Tuesday Bible Study (3/31/20)

The Question of Islam

Scriptural Bearings

Matthew 5:44 - But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. 

2 Peter 2:1-3 - But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.  And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.  And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

1 Peter 4:12-14 - Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 

>>Summary: Jesus Himself tells his disciples that hard times will come to them, but that they must love, forgive, and even pray for their enemies. Remember that since Abel, the son of the first man, the righteous have suffered and died. In the centuries and centuries of Islamic rule, many Christians in the Orthodox, Oriental, and Syriac Christian groups would suffer discrimination, persecution, and martyrdom. It's important to note at this point, that by the 7th century, different Christian churches (and traditions) had emerged in the world. In the West, there is the more monolithic Latin or Roman Catholic Church. In the East there is Orthodoxy, the state religion of the Byzantine Empire, which holds to all of the ecumenical councils. There are then two groups that split off from Orthodoxy beginning in the early 5th century: the Oriental Orthodox and the Nestorian, also called the 'Church of the East.' The Oriental Orthodox church was formed after the fall-out from disagreement and political wrangling after the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.). These Christians, primarily in areas like Armenia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Ethiopia, were (and are, there are around 70 million in the world today) miaphysites, that is, adherents to a kind of Cyrillian understanding of the one, unified nature of Jesus that is simultaneously fully divine and fully human. The Church of the East, which spread from Persia all the way to Mongolia, China, and India, were primarily Nestorian, rejecting the Council of Ephesus (431 A.D.) and accepting as dogma the belief that Christ's two natures were distinct and separate. This is an oversimplification, as modern-day views in the Church of the East (which has about 1.5 million members worldwide) hold Christological views which don't necessarily accept Nestorius and all of his teachings. Note that in what follows, I heavily rely on Derek Cooper's book Twenty Questions that Shaped World Christian History (Fortress). 

Overview 

Around the year 570 a person was born who would change the world forever. This man was Muhammad, who would soon take political control of Arabia. Immediately after his death his followers launched a conquest of vast swaths of the Middle East, Africa, and India - areas with large Christian populations and deeply-rooted Christian culture. 

The Church of the East - a branch of Christianity with a geographical reach from Syria to China - lost leaders, churches, and monasteries to the new Muslim powers which quickly overran the Byzantine and Persian Empires. The speed of it all was stunning. As scholar Judith Herrin puts it, "In a single decade, the Arabs had occupied Syria, Palestine, and the richest province of Egypt, including the Christian Holy Places of Jerusalem and Bethlehem." 

Arabs under Umar, the leader of the Rashidun Caliphate, captured Jerusalem in 634 and built a wooden mosque atop the temple mount. This later was replaced by the very famous Dome of the Rock, modeled after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and directly opposing the Christian dogma of the Trinity and the Sonship of Christ by its gilded writing on the exterior which reads, "There is no god but Allah alone. [He] did not beget." 

Muslim armies quickly and easily captured the major Christian center of Antioch, and in 640 they captured the most important city in Syriac Christendom: Edessa (modern-day Homs, Iraq). Two years later the central city in Armenian Christianity was captured, and in 645, the important Eastern Christian city of Ctesiphon fell. During this time, Christians had to pay a special tax called a jizyah. Often those who did not want to pay it were imprisoned and persecuted, or, they were convinced that conversion to Islam was the right course of action. 

As the new way of life unfolded, Christian monks, priests, and leaders felt the need to write sermons and books that made sense of such an unthinkable situation. 

Some writers, such as Anastios of Sinai and John of Damascus, read the Koran and knew personally many Muslim scholars and leaders. John gave a well-researched and organized response to Islam in several books. Others were misinformed about Islamic beliefs and wrote or spoke off-hand, condemnatory remarks that have survived history. Muslims were often called "Ishmaelites," as the Arabians were believed to be descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abram through Hagar, the servant girl. Every major Christian writer and leader considered Muhammad to be a false prophet and Muslims to be heretics, not members of a different "religion."  

Timeline

622 A.D. - Muhammad and his followers travel to Medina and establish an Islamic State

630 A.D. - Muhammad enters Mecca and its citizens accept Islam

633 A.D. - Muhammad dies - his friend Abu Bakr, becomes the first caliph. Others (Shia Muslims) believed Muhammad's cousin, Ali ibn Abi Talib, was the first rightful caliph.

634 A.D. - Caliphs invade Syria and Palestine, conquering much of the Levant

639-642 A.D. - Muslim armies conquer Egypt

645 A.D. - Seleucia-Ctesiphon - one of the most important cities for the Church of the East (picture below) - falls to invaders

647 - 742 A.D. - Muslim conquest of the Maghreb - North Africa

711-714 - Under Muhammad bin Qasim, Muslim conquest of Indian subontinent begins

711 - 721 - Invasion of Hispania (Spain) and Gaul (France) by Ummayad Caliphate

1864 photograph of Taq Kasra in Ctesiphon

Key Personages

Muhammad (c. 570 - 632 A.D.): Arab religious leader and founder of Islam (meaning "submission"), a monotheistic religion. At age 40 he claimed to have been visited by the archangel Gabriel in a cave where he was living in seclusion. Rapidly gathering followers, Muhammad claimed also to have been given the Quran by the angel.  By the time of his death, almost the entire Arabian peninsula had converted to Islam. 

Sophronius of Jerusalem (c. 560 - 638): The head bishop of Jerusalem from 634 until his death. An Orthodox Chalcedonian, Sophronius opposed Monoergism during his lifetime - the teaching that Christ had one energy (in Greek, ἐνέργειᾰ - enérgeia), that is, one active principle or operation. Sophronius was in Jerusalem as it was besieged by Arab forces under Abu Ubaidah. After four months, the Byzantines surrendered. Sophronius signed the the Umariyya Covenant which surrendered the city and gave civil and religious liberty to Christians in exchange for tribute money. 

Hnanisho I (died 698 A.D.): The catholicos (head patriarch) of the Church of the East between 686 and 698. In response to a question from the fifth Caliph Abd al-Malik, the bishop famously said, "[Islam] is a kingdom founded by the sword; and not, like the Christian faith and the old faith of Moses, a faith that is confirmed by divine miracles." The caliph ordered his tongue cut out, but some friends interceded for him. Deposed by an illegitimate usurper, Hnanisho was later thrown off a cliff to die, but he survived. After being nursed back to health he reclaimed his patriarchate. 

Pseudo-Methodius (late 7th c. A.D.): a Syriac Christian writer posing as St Methodius (died 311) who wrote an apocalyptic document (known as the "Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius") which influenced eschatological thinking in the following centuries.  In it, Muslims are called "Sons of Ishmael," and the writer notes, "It was not because God loves them that he allowed them to enter the kingdom of the Christians, but because of the wickedness and sin which is performed at the hands of the Christians, the like of which has not been performed in any of the former generations." 

John of Damascus (c. 675 - 749 A.D.): Priest and monk honored as saint and "Doctor of the Church," also regarded as the "last of the Church Fathers." Growing up in Damascus, John lived his adult life in a monastery in Palestine, writing theological and liturgical works. In his important work The Found of Knowledge, John gives a severe critique of Islam. About Muhammad he writes, "There are many other extraordinary and quite ridiculous things in this book which he boasts was sent down to him from God. But when we ask: ‘And who is there to testify that God gave him the book? And which of the prophets foretold that such a prophet would rise up?’—they are at a loss."

Icon of St John of Damascus. Often considered the "last of the Church Fathers,"
John is an important bridge between ancient and medieval thought, as well as
an interesting, early interpreter of Islam.

Quotes

Jacob: "What can you tell me about the prophet?  Jewish Teacher: "He is false, for the prophets do not come armed with a sword." - The Teaching of Jacob

"The godless Saracens entered the holy city of Christ our Lord, Jerusalem, with the permission of God and in punishment for our negligence." - John Moschus, monk and writer

"But the present circumstances are forcing me to think differently about our way of life, for why are wars being fought among us? Why do barbarian raids abound? Why are the troops of the Saracens attacking us?  ... Why are the birds of the sky devouring human bodies? Why have churches been pulled down? Why is the cross mocked? Why is Christ, who is the dispenser of all good things and the provider of this joyousness of ours, blasphemed by pagan mouths so that he justly cries out to us: 'Because of you my name is blasphemed among the pagans.' ... That is why the vengeful and God-hating Saracens, the abomination of desolation clearly foretold to us by the prophets, overrun the places which are not allowed to them, plunder cities, devastate fields, burn down villages, set on fire the holy churches, and overturn the sacred monasteries. ... Moreover, they are raised up more and more against us and increase their blasphemy of Christ and the church, and utter wicked blasphemies against God.  These God-fighters boast of prevailing over all, assiduously and unrestrainably imitating their leaders, who is the devil, and emulating his vanity because of which he has been expelled from heaven and been assigned to the gloomy shades." - Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem

"Civilization is now itself being ravaged by wild and untamed beasts whose form alone is human." - Maximus the Confessor

> Other Christian leaders, especially those in the far Eastern churches who had experienced horrible persecution under Persian rule beginning in 226 A.D. with the Sassanians coming to power, experienced Muslims as more benevolent rulers. 

"As for the Arabs, to whom God has at this time given rule over the world, you know well how they act towards us. Not only do they not oppose Christianity but they praise our faith, honour the priests and saints of our Lord, and give aid to the churches and monasteries." - Ishoyahb III

The Etchmiadzin Cathedral, Armenia, seat of the catholicos of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. 

Result

To this very day there is tension, confusion, and misinformation among Christians regarding Muslims, and among Muslims regarding Christians. Though Muslims are no longer considered to be "heretics," but rather, members of an entirely new religion founded by Muhammad, many Christians today consider Islam to be an off-shoot of Eastern forms of Christianity, even showing similarities in theological, social, and sexual views. 

When we get to the First Crusade in 1095, and subsequent wars and conflicts with peoples and nations following Muhammad and the Koran, we run into more trouble and confusion, with atrocities committed by men in the name of the Church and Christ and men in the name of Allah and Muhammad.  The fall of Constantinople to Muslim forces in 1453 was a huge blow to Eastern Christendom and marked the final end of Byzantium. 

There are still today pesky questions today about the relation of the West (which is arguably formed by Christian culture but is no longer "Christian") to the Islamic world. Are we still living in the shadow of the Crusades? Is terrorism such as that practiced by Al-Qaeda and ISIS espoused in the original Islamic documents? Who is Allah in relation to the triune God that Christians proclaim? 

There are doubtlessly many other questions, but this study is to be an introduction to the early challenges Christians in the East faced when Muslims began their wars of conquest. As we can see today, the last 1400 years have seen the steady destruction of Orthodox churches, monasteries, and monuments in places like Iraq, Iran, and N. Africa. Early forms of Christianity in China virtually disappeared in the Middle Ages due to persecution. Early Nestorian Christianity in China is a misunderstood thing today, with lots that scholars simply don't know. As Christian populations in those places have steadily declined, many have emigrated to American cities and planted new congregations. 

This important stele (stone slab) from 781 describes
the mission of Nestorian Christians in China.