The Living Christ and the Dead Prophet
We end this series where Dan ends his notes. With a personal statement that I think is one of the most honest things I have heard anyone say in a recording studio.
In this final episode of The Difference Between Jesus and Mohamed, Dan brought everything together around one central question: what does each founder have to offer you today? Not historically. Not theologically in the abstract. Right now, in your life, as you actually live it.
The answer, for Jesus, is everything. The gifts of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit. A living, ongoing relationship with the Third Person of the One True Triune God who has been present on earth, in various forms, across all of human history and who is present still. Dan spoke about what it means that Jesus is not a historical memory but a present reality, and the difference that makes for every person who has entered into covenant relationship with Him.
The answer for Mohamed is nothing. Not because Dan is being unkind. But because Mohamed was a man. He lived once and he died. He has no spirit to offer, no gifts to give, no fruit to share, because there is no living spirit in him to give. The writings about Jesus were written by eyewitnesses in the generation of His life, which means they could have been disputed and refuted at the time if they had been false. The writings about Mohamed came much later, when no eyewitness could contradict them.
And then Dan said the thing I have not been able to stop thinking about. He said that he cannot see the image of God in Mohamed. He sees the opposite. And he said it not with contempt but with grief. The grief of someone who understands what it means to be made in the image of God and who looks at the life and teaching of Mohamed and sees that image obscured rather than revealed.
He ended with an invitation. The people we hold in highest esteem are the ones we challenge our lives to mirror. Dan wants to be exactly like Jesus Christ, because then his life would be a reflection of the One True God, the Infinite God who made us to live and breathe in His image. That is what this series has been building toward. Not an argument. An invitation.
I have hosted a number of conversations now with Dan Murphy and this is the one that has stayed with me longest. Not because it was the most dramatic. But because it was the most personal. Dan was not speaking as a theologian in this episode. He was speaking as a man who has made a choice about who he is becoming like, and who wanted to give every listener the same honest basis to make that choice for themselves.
The person you hold in highest esteem is the one you will become like. Who is that person in your life right now? And is their life the one you want yours to reflect?
YouTube: Watch the full Episode HERE.
Spotify: Listen on Spotify Spotify.