Prayers To Fit All Believers

In 1962, the Catholic Good Friday Prayer included these thoughts: "…for the faithless Jews: that almighty God may remove the veil from their hearts ... (and) for the blindness of that people, that they may be delivered from their darkness." After Vatican II in 1970, the prayer was changed to: "Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant ... (and) may arrive at the fullness of redemption." This year, it’s reported that Pope Benedict has revised the prayer again to ask God to "enlighten" the hearts of the Jews so "…they may acknowledge Jesus Christ as the savior” of all mankind.

The next chapter in this “saga” finds conservative rabbis expressing “dismay” over the Catholic prayer asking God to help Jews “…acknowledge Jesus Christ as the savior.” But that prayer could help all believers, by serving as an example of other needed prayers.

While Catholics ask God to help Jews recognize Jesus as the world’s Savior, Muslims, following Muhammad’s teachings, could be praying for Christians to acknowledge Jesus as nothing less — nor more — than the Promised Savior, instead of the second member of a trinity of gods. And if Christians stopped calling Jesus “God,” Jews could become more able to recognize him as the world’s Savior.

While all this praying for others is going on, Jews could be praying for Muslims to obey Muhammad, who told them to believe all the Prophets who preceded him — and he especially mentioned Moses. But Moses told the world that someday God would restore Israel and return the Hebrews to their homeland. So, why are supposedly devout Muslims trying to destroy the fulfillment of that prophecy?

In short, if all Jews, Christians and Muslims engaged themselves in such prayers, we would have a world of people praying for each other instead of a blood soaked earth!

Then again, perhaps each religious family could try praying for their own enlightenment! So, Jews could ask to be enlightened about the Messiah’s identity. Christians could ask to be enlightened about the real identity of the One and Only Lord God. And Muslims could ask to be enlightened about their own role as the third monotheistic religion that came to correct — not eradicate — their fellow believers.

By helping themselves enlarge their own religious understanding, believers would be helping all of their fellowmen enjoy “peace on earth, goodwill toward men,” which is one thing God has always told all “peoples of the earth” to pursue!

If Muslims Believed Muhammad,

They Could Transform the World

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 “God the Son” and embrace Muhammad’s messages about “the Messiah, Jesus” (The Family of Imran 3:45), which Jews and Christians have always scorned — the very messages that could create peace among all “believers.”

If Muslims believed Muhammad…..

Choosing Silence

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In the Koran, Muhammad plainly tells his followers to believe the Prophets who preceded him and “…discriminate against none of them” (The Family of Imran 3:84). Moreover, Muhammad specifically mentioned Moses as a Prophet worthy of belief.

When Moses led the Hebrews to the “Promised Land,” before they had even entered the land, he told them of the future fall of their yet-to-be created nation and the exile of their disobedient descendants. But he also foretold their eventual return to the resurrected nation of Israel (Deut. 30:3-5).

So, how do Muslims reconcile their devotion to destroying today’s “resurrected” Israel with Muhammad’s instructions to believe Moses? To date, most of the Muslims who contact me through my website and blog tell me that the Hebrew Scriptures have been “corrupted.” Therefore, they can “righteously” seek to “drive Israel into the sea,” because its current existence is based on lies inserted in the ancient Texts by the exiled, desperate, homeless Jews.

Regardless of what some Muslims clerics tell their followers, the fact remains that there is not a single piece of evidence to prove that the Hebrew Scriptures we read today, which foretell Israel’s restoration, are not faithful renditions of the original Text. The most ancient Scriptures in the Hebrew language discovered to date were retrieved from caves near the Dead Sea. Dating methods cannot determine the exact age of the individual Scrolls, but authorities agree that most were written during the last three centuries before Jesus. That means, before the Jews were exiled, as Moses foretold, and many hundreds of years before Muslims existed to declare them “liars” who corrupted their own Scriptures, the Jews were warned of their future — the precise future they have actually endured.

To us, the Dead Sea Scrolls are of ancient origin. But we need to remember that those Scrolls were, themselves, copies of much older Writings, which have probably long since disintegrated. It’s believed the Hebrews in Biblical Israel ceremoniously buried their worn Scrolls, to prevent their desecration. Hence, there’s no way for us to know if the Dead Sea Scrolls are faithful renditions of previous copies, much less of the Prophets’ original teachings. Nor is there a shred of evidence to prove they are not recordings of the actual words spoken by men who lived long ago. That means, any claim that portions of the Hebrew Scriptures were significantly altered has nothing but man’s unlimited imagination to support it!

Still, that fact does not deter those Muslims who choose to believe the Hebrew prophecies of Israel’s “resurrection” were deceitfully placed in their Scriptures after the Jews’ exile from ancient Israel. When people choose to eliminate portions of the ancient Scriptures, they are accepting their “alterations” as facts. And, to persuade others of those “facts,” they must first convince themselves they know “the absolute truth.” Whether they are telling themselves deliberate “lies” or simply making “mistakes” might be open to debate. Yet, when Muslims tell themselves and others that God never promised to resurrect Israel, they are denying a promise delivered by the very Prophets that Muhammad told them to believe! Once they have chosen to deny that promise, they have embarked on the path of self-deception that offers no further choices on the matter until they choose to acknowledge their “lies” or “mistakes” or whatever you choose to call them.

The world desperately needs wise Muslims who choose to speak the truth about those prophecies to their fellow Muslims — but, so far, they’re choosing silence.

(The above contains edited excerpts from my book, “Of Promises and Previews”)

Voting for “Wisdom and Freedom”

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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.

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.

A Fulfilled Prophecy!

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While visitors to this site are fruitlessly debating God’s “Name,” I think it’s a good time to turn our attention to the Power behind the Name, as the Prophets revealed Him.

Although Muhammad spoke of God as “Allah,” he never refuted any Prophets’ revelations about the One and Only “Lord God.” But, unlike his prophetic predecessors, Muhammad frequently discussed the omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence of the Creator. Most believers have yet to truly contemplate what it means in our daily lives to be subject to Someone possessing those awesome, almost unimaginable, powers.

For example, an “omniscient” God means that the God worshiped by Jews, Christians, and Muslims knew, from the start, that the Hebrews would end up disobeying Him, until they were driven out of their land. In fact, before the Hebrews had even entered the Promised Land, Moses, inspired by God, spoke of a time when they would be “...driven out to the farthest parts under heaven...” (Deut. 30:4). But Moses also revealed what would happen to them after they became “…an oath and an astonishment and a curse and a reproach” (Jer. 44:12) — a prophecy that human history unmistakably proves has been fulfilled! Moses assured them 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). Then, they will become “…a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth” (Zeph. 3:20).

Throughout history, uncountable people have reproached, cursed and killed Jews, even while they claimed to believe in the “Lord God,” “our Father,” “Allah the King.” Therefore, it would be wisdom for “believers” to stop arguing about God’s Name and start repairing the damage they’ve done to the persecuted people who will yet become “a name and a praise” among us, as the OMNISCIENT God foretold.

Granted, the clergies of Christianity and Islam have perverted the prophecies related to the Jews’ “resurrection,” to make their own religion foremost and their own members “a name and a praise.” But the OMNIPOTENT Creator has spoken, and nothing said or done by Christians and Muslims can alter His decree. So, no matter the Name we use to address Him, it is long past time for us to acknowledge His Powers, which apply to all of God's "children" and could better guide all of us than the manmade concepts that have ceaselessly bred hatreds in His Name--whatever you think that Name is!

Christians and Muslims: Two Peas in a Pod

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During one of Muhammad’s personal conversations, preserved by his Companions, he revealed his accurate perception of the future. Muhammad warned his people that they would follow the same degenerate path tread by Christians and Jews: “Ye will follow them that were before you span by span and cubit by cubit until if they went down the hole of a poisonous reptile ye would follow them down.” (“Muhammad, his life based on the earliest sources”, Martin Lings.)

In keeping with Muhammad’s prediction, Christians and Muslims share a history of poisonous pride and deadly arrogance. For example, they’ve each proclaimed themselves “the only true believers” on earth; they’ve repeatedly engaged in Religious Wars to destroy each other; they’ve persecuted “outsiders” who resist their Christian or Muslim “saviors”; and most certainly, they each anticipate their own exclusivity in Heaven! (The list could include far more historical parallels, and if you’d like to mention them, please do.)

Actually, the Hebrews, as the first monotheists, were the first to behave in ways that bore no resemblance to their Prophets’ teachings. For instance, more than a few Hebrew kings openly practiced idolatry, and many Israelites welcomed those kings. Under their reign, people were free to worship the gods of Syria, which were known to enjoy watching humans mate on hilltops! Such “heathen” practices eventually got the Jews expelled from their promised Holy Land. Ever since, the Jews have worshiped God, Alone, firmly believing, as Moses said, that He will forgive them and fulfill His promises to them. Among the unfulfilled promises is the seldom mentioned prophecy that someday the Jews will become “…a name and praise among all the peoples of the earth” (Zeph. 3:20), the same “peoples” who have arrogantly scorned the exiled Jews!


Shortly after the Jews’ exile, Christians began to argue about their own religious leaders and rules. But, when Christians strongly disagreed, they divided into sects that killed each other — as some were still doing in recent history, even as Muslim sects are still killing each other. Moreover, from early in their mutual history, Christians and Muslims engaged in crusades to conquer the Holy Land, which they each arrogantly proclaimed was theirs, alone!

In more recent history, uncountable Christians were supporters of the Nazi Holocaust, to eradicate Jews and other “inferior people” — a most “unChristian” endeavor, strongly supported by uncountable Muslims. And today, “militant Muslims” are determined to “drive the Jews into the sea,” or “wipe Israel off the map,” as the current ruler of Iran likes to describe his goal.

Through the Koran, Muhammad tells Muslims who are wise enough to listen: “...men have divided themselves into factions, each rejoicing in its own doctrines. Leave them in their error…” (The Believers 23:53–54), and wait for God to “…judge their disputes on the day of resurrection” (The Cow 2:113). Moreover, Muhammad reminds believers “…to endure with fortitude and to forgive is a duty incumbent on all” (Counsel 42:43).

Obviously, countless Muslims haven’t followed Muhammad’s teachings, any more than countless Christians have “turned the other cheek” to their “evil” enemies (Matt. 5:39). But, ironically, the Jews have constantly “turned the other cheek” to their persecutors and some have even expressed forgiveness of them, while they’ve silently refrained from arguing with Christians and Muslims and have never been known to kill their fellow Jews whose religious practices differ from their own. So, it can be said that the Jews practice Christianity and Islam, while Christians and Muslims appear to be two peas in a pod!

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….