A Muslim friend says I can't trust English translations of the Bible. What should I think?
First, as to the Bible and translations, you really can trust the translations of the Bible. There are several good ones that are readily available at any bookstore. The New King James Study Bible and the New American Standard are very good if you want a Bible that tends to be translate more "word to word, phrase to phrase" the Hebrew and Greek that the Bible was originally written in. If you want a contemporary paraphrase that still captures the original meanings you can read the highly engaging The Message.
Islam, the religion of your Moslem friend, teaches that the Koran is only authoritative in Arabic. The weakness of that view is that it means that Allah (who is not the same as the God revealed in the Bible) only communicates with those who read Arabic. The strength of the Judeo-Christian tradition is that the Word of God is made available to all people regardless of language. It is a favorite, but intellectually weak, argument of Isalm to claim that the Christian Bible is not reliable. There are some excellent Christian resposes to Islam including resources on James Garlow's web site (he is a pastor in San Diego).
Dr. A.D. Beacham, Executive Director
Church Education Ministries
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