David Suppiger

One reason I LOVE engaging Muslims in the public square is that many Muslim women, for cultural or religious reasons, would never approach me to talk about Jesus. But they’ll stand there and listen intently. And here’s something I’ve learned: Sometimes the greatest breakthrough for a Muslim isn’t an argument. It’s a friendship with someone outside their religious community who shows them that loving God and living a life devoted to Him is possible outside of Islam. You have to understand how powerful the mental barriers can be when you’ve spent your entire life being taught that leaving Islam means abandoning God, your family, and everything good. Sometimes just SEEING someone who loves Jesus begins to challenge everything you’ve been told. Never underestimate the power of the public square. The person God is reaching might not be the person you’re debating. It might be the one silently listening.

When I was Muslim, I never noticed what the Quran DOESN'T have. Namely, exact dates, exact places or exact titles or names you can check. Bro, when you read the Quran’s stories there is literally zero chronology, almost no geography, kings called only “Pharaoh,” events floating in no particular year. It is incredibly vague. You cannot get answers to questions like: Where did the story happen? When? Under whom? The text doesn’t say. You can’t check it, which conveniently means you can’t check it. Now, contrast that to the Bible, read the opening of Luke 3: “In the FIFTEENTH YEAR of the reign of TIBERIUS CAESAR — PONTIUS PILATE being governor of JUDEA, HEROD being tetrarch of GALILEE, his brother PHILIP tetrarch of ITUREA and TRACHONITIS, and LYSANIAS tetrarch of ABILENE, during the high priesthood of ANNAS and CAIAPHAS…” SEVEN historical anchors in one sentence. An emperor, a governor, three rulers with their exact territories, two high priests. And people HAVE checked — for centuries, often trying to break it. Skeptics mocked Luke’s “Lysanias of Abilene” as an error… UNTIL an inscription naming Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene turned up. Pilate was called legend by some… until the Pilate Stone was dug up at Caesarea in 1961 with his name and title carved in it. Luke 1:3-4 tells you why: “Having followed all things closely… that you may have CERTAINTY.” Certainty. That’s the offer of the Bible. The Quran floats above history where nothing can touch it. The Bible planted its flag in checkable ground and said: dig. I dug. It’s still standing. Praise the Lord and His mighty God-Breathed scripture.

The Quran’s Pharoah is very different from the Bible’s Pharoah. Let me show you: The Quran’s Pharaoh threatens crucifixion AND commands a tower, two anachronisms stacked into a single villain. With the Quran’s Pharoah, we saw crucifixion in Egypt is a thousand years early (Surah 7:124). Now add the tower: Pharaoh tells Haman to build a tower to the heavens (Surah 40:36), the Babel motif, from Babylon, centuries before Moses. So the Quran’s Pharaoh is a composite of anachronisms: he crucifies (Persian/Roman method), commands a Babel-tower (Babylonian motif), and employs Haman (Persian villain). Three separate historical elements, from three separate eras, layered onto one Egyptian ruler. The Bible’s Pharaoh is period-consistent: he enslaves with brick-and-mortar labor (Exodus 1:14, accurate to Egyptian construction), his magicians perform real Egyptian court sorcery (Exodus 7:11), and the plagues target specific Egyptian deities. The Bible’s Egypt reads like Egypt. The Quran’s Egypt reads like a blend of later empires. And the Bible’s Exodus is the master-picture of salvation: a lamb slain, blood on the door, death passing over, a people redeemed out of slavery through the water. Exodus 12; 1 Corinthians 5:7. Every detail the Bible kept was load-bearing for the gospel it was building. The retelling swapped the details. The Bible guarded them, because they were pointing to the Lamb.