The Sixth Commandment issued by Abraham’s God forbids us to murder our fellow human beings (Ex. 20:13). Yet, most of the blood that has drenched the earth has been spilled by “believers” in the God Who gave us that Commandment! Throughout their mutual existence, “believers” have openly hated each other. But few of the “religious haters” realize that the stage on which their hatred bloomed was not the crucifixion of Jesus. The “players” in the “game of hatred” — and the prophesied result of their hatred — first appeared in Noah’s time.
Noah, a man whose very existence is questioned by self-satisfied skeptics, was the forefather of today’s most troublesome “peoples!” The most prominent branch of Noah’s family began with his son, Shem, whose name has lived on to become part of our everyday vocabulary. From his name came the word, “Semite.” ALL of Shem’s descendants are “Semites.” Nowadays, however, anyone who practices “anti-Semitism” is actually against only one branch of Shem’s descendants: the Jews.
The word “Jew” is an abbreviation of Judah, one of the twelve Hebrew tribes. The word Hebrew stems from Shem’s great-grandson, Eber. Eber’s most prominent sons were Peleg and Joktan. The Hebrews descended from Peleg’s eldest son, while Joktan fathered the Semites known as “Arabs.”
Therefore, ALL the descendants of Noah’s son, Shem, are Semites. Some Semites became the world’s first monotheists known as Hebrews.
Because Shem’s descendants are Semites, and all Arabs and Jews are Semites, the way we use the word, “anti-Semitism,” is a gross distortion of its true meaning. What millions of people have actually practiced is pure and simple “hatred of Jews.” And, these days, that hatred is mounting around the world, largely because much of the world perceives the nation of Israel as a source of danger to everyone, everywhere. If Israel didn’t exist, the Semitic Arabs would live quietly in the Middle East — at least, that’s the “popular” anti-Jewish theory!
Do you believe that theory? If so, you are not “anti-Semitic.” You are a plain and simple “Jew hater.” And, while you might prefer to call yourself by a title that doesn’t explicitly label you a “hater,” that’s what you are. And your hatefulness is spurring the world toward the nuclear war that will fulfill the prophecy delivered in Noah’s time:
When the Flood ended, God made a covenant with Noah. He promised, “...never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth” (Gen. 9:11). Therefore, if, again, God cleanses the earth of violence, He will not wash away men and the tons of blood men have spilled. Next time, both Testaments warn, “...the earth and the works that are in it shall be burnt up” (II Peter 3:10). “For, behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace, and all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble...” (Mal. 3:19/4:1).
The Prophet Malachi told us that we must turn our hearts to each other (Mal 3:24/4:6), to avoid the “gross darkness” (Isa. 60:2) foretold by Isaiah, the “darkness” we can now recognize as a “nuclear winter.” If hateful Semites won’t even turn their hearts to their fellow Semites, what hope do we have that the hateful Christians will do it? Of course, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t even try! We could be magnificently surprised!!
Showing posts with label Abraham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Abraham. Show all posts
Sunday, January 27, 2008
The Story of Anti-Semitism
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Thursday, December 20, 2007
A Difference Between Humans and Ants
In time for the Christams season, I'm reposting an article that appeared here earlier this year--because I realize that some visitors to this site don't go back to read much earlier articles, and because I truly believe we could use this brief discussion of faith.
A Difference Between Humans and Ants
“Is God Poison?” asks “Maclean’s,” a prominent Canadian magazine, on it’s April cover. I suspect that “clever” cover commanded the attention of believers, agnostics and atheists, alike — in other words, everyone that chanced to see it — while it prompted a bunch of sales!
It was a long article worth discussing. Today, however, I’m only going to talk about a statement in the article’s opening page, which quotes someone named Christopher Hitchens. His new book discusses "How Religion Poisons Everything.” Mr. Hitchens, while heartened by the world’s newfound interest in disputing God’s existence, tells us, “We atheists never thought religion would die out because it comes from fear of death….”
I agree, that’s one way to look at religion’s “origin and purpose.” But it certainly has never occurred to me, and I’ve been religious for ninety percent of my long life. If Mr. Hitchens seriously thinks that “fear of death” drove me to God, his reasoning is severely flawed from the “git-go.” I am one of the many people who go through life without giving death more than occasional thought, though I’ve had much to do with it in my family.
Of course, if Mr. Hitchens thinks that fear of death was what first prompted humans to conceive religious beliefs, that’s a plausible theory. But it is nothing more than an unproven, irrelevant theory, in company with numberless others.
As I see it, religion sets mankind apart from all living creatures on earth, as the only creatures on earth (as far as we know) who can seek to identify their Ultimate Creator and contemplate why they exist. In daily life, however, religion helps us live far more peacefully with ourselves and our fellowmen than we could live without it — even though, as nations and as individuals, our “peaceful” relations with others are endlessly and violently interrupted! And all those violent interruptions happen, while a huge portion of the world’s population embraces the Ten Commandments! Imagine how we’d behave if we’d never been told “Thou shall not murder” ? And why does “Mr. Hitchens & Co.“ think we needed to be told that? It certainly wasn’t because humans seldom killed each other!
For our ancestors to need to be Divinely commanded to abstain from killing their fellowmen tells us that murder was even more commonplace than it is today, throughout the world. Humans want to be rid of anyone who really “bothers” them. And it’s common for us to severely “bother” each other! Learning how to turn our hearts to each other, as the Prophet Malachi said we must do (Mal, 3:24/4:6) is now the urgently needed “uncommon” factor in human history.
Thousands of years ago, societies worshiped more than 2,000 gods who, according to the tales concocted about them, often warred with each other — a direct reflection of human life. Yet, Abraham’s God told us not to murder, unless we were executing a person who had intentionally killed someone, “…having hated him in time past” (Deut. 4:42). To be sure, “unbelievers” describe Abraham’s God, introduced in the Hebrew Scriptures, as a bloodthirsty deity, akin to most of the other “gods” people worshiped. But the Israelites, the first people to believe in Abraham’s God, were told to war with heathens only to claim the needed homeland God had promised them. In short, murdering their fellowmen for “personal reasons” was forbidden. And that was an UNCOMMON concept in human history, which Mr. Hitchens neglects to mention, while denouncing monotheism, in particular.
I, too, can conjecture about Hitchens as he does about me, a “believer.” So, perhaps Mr. Hitchens has suffered a fear of death since childhood and finds no solace in religion, which makes his unrelieved fear/dread/resentment of dying feed his argument against all the religious beliefs that have failed him. Or, he has convinced himself there is nothing to fear about death; our flesh decays and that’s the end of us, so he is trying to get multiple people to agree with him to convince himself he is “right.” Whatever his reasoning, he didn’t create our universe and he cannot destroy it, so he is “overpowered” by unknown forces beyond his control — and hating his helplessness. If true, that theory would simply prove that when we harbor “hatred,” we become destructive! But trying to destroy faith in God condemns Hitchens to fight a losing battle, which is a sad way to spend one’s life.
So, Christopher Hitchens, you appear to be a sad member of a species that is distinguished from all other creatures on earth by its ability to contemplate the Source of itself and all physical matter. You can “wait for science” to tell you how “the universe” happened, but the wait will exceed your lifetime. And that means you’ll go to your grave without ever “knowing faith” — a knowledge that appears to be exclusively “human.”
A Difference Between Humans and Ants
“Is God Poison?” asks “Maclean’s,” a prominent Canadian magazine, on it’s April cover. I suspect that “clever” cover commanded the attention of believers, agnostics and atheists, alike — in other words, everyone that chanced to see it — while it prompted a bunch of sales!
It was a long article worth discussing. Today, however, I’m only going to talk about a statement in the article’s opening page, which quotes someone named Christopher Hitchens. His new book discusses "How Religion Poisons Everything.” Mr. Hitchens, while heartened by the world’s newfound interest in disputing God’s existence, tells us, “We atheists never thought religion would die out because it comes from fear of death….”
I agree, that’s one way to look at religion’s “origin and purpose.” But it certainly has never occurred to me, and I’ve been religious for ninety percent of my long life. If Mr. Hitchens seriously thinks that “fear of death” drove me to God, his reasoning is severely flawed from the “git-go.” I am one of the many people who go through life without giving death more than occasional thought, though I’ve had much to do with it in my family.
Of course, if Mr. Hitchens thinks that fear of death was what first prompted humans to conceive religious beliefs, that’s a plausible theory. But it is nothing more than an unproven, irrelevant theory, in company with numberless others.
As I see it, religion sets mankind apart from all living creatures on earth, as the only creatures on earth (as far as we know) who can seek to identify their Ultimate Creator and contemplate why they exist. In daily life, however, religion helps us live far more peacefully with ourselves and our fellowmen than we could live without it — even though, as nations and as individuals, our “peaceful” relations with others are endlessly and violently interrupted! And all those violent interruptions happen, while a huge portion of the world’s population embraces the Ten Commandments! Imagine how we’d behave if we’d never been told “Thou shall not murder” ? And why does “Mr. Hitchens & Co.“ think we needed to be told that? It certainly wasn’t because humans seldom killed each other!
For our ancestors to need to be Divinely commanded to abstain from killing their fellowmen tells us that murder was even more commonplace than it is today, throughout the world. Humans want to be rid of anyone who really “bothers” them. And it’s common for us to severely “bother” each other! Learning how to turn our hearts to each other, as the Prophet Malachi said we must do (Mal, 3:24/4:6) is now the urgently needed “uncommon” factor in human history.
Thousands of years ago, societies worshiped more than 2,000 gods who, according to the tales concocted about them, often warred with each other — a direct reflection of human life. Yet, Abraham’s God told us not to murder, unless we were executing a person who had intentionally killed someone, “…having hated him in time past” (Deut. 4:42). To be sure, “unbelievers” describe Abraham’s God, introduced in the Hebrew Scriptures, as a bloodthirsty deity, akin to most of the other “gods” people worshiped. But the Israelites, the first people to believe in Abraham’s God, were told to war with heathens only to claim the needed homeland God had promised them. In short, murdering their fellowmen for “personal reasons” was forbidden. And that was an UNCOMMON concept in human history, which Mr. Hitchens neglects to mention, while denouncing monotheism, in particular.
I, too, can conjecture about Hitchens as he does about me, a “believer.” So, perhaps Mr. Hitchens has suffered a fear of death since childhood and finds no solace in religion, which makes his unrelieved fear/dread/resentment of dying feed his argument against all the religious beliefs that have failed him. Or, he has convinced himself there is nothing to fear about death; our flesh decays and that’s the end of us, so he is trying to get multiple people to agree with him to convince himself he is “right.” Whatever his reasoning, he didn’t create our universe and he cannot destroy it, so he is “overpowered” by unknown forces beyond his control — and hating his helplessness. If true, that theory would simply prove that when we harbor “hatred,” we become destructive! But trying to destroy faith in God condemns Hitchens to fight a losing battle, which is a sad way to spend one’s life.
So, Christopher Hitchens, you appear to be a sad member of a species that is distinguished from all other creatures on earth by its ability to contemplate the Source of itself and all physical matter. You can “wait for science” to tell you how “the universe” happened, but the wait will exceed your lifetime. And that means you’ll go to your grave without ever “knowing faith” — a knowledge that appears to be exclusively “human.”
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Voting for “Wisdom and Freedom”
Link
Recently, my neighbor, while speaking in favor of homosexual and abortion “rights,” mentioned that conservative Republicans “want to take us back to 50 years ago.” As a political Independent, I focus on the individual candidates, not their political parties, but, in keeping with her train of thought, I replied: “And liberal Democrats want to take us back 3,600 years.” She looked a little startled, so I seized the opportunity to keep talking!
I either informed or reminded her (I don’t know her religious knowledge) that, about 3,500 years ago, Moses brought us a long list of the people whose “nakedness” men must not “uncover.” The list included their mothers, sisters, aunts, daughters, in-laws, stepchildren, and on and on. The same chapter includes a plainly worded sentence forbidding men “…to lie with mankind as with womankind” (Lev. 18:22). Moreover, we’re told that all those sexual practices were common in Egypt and Canaan, but followers of Abraham’s God would need to restrain themselves from such “abominations.”
Of course, the Commandment forbidding murder ruled out infanticide, which had always been a commonly practiced way to get rid of unwanted offspring, especially females, not only in ancient times but in modern nations that have not embraced monotheism.
Today, however, a growing number of people in the traditionally Judeo-Christian United States are voting to achieve “true freedom,” when no law would condemn men for “lying down” with men and no law would condemn women for eliminating the unwanted babies that grow in their wombs. Besides, “enlightened doctors” now enable women to safely get rid of those “things” — which are no longer called “babies” — without letting them grow for nine long months.
In this article, I am not arguing for or against those “freedoms,” but I am urging us to refrain from calling such thinking “modern.” To exhibit wisdom, we should try to give credit where credit is due! There’s nothing “modern” about people indulging their sexual appetite for members of their own sex, even as there’s nothing “modern” about killing the unwanted results of their more conventional “mating.” Perhaps, as a writer, I am overly concerned with choosing the right words, but sloppy phrasing can dangerously mislead us into believing we are growing “wiser,” when all we’re really doing is aping our ancestors! And if we don’t soon “get smarter” about our Creator, a few nuclear bombs exploding will have us aping the cave dwellers.
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Friday, May 25, 2007
“Utter Destruction”: a “Do-it-Yourself” Project
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Through the Hebrew Scriptures, the “Lord of hosts” (Isa. 9:6) tells us that someday: “…I shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; Lest I come and smite the land with utter destruction” (Mal. 3:24/4:6). The “fathers” of monotheism are the Hebrews; the “children” are the Christians and Muslims — along with all of “God’s children,” regardless of their beliefs.
The “fathers,” through the Hebrew Scriptures, were the first to speak of the promised Messiah, who will serve as the “…ruler in Israel…” and he shall be “…great unto the ends of the earth” (Mic. 5:3). Under the Messiah’s rule, the Israelites, who had become “a curse” among the nations, will then become “a name and a praise,” and there will be “...peace without end...The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall accomplish this” (Isa. 9:6/7).
In other words, Judaism identifies the Messiah by his deeds, which he will successfully execute through “the zeal of the Lord of hosts.” Obviously, when Jesus lived in Israel, he did not perform the prescribed deeds, since there is no “peace without end,” and the Jews are still cursed the world over. Therefore, regardless of the “children’s” beliefs, the “fathers” have stood firm in their denial of “the Messiah, Jesus,” as Muhammad identified Jesus (Women 4:171). In daily life, it has been that denial that has kept the Jews “a curse and a reproach” (Jer. 44:12)
For 2,000 years, “the children” have cursed and killed “the fathers” whenever they’ve felt “inspired” to cleanse their neighborhood, city, or nation of Jews. These days, however, all nations have become so accessible and modern weaponry so powerful, some Muslims have become convinced they can finally make “God’s religion reign supreme” (The Cow 2:193). To supplant Judaism and Christianity with the “ultimate truth” expressed through Islam, those Muslims believe they could righteously use the weapons of mass destruction that would annihilate “God’s enemies” (including “the great Satan,” as they speak of the United States).
It’s tempting for outsiders to think of those Muslims as only “a fringe group of fanatics,” over which the world will surely gain control before they do any “real damage.” But, in the populous Muslim community, the persons who believe it their sacred duty to “drive Israel into the sea” constitute a sizable “fringe group.” To be sure, all Muslim nations do not openly clamor for Israel’s demise. Still, the rest of the world has no reason to expect Muslims to war against Muslims, merely to prevent a biological or chemical attack against “the Zionists,” their most immediate and mutual enemy. That attack, alone, would launch a nuclear war.
If we truly seek to avoid that war, Jews, Christians, Muslims — and all of God’s children — urgently need to enlarge our understanding of the God revealed by all the Prophets, from Abraham through Muhammad. Only through our improved understanding can we begin to turn our hearts to each other — and distance ourselves from the “utter destruction” we now know how to create as a “do-it-yourself” project!
(Some of the above is excerpted from my book: “Of Promises and Previews.”)
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Monday, April 23, 2007
A Difference Between Humans and Ants
Link
“Is God Poison?” asks “Maclean’s,” a prominent Canadian magazine, on it’s April cover. I suspect that “clever” cover commanded the attention of believers, agnostics and atheists, alike — in other words, everyone that chanced to see it — while prompting a bunch of sales!
It was a long article worth discussing. Today, however, I’m only going to talk about a statement in the article’s opening page, which quotes someone named Christopher Hitchens. His new book discusses “…How Religion Poisons Everything.” Mr. Hitchens, while heartened by the world’s newfound interest in disputing God’s existence, tells us, “We atheists never thought religion would die out because it comes from fear of death….”
I agree, that’s one way to look at religion’s “origin and purpose.” But it certainly has never occurred to me, and I’ve been religious for ninety percent of my long life. If Mr. Hitchens seriously thinks that “fear of death” drove me to God, his reasoning is severely flawed from the “git-go.” I am one of the many people who go through life without giving death more than occasional thought, though I’ve had much to do with it in my family.
Of course, if Mr. Hitchens thinks that fear of death was what first prompted humans to conceive religious beliefs, that’s a plausible theory. But it is nothing more than an unproven, irrelevant theory, in company with numberless others.
As I see it, religion sets mankind apart from all living creatures on earth, as the only beings on earth (as far as we know) who can seek to identify their Ultimate Creator and contemplate why they exist. In daily life, however, religion helps us live far more peacefully with ourselves and our fellowmen than we could live without it — even though, as nations and as individuals, our “peaceful” relations with others are endlessly and violently interrupted! And all those violent interruptions happen, while a huge portion of the world’s population embraces the Ten Commandments! Imagine how we’d behave if we’d never been told “Thou shall not murder” ? And why does “Mr. Hitchens & Co.“ think we needed to be told that? It certainly wasn’t because humans seldom killed each other.
For our ancestors to need to be Divinely ordered to abstain from killing their fellowmen tells us that murder was even more commonplace than it is today, throughout the world. Humans want to be rid of anyone who really “bothers” them. And it’s common for us to severely “bother” each other! Learning how to turn our hearts to each other, as the Prophet Malachi said we must do (Mal, 3:24/4:6) is now the urgently needed “uncommon” factor in human history.
Thousands of years ago, societies worshiped more than 2,000 gods who, according to the tales concocted about them, often warred with each other — a direct reflection of human life. Yet, Abraham’s God told us not to murder, unless we were executing a person who had intentionally killed someone, “…having hated him in time past” (Deut. 4:42). To be sure, “unbelievers” describe Abraham’s God, introduced in the Hebrew Scriptures, as a bloodthirsty deity, akin to most of the other “gods” people worshiped. But the Israelites, the first people to believe in Abraham’s God, were told to war with heathens, only to claim the needed homeland God promised them; murdering their fellowmen for “personal reasons” was forbidden. And that was an UNCOMMON concept in human history, which Mr. Hitchens neglects to mention, while denouncing monotheism, in particular.
I, too, can conjecture about Hitchens as he does about me, a “believer.” So, perhaps Mr. Hitchens has suffered a fear of death since childhood and finds no solace in religion, which makes his unrelieved fear/dread/resentment of dying feed his argument against all the religious beliefs that have failed him. Or, he has convinced himself there is nothing to fear about death; our flesh decays and that’s the end of us, so he is trying to get multiple people to agree with him to convince himself he is “right.” Whatever his reasoning, he didn’t create our universe and he cannot destroy it, so he is “overpowered” by unknown forces beyond his control — and hating his helplessness. If true, that theory would simply prove that when we harbor “hatred,” we become destructive! But trying to destroy faith in God condemns Hitchens to fight a losing battle, which is a sad way to spend one’s life.
So, Christopher Hitchens, you appear to be a sad member of a species that is distinguished from all other creatures on earth by its ability to contemplate the Source of itself and all physical matter. You can “wait for science” to tell you how “the universe” happened, but the wait will exceed your lifetime. And that means you’ll go to your grave without ever “knowing faith” — a knowledge that appears to be exclusively “human.”
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Monday, April 09, 2007
An Identical Role for “Believers” and “Unbelievers”
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What would it actually take to persuade you to “alter” your religious beliefs? I’m inclined to think we’ll have to be sitting in the darkness of a “nuclear winter” before people seriously question their religious thinking! And when I say “people,” I do not only mean what the Muslims, Christians and Jews think! To be sure, the “self-satisfied” atheists and the “removed-from-it-all” agnostics and the “beyond-it-all” believers in “heathen” religions are doing absolutely nothing to help the world avoid the Religious War that will hurtle everyone into the prophesied “gross darkness” of a manmade “nuclear winter!”
The Prophets of Judaism, Christianity and Islam brought messages about the Lord God of all creation that never contradicted each other, as they introduced the world to the One Thinking Source of all the energy in existence. Their teachings have persuaded a huge portion of the world’s population to embrace one of those three “related” monotheistic religions. Yet, amazingly, many Jews and Christians actually believe that “Allah,” the Name used by Muslims for Abraham’s God, is not the same God that Abraham worshiped. That is how “elementary” their ignorance is! Worse yet, each religious “family” embraces their clergy’s interpretations of their own Holy Book. And each “family” is so certain their clergy’s teachings are “right,” they won’t even consider reconsidering their beliefs. So, will the unbelievers learn and save us?
They could, but chances are, they won’t! Even as you won’t, no matter your current beliefs. But, tell yourself the truth! Are you really so satisfied with what you believe — whatever that is — that you are more willing to suffer a nuclear war than to try to improve your understanding? Even if you’re a “non-believer” in Abraham’s God, if enough of you finally came to appreciate what ALL the Prophets taught, the “believers” of the world would finally have a compelling reason to pay attention to you! And you would finally awaken them — which is what you’ve wanted to do all along, but you lacked the “right” message! So, no matter your “religious philosophy,” you could diminish the Religious War that is closing in on every single human being, by learning from ALL the Prophets and speaking of them to others. (You could learn from the individual Sacred Books, or discover the essence of their teachings from my book. The point is, SEEK and you CAN find!)
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Friday, March 30, 2007
Creative Chimpanzees And Humans
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In February 2007, the Los Angeles Times printed an article about chimpanzees making spears. The author of the article identified the chimps’ creativity as “…the first routine production of deadly weapons observed in animals other than humans.”
Since I was a child, I’ve heard that the creation and use of tools sets humans apart from most animals, but links us with others. Now, researchers have discovered that some animals even make deadly tools! That discovery further diminishes our “difference” from monkeys — if we accept tool-making as the “tool” of measurement! As I grew older, however, I embraced a far more accurate way to distinguish us from our “fellow animals.”
In so far as we can determine, we are the only creatures on earth who seek the Original Source of our existence — and honor and even worship that Source, if we choose. Of course, because the Source remains “invisible” to human eyes, we can’t scientifically “prove” the Source we identify actually exists; we can only presume Its Existence through the existence of our awesomely complicated yet “miraculously” organized physical universe, which inevitably bespeaks a Thinking Creator.
In short, the one thing that distinguishes us from all living creatures obviously isn’t our tool-making, but our ability to conceive of our Creator. Yet, if, like a growing number of people these days, you don’t bother to think about your Source — because, after all, science can’t prove what “it” is — there is nothing that actually distinguishes you from a tool-making chimpanzee.
Think about it — and perhaps you’ll decide to examine the revelations about our Creator, delivered by ALL the Prophets, from Abraham through Muhammad. They never contradict each other, as our clergies do! (I’ve made it easy for you to hear what they said in one book — see the sidebar About Me.)
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Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Speaking Up for Muhammad
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Muhammad did not live to simply repeat the teachings of the Prophets who preceded him. Muhammad came to awaken the “unbelievers,” who had rejected organized Christianity and Judaism, by teaching them about their Maker in terms related to their own experiences. But the Christian clergy has always claimed that Christian teachings are all that can “save our souls” — thereby glibly denigrating the billions of people who have embraced Abraham’s God without becoming Christians.
Through his recitations that became the Koran, Muhammad told all Arabs to believe “…what was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael, to Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and what was given to Moses and Jesus and the prophets.” Muslims are to “…discriminate against none of them” (The Family of Imran 3:84). In actual practice, however, Muslims have done exactly what Jews and Christians have always done, with arrogant certainty. They “...draw a line between God and His apostles, saying: ‘We believe in some but deny others’....” The Koran warns everyone who draws such lines of “...a shameful punishment” (Women 4:150–151).
For a certainty, the miseries that have come from drawing those “lines” have proven to be an endless “punishment” for all human beings, everywhere, who have been persecuted and maimed in hateful religious arguments and wars.
Among non-Muslims, misunderstanding Muhammad is commonplace. And even today’s “extremist Muslims” misunderstand him, which, in itself, is nothing new! If people really understood the Prophets, we wouldn’t have the bloody miseries that monotheistic religions have incited throughout history.
Muhammad came to acquaint Arabs with Abraham’s “Lord God.” But, while doing so, he also corrected the severe errors made by the Hebrew and Christian clergies — errors that started the wars which now threaten to culminate in nuclear explosions.
First, he assured the Jews, the descendants of the Hebrews, that Jesus is the promised Messiah, though their clergy had officially denied it. Second, he denounced the Christian clergy’s proclamation of the Trinity, which identified Jesus as “God the Son.” Thus, Muhammad became the instant enemy of the Jewish and Christian clergies, who promptly pronounced him and his religion “frauds.” Through all the following centuries, Jews and Christians still embrace that ignorant summation of what has become the 2nd largest religion in the world and could soon overtake Christianity’s leading role.
All the while, Muhammad continues to tell us to believe in ALL the Prophets, whose revelations about God and the Ten Commandments, which He sent to guide all mankind, never contradict each other! It is the CLERGIES of the three religions who argue against each other, not the God-sent Prophets whose words are preserved in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Christian New Testament, and the Koran. We urgently need to listen to them, to gain their “combined” knowledge of God that could shake the terrorists’ conviction that they are the only “true believers” — a prideful concept they share with the “humble” Christians.
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Wednesday, February 28, 2007
More for Ken and All Who Agree or Disagree With Him
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Muhammad made plain that he was speaking of Abraham's God. Of course anyone can say he wasn't, but Muhammad clearly identified the Subject of his "discourse." And I repeat, he did not come to repeat what the Prophets had already said. He came, not only to awaken huge numbers of people to God, but to correct the errors of the Christian and Jewish clergies. Those still "uncorrected" errors have produced endless bloodshed for 2,000 years and are now preparing to fulfill the
prophecies of "gross darkness," which Malachi told us we
could only avoid if the "fathers and the children" turn
their hearts to each other (Mal. 3:24/4:6).
The "fathers" of monotheism are the Hebrews and their
descendants, the Jews. The "children" of monotheism are the
Christians and Muslims. But sadly, Ken, you epitomize the disdain
that the "children" have for each other and for
the "fathers,"--who, in turn, disdain the "childrens'" teachings.
BTW, when I quoted Jesus, I was not speaking of you
paying attention to Muhammad!!! I was clearly talking about
believing Malachi, as one of the Prophets, which Jesus called us foolishly “slow of heart” to believe.
As for your definition of a true prophet, I disagree. The
man who introduced God to millions of people who had rejected the Christian missionaries--the same man who founded the 2nd largest religion in the world, which could soon become the largest—fits my definition of a Prophet. You deny him; I don't; it’s as simple as that.
Your reference to Muhammad thinking his faith would
become "universal" is, as I see it, an expression of his
faith that someday everyone in the world will believe in
Abraham's Lord God and in "the Messiah Jesus." I do not doubt that will happen and I’d be surprised to hear that you doubt it. Sadly, the "fanatic Muslims" are now twisting Muhammad's "prediction" and using it as their reason to kill all "unbelievers," and to identify
those "unbelievers" as anyone who does not practice Islam
exactly as they do--which includes many of their fellow Muslims. To my mind, those fanatics are simply the "tools" that will fulfill the prophecies of darkness--which--I repeat again, we could avoid if we were wise enough to learn about God from ALL the Prophets, and thereby, turn our hearts to each other. Of course, it won't happen--the darkness will come--and Jesus will come--but only after indescribable misery on earth--because the "fathers" and the "children" would not
enlarge their understanding!
Although I certainly know people who fit your
description of those who have turned away from God, I also
know many people who have actually turned away from God
because they cannot accept Christianity's teachings that God
became "flesh." Unfortunately, Christian teachings are
all they know and care to know about religion!!! Or, they
simply cannot believe that a Divine Power would
allow the miseries we have always suffered. Of course, they
completely "miss" our need to learn through experience,
instead of being "robots," as they somewhat suggest
God should have made us, to spare us pain while we are
learning!
Now, getting back to specifics--where in the Scriptures
does a Prophet actually say that God is a Trinity??? If that
were true, it would not have taken the Church hundreds of
years to officially declare it! But I am curious about where
you have "read that into" our New Testament.
And, as a brief point, surely, having read some of the
Koran, you've read the "Mary" chapter, and therefore you know
that Muhammad honored her as a Virgin, the Mother of
the "Messiah Jesus," who "…does not disdain to be a servant of God" (Women 4:172).
There remains a real problem with all of our
Scriptures. It's impossible to know what was actually said
by the identified "authors" and what was added. All the
declarations in the world by "believers" that every word in
their own Scriptures is "true," does not prove it so! And,
the Koran is perhaps the most suspect of all--since it's
written form was based on so very many "notes" preserved in
all kinds of ways. But, again I repeat, I am not concerned
with the myriad "rules" for daily behavior declared by the
different religions ,or their "side stories," which--
especially in the Koran--breed hatred of others--stuff I
cannot believe Muhammad said because he honestly expected the Jews and Christians to embrace his "corrections" of their
clergies and join him. Instead of joining him--look what we have! Each
religion declaring that it alone is right and the others are
wrong--and the very real prospect of the manmade "gross darkness" that shall "cover the peoples" (Isa. 60:2), because all
the "right" religions will not even consider that there is
more they could learn from each other!
Monday, February 05, 2007
Only Muslims Believe It!
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The Koran tells Muslims that someday the whole world will be Islamic, which can simply mean that someday everyone will know the Lord God of Abraham and “the Messiah Jesus” (as Muhammad identified mankind’s Messiah).
But Muhammad made clear that Jesus is NOT God; he is a “servant of God.” So, from the start, the Jews, obeying their clergy, scorned Muhammad for identifying Jesus as the Messiah. And the Christians, obeying their clergy, scorned Muhammad for denying that Jesus is “God the Son.”
The Religious War to establish Islam as the world’s only religion has already begun — but it often appears that only Muslims (and me) recognize it as a Religious War! Apparently, the rest of the world prefers to believe that some desperately poor people, recruited by evil-minded would-be “world rulers,” are perpetrating terrorist acts for material gain. Of course some individual terrorists are “out for what they can get.” But earthly riches are not the goal of the terrorists. And most Muslims know it, though, to be sure, not all Muslims support the terrorists. Still, all Muslims believe the world will someday be Islamic, so the vast majority are not willing to actively fight terrorism, since they cannot be certain it is not “God’s Will.”
While, today, only Muslims believe that Islam will someday be the world’s only religion, their belief does not automatically mean they are wrong! But it does mean that if enough people will enlarge their understanding of Abraham’s God, we could avoid the nuclear war that Muslim “extremists” are willing to start.
But now I urge you to take a moment to tell yourself the truth: No matter what you currently believe and disbelieve, after reading this, you’re not going to pursue an enlarged understanding of God, are you? Instead, you’re going to do what you’ve always done — browse other web sites until it’s time to work or feed the kids or shop or go to bed! That’s “living” in a reasonably peaceful society — until it stops being peaceful! Yet, I suspect you think you’ll have time to think about it, if your peace is actually disrupted! And I agree — by then you’ll have more time to think than you want — because you wouldn’t take the time to think about it now. In short, most people — including the extremist Muslims — are so set in their religious beliefs, I’m fighting a “lost cause,” when urging us to learn from ALL the Prophets. I wonder when I’ll believe it!
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Monday, January 15, 2007
Some Urgent “Talk” to Iran & Co. — In Less Than 500 Words
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This message is primarily directed to all “peoples of the earth” who are preparing to arm themselves with weapons of mass destruction, so they can force everyone to worship God exactly as they do.
Through the Hebrew Prophet, Isaiah, the Almighty Lord God warned the world: “…behold, darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the peoples…(Isa. 60:2).
Much later, Jesus spoke of a time when: “…the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light…” (Matt. 24:29). And “...unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved.” But he immediately promised, “…those days will be shortened” (Matt. 24:22).
Today, we can strongly suspect that those prophesied days of “gross darkness” could be the aftermath of a full-scale nuclear war, when mushrooming smoke would deprive the earth of sunlight and moonlight, and a “nuclear winter” would envelop the world.
Yet, the Hebrew Scriptures also tell us that we do not have to endure “those days.” According to the Prophet Malachi, the Lord God has promised: “Behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And he will turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the land with utter destruction” (Mal. 3:24/4:6).
The “fathers” of monotheism were the Hebrews and their descendants, the Jews. The “children” of monotheism are the Christians and Muslims. Moreover, we’re told that all human beings, regardless of their religious beliefs or unbelief, are the “children” of the Lord God revealed by the Prophets. And unless something happens that will “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers,” nuclear armed Muslims could soon act to fulfill the worst of all prophecies. Or, as the leader of Iran recently described their intentions: they will “wipe Israel (the land of the fathers) off the map.” And, ultimately, “darkness shall cover the earth.”
To be sure, the “something” that could “happen,” to spare us a nuclear winter, would be Elijah’s arrival. But, in this worldwide age of religious cynicism and “know it all intellectualism,” too many people might easily fail to recognize him and heed his teachings. So, it could immeasurably help us, if we prepare to better understand Elijah by enlarging our knowledge of the Prophets’ teachings.
To enlarge our knowledge, we only need to listen to the COMBINED teachings of ALL the Prophets, from Abraham through Muhammad. TOGETHER, they revealed the Lord God and the Messiah He promised to send us, without once contradicting each other! But that means, we must listen to the PROPHETS instead of the CLERGIES of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, who have never ceased contradicting each other, in their arrogant crusade to declare their own understanding “right” and all others “false or obsolete!”
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Thursday, December 14, 2006
If Muslims Believed Muhammad,They Could Transform the World
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Through the Koran, Muhammad tells Muslims to "Say: We believe in God and what was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael, to Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and what was given to Moses and Jesus and the prophets. We discriminate against none of them" (The Family of Imran 3:84).
Another time, Muhammad warns Muslims against drawing “…a line between God and His apostles, saying: 'We believe in some but deny others....’" (Women 4:150).
About 3,400 years ago, before the Hebrews had even entered the "Promised Land," Moses warned his people of a future day, when they would be "…driven out [of the Land] to the farthest parts under heaven…" (Deut. 30:4). But Moses also assured the Israelites that God "...will have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you" (Deut. 30:3).
If, today, Muslims truly believed Muhammad, they would believe "what was given to Moses." And they would rejoice in the resurrection of Israel as Moses foretold. Instead, countless Muslims, "believe in some [prophets] but deny others," while they prepare to "wipe Israel off the map.”
In other words, if Muslims believed the Prophets who preceded Muhammad and drew no “line” between them, they would humbly admit to God and the world, "We have been wrong to fight against Israel." And an astonished world would behold Israel's deadly enemies evidencing incredible faith, unmatched by Jews and Christians throughout their bloody history!
If militant Muslims and their supporters renounced their ignorant rejection of Israel and transformed themselves into peaceful believers in Abraham’s God, astounded Jews and Christians would be hard-pressed to renounce their own ignorant dismissal of Muhammad as a “false prophet” and Islam as a “false religion.”
Then, Jews and Christians, following the Muslims’ unique example, could finally abandon their own erroneous manmade teachings about “the Messiah Jesus” (Women 4:171) and embrace Muhammad’s messages about him, which Jews and Christians have always scorned — the very messages that could create peace among all “believers.”
If Muslims believed Muhammad….
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Monday, November 06, 2006
Monotheism in a Small Nutshell
To counter the extremist beliefs of today’s “religious terrorists,” we need the wisdom and courage to improve our own religious understanding. To accomplish that, we first need to recall some elementary historical facts.
The Hebrew Prophets delivered messages to their tribesmen, which they tell us came from the One and Only unseen but omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent “Lord God,” introduced by a man named Abraham. But the Hebrews were never instructed to seek converts to their faith among their heathen neighbors, who avidly worshipped more than 2,000 “visible” gods. So, Abraham’s unseen God was scarcely noticed by anyone outside the tiny Hebrew nation of Israel.
Around 1400 years after Moses delivered the laws that still govern the Hebrews, the Christians emerged from among Israel’s small population. Unlike the Hebrews, the Christians were distinctly told to “spread the word,” and, ever since, they have never ceased to reveal God to an attentive worldwide audience. The early Christians not only succeeded in converting uncountable heathens to a belief in One God, they also introduced mankind’s Messiah, a “visible Being,” to whom the heathens, accustomed to worshiping visible gods, could readily relate.
About six hundred years later, Muhammad did for his tribesmen in Arabia, what the Christian missionaries could not accomplish there. He persuaded numberless heathens, who had completely rejected Christianity’s messages, to believe in Abraham’s “Lord God.” But, while delivering the messages that became the Koran, Muhammad chastised both the Jews and the Christians for their erroneous interpretations of their own Sacred Writings. In short, he unequivocally refuted the divisive teachings that still incite Jews and Christians to scorn and hate each other.
Specifically, Muhammad’s messages established the absolute validity of the “Messiah Jesus.” And he clearly rebuked Judaism’s clergy for rejecting Jesus as the fulfillment of the Hebrew’s traditional belief in a coming Messiah. But, Muhammad also rebuked Christianity’s clergy, which, by Muhammad’s time, had long since officially identified Jesus as the Second Member of a Holy Trinity,“God, the Son.” That “title” still disgusts Jews and Muslims, who remain solely dedicated to the One and Only, invisible “Lord God” of Abraham. In reality, throughout Christianity’s history onto today, some people who identify themselves as “Christians” reject the concept of Jesus as “God Incarnate” and acknowledge him solely as the world’s promised Messiah, recognized by the first Christians, before their clergy “enlarged” his identity, centuries later.
In those few paragraphs, we have the most essential messages of the three religions. So, everyone who believes in Abraham’s Lord God, and believes that Jesus is mankind’s Messiah, and believes that “the Messiah does not disdain to be a servant of God” (Women 4:172), as Muhammad described Jesus, is essentially a Jew, Christian and Muslim, though they might not acknowledge it! But, their religions “practices” can differentiate them from their fellow believers, if that’s important to them! We’ll discuss some of those religious practices next time.
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>rel="tag">Hebrew Prophets
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>rel="tag">Judaism
>rel="tag">Jews Christians Muslims
>rel="tag">monotheism
>rel="tag">Abraham
>rel="tag">Lord God
>rel="tag">Israel
>rel="tag">Trinity
>rel="tag">Muhammad
>rel="tag">Hebrews
>rel="tag">Messiah
>rel="tag">God the Son
>rel="tag">God Incarnate
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