SUMMARY

Wes Huff, a Christian apologist, responds to a question from Ryan of needgod.net during a live Q&A in Brisbane, exposing perceived inconsistencies in the Quran's reliability compared to the Bible's preservation and historical accuracy.

STATEMENTS

The Quran, compiled in 7th-century Arabia as a single book in one language, differs vastly from the Bible's multi-author, multi-century composition across continents, making direct comparisons unfair.
The Quran claims to affirm previous scriptures like the Torah and Gospel as divine revelations full of guidance and light, yet instructs Christians to judge by the Gospel, which it contradicts on core events.
Quran 4:157 denies Jesus' crucifixion, asserting it only appeared so, despite historical consensus from biblical and non-biblical sources confirming the event under Pontius Pilate.
The Quran's author appears unaware of the actual content of the Torah and Gospel, relying on 7th-century Arabian folk tales and apocryphal stories about biblical figures like Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.
Textual variants exist in Quran manuscripts, with fewer surviving copies than the Bible's, reducing confidence in perfect preservation and requiring greater reliance on early transmitters' accuracy.
The Quran does not claim to correct or declare corruption of prior scriptures; later Muslim arguments about biblical corruption arose post-translation when discrepancies became evident.
Manuscripts of the Bible, including complete New Testaments from the 4th century and earlier fragments, predate Muhammad, leaving no evidence of alternative "true" versions or widespread corruption.
If the Quran is true, its command for Christians to judge by the Gospel leads to the Quran's falsehood, creating an irresolvable dilemma for its claims.

IDEAS

Comparing the Quran's single-author origin to the Bible's diverse compilation is like pitting an apple against an entire orchard, highlighting why memorization rates differ significantly without proving superiority.
The Quran's denial of Jesus' crucifixion implicates Allah in deceiving early disciples and non-Christian historians, potentially fostering the world's largest false religion if the event historically occurred.
By affirming the Torah and Gospel as uncorrupted revelations akin to itself, the Quran inadvertently sets up a self-defeating test: using those texts to evaluate it reveals profound mismatches.
7th-century Arabian oral traditions, blending Jewish, Christian, and Zoroastrian folklore, shaped the Quran's retellings of biblical stories, leading to anachronistic errors that scholars later flagged.
The scarcity of Quran manuscripts amplifies the risk of transmission errors, unlike the Bible's abundance, which allows cross-verification and bolsters textual confidence.
Muslim claims of biblical corruption lack historical backing, as no pre-Muhammad "pure" versions exist outside known manuscripts, raising questions about divine preservation consistency.
The Quran's instruction for "people of the Gospel" to judge by it positions Christians as arbiters, yet applying the Gospel's theology dismantles the Quran's narrative on Jesus.
Post-translation realizations of discrepancies spurred corruption theories, but the Quran itself never alleges tampering, exposing a reactive defense rather than inherent truth.
Even skeptical scholars agree on Jesus' crucifixion from extra-biblical sources, making the Quran's substitution theory a bold historical revision without evidential support.
Trusting the Quran's preservation over the Bible's ignores the empty tomb's evidential power, which best explains resurrection claims through eyewitness accounts.

INSIGHTS

The Quran's endorsement of prior scriptures as reliable benchmarks undermines its own authority when those texts expose its factual and theological inaccuracies.
Divine deception, as implied by the crucifixion illusion, erodes trust in a god who would mislead followers and historians to propagate a new faith.
Manuscript quantity and age provide a litmus test for textual reliability, favoring the Bible's evidential depth over the Quran's more centralized but variant-prone tradition.
Folkloric influences on sacred texts reveal how cultural milieus can distort historical narratives, turning intended affirmations into unwitting contradictions.
Self-referential commands in religious texts can boomerang, as the Quran's call to judge by the Gospel invites scrutiny that affirms Christianity's core events.
Preservation claims falter without uniform evidence; selective trust in one revelation over others questions the consistency of divine oversight across eras.

QUOTES

"The Quran is one book written in one time 7th century in one place Arabia in one language Hajescript Arabic."
"It says that they neither, talking about the Jews, they neither crucified him nor did he die, but it was made to appear to them."
"When I do that, when I obey that, when I judge using the gospel and I use that as the lens by which I look into the Quran, I find the Quran has no understanding of the communication of what the gospel facts are historically or theologically."
"And it's not until later when this book was translated into Arabic in its entirety that Muslims started to go, 'Uhoh, we have a problem.'"
"We have complete manuscripts of the entire New Testament, the entire Bible going back to the 4th century. And then we have fragments of manuscripts going back hundreds of years before then."

HABITS

Engage in live Q&A sessions to directly address audience questions on faith reliability, fostering clarity and dialogue.
Study manuscript traditions across religions to compare preservation methods and build evidential confidence.
Memorize and reference specific verses from opposing texts to highlight contradictions during debates.
Translate and examine sacred texts in their original languages to uncover potential issues early.
Share videos and resources on resurrection evidence to encourage deeper exploration of Christian claims.

FACTS

The Bible comprises 66 books authored by nearly 40 writers over 1,600 years across three continents.
Quran 4:157 explicitly states Jews neither crucified nor killed Jesus, but it appeared so to them.
Even non-Christian historians confirm Jesus' crucifixion under Pontius Pilate in the 1st century.
Early New Testament manuscripts date to the 4th century complete, with fragments from the 2nd century.
The Quran references the Torah and Gospel as "guidance and light" sent down to Moses and Jesus.

REFERENCES

Bible (66 books, including Torah and Gospel).
Quran (multiple chapters, e.g., 4:157, 6).
Apocryphal and folk tales from 7th-century Arabia involving Abraham, Moses, Mary, Jesus, and John the Baptist.
Extra-biblical historical sources on Jesus' crucifixion.
Manuscripts of New Testament from 4th century and earlier fragments.

HOW TO APPLY

Examine religious claims by comparing a text's internal consistency with its affirmations of prior scriptures, identifying any self-contradictions.
Investigate manuscript evidence for any sacred book, prioritizing abundance and early dating to assess preservation reliability.
Test theological assertions against undisputed historical events, like Jesus' crucifixion, to evaluate a faith's evidential foundation.
Translate and study scriptures in original contexts, including cultural folklore influences, to detect anachronisms or errors.
Respond to faith challenges by directing others to resurrection resources, encouraging personal verification of key events like the empty tomb.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

The Quran's denial of verified biblical events creates a reliability crisis, affirming the Bible's superior historical and textual preservation.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Prioritize studying pre-Islamic manuscripts to counter corruption claims in interfaith discussions.
Use the Quran's own instructions to judge it by the Gospel, revealing its theological mismatches.
Explore extra-biblical sources on Jesus to build confidence in Christianity's historical core.
Share apologist videos on crucifixion evidence to address Muslim objections directly.
Abandon reliance on unverified folk tales, favoring documented traditions for spiritual truth-seeking.

MEMO

In a packed Brisbane auditorium, Christian apologist Wes Huff fielded a pointed question from Ryan of needgod.net, sparking a lively dissection of scriptural reliability. With the Bible's sprawling tapestry of 66 books—penned by dozens of authors over centuries and continents—contrasted against the Quran's singular 7th-century Arabian origin, Huff argued the comparison feels mismatched, like an orchard versus a single fruit. Yet, he pressed, the Quran's bold claims about biblical figures demand scrutiny, especially its denial in Surah 4:157 that Jesus was crucified, a fact etched in both Christian and secular histories under Pontius Pilate's watch.

Huff unraveled the Quran's deeper tangle: it hails the Torah and Gospel as divine "guidance and light," much like itself, and urges Christians to "judge by what Allah has revealed" in them. Obeying this, he noted, leads straight to contradiction—the Quran mangles core Gospel tenets, from Jesus' death to resurrection. Drawing from 7th-century Arabian lore, infused with Jewish, Christian, and even Zoroastrian tales, the text recasts Abraham, Moses, and Mary in ways that clash with original accounts. "It has no understanding of the Gospel facts," Huff said, painting the author as presumptuous, unaware of the scriptures he invoked to woo Jews and Christians.

The plot thickens with preservation myths. Muslims tout the Quran's pristine transmission, but Huff cited textual variants in its sparse manuscript tradition—far fewer than the Bible's thousands, including 4th-century codices predating Muhammad. No evidence supports claims of a "true" Torah or Gospel lost to corruption; earlier copies abound worldwide. Why, he asked, trust a God who safeguards one book but fumbles prior revelations? This dilemma, born of later Arabic translations exposing errors, has cornered apologists into retrofitting corruption theories the Quran never mentions.

Skeptics and believers alike concur on Jesus' empty tomb as history's pivot, best explained by resurrection eyewitnesses. Huff's expose, shared via FaithTalks by Emmanuel Ayoola, invites viewers to probe these tensions, urging a faith rooted in verifiable truth over illusion. In an era of clashing convictions, such onstage reckonings remind us: eternal claims deserve the sharpest examination.