The Chronicles of Shenvia, and the Tale of Tashlan

Do the three Abrahamic religions worship the same God? Stop asking dumb questions.

In C.S. Lewis’ Chronicle’s of Narnia, which is an adventurous Christian allegory that surely you’re familiar with, there’s a character you may not be familiar with, if you - like me - never quite got into the books.

As Rod Martin pointed out to me yesterday, the parallels between Shenvi’s error and this aspect of Lewis’ literary tale are spooky. They are, as the fancy people say, apropos.

"He meant to go on and ask how the terrible god Tash who fed on the blood of his people could possibly be the same as the good Lion by whose blood all Narnia was saved." ―The Last Battle, Chapter 3

What a terrible rumor was spread about Tash. Or perhaps, it was terrible rumor spread about Aslan. The claim, that Shift - the talking, Narnian ape - had crafted, was designed to convince the land’s inhabitants that the demon-god Tash and Aslan the Lion were one and the same.

Tash was no Aslan, of course. He was the chief deity of the Calormen of Narnia. Their capital city was Tashbaan, named in his honor, and he was not a nice god. He was a horrible one, an imitation, a demon. He was not loved, but feared. Tash demanded human blood sacrifice, and he preyed upon his worshippers.

And he looked nothing like Aslan, so the plot by Puzzle - a talking ass - to cause people to confuse the two at first seemed implausible. Tash had the head of a vulture, and Aslan was a lion.

Shift, the ape, and Puzzle, the ass, had found the carcass of an old lion on the side of the road one day, and the ape decided to make a coat from the lion’s skin and gift it to his friend, the ass.

Shift, you see, was a shifty sort of ape. And Puzzle was of the dumb variety of ass. But the latter loved Aslan, and wanted to serve him. Capitalizing on his love for Aslan, Shift convinced him to wear the lion’s skin and pretend to be Aslan, in order to “set things right in Narnia.”

Wanting to see Aslan return, and believing that it would help for people to see Aslan, Shift convinced him to appear at night, under the moonlight, and offer directives to the inhabitants of Narnia. But, it was Shift who was in charge, and the ass was relegated to the stables at night, where sometimes he didn’t even get fed.

You might wonder how even an ass of limited intelligence could be convinced to imitate the true Aslan. But the reasoning of Shift was simple.

“But you think of the good we could do! You’d have me to advise you, you know. I’d think of sensible orders for you to give. And everyone would have to obey us, even the King himself. We would set everything right in Narnia.”

But, Tash and Aslan were not the same. They didn’t look alike. They didn’t act alike. One was majestic and glorious. The other, vile and sinister. The only thing that made the two comparable, is that in the dark moonlight, with the right lion’s skin, the servant of one could imitate the other.

And just like that, the hybrid creature of counterfeit and imagination was born, and named Tashlan.

ISLAMAGOD

The controversy du jure, which lasted just about 24 hours, was caused by a brushfire set by Shepherds for Sale author, Megan Basham, when she posted some curious things that megachurch pastor, JD Greear, said about Islam. And this isn’t surprising, because we had been writing about Greear’s curious words about Islam going back as far as 2019.

We covered it when Janet Mefferd said on the Todd Starnes Program that Greear had been “playing footsie with an Imam.” She also called him a beta male, but of course, that’s back before Megan Basham broke Janet’s brain somehow, and she went weird on us (envy is a terrible disease, and is sometimes contagious). We also covered his imam-footsie, discussing his Interfaith Dialogue with Nancy Pelosi’s Islamic bestie, Omar Suleiman. And, we covered it when JD Greear said that the claim Muslims and Christians worship the same God has merit.

At the time, Greear had used Jesus’ interaction with the woman in Samaria who was indeed worshipping Yahweh wrongly (in particular, on the wrong mountain), but yet was worshipping Yahweh. Of course, that’s irrelevant, because Christ was still in the midst of revealing himself to the world. At that specific point in time, very few Jews would have recognized him as the Son of God (or had reason to), including probably some of the disciples.

After the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, then Jews no longer had a pass on failing to notice that Jesus is indeed, the messiah they were promised. But basic exposition and logical consideration seems to be lost on Greear. Which, of course, is not surprising for the man Pulpit & Pen has been calling “The Frat Boy Pastor” since about 2013.

On a personal note, Greear sent me a $50 gift card and a nice note during my personal apokalypsis in 2022 and I’m sure he’s a nice human. But, I mean, I’m not criticizing his humanity here. He’s probably lovely.

Anyway, Megan Bashed’em pretty good on this, and pointed out that Greear indeed has suggested that Allah and Yahweh are the same deities, despite Muslims having mistaken him for someone else.

And that’s when Neil Shenvi - who I’ve repeatedly said of him that “defending JD Greear is his full time job” - did what Neil does, and defended JD Greear. However, Shenvi made a tactical error. He skipped the part in the formulaic defense of liberals. Let me explain.

When liberals defend the actions of their colleagues (after they’re done ignoring substantive accusations for as long as possible), they firstly claim it’s untrue (whatever it is) and secondarily, move on to argue that even if it were true (whatever it is), it’s not a bad thing. Thirdly, they eventually demand you’re a bad person for not celebrating it (whatever it is).

For example, it’s like: “They aren’t doing sex changes on kids, that’s ridiculous. Okay, okay. Maybe they are doing sex changes on kids, but would that be the worst thing on earth if it were true? Hold up, we thought everybody agreed with sex changes on kids. How do you not believe in sex changes for kids, are you some kind of monster?”

Yesterday, Neil was apparently distracted and forgot to do step one. He went straight to, “So what if JD Greear believes Muslims and Christians worship the same God? Is that really so crazy?” Thank God somebody stopped him before he got to step three.

If you appreciate my work, please consider getting a paid subscription for $8 a month or $80 a year to access exclusive content, participate in chats, and participate in our weekly Protestia Insider Roundtable on Zoom.

SHENVI’S APOLOGETIC VS SHENVI’S APOLOGY

Chiefly, Neil argued that when Paul told the Athenians in Acts 17 that he knew the identity of their unknown god, that it meant that people can worship the true god under a false name, or perhaps, no name at all. Ergo, Muslims and Jews are worshipping the One True God.

Of course, Paul was engaging in the practice of rhetoric to a people who perfected rhetoric. Rhetoric is an ancient Greek word that refers to the practice of the Sophists, a philosophic cult who specialized in rhetoric and used the Areopagus (also known as “Mars Hill”) to practice rhetoric. In other words, Paul was practicing rhetoric, to the people who invented rhetoric, in a place designated to practice rhetoric, to make a rhetorical point.

Paul was essentially saying, “You dummies have so many gods you don’t know what to do with them all. You even have an unknown god who sits on a thrown of miscellaneous and rules with a scepter of nebulous question-marks.” And then Paul’s point, to summarize, was “I’ll tell you who this god is you don’t know” and proceeded to preach to them Yahweh and his Son, Jesus Christ.

In the clearest of possible terms, if the deity doesn’t have a Son named Jesus Christ who is the pre-incarnate, co-equal, Second Person of the Holy Trinity, you might as well be worshipping Jesus the gardener down at Home Depot. He might have the same name, but he’s a different guy altogether. And that goes for both Jews and Muslims alike.

By the time we woke up this morning, Shenvi had deleted his tweets and apologized, claiming he had received counsel from a few people who spoke sense to him. Apparently, one of those people was not JD Greear, because Greear is on the record teaching this exact concept that Shenvi had to renounce.

But Insight to Incite isn’t here to alert you to the last scuttlebutt in the online evangelical world. That’s what Protestia is for (read it here). Rather, Insight to Incite is here is to offer you unique perspectives on why things are the way they are.

TASH AND LEWIS

It should go without saying that the God of Christianity is triune, and has a Son named Jesus, and any suggestion that gods who don’t fit that description are caught up in a case of mistaken identity.

But that cannot go without saying, because Neil Shenvi is Controlled Opposition who works for the devil and also works a little bit for JD Greear. I jest that I’m not jesting.

The inhabitants of Narnia were partially fooled, because Tashlan appeared only at night, underneath the dim moonlight. They were also fooled because it had been so long since they had seen Aslan, or had known him, that they were easily fooled by an ass in a lion costume. I can only imagine it looked something like Donkey, from Shrek, dressed absurdly in a fur coat.

No one who knew Aslan would have been convinced at the deception. But those who didn’t know him, were certainly fooled.

The question - and it is a serious one - is how Neil Shenvi could look at Muhammad’s Allah, and then look at Yahweh, and then back at Allah, and then toward Yahweh, and shrug his shoulders and say, “These two might be the same guy”?

When the Narnians viewed Tashlan under the moonlight, they weren’t “worshipping Aslan falsely.” They were prostrating themselves before a fake Aslan. In fact, they were bowing before a counterfeit god.

But what must we think of Shift, the ape who pointed to an ass in a lion suit and say, “Behold, Aslan”? We must think of the ape as a false prophet of sorts, who knows very well what’s he is doing, despite the fact he says that he’s doing it so that good may come.

Greear suggested - as did Shenvi - that good could come from Allah in a Yahweh suit, and some Muslims (or Jews) might be reached if only we conflated the demon gods without a Son, with the true God who has a Son. After all, some Muslims or Jews might get saved in the process.

I submit to you the powers and principalities in high places has schemed like this before. At least once before, in the imagination of C.S. Lewis.

If you like my work and don’t want to deal with a subscription, consider a one-time gift of your choosing to help me purchase my chicken scratch, by clicking the link below.