Hadiths Vs. Epistles, Their reliability

Another factor regarding the New Testament and the Islamic writings is their authorship. We know that the nearer the writing was done after an event, the more accurate it is.

In the case of the gospels and the epistles, they were written as early as thirty years after Christ's resurrection. Once the disciples and apostles realized that Christ wasn't immediately returning, they began to write down all that transpired during his incarnation.

Furthermore, people copied the epistles and sent them to others who copied them. There was no central authority which dictated what went into them, apart from the Holy Spirit of course.

Luke 1:1-4 (KJV) shows exactly what was going on at that time. "Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed."

We don't know what happened to Theophilus but we do know about Timothy, Philemon, and other gospel workers who received letters from eyewitnesses of Christ's ministry. This, by the way, is what determines which books are canonical, meaning reliable as written by the apostles or people associated with them.

But the Qu'ran, supposedly the next installment of God's revelation to humanity, was gathered in a different way. The following information comes from an article on www.bible.ca. After Mohammad died, Muslims noticed that there were divergent views on what Mohammad said. So a man named Abu Bakkr  set out to piece together a standardized version of Mohammad's sayings. He also ordered the destruction of all other versions which people had. Therefore, the Qu'ran isn't exactly what Mohammad claimed to have received from the angel Gabriel.

A collection of stories of Mohammad and his companions was also compiled into volumes of books later on called the Hadith. Its purpose was to explain the Qu'ran and is held as the second-most authority on Islam by Muslims.

Having heard arguments on God and Allah being the same deity, I feel compelled to add this subject to my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? People need to know that God and Allah are polar opposites in every possible way. Only faith in the saving work of Christ will gain us access to eternal life in heaven.