Muslims Must Accept the Old Testament

My Russian Bible

Anyone who’s been reading this website in the last six months knows that I’ve been reading a lot from the Old Testament.  As I’ve mentioned before, it has only strengthened what I believe.  I would say that it’s made me a better apologist as well.

Now, we know that Muslims always say that the sacred scriptures have been corrupted.  There is no clear statement from the Quran on this, but this eventually became the belief of Muslims.  The OT, just like the NT has been corrupted.

I recently saw an article by a Muslim apologist where he makes scholarly critiques of the Old Testament.  He tried to find errors, discrepancies and inconsistencies based on prophecies and narrative.  He obviously didn’t know it at the time but he was actually refuting his own faith.

I think there is an airtight case to be made that Muslims should at least accept the entire Old Testament.  Muslims accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah and as a prophet of Allah.  They also accept John the Baptist which might also be useful here but I want to focus primarily on Jesus Christ.

Whether we look to the four gospels or any historical assessment of Jesus Christ, even by non-Christians, we see that Jesus believed in and taught the Old Testament.  He believed in every word of it.  There is absolutely no reason to believe that he doubted the Old Testament.  Jesus Christ taught the Old Testament just as much as Muhammad taught the Quran.

Since Muslims believe in all of the prophets, shouldn’t what Jesus taught be taken into account?  It would seem that way.  Since Jesus is the last prophet before Muhammad according to Islam, there was no prophet who was able to approve of the New Testament.  Muslims get a break on the New Testament here but they get no such break on the Old Testament.  Their Messiah taught it and they’re bound to believe it.

There are only a few verses in the Quran where it records Jesus speaking.  The example that I like is Surah 61:6 which reads:

And when Jesus son of Mary said: “O Children of Israel!  I am the messenger of Allah sent to you, confirming the law which came before me, and giving glad tidings of an apostle to come after me whose name shall be Ahmad.”  But when he came to them with Clear Signs they said “This is evident sorcery!”

Confirming the law which came before me?  I would say that this has to at least refer to the five books of Moses.  When a Jew refers to the law, they’re usually referring to the books of Moses.  There is a chance though that Jesus may be referring to the entire Hebrew Bible.

Either way, we know that Jesus taught the entire Hebrew Bible.  He not only quoted the Torah but the prophets and the historical writings as well.  As a Christian who follows the teachings of Jesus Christ, I accept the Old Testament.  Muslims as followers of Jesus Christ need to believe fully in the Old Testament as well.  I really don’t see a way out of this for them.

Instead of trying to find errors in the Old Testament, Muslims should stand with their fellow Jews and Christians in defending the Old Testament.  I would say that if you don’t believe in the Old Testament, you probably shouldn’t even call yourself a follower of an Abrahamic religion.