Opus 2026-484: Koran Klarifications II: Some Background

I read through the Koran in 2005, during vacation, in my spare time.  It took me 15 days.  It was not because I felt a sudden interest in Islam.  I had finally worked my way up to teaching American History at my middle school.  I had been looking forward to this because it included the Constitution and since I love my country this was a real chance to introduce young minds to the great documents of our time.  Our principal was a left winger who did not appreciate me or anything I believed in so she did a little manipulating.  She transferred a teacher into my position and gave me his.  

He was born in Lebanon and was raised a Catholic.  He would consider himself agnostic at best.  He was not Muslim but was fluent in Arabic and told me that the Koran was some of the most beautiful poetry in the world.  He also hated America and was at best an extreme socialist.  That is why she had him teach American history.  I was stuck with the grade that covered Islam.  Welcome to public education.  I figured that if I was going to teach it, the least I could do was read what the Muslims considered their holy book.  So I bought and read the Koran.

Reading the introductory comments in the Muslim published Koran was like reading the comments of a dispensational Calvinist in a Bible commentary on the book of Romans.  You know that they believe what they are telling you but you are not sure that they are right.  For instance,

“In the Caliphate of Othman, all existing copies of surahs were called in, and an authoritative version, based on Abu Bakr’s collection and the testimony of those who had the whole Koran by heart, was compiled exactly in the present form and order, which is regarded as traditional and as the arrangement of the Prophet himself,...”, QII, p. 18

(What is a surah?  It is a division in the Koran which you can think of as a chapter or like a book of the Bible.  They vary from seven lines to twenty eight pages.  There are 114 surahs.  You will find a similar word in the book of Psalms where it is used in what they think of as a musical notation.

(Psalms 3:2 KJV)  Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.

Its meaning in Hebrew is given as “to life up, to exalt”.  You an see how that might have a similar connotation in Arabic.  This is totally my speculation, so take it for what it is worth.)

Sounds good and is similar to what I hear from Christians who believe the KJV is the only real translation.  The problem is that I have talked to scholars who know of several different versions of the Koran and I know of at least two different orders of the surahs.  It seems like the scholars working on the Koran have a lot of the same issues that Bible scholars face.  Keep in mind that they are just as sincere as Bible scholars which means that some are devout searchers after truth and some are agnostic hacks looking for a paycheck.  Ultimately it comes down to what you understand and the conclusions you come to.  I will be following the order of surahs laid out in the Muslim translation. 

QII, The Glorious Qur’an Translation.  Translated by Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall.  New York:  Tahrike Tarsile Qur’an, Inc., No date.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-483: Do Your Own Research

I continue to find Bible commentaries useless for the most questions I ask.  We are so saturated with traditions and gurus that we don’t seem to be able to think for ourselves.  Things that I think are obvious are totally ignored.  Of course, it could just be that I am the one confused.  I am open to that but I would like to see some push-back based on scripture rather than what is commonly believed.  I get tired of feeling like a heretic but it is a better option than actually being one.

What got me going today?

I was reading in Psalm 44 as part of my regular routine.  The Psalm begins with the boilerplate repetition of how God had lead Israel through the conquest and aided them in conquering the Promised Land.  Then there is a lament about how God seems to have abandoned them.  Then I came to this passage,

(Psa 44:17-8 KJV)  All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.  Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way;

My cognitive dissonance bells started going off.  The Psalmist, who is not David, is claiming that they have been faithful and obedient and in spite of that God is allowing the pagans to mess with them.  Really?  My first question is, “In what time period of the history of Israel could they have claimed to have been so noble?”  I would accept that during the reigns of David and Solomon you might make a claim of being faithful although Solomon was bringing back the pagan idols and rituals at the end of his life.  During this time there is no history to match the part of this Psalm that recounts doom and destruction.  Shortly after this you begin a string of prophets that runs down to the close of the OT canon and they all are lamenting the apostasy of Israel and Judah.  The prophets tell us that there was no such time.

One of the best known statements of God in this regard is,

(2Ch 7:14 KJV)  If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

What people overlook is that this promise is given at the dedication of the temple.  They also overlook the next verses that say if Israel continues in apostasy then the consequences will be dire.

Malachi is the last word.  It is full of rebuke.  It gets so bad that you have this, in NASB for clarity,

(Mal 1:10 NAS77) "Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you," says the LORD of hosts, "nor will I accept an offering from you.

The second problem I have, and this reflects on the “scholars”, is that the commentaries totally ignore this.  One I looked at claimed that this was a call to be faithful in times of adversity.  He took the word of the Psalmist that he had been noble and faithful.  The commentary totally ignored the fact that there was no time that you have both faithful Israel and oppression by the surrounding pagans.

I have noted in other posts that one of the concepts that seems to be often absent is the idea of confession and repentance.  It is always God’s fault.  Of course that is consistent with people who deny that God gives us free will and responds to our choices.

God gave a lot of promises.  They were conditional.  He still works that way.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-482: The Wiseman and the Fool

Many people will talk about their “best friend”.  The only problem with that is every time you talk to them it’s a different “best friend”, or even in the same conversation they referred to several best friends.  I have a version of that which I call my favorite quote.  My current favorite is, “Any fool can ask a question that a wise man can’t answer.”  Of course the absurdity of these remarks is that you can only really have one favorite or best.  Logic and consistency are not strong points in the human animal.

Picture a teeter-totter with a fool on one end and a wise man on the other.  I don’t know which one to put down and which to put up, but you get the idea, it is not a level playing field.  The fool asked this question and the wise man is stumped.  He can be stumped for several reasons.  One reason might be that he doesn’t have an answer and of course, another one might be that the fool wouldn’t understand it if he explained in great detail.

Now let’s take our teeter totter and make it more balanced.  You have a basic teacher on one end, not a wise man, not a great scholar, just someone who knows a little bit.  On the other end, you put an average Joe and have him ask a question that is unanswerable. Then it’s even more likely that the average human being could ask a question that cannot be answered.  A reason why he might not appear as a fool could be that the fool might ask questions that the average guy wouldn’t answer because he doesn’t know how ridiculous the question is.  Either way you still can’t get an answer or the odds of getting a good answer or very slim.

Now we go to the intelligent, well informed, thoughtful man on the street who runs into your typical college professor.  His college professor has multiple certificates on his wall, a whole list of alphabetical acronyms after his name, a fancy office, a great title and of course a generous salary.  One of the things we should add, he is a total fool.  Now, do you think that this thoughtful man on the street could ask a question that this ignorant professor couldn’t answer?  You might think the answer is yes.  In reality, the answer is probably a no.  The professor would give an answer, but it would be a totally meaningless answer.  It would be based on lack of knowledge, facts that are not true, logic that doesn’t follow any rational path and an overwhelming sense of arrogance.  He might also simply lie.  He could give an answer.  It would just be useless.

It always amazes me when I watch some of these discussions and interviews and debates that show up on the Internet.  Some of the great questions are brought up.  Often it comes down to a discussion of evolution versus creation.  Is there a God?  Is there any purpose in life or is it just all chance?  What about the problem of evil?  Invariably the one who’s taking the side of evolution and chance will ask questions as if he is spouting great wisdom.  He will assume they can’t be answered.  In his interview, they probably won’t be, because the person he interviewing has never dealt with those issues either.  However, that doesn’t mean that there are not answers.  It doesn’t mean that these questions have not been answered thousands of times down through history.  It doesn’t mean they’re not entire books dealing with these issues.

I am obviously not going to give you the final answer in this brief essay.  But let me assure you that the answers are out there.  Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know, but I’ll look into it.”  Don’t be afraid to bring them up at your Wednesday night Bible study.  The pastor may not appreciate it, people may wonder what’s wrong with you, or you might actually find someone who will have coffee with you and get into a serious discussion.  Some answers are easy: do you want cream in your coffee?  Other questions require more information and pondering.  My daughter is taking me to a popcorn store in the near future.  They have a whole page of varieties.  I’m sure she’s going to want to buy me some.  When the time comes to ask, “What kind do you want” we will be faced with a difficult situation requiring some research.  My understanding is that they will let you taste anything.  That may not give you an immediate answer, but at least we’ll narrow down some of the possibilities.

Don’t look at difficult questions as walls that you run into.  Look at typical questions as doors that you might be able to open.  Look at them as challenges that have answers rather than commands that put you in a box.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-481: Unused Levels

I knew a man in Boston who had immigrated from the Cape Islands.  He had a great attitude, a warm personality, and if anything, he was just too willing to help.  And all the time I knew him, he never worked anything better than entry-level jobs.  In spite of that, he bought an old rundown house in the ghetto of Boston moved into the bottom floor, and started renovating.  As far as I can remember, the upper two stories went unused.  When he had the first level fixed, he moved his family up to the second level and rented out the bottom floor.  He proceeded this way until he was finished.

Too often we do the reverse of that in our Bible study and we never get past the first floor.  Most of the time what we do is we find a verse we like, one that seemed to support our preconceived suppositions, and we lay that down in concrete as if it’s the final word.  There may be a few times where that is good enough.  Most of the time it’s simply us avoiding the deeper truth that we might find

This tendency is, naturally, mostly obvious to me in other people.  Although I intellectually accept the fact that I do the same thing, I know even in my heart it is not that simple.

This is one of the reasons why I tend to question everything.  It is so easy just to accept what someone says.  Recently the pastor was preaching and he got off on the word “heresy” in the King James Bible.  He never got into what Paul was talking about when he declared them heresies, but he went on a rant against the Catholic Church.  Much of what he said was true, even if it wasn’t the kindest way to put it across.  What offended me was when he took the Catholic view of communion and transubstantiation, and declared that a horrible heresy.  Maybe he used the word pernicious instead of horrible, I can’t remember exactly.  He declared the idea that when you took communion, you were actually taking the body in blood of Christ as heresy.  I’m sorry, that doesn’t qualify.

To be clear, I am not a Catholic.  I do not believe that a priest, lifting up a wafer and ringing a bell transforms the bread into the body of Christ..  To me it seems superstitious mumbo-jumbo

I can, however, understand where they get that.  It doesn’t take much reading.  

1Co 11:24  And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 
1Co 11:25  After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 

While I emphasize the aspect of “remembrance” I can see that Jesus clearly said, “This is my body.”  I am also aware of this,

(Joh 6:51 KJV)  I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

The way his listeners understood it was very Roman Catholic,

(Joh 6:52 KJV)  The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

And it goes on into even more detail.

Don’t label people heretics just because they disagree with you.  Look to see where they get it.  Make sure that you are not the one who is the heretic.  Study.  Don’t be satisfied with the superficial.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-480: Brain-Dead Advertising

I sit with my finger poised, waiting for the “skip” button to appear.  I can’t avoid those first moments without paying for ad-free service.  So I hover.  I marvel sometimes at the selling points.  There is one guy trying to sell a kind of modern wallet.  He first shows you your dad’s wallet and compares it to the one he wants you to buy.  You are impressed by how thin the offering is.  If you would pause and think a moment you would realize that there is no way you could get all the cards and receipts your dad had into the slim line product.

Then he shows you how tough it is.  He takes a drill and puts a hole in the leather dinosaur.  He then shows you how his wallet can’t be drilled through.  Impressive, but ask yourself how many times your wallet is threatened by an electric drill.  Maybe someday we will be treated to stories of soldiers who were saved from land mines by their wallet.

Ads are insulting, but they must work.  If you are too cheap to pay to avoid them then treat them as entertainment or thought problems.  Redeem your time.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-479: Past the Focal Point

God has an unlimited number of dendrites flowing from His being, and each one of those dendrites goes to the heart of someone, someone who lived, someone who is living, or someone who will live.  That’s kind of the way I was thinking about it as I began meditating this morning.  At one end we have creation.  I was thinking that the other end was salvation.  One was universal; the other individual.

I was wrong in my first assumption.  Creation may be one end but salvation is a mass event.  Jesus died for all.  One event.  One cross.  One sacrifice, for all through all eternity.  It’s applied individually.  Each person has to make a decision.  But it is universally available.

I tend to think of history as a giant X.  On the left side beginning in the large open end, you have everything moving toward the focal point.  Every event in history is leading toward that center spot.  That center spot is the cross; how appropriate.  Everything in the Bible before Calvary is an ingredient putting together history in such a way as to allow God to make the sacrifice that redeemed His people.  That is the central moment.

On the other side of my giant X we have things opening up again and spreading out.  You have events.  You have experiences.  You have births and death.  Life just gets bigger and bigger and there are more and more individuals the further you go.

That kind of a picture needs something bigger than the unrepeatable event of the death and resurrection.  Jesus told the disciples that He had to go and if He didn’t go, there was something that would not happen.  What would not happen was the coming of the Holy Spirit.  And it was the Holy Spirit that would be able to involve himself individually with every human being from now until the end times.

What would be a better end point would be Pentecost.  The Holy Spirit abides.  He is the one who sets up residence in us.  He is the one who teaches us and works in us, and brings things to mind.  He’s the one who empowers and cleanses.  His work is not a one time event that was established for eternity.  His work is a continual interaction with those who have faith in Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is also referred to as the Spirit of Christ.  We have the mystery of the trinity.  The end point is Pentecost, not Calvary.  The cross is 2000 years ago.  The day of Pentecost is a few short weeks after that.  The application of Pentecost and the filling of the Holy Spirit is an ongoing event taking place as many times as necessary in order to make people what God wants them to be.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-478: Jigsaw Puzzle or Cordon Blue Recipe

How do you describe how we fit into God's plan for the universe?  What kind of metaphor could you use?

One approach would be that of a jigsaw puzzle.  A jigsaw puzzle requires that every piece be designated for its precise point.  This kind of puzzle can only go together one way.  You can force it.  I found that I sometimes have pushed pieces in where they don’t belong.  It ruins the puzzle.  It doesn’t work.  There’s only one way to put it together.  There is a theological approach that kind of looks at it that way.

I think that a better picture is that of a Cordon Bleu Chef.  I’m sure that he has a recipe.  He knows what spices are available.  He knows what’s going to be the main ingredient.  He may have even made it before.  But I can almost guarantee there are going to be slight variations no matter what you do.  He uses a recipe that mixes all the savors together with each one influencing the others.  A recipe is open to endless variation and modification.

I think of a Mexican restaurant that we used to go to.  One of the great questions of the day was, “How hot will the salsa be?”  You never knew.  It was always good.  Sometimes it burned more than others.  You still look forward to that salsa.  When you go to other restaurants, it’s like it just came out of a huge vet that was fed with microscopic accuracy.  It may be tasty, but it is not original, not a living dish.

My personal view of God is that He is the Lord and Master, Creator of the universe.  He is sovereign in every way.  And because I have that kind of a high and lofty view of who God is, I grant Him my permission to do things whatever way He wants to do them, today and tomorrow.  Because of His character and His attributes, there are certain variations that will never happen, but also because of His character and His attributes you can count on things being different in ways that enhance and enrich life.

If you want an evening, sitting around a table and enjoying the fellowship, get a jigsaw hustle.  If you want a unique experience that brings out all the variety of life, experiment with a little bit of unknown spice.

homo unius libri