Do Christian beliefs about the Bible and Muslim beliefs about the Quran put them in a circular stalemate?
- The Quran is God’s Word, therefore the Quran is true.
- The Bible is God’s Word, therefore the Bible is true.
Are we stuck in a circular stalemate? No, because we can look at both books and their relationship to history.
The historical fact of Jesus’ death on the cross
Muslims believe something about the crucifixion of Jesus based on what Muhammad recited but never observed. Christians believe in the death of Jesus on the cross because this was an event rooted in history.
The Muslim claim that Jesus did not die on the cross and the Christian claim that Jesus died on the cross cannot both be true. The question is whether you believe in what God has done in history or what came from the mouth of Muhammad centuries after the event.
If the beliefs of Muslims are rational (i.e. Muslim beliefs correspond to the world in which we live), then they need to stand on solid historical ground and not just on the unclear lips of Muhammad.
