Reasons To Believe - Spokane Chapter

August 2005 Newsletter

Table of Contents:

Chapter Meeting: Sunday August 21, 3-5 PM.

A presentation is offered to the group, followed by discussion and questions, and we conclude with snacks and a little club business.

  • Date: August 21, 2005 (Sunday)
  • Time: 3 - 5 P.M.
  • Hosts: Dan and Cathy Bakken
  • Location: 13003 N. Miami Ct, Mead
  • Phone: 466-2693 (for directions, etc.)

President Bush Sounds Off on Intelligent Design

President Bush set off a new wave of debate over whether intelligent design should be taught alongside evolution in public schools when he gave his opinion in a roundtable discussion with Texas newspaper reporters Aug. 1

"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," he said. "You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes."

Susan Spath of the National Center for Science Education said Bush's comment that "both sides" should be taught is troubling.

"It sounds like you're being fair, but creationism is a sectarian religious viewpoint, and intelligent design is a sectarian religious viewpoint," she told The Times. "It's not fair to privilege one religious viewpoint by calling it the other side of evolution."

Focus on the Family Radio Show Features ID Advocate Steve Meyer

On August 1st and 2nd, on Focus on the Family's radio program, Dr. James Dobson interviewed Steve Meyer and John West from the Discovery Institute. The programs are entitled, "Understanding Intelligent Design." Steve Meyer is the Program Director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, and John West is the Program Associate Director.

You can listen to the programs over the internet at

http://www.oneplace.com/Ministries/Focus_on_the_Family/Archives.asp. This web site is a list of recent broadcasts. Simply scroll down to August 1st and 2nd.

Book Review: Secrets of the Koran

By Cathy Bakken

In 2003, Don Richardson, author of Peace Child and Eternity in their Hearts, published a new book called Secrets of the Koran: Revealing Insights into Islam's Holy Book. Don Richardson recently gave a seminar in Spokane based on the book.

Muslims are taught that the Koran existed eternally in heaven, and that God ordered Gabriel to recite it to the illiterate Mohammad in Mecca in the 570's AD. Divine inspiration apparently makes up for Mohammad's illiteracy - he later dictated the Koran to others who wrote it down.

Why is it important to know something about the Koran? Islam is the second largest religion in the world, and it can't be ignored. The Koran is the source of motivation used by many radical Muslims for their actions. It is also used by many lobbyists for Islam to spread Islam around the world. The Koran forbids people from doubting the Koran. Muslims are told not to ask questions or bring their intellects to bear on the Koran.

Contents of the Koran

The Koran is made up of 114 chapters called 'suras'. They are arranged not in chronological or topical order, but in order from the longest chapter. About three dozen different stories are told in the Koran, about two thirds of which come from the Bible. All these stories are told at least 8 times. The story of Noah and the Flood is repeated 28 times. The story of Abraham is repeated 24 times. And the story of the Exodus is repeated 27 times. If all the repetitions were cut out, the Koran would be about 45% shorter!

Not only that, the stories in the Koran are not comparable to the Biblical versions. The Exodus stories in the Koran do not contain any mention of the Passover sacrifice. Other errors include mixing of different stories together - Pharaoh asks Haman (a Persian official from the book of Esther) to build a tower of bricks up to heaven (the Tower of Babel). Mohammad credits King Saul in stead of Gideon for defeating the Midianites. Some of the Biblical stories in the Koran are not even consistent with each other. In some of the Koran's 27 versions of the Exodus story, Pharaoh drowns in the Red Sea, and in some versions, he survives.

According to Richardson, the Koran also has many grammatical flaws. Apparently Mohammad, when he dictated the Koran, used many pronouns, without making it clear who he was referring to. In fact, the Koran is actually criticized by some as just not making much sense at all.

The Koran does mention Jesus, and claims that he was virgin-born, sinless and a miracle worker, but it denies his deity, his atoning death and his resurrection. In fact, Muslims believe that Judas took Jesus' place on the cross. It is interesting that the Koran implies Jesus is sinless, because it records Mohammad himself praying for forgiveness of sin!

In the Hadith, another set of Mohammad's sayings that was collected a couple hundred years after he died, Mohammad says that Jesus is coming to judge the world, but his judgment will be very different from the bible's version. Jesus will command all Jews and Christians to convert to Islam. Some will obey, but millions will refuse, and Jesus will order faithful Muslims to kill them. Allah will even command the rocks to call out if a Jew or Christian is hiding behind it. When the last unrepentant Jew or Christian dies, judgment will end, and Jesus will marry six virgins, and live out the rest of his life on earth.

Muslim Responses

In response to the many repetitions, Muslim apologists simply say that the Koran can really only be understood and appreciated if read in the original Arabic. Yes, that's their response! No language but its original language is capable of expressing its profoundness. That's why so many Islamic schools are set up - to teach Arabic, so that people can read the Koran in its original.

When asked about the discrepancies between the Biblical versions of the stories and the Koran's versions, they blame Christians and Jews! They say that the Koran's versions are the correct ones. It was not until 200 years after Mohammad's death that Islamic scholars compared the Koran with the Bible. When they realized the discrepancies between the two books, it triggered a crisis of faith. They had to either admit that Mohammad was not inspired by God, or find an excuse for him. So they decided to say that the Bible had been God's first communication of the Koran to mankind, but that the Jews and Christians corrupted it. God had to re-send the Koran, to Mohammad this time. So the Koran is right, and the Bible is wrong. The Koran corrects the Bible.

And when asked about the many repetitions, Muslim apologists say that the Bible repeats stories - for example, stories are repeated in 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles, and the four gospels. However, in the Koran it is the same author - Mohammad - repeating the different versions of the stories. In the Bible, different authors share different information. Where there are disagreements, they are often minor, and small copying errors have been found to be the cause. For more information in this, see, When Skeptics Ask, by Norman Geisler, published in 1990.

The Koran and Violence

Many Muslims claim that the Koran and Islam are not violent. However, they're counting on the ignorance of their listeners. If you examine the Koran yourself, you'll find otherwise. The Koran is constantly threatening hell-fire unless the reader submits himself to Islam. There are very frightening descriptions of Hell.

Muslim apologists say that there are only 5-6 verses in the Koran advocating Jihad (holy war). They claim that these verses are actually advocating 'justifiable self-defense', not aggression. However, there are over 100 verses in the Koran that call for Jihad war and retaliation. The Koran describes the world as divided into two groups: The House of Islam (all who have submitted themselves to the Koran and to Allah and his prophet), and the House of War - everyone else.) At any time, the Koran can be used by radical Muslims to demand that all non-Muslims convert - or be killed.

Muslim apologists also say that there are war verses in the Bible as well. Consider the invasion of Canaan, where sometimes entire towns were put to the sword. However, these verses describe an earlier time in Israel's history - up to King David's time. Society had not developed to the point of separation of secular from spiritual leaders - the governing body had to do both. In 1 Chronicles 22, 7-8, spiritual and secular leadership are divided, and no longer do we see killing ordered by a king of Israel in the name of God. Mohammad brought back a system God discarded a long time ago.

Jesus never advocated war. Not one verse can be found in the New Testament encouraging Christians to take up weapons in their service to God. In Matthew 10:34, Jesus did say, "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword", but when you look at the context, he was referring to an ideological sword, that would divide people having opposite ideas about him.

The Christians who instigated and participated in the Inquisition and the Crusades did not have a New Testament basis to do those things. Christians are not authorized to serve God with the sword. In Romans, it says that secular government is ordained to wield the sword.

Conclusion

Secrets of the Koran also covers the life of Mohammad, the treatment of women under Islam, Islam and slavery, other defenses of Islam offered by Muslims and non-Muslims alike, the politically correct and thus error-filled treatment of Islam in the mainstream news, and Islam's long-range plans for the world. Richardson concludes with a chapter entitled, "What Should We Do?" It makes for fascinating reading.

Web Sites on Islam

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Contact Information:

For more information about the Reasons To Believe Spokane Chapter, contact:

  • Phone: Dan Bakken (509) 466-2693
  • Email:

  • Web Page: www.reasons.org/chapters/spokane

  • Newsletter Editor: Cathy Bakken, cgbakken@yahoo.com

Resources To Know About:

www.reasons.org: Many useful documents are available, as well as their daily new "reason to believe" from the latest scientific research.

Reasons' Web Store: Buy the books you read about here! http://store.reasons.org/

Reasons Institute: RTB's online distance learning program. Take college-level apologetics courses. Contact RTB for information at 626-335-1480.

Reasons To Believe television show: Thursday mornings, 3:00 A.M. Pacific time on TBN. An archive of recent shows is at www.reasons.org.

Creation Update Web Radio Show: http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/creation_update/Archives.asp.