The book is What Every Christian Should Know About the Quran by James White. It was originally published in 2013 by Bethany House Publishers. I read the 2013 paperback edition. I read it in October of 2023.
The title is the thesis of the book. Information to Christian about Islam and the Quran.
I read this book because Hamas invaded Israel on October 7th and I want to learn more about Islam. It’s important for Christians to know how to argue against the death cult that is Islam. I’ve read several of James White’s books. He’s one of my favorite apologists. His book The Sovereign Grace of God is what first lead me to understand the doctrines of grace.
White is an accomplished apologist. He frequently participates in formal debates with Atheists, Mormons, and Muslims. I know that he’s studied Islam extensively from a Christian worldview. In this book, White points out the contradictions and inconsistencies in the Quran.
My main takeaway is that Muslims and Christians absolutely do not worship the same God. Allah is not the God of the Bible. Also, Islam has no idea what Christianity even teaches.
Reading this book and seeing all the inconsistencies with Islam and the Quran, it made me think about all the footage of insane Muslims spitting and biting Israeli flags. It also made me think of the Tom Holland book I read recently, In the Shadow of the Sword. Holland also points out that there is no consistency in the Quran or in the Muslim religion. It is not a work of history. Islam is barbaric and ignorant. It’s a culture and religion that has had no major reformation or enlightenment. Islam is a picture of what the world was like before Christ came and changed everything.
I was surprised to see that Muslims believe that Jesus did not die, but was taken up into heaven alive. The Quran obviously denies the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Christianity, but even their prophet Muhamed is admittedly dead. Why wouldn’t they believe that he was taken up without dying? Jesus seems more powerful or favored than Muhamed.
It was confusing that the Quran talks of the day of Jesus death and resurrection, and then denies that he died.
It’s clear that Muslims do not know what Christians believe. They think the trinity is God the Father, Jesus the Son, and Mary the mother. They say “say not three!” in reference to this false trinity.
“Nowhere does the Qur’an ever give Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or even Allah, Son, and Spirit (the Holy Spirit in the Qur’an being the angel Gabriel, or Jabril).” (p99)
I learned a lot from this book. I want to read the Quran now, mostly just so I can say I’ve done the reading. White is a great church historian. I wished he talked more about Islamic history in general.
I’d recommend this book to Christians interested in learning more about how to share the gospel with Muslims. It’s a quick and fascinating read.
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Notable Quotables
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Then Gabriel came to the apostle and said, “What have you done, Muhammad? You have read to these people something I did not bring you from God and you have said what He did not say to you.”
“Muhammad has repented of what he said about the position of your gods with Allah, altered it and brought something else. “6
Why would these very early sources, vital for our understanding of claims concerning Muhammad in so many other areas, record such an incident if it were not true? And, in this case, there is a telltale sign found
…elsewhere that the event was in fact based in the earliest stories about his life. (p28-29)
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Though the Qur’an had limited legal wives to four (Surah 4:3), it was not long before a new revelation allowed him, as the Prophet, to exceed this number.
Without question, the harshest denunciations of Muhammad have been based upon his marriage to the young Aisha, who was betrothed at age six. Islamic sources are almost unanimous in saying the marriage was consummated at age nine (one major source saying ten). (p36-37)
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Imam Malik was asked concerning one who says that the Qur’an is created, what should be done to him? He replied, “He should be forced to repent, and if he refuses, then his head should be cut off!” Imam ash-Shaafi’ee stated, “Whoever states that the Qur’an is created is a disbeliever.” (p56)
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The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a Messenger of Allah, and His word which He conveyed to Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in Allah and His Messengers, and say not “three.” Cease, [it is] better for you! Allah is only One God. Far is it removed from His transcendence that He should have a son, when His is all that the heavens and all that the earth contain. And Allah is sufficient as [their] Custodian. (Surah 4:167-171)
If the Qur’anic argument is that the “three” in view are Allah, Mary, and Jesus, it is easy to see how such a triad would violate any meaningful concept of monotheism! But if that is the Qur’an’s view, we must conclude that its author was exceedingly confused as to true Christian belief. (p65 and 82)
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For Christians, the deity of Jesus, the eternal relationship of the Father and the Son, and the personality and deity of the Spirit are not side issues that can be relegated to the realm of “excesses.” These define the object of our worship; they define our relationship to God. In light of this, while the referent of God may be similar, it cannot be seriously maintained that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. (p72)
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Nowhere does the Qur’an ever give Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or even Allah, Son, and Spirit (the Holy Spirit in the Qur’an being the angel Gabriel, or Jabril). (p99)
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33. “So peace be upon me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life [again].”
The text (v. 33) uses the very same language Surah 19:15 uses of John the Baptist. Why is this relevant? Because Muslims, based on a particular interpretation of Surah 4:157, deny that Jesus died on the cross. In fact, most believe He was taken up to heaven without dying at all. So when Jesus is quoted, speaking of the day of His death in the very same language as John the Baptist, who died (he was beheaded), it is difficult to harmonize the divergent statements. (p107)
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66. If they had observed [practiced] the Torah and the Gospel and that which was sent down to them from their Lord,
Once again, how could the People of the Book, Jew or Gentile, observe or practice the Torah and the Gospel if both books were corrupted by the time of Muhammad? (p188)
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The New Testament illustrates the concept of multi-focality: multiple authors, writing at multiple times to multiple audiences, produced a text that from the start, by definition, could never be under any institution or single group’s control. They were so scattered that once the epistles of Paul, Peter, and John and the Gospels began to circulate, it would have been impossible to gather them all up and make changes. There is simply no possibility of a wholesale editing process whereby doctrines could be taken out of the whole corpus or other concepts read into the text. Alter a manuscript, or even a few manuscripts, in one geographical area and those will be seen to differ when compared with earlier manuscripts from another area. One would have to alter all manuscripts completely to be able to make any major textual change, and no one in the ancient world was ever in a position to pull that off. (p252)
Solomon White 
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