Archive for the ‘English’ Category

Is The Bible Reliable

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Upon writing this post I wanted to deal with the uniqueness of the bible which I believe gives credence to the reality of the text which ultimately points towards divine authorship.

To study further on this subject I would recommend a book that I read a long time ago called “A Ready Defense” by Josh McDowell who was an atheist turned Christian. His quest was similar to that of Lee Strobel’s who is a well known author for his “case” series of books.

When closely examining the bible it is like a jewel that is multifaceted with a beauty that makes this gem unique among other literary “gem”res.

I know that this is the same claim that others have also made by advancing their various religious world views but in the final analysis the bible as compared to these other scripts sets a precedence which places it in a class of its own.

Every group wants to claim originality, uniqueness, genuineness, and authority as it relates to some supreme or divine origin regarding their sacred text and based on what I have seen so far in regard to these books seems to be questionable based upon the shortcomings and contradictions of their varied positions of belief.

Again I understand this is the same criticism that has been leveled against the biblical text as well and the skeptic is quick to point out all sorts of problems but some are not always able to be specific in their critique.

Also I know there are difficulties within the bible that are hard to decipher but that is not enough evidence to discard its content as rubbish and poppycock.

Some of these conflicts have resulted due to the vastness and complexity of the scriptures which encompasses 1500 years of writing with 40 different authors who wrote on 3 different continents in 3 different languages. This has led to various nuances which at times may be almost impossible at points to complete rectify or reconcile due to the diversity of language and  culture.

Some things in the bible are a paradigm shift to our concept of experience such as its miraculous and metaphysical contents but this does not disapprove the bible either but rather it just leaves us with a bit of a  mystery that is not normative to our sense perception.

As regarding biblical content there are other things that just lack a fuller view of explanation and insight of which the authors didn’t leave us with nor thought it necessary to answer. As we try to fill in the blanks this often times leaves us with a misunderstanding which attributes much to the seemingly contradictions and misapplications to the contextual view which can lead towards heretical forms of teaching or belief.

The bible isn’t always an easy piece of literature to handle or piece together and it is like an onion in that every time you read through it you find another layer of understanding that was overlooked in the first disclosure. Yet just because something cannot not be fully understood doesn’t mean that is can’t be trusted. Even science has these limitations as they are just now beginning to probe into the deeper mysteries of the universe and yet the universe to us is both real and believable.

Also we can’t treat the bible like an exhaustive manual which explains every last little detail and it appears to be the Almighty’s prerogative to avoid an extensive explanation of all the complexities that interest inquiring minds. From a biblical view point there tends to be a concentration on the relevant or central points and subjects rather than always answering the questions of “why”. It’s not like we could fully fathom or understand everything anyway and at points it might be like trying to teach the theorems of nuclear science to a new born. This reminds me of Job who questioned God in his finitude which in turn God answered Job back in His infinitude leaving Job speechless.

As humans we don’t even fully understand the ancient technologies or achievements of men such as the building of the pyramids which are undeniably monumental in their presence and yet now we expect to fully comprehend the complexities of an eternal and omnipotent God?

Also some of the difficulties in the bible apply more directly to that particular point in history which would have made it more significant in relevance towards the contemporaries of that particular generation.

So maybe our ability to discern fully is diminished through this aspect of time and space and one thing that has helped in narrowing the gap of biblical doctrine has been the technological advances of archaeology and their recovery of the evidence which has helped to clarify instead of contradict the biblical text. It’s just a matter of time for some things to come into a clearer view as we unearth the next pile of dirt.

Archaeologists have uncovered habitations that were once thought to be non existent such as the Hittite civilization and they also have found historical proof for the things in the bible that at one time were put in the categorical box of mythology.

Our limitations to discern or understand can also become distorted resulting in a corrupt understanding of the text and fallibility may be on behalf of the interpreter which results in a misapplication to the scriptures but one thing is certain is that these assertions may apply to peoples perception but that does not necessitate an application to the book that is under others scrutiny.

Anyway I really don’t have enough time in this one post to write on such a voluminous work that has copious amount of scholarship dedicated to this subject. Hopefully this will serve your interest in prompting a desire for you to more fully research these claims in unlocking this heavy but accessible door as you enter into the discovery of biblical truth.

One thing that biblical literature has going for itself is that there is more manuscript evidence for the bible than any other piece of ancient literature. There are about 25,000 manuscripts in various languages that date back as early as 125 A.D for the New Testament and as far back as 200 B.C for the Old. This massive amount of manuscript helps when trying to reconstruct authenticity by analyzing possible discrepancies due to scribal fluctuations and these reconstructive efforts of scholars and linguists have resulted in more of a purified text. Most of these variances that are found are minor such as spelling errors and therefore are non consequential towards the integrity of the text.

Unfortunately we do not have the originals or the autographs but still there is only about a 100 year old time lapse between the New Testament autograph and the oldest surviving copies which is quite small considering that most of the other literature that we have from antiquity is between 400 to 1000 years removed from its original source.

Also regarding the preservation and authentication of the New Testament text is that much of it can be completely reconstructed from the quotes of the early church fathers between 97 AD to 180 AD except for 11 verses. In addition to this the lectionaries between 300-1100 AD also confirm the content for the entire New Testament.

Another thing to consider is that when there is a longer period of time between the sources there tends to be a better possibility to embellish the literature content of a document which can evolve into mythical proportions due to the inclusion of oral traditions. We discovered this when we played the game of telephone as kids. So I believe given the relatively short period of time between these manuscript sources helps to authenticate the reliability of the biblical text.

One of the main reasons why there was difficulty in the preservation and survival of these original autographs was due to the inferiority of the parchment which was largely papyrus. Animal skins were not widely used until centuries after the completion of the New Testament so in conclusion this trail of vast manuscripts has turned out to be a blessing in piecing together the textual evidence of this script without the benefits of Gutenberg’s Press.

In moving on to the Old Testament text it was passed down to us by the Massoretes. These copyists or scribes were meticulous on how they counted the number of letters, words, and lines in keeping with the accuracy of the sacred text. This kind of detail can be attributed to the consistency we see with the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947 which were written about 1000 years before this Masoretic text (895AD). When I was in Jerusalem I was able to see the Isaiah scroll on display at the Shrine of the Book museum.

Anyway in addition to this there is yet another copy of the Old Testament called the Septuagint which is written in Greek with the oldest copy dating back to about the second century AD which is still another piece of the puzzle to this ancient work of literature.

Now regarding the New Testament the original manuscripts were written between 45 and 95 A.D. Fortunately these documents can be ascribed to there various times based on the historical significance of well know people, places, and events. In addition to this I think one key element in determining the age of these documents is the fact that the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.  and since this is such a catastrophic event of which is not even mentioned in such significant historical books  as Acts or the gospel narratives then it becomes understandable why these books predate this particular event in history.

Also before the New Testament could be accepted as canon it had to be validated and  proven to have  an origin that would require it to be of either a first hand witness or someone closely associated with these witnesses in order to find acceptance within the  New Testament community of believers.

Nearly all the New Testament was written by the Apostles with the bulk of literature being attributed to the Apostle Paul. Others that had written books were closely associated with the Apostles such as John Mark who was a close associate with the Apostle Peter and Luke who was under the influence of Paul and there was also Jacob(James) and Judah(Jude) who were the half brother’s of Jesus. We have no reason to question the authenticity of these apostolic authors based on the dates and the acceptance of these scriptures by the followers of the early church.

Even Polycarp in 108 AD, who was a disciple of the Apostle John, mentions 15 of these NT books, not to say that the others didn’t exist, but finally through various church councils leading up to the council of Carthage in 397 AD the canon of the New Testament was determined to be closed and was fully affirmed and accepted officially even though it had already been approved within the community of saints prior to these councilor meetings. In addition to this the Jewish council of Jamnia had already determined their canon of scripture prior to this in 90 A.D by officially codifying the Old Testament text.

One of the reasons for the council was due to a reactionary response as a need to preserve biblical orthodoxy which was under attack by the various cults and heresies that were being circulated at this juncture in history. Also within these councils, which would include Jamnia, the various apocryphal literature’s were rejected as inspirational even though it was allowed within the Septuagint and later included within various Orthodox and Catholic bibles.

The early church was hypersensitive towards authentication and was very narrow concerning the inclusion of circulated texts. The church wanted to avoid the synchronization of controversial texts which is unlike some religions like Hinduism which have incorporated a synthesis of various contradictory tribal traditions as a unified text.

So the bible didn’t just come together haphazardly by the mixing and matching of mythological narratives such as what you might find in some of the ancient pagan cultures that ascribe the  events of the creation and the flood accounts as the work of  the polytheistic gods. Nor does it lend itself to the mishandling of information but rather the authors had a preoccupation for accuracy. Just read the account of the gospel of Dr. Luke who writes with the intent of precision as outlined in the introductory statement of his gospel account in Luke 1:1-4 which is described as being prepared in an orderly and precise fashion.

Though the bible may contain super-nature material it is written with the backdrop of historical narrative which is unique and separate from other mythological literature. If God is who the bible claims Him to be then the variables of His omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence are clearly within the range of the data that the biblical account supports.

There have also been challenges raised against the gospel accounts which can be seen by the discrepancies of inclusion and exclusion. The bible teaches inspiration with a confluence of both a divine and human element unlike Islam which teaches that the Quran was originated as a divine copy that was communicated by dictation like a stenographer.

The writers of the gospels were individuals who wrote based on their guided perceptions of the same events as it related to their distinct personalities and experience much like interviewing a spectator at a sporting event to get their reaction to the game. Not everybody is going to say the same thing because of a different vantage point in their communication of factual information and even if there is corroboration like you have in the Synoptic gospels there are still allowances for individuality. Of course this is only acceptable as long as it is not contradictory in nature.

If the church wanted to remove any perceived inconsistencies as a means to help eliminate the supposed contradictions then they would have had plenty of time to do this by now but because these somewhat controversial scriptures remain helps to prove is originality.

If we question the biblical literature then we must likewise question the historical literature of antiquity as well as all other literature even from the contemporary sources. We can’t just simply rank or categorize religion under the titles of superstition, fiction, and myth just because it pertains to religious ideologies.

We must also scrutinize what is to be considered as the standardized text book materials such as what is found in the scientific (philosophical) realms which base much of their conclusive evidence on the theory and hypothesis of their scientific methods. Yet are we religiously treating these books as sacred without challenging them by accepting the science fiction notion of such things as macroevolution which has never been proven.

Religion has been attributed as the opiate of the masses but what about the cyanide of the sciences and philosophies in spite of the teleological and cosmological arguments of which science has stumbled over in resolving and has had to shift their position from time to time in order to accommodate there faith which remains in a continued state of flux. Upon closer observation if the skeptic would remove the shutter over their instruments they may come to discover the Creator staring back at them through the lens of the microscope and telescope.

The bible was meant to be complimentary to the texts of human academia and is not to be antithetical to the precepts of life as it appears within the libraries of knowledge. However some want to create a special section that separates it from the rest of the collection of library books by attributing it to a form of  mysticism or some type of the pre-scientific beliefs of ancient tribal civilizations who were ignorant and misinformed.

Lastly this post does not answer every question to all the objections but it does show at this point that the bible is a reliable source of ancient literature. Yet what really makes this piece of work unique is the content which has it origins in a divine being.

I believe that requires something of the nature which is considered special revelation such as the fulfillment of prophecy or scientific facts that were unknown to these ancient civilizations.

A person could give the criticism that biblical prophecy is like an arrow that has been shot with the bible serving as the target which we have conveniently moved in order to achieve the bulls eye of fulfillment.

Yet there are some things of which can not be adequately refuted because of the historical nature of secondary or non biblical sources which are independent of the biblical sources.

One of these sources comes to us through the historical and archeological finds that have helped to substantiate and give credibility to the biblical text.

The scriptures themselves have made some wise towards the receiving of salvation and we see this as a response to some Jews who have come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah just from reading the Tanakh or the Old Testament scriptures. To most Jews the New Testament is an inferior secondary text but when they see an alignment between the historical crucifixion and the New Testament record then sometimes the light of revelation illuminates their mind to connect to Jesus as the supreme messianic figure in fulfillment of the Old Testament.

The Jewish community is not sympathetic towards Jesus even though we share a common belief in God and a holy book. One of the chapters that some of the religious Jews avoid is Isaiah 53 due to its prophetic significance as related to Jesus. Many times when uninformed Jews hear this segment of the scripture for the first time some immediately associate this passage with Jesus and their initial response is that we don’t believe in the New Testament without realizing that they have just heard a passage from their Hebrew scriptures.

Another prophecy, which is found in Psalms 22, depicts the scene of the crucifixion of Jesus which describes this form of capital punishment that was non existent at this point in history and wasn’t developed until later by the Persians before finally being adopted by the Romans.

Again this is another one of those scriptures that some Jews upon hearing for the first time have immediately seen as a correlation between Jesus and His death. Actually this was one of the key scriptures in which my Jewish wife came to believe in Jesus herself.

In considering the evidence of the prophetic I would like to refer to a couple of instances that would be recognized as unique outside of the resource of the bible and would be considered unmistakingly and undeniably valid without the influence of a religious text alone telling us what happened which would include the possibility of adding something after the fact.

To begin with we know that the Old Testament predates the New Testament and that is not in dispute here because of the dating of the Septuagint and the Dead Sea scrolls and therefore this text was not the invention of Christianity. The Jewish community had this text long before the advent of the new covenant era and the Jews wouldn’t even think about it as being an extension of the biblical narrative.

Yet the religious  Jews find some real problems with some of these Old Testament scriptures and they either avoid reading them or claim them to be closed or to difficult to understand especially when it comes to the possibility of seeing Jesus as the fulfillment of the text.

One thing I have discussed extensively in another blog is the seventy weeks of Daniel which deals with a historic timetable of dating which can not be fabricated or altered which specifically points to the time of Jesus followed by the destruction of the temple.

jesusandjews.com/wordpress/2009/06/19/jesus-the-messiah/

Also another bit of evidence and one of the greatest miracles of this modern era is the reestablishment of the State of Israel and the continued proliferation of the Jewish people against all the odds of a complete assimilation and annihilation which helps in confirming the prophetic significance of Genesis 13:14, 15 which was given as an ancient promise to Abraham concerning his offspring as inhabiting the land of Israel forever. This prophecy was given about 2000 BC and it still good for 2010 AD and beyond.

The historical rebirth of Israel in 1948 was a divine miracle which records the preservation of Israel amidst the oppositional forces of exile and the Diaspora which resulted in the inquisition, crusades, pogroms, and even the nazi Holocaust and yet they have still survived and retained their ethnic and national identity as a distinct people and therefore did not fully integrate unlike other people groups in the history of the world that had lost their homeland. The Jews may have been temporarily displaced but only to return. God was putting them on display as if to show the world his glory and greatness according to his promises which are without repentance.

In addition to this just to hear of the miraculous stories which took place among the Jewish people as they fought to retain their land is enough to make a believer out of you. To see God’s hand in protecting them from the invading armies of the surrounding Arab nations when they were out numbered and out armed was like a story right out of the bible much like David and Goliath.

There have been many great civilization come and go but Gods word will not fail. A good production to view concerning this reenactment is the movie “Against all Odds”.

In regards to science many have thought that the bible is incompatible with the advancements of the modern scientific age and yet we know that there are many well known scientists working in their respective disciplines which minimally have a theistic view as well as a portion of them clinging to the Judeo Christian faith. Here is a link that gives a partial list of these people

www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-scientists.html

In conclusion this may not prove to you ever thing that you question regarding the biblical text or the God of the bible but it should cause you to hunger enough to want to investigate the buffet of God’s word as means to satisfy the hunger pangs of our human reality. Our problem is that we have a pallet that is not culinaried towards having an appetite towards our creator. Yet the bible calls to us to taste and see that the Lord is good.
How to know God

Atheist and Agnostic Resources

English Articles on Atheism and Agnosticism

 

 

 

 

AMG’s Encyclopedia of Bible Facts, AMG Publishers, Chattanooga, Tennessee

Reprinted by permission. “Josh McDowell A Ready Defense, Josh McDowell and Bill Wilson, Copyright 1993, Thomas Nelson Inc. Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.”

Muslim Resources of Jesus

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

This is a great websites that is very informative.

carm.org/islam

This website contains testimonials of Muslims who have had personal encounters with Jesus

www.answering-islam.org/Testimonies/index.html

 

Four Spiritual Laws

 

Jesus Film

 

New Testament/Bible

 

Audio Bible

Is the Qur’an sacred?

Monday, November 9th, 2009

When considering the sacredness of the Qur’an we must analyze it like any other piece of literature to authenticate its claims of origin.

The Qur’an is given such a high status within Islam that it has bordered on being an object of idolatry among many of the practitioners of the faith.

In addition to this Islam has made claims to its inspiration that go beyond the textual evidence of the script.

When studying Mormonism I saw some similarities to that of the traditions of Islam. Mormons believe in a heavenly inscription that was transcribed on golden tablets and through the directive of an angelic being these heavenly tablets were located and secured for transliteration.

Also Joseph Smith was committed to supposedly finding the one true faith and this led further to him having many supposed encounters and revelations of divine truth, likewise.

Yet in spite of these divine revelations the “Book of Mormon” like the Qur’an is less than a perfect document.

The Muslim may claim that the Qur’an is the most perfect and beautiful of all sources of literature which according to Islam authenticates its divine inspiration as a means of internal evidence.

Yet this was also the position of Joseph Smith concerning the Book of Mormon in which he stated that it is the most perfect of all books ever written.

However, both of these texts come up short in their claims to divine origin by lacking the polish of perfection that they both claim to have obtained. Claiming and being are two different things and a person must prove or at least give reasonable or plausible evidence that supports its platform for truth.

To begin the Qur’an derives its source from a single founder who is of a questionable character.

Muhammad from the onset of these revelations doubted his own sanity as he didn’t know whether he was a mad man or a poet. He questioned himself as being possessed by demons and this was because of the occultic manifestations related to him receiving these revelations such as the strange behavior of foaming at the mouth or roaring like a camel. Another question related to the prophet is why would Allah choose an illiterate to communicate a literate truth that wasn’t even compiled during his lifetime.

Anyway I discuss more of this in another blog that I posted at

jesusandjews.com/wordpress/2009/04/26/is-muhammad-a-false-prophet/

Also one of the concerns related to the Qur’an is the originality of the text considering that the Qur’an borrows its literature from secondary sources. These sources are the bible and various heretical teachings such as the Judeo Christian apocryphal literature which were outside the community of faith because they never measured up to divine inspiration. These apocryphal writings were relegated to the cultish fringes of both Jewish and Christian culture and were never taken seriously.

Alongside of this literature there was also the influence of the oral traditions of the Persian Zoroastrians that was included within the Quranic writings.

So how does Allah borrow his heavenly message from the fallacy of earthly messengers and human tradition?

What perfection or miracle can one achieve from the human invention of imagination which was rejected by the communities that originated the literature as being less than perfect?

If Islam is the supreme religion then why didn’t it originate its own source material rather than borrowing the leftovers of other religious movements that surrounded the culture of Islam at this time in history? How original is that?

Another question that comes up is the collating of this supposed sacred text which was dependent upon rudimentary and fragmentary pieces of perishable materials such as bone, wood, leather, leaves, and rocks.

The Qur’an was also assembled by obtaining testimony through the fallible intellect of memory and speech which would demand exactness and preciseness like some type of a total recall in order to ensure its infallibility.

Is this anyway to record or treat what was to be a monumental piece of literature in being described as the “mother of all books” or is it in reality no different than any other piece of ancient literature.

The Qur’an has never been proven to have been assembled either during the life of Muhammad or shortly after his death but rather the evidence shows that the Qur’an was compiled and evolved over a period of 150 to 200 years following the expiration of the prophet and it was finally canonized in the 8th or 9th century.

Scholars conclude that the sayings of the Qur’an were gathered not by one man but by a group of men over a period of a couple hundred years.

The oldest copy of the Qur’an was written in the Ma’il script dating it to about 790 A.D. which is about 150 years after the death of Muhammad.

Even the oldest manuscript fragments that are in existence are still a 100 years separated from the time of Muhammad.

In addition to this Uthman’s copies are  no longer in existence either and though Islamic scholars claim otherwise the reality is that the Kufic script which is contained in these controversial texts was not in use during the time of Uthman and did not show up until 150 years later after Uthman’s demise.

Also supposedly the Arabic language is the heavenly tongue of Allah and if the Qur’an originated with Allah then why does the Quran borrow its communication through the use of foreign words or languages such as Acadian, Assyrian, Persian, Syriac, Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Ethiopic.

If the Qur’an is so authentic then why is there not a Textus Originalis or original text still available especially since we have documents that predate the advent of Islam that have survived completely intact? Surely Allah in his sovereignty could preserve his own sacred text.

Concerning the history of the Qur’an it was supposedly collated under Zaid ibn Thabit who was a personal secretary to Muhammad. Zaid under the directive of Abu Bakr was to take and make a document from the sayings of Muhammad.

Consequently, during the reign of Uthman, the third Caliph, a deliberate attempt was made to standardize the Qur’an and impose a single text upon the whole Muslim community which led to the making of other copies to Zaid’s codice while in turn destroying all other competitive documents.

Who is to say that this text was standard since one man was to be the final authority versus the community of believers some of which were personal companions to Muhammad?

Now we have copies upon copies alongside of this previously existing text. How do we know that what we have really represents the true Qur’an and would Muhammad even have recognized all of its content?

Also since much of the manuscript evidence was destroyed we do not have an accurate way of reconstructing a purer text.

The differences between all four of these co-existing codices of Zaid, Abdullah ibn Mas’ud, Abu Musa, and Ubayy, contain deviations and deletions between them and yet the originators of the text were credible individuals in relation to Muhammad.

Abdullah Mas’ud was appointed by Muhammad as a teacher of Quranic recitation and Ubayy was a secretary to the prophet.

My question is whose manuscript was right or more authoritative among the personal disciples of the prophet?

Who was Uthman to be the final authority of correctness since there was other authoritative texts of which were recognized by other communities?

Also when Zaid compiled the text he forgot to include some of the sayings as related to “stoning”.

Now after all of this struggle to unify the text it was later reviewed and revised by al-Hajjaj who was the governor of Kufa.

He initially amended 11 of the texts and finally his changes were later reduced to seven.

Following upon this action the Hafsah text, which was the original document from which the final text was taken, was later destroyed by Mirwan, the governor of Medina.

Also another phenomenon in the Qur’an is one of abrogation’s which is a way of dealing with internal contradictions which are explained as an improvement upon the text.

I am wondering how you can correct something that is already perfect since this revelation only covered a period of 20 years and didn’t need any improvement yet to facilitate the evolution of cultural standards?

The number of abrogations is said to be between 5 to 500. Others say it stands closer to 225. What this shows us is that the science of abrogation is an inexact science indeed, as no-one really knows how many of the verses are to be abrogated.

In addition to the internal contradictions there are also scientific as well as grammatical errors as well.

In joining to all of these discrepancies is the growing number of Hadiths which suddenly appeared in the 9th century which is 250 years after the fact.

Of the original 600,000 hadith sayings that were in circulation at this time only a little over 7,000 of them survived leaving 99% of these traditions as being classified as erroneous.

Yet if 99% are inaccurate then how can we trust this 1% that Al Bukhari approved of?

The Muslim tradition also evolved through oral transmission of the storytellers or Kussas whose works were finally compiled no earlier than the 8th century. These stories were taken from common folklore and embellished thus bringing a greater distortion to Islam.

Also if you have ever been involved in the game of telephone or passing on a story to a large group of people one at a time  you often end up with a whole different story once the final person has had the story passed on to them.

Now spread this out over a couple of hundred years and what do you think is the end result to this practice?

For the Qur’an to be regarded as Allah’s blueprint or the greatest wonders of wonders without literary equivalent  is sounding more like an exaggeration that is unfounded on many fronts.

The Qur’an leaves more questions than it does answers.

Is the Qur’an a superb piece of literature par excellence or does it fall short of its claim to fame?

Does it possess a beauty in the text unequaled to any other piece of literature? This is an opinion left to the ear of the beholder as there are plentiful pieces of classical literature, of which the Qur’an borrows from, that surpass this literary genre based on the opinions of others.

For a book that is supposed to be second to none it has often been described as incoherent and badly edited at points and also it is not able to stand up to the criticism and scrutiny of others who are able to take more of an objective view to its authenticity.

For others within the movement it is to be obediently embraced with an unquestioned bias of mindless submission which keeps the worshipper from thinking critically about its content.

To question the text would be to question Allah and his prophet which is beyond the scope of Muslim thought which would see this as an act of betrayal and defiance resulting in dire consequences with eternal repercussions.

You may say it’s a miracle for the Qur’an to survive after all of these transitionary phases of Islam and yet I say based upon the evidence it would take a miracle for me to believe that this message is a divine revelation.

In conclusion I really don’t have any other comments regarding the Qur’an. The only thing I have left to say is that I hope I have not overstated my case by my direct wording and therefore have shown disrespect towards my Muslim friends.

This is difficult to do because when a religion is so engrafted within a personal faith than anything that is offered as a challenge to the mindset of religious thought then it is often viewed as a threat or a form of hostility.

I ask that you please forgive me if all I have done was to only rouse your anger rather than your suspicions towards the text that you hold as being sacred.

Again my intent is not to offend but to defend truth and to walk its path wherever it may ultimately lead us.

Lastly for more information on this subject you can refer to the articles as written by Jay Smith of which I related to when posting this blog

How to know God

Muslim Resources of Jesus

Islam and Jesus

Is Hell Real?

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

It is easier for people to generally believe in the reality of heaven while avoiding the contemplation of the pitfalls of a hellish realm of existence for departed souls. The hell factor is a controversial subject which people try to avoid discussing and it is often treated with skepticism when taken seriously. The negative aspect of viewing hell by avoiding a non personal view usually comes as a response of indifference due to the possibilities of our individual accountability therefore this reaction is a defensive mechanism of self preservation.

Some people deal with hell by playing the game of ignorance like Schultz on Hogan’s Heroes who would emphatically state “I know nothing” when it was his job to secure knowledge and yet by his statement he attempted to rid himself of responsibility by this claim of ignoring the obvious. This wouldn’t get him off  the hook with the commandant nor will it bring us innocence before an all knowing God likewise.

The other group perhaps they know but by silencing the static of judgement in tuning off or turning down any resources that represents  biblical christianity is only a way for them to cope temporarily by escaping in dealing with the inevitable. Just watch a group of guys squirm and how fast they change the channel if a religious program comes on that has any preaching about sin. You might think they were watching a “quick draw” western based on their efficiency in handling the remote.

Anyway when dealing with sin and judgment there are warning signals that have a clear and distinct alarm system that is to awaken our conscious towards God in alerting us to the danger of eternal punishment Romans 2:14-16, 1John 4:18.

Whether we try avoiding the  alarm by ignoring its erratic modulation’s or by throwing it across the room out of irritation, it still does not remove the fact that it is time to get up .

The alarm clock like the internal noise of our conscious resonates attempting to wake us up to our moral condition and eternal destiny. We may try to counter respond to these impulses through ignorance or resistance in trying to remove the annoyance of this persistent bong yet this chime     will not be completely silenced until we no longer wake up to this life.

People have  a difficult time in believing the biblical descriptions of hell as something that would accurately be portrayed as a horrendous place of eternal torment and condemnation and it has caused people to formulate their own reality to hell.

Individuals  have removed the concept of hell altogether by declaring its non-existence or by stating if it does exist then it occupants are Satan and his entourage of demons along with the Hitler’s of our societies.

Others downplay its horrific scenes as something to be desired like a  “big party.”

Some take  a less serious view of its recourse by seeing it as only a temporal realm of intermediacy such as a purgatorial existence or maybe as a flash fire of flesh such as annihilation.

I recently watched a documentary on this concept of heaven and hell as related to near death experiences and based on the testimony of some of these secular and religious researchers they agreed that these subjects that they viewed and interviewed where having real experiences based on their perception and this death event could not be conclusively explained by preconceived expectations of death or by the hallucinatory agents of brain chemicals.

One of the secular researchers ruled out psychological interference as well because he thought it was counterproductive to fantasize about hell when you were dying.

Most of these near death experiences are becoming more frequent now due to the technological advances of reviving people and it is said that there are about 12-15 million Americans alone who have had these experiences.

One commentator says that most people undergo a religious transformation after these close encounters with death and hallucinations alone can not account for for these kind of changes.

Another researcher had done his work internationally interviewing over 300 cases and his research had indicated a consistency of testimony of  both the hellish and the heavenly descriptions as one would find in the biblical text.

As we approach the pagan festival of Halloween many people treat death/hell like they treat this holiday. Sometimes people don’t understand or care to understand about the reality of the spiritual realm behind this Satanic celebration. For them it is just a harmless game of fun  and yet like death there can be a reality and a hidden demonic element that masks itself from our plain view and “tricks” us into being deceived by thinking that the realm of Satan, demons, and hell are only the inventions of Hollywood and preachers.

Hell becomes trivialized and commercialized and before to long it no longer haunts our minds but rather it morbidly becomes desirous in establishing these new evil role models making “Harry Potter” out to be a hero or a desirable character.

In spite of this there are some who want to seriously consider the knowledge of the after life or  at least they are curious about it and this has led to the releasing of the popular books, 90 minutes in heaven and 23 minutes in hell.

I personally know a couple of close friends that had a NDE in which they experienced heaven and one lady was so awestruck by the experience that she didn’t want to come back and I remember her telling me how that her husband could not understand why she didn’t want to return to her earthly life with him and this same testimony coincides with the other people that were being interviewed on this program likewise.

The other person that I know was a pastors wife who had visited  heaven and had seen and talked to Jesus.

In many of these spiritual encounters people have claimed to have seen things that were associated with the apocalyptical literature of both the Old and New Testaments.

One other bit of evidence that substantiates these Near Death Experiences is that these people are quite in touch to the details of what is going on around them in the room while they are in a  comatose state. They can even describe details of what is going on outside of the room as their spirit is leaving their bodies. Also they were seeing and experiencing things even beyond their own mindset and exceptions which was unexplainable as well.

The secular researchers were not conclusive in their findings on this matter as they were not able to explain or pinpoint  how these people had experienced these things when it went beyond their  human capacity for experience or perception. I believe this then leaves the door open to discuss the realm of the supernatural.

So in venturing forward on this quest of life after death lets see what the bible says about hell. The word for “hell” is the Hebrew word “sheol” as found in the Old Testament. This word can be used broadly and can generally apply to the grave, pit, and the natural realm of physical degradation. It can also be used to describe the abode of the dead or a shadowy or obscure kind of  existence.

More specifically what I am interested in describing to you is not just the physical process of death which we pretty much understand  but the spiritual plane which based on these researchers is a reality that is just as real for those who have experienced these NDE’s.

The Old Testament does not give us many clues as compared to the New Testament record which makes it more definable and descriptive in the way of terms.

The prophet Daniel sets the stage for the concept of the after life in Daniel 12:2 2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.

So this speaks of not just the afterlife but of the concept of the “physical resurrection” which is beyond the scope of this blog but was believed by Jews and Christians as evidenced by the ossuary boxes that you find in ancient Israel which would contain the bones of the deceased. The resurrection is to be the final act of salvation of which Jesus himself has already participated in as a type of first fruits from the dead. Somehow mysteriously these resurrected bodies will be apart of our fixture of being at a final point in the consummation of human  history which for the Christian is one of the concluding acts of redemption.

Anyway back to Daniel what begins to emerge here is the concept of “eternal” life versus “everlasting” contempt. It may be easy to visualize an eternal home of bliss but the rules must equally apply bilaterally with the synonymous words of eternal and everlasting otherwise this scripture becomes a contradiction of terms.

Under the old covenant economy the view for sheol is seen as a habitation of both the righteous and the ungodly that are held in a state of being with a chasm drawn between these two existence’s. One is referred to as Abraham’s bosom where the righteous dwell and the other is a place of torment. This is best displayed with the description Jesus gives to us in the gospel narratives which describes  to a limited extent these eternal holding places which we will discuss more about later.

We get some secondary clues from the OT/NT that show some indication of the afterlife as quoted by Jesus in Matthew 22:32 concerning Exodus 3:6  where God says that I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Jesus concludes that He is the God of the living and not the dead which shows that there is a continued state of existence beyond the physical boundaries of this life.

Also in the Old Testament it refers to God gathering people to their fathers at the moment of death such as in 2kings 22:20.

We see the prophet Samuel as one who had come up from the ground to address Saul in 1Samuel 28:11-15

Also there are references to the “book of life” as those who will enter into eternal life and those who were not written or had been removed “blotted out”  which referred to eternal damnation. We see these references in both the Old and New Covenant passages such as found in Psalms 69:28, Exodus 32:33,  Phillipians 4:3, Revelation 3:5,13:8, 17:8, 20:12-15, 21:27.

Now the New Testament develops a fuller expression to the concept of hell and the righteous abode in which Jesus gives us a preview of these habitations as related to the story about the “Rich man and Lazarus” as found in Luke 16:19-31.

The rich man and Lazarus are dwelling in two conflicting environments with a gulf fixed between them as a barrier that could not be crossed. One location was contrasted with the other as it describes the rich man as being in torment, thirst, and in the agony of fire while Lazarus’ state of existence was a place of comfort.

Other descriptive words that Jesus and His apostles speak of when referring to hell, which according to the greek language of the New Testament would also include the use of the words hades or genna, are referred to in Matthew 3:12 as an unquenchable fire,  Mt 8:11 it describes outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth, Matthew 13:42 it is a fiery furnace, Mt 18:8 eternal fire, 2 Thessalonians 1:9 as everlasting destruction, Rev 14:10-11 as the torment that rises for ever and ever, Revelation 19:20 depicts a fiery lake of burning sulfur and in Revelation 20:10 they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

The concept of purgatory does not exist in any of the canonical books as recognized by Christians or Jews.

Nor does the bible speak of “reincarnation” as the scripture says that a man dies once and then he faces the  judgement Hebrews 9:27. Neither does the bible promote “soul sleep” which confuses the physical resurrection with the reality of a spiritual state at the moment of death 2 Corinthians 5:8 says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

These people in the NDE’s immediately went into a place or a presence as described as either heaven or hell rather than a state of nothingness and in addition to this they possessed a spirit type of body. Also these NDE’s say nothing about coming back in a reincarnated form either.

I think one of the main  problems we have in accepting the biblical references to Hell is that our God concept is mis-referenced. We reason that if there is a just God who is completely good then how can he allow people to suffer eternally which doesn’t seem logical or reasonable in making any kind of sense. Yet it is equally unbelievable to think of a person obtaining eternal life based on merely the mercy of God’s free gift of grace without merit in spite of our sinful but redeemed lives.

The original intent of this hellish habitation was to be an abode  for the Devil and his angels and it was never intended for human occupation but know it is given over to all of God’s avowed enemies in the afterlife Matthew 25:41. If God is unwilling to preserve the fallen angelic host, in which we are made a little lower than, then how will we fare if we rebel against God likewise.

If our personal goal to life is a Godless existence then shouldn’t we expect to get what we desire and shouldn’t this desire be consistent beyond the realm of  this life in experiencing the next.  Why should you want God to impose Himself on you in the sweet by and by when you don’t want his influence in the here and now.

One of the resounding themes off this semi-secular program on NDE’s is that you die like you live and I say that pretty much sums up the reality on the other side of the fence.

Satans domain is antithetical to  God’s rule. God is light and hell is darkness. Hell is sorrowful and in heaven sorrow is abolished. God is love while hell is full of hatred. In heaven there is peace while hell is filled with violence, suffering, and torment.

Its funny how we want the benefits of heaven without reciprocating thanks to Him as our creator Romans 1:21. Is God to be treated like a cosmic wh-re? Using Him for the benefit of our pleasure while avoiding the responsibility of a relationship or better yet maybe we feel God owes us one.

If a persons commitment here on planet earth is a Godless existence which is diametrically opposed  to God’s  heavenly rule and reign and presence then why should a person expect to have a heavenly outcome with a God that all of their lives they have purposely avoided. Why blame God for our own position and destination when we had a choice that was easily attainable.  In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

So what are these people like who will taste hell? Are they merely the dregs of society such as death row inmates, serial killers,rapists and pedophiles. Yes, but there is a much larger audience that  Jesus is addressing as  in Matthew 7:13,14 13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it..

Rev 21:8 assigns hell to the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice the magic arts, the idolaters and all liars will have their place in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 gives an another list of hells inhabitants stating;Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

In spite of our transgressions this seemingly paradoxical situation involving sin and judgment has now evolved to the beautiful side of redemption which counteracts the effects of  these vile and wicked actions which ultimately would have earned them a spot  in the confines of hell but now these people have been gloriously translated by means of God’s forgiveness and a changed lifestyle apart from there previous way of life.

If you feel you haven’t crossed over the property line as trespassing on God’s righteousness then perhaps  we ought to look where we are standing as in Romans 6:23.

Sin is not categorized in this scripture and therefore sin is a common denominator in the equation of life as there are none who are righteous which seems to be pretty much an inclusive and universal statement.

We often trivialize our transgressions and therefore we underestimate the consequences of sin to be less than serious and critical and though everyone else’s mountain of sin may seem to dwarf our small pile of “mistakes”  your little stack may be insurmountable according to yet another person’s standard of trivial “accidents”.

Whether it is a little sin or a major sin it still carries the title of sin. Whether you steal a penny or a dollar it doesn’t matter because you are still a thief. Whether you tell one lie or million you are still a liar. We try to diminish our guilt by comparing ourselves to others.

Finally no matter what we do to showoff our “meritorious deeds” before a Holy God, He is the Judge of the universe as one who discerns mens hearts and thoughts. You can never earn justification through your acts alone and the bible compares our righteousness deeds to menstrual cloths as spoken of in Isaiah 64:6. Our works will never be good enough to keep from polluting God’s heavenly existence and dwelling. God has two realms for sin. One is the unregenerate earth and the other is hell and unless you are cleansed from sin you will in no way be allowed to hang your dirty laundry in heaven.

I don’t mean this disrespectfully but Jesus didn’t just die for the “H-ll” of it. His purpose for His incarnated state was to represent man by dieing on our behalf in taking the guilt and penalty of sin. If  we could of achieved it on our own merit by earning heaven then Christ died needlessly Galatians 2:21. A deeper look to the offense of condemnation is not only in our violation of God through sin but by shunning God’s redemptive work of salvation in the Messiah by rejecting His Son John 3:18.

One of the greatest crimes of all is to wave before God our works as a “morsel” offering versus the complete and efficacious offering of Jesus which fully satisfies God’s righteous requirements for a sacrificial offering and anything less is obscene in the eyes of a Holy God.

Remember it only took one “small” act of disobedience in the Garden to bring in a “great” flood of evil upon all of mankind thus bringing a curse to  all men. So how has your transgressions measured up to Adam’s “slip”. Are your transgressions “supersized” or “insignificant” in comparison. You be the judge.

Now getting back to the question of hell. Many people when they don’t agree or like the biblical text then they associate the content of scripture as being metaphoric thus trying to avoid its difficult application.

Yet Jesus speaks of hell in such a dramatic fashion that  He uses a hyperbole in trying to communicate to others its reality which should be avoided at all costs even if it would mean the extremes of dismemberment Matthew 5:27-30.

Based on the context of this scripture many would not take this literally nevertheless this shows a literal severity and seriousness towards the outcome of a spiritual state of existence that is more traumatic than the critical loss of even our physical components. Jesus would not say this flippantly as if there were not a hellish reality.

Finally I realize “Hell” should not be the motivation towards obedience or submission but rather “Love”.

There should be a sense of holy fear or respect for God with a balanced sense of  loving admiration.

One of the best analogies I can give you is that God is like a heavenly parent who sacrifices His  own life for the benefit of the child and even though the child is governed through the hand of correction it is for their well being and development that the “God” parent administers these actions.

Yet extending above these hands are the loving arms of God who embraces you to protect you and give you security. The hand and the arm work together to properly train the child and if done right the child should never see God’s hand as the enemy but as a means of bringing them salvation as a warning to stop.

A child who fully loves and trusts his parent understands this relationship and takes heed when the hand of God is raised knowing that it is done so only by the loving arms that are bearing its weight.

We would think it a crime for a parent to just nonchalantly just watch their child run out in the street in front of an oncoming car without saying or doing a thing. Yet would you despise a God who is trying to get your attention by yelling and pleading for your eternal soul . Would you see it as merely the fear factor or manipulation when he cries out to you “STOP” there is danger ahead.

A child would not question the urgency or the tone of a parental voice of concern and yet when God warns us about Hell then how do we take or respond to His entreaty for us to  repent.

God is calling and actually he is screaming to get our attention sometimes. Will you listen and learn to trust Him for He is a loving Father?

At the end of the blog I have a place on how to have a relationship with God and it will describe to you in fundamental terms on how to be saved and commit your life to God. It is simple process but is very profound in scope and application and it will be life changing .

Trust me I did this over 20 years ago and I will never go back to living a lie for the devil.

What life will you choose after death? Will you choice life after death or death after life?

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, Romans 6:23.

A sobering video on “To Hell and Back”

 

 
How to know God

Atheist and Agnostic Resources

English Articles on Atheism and Agnosticism

The Divinity of Jesus

Friday, October 16th, 2009

In a previous blog I addressed the divinity of Jesus from strictly an Old Testament viewpoint at jesusandjews.com/wordpress/2009/07/04/the-divinity-of-the-messiah/ and now by adding the New Testament revelation it serves to enhance the  depth perception concerning the person and work of Christ.

The concept of the incarnation of Jesus as the embodiment of both divinity and humanity is a hard concept to wrap one’s mind around let alone trying to fully understand the very nature and existence of God as a complex figure which is beyond the mere reasoning power of simplified logic. We can formalize doctrines and church creeds but can we isolate God under a microscope and confine Him to our experience by defining Him in our limited vocabulary since His transcendent glory has been set above the heavens as in Psalms 8: 1.

When contemplating God the philosophy of “reason” can sometimes lead us to be unreasonably wrong. After all we have plenty of intellectuals who have rationalized God’s non-existence.

Anyway there are plenty of things in life including the scriptures that elude our ability to be able to fully deduce or comprehend. Actually God said in Isaiah 55: 8-9

8“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the Lord.

9“As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts

You may think that this scripture may apply to sinful humanity and yet this knowledge had even evaded the righteousness of Job as well.

Job 11: 7-9

7“Can you fathom the mysteries of God?

Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?

8They are higher than the heavens—what can you do?

They are deeper than the depths of the gravea—what can you know?

9Their measure is longer than the earth

and wider than the sea.

Even the New Testament concurs with the limitations of the Spirit led saints on this side  of eternity as stated in 1 Corinthian 13:12.

12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

As we probed the old covenant scriptures concerning the person of the Messiah there were elated and glorious words applied to this one who was to be born and bear the title as  “Mighty God” rather than a “god” Isaiah 9: 6-7.

We also see another glimpse of Him in Daniel 7:13-15 as one liken unto the “son of man” coming with the clouds of heaven who was given an everlasting dominion of glory and sovereign power receiving for Himself worship among all the peoples and nations. Jesus refers to this scripture when He  describes himself to the religious leaders of His day in Mark 14:62.

These Old Testament references go beyond describing merely an angelic being or a “god’ let alone a man because this figure was to receive worship and glory and this alone was the one attribute that God himself was only to receive Exodus 34:14.

Jesus does not openly proclaim Himself to be God or even the Messiah during His temporal and physical entrance as a man upon the earth and there are moments where He remains elusive and in a state of obscurity in which the religious leaders had to finally press Him to openly declare His identity as the Messiah which He finally confesses in Matthew 26: 63,64. Even when Peter with his famous confession of faith came to this understanding Jesus told him not to disclose it to anybody Matthew 16:16-20.

God just does not present Himself in a “show and tell” type of way.  Jesus method of revelation would come by the revealer of truth, the Holy Spirit, who would expose His identity. Jesus says continually throughout the course of the gospels that he who has ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit of God is saying and He also speaks metaphorically of the eyes as well which are able to see or perceive by the Spirit, Matthew 13: 9-17.

His primary  purpose was to save His people from their sins and in finishing the course of doing the will of the Father rather than haphazardly throwing His pearls before the swine by openly declaring Himself according to His identity before His enemies.

So if the concept of the Messiah alone is hard to fully realize even among His contemporaries and disciples then how much more difficult is it to understand His divinity.

The Apostle Paul who was a educated Pharisaic Jew had even referred to the plan of God as a divine mystery which has now been revealed in Christ , Ephesians 3:1-13.

When looking at the mystique of Christ’s character there are certain descriptive words that upon first glance appear to be terms that apply to Jesus as a created being but upon closer observation they describe His unique person in the role of redemption .

For instance the term that John uses to describe Jesus is the word “only begotten” or “monogenes” which is a Greek word that can be applied in describing Jesus in a unique sense or as the only one of His kind. If a person wanted to communicate a procreative view the word “gennao” would have been used instead which would more specifically mean to beget, or to generate, or give birth.

Because we have the Septuagint which is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew scriptures we can correlate some of these terms to ancient Hebraic thought and usage. The Hebrew equivalent to this word “monogenes” is “Yachidh” which can mean an only child in the unique sense of the word. Also this word Yachidh was also used in conjunction with the Greek work “agapetos” which communicates the concept of intimacy in a unique relationship as “beloved” which reminds me of the speech where the Father speaks of Jesus in these words of endearment as found in Mathew 3:17, 17:5 as His beloved Son.

Another term that is used is “firstborn’ or “prototokos” which can refer to a literal firstborn  but it was also used to denote a sense of prominence as related to relationships such as the king of Israel in Psalm 89:27. This word is also used in the New Testament as found in Colossians 1:18 where it refers to Jesus being the firstborn from the dead which would have nothing to do with Him being created.

Another term is the word “Son” which speaks of His special relationship with God. I have already written a blog on this concept which gives more clearly an explanation to its usage.

jesusandjews.com/wordpress/2009/04/09/jesus-is-gods-son/

Again this term is not being used of Jesus as just a man or that the Father had sexual relations in consummating a physical union with Mary in order that the Messiah could be born in human flesh. This is the concept held by Muslims in reaction to their viewpoint of “reason” concerning the Sonship of Jesus.

The word son was applied to angels, israel, kings, etc. When associating this word it can also denote a title or a specific mission so therefore since Jesus fulfilled the unique role as the Messiah then He is to be regarded as the ultimate” Son of God”.

The usage of this term in the most supreme manner was understood even by the religious leaders of  Jesus day as a specific reference to God being His Father or “My Father” making Him equal to God John 5:16-27.

Even if we relate all these terms to Jesus’ temporal realm of earthly existence as occupying time and space as a man this does nothing to prove Him as a created being in His preexistent state in eternity past. He specifically had a unique role, title, and mission regarding His humanity as representing the “Last Adam” who would break the adamic curse by introducing a new covenant that would reconcile us to God as our human representative and high priest Hebrews 2:17.

Though Jesus was a man He was likewise divine otherwise He could not have conquered sin and perfectly fulfilled all righteousness, Hebrews 4:15.

After all the scriptures are consistent in this view concerning mans incapacity to obtain moral perfection as stated by David who was a man after Gods own heart as spoken of in Psalms 14:3 which says that there is no one who does good, not even one. Solomon the wisest man to have ever lived is believed to have written  Ecclesiastes which  states in chapter 7 verso 20 that there is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins which coincides with the witness of Romans 3:23 which states that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

It is reasonable to conclude from 2 Corinthians 5:21 that God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteous of God. Jesus in His divinity is the only one who could provide this perfect representation in His manhood.

This is kind of a long introduction but what I want to establish in this next part is that Jesus is not the archangel Michael which the Jehovah’s Witness claim that He is “Insight, volume 2, p.394.” There is not even one biblical reference in defining Him as this angelic being.

When doing my research on this matter I found some correlation between the “Angel of the Lord” and the divine presence but this  no where comes close to identifying Jesus as the archangel Michael.

The first chapter of Hebrews contrasts Jesus with angelic beings stating that He was superior to the angel’s in verse 4. In verse 6 it says that God’s angels even worship Him and until 1970 the New World Translation used this same reading but it has now been changed to obeisance in order to reflect their value system. God even reciprocates and shares the title of God with the Son in verse 8 and verse 3 indicating that Jesus is an exact representation of the Father’s being.

When exploring the nature and character of Christ there are several primary references which refer to Jesus as being divine as in Matthew 12:8 where Jesus refers to Himself as the “Lord of the Sabbath”. In John 20:28 Thomas refers to Jesus as my Lord and my God. John 10:33 Jesus referred to himself as being one with the Father in which the Jews understood this to mean that he was claiming to be God. John 1 declares Jesus the “Word” to be God. Jesus shows such a close identity with the Father that He states if you have seen Me then you have seen the Father John 14:8-11. In Titus 2:13 Jesus is portrayed as our great God and Savior, 2 Peter 1:1 God and Savior Jesus Christ, 1 John 5:20 Jesus Christ  is the true God and eternal life. Colossians 1:15 Jesus is the image of the invisible God and in Acts 10:36 Jesus is the Lord of all.

There are also secondary attributes to Jesus character that clearly define Him as God as well and one of these main features was the element of worship which He received freely without rebuke. In John 9:38 it was the blind man. In Matthew 2:1,2 the magi were coming to worship king Jesus. In Hebrews 1:6 it is the angels who are offering worship to Jesus. In Matthew 8:2 it is the leper and in Matthew 9:18 it was a certain ruler. In Matthew 14:33 the disciples worshipped Him when He calmed the storm and the women at the empty tomb  worshipped the resurrected Jesus in Matthew 28:9 and finally in Matthew 28:17 the disciples worship Him following the resurrection.

Jesus worship is contrasted to those who were to refuse worship such as men and angels.

We see this as Peter who is a mere man refuses worship in Acts 10:25, 26 and even the apostle Paul and Barnabas reject worship in Acts 14:11-15.

Also angels  were forbidden worship as we see when John attempted to worship his angelic guide in Revelation 22:8,9.

In Exodus 34:14 the Lord declares not to worship any other god, for the Lord whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Also in Isaiah 42:8 God declares that He will not give His glory to another and yet in Daniel 7:14 and in Hebrews 13:21 Jesus is given glory.

Another aspect of divinity is the ability to forgive sins which we see in Exodus 34:6 that God forgives rebellion and sin and in Matthew 9:2-6  Jesus had forgiven the sins of the paralytic in which the Jews understood this as blaspheming because they knew that only God could  forgive.

Now another element to Godhood is  preexistence and since He received worship and glory then how can we classify Him as anything else but God. Jesus on several occasions speaks of his preexistence in John 1:1,2; 3:13, 31,32; 8:58, 16:28, 17:5.

We also see throughout the course of the bible that prayers were offered to God and in Acts 7:59 the first martyr Stephen prays to Jesus to receive his spirit.

Lastly God is the only one who has the power to create and in Genesis 1:1 we see God creating and yet in John 1:10 we see that the world was made through Jesus. In Colossians 1:16 All things were created by Jesus and for Jesus.

Also there are titles that are ascribed to both God and Jesus equally as can be seen throughout the scriptures of which I will provide a short list.

Judge– In Genesis 18:25 God is the judge of all the earth and yet judgment has been entrusted to to Jesus in John 5:22. In  2 Corinthians 5:10 it  speaks of the judgment seat of Christ.

King–  Psalms 95:3 the Lord is a great King above all gods and Jesus is described as the King of kings and Lord of lords in Rev 17:14.

First and the Last– Refers to God in Isaiah 48:12 and in Revelation 1:17 it is Jesus.

Light– The Lord is my light and my salvation in Psalms 27:1  and yet in John 1: 9 Jesus is the true light that gives light to every man and again in John 8:12 Jesus confesses that He is light of the world.

Rock– 2 Samuel 22:32 says who is the rock except our God and in Romans 9:33 Christ is the rock that causes men to fall.

Redeemer– Psalms 130:7 The Lord Himself is the redeemer of Israel from all their sins and in Matthew 1:21 Jesus is portrayed as the one who saves Israel from their sins.

Savior– Isaiah 43:11 declares the Lord to be the only Saviour and in Luke 2:11 Jesus is the Savior.

Husband– Isaiah 54:5 says it is the Lord Almighty who is our husband but in 2 Corinthians 11:2 Jesus is our husband.

Shepherd–  Psalms 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd yet in John 10:11 Jesus says I am the good shepherd.

Giver of life–  In Deuteronomy 32:39 God brings life and yet  in John 1:4 Jesus is the life.

Eternal– God ways are portrayed as eternal as in Habakkuk 3:6 and yet in the  messianic prophecies Jesus is described from eternity as indicated in Isaiah 9:6 as the everlasting father and in Micah 5:2(Matthew 2:6) Jesus comes from ancient times or everlasting.

Immutable or unchangeable– Malachi 3:6 God does not change and in Hebrews 13:8 Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.

These scriptures should show continuity and reciprocation rather than a competition between the Father and Jesus. According to the scripture they are “one” in the special sense of the word depicting their unity in John 10:30.

It’s not a matter of either/or but rather both/and when describing the nature of God.

I think of the relationship between the husband and wife in which the two become one (echad) flesh as spoken of in Genesis 2:24. This is comparable with God as spoken of in Deuteronomy 6:4 in which God’s existance is declared  as one (echad) which is a compound unity not an absolute unity (yachid) which holds to the numerical value of one.

The husband and wife are the same substance and share solidarity in their relationship of oneness but they have a different role and authority in their responsiveness towards one another and yet in the frailty of this example there is a faint hint of the Godhood which represents a perfect union that is inseparable.

In a previous blog I deal with the triunity or compound unity of God as being “one” based on an Old Testament viewpoint at:

jesusandjews.com/wordpress/2009/07/30/god-is-one/

This blog doesn’t answer every question to the deity of Christ but neither does the counterpart based on the internal evidence of the scriptures.

Just because something is difficult to comprehend does not make it unbelievable nor does it necessitate its non existence as being a mistruth

By claiming Jesus to be an angel or a merely a man or a created being is discrediting the biblical record of His person therefore leaving us with an unbiblical position.

In John 8:24 Jesus warns that if  you do not believe that He is the one that He  claims to be then you will indeed die in your sins.

To demote Christ and pull Him down from His heavenly throne by making Him out to be just  a man,angel, or a god is to discredit the glory due to His person and name.

You may argue to lift Christ up is to bring God down but the scripture says in John 5:23 that if you don’t honor the Son then you don’t honor the Father.

In my argument for the deity of Christ I haven’t just  given a few vague or remote verses in order to sway your viewpoint  but I have tried to show a balanced unity from the testimony of both covenants among various biblical authors.

In conclusion I think you can see from the evidence that making Jesus less than God only creates more problems in making His person even more mysterious than what we can “reason” Him to otherwise be.

 

How to know God

 



Copyright permission by Bridge-Logos “The School of Biblical Evangelism”


Copyright permission from Word Search Corporation “The Complete Biblical Library” Greek-English dictionary.

Was Jesus Crucified?

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

Though the Quran denies the torturous execution of the Christ it is nonetheless confirmed by the secular and religious contemporaries of Jesus time.

These reporters of current events were not Christian in origin nor were they sympathetic to their cause or view and in some cases they were opposed or hostile to the person and work of Jesus and His followers.

The first reference to the crucifixion outside of the bible is the first century Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus who documented in Annals XV, 44 that the death of the Christ was ordered by Pontius Pilate who was the procurator of Judea.

Another first century historian is Flavius Josephus who referred to Christ as being condemned to the cross which is recorded in Antiquities XVIII, 33.

Next there is Lucian of Samostate who was a Greek satirist who made reference to the crucifixion of Christ in “The Death of Peregrine, 11-13”.

Lastly the Babylonian Talmud, which negatively portrays Jesus as a sorcerer, indicates that Jesus had been “hanged” which is synonymous with the crucifixion and is found in the tractate Sanhedrin 43A.

So does the Quran which was compiled 800 years after the fact hold to the truth of the matter or does the unbiased claims of credible historians and rivals tell the real story?

The problem that Islamic thought has in dealing with the death of the Messiah would be in the question concerning the necessity of a righteous life that was offered upon this evil human implement namely the cross.

Yet this act served as a ransom or payment for sin whose purpose was of eternal significance in having its basis under the first covenant law as given in Leviticus 17:11 which states 11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.

Under the Mosaic covenant sacrifices were made as a type of substitutionary atonement given on behalf of the worshipper as a means of associating the death of the innocent victim as an exchange given on behalf of the guilty party in making peace with God. This may seem to be a primitive practice but it was to portray and foreshadow an ultimate sacrifice that would one day be given once and for all.

The prophet Isaiah in chapter 53 talks about the Messiah as being the fulfillment of this sacrifice par excellence

Who has believed our message

and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,

and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he took up our infirmities

and carried our sorrows,

yet we considered him stricken by God,

smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

8 By oppressiond and judgment he was taken away.

And who can speak of his descendants?

For he was cut off from the land of the living;

for the transgression of my people he was stricken.e

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

and with the rich in his death,

though he had done no violence,

nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

and though the Lord makesf his life a guilt offering,

he will see his offspring and prolong his days,

and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

11 After the suffering of his soul,

he will see the light of lifeg and be satisfiedh;

by his knowledgei my righteous

servant will justify many,

and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,j

and he will divide the spoils with the strong,k

because he poured out his life unto death,

and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors.

Jesus crucifixion is also portrayed by the Psalmist in chapter 22 and it is strikingly similar to the gospel narratives.

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me,

so far from the words of my groaning?

2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,

by night, and am not silent.

3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;

you are the praise of Israel.a

4 In you our fathers put their trust;

they trusted and you delivered them.

5 They cried to you and were saved;

in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

6 But I am a worm and not a man,

scorned by men and despised by the people.

7 All who see me mock me;

they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

8 “He trusts in the Lord;

let the Lord rescue him.

Let him deliver him,

since he delights in him.”

9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;

you made me trust in you

even at my mother’s breast.

10 From birth I was cast upon you;

from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

11 Do not be far from me,

for trouble is near

and there is no one to help.

12 Many bulls surround me;

strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

13 Roaring lions tearing their prey

open their mouths wide against me.

14 I am poured out like water,

and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart has turned to wax;

it has melted away within me.15

My strength is dried up like a potsherd,

and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;

you lay meb in the dust of death.

16 Dogs have surrounded me;

a band of evil men has encircled me,

they have piercedc my hands and my feet.

17 I can count all my bones;

people stare and gloat over me.

18 They divide my garments among them

and cast lots for my clothing.

19 But you, O Lord, be not far off;

O my Strength, come quickly to help me.

20 Deliver my life from the sword,

my precious life from the power of the dogs.

21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;

saved me from the horns of the wild oxen.

22 I will declare your name to my brothers;

in the congregation I will praise you.

23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!

All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!

Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!

24 For he has not despised or disdained

the suffering of the afflicted one;

he has not hidden his face from him

but has listened to his cry for help.

25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;

before those who fear youe will I fulfill my vows.

26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;

they who seek the Lord will praise him—

may your hearts live forever!

27 All the ends of the earth

will remember and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations

will bow down before him,

28 for dominion belongs to the Lord

and he rules over the nations.

29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;

all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—

those who cannot keep themselves alive.

30 Posterity will serve him;

future generations will be told about the Lord.

31 They will proclaim his righteousness

to a people yet unborn—

for he has done it.

In conclusion I decided to use these Old Testament quotes in establishing my proof text in order to reduce any bias that would be strictly sympathetic towards a Christian interpretation.

Amazingly many Jews who initially rejected Jesus have come to faith in Him just by simply reading these sacred texts as found in the Tanakh. My wife is one of those testimonies in which she had at one point firmly rejected the person and work of Jesus as the Messiah but upon closer observation God convinced her of the truth regarding these passages of scripture and their correlation to Jesus.

Regardless whether or not one chooses or wants to believe the significance of the historicity of this redemptive event the fact still remains and is undeniably verifiable being confirmed by the testimony of millions of lives that have been transformed and changed by the impact of Christ’s saving work.

My challenge to you is what do you do with your guilt? Who represents you concerning the trespasses you have committed against God? Have you done enough to earn for yourself a heavenly home while avoiding the pitfalls of hell?

Jesus reduces this tension of human guilt by stating to “Come unto me all you who labor and who are heavily weighed down and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yolk is easy and my burden is light.”

How to know God

Muslim Resources of Jesus

Islam and Jesus

The Crescent Moon and Star of Islam

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Islam claims freedom from any type of pagan influence yet are there still symbols and practices  leftover from it’s ancient past of polytheism and have they been integrated into the social fabric of Islam?

I have previously discussed the Ka’ba and now I am addressing another aspect of Islamic representation which comes in the form of the crescent moon and star.

These symbols are associated with several Islamic countries who have adopted this insignia on their national flags and it also appears as well on their minarets and mosques.

This symbolism predates the advent of Islam and was perhaps connected with the worship of the celestial bodies such as the Arabic deity Hubal or the moon god which was associated with the Ka’ba .

These images may have originated from foreign culture or from Arab descent but nevertheless it is more than likely inspired by means of a pagan icon.

To claim that Islam is distinguishable from pagan cultural values seems to be questionable. This practice of borrowing from what others revered as deified objects seems ironic in the face of the “One God” view.

This same phenomena exists in many other Islamic regions as well where local beliefs and folklore are often combined in a syncretistic manner with the teachings of Muhammad giving a mixture versus a purity of belief to the religion of Islam.

Well anyway just look at this website that I have posted along with the archaeological evidence that is provided and I will allow you to be the judge of the matter concerning the case for the moon god.

How to know God

Muslim Resources of Jesus

Islam and Jesus

G-d is one

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

When attempting to discuss or define the concept of G-d we realize that He is a complex being that eludes the natural mind’s ability to fully comprehend His person.  G-d knows us intimately whether it be the number of hairs on our head or the discerning of our thoughts. He knows when we lay down and when we rise. There is no place that we can escape or hide from His presence because He is G-d.

We are just clay and He is the potter that has shaped and fashioned us and yet can we make bold assumptions that G-d can be observed by placing Him under the lens of our theological microscope? We don’t even fully understand the complexity of His creation let alone the one who created it. Doesn’t it sound a little arrogant or obstinate to say that a person can know G-d as fully as He knows them?

How can we confine G-d to a full definition when theologians are often left grasping for terms and methods of interpretation in order to help make G-d more knowable? No man has ever seen G-d and what G-d gave Moses was only a sneak preview of His hind parts.

The bible goes on to describe our limited knowledge of the creator in stating that His thoughts are not our thoughts nor are His ways our ways.

Even the bible which contains His revelation does not contain the full revelation of His being, as if we could understand it anyway even if it were described to us. We get a feel for this just from reading apocalyptic literature which leaves us with a sense of awe and bewilderment beyond description.

We would like to confine G-d to the box of an earthly temple. Yet even the heavens can not contain Him. We are finite beings yet He is infinite in His person and character. We are learning to know while He is omniscient or all knowing.

What understanding we can gain from G-d comes from the frailty of human language and expression. Whatever view we can see of G-d is likened to the obscurity of looking through an opaque lens.

Simply what we know of G-d is what He has determined to make known. We can know G-d but only under the inspiration that He chooses to make Himself known or disclosed. He is the moderator and therefore by attempting to take control of the moderation we find ourselves as a speculator which is a dangerous position of belief.

Even with the fuller sense of human capacity which results from the next covenant process of regeneration we are still left with a diminished view within the realm of our human experience. Though we are transformed through the renewing of our minds and hearts in being born anew we are still limited in our knowledge which longs for a future enlightment which only comes when we depart the confines of this world for the next.

We even see a limitation to those who have had the special divine privilege of knowing G-d through the prophetic gift of uttering His very words and yet they desired to know more fully the mystery’s whereby they spoke and even the angels, to whom we are inferior too and made a little lower than, are left without full illumination concerning matters of which they long to look into likewise.

We see that people have constantly wrestled with ideas as related to G-d’s existence and these concepts sometimes are so lofty that schools of theologians have fought in hammering out an image of G-d that gives Him a face. We use such words as anthromorphic, theophany, incarnation, shekinah, and triunity to help explain conceptual images of G-d.

Yet are we trying to bring G-d down to our level by pinning Him down for an existential definition within the confines of our understanding or is there a point that we have to accept the reality of G-d’s existence without looking towards mystical applications concerning the obscurity of His person.

Much of our human experiences are relegated through the channel of human perception whether it be the basic instincts of our five senses extending to more complex behaviors as related to our social and cultural values.

We see these limitations even when trying to understand human agency as comparing contemporary man  to a biblical culture. Take for instance someone who may know modern Hebrew but lacks the skill to understand biblical Hebrew with all of its ancient meanings and nuances. Even if a person can achieve a sense of mastery concerning these biblical concepts they are still left with a modern mindset.

I also  see a distinction between cultures which I have experienced from dialoging with my Muslim friends about the sonship of the Messiah which to them means the consummation of the physical act of sexual experience. The biblical concept of sonship is not limited to just the procreative act of begetting but rather it extends its application to be analogous with a relational term of endurance based on a intimate personal relationship independent of just a mere physical component.

If we as humans have difficulties in relating to each other based on the limited sphere of time and space then how much more are we removed from understanding the “One” to whom created time and space.

Perhaps it’s enough to know that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Yet I realize that this is an over simplified view and therefore is not enough in approaching this great difficulty and dilemma in understanding the nature of G-d’s existence.

The concept of G-d requires more than just a general revelation otherwise our worship could be misdirected or misapplied. It requires a special revelation but only to the degree that G-d reveals versus the likes of human invention or revelation which can be distorted through the process of imagination and speculation. In other words there is point where G-d sets a boundary stone to our doctrinal beliefs and our problem is that we are trying to move it by extending its limits. I believe we see this through the supplemental writings of rabbinic literature as well as other cults or religions who feel a need to increase their plot of knowledge resulting in a Gnostic view as having a special knowledge.

I don’t believe that are inability to fully grasp and comprehend G-d’s existence limits us in our relationship with him. He is still our G-d whether we lack the intimate details of our “Abba” who is infinite and immortal. Even if I did fully understand G-d’s being would it then change anything? Is it ok to say that some things were meant to remain a mystery without it sounding intellectually suicidal? We as humans have this innate sense of pushing the limits of our existential experiences and once again we find ourselves going back to the garden scene of becoming wise like G-d by partaking of the proverbial forbidden fruit of knowledge which when consumed leaves us dumber than dirt.

G-d is more preoccupied in us properly relating to Him versus making Him into an obtainable image within our minds.

We only have a caricature of G-d through the biblical portrait anything added or taken away from this is presumptuous at best and blasphemous at worst. It should suffice for us to say that G-d’s person is shrouded with a degree of mystery.

I am sorry that I have taken so long in my introduction but I thought it would be  helpful in transitioning to our next stage of discussion which is the triune existence of G-d.

To begin with I would like to say that as a Christian I am in agreement that G-d is one and this is supported by the New Testament writings as well as Christian creeds.

I affirm the confession of the Shema as found in Deuteronomy 6:4 which establishes G-d as being one.

When considering the oneness of G-d we often think in terms as related to a numerical value or an absolute unity. The word used in the Shema is “echad” which simply means one and this word can also be used to denote a compound unity unlike the word “yachid” which is used when referring to an absolute unity. No where in the scripture is there reference to G-d being “yachid”.

The word “echad” is used in Genesis 2:24 when referring to the husband and wife being joined together as one(echad) flesh, 2 Samuel 7:23 calls Israel as being one(echad) nation. What is understood is that the use of the word wasn’t meant to have a philosophical view about the essential nature of G-d but rather a declaration that He is G-d alone. This is even supported by the New Jewish Publication Society Version which translates the Shema after this manner and this is also supported by the medieval commentators Abraham Ibn Ezra and Rashbam. In other words we find exclusivity in G-d alone in which Israel was not to worship any other gods Isaiah 45: 5 “I am the Lord and there is no other; apart from me there is no G-d.”

The Hebrew name for G-d “Elohim” is a masculine plural noun which specifies G-d’s power. This is not to be confused in defining the very essence of G-d’s existence but rather it appears to refer to the majestic plurality of G-d’s being which would describe someone of great importance and significance based on the study of ancient Semitic language and culture.

There is also the biblical texts in which G-d speaks saying “let us make man after our own image and likeness,” “let us go down and confuse the languages”, “man has become like one of us knowing good and evil.” The pluralistic usage of these nouns is probably just another expression of Hebraic thought since these nouns are followed with the singular verb form. The only plausibility I see to this whole scenario concerning G-d’s nature as being more than just  a majestic plural form is that the rest of the bible, except for a couple of other references, doesn’t support this type of verbiage and yet God’s name is mentioned voluminously throughout the Tanakh.

When referring to the triunity of G-d as being one, it is with a complete sense of unity while maintaining an individual personhood. This term by no means is plainly represented in a clean cut fashion or in a short and definable manner according to the biblical text. Actually it is quite a mystery much like some of the other Jewish references  to the view of G-d such as the mystical notion of the ”Ten Seferot”, “ Shekinah”, and the concept of the Aramaic Targums which speak of the divine “Memra” or word. If this isn’t enough to get you to wonder about the magnificence of G-d’s being then just ponder about his omnipresence in that He fills the entire universe at once.

The conceptual word as related to a ”Trinity” or “Triunity” was just a means to help define G-d much like these other terms have tried to do. We have to remember that it was the first century Jews that wrote the majority of the New Testament scriptures and that their position and confession concerning a G-d concept was founded on a monotheistic view of G-d . The term “Trinity” wasn’t coined until about 150 AD when it was used by Tertullian mainly as a reactionary or as an apologetic statement of belief.

I have wrote on a previous blog about the “Divinity of the Messiah” in which the New Testament has no problem building a case for yet this is a vague concept in the Tankah except for the unique and exalted sense of King Messiah who would bring forth a restoration  through His glorious reign.

One of the most grandiose pictures of this Messiah figure is given in the prophet Daniel 7:13-14 where one liken unto the son of man is coming with the clouds of heaven and approaches the Ancient of Days. What’s interesting is that this Messianic figure was given worship from all peoples of every language with all nations rallying to the banner of his rule and reign. We see this already in Messiah Yeshua or Jesus who has reconciled to G-d both Jew and Gentile in fulfillment to this prophetic vision.

No other Messianic figure in all of human history has had such an influence and impact as Jesus nor is their any competition from any other formidable candidate for the title of Messiah except Yeshua.

Worship is only to be given to G-d and therefore through the association of worship and his exalted state as coming on the clouds of heaven this isn’t just another angelic being.

Isaiah 9:6-7 which is another messianic scripture relates one that was to be born as a son and is given such elevated names  as “everlasting Father” and “mighty G-d”. This description goes beyond merely describing any ordinary man.

You may think that perhaps this is plausible but you are still left with wondering  about the divinity of the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of G-d which on many occasions is spoken of as being synonymous with G-d? Why does the bible necessitate a definition of G-d as being Spirit and is this expression just another term of personification for G-d himself?

We see that in Genesis that the Spirit of G-d was hovering over the waters. In Psalms 104:30 it speaks of G-d sending his Spirit in bringing forth a renovation upon the earth in establishing His created order as we see in the Genesis account.

We also see mysteriously how the Spirit of G-d is sent and how His glory was deposited with men in a dynamic fashion of creativity. These men were artisans, prophets, kings, and priests who throughout the course of Israel’s history displayed the power of G-d based on the Spirit’s enablement. The prophet Joel states in 2:28 that the Spirit will no longer be sent or poured out only on a few elect people but rather a deluge would occur on all flesh.

When you think about the mechanics of such a divine impartation or act this goes beyond mere human comprehension. How can G-d impart his divine being on men? This is a mystery in and of itself let alone trying to understand the nature of G-d’s existence.

In closing this doesn’t answer every question related to the being of G-d nor does it explain every facet to His wondrous and mysterious person and yet even though the understanding of Christians and Jews differ in their pragmatic application to the existence of God there still remains a common belief in the one true G-d of the scriptures as described in the Tanakh.

No matter how we try to equate with mathematical precision the calculated concept of His being we are still left with an infinite inability to formulate a conceptual doctrine that adequately confines Him to the realm of our earthly experience.

Finally G-d is mysteriously expressed through his complex realities of being through the persons who bear the titles as “The Ancient of Days”, “The son of man,” and the “Spirit.”

 

How to know God

 

* Of special note regarding the title and term ‘Son of God’ , it is used in its most unique and supreme sense as a reference to the divinity of Jesus as the Christ in Mathew 28:16-20, John 5:16-27, and Hebrews 1. Is Jesus divine?

Is the Ka’ba sacred?

Sunday, July 19th, 2009

Though the Arab religion has embraced the worship of Allah as the one true God of Islam it still hasn’t separated itself from its devotion to its polytheistic past.

The Ka’ba which is a cube like building located in Mecca is the most sacred site of Islam yet before the advent of Islam it was used as a pagan shrine.

The cornerstone of this structure is a black meteorite that was said to have fallen from heaven and its blackness was associated with the darkness of human sin. Today Muslims kiss this stone as an act of veneration or worship during the Hajj.

In preislamic culture ancient Arabs were under the influence of a cultish rock fetishism  which valued these black stones as a part of their own ritualistic practices.

The Arabs were stone worshipers in which their tribal groups had their own Ka’ba sanctuary which housed their own black rock in which they worshipped.

One of the rituals associated with the Ka’ba is the encircling or circumambulation of the shrine. A theory on how this pagan practice originated was that these tribal groups would circle the Ka’ba which was likened to the movement  of the heavenly objects with regards to the worship of the moon,sun, and stars. This practice would also include these tribes kissing the stone which was believed to be inhabited by a god or spirits. This kissing of the rock and touching of this stone was thought to bring a blessing.

Also in connection with the black rock of the Ka’ba was the worship of the moon god Hubal.

Other aspects of Arab culture that are associated with their ancient pagan past regarding Arab society is “The stone throw” at Mina, “The Run” Safa and Marwa which is just a reenactment of the pagans that used to run in between two idols, and lastly “The Praise” which mimics the ancient ritual of  praising their dead ancestors and now this act has been redirected with praise towards Allah.

Arab culture seems not to have made a clean break from its pagan past even though it lays claims to this  under their new banner of monotheism. This syncretistic practice of incorporating Arab culture into the religion of Islam has created a mixture rather than purity to its religious component and for the Ka’ba to be a prominent fixture as a pillar of Islam reveals that there are some cracks to the edifice of this religious structure.

So how far has Islam really come in bringing about its own unique identity as being the one true faith? It is obvious that it has borrowed its structure from Judeo Christian beliefs and has decorated and filled its interior from the likes of its pagan past.

Is this really the true faith or just a borrowing of a conglomeration of various ideas uniting the practice of local religion alongside of incorporating other religious world views?

Are you willing to swear  allegiance and submit towards a religion that has not purified its association with its cultic past? Has Islam just remodeled and reorganized the same structure of idolatry by covering it with a thin venner and marketing it as a new religion based on a  revelation given from an angelic being? Perhaps what is hidden behind the veil of Islam is simply just a one headed idol versus a totem pole of gods.

In writing this blog I  have pooled together many different resources concerning this matter and I have tried to make an honest and fair assessment of this information while compiling the data.

I  would just ask you not to merely dismiss the content of this blog as just a smear campaign of defamation. I would encourage you to do your own research regarding this matter while keeping an open mind.

Through this blog I have offered a challenge to Islamic belief while attempting to avoid needless slander and false accusations towards Muslims and what they hold to be sacred. I recognize many of my Muslim friends are zealous in their devotion and sincere to their conception of God and I respect that. Yet what I am asking them to do is to allow factual information to guide  them in making better decisions regarding their allegiance and submission.

In closing if you are a Muslim  I would encourage you through prayer to  ask God regarding the truth behind  Islamic faith and practice.

How to know God

Muslim Resources of Jesus

Islam and Jesus

Islamic view of Women

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

There are perhaps different rules on the rights of women in Islamic societies yet based on the testimony of the Quran and the Hadith women to some degree have a subservient and diminished role in life.

The Islamic view is primary patriarchal and it allows for the unnecessary exploitation and treatment of women in some cases.

In Quran 4:34 there are allowances given towards the beating of women.

The very basis of human instinct in achieving an intimate relationship of love with a spouse is by providing an environment that is conducive to trust which centers on the protection and care for ones partner. So how can this corrective action lead to a legitimate expression of love? If this is the situation then how is the husband to be corrected when He is at fault. Wouldn’t this necessitate a need for reciprocation as a counter response unless of course He is never at fault or in need of discipline/ correction because of his moral supremacy?

Perhaps there is a moral glitch of inferiority in women which might explain why the Hadith sees a need for disciplinary action towards the feminine gender. After all the Hadith tends to provide a viewpoint of women as being spiritually  and morally depraved having a predisposition towards evil. The Hadith states that women are the majority of those who take up residence in hell with only a minority occupying a heavenly home. Muslim, vol. 4, hadith 6597, p. 1432 and Muslim, vol. 4, hadith 6600, p.1432

Also Islamic ideals are centered on hedonistic values that revolve around the expression of male sexuality. The god fearing Muslim male is given the pleasures of intercourse in paradise with as many as a 100 virgins in a single day Surah 55. Will the minority of women who make it to their heavenly home be equally rewarded? How is a wife that is committed to a life long marriage able to view herself with dignity knowing that her husband will one day be groping strange women in a heavenly palace filled with the pleasures of  ecstasy and eroticism as found in this conceptual idea of eternal bliss. If this is his future goal in making it to paradise then what is his short term goal in relationship to you his wife? If he is willing to be entertained by the likes of physical pleasure in eternity then are you for sure that this doesn’t help serve his purpose now in your relationship with Him. Perhaps once He is finished and satisfied with you in this life there will be no purpose for you to follow Him into his  paradise since his needs will now be administered and fulfilled by others.

Also the Quran and Hadith hold a somewhat demanding view on the sexual gratification for the  husband without regard for the wife Quran 2:223, Mishkat Al-Masabih p.691: Tirmidhi, Bukhari vol. 7, hadith 121, p.93.

In addition to this there are variant and sexual aberrations that are found in various Islamic cultures which includes the practice of genital mutilation by circumcising girls in order to help maintain chastity by means of  restraining   their sexual drives. There is some debate to whether or not Muhammad mandated this act of violence nevertheless it is still practiced in several countries.

Secondly some Muslims have a legalized  form of prostitution or Muta which is permitted under the charade of it being a temporary marriage in order to satisfy the need for the sexual impulses among Muslim men.

One other thing that  perhaps is more subtle in form yet can create some cultural dysfunctions is the practice of  polygamy which can cause social problems within the network of the family.

It doesn’t take an expert sociologist or anthropologist to realize the degenerative effects to humanity based on these cultural experiences. One might argue against establishing ethical norms for any given society yet we are talking about the basic needs which define human existence universally.

Perhaps you are caught up in the cultural web of Islam where you feel trapped or isolated or sadly enough maybe you dont know any differently. Don’t you see that some women are being victimized due to the crimes of Islam by means of emotional and physical abuses. Perhaps if you aren’t willing to face these realities then perhaps you have developed a codependency with Islamic culture. Maybe you have been taught to submit to the point that  you are mindless on these issues which brings me to the next objection.

According to the Hadith women have a limited or diminished intellectual capacity. Women from this viewpoint are seen as  half wits who are limited in making judgments.  When people are led to believe they are inferior then they are easier to manipulate and control. This is what you get from a male dominated religion where physical prowess rules rather than integrity

Bukhari, vol.3, hadith 826, p.502

I know this blog seems harsh and pointed and I hope that I have not over stated my case through my direct approach. In all fairness I do appreciate the modesty of Islamic culture yet the ends doesn’t justify the means of taking women captive to a pattern of life that reduces their humanity.

Men I would like to challenge you to critically look at the claims of Islam and their treatment and attitude towards women. Even if you do not practice these forms of oppression it is  still  supported and upheld by the practitioners of Islam who justify it by means of what is considered sacred texts. Remember these women are our mothers who brought us into this life and nurtured us when we were helpless. They deserve the respect that God has rightfully given them in their elevated role as the stewards of our personal care and development as men.

I want you to know that Islam has created their god and though I respect your devotion I do challenge the truth claims that are founded under a religion that has left a path of destruction in its wake.

The basic definition to the character of God in the bible is love and Islam has stood as the antithesis to this godview. God is just but He is likewise merciful, kind, gentle, compassionate, long suffering, and peaceful. These might be traits that you have attributed to Allah yet where is the proof among his disciples. Even though a small portion of funds is contributed to the poor yet you generally do not see Islamic humanitarian agencies especially towards other societies that would be considered of the nature of being infidels. Islam is not about divine inspiration but rather terror filled violence and domination using force and coercion in facilitating and imposing their worldly influence. It doesn’t care about you but rather its real interest is world domination. You might claim to be a moderate Muslim which in and of itself is a oxymoron in comparison to Islamic faith and practice. It is  Islam that  dictates and moderates your behavior independent of your self serving opinions.  If you claim that you do not follow this kind of Islamic viewpoint  then perhaps you are nominal Muslim and subconsciously you are rejecting submission to Allah. Perhaps you  know somewhere deep in your heart that something is amiss and I believe this could be an open door to experiencing God’s real love.

For God so loved the world that He gave Jesus that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Now ladies I believe that you have the mental faculties and capacity to make a fair judgment in this case by discerning the truthfulness regarding a loving God versus a counterfeit religion.

Lastly again I pray that I have not violated you in such a way as to lose your respect for what I am saying. I didn’t do this to  attack you or hurt you and even though my presentation is confrontational I have not offered it in hatred. I do have a genuine concern for your spiritual well being and sometimes when you are landlocked in a society you are unable to peer beyond the boundaries of cultural attitudes.

Finally all I am asking of you is to be open and honest before God.  I know at first that it might be scary because devoted people do not want to be undevoted to their cause yet I challenge you to ask God to reveal His love to you in a tangible and real way in the person of Jesus.

How to know God

Muslim Resources of Jesus

Islam and Jesus