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Questions about the Injil? |
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No, it has not. However, some churches were corrupted. For example, the Roman Catholic "church" once claimed that God will forgive a person's sins if they pay money to the church. Wars were fought in the name of the Messiah but He never said to make war in His name. Such corruption is very different from corruption within the text of God's holy books.
The Bible is a collection of 66 books written over a period of 1500 years by approximately 40 prophets and apostles who were inspired to write God’s words. The first 5 books of the Bible were given to Muusa (Torat). The next 34 books are given to other prophets, including the Psalms of Dauud (Zabuur). All of the books before the Messiah are called the Old Testament. The final 27 books of the Bible were written by apostles of the Messiah. This is the New Testament (Injil). Four of these apostles are Matta, Markos, Luka, and Yohanna.
There are different versions of the Bible, but this certainly does not mean that the Bible has been changed. The English we speak in America today is not the same as the English spoken in Europe 500 years ago. New versions have different words, but the same meaning. Each new version is not translated from an earlier English version. New versions are translated from the original language manuscripts of Hebrew (Torat and Zabuur) and Greek (Injil). There are 24,000 ancient manuscripts from the Injil alone, more than any other book in history! All of these manuscripts have the same message found within the Bible today.
We who believe the Bible admit that there are some copying errors in the many ancient manuscript copies of the Bible. The copying errors of the Bible are usually a number or name that was not copied correctly. Sometimes copiers accidentally omitted verses as they copied. As more manuscripts of the Bible are discovered by archeologists, Bible scholars become more certain which verses contain copying errors, thus the slight difference between the King James Version (1600s) and modern versions. These few copying errors do not influence any doctrine of the Bible. If men tried to corrupt the Bible long ago, they would have changed verses that effect doctrine, not simple numbers that are obviously copying errors.
There is no verse in the Qur'an that says that the text of the Injil was corrupted. The Islamic teaching of corruption began in 1000 AD with Ibn Hazm from Spain.
The Qur'an says that the people of the Book have “no ground to stand upon unless you stand fast by the Law and the Gospel” (Surat AlMa’ida 68). The Qur'an would not tell people to stand fast by (or “uphold”) corrupted books. The Qur'an tells Muhammad, "If you have any doubt regarding what is revealed to you from your Lord, then ask those who read the previous scripture" (Surat Yunus 94). The Qur’an would not tell Muhammad to ask people whose books are corrupted.
There is no historical evidence of an "injil" that came from the Messiah. God inspired the apostles ("rusul" in Arabic) of the Messiah to write the Injil. They took His message to Europe, India, and Africa during their lifetimes. It would have been impossible to collect all of the copies of the Injil from three continents and corrupt them all. Most of these men were killed for their religion because they claimed that the only way to receive God's forgiveness is by faith in the death of the Messiah.
The meaning of “Son of God” is often misunderstood. The meaning is figurative, not literal. For example, Arab speakers say that someone is “ibn issabill” or “a traveler”. Also, you may say that I am a "son of America". This means that I am from America. The Injil says that the Messiah is the “Son of God”, meaning that the Messiah is from God. It is forbidden to say that God took a wife for Himself. Other figurative names of the Messiah found in the Injil are “the bread of life”, “the door”, and “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”.
The Injil says, “In the beginning was the Word (the Messiah), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….. the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory of the ONE and only” (John 1:1,14). There is no god but God. The Trinity (the Father, the Word, and the Spirit) are three different persons of the same essence, much like I am a husband, dad, and teacher, but one man. The Torat says, “The Lord our God, the Lord is ONE” (Deuteronomy 6:4). God has no partner, yet He can reveal Himself any way He chooses to reveal Himself. I cannot be at school and in my home at the same time. I am limited. But God can be in heaven AND on the earth inside the body of the Messiah at the same time. He has no limits. God chose to forgive our sins through the death of the Messiah. The physical body of the Messiah died, but God lives. Forgiveness only comes from God, therefore the payment for our sins only comes from God also. To Him be all glory! The most obvious way for God to reveal Himself to mankind is to become a man Himself.
God sent more prophets to tell about the coming of the Messiah and to remind us that God is One, not because He let men corrupt His books. God’s words are forever. He does not cancel His words with new words. The Bible contains the Torat, Zabuur, Injil, and even the writings of other prophets before the Messiah. We read all of them because they are all God’s books. No true prophet has ever said that the books of previous prophets were corrupted.
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