Apostolic Error and Global Peace

SOME time ago while watching a Jamaican news program I was somewhat shocked to learn that a Jewish synagogue existed on Duke Street, a few miles away from Kingston, Jamaica’s capital. According to sources obtained by the news Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam here in the United States, paid a visit to Jewish leaders to ascertain his ancestral lineage. There he learned that his father hailed from Portugal and, because of acute levels of European anti-Semitism, settled on the Jamaican island, where he owned slaves. Nonetheless, Farrakhan went on to mention that many Jews, including his father, treated his slaves kindly.

The present article is not about Louis Farrakhan, however, but my failure to acknowledge that a Jewish synagogue actually existed on the island; my parents (God Bless them) sent their children to exclusive Catholic schools and, this now is a naïve admission, I was raised to think that everyone was or should be Roman Catholic; and I suddenly realized my early childhood excluded me from other legitimate faiths that existed on the island, be they Jew or Muslim. This exclusivity, I now know, is due to the complex nature of my catholic training, which taught me to believe that the Catholic tradition is all there was, is, and should be. I slowly began to learn as a teenager that the chief motivation behind Roman Catholic teaching was to exclude all other legitimate faiths.

Hans Kung, a much recognized Catholic theologian who has raised the ire of the Roman Catholic church hierarchy some thirty years ago, when he questioned the Pope’s infallibility, has written extensively on a theory of global peace, arguing that Muslim, Jewish and Christian theologians must attempt to broadcast the similarities that bind their respective faiths so that Christians acknowledge that adherents of other legitimate faiths live within their midst. In his seminal work Islam: Past, Present and Future, he suggested that Christians acknowledge that Muhammad (peace be upon him and his progeny) is a messenger of God. His book also makes the point that a Christian-Muslim-Jewish dialogue is possible only if Christian theologians omit all Christological-theological decrees, passed during the Councils of Nicaea (AD 325) and Chalcedon (AD 451). The Council of Chalcedon, convened by then Pope Leo I, was convened to settle Christian theological disputes already spreading throughout the Roman Empire, chiefly by a local minister named Arius, who taught that Jesus (upon whom be peace) is of one nature – human – and therefore not Divine. The Nicaean Council creed, prepared by all their able theologians, declared that Christ is “co-substantial with the Father” meaning that Christ had two natures – one human and one Divine – within his person “without confusion”. It declared that the Trinity (three personalities in one person: Father [God], son [Christ], and the Holy Spirit) – is One and shall not be disputed. The Council of Chalcedon, to put it simply, affirmed the Nicaea decision. Currently, the Trinity is infallible doctrine among Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Eastern Orthodox Christians

The teachings of Jesus (upon whom be peace) had been transformed into a well-organized theological system with hierarchical structures, creeds, and a canon of scriptures. It had been replaced by a religion of blessings that are exclusively sanctioned through sacraments and administered only by priests. In the gospels, Jesus gives no acknowledgement or recognition of his preexistence, meaning that the prophet (upon whom be peace) is more than a human being and is not subordinate to God; Christian theology teaches that Jesus shares Divinity with God Almighty.

The Apostle Paul, however, contended that “Christ was preexistent in heaven, shared in creation, gave up his divine existence, came to earth as a man, lived and died for man’s salvation, was exalted as Lord, and was to return to judge the world and establish God’s Kingdom.

Jesus was born a Jew, on Jewish soil. He was brought up in a Jewish family, taught from the Hebrew Bible, and his followers consisted entirely of Jewish people. He was a Jew preaching to Jews; he spoke only Hebrew and the everyday language of his day – Aramaic. Jesus (peace be upon him) was a faithful and righteous Jew, teaching strict adherence to the Torah. In all fairness, Jesus, according to Christian doctrine, frequently used the expression – son of God –, however, this expression was a Hebrew idiom referring to the spiritual son-ship of every person. This use of the phrase “son of God” had been used by Hellenized Christian Theologians (Christians who spoke Greek) to justify Jesus’ Divinity has no source in Jesus the Semite. Jesus (peace be upon him) was considered not as a man, and even less as a Jew, but as the second person in the Trinity for 1900 years! Similarly, the exaltation of Jesus to a deity destroyed whatever interest Jews may have shown in his teachings.

Sarah S. Williams, professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Central Florida, has this to say: “Were it not for the teachings of Paul, it is possible that the early Nazarene movement might have survived in an atmosphere of coexistence among their fellow Jews?” The Apostle Paul is credited for introducing Christianity to the Gentiles, or non-Jews. Many historians believe that Paul never advocated that Jews should dismiss the Torah; he only insisted that Gentiles could now enter the Jewish covenant without adhering to Jewish Law. Paul does not seem to disagree with individual Jews but with Judaism itself, with the stark implication that Christianity had replaced it. In the Pauline letters, particularly the letters to the Galatians, Judaism is portrayed as “…a joyless mechanical means of earning salvation by doing the works of the Law. And the God of the Jews is portrayed as “…a remote and gloomy tyrant who laws the burden of the Law on men”. The Apostle’s error is that his teaching emphasized faith in Christ rather than adhering to Jewish laws arising from Ibrahim’s (peace be upon him) submission to God, and allegorical formulations that ignored Ishmael’s (peace be upon him) Covenant with God, thereby impairing Christian-Muslim-Jewish relations today.

The writer is a recent revert to Islam and can be contacted at: drummondhugh@verizon.net