(with thanks to Mohamed El Halaby for the hadith)

The prestigious Oxford Bible Commentary on the Gospels (published by Oxford University Press) is clear that the author of Matthew’s gospel deliberately changed the words of Jesus in the earlier gospel of Mark because they were “embarrassing” to him.

Why were they embarrassing?

Here is the story in the earliest gospel to be written, the gospel of Mark:

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good?No one is good but God alone.”

The Oxford Bible Commentary on the Gospels comments (on page 113):

The evident embarrassment caused to later Christians (Matthew!) by the story in which Jesus appears implicitly to reject the notion that he himself is ‘good’ [in Mark 10:17] suggests that we have here a…

Yes, our very own Ken has some handy tips for wannabe missionaries who want to convert Muslims. This is a screenshot from an article by him on his employers website (here).

In a long rambling article Ken shares how he came to be an effective missionary to Muslims.

His first attempt at worming his way into Muslim company involved asking some local Muslims if he could join their football team. He reports gleefully:

Sure enough, they accepted me and also later made some interesting comments that I was the first “white guy” that wanted to play soccer with them.

But he didn’t tell them the real reason for his interest in them. Ken was deceiving them. He was not just some nice dude wanting to chill with some Muslims.

No.

He had a hidden agenda. He was an evangelical missionary out to convert them.

Another “method” Ken used…

Kaleef K. Karim

The Muslims in Makkah lived in harsh times. Apostating from the religion of their forefathers was a taboo in the 7th-century Arabia. Prophet Muhammad’s (p) following increased day by day. The Quraysh seen this as a threat. Instead of challenging Prophet Muhammed’s beliefs, they were busy persecuting his people. The early converts of Islam were tortured, and murdered cold bloodily. The early converts did not have a easy time by the Qurayshi polytheists. Historical sources attest to this. Contemporary critics of Islam try to paint a different picture to what history tells us. Not being able to argue the fact that Qurayshi polytheists did indeed persecute and murder Muslims in the Makkan period, they justify it by saying that the Muslims were the first aggressors. According to them, the Muslims deserved whatever the Quraysh did to them. What evidence do they have for this? It is…