Education

The Canaanite Woman: When Desperation Became Faith

The encounter between Jesus and the Canaanite woman is repeatedly approached through the wrong question: why was Jesus unwilling to help her?

That question assumes the very thing that needs examining. A request that brings no immediate healing does not establish unwillingness in Jesus. The Gospels already identify another obstacle: lack of faith in those approaching him.

At Nazareth, Mark says:

“He could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. He marveled because of their unbelief.”

— Mark 6:5–6

The Equalizer: The Rich Man and Lazarus Before Judgment

The story of the rich man and Lazarus is often read as a picture of final judgment. Yet the story itself does not describe final judgment at all. There is no resurrection of the dead, no gathering before the Judge, no examination of deeds, and no final verdict. Both men are dead, but the final judgment has not yet happened. They are in an intermediate condition.

The Pedagogical Role of God in Revelation

Every theology must answer a fundamental question: when Scripture says, "God said," whose voice are we actually hearing? Is it the Father speaking directly? Is it the Son? Or does revelation itself employ a literary form through which divine truth is communicated?

Matthew 6:7: The Our Father Is Not a More Effective Way to Get What One Wants

Jesus Does Not Offer a Better Bid

It is commonly assumed that Jesus criticizes pagan prayer because pagans are using an ineffective religious technique. They use too many words, so their prayers fail; Christians, by contrast, are supposed to use fewer, purer, more correct words, and then prayer will work properly.

But this cannot be the meaning.

If Only I Had Been There at the Miʿrāj

Part 1.

Sometimes I find myself imagining a rather unusual thing.

I imagine that I was standing there instead of prophet Muhammad during the story of the Miʿrāj. God speaks and says, "Fifty prayers each day."

Everyone else seems relieved that the number was reduced.

I cannot help wondering whether I would have reacted in exactly the opposite way.

I honestly think I would have asked for sixty.

Not because I enjoy collecting obligations. Not because I believe that more prayers somehow earn more points with God. Quite the contrary.

The Doctrine of Worship

One of the most misunderstood questions in religion concerns the purpose of worshipping God. Many people assume that worship is something God requires from human beings, as if the Creator had fashioned humanity in order to receive praise. This idea leads critics to ask a familiar question: why would a perfect and self-sufficient God need validation from His own creatures?

The question arises from a mistaken assumption about the nature of worship.

The Qur’an states:

“I did not create jinn and mankind except that they worship Me.” (51:56)
— Qur'an

Two Ways of Nearness: The Household of the Word

I. One Light, Two Postures

Throughout history the divine Word has addressed humanity in different idioms.
Christianity receives the Word as incarnate—God drawing near in personal intimacy.
Islam receives the Word as revealed—God speaking with majestic authority.
The contrast is not opposition but angle: the same sun viewed from two horizons.

Objections to the Educational Interpretation of Jesus' End-Time Warnings — and My Replies

Objection 1: "You are turning prophecy into mere rhetoric."

If Jesus was not primarily predicting future events, then his warnings about the nearness of the end become little more than persuasive rhetoric. This strips prophecy of its supernatural character and reduces it to a teaching technique.

My Reply

Not at all.

The objection assumes that prophecy has value only when it provides information unavailable through ordinary means.

But the greatest prophets were not merely transmitters of hidden information. They were reformers of hearts.

Was Jesus really providing a calendar of future events?

PART I.

What I am proposing is that the value of the prophecy lies primarily in its transformative function, not in its role as a chronological forecast.

In my framework, the question is not:

"Was Jesus providing a calendar of future events?"

but rather:

"What was Jesus trying to produce in the hearts and minds of his listeners?"

From that perspective, warnings about an imminent end become understandable as educational tools.

Why Jesus Spoke as Though the End Were Near

One of the most persistent difficulties in Christian theology concerns Jesus' statements about the nearness of the end. Reading the Gospels plainly, one cannot escape the impression that Jesus spoke with tremendous urgency. The Kingdom was at hand. Judgment was approaching. The Son of Man was coming. The time to repent was now.

Many readers therefore arrive at an uncomfortable conclusion: if the end did not arrive when people expected it, then perhaps Jesus was mistaken.

Education