I wouldn't disagree that a reasonable assurance that no changes have occurred, as certainly seems to be the case with the Qur'an, is significant. As a 'fundamental principle' though, no, for several reasons.
Firstly, there would need to be reason to suspect that message has been significantly changed. Taking Christianity as the obvious example, I see no reason to believe it has. Sure, I've seen many lists of 'errors' in the Bible, but none are of any real importance to the actual messages within it.
Secondly, such criticism seems restricted to the Bible for no particular reason I can see. I don't see anybody suggesting that we should ignore Plato and Aristotle because of a few copying errors somewhere along the line. Looking back to your earlier thread the 'authority' of such people is not diminished in the slightest and yet there is little doubt similar errors would have occurred.
Thirdly, Christians might argue perfectly reasonably from a theist perspective that for God, being omnipotent, ensuring that any changes did not affect anything important would be trivial.
And fourthly, that although there is certainly little doubt that the Bible has been changed (albeit in ways that are probably not overly important) there are few Christians unduly perturbed by the fact, hence the absence of any such doubts cannot be 'fundamental' to belief and faith.
None of the other false Gospels were destroyed, each can decide for themselves what to believe. This is not the case with the Quran. Uthmann burned Qurans and we have no idea what was in the other Qurans- just that they needed to be burned.
Skye they are the Gospels that were available to Mohammad and that are spoken of in the Quran. Philippians validates existance of the other earlier New Testament texts.
I see something implicit in the above statement that I, as a Christian, do not agree correctly represents Christianity. Namely the above seems to imply that the message of Christianity is one that Jesus would have received from God to give to humankind. That might be Islam's understanding of the Injeel, but it is not Christianity's understanding of the Gospel.Jesus did recieve a Message from God, some call it the Gospel, good news, also known as 'The Kingdom of heaven' and so forth, but the difference is the format, i.e. the way the message was given and preserved, in which you are right, Christians now claim different to Muslims.
For example, if you ask a Christian, has the message of Christianity been preserved they will exclaim 'yes!' Similarly for a Muslim.
That would be true for some religions, but I do not believe that it holds true for all. Those that purport to primary be a message from God require this sort of assurance. Others may be satisfied in establishing merely that God exists and then searching for his revelation. They would not necessarily feel the same need for God's words as they would simply to point to items that they would assert manifests God's presence. Of course you might counter that such a religion isn't really from God, but directed to God and you would be right about that. But both are equally religions, and other than one's apriori assumptions where contradictions between them might occur, one cannot "prove" one more right or wrong than the other.Is it important that the Message that one believes may be from God, is without any substantiated doubt, intact? Meaning, that we have no doubt, i.e. we are totally sure, due to a high probability, that the message of God has been kept intact. Which neccesitates that if there is doubt about the message's preservation one would then be justified in not beliving the religion to be from God.
Though we know that we don't have the original autographs, we see such consistency within the documents that we do have that we feel confident to their verasity. Further, for a book so large, written over such an extended period of time and with so many different human writers reflecting a number of different cultures to yet have the over-arching themes of redemption and deliverance remain so central and harmonious with each other, it tends to cause one to look past existing divergencies as being insignificant in the light of the whole.IAnd fourthly, that although there is certainly little doubt that the Bible has been changed (albeit in ways that are probably not overly important) there are few Christians unduly perturbed by the fact, hence the absence of any such doubts cannot be 'fundamental' to belief and faith.
Who chose Uthmann to be in charge with destroying the other Qurans?
I see something implicit in the above statement that I, as a Christian, do not agree correctly represents Christianity. Namely the above seems to imply that the message of Christianity is one that Jesus would have received from God to give to humankind. That might be Islam's understanding of the Injeel, but it is not Christianity's understanding of the Gospel.
The Gospel message is NOT a message from God delivered by Jesus. Rather it is a message about God's love and plan for humankind as exemplified in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. You can have a verbatim record of everything Jesus said, and if you don't include what he did you don't have the Gospel. Conversely, if you get all of what Jesus said wrong, but you properly record and interpret what he did, then you still have the heart of the Gospel message.
That would be true for some religions, but I do not believe that it holds true for all. Those that purport to primary be a message from God require this sort of assurance. Others may be satisfied in establishing merely that God exists and then searching for his revelation. They would not necessarily feel the same need for God's words as they would simply to point to items that they would assert manifests God's presence. Of course you might counter that such a religion isn't really from God, but directed to God and you would be right about that. But both are equally religions, and other than one's apriori assumptions where contradictions between them might occur, one cannot "prove" one more right or wrong than the other.
I also thought of exactly what Trumble said when I read your fundamental principle:Though we know that we don't have the original autographs, we see such consistency within the documents that we do have that we feel confident to their verasity. Further, for a book so large, written over such an extended period of time and with so many different human writers reflecting a number of different cultures to yet have the over-arching themes of redemption and deliverance remain so central and harmonious with each other, it tends to cause one to look past existing divergencies as being insignificant in the light of the whole.
According to the following the verses, Holy Scripture was already available during Pauls life:
1 Corinthians 15
The Resurrection of Christ
1Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.
Are you saying that - 3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, Is in the Old Testament?
Edit: Let us also get back on topic, do you think a Just God would allow his Message to be corrupted and then punish people because they refrained from praticing it out of caution?
A loving GOD would not do this - How are people to find Him if the road to Him, His Scripture is not preserved?
Al Habeshci- Jesus did not live during the time of the Old Testament, only the New Testament times. Paul is referring to the Gospel as Scripture.
Who is Baitul 'Izzi"
Why would GOD do such a thing?
A loving GOD would not do this - How are people to find Him if the road to Him, His Scripture is not preserved?
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