It is unbelievable, indeed shocking, that Muslim scholars like Indian – born Sheikh Ahmed Hussein Deedat (Monday, July 1, 1918 – Monday, August 8, 2005), a lecturer and author who lived and died in South Africa and Zakir Abdulkarim Naik, now 55 years old, an Indian Islamic televangelist and preacher, could claim that the coming of Prophet Muhammad was what was foretold in Isaiah 28:11. This is the statement in the King James Version of the Bible that reads: “For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.”
It is because of the stammering lips in the sentence that Muslim scholars say the person Isaiah was talking of was Prophet Muhammad because he was a stammer. As with the statement of Moses in Deuteronomy 18:18 it is doubtful if Deedat, Nakir and other Muslim scholars read the first ten verses in Chapter 28 before concluding that Isaiah in verse 11 was predicting the coming of Prophet Muhammad.
As can be seen in the first ten verses the person Isaiah said God was to bring was not a prophet who would come with a new religion. Rather, he was talking of a war leader of another nation that the Lord would raise to conquer the Israelites and teach them a lesson because of their bad and immoral acts that were such that even the prophets and priests had become drunkards.
The way verse 11 ended with: “will he speak to this people,” shows that Isaiah was talking of someone who would come at that time (740 – 680B.C.) to deal with the Israelites. He was not speaking of someone who would bring another faith more than one thousand, three hundred years later as Prophet Muhammad did with the introduction of Islam in the 7th century (609AD).
From the different way the same Chapter 28:11 was reported in the Good News Bible it was clear that the leader of the nation that would conquer Israel was not someone who stammered. For what is written in the verse is: “if you won’t listen to me, then God will use foreigners speaking some strange – sounding language to teach you a lesson.”
Like Chapter 28:1 – 11, it is incredible that Muslim scholars could also claim that the Lord’s Servant Isaiah spoke of in Chapter 42:1 – 9 was Prophet Muhammad. Their stand is strange because it is clear in verse 7 that the person Isaiah was talking of was Jesus Christ.
Muslim scholars say this all because in verse 11 it is written that “let the people of Kedar praise God. Kedar is the name of the second son of Ishmael (Genesis 25:12 – 18). How can this mean the coming of Prophet Muhammad when in that passage (verses 10 – 13) people of other towns and the world were told to sing a Song of praise to God.
There is no argument that it was the coming of Jesus Christ that Isaiah predicted in the Chapter 42 of his Book. This is because it is clear in verse 7 that the person Isaiah was talking of was Jesus Christ. This was his statement that the Lord’s Servant coming would “open the eyes of the blind and set free those who sit in dark prisons.”
The mission of Prophet Muhammad was introducing the religion of Islam and getting people to believe in Allah and obey His laws and teachings. He did not cure people of diseases. Whereas Jesus not only brought Christianity and preached to people to follow the Lord’s directives and behave well, but also healed many who were sick or bedeviled. And among the cures he carried out was giving sight to six blind men.
These were the two blind men in Matthew 9:27 – 32; the sightless man at Bethsaida in Mark 8:22 – 26; Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46 – 52 and the two visually handicapped men in Jericho in Matthew 20:29 – 34. Since Jesus gave sight to six blind men during his mission and Prophet Muhammad did not, it is beyond argument that Christ was the Lord’s Servant Isaiah spoke of in Chapter 42:1 – 9, not Prophet Muhammad or anyone else.
Next week: Unveiling the unnamed Messenger of God in the question Jewish authorities asked John the Baptist in John 1:21: “Are you the Prophet.”
Professor Obayi On Deut. 18:18 Vis–A–Vis Acts 3:22 – 24 (2)
Last week’s column ended with Professor Tony Obayi pointing out that what Apostle Peter did in Acts 3:22 – 24 was explaining Deut. 18:18 in the light of the significance of the New Testament, which raison d’etre is Jesus. Today, he goes on to explain that typology in Biblical times denoted both the original model and the resultant copy.
Consequently, in the New Testament the resultant copy was regarded as anti – type while Adam in the Old Testament was the type of Jesus Christ in the New Testament (Romans 5:14).
According to Professor Obayi typology can indicate a correspondence between two historical incidents. For instance, flood in the Old Testament and baptism in the New Testament (See 1 Peter 3:20 – 22). He further explains that typology is unfolding and continuing and of contemporary significance, and that believers in Jesus Christ should be models of Christ like life.
Professor Obayi reiterates that typology expresses the basic hermeneutics, including attitude or perspective by which both Old Testament and New Testament writers understood themselves and even their predecessors.
Finally, Professor Obayi elucidates that hermeneutics is the branch of theology that deals with the principle of exegesis (explanation) and that this entails a critical analysis of a text or portion of the Scripture. So, in Acts 3:22 – 24 Apostle Peter was only doing a typological explanation of Deuteronomy 18:18.
The End
Happy Birthday To My Loved Ones (5)
From February 18, 1969 when it started through 2001, a period of 32 years, only two persons apart from my Christian Spiritual Guide in Akure at the time, knew that I had the grace of speaking one – to – one with Almighty God. They were the late Mrs. Theodora Abimbola Oladunjoye (1926 – 91), a daughter of Lagos millionaire of the 1930s through 50s, Igbara – Oke, Ondo State – born Pa St. Mathew – Daniel, whose daughter was my girlfriend, and her eldest son and second – born, also of blessed memory.
The Lord sent me to her on what to do to win the court case on the land her father bequeathed to his children. The family won the case in the 1970s and his descendants returned to great wealth.
My mother and four of my full – blooded sisters got to know in 2001 because of two reasons. The first was the Lord instructing me that year to write a book on His plan to make Nigeria great and that He caused the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by late Chief Moshood Abiola to be annulled. The book was published in 2004. I had to let them know before the book became public.
To be continued next week