By Ernest Clevenger

Several have remarked how timely this subject is today. I want you to know that I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, it just happened. Two months ago when I was invited to be the speaker for several Wednesday nights, I remembered two lessons I had prepared back in 1972 following two trips to the Middle East. I had traveled in several Arab countries including Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, and the eastern part of Cyprus as will as Israel and while there thought of the real basis of the problem between the Arabs, also called Palestinians, and the Israelis, the Jews.

Back in 1972 and for a number of times following when I would speak on this subject I would have to revise and somewhat enlarge the topics to enhance the understanding and interest of those hearing me. I have done so again.

Our Father in heaven,

As we begin this study we ask your blessings upon each of us that we might have within our hearts the right spirit, the spirit of Christ your Son. May the things said not create doubt, but increase faith in you. May we in our discourse not make enemies against you or against us, but may we make friends and if possible converts to your will. May we neither condemn, place blame or judgment on anyone, for only Jesus is the judge of us all. Nor, may we condone error simply for the sake of earthly peace. May we neither accuse unjustly nor excuse lightly, but help us to be fair and just while willing to explore, learn and understand. Help us to examine your will thoroughly and to understand completely. We ask for your forgiveness. In everything may your will be done. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Essential to your understanding of this study will be your participation by examining the scriptures referenced. I will probably be saying some things with which you agree, and maybe some things with which you disagree. At times, it may seem that I am challenging what God has done with these people. I assure you that I am not doing that, rather, I believe that God as Creator of everything has the absolute right to do whatever He wishes to whomever He wishes at whatever time He wishes. I have no right to challenge Him, and do not want to do so, or even appear to do so. I want the Bible, the will of God, to be the final authority in all things.

This study cannot be concluded in one session as indicated by the outline you have been given. It is a study that builds upon itself. I wish I could say that each session is a unit within itself, but that will not be the case. To get the greatest good from this study all of the sessions should be heard. If, for whatever reason, you find it necessary to miss a session I would highly recommend that you get the tape recording of the one missed and listen to it carefully.

In as fair a manner as is possible-- for me, I propose to present four sides of the Near East conflict: that of the Israelis, the Muslims, Christendom in general, and the Biblical. For several years I have studied and read the arguments for possession of the land of Palestine and believe I have a fair understanding of the current conflicts and their background. It is these conflict of opinions that precipitated the recent events in New York and Washington and that has been at the center of the problems in Palestine since the early sixties.

During this study I will be reading and quoting from the Bible, the Qur’an (It is frequently in English usage called the Koran), literature produced by the various sides and current newspaper and magazine articles as may be appropriate. As you may suppose, I have some specific opinions about this material which probably cannot be hidden from you; however, I hope this study will provoke investigation on your part and increase your desire to study the Bible.

Some people who are acquainted with the history of Islam believe most of the teachings originated with a man named Muhammad, son of ‘Abdullah and Aminah , born about 570-571 A.D.. When he was around forty years of age he received what he called his first revelation. These revelations continued over a period of twenty years. According to some scholars there were many additions and some corrections, none of which were ever personally written on paper by Muhammad who was evidently illiterate. There remains today a great debate over the authenticity of the present Qur’an and the many translations some of which came to be accepted as the "original" message from God.

Some terms you will be hearing need to be defined.

• Arab derives from the Semitic word root referring to "nomad."
• Islam means "separation". The word is also used to mean the whole of a system.
• Muslim is the Arabic word for "separator" or "one who has been separated".
• Mosque is the building where worship is conducted.
• Allah is the Arabic name for God.
• Arabs often refer to their scriptures as "al-Kitab" (the book) of Allah.

The term "Qur’an" in a literal sense means "recitation," or "readings." It is considered by parts of Islam a "concealed book" or a "well guarded tablet" that can only be understood when read in Arabic since no translations render the full meaning of the "revealed word of God."

The position of the Qur’an is stated in Surah (which translates "revelation" and generally is accepted as meaning chapter, or section). There are 114 Surahs in the Qur’an. Some background information regarding the Qur’an may be found in the book Islam (A concise, comprehensive analysis of Islam as a religion, as well as a system and ideology), by Caesar E. Farah, published by Barron’s , 1987.

According the Mr. Farah, "The sanctity of the Qur’an lies in the Muslim consideration of the text as the official word of God and of Muhammad as the appointed mouthpiece of God. Muhammad is said to have received the surahs from the archangel Gabriel, the go-between. The manner of transmission is known as "tanzil" (literally, causing to descend), that is from heaven, bits by bits, readings from the "prototype of scriptures," the original word which Jews and Christians previously had received through the aegis of prophets who like Muhammad had been commissioned to deliver God’s sacred message to mankind…this series of readings for which Muhammad was called upon by Gabriel to deliver to the Arabs, who hitherto had lacked a body of sacred text, was to be in Arabic, ‘the language of angels,’ as verified by the Qur’an." P. 80,81.

I want to share with you two translations of the two verses in the Qur’an supporting the view just quoted in order to illustrate the difficulty translating Arabic into English. Arabic, like Hebrew, is read right to left and front to back.

Surah 43:3-4

We have made it an Arabic Qur’an that you (Arabs) may see the truth. And it is truly in the mother of books (scriptures) with US (preserved), most exalted and wise.

Islam, by Caesar E. Farah, 4^th Ed.
Barron’s, New York, 1987, P. 81

Surely, We have made it an Arabic Qur’an that you may understand. And surely it is the original of the Book with Us (Arabs), truly elevated, full of wisdom.

Translated by M. H. Shakir
Tahrike Tarsile Qur’an, Inc. Publisher
Seventh Edition, 1999

The text was delivered to Muhammad piecemeal over a span of twenty years, none of which he personally wrote down. The memorized verses were not always repeated the same way, Muhammad stressing the content instead of the precise wording. It has been alleged that he himself often determined the order of verses during prayer sessions. This has led to problems with scholars being able to agree on a set wording for the text. The arrangement of the Surahs seems arbitrary, with the longer chapters being placed first and the shorter ones at the end. Thus, there does not seem to be any chronological order to the book.

Because the Qur’an was intended for oral recitation, the Surahs were organized into seven sections each called a "manzil". This arrangement is said to have taken place at the insistence of the Prophet himself in order to facilitate the reading of the Qur’an in a week’s time. The Qur’an as used today was not put into a final form until many years after Mohammad’s death and the inconclusive manner in which the narratives survive is often vague and sometimes in erroneous confusion. An example is given by Farah, on page 87.

In Surah 19:44

"…where Muhammad mistakes Miriam, Moses’ sister for Mary, Jesus’ mother, suggests that he derived his knowledge of these Biblical accounts and personalities either from uninformed sources or from informants, perhaps Monophysite Christians, whose views of their religion did not comport with the orthodox version of the same…His knowledge of the Scriptures, furthermore, though falling short of the expert’s, enabled him, at least to his own satisfaction, to meet the criticism of his Jewish adversaries in Medina; criticism which lapsed so strongly into derision that he could eliminate it only by uprooting the Jews from the city and its environs."

So, from the beginning of the religion, some 600 years after Christ’s ascension its teachings conflicted with that of the Jews that resulted in warfare between the three sides which has continued until today.

Most people who are Muslim accept the Qur’an as the inspired word of God as delivered directly to His prophet Muhammad. In fact, they go a step further in that they believe the Qur’an is the last word from God, since it came into being some 600 years after Christ, and that the book supercedes both the Old and the New Testament. This belief is the core of the problem between Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

The times when I quote from the Qur’an it will be to give its position on a subject and not because I subscribe to its teachings.

It has been my privilege to travel in several Muslim countries and to visit some of Islam’s great cities such as Cairo, Beirut, and Istanbul and to experience first hand the conflict between Muslims and "Christians" on the island of Cyprus and in the now occupied Israeli cities such as Hebron, Bethlehem, and the divided city of Jerusalem. Some of my observations I want to share with you.

The first problem is the land. Whose land is Palestine?

All people in the four sides of this problem having opinions about the land of Palestine accept Abraham of Ur as a real person, a prophet, and follower and a friend of God. Our study of necessity begins with the call of Abraham by God and the history of the people who were his descendents and how their lives affected people for centuries to come.

Promises to Abram

Please turn to Genesis 12. (Read Gen. 12:1-6).

Now the LORD had said to Abram:
        "Get out of your country,
        From your family
        And from your father's house,
        To a land that I will show you.
        ²I will make you a great nation;
        I will bless you
        And make your name great;
        And you shall be a blessing.
        ³I will bless those who bless you,
        And I will curse him who curses you;
        And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

⁴So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. ⁶Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh.^[1] And the Canaanites were then in the land.

The country Abram was leaving was the Semite territory of Ur and Haran in the Caldees. Here God promises Abram seven things for his obedience:

Notice that here God says for Abram to go to a land he will be shown. At this point, nothing is said about giving him this land. Look at who Abram took with him: his wife, Sarai; his nephew, Lot; and the people they had acquired in Haran (Semite people). Many times in our study of the scriptures we stop at the wrong place to get the full implication of the meaning. Look at verse 7:

"Then the Lord appear to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants will I give this land’. And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him."

At this point the land is promised to the descendents of Abram, not to him personally. Descendants can include a lot of people, as we will see in this study. We will also note that the seven promises God makes to Abraham do not necessarily include personal possession of the land promised.

God's Promise to Abram

Who are the descendants of Abram? Now turn to Gen. 15:1-5.

^{* 1} After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward."
²But Abram said, "Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" ³Then Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!"
⁴And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." ⁵Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."

Here Abram is proposing that Eliezer be his heir. It says he was "of Demascus"

That is Semite territory. Abram proposed an Arab as his heir. God refuses to accept that, saying the promise of an heir is coupled with the promise that Abram’s descendants will number more than he is able to count. These descendants are defined in verses 13-21 of Gen. 15.

Genesis 15
¹³Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred
years. ¹⁴And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. ¹⁵Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. ¹⁶But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."
¹⁷And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. ¹⁸On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying:
"To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates-- ¹⁹the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."

We know by hindsight that to possess this land the people had to take it. God’s instructions through Moses plainly states the descendants of Abraham must kill all the Semite people living in the land in order to possess it. Turn to Deut. 20:16-18.

Deuteronomy 20