, I, not the Lord . . ." (1 Corinthians 7:12).
Notice that in the first statement Paul claims that the Lord is speaking.
Jehovah's Witnesses believe Paul was telling the truth.
But how about the second statement? Here Paul is saying that the
statement is his very own, and that the Lord does not say it. Would
Jehovah's Witnesses please believe Paul in this statement too?
So that would mean that at least one verse of the Bible is not inspired.
Then the Bible cannot be 100% inspired by God. Perhaps 99%, or
99.9% but not 100%. Agreed?
There are many other examples. Some books of the Old Testament
claim only to be the words of a man, while others claim to contain
words of God also.
Many New Testament passages claim to be the opinion of men.
Check these out:
Luke said:
"I resolved also . . . to write . . ." (The Gospel According to Luke 1:1-4).
Paul said:
"Now concerning virgins I have no command from the Lord, but I give
my opinion . . ." (Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 7:25).
Paul said:
"Therefore I think . . ." (1 Corinthians 7:26).
Paul said:
". . . according to my opinion" (1 Corinthians 7:40).
Paul said:
"I certainly think . . ." (1 Corinthians 7:40).
Paul said:
"See! I, Paul, am telling you . . ." (Paul's Letter to the Galatians 5:2).
But some people do not want to see. Here lies the problem.
To save space, and to focus on the point we are making, I have not
quoted the above verses in full. But the references are given so that
you and your visitors can read them one at a time from the Bible. The
same result will emerge. Many verses of the Bible claim to be from
man but not from God. Do Jehovah's Witnesses believe these
verses? If so, then how can they say that the Bible is 100% from God
when the Bible itself says it is not?
They may say that the fact that the writers gave their opinion does not
make a difference, because their teachings agree with the rest of the
Bible. This is not a good argument, for that would mean that anything
that agrees with the Bible is also inspired. There
fore if a Hindu writes a brief poem about the importance of charity that
should be taken as inspired Word of God. Do Jehovah's Witnesses
accept this? Our point here is not that the opinions of men are good or bad. Paul
and Luke quoted above may have been teaching even things which
Muslims believe in. That does not make a difference. Many Muslim
authors write about teachings which Muslims believe in. We do not
call such writings inspired Word of God, do we?
Instead, we must stress with our visitors that if they believe Paul they
must also believe him when Paul said that he was writing his own
opinion; they must also believe Luke when he said that he was writing
as a result of his own resolution. Luke did not claim to be inspired to
write. Look again at what he said (quoted above).
The point we do make here is that human writings, no matter how
good and how accurate, must not be attrib
uted to God. Let us keep the Words of God separate and distinct from
the words of Man. Ask your visitors to read the following verses in
their Bible:
"For the thoughts of you people are not my thoughts, not are my ways
your ways," is the utterance of Jehovah. "For as the heavens are
higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Please, let us not confuse the thoughts of men for the Words of God.
Notice also that the letters which Paul wrote to various churches and
individuals are part of the Bible. Help your visitors to realize that the
letters which the prophet Muhammad (on whom be peace, and
blessings of Allah) dictated to various kings and leaders do not
appear in the Qur'an. The Qur'an is the Word of God. It does not
contain any human writings, not even the inspired
teachings of Muhammad (pbuh) himself. The inspired teachings of
Muhammad (pbuh) are found in separate books called hadith.
3
Was Paul inspired when he said that all scripture is inspired?
Their answer:
Of course!
The truth:
But how do they know? If you ask how they know that the Bible is
inspired they say, "Because Paul said so." Now if you ask how can we
trust Paul on this they say "Because Paul's words are in the inspired
Bible and
therefore Paul's words are inspired too." This is circular reasoning.
It is like a witness who defends his countryman by saying, "All men
from my country are honest." Then, when you ask why you should
believe the witness, the witness replies, "Because I am a man from
my country." Obviously, this circular reasoning will not convince a
thinking individual.
On the contrary, we have already seen in the previous question that
Paul said many things as his own opinion. When he said that all
scriptures are inspired (2 Timothy 3:16) he may have been right. But
how can you say so for sure?
4
Did Paul know that his letters are part of the Word of God?
Their answer:
Well, y-yes (actually, not sure).
The truth:
Most people have not considered this question. The letters of Paul
were collected and later made part of the Bible without consulting
Paul (Paul was, of course long dead by this time).
But Paul himself was quite conscious that he often wrote his own
opinions (see question 2). In one case, Paul was even aware that he made an error in one of his letters which is now part of the Bible.
Read the following passage:
I am thankful I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so
that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. Yes, I also
baptized the household of Stephanas. As for the rest, I do not know
whether I baptized anybody else (1 Corinthians 1:14:16).
It should be clear in the above passage that Paul made a mistake and
then a correction. But the mistake and the correction both remain in
the Bible, Obviously, we do not object to the correction, but what
about the mistake? Is that the Word of God too? If you look at the
passage again, you will notice that Paul made the following three
statements:
(a) I baptized no one else but Crispus and Gaius.
(b) Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas.
(c) I do not know whether I baptized anybody else.
The mistake Paul made is his first statement that he baptized no one
else except two persons named Crispus and Gaius. Then he recalled
that he had also baptized the household of Stephanas, so he made
this slight correction in his next statement. But the mistaken statement
is still there. Is this inspired?
Paul's third statement shows that he is not sure of the facts:
I do not know whether I baptized anyone else (1 Corinthians 1:16).
You see, Paul is not sure who else he baptized. He cannot remember.
He knows he needs to correct his statement further by adding more
names, but he cannot remember who to mention.
So the first statement was a mistake. The second statement is a slight
correction to the first. The third state
ment is an admission that the correction is not complete. All three remain in the Bible. Are these Words of God?
Show them the Qur'an:
Have they not considered the Qur'an with care? Had it been from
other than Allah they would surely have found therein much
discrepancy (surah 4:82).
5
What happened to Paul's first letter to the Corinthians?
Their answer:
What do you mean? We have it right here in the Bible. Look!
The truth:
They don't have it. What they show you is not the first letter Paul
wrote to the Corinthians. In this very letter, Paul reminds the
Corinthians that he had already written to them a letter before this
one. Read verses 9 and 11 in the folowing passage from Paul's so-
called first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 5: 9.
In my letter I wrote you to quit mixing in company with fornicators . .
. .
11. But now I am writing you to quit mixing in company with anyone
called a brother that is a fornicator . . . .
Obviously, in verse 9 above, Paul is referring to what he had written in
a previous letter.
In verse 11, Paul is making a change to his previous instruction.
Compare below the following two instructions from Paul's previous
letter and his so-called first letter:
COMPARE BELOW:
Paul's previous instruction on
this side
Pauls new instruction on this
side
In my letter I wrote you to quit
mixing in company with
fornicators . . . .
But now I am writing you to quit
mixing in company with anyone
called a brother that is a In my letter I wrote you to quit
mixing in company with
fornicators . . . .
But now I am writing you to quit
mixing in company with anyone
called a brother that is a
fornicator . . . .
What we are discussing here is not the change in instruction issued
by Paul. I have spelled out the matter in detail only to equip you to
deal with anyone who tries to say that even in verse 9 Paul is referring
to his current letter. Some people will try to convince you that there
was no previous letter. But now you know how to demonstrate this
truth to such a person.
So, now, where is that previous letter? Obviously, it is lost.
Now, if someone believes that Paul's letters are the words of God, he
or she has to also believe that some of the Words of God are lost
forever. But will Jehovah's Witnesses believe this? Ask them to read
this Bible verse.
The green grass has dried up,
the blossom has withered;
but as for the Word of our God,
it will last to time indefinite (Isaiah 40:8).
How does this reconcile with the fact that one letter of Paul has
disappeared?
Muslims understand that God can reveal a message and then allow it
to be forgotten. But a Jehovah's Witness does not accept that belief.
They think once revealed, always preserved. So they have to deal
with this question. The loss of Paul's letter is a good indication that the
recipients of Paul's letter did not take it as the Word of God. If they
did, wouldn't they try to preserve it? Why did they let the Word of God
disappear like that? Now someone may say that the rest of Paul's
letter were preserved, and this proves that the people who preserved
them regarded them as the Word of God. Let us not stretch things so
far. Firstly, no one knows how many other letters of Paul are really lost,
and we still have no satisfactory answer for that problem. We have
just stumbled upon evidence of one letter being lost. What other
evidence will yet turn up? Secondly, people keep letters and other
writings for all kinds of reasons. Perhaps people thought the letters of
Paul contain important things. Others may have kept such letters with
a view to refute the teachings they contain. We have not enough
details to settle this mater, but we can safely conclude that just
because someone kept some letters of Paul does not mean they took
the letters as coming from God. They knew the letters were from Paul.
Show them the Qur'an:
Surely We have revealed the scripture (the Qur'an) and surely We are
its guardian (surah 15:9).
Gently explain to them that God protects the Qur'an so that none of it
will ever be lost.
Download PDF
The Losing Battle with Islam
By Ahmed Deedat.
