DIVINE COVENANTS PROVE THE BIBLE AND EXPOSE THE QURAN
In this Post we are going to take a look at God’s covenants as recorded in the only place they are found which is His word.
Also for comparison we shall contrast how covenants are handled by the Quran. It’s giving no secrets away that the Quran, is found to be both morally deficient and factually wrong on the subject.
WHAT IS A COVENANT?
One important feature of Bible Covenants is that “Blood” and “covenant” go together in the Bible pretty much all the time. As we shall see, whenever God establishes a covenant with people, generally it is sealed with blood, one way or another. Spoiler alert – hence one reason why the Quran cannot handle them.
But to back up, firstly, we should start by explaining what this word “covenant” means, biblically speaking. In the Bible, a covenant is a relationship that God establishes with people. Covenants are initiated by God. This is one of many ways to distinguish God’s authentic word from copycat scripts such as the Quran. In the Bible, God takes the initiative. He makes the covenant promises. They are His doing, to reveal himself to man, to take a people unto himself, and to formally mark His faithfulness. “I shall be their God, and they shall be my people,” that’s how a familiar covenant refrain goes. In the Quran you only ever see Allah “taking a covenant” he is not their author, he is not bound by them and he has no obligations under them. Which pretty much makes them worthless.
It’s not hard to discern why under Islam, covenants have no meaning, when we understand what made covenants necessary. After the fall into sin, and ever since, man by nature is estranged from, and does not know God. Man fell out of relationship with God. On the outside, blinded, not knowing God as He really is, lost, and groping around in the dark. That is man’s natural state, by virtue of our sinful nature.
So if there is going to be a relationship between God and man, a right relationship, God is the one who is going to have to take the initiative. We would not know God otherwise. And God is the one who will have to take the action to deal with our sin, to atone for our sin, because surely there is nothing we could do to make up for it.
And so we have the inherent biblical connection between “blood” and “covenant.” “Covenant” is God reaching out to establish a relationship with man, and “blood” is how He does it. It’s how He seals the covenant. For “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.”
Here we need to digress slightly to understand why the shedding of blood was necessary. Two seminal texts:
“According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 9:22 HCSB) is an echo of a foundational principle of Levitical law:
The whole of the Old Testament, every book, points toward the Great Sacrifice that was to come—that of Jesus’ sacrificial giving of His own life on our behalf. Leviticus 17:11 is the Old Testament’s central statement about the significance of blood in the sacrificial system. God, speaking to Moses, declares:
“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your lives, since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement” [for the soul – KJV] (Leviticus 17:11 HCSB).
A “sacrifice” is defined as the offering up of something precious for a cause or a reason. Making atonement is satisfying someone or something for an offense committed. The Leviticus verse can be read more clearly now: God said, “I have given it to you (the creature’s life, which is in its blood) to make atonement for yourselves (covering the offense you have committed against Me).” In other words, those who are covered by the blood sacrifice are set free from the consequences of sin.
Of course, the Israelites did not know of Jesus per se, or how He would die on their behalf and then rise again, but they did believe God would be sending them a Savior. All of the many, many blood sacrifices seen throughout the Old Testament were foreshadowing the true, once-for-all-time sacrifice to come so that the Israelites would never forget that, without the blood, there is no forgiveness. This shedding of blood is a substitutionary act. Therefore, the last clause of Leviticus 17:11 could be read either “the blood ‘makes atonement’ at the cost of the life” (i.e., the animal’s life) or “makes atonement in the place of the life” (i.e., the sinner’s life, with Jesus Christ being the One giving life through His shed blood).
Now returning to the beginning, it has always been this way ever since the fall of man. When Adam and Eve fell into sin and fell out of a right relationship with God, what did God do immediately to restore the relationship? We have ‘blood and covenant’. God established a covenant of promise with mankind, promising that a Savior would arise from the seed of the woman, who would crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). And that promise then was sealed with blood, as God clothed Adam and Eve with the skins of animals, which had to be killed for that purpose. Adam and Eve tried to cover their own shame with fig leaves, but that could not do it. Only God could cover their shame and guilt, and He did it through the shedding of blood, providing substitutes to die in the place of the sinners.
Centuries later, the Lord God revealed himself to Abram, and established a covenant of promise with him. The Lord would bless Abram and make of him a great nation, and all the families of the earth would be blessed through his offspring. Yes, that covenant too was sealed with blood, circumcision serving as the sign of the covenant.
Abraham’s descendants fell into slavery in Egypt, but the Lord remembered his covenant and brought them out with a mighty hand. The Passover was how the Lord brought them out, and the Passover involved blood. The blood of the lamb, spread on the doorposts, was the sign marking the homes to be passed over by the angel of death.
The people of Israel come to Mount Sinai. The Lord makes a covenant with the people, mediated through Moses. The Lord gives them a special way of life they are to follow in the Promised Land, the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant. The people respond, “All that the Lord has spoken, we will do.” And the covenant was sealed with blood. Of course, the problem was, the Israelites didn’t do all that the Lord had spoken. They sinned, time and time again. They broke the covenant, the relationship the Lord had graciously established with them.
But God, in his grace and mercy, has provided for us a new covenant, and once again it is sealed with blood. Only it is not the blood of beasts. Our Passover is not the blood of a lamb spread on a doorpost. It is the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, shed on a cross. Jesus is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Our forgiveness comes at a cost, the greatest cost, the most precious price indeed. It is the holy precious blood of God’s own Son, shed for us–shed for you–sealing this, the fulfillment of all covenants.
Christ sheds his blood on the cross of Calvary, winning our forgiveness. He distributes this very blood to us in the sacramental meal He establishes on this night. He blesses the bread and says, “Take; this is My body.” He gives them his cup and says, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” And so it is. Jesus’ words do what they say. “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation–a koinonia, a communion–in the blood of Christ?” Yes, it is. “The bread that we break, is it not a participation–a koinonia, a communion–in the body of Christ?” Yes, it is. Jesus says so.
So we turn to the next question: “What are the covenants in the Bible?”
THE BIBLE’S COVENANTS
The Bible speaks of seven different covenants as follows:
1). The Adamic Covenant
2). The Abrahamic Covenant
3). The Palestinian (also known as the Land Covenant)
4). The Mosaic Covenant
5). The Noahic Covenant
6). The Davidic Covenant
7). The New Covenant
□ Four of the above (Abrahamic, Palestinian or Land covenant, Mosaic, Davidic) God made with the nation of Israel. Of those four, three are unconditional in nature; that is, regardless of Israel’s obedience or disobedience, God still will fulfill these covenants with Israel. One of the covenants, the Mosaic Covenant, is conditional in nature. That is, this covenant will bring either blessings or curses depending on Israel’s obedience or disobedience.
□ Three of the covenants (Adamic, Noahic, New) are made between God and mankind in general, and are not limited to the nation of Israel.
□ The Adamic Covenant can be thought of in two parts: the Edenic Covenant (innocence) and the Adamic Covenant (grace) (Genesis 3:16-19). The Edenic Covenant is found in Genesis 1:26-30; 2:16-17. The Edenic Covenant outlined man’s responsibility toward creation and God’s directive regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Adamic Covenant included the curses pronounced against mankind for the sin of Adam and Eve, as well as God’s provision for that sin (Genesis 3:15).
The Adamic covenant is the covenant between God and Adam (and Eve) where Adam was to tend the garden (Genesis 1:27-28) and refrain from eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:16-17). As long as he obeyed the covenant requirements, he would live. But if he were to disobey the covenant requirements, he would die.
Genesis 1:27–28, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. [28] God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””Genesis 2:16–17, “The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; [17] but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.'”
The word “covenant” is not used until Genesis 6:18 when God establishes a covenant with Noah and the word first occurs. Nevertheless, a covenant is a pact or an agreement between two or more parties. Covenants have conditions and stipulations with consequences for breaking the stipulations. In the case of the Adamic covenant, eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was the condition and breaking it would bring death. Keeping the covenant would mean living forever. Therefore, we can establish the Adamic covenant. Furthermore, covenants have signs in biblical theology. The covenant sign between God and Adam was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The Adamic covenant is sometimes called the covenant of nature, the covenant of creation, and the covenant of works because the blessings of the covenant depended, in part, upon the works of Adam and Eve in the Garden.
In the Adamic covenant, Adam represented all people. The phrase “in Adam” is a term of federal headship which designates that he was our representative. This is why the Bible says that sin entered the world through one man (Romans 5:12). Furthermore, the Bible tells us that “in Adam all die…” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Therefore, the Adamic covenant was not just with Adam, but is also representative of those who were in him, his descendants.
The Adamic Covenant was established between God and Adam that required obedience to the commandment of God, to result in eternal life (Genesis 2:16–17; Leviticus 18:5; Romans 5:12–20). The covenant signs were the trees of life and of knowledge.” (Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms). Another evidence that the covenant relationship with God in the garden included a promise of eternal life if Adam and Eve had perfectly obeyed is the fact that even in the New Testament Paul speaks as though perfect obedience, if it were possible, would actually lead to life. He speaks of a “commandment which promised life” (Romans 7: 10; lit., “the commandment unto life”) and, in order to demonstrate that the law does not rest on faith, he quotes Leviticus 18: 5 to say, about the provisions of the law, “He who does them shall live by them” (Galatians 3: 12; cf. Romans 10:5).”
After Adam failed to keep the covenant, God instituted the covenant of grace which was the covenant of redemption found in Christ Jesus.
□ The Noahic Covenant was an unconditional covenant between God and Noah (specifically) and humanity (generally). After the Flood, God promised humanity that He would never again destroy all life on earth with a Flood (see Genesis chapter 9). God gave the rainbow as the sign of the covenant, a promise that the entire earth would never again flood and a reminder that God can and will judge sin (2 Peter 2:5).
□ The Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 12:1-3, 6-7; 13:14-17; 15; 17:1-14; 22:15-18). In this covenant, God promised many things to Abraham. He personally promised that He would make Abraham’s name great (Genesis 12:2), that Abraham would have numerous physical descendants (Genesis 13:16), and that he would be the father of a multitude of nations (Genesis 17:4-5). God also made promises regarding a nation called Israel. In fact, the geographical boundaries of the Abrahamic Covenant are laid out on more than one occasion in the book of Genesis (12:7; 13:14-15; 15:18-21). Another provision in the Abrahamic Covenant is that the families of the world will be blessed through the physical line of Abraham (Genesis 12:3; 22:18). This is a reference to the Messiah, who would come from the line of Abraham.
□ Palestinian Covenant (Deuteronomy 30:1-10). The Palestinian Covenant, or, as it is more accurately described, the Land Covenant, amplifies the land aspect that was detailed in the Abrahamic Covenant. According to the terms of this covenant, if the people disobeyed, God would cause them to be scattered around the world (Deuteronomy 30:3-4), but He would eventually restore the nation (verse 5). When the nation is restored, then they will obey Him perfectly (verse 8), and God will cause them to prosper (verse 9).
□ Mosaic Covenant (Deuteronomy 11; et al.). The Mosaic Covenant was a conditional covenant that either brought God’s direct blessing for obedience or God’s direct cursing for disobedience upon the nation of Israel. Part of the Mosaic Covenant was the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) and the rest of the Law, which contained over 600 commands—roughly 300 positive and 300 negative. The history books of the Old Testament (Joshua–Esther) detail how Israel succeeded at obeying the Law or how Israel failed miserably at obeying the Law. Deuteronomy 11:26-28 details the blessing/cursing motif.
□ Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7:8-16). The Davidic Covenant amplifies the “seed” aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant. The promises to David in this passage are significant. God promised that David’s lineage would last forever and that his kingdom would never pass away permanently (verse 16). Obviously, the Davidic throne has not been in place at all times. There will be a time, however, when someone from the line of David will again sit on the throne and rule as king. This future king is Jesus (Luke 1:32-33).
□ New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34). The New Covenant is a covenant made first with the nation of Israel and, ultimately, with all mankind. In the New Covenant, God promises to forgive sin, and there will be a universal knowledge of the Lord. Jesus Christ came to fulfill the Law of Moses (Matthew 5:17) and create a new covenant between God and His people. Now that we are under the New Covenant (Matthew 26:28), both Jews and Gentiles can be free from the penalty and the curse of the Law. We are now given the opportunity to receive salvation as a free gift (Ephesians 2:8-9).
DISCUSSION
Within the discussion of the biblical covenants, there are a few issues that Christians are not agreed upon. First, some Christians think that all of the covenants are conditional in scope. If the covenants are conditional, then Israel failed miserably at fulfilling them. Others believe that the unconditional covenants have yet to be totally fulfilled and, regardless of Israel’s disobedience, will come to fruition sometime in the future. Second, how does the church of Jesus Christ relate to the covenants? Some believe that the church fulfills the covenants and God will never deal with Israel again. This is called replacement theology and has little scriptural evidence. Others believe that the church initially or partially will fulfill these covenants. While many of the promises towards Israel are still in the future, many believe that the church shares in the covenants in some way. Others believe that the covenants are for Israel and for Israel alone, and that the church has no part in these covenants. But for the purposes of this Post nothing turns on these differing interpretations.
□ The Quran’s Position
The Quran actually teaches that the Promised Land which Israel was to inherit was Egypt! Before presenting the evidence for this we need to first mention that the words ‘Canaan’, ‘Israel’ (the land, not the people), ‘Judea’ or ‘Jerusalem’ never appear in the Quran, which is truly bewildering and astonishing to say the least.
When the Quran does speak of Israel’s inheritance it simply refers to the land or city which God gave them. For instance:
“And (remember) when Moses said unto his people: O my people! Remember Allah’s favour unto you, how He placed among you prophets, and He made you kings, and gave you that (which) He gave not to any (other) of (His) creatures. O my people! Go into the holy land which Allah hath ordained for you. Turn not in flight, for surely ye turn back as losers: They said: O Moses! Lo! a giant people (dwell) therein and lo! we go not in till they go forth from thence. When they go forth from thence, then we will enter (not till then). Then out spake two of those who feared (their Lord, men) unto whom Allah had been gracious: Enter in upon them by the gate, for if ye enter by it, lo! ye will be victorious. So put your trust (in Allah) if ye are indeed believers. They said: O Moses! We will never enter (the land) while they are in it. So go thou and thy Lord and fight! We will sit here. He said: My Lord! I have control of none but myself and my brother, so distinguish between us and the wrong-doing folk. (Their Lord) said: For this the land will surely be forbidden them for forty years that they will wander in the earth, bewildered. So grieve not over the wrongdoing folk.” (Surah 5:20-26 Pickthall)
The text doesn’t identify exactly where this holy land was situated, who these giants were, or which two men feared their Lord. So much for an all sufficient book.The only way to know the answers is to go outside of the Quran and consult the Bible. (See Numbers 13:1-3 & 17-33)
As an aside the Quran in Surah 5:20 contains a schoolboy howler, gross error since it has Moses speaking of Israel’s kings when in fact Israel had no kings until centuries later during the time of Samuel.
Sticking strictly with the Quran itself and taking into consideration all the references to the Exodus of Israel then it becomes apparent that the author(s) thought that the land given to Israel wasn’t Jerusalem or Canaan but Egypt!
“And WE revealed to Moses, directing him, ‘Take away MY servants by night, you will surely be pursued.’ And Pharaoh sent summoners into the cities, announcing, ‘These are a small party, Yet they have offended us; And we are a multitude fully prepared and vigilant.’ So WE turned them out of gardens and springs, And treasures and an abode of honour. Thus it was; and WE gave them as heritage to the children of Israel.” (Surah 26:52-59 Sher Ali)
The foregoing verses indicate that the Israelites were made the inheritors of Egypt right after the destruction of Pharaoh and his armies in the sea. The Egyptians were “turned out” and their gardens were given to the children of Israel. The next citations support this position:
“They said: We have been persecuted before you came to us and since you have come to us. He said: It may be that your Lord will destroy your enemy and make you rulers in the land, then He will see how you act. And certainly We overtook Firon’s people with droughts and diminution of fruits that they may be mindful.” (Surah 7:129-130 Shakir)
“Therefore We inflicted retribution on them and drowned them in the sea because they rejected Our signs and were heedless of them. And We made the people who were deemed weak to inherit the eastern land and the western ones which We had blessed; and the good word of your Lord was fulfilled in the children of Israel because they bore up (sufferings) patiently; and We utterly destroyed what Firon and his people had wrought and what they built.” (Surah 7:136-137)
When taking these passages together as a unit (which we must seeing that they are all part of the same context) then the conclusion is that Israel was given the eastern and western parts of Egypt and became rulers of it.
Probably the most damning passage which links Egypt with the Promised Land is Surah 2:61: (caps for emphasis)
“And when you said, ‘Moses, we will not endure one sort of food; pray to thy Lord for us, that He may bring forth for us of that the earth produces-green herbs, cucumbers, corn, lentils, onions.’ He said, ‘Would you have in exchange what is meaner for what is better? Get you down to EGYPT (misra); you shall have there that you demanded.’ And abasement and poverty were pitched upon them, and they were laden with the burden of God’s anger; that, because they had disbelieved the signs of God and slain the Prophets unrightfully; that, because they disobeyed, and were transgressors.” (Surah 2:61 Arberry)
Other translations of 2.61 give a variety of alternatives for ‘misr’ (obscuring the plain fact that the Quranic term for Egypt is ‘misra’). Without rehearsing them all the Khalifa translation mentions Egypt, Pickthall mentions “settled country”, Shakir simply says “city”, Sherali “some town”, and vaguest of all Yusuf Ali “any town” (You really couldn’t make it up!)
□ The major Quran errors and contradictions — historical, logical, and theological
The promise: In the Bible God promised Abraham that his descendants will become a nation and that God will give them the land of Canaan as their possession (Genesis 12:7, 13:14-17, 15:7-21, 17:7-8). This promise is repeated to Isaac (Genesis 26:3), and to Jacob (Genesis 28:13, 35:12), and again confirmed by God through Moses (Exodus 3:8, 16-17, 13:5, 23:23, 33:2, 34:11, Deuteronomy 7:1, etc.), who also led Israel out of Egypt up to the borders of Canaan. The Quran contradicts this consistent and oft-repeated promise in the Torah by making Egypt the land promised to the Children of Israel. This the Quran contradicts the Bible by making the wrong promise.
□ The historical facts: All evidence of history and archeology shows that the Children of Israel / the Jews lived in the land of Israel (former Canaan). The Quran contradicts historical fact in claiming that God gave Israel the land of Egypt.
□ The logical contradiction: The Quran contradicts itself when it claims in some passages that Israel took over the land of the Egyptians immediately after the Egyptians were defeated and drowned, but in Surah 5:26 it says that the Israelites had to wander about in the wilderness for 40 years before they could enter the promised land.
□ The theological problem: If Allah promised Egypt to the Children of Israel (as the Quran claims), but in the end they got Canaan instead (which is historical fact), this means that Allah wasn’t able to fulfill his promise. Small wonder Allah only takes covenants and does not make them. He cannot be trusted to keep them.
It is apparent from all of these gross errors and major difficulties that the Quran simply collapses when it is compared to the solemn covenant promises in the Bible.
The Quran’s claim that the land promised to Israel was Egypt is without doubt a monumental error. However, whether it was simply the ignorance of Muhammad which led to this error, or was this false claim introduced intentionally is a question beyond the scope of this post. But there is worse still.
□ Allah does not make or give covenants, He TAKES them.
Even Surah 2:40 which is at best reciprocating, places no unconditional obligations on Allah:
“O Children of Israel, remember My favor, which I bestowed upon you, and fulfill your part of the covenant, that I fulfill My part of the covenant, and reverence Me.” (Surah 2:40)
“And remember the time when Allah TOOK A COVENANT from the people through the Prophets, saying, ‘Whatever I give you of the Book and Wisdom and then there comes to you a Messenger, fulfilling that which is with you, you shall believe in him and help him.’ And He said, ‘Do you agree, and do you accept the responsibility which I lay upon you in this matter?’ They said, ‘We agree.’ He said, ‘Then bear witness and I am with you among the witnesses.’ (Surah 3:82)
“And call to mind when We took from the Prophets their covenant, and from thee, and from Noah and Abraham, and Moses and Jesus, son of Mary, and We indeed, TOOK FROM THEM A SOLEMN COVENANT;” (Surah 33:8)
“Why is it that you believe not in Allah, while the Messenger calls you to believe in your Lord, and He has already TAKEN A COVENANT FROM YOU, if indeed you are believers?” (Surah 57:9)
Now bearing in mind that Allah not only has no problem with Muslims dishonouring their oaths, he has ordained it, (Surah 66:2) one has to wonder what value covenants have in event under Islam, especially when Allah is only a beneficiary and not a party to such unilateral covenants. Moreover there is nothing to “seal” a single covenant mentioned in the Quran, least of all the idea of a blood sacrifice, and no wonder, for “shedding of blood for forgiveness of sins” is a Biblical doctrine which taken to its logical conclusion in Christ’s atoning blood sacrifice, is totally absent in the Quran and destroys Islam’s reason to exist.
Unlike the Bible, the Quran contains not a single unilateral covenant promise from Allah to do anything! Basically he is not in the business of making promises that obligate him, he is only a beneficiary of covenant obligations made by other people.
This is just one of many proofs we have that prove the god of Islam is not the God of the Bible.
Contrast with the Bible covenants especially those with Israel and we have proof that the Bible is the word of God. His covenants with Israel remain intact and abiding. In Israel’s weak position as a small isolated nation surrounded by enemy states, God continues to show His strength and faithfulness. Amen.
Whenever a Christian partakes of the Lord’s Supper, the communion meal of bread and wine, this is a solemn occasion of remembrance looking back and being reminded of what it cost our Lord and Savior and how we depend upon the cleansing of His freely shed blood. But it is as well, a meal of promise. It is a foreshadowing of the heavenly banquet, the marriage feast of the Lamb, in His kingdom when at last we shall eat and drink, not in His physical absence, but in His presence. All of God’s good covenant promises point us towards that final glorious destination. There are no such promises in Islam. Islam’s god thought he had got himself off the hook by avoiding making promises, but then his mask slipped when he foolishly boasted of being the best of deceivers, which is a sure sign of his true identity.
Make no mistake: The only promise that Islam offers is a pact with the devil.
Get Outlook for Android<aka.ms/AAb9ysg>