He didn’t. That is a misconception. I understand your point. The fact is that Hazrat Musleh Maud has repeatedly pointed out that Christianity was set on the course of deformity by St Paul in the first instance. And once the ball was set rolling in that direction, then ultimately gradually it got corrupted into a religion which is no longer recognisable as the religion of Christ, peace be upon him. This is why when we discuss this subject with Christian scholars and Christian people in general, we prove it from the Bible that Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, did not come to change the law.
He himself positively commits himself to the teachings of Torah and says he did not come to change. This is why I mention that. So all these changes that are set in the Bible… They came later on, much later. Like you see changes among the Muslims. And Islam is only 1400 years old. And Christianity is 1980 some years old. So if Islam within our sight has changed so much that one section of the Muslims declaring themselves to be Muslims believe that Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa, peace be upon him, was omniscient in character, he was omnipresent, knew everything, was present everywhere, and he also had the knowledge of the future directly.
Now this is the view of some Muslims. This is almost idolatry. And this is exactly what some other Muslims say. For instance Wahabis and Devbandis and Ahl-e-Hadith, they say that whoever says such a thing about our Prophet, peace be upon him, is not only pakka kafir, he is one of the prime idolaters. He belongs to the idolatry of extreme form. So both these are Muslims. Under the title Islam, this is their view. These are their divergent views. So can you recognize one Islam knowing one? Can you recognize the same Islam in the other? Obviously the differences are fundamental.
So this is what I mean. It is the time factor which changes religions. In fact, changes people and their views about religion. When the reformers come, they bring them back to the original source of purity. So this is what the earlier Masih tried to do, and this is what we are doing under the guidance of Hazrat Musa, peace be upon him. So if we can’t believe the Bible, the New Testament anyway, for whatever it says about Jesus Christ… No, no, I don’t say that. It is a matter of investigation and choice and careful study. The New Testament should not be rejected.
In fact, when you study the New Testament, you will find enough evidence to support your view. So why should you reject the New Testament? Instead of that, you choose such verses of the New Testament and pick out such arguments from the New Testament as would support the view put forward by Hazrat Musa, peace be upon him, and prove to the Christians that even from your own book, this is the picture of true Christianity which emerges. So anything contradictory to that is just your wrong interpretation. This is how we preach to Christians.
