Prophetic Names

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Robert Sievers

What’s in a name? My name is Robert, which supposedly means “famous.” I know for a fact my parents didn’t think much about the meaning behind my name, but chose it for other reasons. However, in the culture of Biblical times, the meaning of names carried much more weight. What types of differences emerge between Christianity and Islam when we examine prophetic names and their underlying meanings?

First, to see the importance of the meanings behind names in ancient near eastern cultures, consider the twelve sons of Jacob. A fascinating study is to look at each of those names and how they spotlight the competition between Leah and Rachel (Gen 29:32). Every time Leah called her son Reuben, she literally said, “See, a son.” Clearly part of this name was a jab at Rachel, but that is an entirely different avenue of study. The meanings behind names in general carried weight, but what can be said about prophets? Do their names tend to signify anything special?

Consider Moses. Moses means “saved from the water”[i] or more figuratively “drawn out.” Moses got this name due to the nature of how he was delivered as a baby from Pharaoh’s decree to have all Hebrew males killed (Exodus 2:10). As with many other parts of the Bible, this particular event had a double fulfillment. Not only did Moses get his name based on his manner of deliverance from being killed as a child, but later in life, his name represented him on another level. Moses was the leader responsible for “drawing out” his people from the land of Egypt. In the dramatic events of the parting of the Red Sea, the Hebrews were “saved from the water.”

Later, as prophets of God arose, their names all seem to follow a pattern. Isaiah means “the Lord is generous” or “Salvation of the Lord.” Samuel means “asked of God” or “heard by God.” Daniel means “The Lord judges.” Micah means “who is like God?” I am sure someone has created a Bible study based on the names of the prophets, and what they say about God. Being removed from the Hebrew, English speakers tend to miss the deeper meanings that pervade the Old Testament in general, and names are a prime example of that.

When we come to the New Testament, this trend continues. Jesus was given His name for a special reason as well. Jesus means “God saves” (Matthew 1:21). What a powerful connection between what Jesus did and His name, because that was His ultimate purpose, to save His people from their sin. Names have meaning, and those meanings shed light on what God is doing.

As always, it is time to turn to Islam to see how it compares to Christianity. While Muhammad did not come on the scene until six centuries after Jesus, it can be asked “What does the name Muhammad signify?” Muhammad means “the praised one.” Is “the praised one” really an accurate description of his name’s meaning? To find out, let’s listen to Muhammad’s own words, as reported by Jabir ibn ‘Abdullah al-Ansari,

He made my name ‘Muhammad,’ for I am praised by everyone on the Day of Judgment when decrees will be issued, and none besides me will receive such praise. [ii]

According to Muhammad, nobody else besides him (excepting Allah I would assume) will receive the kind of praise that he will. Muhammad states that he will be of all prophets most praised.

At this point, frequent readers of the blog will know exactly where this article is going. Names of prophets always share a common theme; they all point back toward God. In some way or another, each of the names tells us something about God, or praises God in some way for who He is. Jesus’ name gives us another verification of just who He is as well. However, when we look to Islam, we find the prophet of Islam has a name which flips the praise the other direction. Instead of the praise going toward God, the praise is directed at Muhammad. The compass points 180 degrees away from the true north of God, and the prophet becomes the praised one.

Of course Muslims may say that only Allah is worthy of highest praise. As Christians, we would whole-heartedly agree that God is worthy of this highest praise. But such an agreement misses the mark about how we each view the respective prophets of our religions. As Christians, the prophets’ names themselves just point back toward God by what their names convey. In Islam, Muhammad’s name signifies that it is he who receives praise. What does it mean to be called a prophet and have a name that honors yourself rather than God?

Do names have meaning? Do the corresponding names of those who are considered prophets tell us something about Christianity and Islam?

Yes, they do.

[i] http://www.meaning-of-names.com/hebrew-names/moses.asp

[ii] http://www.al-islam.org/muhammad-yasin-jibouri/4.htm

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Created in the Image of God

Posted on August 26, 2012 by Robert Sievers

Often times, the articles in this blog compare theological differences between Christianity and Islam that display an amazing degree of irony. Sometimes the differences are more straightforward. Still, such routine differences are no less useful to discuss. One such difference is just what it means for humans to be created in the image of God.

In Genesis 1:26, God relates that He creates man in His image. There is a fair amount of discussion among Christian scholars about what this means. Obviously we humans cannot be compared directly to God in that we exist as matter, whereas God is spirit (John 4:24). Yet there is something about the way God created us as humans that is special and is in His likeness (Psalm 8:5; Psalm 139:14).

Just how are we created in God’s image, and what does this have to do with the Allah of Islam? In the first place, we are created as eternal beings. We are not eternal in the complete sense, since we each have a beginning date of creation. However, we will live forever, either with God in heaven or without Him in hell. This is a choice we must each make, and this brings us to another way in which we are like God. We all have free will. As volitional agents, we can each affect the world around us by means of the choices we make. In still another sense, we are like God in that we have a triune makeup. We each have a mind, a body, and a spirit. Somehow, these three operate as one (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Of course, this is nowhere near an exact analogy to the trinity, but how my spirit, my mind and my body interact is a question too wonderful for me to fully grasp.

Throughout the Bible, we find that God has a great deal of regard for His created humans (Psalm 8:4, 2 Peter 3:9). He even gives us the free will to reject Him! When you think of it, that is quite an amazing fact. God loves us so much that He gives us the power to assert our independence to such a degree that we can choose to refuse His free gift of eternal life. Of course, doing so results in the most dire of all consequences, an eternity separated from Him.

So how does Allah see humanity? On the surface, it seems Islam and Christianity are similar, in that Muslims also believe Allah created Adam in his form and shape.[i] Yet deeper investigation reveals something more as the Qur’an relates a story of how Allah treated some disbelievers in an unnamed town at an unspecified time.

[2.65] And certainly you have known those among you who exceeded the limits of the Sabbath, so We said to them: Be (as) apes, despised and hated.

And

[5.60] Say: Shall I inform you of (him who is) worse than this in retribution from Allah? (Worse is he) whom Allah has cursed and brought His wrath upon, and of whom He made apes and swine, and he who served the Shaitan; these are worse in place and more erring from the straight path.

Tafsir, commentaries on the Qur’an, make it clear that this metamorphosis was not allegorical, but literal.[ii] In fact, Maulana Mufti Muhammads Hafi’, in his tafsir Ma’ariful-Qur’an, adds an extended footnote stating that any non-literal interpretation is a deviant view of modernizing Muslims. He has this to say about Muslims who claim the passage is not literal: “To say such a thing is to deny an explicit statement of the Holy Qur’an, which no Muslim can do,…”[iii]

According to Islam, Allah has in the past destroyed the very humanity of his created creatures. This is something YHWH would never do. True, God gives us the right to reject Him, but God gives us this ability as an act which in a sense upholds our dignity of free will as human beings. In Islam, one of the punishments given to some of his creatures before going to hell is to be turned into an unreasoning animal. Would God, who grieves when we reject Him, ever punish us by turning us into an animal and thereby taking away our very ability to accept Him before our death? That’s not the God I know.

The God that I know only disciplines us for our own good (Hebrews 12:10, 1 Corinthians 11:32). It is true that sin has consequences, and often times bad things happen because we bring it upon ourselves (1 King 8:32). Yet this ties back into the whole issue of free will. Our own choices can boomerang on us to our own destruction. Yet in all this, God never curses us and then maims or mutilates that which He created in His own image by turning us into primates or other mammals. Allah does.

This is just another difference between YHWH of the Bible and Allah of the Qur’an.

[i] Sahih Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 74, Number 246. http://www.sahih-bukhari.com/Pages/Bukhari_8_74.php

[ii] Ibn Kathir, downloaded from http://www.quran4u.com/Tafsir%20Ibn%20Kathir/PDF/002%20Baqarah%20I.pdf, p 199-200.

[iii] http://islamkashmir.org/radiant-reality/2007/01/lesson-quran

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Opportunity Lost

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Robert Sievers

Earlier this year, I attended an interfaith dialog between Peter Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy, Boston College and Zeki Saritoprak, Director of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi Chair in Islamic Studies, John Carroll University. Every time I attend one of these forums, I return disappointed and discouraged. Typically the Muslim speaker does a wonderful job of explaining Islam to an audience that has no context or background to test whether or not what they are being told is accurate. The Christian speaker then dances around the gospel in an attempt not to offend anyone in the audience.

“This one will be different”, I told myself. As a prolific author of 55 books, including such titles as The Handbook of Christian Apologetics, Faith and Reason, and Back to Virtue, surely Kreeft would handle the tough issues delicately but unwaveringly. My hopes were vastly misplaced.

Both scholars were given ten minutes to summarize their respective religions. Saritoprak gave a capable and ordered overview of the five pillars of Islam and its six articles of faith. Kreeft began first by stating that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. He did then speak of the incarnation briefly, but then went adrift by spending the rest of his short time discussing areas of commonality between Islam and Christianity.

This blog will delve deeply into the issue of whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God in later articles. Whatever your personal view, at the very minimum it cannot be denied that Kreeft made a huge assumption. Moreover, starting your speech summarizing Christianity by introducing such a controversial point seems rather odd to me. Is this really a profitable way to begin discussing the Christian faith, by equating Allah and YHWH?

What was even more distressing to me was that in this introduction, and indeed throughout the entire 1 hour and 40 minute dialogue, not once did Dr. Kreeft mention either the cross or the resurrection! How does a Christian apologist have a dialogue with a Muslim and never once mention the cornerstone of Christian doctrine? What power does Jesus have without His crucifixion and subsequent triumph over death?

During the discussion Kreeft also commented that the Qur’an contains a great deal of truth, and therefore cannot have come from sinister sources. The Qur’an does contain some accounts that are similar to the Bible, such as the account of the parting of the Red Sea, or Jesus’ virgin birth. I don’t follow the logic though that since the Qur’an has elements of truth, it cannot be demonically inspired. Any skilled liar knows that the best lies are those encapsulated by truths. If I tell you that I flew to the moon yesterday, you can discard my statement as ridiculous immediately. If I suppress a lie instead inside a number of truths, it will be harder for you to spot. A meal of pure arsenic is much less effective as a poison than a beautiful and tasty dinner sprinkled with just enough arsenic to be deadly. An enemy that masquerades as an angel of light is much more effective than an enemy that makes his deadly presence blatantly known. (2 Corinthians 11:14)

I am not advocating debate for the sake of trying to score points. I am not suggesting we engage in name calling, nor being purposely offensive. Neither am I a proponent of yelling, belittling, or ridiculing those who disagree. What I am suggesting is that when in interfaith dialogue, we not back down from the great truths Jesus gave to us. His message is an outrageous one, and Jesus Himself said it will be divisive. (Matthew 10:34-36) The cross is a stumbling block, foolishness to some and offensive to others (1 Corinthians 1:23). Christianity is not about watering down eternal truths. It is about God coming to earth as a human, living a sinless life, dying as an atonement for our sins, and being raised from the dead as a witness to the veracity of His claims. How does ignoring these truths in order to have a more friendly discussion serve anyone?

Someone of Kreeft’s stature has the responsibility to do better (Luke 12:48). I would have preferred to share this with Dr. Kreeft privately and personally before publishing this critique, but due to his popularity, he understandably is not able to accept personal emails.

I would hope that Christians in interfaith dialogue would not engage in unfruitful or combative debate, but would have profitable discussions. Yet such dialogue should not begin by assuming Christians and Muslims worship the same God. It should include the pinnacle of Jesus’ efforts here on earth, the cross and resurrection. It should cater to the possibility that the Qur’an may have diabolical origins. It must stand firm in proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ, even though the gospel may be a stumbling block and an offense.

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