Custom Search
| |
Scene One: World Council of Churches, Jerusalem.
Cast: Aaron, a traditional rabbi, Peter, a Protestant minister, and Saladin, a Muslim ‘alim
Ryan Renfro
Peter: Now, surely if the three
of us can agree on anything at all, we can agree that we all
believe that there is only one all-powerful, eternal, all-knowing
and perfectly good God. (The other two hesitate because
they believe that he and at least one of the others considers
something or someone else {such as Jesus or an aspect of the
Godhead} to be on the same level as God, and therefore has lost
the purity of the original monotheism, however they agree that
each one considers himself a Monotheist.)
Saladin: I think we can also agree
that the first person since Adam to turn towards Allah and
champion his cause was Abraham.
Aaron: And we all agree that
the prophet Moses received the divine revelation on top of Mount
Sinai. (The others nod in agreement.) Now, we
(Jews) believe that this was the greatest and the most complete
revelation. While we accept that other prophets were
influence by God, they always lead the people back to the law as
given to Moses at Sinai. All of the law, therefore, can be
traced back to this event, whether it be part of the Written or
Oral Torah, the Pentateuch or the Midrash, all comes from Moses.
God has thus spoken his will to mankind and we are to obey the
law, and no further divine revelations are needed because the
Torah contains all wisdom. (This does not sit well with
the other two, who both have further revelations.) All
we need do it study this knowledge and we can have all necessary
knowledge of the world.
Peter: Ah, I see we have found
our first point of disagreement. We Christians believe that
all of mankind fell in the Original Sin of Adam. This
prevents us from being reconciled with God, but through
Christ’s resurrection and victory over death we can all be
reconciled with God for our sins, for it was written that
“we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”[1] Although the law does
allow people to do His will, it does not allow them to be
reconciled with God, even the Temple sacrifices did not
accomplish that. This was the purpose of the coming of
Christ. The way of Christ is more important than the
Way of Torah, as Christ himself is the logos or the incarnate
word, as John refers to at the beginning of his gospel “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God.”[2] Thus
Christ himself is the Torah, and his coming is fulfilling the
Torah. “Do not think that I am come to destroy the
law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to
fulfill.”[3]
Aaron: I would not agree with
that. Why would God need to do this when he has already
given us the law? Does an all-powerful God need to
sacrifice his son in order to grant forgiveness and
reconciliation to his faithful? And what of those before
Christ? We need not further revelations; all we need is in
the Torah. As far as your views on our Hebrew Bible, you
have reinterpreted it in light of your new “revelation”
because you must make the new make sense.
Saladin: I would like to point
out that we Muslims believe that both of you have been given
authentic revelation, but that it has been corrupted and
distorted since the deaths or your prophets. This is not to
say that my people, the descendants of Ishmael did not distort
their revelation and revert to polytheism, but a perfect a final
revelation was needed. This is why Allah spoke to Mohammed
through the angle Gabriel. Mohammed has received the
Qur’an (the Qur’an has a role comparable to that of
Christ’s in the Christian tradition) as the final
revelation, a revelation that will not be corrupted like that of
Moses or Jesus’. (It is worth while to note that
the Muslims do consider the Jews and the Christians as fellow
Peoples of the Book, and would also acknowledge the legitimate
revelations of the Hindus and Zoroastrians. The only other
of the three groups to recognize another revelation is
Christianity’s recognition of Judaism’s, so each on
recognizes that of the ones which came before.)
Aaron: (to Saladin) You
mentioned before your belief that Abraham was the first person to
turn towards God. What is your belief of how his story
goes, and what is his relationship in legitimating your community
as the chosen people of God?
Saladin: We believe that
Abraham was the first person to submit to the will of Allah.
Allah said that he would have a son, and he had two, and each
would be the founder of a nation. It is his firstborn son
Ishmael who is the rightful inheritor to his special covenant
with Allah. It was Ishmael whom he was willing to sacrifice
at Allah’s command, and it is Ishmael who founded our
nation. We trace our rightful claim back to Abraham and
therefore to Allah through our descent from Ishmael. Further,
we believe that Abraham was the first Muslim because he was the
first to submit to the will of Allah, for it is written that
“Abraham in truth was not a Jew, neither a Christian, but he
was a Muslim and one of pure faith; certainly he was never of the
idolators”[4] Never of the
idolator clearly suggest that Abraham is a Monotheist.
Aaron: Ha! While you may
be the descendants of Ishmael, you are surely wrong when it comes
to the events in the life of Abraham. Although Ishmael was
firstborn, he was the son of the maidservant Hagar, thus it is
Abraham’s second born son, Isaac, rightfully conceived of
his proper wife whom the rightful descent must travel. Careful
that you have not been deceived by those who would rewrite the
past to legitimize their claim. This greatly angers
Saladin, whom thinks that it was the Jews who have changed the
story.
Peter: Christians believe that
the Genesis account of Abraham is correct and that Isaac is the
rightfully-born son, however we also think that you both fail to
understand the relationship between God and Abraham. Abraham
was the chosen one of God not so much because he submitted to
God’s will or that he was chosen by God, but because he was
the first person to have faith in God. This is why he was
the chosen. He had no revelation such as the Torah or the
Qur’an, just faith in God. Thus it is by faith alone
that we may be saved. Justification by faith alone is a
Protestant idea and other branches of Christianity would also
emphasize the importance of works. We are legitimized
by Abraham because he is the father of the faithful. Paul
stated this in his letter to the Galatians: “Abraham
believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice. Know
ye therefore, that they who are of faith, the same are the
children of Abraham.”[5] The Protestant
view of Abraham’s relationship with God is what one might
expect from a religion of orthodoxy because it is his belief in
God which counts. The other two religions are more of
orthopraxy and therefore stress Abraham’s deeds instead of
beliefs. This leads to the next argument.
Aaron: Belief has its place,
but the law is the most important aspect of following God. The
way in which mankind is to live is clearly revealed in the Torah.
The 613 mitzvot, along with the halakhah are the
way to salvation. As the bride of Israel, the Torah is a
living aspect of God and a way with which one can commune with
God directly.
Saladin: It is true that one
must follow the laws of God, or as we say submit to the will of
God. I would, however, like to stress that the former
revelations have been corrupted and only the Qur’an as given
to Mohammed is the correct way of submission to the will of God.
One must once in one’s life announce that “There is no
god but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”
One must live life as the Prophet did, and follow the laws of the
Shar’ia, which regulates all aspects of life. As
does the law in the Jewish tradition. Kalam, our
theology, is merely a subdivision of fiqh, and is
only studied by those who know the science of jurisprudence.
Aaron: So what of you views of
the end times? We believe that there will be a messiah, an
“anointed one,” a descendant of King David who will
rebuild the Temple and rule over a new era of peace. Some
Jews believe the messianic age will be a cataclysmic war between
the righteous and the wicked, followed by the resurrection of the
dead and judgement followed by a new world, while others hold
that it will merely be a perfection of what exists already.[6]
Saladin: Mohammed also warned
of the last days, in which there will be a judgement of the dead.
All will appear before Mohammed, and they will be separated into
the saved on the right and the damned on the left. Thus is
our view of the last days.
Peter: Our beliefs concerning
the end times are very similar. We believe that a messianic
age will come in which Christ, the Messiah, with make his second
coming after the cataclysmic events predicted in the Book of
Revelations have taken place. There will be a resurrection
and judgement of the dead by Christ. Note that all three
traditions look for the resurrection of the dead and then their
judgement.
Aaron: And what better place to
stop our discussion than with the world to come. Thank you
both for speaking of these matters with me.
[1] Romans 5:10
[2] John 1:1
[3] Matthew 5. 17
[4] Sura 3: 38-64
[5] Galatians 3: 6-7
[6] Fishbane, Judaism, p. 144