When Mary travelled to visit Elizabeth in the hill country of Judah, she received a remarkable greeting. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, declared Mary blessed three times. This led Mary to speak words that have been preserved for all time, words about God’s character and his faithfulness to his promises.
Mary and Elizabeth, IRS Images, 2025
Mary’s response came from a place of deep humility. She recognized the great honour bestowed upon her, yet she never imagined anyone would worship or pray to her. Instead, her words directed all praise toward God. She rejoiced in God as her saviour, acknowledging her own need for forgiveness. The child she carried would be the one to save her eternal soul, a reality that demonstrates the mystery of God’s plan.
The holiness of God stands at the centre of Mary’s praise. God remains separate, infinitely high and exalted. His mercy extends from generation to generation to all who fear him. This promise reaches beyond any single family line to encompass everyone God calls, including those who were once far from him. The early church understood this continuation of God’s covenant promises, recognizing that salvation comes to all whom the Lord calls.
The promise given to Abraham finds its fulfilment in Mary’s son. God remained faithful to his covenant through Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, and finally to this young woman from Nazareth. The one she carried would reign forever as King of Kings. These ancient promises connect believers across all time periods into one kingdom under Christ.
Mary understood she was living in a crucial moment of redemptive history. The world would never be the same after the birth of her son. We share in the same kingdom as Abraham, Moses, David, and all the saints throughout history, joined together as one church under Jesus Christ.
In John 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that a person must be born of water and the Spirit to enter Godâs kingdom. Some have thought âwaterâ means physical birth, like when a motherâs water breaks, but that idea doesn’t seem to fit the context. Others believe it means baptism alongside spiritual birth, but I believe this also misses the meaning.
I believe the right understanding comes from the Old Testament, specifically Ezekiel 36. In that prophecy, God promises to cleanse His people, give them a new heart, and put His Spirit within them. The âwaterâ speaks of being made clean from sin, and the âSpiritâ refers to Godâs Spirit giving new life.
Jesus was pointing Nicodemus to this promise, showing that entering Godâs kingdom requires both cleansing and renewal from God.
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness, but in accordance with His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
The church today faces a crisis deeper than most people realize. Society constantly tells believers what is now acceptable, blurring the lines between right and wrong until basic truths are disputed. Those who hold to biblical standards are often labelled hateful. This presents a real problem for Christians who are called to love everyone genuinely while standing firm on God’s word.
God’s Word never changes. It remains the same as time passes.
The church will rally around someone struggling with alcohol or drugs, but when it comes to sexual sin, many act as if this area is off limits. The idea that personal choice automatically makes something right has taken hold. This is not biblical Christianity. God’s word remains clear and unchanging. One major reason revival has not come is that believers have adopted the notion that certain choices are beyond judgment. The issue is not about condemning people but about seeing Jesus clearly. When believers truly see the holy God of scripture, everything else becomes clear.
Revival begins with a desperate cry for God to tear open the heavens and come down. God is near, right beside his people, but they often fail to recognize his presence. A spiritual battle rages constantly, and believers should cry out for God to help them believe what they cannot see. Revival cannot be manufactured. It is the presence of God himself. Nothing is too powerful for God to overcome. Even someone who has lived in terrible sin for years can experience revival. God seeks broken people so he can heal them. Where there is honest dissatisfaction with one’s spiritual state, seeds of revival are being planted.
We praise Thee O God For the Son of Thy love For Jesus who have died And now is gone above Halleluiah, Thine the Glory Halleluiah, Amen Halleluiah, Thine the Glory Revive us again
Revival requires a return to godly fear. This means more than caring about what God thinks. If God fully revealed himself, mountains would bow down before him. People today are too casual about God’s holiness and his awe-inspiring power. When a church loses its respect of God, it loses its power, because its power is God himself. True revival restores the understanding that God is holy, powerful and near.
Revival does not start with the world or with politics. It depends entirely on God’s people. If they humble themselves, pray, seek his face and turn from their wicked ways, then God will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land. The problem is not what others are doing but what believers themselves have done.
Revival is the reshaping of God’s people, remaking them into vessels fit for the treasure they carry, which is God himself. Revival starts with a kneeling saint. The time to respond is now.
Living as a Christian begins with trusting in Jesus Christ as Saviour. This means believing in His death on the cross, where He gave His life and shed His blood to make forgiveness possible. Through this sacrifice, sin is paid for, and those who believe are made right with God.
When someone accepts Christ through faith, the Holy Spirit comes to live within them. The Spirit’s role is to express the life and character of Jesus through that person. As long as there is unity between the believer and Christ, there is peace. But when someone disagrees with God’s truth or chooses their own way, that peace quickly fades.
If you are looking for lasting peace, it can only be found in Jesus. He is faithful and will not let you down. Peace is not just a feeling; it comes from staying close to the One who gives it.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Before I get into this, let me state very clearly: I am a Christian and I do not promote hatred of Muslims. I also do not promote the teachings of the Qur’an. I am presenting this as something important to know when you witness to your Muslim friends who have been taught things that prevent them from listening to the Gospel.
IRS Images, 2025
A recurring theme in discussions between Muslims and Christians concerns the Muslim accusation of revelations in the Torah (TawrÄt) and the Gospel (InjÄŤl,) and Islamic claims about the integrity of those scriptures. The Qurâan repeatedly affirms the authority and reliability of the earlier books. Yet in later Islamic thought, it became increasingly common to claim that these scriptures had been textually corrupted.
1. The Qurâanic View of Previous Revelations: Every nation receives a revelation in its own language
The Qurâan teaches that God sent prophets to all peoples and that each group received its revelation in its own language. Arabs, according to this narrative, were simply the last to receive theirs.
Relevant passages include:
Qurâan 14:4 â âWe did not send any messenger except in the language of his people, so that he might make things clear for them.â
Qurâan 16:36 â âWe certainly sent a messenger to every nationâŚâ
On this basis, Jews and Christians already possessed their divinely revealed scriptures, the Torah and the Gospel, while Arabs received the Qurâan as their own scripture.
The Qurâanic expectation that Jews and Christians should judge by their own books
Several passages instruct Jews and Christians to follow the revelation already in their hands:
Qurâan 5:43 â âWhy do they come to you for judgment while they have the Torah, in which is Godâs judgment?â
Qurâan 5:47 â âLet the People of the Gospel judge by what God has revealed in it.â
Qurâan 5:68 â âYou have no ground to stand upon unless you uphold the Torah and the GospelâŚâ
These verses assume the authority and reliability of the Torah and Gospel available to these communities at the time.
Accusations of distortion refer to speech, not scripture
Christians had scriptures in Greek, Syriac, Latin, etc.
Most Arabs could not read these languages.
Thus, when disagreements arose, the charge was that Jews or Christians were misquoting or misinterpreting their scriptures, not altering the written text.
2. The Qurâanâs Argument to Jews and Christians
IRS Images, 2025
The Qurâan insists repeatedly that Jews and Christians must believe all of their scripture, not selectively, and that failure to do so leads to condemnation.
Examples include:
Qurâan 2:85 â âDo you believe in part of the Scripture and disbelieve in part? What then is the recompense for those among you who do so except disgrace in this life, and in the HereafterâŚ?â
Qurâan 2:89 â The Qurâan describes itself as confirming what the Jews already possessed.
Qurâan 2:91, 2:97, 2:101, 2:121 â These verses repeat the theme that the Qurâan confirms the earlier books and that the earlier books are to be believed in their entirety.
The Qurâanic reasoning is consistent:
Jews and Christians possess valid, divine scriptures.
The Qurâan agrees with these scriptures.
Therefore Jews and Christians should recognize the Qurâanâs prophet as legitimate because he affirms their books.
This argument depends on the assumption that the Torah and Gospel of the 7th century were intact, trustworthy revelations.
3. Why Later Muslim Thought Shifted: Expecting recognition that never came
The earliest Qurâanic passages present Jews and Christians as people who would recognize the prophet sent to the Arabs, since their books allegedly foretold him. According to this framework, they were expected to recognize him as the prophet mentioned in our scripture.
When Jewish and Christian communities in Medina did not recognize this prophetic claim, the Qurâan concludes that they were deliberately rejecting what they knew to be true, motivated by hostility rather than ignorance. This is important: The issue they claim was not presented as a problem with their scriptures, but with the people reading them.
Escalation of opposition
As Jewish and Christian groups increasingly rejected the new prophet, the Qur’anic perspective shifted:
In the Meccan period: Muslims, Jews, and Christians are grouped together as monotheists contrasted with pagans.
After encountering Jewish rejection in Medina: Qurâan 5:82 â Jews are described as the group most hostile to believers.
When Christians likewise mocked or rejected the new revelation: The Qurâanâs stance moves toward Muslims standing in opposition to all other groups unless they submit to Islamic governance (e.g., Qurâan 9:29).
The Later Doctrine of Textual Corruption
Because the Qurâanâs argument relies heavily on the authority of earlier scriptures, the persistent refusal of Jews and Christians to accept the “new prophet” became a theological problem. Over centuries, Islamic commentators increasingly adopted a different excuse: The Torah and Gospel must have been textually corrupted in the past. But surviving copies of both from Muhammad’s time do not support this.
to be clear, the Qur’an commands people to judge by the Torah and Gospel then present. There is no claim made during Muhammad’s time that the text had been corrupted. There are Qurâanic statements that earlier scriptures are âguidance and lightâ (e.g., Qurâan 5:44, 5:46). The Qurâanâs argument is that it âconfirms what is with them (Qurâan 2:89, 3:3â4, 10:94).
The Qurâan never states that the Torah or Gospel have been corrupted as texts; it only accuses individuals of distorting with their tongues.
MY CONCLUSION
The Qurâan affirms the authority and integrity of the Jewish and Christian scriptures available in the 7th century.
Modern Islamic theology commonly claims that those scriptures had already been altered.
These two claims cannot both be true.
If the scriptures were intact in the 7th century, the Qurâanic affirmation poses a challenge to later Islamic claims of textual corruption. If the scriptures were corrupted before the 7th century, then the Qurâanâs commands to âjudge byâ them, and its argument that they support the new prophet lose their force.
I stress that I am not saying all this so people can “win” a debate. I’m saying this because God loves all people. This includes Christians, Muslims and Jews. His offer of redemption is made to all people and I hope my Muslim friends will one day accept redemption. Saving faith is a gift from God, not from anything I do or that you do. But hopefully, knowing this will help some remove the blocks they have to hearing His word.
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