Genesis 1-2: Bible Storying for Muslims: Dr. Cashin Lecture 3
Dr. David Cashin delivered a series of lectures on chronological Bible Storying for Muslims during a CIU course. Here, Cashin presents the first lesson on chronological bible storying of Genesis 1-2 with Muslims.
Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. David Cashin Lecture 3:
This is lesson 3 on chronological Bible storying. I’m gonna begin by doing a PowerPoint presentation on how you do lesson, 1 really from the Bible story looking at Genesis 12. It’s always important to begin at the start of scripture in explaining the story of creation, and of power and of destiny, which this, story from the scriptures tells us or teaches us about what it means to be a human being and why we’re here on planet Earth and what is our purpose and what is our destiny. There’s really one main point that we wanna make in these first two chapters of Genesis and that is to answer the question what does it mean that we’re made in the image of God? And, the basic answer to that question is that we are made like God for the purpose of intimate relationship now I’ll grant you there are some Muslims, particularly Western converts to Islam, who think that they can have a personal relationship with God through Islam, but that’s really because they’re continuing to live in the Judeo Christian heritage in which they were raised.
That is to say they have a thin veneer of Islam over a largely Judeo Christian worldview. But over time, they will eventually be trained by the more orthodox Muslims in an understanding that the Allah of Islam is not someone that you can know, not someone that you can experience. He is only someone to whom you must submit. But, I’m getting a little ahead of the story. I just want you to be thinking about this as the basic point, in your first lesson from chronological bible story.
Now, you’ll recall that in lesson 1 we talked about 2 verses from the Quran verse, chapter 10 verse 94 and chapter 10 verse 64. Let’s remind ourselves of what these verses tell us. Verse 10, chapter 10 verse 94 teaches Muslims that they should study the Bible. And you remember that we invite Muslims to study the Bible by pointing this verse out to them in the Quran and saying, since the Quran tells you to study the Bible, would you like to study the Bible with me? We also pointed out that, Muslims will almost automatically respond by saying no, I can’t study the Bible because it’s been corrupted.
It’s been changed. It’s no longer God’s word, and our response to that is in the same chapter of the Quran, chapter 10, verse 64, to point out that that scripture or that particular passage says, no change can there be in the words of Allah, and we often will use the ontological argument that what kind of an Allah cannot protect his own holy word. Such an Allah would be unworthy of worship And further, the Quran itself states the opposite. And all of this is merely an apologetic to say to our Muslim friend, again, would you like to study the Bible with me? Would you like to look at what God’s word has to say?
And our hope is that they will then take this bridge and walk across it and begin to study the word of God. So, let’s begin now with the first passage that we’ll be looking at and I’m gonna be suggesting 3 passages, 2 from Genesis chapter 1 and then one passage from Genesis chapter 2 as the basis of your study, this first chronological bible story in Genesis. So we’re gonna begin by looking at Genesis chapter 1 verses 1 to 5. And, let’s read that, together. I’ll read out loud as you read along with me.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, let there be light, and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light day and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. Amen. Now, you should read this with your Muslim friend and then ask a couple of questions of this particular text. Question number 1 is, what is the relationship of God to the creation?
Well, it says that the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. That God, in a very real sense, was present there in the midst of this creation that he was making. Now this may seem like a minor point but for Muslims, there is not any sense, excuse me, of the imminence of God in his creation. God is wholly other. God is wholly transcendent.
He is over and above and outside of his creation. He is not present in any way in his creation. Now, the sad thing is that the Quran does not really record a story of creation like this. It it has fragmentary elements of tending to focus more on God’s creation of man and particularly of his ordering of the angel Iblis to do prostration before Adam, which is kind of a strange story and we may talk about this a little bit later on. But the actual story of the creation itself is really nowhere recorded in the Quran.
It’s only alluded to. And as a result of that, Muslims really don’t have, that clear of a picture from the Quran of what the process of creation was. Frankly, what they do have is almost entirely borrowed from the Judeo Christian tradition. But not having this specific text they don’t have this sense of God, in any way imminent in his creation. He is wholly other.
The creation is is made in the Muslim’s mind as something utterly separate from Allah and having no direct connection in any way to him. Whereas in the biblical picture, God is somehow present. He is imminent in his creation. He hovers over the water in the person of his spirit. Another interesting thing is what is God’s appraisal of this creation?
And, you know the biblical appraisal is that it’s good, that God is pleased with his creation. Now, at this point, there is great similarity to the Islamic viewpoint. For Muslims, creation is also a good creation. It’s not a bad creation. It’s something that God has made and it’s therefore good and it’s meant to be enjoyed in that sense.
And so, we have some similarities here. The creation shows forth the glory of God. A third question that you might ask is how do you look at the world? Is it something positive or negative? And explain why.
I don’t have any anticipated answer at this point, but it’s interesting to see how your Muslim friend will look at this creation. Generally speaking, they will look at it as a positive thing, and they will have good things to say about it. Although you will run into Muslims who have been through deep suffering, maybe who have been refugees, who will say this world is a place of testing. This is a place where Allah puts us to the test, and hopefully we will pass that test. Well, the Christian faith really doesn’t look at the world as a testing ground per se, but really a place for intimate relationship with God, and you may be able to make that point as we move on in our study.
Now, final question is why are you here on this planet? This is a very critical question to ask Muslims. There are many Muslims who will say, I don’t know. There are some who will say, I’m here to be tested. There are some who will say, well, I’m here to accomplish something.
I have some kind of a mission. Perhaps I’m here to make a profit. I’ve heard this from businessmen that are Muslim. They’ll often say, well, God put me here to make a profit and to do my best in the work that I do. Now you will meet particularly religious Muslims who will give an answer here which is fully in line with the biblical answer and they’ll say, I’m here to worship God and, applaud the goodness of all that he has given.
I’m here to be grateful and in fact, these are Quranic themes that, humankind is called to be grateful, is called to worship, and to turn to God in adoration and thanksgiving for all the good things that he has given. And again, this is a point of connection between us. And so this first study, in Genesis chapter 1 is really just intended to show some of our commonalities, but also to point out the mystery of god’s imminence in creation, as well as what our point is on being here. We then move on in the text to Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 to 28 which details the creation of humankind, Adam and Eve and the scripture says this, then God said, let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his own image.
In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth, and subdue it. Amen. Now, let’s take a look at some questions for this particular text.
1st and foremost is the question, what does it mean that humankind is made in the image of God? Now, here in the West, particularly when you’re dealing with Western converts to Islam, that phrase is pretty much, accepted, with some questioning. And amongst orthodox Muslims in other countries, the questioning is more severe because the word image in Islam is a very negative word. It implies idolatry. It implies, connecting God in some way with his creation.
And connecting God with the creation is actually shirk, the worst sin in Islam. God is wholly other. He is not connected to his creation. And so you see, ultimately, what Islam gets at is the idea that there is no imminence of God in his creation. Any kind of imminence that is seeing God in the creation, is akin to idolatry of some sort. Genesis
And yet, this phrase in the image of God does imply something that, the Quran at least allows some sense of this that humankind is special. Humankind is other and different and set apart in some special way, to be, God’s vice regent on earth. And so even though Muslims kind of shudder at the word image, they’re still in some senses, because the Quran borrows its ideas completely from the Judeo Christian heritage, there’s some sense of the specialness of humankind. That they have some kind of special aspect in terms of, well, we can’t really say relationship with God because there’s no relationship and yet there’s some kind of a connection. What’s the nature of that connection?
And this is a point that really is quite mysterious for Muslims. They really don’t have a good answer to this. The mysterious story in the Quran about God telling Iblis and the other angels to fall down and do obeisance, literally worship of the image of Adam. And, Muslims have a hard time explaining what does this mean. Usually this story is used as kind of a explanation for the rise of Satan. Genesis
Satan refused to worship the image and therefore became an enemy of human beings and decided that he would be the tester to try to get them to go to hell. That was his basic purpose, in trying to wreck what God had made. And there are certain elements of this that are are perhaps akin to, Christian and Jewish viewpoints on the rise of Satan and his jealousy the human race and desire to destroy them, but the ultimate meaning of image of God is not explained by the story. Why the image? Why the obeisance?
And so, you’ll get a lot of confusion from your Muslim friend as you talk about this particular point. Well, frankly, the image of God, you can say, is explained in Genesis chapter 2 verses 19 to 22. And what do we see there? Well, this is what it says. Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all of the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air.
He brought them to the man so that he could name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air, and all beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
Now, amen. What is this essentially teaching? Well, it’s teaching about relationship at two levels. It’s teaching about humankind’s relationship with God and then humankind’s relationship with each other. In other words, we’re created in in the image of God for the purpose of intimate relationship with God, and you see that illustrated here.
Adam walks in the garden with God. Adam names the animal. Adam is involved in a relationship with God, but he’s not complete in that relationship. He needs, more than just the vertical relationship with God. He needs the horizontal relationship with another similar and yet complementary human being, and so God creates woman and you have then the, horizontal relationship, that human beings were made for.
We were made for each other and we were made for relationship with God. That’s really what the image of God means. That we are complex creatures just as God is complex, and in our complexity, we are able to relate to one another. Now, you’ll notice that I’m really introducing the idea of trinity in the Godhead at this point, which I think is essential, for Muslims to understand. To get at this, we need to ask 2 questions.
How does this story explain Genesis chapter 1 and its story of the creation of humankind? Well, it’s basically showing that human beings are made for relationship with God and for relationship with each other. So how does this story help us to understand the image of God? Well, simply by showing us what relationship is about. And I often, at this point, explain to my Muslim friends that God is not only other than what we can understand, there are some aspects of him that are understandable and one of the most important is that he has relationship within his very being.
He is a complex God who is made for or who is is creating us for the purpose of relationship with himself. This gets back to that whole purpose question. Why are we here? Are we here for testing? Well, testing is part of life, but that’s not really why we’re here.
Are we here to make a profit? Well, yes we are meant to be vice regents and to serve God on the earth and to be successful in the work that we do, but that’s not really why we’re here. We’re here for the purpose of intimate relationship with God. And at this point, I often introduce the question of the law of God because Muslims, when they think about testing and when they think about purpose here on earth, will often say, well we’re here to follow God’s laws. My reaction to that is two things.
First of all, law is not relationship. Law can govern aspects of relationship, but law is not the relationship. Furthermore, how many laws did God give to Adam and Eve? Well, most good Muslims should be able to answer this question. Just one. Genesis
Don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and in Muslim traditional literature, you have that story retold. So human beings are sent to earth to keep the law and hopefully if their good deeds outweigh their bad, then they’ll be acceptable to God if they pass the test, so to speak. Well my reaction is to say, well look, Adam had only one law. My question is, could he keep it? The answer is no, he couldn’t.
And once he had broken it, was he able to avoid the consequences of breaking that law? The answer again is no, he wasn’t. He was cast out of the garden along with his wife and they were never allowed to return. So it would seem that no matter how long Adam had walked with God in proper relationship before this sin, that one sin was able to wipe out whatever good deeds he may have done before then, so that he was removed from the garden. And we point out to our Muslim friends at this point, the removal from the garden is not a question of keeping the law or not keeping the law.
It’s a question of broken relationship. Once you have been disobedient to God, you have broken the intimate relationship that you were created for, that you were intended for. And it doesn’t matter how many laws you have, even one law is enough to break the relationship. And how is it for us, good Muslims, have a 130 laws that they need to follow every single day. They call them fard i’ayn, fard, dash, I, dash, a y n.
Fard i’ayn. That is the rules that every Muslim needs to keep every single day of his or her life. If Adam and Eve couldn’t keep one law, how are we supposed to keep a 100 and 30 laws? How is it possible for us to get back into relationship with God if the only way is through keeping the law? Well, frankly, the law cannot restore relationship.Genesis
The law can only show me my sin, can only show me why my relationship with God is broken, but it cannot restore that relationship. Very important points to make as we go through these scriptures. Let me just finish, this lesson with a story from Kazan Russia to show you how this kind of a discussion can take place. When I was, in Kazan, I was teaching on the subject, of Muslim evangelism in a Bible school there and one of my students was injured in an automobile accident. And so we went to visit him in the hospital to pray for him.
And in the hospital room, there was another fellow, Muslim, young man, who had been injured in an industrial accident and his mother and sister and fiance were in the hospital room with him at the time that we came to visit our brother and to pray for him. As soon as I was through sharing from the word and praying for our brother, we anointed him with oil and so forth, the Muslim mother tugged on my shirt sleeve and said, would you pray for my son? And I said, well, of course. I’d love to pray for your son. And so, we turned around and we began to share from the word and and prepare to to anoint the boy with with oil and and pray for him.
And the woman suddenly stopped us and said, you know, I know that you Westerners don’t believe in demons, but she said, you can’t tell me demons don’t exist. I’ve seen them with my own two eyes. And I said, really? Tell me what happened? And she said, well, when my son was injured, we were far out in the countryside. Genesis
He, what, they weren’t able to bring him to the hospital right away. They brought him into our home and he had to stay overnight while we tried to arrange transport the next day to the hospital. And during the night he was in great agony and pain. His leg had been crushed and, she said, I saw the demons going in and out of his leg in the middle of the night and I was terrified. And I didn’t know what to do so I cried out in the traditional Muslim fashion.
I prayed the Fatiha. Now, the Fatiha is the first surah of the Quran. It’s considered a very holy, passage and it has magical powers. It’s believed that if you pray this prayer, God will send special protection or special deliverance from the demonic. And so, she prayed the fatiha and she said, nothing happened.
And she said, I prayed the fatiha several more times and the demons just continued to attack my son’s leg. Finally, she said, in desperation, I cried out in my mother tongue which was the Tatar language and, I prayed God save my son. Instantly, she said, the demons vanished. Now, why did that happen? She said.
How would you answer a question like that? Why is it that the fatiha didn’t work but her heart’s cry did? Well, my explanation was to say, this is explained in the holy books, in the tovrat, in the in the Torah of Moses, I said. And I took her right to Genesis chapter 12, and we read there the passage about creation of Adam and Eve in the image of God. And I said, what do you think it means that you’re created in the image of God?
Well, she had no idea. I said, well, you were made like God. God is complex as you are complex. You are created for the purpose of intimate relationship with God. Now, the problem is when you prayed the Fatiha, you were doing manipulative magic.
You were trying to manipulate God through using a holy language in Arabic hoping that if you prayed that prayer correctly, you could get him to do what you wanted him to do. And I said, manipulation is acid on relationship. God will not be manipulated by holy words or holy language. But when you cried out from your heart in your mother tongue, I said, that was supplication, not manipulation. You supplicated God.
You appealed to relationship with him and he responded to that and drove the demons away. So I said to her, would you like to study the Bible and find out how you can have an intimate personal relationship with God? And her immediate response was, of course, and that family began a Bible study with members of our Bible school there and eventually they came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, consider this. Muslims desperately long for, an intimate relationship with God. Genesis
All Islamic prayer is formulaic. There is no relationship with God in Islam and God will not be manipulated. So as you share with your Muslim friend, remember to pray for them. Always pray for your Muslim friend because when you pray conversationally, you illustrate the nature of relationship that you have with God that a Muslim cannot have. All of their prayers are formulaic, but God will not be manipulated.
So would you like to study the Bible with me and find out how to have a personal relationship with God? That’s the question you should be asking your Muslim friends. And when you get a yes answer, begin with Genesis 12. Blessings on you.