(The address given to reply to this e-mail would not accept my reply. I am posting it on this site in the hope that the individual asking it sees it there.)
My fiancé is a Muslim and we debate that Jesus is the son of God he says that he believes that he is a profit and that Mohammed is greater than Jesus. Does Jesus say that he is the son of God? He also says that his religion is stronger because his book does not have new testaments or old testaments, it’s the same wording and language that it was first written in. In the New Testament does the rewording change any meaning of what was first written?
Answer
One problem Muslims have is that they consider Jesus to be a great prophet of God, but call him a liar as well. Jesus claimed to be the son of God. He frequently referred to “my Father in heaven.” One example is Matthew 10:32-33. “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” The clearest example of Jesus saying he was the son of God is in Matthew 16:15-17. “He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” Here he says that God himself told Peter that Jesus was the son of God.
Some scholars will argue that even the Qur’an changed over the period from the first writings of Mohammed until the completion of the book. Whether that is true or not, I don’t know. I do know that it is divided into Suras, which are like the books in the Bible. Since the New Testament is simply a broader division, it is no different than dividing the book into books or chapters or verses. Therefore, to argue that the Bible is divided into two testaments or covenants while the Qur’an is not doesn’t hold water. Both books have divisions, regardless of what they are called.
The New Testament does not contradict or change anything in the Old Testament. It simply continues the story. What is commonly called the Old Testament tells about God’s covenant (testament, agreement) with the Jewish people. Although it contains promises of the coming Messiah, it is essentially a limited agreement with the Jewish people and no others. Non-Jews are not, and never were, bound by the Law of Moses. The New Covenant or New Testament tells about the coming of the Messiah that was promised to the Jews. It tells of God’s new covenant with all mankind rather than with just the Jewish people.
There is no evidence of any significant rewording of the Bible. The Old Testament has remained accurately unchanged for centuries because of the rules the Jews have for copying it. The New Testament can be accurately traced, with minimal differences in copies, back to within a couple of hundred years of its writing, with portions traceable back to the time of its writing. This is at least as accurate as any copy of the Qur’an.