1. THE WORD OF GOD IN THE PROPHETS MOUTH. Christians do not believe that the Quran is the Word of God but, purely for the sake of argument, we shall proceed as if God did indeed put his words in Muhammads mouth to discover whether this might prove that Muhammad is the prophet referred to in Deuteronomy 18.18. In our view the statement I will put my words in his mouth does not help to identify the prophet referred to at all. It is true of every prophet that God has put his words in his mouth. For God said to Jeremiah: Behold I have put my words in your mouth. Jeremiah 1.9 Furthermore we also read in Deuteronomy 18.18 that the prophet to follow Moses shall speak to them all that I command him. Now we read that Jesus once said to his disciples: For I have not spoken on my own authority; the Father who sent me has himself given me commandment what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has bidden me. John 12.49-50. A similar text which illustrates this point is found in the great prayer which Jesus prayed on the last night that he was with his disciples. He said: I have given them the words which thou gavest me. John 17.8 In no way, therefore, can the identity of the prophet in the text of Deuteronomy 18.18 be established from the fact that God would put his words in his mouth. With every prophet who is true this is the case and the great prophet referred to in the text, who would be uniquely like Moses in a way that none of the other prophets were, must accordingly be identified from other sources. 2. A PROPHET FROM AMONG THEIR BRETHREN. Muslims allege that the expression their brethren in Deuteronomy 18.18 means the brethren of the Israelites, hence the Ishmaelites. In this case, however, if we are truly to discover the real identity of the prophet who would be like Moses, we must consider the expression in its context. God said, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren. Of whom is God speaking when he speaks of them and their? When we go back to the first two verses of Deuteronomy 18 we find the answer: The Levitical priests, that is, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel ... they shall have no inheritance among their brethren. Deuteronomy 18.1-2. It is abundantly clear from these two verses that they refers to the tribe of Levi and that their brethren refers to the remaining eleven tribes of Israel. This is an inescapable fact. No honest method of interpretation or consistent method of exposition can possibly allow that Deuteronomy 18.18 refers to anyone else than the tribe of Levi and the remaining tribes of Israel. Let us briefly examine the only possible exposition of the prophecy that can lead to a correct interpretation and identification of their brethren. We need only accentuate the relevant words from Deuteronomy 18.1-2 to discover the only possible conclusion that can be drawn. The text reads: The tribe of Levi shall have no inheritance with ISRAEL. They shall have no inheritance among THEIR BRETHREN. Therefore the only logical interpretation of Deuteronomy 18.18 can be: I will raise up for them (that is, the tribe of Levi) a prophet like you from among their brethren (that is, one of the other tribes of Israel). Indeed throughout the Old Testament one often finds the expression their brethren meaning the remaining tribes of Israel as distinct from the tribe specifically referred to. Let us consider this verse as an example: But the children of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brethren, the children of Israel. Judges 20.13 Here their brethren is specifically stated to be the other tribes of Israel as distinct from the tribe of Benjamin. In Deuteronomy 18.18, therefore, their brethren clearly means the brethren in Israel of the tribe of Levi. Again in Numbers 8.26 the tribe of Levi is commanded to minister to their brethren, that is, the remaining tribes of Israel. In 2 Kings 24.12 the tribe of Judah is distinguished from their brethren, once again the remaining tribes of Israel. (Further scriptures proving the point are Judges 21.22, 2 Samuel 2.26, 2 Kings 23.9, 1 Chronicles 12.32, 2 Chronicles 28.15, Nehemiah 5.1 and others). Indeed in Deuteronomy 17.15 we read that Moses on one occasion said to the Israelites One from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. Only an Israelite could be appointed king of Israel - one from among your brethren - no foreigner, be he Ishmaelite, Edomite or whoever he may be, could be made King of Israel because he was not one of their brethren, that is, a member of one of the tribes of Israel. At this stage, therefore, we have a fatal objection to the theory that Muhammad is foretold in Deuteronomy 18.18. He was an Ishmaelite and accordingly is automatically disqualified from being the prophet whose coming was foretold in that verse. The prophet was obviously to come from one of the tribes of Israel other than the tribe of Levi. God said he would raise up a prophet for the Levites like Moses from among their brethren, that is, from one of the other tribes of Israel. As we intend to prove that Jesus was the prophet whose coming was foretold it will be appropriate to mention at this stage that he was descended from the tribe of Judah (Matthew 1.2, Hebrews 7.14). He is therefore ably qualified to be the prophet who would be raised up from among the brethren of the Levites. 3. A PROPHET LIKE UNTO MOSES. The Islamic publications listed in the Bibliography to this booklet are full of comparisons between Moses and Muhammad where evidence is brought forward of certain likenesses between them. These publications also produce many differences between Jesus and Moses as the authors try to disprove that Jesus is the prophet whose coming was foretold in Deuteronomy 18.18. In his booklet What the Bible Says About Muhummed Mr. Deedat produces a number of similarities between Moses and Muhammad which he claims do not exist between Moses and Jesus. Most of these are meaningless, however, and only serve to show the supreme uniqueness of Jesus over against the whole human race. For example, Deedat argues that Moses and Muhammad were both born naturally of human parents and are buried on earth, whereas Jesus was born of a virgin-woman, had no earthly father, and ascended to heaven (Deedat, What the Bible Says About Muhummed, p. 7, 12). It is obvious that all men have natural parents and go back to the dust, and all Mr. Deedat is doing is to reveal certain ways in which Jesus was absolutely unique among men. This does not help to identify the prophet predicted by Moses, however. In the publications referred to we do find occasionally more prominent likenesses between Moses and Muhammad which do need to be analysed more carefully. Three such comparisons are: 1. Moses and Muhammad became the lawgivers, military leaders, and spiritual guides of their peoples and nations; 2. Moses and Muhammad were at first rejected by their own people, fled into exile, but returned some years later to become the religious and secular leaders of their nations; 3. Moses and Muhammad made possible the immediate and successful conquests of the land of Palestine after their deaths by their followers, Joshua and Umar respectively. At the same time it is alleged in these publications that Jesus and Moses were so different, according to Christian belief, that Jesus cannot be the prophet referred to. Such differences are these: 1. Moses was only a prophet but, according to Christian belief, Jesus is the Son of God; 2. Moses died naturally but Jesus died violently; 3. Moses was the national ruler of Israel which Jesus was not at any time during his ministry here on earth. We are constrained to ask: do these similarities and contrasts in any way prove that Muhammad is the prophet like Moses whose coming was foretold in Deuteronomy 18.18? It is the easiest of matters to show that this sort of reasoning will in no way assist us to discover the real identity of the prophet. Firstly, none of the alleged differences between Moses and Jesus are of any importance. The Bible often calls Jesus a prophet as well as the Son of God (see, for example, Matthew 13.57, 21.11, and John 4.44) and the fact that Jesus died violently is hardly relevant to the issues at stake. Many prophets were killed by the Jews for their testimonies, a fact to which both the Bible and the Quran bear witness, (cf. Matthew 23.31, Surah 2.91). Furthermore the Bible teaches that the Christian Church as a whole has replaced the nation of Israel in this age as the collective object of Gods special favours. Likewise, whereas Moses led that nation during his life on earth, so Jesus today heads the Church of God from his throne in heaven above. In this respect, therefore, he is really like Moses.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 18:24:41 +0000
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