The Testament of the Holy Spirit
This leads us to the 1,400-year-old conflict between the Jews, Christians and the Muslims. While through the Old Testament I have laid a foundation for a bond between Judaism and Islam through the story of Joseph and Judah, but the New Testament must also have its place in the equation for all things to be made complete. While Islam at least accepts the prophets of Judaism and Christianity, Christianity has been unable or unwilling to find any common ground between its faith and that of Islam. For Christianity to align with Islam it must testify of the Trinity, the birth, death, and resurrection of the Son of God. It must have faith not only in the promises of God, but also must be in alignment with its fulfillment.
Yet it does testify of all these things and more, just not as a person but as a people. Consider, in several places throughout the Old Testament the Son of God is referenced not as a person, but a people. For instance, in Jeremiah 31:9 God states I am Israel’s father, and Ephraim is my first-born son. Hosea 11:1 God again states, When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. Exodus 4:22, say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son.’ In this since Islam represents Israel being born again in that the nation of Israel died in their sin worshipping idols but was reborn Muslim when they threw their idols away and began to worship God alone. After all Israel means the one who fights with God[1] while Muslim means the servant of God. Christ in like manner was the rebirth of the Davidic Line. A line that also died in the Old Testament through their sin but was born again through Jesus the Christ. Like Christ their conception began with Gabriel’s testimony, which is the Quran. Like Christ they were sold by their brother Judas from the money in the Temple. Even in modern terms are they not still being betrayed by Judas? Are they not being led to the cross by the Gentiles based on Judas’s testimony?
Hebrews 11:17-19 states, By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had sworn to him, It is through Isaac’s descendants that your name will be reckoned. Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.” As a nation, culture, and people Israel died, while as a culture and people Judah lived. The question comes down to this, do you believe in the resurrection of the dead? Seeing that Israel is the Son of God as testified over and over again, do you believe in the resurrection of the Son of God? Or why would one credit the resurrection to the people or person who betrayed the Son of God? With this in mind consider John 3:18, Whoever believes in the Son is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. To apply this verse to Christ alone neglects its fullness within the greater context of scripture.
I want to submit the argument that the faith that enables eternal life is to believe that God raised His Son Israel from the dead. In this alignment the faith of Abraham to believe the son he put on the alter would resurrect to become many nations and a people like the stars of the sky and the belief that Jesus escaped death and rose again are not two different promises, but one and the same promise. Both are a proclamation that the Son of God would conquer the grave. But to have that faith first must begin with an acknowledgment that Israel, separate and apart from Judah, exists. As the Son of God is seen in its fulness as a people we can thus as Paul stated be grafted into them[2] so that we too are part of the Son of God through our faith in His Testimony. As one does, the life of Christ in the New Testament is transformed into a light to shine the way for Israel’s return and their transcendence from the prodigal’s idol worshiping son into the Son of God. As Isaiah 49:6 testifies, “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” Thus, the Gospel, which means the Good News, is not an end all within itself but a connector between the death of Israel in the Old Testament and their resurrection in the Quran.
The Quran is the third of the three testaments, because it is the seed of the Holy Spirit through which Israel was raised from death to life.[3] John 16:7-8 Jesus said, I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Holy Spirit will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin, righteousness and judgment. Revelation 1:4 characterizes the Holy Spirit as the Seven Spirits before the throne. Revelation 4:5 references the Holy Spirit as the seven flames of the menorah. These Spirits are also known as the seven Archangels as noted in Luke 1:19 that Gabriel is among the angels that stand in the presence of God. Thus, it would make sense that Gabriel, a member of the Holy Spirit would tell Mary of her coming child, for it was the Holy Spirit that caused her to conceive.[4] This also testifies that the Holy Spirit is not merely the hands of the Divine but can also speak in and of itself. Islam also points out that Jesus stated that the Holy Spirit would follow him[5] and that God would take away the sins of Israel.[6] Thus, doesn’t it make sense that it would be Gabriel as part of the Holy Spirit that would speak to Mohammed as it was through the Quran that all modern Israel was conceived and now has its being? According to the testimony of Mohammed nearly all the prophets received their message through the angelic intermediaries. This is why the Quran when referencing the speaker uses the term, We or Us, because seven archangels compose the Holy Spirit, but yet testifies that they themselves are mere servants of God and not God. In like manner, while the Quran uses a singular noun for God, but a plural pronoun, the Bible uses a plural form of God, Elohim, or HaElohim, with a singular pronoun. Because the Holy Spirit are angelic beings, that predate humanity, stand in the presence of the Divine, and impart God’s message to the prophets, it is easy to see why one would have difficulty in scripture, be it the Quran or the Bible distinguishing between who is speaking the Holy Spirit or God. However, if the Holy Spirit is God as part of a Divine Trinity, is Gabriel, Michael, and the other members God(s) or other forms of God? And if the Archangels are God(s), what of the heavenly hosts? And, where does that leave the identity of Christ in the Trinity of whom Jesus testified the Holy Spirit is one like me?[7] It is thus the Islamic contention that when it states that man was made in the image of Elohim, it is a reference to the archangels rather than God as they always appeared in a humanoid form, though they themselves predate humanity.
It is important to understand that Elohim and Allah are not translations for the same word. The direct translation of Allah is singular meaning the One and Only God, while Elohim is plural translated as gods. Consider the Archangels are angelic beings granted immense power over creation and were intimately involved in creation. From the perspective of humanity, they are gods. Yet there was also a rebellion in heaven where 1/3 of the angels were cast out. Thus, while from the perception of humanity they are gods, they are not the only one and true God, nor are they the substance of God, nor are they to be worshipped, for worship in accordance with the first and greatest commandment is reserved for God alone. It was for this testimony that they resisted the devil in that ancient battle from eons past. Is this not the testimony of the Quran? Each of the three have their own testimony, while the testimony of the Son of God is universal linking all three as one. The Old Testament the birth and death of the Son of God in terms of a nation and a people. The New Testament the birth and death of the Son of God in terms of a person in Jesus as a shadow of the events yet to come. And the Quran the resurrection of the Son of God as conceived through the Holy Spirit. Of course, this paints an ominous picture because we know that the destiny of the Son of God is that the gentiles will put him on the cross, but on the third day at the seventh trumpet blast he will rise from the grave. Such is the Armageddon, and such is the resurrection.
Now considering the three testimonies could also be considered the three perspectives. The perspective of the Father in terms of his love and discipline to raise and form the child into the man, ending where the child leaves the nest for Assyria and Babylon. The Son, the perspective that we are loved and how we should treat our fellow brothers and sisters. Now in referencing the Holy Spirit as the Hands of God, aren’t you really talking about God’s Servants? Thus is Islam, the perspective of being a servant of God. In the case of the prodigal’s son, the Muslim told his Father, I am no longer worthy to be called your son, make me as one of your hired servants.[8] This is the testimony they preach to the world, yet we know that is not the end of the story.
Considering the Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the only unpardonable sin, and yet all of Christianity speaks against the Quran, the testimony of the servants of God.[9] If the Quran was put in place through the Holy Spirit, aren’t we blaspheming Israel’s Helper[10] and Advocate to speak against Islam? Or to put it another way, it says anything spoken against the Son of Man will be forgiven[11], thus if Islam has it wrong, they will be forgiven, but if we have it wrong isn’t our fate much worse?
Now consider the Old Testament as the Father’s testimony to his rebellious son. Afterall Israel means the one who fights with God.[12] Yet Israel is just an example in many ways of humanity, how all people and cultures rebel against our Father. Thus, the focus is on the law to nurture and mold humanity into adulthood. Then the testimony of the New Testament, the Son, that the Father’s love for us is greater than the law. This is where Judaism and Christianity collide because the focus of one lifts up the law, while the focus of the other lifts up love. This is not a contradiction, but a reality of truth in every family. As a father I want my son to do what is right, good, and kind, but my love for him is not dependent on his actions but remains always. Thus, the necessity for the third testament, the Quran, which is the testimony of the Holy Spirit, the servants of God testify I know my master is the greatest, his justice is righteousness, his favor and mercy is beyond measure. Out of that admiration we want to obey him. Not to earn his love, nor to earn his favor or reward, but out of our love for him obedience is our joy. So that the rebellious son, Israel, is transformed into his obedient servant, the Muslim. Thus, Christianity lifts up the Son, but in Islam the Son lifts up the Father. Thus, what the Jew, Christian, and Muslim see as disharmony and contention is in fact harmony each within the perspective of where the testimony comes, be it the Father, the Son, or the Father’s Servants. Each testimony is thus neither first nor last, old nor new, but infinite.
[1] Genesis 32:28.
[2] Romans 11.
[3] Matthew 28:19.
[4] Luke 1:19.
[5] John 16:7.
[6] Lev 26:40-45; Acts 5:31.
[7] John 14:16.
[8] Luke 15:19; Lev 25:54-55.
[9] 2 Peter 2:12.
[10] John 16:7-8.
[11] Matthew 12:32.
[12] Genesis 32:24-32.