History Theology

 The Book of Genesis - An Overview of its Narratives Arfad A. Razak 9 February 2025 Below is extracted from an upcoming thesis regarding the Bible. The book of Genesis (Hebrew ‘Be-resheet,’ which means ‘in the beginning’) is separated into two portions. Chapters 1 to 12 tells the story of the Primeval History. These are accounts that “transpired at the beginning of time” as Ehrman puts it (The Bible, 34). To this I would add that it also tells the story of the first humans at the garden of Eden (modern-day understanding of this is Heaven ), Adam and Eve, as well as the first groups of humans on earth (the story of the flood at Noah’s time). The second portion of Genesis, chapters 12 to 50, narrates the history of the Israelite’s ancestors. Here, we get the famous Biblical characters such as Abraham, Issac, Jacob, and Joseph. The book of Genesis begins with two stories of the creation of the world: Genesis 1: 1–2:4a; and 2:4b-3:24). In the first creation story, God created Light on...

  Being Dutiful to Our Parents Arfad A. Razak 2 February 2025   For your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him. And honour your parents. If one or both of them reach old age in your care, never say to them ˹even˺ ‘ugh,’ nor yell at them. Rather, address them respectfully (Qur’an 17:23) Worship Allah ˹alone˺ and associate none with Him. And be kind to parents, relatives, orphans, the poor, near and distant neighbours, close friends, ˹needy˺ travellers, and those ˹bondspeople˺ in your possession. Surely Allah does not like whoever is arrogant, boastful (Qur’an 4:36) Narrated Abu Umamah: A man said, “Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) what rights can parents demand from their children?” He replied, “They are your Paradise and your Hell.” (Al-Tirmidhi – Hadith 1277) Abu Huraira reported that a person said: Allah’s Messenger, who amongst the people is most deserving of my good treatment? He said: Your mother, again your mother, again your mother, the...

  Who were the First Recipients of Jesus’ “Good News”? Arfad A. Razak 30 January 2025   Who were the first recipients of the message Jesus preached to his community? Jesus of Nazareth was a man living in ancient Palestine, in the northern city of Nazareth, in Upper Galilee, where our historical records seem to suggest his mother, Mary, was from. Jesus also spends most of his childhood and early adult life there. It is well known, at least as it is reported by two of the New Testament Gospels that Jesus was born in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:1-2; Luke 2:11-12). However, the Gospel narrates Jesus as spending more time in upper Galilee compared to his birth city, in fact, according to Matthew’s Gospel, he settled in Capernaum (Matt. 4:12-14), which is “a town near the Sea of Galilee…It has been identified with Kefar Nahum (Tell Hum)” (Oxford Concise Dictionary of the Christian Church, 93). Galilee is a cosmopolitan city with multilingual atmosphere “whereby towns with Greco-Roman...

  The Logical Argument God is not Three Persons, One Being Arfad A. Razak 30 January 2025   In this short article, we explore the reasons behind why it is illogical for the nature of God to be “Three Persons, One Being,” more commonly known as the Trinity or the majority (majority, because there are a handful of Christian groups who do not believe in the Trinity, for example, the Unitarian) Christian Doctrine of the Trinity, in full. The argument of this article is that if God is “three” and “one” at the same time (however this may be understood), then whosoever believes in this cannot be considered a monotheist. We begin, obviously, with the presupposition that God is one in his nature and essence (this word is complicated for the Christians if they view it from a Trinitarian perspective, we will explore this word in its original Greek below). The nature of God cannot be three or two or more than one, after all, if the nature of God is more than one, that means ther...