I have posted WM 167: Why do Muslim Apologists love the Modern Critical Text? Listen above. Notes below:
Those of us who defend the traditional text of Scripture have
often been accused, especially by one PIA, of having no meaningful apologetic.
We are told that we cannot use our approach “in the real world” while at the same
time we are told that in order to meaningfully speak with non-Christians, and
especially Muslims, that we must embrace the modern approach to text criticism.
We must convince Muslims that the text of the Bible, though it has supposedly been
corrupted, it can be reconstructed, and its past corruptions do not affect the
Bible’s authority and reliability.
Defenders of the TR have pointed out that such an approach
is, in fact, a capitulation to Muslims who gleefully embrace scholarly
rejections of the Bible’s textual integrity and abandonment of the doctrine of providential
preservation of the text.
We all know there is one apologist who quite frequently humble-brags
(humble-boasts) about being invited to give presentations on the text of the
Bible before Muslim audiences and within Muslim mosques, where he concedes its
textual corruption. He never seems to stop and wonder why it is that the
Muslims are so eager to have him “dialogue” with them, or why they so often post
extended clips of his teaching (not taken out of context but given in full
context) to their own apologetic social media sites.
Along these lines, I would commend to you the CB Roundtable #3 from May 26, 2020 in which Pastor Pooyan did a presentation on the TR and
Apologetics, explaining that in fact it is the traditional text that is most
useful in doing evangelism with non-believers and with those who Muslim
backgrounds, in particular. One of the things that stood out was that Pastor
Pooyan noted that the ministry of religion in the Iranian government is actively
involved in translating scholarly materials from the West (including works of
prominent evangelicals) on the text of the Bible. Why are they doing this? Not
to promote Christianity but to undermine it and to further the Muslim narrative
on the hopeless corruption of Scripture.
So, let’s move on to the first clip. This was sent to me a couple
of months ago by a friend. It is a video from the Muslim apologist Adnan Rashid
from a 4/17/20 titled “Will David Wood Accept Islam?” Start at the 15:22 mark.
Notice how Rashid draws on Bruce Metzger, Bart Ehrman, as well
as Michael J. Kruger to make his point.
Next, let’s go to a more recent clip. This comes from an
online debate between the Eastern Orthodox internet philosopher Jay Dyer (perhaps
POIA, Popular Orthodox Internet Apologist) in a debate with Shabir Ally from June 6, 2020 where the topic was “Is
Jesus God Incarnate?” What is interesting here is the fact that while they were
debating the Trinity, Ally drew upon James White as an ally to disregard the CJ.
Listen to 50:45-54:30.
So, “Why do Muslim Apologists love the modern critical text
of the Bible and those who promote it?”
Sadly, the answer is because it fits their narrative of the
Christian Scriptures as being textually corrupted, hopelessly confused, and not
providentially preserved by God?”
It is, in fact, only those who hold to the historic Protestant
view of the Bible as “kept pure in all ages” who will be able to offer a meaningful
apologetic to Muslim and other skeptics.
We are living in some strange times. It is sad to see historical
monuments begin torn down without regard for the history and traditions which
undergird them. And it is equally sad to see a literary monument come under
withering attack (since the nineteenth century) and unrelenting attempts
to topple it.
As noted here more than once, such attacks seem to continue to
be resisted and frustrated by at least a remnant. To what do we attribute the
tenacity of the traditional text? Ignorance? Naivete? Threadbare tradition? Perhaps,
but there is another explanation for this tenacity. Perhaps it continues to
persist, because it is the Word of God.
JTR
