A Rabbinic
and
Messianic Jew dispute
in Ashdod over the
need of a Mediator - the Rabbi, like the Sadducees of
old, takes
the Hellenic position,
dating back to
Antiochus' campaign to uproot Biblical Judaism and to
Alexandria's
syncretistic influences, not
the
Torah's (D'vrim/Deut
18 v.15-18).
Not
for
the first time, Rabbinic Jews of
all
traditional persuasions and Muslims share common ground in
their
hostility to the revealed truth of God's Word,
both in the Tenach (the Jewish Bible) and in the New
Testament,
explicitly foretold by the Tenach (Jer.31.31-4, Mal.3.1).
Superficially the argument appears highly plausible, the
worship of
great men is a common and dangerous idolatry.
Just as Abu Bakr had to remind Muslims that the death of
their prophet
didn't mean the death of Islam, so Joshua too needed to
rally and
encourage the people at the death of Moses, not to look to
their
lawgiver, but the vastly superior greatness of the God Who
gave him.
It is common snare in almost any great religious movement,
even
orthodox and wholesome ones for leaders to serve as idols.
So it is easy to lazily and casually fall into the same
assumption
about our approach to the Messiah. Yet it requires a
profound and
lethal denial of the theological roots of both Jewish and
Muslim
theology to take this position, as it is easy to
demonstrate.
Here is an exemplary statement of the Quranic position and
many others
like it can be found:
قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ
تَعَالَوْا
إِلَىٰ كَلِمَةٍ سَوَاءٍ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ أَلَّا
نَعْبُدَ إِلَّا
اللَّهَ وَلَا نُشْرِكَ بِهِ شَيْئًا وَلَا يَتَّخِذَ
بَعْضُنَا بَعْضًا
أَرْبَابًا مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ ۚ
فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَقُولُوا اشْهَدُوا بِأَنَّا مُسْلِمُونَ ٣:٦٤
Say: "O People of the Book!
come
to common terms as between us and you: That we worship none but
Allah;
that we associate no partners with him; that we erect not, from
among
ourselves, Lords and patrons other than Allah." If then they
turn back,
say ye: "Bear witness that we (at least) are Muslims (bowing to
Allah's
Will).
Here is the
same
position as expressed by the anti-messianic Jewish sage
Maimonides:
Principle
II. The unity of God
I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His
Name, is
One (Yochid=solitary, not the Biblical Echad=One
in
Unity),
and that there is no unity in any manner like His, and that He
alone is
our God, who was, and is, and will be.
Contemporary
Rabbinic
Jewish authors often draw from this principle the conclusion
that the worship of Messiah is the worship of a separate
deity, and
therefore condemned not only by this principle, but also by
the first
of the ten commands. Yisroel Chaim Blumenthal for example writes, 'The clear message
of
scripture precludes worship of a being that was not revealed
to us at
Sinai. It is on this basis that the Jewish people cannot
accept a
teaching which deifies a human being.' (p.7). His caution is
justified,
it is a principal characteristic of AntiChrist that, 'shall
he [not]
regard the God of his fathers,' and promote himself as Deity
(Dan.11.36-7,
2
Thess.2.3-4).
The key issue
and one
which
has vexed both Muslim and Jewish scholars is that of the
relation of
God to His uncreated Word. This is neither a game nor a
semantic trick
but a
fundamental challenge for those who have uncritically
assimilated the
early anti-anthropomorphic and later
neo-Platonic
claim that God's essence is simple and wholly
uncompounded - this
bid’a (heretical innovation) lies at the root both of the Tauhid and earlier still at the
foundation of
post-Messianic Rabbinic doctrine, from which so much of
Islam is
derived. This position draws threads from the Hellenised
theology of
the Essenes and the Sadducees, paradoxically tainted despite
their
fierce determination for independence of mind and spirit.
To put the argument more pointedly, Who actually did
speak to
Moses at the burning bush? Who was it Who said, 'I AM that I
AM'?
Who identified Himself as the only Redeemer and Saviour of
Israel? Who
was it Moses recognised and worshipped there?
The rabbi writes, 'The
scriptures
declare openly and unequivocally that God has no form (Isaiah
40:17, 25)
and that no representation of Him
is to be worshiped (Deuteronomy
4:15).
There is no way that one can say that the Christian doctrine
is a
consistent scriptural theme.' However close examination of
the texts
does not confirm this claim at all. God most certainly does have an ineffable
form (Exod.33.20-3,
John
5.37, Phil.2.6)
to
deny this is reminiscent of pagan neo-Platonism,
it is dangerously close to atheism and quite divorced from
God's Truth.
'This produced reality is an Ideal form — for certainly
nothing
springing from the Supreme can
be less — and it is not a particular form but the form of
all, beside
which there is no other; it follows
that The
First
must be without form, and, if without form, then it is no
Being; Being
must have
some
definition
and therefore be limited; but the First cannot be thought
of as having
definition
and
limit, for
thus it would be not the Source but the particular item
indicated by
the definition
assigned
to it.
If all things belong to the produced, which of them can be
thought of
as the Supreme?
Not included among them, this can be described only as
transcending
them: but they are Being and
the Beings; it therefore transcends Being.' Plotinus 5th
Ennead, 5th
tractate.
What He absolutely forbids is the making of images
or
likenesses that degrade and defile His glory - He
alone retains
the prerogative of revealing His image.
This page remains in construction.
