Pentecost, the Gospel, and the Quran

Pentecost is sometimes referred to as the “birthday of the church,” because it was the day the early disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Biblical record presents an interesting contrast with Islam. Muslims believe that Allah revealed the Qur’an only in Arabic, and that the Qur’an cannot be properly understood in any other language. When people question Islamic teachings, they are often told, “You can’t criticize the Qur’an, because you can’t understand it unless you know classical Arabic.” Moreover, the main argument that the Qur’an offers for its divine inspiration is what we might call the “argument from literary excellence” (see Qur’an 2:23). The argument is that each chapter of the Qur’an is so marvelous, it can only come from God. Unfortunately, since the vast majority of people in the world do not understand basic Arabic (let alone classical Arabic), most people aren’t in a position to evaluate Muhammad’s favorite argument.

It’s odd to think that the Creator of the universe, in delivering his final revelation for all mankind, would do so in such a limited fashion. But we get a completely different picture in the Book of Acts, where God instantly translates his message into numerous languages:

Greek Orthodox depiction of Pentecost

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:1-12)

Thousands of people became Christians that day (you can read Peter’s sermon here), signifying the universal nature of the Gospel and displaying the divine power that would accompany those who obeyed Christ’s command to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).