"...verily in this is a sign for those who reflect." (Qur'an Ch.16 v.11)
This is a quick rehash on my major theological/philosophical questions and concerns for Christian missionaries. Unless the question specifically deals with Christian scripture, please don’t just quote verses from your scriptures – remember that the burden is upon the Christian to actually prove that the Bible is infallible and worth believing in. Until you prove that the Bible has indeed remained unaltered, unchanged, and unforgotten throughout the ages, it doesn’t matter what the Bible says, because for non-Christians, the Bible has indeed been corrupted, and rather than being a standard of truth, its the nucleus for Christian circular reasoning. If you can’t prove your assertions and beliefs without resorting to “because the Bible says so” then you have no business preaching your assertions and belief to people, at least not as fact anyways. Regardless, I have tried to keep these questions lucid and to the point. Enjoy.
1. Why do you believe the Bible to be the Word of God Almighty and Christianity being the True religion? Is it just because your family/society raised you to believe as such and indoctrinated you with such beliefs? Was it just a mystical experience/vision? Did you ever logically think it through? If so, what was your logical progression of proofs?
2. Why can’t Christians seem to agree on a single version of the Bible (Authorized King James Version, King James Version, New King James Version, New Living Translation, Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, American Standard Version, etc.), or even a single biblical canon (Protestant, Douay-Rheims, Greek Orthodox, Slavonic Orthodox, Lutheran Protestant, Ethiopian Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, etc.) for that matter? Have Christians tried recently to get together and discuss these differences, and try to unite under one Bible? How is a newcomer to Christianity supposed to choose a biblical cannon and Bible version to study Christianity objectively (as opposed to subjectively)?
3. If you take your feelings and emotions that you experience from reading the Bible as signs that it is His Word or that you are closer to Him, what makes those feelings any different than the feelings non-Christians gets when they read their own respective holy scriptures? How can you tell whose experience is most authentic? Is it wise to trust the salvation of your eternal soul only completely on your feelings and emotions without any intellectual evidence?
4. How can a pray to God Almighty to see whether the Trinity concept is true or not if God will not answer the prayers of one is unsaved and who doesn’t accept the Trinity (if you believe that it works that way, anyways)? Why didn’t any of the Hebrew prophets every preach the Trinity? Where didn’t the Jews ever write anything on a Triune Deity? Why was the Trinity concept of God Almighty so vague that it took 300 years after the alleged death of Jesus (AS) for the Trinity to finally be officially formulated during the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE?
5. How do you know the Godhead is only comprised of 3, and not 4, 5, 10, 300, etc.? Why should I believe such an arbitrary number? If Godship were to be limited by a number, why would it be 3? Did He chose to be 3? Can He be a Duality, or a Pentaty?
6. How do you know that it was really Jesus (AS) who appeared before Paul on the road to Damascus, thus inspiring all of Paul’s writings, and in effect, creating the current manifestation of Christianity? How do you know it wasn’t Satan in disguise, as many Christians seem to attribute to the angel Gabriel (AS) who brought the Qur’an down to Muhammad (SAW)?
7. Why should I accept that Jesus (AS) was divine, but reject such claims of divinity by anyone else, like the Dalai Lama, Sathya Sai Baba, or the Emperor of Japan?
8. How can a God of Justice uphold Original Sin? How is it justice that I must pay for the crimes of my forefathers (I wasn’t even consulted by Adam (AS) or Eve before they ate the fruit)?
9. The alleged crucifixion of Jesus Christ (AS) is supposed to be a dialectic between God Almighty’s Mercy and Justice, but how could a God of Justice allow an innocent man to die for the wrongdoings of others, and where was His Mercy for the innocent man?
10. Where do Christians believe Jesus (AS) went after his apparent crucifixion? Was it that he went to Hell for 3 days, or was it Sheol? Or was it Heaven?
11. Why is it that if anyone were to die without receiving His Grace, he/she would be sent to Hell for his/her sins, as well as the sins of their forefathers, for all eternity, BUT when Jesus (AS) supposedly died on the cross, he was sent to Hell (astaghfirillah) for ALL the sins of humanity, past, present, and future, yet only remained in Hell for 3 days (assuming you are one of those Christians who believe he went to Hell after dying in the first place)? If God is so Just that He cannot forgive sins because sins have to be properly punished, than how can He show this sort of clemency? How can I receive this clemency, if His Mercy is open to all who seek it?
12. Is Hell the only punishment for sin, and is the suffering of Hell homogeneous for everyone, or is it based on the quality of good/bad one did on Earth? Will someone like Gandhi get the same punishment as someone like Hitler?
13. How would Christians feel if the United States instated the New Testament’s system of justice in place of the American penal system, where people who steal, cheat, and murder are usually let free without any reprimand (John 8:7)? Or, have people who have never committed crimes get sentenced for those who commit the actual crimes? Do Christians want to implement the Christian penal system where the children pay for the crimes of their parents, and that every crime has a sentence of life in prison or death?
14. Why do Christians think that Allah (SWT) made human beings imperfect, yet He expects us to be perfectly good? If he expected perfection out of us, don’t you think He would have designed us that way? Why would he punish His creation for being the way He designed it to be (remind me of the biblical story of Jesus (AS) and the fig tree)?
15. How can the Bible claim that no one is good (Romans 3:12)? What is not good about helping rebuild homes after Hurricane Katrina? What is not good about feeding the homeless in Monroe Park? What is not good about tutoring little kids, taking care of an orphan, or anonymous charity? What isn’t good about altruism and social work?
16. The Bible says I will be punished for all my sins, and the sins of the forefathers. Does that mean that I will I get rewarded for my good deeds, and those good deeds of my forefathers? Is there reward for good, just as there is punishment for sin? If not, how is that just? If so, what is the reward?
17. How come the Old Testament portrays God Almighty as a jealous and ruthless deity, commanding absolute obedience, calling for heartless bloodshed, murder, carnage, rape, injustice, etc., whereas in the New Testament God is Love, a Being who wants nothing for us to do except love everyone and forget about His laws? Why did God Almighty change His personality? Why doesn’t God Almighty want His people to fight and kill anymore?
18. Why does Jesus (AS) seem to void the Old Testament laws on the Sermon of the Mount make a distinction between the Law and his own teachings (especially since he was supposed to have written them himself, being God and all)?
19. If God is so Holy that He can’t even stand to look at sin or be close to those in sin, how could he come down as a man, get beat up, nailed to a cross, and have ALL of mankind’s sins placed on His “Shoulders?” If he can humble Himself for that, can’t he somehow humble Himself to just look at sin?
20. Why to Christians blame Muhammad (SAW) of the ugliest allegations possible, such as warmongering, spreading hatred, pedophilia, lying, looting, etc. (and all these accusations can be and have been refuted time and time again), yet the Bible is almost like an anthology of the worst cases of the above-mentioned accusations?
20. Was Jesus (AS) supposed to have been crucified on Good Friday, or on Wednesday? If on Friday, doesn’t that mean that he didn’t fulfill the Sign of Jonah (Matthew 12:38-40), since that would mean that he was dead and buried for only 2 nights and 1 day before being resurrected on Easter Sunday? If it was on Wednesday, why dos history/tradition say otherwise?
21. What is God Almighty’s plan for people who die without hearing the Good News, such as those who died before Jesus (AS), or those living in remote/inaccessible parts of the world, like my grandparents, who never even held a copy of the Bible? Will they be sent to Hell for the circumstances that God Almighty put them in?
23. Christians say that I cannot pray to the True God unless it is through the Son, so how am I supposed to pray for guidance as to whether Jesus (AS) was divine or not?To whom do I pray for guidance? Isn’t God Almighty going to answer my prayer? Are you saying that God Almighty will just let hundreds of millions of people go to Hell just because He never sent the Gospels their way?
24. Why do Christians say that I’m not really praying to God Almighty unless I accept the Trinity? How did the Jews pray to Him, and receive guidance, if they never believed in the Trinity? Don’t you realize that God Almighty looks into our hearts when we call on Him the best we can, and hears all our prayers? Even more what about all those born-again Christians who converted to Christianity after praying for guidance – are they lying? If they already believed in the Trinity while they were praying for guidance, doesn’t that mean that they never needed guidance in the first place?
25. How come I am putting in so much effort to find the Truth, and yet Paul, who was an evil-doer, a persecutor of Christians, received a vision from the Son? What did Paul do to deserve that? How come the Son doesn’t appear to everyone? Paul wasn’t even seeking the Truth – he just wanted to kill all Christians. I just want to find the Truth and be close to God Almighty; so where is my guidance? Every conversion-to-Christianity story involves a vision or a dream – should I just wait around for a vision or a dream? Will God Almighty send me to Hell because He never came to me? If God Almighty is supposed to come to you instead of you coming to Him, what should I do in the meanwhile – just lie in sin? If so, then why are Christians even proselytizing in the first place if all I need is a dream or vision?
26. How come American Christians are so willing to fight wars and claim, like George. W. Bush and Sarah Palin have claimed, that the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel, is God’s will? What happened to turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:38-42, Luke 6:27-31)? Did God Almighty change His mind again and begin to revert to His Old Testament mindset again? Is this why Americans are willing to wholeheartedly support Israeli terrorism? Does Christianity condone self-defense?
27. Please, show me or introduce me to one person who has accepted the Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour after believing in another religion (preferably Islam) solely because the Bible appealed to them, and Christian doctrine made pure sense to them, without any dreams, visions, or are questionable experiences. He/she would have to have known his/her religion well enough to the point that no one could argue that whether the convert ever really believed/belonged to his/her alleged original religion in the first place. Also, the convert has to be someone normal, of moderate economic status and knowledge, as opposed to some poor man in India who was offered food, water and shelter for his family on the condition that he become or stay a Christian, nor an uneducated man who can’t even read or write, and is being barraged with Christian propaganda without being given the resources to actually study religions, and see which religion is the best for him.
So before any you Christians try to talk to a Muslim about Jesus (AS), pray and contemplate on the points above. You will have a hard time honestly trying to convert others to your religion if you can’t even answers the question they ask of you. I highly advise you to pray to God Almighty for answers with all the honesty and integrity and purity of intention that your hearts can muster, for the Qur’an records:
“And your Lord said, ‘Invoke me, and I shall respond to your supplication.’” (Qur’an Ch.40 v.60)
- Farhan R.
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