The Middle East Problem

Jesus Of Testimony (Must See Documentary!)

This documentary has scholars like Gary Habermas and Richard Bauckham, fascinating and worth watching.



Jesus is Lord to the Glory of God the Father

Yahweh's justice vs Allah's deceit

I would like to express my disagree with several Christians who believe that we should not object to Allah's scheming because there is supposedly Old or New Testament parallels.

Firstly, one Christian "Minoria" accuses Shamoun, Wood and Rogers of never addressing these objections.

Just to make a correction, Sam has addressed these objections, some places include:

http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/does_god_deceive.html

http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/q_2cor4_4.html

http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/allah_best_deceiver.html

http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/allah_deceiver.html

http://answering-islam.org/authors/shamoun/abu_bakr_fear.html

I am pretty sure they also addressed them on ABN forecasts.

As Sam told me this is comparing apples and oranges.

Personally I disagree with Denis Giron and James White (if they personally choose not to use this exact objection). More on this in a minute.

But firstly I think it's inappropriate and  incorrect to infer that James White is calling Sam Shamoun "dishonest" like Snow has speculated. First he could just ring up Dr. White directly and ask him and record it for everyone and secondly if you read the quote more carefully here is what it says:
"This text is often cited as evidence of some kind of dishonesty on Allah’s part, but THE HONEST RECOGNIZES that just as God sent a lying spirit into the mouths of false prophets as a means by which He brought just punishment on those who rebelled against Him (1 Kings 22:23), and JUST AS the New Testament warns those who refuse to love the truth will be caused to love a lie (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11), THIS TEXT COULD WELL BE SAYING that when people scheme against Allah and His ways, they will find Allah significantly better at that activity than they are.” (Page 114)."
The most convincing answer is in the immediate context of 3:54, the scheming is only applied to the disbelieving enemies of Jesus. So indeed the honest reader does recognize the text could well be read this way, but the more precise question is: does it have to be read this way in context with the overall Quranic theology?

The answer is simply: no

The Islamic Tradition and Gospel of Barnabas point out that a group of believers were deceived by the crucifixion, they believe Jesus really died and later was raised. In other words not merely disbelievers who were punished, but believers who were tricked and duped by Allah into thinking their own prophet and Messiah had died and later when they saw him and therefore concluded he was resurrected, as Allah or the Son of Allah.

But Shamoun expounds on more of the differences in his articles. And I will agree with Shamoun and Wood, until Minoria can demonstrate an exact parallel. Also take into account that White is only commenting on 3:54 as it appears in this context, and not the entire Quranic depiction of Allah's scheming, so he could well be agreeing with Shamoun, outside of this immediate context. I agree with White that nothing in the immediate context suggests Allah's scheming is applied to anyone other than the enemies of Jesus, and even goes so far as to say Allah caused Jesus to die and raise and vindicated Jesus. But that doesn't tell us the over-all Quranic theology. And secondly if you take the view that 3:55 does not refer to Jesus death, then we may not conclude that Allah has vindicated Jesus from his enemies false charges, including the one that they had killed him! (4:157).