Don't Arabic-speaking Christians also use the word "Allah?"

NOTE: This is a re-post of this blog.  The earlier post, after being edited, suffered formatting problems which I could not, for some reason, correct.

I've been seeing this argument somewhat frequently, and I wanted to address it here:

 

While this is absolutely true, it is somewhat misleading.  The word "Allah" in the Arabic shares a linguistic origin with the Hebrew word "אֱל֫וֹהַּ" (eloah) That is the base word, "אֱלֹהִ֣ים" (elohim) is the plural of that. 

Eloah, and Elohim, are not names. They are the generic terms for "god" or "gods." For example, in Deuteronomy 6:14-15, we read

14 You shall not go after other gods (אֱלֹהִ֣ים), the gods (אֱלֹהִ֣ים) of the peoples who are around you— 15 for the LORD your God (אֱלֹהִ֣ים) in your midst is a jealous God (אֵ֥ל) —lest the anger of the LORD your God (אֱלֹהִ֣ים) be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. 

The word "gods" in this passage is the Hebrew word "אֱלֹהִ֣ים" (Elohim), except in one instance where it is shortened to simply "אֵ֥ל". It's the generic term for "god." 

So yes, while Arabic-speaking Christians use the word "Allah" to mean "God," so do Arabic speaking Hindus and Arabic speaking pagans who worship Zeus or Thor or Loki.

If the argument, then, is that since both Muslims and Christians use the word "allah" to mean "god," that must mean they worship the same god, then the Muslims also need to accept the Hindus and Pagans as serving the same god they do. 

This is the logical conclusion of this argument. If you're fine declaring the Muslim god to be the same god as the Hindu gods and also the Pagan gods, feel free to continue making it.

CLARIFYING EDIT:

The argument is usually that since Christians also use the word, then Allah is also the God of the Christians. 

The problem with that argument is that Arabic speaking Hindus or Pagans would also use the word Allah. So if the linguistic similarity is the criterion by which we determine which god is which, we must also conclude that Hindus and Pagans worship the gods of both Muhammad and Abraham. 

Since no Muslim is willing to carry the argument that far, it falls flat.

A Conversation on Free Will

NOTE:  The formatting on this is a little bit rough.  

It originated as a conversation I had with a 

seeker on the topic, but I liked this format so 

well I thought it would work here.  I realize this 

is not an academic format, and would never 

pass it off as such, but if it is too distracting or 

too difficult to follow, please comment 

below and I'll fix it.
Thanks.

God not only knows the future, He knows all possible futures.

God not only knows this reality, but all possible realities.  Further, He knows which of those possible realities we are in, and therefore, knows what we will do.

But, as I'm fond of saying, "God's foreknowledge is not determinative."

That is, by knowing what WILL happen, God does not CAUSE that to happen.

For example,

God knows that tomorrow, I will commit a sin.

God does not CAUSE me to sin, but He knows it will happen.

ok.  So now we must ask "Why?"

Why did God create a universe like this?

Why does the possibility for evil exist?

Why do children get bone cancer and high school girls get raped?

because of sin

But what is Sin?

Sin is our disobedience to God.

That disobedience corrupts everything.

So God did not create a world where people could get cancer

but sin corrupted the world God created.

But why did God give us the capacity to sin in the first place?

Why did He not create us incapable of sin?

Love.

Suppose you really love a girl, and you want her to love you back.

So you send her cards and flowers and candies

you ask her out, you buy her gifts

but over and over again, she rejects you

Now, you're a big, powerful, 6 foot 4 inch, 300-pound man, and she's a little tiny 4 foot 9 inch, 98-pound woman....

so you decide you're going to force her to love you

Is that possible?

Can you force her to feel love for you?

not at all

You might be able to force her to SAY she loves you, but it won't be genuine love.

Because love cannot be forced

If love is forced, it ceases to be love.

it becomes something else.

Next question:  What does God own?

God owns absolutely everything, including our bodies and our possessions

not to mention the rest of the universe

But God does not own our love.

He DESERVES it, to be sure

But He cannot take it.

For us to love, we must also be free NOT to love.

Otherwise, that love is not love, but something else.

What is it?

I don't know, but it is not love.

My sister had a doll when we were kids.

When you push a button on its back, it would say "I love you."

It was kind of neat, but I never felt an emotional attachment to it.

Why?  Because it had no choice in the matter.

It could not do anything BUT say "I love you."

But it didn't really love me, and I intuitively knew this.

God cannot force us to love Him.

But that is what He wants.

That is the only thing, in all of existence, that He cannot seize for himself.

So, in order for us to actually love God, we must be free to not love Him.  That is why He has given us free will.

Free will is the thing that makes real love possible.

New Testament Textual Criticism

We have so many ancient manuscripts we can compare them and find out what the truth really is. it's not a big deal. The argument some are making is that since there are mistakes in various manuscripts, the whole of the Bible is corrupt. This is very much not the case. For example...

1.   I c_n do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
2.   I can do all things thr_ugh Christ who gives me strength.
3.   I can do all things through Christ who gives me stren_th.
4.   I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
5.   I can _o all things through Christ who gives me strength.
6.   I can do all thi_gs through Christ who gives me strength.
7.   I can do all things through Christ w_o gives me strength.
8.   I _ do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
9.   I can do all things through Christ _.
10. I can do _ things through Christ who gives me strength.

This is a passage from Philippians 4. I have copied the same sentence ten times. There are 11 words in the passage. There are ten errors in the text I have presented, indicated by _. Some of those errors are significant, removing whole words or even phrases. Some of them remove single letters.

But can you compare all ten and find out what the original said? Yes, you can, even though every single one of them is, in some way, corrupt. Where there is an error in each one, there are 9 or 10 other ones with the correct reading. Each of those errors (_) is called a "textual variant."

Now, my illustration if flawed. I only gave you ten sentences and ten textual variants. How many textual variants are there in the New Testament documents? Nearly 400,000. That is more variants than the total number of words in the New Testament (Dr. Bart Ehrman loves to point this out).

But how many manuscripts do we have? That is, what is the size of the sample which contains these 400,000 variants? Roughly 1.2 MILLION pages. This means that there is approximately 1 variant per THREE PAGES, not one variant per sentence.

You'll see in my illustration above ten variants in ten sentences. This is a SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER CONCENTRATION OF ERRORS than we find in reality.

But was it hard to understand what the original said? Not at all. We can do it almost instinctively.

The New Testament is the single best-attested document of ancient history. NOTHING else comes remotely close to its attestation. The New Testaments we have today are reliable and accurate.

For more information on this topic, see the work of Dr. Daniel Wallace.

Dr. Daniel Wallace on New Testament Textual Criticism

Three Days and Three nights

The "Three days and three nights" issue stems from a failure to understand Jewish holidays.  The Bible says Jesus was crucified on the day before the Sabbath.  If you don't know anything at all about Jewish holidays (like the Passover) you have to say the Crucifixion was on Friday.

But if you have a Jewish holiday in the mix, you can add additional Sabbaths to the week.  Jesus was crucified on Thursday.  Friday and Saturday were both Sabbath days that week.  For example, Leviticus 23:26-32 speaks of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and verse 32 fixes a Sabbath day on the 9th day of the month... regardless of what day of the week that is.

Leviticus 23:32
It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.”

Jesus was crucified, then, on the day before the Sabbath, but in this case, it was not the weekly Sabbath, but rather the High Sabbath for the Passover.

So Jesus was dead on...

Thursday NIGHT............................  Friday DAY,
Friday NIGHT...............................Saturday DAY,
Saturday NIGHT...and a portion of Sunday DAY.

Why do I say just a portion of Sunday?  Because He was raised ON the third day, not AFTER the third day.

Matthew 17:22-23a
As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”

Why do we have Good Friday celebration, then?  The same way we remember Memorial day on a Monday, or we observe a holiday that falls on a Saturday by taking Friday off.  It's more convenient for a civilized society.

But very few educated Christians believe that Jesus was crucified on a Friday.

There are two common errors people make with this:  One, they try to force it to fit the "Good Friday - Resurrection Sunday" narrative.  When they do that, they are forced to make the argument that "counting is cultural," and "any part of a day or night counted as a whole day or night."  Even if that's the case, we do not see the third night, even partially.  We see Friday Day, Friday Night, Saturday Day, Saturday Night, Sunday Day.... but even with the most generous counting method possible, we only see three days and two nights between Friday and Sunday.

The other mistake people commonly make is to insist that "Three days and three nights means three full days and three full nights.  72 hours exactly!"  But I have already answered this objection above:  Jesus did not complete the third day in the tomb.  The Scripture says he rose "on the third day," not after it.

That is why I hold to a Thursday evening crucifixion.  Jesus died on the day of preparation, as Matthew 27:62 indicates.

62 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ 

That is, they do this the day after the crucifixion, which Matthew tells us is also the "next day," the one after the day of Preparation.

The Day of Preparation is the day when Jewish households would do extra work to prepare for the rest of the Sabbath.

Mark 15:42 agrees:
42 And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath,

Also, John 19:14-16:
14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 15 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. 

But if Friday was the High Sabbath (probably of Unleavened Bread) and Saturday was the Weekly Sabbath, then the women, who were obviously eager to anoint the Body (they began their journey to the tomb before sunrise) would have had to wait two full days of Sabbath observance before they could defile themselves by touching a dead body.

My Wrestling Match with an Immoral God

When I was a boy, I firmly believed that virtue was the highest way. I was a Boy Scout, I was a leader in my church's youth group, and I was certain that God saw how good I was being and was pleased by it. I was disgusted by my friends who behaved as immorally as they wanted, and felt sure God was displeased with them.

Then I read about Jacob. Jacob was a liar, and a thief. He swindled his brother, he was a lazy momma's boy, he stole the blessing from his father, he cheated his employer, and GOD BLESSED HIS SOCKS OFF. Seriously, he was extremely wealthy. Plus, he had four women with whom he fathered TWELVE SONS.

God was clearly blessing Jacob, and I couldn't figure out why.

It became a crisis of faith for me.

I came to the point where, if I were going to demand answers for Jacob, I was either going to leave Christianity altogether (Because the Christian God was far less moral than I was) or I was going to stop looking for answers to this question.

I decided to stop looking for answers.

Twenty years later (literally, not figuratively), I'm married and I have applied for Pastoral Candidacy in the United Methodist Church. And through a strange series of coincidences, I find myself sitting in the car while my family is eating dinner. I turn on the radio, and a pastor is talking about Jacob.

He is just as angry at Jacob as I had been for twenty years. And he's preaching up a storm, and I'm along with him for the ride, because I'm angry at Jacob. Then he says (I paraphrase)

"Jacob had his wrestling match with God, and when the sun was coming up, Jacob demanded God bless him. And God said "What's your name?" Did God not know Jacob's name? Of course He did. So what does "Jacob" mean? It means "he cheats." In telling God who he was, Jacob fulfills the pattern of confession of his sins, and God forgives Jacob and begins pouring out blessing upon him."

After 20 years, I got the answer I needed. If I had left the faith, how different my life would have been! But the more important answer I got that day was this: There ARE answers. And we may not get them. But there ARE answers.

Our part is not to know everything, our part is to be faithful. And God has earned that trust.

Pain, Suffering, and the Cross

Dear Christians,

Who are you?

Seriously, who do you think you are?

We Americans live in an Epicurean society.  That is, we consider comfort at the chief virtue.  If we're not comfortable, then we blame God.

When we hurt, we seem to think that it is against the will of God that we are in pain.

But what if it's not?

I love the Catholics for their stance on this:  That in our suffering, we can, in some way, identify with Christ.

Christ, who suffered and died for us.

That in our pain, we are in some way united with Him.

I'm not suggesting we shouldn't do what we can to alleviate the pain... doctors and medicine are a good thing.  But that in our time of suffering, may we identify with Him who suffered for us.  And may we draw closer to Him because of it.

Peace of Christ to you.

Thoughts on the personhood of God

Increasingly, I find myself meditating on the 27th verse of Genesis 1.   In the English Standard Version translation, that verse very simply reads:

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
Male and female he created them.

We've all read that verse, of course, and we've all heard the sentiment expressed.  "We are made in the image of God," they say.

But, to begin at the very beginning, what does God look like?

Dr. Frank Turek, in his presentation "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist" (based on his book of the same name), builds a logical case for God being a timeless, space less, immaterial, powerful, personal being who is the origin of all things.  He says that, according to Einstein, space, time, and matter are all co-relative.  That is, you cannot have one without the other two.  If you had matter but no space, where would you put it?  If you had space but no time, WHEN would you put it?

Dr. Stephen Hawking agrees, as does most of modern science.  The Universe had a beginning, because all of these things came into being at the same time. Dr. Turek says "I believe in the Big Bang, I just know who banged it."
If time, space, and matter all came into being together, then whatever created them must be timeless, space less, and immaterial.

That is, God.

Ok, so let's ask again... What does God look like?

Certainly, He does not look like I do.  I am 5'8'', 260 lbs of out of shape mess.  God does not look like that.  My best friend is 6'2'', 280 LBS of Irish Awesomeness.  But God does not look like that either.  And I have another friend who is a beautiful young woman, probably 130 lbs of smiles and sunshine... But God does not look like her either.

So how is it that we are created in the Image of God?

simply, we are in God's moral and spiritual image.  Think about this... Animals cannot be guilty of sin.  When Praying Mantises mate, the female literally kills the male in the process of their mating.  Male lions who rise to the top of their pride will sometimes kill off the young of the previous leader, so they do not grow up and challenge his position.  Some species of monkey use sex as a common greeting, the way we would use a handshake, and they're not particular about gender.

But in all of these things, monkies do not sin.  Lions do not sin.  Mantises do not sin.  Why?

Because they are not made in the image of God.  They do not have the capacity to sin.

We do.  We are, and we do.

What do we do with that, then?

We learn from it.  The essential thing that separates us from the animals is the Image of God... The Imago Dei... that is on each one of us.  Animals are not people, but we are.  From whence does our person-hood come?  From the Imago Dei.

Thus, God is a person.

What does it mean to be a person?  It means to have preferences.  Likes and dislikes.  A sense of humor.  The ability to be happy or sad.

I have friends who insist that God is bigger than that... But I think they misunderstand emotion.  I think that God is a person (not a human being, but a person) and that personhood is the ultimate state of being.

Now, before this blog becomes unwieldy, I think I'll stop there.  Please comment below if this line of thought interests you and if so, I'll continue with it.  Because there are some fascinating implications, I think, to this idea.

Peace of Christ,
AJ