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Quote Originally Posted by M.Khaled View Post
Again pandora, I am not concerned with how these changes came, what I am concerned with is that there are changes and that the Bible we have now cannot be considered as a reliable evidence from God due to several reasons as listed in my site. I am not interested to know who changed it and how and why because I actually see that there are changes, and that's all I am concerned with.
But really you should be concerned... Because if what you say is true it implies that God cannot be trusted to protect His message from change. That may be an acceptable scenario for you but it is not so for me. I refuses to see God that way. What are these changes you speak of? Before or after Mohammed? Because if you believe these changes occurred before Mohammed then we have the issue of The Quran claiming to confirm the scriptures.. I believe the sura states.. " in your hands".. This implies that it was confirming what was there and present in the hands of the Jews and Christians. So does Allah confirm something he knows to be corrupt? Would Mohammed tell the Jews and Christians to judge by "their" books if they were known to be corrupt? The manuscript evidence and the Bible canon we have now was set before Mohammed and the Quran.. So we know the Bible then as now is pretty much the same, and certainly in regards to the core message.. There is no change to that. So on that basis we know that it can't have been corrupted after the Quran as we could easily check when and even pinpoint where and what was changed.
Are these "changes" you speak of textual variants or errors in regards to spelling or translation issues?
I truly do not believe your Prophet Mohammed ever believed the Bible to be corrupt, he respected the scriptures. This leads me to suppose the idea of the corruption came much later long after Mohammed's death.. When Muslim scholars came to realise the the message in the Quran is for the most part diametrically opposed to that of the Bible.. Is it possible for them both to be the word of God? So obviously in order for the Quran to be right the Bible must be wrong.. This has plunged muslims into a life long quest to disprove the Bible... Sometimes coming up with the unlikeliness of scenarios. Hey.. I realise this may be pushing the boundary here and truly I mean know disrespect.. But unless one pushes boundaries in search of truth.. Then one sometimes ends up settling for something less than one should. I don't know about Islam per se but Christianity encourages us to always seek the truth.. Always question...

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Ok, was God not able to protect His people from murder or persecution? This life is a test.
Here again applying human standards to a Holy God. Of course God is quite capable of protecting His people from persecution and murder... Weather it would be right and just for God to do such a thing is a different matter. By saying God is not able to protect His word from His creation is an affront to God..
This life is a test?? A test for what? What reason for the test if the examiner already knows the outcome?

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So because there is a manuscript referring to five verses in John you assume that this is an evidence that the whole NT with its canon were present the same way it is present now as 27 books? To have some verses doesn't mean that this is the whole Bible, what is the proof that these verses were in another book other than Gospel of John and the writer of John took it from the source of this fragment whom we don't know who wrote it or which book did it refer to. Even if it really represented the whole NT, there is still a gap of about 70 years, even 1 year gap is not enough to prove that every thing was ok and no changes occurred.
Maybe not.. But it doesn't prove your position either does it... ;)

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So why did God order His people not to add or omit from the Torah if they cannot do so?Would God forbid something that cannot be done? Actually the verses you quoted concerning God's words are not related to the books sent to Jews or Christians, but to His will and promises which is something else.
Is adding or omitting the same as changing the message to and extent that it becomes completely different in meaning? Would God allow that? Just to be clear Christians have never made the claim that the Bible is word of God verbatim as you claim for the Quran. The Bible contains historical accounts, poetry etc. though inspired by God men penned the words.. But I feel we have been down this road already so will leave it there. I guess I find it easy to put my trust in God.. :)

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And you are supposed to have known Jesus from the Gospels, so your guidance is actually from the Gospels.
Yes, that is our first point of reference. Yet, when one accepts Jesus as their saviour and opens ones heart to Him the understanding of what Jesus meant by His mission it is truly inspiring.

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Well, I am not replacing huria. I just wanted to add my thoughts.
your thoughts are very welcome.. And I am pleased to hear them. It's a shame Huria seems to have given up. :( I accept my wordiness may irritate some people.. But I am as the good Lord made me.. :)

peace