From the Old Testament to the Qur’an

The Old Testament and New Testament are books incorrectly revered by Christians to be the direct words of God. Today’s Jews (the remnant of Israel from the tribe of Judah after the conquest by the Babylonians) know the Old Testament to be the instructions of God put in writing from the memories of ancient scribes. Thusly, came the term ‘the Scriptures’ or ‘the Writings’. The fact is the Jewish admission is more accurate of not only the Old Testament but the New Testament as well. The first five books of today’s version of the OT were written by Ezra in Hebrew upon the rebuilding of the second temple in 400 BC but were later destroyed during the revolt lead by the Maccabbees 167-151 BC. Only Greek translations from outside ancient Israel still existed at this time. Although the Torah (1st 5 books of the OT) was retranslated back into Hebrew the language became a dead language for 1600 years! In the 200’s AD the Torah was compiled with the books named after the Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah etc) and the writings (Psalms, Proverbs, etc.). All of these copies were written by the memories of those thought to be scribes or were completely anonymous according to Jewish scholars. The compilation which now makes up today’s OT was written in part, compiled and edited 1275 years After Moses lead them out of bondage in Egypt.

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The Way International

I was involved with The Way International for about a year in 1983. I had a pretty good experience with them at that time. At that time I had not heard of lay people getting as deep into biblical study as the “Wayfers” did. Most long time members had a “Strongs’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible” so they could do word studies of the Greek and Hebrew words of the Bible and many of them used Gree-English interlinear new testaments to study and all kinds of other bible study tools. The Way does not start churches with buildings but has home based fellowships all over the US that meet weekly. I would not recommend the Way to anyone because they are way too dogmatic. They believe The Way is the only true Christian church, all other Christian groups are false and leading people to hellfire. They make extravagant claims about the Peshitta Aramaic language text of the New Testament being more accurate than the Greek manuscripts even though the Peshitta is not as old as the oldes Greek manuscripts. They are also a “King James Bible” only group. They also place a great deal of stress on the power of believing to cure all diseases and all other problems, so that if you have a disease and you are not cured, it’s your fault because you don’t have enough faith. The founder, Victor Paul Wierwille, died of liver cancer in 1984 which his faith did not cure. The Way declined a lot after his death. Today they way people I have met seem very defensive about The Way and are not very open to anyone coming to their meetings who was involved in The Way back in the 80s. There are a few splinter groups that split off from it after Mr Wierwille’s death which are much more open to whoever wants to come to their meetings. I forgot the names of those groups. If you go to the Way International article on wikipedia.org it lists the breakaway groups.

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Song of Solomon

Throughout not only the OT, but also the NT, the relationship between God and His people is described using the IMAGERY of marriage. Of course it has nothing to do with the biology of human marital sexual relations , but the covenant between God and His people is described using the covenant relationship of marriage. We are talking of spiritual things, not physical things, but God speaks to us using what we can relate to, so often He will use the imagery our human relationships. And in this case it is marriage.

We, His people must love Him with all our hearts and all our minds and all our souls, and cleave to Him alone and be one with Him, just as a man and a woman join to make one flesh. (Matthew 22:37,Genesis 2:24)

Whereas Song of Songs describes the ideal relationship between a lover and His beloved, more often than not, the OT describes the relationship between God and His people as one between a loving,forgiving and long suffering spouse (God) to constantly unfaithful wife (Israel).

You only have to look at some of the Scripture links that are used as examples in that link.

eg In Isaiah 54:
5 ² For he who has become your husband is your Maker; his name is the LORD of hosts; Your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, called God of all the earth. 6 The LORD calls you back, like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, A wife married in youth and then cast off, says your God. 7 For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great tenderness I will take you back. 8 In an outburst of wrath, for a moment I hid my face from you; But with enduring love I take pity on you, says the LORD, your redeemer.And the book of the Prophet Hosea is all about a faithful husband and a harlot wife.

Even in the NT Jesus refers to Himself as the Bridegroom who will come to take to Himself a pure and spotless Bride (the Church).

Matthew 25:

1 ¹ “Then ² the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 ³ Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, 4 but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 Since the bridegroom was long delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6 At midnight, there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’One has to understand the marriage customs of the times to understand what Jesus is saying a little better, and to understand the true meaning of the Eucharist.

When a man wanted to wed a maiden, and claim her for his own,he would go to the girls father and make an offer for her, telling her father what he would give as the bride price for her. If the father was agreeable to the contract, he would put it in front of the girl in the presence of the prospective bridegroom and pour a cup of wine. If she drank from the cup, it meant she accepted the marriage, and she wore a veil from that day forward to signify that she was set apart for husband and belonged to him alone

The bridegroom would then go away for about a year to prepare a place for his bride, and in that time she would prepare herself for her bridegroom. Usually the room the groom would prepare was a room added to his fathers house, and when this place was ready, he would come back to claim his bride. There would be a marriage feast and then he would lead her into his house as his bride.

It is in this context that Jesus says in John 14:

2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.In Revelation, Jesus speaks about the time when He will come to claim His Bride (the Church) and the wedding feast of the Lamb who is the Bridegroom and His Bride who is the Church and the heavenly Jerusalem:

Revelation 19:

7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding day of the Lamb ³ has come, his bride has made herself ready. 8 She was allowed to wear a bright, clean linen garment.” (The linen represents the righteous deeds of the holy ones.) ⁴ 9 Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed ⁵ are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These words are true; they come from God.”
Revelation 21:

2 I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, ³ coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

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Mark of the Beast (666)

it is not a literal mark.

This concept (of a ‘mark’ on a person) is common throughout the bible tradition and theology and serves as a reminder of the one you serve. It is a symbol of allegiance, not a physical mark according to New Testament scripture. The person who is ‘marked’ is one who is allied with God or the Devil (beast), hence it is his believe, faith and character that is the mark.

Many other scriptures allude to this, for example:

Mark of God – Revelations 7:3 Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.

Mark of God – Revelations 9:4 They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

Mark of the Beast – Revelations 13:15-17 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or[a] the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Mark of God – Revelations 14:1 Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads.

Mark of the Harlot – Revelations 17:4-6 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.[a] 5 And on her forehead a name was written:

MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.

Mark of God – Revelations 22:3-4 3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. 4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.

Many examples in the Old Testament on this literal reminder to the people. One such example is in Jewish prayer as instructed by the Torah.

In Judaism, when Jewish men pray, they …

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Homosexuality and Christianity

Homosexuality is an issue many Jews, Christians, Muslims and Bahais simply don’t know how to deal with. However, Buddhists, Pagans and Osho Rajneeshies seem to be alot more accepting and tolerant.

Lately, science has been indicating that homosexuality is something people are born with. With my discussions with homosexuals, I tend to agree with this. What many homosexuals tell me is that when they were children they were inclined to feel attracted towards the same sex even before they knew about sex and/or the physical expression of that attraction. From what I can gather, God doesn’t create any more than 5% humans as gay, perhaps as a challenge to promote spiritual maturity through the life experiances they may go through. Whatever.

The Bible talks about the sinfulness of Sodom and Gomorrah (where the word sodomy comes from).
In Genesis 18, God informs Abraham that he plans to destroy the city of Sodom because of its wickedness.
Perhaps we can assume that more than 80% of the inhabitants were either gay or bisexual. Now that is a whole lot more than 5%. Why? Maybe it is because the gay and bisexual aspects are a symptom rather than a cause. We’re talking about two towns where peoples sexual appetites are out of control. The only way to get homosexuality from 5% to well over 80% is because it all started with sex with the children and the fact that in these two places it was concidered ‘normal’ by their social standards (but not by God’s). So the children accept this behaviour as ‘normal’, and when those children grew up they passed on the behaviour to their children (and child prostitutes were most probably at premium prices – ask Gary Glitter!). Drugs can also send you into sexual overdrive, also. When we look at it in this way, it is obvious that these two towns had to go, as decreed by God.

Coming back to the present day. It is understandable that what gays do in the bedroom seems abhorant and abnormal from a ’straight’ point of view, and to be misinterpreted by general society, especially from religious communities. But, from the gays point of view, what we might concider ‘abnormal’, is normal for them. They feel they were born that way; some feel that God created them that way. So, they are rejected by the religious communities; they feel, persecuted for what they are. Out of their feeling of rejection, the more immature of the gays say, “*** you religious stuck-up fools and *** your God! We are going to be what we are, so up yours –!!!”

So, when we understand why immature gays react that way then we are not going to take offence, especially if we know or know of more mature gays who don’t try to react to the perceived social persecution around them in the same manner. I have met many gays who I have felt were very spiritually mature people. But, gee, I don’t know: Only god knows what they are like at the very core of their beings, so let God do the judging.

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Christian Communism

Could Jesus had taught his disciples the basis for communism? Here is an interesting exerpt:

Christian Communism is a form of religious communism centered around Christianity. It is a theological and political theory based upon the view that the teachings of Jesus Christ compel Christians to support communism as the ideal social system. Although there is no universal agreement on the exact date when Christian communism was founded, many Christian communists assert that evidence from the Bible suggests that the first Christians, including the Apostles, created their own small communist society in the years following Jesus’ death and resurrection. As such, many advocates of Christian communism argue that it was taught by Jesus and practiced by the Apostles themselves.

Christian communism can be seen as a radical form of Christian socialism. Also, due to the fact that many Christian communists have formed independent stateless communes in the past, there is also a link between Christian communism and Christian anarchism. Christian communists may or may not agree with various parts of Marxism. They certainly do not agree with the atheist views of most Marxists, but they do agree with some of the economic aspects of Marxist theory, such as the idea that capitalism exploits the working class by extracting surplus value from the workers in the form of profits. Christian communists also share some of the political goals of Marxists, for example replacing capitalism with socialism, which should in turn be followed by communism at a later point in the future. However, Christian communists sometimes disagree with Marxists (and particularly with Leninists) on the way a socialist or communist society should be organized. In general, Christian communism evolved independently of Marxism, and most Christian communists share the conclusions but not the underlying premises of Marxist communists.

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Racist Extremists Use Bible

Racist extremists use Bible verses to justify killing.

How did the Creator become a white racist? This question lurks behind the recent shooting rampage by Benjamin Smith, who spent the July 4th weekend cruising in his car in the Chicago and Northern Indiana areas, taking random shots at Jews (visible by their garb), African-Americans and Asians. Two were killed and another nine wounded before Smith shot himself in a police chase. Smith was a disciple of the World Church of the Creator, a white supremacist group boasting a few thousand members across the United States, whose members have been involved in racist leafletting and violence since 1991.

The question occurs with new intensity in light of news reports about Buford O’Neal Furrow Jr., who opened fire in a Jewish community center in Granada Hills, Calif., and who later killed a Filipino-American letter carrier. Furrow likewise had ties to the underworld of white supremacists and allied far-right Christian

The World Church of the Creator was founded in 1973 and is currently led from the home of Matthew Hale of East Peoria, Ill. It teaches that only white Anglo-Saxons are true human beings, descendents of Adam and Eve. Jews, according to this teaching, are the illegitimate offspring of Eve and Satan. African-Americans and other people of color are descendents of inferior non-Adamite anthropoids. This church believes that the United States should be “cleansed” of all Jews and non-whites. Officially this church claims this should happen by deportation, but the church also harbors scenarios of a coming apocalyptic holy war between the races.

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Jesus was a practicing Jew

The majority in our western Christian culture have cast Jesus in a non-Jewish/Gentile mould. To the extent we have done this we fail to understand him and his teaching. Indeed, whole areas of Christian teaching and practice have become distorted and even downright non-biblical simply because we have viewed the Scriptures through the eyes of Greek philosophy and not through Hebrew eyes and with a Hebrew mind.

Jesus was born into a typical Jewish family of his day. “Joseph,” his earthly father’s name, was the second most common name of the period for Jewish men and his mother’s name, “Mary,” was the most common Jewish woman’s name. We learn from inscriptions of the first century that the name Yeshua, Jesus, was itself the fifth most common Jewish man’s name after the names Simeon, Joseph, Judah and John.1

Jesus and his family were observant Jews. Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day. We are told that Jesus’ parents went up to Jerusalem every year to observe the Feast of Passover. Moreover we find Jesus in Jerusalem regularly at the festivals such as Passover and Tabernacles and even Hanukkah.
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Fast Food Religion

Christianity in America, though not every sect of Christianity, seems to have taken a particular liking to this Fast Food mentality when approaching life’s issues and religious doctrine. A Fast Food approach to religion is an aggressive marketing approach that has as its goal to market theology, or other propaganda, to the masses with little concern for teaching in-depth spiritual truth. It is devoid of acceptance of any amount of responsibility for the actions of individuals or society. It teaches, what I term, Insurance Policy religion which claims to offer complete coverage against the hell-fire regardless of the sin one commits. The outcome being Mega-Churches that appeal to sensationalism through a theater-like environment.¹

Insurance Policy religion teaches moral and spiritual laziness when all one needs to do is accept the policy presented by a given church and there is no longer any consequences, or very little consequence, for actions in this life and/or the hereafter. My exposure of some of the ways, beliefs and hypocrisy of this type of Christianity is not for defamation but to better illustrate and open the minds of those who may have experienced these types of Churches.

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Why can’t we just…

Why can’t we just all get along?

yes, the Crusades, Inquisitions, modern Jihadi movements, injustices on both sides.

Why cant we just let bygones be bygones and move on to advance humanity?

The history is there and we should not deny it. We should admit and learn from it instead.

Do you realize that if Chrsitians and Muslims mended their wounds and worked together we could actually SOLVE world hunger, racism, warmongering, dictatorships, and most of humanities problems?

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