The Christian View of Scripture

By J. Luis Dizon

The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the

simple (Psalm 119:130)

I. Introduction
A. Beginning on Common Ground
1. We both believe that there is only one God; as a Christian I have no
problem affirming the first half of the Shahadah () .
2. More relevant to our discussion, we both believe that God is
continually active in this universe and has spoken to it via divine
revelation.
3. This is a

conversation

between

Monotheistic

Abrahamic

Supernaturalists, and in order for our dialogue to go anywhere, we

must approach all the issues we raise up accordingly.
B. Being Amicable in Disagreement
1. Colossians 4:5-6: Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best
use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with
salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
2. No matter how much evidence I present, no matter how cogent my
logic is, if I do not abide by this ethic, you may regard me as a
having failed in this dialogue.
C. Letting the Texts speak on their own terms
1. In my presentation, I invite the audience to see both the Bible and
the Quran the way they present themselves
2. Let both texts to speak on their own terms and understand the
worldviews theyre coming from.
II. Two Types of Revelation (General and Special)
A. General Revelation
1. Derived from observing the created order and from our moral
consciences.
2. Scripture passages on General Revelation

1 All scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version

(www.esvbible.org).
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Copyright 2016 by J. Luis Dizon. All rights reserved.

a) Psalm 19:1-2: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky
above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
b) Romans 1:19-20: For what can be known about God is plain to
them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible
attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have
been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in
the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
3. Christian Theologian R.C. Sproul notes two reasons why it is called
General:
a) First, this revelation is general because it is knowledge that is
given to everyone. Divine general revelation is available to all
people in the world. God does not simply reveal Himself to
specific individuals; His self-revelation is manifested to every
human being. 2
b) [Second,] the content of it is of a general sort; that is, it does
not give us the details of Gods work in redemptive history, such
as the atonement or the resurrection of Christ. One cannot study
a sunset and see the heavens declaring Gods plan of salvation;
one must go to the Bible for that. Scripture has specific
information that no one can gain from a study of nature. 3
B. Special Revelation
1. Sproul: Special revelation discloses Gods plan of redemption. It
tells us of the incarnation, the cross, and the resurrectionthings
that cannot be learned through a study of the natural realm. It is
found primarily (though not exclusively) in sacred Scripture. 4
2. We say primarily and not exclusively because (and this is a point
Christians and Muslims agree on) not every word of God was
2 R. C. Sproul, Everyones a Theologian: An Introduction to Systematic Theology
(Sanford, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing: 2014), 15.
3 Ibid., 16.
4 Sproul, Everyones a Theologian, 20.
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Copyright 2016 by J. Luis Dizon. All rights reserved.

recorded

for

us.

Many

prophets

prophesied

without

their

prophecies being written.

3. Nonetheless, we do have records of those prophetic words that God
willed to have written: Through both the prophets of the Old
Testament and the Apostles of the New Testament, we have been
given a written record of special revelation.5
III.
The Inspiration of the Bible
A. What Inspiration does not mean
1. Inspiration does not mean Dictation
a) This is where the Quranic and Biblical views of inspiration
diverge.
b) Some places in the Old Testament are dictated, e.g. those that
begin with the phrase thus says the Lord (
) .
c) But often, the biblical writers maintain their personalities as they
write scripture, with God ensuring that they write what he
intends for them to write.
2. Inspiration does not mean any document the Bible quotes is also
inspired
a) This is necessary to point out in light of the allegation that there
are lost books of the Bible.
b) Books cited in the Old Testament: The Book of Jasher, the Acts of
Gad, the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, the Chronicles of the
Kings of Israel, the Acts of Solomon, and many more. 6
c) Books cited in the New Testament: Menanders Thais, Aratus
Phaeonomena, the Book of Enoch, the Assumption of Moses and
the Martyrdom of Isaiah.7

5 Ibid., 23.
6 A.P. Staff, Are There Lost Books of the Bible?, Apologetics Press (accessed
January 7, 2016), https://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?
category=13&article=66
7 Ibid. For a list of all the places where these works are cited in the New
Testament, see Aland, Barbara et. al., The Greek New Testament, 4 th Rev. Ed.
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2001), 900-901.
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Copyright 2016 by J. Luis Dizon. All rights reserved.

d) If the biblical authors were alive today, they might do the same
thing to the daily papers; if Paul was writing an epistle to the
Torontonians, he might quote from todays edition of the Toronto
Star, but that doesnt make that issue of the Toronto Star
inspired.
e) When the authors cite these works, we need to discern their
reason for doing so.
3. Inspiration does not mean every manuscript or translation of the
Bible is inspired. Inspiration (and its corollary, Inerrancy) only
applies to the original autographs, and subsequent copies can only
be said to be inspired insofar as they reflect those originals.
B. Texts on Inspiration
1. 2 Tim. 3:16-17: All Scripture is breathed out by God ()
and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for
training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete
(8), equipped for every good work.
2. 2 Pet. 1:20-21: No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own
interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of
man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the
Holy Spirit.
3. Psa. 19:7: The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the
testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
IV.How to Approach the Bible
A. Appreciate the Unity of its parts
1. This is the pitfall of liberal historical criticism
a) Gerhard Maier in Concrete Alternatives to the Historical-Critical
Method points out that modern exegetes who rely on Historical
criticism no longer hold to the unity of scripture and inevitably
see

contradictions

in

texts

that

are

otherwise

be

easily

harmonized. Progress can no longer be made in biblical studies

with the historical-critical method due to numerous flaws in its
presuppositions.9

8 KJV: perfect, NASB: adequate.

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Copyright 2016 by J. Luis Dizon. All rights reserved.

b) R.C. Sproul provides this rule of thumb in interpreting scripture:

The simple canons of common decency should protect any
author from unwarranted charges of self-contradiction. If I have
the option of interpreting a persons comments one of two ways,
one rendering them consistent and the other contradictory, it
seems that the person should get the benefit of the doubt. 10
2. Infographic: The Bible was written over a span of 1,600 years
across 3 continents by over 40 authors in 3 languages (Aramaic,
Hebrew & Greek), yet it has 1 primary theme: The glory of God in
the salvation of humankind.
3. Its message is encapsulated by The Grand Narrative of History,
which comes in four parts: Creation, Fall, Redemption and
Restoration.11
B. Remember that the Biblical worldview is Supernatural
1. Since both Christians and Muslims are supernaturalists, we can
agree here.
2. Historical Critics take fulfilled prophecies as evidence that the
prophecies must be written after the events:
a) In Isaiah 44-45, the prophet predicts the Persian king Cyrus
three centuries before his birth; therefore this prophecy must be
dated to the Persian period.
b) Jesus predicts the fall of Jerusalem (AD 70) in Matthew 24:3 and
Luke 21:6; therefore Matthew and Luke must be written after AD
70.
3. This is begging the question. Gleason Archer notes that Liberal
scholars assume that Bible is just another piece of human literature,
a product of the evolution of religious thought. This idea is the
9 Gerhard Maier, Concrete Alternatives to the Historical-Critical Method,
Evangelical Review of Theology 6, no. 1 (1982): 24-25.
10 R.C. Sproul, Knowing Scripture, Rev. Ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity
Press, 2009), 52.
11 See J. Luis Dizon, The Grand Narrative of History, Nicene International
Ministries, http://nimcanada.org/2014/10/28/the-grand-narrative-of-history
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product of Hegelian views of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. The

possibility of scripture being divinely inspired is rejected a priori.
As Archer states, even to suggest an investigation of these
evidences is absolutely unthinkable in the minds of the Liberal
establishment.12
C. Read the Bible Christologically
1. The Messianic hope is a recurring theme throughout the Old
Testament
2. Jesus certainly assumed that the Old Testament was about him.
Speaking to the Jews, for example, He states in John 5:45-47: Do
not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who
accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you
believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if
you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?
3. Messianic prophecies: Gen. 49:10, Psa. 22, Isa. 9:1-7, Isa 53, Mic.
5:2-5.
4. Fulfillment of prophecy is one the evidences for biblical inspiration
a) Its been calculated that the odds of one person fulfilling all the
messianic prophecies is 1 in 1048.
b) This is the equivalent of burying all of Ontario six inches deep in
loonies, marking up one loony, and asking a blindfolded person to
pick up the marked up loony. What are the odds hell pick it up
on the first try?
c) This is the miracle of Biblical prophecy.
V. Biblical Influence on the Quran
A. Biblical narrative and the Quran
1. UofT professor Walid Saleh wrote: In so far as this [i.e. Quranic]
material has to come from somewhere, it is obviously based, in one
way or another, upon traditions that grew out of the Hebrew
Bible.13

12 Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, 486. For further information,

see J. Luis Dizon, Evangelical Responses to Historical Criticism, Nicene
International Ministries, http://nimcanada.org/2016/01/26/evangelical-responsesto-historical-criticism-a-brief-survey
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2. Elsewhere, Dr. Saleh states: Muslims in the first century of their

religious history inevitably had to rely on the Bible for the
background of the salvific history that the Qur'an was claiming to
inherit. Moreover, the abbreviated manner in which the Qur'an
related stories from the Jewish and Christian traditions was
scarcely sufficient for the stories to function independently. The
Qur'an

needed

narrative

background

for

it

to

become

comprehensible. . . . They naturally turned to biblical lore (the

Bible, midrash, and Christian literature) to provide that narrative
background.14
3. A term developed among Muslim scholars to designate these
traditions: Israiliyyat.
4. These rejected by more conservative scholars. One notable Muslim
scholar from UofT writes: There was a later tendency to relegate
such fables to the margins of the exegetical stream. Ibn Taymyah
(d. 728/1328) in his Muqaddimah dissuaded exegetes from the use
of narratives which were derived from Jewish and Christian
sources. . . . Ibn Kathr (d. 774/1372) took this tendency a step
further: he often relates such tales only to impugn them. 15
5. But we can readily see this influence within the Quran itself. A
good example is Surat Yunus, which is notable for its narratives of
biblical figures, particularly of Noah (v. 71), Moses (v. 75-90) and
Jonah (v. 98).
13 Walid Saleh, In Search of a Comprehensive Quran: A Survey of Some Recent Scholarly
Works, Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies 5.2 (2003) 154. Cited by
Andrew G. Bannister in An Oral-Formulaic Study of the Quran (Lanham, MD: Lexington
Books, 2014.), 1.

14 Walid Saleh, A Muslim Hebraist: Al-Biqais Bible Treatise and His Defence of
Using the Bible to Interpret the Quran, Speculum 83:632-633.
15 Shabir Ally, The Culmination of Tradition-based Tafsr The Qurn Exegesis alDurr al-manthr of al-Suy (d. 911/1505) (PhD diss., University of Toronto,
2012), 102.
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Copyright 2016 by J. Luis Dizon. All rights reserved.

6. On citing these narratives, it exhorts: If you are in doubt as to what

we have revealed to you, ask those who read the book before you;
the truth has come to you from your Lord: so never be among the
doubters (Q 10:94).
7. No surprise then that one hadith, quoted by medieval scholar alBiqai, says, Do not hesitate to narrate from the Sons of Israel. 16
B. Biblical law and the Quran
1. Dr. Saleh: In a very few instances we have clear indication that
early Muslims followed the Torah rulings on certain matters.
Stoning was the Islamic punishment prescribed for adultery, and
this punishment clearly was based on biblical injunctions since
there is no such punishment in the Qur'an. Later jurists would
invent a nonquranic quranic verse to argue for this rule. 17
2. A famous hadith on this is found in Bukhari and Abi-Dawud. Some
Muslim commentators regard this as the sabab al-nuzul for Q 5:4147: A group of Jews came and invited the Apostle of Allah to Quff.
So he visited them in their school. They said: Abul Qasim, one of
our men has committed fornication with a woman; so pronounce
judgment upon them. They placed a cushion for the Apostle of Allah
who sat on it and said: Bring the Torah. It was then brought. He
then withdrew the cushion from beneath him and placed the Torah
on it saying: I believed in thee and in Him Who revealed thee. He
then said: Bring me one who is learned among you. Then a young
man was brought.18
16 Saleh, A Muslim Hebraist, 644.
17 Ibid., 632n.
18 Sunan Abu Dawud 38:4434. Cf. Sahih al-Bukhari XIII:82:809. Hadith quotations
are taken from Sunnah and Hadith, Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement
(Accessed on 20 January 2016), http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith.
For the application of this story to Q 5:41-47, see Al ibn Ahmad al-Whid, Asbb
al-Nuzl, trans. Mokrane Guezzou (Amman, Jordan: Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for
Islamic Thought, 2008), 68.
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3. The same applies to the Injil: Let the people of the Gospel judge by
what Allah revealed therein, and whoever does not judge by what
Allah revealed, they are the transgressors (Q 5:47).
VI.
Ta rf (Corruption)
A. Definition
1. From the Arabic verb ( arrafa, meaning to corrupt).
2. Used to explain differences between the Bible and the Quran.
3. Two types of Ta rf:
a) Ta rf al-Mana (Corruption of meaning)
b) Ta rf al-Nass (Corruption of the text)
4. Most Muslim preachers and apologists Ive listened to advocate the
latter.
5. The Quran,

however,

appears

to

be

teaching

the

former.

Remember Q 10:94 and 5:47.

6. Other verses: Q 2:75, 3:78, 4:46, 5:13, 41.
B. The Quranic View
1. How can the Quran refer to those whove read previous books for
confirmation, or ask those with the Injil to judge by it, if their books
are corrupted?
7. Some Muslim academics recognise this. For example, Abdullah
Saeed from the University of Melbourne states: In no verse in the
Quran is there a denigrating remark about the scriptures of the
Jews and Christians. Instead, there is respect and reverence. Any
disparaging remarks were about the People of the Book, individuals
or groups, and their actions.19
8. It is not clear when Quranic exegetes began interpreting Quranic
ta rf verses as referring to ta rf al-Nass, but the shift appears to
have taken place gradually:
a) 7th-8th centuries Muslim sources only teach Ta rf al-Mana (Ibn
Abbas, Ibn Munabbih, Ibn Ishaq, Muqatil).
b) 9th-10th centuries Ta rf al-Nass appears in a few sources, but
the majority still teach Ta rf al-Mana (Al-Tabari, Sahih alBukhari, Sunan Abu Dawud).
19 Abdullah Saeed, The Charge of Distortion of Jewish and Christian Scriptures,
The Muslim World 92 (Fall 2002): 429. Download this article at
http://quranandinjil.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/The-Charge-of-Distortion-of-Jewishand-Christian-Scriptures_Abdullah%20Saeed.pdf.
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c) 11th century-present Ta rf al-Nass dominates Muslim polemics

(Al-Maqdisi, Ibn Hazm, Ibn Kathir, Al-Biqai), but many scholars
hold onto Ta rf al-Mana or have doubts about textual corruption
(Al-Wahidi, Al-Razi, Ibn Khaldun, Mahmoud Ayoub, Abdullah
Saeed).20
VII.
Pushing the Antithesis.
A. On Divine Sonship
1. Isa. 9:6: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the
government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be
called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince
of Peace.

(










)
2. Mt. 16:15-17: [Jesus] said to them, But who do you say that I am?
Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah!
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who
is in heaven.
3. Q 112: Say: He, Allah, is One. Allah, the Eternal Refuge. He neither
begets nor is born, and none is like Him.
4. The contrast: For a child is born to us. (


) verses He
neither begets nor is born. ()
B. On Vicarious Atonement
1. Lev. 17:11: The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it
for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the
blood that makes atonement by the life.
2. Mk. 10:45: The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and
to give his life as a ransom for many.
3. Q 4:157: They said, We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, Allahs
Messenger. But they neither killed nor crucified him, but it
seemed so to them, and those who differ on it are full of doubts,
with no knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for surely they
killed him not.
C. On Salvation
20 See J. Luis Dizon, Muslim Writers on Ta rf, Nicene International Ministries,
http://nimcanada.org/2016/01/30/muslim-writers-on-ta rif
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1. John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal
life.
2. Rom. 10:9: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will
be saved.
3. Q 98:6: Those who disbelieve among the People of the Book and
the polytheists will abide in the fire of hell. They are the worst of
creatures.
VIII.
Conclusion
A. The Law of Non-Contradiction
1. A thing cannot be both true and not true at the same time in the
same context.
2. The big question: How can the Quran simultaneously draw upon
the Bible for narratives and confirmation while teaching doctrines
contrary to it?
B. Think About It!

Recommended Further Reading

On the Theology of Scripture
DeYoung, Kevin. Taking God At His Word: Why the Bible Is Knowable,
Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me. Wheaton, IL:
Crossway, 2014.
Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical
Doctrine (New ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009.
Sproul, R.C. Everyones a Theologian: An Introduction to Systematic
Theology. Sanford, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2014.
nd

(2

Various Authors. Sola Scriptura: The Protestant Position on the Bible

ed.). Sanford, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2013.

Ward, Timothy. Words of Life: Scripture as the Living and Active Word
of God. Downer's Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009.
White, James R. Scripture Alone: Exploring the Bible's Accuracy,
Authority and Authenticity. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers,
2004.

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Copyright 2016 by J. Luis Dizon. All rights reserved.

On Canon and Textual Criticism

Komoszewski, J. Ed, M. James Sawyer and Daniel B. Wallace.
Reinventing Jesus: How Contemporary Skeptics Miss the Real Jesus and
Mislead Popular Culture. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2006.
Kstenberger, Andreas J., & Michael J. Kruger. The Heresy of
Orthodoxy: How Contemporary Culture's Fascination with Diversity Has
Reshaped Our Understanding of Early Christianity. Wheaton, IL: Crossway,
2010.
Kruger, Michael J. The Question of Canon: Challenging the Status Quo
in the New Testament Debate. Downer's Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013.
Lightfoot, Neil R. How We Got the Bible (3rd ed.). Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Books, 2010.

On Biblical Interpretation
Fee, Gordon D., and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible Book by
Book: A Guided Tour. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009.
__________. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (4th Ed.). Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014.
McQuilkin, Robertson. Understanding and Applying the Bible (Revised
and Expanded). Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009.
Sproul, R.C. Knowing Scripture (Rev. Ed.). Downer's Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 2009.
On the Quran and the Bible
Adang, Camilla. Muslim Writers on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible:
From Ibn Rabban to Ibn Hazm. Leiden: Brill, 1996.
Bannister, Andrew G. An Oral-Formulaic Study of the Quran. Lanham,
MD: Lexington Books, 2014.
Nickel, Gordon. Narratives of Tampering in the Earliest Commentaries
on the Quran. Leiden: Brill Academic, 2010.
__________. The Gentle Answer to the Muslim Accusation of Biblical
Falsification. Calgary, AB: Bruton Gate, 2015.
Reynolds, Gabriel Said. The Emergence of Islam: Classical Traditions in
Contemporary Perspective. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2012.

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__________. New Perspectives on the Quran (Routledge Studies on the

Quran). New York: Routledge, 2011.
__________. The Qur'an and Its Biblical Subtext (Routledge Studies on
the Quran). New York: Routledge, 2010.
__________. The Qur'an in Its Historical Context (Routledge Studies on
the Quran). New York: Routledge, 2008.
Saeed, Abdullah. The Charge of Distortion of Jewish and Christian
Scriptures. The Muslim World Fall 92 (Fall 2002), 419-436.
Saleh, Walid. In defense of the Bible: A Critical Edition and an
Introduction to al-Biq's Bible Treatise. Leiden: Brill Academic, 2008.

On Numerical Miracles in the Quran

Philips, Abu Ameenah Bilal. The Qur'an's Numerical Miracle: Hoax
and Heresy (Riyadh: Al-Furqan Publications, 1987.). Download link:
bit.ly/hoaxandheresy

The Texas Sharpshooter

http://bit.ly/texassharpshooter

Fallacy.

Your

Logical

Fallacy

Is.

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