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Table of Contents

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Every worldview must answer the

questions of origin, meaning, morality

and destiny. Our first edition of the

HisDominion provided both a response to

the question of origin while also engaging

with the cultural conflicts of our day.

What naturally proceeds from this

question however, is the question of

meaning.

Is mankind nothing more than a

meaningless blip on the radar in our

cosmos? Are we cosmological accidents, a

result of a blind watchmaker? The fact

that we attribute worth towards ourselves

and others seems to contradict this idea of

mankind’s purposeless existence. We are

hard-wired to seek for a meaning and

purpose, and it has taken its shape in

different forms since the ancients.

To assume that the universe is

meaningless would mean that all we set

our hands towards would be utterly

meaningless. To build a city or a nation

would be meaningless, to help the poor

would be meaningless, and to find cures

and vaccinations for the sick would be

meaningless. No one thinks like this, and

the reason why is because deep within

ourselves we believe there is a meaning

behind everything we do, whether great or

small. Mothers recognize the invaluable

worth of their children, the sick recognize

the invaluable worth of good health, and

where there is worth there is meaning.

The question then is “How do we discover

the objective role and purpose of

mankind?” If there does exist an objective

meaning to our universe, a single true

interpretation of our world, then it ought

to be found somewhere.

IN THIS ISSUE

This issue of HisDominion provides an

approach to the topics of meaning and

purpose from a variety of different

perspectives. Steven Martins poses the

question of the relation between religion,

worldview and meaning, and examines

their relation through an analysis of the

Mesoamerican civilizations and their

biblical origins. From archaeological

discoveries to academic studies, he

provides a compelling case for what really

happened to the Mesoamerican migrants

in a post-Babel world.

Luis Dizon grants us a two-part analysis

from a comparative religions perspective,

explaining its relevance to mankind, and

breaking down the Judaic, Islamic and

Christian faith to lay out the true religion.

He goes on to present the redemptive

continuity found in the Abrahamic faiths

and how we can discern what vital content

is missing or corrupted, and in which

faith. He also presents a comprehensive

outline of the Christian worldview.

Alex Kerimli makes a comparative study

between two sacred books, the Bible and

the Qur’an, but takes his more specialized

route by analyzing the Torah in particular.

He unfolds his study with the case for the

Torah’s faithful integrity & transmission,

along with its implications.

George Simopoulos demonstrates the

reality of suffering in light of the doctrines

of Buddhism, and provides a response

from the Christian faith. As opposed to

desire being the root cause of suffering,

perhaps there is a deeper meaning to our

sufferings, perhaps Buddhism fails to

grasp the depths of the human condition.

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By Steven R. Martins

It is in the grand narrative of

human history that we find a universal

disposition to use spirituality as a form

of understanding man’s role and

purpose in the physical universe. From

as far back as the Bronze Age, the

Middle Ages, and to our present-day

post-modernity, we have records,

documents and historical evidences

that help affirm mankind’s obsession

with the religious. The Babylonians had

their tales and their gods, the Egyptians

had their beliefs of the after-life, the

Greeks had their Mount Olympus, even

modern-day civilizations boast a

diversity of religious beliefs across the

globe. The Western world has

experienced the rise of Christianity,

witnessing the growing population of

Islam, and studying the resurgence of

Judaism. The Eastern world has

featured its own various forms of

Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and

many others which now permeate into

the West. To list humanity’s religious

beliefs, from past to present, would

delve into the thousands if not millions.

It is with the spiritual that man can

make sense of his world, the beliefs of

the unseen in operation behind what is

seen. This has no doubt changed over

time, with mankind’s growing

knowledge and intellectual maturity. It

was Jesse Ventura, governor of

Minnesota from 1999 to 2003, who said

that “organized religion is a sham and a

crutch for weak-minded people.”1 If we

were to follow the current trend of New

Atheism and Western secularization,

would that mean that increased

intelligence would guarantee freedom

from religious thought? Is not religion

defined as “an organized system of

beliefs... a belief, or an activity that is

very important to a person or group”?2

Do not atheists and secularists operate

on a belief-system of their own?

Raymond Damadian, the genius mind

behind the invention of the MRI,3

happens to be a biblical creationist. His

1 ‘Ventura Says Religion Is For “Weak”’, New York Times (AP, October 1, 1999), accessed March 18, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/01/us/ventura-says-religion-is-for-weak.html. 2 ‘Definition of Religion’, Merriam-Webster: An Encyclopædia Britannica Company, accessed March 18, 2015, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religion. 3 ‘Raymond Damadian | Lemelson-MIT Program’, Lemelson-MIT Program, accessed March 18, 2015, http://lemelson.mit.edu/winners/raymond-damadian.

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contribution to the medical sciences

and health care nearly won him a Nobel

Prize for the MRI project.4 Given his

intellectual capacity and various

accomplishments, we would expect him

to be free of “organized religion,” but

instead his faith formed the bedrock of

his science. What if this natural

inclination of spiritual belief is not a

socially developed psychological

crutch? What if it served as an evidence

of something more beyond our physical

universe?

Various studies have been

conducted on the world’s major

religions, even on ancient

Mesopotamian civilizations, and they

all exhibit this universal

disposition, religious

belief as a form of

understanding man’s role

and significance in the

material world. However,

studies on Mesoamerican

civilizations are scarce on

this front, and not easily

made available to the

public. What can the Mesoamerican

civilizations tell us about religious

belief and humanity’s role in the

4 Ted Olsen, ‘Did Nobel Committee Ignore MRI Creator Because of Creationism?’ (October 1, 2003), accessed March 18, 2015, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/octoberweb-only/10-6-51.0.html.

cosmos? What type of religious and

social values do we discover from a

time and place which remained

untouched from direct external

influences, prior to Spanish

colonization?

The Spiritual Beliefs of

Mesoamerican Civilization

Mesoamerica is geographically

defined as “north-western, central and

southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize,

and the western part of Honduras, and

El Salvador.”5 In this particular region

we find the Olmecs, Mayan and Aztecan

civilizations.6 There were other

civilizations besides these three, such as

the Zapotecs, Toltecs, Mixtecs,

Tarascas and others, but in

comparison they were the

minorities.7

Despite the cultural diversity of

the region, Mesoamerican

civilizations were united in their

religion, exhibiting a “unified,

system of religious practice.”8

5 Lars Kirkhusmo Pharo, ‘The Concept of “Religion” in Mesoamerican Languages’, Numen 54, no. 1 (2007): 30. 6 Mary Ellen Miller, The Art of Mesoamerica: From Olmec to Aztec, Third Edition. (United Kingdom: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2001), 9-10. 7 Pharo, ‘The Concept of “Religion” in Mesoamerican Languages,’ 30. 8 Kent F. Reilly, ‘Mesoamerican Religious Beliefs: The Practices & Practitioners’, The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology (November, 2012), 1.

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The term “religion” may come into

question (as it has) due to its absence in

the indigenous languages. This however

does not imply that they held no formal

religion; the term was introduced by

Hispanic “ethnographer-missionaries”

under their respective monastic

orders.9 The religious beliefs of the

Olmecs, Mayans and Aztecs may have

been spiritual in nature, but they were

regarded just as real as their material

world. It was deeply ingrained in their

worldview; to divorce their religion

from their culture would result in the

reinvention of an entire civilization,

operating on some other belief system

as opposed to none. In essence, their

religious beliefs and their perception of

reality were inseparable.

The beliefs exhibited by the

Mesoamericans are extracted from

“archaeological and iconographic

evidence”, including Bernardo de

Sahagun’s Florentine Codex (1545-

1590) and Diego Duran’s The Book of

the Gods and Rites (1574-1576).10 Years

of research, excavations and studies

have revealed the generic beliefs of the

Mesoamericans, such as “the

conception of three parallel worlds”

9 Pharo, ‘The Concept of “Religion” in Mesoamerican Languages,’ 35. 10 Reilly, ‘Mesoamerican Religious Beliefs: The Practices & Practitioners,’ 1.

which consisted of the underworld, the

earth and the upper world of the sky.11

There is a great complexity of these

three layers, such as nine further layers

constituting the underworld, and up to

thirteen layers constituting the upper

world.12 In these three layers of the

underworld, earth and sky, it is believed

that there are supernatural deities

which commonly traveled throughout

these different layers, never confined to

their respective domains.13 These

deities could be called upon, and

interacted with, through priestly

shamans who functioned as mediators

“between the worlds of the gods and

humankind.”14

We find even more information

from the pre-Hispanic manuscripts,

such as the “Mixtec Codex

Vindobonensis, the central Mexican

Codex Borgia” and the “Maya Codex

11 Pharo, ‘The Concept of “Religion” in Mesoamerican Languages,’ 63. 12 Pharo, ‘The Concept of “Religion” in Mesoamerican Languages,’ 63. 13 Reilly, ‘Mesoamerican Religious Beliefs: The Practices & Practitioners,’ 1. 14 Ibid, 7.

The Stone of Tizoc, used in Aztec Sacrifices

9

Dresden.”15 Apparently, according to

Mesoamerican beliefs, the universe had

been created by the gods who operated

in unison and also maintained the

everyday functions of the visible

universe. This involved the sacrificial

offerings of particular deities, which

were later carried out through human

sacrifices16 as a model for mankind to

emulate.17 In fact, the Aztecan empire

feared that the “fifth sun [was] about to

collapse in violent cataclysm”18 if they

did not “nourish the sun through

human sacrifice.”19

It becomes clear as we study

Mesoamerican culture that human life

15 Karl A. Taube, ‘Creation and Cosmology: Gods and Mythic Origins in Ancient Mesoamerica’, The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology (November 2012), 1. 16 Ibid, 2. 17 Taube, ‘Creation and Cosmology: Gods and Mythic Origins in Ancient Mesoamerica,’ 1. 18 Miller, The Art of Mesoamerica: From Olmec to Aztec, 197. 19 Taube, ‘Creation and Cosmology: Gods and Mythic Origins in Ancient Mesoamerica,’ 2.

was regarded as both sacred and

expendable. It was sacred because only

blood could sustain their physical

universe, appeasing the gods through

their sacrificial system. It was

expendable because it did not matter

how many would die, as long as the

remaining people would survive. The

Mesoamericans were moral savages,

particularly under Aztecan rule. Their

pagan gods were only satisfied with vast

amounts of human blood, and therefore

sacrificing people of other “lesser”

civilizations was a sacred cultural norm

which resolved the cosmological

conflict.

It was the Aztecan Empire which

exhibited the cruelest and most savage

of religious practices, cutting open

chest cavities with an obsidian knife,

and pulling out the still-beating heart of

the victim. Their crimes pre-dated their

rise to power, dating back to when they

Aztec Warriors as illustrated in the Florentine Codex

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were initially a minority in a land that

was not their own. As guests under the

Culhuacan kingdom, they requested a

“royal bride, in order to establish a

ruling lineage.”20 They were eventually

provided with the king’s daughter, a

princess cherished by her father. Mary

Miller depicts the unfolding of events:

“Having accepted, the Aztecs

invited the Culhuacan ruler to visit.

When he attended the shrine of

what was reputed to be a new deity,

he found instead an Aztec priest

wearing the flayed skin of his

daughter. In response to this

obscene offense the Aztecs were

driven from their settlement.”21

Although the Mesoamericans were

historically known for their obsession

of human sacrifices, it wasn’t

something altogether new for the

ancient world. The Ammonites and the

Canaanites practiced child sacrifice to

an idol named Moloch (also spelled as

Molech). Dr. Scott Masson of the Ezra

Institute writes that Moloch worship

was “a dreadful sight, the brass statue

of the god was cast in human shape

with a bull’s head, and outstretched

20 Miller, The Art of Mesoamerica: From Olmec to Aztec, 198. 21 Ibid.

hands.”22 As part of the religious

practice, they would kindle a fire within

the idol until it was fully heated. The

parents would then place their children

onto the hands of the statue as an

offering, watching the slow and

agonizing death of their loved ones.

They did this of their own will to

appease the pagan god. It is even said

that to help drown out the voices of the

victims, drums and flutes would play in

one accord.23

The practice of human sacrifice was

common in ancient Mesopotamia, but

despite its commonality the Pentateuch

took a strong stand against this crime.

We find in Leviticus that God said unto

the Israelites:

“Any man from the sons of Israel or

from the aliens sojourning in Israel

who gives any of his offspring to

Molech, shall surely be put to

death; the people of the land shall

stone him with stones. I will also set

My face against that man and will

cut him off from among his people,

because he has given some of his

offspring to Molech, so as to defile

22 Scott Masson, ‘Moloch Worship: The Abortion of Faith, Family & Country’, by Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity, Jubilee Winter 2013 (2013): 13. 23 Ibid.

11

My sanctuary and to profane My

holy name” (Lev. 20:2-3, NASB).

In verses four to five we read that even

those who turn a blind eye towards the

man (or woman) who participates in

this sin will likewise be punished along

with his family. Although ancient Israel

participated in this sin, they were called

to set themselves apart from other

nations and to obey the law of God.24

Prior to Israel’s formation as a

nation, Abraham is said to have nearly

killed Isaac as a sacrifice unto the same

God who forbade human sacrifices.

However, as we read in Genesis 22:10-

14, God intervened to prevent the

sacrifice of Isaac, instead offering up a

ram in his place to prophetically

foreshadow the Messiah who would pay

the sin-debt for

mankind. This was God’s

intention from the very

moment He asked

Abraham to sacrifice his

son Isaac, it was to serve

as a prophetic symbol

for his descendants that

God would provide the

atonement for man’s

sins. We do not find this redemption

story with the Mesoamericans, where

24 Jeremiah 32:33-35; 1 Kings 11:4-11; 2 Kings 21:6; 2 Chronicles 28:1-4.

instead of death being perceived as a

penalty for violating God’s law, it is

perceived as a sustaining source for

their material universe.

This historical narrative of the Old

Testament also affirmed the sacredness

of human life, in which the Judeo-

Christian God did not only stop

Abraham from taking Isaac’s life, He

also presented the law against any

human sacrifices of any kind. We do

not see human life as “sacred” in the

biblical sense with the Mesoamerican

civilization. This is because the Aztecs

would often sacrifice those who were

not of their own people, conquered

indigenous tribes, in order to save their

own skins from apocalyptic demise.25

The Mesoamericans were just as guilty

as the Ammonites and

Canaanites.

Their value of humanity

was reflected by their

religious beliefs, in that

the created cosmos which

they inhabit were the

result of failed creations.

Their gods had created

sentient beings with the

25 Donald M. Kagan, Steven E. Ozment, and Frank M. Turner, The Western Heritage: Teaching and Learning Classroom Edition, Combined Volume, 5th ed. (United States: Pearson Education (US), 2006), 257.

Codex Magliabechiano depicting Aztecan Human Sacrifices

12

purpose of worshipping them, but their

creations failed to fulfill their purpose.

Thus the deities had created people of

the mud, people of the wood, and

eventually mankind.26 Not worshipping

these deities meant the end of the

entire universe.27 Our knowledge of

Mesoamerican beliefs of creation and

cosmology are still developing as we

discover new findings, but it is a field of

research that has continued to grow.

From what we have gathered thus far,

the depicted worldview embraced by

the Mesoamericans was that of

pessimism and despair. The King of

Texcoco expressed in poetic form:

“Just as a painting

We will be dimmed,

Just as a flower

We shall become desiccated...

Ponder on this,

Eagle and Jaguar Knights,

Though you were carved in jade,

Though you were made of gold,

You also will go there

To the land of the fleshless.

We must all vanish,

None may remain.”28

26 Part I. Chapter II. Popul Vuh. 27 Taube, ‘Creation and Cosmology: Gods and Mythic Origins in Ancient Mesoamerica,’ 2. 28 After N. Davies, The Aztecs, after Leon-Portilla, Trece Poetas, 50.

In part, the king expresses great truth.

He writes in agreement with the biblical

book of wisdom, in which we read:

“It is the same for all. There is one

fate for the righteous and for the

wicked; for the good, for the clean

and for the unclean; for the man

who offers a sacrifice and for the

one who does not sacrifice. As the

good man is, so is the sinner; as

the swearer is, so is the one who is

afraid to swear. This is an evil in

all that is done under the sun,

that there is one fate for all

men...” (Eccl. 9:2-3a, NASB).

The Mesoamericans acknowledged that

human life was temporary; any form of

life on earth was temporary, including

that which was solely material. They

correctly perceived their reality as a

temporary passing from this world into

the next.29 We find this truth in the

Bible, that death awaits all men, and

that death itself is a cruel evil brought

forth by the sin of man.30 The difference

between the Mesoamerican belief and

the biblical account is that the Bible

29 James L. Fitzsimmons, ‘The Living and the Dead’, The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology (November 2012), 1. 30 Romans 5:17

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provides hope and salvation,31 not

apocalyptic pessimism and despair.32

For the Mesoamericans, the dead

still continued to exist, supposedly

influencing the real world through “a

long process of social

rebirth and reinvention.”33

They participated in dances

and could even stand in as

witnesses to legal events. It

was an attempt to provide

comfort in a worldview

void of hope and salvation,

but despite this belief, death

was not a welcome

experience, and it failed to calm the

hearts of mortal men. Even the Aztecan

king Motecuhzoma II carried with him

a “sense of gloom” which “prevailed in

Central Mexico, particularly in the

mind of the ruler.”34

These religious beliefs were the way

they perceived the world, it was what

provided meaning to their physical

universe and their human existence. It

was, as we see with the universal

disposition, a distorted manifestation of

what they sensed was beyond their

31 Joe Boot, ‘Precious Thoughts, Precious Life’, by Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity, Jubilee Winter 2013 (2013): 9. 32 Miller, The Art of Mesoamerica: From Olmec to Aztec, 213. 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid., 197.

material dimension. They perceived

that creation had to have come from

some superior being(s). To assume that

nothing had created everything would

have been illogical. They perceived that

although the flesh may

die, the soul would pass

to the realm of the

“fleshless.” To assume

that the conscious came

from the non-conscious

and that it would likewise

return to the non-

conscious would not have

made sense to the

Mesoamericans. There are similarities,

even if they are scarce, of true biblical

faith, but whether they were influenced

by their ancestors is a question we will

later expand on.

The Estrangement from True

Faith

In the New Testament we find that the

true God had not only revealed Himself

through His prophets, apostles, and His

Son Jesus Christ, but also through the

natural world. It is what we call general

revelation, or natural knowledge.35 The

apostle Paul wrote to the Roman

Church on this particular matter:

35 Walter A. Elwell, ‘The Doctrine Scripture’, in The Portable Seminary: A Master’s Level Overview in One Volume, ed. David Horton (Grand Rapids, MI.: Bethany House, 2006), 24–25.

Aztec Sun Calendar Measured Days, Months &

Cosmic Cycles

14

“For since the creation of the world

His invisible attributes, His eternal

power and divine nature, have been

clearly seen, being understood

through what has been made, so

that they are without excuse” (Rom.

1:20, NASB).

God therefore “made it evident”36 to the

Mesoamericans that He does exist

through the veil of his created world,

hence why the majority of historical

civilizations believed in some form of

creator. It is clear however that the

beliefs of other ancient civilizations, in

particular the Mesoamericans, were

foreign to the faith of the Jews and

Christians. If God had revealed Himself

to man through his creation, why is it

that none of these civilizations turned

to the true faith?

Biblical scholar Dr. Elwell writes

that the natural knowledge of God “has

its limitations and is inadequate.”37 He

writes in support of this universal

disposition proposed by this article that

“the individual engages in religious

practice and asks some of the ultimate

questions concerning the source,

reason, and end of his or her own

36 Romans 1:19 37 Walter A. Elwell, ‘The Doctrine Scripture’, in The Portable Seminary: A Master’s Level Overview in One Volume, 25.

existence.”38 The reason that

civilizations failed to follow the true

God through natural revelation alone is

due to their sinful human condition.39

Paul affirms this by saying:

“For even though they knew God,

they did not honor Him as God or

give thanks, but they became

futile in their speculations, and

their foolish heart was darkened.

Professing to be wise, they

became fools, and exchanged the

glory of the incorruptible God for

an image in the form of

corruptible man and of birds and

four-footed animals and crawling

creatures” (Rom. 1:21-23, NASB).

Just as mankind exhibited the

disposition of using spirituality to

understand man’s role in the physical

universe, likewise their inherited sin-

nature provided the continual tendency

to “distort and twist” natural

knowledge.40 In fact, one of the

consequences of deifying God’s creation

instead of worshipping the Creator is to

38 Walter A. Elwell, ‘The Doctrine Scripture’, in The Portable Seminary: A Master’s Level Overview in One Volume, 25. 39 John Calvin and Henry Beveridge, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers, Incorporated, 2008), 150-151. 40 Walter A. Elwell, ‘The Doctrine Scripture’, in The Portable Seminary: A Master’s Level Overview in One Volume, 25.

15

turn towards Moloch worship, the

detestable and horrendous crime of

human sacrifices.41 We not only see this

with the Mesoamericans, but with the

Andean Americans as well, such as the

Incan civilization.

This is what we find with the

Mesoamerican people, a history of

revenge killings, political assassinations

and human sacrifices. They were a

complex society with engineering

capabilities that rivaled Rome,

constructing advanced aqueducts and

building the Aztecan capital over

unstable swampland (present-day

Mexico City).42 An intricate legal

system maintained and preserved the

caste system throughout the Empire,43

and their armies numbered into the

hundreds of thousands conquering

41 Masson, ‘Moloch Worship: The Abortion of Faith, Family & Country,’ 13. 42 Benjamin Keen, The Aztec Image in Western Thought (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1984), 136. 43 ‘Aztec Legal System and Sources of Law’, Tarlton Law Library - Aztec and Maya Law, accessed March 18, 2015, http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/exhibits/aztec/aztec_legal.html.

neighboring lands.44 Yet despite their

own societal advancements and

technological achievements, their

culture exhibited the epitome of sin,

they were death-worshippers.

Although this analysis can be

applied to the majority of earth’s

civilizations, what could possibly be

said of atheists? The atheistic

community are in fact a minority in the

face of world religions. And despite

their vigorous manifestation in western

culture, they have failed to eliminate

religious belief altogether.45 Ancient

civilizations that relied on natural

theology wandered from the true faith

as a result of their sin nature. Atheists

are quite different, where instead of a

distorted disposition to use spirituality

to form their worldview; they wilfully

stamp out their disposition. Yet no

matter their efforts, explaining away

spirituality and religious belief are two

fundamentally different concepts. They

may explain away their own spiritual

beliefs, reducing their worldview to the

44 David Kuijt, ‘Aztec and Enemies: DBA 105 Army and Variants’, University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies | UMIACS, last modified 1999, accessed March 18, 2015, http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~kuijt/dba105/dba105.html 45 Richard Dawkins Foundation, ‘How To Get Rid of Religion’ (November 6, 2012), accessed March 18, 2015, https://richarddawkins.net/2012/11/how-to-get-rid-of-religion/

Chichen Itza, Yucatan Region, Mexico

16

merely materialistic world, but they will

never rid themselves of their religious

belief in atheism, rigorously abiding to

their organized system of beliefs.

In essence, the atheistic belief, and

its goal to secularize the world, is

merely a delusion. The Mesoamericans,

along with other civilizations, serve as

evidence that spiritual belief is a

necessary component to the human life.

The Mesoamerican Ancestors

Before we could consider that the

Mesoamericans had, at some point, an

understanding of the true faith through

their ancestral roots, we would expect

to find evidence to support this claim.

The first step would be to find an

ancient document that may have

survived until this day that record

mankind’s early history. From there, we

would expect to find traces of this

history manifested through the writings

of the Mesoamericans, which have no

doubt fallen prey to the game of

Chinese Whispers (broken telephone).

The first book of the Pentateuch,

Genesis, happens to give a historical

account for the early history of

mankind, while also dating very early in

its composition. It also carries with it a

high level of transmission accuracy and

important information regarding the

migration of mankind. We find the

following account penned by Moses:

“Now the whole earth used the

same language and the same words.

It came about as they journeyed

east, that they found a plain in the

land of Shinar and settled there.

They said to one another, ‘Come, let

us make bricks and burn them

thoroughly.’ And they used brick for

stone, and they used tar for mortar.

They said, ‘Come, let us build for

ourselves a city, and a tower whose

top will reach into heaven, and let

us make for ourselves a name,

otherwise we will be scattered

abroad over the face of the whole

earth” (Gen. 11:1-4, NASB).

By this we understand that mankind

once had a single language, and to

prevent from being scattered over the

post-flood world, they began

construction on the tower of Babel.

There is evidence of this history such as

The Schoyen Collection, MS 2063,46

which is “an inscribed stele with

Nebuchadnezzar II and the image of a

46 Rossella Lorenzi, ‘Ancient Texts Part of Earliest Known Documents: DNews’, Discovery News (DNews, n.d.), accessed March 18, 2015, http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/tower-of-babel-111227.htm

17

virtually complete tower.”47 Herodotus

the historian even mentioned the tower

of Babel in his writings:

“In the center of this sacred

enclosure a solid tower has been

built, two hundred and twenty

yards long and broad; a second

tower rises from this and from it

yet another, until at last there are

eight.”48

We read in Genesis 11:5-8 that God

visited the construction of Babel, and

that because of

their disobedience

to multiply and

subdue the entire

earth He confused

their languages so

that they could not

understand each

other. Genesis 11:9

reads “Therefore

its name was called Babel, because

there the LORD confused the language

of the whole earth; and from there the

LORD scattered them abroad over the

face of the whole earth” (NASB).

47 Bodie Hodge, Tower of Babel: The Cultural History of Our Ancestors (United States: New Leaf Publishing Group, 2013), 51. 48 ‘Herodotus, The Histories, Book 1, Chapter 181:3’, Perseus Digital Library, accessed March 18, 2015, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.%201.181

This helps to explain the origin of

civilization in the post-Babel world.

Initially, mankind understood each

other because they all spoke the same

language, but after the confusion of

languages only certain groups

understood each other. Eventually,

groups that shared the same language

would migrate together. As to what date

this event occurred is still debatable

today, but a more conservative date has

been suggested as approximately 2242

B.C.49 Researcher Bodie Hodge writes

in respect to the

migration that “it was

during the days of

Peleg that the family

groups left Babel in

the plain of Shinar

and traveled to

different parts of the

world, taking with

them their own

language that other

families could not understand.”50 This

event then helps us to link the

Mesoamerican peoples to their

ancestors, but as to how they traveled

from Shinar to the Americas is another

question altogether.

49 James Ussher, Annals of the World James Ussher’s Classic Survey of World History Slipcase (United States: Master Books, 2003), 22. 50 Hodge, Tower of Babel: The Cultural History of Our Ancestors, 39.

The Schoyen Collection, MS 2063

18

According to both Hodge’s and

Michael Oard’s research,51 it is argued

that “a couple of hundred years would

be ample time to spread across Asia to

the Bering Strait.”52 The arrival of the

Babel migrants into the Americas is

then conservatively dated to some four-

hundred years (if not earlier) after the

confusion of languages.53 From there,

the migrant groups would have further

divided, with clusters remaining in

modern-day Canada, others settling in

modern-day United States of America,

and others traveling further south into

Central and South America.

The reason why the Genesis account

is taken into consideration for the

comparison with Mesoamerican

records is not only due to the fact that

Genesis pre-dates known

Mesoamerican sources, but that traces

are found of Genesis content within

Mesoamerican findings. Take for

example the Mayan Popol Vuh which

provides the Mayan account of

creation. The creation begins with:

“Neither man, nor animal, birds,

fishes, crabs, trees, stones, caves,

51 Michael J. Oard, Frozen in Time: Woolly Mammoths, the Ice Age and the Biblical Key to Their Secrets (United States: New Leaf Publishing Group, 2006), 132. 52 Hodge, Tower of Babel: The Cultural History of Our Ancestors, 110. 53 Ibid., 111.

ravines, grasses, nor forests; there

was only the sky. The surface of the

earth had not appeared. There was

only the calm sea and the great

expanse of the sky.”54

This is fairly similar to the Genesis

creation account in which “the earth

was formless and void, and darkness

was over the surface of the deep, and

the Spirit of God was moving over the

surface of the waters” (Gen. 1:2, NASB).

Although the Popol Vuh does not start

with “In the beginning God created the

heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1,

NASB), it does start at the same point

as the Genesis creation account with

the earth already having been created

and being entirely covered by water.

We also find “then the earth was

created by them. So it was, in truth,

that they created the earth. Earth! They

said, and instantly it was made.”55 What

is interesting about the polytheistic

creation of the land is that they all in

one accord command its appearance,

and by their word alone all is created.

In Genesis we find the same principal,

but from a monotheistic view, as

opposed to polytheistic. We read “Let

the waters below the heavens be

gathered into one place, and let the dry

54 Part I. Chapter I. Popol Vuh. 55 Ibid.

19

land appear’; and it was so” (Gen. 1:9,

NASB).

Now although there are multiple

deities recorded in the Mayan creation

account, such as Tepeu, Gucumatz, and

others, the Mayan Popol Vuh records of

a deity called the Heart of Heaven. The

document states “The first is called

Caculha Huracan. The second is Chipi-

Caculha. The third is Raxa-Caculha.

And these three are the Heart of

Heaven.”56 We are introduced to a deity

that is active in the creation account,

responsible for causing the deluge upon

mankind, and is referred to as one in

one sense, and three distinct persons in

another sense. It is interesting given

that the Hebrew for “God” in Genesis 1

is Elohim, which is plural, along with

other verses implying plurality within a

single being.57 We can perceive a link

between the nature of the Holy Trinity,

as revealed in the Bible, and the Heart

of Heaven from the Mayan accounts.

However, the connection between

“Elohim” and the Trinity, as well as

between the Trinity and the “Heart of

Heaven,” are areas that would require

more extensive research as they are still

relatively unexplored.

56 Part I. Chapter I. Popol Vuh. 57 Gen. 1:26

The Popol Vuh also records the

deities speaking to their created

animals, saying “Speak, cry, warble,

call, speak each one according to your

variety, each, according to your kind.”58

This is significant concerning the

phrase “each according to your kind”,

in which Genesis records “Then God

said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living

creatures after their kind: cattle and

creeping things and beasts of the earth

after their kind’; and it was so” (Gen.

1:24, NASB). What do both accounts

mean when they use the term “kind”?

They refer to the fact that dogs will

always reproduce other dogs, and

horses will reproduce other horses. We

do not find macro-evolution as an

active factor in either of the creation

accounts, nor should we expect it.

Consider that the Popol Vuh also

records the catastrophic deluge of the

times of Noah, as we find in Genesis.

The Mayan account presents the

following narrative:

“...those that they had made, that

they had created, did not think,

did not speak with their Creator,

their Maker. And for this reason

they were killed, they were

deluged. A heavy resin fell from

58 Part I. Chapter II. Popol Vuh.

20

the sky... so was the ruin of the

men who had been created and

formed, the men made to be

destroyed and annihilated.”59

The Aztecs also had an account for the

global flood, but it differed from the

Mayan Popol Vuh. The Codex

Chimalpopoca records the following:

“When the Sun Age came, there had

passed 400 years. Then came 200

years, then 76. Then all mankind was

lost and drowned and turned to

fishes. The water and the sky drew

near each other. In a single day all

was lost, and Four Flower consumed

all that there was of our flesh. The

very mountains were swallowed up in

the flood, and the waters remained,

lying tranquil during fifty and two

springs. But before the flood began,

Titlachahuan had warned the man

Nota and his wife Nena, saying,

59

Part I. Chapter III. Popol Vuh.

‘Make no more pulque, but hollow a

great cypress, into which you shall

enter the month Tozoztli. The waters

shall near the sky.’”60

Despite the Incas not forming part of

Mesoamerican civilization, as Andean

Americans they were nonetheless

relatives given their common ancestry.

Their flood story of the Unu Pachakuti

records a catastrophic deluge that

destroyed the people by Lake Titicaca.

The deluge was supposedly caused by

Viracocha, their creator god, and only

three humans were saved in order to re-

populate the world.61 The reason the

flood story is called Unu Pachakuti is

because the term means “the world

(pacha) overturned (cuti) by water

(unu)”62 which by no means suggests a

subtle overflow, but rather a

catastrophic deluge that wiped out all

life.

The similarities of these flood

accounts with Genesis is astounding,

consider for example that every account

suggests that a deity was behind the

deluge. In Genesis we read “then God

said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has

come before Me; for the earth is filled

60 Codex Chimalpopoca, translated by Abbé Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg. 61 Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, The History of the Incas (Dodo Press, 2007), 32. 62 Ibid.

Aztec Empire in Mesoamerica

21

with violence because of them; and

behold, I am about to destroy them

with the earth” (Gen. 6:13, NASB). The

difference that we find is that Genesis

records the reason why earth’s

inhabitants were destroyed, because

“the LORD saw that the wickedness of

man was great on the earth, and that

every intent of the thoughts of his heart

was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5,

NASB). The deluge was then a

judgment of God because of the moral

evil of mankind, as opposed to the flood

tales of the Mesoamericans which do

not take into account the moral evil of

man.

Another similarity we find is in the

Aztecan Codex Chimalpopoca which

details a deity instructing Nota and his

wife to make a boat out of cypress

wood. In Genesis, God likewise orders

Noah – consider the similarity of Noah

and Nota – to build an ark “of gopher

wood; you shall make the ark with

rooms, and shall cover it inside and out

with pitch” (Gen. 6:14, NASB). The

Codex furthermore records that “the

waters shall near the sky”, which we

read in Genesis the following:

“Then the flood came upon the

earth for forty days, and the water

increased and lifted up the ark, so

that it rose above the earth. The

water prevailed and increased

greatly upon the earth, and the ark

floated on the surface of the water.

The water prevailed more and more

upon the earth, so that all the high

mountains everywhere under the

heavens were covered” (Gen. 7:17-

19, NASB).

Noah wasn’t the only survivor; in fact

his wife, children and the animals that

were brought on board the ark survived

the deluge of 371 days.63 The question

we are then presented with is how did

the historical account of Noah, along

with that of the creation account, pass

down to the Mesoamericans?

Although we have presented the

tower of Babel as the starting point for

human migration, which the Incas have

a tale for as well,64 there are still further

links that help answer this question. In

Genesis 10, we are presented with the

“records of the generations of Shem,

Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah;

and sons were born to them after the

flood” (v. 1, NASB). If we were to read

the descendants of Japheth, the

following descendants in his lineage are

of particular interest: Ashkenaz, Magog,

63 Andrew A. Snelling, Earth’s Catastrophic Past: Geology, Creation & the Flood (Dallas, Tex.: Institute for Creation Research, 2009), 20. 64 D.M. Jones, The Lost History of the Incas (Leicester, United Kingdom: Hermes House, 2007), 198.

22

Tubal and Tiras. It is believed that their

subsequent descendants migrated to

the Americas over the Bering Strait.65

Of Ham’s descendants, only Put and

Sinites were considered as eventual

migrants to the Americas.66 The only

descendants who are not believed to

have migrated to the Americas are that

of the line of Shem. It is still particular

difficult to trace back descendants from

Mesoamerica to Babel due to the fact

that the American indigenous

population were not known for keeping

written records in their early settlement

periods. And as we would expect, the

more generations that are born,

coupled with the absence of written

documentation, eventually descendants

would forget their most earliest of

ancestors.

American indigenous evidence does

suggest ancestral relations with the

65 Hodge, Tower of Babel: The Cultural History of Our Ancestors, 179-180. 66 Ibid., 182.

descendants of Babel, as Hodge writes

in his findings:

“Tanasi was a Cherokee Village...

the name Tanasi is very similar to

Tanais, which was the old name for

the Don River north of the Black

Sea. Tanais was associated with the

people of Tubal originally and may

be a reflection of his name... the

Cherokee, or Tsalagi in the native

tongue, may still be a deviation of

the name Tanasi.”67

This would logically explain the

creation and flood stories found in

Mesoamerican tales that are somewhat

similar to Genesis. Oral tradition, and

possibly written documentation, helped

keep the true account of creation and

the flood safe from corruption until the

time of Moses who wrote Genesis.

However, the descendants of Noah who

67 Hodge, Tower of Babel: The Cultural History of Our Ancestors, 184.

Warrior Academy, Chichen Itza, Yucatan Region, Mexico

23

migrated to the Americas failed to

maintain the strict oral tradition and

also failed to write down their accounts.

This is what led to the corruption and

distortion of their stories, coupled with

the distortion of generic revelation due

to their inherent sin-nature.

We have therefore unveiled that the

ancestors of the Mesoamericans had at

some point in time knowledge of the

true faith, recognition of the true

historical order of events, and were the

cause of the corruption and distortion

of their accounts over time. Thanks to

the early history provided through the

Bible, we are able to trace back not only

the ancestors of the Mesoamericans to

Noah’s descendants, but also the scarce

lining of truth embedded in their

corrupt mythology.

The Mesoamerican Judgment

The Mesoamerican region saw its

fair share of civilizations, from the

Olmecs, the Mayas, the Aztecs, to the

smaller tribes and kingdoms. It also

saw the shedding of human blood, the

horrific crimes of the kings, and the

unspeakable atrocities done for

religion’s sake. They failed to

understand the true nature of man; in

fact they had lost all sense of mankind’s

sacredness, to bear the image of our

Holy Creator. Their sin mounted with

the passing days, months, and years,

until floating mountains appeared in

the sea during Motecuhzoma II’s reign.

Initially, the Aztec ruler believed that

the arrival of the Spanish, and their

leader Cortes “was the Aztec god

Quetzalcoatl, who had departed

centuries earlier but promised to

return.”68 Little did they know that the

Aztecan Empire was on the verge of

destruction, the inevitable fall of a great

powerful kingdom. To this day, the

Spanish are blamed for their cruelty,

destroying the lives of the Aztecs and

their entire civilization. It has even

been exaggerated by one of their own,

in which Bartolome de Las Casas (1474-

1566), “a Dominican friar, wrote... a

tradition that has exaggerated Spanish

cruelty and soft-pedaled such things as

Aztec human sacrifice.”69 But what if

there was another perspective to this

order of events?

As we had covered, the

Mesoamericans were guilty of the same

sins, if not worse, of those exhibited by

the Canaanites and Amorites. They

were wilful participants in human

sacrifice, what is still considered an

“abomination” to the true God.70 In

68 Kagan, et al., The Western Heritage, 257. 69 Ibid., 258. 70 Jeremiah 32:33-35

24

fact, if we read Genesis 15:16 we find

God speaking to Abraham that “in the

fourth generation they will return here,

for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet

complete” (NASB). The context reveals

that God was providing an opportunity

for the Amorites to turn away and

repent of their sins, but it was not until

Israel entered the Promised Land that

God executed judgment over the

Canaanites for their lack of repentance.

It is what we commonly find in the Old

Testament, God using other nations to

execute justice upon other nations for

their sins. When Israel committed the

same sins of the Canaanites, they were

exiled from their land. In the same

manner, we could also see the arrival of

the Spanish as God executing justice

over the Aztecs and

the inhabitants of

the land for their

demonic practices

and horrid sins.

This is not to say

that all that was

done by the

Spanish was pious and righteous, for

even the sin of those God uses to

execute justice will not go unpunished.

Nonetheless, the destruction of the

Aztecan Empire was God’s sovereign

judgment upon a nation that soaked

themselves daily in human blood and

abominable sins.

At first, Cortes and his troops had

nothing but praise for what they had

discovered, a potential paradise. It was

Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a soldier under

Cortes who wrote of their first

impression:

“When we saw so many cities and

villages built both on the water and

on dry land, and this straight, level

causeway, we couldn’t resist our

admiration. It was like the

enchantments in the book of

Amadis, because of the high towers,

cues [pyramids] and other

buildings, all of masonry, which

rose from the water. Some of our

soldiers asked if what

we saw was not a

dream.”71

This dream however

was later overturned

into a nightmare. It was

reported that upon

witnessing the “stinking, blood-

encrusted shrines to the war and rain

gods at the top of the Great Temple”

they calculated that the exterior racks

“held the skulls of no fewer than

71 The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico, translated by A.P. Maudslay, New York, 1956.

Tenochtitlan, Aztec Capital Present-Day Mexico City

25

136,000 sacrificial victims.”72 This

infuriated Cortes and led him to not

only condemn the “devilish rites” but to

also proclaim “the truth of the Christian

Gospel.”73 This was no doubt an

opportunity for the Aztecan Empire to

repent of their sins, much like Nineveh

responded to the Prophet Jonah’s

message of salvation from judgment,74

but they continued with their usual

human sacrifices, inviting upon

themselves the judgment of God.

Tensions rose between the Aztecs

and the Spanish, and Cortes was

outnumbered with only a few hundred

of soldiers against thousands.75 It

clearly may not have looked like God

was executing justice by the sheer

comparison of military size, but

military force was not the root cause of

the Aztecan collapse. An epidemic

72 Martin Windrow, Not One Step Back: History’s Greatest Sieges (London: Quercus Publishing Plc., 2009), 60. 73 Ibid., 60. 74 Jonah 3 75 Windrow, Not One Step Back: History’s Greatest Sieges, 63.

broke out killing “thousands”,

weakening the kingdom and its forces.76

It was apparent that the Spanish had

brought bacteria from Europe, which

their bodies had already developed an

immunity towards, but the locals had

no such defences and were largely

killed off because of it. Yet despite this,

the weakened Aztecs continued to fight,

abducting Spanish soldiers, sacrificing

them and desecrating their bodies by

throwing their body parts at the

Spanish army.77 For a tribe that had

sacrificed a princess of a superior

kingdom and had her skinned, there

was no peaceful end to the Aztecs.

God’s judgment came upon

Mesoamerica, but not all of the

Mesoamericans were destroyed with

the Aztecan Empire. The groups that

survived eventually mixed with the

growing Spanish population, and to this

day we still have many Mayan villages

in existence. I had the opportunity in

2013 to visit a Mayan village with my

wife in Mexico’s Yucatan region. They

have adapted quite well to modern-day

civilization through their commercial

skills, crafting clothing, hats, jewellery,

and other goods. As I had observed,

Catholicism was also present in their

76 Windrow, Not One Step Back: History’s Greatest Sieges, 63. 77 Ibid., 65.

Hernan Cortes and his Army, Naval History Museum in Mexico City

26

villages, a result of the introduction of

Spanish missionaries. Yet what can be

said of the true faith finally arriving on

Mesoamerican shores was not so much

the arrival of Catholicism, but rather of

undefiled Protestantism, courtesy of the

Reformation. Nonetheless, in

recognition of recorded history we can

gladly say that if it were not for the

Catholics of Spain, the doors of

Mesoamerica would not have been

opened for the Protestant Christian

faith and its missionaries.78

In the end, remnants of the

Mesoamerican indigenous people

survived, formed part of a new culture,

and were given the opportunity by

78 Disclaimer: I do not want to provide the impression that any particular ethnicity is superior to another, as I have stated, all men are created equal in the image of God. There are times that the civilizations used by God are just as sinful as the ones that they are punishing, but in the end they too will be judged.

God’s grace and mercy to partake in the

true faith as outlined by Holy Scripture,

and therefore attain eternal salvation

through Christ Jesus.79

Conclusion

In conclusion, the history of

Mesoamerican civilization successfully

exhibited the fact that mankind, as a

created being, demonstrates his

disposition of religious belief as an

attempt to comprehend the meaning of

life and his respective domain. To

divide the Mesoamerican religious

belief from their cultural identity would

be to reinvent the Mesoamericans

entirely. No such division existed in

their culture that separated religious

belief from their perspective of reality;

they were one and the same. However,

despite their attempts, they failed to

make sense of human nature, the

79 John 3:16

Monument in Mexico City commemorating the encounter of Cortés and Moctezuma at the Hospital de Jesús Nazareno.

27

created world and their reality. As has

been revealed throughout history, and

what has been affirmed through various

evidences, it is only with the Christian

worldview that man can make sense of

both himself and the universe he

inhabits.

Bibliography

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Steven Richard Martins

Bachelor of Human Resource Management

RZIM Apologetics Certificate

Steven is the executive director of Evangelium & Apologia

Ministries and operates as the lead-evangelist and apologist.

As a York University graduate, Steven specializes in training

and development, and has led various apologetic workshops

in University-College settings and in Church communities.

He is working towards his Masters of Arts in Christian

Apologetics at Veritas Evangelical Seminary. He is also a prolific itinerant speaker

for E&AM, speaking at various Conferences, including most recently the Canadian

provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario, and the countries of El Salvador, and

Trinidad & Tobago.

29

By J. Luis Dizon

In the world today, three world

religions claim to be “Abrahamic

Faiths” because they profess to be the

faith of the patriarch Abraham:

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each

claim to present the fullness of the big-

picture story of what God is doing,

relative to humanity, but does each of

these faiths do justice to the big-picture

story? It is worth looking at how each of

these religions stands in relation to the

redemptive history as it is given to us in

the Bible.

Judaism: An Incomplete Picture

“Judaism” is the word used for the

faith of the people who are descended

from Jacob, whom God renamed

“Israel” (Genesis 32:28). Of course, this

is a misnomer, as the faith of the

Jewish people has evolved over the

centuries. The Judaism of the Hebrew

Bible is not exactly the same as the

Judaism of the Second Temple Period,

and neither are exactly the same as

modern Judaism. Yet all these

permutations of Judaism are united in

the belief that there is one God, and

that He has revealed Himself in a

special way to the Jewish people.

The great Jewish rabbi Moshe b.

Maimon (1135-1204), better known to

the world as Maimonides, enunciated

thirteen articles of faith, which serve as

the foundation for Judaism. These

are:80

1. The existence of God;

2. His unity;

3. His spirituality;

4. His eternity;

5. God alone the object of

worship;

6. Revelation through his

prophets;

7. The pre-eminence of Moses

among the Prophets;

8. God's law given on Mount

Sinai;

9. The immutability of the

Torah as God's Law;

10. God's foreknowledge of

men's actions;

11. Retribution;

12. The coming of the Messiah;

13. Resurrection.

Note the thematic grouping of these

articles. Numbers 1-5 are an affirmation

80 “Jewish Concepts: Articles of Faith,” Jewish Virtual Library (Accessed 25 February 2015), http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/articles_of_faith.html

30

of monotheism. Numbers 6-9 are an

affirmation of divine revelation and its

perfection. Numbers 10-11 affirm the

sovereignty of God, and 12-13 affirm

the reality of an Eschaton, or end of

days, when history will be

consummated.

Of particular interest is article 12.

Maimonides stressed the necessity of

believing in this article, saying “I

believe with a full heart

in the coming of the

Messiah, and even

though he may tarry I

will still wait for him.”

It is so important that

for many of the Jews

who were killed in the

Holocaust, these were the last words

they ever uttered.81 Judaism teaches

that this Messiah will come at the end

of the age to bring about a golden age of

peace and prosperity.

By contrast, Christianity teaches

that the Messiah already came in the

person of Jesus of Nazareth, who

inaugurated His Kingdom in His death

and resurrection, and will return at the

end of the age when His enemies are

81 “Moses Maimonides (Rambam),” Jewish

Virtual Library (Accessed 25 February 2015),

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/bi

ography/Maimonides.html

made into His footstool (Hebrews

10:12-13, quoting Psalm 110:1).

Judaism rejects Jesus as a false

Messiah. And yet, if He truly was the

Messiah, this means that the Jews have

failed to see the implications of their

own scriptures and have missed the

boat when it comes to waiting for their

own Messiah.

But how do we know which

interpretation of the

Messiah is correct? The

only way to answer this

is via the one authority

which Jews and

Christians both hold to:

The Hebrew Bible.

Therein are abundant

references to the Messiah’s person and

role. For example, in Genesis 49:10 it

reads: “The scepter shall not depart

from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from

between his feet, until tribute comes to

him; and to him shall be the obedience

of the peoples.”82 The Targums of

Onkelos,83 Pseudo-Jonathan84 and

Yerushalmi85 all identify this figure as

82 Biblical references are from the English

Standard Version. 83 Samson H Levey, The Messiah: an Aramaic

Interpretation; the Messianic Exegesis of the

Targum (Cincinnati, OH: Hebrew Union

College Jewish Institute of Religion, 1974), 7. 84 Ibid., 8. 85 Ibid., 11.

Services at a Reform Synagogue

31

the Messiah. We see here that the

Messiah’s kingship extends not only

over Israel but over all the nations.

Another such passage, which is

confirmed to be Messianic in Targum

Jonathan,86 is Micah 5:2. It reads: “But

you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are

too little to be among the clans of

Judah, from you shall

come forth for me one

who is to be ruler in

Israel, whose coming

forth is from of old, from

ancient days.” Two things

stand out immediately in

this verse: 1) The Messiah

is born in Bethlehem, and

2) his origins are from

ancient days, which indicates pre-

existence. A high Christology is readily

apparent here.

Reinforcing this high Christology is

Isaiah 9:6, which states: “For to us a

child is born, to us a son is given; and

the government shall be upon his

shoulder, and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” It

is telling that the figure being

prophesied here is called “Mighty God”

(El-Gibbor) and “Father of Eternity”

86 Ibid., 92.

(Avi-Yad), which points to divinity.

Jews object to this interpretation by

arguing that “El-Gibbor” is best

understood as “mighty warrior.”

However, this interpretation is made

untenable by the fact that the title

(which only appears in Isaiah) is only

used of Yahweh. For example, Isaiah

10:20-21 states: “In that day the

remnant of Israel and the

survivors of the house of

Jacob will no more lean on

him who struck them, but

will lean on the Lord, the

Holy One of Israel, in

truth. A remnant will

return, the remnant of

Jacob, to the mighty God.”

Whoever this figure must

be then, He must be regarded as no less

than God.

But perhaps the most important

Messianic passage is Isaiah 53. This

passage speaks of a Suffering Servant

who is rejected by his own people, and

who eventually is killed, but his death

becomes the means by which the

transgressions of his people are paid

for. Most Jews today, following Rabbi

Shlomo b. Yitzhak (1040-1105),

interpret the Suffering Servant as the

nation of Israel. However, virtually all

Jewish sources prior to him identified

Jesus was born in Bethlehem and is the pre-existent Logos

32

this Suffering Servant as the Messiah,

and many rabbis continue to affirm this

even after Rashi’s interpretation.

Consider, for example, the Babylonian

Talmud, which states: “The Messiah—

what is his name?…The Rabbis say, the

leprous one; those of the house of

Rabbi say, the sick one, as it is said,

‘Surely he hath borne our sicknesses’”

(Tractate Sanhedrin 98b).87 Thus, the

passage is interpreted in an explicitly

Messianic light.

It is true that the word “servant,” in

Isaiah sometimes appears to refer to

Israel. For example, in Isaiah 49:3, God

says: “You are my servant, Israel, in

whom I will be glorified.” However,

this identification needs to be qualified,

because in verse 5, the Servant says, “he

who formed me from the womb to be

his servant, to bring Jacob back to

him; and that Israel might be gathered

to him.” How can the Servant bring

Israel back to God if the Servant is

himself Israel? The best way to

understand this is to see the Servant as

an individual who represents the nation

of Israel, the same way a king or

87 See this and other similar quotations by

numerous other Jewish authorities in Rachmiel

Frydland’s article, “The Rabbis' Dilemma: A Look at

Isaiah 53,” Jews for Jesus (Accessed 25 February

2015),

http://www.jewsforjesus.org/publications/issues/v

02-n05/isaiah53

president would represent the nation

that he is a head of.88

This understanding carries over to

Isaiah 53. Pay close attention to the

description of the servant as it appears

in verses 4-8:

“Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our

transgressions;

he was crushed for our

iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement

that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are

healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to

his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was

afflicted,

yet he opened not his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the

slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its

shearers is silent,

88 I am indebted to Dr. Peter G. Gentry of Southern

Baptist Theological Seminary for this insight.

33

so he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he

was taken away;

and as for his generation, who

considered

that he was cut off out of the land

of the living,

stricken for the transgression of

my people.”

Immediately, we notice three things

about the Suffering Servant:

1. He experiences death, something

which cannot be said of the

people of Israel, who have

survived every affliction that has

come upon them;

2. His death is redemptive in

character. Of course, no ordinary

human can redeem another

person by their suffering, to say

nothing of an entire nation’s

suffering; and

3. The redemption is for his people,

which would be odd if Israel was

in view, as the “people” would

also be interpreted as Israel,

which leads to the nonsense

interpretation that Israel’s sins

are transferred onto Israel.

We are left with the conclusion that an

individual is in view—one who comes

out of the nation of Israel, but is

distinguished by his faithfulness, in

contrast with the nation’s unbelief and

rejection of him. This individual is none

other than the Messiah—as both

Rabbinic sources and the New

Testament attest—and the only person

in history who matches the description

of the Messiah therein is Jesus of

Nazareth.89

If Jesus is the Messiah—and we

certainly see the Hebrew Bible pointing

that direction—then the implication is

that Judaism, in its rejection of Jesus,

has missed the boat. Its picture of

redemptive history is incomplete, at

best. Despite its high regard for the

Bible, it fails to see the trajectory of the

Biblical story and the One to whom it

points, which echoes what Jesus said to

the Pharisees 2,000 years ago: “You

search the Scriptures because you

think that in them you have eternal

life; and it is they that bear witness

89 If one is in doubt regarding this, try this

simple experiment: Write down Isaiah 53 on a

sheet of paper without writing down the

reference, and then show random people the

passage and ask them who they think it is

referring to. In doing this, I have found that

people—Jewish, Muslim, Atheist, etc.—almost

universally recognize that Jesus is being

described therein.

34

about me, yet you refuse to come to me

that you may have life” (John 5:39-40).

Islam: A Blurred Picture

If Judaism errs in presenting an

incomplete picture of redemptive

history, Islam errs in blurring the

picture that was received prior to it.

One must Islam in light of the Biblical

traditions that preceded it. Countless

volumes have been written on this

subject.90 Dr. Samir states that “there is

no need to demonstrate that there was

a Christian influence on the Qur’an, in

as much as this is apparent from the

90 Two very important books on this topic are

worth mentioning. First is Gabriel Said

Reynold’s The Qur’an in its Biblical Subtext

(New York: Routledge, 2010). The second book,

edited by the same author, is The Qur’an in Its

Historical Context (New York: Routledge,

2008). Both are part of the Routledge Studies in

the Qur’an (ed. Andrew Rippin).

evidence of a number of narratives.”91

To explain this, we must speak of

Islam’s articles of faith.

Page Pointers for the Reading of the Torah, as depicted in the image above. These page-

pointers are from El Transito Synagogue, Spain.

91 Samir Khalil Samir, “The Theological

Christian Influence on the Qur’an: A

Reflection,” The Qur’an in Its Historical

Context, ed. Gabriel Said Reynolds (New York:

Routledge, 2008), 161. Samir recognizes that

such an assertion is controversial amongst

Orthodox Muslims, noting that “the very

concept of influence is generally rejected by all

of traditional Islam. The Qur’an cannot be

subject to influences, since it comes directly

from God and is in no way a human work. If it

were a work attributable to Muhammad

himself, it could be subject to influences.

However, being a divine message brought

down upon Muhammad, there is no other

influence but that of God. By this fact alone the

very question that we raise is already excluded

by traditional Islamic thought” (Ibid., 141).

The Torah is the authoritative sacred text for the Jews

35

Orthodox Islam has five articles, which

are:

1. Belief in one God Who has

absolutely no associate with

Him in His divinity;

2. Belief in God’s Angels;

3. Belief in God’s Books, and

in the Holy Qur’an as His

Last Book

4. Belief in God’s Prophets,

and in Muhammad as His

Last and Final Messenger;

and

5. Belief in life after death.92

Articles 4 and 5 are of particular

interest. Islam professes to be the faith

of all the prophets, including those of

the Jewish and Christian traditions.

92 Sayyid Abu’l Ala Mawdudi, Towards

Understanding Islam (U.K.I.M. Dawah Centre,

1960), 70. Some sources include a sixth article:

Belief in Divine Predestination (Qadr).

However, the nature of predestination tends to

be a source of disagreement between Muslim

groups, especially between Sunni and Shi’i

Islam.

Muslims acknowledge as divinely

revealed the Torah (Tawrat), the

Psalms (Zabur) and the Gospel (Injil).

In addition, they hold that Muhammad

was the seal of the prophets, and the

Qur’an (which God revealed through

Muhammad) to be His final revelation.

This is reflected in the Qur’an’s own

assessment of itself:

“He has sent down upon you, the

Book in truth, confirming what was

before it [lit. ‘What is between his

hands’]. And He revealed the Torah

and the Gospel before, as guidance

for the people. And He revealed the

Qur'an. Indeed, those who disbelieve

in the verses of Allah will have a

severe punishment, and Allah is

exalted in Might, the Owner of

Retribution” (Q 3:3-4)93

By placing the Qur’an in the same

status as the Torah and Gospel, it is

argued that Muhammad belongs to that

prophetic continuity, and that the

prophets’ message finds its ultimate

fulfillment in the Qur’an.

This is where it gets problematic.

Many of the core teachings of the

93 Qur’anic references are from the Sahih

International translation.

11th-century North African Quran from the British Museum

36

Qur’an do not match those of the Bible.

For example, the Bible teaches the

divine sonship of Christ. Islam

vehemently denies such a relationship

and regards it as blasphemous:

“And they say, ‘The Most Merciful

has taken a son.’ You have done an

atrocious thing. The heavens

almost rupture therefrom and the

earth splits open and the

mountains collapse in devastation

that they attribute to the Most

Merciful a son. And it

is not appropriate for

the Most Merciful that

He should take a son.”

(Q 19:88-92).

The contrast is clearer

elsewhere: If we take the words in Q

112:3 that “He neither begets nor is

born” (Lam yalid wa lam yulad), we

find that they are the mirror opposite of

Isaiah 9:6, “to us a child is born” (Yeled

yulad lanu). The Qur’an even threatens

Christians with God’s destruction for

calling Jesus the Son of God (Q 5:72-73

and 9:30). Contrast this with Jesus

blessing Peter for affirming the same

(Matthew 16:17). The antithesis could

not be any clearer.

Another main area of contrast is in

the area of vicarious atonement. The

Torah clearly teaches the necessity of

atonement through the description of

the Yom Kippur festival (Leviticus 16).

The next chapter states that “the life of

a creature is in the blood, and I have

given it to you to make atonement for

yourselves on the altar; it is the blood

that makes atonement for one’s life”

(Leviticus 17:11). Moreover, the

prophets declared that the Messiah

would make atonement for sin (see

above discussion of Isaiah

53), which Jesus affirmed

when He said that “the Son

of Man did not come to be

served, but to serve, and to

give his life as a ransom for

many” (Mark 10:45). Islam

denies all this, arguing that Jesus did

not even die on the cross (Q 4:157).94

94 As Lawson points out, there is no unanimity among Muslim commentators on the interpretation of this passage. In fact, there are conflicting interpretations even until now. He states regarding 4:157: “Muslim teaching . . . on the life and ministry of Jesus is by no means consistent or monolithic. . . . there are numerous forces at work in various levels of the Islamic learned tradition that impinge upon the hermeneutic culture out of which doctrine may be thought to have arisen and endured. . . . any number of readers—Muslim or not—could read and have read the same verse without coming to this conclusion.” See Todd Lawson, The Crucifixion and the Qur’an: A Study in the History of Muslim Thought (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2009), 1-2. According to Lawson, the most likely interpretation is that Jesus did indeed die physically, but not spiritually. He states that

37

The problem for Muslims is how to

reconcile the Qur’an with the previous

scriptures. The classical argument of

Islamic polemicists is that the previous

scriptures were corrupted by the People

of the Book. Most of these books no

longer exist, while some (such as the

aforementioned three) remain extant in

a corrupted form. Abu’l Ala Mawdudi

summarizes the popular Muslim

viewpoint as such:

“The real death of a Prophet

consists not in his physical demise

but in the ending of the influence of

his teachings. The earlier Prophets

have died because their followers

have adulterated their teachings,

distorted their instructions, and

besmirched their life-examples by

attaching fictitious events to them.

Not one of the earlier books -

Torah, Zabur (Psalms of David),

Injil (Gospel of Jesus), for example

- exists today in its original text and

even the adherents of these books

confess that they do not possess the

original books. The life-histories of

the earlier Prophets have been so

“the semantic constitution of such a statement strongly points to a reading that would go well beyond the mundane realms of murder and physical death” (Ibid., 41.). Support for this interpretation comes from cross-referencing Q 4:157 with Q 2:154 and 3:169. This view is held to this day by the Isma’ili sect of Shi’ism.

mixed up with fiction that an

accurate and authentic account of

their lives has become impossible.

Their lives have become tales and

legends and no trustworthy record

is available anywhere. It cannot

even be said with certainty when

and where a certain Prophet was

born, how he lived and what code

of morality he gave to mankind.”95

Muslim polemicists claim that the

teaching that the Bible has been

corrupted is based on Qur’anic texts

that teach Tahrif (alteration). One such

text is Q 2:79: “Woe to those who write

the scripture with their own hands,

then say, ‘This is from Allah,’ in order

to exchange it for a small price. Woe to

them for what their hands have

written and woe to them for what they

earn.”

95 Mawdudi, Towards Understanding Islam,

42-43.

The Kaaba, in Mecca, Hejaz region, today's Saudi Arabia, is the center of Islam.

38

There are three problems with

interpreting this passage this way. First,

the verse is describing an isolated

incident. Q 2:75 states that only one

party of Jews is being described, and

that this is not universal. We know

from history that the Jews were

generally very careful in preserving

their text (eg. the Masoretes), so this

incident must be regarded as an

exception rather than the rule. Also, the

verse says nothing about Christians

being involved.96

Second, this verse is ambiguous on

what “book” the Jews are writing with

their own hands. While Muslim

polemicists identify this as the Torah, it

could just as easily be referring to

secondary Jewish writings such as the

Talmud (which Orthodox Jews regard

as being as authoritative as the Bible)

rather than the Torah.

Third, in Islamic theology, there are

two types of Tahrif: Tahrif al-Nass

(corruption of the actual text), and

Tahrif al-Mana (corruption of the

meaning only). All Qur’an verses that

96 We can also ask our hypothetical Muslim apologist why the Jews left such problematic passages as Psalm 22 or Isaiah 53 as they are. Given their value to Christianity, one would expect them to be scrubbed, if the Jews were in fact interested in corrupting the text to suit their ideas.

teach tahrif only teach the latter—the

interpretation is wrong but the text is

still intact. Furthermore, the earliest

Muslims historically held to Tahrif al-

Mana, but later generations began to

argue against Jews and Christians on

the basis of Tahrif al-Nass. For

example, Ibn Kathir, in his commentary

on Q 3:78, cites earlier commentators

Ibn Abbas and Ibn Munabbih (both

from the 8th century), to the effect that

nothing in the Bible has been changed:

“Al-Bukhari reported that Ibn

‘Abbas said that the Ayah means

they alter and add although none

among Allah's creation can

remove the Words of Allah from

His Books, they alter and distort

their apparent meanings. Wahb

bin Munabbih said, ‘The Tawrah

and the Injil remain as Allah

revealed them, and no letter in

them was removed. However, the

people misguide others by

addition and false interpretation,

relying on books that they wrote

themselves.”97

97 Isma’il b. Kathir, “The Jews Alter Allah’s

Words,” Quran Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Accessed 25

February 2015),

http://www.qtafsir.com/index.php?option=com

_content&task=view&id=525&Itemid=46#1

39

It is unclear when the shift from

claiming Tahrif al-Mana to Tahrif al-

Nass occurred. Dr. Nickel suggests that

this viewpoint came into vogue in the

11th century, when Ibn Hazm

popularized it for polemical purposes.

Prior to him, the textual integrity of the

Bible was taken for granted by most

Muslims.98 Nickel writes:

“[E]xegetes from the formative

period of Qur’anic commentary did

not in the first instance understand

the words of the Qur’an to mean

that the Jews and Christians had

falsified their scriptures. ... They

have little good to say about the

communities to whom God

entrusted his revelations in the

distant past, and even less good to

relate about those who did not

accept the claims of the messenger

of Islam. But the negative

evaluations of the ‘People of the

Book’ in the commentaries do not

generally attach to the revealed

books themselves.”99

Even after Ibn Hazm, many Muslims

continued to reject Tahrif al-Nass. For

instance, Muslim historian Ibn

98 Gordon Nickel, Narratives of Tampering in

the Earliest Commentaries on the Qur’an

(London: Brill Academic, 2011), 23. 99 Ibid., 13.

Khaldun (1332-1406) cites stories from

the Jewish scriptures in his

Muqaddimah, and then goes on to

defend the general authenticity of those

scriptures:

“Someone might come out

against this tradition with the

argument that it occurs only in

the Torah which, as is well

known, was altered by the Jews.

The reply to this argument

would be that the statement

concerning the alteration of the

Torah by the Jews is

unacceptable to thorough

scholars and cannot be

understood in its plain

meaning, since custom prevents

people who have a revealed

religion from dealing with the

divine scriptures in such a

manner.”100

More recently, Muslim scholar

Mahmoud Ayoub wrote concerning the

charge that the previous scriptures

were corrupted:

“Contrary to the general Islamic

view, the Qur'an does not accuse

100 Abu Zayd b. Khaldun, The Muqaddimah: An

Introduction to History, vol. I, trans. Franz

Rosenthal (Princeton University Press, 1967),

20.

40

Jews and Christians of altering the

text of their scriptures, but rather

of altering the truth which those

scriptures contain. The people do

this by concealing some of the

sacred texts, by misapplying their

precepts, or by “altering words

from their right position” (4:26;

5:13, 41; see also 2:75). However,

this refers more to interpretation

than to actual addition or deletion

of words from the sacred books.

The problem of alteration (tahrif)

needs further study.”101

Besides, the Qur’an states that it has

come to confirm “what is between his

hands” (Q 3:3 and 5:48).

This would not make

sense if the text at that

time had been altered,

since then the Qur’an

would be confirming a

corrupted text. The

Qur’an also states that God made Jesus’

disciples superior to the unbelievers

until the day of Resurrection (Q 3:52-55

and 61:14). It would not make sense if

their writings were corrupted or if

unbelievers successfully passed on their

own writings as those of Jesus’

101 Mahmoud Ayoub, “Uzayr in the Qur'an and

Muslim Tradition,” Studies in Islamic and

Judaic Traditions, eds. W. M. Brenner and S. D.

Rick. (The University of Denver, 1986), 5.

disciples, since that means the

unbelievers triumphed over them.

Finally, the ahadith state that

Muhammad treated the Torah

reverently (Sahih al-Bukhari 8:809 and

Sunan Abu-Dawud 4434).102 These

show that the charge of corruption

cannot be sustained against the Bible.

This charge comes from later medieval

Muslim polemics against Jews and

Christians, and cannot be substantiated

from the Qur’an or early Islamic

sources.

Thus, Islam has within it a fatal

contradiction: It affirms the divine

origin of the Bible, yet denies essential

teachings from the

Bible. The only

conclusion one could

draw is that Islam’s

claim to be in continuity

with God’s redemptive

story is invalid, which

also invalidates Muhammad’s

prophethood and the Qur’an’s status as

divine revelation.

Christianity: The Full Picture

Having seen the flaws in Judaism

and Islam, we are left with one of the

102 See Alex Kerimli’s article on this topic, “Allah, Muhammad, and the Torah,” found within this same publication.

41

remaining Abrahamic Faiths:

Christianity. The Christian faith sees

the story of the Bible as Redemptive

History,103 where God works to bring

an estranged humanity back to a right

relationship with Himself. This

Redemptive History can be seen as a

succession of covenants, beginning with

the Edenic Covenant and culminating

in the New Covenant. Between Adam

and Christ, there are four other

covenants, which God made with Noah,

Abraham, Moses and David,

respectively.

Each covenant builds upon each

other, clarifying each covenant that

came before it and sometimes fulfilling

their provisions. For example, the

Mosaic covenant contains provisions

for a monarchy, yet there was no

monarchy in Israel for another 400

years (Deut. 17:14-20). When a

monarchy is established, God takes the

house of David and promises to

establish their throne forever (2 Samuel

7). This is finally fulfilled in the New

103 The on “Redemptive History” in Theopedia states: “Redemptive history is a general term to describe the study of God's acts of redemption from creation to the present. Although a broad field of study, all of redemptive history can be said to climax and culminate in the Cross, encompassing Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.” (Accessed 26 February 2015), http://www.theopedia.com/Redemptive_history

Covenant, with Christ as the eternal

king.

The following scheme can be used

to remember the basic thrust of each

covenant:

1. Adam: The covenant of

commencement

2. Noah: The covenant of

preservation

3. Abraham: The covenant of

promise

4. Moses: The covenant of law

5. David: The covenant of the

kingdom

6. Christ: The covenant of

consummation104

Underlying all the covenants is a grand

narrative that connects them together.

Robertson notes: “Diversity indeed

exists in the various administrations of

God’s covenants. This diversity enriches

the wonder of God’s plan for his people.

But the diversity ultimately merges into

a single purpose overarching the

ages.”105

Different theologians have different

ways of explaining this grand narrative.

104 This scheme is provided by O. Palmer

Robertson in The Christ of the Covenants

(Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1980), 61. 105 Ibid.

42

In classical Protestant thought, the

unifying theme of the covenants is

called the “Covenant of Grace.” All the

biblical-historical covenants are

administrations within this Covenant of

Grace. It is so-called because its main

factor is God’s grace. All His dealings

with man under the Covenant of Grace

involve His gracious condescension to

us to save us and redeem us despite our

incapability to merit His favour. This

redemptive plan finds its fullest

expression in what Saint Paul calls “the

fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4), with

the coming of Jesus Christ, whose life,

death and resurrection form the

lynchpin of Redemptive History.

Much more can be said on this

matter, but I leave it to the reader to

explore the Biblical story for

themselves. To better understand its

narrative, I refer the reader to “The

Grand Narrative of History,” which

summarizes the story of the Bible.

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Brenner and S. D. Rick). The University of Denver, 1986.

b. Kathir, Isma’il. “The Jews Alter Allah’s Words.” Quran Tafsir Ibn Kathir. Accessed 25 February 2015.

http://www.qtafsir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=525&Itemid=46#1

b. Khaldun, Abu Zayd. The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, vol. I (trans. Franz Rosenthal). Princeton

University Press, 1967.

Frydland, Rachmiel. “The Rabbis' Dilemma: A Look at Isaiah 53.” Jews for Jesus. Accessed 25 February 2015.

http://www.jewsforjesus.org/publications/issues/v02-n05/isaiah53

Lawson, Todd. The Crucifixion and the Qur’an: A Study in the History of Muslim Thought. Oxford: Oneworld

Publications, 2009.

Levey, Samson H. The Messiah: an Aramaic Interpretation; the Messianic Exegesis of the Targum. Cincinnati: Hebrew

Union College Jewish Institute of Religion, 1974.

Jewish Virtual Library. “Jewish Concepts: Articles of Faith.” Jewish Virtual Library. Accessed 25 February 2015.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/articles_of_faith.html

3rd-century Greek Papyrus of the Gospel of Luke

43

Jewish Virtual Library. “Moses Maimonides (Rambam).” Jewish Virtual Library. Accessed 25 February 2015.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Maimonides.html

Mawdudi, Sayyid Abu’l Ala. Towards Understanding Islam. U.K.I.M. Dawah Centre, 1960.

Nickel, Gordon. Narratives of Tampering in the Earliest Commentaries on the Qur’an. London: Brill Academic, 2011.

Reynolds, Gabriel Said. The Qur’an and its Biblical Subtext (Routledge Studies in the Qur’an, ed. Andrew Rippin). New

York: Routledge, 2010.

Reynolds, Gabriel Said (ed.). The Qur’an in Its Historical Context (Routledge Studies in the Qur’an, ed. Andrew

Rippin). New York: Routledge, 2008.

Robertson, O. Palmer. The Christ of the Covenants. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1980.

Theopedia. “Redemptive History.” Theopedia. Accessed 26 February 2015.

http://www.theopedia.com/Redemptive_history

J. Luis Dizon

Bachelor of Arts in History and Near & Middle-Eastern

Civilizations

Luis Dizon is an associate apologist with Evangelium &

Apologia Ministries, and a University of Toronto graduate

with a Bachelors in History and Near & Middle-Eastern

Civilizations. Initially raised as a Roman Catholic, he became

an agnostic in his early teenage years. Ironically, it was due

to Richard Dawkin’s The God Delusion that led him to

inquire of the Christian faith and later become a devout Christian. Faithful to his

passion, Luis followed through with his studies on church history, systematic

theology, and apologetics. Presently, his specialization has primarily been focused on

cults and comparative studies between Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

44

45

By Alex Kerimli

One of the most important

questions in a conversation, between a

Muslim and a Christian, is the

following: “Is the Torah (Genesis,

Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and

Deuteronomy), as it exists today, the

uncorrupted Word of God?” In other

words, can we rely on the Torah for

accurate historical accounts of God’s

encounter with mankind?

As a matter of fact, any

conversation we may have with a

Muslim is eventually going to lead us to

square one – the topic of the Torah’s

reliability. No matter

what we are talking

about, it boils down to

this subject. It has

been my experience

that the best way to

save our time and

energy is to start the

dialogue with the question of the

Torah’s reliability. If we could come to a

logical and scriptural agreement, we

would make great progress in our

dialogue, and every subsequent topic

will have a solid foundation to stand

upon.

This question actually turns out to

have a very simple answer, especially

using Islamic literature and sources.

We start by asking “What does the

Qur’an say about the Torah?”

To answer this question, consider

the following Qur’anic verse:

O people of the Scripture (Jews

and Christians)! Now has come to

you Our Messenger (Muhammad)

explaining to you much

of that which you used

to hide from the

Scripture and pass over

(i.e. leaving out without

explaining) much.

Indeed, there has come

to you from Allah a light

(Prophet Muhammad) and a plain

Book (this Qur'an) (Q 5:15).106

106 All Qur’an citations are from the Muhammad

Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali and Muhammad Muhsin

Khan’s The Noble Qur’an: English Translation

of the meanings and commentary (Madinah,

46

Let us examine this verse. The word

“Scripture” is used here by Allah as a

positive term, while “People of the

Book” is used negatively. Allah is

condemning Jews and Christians in

being dishonest to the existing

Scriptures by hiding verses and

doctrines, and without explanation for

that matter. It could only mean that the

Scripture was still reliable in the days of

Muhammad (Now has come to you Our

Messenger explaining to you much of

that which you used to hide from the

Scripture) but people who read it were

not. Interestingly, these people did not

change the text at all, neither were they

condemned by Allah for even thinking

about it. The only option left for them is

to hide verses from Scripture. On top of

that, we read that Allah condemned

them in hiding much! A lot of doctrines

were against the common practice of

Jews in the days of Muhammad, and

according to Allah’s knowledge, Jews

did not change the written words of the

Torah, they simply ignored them.

The logical conclusion that could be

drawn from this verse is that the Jews

were guilty in hiding verses from the

text, not changing them.

K.S.A.: King Fahd Complex for the Pringing of

the Holy Qur’an).

Here we read another verse:

The likeness of those who were

entrusted with the (obligation of

the) Taurat (Torah) (i.e. to obey its

commandments and to practise its

laws), but who subsequently failed

in those (obligations), is as the

likeness of a donkey which carries

huge burdens of books (but

understands nothing from them).

How bad is the example of people

who deny the Ayat (proofs,

evidence, verses, signs,

revelations) of Allah. And Allah

guides not the people who are

Zalimun (polytheists, wrong-

doers, disbelievers). (Q 62:5)

Again, Allah is comparing the Jews

with an animal, carrying reliable books

on their back but not learning its

information. Nothing wrong with the

books, the fault lies with the Jews.

Here is another passage:

All food was lawful to the Children

of Israel, except what Israel made

unlawful for himself before the

Taurat (Torah) was revealed. Say

(O Muhammad): “Bring here the

Taurat (Torah) and recite it, if you

are truthful.” (Q 3:93).

47

Here we find important information

being revealed to Muhammad, that he

should judge the sayings and the

practices of the Jews given relevant

findings in the Torah.

In another passage, Allah goes even

further by suggesting that Jews must

follow not only the Qur’an but also the

Torah and the Gospel. In saying this,

Allah places all three books on the same

shelf of authority!

Say (O Muhammad) "O people of

the Scripture (Jews and

Christians)! You have nothing (as

regards guidance) till you act

according to the Taurat (Torah),

the Injeel (Gospel), and what has

(now) been sent down to you from

your Lord (the Qur'an)." Verily,

that which has been sent down to

you (Muhammad) from your Lord

increases in most of them (their)

obstinate rebellion and disbelief.

So be not sorrowful over the people

who disbelieve. (Q 5:68).

I have listed 6 Qur’anic verses where

Allah is making a series of important

statements regarding the Torah and the

Injil. Keep in mind that “Allah” never

said that the Qur’an came to correct the

Torah; on the contrary, Allah said that

he sent the Qur’an to confirm the Torah

in the days of Muhammad. We read the

following:

O Children of Israel! ...And believe

in what I have sent down (this

Qur'an), confirming that which is

with you, [the Taurat (Torah) and

the Injeel (Gospel)], and be not the

first to disbelieve therein, and buy

[get] not with My Verses [the

Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel

(Gospel)] a small price (i.e. getting

a small gain by selling My Verses),

and fear Me and Me Alone. (Tafsir

At-Tabari). (Q 2:40-41).

And when there came to them (the

Jews), a Book (this Qur'an) from

Allah confirming what is with

them [the Taurat (Torah) and the

Injeel (Gospel)], although

aforetime they had invoked Allah

(for coming of Muhammad) in

order to gain victory over those

who disbelieved, then when there

came to them that which they had

recognized, they disbelieved in it.

So let the Curse of Allah be on the

disbelievers (Q 2:89).

And when it is said to them (the

Jews), "Believe in what Allah has

sent down," they say, "We believe

48

in what was sent down to us." And

they disbelieve in that which came

after it, while it is the truth

confirming what is with them. Say

(O Muhammad) to them: "Why

then have you killed the Prophets

of Allah aforetime, if you indeed

have been believers?" (Q 2:91)

And when there came to them a

Messenger from Allah (i.e.

Muhammad) confirming what was

with them, a party of those who

were given the Scripture threw

away the Book of Allah behind

their backs as if they did not know!

(Q 2:101)

O you who have been given the

Scripture (Jews and Christians)!

Believe in what We have revealed

(to Muhammad) confirming what

is (already) with you... (Q 4:47)

O you who have been given the

Scripture (Jews and Christians)!

Believe in what We have revealed

(to Muhammad) confirming what

is (already) with you, before We

efface faces (by making them like

the back of necks; without nose,

mouth) and turn them hindwards,

or curse them as We cursed the

Sabbath-breakers. And the

Commandment of Allah is always

executed (Q 4:47).

We now examine one last passage from

the Qur’an. Here we find that Allah

makes a statement unthinkable to the

minds of modern-day Muslims:

But how do they come to you for

decision while they have the

Taurat (Torah), in which is the

(plain) Decision of Allah; yet even

after that, they turn away. For

they are not (really) believers. (Q

5:43)

The implication of this verse is

essential! Allah is making the statement

that the Jews had the Torah in their

hands, in the days of Muhammad, and

that it was the reliable, unchanged

Jewish Torah Scroll

49

word of God. The Sirat Rasul Allah (the

biography of Muhammad) has the

following to say when regarding

Muhammad’s attitude towards the

Torah:

Once, Muadh asked some Jewish

rabbis about a subject mentioned

in the Torah, but they refused to

answer him about it. So Allah

revealed the verse, 'Those who

conceal what We have sent down,

after We have made it plain, will

be cursed by Allah.

‘…On another occasion the apostle

entered a Jewish school and

invited those who were present to

Allah. They asked, 'What is your

religion, Muhammad?' and he

replied, 'The religion of Abraham.'

They said, 'Abraham was a Jew.'

Then the apostle told them, 'Bring

the Torah and let that judge

between me and you', but they

refused.107

Muhammad had no problem with using

the Torah as an ultimate judge between

him and the Jews. This reveals his

complete confidence in the Torah.

107 Muhammad b. Ishaq, “Sirat Rasoul Allah,”

Faith Freedom (Accessed 8 March 2015),

http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/sira/09.

htm.

We can also read the Hadith (the

sayings of Muhammad):

A group of Jews came and invited

the Apostle of Allah to Quff. So he

visited them in their school. They

said: AbulQasim, one of our men

has committed fornication with a

woman; so pronounce judgment

upon them. They placed a cushion

for the Apostle of Allah who sat on

it and said: Bring the Torah. It

was then brought. He then

withdrew the cushion from

beneath him and placed the Torah

on it saying: I believe in thee and

in Him Who revealed thee (Sunan

Abu Dawud 8:4434).108

What Muhammad did was something

that not many Muslims today would

ever do: he swore on the Torah,

declaring that the entire Torah Scroll

(not bits and pieces) came from God.

As we can see in this Hadith,

Mohammed never condemned the

written Torah. He only condemned the

wrong interpretation of the Torah by

the Jews. In these examples, we can see

Muhammad calling the Torah to

108 For the full quotation, including the original

Arabic text, see “Prescribed Punishments (Kitab

Al-Hudud).” Sunnah.com (accessed 8 March

2015) http://sunnah.com/abudawud/40.

50

witness against the Jews and their

practices. Clearly, the true original

Torah was present and available during

his lifetime.

Apart from the verses of the Qur’an,

the Hadith and the Sira we have

tangible evidence of the unchanged

Torah in the form of the Dead Sea

Scrolls (DSS). Through the DSS,

Christians and Jews have archeological

proof that the Torah, at the time of

Jesus and Muhammad, was virtually

the same as we now have them.

Here are few very important facts

concerning the Dead Sea Scrolls:

“Of 930 scrolls, about 207 are

biblical manuscripts that represent

every book in the Hebrew Bible

except one: Esther. There are also

numerous apocryphal manuscript.

...Some of the Biblical Dead Sea

Scrolls are almost 1000 years older

than the oldest known copies of the

Hebrew Bible.”109

109 Royal Ontario Museum, Dead Sea Scrolls:

Words that Changed the World (Toronto, ON:

Royal Ontario Museum, 2009), 14-15.

Consider also the description provided

of the DSS manuscript of Genesis:

“The book of Genesis, the first book

of the biblical canon, recounting

the story of the creation of the

universe and introducing the

ancestors of the Israelite people.

Approximately 20 manuscripts of

the book of Genesis were uncovered

in the Dead Sea Scroll caves. This

scroll contains some of the oldest

fragments of Genesis discovered

among the Dead sea scrolls, and is

one of only two manuscripts of

Genesis that also contain portions

of the book of Exodus. The copies

of Genesis among the Dead Sea

Scrolls are extremely similar to the

traditional Hebrew text.”110

Unless anyone had physical evidence

that the Torah was changed at any

given point in time, it would be arguing

from silence, and no one would have

the authority to state otherwise.

Muslims must agree that the Torah that

existed before Jesus, at the time of

Jesus, and during the life of

Mohammad, is the same as what we

have today.

110 Royal Ontario Museum, Dead Sea Scrolls:

Words that Changed the World, 18.

51

Bibliography

Abu Dawud, Sulayman. “Prescribed Punishments (Kitab Al-Hudud).” Sunnah.com. accessed 8 March 2015.

http://sunnah.com/abudawud/40.

Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad. “Sirat Rasoul Allah.” Faith Freedom. Accessed 8 March 2015.

http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/sira/09.htm.

Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali and Muhammad Muhsin Khan. The Noble Qur’an: English Translation of the

Meanings and Commentary. Madinah, K.S.A.: King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur’an, n.d.

Royal Ontario Museum, Dead Sea Scrolls: Words that Changed the World. Toronto, ON: Royal Ontario Museum, 2009.

Alex Kerimli

Alex Kerimli is a fellow of Evangelium & Apologia Ministries,

operating as an adjunct associate apologist. He specializes in

Islamic studies, participated in Muslim-Christian debates,

and has led various apologetic workshops on witnessing to the

Islamic community. He is author of the book Qur’an-Bible

Comparison and the booklet Muhammad was Right, using

his pen name Ami Ben-Chanan. Alex also sets up a book-table

at Dundas Square, the busiest street corner of the City of

Toronto, to engage in multi-faith discussions, dialogues and witnessing

opportunities.

52

By George Simopoulos

Suffering is the unavoidable lot of

everyone born on planet earth. It is an

unavoidable human experience

common in all times and places. It is a

feature inextricably melded with what it

means to be a human being, and it

unites us all in painful bafflement as to

how we can live in a world filled with so

much good, yet wrought with so much

evil. Every worldview and

religion attempts to deal

with the problem of

suffering and evil, usually

giving these realities central

importance or consideration

– indeed, it is said by today’s

New Atheists that suffering

is a cause of religion, since

many of the common tenants

shared by differing religions are simply

ways to cope with suffering. One

religion that sticks out from the rest, in

discussions about suffering, is

Buddhism. We oftentimes focus so

intently on the beliefs of our secular

friends that we forget that in our

country a variety of various beliefs are

held to, of which, Buddhism is a

popular choice. It is often said that

Buddhism is neurotically obsessed with

the realities of pain and suffering in the

world, that their primary teaching is to

forget about the world and escape

reality, or that they are mystical beyond

comprehension. There is enough

evidence to see why many view

Buddhism in this light, but this

conclusion is misrepresentative of the

Buddhist worldview as a

whole. Buddhism is a well

thought-through system that

attempts to be “[aware] of

suffering without any

pretense or deception about

it.”111 Trying to navigate the

Buddhist view of suffering

without engaging with the

multitudinous schools of

thought that debate such matters is

perhaps impossible, but granting that

there are some essential beliefs that

make the Buddhist worldview capable

of being argued over, these beliefs can

be explained and deconstructed in a

way that reveals the incoherency of the

worldview as a whole. Central to the

111 Bowker, J. (1970). Problems of suffering in religions of the world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 237

Buddha Statue, 4th Century C.E. in

Sarnath, India

53

system of Buddhism, regardless of what

school of thought, are what are

commonly referred to as The Four

Noble Truths, which are propositional

statements regarding the nature of

suffering. It is based on them that

Buddhist thought finds its power to

explain evil’s place in the world.

Standing in contrast to Christianity,

Buddhism attempts to find the solution

to suffering, not from outside of us in a

saviour, but from within. This

inevitably leads the Christian to a

natural curiosity as to how suffering

can be understood and solved without

the power of God bringing it about.

Going through the Buddhist doctrine of

suffering juxtaposed to Biblical

revelation, we will see that where

Buddhism fails to account for evil &

suffering in a coherent way,

Christianity appropriately frames and

solves the problem.

Suffering in the Life of the

Buddha

Buddha is often misunderstood to

be the name of the historical figure,

Siddhartha Gautama, an Indian prince

from the 5th century BC. In actuality,

Buddha is a term meaning “awake” or

“enlightened,” which is an intentional

contrast to the state of being asleep or

dim. This is in reference to the event in

Siddhartha Gautama’s life when after

being asked if he was a god, he

responded “No. I am awake

(Buddha).”112 There is perhaps no

better word to describe the Buddhist

worldview than “awake” when it

chooses to identify itself.113 It is plain

that the unfolding plot of Siddhartha’s

life is about being awoken to the reality

of suffering and death in the world, and

one man’s attempt to honestly wrestle

with this question.

Siddhartha Gautama grew up as a

prince of the Sakya tribe of Nepal,

modern day India. While Siddhartha

was a baby, the legend goes that his

father went to a Hindu seer to inquire

into the future of his son. To his

dismay, he was told that Siddhartha

would grow up to become an influential

leader but also a wandering beggar.

This prompted the king to take

measures to ensure that his son would

112 What does "Buddha" mean? (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://www.tealchemy.org/where/buddha/index.html 113 Christianity is actually similar in that the name Christ (Christos) is not necessarily referring to Jesus but is a term in the Greek used to describe the Hebrew idea of the saviour, known in the Hebrew as the messiah (mashiach). What is important to note is that while Buddhists describe their identity in terms of the process of awaking to suffering, Christians describes their identity in terms of how suffering has been remedied; namely through a sinless saviour that suffers in our place.

54

experience no pain, or even knowledge

of it, in an effort to prevent this

prophecy from coming true. Growing

up with his father in an opulent palace,

Siddhartha was kept entirely ignorant

concerning the reality of suffering and

death. He was both privileged and

pampered, but expressed that he felt

shackled. The story suggests that

Siddhartha Gautama understood what

suffering was when he was nine years

old at a spring time ploughing festival.

There he saw his father put the plough

to the ground, rip the dirt from the

ground, and pull out worms which the

birds came down to feast upon. This

experience showed him that in nature,

there is death. The most influential

encounter, without a doubt, was when

Siddhartha finally had permission from

his father to leave the palace and see

how common folk in his territory lived.

His father reluctantly agreed but

secretly attempted to control the

conditions of Siddhartha’s excursion

into the outside world. His plan failed

when two old men snuck onto the pre-

determined and prepared road,

showing the prince the ravages of what

extreme age looks like. Continuing

onwards in his expedition, Siddhartha

encountered sick people and saw a

corpse on the ground. These

experiences prompted Siddhartha to

ask his attendants, “Is this the only

dead man, or does the world contain

other instances?”114

After being awoken to the reality of

suffering and death in the world,

Siddhartha Gautama began to seek the

source of this suffering. At first he

attempted to escape suffering through

self-denial, as was customary in Hindu

asceticism. After six arduous years of

wandering as a begging monk,

Siddhartha determined that he would

either get the answer he was looking for

or starve himself trying. While

meditating under the famous Bodhi

(fig) tree, Siddhartha passed out from

exhaustion and claimed to have

discovered a secret to the universe that

unlocked enlightenment, the state in

which people are no longer caught in

the cycle of suffering. He claimed that

he witnessed an infinite span of lives

that he had lived both in the past and in

the future, and awoke to find that

desire had been extinguished within

him. The doctrine which emerged from

this experience would be named the

Middle Path (majjhimā paṭipadā),

which is a summation of the Eight Fold

Path (ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo), a

series of ethical principles that aid in

114 Guinness, O. (2005). Unspeakable: Facing up to evil in an age of genocide and terror. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco. 116-118

55

attaining this state of enlightenment.115

In order to be on this Middle Path, the

Buddha taught that one must

understand the truth about suffering in

what is called the Four Noble Truths.

The Four Noble Truths: Suffering

is Existence

The first Noble Truth and most

important doctrine in Buddhism is that

all of existence is suffering (Dukkha).

All of life, as we experience it in the

temporal world, is caught up in an

uncontrollable stream of cause-and-

effect that bind all living things to

desires rooted in a universe constantly

changing.116 At one moment you are

content lying in the arms

of your beloved spouse and

in the next moment you

are weeping uncontrollably

at their untimely death.

Entrenched in Buddha’s

notion of suffering were

not only tragedies like the

one mentioned, but daily

difficulties as well such as

physical pain, mental

anguish, anxiety, and even a lack of

115 O'Brien, B. (n.d.). What Is Buddhism? An Introduction to Buddhism. Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://buddhism.about.com/od/basicbuddhistteachings/a/basicshub.htm 116 Bowker, J. 255

satisfaction for the things you fail to do.

At the core of this central teaching is

the notion that life is saturated in

unpleasant realities – it is the norm

rather than the exception. The Buddhist

preacher, Piyadassi Maha Thera,

remarks that: “To the Buddha the

entire teaching is just the

understanding of dukkha, the

unsatisfactory nature of all phenomenal

existence, and the understanding of the

way out of this unsatisfactoriness.”117

Contained within this doctrine is

the belief that an individual’s existence

is not a solid rock being moved by the

stream of cause and effect, but is itself

an indistinguishable component of the

stream, along with

everything else in the world.

So, just like the plant cannot

help but grow and be eaten,

an individual experiences

pleasure and pain as part of

the ebb and flow of what it

means to be a human being,

and also an indistinguishable

component of the system.118

The fundamental difference

between the plant that grows and is

117 THERA, P. (n.d.). The Buddha's Ancient Path. Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://www.dhammatalks.net/Books3/Piyadassi_Thera_The_Buddhas_Ancient_Path.htm#CHAPTER203 118 Bowker, J. 244

Siddhartha’s venture to the outside world

56

eaten and the man that loves and

mourns is that the man has the ability

to become aware of the shifting nature

of the stream of causation and can

modify the process somewhat. He may

not be able to change the stream, but he

can learn to ride it. Buddha’s teaching,

ultimately, was to point out how one

could be released from this otherwise

unbreakable chain of events and

achieve self-awareness concerning this

deterministic universe. In Buddhism,

life is just a series of events, and death

takes its place in this series as a

stepping stone to the next event.

Following death you are reborn with a

new consciousness as another thing, be

it human, animal or plant, which is

determined by the amount of good or

bad you have done in the past.119 The

problem that Buddha points out is not

suffering per se, but desire, which is the

vehicle for both pleasure and pain.120

Trying to cling onto something in a

stream of constant change would be like

trying to touch the same piece of water

in a stream twice.121 In fact, longing to

cling to something valuable in the

stream, like love or family, is known as

Tanha, the epitome of human delusion.

It is trying to live as if death and

119 Zacharias, R. (2001). The lotus and the cross: Jesus talks with Buddha. Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah. 23 120 Bowker, J. 245 121 Ibid., 250

separation were not an inescapable part

of the stream. Interestingly, when the

doctrine of Dukkha is fleshed out, we

discover that the problem facing

Buddhism is not the evil in the world,

but the good.

There is no notion of heaven or hell

in Buddhist thought. When faced with

the prospect of either, Buddha rejected

both and posited a state of being known

as Nirvana. It is not the place of

comfort, joy, or closeness with God. It

is merely the cessation of change.122 It

is also described as Parinibanna,

meaning “completely extinct” or

“oblivion”. When one has become

totally divested of any semblance of

self, they become one with this system

of causation and are no longer being

controlled by it. However, to do this,

one would have to follow The Middle

Path (also known as The Eight Fold

Path): having a right outlook, right

resolves, right speech, right acts, right

livelihood, right endeavour, right

mindfulness, and right rapture of

concentration.123 After maintaining a

lifestyle of devotion to these eight

principles, one is able to reach

Nirvana.

122 Groothuis, D. (2011). Christian apologetics: A comprehensive case for biblical faith. Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic ;. 385 123 Groothuis, D. 256

57

It seems as if this whole

process is self-gratifying,

like one who serves God

only to get to heaven upon

death; it raises the question

of why a Buddhist should

help anyone, which was

something that Buddha

himself asked when he became

enlightened. The reason for

propagating Buddhism is perhaps the

most disturbing from a Christian point

of view. The one on the path to

enlightenment, known as the

Bodhisattva, takes a vow to postpone

his/her enlightenment in order to save

the world by teaching others the

doctrines of Buddhism. The language of

the vow goes so far as to say that the

Bodhisattva brings salvation to others

by his/her suffering: “Better that I

alone should be in pain than that all the

beings should fall into a state of woe”

(Sikshasamuccaya, 280 trans. Conze).

From the Buddhist point of view, there

is no one saviour of the world. There

are many. Bringing people to the state

of Nirvana does not happen by

addressing the source of suffering and

making efforts to change the world. It

happens by teaching others to empty

themselves of desire and individuality

in order to escape the world.

Christian Critique

It is no surprise that many in a

secular culture find Buddhism

appealing. It strengthens the

foundation of a non-theistic

worldview by providing an

ancient example of something

similar to philosophic naturalism; the

worldview that believes that everything

that can possibly exist is only found in

the closed system of the universe. Since

Buddhism also provides a therapeutic

outlet for coping in such a cold

universe, it also makes sense that

secularists would find Buddhist

meditation useful in overcoming

modern stress. Considering that both

naturalism and Buddhism see the world

as deterministic and wrought with

suffering, this raises a weighty question

for the Christian, “Does the Buddhist

account of suffering comport with

reality in a coherent and satisfying

way?”

The first indictment against the

Buddhist worldview is simple. How

does one know if it is true? According to

Buddhist doctrine, the truth is

discovered through introspection rather

than from an external self-

authenticating authority. Since that is

central to the entire framework, one

Dharmacakra, the Buddha's teaching of the

path to Nirvana

58

would have to grant a priori (at the

outset) that truth is obtained this way.

Even granting this, there is no possible

way that one can falsify any belief that

can be fabricated in the mind of an

individual because there is no standard

outside the individual that holds other

individuals accountable to its claims,

which one could appeal to in matters of

disagreement. I remember talking to a

friend that was exploring Buddhism

who once said that he believed that he

was the reincarnation of the Roman

Emperor, Constantine. I was not

convinced to say the least, but my

hesitancy to accept his royal lineage did

not sway him. If truth comes from

within, how can one discern the truth

from delusions? There is a major

authority problem in Buddhism that

one does not find in Christianity. In

Christianity, scripture provides a

standard from which reason locates its

source. Given that scripture is God’s

self-disclosed revelation concerning

himself, his creation and his purposes,

the bible can be a suitable final

authority that one could appeal to in

order to make sense of reality.

The second criticism is much like

the first. Why should one grant a priori

that the universe simply ‘is’ one of

cause and effect. There is no essential

reason as to why the universe should be

cause and effect in the first place. In the

Buddhist account of reality, if water

boils at 100 degrees today, there is no

reason to believe that it should boil at

100 degrees tomorrow since the

universe is constantly in flux with no

foundation for an intelligible or

uniform universe. The uniformity of

nature is something that has to be

explained in every worldview. In the

biblical worldview, we have the

assurance that based on God’s

immutable nature and the fact that he

has created us to know and have

dominion over the world, he would

uphold the universe in a consistent

fashion as he says in Genesis 8:22. Greg

Bahnsen puts it fittingly when he says,

“God’s knowledge is primary, and

whatever man is to know can only be

based upon a reception of what God has

originally and ultimately known. Man

must think God’s thoughts after Him,

for ‘in Thy light shall we see light’

(Psalm 36:9).” 124 Since God has spoken

concerning humanity and nature, we

can have the assurance that our minds

are capable of grasping the information

being relayed to us through nature.

Buddhist doctrine does not even

124 Greg L. Bahnsen. (n.d.). Always Ready: Directions for Defending the Faith.

59

attempt to answer this fundamental

question of epistemology.

While the first two criticisms relate

to the Buddhist worldview generally,

the third problem concerns the

unanswered question of why human

beings are hardwired to crave things

that cause suffering and prevent them

from achieving the optimal state. Again,

there is no reason why this proposition

should be granted a priori, but it is

evoked without qualification as a brute

fact of the universe. If Buddhism were

true it would mean that deeply held

common sense intuitions are not only

false, but dangerously delusional. At the

very best, our intuitions can give us no

reliable information concerning what is

good for us. The intuition that drinking

is an appropriate response to thirst

could be a dangerous delusion

preventing us from achieving some

higher reality if you consistently

applied this form of argumentation.

Buddha taught his disciples to provide

nourishment for their bodies, but what

if he is preventing them from achieving

an even higher form of enlightenment

by dying of dehydration? Buddha was

proven wrong by his disciples when

they convinced him to permit women to

learn the doctrines of Buddhism, so by

his own admission he is not a final

authority on matters of truth.125

Depriving yourself of water to the point

of death in order to achieve a higher

existence is certainly absurd, and

Buddhists would agree, but claiming

that all desire is delusional sounds just

as absurd to the not-initiated, which

makes one wonder how a Buddhist can

condemn one absurd belief while

affirming another. In the Christian

worldview, this is not the case.

Cornelius Van Til summarizes this

viewpoint aptly, saying, “The light of

nature” shines only by reflected light…

The light of Scripture is that superior

light which lightens every other

light.”126 Because we have God’s self-

disclosure in scripture, we can vindicate

what nature and intuition reveals since

God created mankind in his own image

with desires (Genesis 1:26), that when

used appropriately correspond to the

good that God designed for us to enjoy

(Psalm 37:4).

The next criticism relates to

Buddhist morality. Moral imperatives,

such as you shall not kill or you shall

love others, assume that there is a

moral dimension to existence that is

rooted in the goodness of some things

125 Zacharias, R. 44 126 Van Til, C., & Edgar, W. (2003). Christian apologetics (2nd ed.). The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company: Phillipsburg, NJ.

60

and the badness of other things.

Buddhism teaches that all distinctions

that we make up are illusions that

deceive us from the fact that everything

is made up of and part of a whole.

However, since there is only a cosmic

oneness with no mind or purpose, this

would mean that good and evil are the

same thing since they are both features

of a mindless and deterministic

universe. Categories of good and bad,

and virtue and vice deteriorate into

artificial distinctions that hide the fact

that the universe just is this way.

However, as David Hume pointed out,

we cannot derive an ought (morality)

from an is (facts). One might say that a

murder has taken place as 123

Imagination Street, but it takes moral

evaluation based on distinctions of

what is good and bad to say that it was

wrong. Buddhism eradicates those

necessary distinctions and makes

morality impossible. It is no surprise

then that Buddha’s solution was to

escape reality, instead of remedying the

problem of evil. The Christian

worldview comes down definitively on

the issue of morality. God has created

all things (Genesis 1:1), is the owner of

all things (Psalm 24:1), is the very

standard of goodness by his very nature

(Psalm 145:17), and he judges the world

based on his standard of goodness

(Psalm 98:9). God has written his law

on the hearts of every person (Romans

2:15), meaning that they are morally

culpable for any violation of their

conscience and they are accountable to

him when they break his law. Simply

put, there is no escaping the

unequivocal presence of morality in the

Christian worldview.

The final criticism against the

Buddhist account of suffering is

perhaps the most pressing indictment

against the Buddhist worldview as a

whole. Where other religions attempt to

solve the problem of evil by

understanding it in light of other

factors, Buddhism avoids the problem

by denying that there is someone that

suffers. Since all distinctions in the

Buddhist worldview are merely

illusions, there are no individuals to

suffer; only conscious parts of the

cosmic oneness. The practical

implication of the belief that suffering

is an unavoidable feature of the

universe is that there is no impetus to

alter this state of affairs. One only has

Prince Siddhartha shaves his hair and becomes an ascetic, 8th Century, Borobudur

61

to entertain such a notion to see why

the Buddhist account of the world is so

utterly unsavory. Imagine a young girl

who had been raped and sought

comfort from a Buddhist priest. If the

monk was being consistent with his

presuppositions, all he could say is that

she was a conscious element of the

universe that had to endure suffering

because the suffering had to go

somewhere since it is a necessary part

of the world. The Christian worldview

provides no room for such an

indifferent stance towards suffering

because evil and suffering are the very

reasons Jesus died on the cross. The sin

of the first man, Adam, being in a

covenant relationship with God, had an

obligation to obey every law or face the

penalty of death. When Adam sinned

against God, God had every right to

bring the punishment he had promised.

However, God in his love and mercy

decided to commute man’s death

penalty and provide a substitute that

would pay for man’s sin. God entered

into creation in the person of Jesus

Christ, lived the perfect life Adam was

meant to live, and died the death man

was supposed to die, so that by his

death the guilt and power of sin could

be removed. By placing our trust in

Jesus, God promises an everlasting

kingdom free from suffering and death

(Revelation 21:4) while he

simultaneously promises to remedy

every wrong committed (2

Thessalonians 1:6). This is the good

news that remedies evil and suffering in

the world, and it is news that is

forward-looking to a hope that

Buddhism cannot offer. When taking

into consideration the incoherencies

described in the Buddhist worldview,

and its inability to solve the problem of

suffering, the Christian worldview

comes out even brighter as the only

explanation and solution to suffering

and evil.

Bibliography

Bowker, J. (1970). Problems of suffering in religions of the world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ESV: English standard version. (ESV text ed.). (2007). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Bibles. Groothuis, D. (2011). Christian apologetics: A comprehensive case for biblical faith. Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic ;. Guinness, O. (2005). Unspeakable: Facing up to evil in an age of genocide and terror. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco. O'Brien, B. (n.d.). What Is Buddhism? An Introduction to Buddhism. Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://buddhism.about.com/od/basicbuddhistteachings/a/basicshub.htm

62

THERA, P. (n.d.). The Buddha's Ancient Path. Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://www.dhammatalks.net/Books3/Piyadassi_Thera_The_Buddhas_Ancient_Path.htm#CHAPTER 3 What does "buddha" mean? (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://tealchemy.org/where/buddha/index.html Zacharias, R. (2001). The lotus and the cross: Jesus talks with Buddha. Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah.

George O. Simopoulos

Bachelor of Arts in Political Science & Ethics, Society & Law

George Simopoulos is an associate apologist with Evangelium

& Apologia Ministries. As a University of Toronto graduate, he

serves as an intern with Power to Change at the UofT

downtown campus. Having joined E&AM in 2014, George is

now an itinerant speaker and contributes to the ministry

through intensive research and education.

63

By J. Luis Dizon

Have you ever read a good story?

We all have certain stories that we

gravitate towards, and they may take

the form of romance, science-fiction,

action, or some other genre of

literature. Most of the stories that we

read have a rather predictable plot to

them, and those who study literature

can readily identify what those parts of

the narrative are (we generally refer to

them as the exposition, rising action,

climax, falling action and denouement,

or resolution).

What most of us are less aware of,

however, is that we are living in a story

of our own. The story that we are living

in is nothing less than the grand

narrative of history. In our postmodern

times, the idea of a grand narrative

underlying all of history is looked upon

with much suspicion. Some will say that

to claim such a narrative is to impose

one’s views upon everyone else. And yet

we cannot escape doing this. Even

those who deny the existence of a grand

narrative end up creating their own

narratives and imposing them upon

others. The question then, is not

whether there can be a grand

narrative—for such a concept is

inevitable to anyone who thinks

seriously about life—but whether any

given narrative can truly explain human

history.

This is where God enters into the

picture. God is the great storyteller who

created the universe and arranged all of

history into what can be said to be the

greatest story ever told. In fact, this

story has become the example that

many others have tried to copy in their

own stories, because its elements are

central to the very core of our being.

God has revealed the structure of this

story in His word, the Bible. While the

story is complex and has many

complexities and side-stories woven

into it, the general plot outline is clear.

One can divide the grand narrative of

history as found in the Bible into the

following four sections:

1. Creation

2. Fall

3. Redemption

4. Restoration

64

We will look at each of these four

sections in turn. As my exposition of

the story is a meager substitute for

reading the story yourself, I invite you

to take a Bible and read through the

sections that are to be mentioned and

explained.

Creation

In the beginning, there was

nothing. Matter and energy did not

exist. Only God did. Then God created

everything. According to Genesis (the

first book of the Bible),

God accomplished his

creation in six days.

Whether these are literal

twenty-four hour days or

represent longer periods

of time is of secondary

importance here, as the

important thing to highlight is how He

did not have to take any existing

material to bring everything about, for

there was none. Instead, He spoke the

word “Let there be!”, and His very word

brought everything that exists into

being. And God looked at everything

that he made, and said that it was good

(Genesis 1). In so doing, God affirms

that despite all the problems that have

come into this world, it is still

fundamentally a good creation.

Of all of God’s creations, however,

none was more majestic than humanity.

God created human beings in His own

image, thereby making them higher

than all of the plants and animals that

had been placed on this earth. He then

gave humanity the responsibility of

taking dominion over all of creation

(Genesis 1:26-28). All of human

civilization comes from this task of

taking dominion, as we shape the

created world around us in ways that

reflect the artistry of our own Maker.

Furthermore, God created

human beings into male

and female. Saying that it

is not good for a man to

be alone, God took a rib

out of the side of the first

man, and from it, He

fashioned the first woman

(Genesis 2:18-22). When the man saw

the woman for the first time, he

exclaimed,

“This at last is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman,

because she was taken out of Man.”

(Genesis 2:23)127

127 All scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version.

65

This was the first marriage in

human history, and became the basis

for every other marriage that been

formed ever since. The very act of

creating humanity as male and female

reflects the fact that God is a relational

being. Although God is one, He speaks

with the first person plural, “Let us

make man in our image, after our

likeness” (Genesis 1:26). This indicates

that there is plurality within God’s

being, and this enables Him to have

relationship within Himself. In the

same way, this same relational nature is

passed on to human beings, and is

expressed in the most intimate way

through the love relationship that exists

between husband and wife.

So the first man, Adam, and the

first woman, Eve, lived in the Garden of

Eden, where they lived an idyllic life.

God commanded that they could eat

from any of the trees found in the

garden, except for the Tree of the

Knowledge of Good and Evil. The

moment they eat from that tree, they

would die (Genesis 2:17-18). This

seemed like a simple enough

instruction, and if they kept it, they

would have life. But this was not to be.

The Fall

Alas, it did not remain as it was in

the beginning. You see, God created an

angel by the name of Lucifer to be the

greatest of His angels. Yet this angel

rebelled against God, causing him to be

cast out of heaven (Isaiah 14:12-15).

From then on, he came to be known as

Satan. Then, in the form of a serpent,

he came into the Garden of Eden. He

tempted Eve, asking her: “Did God

actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any

tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1).

In so doing, Satan accomplished

two things: First, he cast doubt into the

truthfulness of God’s words, by asking

whether God really said them. The

second thing is that he twisted God’s

words into something other than what

God actually said. Notice that the

serpent does not ask whether only the

Tree of Knowledge was forbidden, but

any tree. All subsequent attempts by

Satan to undermine God’s authority

essentially boil down to casting doubt

either upon the truthfulness or the

clarity of God’s revealed instructions,

following the line established in the

Garden.

In reply to the serpent, Eve said,

“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in

66

the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not

eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the

midst of the garden, neither shall you

touch it, lest you die.’” To this, the

serpent replied, “You will not surely

die. For God knows that when you eat

of it your eyes will be opened, and you

will be like God, knowing good and

evil” (Genesis 3:2-5). The remainder of

the story is fairly straightforward and

well known: Eve took the serpent’s

word, and ate the fruit

from the tree. She also

gave some to Adam, who

also ate the fruit.

Adam and Eve did not

physically die there and

then. However, they did

experience spiritual death,

and in the process, also

brought the inevitability of physical

death upon both themselves and

everything else. Because at this point,

sin had entered into the world. Sin is

not just the individual actions that

Adam and Eve and their descendants

have committed, but is something that

permeates the very nature of humanity

from that point onwards. For this

reason, King David would proclaim

later on in writing that “I was brought

forth in iniquity, and in sin did my

mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5).

Another result of this is the entry of

shame into human life. We see this by

how Adam and Eve react to their

nakedness. You see, they were created

naked, but felt no shame about this

(Genesis 2:24). When sin enters the

picture, however, they experience

shame for the first time, so they cover

themselves with fig leaves (Genesis

3:7). They also tried to hide from God,

but they could not.

What happens next is the

first instance of blame-

shifting: God questioned

Adam as to whether he had

eaten from the Tree of

Knowledge. Adam shifts the

blame to his wife, saying “The

woman whom you gave to

be with me, she gave me

fruit of the tree, and I ate.” In so doing,

Adam managed to blame both his wife

for tempting him, and God for giving

him his wife to begin with. Then God

questions Eve, who shifts the blame to

the serpent, saying “The serpent

deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12-

13).

What follows is a string of curses

that plague humanity as a result of this

disobedience. I will not repeat them

here, but one can read about them in

William Blake, Temptation and Fall of Eve, 1808

67

the historical (not poetic) narrative

(Genesis 3:14-19). Interestingly, in the

midst of these courses, God says to the

serpent, “I will put enmity between you

and the woman, and between your

offspring and her offspring; he shall

bruise your head, and you shall bruise

his heel” (Genesis 3:15). In so doing,

God gives what is seen as the first hint

of the Gospel (good news). This will be

shown in its fullness later on, but only

after many thousands of years of toil

and death which has loomed over

humanity.

From this point on, we see things

heading steadily downwards. First,

Adam and Eve are banished from the

Garden of Eden. Then, after they have

their first two sons, Cain and Abel, Cain

slaughters Abel, thereby becoming the

first murderer (Genesis 4). More

children are produced, but they and

their descendants becoming

increasingly wicked, to the point that

God has to wipe everyone out in a great

flood and start anew, because it is

written that God “saw that the

wickedness of man was great in the

earth, and that every intention of the

thoughts of his heart was only evil

continually” (Genesis 6:4). God started

everything anew with Noah and his

sons, who were spared from the flood,

but the cycle of human sin continues.

Things would continue to spiral

downward, as Satan had intended, but

God already had a plan.

Redemption

The drama of human history is a

continuous cycle of humans attempting

to build themselves up, only to find

themselves stretched to their limits and

cast down by their own sinful pride.

This is exemplified in the story of the

Tower of Babel, where God confuses the

languages of the people and scatter

them throughout the earth (Genesis 11).

Even after being scattered, people

continue to assert themselves against

one another, creating empires, going to

war against others and subduing them

in tyranny and oppression.

In the midst of this, God called

upon one man, Abraham, to leave his

home city of Ur in Mesopotamia

(modern day Iraq). God said to

Abraham:

“Go from your country and your

kindred and your father’s house to

the land that I will show you. I will

make of you a great nation, and I

will bless you and make your name

great, so that you will be a

68

blessing. I will bless those who

bless you, and him who dishonours

you I will curse, and in you all the

families of the earth shall be

blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3).

Abraham obediently followed God until

they reached Canaan (modern day

Palestine). There, God made a covenant

with Abraham. This is just one of many

covenants that God makes with various

people throughout history. A covenant

is basically an agreement, whereby God

promises to His people that He would

do something for them. God’s people

are then expected to respond in faith to

His promises. Here, God promises to

Abraham that he would have

descendants who would inherit the land

of Canaan, and out of this nation would

come blessings for all the nations. This

seemed impossible at the time because

Abraham and his wife were already too

old to have children. But

God allows them to have a

son, Isaac. After Isaac

comes Jacob, and after

Jacob come the twelve

sons, who would become

the twelve tribes of the

nation of Israel.

Note that both Isaac and Jacob had

brothers. Isaac had Ishmael as a

brother, and Jacob had Esau as a

brother. Both times, God made a choice

to work through one son and not the

other, and both times, God chose the

younger son even though pride of place

was traditionally granted to the older

son. This was to show that God is

sovereign over all of humanity, and

predestines whomever He wills to

whatever ending He deems fit (Romans

9:6-18). This is to show that as Creator,

God has supreme right over His

creation, and that nobody can force His

hand in anything He does, saying that

what He does is unjust (Daniel 4:35).

That being said, we see that God

takes Jacob and his sons, and creates a

nation out of them. This nation of Israel

goes to Egypt to escape a famine, where

they remain for 400 years. They

become slaves to the Egyptians, until

God raises up Moses as a prophet to

lead Israel out of Egypt to

Mount Sinai. There, God

establishes another

covenant with the people.

In this covenant, God

declares that His people are

to be “a kingdom of priests

and a holy nation” (Exodus

19:6). He gives them a

Torah (Law), which would govern all of

their lives so that they would be holy

69

and pleasing to God, and so that they

would become an example for all the

other nations to emulate (Deuteronomy

4:6-8).

Also, God included with this

covenant a plan for a sacrificial system.

Because sin was such a serious matter

to God, he commanded that animals

would be sacrifices to make atonement

for the sins of the people. This is

because the Torah, it is written: “For

the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I

have given it for you on the altar to

make atonement for your souls, for it is

the blood that makes atonement by the

life” (Leviticus 17:11). The most

important of these sacrifices was during

Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement),

where the Israelite high priest would

sprinkle blood on the altar in their

temple so that God’s wrath would not

come down upon the people for their

sins (Leviticus 16). This will become

important later on, when God brings

about the final, perfect sacrifice for the

purification of sins once and for all.

Why is such a bloody system

necessary? It is because God is a holy

and just God. He cannot simply allow

guilt and sin to go unpaid for, or else

He would contradict His own holiness

and justice. So that sin must be paid for

either by having the sinner condemned

or offering a blood sacrifice to avert

God’s wrath. The blood signifies how

serious sin is in God’s eyes. Yet the

sacrifices were not perfect, which is why

they had to be performed repeatedly

every year. This is where we get the

term “scapegoat,” where the sins of the

people are transferred to the sacrificed

animal (human sacrifice was an

abomination in the eyes of the Lord).

When the nation of Israel settles in

Canaan, they establish a monarchy with

the royal family of David ruling over

them. With King David, God makes yet

another covenant. This time, God

would promise that David’s

descendants would sit on the throne

forever (2 Samuel 7). The kingdom then

divides into two, with David’s

descendants ruling over the southern

portion. Eventually, the northern

kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrian

Empire, and the southern kingdom was

destroyed by the Babylonian Empire.

Through it all, God continued to

preserve David’s dynasty, until we

arrive at the time of Jesus, who is the

last in this royal line.

At this point, you wonder why

people make such a big deal about the

person of Jesus. You see, all of human

70

history finds its climax in the life and

work of Jesus. He is the Messiah

(anointed one), whose arrival is

predicted in the writings of the

prophets who came hundreds of years

before Him. Their predictions about the

Messiah are so precise that nothing

other than the divine plan of God could

explain how they could have been

fulfilled in all their details. To see this

in action, read the prophecy in Isaiah

53 and compare them with the life of

Jesus as found in the New Testament.

The parallels will be very striking.

Jesus, you might recognize, is no

ordinary human being. In fact, the

prologue to the Gospel according to

John calls Him the very Word of God,

who shares God’s very nature, is

inseparable from Him and is the same

Word that God used to create

everything (John 1:1-18). In a great act

that can only be described as “divine

condescension,” He entered into the

world in human form, being born of the

Virgin Mary in Bethlehem. Jesus lived

among the people in Palestine,

performing miracles and teaching the

people about the Kingdom of God. He

obeyed the Law of God perfectly, never

once breaking it throughout His life,

thereby being the one person in all of

history that can be described as sinless

(1 Peter 2:22).

One of the most enigmatic

statements made by Jesus is the

declaration that He would be killed,

and that He would then rise again from

the grave. He makes this declaration

many times throughout His ministry.

Interestingly, He connects this to the

sacrificial system of the Torah when He

said, “For even the Son of Man came

not to be served but to serve, and to

give his life as a ransom for many”

(Mark 10:45). This was eventually

fulfilled when the Jews and the Romans

occupying Palestine at the time

conspired together to capture Jesus.

After several mock trials, He is nailed to

a cross in Golgotha, outside of the city

of Jerusalem. There He cried, “It is

finished,” before finally dying (John

19:30). After this, the curtain hiding the

holiest part of the temple split in two

(Matthew 27:51). These signify that the

sacrificial system of the temple was no

Gustave Dore, Crucifixion of Jesus 1832-1883

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longer needed, as a final and perfect

sacrifice had been offered for sin, and

that those who are atoned for by this

sacrifice now have direct access to God

by faith.

Jesus’ death was the most

scandalous evil act devised by men in

history, and yet God demonstrated His

power by taking this evil act and

causing the greatest good to come out

of it. Here, the promise that Eve’s

offspring would bruise the serpent’s

heel is fulfilled (Genesis 3:15), and here

we find that sacrificial system of the

Sinai Covenant reaches its completion,

just as the prophets predicted (Isaiah

53). This is redemption accomplished

for those who believe and are covered

by the sacrifice, that they would be

forgiven by God of all their sins and

adopted by God as His children. But

this is not the end of the story.

Restoration

Although Jesus died on the cross,

He did not remain dead. He was buried

in a tomb for three days. After that, the

door of the tomb split open, and Jesus

emerged alive, never to die again. This

is what is known as His Resurrection.

After this, He appeared to His followers

to prove it. It is written that “He

presented himself alive to them after

his suffering by many proofs,

appearing to them during forty days

and speaking about the kingdom of

God” (Acts 1:3). These disciples write in

their letters that they were eyewitnesses

to all of this (John 21:24, 2 Peter 1:16-

18, 1 John 1:1-5). His resurrection is

attested to by many witnesses, who

gladly came to believe in him. This even

included some people who were

previously suspicious, such as Saul of

Tarsus (later named by God as Paul).

Paul hated this good news and thought

it was all garbage. He even tried to have

those who believed in Jesus arrested.

But then Jesus himself appeared to

Paul and showed him the error of his

ways. Paul wrote on the importance of

Jesus’ coming back to life, stating,

But in fact Christ has been raised

from the dead, the firstfruits of

those who have fallen asleep. For

as by a man came death, by a man

has come also the resurrection of

the dead. For as in Adam all die, so

also in Christ shall all be made

alive (1 Corinthians 15:20-22).

Many people in these modern times

might find the idea of a dead person

coming back to life as something

fantastic and unbelievable. Those who

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do, however, need to think this over: If

God is at work here, are not all things

possible with him? Also, note that there

were many people who saw Jesus alive

and who previously could not believe it

either. And when they saw him, their

lives were changed! Many of them were

even willing to die at the hands of their

persecutors for his sake. They could

never have done this had they not

known for certain that their Saviour

had risen from the dead.

The importance of Jesus’

Resurrection lies in the fact that it

points to our own Resurrection. There

will be a Resurrection in the end of the

age where everyone, good and evil, will

stand before God to be judged. The

prophet Daniel describes this event this

way: “And many of those who sleep in

the dust of the earth shall awake, some

to everlasting life, and some to shame

and everlasting contempt” (Daniel

12:2). The difference here is between

those who have had their sins cleansed

by the sacrifice of Christ, and those who

have rejected Christ and therefore must

pay for their own sins with eternal

death.

All of this is connected to the New

Covenant, which is the latest of God’s

covenants with humanity, and is the

completion of all the covenants that

came before it. This covenant was

prophesied about hundreds of years

beforehand (Jeremiah 31:31-34), and

with Jesus’ arrival, it has finally been

inaugurated. In this New Covenant, the

covenant made by God with Abraham

to bless all the nations through his

descendant is fulfilled. Also fulfilled

here are the demands of perfect

obedience and atonement for sin

demanded by the covenant made with

Moses. Also, after Jesus ascended into

Heaven, he was seated at the right hand

of God the Father, to rule eternally on

David’s throne from there, fulfilling the

covenant made with David. From

henceforth until the end of time, the

New Covenant is the paradigm by

which God relates to believers.

The final part of the story, however,

is yet to come. At present, the Kingdom

of God is at work in the world. Jesus

described it as a mustard seed, that

begins as the tiniest of seeds, but grows

into a great big shrub once it is fully

grown (Matthew 13:31-32). In the same

way, we see the expansion of the

Kingdom of God in history, as it

spreads from Palestine to the rest of the

world. It is destined to fill the whole

earth, reversing the effects of the Fall

and bringing all nations under itself in

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the process (Daniel 2:31-45), which will

result in the end of wars and of

ignorance about God (Isaiah 2:1-4,

Habakkuk 2:14). And

at the end of the age,

Jesus will return, and

He will judge every

person who has ever

lived. This great event

is described in the

book of Revelation

(the last book of the

Bible) as such:

Then I saw a great

white throne and

him who was seated on it. From

his presence earth and sky fled

away, and no place was found for

them. And I saw the dead, great

and small, standing before the

throne, and books were opened.

Then another book was opened,

which is the book of life. And the

dead were judged by what was

written in the books, according to

what they had done. And the sea

gave up the dead who were in it,

Death and Hades gave up the dead

who were in them, and they were

judged, each one of them,

according to what they had done.

Then Death and Hades were

thrown into the lake of fire. This is

the second death, the lake of fire.

And if anyone’s name was not

found written in the book of life, he

was thrown into the

lake of fire (Revelation

20:11-15).

After this, the old world

system with its

corruptions will have

been replaced by a new

heavens and a new

earth, whose description

can be found in

Revelation 21. Here, the

children of God will

dwell in everlasting peace and

prosperity. There will be no sin and no

death, and the sorrows of the present

age will be a thing of the past. This is

the inheritance that God is preparing

for those who trust in Him and in the

work of Jesus Christ.

The Grand Narrative and You

After hearing this story, you might

think, “Well, that is a very interesting

story, but what does this have to do

with me?” The answer is that it has

everything to do with you. You see, God

demands a response from every

individual. Nobody can be neutral. We

can either accept the grand narrative of

William Blake, The Day of Judgment, Printed 1808

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history as presented to us in the Bible

as truth, or we can reject it as false.

When you come before God on the

last day, you can come to Him either as

one of His forgiven, adopted children,

cleansed of all sin by the sacrifice of

Christ, or you can come to Him as a

condemned sinner who has broken

God’s Law and must bear the full

weight of responsibility for those sins.

If we measure ourselves by the

standard of God’s Law, as summarized

in the Ten Commandments, we all fall

short (Romans 3:23). We all lie, steal or

blaspheme God’s name at some point in

our lives. And even if we don’t break all

of the laws, we have to deal with the

fact that to break one law is to break

them all: “whoever keeps the whole law

but fails in one point has become

accountable for all of it” (James 2:10).

Because of this, the only way we can be

acquitted before God is if we are

covered by the atoning work of Jesus.

As it is written elsewhere in the Bible:

“For the wages of sin is death, but the

free gift of God is eternal life in Christ

Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

The difference between these two

categories is a matter of faith. Faith is

not just nodding to a statement and

saying it is true. Faith is defined by

trust. One trusts that God’s provision

for forgiveness of sins through the

sacrifice of Christ is sufficient, and that

we need not add anything to that. This

does not mean we can live our life

however we want. What this does

mean, however, is that God puts His

Holy Spirit in believers, so that they

would have a changed heart and be able

to live out their faith in obedience to

God’s Law (Ezekiel 36:25-27). This only

comes after one is already forgiven by

God, however. It cannot come before

forgiveness, and it certainly cannot be a

requirement for forgiveness.

These are the two ways to live: The

life of faith, resulting in forgiveness, a

renewed heart and hope for the future,

and a life of disbelief, resulting in

condemnation, entrapment in sin, and

despair for the future. Remember that

your choice in this life will affect you for

all eternity. So don’t delay. After all, as

scripture says: “How shall we escape if

we neglect such a great salvation?”

(Hebrews 2:3).

“You have made us for yourself, O

Lord, and our hearts are restless

until they find their rest in You.”

– St. Augustine of Hippo128

128 Augustine, Confessions, I:1.

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Tower of Babel

by Bodie Hodge

Study the real-life event of the Tower of Babel and its impact

today. In today's culture, the battle over Genesis 1-11 is raging

on. One of the key battle points is the account of the Tower of

Babel in Genesis 11. Many today, even within the church,

attack this account as mythology or that it has little to no

value in history and needs to be reinterpreted. Do their claims

stand up? You can find your copy of Tower of Babel at your

local bookstore, or online through Master Books, a

subdivision of New Leaf Publishing Group.

Earth’s Catastrophic Past, Volumes 1 & 2

by Andrew A. Snelling

Step-by-step, Dr. Snelling examines evolutionary

interpretations of the geologic record and deconstructs the

misplaced assumptions and conclusions on which those

interpretations are based. By the end of Earth's Catastrophic

Past, readers will have their faith restored in Genesis as real,

literal history, and be convinced that the scientific evidence,

correctly discerned and applied, is indeed consistent with

God's record of our origins and history found in Genesis 1-11. You can find your copy of

Earth’s Catastrophic Past online through Master Books, a subdivision of New Leaf

Publishing Group.

Frozen in Time

by Michael Oard

The Ice Age is one of the most difficult eras in geological

history for a uniformitarian scientist to explain. What would

cause the summer temperatures of the northern United States

and Europe to plummet over 50 degrees Fahrenheit? Why did

mammoths become extinct, not only in Siberia, but also across

the earth, and at the same time as many other large mammals?

Find the plausible explanations of the seemingly unsolvable

mysteries about the Ice Age and the woolly mammoths in this

book. You can find your copy of Frozen in Time online through

Master Books, a subdivision of New Leaf Publishing Group.

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Comparing the Qur’an and the Bible

by Rick Richter

Engagement with the Muslim world and Muslim people is

inevitable for Christians. After all, Islam is the fastest-growing

religion in the United States. But what does the Qur'an really

say about things like Jesus, war, and non-Muslims? What

does the Bible say on these matters? "Comparing the Qur'an

and the Bible "offers readers an unprecedented collection of

Scriptures and doctrines of both faiths presented side by side

for easy study and comparison. You can find your copy of

Comparing the Qur’an and the Bible at your local bookstore,

or online through Baker Books, a subdivision of Baker

Publishing Group.

Qur’an-Bible Comparison

by Ami Ben-Chanan

As one of the biggest and most rapidly growing religions, the

Islamic faith attracts a lot of attention and debates. The last

sixty years have been witness to innumerable conflicts

between Muslims and Jews, and Muslims and the western

world (notably Christians). Many famous people have

accepted Islam, and increasing numbers of westerners are

becoming Muslims every year. The Qur'an-Bible Comparison

is a compendium that provides much needed facts to fully

explore the questions of Islam. You can find your copy of

Qur’an-Bible Comparison online through Amazon.ca

What Every Christian Needs to Know about the

Qur’an

by James R. White

What used to be an exotic religion of people halfway around

the world is now the belief system of people living across the

street. Through fair, contextual use of the Qur'an as the

primary source text, apologist James R. White presents

Islamic beliefs about Christ, salvation, the Trinity, the afterlife,

and other important topics. White shows how the sacred text

of Islam differs from the teachings of the Bible in order to help

Christians engage in open, honest discussions with Muslims.

You can find your copy of What Every Christian Needs to

Know about the Qur’an at your local bookstore, or online through Bethany House

Publishers, a subdivision of Baker Publishing Group.

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Searching for Truth

by Joe Boot

Many people ignore or reject Christianity, not because they

have looked at its claims and found them lacking, but because

nobody has ever given reasonable answers for their questions.

Others have simply never heard a clear explanation of the

truth of Christianity, or maybe they know little or nothing

about the Bible. Beginning with a basic understanding of the

world, Joe Boot explains the biblical worldview, giving special

attention to the life and claims of Jesus Christ. He wrestles

with common questions about suffering, truth, morality and

guilt. You can find your copy of Searching for Truth online at

www.ezrainstitute.ca or Amazon.ca

Jesus Among other Gods

by Ravi Zacharias

In a world with so many religions, why Jesus? We are living in

a time when you can believe anything, as long as you do not

claim it to be true. In the name of "tolerance," our postmodern

culture embraces everything from Eastern mysticism to New

Age spirituality. But as Ravi Zacharias points out, such

unquestioning acceptance of all things spiritual is absurd. All

religions, plainly and simply, cannot be true. Jesus Among

Other Gods provides the answers to the most fundamental

claims about Christianity, such as: “Aren't all religions

fundamentally the same?”, “Was Jesus who He claimed to

be?”, “Can one study the life of Christ and demonstrate conclusively that He was and is the

way, the truth, and the life?” You can find your copy of Jesus Among other Gods at your

local bookstore, or online through Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Burning Questions

by RZIM

There are Burning Questions, the answers to which

have profound implications because they effect so many

other areas of life: for instance, whether or not life has

meaning, purpose or hope. Yet, too often, attempts to

talk about these questions are marred by a clash of

fundamentalisms, by extremists (religious or secular)

simply yelling or trying to outsmart each other.

Is there a better way to have discourse on these questions that really do matter? Join Dr.

Andy Bannister as he tries to do just that—journeying across three countries—talking to a

wide range of experts—people of all faiths and none—in search of clarity. You can find

your copy of Burning Questions at www.booksforchrist.com

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Soul Keeping

by John Ortberg

When is the last time you thought about the state of your soul?

The health of your soul isn't just a matter of saved or unsaved.

It's the hinge on which the rest of your life hangs. It's the

difference between deep, satisfied spirituality and a restless,

dispassionate faith. In an age of materialism and consumerism

that tries to buy its way to happiness, many souls are starved

and unhealthy, unsatisfied by false promises of status and

wealth. With characteristic insight and an accessible story-

filled approach, Ortberg brings practicality and relevance to

one of Christianity's most mysterious and neglected topics.

You can find your copy of Soul Keeping at your local bookstore or online through

Zondervan.

Why I Still Believe

by Joe Boot

In Why I Still Believe, apologist Joe Boot provides a readable

introduction to presuppositional apologetics for the average

layperson. This approach assumes that the Christian and non-

Christian come to the discussion of faith with worldviews –

sets of presuppositions – that are miles apart, so that there is

little common ground on which to build an objective argument

of rational proof. In this conversational survey of his own

intellectual and spiritual journey, Boot invites the non-believer

to step inside the Christian worldview to see whether or not it

makes sense.

Jubilee

by EICC

The EICC periodically publishes a journal called Jubilee which

seeks to equip, train and resource believers for credible

Christian engagement with today’s cultural, religious and

philosophical challenges. EICC also provides a collection of

scholarly and yet accessible topical articles to assist both

ministry leaders and the lay apologist. You can view a digital

version or subscribe for your free hardcopy of Jubilee at

www.ezrainstitute.ca

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