The Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah because they were looking for a physical king and a physical kingdom.
Historically, Israel had been ruled in a combined political-religious system administered by prophets, priests, Levites and, later, kings. During the time of Christ's ministry, they were subjugated to Rome, which was a galling situation.
The Jews expected a Messiah who would deliver them from Rome. When they heard John the Baptist proclaim, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand,” they interpreted it as, “The restoration of David’s earthly throne is at hand” and that they would be freed from Rome.
Jesus gave no encouragement to that. He selected no army to defend or empower Himself. All along, Jesus stressed the spiritual nature of His reign. In veiled figures, His parables were emphasizing the spiritual character of the kingdom of heaven, yet Israel's earthly expectations were so strong as to survive His death and resurrection.
How sad it is that even today many believers expect Him to return and reign over an earthly kingdom.
Members of the Jewish faith believe that there is one God, who is omnipotent and indivisible, and with whom the Jews have a covenant, a special relationship of ethical and moral obligations and of protection.
The Jewish God, unlike the Christian trinity, has no distinct parts. The "spirit of God" mentioned in the Bible is understood metaphorically.
Jews allow no pictures or images of God. The orthodox Jew undertakes, in addition to 613 commandments, dietary proscriptions, daily prayers, refraining from travel and work on the Sabbath, and numerous other obligations.
Jews can view Jesus as a wise Jewish teacher, but Jews do not believe in the divinity or resurrection of Jesus.
The afterlife, resurrection at the end of days, heaven and hell, have become a part of Jewish theology and different Jewish traditions, though they did not apparently constitute part of the beliefs of Mosaic Judaism.
Conversion and Converts in Judaism
In addition to a long period of study, conversion to Judaism requires a ceremony of immersion in a ritual bath, and for males, circumcision. Converted Jews often change their family name to "ben Avraham," the son of Abraham. Those who become Jewish are adopted into the family of Abraham as though they were his actual descendants, and are initiated into the covenant of Abraham, as commanded to all Jews. Therefore, males who wish to convert to Judaism must undergo circumcision in Conservative and Orthodox rites. If they are already circumcised, there is a symbolic ceremony that takes the place of circumcision. At least some Reform and Reconstructionist rabbis will apparently perform conversion without circumcision. However, Reform Judaism also have a Berit Milah (circumcision) program.
Jews who convert to Christianity or to "Messianic Judaism" are no longer considered part of the Jewish community by Jewish religious authorities and by most other Jews.
Jewish religious thought holds seemingly contradictory views of conversion and converts. For example, consider these different quotes:
The only reason God exiled the Jews among the nations was so that converts could be added. (Pesachim 87b)
Continuous evil comes to those who accept converts. (Yevamot 109b)
Converts are as difficult for Israel like a nasty sore. (Yevamot 109b)
'The Souls they made in Charan.' These are the converts which Avraham and Sarah converted. This teaches us that whoever brings a gentile close and converts him it is as if he created that person. (Bereshit Rabah 39)
The names of Gerim are as dear to me as idolatrous wine poured on the altar. (Vayikra Rabah 1)
Even a gentile who converted and busies himself with Torah is considered as if he were the chief priest (Cohen Gadol). (Bamidbar Rabah 8)
Come and see how beloved converts are to God... (Ruth Rabah 2)
The major fear engendered by converts is that they would be insincere or ignorant and would introduce non-Jewish and unacceptable customs into the Jewish community, such as polytheism and idolatry. In the first centuries of the exile, however, Judaism was apparently an active and very successful proselytizing religion.
As much as ten percent of the population of the ancient Roman world were probably Jewish at one time and, in addition, there are many whose grave inscription reads "Yereh Elohim" (God fearing); meaning that while they had not converted to Judaism, they had accepted monotheism and many tenets of Judaism.
Conversion activity stopped because it was outlawed by Christianity and Islam. At least some streams of Judaism, however, are actively reaching out for converts today.
Judaism and Zionism
We believe that Israel and Zionism hold a central place in Judaism. Zion and the holy land certainly hold a central place in the Jewish faith and prayers. However, it is not necessary to be a Jew to support Israel or the right of the Jews for a state, and support for Israel or Zionism is not a requirement for conversion to Judaism.
Is It Hard to Become a Jew?
It is much more difficult to become a Jew than it is to become Christian or a Muslim. Becoming a Jew means joining a people as well as a faith, assuming a new ethnic identity, and joining a worldwide community centered on Israel, on the Jewish history and the Jewish faith. Therefore, conversion to Judaism entails a long period of study, learning and preparation.
Different Types of Jews
The foundations of the Jewish faith are given in the the Old Testament Bible and in the later law books, particularly the Mishna, the Talmud and the Shulhan Aruch. These are variously interpreted by different streams and factions and rabbis.
There are four main streams of Judaism: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist.
Orthodox Jews are the strictest and, unfortunately, may not recognize the conversions performed by other rabbis. While there is no recognized central authority for the Jewish religion, if the Israeli chief rabbinate and rabbinical accepts a conversion or decides that a person is Jewish according to Halachic (Jewish religious) law, that decision is honored by all other streams. However, the reverse is not true.
A person may be accepted as a Jew according to the law of return by the Israeli government, but that does not mean that they are recognized as a Jew for purposes of marriage by the chief rabbinate.
The recent canonization of Edith Stein as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross by the Roman Catholic Church poses a number of very serious challenges to living Jews, we who are still members of the people to whom Edith Stein believed she also belonged, even at her death in Auschwitz.
Theologically speaking, Edith Stein was arguably the most significant Jewish convert to Christianity of this century. In general, Jewish tradition regards such persons as apostates who have removed themselves from the normative Jewish community in a radical way, even if they still consider themselves part of the body of the Jewish people, as Stein did.
Judaism in fact also regards such persons as part of the body of the Jewish people. "A Jew who has sinned is still a Jew" is an important talmudic principle. Nevertheless, an apostate is an apostate, even when a person of extraordinary intellectual and moral virtues. Our reactions in such cases, however great or small the person before us is, range from anger to sorrow. We cannot very well be indifferent.
In the case of Edith Stein, though, it seems we Jews must be more precise in giving reasons why we cannot celebrate with Catholics the life and death of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. We need to give theologically cogent reasons for why we would have had to distance ourselves from her in life (as her pious Jewish mother did), and why we would have joined that segment of her family who chose not to attend her beatification by Pope John Paul II in Cologne in 1987.
Stein's case is not an easy one for us. Jews have been able to dismiss most modern Jewish converts to Christianity as people motivated by social or professional ambition, self-hatred, ignorance, or mental imbalance. But anyone who knew Edith Stein, or who knows anything about her life, would have to admit that none of these categories applies to her. Indeed, Edith Stein comes across as sui generis.
She might be the most uniquely problematic Jew for us since Saul of Tarsus.
The easiest way to deal with the problem is to accept the liberal assumption that one's religious convictions are a matter of individual choice, and that everyone must respect the choice of everyone else to believe whatever they want and practice any religion or no religion, as they choose.
On this view, Edith Stein had a right to become a Catholic and change her name to Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, just as the Catholic priest Father Kenneth Cox had a right to become a Jew and change his name to Abraham Carmel.
At the political level, most Jews and most Catholics have accepted the liberal idea of religious freedom. Some see it as a necessary part of the social contract that enables us to participate in civil society. Others see it as being in the best interest of faith itself, which cannot legitimately be coerced. Pragmatically, we realize that our religious communities are probably better off without people who have found a spiritual home elsewhere and do not want to be with us anymore. All this is how we talk and have to talk in the public square. But while that talk is not disingenuous, it is secondary to the primary commitments of both Jews and Christians.
The most fruitful dialogue between Jews and Catholics (and other Christians as well) has been about our relations in the public realm, where we have discovered significant common ground on such issues as public morality and religious liberty.
Nevertheless, the discovery of such commonality, beneficial as it is, does not change the fact that, at the deepest level of our existence, Jews and Christians are making not only different communal claims, but rival communal claims. The best way to God, the one that ought not be exchanged for something less, is either by the Torah and the Jewish tradition or by Christ and the Church. The choice is unavoidable. One cannot accept Christ and still be part of the normative Jewish community; one cannot live by Torah and still be part of the Church.
Early in our common history, indeed almost simultaneously, Jewish authorities ruled against the practice of Christianity by Jews, and the Church ruled against the practice of Judaism by Christians ("judaization"), even by Christians born as Jews. Our acceptance of the liberal order of civil society has, for the most part, enabled us to make these rival communal claims civilly, and without fear of political repercussions. But that accommodation should not make us slide into the superficiality of civil religion or the disorientation of religious syncretism. Sometimes Jews and Christians have to speak to each other without the mediation of the secular public realm, as we must when speaking about Edith Stein.
Because Judaism and Christianity are both covenantal religions, the relationship of the individual Jew or Christian to God is always within covenanted community. Stein, even when physically alone in her nun's cell, was still existentially part of the community. The community in which one hears the voice of God structures how one hears that voice and interprets what it says.
There is no universal revelation until the end of history, which is why election is the doctrine of identity for both Christians and Jews. God chooses us; we do not choose God, at least originally. That election is either by natural birth or by the rebirth of conversion, which is very much like adoption. We only can accept or reject the community into which, as one former Christian philosopher put it, we have "been thrown."
Based on these covenantal assumptions, it follows that both Judaism and Christianity assert what liberals can only regard as an unfair asymmetry: One can check into the covenant, but one cannot check out of it. A convert is "born again," which also means that from God's perspective he or she has retroactively always been in the community. An apostate, conversely, does not quit the community existentially; he or she is only absent without leave. Excommunication bars a sinful Catholic from receiving the sacraments, not from the Church herself, just as herem, the ban of ostracism, does not mean that a Jew is no longer a Jew.
So Jews regard Edith Stein as a Jewish apostate, but always a Jew nonetheless. And she agreed with us about her Jewish identity; it is about her apostasy that she obviously had a different opinion. We cannot avoid the question of apostasy because it brings us face to face with the rival truth claims our two communities make, to ourselves, to each other, and to the world.
Judaism and Christianity alike present themselves as the fullest truth of God's relationship with the world, but both can recognize more limited forms of truth elsewhere. Confirmation in one's covenant does not imply having a monopoly on God. As the prophet Amos (9:7) put it to the overly proud people of Israel, "Are you not for me like the Ethiopians?" This view enables us to live with other people in good faith and to have genuine respect for them and their traditions.
This approach, common in form but different in substance for us, might be summarized in the talmudic principle that "one is to rise, not descend, in holiness." To illustrate, let me set up four possible situations and suggest the Jewish answer to each of them. (A Christian answer would be substantively different in two of the scenarios, but I think the Christian logic would have to be the same as Jewish logic in all of them.) The four situations are:
a pagan wanting to convert to Christianity instead of Judaism;
a pagan wanting to convert to Judaism instead of Christianity;
a Christian wanting to convert to Judaism;
a Jew wanting to convert to Christianity.
By "pagan," I mean someone who neither by birth nor by the rebirth of conversion has ever been a Jew or a Christian.
The Jew would regard the pagan's conversion to Christianity as a good choice inasmuch as Christianity is a valid gentile relationship with the Lord God, maker of heaven and earth, elector of Israel, giver of the Torah, and redeemer of the world. Of course, he would regard the pagan's conversion to Judaism as the best choice possible. A Christian wanting to convert to Judaism has not only made the best choice but is well prepared for it by having been a Christian and, therefore, knowing, however partially, the Lord God of Israel. The final option, the Jew wanting to convert to Christianity, is of course the option of Edith Stein.
Edith Stein accepted what Christians have always had to say to Jews; namely, that Christianity solves the problems of Judaism better than Judaism does because Christianity provides the savior to whom Jews have always looked. She therefore did not consider herself a runaway from Judaism (however rudimentary her own Judaism was) but rather a Jew whose Judaism brought her into the Church. Her logic was clearly supersessionist. How could it have been otherwise? Indeed, had it been otherwise, Edith Stein would have had to have said what Franz Rosenzweig said when he rejected Christian supersessionist claims: "I therefore remain a Jew!" (Rosenzweig, a Jewish philosopher and contemporary of Stein, whom many consider the greatest Jewish theologian of this century, himself almost converted to Christianity.)
Supersessionism is the subject of deep theological debate today. Many Jews have seen it as the core of Christian anti-Judaism. Many Christians are embarrassed by it, seeing it as part of the anti-Judaism that was so easily appropriated by modern anti-Semitism.
Yet, Christian supersessionism need not denigrate Judaism. It can look to the Jewish origins of Christianity happily and still learn of those origins from living Jews, whom Pope John Paul II likes to call "elder brothers."
Christian supersessionism can still affirm that God has not annulled his everlasting covenant with the Jewish people, neither past nor present nor future. Jews can expect no more than that from Christians, and Christians probably cannot concede any more to Judaism. For if Christianity does not regard itself as going beyond Judaism, why should Christians not become Jews? And, conversely, any Jew who believes Christianity supersedes Judaism can only in good faith become a Christian, as Edith Stein did.
Fruitful conversations of late between Jews and Christians have largely bracketed this critical issue for good reasons. It is, nevertheless, the crucial question that leaves the two communities at an impasse. All attempts to get beyond it--be they political, exegetical, or philosophical--have been failures. After all, it is the question of truth, and truth is what we are both all about. To bracket this question is quite different from either suppressing it altogether or reducing all discussion to it.
Edith Stein represents our impasse. She cannot be a bridge between Jews and Catholics because, in this world, one cannot be simultaneously both a faithful Jew and a faithful Catholic. Since the Jewish and Catholic communities are mutually exclusive, and both Jews and Catholics derive their identities from God's covenant with their communities, no member of one community can also be a member in good standing of the other. Moreover, one cannot expect the approval of the covenanted community one has left. As with Abraham our father, the answer to God's call always involves leaving some earlier household in one way or another, and that household does not and cannot provide one with a warm farewell.
In this world, Jews and Christians do have much to say to each other and much to do together. But our more important task of waiting for God we must do separately. The agenda of dialogue must be kept distant from the agenda of conversion. Dialogue is more about this world; conversion is more about the world-to-come.
Until the end time, it is not for us to judge matters of identity, except in the most mundane cases involving communal rights and penalties. Because of that, while we Jews can empathize with Catholics who have found yet another saint, another exemplary holy life, it is not something we can feel (the original meaning of "sympathy") with Catholics any more than we could celebrate the Eucharist with them. At this deepest level we are still strangers to each other. So it seems that we shall remain until the end, when we hope to be the lasting friends of God, and thus of each other.
The article that follows is meant to be a general introduction to the Muslim world—not a comprehensive statement. Not everything here is true of every Islamic country or every Muslim individual. The article is presented to give insight into some of the hundreds of millions of Muslims in the world—and the tens of thousands right on our North American campuses.
A Look at Islam
Thirteen hundred years ago Islam charged across the continental bridge of the Near East to Asia, Africa and Europe. Today it is the second largest religion in the world. Over the centuries it has withstood Christian missionary efforts and is actually spreading rapidly throughout the world with an evangelistic vision of its own.
So what stands between Muslims and Christianity? We urgently need to consider the barriers, both doctrinal and personal, that Muslims encounter when they consider Christianity if we hope to bring the good news to the followers of Allah.
This article is a general introduction to those barriers. It is not, however, a comprehensive statement. Not everything here is true of every Islamic country or every Muslim, but most Muslims have problems with Christianity in three areas: the person of Jesus Christ, His death on the cross, and the reliability of the Bible (as compared with the Quran, the Islamic scriptures, also spelled Koran).
Accepting the Prophet While Rejecting the Son
The person of Jesus Christ represents the first and possibly the biggest barrier to belief. Muslims acknowledge Christ as a prophet, but find it unthinkable that God has a son who is equal to Him in power and glory. Allah (the Islamic god) stands alone and unequaled.
Early in his childhood, a Muslim is taught that Christians worship three gods. Whoever tries to explain to a Muslim that these three persons of the Trinity equal One will strike against a misunderstanding, which can work into outright hatred. Our occidental dialectical thinking can hardly be tolerated by an Islamic mind: either God is one or He is three, but He is never simultaneously three in one; three persons cannot be one, and to suggest that He is three is blasphemy.
Yet at the same time the Quran includes clear references to the uniqueness of Christ. For instance, Muslims believe Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, worked miracles, healed the sick, and raised the dead. But while Christianity testifies that Jesus is the eternal Word of God through whom all things were created, one with the Father in essence (not created), Muhammad declares that Jesus was created in Mary at a point in time out of nothing, through the creative Word of God.
Christians testify that Christ existed in eternity before all time; for Muslims, Christ is unique, but He is only a man—a prophet, without divine Sonship and without the cross.
Such references, which are remains of the pre-Islamic quarrels in the early churches of the Near East, also appear in other places in the Quran. In it Christ is called “the Word of God” and “a spirit of Him” (though Muslims generally would understand “Word of God” to be a phrase referring to the written Quran). Many a fight took place in the history of Islamic theology on the question of whether God’s Word is eternal or finite, so that it would not have to admit that Christ, “the incarnate Word of God,” even from His birth stood higher than Muhammad.
Thus Islam is a spirit that refuses the divinity of Christ, a stance rejected by the New Testament (1 John 4:3-5).
Denying the Cross
The second basic offense to a Muslim is the testimony that Christ was crucified. Here we have to note that Islamic criticism is not directed toward the meaning and fruits of the crucifixion, but that Islam completely denies this historical fact itself.
Muslims believe that they are in fact honoring Jesus since Allah would never allow His prophet to suffer such humiliation and suffering. Muslims reject the cross because they do not understand the concept of a loving God sacrificing Himself for His people. In their eyes, the crucifixion demeans Jesus.
Many Muslims believe that Christ did not die on the cross, but was taken up alive to heaven. Such a belief undermines such basic concepts as justification, the resurrection of Jesus, and the regeneration of believers by the Holy Spirit.
Muslims view the cross as unnecessary, because separation from God is not entirely a matter of personal responsibility or the result of sin. Sin is regarded as a slip or a mistake, which takes place because Allah created man weak and temptable. One could view Allah as one who arbitrarily promotes someone to paradise or throws someone into hell, like a big dictator whom everyone fears and from whom there is no escape. Thus the cross is unnecessary and represents an attack on Allah’s sovereignty. Allah needs no sacrifice and no mediator to reconcile the world to himself, for he forgives whomever he chooses whenever he chooses. The true character of Islam is revealed in its consistent rejection of the cross. While we see the incarnation of Christ as the prerequisite for His substitution on the cross, Muslims deny both.
Rethinking Revelation
If you tell a Muslim that the account of Jesus’ death on the cross is the best documented part of the gospel, you will quickly strike upon the third basic offense that separates Islam from Christianity: Islam’s understanding of revelation.
Muhammad explained that all differences between the Bible and the Quran are proofs of the corruption that Jews and Christians have introduced into the original Old and New Testament revelation. Islamic textural criticism is not concerned with which verses are genuine words of Jesus or which literary sources make up the gospel. Instead, the Quran is vigorously promoted as the only valid measure for divine truth. Thus whatever is not in accord with the book of the Muslims is regarded as corrupt and untrue. It is on this basis that Christ’s bodily ascension to heaven is proven.
For Muslims, Christ is the only man who is in proximity to God, but only as a prophet—without the cross and without divine Sonship.
Who is Allah?
The three basic offenses between Islam and Christianity represent only the tip of the iceberg. The main cause of the incompatibility lies deeper: it is in the Islamic understanding of the sublimity and uniqueness of Allah. Allah is the entirely different one, the incomprehensible and unapproachable one. He is incredibly great and stands beyond the scope of our intellect. He was not begotten and does not beget. No one is equal to him. Jesus’ birth as the son of Mary and of God is abhorred by the Muslims as an unthinkable, sensual degradation of Allah.
The Islamic understanding of the sublimity and uniqueness of God is the primary cause of the separation between Muslims and Christians.
Allah is so big that he alone determines the destiny of all people. Luck, accident, death, mishap and failure are often credited to Allah. As a result, fatalism is deeply entrenched in Islam and hinders both human activity and responsibility. Intellect and incentives can be restrained by this conception of God. All thoughts and decisions of a Muslim are utterly predestined. According to Islam, human beings were not created in the image of God but more as His slaves.
Consequently, the Islamic idea of worship means surrender, submission and devotion to Allah. When most Muslims think of prayer, they do not imagine a free conversation with God, but an incorporation into a liturgy which throws them into prostrate submission before Allah several times a day.
It is that spirit which binds all Muslims and hinders them from becoming Christians. The understanding of Christian prayer is completely different. Here we find one of the widest gaps between the two religions.
This rigid conception of God has influenced all areas of Islamic culture. For many centuries a man reigned over his wives and children like a patriarch. A teacher ruled over his pupils. An employer often resembled a slave owner, just as many caliphs and sultans frequently exercised an unlimited and bloody power. Whoever was sick, weak or poor was reckoned as being punished by God. The strong, rich and victorious, however, were confirmed by Allah.
The Christian’s path of lowliness, Jesus’ cross, and the “boasting” of Paul over his weakness are diametrically opposed to the spirit of Islam, and make Christianity appear as an inferior religion of degenerates.
The thought that God is a Father, and that out of love for the corrupted world he offered His only Son, is not only strange for a Muslim, but ridiculous, if not blasphemous! Every assertion of the nearness of God and His fatherly care is regarded as self-deception. Instead, the distant, mighty and great dictator-god is worshiped and feared. In the future Islamic paradise, Allah will not personally be present, for he always remains far from his creatures, great and invisible.
He who says that God revealed Himself in the man Jesus is regarded as a liar and seducer.
Reading the Scriptures
Our Christian concept of inspiration involves hearing, being anointed with the Holy Spirit, and enlightenment. These are, in spite of human weakness, united with responsibility toward the revealed Word. The Quranic understanding of Allah also influences the Muslim understanding of inspiration and hence their attitude toward their Holy Scriptures.
The Islamic concept of inspiration is radical. Allah dictated his revelations to Muhammad word by word, so that the nearly unconscious prophet sputtered forth his Suras as a passive tool. His prophecy is regarded as the conclusion of all revelation in which the highest wisdom and the deepest knowledge are presented to humanity.
A Muslim does not think he belongs to a deficient religion but, on the contrary, thinks that he must bless all men with his veneration of God.
For a long time it was nearly forbidden, out of reverence for the revealed word, to interpret the Quran or to discuss the content of the Suras critically, for all revelations were held to be clear, understandable and final. No man is able to fathom or judge the words of Allah. They can only be received passively, accepted obediently, and kept faithfully—never criticized or further developed. As a result, the Quran is learned completely or partially by heart without necessarily being understood.
This static way of thinking still influences the learning process in some universities and schools, so that some Arabs carry a volume of knowledge with them which works in their emotions and subconscious but is not unfolded in dynamic planning.
Poetic Quran
In addition, the Quran was written in a kind of rhyme that is memorable and catchy in the Arabic language. Sometimes for the sake of rhyme, Muhammad inserted words where they do not fit according to the content of changed syllables to secure the rhythm of the intonation. The exact content always remained secondary to the sound. Based on this poetic principle, a feeling originated in the Arabs that was built on catchy sound and style but not on systematic logic.
Our gospel is different. It was not written in the form of a poem but in prose, and demands thinking, delving and understanding.
It is stated that the Quran was written in the most beautiful language of God, while the Bible is available only in a rugged translated Arabic. The gospel sounds strange and profane in the ear of the Muslim while the Quran stands as a shining poem unsurpassed by anything that has been written.
For these reasons a Muslim cannot understand the Bible easily and does not accept it as a foundation for his worldview. He does not hear the rhythm in it, and the reading process itself seldom creates in him a willful decision or reflection.
Therefore, in evangelism we must learn to rethink and offer selected texts of the Bible to be memorized so that the true words of God can fill the subconscious of a Muslim and slowly develop Christian thinking and consciousness. Happy are the preachers who do not present cold, dogmatically clear sermons, but who bring the good news with verve and emotion, for the understanding of the Arabs does not come first through the head, but through the heart.
The Power of the Clan
Another hindrance that prevents a Muslim from becoming a Christian is his ties to his extended family. Most Arabs are still not conscious of an independent “I” but live rooted in the “we” of their clan. This is one of the biggest differences between the East and the West.
Westerners have slid down the ladder of decay from the spirit of fellowship in the extended family (we) into the isolation of the individual (I), who is at the moment sinking into the nameless masses where one does something only because everyone else is doing it.
Arab countries too are now in transition from the clan to the individual. The “I”-consciousness is slowly being born in individuals through the infiltration of East-Western materialism. In this painful process, the family is led into a crisis. So far only a few have stepped out of their clan, for the majority still think in terms of a fellowship with father, uncle and brothers. In some areas, it may happen that a young Arab man does not marry the girl whom he loves because his family advises him and decides who fits him best.
Thus also faith is a matter of the clan and not the decision of the individual alone.
Loneliness
So when a Muslim leaves his old faith, not only does it bring great disgrace to his family but, above all, it means his severance from the “we” in which he was rooted and anchored. This process is deeper and broader than we can imagine. It causes many converts to become lonely and often leads to despair and thoughts of suicide.
Half of all Arabs are less than 20 years old. It is especially the modern schools and universities, but also movies, technology and wars, which are creating the irresistible upheaval in Islamic culture. In the larger cities, skyscrapers are shooting up from the sand. Whole clans can no longer find enough space to live together since the apartments are only planned for families with two to four children. Social security is becoming necessary everywhere because the supporting capacity of the clan system is disintegrating. Many people become lonely and search for a new spiritual home and an inner security; therefore, the call of the gospel of Christ may be understood more easily than before.
The Bad Conscience of a Convert
Whenever a Muslim, in spite of all the hindrances, begins to come close to Christ (most converts are between 18 and 25 years old), he is confronted with the basic sin in Islam, which for him corresponds to the Christian’s sin against the Holy Spirit.
Whoever places a partner or another god beside Allah will never receive forgiveness, and whoever leaves Islam is condemned and is regarded as eternally lost.
Thus in addition to all the pressures of dogma, logic and family comes the voice of conscience restraining a Muslim from stepping over to Christianity.
Islam cannot be compared with religions in countries where the gospel was completely unknown before Christians arrived. Islam is a post-Christian religion, which has consciously dealt with Christ and has developed into an anti-Christian power. Muslims have become immune to the Spirit of Christ; they have been vaccinated at an early age against the teachings of the gospel.
When a Muslim approaches Christ, he must decide between revelation and Revelation, between the Quran and the Bible. No more dialog is possible here, because the Quran asserts that Allah dictated the whole truth to Muhammad. He who consciously turns toward the gospel and begins to believe in Jesus Christ, uniting himself with Him, must also decide to put away the old revelation as a lie.
There is no bridge between the Quran and the gospel in any essential dogmatic question unless the representatives of both sides twist the facts of their writings or tolerate opposing teachings.
This step of refusing the Quran is a difficult and bitter one in each convert and cannot be forced. The power of the Holy Spirit is crucial, leading the follower of Christ with growing faith into an ever-clearer discernment of spirits. Often Muslims who believe in Christ try to uphold both sources of revelation as truth. The result of this position is either a theological schizophrenia or a superficial faith that soon disintegrates.
Stepping Over to Jesus Christ
When a Muslim seriously occupies himself with investigating the gospel, it will not remain hidden for long. At first most of his friends will discuss the matter with him; then they will warn him, then leave and despise him. His wife has the right to be divorced from him. His children then no longer belong to him. Above all, his clan will begin to observe him critically. Then they may kindly ask him not to bring on their name the shame of apostasy (which could have economic consequences). If the investigator ignores the warnings and decides to become a Christian, they may threaten to end his schooling. They may take his pocket money and beat him. If this has no effect, the convert’s own family may cast suspicion on him and accuse him of stealing or committing an indecent assault. He may be imprisoned. The respectable family separates itself from this corrupted member who has denied Allah and has become godless.
The Quran literally demands the killing of converts out of Islam. Even today, every one who is converted must reckon with this danger. In the Central Arabic countries, this threat exists undiminished. This is why no open conversions are known there. In Arab countries with Western contact, however, a kind of tolerance has developed in accordance with the extent of Western education, which, though not affirming the conversion, does not carry out the killing demanded by the Quran. The parents of the convert regard their child as dead, or see that he emigrates and thus disappears from view.
Deep and Bitter Separation
In all cases, the inward and outward separation from parents, brothers, sisters, relatives and friends is bitter and deep. The new Christian rarely severs himself from his family on peaceful terms, but rather is ridiculed, cursed and despised. This severing not only takes place dogmatically and logically in the mind, but irreplaceably breaks the “we” of his deepest roots. Now he stands shocked, bare and alone in a world that knows no compassion.
In Muslim-ruled countries, religious freedom means that the Christian minority is allowed to remain Christian or become Muslim, but not the reverse.
The possibility of the conversion of a Muslim to Christianity is not even provided for in the law. So far there is no way for an Arab Muslim to legally change his religious affiliation unless he emigrates and accepts a new nationality. This rigid situation becomes tragic when a convert wants to marry a Christian. In most Arab countries, only religious sheiks or priests can issue marriage licenses. The result is that for a Christian man or woman to marry a convert, they are forced to appear together as Muslims before the sheik, and the children from this marriage automatically become Muslims.
In several countries, the authorities have already intervened to break up and forbid gatherings of converts, to imprison the leaders, and in some instances to torment them. Death sentences have not been known in recent years, but uneducated parents again and again have tried to kill their children in anger and hatred if they came to believe in Christ.
One must realize that as of 1972, about 70 percent of all Arabs could not read or write. Since then, great gains have been made in literacy and education. Still, it is understandable that uneducated parents fanatically hold to their memorized Quranic texts and traditions and, in obedience to the spirit of Muhammad, hate their own flesh and blood. They do this in order not to drop out of Allah’s blessings and their cultural community.
With this, the clan as an implementer and guardian of the Quran is the biggest hindrance for a Muslim to become a Christian.
The Convert in the Arab Church
Not all Arabs are Muslims. In several Arab countries, churches have existed since the time of the Byzantine Empire.
Christians number between five and eight million out of about 100 million Arabs. These minorities have developed their own Christian terminology. In such isolated Christian groups, Arabic is spoken, but many words have been filled with meaning that differs from that which Muslims, familiar with the Quran, usually understand. Thus, speech, custom, spirit and experience separate them from the Islamic ocean that surrounds them.
Within the last 150 years, Protestant missions have entered into these Orthodox, Coptic, Maronite, Syrian, Nestorian and Catholic churches. They produced fairly large Arab-Protestant churches with about 100,000 members. However, in terms of hymns, clothing and behavior, they represent only a poor copy of their mother churches in America, England and Germany. They have not become Islam-oriented evangelistic churches.
A deep chasm separates the Arab Christians from the Muslims. The persecution and oppression of past centuries, the different ways of thinking and praying, the distrust and hidden fear, have produced hardened hearts.
When a young Muslim leaves Islam, he suffers much inner conflict, tears himself away from his clan, possibly loses his job or is forced to flee, and then turns to a Christian group for fellowship. Here he often suffers another abuse: most Christians will stand off from him, eye him critically and distrust him. They think he is a spy or that he is looking for a cheap education in a mission school. Maybe he even wants to carry off a nice girl or take one of the few jobs available.
Thus he must suffer the double pain of being expelled from the Islamic world and not accepted by the Christian one.
The new Christian is rejected by the very people he imagined to be saints and the children of God, according to the Bible. This sobering fact shocks him deeply. We know Muslims who have said to each other, “It is better to outwardly remain a Muslim and in secret believe in Christ. For if your relatives expel you, then the Christians will also not receive you!”
Adaptation to the Christian Life
A young Christian still has a lot of growing to do in a life that is completely different. It may take years before Muslim thoughts leave his head. He has a thousand changes to make in his lifestyle:
He must take on a new attitude toward work.
His married life must adopt new moral standards and a readiness to serve the other.
Money is no longer allowed to remain as the aspiration of all his thoughts and hopes.
He also needs practice in observing Sundays, in disentangling politics and religion, and in the truthfulness of his speech.
He needs, like all of us, growth in sanctification so that the fruits of the Spirit of Christ ripen in him.
If in these, and other areas of life, a genuine growth and ripening in fellowship with others does not take place, then the danger is great that his faith will remain a superficial and intellectual matter and never take on flesh. The other danger is that the Islamic world will suck the apostate back in because he had never left it with his whole heart.
During this spiritual growth, there is a dangerous stage in which some believers in Christ drop back to Islam. Formerly, the new Christians had idealized their faith and imagined Christian pastors and priests to be perfect. Now they discover the humanity and the flaws of the followers of Christ. They see selfishness, ambition, hard-heartedness, impatience, and many other things over which they shake their heads and say, “They are not any better than we are.” They see denominational splits and strange kinds of “mission work” and experience another shock, and say, “They are not united. They steal members from each other, and everyone thinks that his church is holier and better than that of the other.”
The effect is especially adverse when some super-missionary-minded group takes a new, enthusiastic convert and lets him give his testimony before large audiences, or takes pictures of him to display in their mission periodicals, even though he did not originate in their own evangelistic work. However, when it comes to helping him find work or a spouse, the group has other priorities, and the new believer again finds himself alone and deserted. In this way, the testimony and joyfulness die in those who left their Islamic community under persecution and suffering.
Renewed Creatures
For a Muslim to grow in faith, he needs much time, counseling and teaching, and some living examples. It is not just wise words, but deeds of love and the friendly atmosphere of a Christian home that reveal Christ to a Muslim. The convert needs fellowship with like-minded friends, his spiritual brothers and sisters. He needs again the warm nest of the “we” that he lost. He needs to find among Christians, roots, nourishment and love.
For this reason the question of why so few Muslims become Christians is turned back to us. We are the reason: we cannot help new converts grow with our little faith, our weak prayer power, our deficient love, and our unwillingness for sacrifice. The Reverand Iskandar Jadeed, an Arab and a former Muslim, once said: “If all Christians were Christians, there would be no more Islam today.”
Copyright Information: Reprinted in Inter Varsity's Student Leadership journal, winter 1993, from His Magazine Feb. 1981 issue, with renewed permission of the author in 1993.
By Daniel J. Hill, aka Abdullah Al Amin
Reform Judaism, Fall 2009
“I have been an American Muslim for almost fifty years, and built two mosques. At the same time, the old rabbi remains one of the finest mentors of my life. And so, I have given great thought to the question: Why do many Muslims and Arabs so hate Israel and the Jews?”
The basis of most prejudices is ignorance.
The ignorance of most young children stems from a lack of education, or miseducation.
Born into a Roman Catholic family in 1938, I was baptized shortly after birth, took first communion at about age seven, attended Catholic parochial school in first and second grades. I was an altar boy back when the Sunday Mass service was in Latin. We ate no meat on Friday, went to confession Saturday night, fasted until Sunday Mass and communion.
When I was eight, my older cousin Marcus, ten, moved in with my family. (The courts would determine his next steps. My uncle had deserted the family and my aunt had become an alcoholic.)
Less than a block from our Chicago apartment stood a large synagogue headed by an old Chasidic rabbi dressed in a black hat and black clothing. Long white curls draped down the sides of his face, and his white beard hung to his midsection. Bent by age, he used a cane to walk to and from his basement apartment to the synagogue across the street.
By this time, Marcus and I had been brainwashed by the Catholic school nuns to hate Jews. The Jews, they told us, “persecuted and crucified Jesus…defiled Catholic churches at night…spread excrement on the altar…urinated in the sacramental wine…defiled the body of Christ by spitting at it and crushing it underfoot.…” They also “formed cliques in banking and business to cheat Catholics and impede their efforts to earn a living.”
Sometime in late January or early February of ’46, we decided to punish the Jews for those horrendous acts. As the old rabbi struggled through the snow on his way home from the synagogue, we threw snowballs at him. “Dirty Jew!” we yelled. “Christ killer! Defiler of churches!”
The attack, we reasoned, was totally justified—so the next night we repeated it.
On the third night we were outsmarted. The old rabbi had called on the assistance of a young rabbi, who grabbed us by the backs of our collars. When we tried to break loose and run he just picked us up off the ground, our feet flailing in the air.
He took us to our home. Because the old rabbi couldn’t negotiate the stairs to our second-floor apartment, he waited on the street while the young rabbi took us up the stairs and knocked on the door.
“Are these your boys?” the young rabbi asked my father.
“Yes, they are. What have they done?” my father asked.
“You had better come downstairs and speak with the rabbi.”
My cousin and I stood silently as the old rabbi told my father how we’d persecuted him. My father’s neck and face grew red and then almost purple. He apologized to the rabbi profusely, thanked the young rabbi for bringing us to him, shook their hands, and expressed his sorrow.
“You don’t need to worry about these two idiots ever bothering you again, rabbi. I’ll take care of this,” my father said.
“Please don’t hurt the boys,” the old rabbi replied as he left. “They are just boys. Boys do get into mischief.”
* * * * * * *
"Office!" my father barked, ushering me into what was otherwise known as the bathroom. He lowered the toilet lid and sat upon it.
“Drop your pants and get over my knee!” he snapped. Now, my father was about 5 foot 10 inches tall and weighed 160 pounds, all of it bone and muscle. He had fought as a semi-professional boxer, and I doubt if anyone in history ever matched his bare-hand whipping talents. My rear end felt on fire, and I feared the beating would never end.
Then it was Marcus’ turn.
Afterwards, as Marcus and I stood weeping, my father poured himself a glass of beer and lit up his once-a-night five-cent cigar.
“Now that I’ve got your attention,” he said, “I am going to teach you two idiots something by telling you a true story. In the war I just got out of a few months ago, I fought Germans from the beaches of Normandy across France, Belgium, and Holland. When my squad got into Germany, looking for more enemy soldiers, we came upon what is called a concentration camp. That’s where the Nazis sent Jews like those two rabbis, and women and children just like your grandmother, your mothers, and your sisters, along with little boys just like you.
“In those concentration camps the Nazis starved, tortured, and killed those poor people. They herded them into gas chambers made to look like a big shower room where they got poison gas to kill them instead of water to wash with. I saw piles of dead bodies and monster furnaces just like the one in the basement here but ten times as large, where they burned the bodies. I saw piles of those ashes so high you couldn’t make them go any higher.
“That old rabbi probably came here from Germany. He was one of the few lucky ones that could get out before he ended up in one of those furnaces. He’s got a German accent. He’s a man of God, you idiots. He’s probably only here alive because he’s a good man and God himself saved him mercifully so he could go on teaching others about God.
“Now you two know about guardian angels from your catechism classes. You are going to become that rabbi’s guardian angels starting tomorrow morning. You will escort that rabbi from his home to his synagogue every morning and back every night. You will prevent any other young idiots like yourselves from harassing or harming him. If anybody bothers that rabbi who is too big for you to handle, one of you will stay with and defend him as best you can and the other will come and get me and I’ll handle it.
“Besides that, you will shovel the snow off the synagogue property. You will dust, scrub, and mop the floors, polish the furniture, wash the windows, and do anything else that rabbi wants done. Do you both understand?” he asked.
“Yes sir,” we answered.
“Now go to your bedroom and ask God’s forgiveness for your criminal conduct. Also, ask God to forgive me for usurping his authority. I just made you two Michael and Gabriel on earth, the guardian angels of that rabbi. Oh yeah, boys, I’ll be checking on your performance. If you fail in any manner, that whipping you just got will seem like nothing compared to the one you’ll get.”
I’ll never forget those instructions from my father, or that whipping. Since then, as a professional soldier I’ve been shot, stabbed, and blown up. None hurt as much as that session in my father’s “office.”
* * * * * * *
On the first day of our guardian angel duties, my father woke us up before dawn.
“It snowed last night. Grab the two snow shovels and follow me.”
The synagogue stood on the corner, its sidewalks along two streets.
“Get the snow off the sidewalk, ten feet past the property line on both sides. Then, get the snow off the stairs and entrance porch. I’ll be back to check on your progress. I’m going to eat breakfast. If you do a good job, I may even let you idiots eat some too.”
The snow was ten to twelve inches deep, and in no time we were both sweating like plow horses on a hot summer day. About an hour and a half later, before sunrise, my father returned to inspect the sidewalks, stairs, and entrance area. Using an old kerosene lantern, he pointed to areas that needed more shoveling.
“OK,” he said when we’d finished. “There’s some oatmeal on the stove. After breakfast, we’ll continue with your duties.”
By the time we got to the rabbi’s basement apartment, daylight was just breaking.
“Sorry to trouble you so early, rabbi,” my father said when the door opened. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“No, Mr. Hill,” the rabbi answered. “Old men don’t sleep well and they rise early.”
“I understand, rabbi, that as it’s the Jewish Sabbath, you are forbidden to work, even to turn on your lights. So the boys would like to prepare your coffee or tea, fix breakfast, anything you need.”
“Thank you, Mr. Hill, but the congregation has arranged for a gentile woman to take care of all that for me,” the rabbi replied.
“Good congregation you have. May I ask what time you leave for the synagogue? The boys would like to escort you there, rabbi. You see, they have been promoted from delinquents to guardian angels of yours to prevent any other bad boys like they used to be from bothering you.”
“Is that so? Very nice. I will be leaving for the synagogue in about an hour, Mr. Hill.”
“Good. In the meantime the boys would like to clear the snow away from your door, stairs, and sidewalk, if you don’t mind. Later, after they see you to the synagogue, they’d also like to clean up inside, sweep, mop, dust, anything needed.”
“That is also done by the congregation.”
“Well, maybe next week the boys can check with the ladies and do anything they couldn’t get taken care of before sunset,” my father replied. “The boys will be here when you are ready, rabbi. Goodbye, shalom.”
* * * * * * *
From that day on, being the rabbi’s guardian angels was our life. Every minute we weren’t in school we were guarding him, cleaning, shoveling snow. After the snow stopped in April we swept the sidewalks, cut grass, etc.—all subject to my father’s inspection.
In time, the duties evolved from toil to pleasure. The old rabbi became sort of a grandfather figure to Marcus and me. He helped us with our homework and fed us matzo ball soup and gefilte fish with horseradish. The congregational women also kept the rabbi well stocked with confections. That’s how I became addicted to icebox cake and coconut macaroons.
The rabbi also taught us all about the Torah. A great actor and entertainer, he would tell and act out stories of Samson and Joshua, blowing on a ram’s horn and swinging his cane about like a sword. An old coffee pot became the jawbone of an ass in Samson’s hand, his belt David’s sling when he defeated Goliath.
Eventually, being with the rabbi became the high point of my day: I looked forward anxiously to the final bell at school so I could rush to the synagogue to see him. It was he who told me of my namesake, Daniel of the lions’ den, which destined me to be a man of courage and a devoted servant of God.
I remember the great disappointment I felt in mid April 1946 when the courts took my cousin from our home and put him in an orphanage. The old rabbi was heartbroken over losing one of his boys, as he had come to call us. On the day Marcus left, as the rabbi was consoling my father, he said, “Mr. Hill, about Daniel. I should have said this long ago. I didn’t say anything because I came to enjoy the pleasure of having Daniel and Marcus around so much that I fear I have taken advantage by not saying this. It is enough, Mr. Hill. Daniel learned his lesson within a few days after the incident. He is a good boy, a fine young man, as is Marcus. Both boys will do well in life and grow to be fine men. Please, release him from the obligations you have put upon his young shoulders to care for me.”
It didn’t end there. The rabbi and I spent time together until that summer, when my father moved our family to Wisconsin. He was assigned as a non-commissioned officer to supervise about sixty prisoners at a military disciplinary barracks/farm outside Milwaukee.
I never saw the rabbi again; yet, he has never left me to this day.
* * * * * * *
I became a soldier like my father. When I returned from my first combat tour to Vietnam in January 1967, I was stationed at Ft. Benning, Georgia. That June the entire infantry school all but shut down to watch news reports on Israel decisively defeating the Arab armies in the Six-Day War. Americans love a winner, and the brilliance of Moshe Dayan and the Israeli army gained Israel a cheering section in the hearts and minds of the entire U.S., especially within the military.
Six years later, during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, I was stationed in Germany commanding a tank company. We were ordered to overload our tanks with extra ammunition, fuel, oil, hydraulic fluid, rations and water, and drive them to the rail head. There, we loaded the tanks on flatbed railcars and sent them with two men each to Bremerhaven for loading onto a ship for transport to Israel.
I never saw such enthusiasm from my men as when they loaded and shipped those tanks. There were messages to the Israeli soldiers on every tank with all sorts of advice about that tank’s little quirks and attributes—things like, “Make sure the tank commander checks his coincidence frequently, especially after firing two or three main gun rounds; she heats up and the heat expansion throws off your accuracy if you don’t check and adjust for the expansion,” or “Tends to pull to the right in soft sand,” or “I put extra electrical fuses under the gunner’s seat in case you blow any.”
Bottles of wine and cognac, cookies and candy cluttered the tank interiors along with Playboy magazines. The troops felt a camaraderie with the Israeli soldiers who were to receive those tanks as strong as if they were shipping them to a sister American unit engaged in combat.
Israel did not stand alone.
* * * * * * *
Today I am known as Abdullah Al Amin.
How, you might ask, did a kid raised as a Catholic and mentored by a rabbi end up as a Muslim?
In the spring of 1958, as a 19-year-old paratrooper, I was shipped to Beirut. Syria had engineered the overthrow of the democratically elected Lebanese government, and my unit was assigned to link up with a Marine force; secure the airport, government utilities, and the press; and reinstall the legal government.
After a few months, once the Syrians were back in Syria and the legal Lebanese government running the country, I was given some time off. My first stop was a mosque in Beirut, to find out what the Azan, the Islamic call to prayer, was all about.
Regardless of what one’s personal attitude is toward Muslims and the Islamic faith, most will admit that the Azan, which is sung out five times a day from a mosque’s minaret, is a beautiful, haunting refrain. Even Hollywood is enchanted by it; you’ll hear the Azan in practically any scene about the Middle East, Arabs, or Islam.
Such was the case with myself as a kid watching the Ali Baba movies. For years I’d wondered what that call meant.
Inside the mosque I met an English-speaking young imam who translated the Azan for me and answered my questions about Islamic history and traditions. When we parted, he gave me a present: a two-volume set of books, The Meaning of the Holy Quran, written by Yussef Ali, which contained the Quran in the original Arabic, an English translation, and an extensive commentary.
Soldiers spend a lot of time reading, or did in those days. The Army is all hurry up and then wait for fairly long periods. I spent many an hour in my bunk reading the Quran—and, from that time on, books on the history of the Middle East, Arab culture and tradition.
The Quran’s teachings made more sense to me than the Catholic dogma I’d been taught since childhood. I never could reconcile there being three entities in God: the Father (creator), Jesus the Son of God, and the Holy Ghost. Whenever I asked a priest or nun to explain the Trinity, the answer always came down to: “It is a mystery; it is an act of faith to just accept it.”
I found Islam much more logical and accessible. Muslims believe that God is the one, the only, the Creator, Master of the Universe and all the worlds, and one’s relationship with God is part of one’s every day manner of living. One speaks to God directly and, I believe, receives guidance in his or her mind almost immediately.
Whenever I was tempted to do something wrong, dishonest, dishonorable, or in violation of the Ten Commandments given to Moses, an inner voice spoke in my mind, chastising and counseling me toward greater self-control. You could call it conscience.
In combat, too, as a leader or commander, I often called upon Allah for aid, strength, control, wisdom, and the voice always came through—not only in suppressing my fear, but telling me how to control the situation, where an enemy’s weakness existed, how to deploy my unit, what orders to give. The same was true in life’s other challenges, as a husband and father, in daily work, in relations with others.
Islam is a soldier’s religion—direct, uncomplicated, rewarding for faithful obedience, meting out sure punishment for disobedience in this life and the next. And so I accepted Islam as my faith.
* * * * * * *
I have been an American Muslim almost fifty years now. I have lived, worked, eaten, slept, prayed, and fought alongside Muslims for about thirty years. I have visited mosques and Muslim communities throughout the world and have built two mosques/Islamic centers in the U.S.
At the same time, the old rabbi has remained for me one of the finest mentors of my life.
And so, I have given great thought to the question: Why do so many Muslims and Arabs hate Israel and the Jews?
Many Muslims have told me that the big contention is the establishment in 1948 of the State of Israel.
The Muslims I know do not refute the fact that, as the Torah states, God gave the land that became Israel to the Jewish tribes. In fact, the Quran contains many of the stories in the Torah and holds it to be a holy book of God.
In Islam, however, events are considered to come to pass by the will of God. Many Muslims have shared with me their belief that the Roman exile of the Jews in 70 A.D. would not have occurred had it not been part of God’s plan. They see Israel as a case of God giving the Jewish tribes the land to be Israel, but then taking it away, using the Romans as His instrument to do so. Then, after the coming of Mohammad and Islam, that land came into permanent possession of Muslims.
Using that same logic, one would have to take the position, as I have, that in 1948 Israel came to be by Allah’s will. But most Muslims I know do not admit to this contradiction.
* * * * * * *
I’ve also learned from the Quran why Muslims in many nations wish to wage war against Israel. In the Holy Book, there are two times when a Muslim is instructed to go to war. First, all Muslims must engage in war against anyone who attempts to prohibit another individual or group from worshiping God, whether the worshiper is a Muslim, Jew, or Christian.
The second is if somebody seizes or occupies a Muslim’s home or land.
Thus the entire Nation of Islam, every Muslim in the world, is obligated to go to war against Jews in possession of land in Palestine.
From my perspective, this creates an unsolvable situation.
On the one hand, Jews say, “This land is mine; God gave this land to me.” On the other hand, a sixth of the world population, about 1.3 billion Muslims, feel obligated by the Quran’s teaching to fight until death to end what they view as occupation of Muslim lands which, in essence, means destroying the Jewish state.
Not much room for negotiation in those two opposing positions.
If only both sides followed Allah’s/ God’s teachings of salam, shalom (peace), compassion, and mercy….
* * * * * * *
Many of the comments I hear Muslims make about Jews have more to do with resentment than religion. Israel’s military successes in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973 humiliated Muslims. With a population of about 4 million, the Jewish state defeated Arab armies drawn from nations with populations totaling in the hundreds of millions.
Then there’s jealousy of Jewish unity. Although Muslims are required by Islam to be one unified people, great conflicts exist among Muslim factions to the point of embarrassment.
Muslims also tell me how much they resent Jewish talent. Fundamentalist Muslims in particular, who know little or nothing of the countless persecutions, expulsions, and mass murders of Jews over the centuries, are amazed when I say that in Europe Jews were forbidden to own land and barred from trade guilds. I explain that Jews had to become financiers (the practice of money lending was forbidden by the church but open to Jews) and doctors because these were among the few ways they could earn a living.
Still…many Muslims remain resentful, fearing that they will never be able to catch up to the Jews.
* * * * * * *
As a soldier, I have seen a fair amount of combat. But I’ve never experienced anything like the hate I see among Muslims in response to the Arab/Israel conflict.
When a Muslim comes to hate so much that he is willing to violate the Quran’s teachings in his quest for revenge, the point of no return has been passed.
The Quran says, “Suicide is usurping the will of Allah. One should die the death Allah has willed and not take one’s own life. To commit suicide is damnation in hell for eternity….In war you do not harm women, children, the old or any non-combatant; you do not destroy churches, mosques, synagogues or any house of God; you do not destroy crops, cattle or tear the earth asunder.”
Terrorism violates these laws. When hate so consumes a person that he willingly violates the word of God, he is no longer a Muslim. Islam means “submission” (to the will of God). Muslim means “one who submits” (to the will of God). Terrorists have submitted not to God, but to hatred. Terrorists are not Muslims.
Jews and Muslims are both God’s people. Maybe such is Allah’s test of both. Maybe God wants to see if we, as humans, have progressed enough to accept each other in peace.
Daniel J. Hill, aka Abdullah Al Amin, is a retired Airborne Ranger and Special Forces Captain of Infantry in the study and practice of special operations, guerilla, and insurgent warfare. A convert to Islam, he has worked with Homeland Security elements to uncover fundamentalist agents and demolition caches in the U.S. Hill planned and organized an assassination operation aimed at Osama Bin Laden, but it was called off only weeks before 9/11/01. In 1992 his daughter, Georgene Berger, converted to Judaism; she and her husband Eric Berger now belong to Temple Kol Ami Emanu-El in Plantation, Florida.
By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. (Romans 5:12)
Sin is the Transgression of the Laws of God
Sin is the transgression of the laws of God, not just the Ten Commandments, but all that the Lord declares in His Word. Jesus asks, “If you are not able to do that thing which is least, why take thought for the rest” (Luke 12:26)? “For he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much (Luke 16:10). “Therefore, whosoever shall break one of the least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19).
God requires a life of perfect obedience to His law; however, man was unable to function in a lawful, responsible way. God, being a righteous judge, requires that no sin go unpunished, so man was unable to escape God’s divine justice (Romans 6:23). Yet God, being merciful, knowing that all men sin and fall short of His glory, provided a way for His People to escape the penalty of sin, which is spiritual death. God Himself became man’s personal Savior (Isaiah 43:10-11), that He might reconcile His people to Himself by His shed blood and substitutionary death (Colossians 1:21-22). Thus the way to escape the penalty of sin, the death of the spiritual body, is through Christ, who paid the wages (penalty) of sin on the cross for all of God’s People. Then whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved (Acts 2:21). (“The Real Work and Accomplishment of the Cross,” Tony Warren)
God’s saving grace can be acquired only through the Lord Jesus Christ: there is no other name that can effectively address the dilemma of man’s sin and its inevitable consequences. Thus there is no other name whereby mankind may be saved (Acts 4:12). (“Statement of Faith,” Tony Warren)
The Natural State of Fallen Man is Total Depravity
There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. (Romans 3:10-11)
Mankind was created in the image of God, but fell to Satan’s temptation in the Garden of Eden and became separated from God. As a result of this original sin, man produces seed that is, from the womb, stained with a sinful nature and is subject to death in the righteous wrath of God. (“Statement of Faith,” Tony Warren)
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)
Thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. (Exodus 32:22)
“They obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart.” (Jeremiah 11:8)
“And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness.” (Hosea 7:2)
“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” (Mark 7:21-23)
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 51:5)
Sin has utterly ruined the garden of paradise that the Lord prepared for Adam, and has driven forth the children of men to till the ground, which yields thorns and briers unto them. My soul, remember the fall, for it was your fall. Weep much because the Lord of love was so shamefully ill-treated by the head of the human race, of which you are a member and as undeserving as any. Behold how dragons and demons dwell on this fair earth, which once was a garden of delights. (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)
“You will not receive instruction to hearken to my Words” (Jeremiah 35:13), says the Lord, “Seeing you hate instruction, and casts my Words behind you” (Psalm 50:17).
God had one son without sin; but He has no son without temptation. The natural man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards, and the Christian man is born to temptation just as certainly, “for the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)
“Ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me.” (Jeremiah 16:12)
Without the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, in our hearts, we are under the control of the devil, who fills us with horrible thoughts. Every doctrine of God’s Word hangs upon and confirms the total depravity of man since Adam’s fall to temptation in the Garden of Eden. If you do not understand the condition of fallen man, you do not and cannot rightly understand any other doctrine of God’s Word. (“The Bondage of the Sinner’s Will,” L.R. Shelton, Sr.)
For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s. (Philippians 2:21)
Unsaved man is alienated or separated from the life that is in God, so he has no spiritual life in him; he does not know Christ and has no desire to know Christ—his entire being is depraved; therefore, he has no righteousness, no understanding or knowledge of God. He does not seek after God; he is going away from God; he has no natural goodness. The way of peace he has not known, and there is no fear of God before his eyes. His mouth is full of cursing; his throat is an open sepulchre; his heart is deceitful, incurably wicked; his righteousness is as filthy rags. He is in open rebellion against God; there is no love of God in his heart. His carnal mind is enmity against God. He has no power to do good; therefore, he wills not to repent, and within himself he cannot come to Christ. He is without strength and, therefore, he has no power to come to the Son except the Father draw him to the one Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. (“The Bondage of the Sinner’s Will,” L.R. Shelton, Sr.)
Adam and Eve, the ancestors of mankind, departed from the domain of God and entered into the domain of Satan when they were led by him to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. Satan entered Adam and Eve’s hearts when they fell into temptation, and man has sinned from that point onward. As their descendants, our hearts have become one with the heart of Satan.
When Satan works inside of us, he first inserts a thought into us—if we continue to follow that thought, Satan then enters our hearts. We may think that we are doing good things, but we are being controlled by Satan and, because of this, we ultimately go against God. No matter what good we may do, we are still connected to Satan, and he will continue to stir up evil thoughts in us that lead us into temptation and sin.
Into our hearts Satan puts thoughts that are different from the Word of God. When Satan puts hateful, deceitful, lustful, vengeful, wicked thoughts into are hearts, we follow them because we do not know that they are from him. This is why we must throw out our ways and our thoughts. The thoughts, “I better live as a good person,” and “God must not love me,” must be thrown out too.
We when trust our “own” thoughts, we allow Satan to lead us down the path of destruction; when we live according to our “own” thoughts, we are accepting Satan’s thoughts into our hearts, and we are departing from the Word of God. We must not accept any of Satan’s corrupt thoughts into our hearts: we must return to God and accept the pure Word of God into our hearts; we must return to God and receive the Spirit of God into our hearts. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon (Isaiah 55:7). As God has said, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Corinthians 6:16). “I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them” (Jeremiah 32:38).
No matter what sins we may have committed, our hearts are restored, cleansed and made holy when we enter the heart of God. The heart is the channel by which man reconnects with God: we can believe in God, receive God into our hearts, and serve God from our hearts when we enter the domain of the heart of God.
To enter the heart of God, we must receive the Spirit of God into our hearts, and we must deny the thoughts that Satan stirs up in us. We must come to know that the thoughts that arise in us are not our own, but are inserted by Satan; and we must focus our thoughts on things that are true, honest, just, pure, and lovely. Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9)
If all the things of your heart were revealed exactly as they are, you would be able to see that no matter who you are, you are as hateful, filthy, lustful and deceitful as anyone else because Satan is leading your thoughts.
Satan deceives us by making us think: “All I have to do is go to church and be good; I only need to live honestly and try not sin.” But do not think that you will go to heaven by this standard: this is a thought resulting from Satan’s deception; this is man’s standard of good, not God’s. When believing this standard, we try to hide our evil hearts as if they are not there. Today, there are many Christians who pursue after goodness in this manner, but there is no one who can do good through pursuing goodness with their own effort and determination: this is not possible because our hearts are connected to Satan, and evil continually flows inside of us: “For the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” (Jeremiah 17:9)
People try to suppress the evil in their hearts and create good. Although it may appear to be good to us, it is not so in the eyes of God; therefore, He does not call it good. In God’s eyes, any good we try to create on our own comes from an evil place in our hearts: as the apostle Paul said, “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me” (Romans 7:21).
If we closely search within ourselves, hatred and lust continually arise in our hearts even though we want to do good: this evil is the condition of having left the heart of God and having entered the heart of Satan. That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. (Philemon 1:6)
We must come before God if we want to receive goodness, which is the Spirit of God, because God is the only one who is good. When Jesus was asked, “Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered, “Why callest thou me good? There is no one good but God alone.” Good does not exist in this world: good exists only in God; therefore, we must come before God to create good.
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)
God does not allow us into heaven because we did something good, and He does not send us to hell for doing something evil. If a person has committed many terrible sins, all things change in a single moment when his heart enters God’s because there can be no murder, hatred, or corruption within the heart of God.
Entering the heart of God means that you give yourself to God completely so that He can make you whole. Good lies only in God: when you are in the heart of God, you have the Spirit of God: He takes charge of everything; He makes your life new; He washes your sins away no matter how many you may have; He renews your life; His Word becomes your thoughts. The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weighs the spirits. Commit your works unto the Lord, and your thoughts shall be established. (Proverbs 16:1-3)
Believing in God is not realizing that you have stolen or committed adultery, then making up your mind and laboring not to do such things again—it is entering the heart of God and leaving your soul in God’s hands. When you receive the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, you realize clearly in your heart that you can no longer believe your own thoughts, but that you must believe in the Word of God and accept the heart of God as your own. When you accept the heart of God as your own, you can believe in yourself because you have the guidance of God, which is the Word of God in your heart, and the Spirit of God begins to live and work inside of you.
When God says, “Every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart is only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5), He isn’t just referring to those who commit terrible sins. The people that God destroyed during Noah’s flood were not all people who committed murder, adultery, or some other terrible sin. The evil that God is referring to is the evil of having left God and having allowed Satan to lead us.
The devil is the one that puts evil thoughts into our hearts, and he is able to do this because our hearts have been connected to him since Adam’s fall into temptation in the Garden of Eden.
As the descendents of Adam and Eve, Satan continues to put evil hearts inside of us—the problem is not that we are committing sins, but that our hearts have left the domain of God and entered into the domain of Satan. We cannot simply repent from our sins of stealing, committing adultery, or murder: we must repent from having left God. We must say, “This is not working, because I am trying to do good without turning to God. I can only do evil regardless of how much I try to do good!” Deep in our hearts, we must realize, “Why is such an evil, hateful and lustful heart arising from me? What is wrong with my heart?” This is how dirty the heart of man becomes when he has departed from God!
We must deny our thoughts, which are stirred up by Satan, and we must turn to the Word of God in order to have true repentance and true faith. True faith is entering the heart of God and departing from the world of our own hearts, where Satan is leading our thoughts.
If you live believing you can become good by your own efforts, you will fail because you cannot become good, no matter how hard you try, while you are in the heart of Satan. If you live according to your own thoughts, you will fail because your thoughts are not your own, but the evil thoughts that Satan is stirring up in you. If you believe in yourself and try to live honestly and refrain from sinning, you will fall into sin everyday because only God is good. Until you realize that, as a whole, you are completely depraved and deceitful, your attempts to be good will fail: things won’t go well and you will, in turn, feel like you are going crazy, losing your sanity, doing whatever Satan tells you to do and ending up in sin.
But when you leave your soul in the hands of God, when you surrender your will to God’s will, you will experience God making you distant from sin and working in you to do good. When God enters your heart, hatred will disappear from it. When God enters your heart, you will have His guidance from then on. When God enters your heart, you will be able to live a holy life, glorifying our heavenly Father. Biblical Examples of Being Led by Satan “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” (Mark 7:21-23)
Adam and Eve:In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve received thoughts from Satan, tempting them to disobey God and to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan entered into their hearts. Being the descendents of Adam and Eve, man has sinned from that point onward.
Noah’s Ark:People who were destroyed at the time of Noah’s flood followed their “own” thoughts because Satan deceived them. When God said that He would destroy the earth with water, Satan put into each person a heart different from the Word of God. They thought, “Why would God, full of love, punish the world? He is only warning us to not sin. We just have to be good.” They simply believed in this thought that Satan gave them. It was a very uncertain thought, but they had no idea that it was from Satan. Thus, they did not help Noah build the ark; instead, they despised Noah for building it. Satan deceived them just as he deceived Adam and Eve when he told them they would not die from eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, even though God said that man would die if they did so.
Noah’s Son, Ham:
Ham was saved with the others on his father’s ark but, unlike his brothers, his thoughts were steadily led by Satan. His brothers Shem and Japheth thought in their hearts: “Father has gotten drunk and is lying asleep, naked. He is not usually like this, but he is this way because he is drunk. We’d better cover him before anyone else sees him.” But Ham did not feel this way. He thought: “Father always gets naked whenever he drinks! He did this the last time, and the last time my wife almost passed by! I don’t know what’s wrong with my father!” He was full of complaint in his heart. His heart of complaint, itself, was not the problem, but his heart had become one with Satan as he stirred up thoughts in Ham. Shem and Japheth had the guidance of God, the heart of God, while Ham had the heart of Satan.
Ham departed from the heart of God when he accepted Satan’s thoughts into his heart. With the thoughts of Satan, Ham judged the nakedness and drunkenness of Noah with his own standards, and went out and spoke ill of him. He had not done this himself, but Satan in Ham’s heart had done this. What did Noah do after waking from his sleep? He knew what Ham had done and cursed him, saying: “Cursed be Canaan, a servants of servants shall you be unto his brethren.”
Esau:Esau sold his birthright to his brother, Jacob. After their father, Isaac, had finished blessing Jacob, Esau begged for blessings from his father as well. But Isaac cursed Esau. How could a father curse his own son like that? He was not cursing his son: he was cursing the heart of his son, which belonged to Satan.
And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, ‘Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?’ And Esau said unto his father, ‘Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.’ And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept. And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, ‘Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; and by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.’ And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed Him: and Esau said in his heart, ‘The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.’ (Genesis 27:37-41)
Judas Iscariot:The devil put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to sell Jesus to the Jewish high priests to make some money. At first, when he had this thought, he felt, “What? Why am I having such thoughts? I can’t believe I want to sell Jesus!” But he believed that this was his own thought, so he followed it. Satan put the thought inside of him, making him feel that all would be well. Judas eventually sold Jesus but did not spend any of the money—he committed suicide.
And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him… (John 13:2)
Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. (Luke 22:3)
The Power of Satan, the Prince of the Kings of Earth, is at Work in the World
“Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” This He said, signifying what death He should die. (John 12:31-33)
The prince of this world, the spirit of Satan, is in the world, “for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
When we chose to disobey any of the commandments, laws and judgments that God has given us, it is the devil, the evil spirit, that we are listening to, not the Holy Spirit. For God does not make man sin neither is He responsible for it: man in his fallen state is responsible for his own sin by accepting the thoughts of the devil into his heart. We defeat the devil’s temptation using the Word of God, “for it is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)
“Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 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. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” (John 14:27-30)
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” (John 16:7-11)
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels. (Revelation 12:7)
War always will rage between the two great sovereignties until one or the other is crushed. Peace between good and evil is impossible; the very pretence of it would be, in fact, the triumph of the powers of darkness.
Michael will always fight; his holy soul is vexed with sin and will not endure it. Jesus will always be the dragon’s foe, and that not in a quiet sense, but actively, vigorously, with full determination to exterminate evil. All His servants, whether angels in heaven or messengers on earth, will and must fight; they are born to be warriors—at the cross they enter into covenant never to make truce with evil; they are a warlike company, firm in defense and fierce in attack.
The duty of every soldier in the army of the Lord is daily, with all his heart and soul and strength, to fight against the dragon. We are foolish to expect to serve God without opposition: the more zealous we are, the more sure are we to be assailed by the myrmidons of hell. The dragon and his angels will not decline the affray; they are incessant in their onslaughts, sparing no weapon, fair or foul. The Church may become slothful, but not so her great antagonist; the devil’s restless spirit never suffers the war to pause; he hates the woman’s seed and would devour the Church if he could.
The servants of Satan partake of much of the old dragon’s energy, and are usually an active race. War rages all around, and to dream of peace is dangerous and futile. Glory be to God, we know the end of the war. The great dragon shall be cast into the lake of fire and forever destroyed, while Jesus, and those who are with Him, shall receive the crown. Let us sharpen our swords tonight, and pray the Holy Spirit to nerve our arms for the conflict. Never a battle is so important; never a crown is so glorious. Every man to his post, warriors of the cross, and may the Lord tread Satan under your feet shortly!
God Does Not Tempt Us, Satan, the Prince of Darkness, Does
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)
That Satan tempt you. (1 Corinthians 7:5)
“Let no man say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted of God:’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” (James 1:13-15)
Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost. (Acts 5:3)
The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
“Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” (Matthew 16:23)
Satan hindered us. (1 Thessalonians 2:18)
“Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the Word that was sown in their hearts.” (Mark 4:15)
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.” (Luke 22:31)
And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil. (Luke 4:1-2)
And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. (1 Chronicles 21:1)
The Devil’s Power to Tempt and Oppress is Under God’s Control
Although the devil possesses power to tempt and oppress the people of God, the power he possesses is limited and meted out to him by God. And when the full measure of the devil’s time and power has been meted out to him according to the will of God, the Lord bids him stop, and he can stir no more against God’s children.
God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
The blessed comfort for God’s children lies in the fact that the power of evil is under the absolute control and sovereignty of God. Christ has received all power in heaven and on earth: power, also, to control the devil (His mighty adversary), His cause, and His people in the world.
In hell, evil spirits are under, with misery, God’s supremacy: when permitted to roam abroad, it is with a chain at their heel. As we see with the case of Job, the devil must approach God for permission to afflict His servant:
And the Lord said unto Satan, “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.” And Satan answered the Lord, and said, ‘Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.’ And the Lord said unto Satan, “Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.” So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. (Job 2:3-7)
When Satan fails to induce Job to apostasy by depriving him of all that he has in the world, he must again turn to the Most High for permission to continue and to aggravate his attack. The devil, therefore, can never proceed beyond the limits set him by the Almighty; neither can he reach any other end than the purpose of God in the affliction of His people in the world.
All things work together for good to them that love God, who are the called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)
It is evident then that tribulation can never harm God’s children. It is simply a trial by which we are sanctified and purified and strengthened in the faith. What mighty comfort for us in tribulation! The devil can do us no harm, but must serve the purpose of God in Christ. The gates of hell cannot prevail against us. Under the mighty protection and care of our heavenly Father, we have nothing to fear.
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him. (James 1:12)
Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. (2 Timothy 2:19-21)
It is God Who Restrains Wickedness in Men
It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)
Beware of self-confidence and self-righteousness. Believers whose love is fervent, whose faith is constant, and whose hopes are bright, should not say, “We shall never sin,” but rather should cry, “Lead us not into temptation.” Without divine grace preserving our purity, the holiest among us would fall into temptation, even in the worst of sin—that which is done with deliberation and willfulness. It is by the hand of God that we are “kept back” from the vilest transgressions. (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)
But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil. (2 Thessalonians 3:3)
We may think that we have integrity and are freely restraining ourselves from sinning against God, but the truth is, God withholds man from sinning against Him (Genesis 20:6). God is always at work in the world restraining corrupt men, and working in believers to do good so that His will and His purpose might be made manifest. For believers, it is “Christ in us” that keeps us from succumbing to the diverse lusts of the flesh, “for the love of Christ constrains us” (2 Corinthians 5:14). (“Why Was It a Sin that David Numbered Israel?” Tony Warren)
The communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. (Philemon 1:6)
All that the believer has must come from Christ, but it comes solely through the channel of the Spirit of grace. Moreover, as all blessings thus flow to you through the Holy Spirit, so also no good thing can come out of you in holy thought, devout worship, or gracious act, apart from the sanctifying operation of the same Spirit. Even if the good seed be sown in you, yet it lies dormant except “He worketh in you to will and to do of His own good pleasure.”
Do you desire to speak for Jesus—how can you unless the Holy Ghost touch your tongue?
Do you desire to pray? Alas! What dull work it is unless the Spirit makes intercession for you!
Do you desire to subdue sin? Would you be holy? Would you imitate your Master? Do you desire to rise to superlative heights of spirituality? Do you want to be made like the angels of God, full of zeal and ardor for the Master’s cause? You cannot without the Spirit: “without me you can do nothing.”
O child of God, you have no life within you apart from the life that God gives you through His Spirit! Then let us not grieve Him or provoke Him to anger by our sin. Let us not quench Him in one of His faintest motions in our soul. Let us foster every suggestion and be ready to obey every prompting.
The Holy Spirit is indeed mighty, so let us attempt nothing without Him; let us begin no project, carry on no enterprise, and conclude no transaction without imploring His blessing. Let us give Him the due homage of feeling our entire weakness apart from Him. Then let us depend upon Him alone, having this for our prayer: “Open my heart and my whole being to your incoming, and uphold me with your free Spirit when I shall have received that Spirit in my inward parts.”
Canst you bind the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion? (Job 38:31)
If inclined to boast of our abilities, the grandeur of nature may soon show us how puny we are. In the spiritual, as in the natural world, man’s power is limited on all hands. We cannot move the least of all the twinkling stars or quench so much as one of the beams of the morning. We speak of power, but the heavens laugh us to scorn; the seasons revolve according to the divine appointment. Neither can the whole race of men effect a change therein; Lord, what is man?
When the Holy Spirit sheds abroad His delights in the soul, none can disturb—all the cunning and malice of men are ineffectual to stay the genial quickening power of the Comforter.
When He deigns to visit a church and revive it, the most inveterate enemies cannot resist the good work; they may ridicule it, but they can no more restrain it than they can push back the spring when the Pleiades rule the hour.
God wills it, and so it must be. On the other hand, if the Lord in sovereignty, or in justice, binds up a man so that he is in soul bondage, who can give him liberty? He alone can remove the winter of spiritual death from an individual or a people. He looses the bands of Orion, and none but He. What a blessing it is that He can do it.
O! That He would perform the wonder tonight. I suffer much from sin and temptation: these are my wintry signs, my terrible Orion. Lord, work wonders in me and for me. Lord, end my winter and let my spring begin. I cannot with all my longings raise my soul out of her death and dullness, but all things are possible with you. I need celestial influences, the clear shinings of your love, the beams of your grace, the light of your countenance—these are the Pleiades to me.
Some have this misguided idea of a God sitting in heaven worrying if man will be too evil and destroy the world, or not good enough to get the job done of building His Church before the great wickedness come. Nothing could be further from the truth. He is not sitting back idle, waiting to see what wicked man will do next. It is He who is in control. Not a feather falls to the ground unless it be known ahead of time of God.
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil.” (Isaiah 45:7)
There is no iniquity with the Lord our God (2 Chronicles 19:7). God withdraws light, and thus creates darkness, but this is not sin. God takes away peace, and thus creates war, but this is not God sinning. God removes His hand of restraint from man’s heart, and thus it is hardened, but this is not God forcing man to sin. And when we look at the very context of Isaiah chapter 45, it becomes clear that this is what God is saying.
Notice the contrast between these things: light contrasted against the darkness, and peace contrasted against bad or evil. The opposite of peace is war or adversity and trouble. What God is saying is that “the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.”
God establishes peace, and God brings evil by withdrawing that peace He has established. He’s not obligated to bring man peace and He’s not obligated to shine light upon every person. God bound Satan and God can loose him; He’s not obligated to keep him bound.
So you see, by taking away peace, God creates adversity and trouble as judgment upon the wicked for their unrighteousness. This is not sin or wickedness; it is justice.
And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, ‘Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.’ And Joab answered, ‘The Lord make His people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why then doth my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?’ Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. (1 Chronicles 21:1-4)
Satan provoked David to number Israel’s army. David’s reason for doing this was so “that he may know it.” In other words, his own delight or pleasure was what induced him to do this, but it was Satan who tempted him. These are the keys to understanding this sin.
We know that David’s purpose for numbering the men of war was that he might delight or glory in Israel’s own might or resources—we read in previous chapters how they had begun looking to themselves for strength. This shows that they had forsaken trust in the Lord and forgotten that He alone was their sword and bulwark. God allowed David to be tempted by Satan because Israel had taken their eyes off God as their ruler, fortress and provider; and David, too, momentarily took his eyes off the Lord and looked toward Israel’s own ability to provide a host as their strength.
And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah.’ (2 Samuel 24:1)
It was because of Israel’s sin in not trusting God that God removed His hand of restraint and allowed Satan to tempt David to be prideful, that he would number his armies. God Himself informs us that He allowed David to conduct this census “because of Israel’s sin.” It was God who had removed His normal restraint of sin from David because of the judgment He would place upon Israel for their continuing sin of pride and vanity.
God moved David in the same way that He hardened Pharaoh’s heart: by removing His hand of restraint, He allowed Satan to provoke David to this error. God did not make David sin, but He took away His hand of restraint, and David’s own human pride and vanity does the rest: “His heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride” (Daniel 5:20).
God tempts no man to sin (James 1:13), but neither is He obligated to restrain any man from his own sin. God allowed Satan to tempt David so that He could restore David and Israel to a proper relationship with Him. David’s sin was not in the counting, but in why he was counting: by counting, he was illustrating his trust (and the trust of Israel) in the number of his own soldiers, rather than his trust in the Lord. The counting was the goad, and David was the vessel that God used to judge Israel. And though this judgment was upon Israel, a lesson is taught to all God’s people throughout history. Another example of God restraining man from sin without his knowledge can be found with Abimelech:
“Said he not unto me, ‘She is my sister?’ And she, even she herself said, ‘He is my brother:’ in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this. And God said unto him in a dream, ‘Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.’” (Genesis 20:5-6)
So while, to the novice, the two passages (1 Chronicles 21:1; 2 Samuel 24:1) might seem like a contradiction, they are in complete harmony with each other. It is not a contradiction, but the idioms of Scripture that God has inspired to confound the worldly wise, but are revealed to those given spiritual wisdom.
God Uses Our Sins and Hardened Hearts for His Good Purposes
All things work together for good to them that love God, who are the called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)
Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself… According to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. (Ephesians 1:9,11)
“With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” (Mark 10:27)
And God said, “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 7:3)
As God sent Moses to ask Pharaoh, who reigned over Egypt, to let the children of Israel go, He removed His hand of restraint on Pharaoh so that his heart would be in its normal unreasonable and deceitful state. God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” so that His glory could be seen in the signs and wonders for generations to come. For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, “Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.”
When God says that He “hardened Pharaoh’s heart, He is saying that he removed His hand of restraint, which allowed Pharaoh’s heart to return to its nature hardened state. It’s not that God made Pharaoh do anything; God simply stopped restraining him and let him do what he wanted to do.
The sin of the hardened heart was truly Pharaoh’s, but God uses the language that “He hardened his heart” to show that He is sovereign, He was in charge, and it was for His purposes that it was allowed. In other words, God allowed Pharaoh’s heart to be hardened to its natural state so that He might work out the plan of man’s salvation in it. He allowed the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart by removing His hand of restraint of his sin as a judgment upon Pharaoh and a blessing for generations to come.
Allow me to make a practical analogy. If someone is physically holding another person back from committing a crime, then lets that person go because he agrees not to commit other crimes... and then, upon release, this same person commits another crime, is this man responsible for the other man’s sin simply because he no longer physically restrained him? The answer of course is no, not at all. Every man is responsible for his own sin. When the man holding the person back took away his hand of restraint, the sinner did what he wanted to do all along—the one doing the restraining is under no obligation to physically prevent anyone from sinning, and neither is God.
It is important to understand that God cannot sin. Therefore, it is biblically impossible that He made Pharaoh sin. But He hardens who He wants, and He softens who He wants: He can have mercy (soften) or He can judge (harden); it’s His sovereign right to do so. And who are we to question it? In Romans chapter 9, God speaks about His sovereign right to use wicked man to His glory as He says:
“Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, ‘Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath resisteth His will?’ Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, ‘Why hast thou made me thus?’ Hath not the potter power over the clay; of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to shew His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that He might make known the riches of His Glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory?” (Romans 9:18-23)
God is “not obligated” to maintain peace or hold back war. He is under no obligation to restrain anyone from sin or soften anyone’s heart. God removed His hand of restraint, thereby, “hardening Pharaoh’s heart,” but the sin is Pharaoh’s, not God’s. God allowed Pharaoh’s obstinate heart to return to its natural hardened state so that He could use it for His glory, but Pharaoh is the one responsible for his sin. We see this plainly in the following verse:
Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians hardened their hearts? (1 Samuel 6:6)
Also, we see where God puts the blame for the Egyptians hardening their hearts: right on them. For God Himself merely let their hearts be hardened. In this way only does He take responsibility for the hardened hearts. He removed His hand of softening as a judgment on them, which left them in their naturally hardened and obstinate state. He hardened their hearts by removing His hand of restraint, but their sin is their responsibility, not God’s.
Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief. (Proverbs 28:14)
God endures with long suffering (patience) the restraining of man, and then ends His patience and releases His restraint as judgment on man so that He might be glorified in that. It’s God’s sovereign right to restrain sin in the lives of whoever He wants to save, taking away our stony heart (Ezekiel 36:26) and giving us a heart of flesh. It’s called grace, or His sovereign right to have mercy on whomever He wants. Likewise, it’s His sovereign right not to take away our stony hearts or to remove His hand of softening power, that our hearts might grow even harder and as deceitfully wicked as we, by nature, want it to be. For man’s wrath against God and his wickedness in this world is used to glorify God.
Satan Will Never Leave Us Alone So We Must Expect Trouble
He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. (1 Job 3:8)
The devil will make life hard for the faithful in the world. The closer we grow to God, the more Satan will try to tempt us, for he desires no less than the damnation of our souls (Luke 22:31, 1 Corinthians 5:5). Satan will rage against us in all his fury—we must expect this.
“Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” (Revelation 2:10)
Persecution so hotly follows God’s people as to leave us nothing to care for but the soul. We may have no houses, no land, no money, no goods, no life, and no liberty left to care for—all may be gone but the soul. The devil may rob us of worldly things but not the soul, for the soul is not in his power to touch without the leave of God, of Him whose soul it is. Let them that suffer, even to the loss of goods, liberty or life, “commit the keeping of their souls to God” (1 Peter 4:19).
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ. (Philippians 3:8)
The Christian knows no change with regard to God. He may be rich today and poor tomorrow; he may be sickly today and well tomorrow; he may be in happiness today and distressed tomorrow—but there is no change with regard to his relationship to God.
If He loved me yesterday, He loves me today. My unmoving mansion of rest is my blessed Lord. Let prospects be blighted; let hopes be blasted; let joy be withered; let mildews destroy everything; I have lost nothing of what I have in God. He is “my strong habitation whereunto I can continually resort.” I am a pilgrim in the world, but at home in my God; in the earth I wander, but in God I dwell in a quiet habitation. That those things which cannot be shaken may remain. (Hebrews 12:27)
Whatever your losses have been, or may be, you enjoy present salvation. You are standing at the foot of His cross, trusting alone in the merit of Jesus’ precious blood, and no rise or fall of the markets can interfere with your salvation in Him; no breaking of banks, no failures and bankruptcies can touch that. You are a child of God and God is your Father: no change of circumstances can ever rob you of that. Although by losses you are brought to poverty and stripped bare, you can say: “He is my Father still. In my Father’s house are many mansions; therefore will I not be troubled.”
You have another permanent blessing; namely, the love of Jesus Christ. He, who is God and Man, loves you with all the strength of His affectionate nature—nothing can affect that. The fig tree may not blossom and the flocks may cease from the field, yet it matters not to the man who can sing, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” Our best portion and richest heritage we cannot lose. Whatever troubles come, let us play the man; let us show that we are not such little children as to be cast down by what may happens in this poor fleeting state of time. Our country is Immanuel’s land, our hope is above the sky; therefore, calm as the summer’s ocean, we will see the wreck of everything earth-born and yet rejoice in the God of our salvation.
Even Spiritually-Minded People Have Dreadful Thoughts and Temptations
He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto Him. (Mark 1:13)
A holy character does not avert temptation—the devil tried to tempt Jesus, who could not be tempted, so of course he will never cease to try to tempt us.
When Satan tempts us, his sparks fall upon tinder; but in Christ’s case, it was like striking sparks on water... yet the enemy continued his evil work. Now, if the devil goes on striking when there is no result, how much more will he do it when he knows what inflammable stuff our hearts are made of. Though you become greatly sanctified by the Holy Ghost, expect that the great dog of hell will bark at you still.
In the haunts of men we expect to be tempted, but even seclusion will not guard us from the same trial. Jesus Christ was led away from human society into the wilderness and was tempted of the devil. Solitude has its charms and its benefits, and may be useful in checking the lust of the eye and the pride of life, but the devil will follow us into the loveliest retreats.
Do not suppose that it is only the worldly-minded who have dreadful thoughts and blasphemous temptations, for even spiritually-minded people endure the same; and in the holiest position we may suffer the darkest temptation. The utmost consecration of spirit will not ensure you against Satanic temptation.
Christ was consecrated through and through; it was His meat and drink to do the will of Him that sent Him: and yet He was tempted! Your hearts may glow with a seraphic flame of love to Jesus, and yet the devil will try to bring you down to Laodicean lukewarmness.
If you will tell me when God permits a Christian to lay aside his armor, I will tell you when Satan has left off temptation. Like the old knights in wartime, we must sleep with helmet and breastplate buckled on, for the arch deceiver will seize our first unguarded hour to make us his prey.
He that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby. (Ecclesiastes 10:9)
To cleave wood is a common every day business, and yet it has its dangers; so then, reader, there are dangers connected with your calling and daily life, which it will be well for you to be aware of. We refer not to hazards by flood and field, or by disease and sudden death, but to perils of a spiritual sort. Your occupation may be as humble as log splitting, and yet the devil can tempt you in it. You may be a domestic servant, a farm laborer, or a mechanic, and you may be greatly screened from temptations to the grosser vices, and yet some secret sin may do you damage.
Those who dwell at home, and do not mingle with the rough world, may yet be endangered by their very seclusion. Nowhere is he safe who thinks himself so. Pride may enter a poor man’s heart; avarice may reign in a cottager’s bosom; uncleanness may venture into the quietest home; and anger and envy and malice may insinuate themselves into the most rural abode. Even in speaking a few words to a servant we may sin; a little purchase at a shop may be the first link in a chain of temptations; the mere looking out of a window may be the beginning of evil.
O Lord, how exposed we are! How shall we be secured! To keep ourselves is work too hard for us: only the Lord is able to preserve us in such a world of evils. Lord, spread your wings over us, and we, like little chicks, will cower down beneath you and feel ourselves safe!
