The Islamic Dilemma

Made popular by Christian Apologist Dr. David Wood, the Islamic Dilemma is a logical argument revealing how the Quran openly “affirms the inspiration, preservation, and authority of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures (the Torah and the Gospel).” [1]

The Islamic Dilemma exposes Allah’s command, through the Quran, for Christians to judge the Quran by the Torah and the Gospel. In other words, the “previous Scriptures” are to be the straightedge.

If the Christian Scriptures are to judge the Quran, then the Quran is false (because the Quran contradicts the Gospel on fundamental events and doctrine). But if the Torah and the Gospel have been corrupted, then the Quran is still false (because it promises the preservation of the Christian Scriptures).

The Muslim Scriptures (Quran) “affirm the inspiration, preservation, and authority of the Christian scriptures (including the Torah and the Gospel).” [4]	The Dilemma: A. If the Torah and the Gospel are true (inspired and authoritative), then the Quran is false.  B. If the Torah and the Gospel are false (Allah did not preserve them), then the Quran is false.
“Recite what has been revealed to you from the Book of your Lord. None can change His Words, nor can you find any refuge besides Him.” Quran 18:27	The Quran promises the preservation of the Christian Scriptures, but if the Christian Scriptures have been currupted then Allah’s words can be changed, making the Quran false. But if Allah did preserve the Bible, then the Quran is still false because it contradicts the Bible.
“Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered prophet, whom they find written in what they have of the Torah and the Gospel, who enjoins upon them what is right and forbids them what is wrong and makes lawful for them the good things and prohibits for them the evil and relieves them of their burden and the shackles which were upon them. So they who have believed in him, honored him, supported him and followed the light which was sent down with him – it is those who will be the successful.” Quran 7:157	Allah commands that the “people of the Book” (Christians) should live by their book and judge the Quran by their Scriptures (Old and New Testaments).  The Christian Scriptures differ from the Quran on essential doctrines (per Dr. David Wood): God is a Trinity (Matthew 28:18-20). The Son entered creation as Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:1-4). Jesus died on the cross for sins (Mark 10:32-34, 45). Jesus rose from the dead (Luke 24; 1 Cor 15). Therefore, the Quran is false.
“So let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed in it. And those who do not judge by what Allah has revealed are ˹truly˺ the rebellious.” Quran 5:47
“Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ ‘O People of the Book! You have nothing to stand on unless you observe the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been revealed to you from your Lord.’ And your Lord’s revelation to you ˹O Prophet˺ will only cause many of them to increase in wickedness and disbelief. So do not grieve for the people who disbelieve. (Al-Ma’idah 5:68)” Quran 5:68
“And when you come across those who ridicule Our revelations, do not sit with them unless they engage in a different topic. Should Satan make you forget, then once you remember, do not ˹continue to˺ sit with the wrongdoing people.”  Quran 6:68
“He has revealed to you ˹O Prophet˺ the Book in truth, confirming what came before it, as He revealed the Torah and the Gospel previously, as a guide for people, and ˹also˺ revealed the Standard ˹to distinguish between right and wrong˺. Surely those who reject Allah’s revelations will suffer a severe torment. For Allah is Almighty, capable of punishment.” Quran 3:3-4
“If you ˹O Prophet˺ are in doubt about ˹these stories˺ that We have revealed to you, then ask those who read the Scripture before you. The truth has certainly come to you from your Lord, so do not be one of those who doubt,” Quran 10:94

Why is this important?

Every person has a view of the world (a worldview) that answers the major questions we all have: Who are we? How did we get here? What is our purpose? Why are we and this world so broken and yet so beautiful at the same time? From where did love come? How can the broken be made right? Nancy Pearcey, in her book Total Truth, explains that a worldview is like a “mental map that tells us how to navigate the world effectively (p.23). Pearcey contends that the biblical worldview (Christianity) best accounts for the truth of “total reality” and provides a “perspective for interpreting every subject matter” (p. 34).

“I am not a Christian because it works for me. I had a life prior to Christianity that seemed to be working just fine. And my life as a Christian hasn’t always been that easy.

I am a Christian because it’s true.

I’m a Christian because I want to live in a way that reflects the truth.

I’m a Christian because my high regard for truth gives me no alternative.”

J. Waner Wallace (quote source)

Nearly every major worldview (religion) today acknowledges that Jesus was a real man who performed wondrous deeds, was a good and wise teacher, and was crucified upon a Roman cross around AD 30 or 33. And while Islam denies that Jesus died on the Roman cross (Quran 4:157-158), the historical evidence says otherwise. The combined written testimonies of both Christian eyewitnesses (New Testament writers) and non-Christian historians (eg, Josephus, Pliny the Younger, Mara Bar Sarapion, Livy, and Tacitus) record this event as factual.

 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.” (1 John 4: 1-3)

When someone tests the claims of Christianity, he or she has the option to trust those claims or not. However, upon examining those assertions, one thing is for certain: wishful thinking is no longer viable. The crucifixion either happened or it didn’t. And the bodily resurrection either occurred or it didn’t. Jesus either claimed to be God, or he didn’t. To not examine these assertions thoughtfully and responsibly is to build one’s home out of the wood of apathy, with its foundation on the shifting sands of relativism.

“but test everything; hold fast what is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21)

The Three Major Monotheistic Worldviews

	Christianity	Judaism	Islam
Date Founded	AD 30 or 33	2000 BC	AD 610
Sacred Writings	Old and New Testament Scriptures (The Bible)	Torah, Tan’akh, Midrash	Qur’an, Hadith
Worldview	Monotheistic Genesis 1:1; Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Isaiah 45:5; 1 Corinthians 8:6	Monotheistic Surah Al-Ma’idah 5:73; Quran 21:22;	Monotheistic Genesis 1:1; Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Isaiah 45:5;
God	Yahweh (Trinity: Father, Son, & Holy Spirit)	Allah	Yahweh
View of Jesus	✔️The promised Messiah (fulfilling > 300 Old Testament prophecies); ✔️God; ✔️Died for the sins of humanity on a Roman cross in AD 30 or 33; ✔️Born of a virgin; ✔️Creator; ✔️Judge	✔️Prophet; ✔️Born of a virgin; ✔️Did not die on a cross; ✔️Judge; ✔️Just a man; *It should be noted that “the Ebionites were not dominant followers of Jesus nor were they proto-Muslims.”	✔️False Messiah; ✔️Just a man; ✔️Crucified by Pontius Pilate.
View of Salvation	Faith in Jesus (his work on our behalf); Grace alone. Ephesians 2:1-10; Romans 10: 9-10	Follow the law; Day of Atonement	Man is born good; Good deeds must outweigh the bad deeds.

What is the Gospel (Good News) of God

Christianity holds fast to a monotheistic worldview. This means that Christians view God as the one and only God: There is no other being like Him (Isaiah 45:5; Isaiah 46:9). Only God is the eternal, infinite, Holy, transcendent, uncreated Creator of everything (Genesis 1; Psalm 24; John 1:1-14; Colossians 1:15-20). This means that humanity is not God, nor can man ever become God. God alone is God for eternity. And humans stay humans, forever.

God is one essence or Being (what), and three coequal, coeternal Persons (who).

Christianity teaches the biblical view that God alone is self-sufficient. In other words, God is perfect, lacking nothing (Exodus 3:14; Isaiah 40:28; Isaiah 46:9; Romans 11:33. Therefore, if God were only the Father (one Person), he would need to create humanity to know love. This would demonstrate a lack within him. He would be imperfect. Wes Huff explains that “The Father has been loving the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit forever. God does not need to create to experience anything. [Instead,] creation is an outpouring of his love.” (source)

“In eternity past, the Father loved the Son and the Son loved the Father. Love is bound up in the very nature of God.” D.A. Carson (source)

This is why God, as a Trinity, best explains why God is Love (1 John 4). And Scripture (both Old and New Testaments) confirms the concept of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have been loving one another from Eternity past. There is no lack in the Godhead. There is no need to create anything to love because God is already Love. God’s love stands in stark contrast to our frail and self-focused affections. Instead, God’s love always has another’s best interest in mind. Viewing God as a Trinity, God is one essence (what) and three coequal, coeternal Persons (who), has been an essential teaching of Christianity from the very beginning.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” Jesus (Matthew 28:19)

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)

“And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ ⁶ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ⁷ ‘Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’” (Mark 2:5-7)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.

He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, *he gave* them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-14)

And while God does not need anything (even us), he created us for his good and perfect purposes. Per GotQuestions.org, “Being created for God’s pleasure does not mean humanity was made to entertain God or provide Him with amusement. God is a creative Being, and it gives Him pleasure to create. God is a personal Being, and it gives Him pleasure to have other beings He can have a genuine relationship with.” (source)

“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him.” (Colossians 1:16)

The Bible tells us that God created humanity in his image (Genesis 1:27), which does not imply that humanity is like God in our being (ontology), but instead refers to our God-given design for communication (with him), creativity (stewarding the resources given to us), relationship (resembling what God has as a Trinity), and the ability to love. God gave humanity the gift of Free Will so that love would be possible. Without the choice to love, love would not exist.

“So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

We are created by a good God. All that God does is good. This means that our design is good (Genesis 1 and 2). Included in this design is our ability to choose. We are moral creatures. We have the ability to choose God’s way (his word/character) or to choose ours. We can either follow God’s heart and do what is best for us, or follow our own hearts and do what seems right! Or as Frank Sinatra sang, “I’ll do it my way!”

Choosing our own way is straying from what is good and right. Therefore, forging our own path is choosing what is wrong and evil, for it goes against God’s guidance. When our first parents (Adam and Eve) chose to follow their own hearts instead of God’s heart, they essentially chose to pilot a good design with a less capable pilot. Because of this choice, we all have inherited a broken lens through which to operate what God has given us. Friends, we broke the world. We are the only ones to blame, not God.

“It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.” Isaiah 59:2

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23)

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12

But in his immense (charitable and steadfast) love for us, He did not leave us in this death-bound state. God had a plan. A plan set forth by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in eternity past. A boots-on-the-ground mission of God for humanity, carried out in real time and space. A plan that could not be thwarted.

Friends, Jesus demonstrated in real time and space who He was (and still is). God’s love came down and put upon Himself a human nature to fulfill His promise: rescuing humanity (Ge 3:15; Jn 2:12; 3:26). This is captured vividly in Mark’s letter. Remaining fully God, fully veiled in a human nature, Jesus fulfilled the Law of God perfectly on our behalf. Going to the cross, Jesus paid the debt you and I owe, and raising bodily in a transformed body, Jesus made a way back to God which only God could make. Jesus’s work on our behalf saves us. As pastor and author Michael Horton articulates, “He suffered as God because only God had the power to save; He suffered as man because only man owed the debt.” You see, Jesus is not a mere model of faith for Christians… Jesus is the object of our faith.

“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

“Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-6)

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.“ (Romans 5:8)

“He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. ²³ When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴ He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵ For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:22-25)

God’s plan of salvation for humanity was not just for those living in the first century, but it is for all of humanity. Every human needs to be saved from his or her sin. This plan was retroactive for those living before God’s incarnation as well as for those who would come afterwards. It’s for this very reason that God both planned and superintended the construction of the Bible so that we can all know his plan of salvation.

“ Then he (Jesus) said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ ⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, ⁴⁶ and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, ⁴⁷ and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹ And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.‘” (Luke 24:44-49)

“Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, ² just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, ³ it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, ⁴ that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” (Luke 1:1-4)

The Bible is a codex of 66 books penned by more than 40 writers on 3 different continents (Africa, Europe, and Asia), in 3 different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), with a steadfast message testifying to God as the One True God who is faithful to save. Per John Wenham, from his book Christ and the Bible, “To him (Jesus), what Scripture says, God says” (p. 17).

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.’” Exodus 17:14

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” John 14:26

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ” John 17:20

The late Voddie Baucham described the Bible in this way: “I choose to believe the Bible because it’s a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses, during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses…who report supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies, and claim their writings are divine rather than human in origin” (here is the quote source).

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4)

“For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷ For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” ¹⁸ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. ¹⁹ And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, ²⁰ knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. ²¹ For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:16-21)

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it ¹⁵ and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:14-17)

Where did Christianity get its name?

Per historian Justo L. Gonzalez, “The early Christians did not believe that they were following a new religion (worldview). They were Jews, and their main difference with the rest of Judaism was that they were convinced that the Messiah (Christ) had come, whereas other Jews continued awaiting his advent.” (p. 41) [2] Nancy Pearcey says it this way in her book Finding Truth, “The Christian message does not begin with ‘accept Christ as your Savior’; it begins with ‘in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’” (p.45).

Initially, the Romans viewed early Christians as a variant sect of Judaism. That is, until people from outside of Judaism became followers of Jesus as well. The title “Christian” was given to them by authorities in Antioch to designate them as a group (Acts 11:26; 1 Peter 4:16).

Early Christians believed that Jesus had fulfilled the prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament. The works Jesus had performed, and the worship he had received, made it clear to these early Christians that Jesus was who he claimed to be: God incarnate.

Do we have the original message?

But was this doctrine early? Or was it added into later documents, thereby corrupting the original Gospel message (implying that we do not have the original message today)?

To answer this concern head-on, let’s go to the Gospel of Mark. Mark’s letter is thought by numerous scholars to be the earliest of the four gospel accounts, recorded with “internal and external data pointing to Rome as the place of composition around the mid-to-late 50’s.” [3]

Jesus’s crucifixion most likely occurred in A.D. 30 or 33; therefore, the documentation provided by Mark is approximately 20 years later. This is incredible news when referring to ancient documents! For example, the first written copy of Caesar’s Gallic Wars had a time gap of ~950 years, with the first extant copy of Tacitus’s Annals showing up 1,000 years later! [4]

Based upon this information, we would expect the earliest eyewitness report (Peter’s testimony given to Mark) to boldly address Jesus’s identity as the long-awaited Messiah, God the Son, incarnate, in nearly every single chapter of Mark! It should also be noted that Peter was martyred at the hands of Nero (~A.D. 62) due to Peter’s testimony about Jesus’s identity. Here is a powerful example of how the events recounted by Peter in Mark’s letter parallel those of Psalm 22.

Mark 15 Psalm 22

But even earlier than Mark’s letter was a creed sung by Christians soon after Jesus’s crucifixion and bodily resurrection. Paul knew of this creed. He later penned this teachable song of the early church into his first letter to the church in Corinth (mid-50’s AD), a decade before his martyrdom by Nero (AD 64).

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)

Even atheist New Testament scholars agree that this creed was remarkably early! Friends, this was nearly 300 years before the Council of Nicaea. [5]

“Gerd Lüdemann: An atheistic NT professor at Göttingen, Lüdemann dates the elements in the tradition to the first two years after the crucifixion of Jesus, as mentioned in various sources. You can find his arguments in The Resurrection of Jesus: History, Experience, Theology (Fortress, 1994)’ [6]

What does this teachable song (creed) communicate?

✔️Jesus of Nazareth was a real man (Jewish).
✔️Jesus died for our sins.
✔️Jesus’s life, death, and bodily resurrection were promised in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament).
✔️Jesus appeared bodily to Peter, James, the Disciples, and 500+ people (at one time). These were eyewitnesses available for fact-checking.
✔️This creed was proclaimed, sung, & written down very early — within months of Jesus’s bodily resurrection in either AD 30 or 33. It existed before Paul’s conversion.

Early and Numerous

Not only are the New Testament documents early, but they are also plentiful!! Per Andreas Köstenberger and Michael Kruger in their book The Heresy of Orthodoxy, “By contrast, the New Testament manuscripts stand out as entirely unique in this regard. Although the exact count is always changing, currently we possess over 5,500 manuscripts (in whole or in part) of the New Testament in Greek alone. No other document of antiquity even comes close. Moreover, we possess thousands more manuscripts in other languages” (pgs 207-208). As Dr. Daniel Wallace often recounts, “We have an embarrassment of riches” when it comes to the number of copies we have been given!

Having numerous copies of these documents affords us the ability to compare and contrast the writing of one with the others. With thousands of copies at hand, we are thereby able to locate spelling differences as well as scrutinize whether doctrinal changes have been made. And while textual critics have located more than 400,000 differences between the 5,500 Greek manuscripts, 99% of these differences/variants were attributed to spelling differences. No significant doctrinal differences exist in these manuscripts.

On the important point of doctrinal changes (preservation), someone would have to change hundreds to thousands of copies of manuscripts in Greek, Coptic, Latin, and others, all the while keeping it all a secret. Sounds implausible. For more information regarding textual criticism, please click here or see the “The Bible is Trustworthy” section below, under “Additional Resources.”

Not only are the Scriptures early, but they are abundant! By God’s sovererign design, we have God’s authoritative words to humanity, preserved and kept for us. You can trust them!

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)

Additional Resouces

Jesus is God

“Relating to Jesus as God is also crucial to the message we take to the rest of the world. We must know whom we represent if we are to represent him faithfully. Our Christian walk, witness, and worship all must reflect a sound understanding of the identity of our Lord Jesus Christ.” [7]

Jesus Outside of the Bible

And even if someone were to ignore the eyewitness accounts recorded within the New Testament, regarding Jesus and the early church, there would still exist a “robust description of Jesus and his followers from ancient, non-Christian voices (ninety-two historical figures).” Jesus was a real man who claimed to be God through his forgiving of sins, his accepting worship, and fulfillment of prophecy (hundreds of Old Testament prophecies). [5]

The Bible is Trustworthy

Early Christian and Non-Christian: Jesus Was Worshipped

The Council of Nicaea in AD 325

1. Dr. David Wood: The Quran, the Bible, and the Islamic Dilemma (David Wood).
   
2. The Story of Christianity, Vol. 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation https://a.co/d/cJrFWCm
   
3. ESV Study Bible https://a.co/d/9leS2aa
   
4. The Biographical Test Updated, by Dr. Clay Jones: https://tinyurl.com/3sh2m243
   
5. Dr. Gary Habermas; The Early Creeds: https://youtu.be/gisWsQGiV5c?si=yI1pqeulHtg7DDAx.in/gbPB6SzV and Trustworthy, a book by Dr. Ben Shaw.
   
6. Patton, Michael. n.d. “How We Know 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 is a Very Early Creed.” Parchment and Pen. https://credohouse.org/blog/how-we-know-1-corinthians-153-7-is-a-very-early-creed
   
7. Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ https://a.co/d/i9AGhNH (p.20-23)