Reminder to People of the Book

Anthropomorpic Christian Theology

2009-08-11T16:18:00.000-07:00

Trinity defined

A basic Definition:

“Within the one Being that is God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal Persons, namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”

“Being and Person are different thing: Being is what makes something what it is, Person is what makes someone who they are.”

The most common misunderstanding:

“The Trinity is not saying that there are three Beings who are one Being, nor three Persons who are one Person. One Being, eternal and unlimited, shared by three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

- Dr. James White

Begotten Son of God defined

The Meaning of “Only Begotten”:

This is the proclamation formulated by the Nicene Council in the following way:

“Begotten not made. Of one essence with the Father also called the Word or Logos of God, before His incarnation. There never was a time when there was no Son of God. Always “exists” as uncreated, eternal, and divine.”

[R. Alan Cole, “Begotten,” The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976), p. 510.]

Incarnation:

⁶For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. - Isaiah 9 (King James Version)

¹⁴And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.- John 1: 14 (King James Version)

⁶Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

⁷But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: - Philippians 2:6-7 (King James Version)

³⁵And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. - Luke 1 (King James Version)

The Incarnation refers to the moment Jesus was conceived within Mary’s womb.

For a matter of fact, textually, it was Mary who beget Jesus.

What about the Father?

After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, according to Genesis, "they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD GOD among the trees of the garden." Hiding may sound like a naive strategy to deploy against the omniscient God we know today, but apparently he wasn't omniscient back then. For "the LORD GOD called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" - [Robert Wright's 'The Evolution of God']

So there's a difference between labeling (Dr. James White's definition) and content (scriptures).

Moses is said to have written the Torah; but when Moses died, who wrote Torah's Deuteronomy 34?

2009-08-05T01:19:00.000-07:00

^{DEUTERONOMY 34}

¹And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan,

²And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea,

³And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.

⁴And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.

⁵So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.

⁶And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.

⁷And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.

⁸And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.

⁹And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses.

¹⁰And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,

¹¹In all the signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land,

¹²And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.

KJV

"Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord - Isaiah 1: 18

2009-08-03T17:22:00.000-07:00

In the New Testament, Jesus said, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul ...' Mark 12: 29 ...

And the Lord said unto me ... ["I will raise them up a Prophet from among their own brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him." - Deuteronomy 18:18]- Was not Muhammad s.a.w., the foretold Prophet, an Arab, a brethren of the Jews? When Muhammad s.a.w. was revealed with the Holy Qur'an (God's words), he unveiled the mortality of Christ. They (the Jews and Christians) remembered Isaac but entirely forgot Ishmael.

³⁰I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. – [John 5]

³¹If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. – [John 5]

^{28 …} for my Father is greater than I. – [John 14]

¹⁶ Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. - [John 13]

²⁰I with the finger of God cast out devils, ... – [Luke 11]

²⁸I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, … - [Matthew 12]

⁷ Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter [was it not Muhammad?] will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

⁸ And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

9 Of sin, because they believe not on me;

¹⁰ Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;

¹¹ Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

¹² I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

¹³ How be it when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

¹⁴He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. - [John 16]

¹² And the book (was it not the Qoran) is delivered to him that is not learned (was it not Muhammad?), saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. - [Isaiah 29]

111 And they claim, "None shall ever enter paradise unless he be a Jew" - or, "a Christian". Such are their wishful beliefs! Say: "Produce an evidence for what you are claiming, if what you say is true!"

112 Yea, indeed: everyone who surrenders his whole being unto God, and is a doer of good withal, shall have his reward with his Sustainer; and all such need have no fear, and neither shall they grieve.

113 Furthermore, the Jews assert, "The Christians have no valid ground for their beliefs," while the Christians assert, "The Jews have no valid ground for their beliefs" - and both quote the divine writ! Even thus, like unto what they say, have [always] spoken those who were devoid of knowledge; but it is God who will judge between them on Resurrection Day with regard to all on which they were wont to differ. - Al-Qur'an, Surah Al-Baqarah, 2: 111-113

116 'And lo! Allah say: 'O Jesus, son of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, 'Worship me and my mother as deities beside God'?' Jesus answered: 'Limitless art Thou in Thy glory! It would not have been possible for me to say what I had no right to say. Thou knowest all that is within myself, whereas I know not what is in Thy Self.' - Al-Qur'an, Surah Al-Maidah, 5: 116

72 Indeed the truth deny they who say, 'Behold, God is the Christ, son of Mary - seeing that the Christ [himself] said, 'O children of Israel! Worshiop God [alone], who is my Sustainer.' Behold, whoever ascribe divinity to any being beside God, unto him will God deny paradise, and his goal shall be the fire; and such evildoers will have none to succour them.

73 Indeed the truth deny they who say, 'Behold, God is the third of a trinity' - seeing that there is no deity whatever save the One God. And unless they desist from this assertion, grievous suffering is bound to befall such of them as are bent on denying the truth.

74 Will they [Christians] not, then, turn towards God [the One] in repentance, and ask His forgiveness? For God is much forgiving, a dispenser of grace.

75 The Christ, son of Mary, was but an apostle: all [other] apostles had passed away before him; and his mother was one never deviated from truth; and they both ate food [like other mortals]. Behold how clear We make these massages unto them [Christians]: and then behold how perverted are their minds!

76 Say: 'O followers of the Gospel! Do not overstep [such as apotheosising Jesus] the bounds [of truth] in your religious beliefs; and do not follow the errant views of people who have gone astray aforetime, and have led many [others] astray, and are still straying from the right path. - Al-Qur'an, Surah Al-Maidah, 5: 72-76

135 And they say, "Be Jews" - or, "Christians" - "and you shall be on the right path." Say: "Nay, but [ours is] the creed of Abraham, who turned away from all that is false, and was not of those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God."

136 Say: "We believe in God, and that which has been bestowed from on high upon us, and that which has been bestowed upon Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and their descendants, and that which has been vouchsafed to Moses and Jesus, and which has been vouchsafed to all the [other] prophets by their Sustainer: we make no distinction between any of them. And it is unto Him that we surrender ourselves."

137 And if [others] come to believe in the way you believe, they will indeed find themselves on the right path; and if they turn away, it is but they who will be deeply in the wrong, and God will protect thee from them: for He alone is all-hearing, all-knowing."

138 [Say: "Our life takes its] hue from God! And who could give a better hue [to life] than God, if we but truly worship him?"

139 Say [to the Jews and the Christians]: "Do you argue with us about God? But He is our Sustainer as well as your Sustainer - and unto us shall be accounted our deeds, and unto you, your deeds; and it is unto Him alone that we devote ourselves."

140 "Do you claim that Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and their descendants were 'Jews' or 'Christians'?" Say: "Do you know more than God does? and who could be more wicked than he who suppresses a testimony given to him by God?" Yet God is not unmindful of what you do."

141 "Now those people have passed away; unto them shall be accounted what they have earned, and unto you, what you have earned; and you will not be judged on the strength of what they did." - Al-Qur'an, Surah Al-Baqarah, 2: 135-141

59 Verily, in the sight of God, the nature of Jesus is as the nature of Adam, whom He created out of dust and then said unto him, "Be" - and he is.

60 [This is] the truth from thy Sustainer; be not, then, among the doubters!

61 And if anyone should argue with thee about this [truth] after all the knowledge that has come unto thee, say: "Come! Let us summon our sons and your sons, and our women and your women, and ourselves and yourselves; and then let us pray [together] humbly and ardently, and let us invoke god's curse upon those [of us] who are telling lie." - Al-Qur'an, Surah Ali Imran, 3: 59-61

6 And remember, Jesus, the son of Mary, said: "O Children of Israel! I am the apostle of God (sent) to you, confirming the law (which came) before me, and giving Glad Tidings of an Apostle to come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad." But when he came to them with clear Signs, they said, "This is evident sorcery!" - Al-Qur'an, Surah Al-Saff, 61: 6

88 They say: "(God) Most Gracious has begotten a son!"

89 Indeed ye have put forth a thing most monstrous!

90 At it the skies are ready to burst, the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin,

91 That they should invoke a son for (God) Most Gracious,

92 For it is not consonant with the majesty of (God) Most Gracious that He should beget a son. - Al-Qur'an, Surah Maryam, 19: 88-92

171 O People of the Book! Commit no extreme in your religion: Nor say of God aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of mary was (no more than) an apostle of God, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in God and His apostles. Say not "Trinity": desist: it will be better for you: for God is one God: Glory be to Him: (far exalted is He) above having a son. To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth. And enough is God a s Dispenser of affairs - Al-Qur'an, Surah An-Nisa, 4: 171

64 Say: " O People of the Book! Come to common terms as between us and you: That we worship none but God; that we associate no partners with Him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, lords and patrons other than God." If then they turn back, say ye: "Bear witness that we (at least) are Moslems (bowing to God's will). - Al-Qur'an, Surah Ali-Imran 3: 64

The interpolation in John 3: 16 and I Esp John 5: 7-8

2009-08-03T03:40:00.000-07:00

John 3: 16 [Authorised King James Standard Version]

¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. [1611 AD]

John 3: 16 (Revised King James Standard Version]

¹⁶ "For^A)">(A) God so loved^B)">(B) the world,^a]">[a]^C)">(C) that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not^D)">(D) perish but have eternal life. [1971 AD]

^{John 3: 16 [New King James Standard Version]}

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

1 John 5: 7 [Authorised King James Standard Version]

⁷ For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. [1611 AD]

1 John 5: 7 [Revised King James Standard Version]

⁷ For there are three that testify:

⁸ the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.

7 And the Spirit is the Witness, because the Spirit is the truth. [1971 AD]

1 John 5: 7 [New King James Standard Version]

⁷ For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.

Look:

8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand forever. - Isaiah 40

8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it, the pen of the scribes is in vain. - Jeremiah 8

Christ forewarned of Christians who are "ravening wolves"

2009-07-29T22:50:00.000-07:00

^{MATTHEW 7}

¹³ Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

¹⁴ Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

¹⁵ Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

¹⁶Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

¹⁷Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

¹⁸ A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

¹⁹Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

²⁰ Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

²¹ Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

²² Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

²³ And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

²⁴Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

²⁵ And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

²⁶ And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

²⁷ And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

²⁸ And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:

²⁹ For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

" ... he that hath seen me hath seen the Father", only a figure of speech!

2009-07-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

NOTHING IN JOHN 14's CONNOTING JESUS IS GOD!

John 14

¹ Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

² In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

⁴ And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

⁵ Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?

⁶ Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

⁷If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

⁸ Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

⁹ Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?

¹⁰Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

¹¹ Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.

¹² Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

¹³ And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

¹⁴ If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

¹⁵ If ye love me, keep my commandments.

¹⁶And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

¹⁷Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

¹⁸ I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

¹⁹ Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.

²⁰ At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

²¹ He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

²² Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?

²³ Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

²⁴ He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.

²⁵ These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.

²⁶But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

²⁷Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

²⁸ Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

²⁹ And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.

³⁰ Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

³¹ But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

Paul the founder of hellenistic Christianity

2009-07-27T20:46:00.000-07:00

Paul taught that the whole function of Jesus centered on his death which released the faithful from the burden of their sins, misery and the power of Satan. In fact not a single word Paul wrote in the Epistles give the actual teaching of Jesus, nor does he mention even one of his parables, istead he spreads his own philosophy and his own ideas.

Paul tends to characterize all people as children of anger i.e. as subject to the wrath of God (Eph. 23). All are (without exception) quite lost (e.g. Roman 5: 18; Cor. 5: 18), without hope and without God (Eph. 212), for Satan has power over everyone (without exception) (e.g. Rom. 3: 9; Gal. 3: 22; Col. 2: 14). A damnation hangs like the sword of Damocles over all people (e.g. Rom. 5: 16). Thus paul as a human teacher made out of the joyous tidings his threatening tidings and implied that only he could show the path to salvation.

Of course with such an attitude one can hardly arrive at a natural view of death, for it makes death a solution to sin. In no other religion do we find such cultivation of the fear of death as the Pauline Christianity. With Paul Christianity became a religion in which Christians, beset by fears, would bow docilely under the yoke of threats.

The religion was already veering away from the concept of the kind and loving, all-forgiving God of Jesus, and reverting to the crudities of the wrathful Old Testament God, as borne out by Paul's words.

The point comes home best when one considers Paul's explicit statement that can do nothing himself to secure salvation "S(cf. Rom. 3: 24; 3 : 28; 9: 11; 9: 16; 1 Cor. 1: 29; Gal. 2: 16). For according to Paul salvation depends solely on the Grace of God S" (Eph. 2: 8-9)

Thus the Pauline doctrine makes salvation a one-sided matter for God; the people on earth have their hands bound ( cf. Rom. 3: 24; 4: 16; Eph. 2: 5; 2: 8-9; 2. Tim. 1: 9; Tit. 3: 5-7). What paul says here is of course quite attractive, because it is comfortable.

By joining the the fold, salvation ensures "automatically". No effort on one's own part is then necessary to arrive at the goal of life., for every Christian is saved and once and for all by rthe sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross at Golgotha. It means that one has only to sign up with the "institution", pay the "membership fee" and (lo and behold!) everything is settled for securing a seat in paradise for all eternity. naturally such a teaching attracted many supporters and spread rapidly. After all it is easier to believe in something that can be had safely and comfortably.

Simply by the simple act of conversion a person is then redeemed, saved, made a child of God, and become completely new person. According to this teaching, every attempt on one's own part to work towards salvation plays down Jesus' role, is even a deadly sin. An conversely, every person, however exemplary good his or her life may have been, is declared by his teaching to be lost if he or she does not gratefully acknowledge the sacrifice of the cross as constituting their entire personal salvation.

Most Christians think the greatness and the uniqueness of Christianity stands and fall with the truth of his teaching. On closer inspection, however, it is found to be a fabrication, far removed from the real ideas of Jesus.

There is no hint of the so called Christian doctrine of salvation in the gospels, either in the sermon on the mount - quintessence of Jesus' message or in the Our Father, or the traditional parables of Jesus!

Jesus did not supplies theories to be ground in the mills of academia, about his path and message -- he just lived his teaching!

After intensive and extensive research, the psychiatrist Wilhelm Lange- Eichbaum was able to recreate a detailed portrait of Paul's character in his well-known work 'Genius, Madness and Fame'.

Paul was frail, plain and small, yet at the same time harsh, rejecting, impetuous and passionate. His zeal in the prosecution of Christians was a compensation of his own inadequacy.

The vast attraction of Paulinism is the idea of redemption and release from inner crises. Paul had boundless energy and matching ego. He suffered from severe attacks, which he blamed on demons.

The latest sources have shown that there may have been a cause for what he often described as 'a thorn in the flesh', his own personal cross. He might have suffered tragically from his own homosexuality.

His problem caused him great antipathy towards sexuality altogether, and was decisive in his development of an ascetic doctrine of marriage which has been of formative influence in the base image of sexuality and of woman that continued to dominate Christian thinking.

The following two excerpts from an earlier book, "The Dead Sea Scroll Deception" also raise doubt to the legitimacy of Paul's role within the early church by Michael Bajgent and Richard Leigh (Corgi Books, London, 1991):

"...... Paul is in effect the first Christian heretic, and his teaching, which become the foundation of later Christianity, are a fragrant deviation from the 'Original or 'pure' form extolled by the leadership.

Whether James, the 'Lord's brother, 'was literally Jesus' blood kin or not (and everything suggests he was), it is clear that he knew Jesus ... personally.

So did most of the other members of the community or ' early Church', in Jerusalem, including of course, Peter. When they spoke, they did so with first hand authority.

Paul had never had such personal aquaintance with the figure he'd begun to regard as his 'Saviour.' He had only his quasi-mystical experience in the desrt and the sound of a disembodied voice.

For him to arrogate authority to himself on this basis is, to say the least, presumptuous. It also leads him to distort Jesus' teachings beyond recognition, to formulate, in fact, his own highly individual and idiosyncractic theology, and then to legitimise it by spuriously ascribing it to Jesus."

"As things transpired, however, the mainstream of the new movement gradually coalesced, during the next three centuries, around Paul and his teachings. Thus, to the undoubted posthumous horror of James and his associates an entirely new religion was indeed born, a religion that came to have less and less to do with it supposed founder."

Deedat and Reverend Naidoo

2009-06-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

THE MISSION CONTINUES - by Fatima Asmal

On October 26, 2002, at 7:30 in the morning, Reverend Naidoo made his way to 49 Trevennen Road in Verulam, KwaZulu Natal. His mission was clear: to convert Sheikh Ahmed Deedat to Christianity.

“Mr. Deedat, can I pray for you in the name of Jesus?” he began. “If I pray for you in his name, you will rise up and walk. You will speak in his name.”

“Can I read for you from the Holy Bible a verse of inspiration so that he (Jesus) may heal you?” he asked.

Sheikh Ahmed Deedat’s response, conveyed via eye movements, is recorded in a black notebook which lies at his bedside. “Mr. Naidoo,” he said, “Please read for me Genesis Chapter 19 Verse 30.”

Reverend Naidoo could hardly contain his excitement. “Dear Jesus, speak through the eyes!” he said, as he opened to the relevant page, and read: “And Lot went up out of Zo’ar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zo’ar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.”

Again, using a series of eye movements, Sheikh Deedat asked, “What is the moral of the story? What do you learn from it?”

Reverend Naidoo, rendered speechless, left, without answering the question, his mission having failed miserably.

Many before and after him have met a similar fate. Ringo, a young Christian bodybuilder and owner of a gym, visited Sheikh Deedat, hoping to “heal” him.

Claiming that the spirit of Jesus lived within him, Ringo said he would perform a miracle at the bedside of Sheikh Deedat. “Jesus heal him! Rise up!” he shouted, simultaneously engaging in a series of hand gestures. Sheikh Deedat observed the proceedings from his bed, before communicating a message to Ringo. Again, his message came from the Bible: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21–23).

“Why would Jesus tell you this when you came to do such a noble job?” he asked.

Ringo said he would return within a few days, with an answer. “To this day they have failed to come back,” says Yousuf, Sheikh Ahmed’s son.

And so in the nine years spent lying in his bed, unable to move, speak or eat, has Sheikh Ahmed Deedat, now 87-years-old, sent many a Christian missionary packing. “Every week, people from different faiths and denominations, come in, or write in, to preach their religions to my father,” says Yousuf. “In every instance, he throws a scud missile at them.”

Many have been embarrassed and silenced, others have been inspired and mesmerized. Like Sabiha Doolarkhan, who writes to him on a monthly basis. Sabiha says meeting Sheikh Deedat, and reading his books, played a vital role in her reversion to Islam, 20 years ago. “I was in awe of the stately man who sat behind the desk,” she says, in a letter to him. “You epitomizsed what I expected Islam to represent—your calm demeanour and comfortable disposition encapsulated the essence of the dignity of Islam—and I left positively and pleasantly imbued with the spirit of Islam.” Sabiha made a decision to write to Sheikh Deedat on a regular basis, after visiting him at his home. From her letters it is clear that even in his state of paralysis, Sheikh Deedat continues to inspire her. “No one can look as majestic or profound as you do on a sick bed,” she writes. “Surely that in itself is evidence that Allah is indeed well pleased with your life’s work.”

_________

* Republished with minor modifications with the kind permission of An Nisaa Publications. © An Nisaa Publications 2003. You may not reproduce this article without express written permission of the publisher (an_nisaa_publications@yahoo.com).

Fatima Asmal is the editor of the South African-based publications An Nisaa and The Straight Path, which cater for Muslims living in the West. Visit the publications’ Web site at www.an-nisaa-publications.net, She is also a freelance writer on a wide range of topics and can be reached at an_nisaa_publications@yahoo.com.

Genesis 19: 1-30 and Matthew 7:21

2009-06-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

The Doom of Sodom

1 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.

2 And he said, “Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” They said however, “No, but we shall spend the night in the square.”

3 Yet he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

4 Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter;

5 and they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.”

6 But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him,

7 and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly.

8 “Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof.”

9 But they said, “Stand aside.” Furthermore, they said, “This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them.” So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door.

10 But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.

11 They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.

12 Then the two men said to Lot, “Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place;

13 for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”

14 Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, get out of this place, for the LORD will destroy the city.” But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

15 When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”

16 But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the LORD was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city.

17 When they had brought them outside, one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.”

18 But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords!

19 “Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die;

20 now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) that my life may be saved.”

21 He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken.

22 “Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the town was called Zoar.

23 The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

24 Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven,

25 and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

26 But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the LORD;

28 and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace.

29 Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

Lot Is Debased

30 Lot went up from Zoar, and stayed in the mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; and he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters.

31 Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of the earth.

32 “Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father.”

33 So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

34 On the following day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve our family through our father.”

35 So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

36 Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.

37 The firstborn bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day.

38 As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day.

Sheikh Ahmad Deedat

2009-06-24T04:22:00.000-07:00

Sheikh Ahmed Hussein Deedat (July 1, 1918–August 8, 2005) was a South African Muslim scholar, charismatic public speaker and Islamic missionary of Indian descent.^[1] He was best known for his numerous inter-religious public debates with evangelical Christians, as well as pioneering video lectures most of which centered around Islam, Christianity and the Bible. He also established the IPCI, an internationally renown Islamic missionary organization under whose auspices Deedat wrote and mass produced several booklets on Islam and Christianity. He was awarded the prestigious King Faisal Award in 1986 for his 50 years of missionary work. Deedat aimed at providing Muslims with theological tools for defending themselves against the intense missionary strivings of many Christian denominations. He used English instead of Arabic or any other language to get his message across to Muslim minorities in the western world.

BIOGRAPHY

Early Years 1918-1942

Ahmed Deedat was born in Gujarat, India in 1918. His father had emigrated to South Africa shortly after the birth of Ahmed Deedat. At the age of 9, Deedat went to join his father in what is now known as Kwazulu-Natal. His mother died few months after Deedat left for South Africa. Applying himself with diligence to his studies, Deedat was able to overcome the language barrier and excel in school, getting promotions until he completed standard 6. He had to start working at the age of 16.

In 1936, while working as a furniture salesman Deedat came across missionaries at a Christian seminary on the Natal South Coast. The missionaries in their efforts to convert people of Muslim faith, would often accuse the Prophet Mohammad of having "used the sword" to bring people to Islam. Such attacks were a major influence on Deedat's subsequent interest in comparative religion. ^[3]

Deedat got his first break when, while rummaging for reading material in his employer's basement, he came across a book entitled "Izhar ul-Huqq" (Truth Revealed), written by Rahmatullah Kairanhvi. This book which chronicled the efforts of Christian missionaries in India from a century earlier. This book had a profound effect on Deedat who then purchased his first Bible and began holding debates and discussions with trainee missionaries, whose questions he had previously been unable to answer.^[3]

His foray into Bible Studies took a more serious turn when he started attending Islamic study classes held by a local Muslim convert named Mr. Fairfax. Seeing the popularity of his classes, Mr. Fairfax offered to teach an extra session on the Bible and how to preach to Christians about Islam.^[3] Deedat and a few others were delighted at the opportunity. However, only a few months into the project, Mr. Fairfax had to pull out of his engagement, and Deedat, who was quite knowledgeable about the Bible already, took over teaching the class. Which he did for three whole years and later credited for expanding his horizons significantly towards missionary work.

Early Missionary Work 1942-1956

Deedat's first lecture, entitled "Muhammad: Messenger of Peace", was delivered in 1942 to an audience of fifteen people at a Durban movie theatre named Avalon Cinema.^[4]. Over time, Deedat's popularity as a public speaker grew in Durban, to the point that he was invited to speak in other cities in South Africa. A decade later he was filling City halls with audiences numbering in the thousands in cities such as Johannesburg and Cape Town.

A major vehicle of Deedat's early missionary activity was the 'Guided Tours' of the Jumma Mosque in Durban. The vast ornamental Jumma Mosque was a landmark site in the tourist friendly city of Durban. A sophisticated program of luncheons, speeches and free hand-outs was created to give an increasingly large number of international tourists often their first look at Islam. Deedat himself featured as one of the guides, hosting tourists and giving succinct introductions to the Islamic Religion and the relationship between Islam and Christianity [5]

IPCI and a-Saalaam 1956-1986 Christianity.^[5]

By 1956, missionary work in the form of frequent public speaking engagements and the popular guided tours of the Jumma Masjid had begun to pay dividends. Enquiries about Islam from the general public in South Africa had started to pour in at an increasing rate. Soon it became apparent that working from the mosque office was not going to be sufficient to handle the demand for literature and to facilitate an increasing number of people showing more than simply tourist level interest in Islam.

Among Deedat's close friends were Goolam Hoosein Vanker and Taahir Rasool, whom many refer to as 'the unsung heroes of Deedat's career'.^[6] In 1957, Deedat, together with Vanker and Rasool, founded the Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI) with the aims to print a variety of books on Islam and offer classes to new Muslims converts.^[7]

In 1958, Deedat also established an Islamic seminary called As-Salaam Educational Institute on a donated 75-acre piece of land located in Braemar in the south of Natal province. ^[8]

With these newly founded missionary organizations as his backbone, Deedat engaged into a broader range of activities over the next three decades. He conducted classes on Biblical Theology and conducted numerous lectures. Da`wah (inviting people towards Islam) became the dominant factor of his life, with the audiences at his lectures reaching forty thousand. He later also went on to write a large number of booklets, distributing millions of copies of free literature and pamphlets across the world, conducted classes on Bible studies and also delivered numerous lectures and held debates on varied topics of Islam, Christianity and Judaism to large numbers of audiences.

International Fame 1985-1995

By the early 1980s, Ahmed Deedat's works was beginning to be known outside his native South Africa. In 1985, he twice rented the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London to debate in front of a packed audience. In 1986, he was awarded the King Faisal Award for his services to Islam in the field of Dawah (Islamic missionary activity). The award squarely brought Deedat into the limelight and the attention of the international community. At the ripe old age of 66, Deedat began a new phase in his lifetime mission of preaching to Christians, a ten-year long period of international speaking tours around the world. Travelling far and wide to Muslim communities from Australia at one end to North America at the other end. Some of his known tours include:

Saudi Arabia and Egypt (on several occasions)
United Kingdom (on several occasions between 1985 and 1988)
Pakistan, where Deedat met Zia al-Haq, UAE and Maldives Islands (Nov-Dec 1987), where Deedat was honored by President Gayhoom.^[3]
Switzerland (March 1987 where he spoke in Geneva)^{[citation needed]}
US Tour Number 1 (late 1986 featuring debates with Swaggart, Robert Douglas and several lectures including two in Arizona)
Sweden and Denmark (late 1991 featuring three debates)
US and Canada Tour (1994 tour featuring debate in Canada)
Australia Tour (his last tour in early 1996 just before the stroke)

Illness and Death 1996-2005

On May 3, 1996, Sheikh Ahmed Deedat suffered a stroke which left him paralyzed from the neck down because of a Cerebral Vascular Accident affecting the Brain Stem, and which also meant that he could no longer speak or swallow.^[9] He was flown to King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, where he was reported to be fully alert and hence taught to communicate through a series of eye-movements via a chart whereby he would form words by acknowledging individual alphabets read out to him; this way he would form complete sentences.^[9]

He spent the last nine years of his life in a bed in his home in Verulam, South Africa, encouraging people to engage in Da'wah (Islam propagation). He was looked after by his wife, Hawa Deedat, and was reported to have no bed-sores at all.^[9] He continued to receive hundreds of letters of support from around the world, but was a target to many missionaries who tried to convert him to Christianity, to which he replied -via head and eye movements- with verses from the Bible. In October 2002 Deedat was visited by Reverend Naidoo who requested Deedat to let him read a verse of the Bible in order to inspire him and pray for his healing. Deedat in turn, through his eye-movements—the sole method of communication he had been taught at King Faisal Specialist Hospital after being paralyzed—asked him to read out and explain the moral of the event described in Genesis 19:30.For this the Reverend had no answer and thereafter left the place. A similar later attempt at converting Deedat was made by a young Christian gym owner named Ringo who claimed he could heal Deedat through a miracle by saying "Jesus heal him! Rise up!", however Deedat quoted Matthew 7:21 and then asked him "Why would Jesus tell you this when you came to do such a noble job?"^[10]^[11]

On August 8, 2005, Ahmed Deedat died at his home on Trevennen Road in Verulam in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. He is buried at the Verulam cemetery.^[12]Deedat's first well-known debate occurred in August 1981 when he debated well-known Christian apologist Josh McDowell in Durban, South Africa.^[13] Many of his debates were later broadcasted online on Youtube, among other sites.

DEBATES

Deedat's first well-known debate occurred in August 1981 when he debated well-known Christian apologist Josh McDowell in Durban, South Africa.^[13] Many of his debates were later broadcasted online on Youtube, among other sites.

Debates with Anis Shorrosh

Deedat had memorable tussles with Palestinian-American missionary Dr. Anis Shorrosh. Shorrosh first came to public attention when he showed up at the Q&A sessions^[14] on two separate occasions during Deedat's summer 1985 tour of the UK (where he debated Dr. Floyd E. Clark)^[3]. Thereon ensued some back and forth and the result was two highly contentious debates, the first entitled Is Jesus God?^[3] took place right away in Dec 1985 at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London. The second debate was organized with much fanfare and held in Birmingham, UK on August 7th, 1988; entitled The Quran or the Bible: Which is God's Word^[3] the 'Great Debate' spanned a total of 240 minutes including the Q&A session.

Debate with Jimmy Swaggart

Deedat's most famous moment came when he managed to land a debate with televangelist Jimmy Swaggart in Swaggart's hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. The debate was entitled Is The Bible the Word of God,^[3] and was held in November 1986 at the University of Louisiana, attended by about 8,000 people at a time when Jimmy Swaggart was one of the leading faces of evangelical Christianity.

Henry Hock Guan Teh, a well-known Christian writer described the debate against Jimmy Swaggart in his article The Law of Evidence^[15] as:

“

The debate is on the reasonableness of their competing faiths which was held at Louisiana State University. Great expectations were generated since both were experienced public speakers. Sadly, Swaggart merely relied on TV showmanship to influence the crowd. When Deedat challenged him to prove the Bible as the Word of God, Swaggart simply quoted John 3:16 and claimed that his life was changed by it. Even such a claim was shattered to pieces when Swaggart’s personal sexual weaknesses were later exposed in the press.

”

Before the debate, Swaggart is reported to have attacked Islam's allowance of Polygamy by asserting that he was "happy with one wife"^[4]. His arguments were later proved to be false, when in a spate of just 5 years after the debate, Swaggart was caught twice in damaging sex scandals and lost most of his international following and stature soon.

The debate however made major impacts in the Muslim and Christian worlds. After having watched a video cassette of the debate, Kenneth L. Jenkins, a Minister and Elder of Church, Indiana USA, converted to Islam.^[16] He has since changed his name to Abdullah M. al-Faruque [16]

Other Notable Debates

In his US tour of 1986, Deedat also debated Dr. Robert Douglas, PhD (Zwimmer Institute) at the University of Kansas in November 1986 in a debate entitled Crucifixion: Fact or Fiction.^[3] Deedat's last major debate entitled Was Jesus Crucified?^[3] took place at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Canada on July 17th, 1994 featuring Wesley H. Wakefield (Bishop General of the Bible Holiness Movement of Vancouver).

In Oct-Nov 1991, Deedat toured Scandinavia where he held three debates and several speeches. Two of these debates where held on successive nights against Pastor Stanley Sjöberg in Stockholm, Sweden. The first of these was entitled Is the Bible the True Word of God? .^[3] and the second debate was Is Jesus God?.^[3]^[17]. Deedat then traveled to Denmark where he debated Pastor Eric Bock in Copenhagen in a debate entitled Is Jesus God?^[3]

Another debate occurs in a more informal guest room setting at the home of a patron with three invited American Soldiers stationed in the Persian Gulf in June 1993.^[18]

Deedat and the Pope

Needless to say, Deedat had a particular fondness for the Pope. In 1984, he challenged John Paul II to a public dialogue in the Vatican Square, but the Pope responded that he only agreed to a closed conference in his cabin.^[3] However, Deedat wrote back that he insisted "that such meeting should be public,". When the Pope stopped answering, Deedat distributed a pamphlet in January 1985 headlined His Holiness Plays Hide and Seek With Muslims.^[19]

His Writings and Speeches

Deedat published and mass produced over one dozen palm-sized booklets focusing on the following major themes.^[20] Deedat then proceeded to record video lectures on the same topics, multiple copies of which are available featuring different locations from his many tours mentioned earlier. Most of his debates also focus on and around the same material below.

Is the Bible God's Word?^[21]
What The Bible Says About Muhammad
Crucifixion or Cruci-Fiction?^[22]
several smaller spin-off titles on specific aspects of Crucifixion
Muhammad: The Natural Successor to Christ
Christ in Islam^[23]
Muhammad The Greatest
Al-Qur'an the Miracle of Miracles^[24]

In using the Bible as his primary source of evidence, Deedat in his writings on Crucifixion subscribes to the swoon hypothesis.^{[citation needed]}

Capitalizing on his popularity in the Middle East following his receipt of the King Faisal Award, Deedat secured a grant to print a collated volume of four of his booklets. 100,000 copies of this book titled The Choice: Islam and Christianity were initially printed in a very high quality HB 'silk paper' edition with a striking burgundy cover with gold embossed title.^[25] This book was very popular in the 1990s, often available for free at missionary outlets across North America.

Later, a second volume in plain PB entitled The Choice: Volume Two came out featuring six more of Deedat's booklets collated together. Deedat also widely promoted a South African printing of The Holy Qur'an translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali with commentary and detailed index. This was widely made available at subsidized costs to the general public and is often mentioned in Deedat's speeches.

Deedat also produced a booklet entitled "Al-Qur'an: the Ultimate Miracle" featuring the theory of 'the Number 19' that was popularized by Arizona-based Egyptian computer analyst Dr. Rashad Khalifa. However, this booklet was later withdrawn from circulation after Dr. Khalifa publicly disclosed some controversial beliefs including his rejection of the entire Hadith literature of Islam.^[26]

In 1987, Deedat refuted rumors in South Africa that he was a Qadiani and was distributing a Tafseer of the Qur’aan attributed to a well-known Qadian, Muhammad Asad, by issuing a public statement clarifying his stand, re-stating his view that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad al-Qadiani was a 'Kaafir' (i.e. non Muslim), and so were his followers.^[27]

Deedat also held a combined lecture with ex-missionary Gary Miller (now Abdul-Ahad Omar)^[28] and ex-Catholic cleric James Cunningham -who converted after debating with him- about Islam and Christianity ^[29]

Criticism

Deedat's debates and writings have been labelled a form of apologetics.^[2] . Lloyd V. J. Ridgeon, professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Glasgow writes:

Ahmed Deedat's pamphlets are being recycled to a brand new British Muslim constituency. Thus, a new generation is exposed to his malicious new disinformations. The reason for the popularity of such polemicists as Ahmed Deedat is varied: Muslim self-understandings as "the best of all communities" leads them to suppose that Islam prevails over all religions. Combined with the wounded pride of living in a post-colonial world within the continuing hegemony of western culture,some dignity can at least be preserved by claimimg moral and religious superiority.^[30]

Still, Deedat's influence was certainly wider than confined to the underground. Muslim scholar Farid Esack has criticized Deedat, comparing him to such fundamentalists as Rabbi Meir Kahane and Jerry Falwell, and writing^[31]:

Deedat's multitude of anti-Christian, anti-Jewish and anti-Hindu videotapes have told us all that there is to be told about the other, and we are comfortable with that. There are times, of course, when questions surface about the importance of correct dogma, about the importance of labels to a God whom we believe sees beyond labels and looks at the hearts of people. Instead of pursuing these questions, we hasten back and seek refuge in "the known." We order another of those Deedat tapes.^[31]

In France, one of his books titled 'Christ dans l'Islam' (Christ in Islam) have been forbidden for sale and distribution since 1994, being considered violently anti-western, antisemitic, inciting to racial hate, and "dangers to public order".^[32] The "Stephen Roth institute for the study of contemporary antisemitism and racism" calls Deedat "anti-Jewish" but does not elaborate.[33]

External Sources

References

^ Sheikh Ahmed Deedat - How It All Began, by Fatima Asmal, Islamic Voice, September 2005
^ ^a ^b David Westerlund, Ahmed Deedat's Theology of Religion: Apologetics through Polemics. Journal of Religion in Africa, 33(3). 2003 "
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ Obituary: Ahmed Hoosen Deedat (1918-2005): by Goolam Vahed, Department of History, University of KwaZulu Natal
^ ^a ^b Demystifying Islam and Debating Christianity, Imran Garda, 2006
^ Durban See & Do Guide: Jumma Musjid Mosque
^ The life of Shaikh Ahmed Deedat By Asim Khan, JANUARY 21, 2006, on Aljazeera.net
^ Islamic Propagation Centre International
^ Islamic icon leaves behind a legacy, IOL.co.za, August 09, 2005
^ ^a ^b ^c Medical Report on Sheikh Ahmed Deedat
^ Deedat: The Mission Continues - Fatima Asmal, IslamOnline.net
^ A Big Lesson for Us - Soul Talk, Islamic Voice, April 2004
^ Muslims Mourn Sheikh Ahmed Deedat
^ Was Christ Crucified? - transcript of debate between Ahmed Deedat and Josh McDowell, IsNet.org
^ Was Christ Crucified? - video of Deedat's debate with Dr. Floyd E. Clark; Anis Shorrosh seen during Q&A Session.
^ Legal Apologetics: Principles Of The Law Of Evidence As Applied In The Quest For The Veracity Of Religious Truth
^ ^a ^b Why I Embraced Islam - Former Minister and Elder of Church, Indiana USA, Kenneth L. Jenkins
^ http://web.archive.org/web/20010622110522/home.swipnet.se/~w-20479/extract.htm Extracts from the debate between Deedat & Sjoberg
^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQnfOWhuras
^ His Holiness Plays Hide and Seek With Muslims; Ahmed Deedat
^ Islam And Christianity - A Comparative Analysis
^ Is the Bible God's Word?, by Ahmed Deedat
^ Crucifixion or Cruci-fiction, by Ahmed Deedat
^ Christ (p.b.u.h.) in Islam, by Ahmed Deedat
^ Al-Qur'an the Miracle of Miracles, by Ahmed Deedat
^ The Choice: Islam and Christianity, by Ahmed Deedat
^ http://islamcalling.com/islam/miracle/miracle1.htm
^ Declaration by Ahmed Deedat, Islamic Propagation Center International, 23 July, 1987
^ Dr. Gary Miller (Abdul-Ahad Omar) embraces Islam
^ Islam and Christianity - Ahmed Deedat and Gary Miller
^ Ridgeon, Lloyd V. J (2001) (in English). Islamic Interpretations of Christianity P 214. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-23854-1.
^ ^a ^b To whom shall we give access to our water holes?, by Farid Esack
^ "Arrêtés du 31 mai 1994 portant interdiction de circulation, de distribution et de mise en vente d'ouvrages", at legifrance.gouv.fr
^ Tel-Aviv University

Interviewed by RT Jones

2009-06-08T23:27:00.000-07:00

INTERVIEWING ALHAJ BY RT JONES

June 21, 2007

This is the first of what I hope to be a series of interviews on the topic of religious pluralism and the agreement and disagreement between the world religious traditions. Today's interview is with AlHaj ibn Ibrahim Asy-Sarawaky, who runs the Reminder to People of the Book blog. I have made some minor formating changes from our email interview. Using the compose feature of blogger makes consistency in formating almost entirely impossible.

RTJ: Thank you for agreeing to an interview.

AlHaj: PEACE BE UPON THOSE WHO FOLLOW GUIDANCE!

RTJ: What motivated you to start a blog that addresses the People of the Book?

AlHaj: I did not start to write a blog on religion. I actually started to write a blog on cure of sickness using Quranic verses. That’s why you see the url of the blog was nur-syifa. The syifa verses in the Qur’an are use to cure sickness, especially person possessed by evil spirit. I do not have experience in that, but I would like to share ideas with fellow Moslem healers. The oringinal name of the blog was Nur Syifa.

When I started to put Google ads on the blog, I do not know how ads of Chritianity appeared on my blog. I wrote to Blogger to rid off the ads. They told to me to use the ads filter. I tried but the ads filter did not function. I created the blog by trial and error until it becomes what it is now, and I came to learn the type of ads coming to your blog depend on the words appearing in your posts. If you write about Islam or Chritianity, ads relevant to them will finally appear on your blog automatically. So I have to lived with them. In a way with the ads I am indirectly propagating Christianity but on the other hand the ads help me to keep abreast of what is happening in the Christian world.

I am not an Islamic scholar, but I do find the Christianity ads are rather misleading when touching about Islam, we are always put on the defensive. [I think that's how you and J. K. Jones felt also when you read my posts]. So I started to write counter commentaries, but as far as possible I tried to be honest to stick to fact and as you see I prefer to quote from literature produced by recognize figures in their respective fields. I changed the name of the blog to ‘Reminder to Believers’.

In politics I based my argument on terrorism from books written by Noam Chomsky and Samuel Huntington (they are world level thinkers). From them you know what is militant Islam or terrorism is all about – their roots. I don’t want to talk from prejudicial point of view, after all we want this world to be in peace. I find the results of his research that terrorisms are engineered by America are more plausible rather than the Western prejudicial reports against Islam, not that I support terrorism or militancy. You may disagree with Chomsky. The trauma of Iraqis under the tyrant Saddam is no comparison with their trauma under American occupation. Under Saddam people can still lived their normal life, but under American occupation Iraqis genarally lost their dignity. Somalia and Afghanistan is still bleeding badly. I have with me three books, ‘Imperial Ambitions’, ‘Failed States’, and ‘Perilous Power’ by Chomsky and ‘Who Are We’ by Huntington ( also author of the ‘Clash of Civilizations’). I still wanted to collect onother book by Chomsky, ‘Hegemony and Survival’.

RTJ: Why do you believe Islam is true?

AlHaj: I believe Islam is true not because I was born a Moslem. My parents are not religious people, they are nominal Moslems. But I thanked God I am born a Moslem. It is the most precious gift for I can’t make myself a Moslem without His will.

RTJ: In your younger days you were educated in a Roman Catholic Missionary School. How has this impacted you?

AlHaj: I studied Islam, I self-argued it, but I read a lot book on Islam by Moslems as well as orientalists; and I choose to go to a Christisan missionary school not because I want to study Christianity even, but I want to get the best facilitated educational opportunities. The years I studied in the missionary school ( Sacred Heart Secondary School were among my happiest younger days). I am at ease with fellow Christians in my country. We seldom talked about Islamic terrorism or militancy here, I think it is irrelevant in Malyasia. We achieved our independence from the British not through revolution as our Indonesian counterpart from the Dutch but through the round table. Turbulence historical background in one’s country does affect one’s world view towards others and set one mindset. We Malaysian I like to believed are gentlemen when facing natoinal crisis. We articulate our objective even when we get help from the Americans to fight the Communist insurgency in the early independence days.

But then surfers began to comment on my posts especially on political matters touching America and I find their writings quite subjective. Its hard to confront subjective writings. So I deleted all posts on political matters and retained the religious ones and again I changed the name of my blog to what you find now, concentrating entirely on People of the Books with references from the Al-Qur’an and the Bible and especially literatures written by Prof. Emeritus Geza Vermes. I have three of his books with me at the moment, ‘The Gospel Of Jesus’, ‘Nativity’, and ‘Whos Who in The Age of Jesus’. I still need all his other books including the ‘Dead Sea Scrolls’. I surfed the Pontif blog once in a while but his blog is not productive. I also surfed the Vatican webpage to keep abreast of the latest news and I was surprised when Bush visited the Vatican, I say Romans demonstrated against him on the Iraqi issues. See that is Godly people sympathising the suffering of the Iraqis. I feel sorry also for Alan Johnson. But I think these journalists have gone overboard reporting from insane places.

RTJ: In a comment I left on your blog I asked why you accept the authority of the Qur'an. I also said that the Bible does not play the same part in Christian theology as the Qur'an does in Islamic theology. For Christians, Jesus is the Word of Gord, just as the Qur'an is in Islam. The Bible is more like Muhammad in that it is the vessel through which God makes His revelation known. How do you respond?

Why I believe in Islam? What do you think religion is? What do you think Qur’an is? You believe Prophet Muhammad was an imposter? Are you people honest with him as we are honest with Jesus? You say, Jesus was God’s word, I believed with all my heart.

You say Jesus is God, no! If you say Jesus is God then Al-Qur’an is also God because Al-Qur’an is also God’s word. What do you see of the Al-Qur’an – if not papers, ink, writing etc. Are those items God? No! And what do you see of Jesus, not man? Sure! Man is no different with papers, created. Did he not become from the womb of a woman and grew as any of us? Did he not undergo the path of creation? Why blinded yourself, because the light is too bright until you cannot see? Who raised him to the level of God, himself or you and why did you deliberate on his Godship if it is inequivocally stated by Jesus that he is God? You argued and you have to argue on his Godship in the Council of Nicea 325 AD. So you hesitated also? You did doubt it also. It took convention by convention to determine that he is God, not Jesus himself dertermined it. But then you decided to claim him God. And you deliberated ‘painstakingly’ to come to the point that God is Jesus based on Greek script not in his own Aramaic language, having no point of return (original Aramaic manuscripts) when there’s discrepancies aroused between Arius and Athanasian?

Let us be honest. Aramaic is not simply chosen as the language of revelation, you bear that in mind, it was a ‘language of revelation’ chosen by God’s word and that’s why Jesus spoke it and God did not choose Greek as His channel. Did God choose the language of revelation hanky-panky? You are a man of reason. Why God give us the gift of reason? Reason functioned to understand not to be the arbitrator. The arbitrator is the Scripture. Once the Scripture is not in the original, the translation are noly traces! What make man fall is dishonesty.

I read also Richard Dawkins’ ‘The God Delusion’. I couldn’t help laughing reading his book. I am not enraged. I pity the man. Alas he is propagting Atheism in America, aggresively huh! Its you the front liner there to counter him. There’s also one big name, an old lady Karen Armstrong, also said to be an atheist but not the like of Dawkins, she defended religion. I think she is a theist without any orgainzed religion affiliation although she was ealier a Roman Catholic nun.

The Triune aside, you believe God is one. Why I believe Islam is true? Because God is one. And there’s nothing in Islam that goes against my human nature.

And the idea of ‘incarnation’? Whose culture is that, be honest, Greek (Hellenistic) or Semitic? Had any God’s Apostles from Adam till Muhammad spoke of incarnation? Jesus? Jesus or you? I know you can quote the Biblical verses as proofs but none is objective but all are subjective that can call for multiple/variant, even the dangerous ‘allegorical’ interpretations.

I have read the last revised Bible ( 2006) published by Pengunin Classis, ‘The New Cambridge Paragraph Bible (TNCPB)’ that charged that the earlier translators misrepresented some of the words in the Authorised King James Version. So the TNCPB come with and as the more precise one. Read the preface to the TNCPB. In ten years time maybe another scholar come again with another version who saw another misrepresentation. Who dare to do that if there’s an original Aramaic Bible as the original Arabic Al-Qur’an is? Do not be mistaken with the Arabic Al-Qur’an with its translation. Its translation is not Al-Qur’an at all. In the end you will have voluminous Bibles and those native Christians here have to alter also from time to time the Bibles in their native languages. And they will argue among themselves which native vocabulary is of proper usage or precise. For ages you will have that problems. You have argued about the Bible eversince the Bible was in Latin or Greek and you will never stop for God is not pleased with your tempering with His scriptures.

Quranicly speaking the Holy Qur’an says, chapter 32 (The Byzantines) verse 30, ‘And so, set thy face towards [one ever-true] faith, turning away from all that is false, in accordance with the natural disposition which God has instilled in man: [for,] not to allow any change to corrupt what God has thus created – this is the [purpose of the one] ever-true faith; but most people know it not.’ This makes me a Moslem. And the religion of all Prophets from Adam till Muhammad (Christ Jesus inclusive) is Islam (only officially known as Islam with the advent of Islam meaning submitting to the will of God as stated in the vesre alluded).

RTJ: What is the biggest misconception that Western Christian have about Islam?

AlHaj: My days in Roman Catholic Missionary School has made me understand the difference between Chritianity and Islam crytal clear. I can’t take man as God. It is scripturally and rationally impossible. Jesus has spoken to be aware of your fellows who speaks on his behalf whom he will deny. Do you think they are we Moslems? We don’t propagate Chrisitianity. Those will be you Christians preaching on his behalf speaking about him of which he never ever categorically approved.

RTJ: Do you believe there is salvation for non-Muslim monotheists?

AlHaj: If Islam is true which is true, Christians have no justification of remaining Christians but to embrace Islam. Prophet Muhammad says if Moses is living in my age of which I am the last Messenger he must also bear witness to me. Since Christians existed to the time of Muhammad so they must bear witness to Islam. If they refused their final everlasting abode is Hell. I don’t joke with you with that teaching of Islam. If Moses was the last Messenger and Muhammad came before him, Muhammad must also bear witness to him and we the community of Muhammad must follow the religion of Moses. If we refuse we are regarded as not accepting the commandment of God as a whole. That’s what happened to Satan when he refused to bow to Adam. Satan obeyed other aspect of God’s commandments but not the commandment to bow to Adam. Satan was egoistic, he thought he was better than Adam because he was made from flame and Adam from dust. He forgot the one who gave him the commandment was God and not Adam. If Adam commanded him he may ignored the commandment on the justification of qualification but when God commanded, God’s commandment is absolute. [Your question] is answered – no salvation, unless you want also to join the community of Satan.

RTJ: Is there anything else you would like to add?

AlHaj: I quote the Qur’an, chapter 28 (The Story) verse 56: ‘Verily , thou canst not guide aright everyone whom thou lovest: but it is God who guides him that wills [to be guided], and He is fully aware of all who would let themselves to be guided.’

Finally, I quote the Qur’an again, chapter 29 (The Spider) verse 46: ‘And do not argue with the followers of earlier revelation otherwise than in a most kindly manner – unless it be such of them as are bent on evildoing – and say: ‘We believe in that which has been bestowed from on high upon us as well as that which has been bestowed upon you: for our God (not Triune) and your God (not Triune) is one and the same (Unity), and it is unto Him that we [all] surrender ourselves.’

So, speaking from the perspective of Islam my Creator God is also your Creator God.

RTJ: Thank you for your time.

AlHaj: Thank you Ryan Jones.

6 comments

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June 21, 2007 at 5:57 pm

ALHAJ

Good morning Ryan Jones, its 7.30 a.m. here in Malaysia.

I want to be certain of your question-statement:

‘the Bible does not play the same part in Christian theology as does the Qur’an in Islamic theology…… The Bible is more like Muhammad in that it is the vessel through which God makes His revelation known.’

Can you elaborate briefly with instances:

1. How do the Bible and the Qur’an differ in the part they played concerning theology.

2. Why do you say the Bible is more like Muhammad as God’s vessel through which His revelation is made known?

Are 1 and 2 above your personal opinion?

Thank you.
AlHaj ibn Ibrahim Asy-Sarawaki

June 22, 2007 at 10:42 am

R.T. Jones

Sorry about that additional comment. I was not trying to add any elements to the interview, but when it was clear that you were responding to my comment on your blog as well as the questions in my email, I wanted to fill in the gaps for anyone who reads the interview on my blog. I would have quoted straight from my comment that I left on your blog, but I couldn’t find it. I therefore tried to recall it from memory.

As for your questions, I will attempt to address them in an upcoming post. As to whether this is my personal opinion, I am sure there are many others who hold this position, but I will have to do some research first. In the meantime, I can at least say that this statement has much in common with Karl Barth, who is widely considered the greatest Christian theologian of the 20th century. I wouldn’t be surprised if Barth himself said something along these lines, but a quick internet search did not turn anything up.

June 26, 2007 at 12:41 am

ALHAJ

Thank you for your acknowledgement, but I still need you to explain to me my question (1) and (2).

You see Muhammad is from Ishmael and Ishmael is from Abraham, they are of the House of Abraham. Jesus is from Mary, Mary is from Moses/Aaron and Moses and Aaron are from Amran and they are of the House of Amran and Amran is from Levi and Levi is from Jacob and Jacob is from Isaac and Isaac is from Abraham, they are of the House of Abraham. No Greek or Roman from the House of Abraham for Jesus never get married. Muhammad and Jesus are generation of Semitic people, meaning people whom God sent unto them revelation and they are the very people who understand the gist of revelation or the core business of revelation concerning Monotheism. Mo Messenger or Prophet were sent to the Greek or the Roman people. Greeks and Romans, European in general, were not the people burdened in the first place to carry God’s message of Monotheism.

If the Semitic people were wrong about Trinity, could they all be wrong? The Semitic people history is that when they are derailed God sent another to put them again on the right path.

To Moslems, Jesus the Messiah teaching about Monotheism has been derailed by Saul the Jew (who taught Triune Monotheism)and Muhammad a semite was sent to put Unity Monotheism back on track again. Again Greek and Romans are not people chosen by God (to shoulder) with His Monotheism message. Being unchosen [for the anticipated result as seen today] the Unity Montheism become Triune Monotheism under their hands.Again there’s no such thing as Triune Monotheism, illogical to the Semites but logic to the Greeks and Romans. Why? Incarnation is foreign to Semitic people but common to Greeks and Romans. Not only did the Greeks and Romans coloured the Unity Monotheism to suit their culture but also the Gospels were deliberately written to suit the Triune Montheism and with the Gospels written as such the Greek and Romans claimed the belief in Triune God is scriptural. Christian Theologians after that had to think always in line with Trinity when they talked of the Unity God. Thsre’s no escape from that unless they deny the Gospels.

Christians when they speak of Abraham and his descendants always avoid speaking of or mentioning Ishmael. Even Pope Benedict in his latest book ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ also avoid mentioning Ishmael. Look at the jacket of the book. He wrote. ..’Abraham, Jacob, Isaac …’and he didn’t even mention Ishmael as if Ishamel was not the son of Abraham and as if Ishmael existence in the Bible has no significance. Ishmael’s name only remained under the covers of the Scriptures, yet the descendants of Ishmael and the followers of his descendant’s (Muhammad) religion is swarming the world right on the nose of the Christians. They had fulfilled God’s promises to Abraham – His Kingdom, population as many as the stars in heaven or the sands on the sea shores. The Jews and Christians are troubled by the Moslems’ mischiefs.But they are not troubled by the faith of the Moslems.

You know when God made His promises to Abraham (whom He called His friend), did He made bad promises?

So when God made Ishmael into big nations, population a many as the stars in the sky and as many as the sands on sea shores, were these people, the Arabs to be specific, left without a faith of any kind in the God of Abraham? Did not Abraham taught about his faith to Ishmael? Why were the Arabs at ease embracing Islam? Surrendering oneself to God (what Islam is) in principle and believing in the Unity God is not foreign to the descndants of Ishmael. Is faith in the Unity God foreign to People of the Books?

Thank you.
AlHaj ibn Ibrahim Asy-Sarawaki.

June 26, 2007 at 12:45 am

J. K. Jones

R. T., thanks for this post.

Alhaj, I still pray earnestly for you each day.

June 26, 2007 at 7:59 pm

R.T. Jones

Alhaj, thank you for your comments. One crucial distinction to make is that Jesus’ place in Christian and Muslim theology is quite different. In Muslim theology, Jesus is another prophet like Muhammed, revealing truth to humanity. In Christian theology however, Jesus Himself IS the truth that is revealed. Thus we believe that because Jesus is alive and seated at the right hand of God, we can personally know and experience Him through prayer. Though the Bible itself is divine revelation, we believe it to find its fulfillment in pointing us to the One who is Revelation Himself.

For the comparison between the Bible and Qu’ran, I first encountered the distinction in Clark Pinnock, which I quote in this post. I am not sure to what extent this represents mainstream Christian theology.

June 29, 2007 at 10:31 am

ALHAJ

Dear Ryan Jones,

All Apostles of God (Muhammad or Jesus, to mention the ones under polemic) brought the same religion – submission to the will of God.They conveyed the same message beginning from Adam until Muhammad.

I look at the Qur’an and the Bible. Jesus in the Bible as in the Qur’an taught the same thing – God is One. Before he was crucified (according to you), he was an ordinary preacher and all his disciples ran away when he was arrested and none of them were present when he was crucified. No one thought he was God or even incarnate. Suddenly after he was resurrected (also according to you), he became a different being – God Himself. Who made the claim that he is God, Jesus or you?

J. K. Jones liked to emphasize to me that Jesus and the Father are of the same ‘essence’and he said that is logic. Yes, that is logic. Who can’t say that is not logic. Everything has its own perculiar logic: chicken lays egg, woman gives birth. But logic is not necessarily truth. Some exist in the mind and never in reality. One can can write the figure of number one, but has anybody seen the number-one-self? That lead us to the question of incarnation.

Before Jesus was ascended he was God incarnate. Hence, according to J. K. Jones, Jesus and the Father are(plural?)of the same essence. Who knows? We do not know God’s essence to claim that He and Jeus are of the same essence. We know Jesus’s esence – human.

So God in Christian theology is human (since He is incarnate) but divine (since He is God); or divine(since He is God)and human (since he is flesh). Again I agree that is logic as far as for understanding is concerned. But this is a clear contradiction, for God and man cannot be both – either He is God or he is man.

A question will then be raised if such is the case – can God be divine and at the same time be human (given the theory of incarnation?) How do one come about to prove that incarnation is not a mere theory but fact? As we have not seen the Father, how do we know He incarnated. Is it just by the statement of the one incarnated yet he never claimed it himself but by the Gospellers and through hearsay or allegory by Theologians?

Further, it was acknowledged by scholars that Jesus did not come with a system of concept of God that we can derived from himself that we can alluded that he is so and so and definitely God!

Is there again any hint from previous Apostles of God of such phenomenon as incarnation?

Pope Paul said Islamic Anthropology and Theology is very distant from Christianity. Is this true? Is this not apologetic? Does this not sound exclusive as Judaism? Man, anthropologically speaking, before he has or know religion, don’t he talked of God universally?

Are we not the same human beings, created with the same inclination, the wanting to worship in the One God? Religion and God therefore cannot be exclusive between children of God. Afterall we are created by Him alone. I do not believe in its originality that man, religion and God are to be subjected to different Antrophology and Theology.

They came an envoy of Christians from Najran visiting Prophet Muhammad curious about Islam. They doubted Prophet Muhammad prophethood. So Prophet Muhmmad invited them to do supplication to God to prove who among them (between Moslems and Christians)present spoke the truth – him and Jesus (that Jesus is not God) or them (the Najrans) with their claim that Jesus is God? You know the outcome, the Najran Christians politely withdraw the invitation.

We Moslems, Ryan Jones, with all our hearts loved Jesus (I think you don’t know how much we love Jesus).
Because you so much loved Jesus that you are sorry that we Moslems do not become Chritians therefore we are lost and not salved. But we also loved so much Jesus that we pity you how come you make Jesus an object of worship, a human being like you yourself and you say him ‘One who is Revelation Himself’! Don’t you ever think, reasoned enough?

I have read Clark Pinnock in you post before you introduced him to me. I came across a lot of that kind of Christian writings over the internet. That is one example I called subjective writing – a conqueror style – I come, I see, I conquer – I decide you listen!

I think Ryan I and you are old enough to decide on our own faith instead of others to decide it for us. You need not listen to me.

Anyway, you have not answered my previous question (1) and (2).

Finally, does not the Bible says (1 Thessalonians 5:21):

‘Prove all things: hold fast that which is good.’

You may answer ‘Jesus is God’ that is good.

And Jeremiah 10: 6-7:

‘Forasmuch there is none like unto Thee, O’ Lord … there is none like unto Thee.’

Where was Jesus at that time? If God then cannot be categorised (none like unto thee), was not Jesus only a human being, not even an incarnate? Even the Qur’an says, 112: 1-4:

‘Say: He is God, the One and Only; God, The Eternal, Absolute;
He begetteth not (incarnating), nor is He begotten (incarnated);
And there is none like unto Him.’

Even James the brother of Jesus never said that Jesus was God and said that God is One and not Trinity. Why go far to find out who Jesus actually was!

And finally God is, 1 Timothy 6:16:

‘… whom no man hath seen, nor can see ..’

Hence Jesus is not God for you can see him with your eyes.

So much for your patience to read my rendering of God. God is dear to all of us.

Thank you.

AlHaj ibn Ibrahim Asy-Sarawaki.

*"Reminder to the People of the Books" is this blog which has changed to "People of the Gospels". With the change, respective articles were deleted, no longer available.

LUNATIC OR BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD

2009-02-03T23:57:00.000-08:00

‘It is not (possible) for any human being to whom God has given the Book and wisdom and prophethood to say to the people: ‘Be my worshippers rather than God’s.’ On the contrary (he would say): ‘Be devoted worshippers of your Lord, because you are teaching the Book, and you are studying it.’ Nor would he order you to take angels and Prophets for lords. Would he order you to disbelieve after you have submitted to God’s will?’ [QUR’AN 3:79-80]

JESUS AND THE MAGICIANS

WHO WAS JESUS? Or—if we prefer the present tense, as many do—who is he? What would Jesus have told us two millennia ago, what would he tell us today, about his ministry, his mission, his objectives, his identity? These are fateful questions, questions that challenge us.

If the Christian writer C.S. Lewis and the other mainstream scholars and theologians of Christianity are correct, Jesus would say to us, ‘I am God Incarnate, the second person of the Trinity.’

Lewis supports this view of Jesus with words to this effect: ‘Two thousand years ago, a man appeared among the Jews claiming to be God, a man whose words and deeds profoundly unsettled the religious authorities of his day, and whose mission continues to unsettle all of mankind. In evaluating this man’s career, there are only two possibilities for us. We may consider him a lunatic, or we may consider him the Son of God. There is no middle ground. And who will maintain that Jesus was a lunatic?’

Now, I must be honest and admit that this line of argument has irritated me for many years … because it reminds me so much of a magician’s performance.

Magicians, when they wish to make it appear to a paying audience that they have supernatural powers, often employ a series of careful misdirections: an unexpected flare from some flash powder, a pretty lady in a revealing gown, a loud noise from offstage, even something as simple as a gesture or a word. Magicians employ these misdirections, not for the sake of simple showmanship, but with a purpose, and while holding a subtle goal in mind.

Consider, for instance, the case of a card magician. The aim is to distract an audience member who has been called up onto the stage for just a moment, just long enough to manipulate the deck, and then to move quickly enough to convince her that she has freely chosen a card on her own. In fact, however, the magician has ‘forced’ a predetermined card on her.

This is the magician’s principle of misdirection.

Lewis engages in very similar sleight-of-hand with his ‘lunatic-or-Son-of-God’ argument, which appears in his book Mere Christianity.

Of course, there is no thoughtful, spiritually aware person—Christian or otherwise—who can read the Gospels with an open mind and an open heart, and come away from that experience convinced that Jesus was a lunatic. And so the believer finds herself holding a ‘card’ that she did not choose, a ‘card’ that has been forced upon her, a ‘card’ that informs her that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, the human component of the Trinity—as (she is assured) he himself claims to be.

The thoughtful Christians, however, must be prepared to appeal to the most authentic words of the Gospels to determine the truth or falsehood of such matters.

Once we resolve that much firmly in our hearts, we may find that we really are brave enough to pose the question for ourselves: Who is Jesus?

Does he say, ‘I am the only begotten Son of God and the second person of the Trinity’? If we examine this fateful question carefully, we reach an extraordinary conclusion. We may look through the Gospels for as long as we please, but we will have a very difficult time indeed locating any verse in which Jesus says this.

Now, Islam teaches that Jesus Christ forcefully rejected claims that he was divine. Most mainstream Christians who disagree with the teachings of Islam do so because of its emphatic insistence on this point.

We certainly have a right to be skeptical about Islam’s claims about this issue. It is only fair for us to demand evidence from the Gospels, and not from any other source, before we conclude that Jesus rejected the divine role that so many believe he was born to play in human affairs.

So the question becomes: Can we find even one Gospel passage that plausibly suggests Jesus rejected today’s prevailing understanding of his mission? Can we find a verse that shows him denying that he was the divine incarnation of God, the second person of the Trinity?

If we cannot find such a verse, then the discussion is over. Islam has failed to support its claims. If we can find such a verse, we are perhaps obliged to look a little more closely at what Islam has to say about Jesus.

We have, I think, both the right and the duty to determine whether or not Lewis, as he spreads out his deck of cards for us, is trying to distract us with his lunacy-or-divinity argument—and if he is, what he might be trying to distract us from. Misdirection is fine for entertainment, but it has, we must admit, no place when it comes to the important business of determining one’s own path to salvation.

Well. What could Lewis be eager to direct our attention away from?

Perhaps from Gospel passages like this one … in which Jesus explicitly denies any claim on divinity:

‘And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God.’ (MARK 10:17-18)

If Jesus was God, why in the world would he say something like this? Did he somehow forget that he himself was God when he uttered these words? (A side note—I had a discussion with a woman who assured me that this passage in Mark was not really in the Gospels, and who refused to believe that it appeared there until I gave her the chapter and verse number and she looked it up for herself!)

Have we ever gone to church and heard a homily or sermon exclusively devoted to Mark 10:18?
If our answer is ‘no,’ perhaps it is fair to ask why that is so … and to ask what other Gospel passages our magician may be attempting to distract our attention from.

Perhaps the magician would prefer to distract us from the italicized words that appear in the following Gospel passage … words with which Jesus makes clear that all of the truly faithful are (metaphorically speaking) Children of God:

‘But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.’ (MATTHEW 5:44-45)

Or perhaps the magician is eager to distract us from Gospel passages like this one … in which Jesus draws our attention away from reverence of him, and towards obedience to God Alone:

‘And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.’ (LUKE 11:27-28)

Or perhaps we are meant to be distracted from this Gospel passage … in which Jesus reminds us that it is God Alone who forgives sinners:

‘Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.’ (MATTHEW 18:32-35)

In this parable, does Jesus say that he himself will deliver us over to the torturers if we do not forgive those who wrong us, after we ourselves have been forgiven?

Or does he say that his heavenly Father—our heavenly Father!—will deliver us over to the torturers if we choose to persist in this hypocrisy?

We are entitled to ask: Is this heavenly Father he speaks of the same as, or different than, the Father referenced elsewhere as the Father of all the faithful, the One who causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall on all of us?

To be sure, all these passages appear in the New Testament, and they are all easy enough to look up and consult. But if you have ever tried to engage members of the clergy in a discussion of these passages (as I have), you will find that a very interesting thing takes place when you try to talk about these passages. St. Paul keeps popping up.

You may begin by talking about the words of Jesus, but somehow you will always end up talking about the words of St. Paul. And this, I submit, is misdirection.

The faith Jesus preached was not Paulism, and no amount of legerdemain can possibly alter this fact.

We should not have to ask for any special permission to focus on the authentic words of Jesus, and only on the authentic words of Jesus. And if we are willing to focus only on the authentic words of Jesus, we may eventually conclude that they paint a picture of Jesus as a human Prophet, a picture that is startlingly similar to the picture offered in the Qur’an.

Christians around the world repeat the Lord’s Prayer faithfully every day, attributing its exquisite words to Jesus himself. We are entitled to ask: Does this prayer require the faithful to appeal to Jesus himself? To the Trinity? To the Holy Spirit? Or does it require the faithful to appeal to ‘our Father’? We are entitled to ask: To whom was Jesus praying when he spoke these words? Himself? Certainly not! And it is not ‘my Father’ that Jesus appeals to … but ‘our Father.’

And we are entitled to ask: Why was he even speaking these words, if he himself was God?

In the end, our own honest answer to the question ‘Who is Jesus?’ need not be much more elaborate or sophisticated than a simple ‘I don’t know.’ That may very well be the best answer as we make our way through the Gospels. It’s certainly not an answer to be ashamed of: ‘I don’t know.’ And it is far better than answering as though the question we were facing were actually ‘Who does St. Paul say Jesus is?’

The only answer that is worthy of shame, when we are asked ‘Who is Jesus?’ is the one that elevates the force of our own habit over the actual words of the Gospel. We may well face grave difficulties if we consciously choose to answer this question out of force of habit when we know better.

C.S. Lewis and the theologians of what is today known as mainstream Christianity may want us to answer that question out of force of habit, of course. They have their reasons. They have made their own choices. And they have arranged the deck as they see fit.

Whether we accept the card that has been extended, and then tell ourselves that we have chosen it freely, however, is up to us. – Brandon Toropov, BEYOND MERE CHRISTIANITY

Note:
The Moslem position is that Jesus is neither a lunatic nor Son of God! Saying Christ as such is either way a blasphemy.

Do Moslems and Christians worship the same God? God has 99 names

2009-02-02T10:22:00.000-08:00

“Allah” is the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, the God of Adam, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron and Jesus.

God is Infinite, transcendent above any and all complete comprehension. No finite human mind can fully comprehend the infinite true reality that is the precious Lord. Thus, in order to make Himself better known, God describes Himself in ways, although inherently incomplete, that His finite servants can understand. Hence the names and attributes of God that are mentioned in Islamic tradition. There are many more than the famous 99 Names of God in the Islamic sacred literature. Yet, the 99 Names are the most famous, and they provide the believer with only a glimpse, a small one at that, into the beauty that is God. Indeed, He is not circumscribed by these attributes; He is more than they. Still, it allows the finite human mind to know Who his or her fully unknowable Creator is.

Yet, what should we do with the names? Many Muslims have the names of God in beautiful frames hung on the walls of their homes. Some have them hung around their necks. Some sing the names in songs or prayer sessions. Some repeat the names over and over. All of these are good things. I, however, want to go even further: I want to reflect on these names and attributes and try to understand what they mean for me, allowing me - and I hope and pray you as well - to get to know my Lord a little better. And there is no better name with which to begin than Allah.

In May 2005, I was blessed to be on a cable television program during which I discussed with a Christian minister (an ex-Muslim) and another Christian whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God. The minister answered that question unabashedly in the negative: Muslims and Christians do not worship the same God.

I both agree and disagree: if by “God” the minister means Jesus Christ, then no, Muslims and Christians do not worship the same God. If, on the other hand, the “God” to which he was referring is the Deity to whom Christ himself directed his pleas in the Bible, then I strongly agree. Muslims, Christians and Jews most definitely worship the same God.

This God is the God of Abraham, Noah, Moses, Aaron and of Jesus Christ himself. It is the God to whom Jesus refers in this passage in the New Testament:

“And it came to pass, that, as he [Jesus] was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he [Jesus] said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.” (Luke 11:1-4)

The One whom Jesus called “Our Father” is the God Whom I worship. When a “certain ruler” came to Jesus and asked him, “Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 18:18), Jesus replied, “Why callest thou me good? None is good, save one, that is, God” (Luke 18:19). The “only thing that is good” according to Jesus is the God whom I worship. When, according to the Gospel account in Mark, Jesus was on the cross, he cried out, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is interpreted as, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). The “El” on Whom Jesus called is the God that I worship.

The overwhelming majority of Muslims call this God by the Arabic name “Allah.” This has prompted some to claim (absurdly) that this “Allah” is the pagan moon god, to which the Prophet Muhammad wanted his followers to pray. “Allah was the moon god from Mecca,” says Rev. Pat Robertson on his website. “That is why Islam has the crescent moon. The flag of Turkey has a crescent moon with a star in it. Well, the crescent moon is because Allah was the moon god, and that is the deal.”

First of all, the crescent moon is a late symbol for Islam, being first used by the Ottoman Turks. It was not a symbol used by the Prophet Muhammad. Second, there was a moon god, and its name was “Seen,” among many others. None of the pagans confused this god for the One True God, Allah.

“Allah” is the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, the God of Adam, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron and Jesus. He is the “Elohim” of the Old Testament, and “Eloi” in the New Testament. The name Allah comes from the same root word that forms the basis for the words used for God in the Bible: “Elohim,” “ha Elohim,” and “ha Eloh.” “Allah” also comes from the same root word as the Aramaic word for God, which is “Alaha.” In fact, if Jesus Christ were alive today, because his language is Aramaic, he would call God by the name “Allah.”

“Elohim,” the Hebrew word for God, is derived from the word “eloh,” which means “god.”

The “im” is a plural of abstraction, appended at the end for respect. “Allah” is also related to the word “ilah,” which is Arabic for “god.” Thus, these three words - “eloh,” “alah,” “ilah” - are etymologically equivalent, just as “Deus,” “Dios,” and “Dio” are equivalent names for God in Latin, Spanish, and Italian respectively. The proto-Semitic root for “eloh,” “alah,” and “ilah” is “’LH,” which means “to worship.” Therefore, the literal meaning of “Elohim,” “Alaha,” and “Allah” is “the one whom is worshiped.”

“Eloi,” the name Jesus cried out on the cross in the account according to Mark, comes from this very same root word for God. Thus, “Allah” is not some foreign god whom the Muslims worship, but the very same God that Jesus called upon during his ministry on earth. If you were to pick up a copy of an Arabic translation of the Bible, you will find the word used for God is none other than “Allah.”

Does this mean that the name “God” is inaccurate? I have heard some Muslims say that the only proper name to call God is “Allah.” This could not be farther from the truth. The word “God” dates back to at least the Neolithic Period. It is derived from the proto-Indo-European word “gheu,” which means “to invoke” or “to supplicate.” “God,” in fact, is a past participle of “gheu,” and thus means “the one who is invoked,” very similar to the meaning of the word “Allah,” which is “the one whom is worshiped.” In fact, the Persian name for God, “khoda,” comes from this same root.

What’s more, the word “God” dates back to before Christianity, and its earliest documented use is in the poem Beowulf. Thus, to use the word “God” to refer to “Allah” is not only proper, it is linguistically correct for me as a native English speaker. It is important for Muslims to understand this, not only so that they can defend against the silly charge that Allah is the “moon god,” but also so that they can use a little wisdom when speaking about God to various audiences.

Whenever I give a Friday sermon, I usually call God by the most beautiful of all His names, “Allah.” Yet, when I speak to non-Muslims about God, I use the word “God.” That is more familiar to them, and if we insist that the only name for God is “Allah,” we falsely give the impression that we worship a “foreign” God, and not the God of Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, and all the Prophets. Our God is the God of all, and to me, the names are interchangeable, and whichever word I use - “God” or “Allah” - is completely immaterial.

Hesham A. Hassaballa is deputy director of Illume, and a Pulmonary and Critical Care physician currently practicing in the greater Chicago area.

God Explained in a Taxi Ride

2009-02-02T09:16:00.000-08:00

I came across this little book, 'God Explained in a Taxi Ride' by Paul Arden, not in a taxi ride but in a bookstore, published by Penguins. Two headings of the book caught my eyes: (i) 'The Greatest Book Ever Told' and (ii) 'The Trinity'.

I do not know whether Paul Arden is a Catholic or not, but judging by what he wrote, I guessed he is a born Christian.

On 'The Greatest Story Ever Told', he writes:

'The Bible is a great read but like Chinese whisper, the truth of it has been distorted. It's hard to tell where history stops and legend begins. It was written long after the death of Jesus, from word of mouth and hearsay. Translated from Hebrew into Greek and Latin, again from Latin into English, and retranslated into what we know today as the King James Bible. It is a book the Church want you to believe in. It is the Church's Bible not God's'.

The Old Testament says:

26 "You have perverted the words of the living God." - Jeremiah xxiii

And confirmed the Qur'an:

2:78 And there are among them unlettered people who have no real knowledge of the divine writ, [following] only wishful beliefs and depending on nothing but conjecture. 2:79 Woe, then, unto those who write down, with their own hands, [something which they claim to be] divine writ, and they say. "This is from God," in order to acquire a trifling gain thereby; woe, then, unto them for what their hands have written, and woe unto them for all they may have gained!" - Al-Baqarah, The Cow.

The Bible therefore is 'tempered'. When the Bible is tempered with, the true teaching of Christ can never be ascertained from it. What Jesus preached may not be what the Christian believed. It is the Church interpretation and not the literal biblical message that permeated the Christianity faith.

Professor of Jewish Studies at Oxford University, Professor Emeritus Geza Vermes (who was once a Christian priest at Vatican) writes:

'Let us recall some basic facts. Jesus taught in Aramaic to Palestinian - and according to the Sypnotics mainly Galilean - Jews. We must assume that he wanted to be understood by them, and to achieve this he used the words, phrases, images, and teaching method with which his compatriots were familiar. Therefore no saying of Jesus can be reckoned authentic unless it was intelligible to the first-century Jews in a Palestinian/Galilean setting.

'Since Jesus did not record his message in writing, it had to be handed down by his disciples orally, first in Aramaic and later in Greek when the evangelization moved outside Palestine among Jews and Gentiles who spoke Greek. The written word soon became the medium of transmission in the various geographically distinct regions of the Graeco- Roman world and as a result thegospel was bound to acquire a considerable degree of variation.' [pg. 375, 'The Authentic Gospel of Jesus', penguin]

Professor Emeritus Geza Vermes (in the same book) further noted:

'Any attempt to try to reconstruct a word-for-word version of the sayings of Jesus is, I believe, a waste of time. The aim is unattainable because the original source, is no longer available. All we have is a secondary Greek reconstruction. In a domain such as this, at a distance of two thousands years, certainties are beyond the scholar's reach. The least unrealistic task is to weigh up and rank probabilities. On the less pessimistic side, it is worth observing that the fundamental principle of New Testament criticism, namely that the burden of proof rests on the claim of authenticity, is to a large extent misleading. The thesis that in the absence of definite proof of its genuineness a saying must be declared inauthentic is logically false. Inability to demonstrate that a maxim assigned by the evangelists to Jesus actually stems from him does not signify that he had nothing to do with it. It simply means that we are not in a position to prove that he had. Insufficiency of evidence does not automatically falsify a statement, but puts a question mark after it. Likewise lack of certainty is compatible with various degree of probabibility.' [pg. 419]

On 'Trinity', Paul Arden writes:

'When I was young, I went to church every Sunday, and the rector spoke of the Trinity: God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. The reverend never explained these things; they were read out and we would join in parrot-fashion, not knowing what we were talking about. Nevertheless, I accepted those things in the name of God. I am certainly not the only person to have puzzled over this conundrum.' So I thought I would make a stab at understanding it.'

When Trinity is a speculation, as with 'probabilities' nothing of certainty can be explained of it.

The Qur'an says:

9:30 "AND THE JEWS say, "Ezra is God's son," while the Christians say, "The Christ is God's son." Such are the sayings which they utter with their mouths, following in the spirit assertions made in earlier times by people who denied truth! God's curse be on them! [They deserve the imprecation:] "May God destroy them!" How perverted are their minds!" 9:31 They have taken their rabbis and their monks - as well as the Christ, son of Mary - for their lords beside God, although they have been bidden to worship none but the One God, save whom there is no deity: the One who is utterly remote, in His limitless glory, from anything to which they may ascribe a share in His divinity!" - At-Tawbah/Repentance, Qur'an.

18:4 "Furthermore, this divine [the Qur'an] writ is meant to warn all those who assert, "God has taken unto Himself a son." 18:5 No knowledge whatever have they of Him, and neither had their forefathers: dreadful is this saying that comes out of their mouths, [and] nothing but falsehood do they utter!' - Al-Kahf, The Cave, Qur'an.

[TMTQ/MA pgs.: 17, 262-263] ......