40-plus authors vs. Mohammed

Editor’s note: Working on a new article to post tomorrow. In the meantime:

Muslims say Mohammed is the “last and greatest of God’s prophets” and that his revelation supersedes that of Moses, Jesus, etc. They say the Old and New Testaments were “inspired” but were both replaced by the Koran.

As my church’s associate pastor, Alex Kurz, points out, this claim by the religion of Islam violates a very basic principle of God on the revealing of progressive revelation.

Kurz explains, “We read in II Peter 1: 21: ‘For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’ Peter’s saying that when God reveals truth . . . How many men did God use in human history to give us this Book? More than 40 authors writing over 1,500 years.

“Daniel alone did not receive the full revelation. Daniel was given a piece. John, on the Isle of Patmos, was given another piece. You put those two pieces together and you have a better picture, right?

“Isaiah has a piece, Malachi has a piece, John the Baptist has a piece, Jude has a piece. The Bible was not deposited to one individual. With that understanding, can the Koran be considered scripture? Where did the Koran come from? How many men? You see the wisdom of Mohammed. The Koran is the product of this so-called advanced revelation that was given to how many people? This is not God’s wisdom.

“Can the Book of Mormon be considered Scripture according to this principle? The Book of Mormon is the product of what? The so-called advanced revelation given to one man.

“The wisdom of God is, ‘Listen, I give a piece over here, and 1,500 years later I’m going to give a piece over there, and when you put those pieces together, and they don’t contradict but they operate in harmony, what does that testify? This is not some book written by human ingenuity. There is the invisible hand of Almighty God who’s put this Book together.’ "

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“That why Peter says (to the Jews), ‘Go to Paul.’ Now, think about this for a second: They’re circumcising their children, obeying the laws of Moses, providing animal sacrifices, and then here comes this guy Paul who was thrown out from the ranks of the Pharisaical system.

“You think Paul retained his position as a Pharisee after he went around saying, ‘I saw Jesus!’? So you have a failure in the ranks of Judaism and he says, ‘You know what? Circumcision doesn’t avail anything.’

“Can you imagine their horror? ‘Oh, we’re not under the law, we’re under . . .’ You see the problem here? So what is Peter now saying? ‘Scripture is of no private interpretation.’

“God didn’t deposit everything to Daniel, nor did he deposit it all to Paul. What Peter’s getting it as this: God’s Word is given over time in a progressive manner and Paul’s revelation is a piece that provides an answer to the Jewish dilemma—the Little Flock dilemma of, ‘Where’s the kingdom?’

“Peter is saying that what Paul is writing is authoritative. It does follow the principle that God has used for 1,500 years. ‘Little Flock, don’t dismiss Paul’s Epistles. It’s just part of the way God’s revealing His eternal purpose and plan.’ ”