Is The Bible Gods Word? by Ahmed Deedat

How do we know that a book claimed to be from God is really the Book of God? One of the tests, out of many such tests, is — that a Message emanating from an Omniscient Being MUST be consistent with itself. It ought to be free from all discrepancies and contradictions. This is exactly what the LAST TESTAMENT, the Book of God says:

If God Almighty wants us to verify the authenticity of His Book (The Holy Qur’ân) with this acid test, why should we not apply the very same test to any other Book claiming to be from Him? We do not want to bamboozle anybody with words as the Christians have been doing. It would be readily agreed from the references, I have given from Christian scholars, that they have been proving to us that the Bible is NOT the Word of God, yet making us believe that they have actually convinced us to the contrary.

A classic example of this sickness was in evidence again only "yesterday" The Anglican synod was in session in Grahamstown. The Most. Rev. Bill Burnett, the Archbishop was preaching to his flock. He created a confusion in his Anglican community. An erudite Englishman, addressing a group of learned English priests and bishops, in their own mother-tongue — English, which his learned colleagues drastically misunderstood: to such an extent that Mr. McMillan, perhaps also an Anglican, the Editor of an English daily — "The Natal Mercury" dated December 11, 1979, had this to say about the confusion the Archbishop had created among his own learned clergy:

"ARCHBISHOP BURNETTS REMARKS AT THE SYNOD WERE HARDLY A MODEL OF CLARITY AND WERE WIDELY AND DRAMATICALLY MISINTERPRETED BY MANY OF THOSE PRESENT." There is nothing wrong with English as a language, but can't you see that the Christian is trained in muddled thinking in all matters religious. The "bread" in his Holy Communion is not "bread" but "flesh?" The "wine" is "blood?" "Three is one?" and "Human is Divine?" But don't make a mistake, he is not that simple when dealing with the earthly kingdom, he is then most precise. You will have to be doubly careful when entering into a contract with him! He can have you sold out, without you realising it.

The examples that I shall furnish in substantiating the points I have raised about the contradictions in the so-called Book of God, would be found so easy even for a child to follow and understand. See below.

Apart from showing allegiance to God as is noted elsewhere, the Devil (Satan) is also given his due. This dichotomy on the part of the author of Chronicles reminds one of the story of the old woman who lit one candle to St. Michael and another to the devil. St. Michael was trampling underfoot, so that whether she went to Heaven or Hell, she would have a friend. This Chronicles fellow, made sure that he had a friend at court Above, as well as a friend at court Below. He wanted to have it both ways, or wanted to have his cake and eat it too.

You will observe that the authors of the books of "Chronicles" and of "Samuel" are telling us the same story about David taking a census of the Jews. Where did David get his "inspiration" to do this novel deed? The author of 2 Samuel 24:1 says that it was the "LORD" God who MOVED (RSV: "incited") David, but the author of 1 Chronicles 21:1 says that it was "SATAN" who PROVOKED (RSV: "incited") David to do such a dastardly thing! How could the Almighty God have been the source of these contradictory "INSPIRATIONS?" Is it God or is it Satan! In which religion is the DEVIL synonymous with GOD? I am not talking about "Satanism" a recent fungus growth of Christianity, in which ex-Christians worship the Devil. Christianity has been most prolific of spawning isms. Atheism, Communism, Fascism, Totalitarianism, Nazism, Mormonism, Moonism, Christian Scientism and now Satanism. What else will Christianity give birth to?

The "Holy Bible" lends itself to all kinds of contradictory interpretations. This is the Christian boast! "SOME CLAIM AND RIGHTLY SO, THAT BIBLICAL PASSAGES HAVE BEEN CONTINUOUSLY MISUSED AND MISAPPROPRIATED TO JUSTIFY ALMOST EVERY EVIL KNOWN TO MAN" (From: "The Plain Truth" an American-based Christian Journal under the heading: "THE BIBLE — World's Most Controversial Book." (July 1975).

As further evidence will be adduced from "Samuel" and "Chronicles" I deem it advisable first to determine their authors instead of suspecting God of those books' incongruities. The Revisers of the RSV say:

(a) SAMUEL: Author "Unknown" (Just one word)

(b) CHRONICLES: Author "Unknown, probably collected and edited by Ezra." We must admire the humility of these Bible scholars, but their "possiblys" "probablys" and "likelys" are always construed as ACTUALLY'S by their fleeced sheep. Why make poor Ezra or Isaiah the scapegoats for these anonymous writers?

If God is the Author of every single word, comma and full-stop in the Bible, as the Christians claim, then is He the Author of the above arithmetical discrepancy as well?

Note the reproduction of above. Compare both the quotations. 2 Samuel 24:13 tells us — "So Gad came to David, AND TOLD HIM, and said unto him . . ." These words are repeated word for word in 1 Chronicles 21:11, except the redundant "AND TOLD HIM" is removed! But while trimming the useless phrase, the author also pruned the time factor from "SEVEN" years to "THREE" years. What did God say to Gad — Three or Seven years plague — "on both your houses?"

See below. Compare the two quotations. 2 Chronicles 36:9 tells us that JEHOIACHIN was "eight" years old when he began to reign, while 2 Kings 24:8 says that he was "eighteen" when he began to reign. The "unknown" author of KINGS must have reasoned that what possible "evil" could a child of eight do to deserve his abdication, so he generously added ten years to make JEHOIACHIN mature enough to become liable to God's wrath. However, he had to balance his tampering, so he cut short his reign by 10 days! Add TEN years to age and deduct TEN days from rule? Could God Almighty say two widely differing things on the same subject?

Between Eight and Eighteen years, there is a gap or difference at a full 10 years. Can we say (God forbid!) that the all-knowing Almighty could not count, and thus did not know the difference between 8 and 18? If we are to believe in the Bible as the Word of God, then the Dignity and Status of the Lord Almighty will hit an all-time low!

Compare the two quotations on page 40. How many chariot riders did David slay? Seven hundred or seven thousand? And further, did he slay 40000 "HORSEMEN" or 40000 "FOOTMEN?" The implication in the conflicting records between 2 Samuel 10:18 and 1 Chronicles 19:18 is not only that God could not discern the difference between hundreds and thousands, but that He could not even distinguish "CAVALRY" from "INFANTRY!" It is obvious that blasphemy masquerades in the Christian dictionary as "inspiration!" 700 or 7 000?

It is certainly naught for Bible-lovers' comfort that a whole nought (0) was either added to 700, or subtracted from 7 000, thus making the confused Biblical Mathematics even more confounded!*

* The remarks on the Zero will be discussed soon.

As for the "inspired writers" of the Bible not knowing the difference between "footmen" and "horsemen," is all the more serious because God himself here stands accused, as a source of that "inspiration" for not knowing the difference between cavalry and infantry. Or is it possible that the Syrians who fled before Israel were centaurs (i.e. a race of creatures with the body and legs of a horse and the torso, head and arms of a man), is it possible that these "creatures" had suddenly stepped out of Classical Mythology to bemuse the all too gullible authors.

Solomon is his glory began building a royal palace for himself which took him thirteen years. We learn this from the 1st Book of Kings, chapter 7. You remember Dr. Parker's boast (earlier on) about "whole pages being taken up by obscure names?" Well, for sheer puerility you cannot beat this chapter 7 and Ezekiel chapter 45. You owe it to yourself to read it just once in your lifetime. After that, you will really appreciate the Holy Qur’ân! Reproduced below, you will read the passages for your boring pleasure. Obtain your own Bible and colour code it for easy reference. You may colour the various references from this booklet in your Bible: "Yellow" for all contradictions; use "Red" for pornographic passages; and "Green" for sensible, acceptable quotations as the ones I have mentioned at the beginning of this essay — that is words that you can effortlessly recognize as being those of God and His Holy Messengers. With just this preparation, you will be ready to confute and confuse any missionary or Bible scholar that comes your way! "IF WE PERSPIRE MORE IN TIMES OF PEACE, WE WILL BLEED LESS IN TIMES OF WAR." (Chiang Kai-Shek)

GOD, AS BUILDER, ENGINEER AND CRAFTSMAN (IF YOU HAVE PATIENCE, READTHIS CHAPTER AND COMPLETE THE REST OF THE CHAPTER IN YOUR BIBLE)

GOD, AS LAND SURVEYOR AND ARCHITECT (IF YOU HAVE PATIENCE, READ THIS CHAPTER AND COMPLETE THE REST OF THE CHAPTER IN YOUR BIBLE)

Now, look below and note that the author of 1 Kings 7:26 has counted 2 000 baths in Solomon's palace, but the author of 2 Chronicles 4:5 increases the kingly count by 50% to 3 000! What extravagance and error in the "Book of God?" Even if God Almighty had nothing else to do, would He occupy Himself "inspiring" such trivial contradictory nonsense to the Jews? Is the Bible God's Book? Is it the Word of God?

Whether it is witting or unwitting, the "inspired" writer's singular inability to grasp the difference between 2 000 and 3 000 is unforgivable. It is an obvious contradiction. "AND NO MIRACLE WOULD PROVE THAT TWO AND TWO MAKES FIVE, OR THAT A CIRCLE HAS FOUR ANGELS; AND NO MIRACLES, HOWEVER NUMEROUS COULD REMOVE A CONTRADICTION WHICH LIES ON THE SURFACE OF THE TEACHINGS AND RECORDS OF CHRISTIANITY." — (Albert Schweizer), from his book: "In Search of the Historical Jesus." Page 22.

Before I conclude this series of contradictions, let me give you just one more example. There are hundreds of others in the Bible. See below. It is Solomon again. He really does things in a big way. The ex-Shah of Iran was a nursery kid by comparison! The author of 2 Chronicles 9:25 gives Solomon one thousand more stalls of horses than the number of baths he had given him. "And Solomon had FOUR thousand stalls for horses ..." But the author of 1 Kings 4:26 had real kingly thoughts about his royal patron. He multiplied Solomon's stalls by 1 000% — from 4 000 to 40000 stalls of horses! Before some glib evangelist draws the wool over your eyes that the difference is only a nought, a zero — "0"; that some scribe or copyist had inadvertently added a zero to 4 000 to make it 40 000, let me tell you that the Jews in the time of Solomon knew nothing about the zero — "O"! It was the Arabs who introduced the zero to the Middle East and to Europe centuries later. The Jews spelt out their figures in words in their literary works and did not write them in numerals. Our Question is — Who was the real author of this staggering discrepency of 36000? Was it God or man? You will find these references and many more allied facts in a very comprehensive book — "THE BIBLE — Word of God or Word of Man?" by A. S. K. Joommal.

The Difference between 4 thousand and 40 thousand is only 36 OOO! The Jews did not use The "0" (Zero) in the Old Testament between 4 thousand and 40 thousand is only 36 OOO! The Jews did not use The "0" (Zero) in the Old Testament