Isaiah 29's Misuse by Mormons and Muslims

The Importance of Old Testament Background

One of the greatest areas of difficulty for many modern Christians in the Church is the fact that very few of us have much background in the Old Testament, especially in the historical background of the Old Testament.

As a result, people often misuse, in fact I would say abuse, the text of the Old Testament, and we are rarely in a position to give a meaningful rebuttal. I would like to look in this video at just such a misuse of Isaiah chapter 29, interestingly enough by two very different religious groups for very different purposes, and yet they use the same text and make many of the same errors in the abuse of the text.

Isaiah 29 as a Woe Oracle Against Jerusalem

It's Isaiah chapter 29, and let's take a look at what it says. This is one of the woe oracles, it begins with woe, that term again appears in verse 15. This is an oracle in regards to Jerusalem. Woe, O Ariel, Ariel the city where David once camped!

Add year to year, observe your feasts on schedule. I will bring distress to Ariel, and she will be a city of lamenting and mourning, and she will be like an Ariel to me. I will camp against you, encircling you, and I will set siege works against you, and I will raise up battle towers against you.

Then you will be brought low, from the earth you will speak, and from the dust where you are prostrate your words will come. Your voice will also be like that of a spirit from the ground, and your speech will whisper from the dust.

But the multitude of your enemies will become like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like the chaff which blows away, and it will happen instantly, suddenly. From the Lord of hosts, that's Yahweh of hosts, you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, with whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.

And the multitude of all the nations who wage war against Ariel, even all who wage war against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night. It will be as when a hungry man dreams, and behold he is eating, but when he awakes his hunger is not satisfied.

Or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold he is drinking, but when he awakes, behold he is faint, and his thirst is not quenched. Thus the multitude of all nations will be who wage war against Mount Zion.

Be delayed and wait. Blind yourselves and be blind. They become drunk, but not with wine. They stagger, but not with strong drink. For Yahweh has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes, the prophets, and he has covered your heads, the seers.

The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, Please read this, he will say, I cannot, for it is sealed. Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, Please read this, and he will say, I cannot read.

Then the Lord said, Because this people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from me, and their reverence for me consists of tradition learned by rote.

Therefore, behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed. The first context in which I saw Isaiah 29 misused was that of Mormonism.

Many, many years ago, when I first began to deal with the LDS people, I encountered in the writings of the LDS leadership, especially in the writings of the Apostle LeGrand Richards, the assertion that Isaiah chapter 29 is fulfilled in the ministry of Joseph Smith.

Two sections of Isaiah 29 are referred to. The first in verses 4 through 5, especially verse 4, in the King James Version, it refers to one who has a familiar spirit. The New American Standard, which I was citing, says, Then you will be brought low, from the earth you will speak, and from the dust where you are prostrate your words will come.

Your voice will be like that of a spirit from the ground, and your speech will whisper from the dust. Now, interestingly enough, LeGrand Richards, a man who claims to be an apostle, in his book A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, pages 67 to 68, which, at least back when I was first studying Mormonism in the very early 1980s, about 1982, was pretty much required reading for each of the missionaries before they went out.

On pages 67 to 68 of A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, he says, They would be brought down and would speak out of the ground. Their speech would be low out of the dust. Their voice would be as one that hath a familiar spirit out of the ground, and their speech would whisper out of the dust.

Now, obviously, here's his words, the only way a dead people could speak out of the ground or low out of the dust would be by the written word. And this the people did through the Book of Mormon. Truly it has a familiar spirit, for it contains the words of the prophets of the God of Israel.

Now, if you know anything about the Old Testament, you know that a familiar spirit is a demonic spirit. Those with a familiar spirit are to be stoned. And evidently this apostle was unaware of this basic fundamental truth.

But also, the very same text we'll be looking at in just a moment, verse 11, The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, Please read this, he will say, I cannot, for it is sealed.

Then the book will be given to one who is illiterate, saying, Please read this, and he will say, I cannot read. This likewise is used by the Mormons in reference to an incident in the life of Joseph Smith where he allegedly copied from the golden plates called the Anthon manuscript or transcript.

And he takes these symbols that he has written out to a learned man and asks if he can translate them. And the man says, I cannot translate them. And they attach this then to Isaiah chapter 29 as being a part of the prophecies of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.

Obviously, that's not exactly what the text is talking about. But let's look back at the text and let's consider what in fact it actually is saying. As we can see by looking at the text, this is a judgment oracle, a woe oracle.

But it is not all judgment because it also includes the promise of the destruction of those nations that were at that time attacking Jerusalem as well. So just as we see in Isaiah chapter 10 where God brings the Assyrians as a means of punishing his people, then punishes the Assyrians, we have a similar situation here.

The judgment that comes upon Jerusalem and being brought low in muttering is also in reference to the prophets. You will notice that the prophets are very often in the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel.

They are the brunt of the judgment of God because they themselves were prophesying falsely. And Isaiah then begins to not reflect so much upon his own experience but in looking at how his message has been received, which as you recall in Isaiah chapter 6, he was told that God would make the spirit of the people to be less receptive, their ears to be thick, their hearts to be hard.

And Isaiah is indeed experiencing this as the people rebel against his message. And so you'll notice beginning in verse 9, Be delayed and wait, blind yourselves and be blind. They become drunk, but not with wine.

They stagger, but not with strong drink. For the Lord, Yahweh, has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes, the prophets, and he has covered your heads, the seers. So note, prophets and seers are here being prophesied against and they are not able to see.

They are not able to understand. This is the context of the key verse we're going to look at in a moment in regards to not understanding the book being sealed, etc., etc. But please notice, to demand that these have a particular application to someone after the time of Isaiah is to go beyond what the text itself says.

He's referring to prophets who were prophesying against Isaiah and were prophesying peace and prosperity when there was none. And he is saying that they had poured over them a spirit of deep sleep. Now if you were to ask, well, who is this who shut their eyes?

Give us a fulfillment. Well, there isn't a specific fulfillment. We don't know the specific names of the exact people being referred to here, nor do we need to know that. When it says he has covered your heads, the seers, what he's saying is at this time God has brought judgment upon Jerusalem and the people as a result are following after false prophets, false seers who can't see anything.

They have no word from the Lord. That then is the context that you have in Isaiah 29 .11. The entire vision, which may be all of Isaiah's prophecy or maybe just a vision in regards to Jerusalem, but the entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book.

Well, what are the words of a sealed book? If you have a book, and this was back in the days when you would be able to lock it closed in such a way that it could not be read, well, what are those words to you?

Well, you don't know what they are. You don't know what they mean. The book is sealed so that you cannot get hold of those words and read them. And so it says the entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, please read this, he will say, I cannot, for it is sealed.

So the literate person might refer to the professional prophets, the scribes or someone like that, but it's someone who has learned letters literally in the Hebrew language. When you hand him the sealed book and say, please read this, if he can't unseal it, he says, well, I can't, for it is sealed.

This sealing refers back to that spirit of sleep that has been placed upon the prophets and upon the seers, so they can neither prophesy nor see. Then, the key verse, verse 12, then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, please read this, and he will say, I cannot read.

In other words, there is no one in Jerusalem who is going to have understanding of these things. This is the fulfillment even of the commissioning of Isaiah, back in Isaiah chapter 6, and here you have all the people, literate and illiterate.

This book, this vision, is not available to them. God has not seen it appropriate to open their hearts and minds to understand the vision that Isaiah has prophesied to them. This is a part of God's punishment and God's judgment upon them.

So, for someone to say, well, who's the literate man? And to say, this must be a prophecy of someone hundreds, even maybe like, oh, 1 ,300 years later, in another land, in another context. No, that wouldn't be the case at all.

There is not some named fulfillment of who the literate person is. And in the same way, when it refers to the one who is illiterate, this is not a specific person. This is a generic use. Just as literate referred to anybody who would be literate in Jerusalem, illiterate would be anyone who is illiterate in Jerusalem, which would be a large portion of the people.

And so, to ask, well, who is this illiterate person? Tell me who it is, is to completely miss the context and meaning of the prophecy of Isaiah itself. When it says that he is illiterate, the literal Hebrew is, he is not learned in letters.

A Muslim Appeal to Isaiah 29 and the Claim About Muhammad

So, with the real meaning of the text in mind, let's listen to a presentation made by Adnan Rashid in a Speaker's Corner debate, Hyde Park, London, on the subject of alleged prophecies concerning Muhammad in the Bible.

And specifically, Adnan's utilization of Isaiah chapter 29, this very text, as a prophecy concerning Muhammad.

Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. الذين يتبعون الرسول النبي الأمي الذين يجدونه مكتوبا عندهم في الدورات والإنجيل. The Quran, in Surah 7, verse number 157, makes a claim those who follow the messenger, the prophet who can neither read nor write, the prophet who can neither read nor write, whom they find mentioned with them in Torah and in the Gospels.

Now Quran, in the 7th century Arabia, is making a claim that Prophet Muhammad as an illiterate prophet, as an unlettered prophet, is mentioned in the Bible. Now, this is a claim Quran is making. I as a Muslim, as an open-minded Muslim, I would like to substantiate that claim from the Bible.

I want to see whether that is true or not. So I look into Bible, finding whether Muhammad is mentioned in the Bible as an illiterate prophet or not. So when I find a passage, I get shocked, I get amazed whether this is referring to the same unlettered prophet or not.

I take you to the book of Isaiah, chapter 29, verse number 12 and I will read it from the King James Version. Book of Isaiah, chapter 29, verse 12. I know it by heart, but I will read it for your convenience.

The questions and the book, now listen to me carefully, and the book is delivered to him that is not learned. The book is delivered to him that is not learned saying, read this, I pray thee, and he says, I am not learned.

I am not learned. Now, I draw your attention to the history of Islam. If you go to the book of Bukhari, chapter regarding revelation, how Prophet Muhammad revealed the revelation, there is a hadith. Hadith is the tradition of Muslims.

There is a hadith which states the wife of Prophet Muhammad, Aisha, she stated that this is the way first revelation came to Prophet Muhammad. She said, he used to be in seclusion in the cave of Hira and one night a vision came to him and an angel came to him and said to him, read.

And Prophet Muhammad said in Arabic, I cannot read. The angel said again, read. He said, I do not know how to read. The angel said the third time, read in the name of thy Lord, Lord who created you from the blood clot.

Referring to surah 96 in the Quran, the first revealed verses of the Quran. Now the gospel, now the Bible is telling you in clear words, the book will be given to someone who is unlearned, who is illiterate and it will be said to him, read and he will say, I do not know how to read.

You cannot get more clear, more explicit and more specific than this. This is the most clearest, one of the most clearest prophecies in the Bible regarding Muhammad, which states that when the book will be given to him, meaning when the angel will come to him and ask him to read and he will say, I do not know how to read.

The word in Hebrew, this is the book of Isaiah. If you check the Hebrew of this, the word in Hebrew is also Ikra. If you check the Hebrew, the oldest scroll ever to be found of Hebrew scriptures is the scroll of Isaiah.

In Jerusalem Museum, you can go and check the scroll. It was written about 600, 6 centuries before Prophet Muhammad. You can go and check it. The word Ikra is there and if you check the Islamic tradition, it will tell you the angel came to Prophet Muhammad and said to him, read and he said, I do not know how to read.

I wonder, I wonder if this is not Muhammad, then who is this?

Why Isaiah 29 Cannot Be a Prophecy of Muhammad

Well, as we saw by actually looking at the text in its context, it's referring to a generic group of people who could not read at the time of Isaiah in Jerusalem. Just like the literate was a generic use of a description of all those people in Jerusalem who could read.

There is no individual fulfillment and it is absolutely amazing to try to connect this to Muhammad in a different language 1 ,300 years later in Mecca. You see, if the only connection is illiteracy, exactly how many illiterate people have lived upon the planet?

First of all, there is nothing in it that would even cause us, once we read it in its original context and understand it, even cause us to be looking at a later fulfillment. But even setting that aside, even if there was some reason to think there would be a later fulfillment, why in the world would we look to Mecca 1 ,300 years later for a fulfillment?

There is nothing in the text that even comes close to making this kind of connection. And the reality is, having examined many of these alleged prophecies, well, all of them that I can find, books of these, not just the street level kind of argumentation of an Ahmadidah, but published works trying to find prophecies of Muhammad, I am convinced beyond all question that there is nothing in the biblical text which, when examined in its original context and fairly, has anything to do whatsoever with Muhammad who lived in Mecca in the 7th century.

And so here is an excellent example of why we need to pay attention to the backgrounds of the Bible, need to pay attention to the original context, because the misuse of these texts is not just by Muslims, but also by Mormons and many other groups, even though they are trying to prove completely different things.

It is interesting to see how many times Muslim attempts and Mormon attempts parallel one another, because they are both trying to establish a prophet after Jesus, who taught completely different things, but they are both trying to do it.

It is interesting to note those parallels. Hopefully this has been useful to you. Thanks for watching.