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Israel is for the Jews, Jerusalem for Israel and Christ’s Kingdom for ALL
John R. Houk
© March 5, 2013
Jerusalem is the capital city of the nation Israel. In case you didn’t get that let me say it another way: Jerusalem is the heritage of Jews!
Now here is something Jews are critical of: (Biblical) Christians believe the return of the Jews to the Holy Land reestablishing Israel as the Land of the Jews is a huge sign that Christ Jesus the Son of God is coming soon to establish His Kingdom on the throne of David. Not only as King of the Jews but also as King of all those that believe Jesus is the Risen Savior of all humanity. Christians believe that Jesus is the Priest-King prophesied to possess the Throne of David to rule and reign as King and God of all the earth.
Ironically in the eyes of Israel faithful Jews, Christians are viewed both as enemies and friends. From the days that Gentiles dominated the Christian faithful history shows an unbiblical persecution of Jews by Christians. Since the Christians that believe that Israel and Jerusalem are Jewish Biblically are evangelical in nature coupled with a sour history with Christians, there is a difficulty to view Christians as friends.
Regardless of Jewish acceptance of Christian motives I am one that completely stands with Israel to be an independent nation with the City of David – Jerusalem – as the God certified capital city. Arabs that call themselves Palestinians have no claim to Jerusalem on the basis of a religion founded about 600 years after Christ’s Resurrection and around two thousand years after Joshua led the twelve Hebrew Tribes to dispossess the ungodly Canaanites that God deemed unworthy thus fulfilling the Promise to Abraham to possess the Land forever.
All these pro-Israel Christian Zionist thinking is a result of an email I received from Mike Evans of Jerusalem Prayer Team relating that President Barack Hussein Obama is scheduled to travel to Israel with the intention to bully Israel to divide Jerusalem between Israel and the usurping Arabs that call themselves Palestinians.
Mike Evans believes that if BHO is successful in his agenda that the USA will be under the curse of God for working against the legacy of the Jews and the Land of Israel. I am going to post that email, but first I want to post numerous Scriptures to think about while reading the Evans email.
Israel is the Promise to Jews and Christ is the Messiah
1 Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. 6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh.[a] And the Canaanites were then in the land.
7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. (Genesis 12: 1-8 NKJV)
1 For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace,
And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,
Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,
And her salvation as a lamp that burns.
2 The Gentiles shall see your righteousness,
And all kings your glory.
You shall be called by a new name,
Which the mouth of the Lord will name.
3 You shall also be a crown of glory
In the hand of the Lord,
And a royal diadem
In the hand of your God.
4 You shall no longer be termed Forsaken,
Nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate;
But you shall be called Hephzibah,[a] and your land Beulah;[b]
For the Lord delights in you,
And your land shall be married.
5 For as a young man marries a virgin,
So shall your sons marry you;
And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
So shall your God rejoice over you.
6 I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;
They shall never hold their peace day or night.
You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent,
7 And give Him no rest till He establishes
And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
11 Indeed the Lord has proclaimed
To the end of the world:
“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Surely your salvation is coming;
Behold, His reward is with Him,
And His work before Him.’”
12 And they shall call them The Holy People,
The Redeemed of the Lord;
And you shall be called Sought Out,
A City Not Forsaken. (Isaiah 62: 1-7, 11-12 NKJV)
1 I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go into the house of the Lord.”
2 Our feet have been standing
Within your gates, O Jerusalem!
3 Jerusalem is built
As a city that is compact together,
4 Where the tribes go up,
The tribes of the Lord,
To the Testimony of Israel,
To give thanks to the name of the Lord.
5 For thrones are set there for judgment,
The thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May they prosper who love you.
7 Peace be within your walls,
Prosperity within your palaces.”
8 For the sake of my brethren and companions,
I will now say, “Peace be within you.”
9 Because of the house of the Lord our God
I will seek your good. (Psalms 122: 1-9 NKJV)
“For behold, in those days and at that time,
When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will also gather all nations,
And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
And I will enter into judgment with them there
On account of My people, My heritage Israel,
Whom they have scattered among the nations;
They have also divided up My land.
3 They have cast lots for My people,
Have given a boy as payment for a harlot,
And sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.
4 “Indeed, what have you to do with Me,
O Tyre and Sidon, and all the coasts of Philistia?
Will you retaliate against Me?
But if you retaliate against Me,
Swiftly and speedily I will return your retaliation upon your own head;
5 Because you have taken My silver and My gold,
And have carried into your temples My prized possessions.
6 Also the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem
You have sold to the Greeks,
That you may remove them far from their borders.
7 “Behold, I will raise them
Out of the place to which you have sold them,
And will return your retaliation upon your own head.
16 The Lord also will roar from Zion,
And utter His voice from Jerusalem;
The heavens and earth will shake;
But the Lord will be a shelter for His people,
And the strength of the children of Israel.
17 “So you shall know that I am the Lord your God,
Dwelling in Zion My holy mountain.
Then Jerusalem shall be holy,
And no aliens shall ever pass through her again.”
20 But Judah shall abide forever,
And Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21 For I will acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I had not acquitted;
For the Lord dwells in Zion.” (Joel 3: 1-7, 16-17, 20-21 NKJV – Should read ALL Chapter 3)
11 The people shall dwell in it;
And no longer shall there be utter destruction,
But Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
12 And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem:
Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet,
Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets,
And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths. (Zechariah 14:11-12 NKJV)
4 Nevertheless for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, by setting up his son after him and by establishing Jerusalem; 5 because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. 6 And there was war between Rehoboam[a] and Jeroboam all the days of his life. (1 Kings 15:4-6 NKJV)
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent:
“Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.” (Bold Emphasis Mine – Genesis 3: 14-15 NKJV)
15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, 16 according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’
17 “And the Lord said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good. 18 I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 19 And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. (Bold Emphasis Mine – Deuteronomy 18:15-19 NKJV)
30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1: 30-35 NKJV)
25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” (John 4: 25-26 NKJV)
49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. 50 And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges. 51 Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.”
52 Then the Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon! Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death.’ 53 Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who do You make Yourself out to be?”
54 Jesus answered, “If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your[a] God. 55 Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, ‘I do not know Him,’ I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”
57 Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”
58 Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” [SlantRight Editor: Jesus is referencing the ‘I AM’; i.e. God Almighty that spoke to Moses in the Burning Bush of Exodus 3: 14-15]
59 Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple,[b] going through the midst of them, and so passed by. (John 8: 49-59 NKJV – Read ALL of Chapter 8)
1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 2 Then I, John,[a] saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me[a] and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”[b] 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy[c] Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. 12 Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: 13 three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.
14 Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names[d] of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
22 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it,[a] for the glory[b] of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. 24 And the nations of those who are saved[c] shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.[d] 25 Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). 26 And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.[e] 27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes[f] an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. (Revelation 21: 1-3, 9-14, 22-27 NKJV)
Yeah, I did say numerous Scriptures. Anyway, these Scriptures are an excellent preparation for Mike Evans’ warning that a BHO agenda could be a curse upon the United States of America.
JRH 3/5/13
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President Obama’s plan for Jerusalem will bring God’s judgment on America
By Mike Evans
Sent: March 4, 2013 6:48 PM
Sent by Jerusalem Prayer Team
In a few days, President Obama will be going to Israel. This is his first trip to the Jewish state since he became president, and he is going with an urgent agenda—to divide the Holy City of Jerusalem and rush the creation of a Palestinian state with much of Jerusalem as its capital. He is hoping this will be the great international legacy of his second term in office.
There is no doubt in my mind that if this plan succeeds, God will judge America in a way we have never seen in our history. Our nation is in the process of touching God’s prophecy and that is a very dangerous thing. The outcome of this plan does not just threaten Israel’s future, but that of America and every other nation that supports it as well. God will not allow us to contradict His Word in such an open and blatant way.
I am going to Israel next week on an urgent mission as your ambassador. The next few weeks are literally some of the most critical times in the entire modern existence of the nation of Israel. The Jewish state is surrounded by enemies. The future of the government of Israel is uncertain. My old friend Prime Minister Netanyahu has so far been unable to form a new government after the recent election…and members of the Obama Administration are pushing the Israeli political leaders not to join a new government in an attempt to remove him from office even though he won a majority of votes to be Prime Minister.
Please start praying right now for me on this trip. God has planned my schedule, and I must take His message to the nation of Israel. I have no doubt that God brought us together “for such a time as this.” He knew Israel would be surrounded by enemies and abandoned by friends…and he called the Jerusalem Prayer Team into existence to raise up a great host of Believers who would stand faithfully in prayer for the nation of Israel and the Jewish people.
I urgently need your financial help as well. The work of the Jerusalem Prayer Team is vital, but we cannot continue without your support. This effort is completely supported by our members—friends like you who share our belief in the power of prayer and our love for Israel and the Jewish people.
VIDEO: SEE HOW YOUR LOVE TOUCHED THE LIVES OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS
In just three weeks, the celebration of Passover begins. This is a holy and sacred time of year. The weeklong Feast of Unleavened Bread is a celebration of God’s deliverance and protection for His people. But for the poor and hungry, especially for the elderly Holocaust survivors, it is anything but a happy time.
Today I’m asking you to help us provide food for the Seder and the week of Passover for these precious people. I will be there in Jerusalem to represent you as we share the message of hope and Christian love with them. Your gift today will provide meals for the hungry—meeting one of their most urgent needs.
In faith I have told the director of our outreach to go ahead and plan for a Passover Party and a major food distribution, but we can’t do this unless you help. Please send your gift today to bless the Holocaust survivors of Jerusalem and the poor of the house of Israel.
When you send your gift today, we will send you this beautiful Jerusalem peace print. Since the City of David is the focal point of the enemy’s attack, it must be the focal point of our prayers as well. Suitable for framing, this lovely picture will be a constant reminder to you to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Since ancient times, prayer shawls like these have been worn by the Jews as they went before the Lord. This piece, especially designed and created for Jerusalem Prayer Team members, is our gift to you when you send your gift of $77 or more. (*While supplies last)
Your support of the Jerusalem Prayer Team allows us to continue our work on the Christian Zionist Heritage Center, to stand up and speak out for Israel, and to meet urgent humanitarian needs among the poor Jewish people living in Israel. Thank you so much for being part of this vital worldwide prayer movement.
Barukh atah Adonai eloheinu melekh ha-olam, ozier Yisrael bigvurah.
Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the universe, who girds Israel with might.
Your ambassador to Jerusalem,
Dr. Mike Evans
VIDEO: SEE THE JERUSALEM WORLD CENTER AT 20 RIVLIN STREET
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Israel is for the Jews, Jerusalem for Israel and Christ’s Kingdom for ALL
John R. Houk
© March 5, 2013
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President Obama’s plan for Jerusalem will bring God’s judgment on America
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Christ in Dreams and Visions to Muslims
John R. Houk
© February10, 2013
Here is a politically incorrect statement: Islam is a twisted evil ideology disguised as a religion with the agenda to manage humanity intolerantly and to especially manage violently to all who refuse to practice Islam.
If any Muslims read this statement they would undoubtedly go apoplectic which is actually a demonstration of the twisted religion that commands violence in response to perceived insults.
I found this article at WND that is about an underground mass conversion of Muslims from Islam to Christianity. Are the conversions the result of an anointed evangelist or preacher?
No!
Rather Muslims are abandoning Islam for Christianity because of a spiritual experience they are having in dreams. The dreams are visions of Jesus Christ the Son of God to follow the correct path. This is important because the ‘Jesus’ Muslims are taught about did not die on the Cross after which His Resurrection occurred three days later. Rather Muslims are taught that Jesus was a prophet and a mere man and a good Muslim that pointed the way to Mohammed Islam’s idea of the last prophet.
The ‘Jesus’ of Christianity is blasphemy in Islam. The ‘Jesus’ of Islam is an antichrist spirit in Islam.
The WND article begins with a CBN video about this phenomenon of Christ converting Muslims to Christianity in dreams and visions and then follows up with an analysis which includes thoughts from former PLO Islamic terrorist Walid Shoebat. Enjoy the read and pray that the harvest of Muslims to Christ is plenteous.
JRH 2/10/13
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Visions of Jesus appearing to Muslims?
By Michael Carl
February 9, 2013
VIDEO: Dreams-Visions
[Above link is a bit expanded from content in WND article]
“Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions,” asserts the promise of God from the book of Joel.
Yet some of those men reportedly seeing visions and dreams are neither Jews nor Christians … but Muslims.
What’s more, Middle East evangelists report the dreamers are coming to Christianity because of their visions of Jesus.
According to a CBN report, Christian Middle East evangelist Hazem Farraj’s television program “Reflections” is reaching a large Muslim audience. Farraj told CBN that he hears from Muslims who report having dreams or visions of Jesus.
Tom Doyle, an evangelist, pastor and the E3 Partners Ministry director for the Middle East and Central Asia says it’s true: Muslims are coming to Christianity through dreams and visions.
“Great things are happening in the Muslim world,” Doyle said in an email to WND. “It’s all very unexpected.”
Doyle told WND that he is familiar with Farraj’s program and that Jesus is breaking through where missionaries have not succeeded.
“We’ve been seeing this for 15 years now, where Muslims are no longer Muslims but are Jesus followers,” Doyle said. “It’s someone who is a Christian, someone who is willing to die for Jesus.
“It all started with them with a dream,” Doyle said. “They had a Jesus dream, and some of them had many Jesus dreams. They would seek out Christians after a while because the dreams would get so intense that they wanted an answer.”
Doyle explains there is still a difficult process involved for a Muslim to convert to Christianity, even for those who have the dreams.
“Nobody goes to bed a Muslim and wakes up a Christian,” Doyle said. “They have a couple of barriers between them and Jesus. They’ve been told that Christians worship three gods. They’re told that the Bible is corrupted. It’s just what they’ve been told, kind of a party line rhetoric.”
Yet dreams, Doyle says, become a starting point.
“They’re motivated to find a Bible, find a Christian and ask what this means. Ninety-five percent of the Muslims who are now Jesus followers say that they were led to Christ by someone explaining the dream to them,” Doyle said.
Doyle says he wrote a book called “Dreams and Visions,” in which he recorded a series of real stories from Muslims who follow Christ and who did so because they had a dream about Jesus. He adds that the phenomenon is taking place in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Syria and on the West Bank.
Doyle says he knows of one Muslim who was on a hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca, and he had a daytime vision of Jesus.
“I met a man yesterday who said he saw a Jesus dream and he didn’t know what to do with it, so he got deeper into his Muslim faith,” Doyle said. “Then he went to Mecca on the hajj, and on the first time around the Kabah, he saw a vision of Jesus standing in front of him.”
Doyle said the man told him Jesus had a message: “You’re on the wrong path; you’re on the wrong road. Leave this place and come follow me.”
“This man is getting baptized in the next few weeks,” Doyle said.
Doyle believes that the phenomenon will continue and that the stories are taking place in countries that the West believes are bad and dangerous places.
Former PLO operative turned Christian and peace activist Walid Shoebat says he believes Jesus is compensating for the weaknesses of the Western Church.
“I had first doubted the countless stories of Muslims becoming Christian as a result of dreams until I met some of them and heard their testimonies,” Shoebat said. “My conclusion to this phenomenon is that Christ succeeds where the church fails.”
Doyle agrees. He says Jesus should get the credit.
“It is a real Divine intervention. That is for sure,” Doyle said.
Shoebat, a former radicalized Muslim, says he didn’t come to Christ through such a dramatic event, but through a personal journey.
“I must say that Jesus did not appear to me in a dream, but He did take me on my challenge as I prayed to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to show me the problems in the Bible,” Shoebat explained. “Was the Bible corrupt? That was my question to God.”
Curiosity caused Shoebat to turn to the Scriptures.
“I finally read the Bible for myself in order to poke holes in Christian theology, but God’s Word did not return void,” Shoebat said. “It was as a hammer slamming into an anvil, and I finally broke under a power that cannot be explained by human hands.
“By the time I read through the countless predictions in the Bible in which God had laid out the future of Israel from Jeremiah to Joel and how intricate and accurate this manuscript was, I had to come to terms with reality,” Shoebat said.
Shoebat adds that he discovered it wasn’t the Bible that was corrupt.
“Indeed, the Bible was corrupted by man, for the Quran was that corruption. ‘The corruptors,’ I concluded, were the ones who always accused the Bible of corruption,” Shoebat said.
Shoebat is clear that he believes the Western Church is missing a great opportunity to win Muslims to Christianity.
“The 10/40 window is not on the radar of the Western church. Tourists and Christian pilgrims rarely would witness to us when they visited the Holy Land out of fear and respect to Islam,” Shoebat said. “Even in the West, I had had many occasions where I probed Christians to express their views about Islam, and they mostly where reluctant to say anything. They were easily repelled by our sarcastic comments about the Trinity and how the Bible was supposedly corrupt.”
Shoebat adds that God’s promises to Israel are also evidence of the truth of Christianity.
“I had found out from the Bible that God loves agreements. I had made a deal with Him to show me the truth and that I would do whatever He commands me to do. The volume of evidence from so many verses cannot be expressed here, but [there is] one word I concluded from the Bible that proves its caliber,” Shoebat said. “That word is Israel. He had promised to bring them back in unbelief and then to take away the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Today many hate Israel, exactly as the Bible predicted, yet we must await God’s plans to be carried out by Him, and in due time, Israel, God’s glory and His testimony to the Gentiles, will shine and come to pass.
“God’s timetable is not man’s timetable, and His ways are not our ways. I learned from the Bible to see things in God’s perspective and not ours,” Shoebat continued. “The bottom line for me was what the Lord Jesus Christ said ‘you shall know them by their fruits.’ Islam brought bloodshed, and Christianity brought light.”
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Christ in Dreams and Visions to Muslims
John R. Houk
© February10, 2013
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Visions of Jesus appearing to Muslims?
Michael Carl is a veteran journalist with overseas military experience and experience as a political consultant. He also has two Master’s Degrees, is a bi-vocational pastor and lives with his family in the Northeast United States.
© Copyright 1997-2013. All Rights Reserved.WND.com.
Christians be Bold in this 21st Century PC Age
John R. Houk
© January 27, 2013
As a Christian I am not ashamed to say that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to God. In that belief I feel obligated to speak up for my faith when confronted anti-Christ situations. The anti-Christ problem situations are admittedly projecting a ‘holier-than-thou’ image in the confrontation. Yes I realize it is not Christ-like to appear holier than thou. Even so, until I learn to develop that knack of projecting God’s Love while standing with the Savior I’ll err on the side of holier than thou rather than on the side of cowardly sheep afraid of offending someone.
One thing you should understand is that I am not perfect. Too often a lack of perfection is used by critics of Christians to cry hypocrite. And too often the critic is correct about the accusation of ‘hypocrite’. This is how I deal internally if I am a hypocrite or not.
The hypocrite is one who believes and tells another what is right while without contrition continues to personally do the opposite of what is right one’s self. The sense of contrition is the difference between a hypocrite and one who continues to seek the right even if a wrong turn is taken. Some are better than others at reading right and wrong turn signs. Or have learned the discipline not to be enticed to take wrong turns when there are signs that show the right way to go.
Two anti-Christ issues I deal with are to a lesser extent the immorality of the homosexual lifestyle and to a larger extent Islam. These days a critic of homosexuality and Islam is labeled with the epithet of homophobe or Islamophobe. In this post I am exalting Christ over Mohammed and the deity he called Allah.
Muslims – especially devout Muslims – are convinced Jesus is (as in the past tense ‘was’) only a man. Muslims are taught Jesus was one of a long line of prophets and the last prophet was Mohammed. In Islamic thinking Jesus is not the Christ (Messiah) the Son of the Living God who is ONE with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Christians view the Trinity as One God and Muslims view the Trinity as three god polytheistic idolatry.
Muslims have no problem expressing their negative thoughts on the Divinity and Sonship of Christ Jesus. Indeed, the Quran and its companion commentaries that include the Hadith, Sira and Sunna including the Islamic Clerical commentaries that ends up being studied to formulate Sharia Law, have theological reasoning for aggression toward Jews, Christians and polytheists. Initially Islamic holy writings indicate Mohammed desired to woo Jews and Christians into Islam as People of the Book. Polytheists or other non-Muslim religions were simply offered a convert or die option.
Does the Bible speak of aggression against people? Only an idiot would say no. However there are some glaring differences between the agendas of the Bible and the Quran relating to aggression against people.
The Old Testament (Christian perspective) points to the genealogical line that was Promised from Adam’s Fall through to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob then through Judah, Jesse and David then through David’s lineage that lead to Mary who conceives Jesus by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. This Old Testament scarlet thread focuses on the descendants of Abraham through the child of Promise Isaac – NOT Ishmael the son of Abraham and the Egyptian slave Hagar. Isaac’s son Jacob was renamed Israel by God. The descendants of Jacob-Israel became the Hebrew nation of Israel. God commanded the nation Israel to clear out the land of Canaan of its inhabitants because those people had devolved into such heinous sin they were beyond redeeming. Converting the Canaanites to the ONE-God faith of the Hebrews was not part of Israel possessing the Land.
The rising and falling of the nation Israel mirrors the degree of faithfulness of Israeli leaders in guiding the people under the Law of Moses. Eventually Israel split into two Kingdoms. The Northern Kingdom became known as Israel and roughly represented ten of the twelve tribes of Israel. The Southern Kingdom became known as Judah and represented the two tribes Judah and smaller Benjamin. The Southern Kingdom maintained the line of King David which is part of that scarlet thread of the human side of Jesus through Mary.
Israel and Judah both had their Kingdoms emptied of the Hebrews. The Assyrian Empire removed the predominant elites of the Northern Kingdom. The Babylonian Empire removed the inhabitants of Judah save a few unlearned tied to the land. History essentially begins calling the Hebrew remnant as Jews after the last Hebrew Kingdom of Judah. The Persians (Ironically the present day Iranians) allowed the Jews to begin to return to their Homeland area shortly Babylon was conquered.
I tried to abbreviate the Old Testament history of the Jews and I probably did a poor job; nonetheless the gist of my timeline is correct. At no time are the Jews commanded by God to force the world population into Judaism or die. The only people commanded to be exterminated were morally reprobate people on the level of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Mohammed’s sole dictum to his followers was to spread the creed of Islam by conquering the world by blood, lust and humiliation. The humiliation part was the plan to intimidate non-Muslims into eventually converting to Islam. The Islamic agenda was not a divine mission. Rather the Islamic agenda was a political-martial conquest that cemented the subjugation of the conquered by inculcating a new socio-theological paradigm into their conquered societies via demoralizing humiliation.
The Christian sole dictum is to go into all the world and share the Good News that Salvation is of the Jews and believing Jesus died on the Cross, was buried and on the third day was Resurrected from the grave by the power of the Father. Christ the Son of God in His glorified body fully human and fully Divine sits at the Right Hand of the Father ever interceding for the saints (Believing Christians).
Islam conquest of the world is coercive. Don’t believe junk that there is compulsion of religion in Islam. It is a deceptive statement. Sure the People of the Book can return their religion BUT ONLY if no open contradiction to Islam exists. Believe there is compulsion if Muslim indoctrinated people believe a religious minority is openly practicing their faith in a Muslim majority nation today.
Biblically Christian conquest in this world, until the Last Days, is purely a voluntary act of faith. The consequences for rejecting Christ are faced in the next life. Yes there have been Christian nations and empires that have imposed Christianity; however the imposition is contrary to the Word of God in the Bible. The Quranic aggression against non-Muslims is codified in the Quran, Hadith and Sira both in this life and the next life in Islamic theology.
I have to admit my ire over how Western political correctness was raised by an Andrew Bostom article with the theme that even when criticism is correctly directed toward a Muslim Cleric or Muslim terrorist that is a proponent of instituting the purist Islam of Mohammed, the critics tend to fail to note that Islam’s holiest book the Quran actually calls for the degradation of the non-Muslim. In Bostom’s critic he notes that the Obama Administration is selling some weaponry of significant power to the Muslim Brotherhood government of Egypt’s President Muhammad Morsi. That weaponry is some of America’s finest Fighter Jets.
In the past Egypt had developed into a pretty decent ally of U.S. under the now deposed Hosni Mubarak. Now Egypt is more like a fake ally putting the face of friendship while killing Coptic Christians and spewing the typical Quranic drivel that Jews and Israel should be exterminated. It is the ‘kill the Jews’ mentality that has gotten Bostom’s attention.
Evidently Sean Hannity has been criticizing the Obama Administration about selling weaponry to Jew-hating and American-hating Morsi. Bostom is ok with that portion of Hannity’s criticism. Bostom is befuddled on how Hannity and other good Conservative pundits like him are not pointing out that Morsi is merely repeating EXACTLY what the Quran, Hadith and Sira are saying about the way to treat Jews and Christians.
Here I am emphasizing that Christians should have no fear from Muslim Apologists that take glee in belittling Christianity and the Savior Jesus Christ. No one not even the President of the United States of America will denounce prominent Muslims for spewing anti-Christian hatred. AND YET the President and his Leftist minions will go out their way to denounce Biblically minded Christians as bigoted Islamophobes for pointing out the racism and über intolerance of Muslims and Islamic theo-political ideology.
YOU NEED TO READ ANDREW BOSTOM’S POST: Hey Hannity, Koran 5:60 Refers to Jews as ‘Apes and Pigs’
JRH 1/27/13
Islam is Peaceful Like a Rabid Dog
John R. Houk
© December 11, 2012
I began reading a post at Freedom Rings 1776 by Danny Jeffrey. As I was reading the post I had the intention of g+1-ing the post. However, the essay is so good that it has reawakened in me the context that Islam, as a religion is the vilest on earth.
Danny writes about the idiocy of Liberals accepting violence inherent among Muslims as an aberration rather than common. The Quran, Hadith and Sira are commands and recorded history for Muslims to follow. Acts of violence are promoted and in many cases commanded against those breaking Sharia Law or against a person that is a non-Muslim (infidel, kafir, dhimmi or whatever).
In fairness there is a lot of morality and peace promoted among Muslims in the Quran, Hadith and Sira as well; however “morality and peace” is for good Allah-submitted Muslims that are to reverence with honor Allah’s Prophet Mohammed (The Islam most Muslims practiced though contrary to their holy writings). There is little to zero tolerance for breaking reverence to Mohammed and openly insulting Allah.
Islam is a martial religion. Jesus commands His believers to go into all the world and share the Good News of Salvation and Deliverance from the chains of this wicked world. Islam’s Allah wants his adherents to go into all the world with an army and offer acceptance to the submission of Allah peacefully. If there is a refusal to submit to Allah, the army will make the attempt to conquer the people. In the process of the conquest Allah tells Mohammed it is acceptable to pillage, rape, and where appropriate turn the conquered into slaves and where it is more expedient to kill the unbelieving conquered people.
This is how Islam was spread in its early days under Mohammed and his succeeding Caliphs. The spread of Islam was a bloody mess and especially on the Indian Sub-continent. The Hindus and Buddhists of India were considered polytheists and as such worse infidel than the People of the Book; i.e. Jews and Christians. Mohammed stole just enough stories from the Bible (the Book) and twisted them for Arab superiority with the hope of peacefully converting Jews and Christians to Islam.
Mohammed was not a Jew there was no way Jews would accept divine Prophethood from Mohammed. Not to mention the insult of changing the Word of God that the Promises of God came through Abraham and Isaac to Abraham and Ishmael considered the progenitor of Arabs.
The Christian distrust of Mohammed was based in part on the Jewish rejection. We Christians can add that Mohammed rejected Jesus Christ as the Son of God that died on the Cross.
18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the[a] Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.[b] 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. (1 John 2: 18-22 NKJV)
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that[a] Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. (1 John 4: 1-3 NKJV)
Once Mohammed figured out that persuasion was not going to convert Jews and Christians he mysteriously heard from Allah to offer three choices to the People of the Book: Convert willingly, Keep their religion but as a sub-class human that must submit to the rules of Allah OR Die.
As I said earlier Hindus and Buddhists did not fare so well with the ‘choice option’. Initially Hindus and Buddhists were offered convert, brutal slavery or die. After millions upon millions of India’s population were slaughtered someone came upon the bright idea of, ‘Wait a minute, if we exterminate all these polytheists we will not have people to do the labor needed to make the conquest thing operate well.’ Only then were Hindus and Buddhists (and whatever minor religion that developed on smaller scale) offered sub-human dhimmitude.
Danny Jeffrey makes reference to India’s tragedy in facing Muslims throughout history in a twenty minute video. Here is that video:
VIDEO: Islamic conquest of India. Bloodiest in the history of World (Full)
Danny effectively attacks the PC crowd that looks the other way about Islam. The information which I just wrote about is nothing compared to the WAKE-UP provided by Danny Jeffrey. Read Danny’s essay entitled “HONOR KILLINGS, RAPE GANGS, MUTILATIONS, AND THE RISE OF A DEATH CULT…ISLAM” and please realize that even a peace loving Islam that lives by only the peaceful portions of the Quran will adhere to the violence. Why? Muslims believe the Quran is infallible and that Mohammed was the perfect man.
Here are some quotes that you will read in Danny’s essay:
Muslim dismembers wife in front of six children, throws head from …creepingsharia.wordpress.com/…/muslim-dismembers-wife-in-…
Jun 6, 2012 – Muslim dismembers wife in front of six children, throws head from rooftop … their six children before throwing her dismembered head from roof …
Husband ‘butchers wife in front of their six children before throwing …
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…/Husband-butchers-wife-children-thro…Share
Jun 4, 2012 – A man is under arrest in Germany after killing his wife in front of his six young children and cutting her into pieces. Orhan Sircasi then ran on to …
Excerpt from Daily Mail UK:
“The 32-year-old killer of Turkish origin fought off police as they tried to seize him early this morning by lunging at them with the knife and swinging the head like a club.”
Picture the sheer horror of such a situation. This savage had just chopped his wife into pieces in front of his children, then with a knife in one hand and her head in the other he heads for the roof top. Then using his wife’s head as a club he attacks the police who are trying to take him into custody. I cannot help but feel sorry for those officers. It is only natural for any sane human being to recoil from a severed head and they had to arrest him. Let us go one horror further. He threw her head to the ground below. Imagine yourself walking past there and having it land in front of you, or worse still hitting you on the way to the ground. If you don’t think that man was a savage then you are reading the wrong essay, for I can call him no less.
They have a fondness for beheading their victims. This is one that I recall hearing about on Fox News right after it happened.
New York Television Executive Gets 25 Years for Beheading Wife …
http://www.foxnews.com/…/new-york-television-executive-faces-sen…Share
Mar 9, 2011 – A judge on Wednesday gave a Pakistani former television executive the harshest punishment he could for beheading his estranged wife: 25 …
Now this is one that I have a hard time with because political correctness has become so entrenched in our society that the police do their very best not to find Muslims guilty of one of these honor killings. No one repeatedly beats their own head against a coffee table until they are dead.
Florida: Muslim woman’s death accidental or an ‘honor’ killing …
creepingsharia.wordpress.com/…/florida-muslim-womans-deat…
May 21, 2011 – Muslim Woman’s Death Ruled “Accident” From the Florida Family …killed herself by repeatedly beating her head against a coffee table and the …
Anytime that an innocent person is murdered it is a tragedy. When that innocent victim happens to be child it is far worse. Complicating that issue, this child was slowly beaten to death over a period of months, for not memorizing the Qur’an.
Mother beat son to death for failing to learn the Koran by heart … http://www.telegraph.co.uk › News › UK News › Crime
2 days ago – A mother who beat her son to death for failing to learn the Koran by heart murdered him and burned his body to hide the evidence, a jury has …
While the problem is growing ever worse here, the U.S. by no means has a monopoly on honor killings. Europe, Asia, Africa, Indonesia … anywhere you find Muslims you find honor killings as part of their fundamental belief.
Sweden: Terrified Muslim women hide from “honor killing” relatives ...
creepingsharia.wordpress.com/…/sweden-terrified-muslim-wo…May 10, 2012 –
I have always loved a good challenge. It makes life more interesting, but after what I have learned of Islam, were I challenged to find something good about the belief, I would forego the effort. Islam has NO redeeming qualities. It was founded by a bloodthirsty pedophile, and those who follow the teachings of the Qur’an are victims every bit as much as those who fall under the harsh sword of that wretched belief.
Embracing Female Genital Mutilation
frontpagemag.com/…q…/embracing-female-genital-mutilation/May 10, 2010 – It’s not awesome . . . but comparing it to more severe forms of female circumcision troubles me. . . . . And it’s not like Western culture is so free of ...
…
Muslim Child-Rape Gangs in Britain :: Gatestone Institute
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/…/muslim-child-rape-gangs-britain
May 21, 2012 – Nine Muslim men belonging to a child-rape gang in northwestern England have … Soeren Kern is Senior Fellow for European Politics at the …Fjordman: Muslim Rape Epidemic in Sweden and Norway ...
fjordman.blogspot.com/…/muslim-rape-epidemic-in-sweden-a.
Feb 20, 2005 – There have, for example, been a number of gang-rapes of Swedish women by Muslim immigrants. But Swedes must be careful what they say …
UK: Police didn’t investigate Muslim rape and prostitution gang for …
http://www.jihadwatch.org/…/uk-police-didnt-investigate-muslim-ra…;
May 9, 2012 – UK: Police didn’t investigate Muslim rape and prostitution gang for fear of being called racist. This isn’t a racial issue at all, in fact. It is an issue ...
…
Saudi Offers “Castrated African Slave” for Sale on Facebook
frontpagemag.com/…/saudi-offers-castrated-african-slave-for-s…
1 day ago – I have a [male] slave I bought from an African country and arranged for his visa and stay till I got him to Saudi [Arabia]. His description: 1 – Black ...
JRH 12/11/12
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Be sure to read all of Danny’s essay.
Christians Must Honor Jews
John R. Houk
© November 27, 2012
Christians of history past, particularly Roman Catholics, Lutheran Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Christians (More modern Eastern Orthodox antisemitism), emerged as Jew-haters by calling the Jews Christ-killers. Were the Jews of pre-Resurrection Jesus the murderers of Jesus the Christ (the Anointed One and His Anointing). The accusation is a particularly heinous indictment since Jesus came FIRST as the Savior of the Jews and then as the Savior of the World, i.e. the Gentiles (non-Jews).
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,[a] for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”[b] (Romans 1: 16-17 NKJV)
Take note that Salvation is to the Jew FIRST and also the Greek (i.e. Gentiles). Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the Apostle Paul included this in the Epistle to the Romans AFTER Jesus was nailed to the Cross, died and arose bodily from the grave.
Did the Jews kill their own Messiah? NO! Rather the Greek oriented Sadducees and tradition minded Pharisees in the Temple authority known as the Sanhedrin feared that Jesus’ popularity would remove their political influence bequeathed by Roman hegemony over the Jewish faithful. Roman Procurator Pontius Pilate called for Jesus’ Crucifixion only in the fear the Sanhedrin would notify Roman Caesar Tiberius that a rebellious Jew called Jesus bar Joseph was set free.
In my mind the responsibility for Jesus’ death on the Cross lay at the feet of the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman government as administered by Pontius Pilate. If Christians blame Jews as Christ-killers because of the actions of the Sanhedrin, then Christ-killer blame must be shared with the Roman government. At the time the Roman government was Italian-Romans. Do we call all Italians Christ-killers? And think of this: the Roman Catholic Church is a vestige of the Latin speaking Roman Empirical government so do we call all current Catholics Christ-killers? Or think of this: the official liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church until the 1960s was spoken in ancient Latin. Do we call all the people that speak a derivative of Romantic languages (e.g. Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and so on) Christ-killers? I believe you get the idea.
The Jews have problems with Christians, especially the proselytizing Christians even though most of those proselytizers are lovers of the Jews. The problem Jews have with Christians is their/our past Jew-hating persecution including the blood libel of Christ-killer. Yes friends I am talking of the kind of persecution that led to pogroms, genocide and/or death march expulsions.
Orthodox Judaism has a problem with the theology that their Messiah according to Christians is the Son of God making a human co-equal with God Almighty. Indeed, once religious Jews picked up on the preaching of Jesus that His Father is God and Jesus did co-equalize Himself with God by the Father and the Son is One. The pre-Resurrection Lord Jesus mystically walked away from many stoning opportunities from the Jewish faithful.
Christians must abandon the notion of Jewish Christ-killers and Jew-hatred. Christians must embrace the notion the Jews are the Chosen People with the Promise of specific Land to Abraham and the Abrahamic descendants.
Part of the Abrahamic Covenant is the Child of Promise. Sarah was privy to the promise of a great nation. With Abraham and Sarah being a bit aged to have children, Sarah thought she’d God a bit of help and told Abraham to make a baby with her slave Hagar. What a surprise: Abraham thought for about a half a second and said, “Okayyyy”. The progeny of that escapade with slave girl Hagar was Ishmael which everyone presumed was Abraham’s heir apparent to the Promise.
Sarah’s plan was not God’s plan. God promised aged Sarah a child and it happened. The Child of Promise then was Isaac and the child of the slave was Ishmael. Thus Ishmael was not the heir to the Promise but rather Isaac.
The Bible that both Jews and Christians call Holy shows the Promise of Abraham in having descendants as numerous as the stars and the Promise of specific geographical Land. The Jews call this portion of the Bible the Torah and the Tanakh. The Christians call the portion of the Bible with Abrahamic Covenant the Old Testament and the first five books of the OT the Pentateuch. The essence of the differences in interpretation of the Old Testament is the view to who the Messiah will be (Jews) or is (Christians). Of course the theology chasm has widened over years as the Gentiles began to dominate Christianity over the Jews. Regardless of that growing Jewish-Christian theology chasm it is incumbent upon Christians to honor in the plan of Salvation knowing that part of that plan is the Jews FIRST and then the Gentiles.
I found a John Piper article posted at Desiring God that highlights the reasons of why to embrace “the Jews First” and the theology that is equal between Jews and Gentiles. I am just listing the points in the article I do encourage you to read the whole thing. The title is “To the Jew First, and Also to the Greek”.
First, then, how are the Jews “first”?
1. The Jews have a priority over Gentiles as the chosen people of God
2. The Jews have a priority over Gentiles as the guardians of God’s special revelation, the Old Testament Scriptures
3. The Jews have a priority over the Gentiles in that the Messiah himself, Jesus Christ, came first as a Jew to the Jews
4. The Jews have a priority over the Gentiles in that salvation is from the Jews
5. The Jews have a priority over the Gentiles in that Paul evangelized Jews first when he brought the gospel to a new place
6. The Jews have a priority over the Gentiles in final judgment and final blessing.
In What Ways Do the Jews Not Have Priority?
1. The Jews do not have priority in righteousness or merit
2. The Jews do not have priority in how they are saved
3. The Jews do not have priority in participation in God’s covenant blessings
This is what got me started on Christians must be supportive of Jews even if Jews mistrust Christians. A better writer than I (Danny Jeffrey) found a news article on Israel Nation News in which a moronic Catholic Cardinal calls Israel a bunch of baby-killers in the recent bout with Islamic terrorists Hamas. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi condemns Israel yet does not mention that Hamas shot missiles into Israeli civilian centers targeting among other location schools. Cardinal Ravasi is supporting Jew-hating Muslims that deny the Divinity of Christ and has the goal of killing every Jew in Israel because Islam calls the Bible corrupt and the Promises given to Abraham that was to flow through the child of Promise – i.e. Isaac – a lie. The Quran rewrites the Old Testament and the New Testament to proclaim the Abrahamic Covenant flows from the child of the slave – Ishmael. AND that Jesus is NOT the Son of God but rather a mere man that was a great Prophet BUT second to the butchering self-proclaimed prophet Mohammed.
This Cardinal Ravasi is outrageous and should be removed from his high Papal position by Pope Benedict XVI.
JRH 7/27/12
Islam Insults Christianity
John R. Houk
© September 14, 2012
In Libya U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was murdered by an angry Islamic mob or perhaps an organized terrorist attack using the angry mob as cover. U.S. embassies in various other Muslim nations such as Egypt and Yemen to name a few have also been attacked by angry Muslim mobs.
Why?
The media is reporting that Sam Bacile produced a fill entitled “The Innocence of Muslims”. It is now believed that Bacile (or Bassiel or Bassil) is a pseudonym for a person who might be Nakoula Basseley Nakoula (A separate report on Bacile-Nakoula from CNN). The movie was billed as an action/adventure telling the real story of Mohammed. The thing is this movie got a lot of play on the Internet in the Muslim world including an Arabic translation (the movie was filmed in English). Muslims find that the truth about Mohammed that is even written in their holy writings (Quran, Hadith, Sira, Sunna etc.) is insulting. I am guessing the insult is in the irreverent way non-Muslims disseminate the truth as written in Islamic holy writings. I have difficulty in imagining Mohammed’s story told in its entirety can be told reverently when it comes to the beheadings of Arab Jewish tribes and the taking of Jewish women as sex-slaves, concubines and/or wives. Mo instituted piracy and thieving-slave raids as a good thing because Mo heard from Allah that what benefitted Muslims and Mohammed is good when executed upon non-Muslims.
Mohammed’s example during life became the framework on how to treat non-Muslims when Islamic conquest branched out of the Arab Peninsula terrorizing Christians into converting to Islam to the north and west of the Arab Peninsula. Mohammed’s example was even more brutal in the conquest toward the east of the Arab Peninsula because those poor souls were regarded as polytheists rather than the People of the Book (i.e. Jews and Christians). The initial invasions of the Indian Sub-Continent was a job of convert or be exterminated of the remnant that was not enslaved for male manual labor or female sex-slavery.
This is a short exposé of Mohammed and the civilization he inspired that can be known as the Islamic World or Islamic Culture. Trust me – from a non-Muslim perspective there is much more you should know to understand that Islam is completely antithetical to Christianity and the Secularized Culture in the West that has evolved from Christianity. Islam has never evolved past a Middle Ages mindset.
In the Middle Ages professing Christians were fairly ignorant of what was written in the Holy Bible. Christians from peasantry to royalty for the most part only understood their faith from the Catholic Clergy in the West. The reason for this is that most Europeans were illiterate. Thus the Catholic Church placed a high importance on Church tradition rather than the specifics of Scripture. Tradition and Scripture do not necessarily concur with each other. Some Clergy began to view that Tradition began to stray too far from the Scriptures and began to advocate for the Church to draw closer to the Word of God rather than to stray to a Tradition that looks nothing like Scripture.
The Crusades were initiated out of the weariness of the Christian West being subject to slave and booty raids from Muslims ever encroaching on Christian Europe. Thus when it was reported that Muslims began to rob, prevent and/or kill Christian pilgrims journeying to the Holy Land, it became a good excuse for the Church hierarchy to rabble rouse European nobility and royalty to invade the Holy Land and wrest control away from the Muslims. From a Christian perspective the Crusades to the Holy Land was a Just War against the haters of Jesus Christ. HOWEVER, from a Scriptural perspective the Crusader armies committed ungodly and non-Christ-like actions similar to the same things the Muslims did in their conquest of Christian lands. As a supply line the Crusaders would ravage their way across Europe heading toward Constantinople (renamed Istanbul by Muslim conquerors).
During the era of the Crusades the city of Constantinople was the capital of what was left of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire that evolved into a Greek-centric culture). The Byzantines were a shell of their former glory. When the last Byzantine Emperors began to ask the West for help against the Saracen (Muslims), they did not think the Crusaders would eventually sack Constantinople on the way to the Holy Land.
The First Crusade began in 1096 and was responsible for setting up the near 200 years of the Latin Kingdom. The Fourth Crusade (1202 – 1261) sacked Constantinople in 1204. The Ninth and Last Crusade (1271-1272) began the demise of the Latin Kingdom in the Holy Land (1099-1187 [Fall of Acre 1291] Online book “LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM”).
The Crusades essentially were the result of years of insult against Christianity. The murder of 3,000 Christian pilgrims (1065) making their way to the Holy Land was the last straw for a militant feudal society fairly ignorant of the actual principles laid out in the Holy Bible.
I am dwelling on the revisionism of academic Leftists and Muslim Apologists pertaining to the Crusades because it is the mindset that seeks justification for violence when Islam is insulted. The reality is Islam’s central tenets that Mohammed is the Last Prophet from God which Mo calls Allah with the implication that Allah is the same god of Abraham is offensive to Jews and Christians. The memorized sayings of Mohammed that were eventually recorded as the Quran calls the Holy writings of the Old and New Testament corrupted. Since Mo is plugged into Allah (I’m not sure if Mo is directly plugged into Allah or if Mo heard from Allah only through the Angel Gabriel or both), he can say the Word of God in the Old Testament (Torah and Tanakh for Jews) and the New Testament is corrupt.
As a Christian it would be wrong of me to speak about the Jewish belief of the Quran. I can say as a Christian the Quran is full of bologna written to cast a net upon then polytheistic Arabs to bring them under a charismatic leader and bound with the power of cultic beliefs to strengthen Mo’s and the later Companions’ hold over the Arab people. When the charismatic cultic leader died, the Companions would use the memorized sayings of Mohammed to ensure cultic control of the Arabs – the first believers of Mohammed.
It is obvious to any Christian that rewrote or I guess retold the OT and NT in a way that would make his fellow Arabs feel special and hope Jews and Christian would buy the revamped used car and join the party of blood lust, sex-slavery and conquest.
But you see the New Testament tells Christians that if anything is added or taken away from Scripture it will be an act to deceive Christians out of their Salvation provided in the death, burial and Resurrection of the One and Only Son of God that is also fully human in order to Redeem humanity from Satan’s grasp of this age.
1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does[a] not slumber. (II Peter 2: 1-3 NKJV)
18 For[a] I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add[b] to him the plagues that are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away[c] his part from the Book[d] of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.”
Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! (Rev. 22: 18-20 NKJV)
Islamic existence then is an offense to Christianity. Islam denies that Jesus is the Son of God. Islam denies that Jesus has the nature of being fully God and being fully human. Jesus’ Divinity made His humanity sin free unlike the rest of humanity that inherited Adam’s curse. This is the centrality of Christianity: The sin-free Jesus Christ was crucified to death as a sacrifice once and for all to Redeem humanity from Adam’s Fall from the Presence of God. Jesus is Resurrected as fully God reclaiming His Divine attributes that He gave up to live in a mortal human vessel. Jesus’ bodily Resurrection led Him to Ascend to Heaven to sit at the Right-hand of the Father ever interceding for the Believing Saints. Jesus promises to Return which will lead to the final defeat of all unbelievers that would rather believe in Satan’s deception. After Believers are certified in the Book of Life the New Earth is created. The New Heavenly Jerusalem is united with the New Earth then the New Heaven and the New Earth are united with all Redeemed humanity experientially knowing the very Will of God – no guessing, no tears, no toil and no fear of mortality nor the Second Death. Islam denies this Christian centrality in totality.
Islam teaches that the Son of Promise is Ishmael rather than Isaac; hence Jacob renamed Israel and his progeny are not God’s Chosen People and Salvation then is not of the Jews. Islam teaches that Jesus is not the Son of God but only a human prophet in a prophetic line leading to Mohammed. Islam teaches that Jesus did not die on the Cross nor did He ever Resurrect in bodily form. Islam teaches eternal sexual pleasures for males that die in Jihad fighting non-Muslims (aka Infidels or kafir).
In essence Islam is a cultic offense to Christ and Christians!
Christians that understand the Word of God as found in the New Testament are taught not to take an offense when insulted for being a Christian. This is probably a key reason Americans as the most Christian-Conscious nation among nations with a Christian heritage don’t riot in the streets when Christ is offended by the ungodliness that Islam presents to the Christian faith in denying the Godhood and the Redemption of humanity in Christ Jesus the Lord.
If Christians were to ever comprehend just how much the religious existence of Islam is an insult to Christianity, those Christians that are more carnal natured than spiritual natured might indeed begin expressing anger toward Muslims living in America. Unlike the Muslim riots in Islamic nations in which the Quran teaches to kill those that insult Mohammed and Allah, Christians are taught in the Bible that vengeance for persecution and injustice against Christianity is the Lord’s to execute. We all know that there are those that tap into the Christian faith that might believe causing harm in the name of Jesus toward insulting non-Christians might indeed strike back on a more individual basis: e.g. Muslim store owners, Mosques, taxi drivers and so on in American society. In such cases I am squarely behind the rule of law and the First Amendment that such offenders that act out violence against Muslims (or any offending group of people: religiously, politically or [gasp] gender challenged) should be duly arrested and prosecuted for their crimes. However, not prosecuted according to Sharia Law which would lead to punishment of cruelty and inhumanity, but rather according the law of the land as backed by the U.S. Constitution.
I have to tell you though. I am becoming extremely wearisome of Muslims targeting Americans because they feel offended by our Free Speech Liberty. I find it more disgusting that Muslim governments are not doing more to protect American sovereign land which is what an Embassy and a Consulate IS.
I watched the trailer to “The Innocence of Muslims’. The acting is horrible. The dialogue is worthy of a homemade video made at someone’s house is idiotic. From an American perspective this movie would be more a parody of Mohammed’s negative side of life. From a Muslim perspective this movie would indeed be highly offensive. BUT COME ON! Attacking American Embassies in the Middle East who until the riots began had no connection or idea that such a movie was made is insanely STUPID!
VIDEO: Muhammad Movie Trailer
(Since the last time I viewed this video YouTube has placed a warning before viewing message. I don’t know how long YouTube will allow a video that insults Islam to stay up. Such is the hypocrisy of politically correct Free Speech.)
WORSE! Many of these rioting Muslims overseas are desecrating the American flag and raising the Black Flag of al Qaeda with praise for Osama bin Laden roughly on the anniversary of the Islamic terrorist attack on American soil on September 1, 2001.
As I was writing this I just saw Secretary State Hillary Clinton correctly condemn the “anti-Islam” movie; However Clinton finished her condemnation by saying something to the effect that “how dare someone make such a movie that insults ‘a great religion’ like Islam.”
I have to apologize to the Muslims that have chosen to live the peaceful tenets of Islam. I have probably already the realm of the insult for you. There is a side of Islam that I often describe as the dark side that is insidious, especially to Jews, Christians and Hindus. Quranic suras specifically led Imperialist Islam of the past to conquer, convert, dehumanize non-converters or kill non-believers of Islam for daring not to submit to Islamic Supremacism.
Sure Christianity had their share of atrocities in history, especially against Jews; however those atrocities were contrary to the Word of God. The atrocities of past Muslim Imperialism were in accordance to the Quran, Hadith and Sira of Islam.
This is where a Muslim Apologist invariables writes to me to say BS and other epithets I typically do not write. The favorite response is that there is no compulsion of religion in Islam. The Quranic sura is extremely deceptive. Lack of compulsion means there are choices offered to a non-Muslim which I have already touched on. The choice is Convert, become a subhuman dhimmi or die. You see, Islam does not compel your religious choice. When you freely choose between the three offers from Islam you are choosing rather than Islam compelling you.
The Muslim riots across the Muslim world are an example of Muslim intolerance to the civil rights of non-Muslims that the Left-Stain-Media cannot fail to show you. However, there are loads of Christians in the Muslim world that experience religious intolerance. Many Christians are menaced by Islamic Blasphemy laws in which Mohammed, Quran, Allah or Islam in general assign the accusation of insult. If a Christian shares about Redemption in Christ to a non-Muslim you have blasphemed Islam. If a Christian drinks out of a Muslim well you have blasphemed Islam. If a Muslim converts to Christianity you have blasphemed Islam. If you say in defense of your Christianity that Jesus is better than Mohammed is, you have blasphemed Islam. If you accuse Muslims of kidnapping your Christian daughter for marriage you have blasphemed Islam for interfering with Islamic conversion. If your Christian daughters are raped by a Muslim, your daughter is stoned to death for fornication or adultery. In honesty Muslim men pull the same junk on Muslim women as well. The message: if women are in a position where a rape can happen it is the woman’s fault and she must be punished. Welcome to Sharia Law.
I gotta tell ya.
Risking being told that I am an Islamophobic bigot against Muslims, I have come to the point that I am fed up with protecting the feelings of Muslims when the truth of the dark side of Islam is exposed. Muslims have no problem talking about the unscriptural dark side of Christianity’s history AND trust there is plenty of dark side in Christianity’s history. But I must reiterate that Christianity’s dark side was perpetrated by Christians doing atrocities that the Bible specifically condemns. Unlike in Islam in which theological duality can make contrary suras both true depending on the situation favorable to Islam or the concept of abrogation, Christianity has no such duality. There is right and wrong and forgiveness or unrepentance in Christianity.
So here’s the thing. Christians would not AND should not riot in the streets or single out Muslims with vigilante justice – it is not Scriptural. On the other hand it is time for Christians to speak up in Churches, at political precinct meetings or do something like join an ACT for America Chapter in your local area.
It is only when Christians are willing to promote their faith even if such promotion is insulting to Mohammed and Islam, will one not have to be embarrassed when a Leftist or Islamic Apologist tries to shut you down with the ad hominem insult of Islamophobe or bigot. Street Preachers go to the streets and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. Go in extremely large groups to places like Dearborn, MI where Muslims began pelting Christians holding signs with cans, bottles and eventually stones. Even if you feel like a minority you must remember that Islam ONLY represents less than 2% of the U.S. population. America is a nation with a Christian heritage and NOT a Muslim heritage.
But REMEMBER! You are in America. Just because you have the First Amendment Right to speak and practice your faith peacefully, so also do the misled Muslims that are ignorant of Christ’s Salvation because of Quranic lies. It is not illegal to be a Muslim in America. Muslims have the right to be deceived by Islam as much as you have the right to enlighten a Muslim about the Salvation in Christ to a new and living life now in this age and the next life.
I am saying DO NOT BE ALLOWED TO BE SHOUTED DOWN from your Christian faith.
JRH 9/14/12
Olympics Shining Light on Global Antisemitism
Now Even Obama Administration Fails Affirmation Jerusalem is Israel’s Capital
John R. Houk
© July 28, 2012
The White House Press Secretary Jay Carney REFUSES to answer the question: “What is the Capital of Israel?” This goes hand in hand with the BBC refusing to list Jerusalem as the Israeli Capital city. In the Olympic list of Capital cities the non-entity Palestine has its Capital city listed as East Jerusalem.
HELLO! There is NO East Jerusalem! After Israel lost the Old City of Jerusalem which included the ancient Jewish Quarter to Transjordan’s (Now Jordan) British led Arab Legion in 1948, Jordan then proceeded to annex the land that belonged to Israel via the original British Mandate for Palestine. This unilateral annexation included the Old City Jerusalem which was then dubbed East Jerusalem.
After yet another Arab invasion of Israel in 1967 and yet another Israeli victory, the land dubbed the West Bank by Jordan and East Jerusalem was reverted BACK to Israel via the same way Jordan usurped the land in 1948. If the Arab nations and Jordan in particular ever intended the land called Judea-Samaria by Israel was ever intended as a national homeland by Arab created refugees later dubbed Palestinians, THEN Jordan would have turned their conquered West Bank land into a Palestinian State.
Jordan DID NOT! In 1967 Israel reclaimed their land by military victory over invaders.
We all know the reason behind the refusal is that the Obama Administration is anti-Israel and is determined to establish a Jew-Hating Palestinian State by forcing Israel to give up land that is of Jewish Heritage INCLUDING the City of David – Jerusalem.
Israel is for Jews. In 1948 the American government recognized Israel as the Jewish State while at least FIVE Arab invading armies invading the sliver of land Israel controlled even though the British Mandate for Palestine was created to establish a homeland for the Jews reuniting them to the land God Almighty Promised to them from the time of Abraham. That Abrahamic Covenant was passed down through the child of Promise Isaac, then to Jacob, to Jacob’s 12 sons and actuated by Moses and Joshua.
As Christians we believe that Abrahamic Covenant would mean Salvation is of the Jews; thus Jesus Christ the Son of God in Divinity and the son of Mary in the flesh is from the tribe of Judah (the son of Jacob-Israel) and the lineage of King David. God promised David there would always be a descendant on the throne of Israel. Conquests and Diasporas ended the throne of David and as such religious Jews await the Messiah descendant of David to reassume the throne of David. Of course we Christians believe descendant is Jesus the Christ (the anointed Messiah) that has brought Redemption to individuals and in His Second Coming will bring Full Redemption including the nations of the Earth.
In that future time Jesus sits on the throne of David in the City of David on Mt Zion which is Jerusalem the current Capital of Israel and future Capital of the world under Divine Administration with the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb on Twelve Thrones governing the Tribes of Israel and Administrating the Nations.
Yes the Jews are still important to God as the Chosen People that reign with Christ. The Obama Administration is executing a grievous injustice by not recognizing Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel and the spiritual center of Judaism for Jews globally.
JRH 7/28/12
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WATCH :: White House Spokesman Refuses to Identify Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel
By One Jerusalem
7/26/12
What is wrong with this White House?
At the daily White House news briefing, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney refused to name Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
VIDEO: Carney Refuses To Identify Capital Of Israel Twice In White House Press Briefing
This slap to Israel’s face comes after President Obama left Prime Minister Netanyahu sitting by himself in the White House, and Obama’s administration helped the Muslim Brotherhood take power in Egypt. No doubt, if he was asked, Carney would affirm that Cairo is Egypt’s capital. But not for Israel.
We at One Jerusalem need your help in spreading the facts about the current United States/Israel relationship. It more strained than ever.
Every supporter of Israel should know what the White House is doing. Make a donation today to help us spread the truth.
______________________________
Olympics Shining Light on Global Antisemitism
John R. Houk
© July 28, 2012
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WATCH :: White House Spokesman Refuses to Identify Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel
About One Jerusalem
When reports began emanating from the negotiations at Camp David that Jerusalem was in danger of being divided, a group of Israelis and Americans decided to mobilize international grass roots support for keeping Jerusalem united under Israeli sovereignty.
One Jerusalem immediately established a website as a central address to unite people from around the world: http://www.onejerusalem.org. Within a few months, hundreds of thousands of people signed a petition in support of keeping Jerusalem as the united capital of Israel.
In January of 2001, One Jerusalem held its inaugural event, the largest rally in the history of Jerusalem. More than 400,000 people filled the hills around Jerusalem’s Old City for an unprecedented demonstration of support for Israel’s beleaguered capital city, just four months after the launch of a deadly Palestinian-Arab assault against the Jewish state. The world watched as the people pledged their allegiance to the preservation of Jerusalem as the eternal, unified capital of the State of Israel, forever open to all the people of the world.
Since then, One Jerusalem has … READ THE REST
Natural Born Sinners
A Youtube friend sent me one of the most awesome sermons I have read for a person to choose Life in Christ Jesus the Redeemer-Savior.
Even if you are a Christian this is a good refresher of the reason you are Born Again. At the end of the sermon CBYakima has a video by TheAbaloneKid. The two may be one and the same person or two good friends. I am uncertain; nevertheless be sure to read and grasp the sermon that is a road map to Salvation in Christ.
JRH 7/7/14
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Natural Born Sinners
By CBYakima
Sent: 7/3/12
From Here To Eternity, my friend on You Tube.
By God’s command I send you the most important message you will ever receive in this life. Take it seriously. Choose the way of God this very day and receive Godly life now and forever.
It’s the heart condition that exists which is our problem that stops us. We are natural born sinners. Sinners by nature who have no connection to God who is our maker. It is our inherited condition. Because of this God is strange to us. Jesus Christ on the bloody stick (often called a “cross”) is strange to us! This is our condition. We are born separated from God spiritually. Thus God cannot be the leader in our lives. God cannot shed grace upon grace on us. God loves all humans but cannot act in our lives until by His grace and through faith God gives, we believe God, and then, by faith!, receive all God has for each of us in this life, which is in Jesus Christ.
Sin has deceived us, because it is just as natural to us as looking at our face in a mirror. We do not see what our heart, and mind and soul cannot see is our lost condition. Only God can wake us up. Only God can bring life to us from the spiritually dead condition and separation from God we suffer in our lost state. If God would appear right now God would be a total stranger to us.
The proof of our fallen and dead spiritual condition is in our sins. God cannot accept sins and receive a sinner for GOD is perfect and Holy. ONLY JESUS CHRIST CAN STAND IN FOR US BEFORE ALMIGHTY GOD! We are God’s creation. God has given us a way to overcome this condition. Like symptoms of a disease, our sin is the evidence of our lost condition. And even after we are “born again” we will sin because our old nature remains. But when we truly BELIEVE GOD and His WORD, we will be given a new nature through the Spirit of God who will come and reside in us and we will slowly but surely change and understand God more and more.
That’s why God has said we MUST be born again by Spirit and through His word in the Bible which is the truth. He is our physician. Jesus Christ has told us of our condition. Left unattended we will die in our sins and be judged one day by Him.
This is the TRUTH OF GOD, not our thoughts about life but His TRUTHS. Now they seem foreign to us.
In order to overcome it we must be “Born Again”! Jesus Christ is our only sure hope. He paid the price for our sins. He is God the Son with full authority to pay that price in His perfect life and sinless being. Under false accusations and judgment, HE DIED FOR US AND SHED HIS BLOOD ON THE CROSS THAT IS THE PAYMENT for all our sins. And He rose from the dead to guarantee us eternal life in Him.
By receiving this free gift of God’s grace is the only way GOD can have direct communication with us. This is how we become God’s adopted children: through Jesus Christ who is our Savior. He has saved us from the penalty of our sins. He has delivered us from death which is spiritual separation from GOD that already exists, into a new relationship, as children of GOD, FOREVER!
Pick up a Bible and reread the passages I quoted in my message. Read the other verses that accompany those scriptures. It will help you understand more.
I know it’s strange to hear these things. That is natural to our STATE OF BEING. Our life and the society around us encourage our attitude of being “better”, and “Getting more out of life”, “success” “YES WE CAN!” , and taking “our place” as another sucker for all the lost ways, apart from Christ, of the different world orders and their beliefs and philosophies. But we were made BY GOD a long time ago. God gave His human family LIFE! God owns us and all that makes up the earth and Heavens and Galaxies.
God is not mocked by the lost of the world! Mankind is already under judgment for sin. It turned it’s collective back on God a long time ago. And civilizations have come and they have gone into the graveyard of NO returns. And all types of people that make up nations and states are under judgment excepting those who believe on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior which is who He is. Let me repeat a short but most powerful verse all should learn:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
God has a ironclad plan for His creation. GOD WILL HAVE HIS WAY. God calls His human creation! That is God’s way. He is calling you. God is telling you the truth. ONLY JESUS CHRIST SAVES. You must believe WHY AND HOW. If you are destined to be a child of GOD through the Son of God, you WILL understand! GOD will open your eyes and you will see and understand by the Spirit of God. Only the Spirit of God can inform you by the Word of God which is revealed to this world, in the Bible, through Jesus Christ who is God.
May God bless you to be His. I am here to help.
Chaim,
AbaloneKid
VIDEO: This I Believe
Jesus Akbar
Last week Bill Warner wrote an article that is highly critical of Progressive (i.e. Left Wing Thinking) theologian Miroslav Volf a Professor at Yale University which is popular among Ecumenists due to Volf equating the Christian God and the Muslim Allah as one and the same monotheistic personal deity.
JRH 6/27/12
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Jesus Akbar
By Bill Warner
June 18, 2012
Recently a Yale theologian, Miroslav Volf, came to a Christian school, Lipscomb University, and talked about how Islam and Christianity can live in harmony and respect. He is part of a new industry in America, Christians constructing beautiful lies about Islam. Fundamentally, he says that we all worship the same god.
Volf says, “one of the best ways for people of different faiths to get along is to study their scriptures together.”
If we want to get along, then looking at looking at scriptures is indeed a most excellent way to get to know each other. The problem is that the only scripture Volf wants to study is the Koran. Any time that someone wants to explain Islam by the Koran, you are dealing with someone who is ignorant or a deceiver.
The Koran proclaims in 91 verses that every Muslim is to model their life after the example (Sunna) of Mohammed, but the Sunna of Mohammed is found only in the Sira and the Hadith. The Koran is only 14% of the Islamic sacred texts. Mohammed, not Allah, is 86% of the textual doctrine. Volf, however, ignores Mohammed and only wants to talk about Allah. There is a very good reason for this. Allah is so conveniently abstract that he can construct his Allah-equals-the-Trinity-god by cherry-picking verses and muddle through as if he were in a dormitory philosophy bull session.
While Volf is comparing scriptures, he should point out that the Koran says that Jesus of the Bible is a fraud and that the Gospels, Psalms and Torah are corrupt. That inconvenient Koranic detail was not mentioned.
Volf ignores a 1400 year history of Islam and Christianity and all other religions. The jihad doctrine found in the Koran is the foundation for the murder of 270 million Kafirs (non-Muslims, including Christians). He also ignores the over 18,000 Islamic terror attacks since September 11, 2001. Why refer to a 1400 year history of continuous persecution if it gets in the way of your arguments? What are ugly facts in the face of a beautiful lie?
Volf: Two faiths, worshipping the same God, can work toward the common good under a single government.
Hello, the only government that Allah wants is the Sharia. The place for Christianity and Judaism in the Sharia is as the dhimmi, a semi-slave. History is very clear that when the Sharia is put into place, Christianity dies. It takes centuries, but Christianity is annihilated. Christianity can survive Communism and Nazism, but it cannot survive the Sharia. When Islam invaded what is now Turkey and installed Sharia, it was 100% Christian. Here is a graph of what Sharia law did to the Christian population.
Growth of Islam – Turkey Chart
Volf : Allah offers a constructive way forward by reversing the “our God vs. their God” premise that destroys bridges between neighbors and nations, magnifies fears, and creates strife.
Mohammed, the prophet of Allah, did not just destroy bridges, he destroyed civilizations. Mohammed attacked each and every neighbor until the day he died. That is the Sunna of Mohammed (perfect example of a sacred life). After he died, his Companions (Abu Baker, Umar and Uthman) followed his Sunna just as he demonstrated, and they killed Christians as fast as they could and placed them under Sharia law as dhimmis. By the time the Companion caliphs died, they had destroyed the classical civilization of the Greeks and Romans that was the matrix of Christianity. The classical church in the Middle East with its incredible variety of Christianity was annihilated by Mohammed and his personal students of jihad. The Christianity of today is a stump of the Christianity of the year 630 AD when jihad began. Whole forms of early Christianity were annihilated by Islamic jihad.
And the Koran spoke wonderfully of Mohammed’s jihad. In the Koran written in Medina, about 24% is devoted to “fighting in Allah’s cause”, jihad.
Volf said, “Faith is often misused for political ends, which frequently leads to violence.”
Mohammed preached the religion of Islam for 13 years and garnered 150 converts. After he turned to politics and jihad and when he died every Arab was a Muslim. It was politics and jihad which made him successful.
The moral demand on Muslims is to practice jihad, deceive Kafirs and impose Sharia law. Islamic morality is dualistic. Islamic ethics have one set of rules for Muslims and a second set of rules for Kafirs. Ethics based on the Golden Rule have only one set of rules.
Thick spirituality, Volf said, is faith combined with morality, which treats all people as equal in God’s sight.
Yet we have Allah who hates Kafirs and who does not have a Golden Rule. Only the Golden Rule makes people equal in God’s sight. Allah denies the Golden Rule. Go ahead, plow through the Koran and find the Golden Rule. Do the same for the Sira and the Hadith. No, the way Mohammed treated you depended upon who you are. A Muslim is treated well, and a Kafir is treated to murder, rape, enslavement and deceit.
A religion of the Golden Rule can lead to peace. A religion of jihad and political Sharia leads to war. Islam will not admit to any fault or take any credit for 270,000,000 dead over the last 1400 years. Look at Islamic Turkey—Turkish Muslims murdered a million Armenians in 20th century, but will not admit to this annihilation and genocide.
Lipscomb professor David Fleer, one of the conference organizers, said that Volf’s experiences in Yugoslavia and his scholarship made him the perfect speaker to address how religion and reconciliation intersect. “He set forth the theological foundation for us,” Fleer said.
Exactly why is this man an expert? An expert is made only by studying the Sira, Hadith, Koran and Sharia—not his zip code. There is one, and only one criteria for being expert on Islam—knowledge about Allah and Mohammed. Volf only talks about Allah.
But the real tragedy is that a religion professor thinks that Volf’s inventions are a solid foundation. Contemporary Christian and Jewish theology has become mere philosophy and has its foundation in Leftist social justice doctrine, not scriptures.
Volf said one of the keys to people of different faiths getting along is for each side to admit that those of other faiths are real members of the community. “It’s not just creating space for them physically,” he said. “You have to create space for them in your own cultural self-perception.”
But Islam insists that Kafirs are not part of the umma (Islamic community) which is pure Islamic doctrine. There are 11 verses in the Koran that say that a Muslim is not even the friend of a Kafir, much less a member of the community.
Islam comes into our civilization and demands the political Sharia. Notice that the accommodation is that we submit to the political Sharia and we have to create a space for it in our culture. And the political Sharia has a definite space for the Kafir, called dhimmi. What is disgusting is that Volf makes submitting to political Sharia seem like a blessing to us and our country.
There is a certain class consciousness in the article, Volf’s Yale elitism is all over the copy. Why is it that the elites are such believers? Why do those who understand the threat of Islam and Sharia called “haters” by the media? The elites control the venue. There is no space in the print media, except for Islam and its apologists. The knowledgeable opposition never gets to debate, is never invited to the party. The elites have ruled that the only views that are legal are Muslims and apologists. Those who disagree are immoral bigots and Islamophobes.
Here is the final test of the “we-all-worship-the-same-god” school of theology. What was the last time that a Christian yelled, “Jesus Akbar” before he blew himself up? What was the last time that a Muslim yelled, “Allahu Akbar”, before he murdered a Kafir?
Sure, all gods are the same.
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Bill Warner, Director, Center for the Study of Political Islam
copyright (c) CBSX, LLC, politicalislam.com
Is There an IAA Ossuary of James Cover-Up with Not Guilty Verdicts
John R. Houk
© June 24, 2012
Remember the big deal that the Christian faithful heard that the ossuary of James the brother of Jesus the Christ had been located? It was a coup that science backed up the Bible.
Then some people of the Israel Antiquities Authority believed the inscription “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” to be a forgery thus blowing the air out of the balloon of Christian joy with a legal ordeal for accused forgers.
From the published discovery in 2002, through Israeli criminal indictments in 2004 and through to the present in 2012; the fact or faked establishment of the ossuary of James leans again to fact.
The acquittal in Israel’s Court of all five of the accused forgers, which by the way were also the primary people proclaiming authenticity, have made the Israel Antiquities Authority look like the conspirators (and those that agreed with Israel’s premier archeology organization). My question is then: why was the Israel Antiquities Authority so hot to prove a forgery rather than displaying the plusses and minuses of authenticity?
I am on the email list of the Praise Broadcasting Network (PBN) Radio. I am posting in two parts two emails that highlight this trial and its meaning to the authenticity of the inscription of “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.”
PBN Radio has been following this trial for some time because the email is entitled, “THE TEMPLE MOUNT – PART 24”. This will be Part One below.
JRH 6/24/12
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THE TEMPLE MOUNT – PART 24
By Brook Hayes
Editor of Israel Today: Prophecy and Beyond the Media Reports for Praise Broadcasting Network
Sent by Pat Rutherford
Sent: May 17, 2012 11:55 AM
In our last issue, we included an article regarding the trial involving the James ossuary. A verdict has now been reached and we thought you might find it of interest. The following article is from the Biblical Archaeology Review website … if you are looking for an excellent periodical on archaeology in the Holy Land, I cannot recommend it more highly.
VERDICT: NOT GUILTY
Two Remaining Defendants Cleared of Forgery Charges After 5-year Trial
Hershel Shanks – 03/14/2012
After a trial of more than five years with 138 witnesses, more than 400 exhibits and a trial transcript of 12,000 pages, Judge Aharon Farkash of the Jerusalem District Court has cleared the defendants of all forgery charges. His opinion in the case, handed down on March 14, is 474 pages long.
Of the five defendants originally indicted in 2004, only two remained in the case: Oded Golan, an antiquities collector with one of the most important collections in Israel (he was found guilty of the minor charge of trading in antiquities without a license); and Robert Deutsch, the most prominent antiquities dealer in Israel who has also taught at Haifa University, served as a square supervisor at the archaeological excavation of Megiddo and written scholarly books on his own and with other scholars of international repute.
The most famous of the objects charged to be forgeries is an inscription on an ossuary or bone box that reads “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” It received its first publication in BAR–on October 21, 2002. The next day it was on the front page of almost every newspaper in the world, including the New York Times and Washington Post.
A second allegedly forged inscription is engraved on a little ivory pomegranate for which the Israel Museum paid $550,000. If authentic, it may be the only relic surviving from Solomon’s Temple. That too received its first English announcement in BAR.
A third alleged forgery is the so-called Jehoash (or Yehoash, in Hebrew) inscription, a 15-line text describing repairs to the Temple. If authentic, it would be the first royal Israelite inscription.
The indictment also charges several other inscriptions to be forgeries, including the “Three Shekels” ostracon and the “Widow’s Plea” ostracon (writings on pottery sherds), sold by Deutsch to famous, colorful, wealthy collector Shlomo Moussaieff.
The judge cleared the defendants of all charges of forgery. As Matthew Kalman, the only journalist to cover the trial on a daily basis, wrote last fall: “The criminal, scholarly and scientific implications of [the judge’s] verdict are immense…An acquittal would be a severe setback for the Israel Antiquities Authority…It would also be an acute embarrassment for the isotope experts at the Israel Geological Survey and professor Yuval Goren of Tel Aviv University.”
When the indictment was filed in 2004, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) claimed the defendants were part of large forgery conspiracy. This is just “the tip of the iceberg,” charged IAA director Shuka Dorfman. Among the IAA’s suspects were even leading academic writing experts Andre Lemaire of the Sorbonne and Ada Yardeni of the Hebrew University. (The government’s chief witness in the case, Tel Aviv University Professor Yuval Goren claimed that I too played a “pivotal role” in the forgery conspiracy. My participation, he asserted, was “evident.”)
Perhaps most damaged by the judge’s decision is deputy IAA director Uzi Dahari who chaired the IAA committee that found the ossuary inscription and the Yehoash inscription to be forgeries. He led a bevy of scholars by the nose to accept an allegedly unanimous committee decision finding that the two inscriptions were forgeries. (See below.) At a BAR-organized forum, Dr. Dahari accused me of being the “catalyst for a series of forgeries.” He continued: “Mr. Shanks, you are playing with fire when you continually publish finds of this nature.” He referred to “solid proofs” that these two inscriptions were forgeries.*
Let’s consider the evidence regarding the three objects with inscriptions that have received the most attention.
The first is the ossuary inscribed “James, the son of Joseph, the brother of Jesus.” All agree that the ossuary itself is authentic and ancient. The question is whether the inscription is forged—or more specifically whether the phrase “brother of Jesus” was added in recent times to an ancient inscription “James, son of Joseph.”
The first stop in any investigation of this question would be at the door of paleographaers, scholars who can date and authenticate inscriptions of particular periods based on the style and stance of the letters. In this case, the inscription has been authenticated by two of the greatest world authorities on the paleography of this period, as referred to previously, Andre Lemaire of the Sorbonne and Ada Yardeni of Hebrew University.
What is even more significant is that no paleographer of any repute has even suggested that this inscription might be a forgery. There is no other side paleographically.
Scientifically, however, there is. Professor Yuval Goren of Tel Aviv University found what he called “James Bond” covering the inscription in order to hide evidence of forgery. The James Bond was, he said, a mixture of ground-up limestone and hot water that formed a fake patina. But it turned out there was no way to make the mixture Goren hypothesized stick to the surface of the ossuary without the addition of an acid, traces of which would be found—and it wasn’t there. This so-call James Bond could be removed with a toothpick; it was hardly “bonded.” Goren even admitted that his “James Bond” could be the result of cleaning the ossuary (something dealers customarily do to make inscriptions stand out).
More important, after treatment, original ancient patina could be seen in several letters of the inscription, including one of the letters of the word “Jesus.” Before the trial, Goren had denied that there was any ancient patina in the inscription. When he was presented on cross-examination with new pictures taken by one of the defendant’s experts, Professor Goren became flummoxed and asked for a recess to allow him time to examine the box itself, rather than the pictures. He returned the next day and admitted in court that there was indeed original ancient patina in some of the letters. However, he sought to explain this, suggesting that the forger had incorporated ancient scratches with naturally formed patina as strokes of the forged letters of the inscription. (If anyone believes that, I have a bridge I’d like to sell them—very cheaply.)
Actually, this original ancient patina had been observed much earlier by Orna Cohen, one of the members of the Israel Antiquities Authority committee that examined the ossuary before the trial, but no one paid any attention to this; the IAA knew where it wanted to go.
There are other, simpler reasons why I believe that the inscription is not a forgery. Oded Golan has owned the ossuary since the late 1970s; he proved this with old photographs authenticated by an ex-FBI agent as using paper no longer used at a later date. And Golan never tried to sell the ossuary or publicize the inscription. He claims, quite believably, that he didn’t even know the New Testament mentions James as the brother of Jesus, or as he put it, “I never realized God could have a brother.” Even more understandably, he had no idea Ya’acov (on the ossuary and Jacob to any Israeli) was translated as James in English New Testaments.
The prosecution claims it found forgers’ tools in Golan’s apartment. Golan claims they were used in restoring antiquities from his collection, not for making forgeries. None of these tools, however, could be used to engrave the inscription on this ossuary. Even if he is a forger, that doesn’t mean everything in his vast collection is a forgery.
The second item alleged to be a forgery is a little ivory pomegranate inscribed “[Belonging] to the House (Temple) of [Yahwe]h; holy to the priests.” If it is authentic, it is probably the head of a small priestly scepter from Solomon’s Temple. We have other ivory scepters like this with rods still in them but without inscriptions. There is a hole in the bottom of this pomegranate for a rod to be inserted. Although the indictment alleges the inscription is a forgery, it was not included in the individual counts, so the judge did not deal with it in his opinion.
All agree that the ivory pomegranate itself is ancient. Again, it is only the inscription that is in question. After careful consideration of the matter, the inscription was authenticated by the late Nahman Avigad, one of Israel’s most highly respected and prominent paleographers before his death in 1992.
Again, like the ossuary inscription, no one seriously questions the paleography of this inscription. The question is again scientific—but simpler this time. As indicated above, only part of the inscription has survived. Some of the pomegranate containing the inscription was broken off in antiquity. The question is whether any of the surviving letters go into this ancient break; that is, when part of the pomegranate was broken off in ancient times, was the inscription already there? If so, the inscription is authentic.
A group of us got together at the Israel Museum to examine the pomegranate under a microscope to see whether any of the letters of the inscription went into the ancient break. If it did, the inscription was there before the break and was therefore ancient. If it stopped before the break, a forger was afraid to complete the letter for fear of breaking off more of the pomegranate. If a letter goes into the break it forms a little “v” on the side of the break, where part of the pomegranate had broken off long ago.
The group that gathered at the Israel Museum included Yuval Goren, who led the “forgery” claque, as well as two other pro-forgery scholars (and wonderful human beings and my friends), Professors Shmuel Ahituv and Aaron Demsky. Others included Andre Lemaire and me. Ahituv took charge of organizing the meeting once it was agreed to. I urged Ahituv to allow Ada Yardeni to attend the meeting, but he adamantly refused.
In the end, it all came down to a single letter—a heh. Does it go into the ancient break, thereby indicating it pre-existed the break? Is the little “v” there on the side of the pomegranate where part of it had broken off? Both from our visual inspection and from the microscope photographs, it is clear that the heh does go into the ancient break. The little “v” is there. So the letter was there in ancient times before the break occurred.
Each side published its report of the meeting in the Israel Exploration Journal (IEJ). But the report by Goren, Ahituv and Demsky arguing for forgery entirely fails to mention the heh that goes into the break, even though Lemaire heavily relies on this in his report. I wrote a letter for publication to IEJ, of which Ahituv was then editor, noting this glaring omission in their published report. I was told by return mail that IEJ does not print letters to the editor. (But this is not true. There are indeed examples of such letters.)
Now, whenever I see my friends Shmuel Ahituv and Aaron Demsky, I simply say to them, “What about the heh, Shmulik?” “What about the heh, Aharon?” They respond that they are through with this matter and don’t want to discuss it. Maybe some reader will be successful in eliciting a response from them that addresses this question.
The third artifact discussed here is a 15-line inscription on a black stone plaque, the text of which parallels a similar biblical description of repairs to Solomon’s Temple by King Yehoash in the 9th century B.C.E. If authentic, it could well have hung in Solomon’s Temple.
When this inscription first surfaced Yuval Goren quickly opined that it was a forgery because the black stone on which the inscription was carved was not native to Israel and probably came from “the Troodos Massif in Cyprus.” This was soon shown to be absurd. The plaque is made of simple arkosic sandstone, very common in Israel near the Dead Sea, as well as in Sinai.
The most serious claim that the Yehoash inscription is a forgery is philological. Some words in the inscription, these scholars contend, were not in use in the 9th century B.C.E. or not used in the same way at that time. Other scholars take the opposite position.
Because serious scholars rely on the philological infirmities of the inscription to declare it a forgery, I cannot confidently say they are wrong and that the inscription is authentic. But I do tend to think so. Here’s why.
The scientific evidence strongly points in this direction. The plaque had a deep crack running through four lines of the inscription. After the police confiscated the plaque, it (accidentally) broke in two along the crack. The crack could then be seen from the side. Part of the crack had ancient patina in it, proving that the crack was ancient. Would a forger choose to work with a stone that had a crack in it, where a slip of his engraving tool might break the stone in two, ruining all his careful work? Hardly. But even if he decided to take the chance, how did he manage to engrave four lines across the ancient crack?
In addition, the patina on the inscription contains minute globules of gold. Was the plaque once plated with gold? These gold globules are so small (one or two millionths of a meter) that they are not available on the market. They can be created, however, in an intense fire such as might have occurred in the conflagration that accompanied the destruction of the Temple—the First Temple in the 6th century B.C.E. or the Second Temple in 70 C.E. All this is explained in a peer-reviewed journal, the Journal of Archaeological Science, authored by five experts from Israel and the United States who defend the authenticity of the inscription.
Finally, I have my own psychological reasons as evidence of authenticity. As I often put it, the first thing they teach you in forgery school is, “Make it short.” This vastly reduces your chance of getting caught. The Yehoash inscription, however, at 15 lines, flagrantly violates this basic principal of forgery. Many forgeries have been exposed in modern times, but none so long as this.
Despite all that I have said, the inscriptions I have discussed will be considered forgeries in the public mind for at least a generation—never mind the acquittal of the defendants and the evidence of authenticity. The reason is that these inscriptions have been declared forgeries, supposedly unanimously, by two committees of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).
The fact is that these committees chaired by IAA deputy director Uzi Dahari were set-ups. The IAA knew where it wanted to go—and it got there. It enlisted Yuval Goren to lead a pack of scholars who “went along.” Father Joseph Fitzmyer, probably the world’s leading expert on ancient Aramaic (the language of the Jesus inscription) provides the details. The committees included people who had previously said the inscriptions were probably forgeries, but not anyone on the other side. So, for example, Andre Lemaire was not included. Neither were the geologists from the Geological Survey of Israel who had found the inscriptions authentic. Many of the IAA committee members conceded that their expertise was not in areas that would allow them to opine on authenticity, but the IAA treated their demurrers as votes for forgery. The demurrers were treated as “yes” votes when the IAA announced the “unanimous” decision of their committee.
The IAA tried “to give the impression that the committees were unanimous, and it’s not unanimous at all,” Fitzmyer said.**
Worse yet, committee members sometimes based their “yes” vote on Yuval Goren’s scientific evidence, not on their own expertise. For example, highly respected archaeologist Ronny Reich had reported to the committee that “in my opinion [the Jesus inscription is] authentic.” In the end, however, he said he was “forced” to change his mind as a result of Yuval Goren’s geological expertise. He was not the only committee member to base his vote on the basis of someone else’s expertise, not his own.
Since the ivory pomegranate was in its collections, the Israel Museum sent an observer to the committee that judged the pomegranate inscription. This observer was counted as a “yes” vote. The committee report published in IEJ listed her as an author, although she had never seen the report. One final telling point: The IEJ report lists all the members of the committee as authors. Normally in such a situation, they would be listed in alphabetical order, as they are in this case—all except one. Yuval Goren leads all the rest.
The judge’s decision doesn’t mean that the inscriptions are authentic. It only means that the prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they are forgeries. But at least the discussion can now proceed on a more academic basis. And perhaps the IAA has learned some lessons that can be applied in the future.
Notes
* “Dahari: J’Accuse, Mr. Shanks,” Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2005.
** “Fitzmyer Calls for Ossuary Restudy,” Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 2004.
Permalink: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/verdict-not-guilty/
So what do you think? I would be interested in your thoughts on this matter.
You can reach me at my new email address at batavner@reagan.com
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