When Muslims (or others) demand an answer to a question like this it's usually treated like a 'grenade' that Christians cannot handle (and sometimes they're right). It's usually because they heard it in the mosque, or from their friends, or from a video, or even just by googling something like "Questions that Christians can't answer." Seldom do they ask the question sincerely and thoughtfully because they really want to understand the subject (but not never). Rarely do they know the context of a "gotcha" verse or have the patience for it. But the Christian must assert it and demand their hearing of it! And sometimes if they will not hear it then they should also hear bluntly, "If you won't consider the whole passage, then you don't deserve any answer. You only want to trap me, and I don't have time for that" (or something to that effect.) It's a skill. But some may be willing to hear the fuller passage, and then you should take advantage of that. Either way, you and I need to think through the question intelligently and get our minds around it. It's a real question based on a real verse in Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32.

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows [εἴδω], not even the 

angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." (ESV) 

Dear Ozair,

My name is Dr. Peter Payne. More than three years ago Scott Cherry passed along to me your paper on rape and pedophilia in the Bible. At that time I wrote this letter for you which I asked him to share with you. ...Did he? Either way, he has only now decided to post it here. In two or three parts I will respond to what you have said. What I had to say about point #1 below turned out to be long enough that I decided to send it by itself and send you my responses to the rest of your paper in a couple of subsequent emails. Since your paper focuses on the question of whether the Old Testament condones rape and pedophilia, I won’t respond here to why a good God would at times command the killing of everyone found in a town, and at times command command what initially may seem like genocide. (I could address that topic at another time.) Since early in your paper you raise the question of the character of God in the Old Testament, that is what I will address in this email. In a subsequent piece I will address texts you cite in support of your claim that the OT God condones rape and pedophilia. *All biblical quotations will be from the English Standard Version translation.

This riveting and thought-provoking piece sheds fresh perspective on a Christian belief that has been fiercely opposed by Muslims for 1400 years. Like every good mystery, this story traces a series of clues spanning the entire Bible and concludes with 1 Timothy 3:16:

“Without question, this is the great mystery of our faith: Christ was revealed in a human body and vindicated by the Spirit. He was seen by angels and announced to the nations. He was believed in throughout the world and taken to heaven in glory.”

Although there are multiple human authors of Hebrew scripture¹ (the Torah+Tanakh, or Old Testament) they are secondary to God. Only humans write, so everything that ever has been written was penned by human authors. This includes all the books of the Bible (Tanakh + New Testament), the Talmud, the Hindu Vedas, the Bhagavad Gita, the Qur’an, and every other purported holy book. According to its own witness, the primary author of biblical Scripture is always God himself. In its multiple genres, all the scriptures of the Tanakh are regarded within itself as divine revelation and recorded as Holy Scripture, the LORD’s words and thoughts.