Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Ideal vs. Folk Islam on Eschatology and Mission
Dr. Warren Larson delivered a lecture on Ideal vs. Folk Islam on Eschatology and Mission during a CIU course. Here, Larson presents the divergent views on eschatology and mission between Ideal Islam and Folk Islam.
Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Ideal vs. Folk Islam on Eschatology and Mission.
This is lecture 10, comparisons and, eschatology and mission. We might might be wondering, you know, is this relevant, but I I think it is. The reason is that eschatology is so important here is because it seems that fear of, of the future really drives, Muslims really into folk practices, drives them into, into trying all kinds of things to to, you know, ensure a better future. And I remember, Vivian Stacy, who worked for about 40 years in Pakistan in mission work and then worked in and out of the Middle East, a great a great worker, great person. She teaches a course taught a course, she’s now deceased, on women in Islam, and I remember her saying that, the Muslim women may not know very much about the Quran at all.
In fact, very little. They, many of them are illiterate. In Pakistan, probably only 12, 15%, maybe now a little bit more, are literate, but she says from all of her years of experience is that, Muslim women know very little of the Koran, know very little theology per se, but they know a lot about the judgment, and so they, that they in other words, they have heard quite a bit about this. So, I also wanted to, just make note of the fact that I have a paper, called, Islamic Eschatology Implications for Christian Witness, and you can find it, I think, by googling Warren Larson and then the name of that paper. And I talk about quite a few things, not only God’s judgment.
Kenneth Craig, by the way, one of the, greatest Islamicists, and I think by now, perhaps, he’s gone to be with the Lord, but he says that the judgment, the end times, eschatology, is long on God’s judgment and short on his love. So, you know, just think of this that, that as a person in Islam dies, say an old man is just on his last leg, so to speak, and, so what do people do? What do the Muslims do? Well, they turn his face towards Mecca. Lay him on his side, turn his face towards Mecca.
They have, an Imam come in and chant, the the Quran and they will light some kind of an incense in the room to keep the spirits away. So, this is this is all what it’s about, hoping that, all of those things will help him in the judgment to make it across. Though is there is absolutely no no, assurance of salvation, nothing like that at all. The, the hadith in particular talks talk a lot about, the judgment, talks about the terrible judgment, For instance, boiling brains from the fire that’s beneath your soles of your feet is just the least punishment. And if you think of it to yourself, if that’s the least punishment, what in the world is the most punishment?
So you know a lot about the horrors of hell, but in contrast to the pleasures of paradise, That’s really what the paper is about, but I wanna say again that all of this seems to feed into folk Islam. Notice that, I have here popular and ideal Islam, last day, and, last day is, not going to be covered because we’re really talking about this under under predestination. So that’s what it’s meant when it says, see below. But what is predestination? Well, by the way, I should have mentioned in the paper that the role of Jesus in Islam in the end is remarkable.
He does, according to the Hadith, judge according to Islamic law. But nevertheless nevertheless, he’s there and he’s alive and while Mohammed is dead. So there are many bridges that we can use, but the greatest bridge we have with Muslims is the role of Christ in the Quran and in tradition and and, specifically to this point in, the the end, the judgment. So, predestination here comes from the word qadr, which is really power, and takdir means measure. So several things here: decree, doom, destiny, and, the divine preordaining.
One of his names, God’s names, is Al Qadr, and in Islamic, in the theology of Islam, you had the Khaganites, and this was, in contrast to the Methazilites who were rationalists. We don’t have any Methazilites today. They were shouted down and moved aside. But just off the, just off the, you know, by the way, Islamic theology is not as simple as you might think and Muslims have really done a lot of thinking. I teach a course, Islamic Theology, ICS 6012, taught in the, fall online, and, you might be interested in that course.
It is, an eye opener into the thinking of Muslims. They, you know, they’re not all, traditionalists. They’re not all dyed in the wool. Some of the greatest thinkers, that you can imagine, the greatest minds are Muslims. For instance, Fazlur Rahman, the Pakistani who, is now dead, but he used to teach at University of Chicago.
Anyway, predestination and it fits right into, Islamic, into Islamic theology. One, thing that we talk about in that course is, this quote from, Venk Singh, who wrote the Muslim creed. He says there’s not a single tradition that gives freedom. In other words, the traditions, you know, a 100, a 150 years after Muhammad, the traditions come about, and, they’re pretty pretty hard, harsh, unbendable, and, there is not that freedom really, of course, for various reasons that we won’t talk about, but, you know, it helps to stay in power if you, are heavy on on fatalism. You know, god has put us there, put us in power, and so we’re not going to move at all.
It’s God’s control over all things. That’s what predestination and I wanted to, just read a few verses from the Quran, as always. The first one is 17 and verse 13, and I hope that you can follow along here in your Quran Sharif, as it’s called, or, whatever name, glorious name that they give it. 17 and verse 13 says this, every man’s fate we, that’s God, we have fastened on his own neck on the day of judgment. We shall bring him out for him a scroll which he will see spread open.
So there’s no wiggle room here. Fate. And there in the footnote, 2187, it sounds very, you know, pagan. The the the fate comes from the word, it’s tayr, literally a bird, hence an omen, an evil omen, fate. The Arabs, like the ancient Romans, sought to read the, mysteries of human fate from the flight of birds, and many of us in our own day seek to read our future fortunes by similar superstitions.
We read in the previous verse that there are signs. They are meant for quite other purposes. As we have explained, our real fate does not depend on birds or omens or stars. It depends on our deeds, good and evil. Well, that’s true, but but it isn’t very true because, our fate decides or is determined really by what God decides.
You see, this is what we’re going to say over and over again. His will, his, irrefutable will is really what’s what’s important. And, let’s see. I don’t think I’m missing verses here, but, I will turn you to 54 and verse 42, and there are several verses here. The the people rejected all our signs.
That’s 54 and 42, but we seize them with such penalty as comes from 1 exalted in power able to carry out his will. Now, granted this verse is a little better. It makes it sound like, you know, they rejected, God’s signs and so, he who is god who is exalted in power, he’s able to carry out his will, so, not too bad. Now, then a little bit further on in that same chapter, it talks about, actually, I guess, verse 55, in an assembly to truth in the presence of a sovereign omnipotent. And back to 49, I should have mentioned, verily all things, have we created in proportion and measure.
That’s the same word again, taqdir, from Qatar. And so god is sovereign, and he is, the one that decides without any, you know, the he just can’t be moved and and so on. In 15163, the footnote says Allah’s creation is not haphazard. Everything goes by law, proportion, and measure, you see. Everything has its appointed time and place and occasion as also is definite limitations.
Nothing happens but according to his plan, and every deed, word, thought of man has its full its fullest consequences except insofar as the grace and mercy of Allah. Well, that’s what’s short in, Islam. So, we’ve looked at several verses there. I think, we haven’t looked at 14 verse 4 right at the bottom here that I have, and it says there, 1 third down, of his own people, in order to make things clear to them. Now, Allah this is disturbing.
Here, this is this is proves what we’re saying. Allah leaves straying those whom he pleases and guides whom he will he pleases. He’s exalted and powerful of wisdom. So this, you see, is double predestination, and some commentaries like a fellow by the name of Asad, not Asad in Syria, but Asad the scholar, seems uncomfortable this, and, he puts in brackets. And in your Quran, if you ever see brackets, you know you know that this is not the original.
He puts in brackets and who go astray, but it’s it’s it’s really his own, attempt to explain the heavy handedness that we see in Allah. So let’s continue on with, the, with these verses. I wanted I can’t read them all as we’ve said before, but we turn now to 76 and 30 through 31. We’re not cherry picking, but we are picking out a few verses, to illustrate the point. This is, not just here now that God leaves them as to go astray leaves them going astray, You’ll notice that in 76 verse 30, it says you will not accept as Allah wills, for Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom.
He will admit to his mercy whom he will. So that’s, one of the differences that we’re seeing, and we’ll we’ll talk in a minute about the differences between, you know, predestination in Islam and predestination in Christianity. But I wanted to refer you to a story in, the Hadith, in its al Muslim. You know, the the really heavy heavyweights in, in the traditions are, Bukhari and Muslim, and then there are 4 others that the, Sunnis use. But on in Al Muslim volume 4, there are 4 volumes in this, this set, at least there are in the set I have, volume 4 of Al Muslim, page 1396, it talks about an argument that Adam and Moses had.
And, by the way, I should have, I should have brought the, I should have brought the, the web the the link for you, to show you that you can get into the hadith and you can, you know, you can look at Bukhadi or Muslim or, Al Majah or whatever you want, and you can do, search on words like, you I was looking the other day and just looked this up, Adam Moses, but, of course, I have it in written form as well. But Adam and Moses, got into an argument. And Moses said to Adam, you know, Adam, I’m putting in my own words here, but he said, Adam, you’re really to blame for all this, all this trouble we see on earth and the, you know, and the rebellion and the sin and so on and the killing and one thing or another, and you know what Adam said? Adam said it was preordained. My decision was preordained in the garden, and then the hadith says Adam won the argument.
Moses couldn’t say anything. So, interesting. That’s how far, it goes. So what are the implications here? What happens?
Well, what happens is that, well, no. Let me back up a little bit here. I’m I’m missing out on some. There are a few other verses that I wanted to, check out with you. One is, let’s see.
I guess it’s 10100 and, give me a second here. 10100. It says that no soul can believe except by the will of Allah. So you’ve got lots of, really lots of these verses in the Quran. No, no soul can accept except by the will of Allah, and I’ve already read 76 verse 30 through 31.
So, what happens? Well, it’s quite logical, really, as far as, you know, as I can see. If nothing else works, then intercession of powerful beings prevails against the unbending iron will of God and it seems to me that Muslims are pushed into focus on by the theology of Allah’s irrefutable will. You see, it’s not just, animism, the roots of animism and so on that it might have come from Christians and and paganism and all that, but it seems to me that this, this stuff actually, let’s see, this actually, is pushed the Muslim Muslims are pushed into this. Now the question I had here is what differences do you see in Islam and Christianity in the area of predestination?
Now we’re not face to face, so we can’t discuss this, which is always an interesting discussion, almost one that you need to think about and to reflect on. And so I’m going to share some of my thoughts here. You will notice in your class notes that there are some verses listed here. You know the verses, for instance, Romans 918 that, you know, that God does, he does make the decisions and, you can find verses in, you know, in Exodus 2, there’s Exodus 8:15 where God hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Of course, we must remember that first, pharaoh hardened his own heart.
But I think the difference is, and here is, something that is very precious to me, the difference is in the nature of God and how we how much we as Christians know God. Look at this. I hope you can see these cards of mine. They’re, pretty thick little bundle here of 3 by 5 cards. Well, those are scripture verses that I have been working at and, for many, many years, at least these are the precious ones, trying to memorize and renew them, haven’t always done it.
Sometimes my own thoughts and anxieties and needs, emotional needs, drive me to them quite often, and the verses that stand out to me are the nature of God, at least many times. I mean, there are, of course, lots of other things in there too, about how to live and walk in in holiness and so on and on and on, but I think of some verses, in reference to God that are very precious to me. For instance, Isaiah 30 and verse 18 says something to the effect, that, God is he is longing to be compassionate to us. He rises to to help us. And then in Isaiah 63 and verse 8, I guess it is, that in all their distresses, he was distressed.
These verses to me are very, very precious. You know the, the saying that Muslims have always God is, is greatest. Well, you know, that’s true. He is great, and is for his power, but to me, he is great because of his humility, because of his, stooping to save us and to help us. In all of our distresses, he was distressed.
God is, not willing, first 2nd Peter 3 and verse 9 says, he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. In Islam, it seems sometimes that he is willing that people perish. Think of the difference. Think of the difference. And so I always, often fall back on this, this nature of God and and his, his unquestioning love and his character.
But in Islam, the bottom line is really his will. That’s really the bottom line. So, just to sum sum of these things up, we’re not finished with this lecture yet, but just to sum up some of the things we’ve been talking about, that in in Orthodox Islam, formal Islam or whatever you wanna call it, the divine decrees are unchangeable. In other words, they’re irrefutable. They are, they cannot be, resisted or questioned in any way.
So that’s really the deal. And then in popular Islam, there is an attempt to change those decrees, change, what happens at childbirth, and and, and and angels descend and and on and on. And the paradise, the gates are are sometimes open. So that’s popular Islam. So Muslims then pray to the angels or expect the angels around the throne to, to help out or to intercede, and there are propitious times.
What does propitious mean? Propitious means they are times of opportunity, blessing, or times to really to make use of. In other words, God is here or he is going to bless, he’s going to answer, he’s going to hear on these special times, so we need to make use of them. We, we can hope to find help and blessing on those particular times and I have, there are 3, I think not 3, but there are more than 3 propitious times, you know, when you can expect God to do something and one, of course, is the night of might or, the night of power. That’s, Surah 97:1:5.
That’s the end of Ramadan or Ramzan, if you’re in Pakistan. Maharamzan, the month of, of, fast, 9th month of the year. At the end, it’s the night of power, but 27th when the Quran supposedly started coming down. That’s a night when Muslims hope, above above all things that they will have a dream in one thing and another, of God, and God will be revealed to them. And then there’s the night of of, the night of record, the night of forgiveness, and that is also called the night of the dead, lailut al bara in or shabei baraat in some some context Muslim context.
It’s 1 month before Ramadan. At that time, god registers the actions for the entire year. This is a propitious time. And, when we work in the Muslim world, we need to know these times. We need to know these, these holidays and what they men mean and how to use them for the purpose of the gospel in ways that are appropriate and, I guess, sensitive, but also when we can really get the gospel across.
Now there’s the night of Ascension. We’ve talked Ascension. We’ve talked about that when Mohammed allegedly went from, Mecca to Jerusalem and then on up into heaven, which, and then on that trip, he supposedly talked to prophets along the way. I think Jesus was on, heaven number 4, but in any event, they in that time, he talked his way into, through Moses’ intercession, which shows you really, again, the intercession that, got the prayers down from 50 to 5. That’s what the tradition says.
Can you imagine Muslims saying prayers 50 times a day? But there are other nights too like the night of Muhammad’s birth, Eid Malade Nabi, and that’s the time when his birth date and his death date are remembered and we’ve talked about that, before. Now, let’s talk missiology. You notice that we keep coming back to this. We don’t study Islam for the sake of studying Islam, but we study Islam for the sake of presenting the gospel.
You know, this just keeps coming up again. Today, on this date, our ambassador in Libya was killed in a riot and and a couple of other Americans. And, it made me angry personally and very, very sad because it was all through a misunderstanding. Somebody, just some individual fellow happened to, think that he could get away with making a movie about Mohammed, which was very anti Mohammed. Somebody gets a hold of it, makes a copy of it, puts it on the Internet, translates it into Arabic, and the Muslim world reacts, in rage and they descend on the American embassy in Benghazi, kill the US ambassador and a couple of other Americans.
And it makes me angry and out you know, I’m just outraged, but then I remember, and I put this on Facebook too, I remember that, these people need the Lord and, I remember the verse in Romans 3:15, their feet are swift to shed blood. We are angry, but we should remember that they really need the Lord and that’s, in other words, doing things like this in rage and unreasonable reactions. I don’t not, I’m not justifying that anyone should make such a movie. No one should be so naive and so misinformed, and so individualistic in his thinking or her thinking to think that he can get away with this. You’d almost have to live on another planet to do this.
It’s inexcusable, but yet, to react in such a way is a pattern in the Muslim world. Well, there are lots of implications, that we could talk about, but, one of them is that, the devil is defeated. Now, oh, by the way, I should have mentioned, just backing up a little bit, about, the propitious times. I meant to mention that, I can remember, years years ago, I think it was the year that, Gamal Abdel Nasser died. You know, he was the president of Egypt, the charismatic fellow, who for years was the president of Egypt and, did his best to unite the Arab world and the Arab nationalism.
I think he died in 1970 on September 28th. He failed to to unite the Arab world. He wanted Egypt to be the head of it. Egypt is the largest Arab country in the world, but, Nasser failed. Anyway, when he died in 1970, I can still remember what the paper said.
The paper said he died on a holy night. He died on a great time, meaning that, you know, a good chance that he he got to paradise because he died on holy night. You know, to me, that is pretty flimsy. So, then that’s, of course, one, missiological, application, but there are others, we think, of of, and I’ve noted here, the devil is defeated. You know, Colossians is a great book on the defeat of the devil and how that, all of the forces of evil were, lined up on display and the Hebrews, I believe, says that he he came to defeat the works of the devil.
Christ did. But another thing I want to mention, could have mentioned before, but I I mention it now, that we could can use special times, in other words, for prayer and preaching. Now you know, perhaps, the 30 day prayer during Ramadan where these requests come out. That’s good to pray specifically for Muslims during the month of fast. That’s very good.
But, you know, if you’re in amongst working among Muslims, to preach on, on this topic because you’re gonna have a tent you’re gonna get their attention. You know, the the the night of Jesus’ birth, that was a special time and the angels are there and they’re, they’re praising God and so we can make these these these these, connections. They’re really bridges, I think. We can pray, you know, pray for Muslims during the, in the last day of the month of Ramadan, the night of power, we need to pray that Muslims will have dreams of Christ and who he is. It’s well known that Muslims are having dreams, you know, the Berber Muslims in Algeria and and of having dreams of Christ.
So we need to think of that and use it. Always remember that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, Mark 124, right in the beginning of his gospel. That’s what he he says. And that Satan is doomed. You know that Jesus has it all under control.
Christ, has him under control. In Ephesians, talks about this, and so we need to to stand on it. It doesn’t mean that we do not fail, that we do not, sometimes are not deceived by this Satan. Not at all. We are, and it’s due to our own weaknesses and sins and so on, and yet we know that scripture says Satan is doomed.
The war will be won, and and there is power in mission. You know? All power have I given unto you. Go and, and baptize the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. So we are waiting for the conquest at Perusia and after Jesus has destroyed all the, powers, the spiritual powers that that that, are there, then the devil will be thrown into the lake of of fire and death and hell, will, be defeated as well.
So that’s what we hang on to. This is this is our confidence. This is what we we preach, and, it’s not based on our experience. It’s based on the irrefutable, unchangeable word of God. So praise the Lord for that.