Pastor Peter Simpson was proclaiming the life-transforming message of Jesus Christ crucified for sinners in the centre of Aylesbury on August 10th.
A young Muslim man came up to him and engaged in a long conversation with him, in particular arguing against the trustworthiness of the Christian Scriptures, claiming that they had been frequently altered.
The preacher endeavoured to point out in response to this claim that it is in fact to contradict the Qur’an itself, which affirms, not only the original inspiration of the Torah (the law of Moses – the first 5 books of the Bible) and the Gospel (the four gospels), but also their preservation and authority.
For example, Surah 7:157 refers to the Christian Scriptures as authoritatively speaking of Mohammed in the Law and the Gospel of the Jews and Christians . Whilst of course there is no such reference to Mohammed in the Bible, the point is that the Qur’an itself f in the 7th century AD, long after the New Testament was completed, thereby speaks of the Christian Bible as being totally reliable and as having authority. So when was it supposed to have been corrupted ?
Furthermore, “using the early church fathers’ quotes (from the first and second centuries AD), the entire New Testament can be pieced together, with the exception of 20-27 verses, most of them from 3 John” . The main fathers are Clement (c95AD, Ignatius 107AD and Polycarp c110AD).
Surah 3:3 and 18:27 of the Qur’an state concerning Allah, “He sent down the Law and the Gospel … None can change His words”. If none can change Allah’s words, then the Islamic claim that the Christian Bible has been changed and corrupted is a denial of the Qur’an’s own teaching.
Pastor Simpson also told the young Muslim that the third caliph Uthman (Mohammed’s son-in-law) carried out the destruction of various competing texts of the Quran, so that he could thereafter issue a single standardised text. So this shows that there is real uncertainty about what is the original text of the Muslims’ holy book . There are no original manuscripts of the Quran available, not even of Uthman’s standardised version.
The conversation with the young antagonist was thankfully polite and amicable, but may the Lord open the heart of this Muslim, so deeply hardened against receiving the truths of God’s inerrant word in Scripture.
The preacher also entered into conversation with a young man who was brought up in a Christian environment and who once attended a Baptist church, but who now rejected the faith. He was very pro-LGBT and was shocked by the poster on display which reads, ‘WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SOCIETY IGNORES THE BIBLE? Drug-taking, knife crime, shoplifting, Sunday’s special character ignored, forced acceptance of LGBT agenda, abortion, gender confusion, needless climate change fears, NATIONAL DECLINE’. The young man (almost inevitably) took particular exception to the LGBT reference, reacting as if he could not believe that in this enlightened day and age any reasonable person could possibly object to the legitimacy of the homosexual lifestyle.
The opponent stated that the Bible was not clear at all on this issue, and he claimed that Leviticus 18:22 was forbidding paedophilia, not homosexual relationships. This verse reads, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination”. The young opponent argued that the word rendered ‘mankind’ meant only boys, but this is the very word used in Genesis 1:27 to describe the creation of the fully grown adults Adam and Eve : “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27). Leviticus 27:3 speaks of “the male from 20 years old even unto 60 years old”. It is the same Hebrew word as in Leviticus 18:22. Pastor Simpson was able to call up the Hebrew text on his phone, and make this point about the meaning of the word to the young man. He did not admit to being convinced, but may the Lord work upon the heart of this precious soul upon whom, it appears, the gospel may already have issued a strong challenge in times past.
At one stage someone who was dressed as a woman came up to the preacher also complaining about the poster quoted above, this time about just two words on it, namely ‘gender confusion’. The person was overflowing with hostility and said to Pastor Simpson, “I am pleased that you are so old, because you will soon be dead”. He then proceeded to kick over the stand on which the poster was placed. He later came back making a vulgar gesture with his finger. Pastor Simpson asked if he would engage in such a public sign of contempt, if the preacher were a Muslim?
Those who on Biblical grounds stand up for marriage between one man and one woman only and on God’s created order of just two immutable biological genders are often accused of ‘hate speech’. Do the opposers of Bible-believing Christians and those at the forefront of militant LGBT activism ever think about their own attitudes in this regard, when anyone dares to stand up to them?
May this angry person and all other rejecters of the gospel come to realise that our stand for Biblical truth in the public square is actually out of a motivation of love for our neighbour, for the God whom we serve “is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).