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Who Was Caliph Abdul Malik?

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Possibly Caliph Abdul Malik depicted on a coin

In the last five to ten years, revisionist theories about Islamic origins have trickled down to the popular level.  They’ve usually only been in academia but now their scholarship can easily be found in books published by mainline publishers and not only by a particular University Press.  The reason that these theories exist, is because of the huge gap between the life of Muhammad and the first Islamic details about him.  Ibn Ishaq’s biography of Muhammad dates back to Ibn Hisham’s redaction, two centuries after Muhammad’s death.  The canonical Hadith collections take another half century before they are put into circulation.  In other words, sources about Islam are 200-300 years after Muhammad lived.  These are extremely late sources.

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Jews For Judaism Needs to Shut Down

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As an apologist, one of my objectives is to deal with other apologists.  I encounter the work of many people and groups.  One group is a Jewish group called Jews for Judaism which is run by Rabbi Michael Skobac.  They arose shortly after the founding of Jews for Jesus to counter their missionary efforts.  At this point in time, I would say that their organization no longer serves a purpose.

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Further Thoughts on the McDowell vs Vines Debate

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In the debate that I previously reviewed, I explained how I thought Sean McDowell did a good job of sticking to the text and not going for the red herrings of Matthew Vines.  I agreed with McDowell’s answers, though I would have had a slightly different answer to one of the challenges of Vines.  

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Matthew Vines vs Sean McDowell

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Last night my city got 35 cm of snow on top of the large amount that we already had.  That’s part of living in the Canadian prairies I guess.  The bad part is that you have to spend hours shoveling snow.  Luckily I had the audio of the Matthew Vines vs Sean McDowell debate on my iPod.  I had always wanted James White to dialogue with Vines since he made a 5 hour podcast rebuttal when Matthew Vines put his initial video out but sadly White seams to have lost his debating savvy which is shown by his recent Muslim debates.  However, Sean McDowell was perfect for this debate.  I initially thought that he was too soft but then I realized that it was all part of his tactic.  If he had been rock hard, Vines would have become rigid and not much dialogue would have gone on, only cheap point scoring tactics. 

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Did Islam Purify the Church?

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St. Sophronius of Jerusalem

After Church yesterday I had a good discussion with my Priest.  We talked about heresy in the first Millenia of the Church and the Islamic Invasions.  He put forward a very interesting hypothesis that I had never thought about before.  I don’t know if I believe it but it certainly got me thinking.

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What Muslims and Liberals do to Jesus Christ

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Any Christian apologist who deals with Islam will point out that Muslims engage in double standards regarding the use of anti-supernaturalist leftist Biblical “scholarship”.  However, before Muslims started doing that, both at a popular and scholarly level, they actually shared quite a bit in common with the Liberals in how they viewed Jesus Christ.

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Psalm 22, James White, and Islam

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I started studying apologetics in depth in 2008.  Of course, I had been studying Scripture, Christianity, and Church history prior to that.  The interesting thing is that I didn’t start my apologetics with Islam.  I mainly dealt with non-Trinitarian cultic 19th century groups such as the Two by Two’s(Google them), Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Eventually I got interested in Old Testament Prophecy so that led me to study the Jewish objections to Jesus.  I encountered the work of people like Rabbi Tovia Singer, Jews for Judaism and others.

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Paul vs James: Insert New Variable Here

Exposing the Islamic Misuse

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNWA8R5aQ9E

The Adnan Rashid vs James White debate resurfaced another popular trend in Islamic apologetics.  Muslim apologists really seem to be playing on the whole supposed dichotomy between James and Paul.  Of course, these apologists haven’t done an in depth study of Paul.  In a dialogue it’s hard to go in depth into Pauline writings to show that there isn’t a contradiction between the two since it requires in depth exegesis of the text.

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Adnan Rashid and Psalm 91

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Jesus being Tempted by the Devil

One interesting thing about the recent debate with Adnan Rashid and James White was the use of Psalm 91.  A few months ago, Zakir Hussain used this argument against James White in a debate.  Both times, James White didn’t have an answer.  Seeing as how this has been used by more than one apologist, it seems to be a new apologetic tactic.  Unfortunately White didn’t do his homework after the Hussain debate.  The response isn’t a difficult one but it needs to be presented so here it goes.