we will compare the Qur'an's "deception" with biblical yhwistic style
deception.
Remember in thy dream Allah showed them as a few: if he had showed
them to thee as many, ye would surely have been discouraged, and ye
would surely have disputed in your decision: but Allah saved you: for
He knoweth well the (secrets) of (all) hearts. S. 8:43
Allah comforted them, and made it appear to the Muslims that they were
not that many, and that the Muslims were indeed the stronger side.
Allah was simply helping the Muslims out, Allah simply wanted his
believers to triumph over his enemies, so he comforted them and as a
result the Muslims were victorious. Had Allah not comforted them
something terrible would have happened, and the Muslims would have
lost, and the enemies of God would have prevailed.
Allah did not make the enemies number seem less to CAUSE HARM AND
DEATH AMONG MUSLIMS.
"Then what is the matter with you that you are divided into two
parties about the hypocrites? Allah has cast them back (to disbelief)
because of WHAT THEY HAVE EARNED. Do you want to guide him whom Allah
has made to go astray? And he whom Allah has made to go astray, you
will never find for him any way (of guidance)."( 4:88)
were they cast back to disbelief because they earned the pleasure of
Allah? or did they fulfill the condition of earning evil and causing
harm to the people of Allah?
in the bible yhwh DECIEVES the children of israel to CAUSE HARM TO
THEM AND LOSS
Another problem passage concerns the intertribal dispute between
Israel and the Benjamites. Outraged at the rape and murder of a
Levite's concubine at Gibeah by a group of Benjamite homo***uals, the
other Israelites demanded that the tribe of Benjamin deliver up to
them the "base fellows" who had done this thing so that they could be
put to death (Judges 20:12-13).
When the Benjamite leaders refused the demand, the Israelites took an
army of 400,000 against the Benjamites, who numbered only 26,700. It
looked as if it were going to be a complete rout, so the Israelites,
apparently seeing no need to send their entire army out to battle,
went up to Bethel to ask "counsel of God":
Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of
Benjamin? And Yahweh said, Judah shall go up first (20:18).
Well, Judah did go up first, and lost 22,000 men in a resounding
defeat! So what happened here? The Israelites had asked counsel of
Yahweh, and he told them to send Judah out to battle first. One would
have to be completely idiotic to think that the Israelites had asked
"counsel of Yahweh" to find out which army to deploy in order to be
defeated. Obviously, they wanted to know what army would secure a
victory for them. So if anything like what is related in this story
ever happened, we can conclude only one of two things: (1) Yahweh
deceived the Israelites into thinking the forces of Judah could win
the battle or (2) Yahweh is not omniscient.
But this story didn't end with the defeat of the Judean army. In
great
distress, "the children of Israel went up and wept before Yahweh
until
evening; and they asked of Yahweh, saying, Shall I again draw near to
battle against the children of Benjamin my brother?" And what answer
did they receive? "And Yahweh said, Go up against him" (v:23). So on
this "counsel" from Yahweh, the Israelites went to battle the next
day, and this time the Benjamites "destroyed down to the ground of the
children of Israel again eighteen thousand men" (vv:24-25).
In profound anguish, the Israelites had asked their god Yahweh if
they
should again go to battle against the Benjamites, and he told them to
go. If that was not deception, then someone should explain why it
wasn't.
If I absolutely knew that John Jones had infallible ability to look
into the future and see what was going to happen and, knowing that, I
asked him if I should buy stock in company A, would Jones be guilty of
deception and lying if he said, "Yes, buy it," and then, after I had
bought the stock, the company went bankrupt?
GO AND DECIEVE
1 Kings 22:19-23: Then Micaiah said, "Therefore hear the word of
Yahweh: I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, with all the host of
heaven standing beside him to the right and to the left of him. And
Yahweh said, 'Who will entice Ahab, so that he may go up and fall at
Ramoth-gilead?' Then one said one thing, and another said another,
until a spirit came forward and stood before Yahweh saying, 'I will
entice him.' 'How?' Yahweh asked him. He replied, 'I will go out and
be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' Then Yahweh
said,
'You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; GO OUT AND DO IT.' So
you see, Yahweh has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your
prophets; Yahweh has decreed disaster for you"
>From the heavenly host around his throne, Yahweh asked for volunteers
to propose a plan by which Ahab could be enticed to go up and fall at
Ramoth-gilead. One suggested one thing and another still another,
until "a spirit" came forward with a plan to go forth as a lying
spirit in the mouths of Ahab's prophets. In response to this, Yahweh
said to the spirit, "Go out and do it." Does this sound as if Yahweh
was doing nothing but allowing Ahab to be deceived by the lying
spirit
in the mouths of his prophets? No, it doesn't. It specifically says
that Yahweh commanded the spirit to "go out and do it." Furthermore,
this story has the prophet Micaiah concluding the recital of his
vision with this statement: "So you see, the LORD (Yahweh) has put a
lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets." He did not say
that Yahweh had allowed a lying spirit to enter the mouths of Ahab's
prophets; he clearly said that Yahweh himself had put the lying
spirit
into their mouths. That would have made Yahweh an active participant
in the deception.
If I actively enlisted the help and advice of friends on how I could
lure Tom to invest money in a con game that would bilk him of his
savings, would I be a guilty party to the deception and fraud if I
later ordered one of these friends to carry out the deception? Or
could it be said that I had only allowed Tom to believe the
deception?
The vision implied that Yahweh, the alleged creator of the universe,
couldn't think of a way to entice Ahab to go to Ramoth-gilead, so he
had to enlist the help of the heavenly host around his throne. One
would think that these heavenly beings would have been exceptionally
intelligent creatures, but, like Yahweh, they themselves seemed
momentarily stumped. One proposed this, another proposed that, until
finally an enterprising "spirit" came forth and volunteered to become
a lying spirit in the mouths of Ahab's prophets. Yahweh liked the plan
and commanded this "spirit" to go do it. The whole idea was to deceive
Ahab into going to his doom at Ramoth-gilead. So if the plan was to
work, one would think that secrecy would have been of the utmost
im****tance, yet right in the middle of the conspiracy, while the
prophets who were under the influence of the "lying spirit" were
telling Ahab that victory was assured if he decided to go up to
Ramoth- gilead, along came Micaiah to blow the whistle on the plan.
Yahweh had gone to great lengths to come up with a plan, and then
right in the middle of its execution, he let one of his own prophets
come onto the scene and give it away. This makes Yahweh look like an
absolute nincompoop, and anyone who could believe the story has to be
an even bigger nincompoop.
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