Question 53:
If I can prove to you that your Bible is no longer valid under Allah, who created me and you, would you accept and even convert to Islam?
Answer: The Bible exists and has been read by countless people as a book inspired by God for centuries. We discuss this in the introductory text to Theme: “Scripture – Word of God?”. The Bible is really a complete library of writings that were written by various authors and groups of authors over many centuries in various situations and in various literary forms. They were later bound together in one book. First of all are the books that document the religious stories and experiences of the Jewish people, then come the writings which were created in the earliest parts of the history of the Christian Church. The question of validity does not arise. The reliability of the texts contained in the biblical books has been confirmed by generations of critical researchers. The results of this critical research fill many, many bookshelves. The question is rather, how do I respond to the message(s) found in the Biblical writings. Jewish believers interpret the writings of the First (Old) Testament in a "Jewish" way. We Christians read the texts of the Old (or the First) Testament in the light of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, whom we consider to be the true Messiah and Son of God. According to our Christian understanding, the revelation concludes with the chronologically last book of the New (or the Second) Testament, which, for us, together with the Old Testament, forms the Bible. Above and beyond the fact that God made Himself known to the world in Jesus Christ, in other words, that in Jesus Christ God became human, there can, according to Christian faith, understandably be no further new revelations going beyond Jesus Christ and what God has revealed to us in and thought Him (see also the answers to questions 39, 28, and 47).