13 STRANGE RULES OF ISLAM
13 STRANGE RULES OF ISLAM
Many Westernized people outside the Arab world are drawn to what they perceive as the simplicity, peace, and reasonableness of Islam. However, before you accept Islam at face value or consider converting, it is important to understand that conversion to Islam demands that you follow the Qur’an (scripture), the hadith (oral teachings of Muhammad), and the sunna (actions of Muhammad). Many of these teachings make no sense to Westerners. In fact, if you asked the average Muslim why Muhammad set some of these rules, they would not know either. After all, Muslims are taught never to question the infallible word of Allah and his Prophet (Qur’an 5:101).
Considering that conversion to Islam is final, with death being the penalty for abandoning Islam (Bukhari, Vol. 4, Number 260), perhaps the dog-lovers, modern women, and reasonable minded among us should consider these strange, but mandatory, rules:
Islam makes it a sin to pluck your eyebrows.
Q Bukhari, Vol. 7, Number 815Muslims are not allowed to have pictures in their homes.
Q Bukhari, Vol. 7, Number 844If a Muslim wife refuses to wear the veil, others will regard her as her husband’s slave, not a wife.
Q Bukhari, Vol. 7, Number 22Unmarried people who have sex are to be whipped 100 lashes and sent into exile for one year.
Q Bukhari, Vol. 3, Number 817Although Islam teaches getting into heaven is a matter of having your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, there are certain things that guarantee heaven: memorizing the 99 names of Allah, having 2 of your children die before you in jihad, and killing someone who does not believe in Islam.
Q Bukhari, Vol. 3, Number 894. Bukhari, Vol. 2, Number 341. Bukhari, Vol. 1, Number 35Allah encourages lying to non-believers to keep the peace or to overpower them.
Q Bukhari, Vol. 3, Number 857Allah forbids women from wearing wigs or hair extensions.
Q Bukhari, Vol. 7, Number 133Muslims are not allowed to wear the color yellow.
Q Muslim, Book 24, Number 5173Yawning is from Satan and to be avoided at all costs.
Q Bukhari, Vol. 8, Number 242Muhammad taught that all dogs should be killed.
Q Bukhari, Vol. 4, Number 540Muhammad urged women to breast-feed grown young men so that the men would be considered family and therefore able to be around the unveiled women and would be unable to marry the women.
Q Muslim, Book 8, Number 3426It is sinful to lie on your back with your feet crossed one on top of the other.
Q Muslim, Book 24, Number 5238….
Related articles
- Former Muslim: Islam Is ‘Not Merely A Religion But A Cult Belief System, The Cult Of Muhammad’ (midnightwatcher.wordpress.com)
- Islam’s Terrorist Dogma in Muhammad’s Own Words (angelforisrael.wordpress.com)
How to Experience Christ’s Peace
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How to Experience Christ’s Peace “My peace I give to you” (John 14:27). Jesus spoke these amazing words just hours before His crucifixion. His peace isn’t dependent upon external circumstances, but rather, it transcends them. Although He gives His peace to every believer as a gift, our experience of it is related to our faith in the following truths:
Sadly, many Christians live their whole lives without consistently experiencing this incomprehensible peace. Perhaps faith and submission are the most challenging issues. But only as we surrender control of our lives to Christ and trust in His plans for us will we discover tranquil rest for our souls. |
See No Unholy Alliance, Hear No Unholy Alliance
As Islamic Jihad, including its “stealth” variety, is rapidly succeeding in destroying our civilization, the Left continues its shameless and bizarre denial — not only about the threat of Islamic Jihad, but also about its own complicity with our enemy and its war on our society.The latest example of the Left’s Jihad-Denial concerns me personally: it involves an intriguing post, written by Brian Tashman in RightWingWatch.org, titled: Beware: Human-Hating Liberals and…
The True History Palestine
The True History Palestine
In the 2nd century c.e., the last attempt of the Jews to achieve independence from the Roman Empire ended with the well-known event of Masada, that is historically documented and universally recognized as the fact that determined the Jewish Diaspora in a definitive way. The Land where these things happened was until then the province known as Judæa , and there is no mention of any place called “Palestine” before that time. The Roman emperor Hadrian was utterly upset with the Jewish Nation and wanted to erase the name of Israel and Judah from the face of the Earth, so that there would be no memory of the country that belonged to that rebel people. He decided to replace the denomination of that Roman province and resorted to ancient history in order to find a name that might appear appropriate, and found that an extinct people that was unknown in Roman times, called “Philistines”, was once dwelling in that area and were enemies of the Israelites. Therefore, according to Latin spelling, he invented the new name: “Palæstina”, a name that would be also hateful for the Jews as it reminded them their old foes. He did so with the explicit purpose of effacing any trace of Jewish history. Ancient Romans, as well as modern Palestinians, have fulfilled the Hebrew Scriptures Prophecy that declares: “They lay crafty plans against Your People… they say: ‘come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more’.” – Tehilim 83:3-4 (Psalm 83:3-4). They failed, as Israel is still alive. Any honest person would recognize that there is no mention of the name Palestina in history before the Romans renamed the province of Judea, that such name does not occur in any ancient document, is not written in the Bible, neither in the Hebrew Scriptures nor in the Christian Testament, not even in Assyrian, Persian, Macedonian, Ptolemaic, Seleucian or other Greek sources, and that not any “Palestinian” people has ever been mentioned, not even by the Romans that invented the term. If “Palestinians” allegedly are the historic inhabitants of the Holy Land, why did they not fight for independence from Roman occupation as Jews did? How is it possible that not a single Palestinian leader heading for a revolt against the Roman invaders is mentioned in any historic record? Why there is not any Palestinian rebel group mentioned, as for example the Jewish Zealots? Why every historic document mentions the Jews as the native inhabitants, and the Greeks, Romans and others as foreigners dwelling in Judea, but not any Palestinian people, neither as native nor as foreigner? What is more, there is no reference to any Palestinian people in the qur’an (koran), although muslims claim that their prophet was once in Jerusalem (an event that is not mentioned in the koran either). It appears evident that he did not meet any Palestinian in his whole life, nor his successors did either. Caliph Salahuddin al-Ayyub (Saladin), knew the Jews and kindly invited them to settle in Jerusalem, that he recognized as their Homeland, but he did not know any Palestinian… To claim that Palestinians are the original people of Eretz Yisrael is not only against secular history but also against Islamic history!
The name “Falastin” that Arabs today use for “Palestine” is not an Arabic name, but adopted and adapted from the Latin Palæstina . How can an Arab people have a western name instead of one in their own language? Because the use of the term “Palestinian” for an Arab group is only a modern political creation without any historic or ethnic grounds, and did not indicate any people before 1967. An Arab writer and journalist declared:
“There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians (another recent invention), Syrians, Iraqis, etc. Keep in mind that the Arabs control 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel represents one-tenth of one percent of the landmass. But that’s too much for the Arabs. They want it all. And that is ultimately what the fighting in Israel is about today… No matter how many land concessions the Israelis make, it will never be enough”.
- Joseph Farah, “Myths of the Middle East” -
Let us hear what other Arabs have said:
“There is no such country as Palestine. ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria. ‘Palestine’ is alien to us. It is the Zionists who introduced it”.
- Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, Syrian Arab leader to British Peel Commission, 1937 -
“There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not”.
- Professor Philip Hitti, Arab historian, 1946 -
“It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but Southern Syria”.
- Representant of Saudi Arabia at the United Nations, 1956 -
Concerning the Holy Land, the chairman of the Syrian Delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in February 1919 stated:
“The only Arab domination since the Conquest in 635 c.e. hardly lasted, as such, 22 years”.
The preceding declarations by Arab politicians have been done before 1967, as they had not the slightest knowledge of the existence of any Palestinian people. How and when did they change their mind and decided that such people existed? When the State of Israel was reborn in 1948 c.e., the “Palestinians” did not exist yet, the Arabs had still not discovered that “ancient” people. They were too busy with the purpose of annihilating the new Sovereign State and did not intend to create any Palestinian entity, but only to distribute the land among the already existing Arab states. They were defeated. They attempted again to destroy Israel in 1967, and were humiliated in only six days, in which they lost the lands that they had usurped in 1948. In those 19 years of Arab occupation of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, neither Jordan nor Egypt suggested to create a “Palestinian” state, since the still non-existing Palestinians would have never claimed their alleged right to have their own state… Paradoxically, during the British Mandate, it was not any Arab group but the Jews that were known as “Palestinians”!
What other Arabs declared after the Six-Day War:
“There are no differences between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. We are all part of one nation. It is only for political reasons that we carefully underline our Palestinian identity… yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel”.
- Zuhair Muhsin, military commander of the PLO and member of the PLO Executive Council -
“You do not represent Palestine as much as we do. Never forget this one point: There is no such thing as a Palestinian people, there is no Palestinian entity, there is only Syria. You are an integral part of the Syrian people, Palestine is an integral part of Syria. Therefore it is we, the Syrian authorities, who are the true representatives of the Palestinian people”.
- Syrian dictator Hafez Assad to the PLO leader Yassir Arafat -
“As I lived in Palestine, everyone I knew could trace their heritage back to the original country their great grandparents came from. Everyone knew their origin was not from the Canaanites, but ironically, this is the kind of stuff our education in the Middle East included. The fact is that today’s Palestinians are immigrants from the surrounding nations! I grew up well knowing the history and origins of today’s Palestinians as being from Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Christians from Greece, muslim Sherkas from Russia, muslims from Bosnia, and the Jordanians next door. My grandfather, who was a dignitary in Bethlehem, almost lost his life by Abdul Qader Al-Husseni (the leader of the Palestinian revolution) after being accused of selling land to Jews. He used to tell us that his village Beit Sahur (The Shepherds Fields) in Bethlehem County was empty before his father settled in the area with six other families. The town has now grown to 30,000 inhabitants”.
- Walid Shoebat, an “ex-Palestinian” Arab -
How long do “Palestinians” live in “Palestine”?
According to the United Nations weird standards, any person that spent TWO YEARS (!!!) in “Palestine” before 1948, with or without proof, is a “Palestinian”, as well as all the descendants of that person. Indeed, the PLO leaders eagerly demand the “right” of all Palestinians to come back to the land that they occupied before June 1967 c.e., but utterly reject to return back to the land where they lived only 50 years before, namely, in 1917 c.e. Why? Because if they agree to do so, they have to settle back in Iraq, Syria, Arabia, Libya, Egypt… and only a handful Arabs would remain in Israel (by Israel is intended the whole Land between the Yarden River and the Mediterranean Sea, plus the Golan region). It is thoroughly documented that the first inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael after some centuries were the Jewish pioneers, and not the Arabs so-called Palestinians. Some eyewitnesses have written their memories about the Land before the Jewish immigration:
“There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent (valley of Jezreel, Galilea); not for thirty miles in either direction… One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings. For the sort of solitude to make one dreary, come to Galilee… Nazareth is forlorn… Jericho lies a mouldering ruin… Bethlehem and Bethany, in their poverty and humiliation… untenanted by any living creature… A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds… a silent, mournful expanse… a desolation… We never saw a human being on the whole route… Hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil had almost deserted the country… Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes… desolate and unlovely…”.
- Mark Twain, “The Innocents Abroad”, 1867 -
Where had the Palestinians been hidden that Mark Twain did not see them? Where was that “ancient” people in the mid XIX century c.e.? Of course, modern biased Arab politicians try to discredit Mark Twain and insult and blame him of racism. Yet, it seems that there were other people that did not achieve in recognizing a single Palestinian in those times and earlier:
“In 1590 a ‘simple English visitor’ to Jerusalem wrote: ‘Nothing there is to bescene but a little of the old walls, which is yet remayning and all the rest is grasse, mosse and weedes much like to a piece of rank or moist grounde’.”.
- Gunner Edward Webbe, Palestine Exploration Fund,
Quarterly Statement, p. 86; de Haas, History, p. 338 -
“The land in Palestine is lacking in people to till its fertile soil”.
- British archaeologist Thomas Shaw, mid-1700s -
“Palestine is a ruined and desolate land”.
- Count Constantine François Volney, XVIII century French author and historian -
“The Arabs themselves cannot be considered but temporary residents. They pitched their tents in its grazing fields or built their places of refuge in its ruined cities. They created nothing in it. Since they were strangers to the land, they never became its masters. The desert wind that brought them hither could one day carry them away without their leaving behind them any sign of their passage through it”.
- Comments by Christians concerning the Arabs in Palestine in the 1800s -
“Then we entered the hill district, and our path lay through the clattering bed of an ancient stream, whose brawling waters have rolled away into the past, along with the fierce and turbulent race who once inhabited these savage hills. There may have been cultivation here two thousand years ago. The mountains, or huge stony mounds environing this rough path, have level ridges all the way up to their summits; on these parallel ledges there is still some verdure and soil: when water flowed here, and the country was thronged with that extraordinary population, which, according to the Sacred Histories, was crowded into the region, these mountain steps may have been gardens and vineyards, such as we see now thriving along the hills of the Rhine. Now the district is quite deserted, and you ride among what seem to be so many petrified waterfalls. We saw no animals moving among the stony brakes; scarcely even a dozen little birds in the whole course of the ride”.
- William Thackeray in “From Jaffa To Jerusalem”, 1844 -
“The country is in a considerable degree empty of inhabitants and therefore its greatest need is of a body of population”.
- James Finn, British Consul in 1857 -
“There are many proofs, such as ancient ruins, broken aqueducts, and remains of old roads, which show that it has not always been so desolate as it seems now. In the portion of the plain between Mount Carmel and Jaffa one sees but rarely a village or other sights of human life. There are some rude mills here which are turned by the stream. A ride of half an hour more brought us to the ruins of the ancient city of Cæsarea, once a city of two hundred thousand inhabitants, and the Roman capital of Palestine, but now entirely deserted. As the sun was setting we gazed upon the desolate harbor, once filled with ships, and looked over the sea in vain for a single sail. In this once crowded mart, filled with the din of traffic, there was the silence of the desert. After our dinner we gathered in our tent as usual to talk over the incidents of the day, or the history of the locality. Yet it was sad, as I laid upon my couch at night, to listen to the moaning of the waves and to think of the desolation around us”.
- B. W. Johnson, in “Young Folks in Bible Lands”: Chapter IV, 1892 -
“The area was underpopulated and remained economically stagnant until the arrival of the first Zionist pioneers in the 1880′s, who came to rebuild the Jewish land. The country had remained “The Holy Land” in the religious and historic consciousness of mankind, which associated it with the Bible and the history of the Jewish people. Jewish development of the country also attracted large numbers of other immigrants – both Jewish and Arab. The road leading from Gaza to the north was only a summer track suitable for transport by camels and carts… Houses were all of mud. No windows were anywhere to be seen… The plows used were of wood… The yields were very poor… The sanitary conditions in the village [Yabna] were horrible… Schools did not exist… The rate of infant mortality was very high… The western part, toward the sea, was almost a desert… The villages in this area were few and thinly populated. Many ruins of villages were scattered over the area, as owing to the prevalence of malaria, many villages were deserted by their inhabitants”.
- The report of the British Royal Commission, 1913 -
The list of travellers and pilgrims throughout the XVI to the XIX centuries c.e. that give a similar description of the Holy Land is quite longer, including Alphonse de Lamartine, Sir George Gawler, Sir George Adam Smith, Siebald Rieter, priest Michael Nuad, Martin Kabatnik, Arnold Van Harff, Johann Tucker, Felix Fabri, Edward Robinson and others. All of them found the land almost empty, except for Jewish communities in Jerusalem, Shechem, Hevron, Haifa, Safed, Irsuf, Cæsarea, Gaza, Ramleh, Acre, Sidon, Tzur, El Arish, and some towns in Galilee: Ein Zeitim, Pekiin, Biria, Kfar Alma, Kfar Hanania, Kfar Kana and Kfar Yassif. Even Napoleon I Bonaparte, having seen the need that the Holy Land would be populated, had in mind to enable a mass return of Jews from Europe to settle in the country that he recognized as theirs’ – evidently, he did not see any “Palestinian” claiming historical rights over the Holy Land, whose few inhabitants were mainly Jews.
Besides them, many Arab sources confirm the fact that the Holy Land was still Jewish by population and culture in spite of the Diaspora:
·In 985 c.e. the Arab writer Muqaddasi complained that in Jerusalem the large majority of the population were Jewish, and said that “the mosque is empty of worshippers…” .
·Ibn Khaldun, one of the most creditable Arab historians, in 1377 c.e. wrote:
“Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel extended over 1400 years… It was the Jews who implanted the culture and customs of the permanent settlement”.
After 300 years of Arab rule in the Holy Land, Ibn Khaldun attested that Jewish culture and traditions were still dominant. By that time there was still no evidence of “Palestinian” roots or culture .
·The historian James Parker wrote: “During the first century after the Arab conquest [670-740 c.e.], the caliph and governors of Syria and the [Holy] Land ruled entirely over Christian and Jewish subjects. Apart from the Bedouin in the earliest days, the only Arabs west of the Jordan were the garrisons”.
Even though the Arabs ruled the Land from 640 c.e. to 1099 c.e., they never became the majority of the population. Most of the inhabitants were Christians (Assyrian and Armenian) and Jews.
If the historic documents, comments written by eyewitnesses and declarations by the most authoritative Arab scholars are still not enough, let us quote the most important source for muslim Arabs:
“And thereafter We [Allah] said to the Children of Israel: ‘Dwell securely in the Promised Land. And when the last warning will come to pass, we will gather you together in a mingled crowd’.”.
- Qur’an 17:104 -
Any sincere muslim must recognize the Land they call “Palestine” as the Jewish Homeland, according to the book considered by muslims to be the most sacred word and Allah’s ultimate revelation.
Related articles
- Debunking the Assumption that Palestine is a Country (paulmarcelrene.wordpress.com)
- Build Israel, not Palestine (jewishpress.com)
What is the Truth about American Muslims
What is the Truth about American Muslims
The First Amendment Center, the Muslim Brotherhood and assorted leftists at the Interfaith Alliance have produced a polished piece of apologist propaganda for Islam. It has been getting a lot media play, because it says all the things the public would like to believe about Islam. It is a textbook summary of arguments made by Islam’s apologists and serves as a teaching example of how to refute this propaganda using the scientific method.
Here is the truth about Muslims. They will not tell you the whole truth, but only a half truth. Islam is inherently dualistic and holds two opposing truths at the same time. There are two Korans, an early Koran written in Mecca and a later Koran written in Medina. There is no jihad in the early Meccan Koran, but the later Medinan Koran is filled with jihad. So which is the real Islam? Both peace and war are true Islam. A Muslim will only talk about the half he needs. But, there is one Muslim who will tell you the complete truth—Mohammed. Needless to say, this propaganda does not consult him.
Here is the second part of the analysis:
9. How do American Muslims participate in American public life?
American Muslims have created institutions of their own in the United States, just like other religious communities. There are many long-established groups such as the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an umbrella organization of some 300 mosques and Islamic centers based in Indiana, and newer organizations like the Council for the Advancement of Muslim Professionals.
“Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)”
Whoa! ISNA is participation in American life? ISNA is pure Muslim Brotherhood; in fact, they are at the top of the list in the Muslim Brotherhood memo submitted in the Holy Land Foundation trial. And what is the Muslim Brotherhood? An organization dedicated to bringing the caliphate to rule over the entire world and to destroy our Constitution by replacing it with Sharia law.
And remember the Muslim Brotherhood motto? Here it is:
“Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”
ISNA and all other Muslim Brotherhood types participate in American life in the sense of working to annihilate it.
10. Is Islam a political movement?
No. Islam is a religious tradition and adherents to Islam are called Muslim. Of course, American Muslims like Americans from other religious groups, participate in American political life. American Muslim voting patterns generally mirror the broader American population. American Muslims are Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, liberals, and conservatives. There is no one political platform or agenda for those who practice the religion of Islam in the United States.
“Islam is a religious tradition”
Yes, but it is also a political tradition. To prove that read the Sira, the biography of Mohammed. It is very interesting to plot the data found in the Sira about how Islam grew. Here is the plot:
The religion of Islam was a failure. In preaching the religion of Islam, Mohammed converted 150 Arabs to Islam. Then he went to Medina and became a politician and a jihadist. During the last 9 years of his life in Medina, he averaged an event of violence on the average of every 6 weeks. When Mohammed died every Arab was a Muslim. Without politics and jihad there would have never been an Islam. The religion failed, the politics succeeded.
11. Have American Muslim leaders spoken out against extremist violence?
Yes. Many American Muslim leaders and organizations have repeatedly denounced extremist violence in the strongest possible terms.
Of the many statements and actions taken by American Muslims to condemn and counter terrorism, the fatwa (religious ruling) from the Fiqh Council of North America (an Islamic juristic body) captures the views of the vast majority of American Muslims: “Islam strictly condemns religious extremism and the use of violence against innocent lives. There is no justification in Islam for extremism or terrorism.”
Fiqh Council of North America condems violence, but Islam does not condemn jihad. Jihad is neither extremism nor terrorism. The Fiqh Council of North America (a Muslim Brotherhood group) may condemn terrorism, but Allah does not.
8:12 God revealed His will to the angels, saying: ‘I shall be with you. Give courage to the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of the Kafirs. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers!’
“innocent lives”
As you read about innocence, remember that a Kafir is in perpetual rebellion against Islam. Hence, Kafirs are never innocent, but guilty of offending Allah.
The Fiqh Council of North America’s statement affirms the following Islamic principles:
“All acts of terrorism, including those targeting the life and property of civilians, whether perpetrated by suicidal or any other form of attacks, are haram (forbidden) in Islam.
“All acts of terrorism…are haram”
Well, so acts of terror are forbidden in Islam. But jihad is a community obligation for all Muslims. Jihad is not terror, but sacred violence to prepare the world for Islam and the Sharia.
Koran 2:216 You are commanded to fight although you dislike it. You may hate something that is good for you, and love something that is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not.
“It is haram (forbidden) for a Muslim to cooperate with any individual or group that is involved in any act of terrorism or prohibited violence.”
I guess that Mohammed did not get this memo, because he said, just the opposite:
[Bukhari 4,52,96] Mohammed: “Anyone who arms a jihadist is rewarded just as a fighter would be; anyone who gives proper care to a holy warrior’s dependents is rewarded just as a fighter would be.”
“It is the civic and religious duty of Muslims to undertake full measures to protect the lives of all civilians, and ensure the security and well-being of fellow citizens.”
Muslims are to undertake full measures to follow the Sunna of Mohammed and he attacked every single neighbor, without a single exception. And he did it year after year, until he ran out of enemies in Arabia and then he left Arabia to go to Syria and attack the Christians there.
12. Are American Muslims concerned about extremist violence in the United States?
Yes. Most American Muslims, like most other Americans, are deeply concerned about the problem of extremist violence committed in the name of Islam. According to the most reliable data we have, the overwhelming majority of American Muslims is well integrated into American society and report criminal activity. Over the past decade, 40% of domestic terrorism plots have been uncovered or deterred with assistance from American Muslims.[iii]
“40% of domestic terrorism plots have been uncovered or deterred with assistance from American Muslims”
Since 100% of the domestic jihad has been by Muslims, what can be said about the other 60%? What Muslims did not turn them in?
13. Do American Muslim leaders support freedom of expression and religious liberty?
“support freedom of expression and religious liberty”
Really? Then why do the Muslim Brotherhood organizations demand that only Muslims be allowed to talk about Islam to government officials? That is freedom of expression? Under pressure of Islamic leaders, no US agency can listen to a lecture about Islam if it is given by Kafirs, courtesy of Obama.
Yes. Many American Muslim leaders, educational institutions, and advocacy groups have repeatedly spoken out for freedom of expression and are actively involved in promoting religious liberty for all people both in the United States and abroad.
“promoting religious liberty for all people both in the United States and abroad”
The Center for the Study of Political Islam publishes a monthly newsletter called the Bulletin of Christian Persecution. It documents the murder, rape, kidnapping of Christians in Muslim nations. Thousands of Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus die each year at the hands of Muslims. This persecution was started 1400 years ago by Mohammed and sanctioned by Allah. Here is the liberty promised by Allah:
Koran 9:29 Fight against such of those to whom the Scriptures were given [Christians] as believe in neither Allah nor the Last Day, who do not forbid what Allah and His apostles have forbidden [follow Sharia], and do not embrace Islam, until they pay the dhimmi tax out of hand and are utterly humiliated.
Allah’s liberty for Christians includes murder until the survivors agree to live by the Sharia, pay special taxes and are humiliated.
Misunderstood terms and practices
14. What does “jihad” mean? Isn’t it a “holy war?”
“Jihad” literally means striving, or doing one’s utmost. Within Islam, there are two basic theological understandings of the word: The “Greater Jihad,” is the struggle against the lower self – the struggle to purify one’s heart, do good, avoid evil, and make oneself a better person. The “Lesser Jihad” is an outward struggle. Jihad constitutes a moral principle to struggle against any obstacle that stands in the way of the good. Bearing, delivering, and raising a child, for example, is an example of outward jihad, because of the many obstacles that must be overcome to deliver and raise the child successfully. Jihad may also involve fighting against oppressors and aggressors who commit injustice. It is not “holy war” in the way a crusade would be considered a holy war, and while Islam allows and even encourages proselytizing, it forbids forced conversion. In Islamic tradition, the form of jihad that involves fighting requires specific ethical conditions under which it is permissible to fight, as well as clear rules of engagement such as the requirement to protect non-combatants. Scholars have likened Jihad as fighting to the Christian concept of “just war.”
“The “Greater Jihad,” is the struggle against the lower self – the struggle to purify one’s heart, do good, avoid evil, and make oneself a better person. The “Lesser Jihad” is an outward struggle.”
Let us measure the truth of this statement. The Hadith are the Traditions of Mohammed and are part of the Sunna. The Koran says 91 times that Mohammed is the perfect Muslim and every Muslim is to model their life after him. The prime text for Hadith is by Bukhari. If you count the number of hadiths devoted to jihad, they account for 21% of the total, roughly 1400 traditions about jihad. If you go through these hadiths, less than 2% of them are about the greater jihad. That means that 98% of them are about the lesser jihad of killing Kafirs.
That means that the greater jihad is statistically insignificant. Jihad is about the annihilation of Kafirs, said another way, “an outward struggle”.
“it forbids forced conversion”
This implies that there is some sort of “convert or die” situation with Islam. But Islam has always been about death and other religions. For instance according to Sharia law and the Koran, a Muslim is not supposed to kill another Muslim. Not so with Kafirs. Mohammed killed Kafirs repeatedly. First he started killing and robbing pagans. Then he started killing Jews. Next he attacked the Christians. So it may not be convert or die, but it is “convert and you won’t die”.
When Mohammed died Abu Bakr, his closest Companion, became caliph. His first order of business was to go to war against all Arabs who wanted to leave Islam, the Apostasy war. Apostasy is a capital crime in the Sharia. Leave Islam and you can die.
The variety of interpretations of Lesser
Jihad or just war over 1400 years in many settings is a complex discussion.
Much of the contemporary misuse of the term “jihad” may be dated to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, when stateless actors began to claim the right to declare jihad. In Islamic tradition, there is no theological or political basis for this claim. Radical and extremist groups appropriate and misuse the term “jihad” to give a religious veneer to their violent political movements and tactics.
“Jihad or just war over 1400 years in many settings is a complex discussion.”
Actually, the results of jihad over the last 1400 years are very simple. Look at the Tears of Jihad, the totals of different social groups who were murdered.Tears of Jihad
Africans 120
Hindus 80
Christians 60
Buddhists 10
Total 270
Jihad is not a fringe doctrine with a verse or two. Islam has 3 sacred texts—Koran, Sira (Mohammed’s biography) and Hadith (Traditions). Look at how much of them are about jihad.
The reason that there is so much material about jihad in the later Koran is that it was responsible for the success of Islam.
Another part of the discussion about jihad is that the Koran and the Sharia demand that part of the obligatory Muslim tax, the zakat, must go to those fighting in Allah’s cause, jihad. Jihad has a budget in the Koran and the Sharia.
16. Are Muslim men allowed to marry four wives?
While the Qur’an sanctions marriage to up to four wives (Q 4:3), the wording of the verse is understood by some Muslim scholars to allow but at the same time discourage marrying more than one wife. Verse 4:3 says that a Muslim man may marry up to four wives if he can treat them equally. Since men cannot treat any two people equally, the practice which was historically acceptable during times of crisis, like war, is now even outlawed in some Muslim majority nations.
The short answer is yes. Yes, according to the Koran. Yes, according to the Sharia. So that means that it is sacred law and when enough Islamists come to power in a country, polygamy will return. What the Sharia allows is the Pole Star that Islam will revolve around.
From the Sharia: m6.10 It is unlawful for a free man to marry more than four women. It is fitter to confine oneself to just one.
Related articles
- U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Forms Its Newest Front Organization (creepingsharia.wordpress.com)
- The Truth about American Muslims: Half believe “parodies of Muhammad should be prosecuted criminally in the US, one in eight call for death penalty for insulting Islam, 40% say sharia law not US law (atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com)
- “American Muslims” or “Muslims That Just Live in America”? (creepingsharia.wordpress.com)
Debunking the Assumption that Palestine is a Country
See on Scoop.it – Truth Revealed
Much thanks to Eli Hertz for this comprehensive, exhaustive historical deconstruction of the lie told around the world.
Palestine is a Geographical Area, Not a Nationality.
In an interview with Republican Presidential Primary front-runner and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, a former Professor and Historian, he explains his position on the Arab-Israeli conflict and states that the Palestinians are “an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs.”
It is time to tell the truth that is based on facts:
Until the Jews began returning to the Land of Israel in increasing numbers from the late 19th century to the turn of the 20th, the area called Palestine was a deserted waste land that belonged to the Ottoman Empire, based in Turkey.
‘Palestinianism’ in and of itself lacks any substance of its own. Arab society on the West Bank and Gaza suffer from a deep social cleavage created by a host of rivalries based on divergent geographic, historical, sociological and familial allegiances.
What glues Palestinians together is a carefully nurtured hatred of Israel and the rejection of Jewish nationhood.
Palestinians
“All [that Palestinians] can agree on as a community is what they want to destroy, not what they want to build.”1 New York Times Columnist Thomas Friedman
The Palestinians’ claim that they are an ancient and indigenous people fails to stand up to historic scrutiny. Most Palestinian Arabs were newcomers to British Mandate Palestine. Until the 1967 Six-Day War made it expedient for Arabs to create a Palestinian peoplehood, local Arabs simply considered themselves part of the ‘great Arab nation’ or ‘southern Syrians.’
There is no age-old Palestinian people. Most so-called Palestinians are relative newcomers to The Land of Israel.
Palestinian Arabs cast themselves as a native people in “Palestine” – like the Aborigines in Australia or Native Americans in America. They portray the Jews as European imperialists and colonizers. This is simply untrue.
Until the Jews began returning to the Land of Israel in increasing numbers from the late 19th century to the turn of the 20th, the area called Palestine was a God- forsaken backwash that belonged to the Ottoman Empire, based in Turkey.
The land’s fragile ecology had been laid waste in the wake of the Arabs’ 7th- century conquest. In 1799, the population was at it lowest and estimated to be no more than 250,000 to 300,000 inhabitants in all the land.2
At the turn of the 20th century, the Arab population west of the Jordan River (today, Israel and the West Bank) was about half a million inhabitants and east of the Jordan River perhaps 200,000.3
The collapse of the agricultural system with the influx of nomadic tribes after the Arab conquest that created malarial swamps and denuded the ancient terrace system eroding the soil, was coupled by a tyrannous regime, a crippling tax system and absentee landowners that further decimated the population. Much of the indigenous population had long since migrated or disappeared. Very few Jews or Arabs lived in the region before the arrival of the first Zionists in the 1880s and most of those that did lived in abject poverty.
CONTINUED:
See on raymondjclements.wordpress.com
Related articles
- Debunking the Biggest Lie Palestinian (paulmarcelrene.wordpress.com)
- Hamas minister admit Palestinians are actually EGYPTIANS and SAUDI’s: “Who are the Palestinians? The Arabs Are Aliens In The Land Of Israel” (themuslimissue.wordpress.com)
A correct understanding of Jeremiah 8:8
By Tony Pezzulo:
A correct understanding “about Jeremiah 8:8 and what it says about “the lying pen of the scribes has made the Law a lie. “As with any verse in the Bible, we must look at the context to understand the verse. The context is that false prophets were speaking peace to the Jews, while God’s true prophet Jeremiah is calling for judgment upon the Jews if they do not repent of sin. The “scribes” were not those who COPY the Torah, but they were the Jewish teachers of the time. Notice that verse 7 says that the people did not KNOW the law, because the teachers were only telling the people what they wanted to hear. The verse does not say that the people did not HAVE the law. A simple understanding of context reveals that Jeremiah is not saying that the scribes corrupted the text of the Torah. They were corrupting the meaning of the law with their teachings.The Bible is not corrupted.”
A Sefer Torah, the traditional form of the Hebrew Bible, is a scroll of parchment.
When An Idea is tragic
No failure so tragic than an idea that never should have been that seeks to replace a Reality and idea thats already succeeded, especially that which is exploited by those who lead.
- Paul Marcel-Rene 11/22/12
When I wrote this original statement, I was referring to the tragic idea of a “palestinian” state besides Jordan (which already was established as a state of palestinians) that never should have been and that has led to countless deaths due to the exploitation of the displaced arabs erroneous classified as palestinians by their leaders, that seeks to replace the idea and reality of the State of Israel.
Photos of Syrian Massacres Recycled as Gaza Atrocities
English: The rockets from Gaza Strip range (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
More Jewish blood libel from Muslim media: Photos of Syrian Massacres Recycled as Gaza Atrocities
It’s Goebbels one better. Unlike the Muslim world, the Nazi propaganda war machine didn’t have a supplicant world media eager to advance their monstrous blood libels.
Yet another fake “Gaza” photo has incited a flurry of comments on Facebook against Israel during the fifth day of Israel’s Pillar of Defense operation in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. An Arab news site called Alarab Net released the photo, which shows a family who was allegedly ‘massacred’ in Gaza on its Facebook page on Sunday, November 18.
The caption in Arabic roughly translates into English as “martyred massacred family in Gaza shortly before…”Thanks to Tazpit News Agency’s investigative work, it was found that the photo had been originally published on a news site based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates called Moheet one month earlier on October 19. On the Moheet website, the photo was titled “Syria killed 122 Friday…Assad Used Cluster Bombs.”
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Operation Pillar of Defense (of Israel)
See on Scoop.it – Truth Revealed
As you no doubt know, yesterday Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defense — a purely defensive operation designed to stop rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel. And as you also know, too many voices in the media and across the country are focusing on Israel’s strikes while ignoring the context which necessitated them. This means that all of us must now become Israel’s ambassadors and explain to our family, friends and neighbors why Israel has the right — and the responsibility — to defend its citizens.
Israel needs you. And you need the facts:
• In the week preceding the launch of yesterday’s operation, over 120 missile were fired from Gaza into southern Israel.
• Since the beginning of 2012, over 760 rockets have been launched from Gaza into Israel’s southern communities.
• Since Israel launched this operation yesterday, an additional 245 rockets have been fired into Israel, killing three Israelis and injuring many more.
• These rockets target Israeli civilians, and have forced over one million Israelis into bomb shelters.
• In recent years, Hamas has acquired an arsenal of long range Fajr-5 missiles from Iran capable of hitting Tel Aviv and now two rockets have landed in the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
• Operation Pillar of Defense is a limited operation targeting Hamas’ missile stockpiles and the Hamas terrorists responsible for firing them.
Every nation on earth has the right to defend its citizens from attacks. Most nations would have taken action after one or two missiles were fired into their territory. Israel has once again exercised enormous restraint and waited until over 760 rockets had been fired into its territory before launching Operation Pillar of Defense.
As always, Israel is targeting Hamas’ missiles and the terrorists who fire them while taking every reasonable precaution to avoid harming Palestinian civilians. By contrast, Hamas and its allies are specifically targeting Israeli civilians, while hiding behind Palestinian civilians. There is no moral equivalence in this fight.
Related articles
- Israeli forces pound Gaza from the air after missiles threaten Tel Aviv (timesofisrael.com)
My Comments About Obamas Win
Obummer will never be MY President and shame on all those who just flushed the USA down the toilet. Anyone who doesn’t have a job or loses their home in the next year better look in the mirror and say “its my own fault for voting for Obummer”. You will NOT get sympathy from me. As a Good Christian, I will help you, but the coming disaster of the loss of the America I know and love IS your fault. And that makes me angry! You personally ruined MY country.
FACEBOOK response to this posting worth sharing:
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Steve Perez PROMISE
I’m writing this tonight with a very sad and heavy heart. My children will not see the promise that once was America. They will endure transition and change unlike anything America has ever seen. This, my friends is the turning point of our once great nation. Corruption, greed and power have risen. Today, I rededicate my life to Christ. Today I ask for his blessing and hand to protect my
family. I stand-fast in my love and yearning for Christ and ask forgiveness in my transgressions and failings. This election has opened my eyes and I’m scared. Scared for my children and the pain and devastation that will come. I fall to my knees pleading for mercy in all the sin that I have committed. I ask our lord to forgive me and bathe me with strength and courage to instill the faith of his promise, not only in me but in my children. A promise made by Christ through the loving grace of God.
No longer will we be the shinning beacon on the hill as a nation so we must be the shinning beacons for our children and loved ones. No longer will America be the example of freedom and liberty that through Gods blessing was once bestowed upon us as a nation. America is lost. Our souls are not.
God has given us salvation through Christ and if you don’t know him, seek him and if you have fallen, rise, for his promise of forgiveness is everlasting and unconditional. Today we saw a man who has deceived so many and has taken the reigns of power and might. He promises much but by his own actions and deeds show that his promises are empty and dry of the truth. After all he is just a man. Jesus Christ’s promise is not of this world. It is a promise of everlasting life separate and apart from what we grasp in our human understanding. Gods love will forever endure, yet we must seek him. We must as Christians hold fast to our faith and his promise. That we will protect, love, cherish and feed our children in the word of Christ then his promise will be blessed upon us. I long for his promise to come and that we will be taken up before the seals are broken and the bowls are poured.
The Bible tells us many wonderful stories of the love Christ has bestowed upon us through his sacrifice. We live in a mortal realm filled with pain and hate. The promise was and still is that if we give all ourselves to the lord and instill his love in our children then he will guide us, love us and protect us. The signs of his coming are prevalent in not only what we see now but the prophecies that have been fulfilled before. Israel has risen and nations upon nations are against her. Rumors of wars and great hatred will rise. America will fall. European nations will falter and evil will walk the earth more then what we have witnessed these past few years.
Christ has promised us salvation. As a true believer in Christ I attest today and proclaim to my family and friends my love and trust in his promise. I re-commit my life to him and to get my house in order. I re-commit on this day that Christ will reign in our lives in all we do. I pray he gives me the courage and strength to lead my family in his light and to not stray as I have done before. This is my promise. I ask this in the name of our savior. Jesus Christ.
American Infidel
See on Scoop.it – Truth Revealed
If you are an American Infidel, Political Islam wants to kill you, subjugate you or convert you to Islam. Theses commands are as plain as day in the Islamic scriptures. And carried out, as reflected in the 20,000-plus acts of Islamic terrorism, just since 9/11 alone. Fortunately a great many American Muslims do not follow the Quran and they don’t understand it. But then there are those who do. As the late Christopher Hitchens once remarked, “If god truly did write the Quran, then clearly he must have been having a bad day.”
See on tulisanmurtad.blogspot.fr
A Comparison of Mormonism and Christianity
Evidence that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church or LDS) has a Christian Foundation
Compiled by Cal Fullerton
How can the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of Salt Lake City, Utah, live up to its claim to be a Christian organization when they teach so many eccentric and extra-biblical doctrines?
It is because the LDS does adhere to the essential message of the New Testament — not only the teachings that we all must adhere to for salvation in Christ (for example, “God exists”), but more significantly, teachings that effectuate, or bring about, salvation.
It is also because all their false teachings concern nonessential issues. Non-essentials are principles that may be important for spiritual growth but on which someone may be in error without losing their status as a forgiven, born-again, blood-bought, heaven-bound child of God.
The vital question is, “Does the Mormon Church encourage people to make Jesus Christ their personal Lord and Savior?” The answer is unequivocally yes.
Please take the crash course of fast facts below that show the Bible’s essential doctrines in juxtaposition to corresponding LDS doctrines. Key words are in dark red.
| Bible “‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved’” (Acts 16:31). |
Mormon Church “Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the first principle of the gospel. It is necessary to our salvation” (Gospel Principles [Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1997], 117).“Salvation cometh to none . . . except it be through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ” (Mosiah 3:12, Book of Mormon, quoted in Gospel Principles, 117). |
| Bible “Unless you repent, you too will all perish” (Luke 13:5). |
Mormon Church “We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: . . . second, Repentance (Joseph Smith, The Articles of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1:4). |
| Bible “‘Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness’” (2 Timothy 2:19). |
Mormon Church “We must forsake our sins.” (Gospel Principles, 124). |
| Bible “And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9). |
Mormon Church “We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: . . . fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Articles of Faith, 1:4). |
| Bible “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14 KJV). |
Mormon Church “It is the Spirit that is the most effective teacher in any given situation. . . . We should . . . carefully listen for and record the unspoken impressions given by the Holy Ghost” (Daniel K. Judd, “Nourished by the Good Word of God,” Ensign, Nov. 2007, 94-95). “The adversary labors to dull our sensitivity to the promptings of the Spirit. . . . When we invite the Holy Ghost to fill our minds. . . . we feel strengthened, filled with peace and joy. We possess spiritual energy and enthusiasm.” (Elder Keith K. Hilbig, “Quench Not the Spirit Which Quickens the Inner Man,” Ensign, Nov. 2007, 37- 38). |
| Bible “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.” (1 John 4:15). |
Mormon Church “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ” (Articles of Faith, 1:1). |
| Bible “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:1). |
Mormon Church “Jesus is the Messiah (the Christ)” (Elder David B. Haight, “The Sacrament–and the Sacrifice,” Ensign, Apr. 2007, 16). |
| Bible “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1 John 4:2). |
Mormon Church “‘The Word was made flesh’. . . . the Word is Jesus Christ” (James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ [Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1981], 10). “‘[Jesus] shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay’” (Mosiah 3:5, Book of Mormon, quoted in Gospel Principles, 63). |
| Bible “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18). |
Mormon Church “And behold, he shall be born of Mary . . . she being a virgin . . . who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God” (Alma 7:10, Book of Mormon). “Jesus was born of a virgin named Mary” (Gospel Principles, 63). |
| Bible “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). |
Mormon Church “I know that he lives. . . . He is our Lord and our God” (President Joseph Fielding Smith, quoted in “He Lives! The Witness of Latter-day Prophets,” Ensign, Mar. 2008, 10). |
| Bible “God presented him [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood” (Romans 3:25). |
Mormon Church “The Savior atoned for our sins by suffering in Gethsemane and by giving his life on the cross. . . . We accept Christ’s atonement by placing our faith in him” (Gospel Principles, 73, 75). “He [Jesus] took our sins upon himself” (Gospel Principles, 19). |
Many of the Bible verses above tell us that you will be saved if you believe or do what the verses say. Therefore, the corresponding and agreeing LDS quotations give us evidence that the LDS is Christian.
If certain other Mormon teachings seem to contradict what has been spelled out here, our next move should be to interview LDS representatives–such as missionaries–and ask them, “Which is it? You can’t believe both.”
I can tell you that their other teachings do not contradict what they say in the above quotations–but don’t trust me! The Bible says, “Don’t put your trust in mere humans” (Isaiah 2:22, NLT). I suggest you do your own investigation and trust the Lord Jesus to guide you with His Holy Spirit.
Insurance Round
The following comparisons of Mormon beliefs to Bible verses constitute an insurance round–confirmations of the evidence already presented. For years, I personally confirmed and reviewed the Christian core of the LDS over and over again. I had to do this because my well-meaning fellow evangelicals as well as the devil himself tried to cause me to doubt what God had revealed to me.
| Bible “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8 KJV). |
Mormon Church “The Apostle Paul taught that we can’t save ourselves; we need the Lord’s grace: [and then they go on to quote the very Bible verse I’ve quoted] ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast’” (no author, “We Believe,” Ensign, Mar. 2008, 56). |
| Bible “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). |
Mormon Church “Except for Jesus Christ . . . everyone who has lived upon the earth has sinned” (Gospel Principles, 122). |
Bible
“For what I received I passed on
to you as of first importance:
that Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures, that
he was buried, that he was raised
on the third day according to the
Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Mormon Church
“The fundamental principles of
our religion are the testimony of
the Apostles and Prophets [of
the LDS], concerning Jesus
Christ, that He died, was buried,
and rose again the third day, and
ascended into heaven; and all
other things which pertain to our
religion are only appendages to
it” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph
Smith, quoted in Spencer J. Condie, “The
Fall and Infinite Atonement,” Ensign,
Jan. 1996, 22).
To fully understand LDS people, we should know that they often redefine common Bible terms. This is why even direct quotations from official LDS publications can be deceptive and often are deceptive when anti-Mormon non-Mormons generate the quotations. I’ve done my best to avoid any such deception in the comparisons above (my knowledge of “Mormonese” enables me to do this).
Sources
Joseph Smith, The Articles of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, translated by Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1981) is used alongside the Bible as scripture.
All Scripture quotations above, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.
Ensign is an official magazine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Gospel Principles (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1997) is used in Sunday school classes.
James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1981). James Talmage was one of the twelve apostles of the Church.
ORIGINAL POSTING SITE: http://evangelicalsandmormonsforjesus.com/fast-facts.htm
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- Christian Group that Admits LDS are Christians too (paulmarcelrene.wordpress.com)
- Mormons Are Christian (paulmarcelrene.wordpress.com)
- Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon (paulmarcelrene.wordpress.com)
- That Ye Might Believe That Jesus Is the Christ (paulmarcelrene.wordpress.com)
Salvation and Works
Does the LDS church have everything 100% correct? Of course not. Does any denomination or church have everything 100% correct? Of course not.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? John 11:26
I believe.
Regarding the idea of works being necessary:
1 John 1:7-10
1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
John is instructing us about the obligation we have due to receiving atonement through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Forgiveness does not remove from us the obligation to keep the commands of God. The law of God is not done away once we are under the blood of Jesus Christ. His death paid for our past sins. Though His death will pay for sins committed after our original forgiveness, we are urged not to break God’s laws. Sinning without serious regard and deep appreciation for Christ’s death brings us into danger of committing the unpardonable sin (Hebrews 10:26, 28-29). A disciplined and robust effort to obey God’s commands witnesses to Him the depth of our appreciation for the grace He gives through Christ.
———
Consider the words of Christ in Luke 9:23-24:
23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
———
If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”
–The words of Christ in Matthew 19:17.
———
The truth is that we are saved by the grace of Christ which is offered to us through a covenant, a two-way contract: if we accept Christ and do our part, following and obeying him, then Christ does everything else, forgiving us, cleansing us, healing us, and giving us power to return to the presence of the Father – not because we earned it, but because we accepted the terms upon which he offers his infinite grace and mercy. Even in the days of Moses, the Lord proclaimed that God “shows mercy to those that keep his commandments” (Deut. 5:10), a principle that has not changed. The mercy or grace offered through a two-way covenant with Christ is implied in the Third LDS Article of Faith, and in the teaching of the prophet Nephi who wrote in 2 Nephi 25:23:
For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.
The Church’s emphasis on personal responsibility and the need for self-disciplined obedience may seem to de-emphasize the role of Christ’s grace; however, for Latter-day Saints, obedience is but one blade of the scissors. All of LDS theology also reflects the major premise of the Book of Mormon that without grace there is no salvation: “For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Ne. 25:23). The source of this grace is the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ: “Mercy cometh because of the Atonement” (Alma 42:23).
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- Christian Group that Admits LDS are Christians too (paulmarcelrene.wordpress.com)
- Mormons Are Christian (paulmarcelrene.wordpress.com)
- Justification by Faith (trinityspeaks.wordpress.com)
That Ye Might Believe That Jesus Is the Christ
“That Ye Might Believe That Jesus Is the Christ” by Nancy W. Jensen
Isaiah 61:1-3; JST Luke 3:4-11; John 1:1-14; 20:31
THE MISSION OF JESUS CHRIST
Isaiah 61:1-3 is such a beautiful scripture, it begs to be read aloud over and over! These verses, understood, can change one’s understanding of the Atonement, and are a great passage to read and ponder during the sacrament. Elder Bruce C. Hafen wrote a wonderful treatise on it entitled “Beauty for Ashes” which you can read here.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our god; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty [to replace] ashes, the oil of joy [to replace] mourning, the garment of praise [to replace] the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.”
Christ read this scripture in the synagogue to proclaim himself the Messiah, “but stopped short so that he could say, ‘Today as you heard it read, this passage of [Scripture] (up to but not including the day of vengeance) was fulfilled,’ for at his first coming he healed and brought Good News of the Kingdom and salvation; it was not his time to take vengeance or judge” (Stern). “And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” (Luke 4:20-21)
Notice each of the things Christ has been anointed to do, each marked by the word “to.” Which of these things do you need in your life?
1. to preach good tidings unto the meek
2. to bind up the broken-hearted
3. to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound
4. to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
5. and [to proclaim] the day of vengeance of our God
6. to comfort all they that mourn
7. to give [or exchange] to [those that mourn in Zion] beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.
The next part of the reading assignment is JST Luke 3:4-11, and it also contains a long list of gifts that Christ has brought, each also marked by the word “to:”
1. to take away the sins of the world
2. to bring salvation unto the heathen nations
3. to gather together those who are lost, who are of the sheepfold of Israel
4. to prepare the way, and make possible the preaching of the gospel unto the Gentiles
5. to be a light unto all who sit in darkness, unto the uttermost parts of the earth
6. to bring to pass the resurrection from the dead
7. to ascend up on high, to dwell on the right hand of the Father
8. to administer justice unto all
9. to come down in judgment upon all
10. to convince all the ungodly of their ungodly deeds.
The Atonement is for the washing away of sins, clearly, and for the resurrection of the dead, obviously, but these scriptures show that it is so much more than that, and very applicable and helpful to our everyday problems and challenges.
The third scripture in the reading assignment is John 1:1-14. I always had trouble understanding why Christ was called “The Word” here. The JST makes the meaning of that term clear:
“In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God” (v. 1). In him was the gospel, and the gospel was the life, and the life was the light of men” (v. 4).
(When reading the JST in the LDS Bible Appendix, it is helpful to notice that the changes from the King James Version have been italicized.)
OVERVIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
As we look at the Table of Contents of the New Testament we can see that the book can be easily divided up into four sections:
1. The Gospels (testimonies of Christ)
2. Acts (work of the apostles, especially Peter’s work among the Jews and Paul’s work among the Gentiles)
3. Epistles (letters from Church leaders to the saints)
4. Revelation (revelation received by John on the isle of Patmos)
Why are there four gospels, four different tellings of the life of Christ? Sure, there is the reason that all truth is established by God in the mouth of two or three witnesses, and here we have even more than that, but couldn’t they have collaborated and put together one story that would have been a comprehensive, all-inclusive, chronological biography of Christ, with four witnesses to it? Then there wouldn’t have been any contradictions, and everything would have been covered. Right?
Well, the gospels are not just biographies, but testimonies of Christ (Bible Dictionary, p. 683). Each author came from a different walk of life, and was writing to a specific audience. The study of the authorship, audience, and angle of each of the gospels is fascinating and instructive.
OVERVIEW OF THE FOUR GOSPELS
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are quite similar in phraseology and content, and for that reason they are called “The Synoptic Gospels” (Bible Dictionary, p. 683). The Gospel of John is quite different, and we will discover the reason for that later.
The Gospel of Mark
Scholars agree that Mark was probably written first, and that the other writers had access to it when writing their gospels. Mark was not one of the apostles. He was younger. He likely was alive when Christ was alive, but he would have been a child. After his conversion, he became the younger missionary companion of Paul, and later of Peter, serving mainly among the Gentiles. Therefore, he wrote his gospel from his missionary perspective: a Jew writing to Gentiles. One can see that hee assumed that the reader would be unfamiliar with Jewish customs and terms and with Palestinian geography, because he explained and described those things. One can also see that he assumed that the reader was familiar with Latin terms and customs.
“[Mark's] object is to describe our Lord as the incarnate Son of God, living and acting among men. The gospel contains a living picture of a living Man. Energy and humility are the characteristics of his portrait. It is full of descriptive touches that help us to realize the impression made upon the bystanders” (BD, p. 728). It is “fast moving, emphasizing the doings more than the sayings of the Lord” (BD, p. 683). Note how many times Mark uses the words “immediately, “straightway,” “anon”–all translations of the same word. (Fronk) This one word is used eight times in chapter one alone, in verses 10, 12, 18, 20, 21, and 28. Reading Mark leaves one breathless. The intensity of the ministry is emphasized: No time to rest, no time to eat. Mark is full of miracles. An interesting experiment: Camille Fronk recommends reading it all in one sitting, to catch the energy in the telling.
The Gospel of Matthew
Matthew was a Jew. He was a publican, and so he was not popular by profession. He was one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ, and he was alive when these things were happening, although he certainly wasn’t eyewitness to all of them. “Matthew was probably a thorough Jew with a wide knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures, and able to see in every detail of the Lord’s life the fulfillment of prophecy” (BD, p. 729). His book was written to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. For this reason, he highlighted the number 14 in Christ’s genealogy and he noted 14 prophecies from the Jewish scriptures that were fulfilled by Christ. (See “The Importance of the Number 14″ in a previous lesson.) He knew that the number 14 was significant to his readers, who were Hebrew. He knew that they knew that 14 meant “salvation.”
Matthew picked and chose who to represent in the genealogy, as there were actually more than 14 generations between each important individual (and this was acceptable to the Jews, because the symbolic number was the most important thing, not the literal number), but in that picking and choosing, he referenced five women. Besides Mary (1:16), he listed Thamar or Tamar (1:3), Rachab or Rahab, Ruth (1:5), and Bathsheba (1:6). Every one of these women had questionable pasts, particularly in relation to their conception and child-bearing, but produced great results for the House of Israel, making themselves ancestral heroines.
1) Tamar conceived while masquerading as a prostitute! The father of her child was her own father-in-law. The reason she committed this grossly immoral deception was that, in opposition to Jewish law, Judah and his sons had cheated her out of progeny, sent her back to her father’s house, and consigned her to life as a childless widow (twice widowed, actually), a state that would undoubtedly lead to devastating poverty in her old age. (See “Opposites” in a previous lesson.)
2) Rahab was an idolatrous prostitute in Jericho. With no gospel training, no missionaries, no “members” living nearby, and in the most wicked environment in the world, she gained a testimony of Jehovah. After her conversion, and after saving the spies of Israel, she raised her son, Boaz, to be a great, kind, wise, and faithful man, the man who married Ruth! (See a previous lesson for more on Rahab.)
3) The next woman mentioned, Ruth, was Rahab’s daughter-in-law, a convert from idolatry as well, a Moabitess. She was married to a Hebrew, and then widowed, which dropped her to the bottom of Jewish society. From this low point, she sought her own marriage, contrary to custom, and was most likely not the first wife. (See OT Lesson #20.)
4) Last mentioned was Bathsheba, who conceived as a result of an extra-marital date-rape, or at least an event beyond her control, since the perpetrator happened to be the all-powerful king David. (See a previous lesson for more on this.)
5) By including these particular women, revered by the Jews but with imperfect and even abhorrent family situations, Matthew presented the perfect defense for Mary’s unusual circumstance of conception. (Bokovoy)
A little parable recorded in Matthew is especially applicable to the Jews. “Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old” (Matt. 13:52). The “scribe” would be a man knowledgeable in the Jewish religion. “Things old” would be the Law of Moses, and “things new” the Gospel of Christ. Matthew included a lot of anti-Pharisee comments to show that the Law was not an end in itself, as the Pharisees seemed to think. Chapters 5-7 give the higher law. “The Kingdom of Heaven” would be important to the Jews, and many of the parables in Matthew liken something to the Kingdom of Heaven. The parables describe trees growing or bread rising, showing that the Kingdom of Heaven is a process, not an event. (Fronk)
Matthew’s is the only gospel that includes the story of the wise men. Jews would have been most impressed by wealthy, learned men who had studied the scriptures in far away lands (they might possibly have been displaced Jews) and recognized the signs of the Messiah’s coming.
Matthew included five major discourses given by Jesus Christ. He highlighted these in a way similar to the way he highlighted the 14 prophecies, using a key phrase at the end of each. The phrase is “When Jesus had finished these sayings…” Is there a reason he chose five sermons? Of course! There is a reason for every number used by a Jew in the Bible! In this case, Matthew was adding a sequel to five writings that were very near and dear to every Jew, and were in fact, a foundation of their religion: The five books of Moses, the Torah. By doing this, he was showing the Jews that Christ was the fulfillment of the Law of Moses, and that His counsel superseded or added to that Law. (Bokovoy)
1. 5:1-7:27 The Sermon on the Mount, given to the multitude. The tag is found in 7:28.
2. 10:5-42 The instruction for the ministry of the 12 apostles. The tag is 11:1.
3. 13:1-52 The Sermon from the Ship, given to great multitudes. The tag is 13:53.
4. 18:1-35 “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of God?” spoken to the apostles. The tag is 19:1.
5. 24:3-25:46 The Olivet Discourse, given to the 12 apostles. The tag is 26:1.
The Gospel of Luke
Luke’s gospel is the one with the beautiful Christmas story, told from a woman’s perspective. (Matthew tells it from a man’s.) Luke was a Gentile convert, likely converted through the labors of Paul (see BD, p. 726), writing to Gentiles and to minorities, and to those looked down upon by the Jews: women, lepers, Samaritans, sinners (prostitutes). Luke was a physician, and therefore had close contact with and compassion for all types and both genders of people, a unique position. Most male professions in that day involved dealings with other men only, but a physician dealt with all, even the “unclean.”
As a missionary, Luke ministered to the Gentiles with Paul. Like Matthew, Luke gives a genealogy of Christ, but it differs from Matthew’s. Matthew introduced Christ as “the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matt. 1:1). This is what was important to the Jews: that Christ was one of the chosen people, and was in the kingly and priestly line. It was the first thing Matthew said in his testimony. Luke, on the other hand, gives a genealogy of Christ that identifies him as “the son of Joseph” (Luke 3:23) (even though Luke testifies of the divinity of Christ) and takes Christ’s ancestry all the way back to Adam (Luke 3:38), making everyone, Jew and Gentile, a relative of Christ. (Fronk)
Luke had a special understanding of women as a result of his medical ministry among them. He wa the only one who wrote of the annunciation of Mary, and of her visit to Elizabeth, John the Baptist’s mother. He knew that “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). He knew of Simeon’s personal prophecy to Mary that “a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also” (Luke 2:35). How did he know of these things? Very likely he was a close personal acquaintance of Mary’s in the Church, and he heard these stories from her own mouth. Luke gives what little information we have about the childhood of Christ. He was the one who told of Mary’s terror when she realized her 12-year-old was not with the caravan. (See Luke 2:51).
Where is the parable of the Good Samaritan found? Only in Luke. What about Christ’s visit to Mary and Martha? Only in Luke. Many of the most treasured parables are found only in Luke: The woman with the lost coin, the shepherd with the lost sheep, the Prodigal Son, the rich man and the beggar Lazarus. The cleansing of the ten lepers is recorded only in Luke. Luke wrote to the underdog, to tell him (and her!) that Christ was come for them as well as for anyone.
The Gospel of John
John is the gospel that is not like the others. Like Matthew and Mark, John was a Jew converted to Christianity. Like Matthew he was one of the apostles. But unlike Matthew, he was not writing to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Christ, and unlike Mark, he was not writing to convince the Gentiles that Jesus was the Christ. He was not writing to convince anyone that Jesus was the Christ: he was writing to those who already knew. He was writing to the Christians. This makes his gospel very different. Near the conclusion of his book, we read, “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31). The Harper-Collins Study Bible translates the intention of that passage to be slightly different: “But these are written, that ye might continue to believe that Jesus is the Christ…” “The Gospel of John,” wrote Bruce R. McConkie, “is the account for the saints” (Mormon Doctrine, p. 336).
John was in the Church from the very beginning. A follower of John the Baptist, he then became one of the first disciples of Christ. John was one of the “inner circle of three who were with the Lord at the raising of Jairus’s daughter, at the Transfiguration, and in Gethsemane” (BD, p. 715). So he was like a member of the First Presidency, one of the “three pillars of the Christian Church”. John wrote not only his gospel, but also three of the epistles, and the amazing book of Revelation. He identified himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” the one who wanted to continue to minister upon the earth until the Second Coming. His testament was the last one written, and contains unique contributions, and many more of Christ’s teachings than do the others. He had a deep understanding of the Savior and his gospel by the time he wrote his book. (Ludlow)
Only John tells how Christ raised Lazarus from the dead. Only John records the cleansing of the temple. In John, Christ explains his death to the apostles. Only in John do we read of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, and his commandment to them to be an example of love for each other. In John, the apostles are warned that the world will hate them and try to kill them. In John the gift of the Comforter is explained. The Intercessory prayer for the disciples is found in John. Only in John is Peter told three times, “Feed my sheep.” More of the resurrected Christ’s visit back to his disciples is recorded in John than in the other gospels. (Fronk)
John records seven miraculous signs of the divinity of Christ, five of which are only found in his gospel. (To see this list, see Victor Ludow’s article, “John: The Once and Future Witness”.)
The Gospel of John is a college text, where the other gospels are elementary school primers. The other three gospels are like sacrament meeting, and the Gospel of John is like a temple. In fact, John is better understood in relation to the temple ceremony. It is deep and rich and symbolic, and it builds upon what the other gospels give us and raises our understanding to a higher level. It is for the increased edification of those who are already saints.
Only John records the descriptions Christ gave of himself, many of which hearken back to the term used in the Old Testament to identify Jehovah: “I AM.” (Ludlow) Seven of them are especially noted, possibly symbolic of the meaning of the number seven: godly perfection. These are marked with a tag, similar to Matthew’s tags; they all begin with some form of the phrase “Jesus said unto them.”
1. When the multitude asked Christ to show them a sign, like the manna in the wilderness, “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (6:35).
2. After saving the adulterous woman from stoning, “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (8:12).
3. Later in that same conversation, “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I Am” (8:58), identical with the term used in Exodus 3:14, and after which they tried to stone him, but he spirited himself away.
4. After telling the parable of the sheepfold to the Pharisees, “Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep…by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (10:7, 9).
5. To Martha, before raising Lazarus from the dead, “Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (11:25-26).
6. When Thomas asked how they would know the way, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (14:6).
7. When Judas was betraying him, (I’m removing the King James translators’ additions, which are in italics in the scriptures) “Jesus saith unto them, I am. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them, I am, they went backward and fell to the ground” (18:5-8) and Jesus repeated the statement.
“John’s witness of the Lord is unique. His Gospel and epistles record some of the Savior’s noblest feelings and doctrines, especially His message of love” (Ludlow).
Sources:
Bible Dictionary entries for Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary, p. 114.
Camille Fronk [Olson], “The Four Gospels,” Know Your Religion Lecture, January 1998, Logan, Utah
David Bokovoy, “A Literary Analysis of the Four Gospels,” BYU Education Week Lecture, August 2002
Victor Ludlow, “John: The Once and Future Witness,” Ensign, December 1991, p. 51-52
Thomas Mumford, Horizontal Harmony of the Gospels
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